Dining Reviews from 7/19-7/23 trip!

[Epcot4Me]

A quick review of our dining on our trip 7/19-7/23. Just some background- on this trip was me and a friend. I am a vegetarian, she is not. I’ll only be reviewing my meals, but she will hopefully chime in with her thoughts after I post this. We stayed at BLT and spent one day at Universal. We were not on any dining plan.

Lunch 7/19: Contempo Cafe

I ran over to the Contempo Café about 3 to have a quick lunch and had the Roasted Curry Vegetable Bulgar Salad. I was not a fan. The curry roasted vegetables were delish, but the salad dressing was nasty. Super, super bitter, and normally I don’t mind a bit of bitter (I love arugula). It was also way over dressed. Finally, there were dried cherries in it, which was fine (it cut the bitterness of the dressing), but there were so many, you literally couldn’t take a bit of the salad without getting 2 dried cherries. I don’t really like dried cherries, so this was not a bonus for me.

Dinner 7/19: The Wave

We had an early dinner at The Wave since I didn’t eat much at lunch. We probably sat down around 545 and there was basically no one there. I had been there once before in December and loved it so was looking forward to it. I had the Strawberry Flatbread Salad (pretty darned good, though I think I make a better strawberry salad), the Summer Ratatouille, and the Roasted Potatoes. The ratatouille was bland and undercooked- I like ratatouille to be grilled or roasted first, then slow cooked on a stovetop. These clearly had been boiled and then put in a sauce. The potatoes were ok, but a little dry and underseasoned. Good with ketchup though. Overall, not a terrible meal, but not my favorite by any means.

Late night snack 7/19: Contempo Café

We wanted to get some ice cream from the machine, but despite the café not closing til 12, they close the ice cream at 11 for cleaning. Seriously, it takes an hour to clean the machine? Give me a break. We each got sides of fries instead which were a reasonable substitute.

Breakfast 7/20: In the room

Lunch 7/20: Restaurantosaurus

I had a veggie burger. It was packed when we were leaving, but when we got there at 1145ish there wasn’t a bad line. The veggie burger was fine, lots of nice toppings. Though I prefer the other kind of honey mustard- this one was more mustardy. Disney fries are always great.

Dinner 7/20: Rose & Crown

We had reservations at 640, and were seated fairly quickly. Our waitress was fabulous, I wish I remembered her name. I had a Welsh Dragon from the bar, which has always been my go to there, but she steered me toward the English Rose for my second, which indeed was better. I am grateful for her superior booze knowledge. For dinner, I had the fruit and cheese plate, which isn’t on the allears.net menu, but it had 3 cheeses (a stilton, a cheddar, and a brie), some dried cranberries, an onion jam, 2 crusty baguette slices, and some apple slices. I got mine with extra brie and no stilton as I don’t do bleu cheese. It was really, really yummy. Especially the onion jam, delish. I also got a side of chips and they were just fine, though they were served with a very paltry serving of ketchup.

Late night snack 7/20: Contempo Café

We picked up a cupcake and a sugar cookie. Both were huge and wonderful. Cupcake was the winner though in my opinion.

Breakfast 7/21: Cinnabon

We were at Universal today and so had a classic cinnabon for the start of a healthy day. Can you ever go wrong with that?

Lunch 7/21: International Food and Film

Ok, we had to wait in line here for 45 minutes. It was insanity. They had 4 people working the registers. Seriously, a mad house. I just kept thinking in line “I have never waited this long at Disney for food!” We each got a cheese pizza. It was ok, I was hungry, so it worked. We also had just had a giant Hog’s Head beer at HP world, and I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t have tasted as good without that impairing my judgement.

Dinner 7/21: Top of the World Lounge at BLT

The bartender here was super nice. And he made an excellent Sea Breeze (my favorite drink ever). We ordered the Buffalo Mozzarella Flatbread and the Crab Nachos without crab to split. The nachos were meh, nothing special. The flatbread was pretty decent, but really greasy. The pesto was a nice touch though.

