Dining Reviews: Dec 12-19

[8caliace]

Just wanted to share some reviews from our recently completed trip. We were an extended family group of 9 on the Dining Plan, to include my wife and her gluten allergy, and her experiences with the food choices she had during our trip.

Warning: if you are here for any food pictures, you won't find any.

As far as I am concerned, I am at a restaurant to eat my food. Once it is placed in front of me, it's on...there is no camera that is pulled out...only my silverware. I do however, have no problem in making fun of my son and the countless others who snap away before digging in, so I present you a picture of my hipster son taking a picture of his food:

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Table Service meals:

Via Napoli dinner
50's Primetime lunch
Boma dinner
Yak and Yeti lunch
The Wave dinner
Teppan Edo dinner
Kona Cafe dinner

As far as Counter Service meals went, we were often spread out, so I can only really report on one group meal, and the rest will somewhat scattered:

Be Our Guest lunch
All Star Movies food court
MK Turkey legs
Wolfgang Puck Express
Earl of Sandwich
Pepper Market

 

[pumba]

can hardly wait..I love food reviews...with or without photos..

 

[8caliace]

After meeting up with everyone upon arrival in the early afternoon, we made our way to EPCOT, in advance of our dinner reservation at Via Napoli. With more than a couple hours to go before dinner, we did manage to down some beer (Schofferhofer) and pretzels in Germany. The in-laws were the only ones to break down and hit a counter-service meal, enjoying a bratwurst and currywurst meal.

Finally it was time for dinner, and even arriving 20 minutes before our reservation time, I was turned away and asked to return even closer to our reservation time. The temperature was pretty cold outside that evening, and we noticed that people were still being seated outdoors. Once we were ultimately allowed to check-in, the hostess did acknowledge the gluten-allergy note, and stated that someone would visit my wife to speak with her about the menu options (this would be very inconsistent throughout the week at each subsequent restaurant).

We came into this meal with pretty high hopes, and right off the bat, the attentiveness of the server was not very good. Drink and appetizer orders were placed, and of the two people who ordered the same glass of wine, only one was received at the table. After about 15 minutes, we had to flag down the waitress and ask for the second glass to be served. Of the three appetizers ordered amongst the table, only two ever came to be served at all. The calamari and the mozzarella caprese were both good, but not anything to get excited over. My in-laws both ordered the house salad, which never showed up at all. In fact, at the end of the meal, they informed the waitress of the fact, and she seemed oblivious even leaving it on the bill at the end.

After being visited by the manager, my wife was able to order a "build-your-own-pasta" dish, made with gluten-free pasta, a tomato-based sauce, and veggies of her choice. When her meal arrived, it was a hearty bowl, and she enjoyed it very much. Amongst the other entrees ordered at the table were the lasagna verde, spaghetti e polpettine, and a couple of different pizzas. While nothing was reported to be bad, no one seemed to be impressed by any of the choices. I had the piccante signature pie, and it was just average at best. While the outer crust was nice and chewy, the inner part of the pizza was somewhat doughy. Any spiciness described on the menu seemed to be missing in action. Any hopes of ending the meal on a high note with yummy desserts also fell flat, with just nothing special reported between the Zeppole and gelatos.

CONCLUSION: this was a big disappointment for me. Having enjoyed Tutto Italia on previous visits, I guess maybe I had set the expectations too high, and this place just didn't come anywhere close. Aside from the manager ensuring my wife was taken care of, service was subpar, and the food was just not much better. Check this place off four list of places visited, but not likely to return to anytime soon. Of all the table-service meals we had, this ends up at the very bottom of the rankings.

 

[8caliace]

50's Prime Time Cafe: we arrived for check-in a few minutes before our reservation time, and were greeted by a miserable woman who had all the charm of a wet towel. Now I have been to this restaurant before and understand the "in character" aspect of the staff, but this woman was just a straight up grump. She was manning one of the check-in stations, while another woman appeared to be going through some papers at the other station. After I saw the group in front of me check-in with the grump, I moved up for my turn. She literally stood there with her arms crossed and stared at me. I said I would like to check-in for our reservation, and she snapped that I could do it at the other terminal and then crossed her arms and just stood there staring at me. Maybe the two hostesses were having some kind of fight that morning, because the second woman kind of looked at me like "I can't believe she just did that", and proceeded to check us in. No mention of the gluten-allergy was acknowledged at check-in, so we had to alert our waitress once she appeared.

