heatherfeather24
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jul 21, 2005
- Messages
- 367
Just back from a (too) short weekend in the world. Here's the background on us, so you get a feel for where these reviews come from:
DH and I live in Chicago (yes, actually in the city proper). We are in our early 30's and consider ourselves to be pretty urban. We eat out at least 3 times a week and are pretty adventurous eaters. The only real restriction that we encounter is my shellfish allergy. Fanciest meal (although not necessarily the best) meal that we've ever had is Charlie Trotter's in Chicago, but, frankly, I often prefer a really good deep dish pizza or Chicago dog as much as a fancy meal. OK, enough about us.
And now, on to the reviews (note that I do not judge food courts/counter service on a scale that is different than my restaurant scale):
9/9 Lunch: Seasons Food Court (B-). I had the roasted beet and goat cheese salad, DH had the salmon. The beet salad was good. There were four large slices of beets (two red, and two yellow). There were also two generous slices of pepper crusted goat cheese. These were served on greens dressed in a cilantro lime vinagrette and with a flat bread thingy that was really just a large, unsalted cracker. The beets didn't have a lot of flavor, but the goat cheese was really nice. The dressing was delicious, but there was too much of it. DH's salmon was a nice sized piece that was not overcooked or dry. It came with real mashed potatoes -- they were tasty, I tried 'em! and some sort of sauce that looked (and tasted) like spicy 1000 island dressing. The real downside to the meal was the number of flies present in the area. We were constantly shooing them away. Without the flies and adjusted for counter service, probably could have given it an A-
9/9 Sanck: Kringla Og Cafe (or whatever its called) (A-): I had the rice cream -- yum! Love it every time. DH had a cloudberry horn and a Viking Coffee. Loved the Viking Coffee. Really, how can you go wrong with Baileys? The Cloudberry horn was good, but we couldn't detect much in the way of cloudberries. We had several cloudberry pastries last summer in Norway, and they tended to come with the cream in the pastry horn and the cloudberries in a syrup around the outside. If you're ever in Bergen, there's a little bakery on the waterfront in Bryggen . . . . but I digress. Overall it was still very tasty.
9/9 Dinner: Restaurant Marrakesh (A). We arrived about 20 minuts late for our ADR, but our concierge at the Dolphin had called over and cleared it for us. No problems and we were seated right away. Our server Ouisilla was very attentive. She explained the menu and answered all of our questions. We decided to start with the appetizer combination -- Chicken Bastilla, Beef Brewat, and Jasmina Salad. The Chicken and Beef appetizers were virtually interchangeable. Both were ground meats in crispy, flakey pastry dusted with powdered sugar and cinnamon. Both very tasty, but I probably wouldn't order either again. The jasmina salad was like most middle eastern/israeli/persian/greek salads -- romaine lettuce, tomato, red onion, cucumber, olives, and a nice vinagrette. It was very good and I would definitely order it again. For dinner, I had the Chicken Cous Cous and DH had the Lamb Meshoui. The chicken was a little tough, but had very nice flavor -- must have had a spicy lemon marinade of some sort. It came on a pile of nicely done roasted vegetables (carrots, zuchini, garbanzos, onion, and yellow squash) and a mound of cous cous. DH's lamb was FANTASTIC. It was fall off the bone tender and had a delicious tomato-based sauce. A pile of nicely seasoned rice completed the plate. DH also had the Casablanca beer (a lager-style) and I had a glass of Beni M'tir Morrocan wine. Both good, but nothing to write home about.
No dessert on 9/9 in favor of Champagne with Illuminations.
9/10: Breakfast, Crystal Palace (A-): I must confess, the only reason that we did this breakfast was because I wanted a chance to get on Main Street before the rest of the world. The 8:05 ADR worked its magic. We arrived to an empty mainstreet and had plenty of time to take some pictures and generally soak up the atmosphere. As for breakfast itself -- the buffet was plentiful and good. Especially the breakfast lasagna (decadent!). We didn't pay much attention to character interaction because it just wasn't important to us. Pooh, Tigger, and Eyeore stopped by to say hello. We exchanged a few words and then let them move on to the kids around us. Piglet was stationary in the lobby area for pictures. This experience was completely worth it to me for the quiet time on mainstreet. The breakfast was very good, but I probably won't do this one again until we have kids.
9/10: No lunch, ice cream from Main Street and fruity drinks back by the grotto pool at the Dolphin. Both fine.