Breakfast 7/22: Wolfgang Puck Express

My friend slept in this morning while I went to DTD to do some shopping. I stopped to have some breakfast here. I had a chocolate chip waffle. The chocolate chips were on top of the waffle, not cooked in, and it was served with whipped cream on top and syrup on the side. Tasted great, but I felt it sitting in my stomach the rest of the morning. I love vacation food, but it always makes me sick because I don’t eat this way at home. But it was delicious!! I also had a really nice server who chatted with me for awhile after delivering my waffle.

Lunch 7/22: Plaza Restaurant

This was my first time eating here. It was cute, small, but cute. I had the Vegetarian Sandwich and it was ok, nothing special. A little dry. I wish it had had more hummus or more pesto and less mozzarella. Actually, in general I think I’d order it without the mozzarella next time. The fries were good though! This took awhile though- really slow service here. We weren’t in a huge rush, but it was still a lot of sitting around waiting for things.

Dinner 7/22: Crystal Palace

I LOVE this place. I love the Pooh characters, and just think it’s the prettiest building. We had a reservation at 715, but got stuck on Splash Mountain when it broke down for like 25 minutes, so we called and pushed our reservation to 9ish . We had already seen the fireworks, so that worked fine for us. Everything was great here. There was nothing in particular that stood out as bad, though I remember my friend did not like the chicken- it was a bit pink inside and she was scared to eat it. We saw all the characters, most more than once, and it was nice and quiet, pretty empty at that time.

Breakfast 7/23: Writer’s Stop

We split a chocolate chip muffin that was more like a chocolate chip cupcake- very sponge-y. It was ok, not the best, but it hit the spot.

Lunch 7/23: Backlot Express

I had the Grilled Vegetable Sandwich. It was ok. Light on the vegetables, heavy on the bread and cheese. It was good with the honey mustard (they have the proper kind here!).

Various snacks and drinks throughout the week:

We had a Grey Goose Lemon Slush from France, which is one of my favorite drinks in the world. We also had a butterbeer at HP World, which was basically cream soda topped with whipped cream. It was fine, refreshing on a hot day. We tried the Hog’s Head beer, and I just don’t like beer, but it was drinkable for what it was. We also had soft serve from Auntie Gravity’s in MK one day- just plain ice cream, but it was very good! Oh, and we had a slush type drink (nonalcoholic) at Universal as well- I had a pina colada one, and it was great!

We also did the Wine and Beer Walk at AK during the Taste of Africa street party. This was fun, the bartenders were all nice, and there was a good variety to choose from. Not a bad amount of liquor for the $9 price either.

And I think that’s all we had!

 

[barbeml]

I love all-in-one-post reviews...thanks so much for sharing. How did you enjoy Harry Potter World overall?

 

[darthtatty]

Late night snack 7/19: Contempo Café

We wanted to get some ice cream from the machine, but despite the café not closing til 12, they close the ice cream at 11 for cleaning. Seriously, it takes an hour to clean the machine? Give me a break.

Ive cleaned many ice cream machines and many take over an hour to clean.
you have to run the mixture through,clean with many different washes (like the cycles on a dishwasher) then take apart and wash the individual parts.

 

[wilma-bride]

Thanks for the great reviews. We weren't that impressed with Contempo Cafe on our last visit but I know there are those who rave about it.

Love the sound of those choc chip pancakes from WPE but I reckon I would be feeling a bit sick for the day if I had those for breakfast.

 

[goofykb03]

Epcot4Me's friend here, to add my carnivorous 2 cents!

First, I am pretty sure I do not remember as much as my veggie-loving friend about what I ate. I generally do not share a love of food, unless it is junk food. I don't know fancy food words, and I try to pretty much just eat as many french fries and Mickey bars as possible when I'm on a WDW vacation... but I'll do my best to keep up! Second, I was actually there for a few days before her with my bf, so I'll try to re-cap as much from those days as I can recall.