Apologies for not remembering her name, but our server was very good in her role. She was fun and very engaging, and we had a good time, until the end of the meal. Drinks and appetizers were quickly ordered and produced, and the chef made his way out to discuss meal options with my wife. She went with the gluten-free fried chicken, and enjoyed it. Other entrees ordered around the table were fried chicken, pot roast, chicken pot pie, and meatloaf. My fried chicken was good, but I could not down the collard greens. I was able to strategically place my chicken bones over the top of the uneaten greens, and get away with not eating them, despite the best efforts of my father-in-law and his not so subtle attempts at tattling on me. My daughter was unable to finish the pot pie, and got some friendly jabs from the server, but in the end, we were all allowed to order desserts.

Desserts enjoyed by the group included the apple crisp, brownie sundae, and a couple of root beer floats. All were good, but we missed seeing the dessert menu through the Viewmaster. Now here is where we lost our server. I am not exaggerating when I say it took at least 30 minutes from the time she cleared our dessert plates until she returned with our checks. We were in a bit of a hurry to meet up with some local friends in the park, so we were more than ready with our cash to settle the appetizers and tip. She managed to disappear again for about 10 minutes, and then came back briefly to scoop up the settled bills, and that was the last we saw of her. Fast forward to the day we checked-out of our hotel, and we come to find all the bills we paid cash for charged to our respective rooms. While a quick visit to the concierge desk took care of the matter, it was somewhat surprising to see those charges appear out of nowhere.

CONCLUSION: this restaurant has been a normal stop for us on just about every trip, if for no other reason than no other restaurants in the park seem that appealing. Again, the food was fine, but the service left us ready to call a break from visiting again in the near future. Out of the seven table service meals, this checks in at #6, comfortably ahead of Via Napoli, but well behind the remaining five restaurants.

 

[8caliace]

We spent the morning in the MK, where we gladly used a couple of our QS credits for a couple of turkey legs. My daughter just had to make sure that her grandparents got to experience those amazing beauties, and they have still yet to disappoint at all.

Boma dinner: We arrived at the AKL a bit ahead of our reservation time in order to wander the lobby. With some time still to kill, we decided to belly up to the bar above Boma for a few drinks. It was early enough that we were the only group at the bar, so I am not sure if that influenced the amount of alcohol in our drinks or not, but they were strong and delicious. In fact, my Grand Margarita was so good, I think I drank it too fast once our pager went off that by the time we sat at our table, I could feel a pretty good buzz.

Eventually, one of the chef's made it to our table, and he took my wife to each station and pointed out all the gluten-free options. She seemed quite happy with the choices available during the meal. As for me, I immediately fell in love with the lamb curry, and must have had a helping of it on each of my plates during the course of the meal. Other standouts were the pork shoulder, the strip loin, and the tomato florentine soup.

Once dessert time rolled around, the chef who gave my wife the grand tour returned with a plate of GF-desserts, many variations of the same items found on the "regular" dessert station, including the zebra domes. My dessert samplings were all very good, but there was a strawberry-mint item that stood out for me.

CONCLUSION: it had been several years since we had visited Boma, but not because we ever had bad experiences. This visit reminded us why we made sure to visit again. It was a great meal, from both a service aspect and all the food was delicious. Here begins the log-jam of the five TS meals that could easily all been declared our favorite meal of the trip. But rather than reveal that title just yet, I will wait until I have given the other meal their due exposure.