9/10: Dinner, California Grill (A+++++). Seriously, this is one of the best dinners I've ever had. I made a point of telling our server (Ron, he's fantastic!) that it was far and away better than our Charlie Trotter's experience and definitely in my top 3 ever. We had a 7:30 ADR and were promptly seated. At the table, we found the wine list, the reserve wine list, the dessert menu and the cheese list. Ron stopped by to drop off our water, make some recommendations, and talk wine. We ordered a meritage, but he brought both a meritage and a cab for us to taste. He was right, the cab was better and that's what we went with. DH and I split two appetizers: the goat cheese ravioli and the heirloom tomato stack. The kitchen individually plated each of our portions. First came the ravioli -- a single delicate ravioli in a vegetable broth with a chiffonade of basil on top. It was delicious -- the flavors married really well. We used the warm bread to soak up extra broth. Yum! The heirloom tomato stack was second with several varieties of ripe tomatoes. When you're from a climate like chicago, it's a treat to get tomatoes that REALLY taste like tomatoes. We ordered our dinners (pork tenderloin for me, filet for DH) and went out on the observation deck to enjoy our wine while we waited. When our dinners arrived, we were so pleased. My pork was a perfect medium rare with tender mushrooms and a declicious goat cheese polenta (are you sensing a goat cheese theme in my life?). DH's filet was a lovely rare and was son tender that he cut it with his butter knife. It had a delicious reduction and a blue cheese potato conconction and crisp/tender green beans. During dinner, we got to talking wine with Ron and mentioned that we traveled frequently to Napa/Sonoma. Ron circled a number of wines on the list that he thought would be good vinyards to visit. We'll have to give them a try. By the time dinner was over, we had little room for dessert. So, we split a cheese plate of the camembert -- not too ripe, but nice and soft; a, say it with me, goat cheese; and a delicious sheeps/cows milk combo called sweet clover. It also came with baguette, fig paste, quince and apricot. A great way to end a great meal.
**note: there were no fireworks because of Night of Joy, but we enjoyed our meal so much and the beauty of the restaurant and resort surroundings, that we didn't really miss it.
9/11: Breakfast, Boardwalk Bakery (B): Chocolate croissant for me, bannana nut muffin for DH. It was fine. Not fantastic, just fine. Would still definitely go back for a quick bite.
9/11: Lunch, Earl of Sandwich (C): With 15 minutes to spare before we had to head to the airport, I grabbed sandwiches to go while DH retrieved the car. I had a caprese, DH had the All American (turkey, cheddar, ranch dressing, lettuce, tomato, cranberry sauce). His was good, mine was only "eh". I've had much better at Corner Bakery, Cosi, and Alonti Deli -- not sure if these chains are local to Chicago or nation-wide, but I liked all three of those better. I'd definitely try it again and order something different.
DH and I live in Chicago (yes, actually in the city proper). We are in our early 30's and consider ourselves to be pretty urban. We eat out at least 3 times a week and are pretty adventurous eaters. The only real restriction that we encounter is my shellfish allergy. Fanciest meal (although not necessarily the best) meal that we've ever had is Charlie Trotter's in Chicago, but, frankly, I often prefer a really good deep dish pizza or Chicago dog as much as a fancy meal. OK, enough about us.
And now, on to the reviews (note that I do not judge food courts/counter service on a scale that is different than my restaurant scale):
9/9 Lunch: Seasons Food Court (B-). I had the roasted beet and goat cheese salad, DH had the salmon. The beet salad was good. There were four large slices of beets (two red, and two yellow). There were also two generous slices of pepper crusted goat cheese. These were served on greens dressed in a cilantro lime vinagrette and with a flat bread thingy that was really just a large, unsalted cracker. The beets didn't have a lot of flavor, but the goat cheese was really nice. The dressing was delicious, but there was too much of it. DH's salmon was a nice sized piece that was not overcooked or dry. It came with real mashed potatoes -- they were tasty, I tried 'em! and some sort of sauce that looked (and tasted) like spicy 1000 island dressing. The real downside to the meal was the number of flies present in the area. We were constantly shooing them away. Without the flies and adjusted for counter service, probably could have given it an A-
9/9 Sanck: Kringla Og Cafe (or whatever its called) (A-): I had the rice cream -- yum! Love it every time. DH had a cloudberry horn and a Viking Coffee. Loved the Viking Coffee. Really, how can you go wrong with Baileys? The Cloudberry horn was good, but we couldn't detect much in the way of cloudberries. We had several cloudberry pastries last summer in Norway, and they tended to come with the cream in the pastry horn and the cloudberries in a syrup around the outside. If you're ever in Bergen, there's a little bakery on the waterfront in Bryggen . . . . but I digress. Overall it was still very tasty.