Lunch 7/15/10: Contemporary - Contempo Cafe
BF and I both got a Honey Lime Chicken sandwich with fries. I'm very sensitive to spice, so the salsa was a bit too spicey for me, but overall it was a decent sandwich. I liked it, and thought the price was reasonable (in WDW terms, of course)

Dinner 7/15/10: EC - Le Cellier, Canada
Can't get enough of this place. I went for the first time in 2008 and now I want to go every time! The Canadian Cheddar Cheese soup is to die for. I generally don't like pretzels, but I really like the pretzel breadsticks there. I ordered the Mushroom Filet Mignon (without the mushroom components). It was drizzled with a very rich white truffle and herb butter sauce that is delicious, but I would have been happy with a little less of it. I got roasted potatoes as a side instead of the mushroom risotto. They were maybe a little undercooked but not bad. They were also very accomodating when I ordered medium rare and it came out a tiny bit rarer than I like. When the server brought it back again, it was perfect. He was very attentive. BF got the veal T-bone and I tried a bite, it was great, although I don't have much veal experience to judge it much

7/15/10 Snack: EC - Morocco
I had to get some baklava. So perfect, this stuff is incredible. VERY sweet though, so stay awake if you don't have a sweet tooth.

Breakfast 7/16/10: In room

Lunch 7/16/10: DHS - ABC Commissary
I had a double cheeseburger and fries. Typical frozen patties, orange cheese, very greasy. Although again, I was surprised it didn't cost a little more, considering it was a double burger. BF had a chicken bleu I think. I don't remember him having a very strong opinion in either direction about it.

Dinner 7/16/10: Boardwalk - Kouzzina
BF had a whole fish (I think it was yellow snapper or something? I'm not a fish person, sorry) and it was repulsive but made for funny memories He said it was really tasty. I had the Kouzzina trio, which consisted of pastitsio (Greek lasagna), a lamb-burger slider, and the signature dish, cinnamon-stewed chicken. I ADORED the cinnamon-stewed chicken, it was great. The lamb burger was ok. A little dry, and a tiny bit too spicy for me once I made it halfway through (in fairness, the waitress warned me about this). The pastitsio was good, but flavored with cinnamon, which I don't really care for in my lasagna. I only finished about half of it, a combination of getting full and not thinking it was worth stuffing myself with cinnamon lasagna. Probably just my own personal taste buds, it seemed to be cooked perfectly, but meh.

7/16/10 Snack: MK
A classic Mickey bar. Love.

7/17/10 Breakfast: In room

7/17/10 Lunch: AK - Yak n Yeti
I had the crispy honey chicken with brown rice, and it was tasty. They go heavy on the sauce there, but it's very similar to the chinese food at home, so I quite like it. BF had duck with anandapur glaze, and said it was. It was (as expected) fatty and salty, I don't think he thought about that before ordering. We were with 2 friends... one ordered crispy mahi-mahi and loved it (as did her BF), and for the life of me I cannot remember what he ordered, since he was too busy eating hers.

Snack: AK
Frozen lemonade (the kind in the packaging, not fresh). Eh, I was hot, and it cooled me off. I like that stuff, but it's nothing special.

Dinner: EC - Sommerfest, Germany
I basically had a glorified hot dog (frankfurter, no sauerkraut). It tasted like a hot dog. BF had a bratwurst with sauerkraut... I've never had a taste for sauerkraut, but I actually really liked it. We also got frozen margaritas at the stand in Mexico on our way over... yum.

Breakfast 7/18/10: in room

Lunch 7/18/10: Polynesian - Kona Cafe
We were bummed, apparently you have to ask for bread there (at lunch anyway) and forgot about how great their bread is. I had the Stir-fried Asian noodles. It was not bad, a little small I thought and kind of watery. I got quite a lot of sauce on myself and I'm generally not THAT messy of a noodle slurper. BF got fish tacos, which were awesome. However, they failed to put the dressings on the tacos, which is kind of weird. They tasted good, so we didn't say anything. We also had a slight issue here - when we were called to be seated, they had no idea where they wanted to take us, and left us standing in the aisle in front of the kitchen (where servers were going in and out!) for a good 3-4 minutes, kind of awkward. I'm not sure what happened since their system never seems to fail, but something was off and the service wasn't particularly great after that either. We were there well over an hour, and we certainly didn't eat that slowly.

Dinner 7/18/10: MK - Columbia Harbour House
I just love this place. I'm not sure what it is, it just always makes me feel happy. I had the chicken breast nuggets with fries and the honey mustard sauce from the pump (which is way better than the crap they have in packets). I am such a chicken finger junkie, and I really like the ones in WDW. They're a little too much pepper for me, but they always seem to hit the spot. BF had the fried shrimp basket and thought they were pretty tasty.