 

[bbak3030]

After meeting up with everyone upon arrival in the early afternoon, we made our way to EPCOT, in advance of our dinner reservation at Via Napoli. With more than a couple hours to go before dinner, we did manage to down some beer (Schofferhofer) and pretzels in Germany. The in-laws were the only ones to break down and hit a counter-service meal, enjoying a bratwurst and currywurst meal. Finally it was time for dinner, and even arriving 20 minutes before our reservation time, I was turned away and asked to return even closer to our reservation time. The temperature was pretty cold outside that evening, and we noticed that people were still being seated outdoors. Once we were ultimately allowed to check-in, the hostess did acknowledge the gluten-allergy note, and stated that someone would visit my wife to speak with her about the menu options (this would be very inconsistent throughout the week at each subsequent restaurant). We came into this meal with pretty high hopes, and right off the bat, the attentiveness of the server was not very good. Drink and appetizer orders were placed, and of the two people who ordered the same glass of wine, only one was received at the table. After about 15 minutes, we had to flag down the waitress and ask for the second glass to be served. Of the three appetizers ordered amongst the table, only two ever came to be served at all. The calamari and the mozzarella caprese were both good, but not anything to get excited over. My in-laws both ordered the house salad, which never showed up at all. In fact, at the end of the meal, they informed the waitress of the fact, and she seemed oblivious even leaving it on the bill at the end. After being visited by the manager, my wife was able to order a "build-your-own-pasta" dish, made with gluten-free pasta, a tomato-based sauce, and veggies of her choice. When her meal arrived, it was a hearty bowl, and she enjoyed it very much. Amongst the other entrees ordered at the table were the lasagna verde, spaghetti e polpettine, and a couple of different pizzas. While nothing was reported to be bad, no one seemed to be impressed by any of the choices. I had the piccante signature pie, and it was just average at best. While the outer crust was nice and chewy, the inner part of the pizza was somewhat doughy. Any spiciness described on the menu seemed to be missing in action. Any hopes of ending the meal on a high note with yummy desserts also fell flat, with just nothing special reported between the Zeppole and gelatos. CONCLUSION: this was a big disappointment for me. Having enjoyed Tutto Italia on previous visits, I guess maybe I had set the expectations too high, and this place just didn't come anywhere close. Aside from the manager ensuring my wife was taken care of, service was subpar, and the food was just not much better. Check this place off four list of places visited, but not likely to return to anytime soon. Of all the table-service meals we had, this ends up at the very bottom of the rankings.

This does not shock me, as this was our exact experience in March. VN was one of our favorites back in 2010 but fell way short this year. Sorry you had the same:-(

 

[8caliace]

Yak and Yeti lunch: this visit makes the third time in the last three trips for us. While we have yet to really enjoy any other TS choices in AK, we have yet to be disappointed here yet at all. This trip would continue that trend, as it was a great meal. At check-in, my wife's allergy was noted by the hostess, and not long after being seated, a chef visited with my wife to go over the menu and she made her picks before we all ordered. We were pleased to be taken care of by a server we had on a previous trip, and she shined once again throughout the meal. My Shaoxing Steak and Shrimp was excellent, and other choices around the table included Lo Mein (chicken, shrimp), Sweet and Sour chicken, and the Mahi Mahi. My wife also had the Mahi Mahi, but it was grilled, which was just fine with her. No complaints from anyone, other than already feeling pretty full as we ordered desserts. Around the table, we managed to cover the entire dessert menu, and despite the fullness, all were able to put pretty good dents into their respective choices. I went with my old stand-by, the Fried Wontons, and enjoyed them as usual.

Overall, this meal was great, and the Yak and Yeti has seemed to be one of the most consistently good restaurants we have visited over the years. While the repeat visits may eventually lead to give us reason to look elsewhere in AK for a TS meal, the experiences have always left us ready for a return visit on following trips. I don't see that fact changing in light of how we enjoyed this visit again. In relation to its place among our Top 5 meals of the trip, it finds itself firmly entrenched alongside Boma and the yet-to-be-reviewed meals for top billing.

 

[vettegirl]

I agree Yak and Yeti is a must do every trip!

 

[Sandy321]

We are going to try Yak and Yeti for lunch on our trip in June - can't wait to try it, thank you for your reviews... and I admit, I at the Prime Time review!

 

[3 Hobbits 2 Disney]

I sometimes think that Yak and Yeti remains so consistently good is because it is owned by the Landry Group and not Disney.