9/9 Dinner: Restaurant Marrakesh (A). We arrived about 20 minuts late for our ADR, but our concierge at the Dolphin had called over and cleared it for us. No problems and we were seated right away. Our server Ouisilla was very attentive. She explained the menu and answered all of our questions. We decided to start with the appetizer combination -- Chicken Bastilla, Beef Brewat, and Jasmina Salad. The Chicken and Beef appetizers were virtually interchangeable. Both were ground meats in crispy, flakey pastry dusted with powdered sugar and cinnamon. Both very tasty, but I probably wouldn't order either again. The jasmina salad was like most middle eastern/israeli/persian/greek salads -- romaine lettuce, tomato, red onion, cucumber, olives, and a nice vinagrette. It was very good and I would definitely order it again. For dinner, I had the Chicken Cous Cous and DH had the Lamb Meshoui. The chicken was a little tough, but had very nice flavor -- must have had a spicy lemon marinade of some sort. It came on a pile of nicely done roasted vegetables (carrots, zuchini, garbanzos, onion, and yellow squash) and a mound of cous cous. DH's lamb was FANTASTIC. It was fall off the bone tender and had a delicious tomato-based sauce. A pile of nicely seasoned rice completed the plate. DH also had the Casablanca beer (a lager-style) and I had a glass of Beni M'tir Morrocan wine. Both good, but nothing to write home about.
No dessert on 9/9 in favor of Champagne with Illuminations.
9/10: Breakfast, Crystal Palace (A-): I must confess, the only reason that we did this breakfast was because I wanted a chance to get on Main Street before the rest of the world. The 8:05 ADR worked its magic. We arrived to an empty mainstreet and had plenty of time to take some pictures and generally soak up the atmosphere. As for breakfast itself -- the buffet was plentiful and good. Especially the breakfast lasagna (decadent!). We didn't pay much attention to character interaction because it just wasn't important to us. Pooh, Tigger, and Eyeore stopped by to say hello. We exchanged a few words and then let them move on to the kids around us. Piglet was stationary in the lobby area for pictures. This experience was completely worth it to me for the quiet time on mainstreet. The breakfast was very good, but I probably won't do this one again until we have kids.
9/10: No lunch, ice cream from Main Street and fruity drinks back by the grotto pool at the Dolphin. Both fine.
9/10: Dinner, California Grill (A+++++). Seriously, this is one of the best dinners I've ever had. I made a point of telling our server (Ron, he's fantastic!) that it was far and away better than our Charlie Trotter's experience and definitely in my top 3 ever. We had a 7:30 ADR and were promptly seated. At the table, we found the wine list, the reserve wine list, the dessert menu and the cheese list. Ron stopped by to drop off our water, make some recommendations, and talk wine. We ordered a meritage, but he brought both a meritage and a cab for us to taste. He was right, the cab was better and that's what we went with. DH and I split two appetizers: the goat cheese ravioli and the heirloom tomato stack. The kitchen individually plated each of our portions. First came the ravioli -- a single delicate ravioli in a vegetable broth with a chiffonade of basil on top. It was delicious -- the flavors married really well. We used the warm bread to soak up extra broth. Yum! The heirloom tomato stack was second with several varieties of ripe tomatoes. When you're from a climate like chicago, it's a treat to get tomatoes that REALLY taste like tomatoes. We ordered our dinners (pork tenderloin for me, filet for DH) and went out on the observation deck to enjoy our wine while we waited. When our dinners arrived, we were so pleased. My pork was a perfect medium rare with tender mushrooms and a declicious goat cheese polenta (are you sensing a goat cheese theme in my life?). DH's filet was a lovely rare and was son tender that he cut it with his butter knife. It had a delicious reduction and a blue cheese potato conconction and crisp/tender green beans. During dinner, we got to talking wine with Ron and mentioned that we traveled frequently to Napa/Sonoma. Ron circled a number of wines on the list that he thought would be good vinyards to visit. We'll have to give them a try. By the time dinner was over, we had little room for dessert. So, we split a cheese plate of the camembert -- not too ripe, but nice and soft; a, say it with me, goat cheese; and a delicious sheeps/cows milk combo called sweet clover. It also came with baguette, fig paste, quince and apricot. A great way to end a great meal.
**note: there were no fireworks because of Night of Joy, but we enjoyed our meal so much and the beauty of the restaurant and resort surroundings, that we didn't really miss it.
9/11: Breakfast, Boardwalk Bakery (B): Chocolate croissant for me, bannana nut muffin for DH. It was fine. Not fantastic, just fine. Would still definitely go back for a quick bite.
9/11: Lunch, Earl of Sandwich (C): With 15 minutes to spare before we had to head to the airport, I grabbed sandwiches to go while DH retrieved the car. I had a caprese, DH had the All American (turkey, cheddar, ranch dressing, lettuce, tomato, cranberry sauce). His was good, mine was only "eh". I've had much better at Corner Bakery, Cosi, and Alonti Deli -- not sure if these chains are local to Chicago or nation-wide, but I liked all three of those better. I'd definitely try it again and order something different.