Snack 7/18/10: MK
Can you believe... my first Dole Whip ever! I had the pineapple/vanilla swirl and it was amazing. But I was a little annoyed that the girl put it in this teeny tiny cup so that the ice cream began melting over the sides almost immediately, and then gave BF a normal size cup! ***?? Oh well, I salvaged just about all of it (wasn't letting it go to waste...) but thought that was a strange brain fart on her part.

Breakfast 7/19/10: in room

Lunch 7/19/10: DTD: Raglan Road
Now, I know this place is supposedly pretty authentic. But I am not into the way the Irish cook if that's the case. I had the Irish meatball sub and it was dry and bland, plus way too much bread for 3 little meatballs. It also wasn't warm enough to melt the cheese shavings on top of it, and I really just prefer melted cheese on warm sandwiches. I have absolutely no recollection of what BF ordered (sorry) but I do know he was pretty underwhelmed with his meal too. And he complained that there were a lot of salt crystals in his side salad. I didn't notice it in mine, but he swears that is what it was. Luckily, they have good beers there

This is where my review meets up with my counterpart's, so I'll just add in to her comments from here on out.

Dinner 7/19: The Wave

We had an early dinner at The Wave since I didn’t eat much at lunch. We probably sat down around 545 and there was basically no one there. I had been there once before in December and loved it so was looking forward to it. I had the Strawberry Flatbread Salad (pretty darned good, though I think I make a better strawberry salad), the Summer Ratatouille, and the Roasted Potatoes. The ratatouille was bland and undercooked- I like ratatouille to be grilled or roasted first, then slow cooked on a stovetop. These clearly had been boiled and then put in a sauce. The potatoes were ok, but a little dry and underseasoned. Good with ketchup though. Overall, not a terrible meal, but not my favorite by any means.

I had the apple brined pork tenderloin. It was tasty, but VERY small portions. I also thought the waitress was a little annoying here... she was a little too doting, I felt like we were being interrupted a lot. Maybe I was just cranky/tired. The service was fine though, in terms of time/accuracy.

Late night snack 7/19: Contempo Café

We wanted to get some ice cream from the machine, but despite the café not closing til 12, they close the ice cream at 11 for cleaning. Seriously, it takes an hour to clean the machine? Give me a break. We each got sides of fries instead which were a reasonable substitute.

Umm yeah this was a let-down. If something is advertised as open until midnight, I sort of expect to be able to use it until midnight. I understand if it takes time or whatever, but when you're REALLY looking forward to an ice cream at the end of a long day, talk about disappointment.

Breakfast 7/20: In the room

Lunch 7/20: Restaurantosaurus

I had a veggie burger. It was packed when we were leaving, but when we got there at 1145ish there wasn’t a bad line. The veggie burger was fine, lots of nice toppings. Though I prefer the other kind of honey mustard- this one was more mustardy. Disney fries are always great.

I had chicken breast nuggets and fries again (yes, I eat like a 5 year old most of the time). Always a score, but yeah they had the crappy honey-mustard here. I tried the sweet and sour, ketchup, and BBQ sauce as well, but nothing was really striking my fancy. I also would just like to say that while I appreciate the conservation effort, I hate the paper straws at AK (The Wave too). Just saying.

Dinner 7/20: Rose & Crown

We had reservations at 640, and were seated fairly quickly. Our waitress was fabulous, I wish I remembered her name. I had a Welsh Dragon from the bar, which has always been my go to there, but she steered me toward the English Rose for my second, which indeed was better. I am grateful for her superior booze knowledge. For dinner, I had the fruit and cheese plate, which isn’t on the allears.net menu, but it had 3 cheeses (a stilton, a cheddar, and a brie), some dried cranberries, an onion jam, 2 crusty baguette slices, and some apple slices. I got mine with extra brie and no stilton as I don’t do bleu cheese. It was really, really yummy. Especially the onion jam, delish. I also got a side of chips and they were just fine, though they were served with a very paltry serving of ketchup.

Yes, the waitress was a sweetheart here, so willing to help people get what they would like best. A true Disney employee! I had the fish and chips, and they were good. A little greasy, and fried to the point that I actually didn't eat some of the breading because it was TOO crispy, but the rest tasted good.

Late night snack 7/20: Contempo Café

We picked up a cupcake and a sugar cookie. Both were huge and wonderful. Cupcake was the winner though in my opinion.

The cupcake was definitely better. Maybe my mouth was delusional or something, but I kind of thought the sugar cookie tasted like a corn muffin??

Breakfast 7/21: Cinnabon

We were at Universal today and so had a classic cinnabon for the start of a healthy day. Can you ever go wrong with that?

Breakfast of champions!

Lunch 7/21: International Food and Film

Ok, we had to wait in line here for 45 minutes. It was insanity. They had 4 people working the registers. Seriously, a mad house. I just kept thinking in line “I have never waited this long at Disney for food!” We each got a cheese pizza. It was ok, I was hungry, so it worked. We also had just had a giant Hog’s Head beer at HP world, and I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t have tasted as good without that impairing my judgement.

The logistics in this place are clearly horrible. Plus we noted two restaurants not currently operating in Universal, which made waiting 45 minutes seem that much more tortuous. We also were there at like 2pm, which is not generally the busiest time of day. I shudder to think what it looked like at 12:30-1:00 in there. The pizza was decent, there was a LOT of cheese. So if you're into that, you'd like it. If not, maybe steer clear. They had a lot of different options in terms of variety, although not many looked very appealing to me.

Dinner 7/21: Top of the World Lounge at BLT

The bartender here was super nice. And he made an excellent Sea Breeze (my favorite drink ever). We ordered the Buffalo Mozzarella Flatbread and the Crab Nachos without crab to split. The nachos were meh, nothing special. The flatbread was pretty decent, but really greasy. The pesto was a nice touch though.

I also went here another previous night with BF and the bartender that night was great as well. Both nights it was pretty slow (3 other people were there when I went the first time), which made for good service at least We had chicken and vegetable rolls that first night, which were ok. Everything is prepared on site and is cold, which isn't really my preference, but it hits the spot when you are hungry. I would agree with my counterpart's assessment of the other foods.

Breakfast 7/22: Wolfgang Puck Express

My friend slept in this morning while I went to DTD to do some shopping. I stopped to have some breakfast here. I had a chocolate chip waffle. The chocolate chips were on top of the waffle, not cooked in, and it was served with whipped cream on top and syrup on the side. Tasted great, but I felt it sitting in my stomach the rest of the morning. I love vacation food, but it always makes me sick because I don’t eat this way at home. But it was delicious!! I also had a really nice server who chatted with me for awhile after delivering my waffle.

I just ate in the room, as usual. Although i will say that I don't really like it when someone calls waffles "chocolate chip waffles" just because they sprinkled chocolate chips on top. They are so much better baked in to the waffle!! I have to say, I'm a little jealous of the waffle though!

Lunch 7/22: Plaza Restaurant

This was my first time eating here. It was cute, small, but cute. I had the Vegetarian Sandwich and it was ok, nothing special. A little dry. I wish it had had more hummus or more pesto and less mozzarella. Actually, in general I think I’d order it without the mozzarella next time. The fries were good though! This took awhile though- really slow service here. We weren’t in a huge rush, but it was still a lot of sitting around waiting for things.

My first time here too. We waited for a little while to be sat, more than usual with an ADR, but it was a nice little atmosphere. I had the cheese steak sandwich, it was nothing special. I didn't get the mushrooms, peppers, and onions, and the waitress offered to give me extra cheese instead, an offer I turned down. It tasted ok, but the steak was on the overcooked side, and wasn't really "shaved" like it says in the menu... the pieces were pretty large for being "shaved", I thought. Having spent a decent amount of time in Philly in years past, it takes a lot to live up to my cheesesteak standards, and this one didn't.

Dinner 7/22: Crystal Palace

I LOVE this place. I love the Pooh characters, and just think it’s the prettiest building. We had a reservation at 715, but got stuck on Splash Mountain when it broke down for like 25 minutes, so we called and pushed our reservation to 9ish . We had already seen the fireworks, so that worked fine for us. Everything was great here. There was nothing in particular that stood out as bad, though I remember my friend did not like the chicken- it was a bit pink inside and she was scared to eat it. We saw all the characters, most more than once, and it was nice and quiet, pretty empty at that time.

I'm not sure if the chicken was undercooked, or if it was a result of the seasoning, but I wasn't about to find out the hard way!! But I didn't really like the seasoning anyway (it was similar to a dry rub on ribs) so no big loss. The pulled pork was pretty good, cooked well. The chocolate trifle was DELICIOUS. I can't remember much else standing out... I was probably in a food coma.

Breakfast 7/23: Writer’s Stop

We split a chocolate chip muffin that was more like a chocolate chip cupcake- very sponge-y. It was ok, not the best, but it hit the spot.

It was more like angel-food cake than muffin. Very spongey. Not bad though, I liked it.

Lunch 7/23: Backlot Express

I had the Grilled Vegetable Sandwich. It was ok. Light on the vegetables, heavy on the bread and cheese. It was good with the honey mustard (they have the proper kind here!).

One last chicken breast nugget and fries meal for me! I was pleased to see the good honey mustard there as well. We hit it right before an Indiana Jones show got out though - lots of seating, but only about 1/3 of the seating is in A/C!

Various snacks and drinks throughout the week:

We had a Grey Goose Lemon Slush from France, which is one of my favorite drinks in the world. We also had a butterbeer at HP World, which was basically cream soda topped with whipped cream. It was fine, refreshing on a hot day. We tried the Hog’s Head beer, and I just don’t like beer, but it was drinkable for what it was. We also had soft serve from Auntie Gravity’s in MK one day- just plain ice cream, but it was very good! Oh, and we had a slush type drink (nonalcoholic) at Universal as well- I had a pina colada one, and it was great!

We also did the Wine and Beer Walk at AK during the Taste of Africa street party. This was fun, the bartenders were all nice, and there was a good variety to choose from. Not a bad amount of liquor for the $9 price either.

And I think that’s all we had!

One note on the butter beer - I've spoken with others who have been to the Harry Potter attraction recently, and the general feedback I've gotten is that it is MUCH better if you get it frozen. It was REALLY sweet unfrozen, and I guess somehow the frozen version is not as much of a sugar shock.

I had the Orange crush frozen drink at Universal, and it really hit the spot after a tiring day when it was still so warm out, I liked it a lot.

 

[KatMark]

A quick review of our dining on our trip 7/19-7/23. Just some background- on this trip was me and a friend. I am a vegetarian, she is not. I’ll only be reviewing my meals, but she will hopefully chime in with her thoughts after I post this. We stayed at BLT and spent one day at Universal. We were not on any dining plan.

Lunch 7/19: Contempo Cafe

I ran over to the Contempo Café about 3 to have a quick lunch and had the Roasted Curry Vegetable Bulgar Salad. I was not a fan. The curry roasted vegetables were delish, but the salad dressing was nasty. Super, super bitter, and normally I don’t mind a bit of bitter (I love arugula). It was also way over dressed. Finally, there were dried cherries in it, which was fine (it cut the bitterness of the dressing), but there were so many, you literally couldn’t take a bit of the salad without getting 2 dried cherries. I don’t really like dried cherries, so this was not a bonus for me.

Dinner 7/19: The Wave

We had an early dinner at The Wave since I didn’t eat much at lunch. We probably sat down around 545 and there was basically no one there. I had been there once before in December and loved it so was looking forward to it. I had the Strawberry Flatbread Salad (pretty darned good, though I think I make a better strawberry salad), the Summer Ratatouille, and the Roasted Potatoes. The ratatouille was bland and undercooked- I like ratatouille to be grilled or roasted first, then slow cooked on a stovetop. These clearly had been boiled and then put in a sauce. The potatoes were ok, but a little dry and underseasoned. Good with ketchup though. Overall, not a terrible meal, but not my favorite by any means.

Late night snack 7/19: Contempo Café

We wanted to get some ice cream from the machine, but despite the café not closing til 12, they close the ice cream at 11 for cleaning. Seriously, it takes an hour to clean the machine? Give me a break. We each got sides of fries instead which were a reasonable substitute.

Breakfast 7/20: In the room

Lunch 7/20: Restaurantosaurus

I had a veggie burger. It was packed when we were leaving, but when we got there at 1145ish there wasn’t a bad line. The veggie burger was fine, lots of nice toppings. Though I prefer the other kind of honey mustard- this one was more mustardy. Disney fries are always great.

Dinner 7/20: Rose & Crown

We had reservations at 640, and were seated fairly quickly. Our waitress was fabulous, I wish I remembered her name. I had a Welsh Dragon from the bar, which has always been my go to there, but she steered me toward the English Rose for my second, which indeed was better. I am grateful for her superior booze knowledge. For dinner, I had the fruit and cheese plate, which isn’t on the allears.net menu, but it had 3 cheeses (a stilton, a cheddar, and a brie), some dried cranberries, an onion jam, 2 crusty baguette slices, and some apple slices. I got mine with extra brie and no stilton as I don’t do bleu cheese. It was really, really yummy. Especially the onion jam, delish. I also got a side of chips and they were just fine, though they were served with a very paltry serving of ketchup.

Late night snack 7/20: Contempo Café

We picked up a cupcake and a sugar cookie. Both were huge and wonderful. Cupcake was the winner though in my opinion.

Breakfast 7/21: Cinnabon

We were at Universal today and so had a classic cinnabon for the start of a healthy day. Can you ever go wrong with that?

Lunch 7/21: International Food and Film

Ok, we had to wait in line here for 45 minutes. It was insanity. They had 4 people working the registers. Seriously, a mad house. I just kept thinking in line “I have never waited this long at Disney for food!” We each got a cheese pizza. It was ok, I was hungry, so it worked. We also had just had a giant Hog’s Head beer at HP world, and I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t have tasted as good without that impairing my judgement.

Dinner 7/21: Top of the World Lounge at BLT

The bartender here was super nice. And he made an excellent Sea Breeze (my favorite drink ever). We ordered the Buffalo Mozzarella Flatbread and the Crab Nachos without crab to split. The nachos were meh, nothing special. The flatbread was pretty decent, but really greasy. The pesto was a nice touch though.

Breakfast 7/22: Wolfgang Puck Express

My friend slept in this morning while I went to DTD to do some shopping. I stopped to have some breakfast here. I had a chocolate chip waffle. The chocolate chips were on top of the waffle, not cooked in, and it was served with whipped cream on top and syrup on the side. Tasted great, but I felt it sitting in my stomach the rest of the morning. I love vacation food, but it always makes me sick because I don’t eat this way at home. But it was delicious!! I also had a really nice server who chatted with me for awhile after delivering my waffle.

Lunch 7/22: Plaza Restaurant

This was my first time eating here. It was cute, small, but cute. I had the Vegetarian Sandwich and it was ok, nothing special. A little dry. I wish it had had more hummus or more pesto and less mozzarella. Actually, in general I think I’d order it without the mozzarella next time. The fries were good though! This took awhile though- really slow service here. We weren’t in a huge rush, but it was still a lot of sitting around waiting for things.

Dinner 7/22: Crystal Palace

I LOVE this place. I love the Pooh characters, and just think it’s the prettiest building. We had a reservation at 715, but got stuck on Splash Mountain when it broke down for like 25 minutes, so we called and pushed our reservation to 9ish . We had already seen the fireworks, so that worked fine for us. Everything was great here. There was nothing in particular that stood out as bad, though I remember my friend did not like the chicken- it was a bit pink inside and she was scared to eat it. We saw all the characters, most more than once, and it was nice and quiet, pretty empty at that time.

Breakfast 7/23: Writer’s Stop

We split a chocolate chip muffin that was more like a chocolate chip cupcake- very sponge-y. It was ok, not the best, but it hit the spot.

Lunch 7/23: Backlot Express

I had the Grilled Vegetable Sandwich. It was ok. Light on the vegetables, heavy on the bread and cheese. It was good with the honey mustard (they have the proper kind here!).

Various snacks and drinks throughout the week:

We had a Grey Goose Lemon Slush from France, which is one of my favorite drinks in the world. We also had a butterbeer at HP World, which was basically cream soda topped with whipped cream. It was fine, refreshing on a hot day. We tried the Hog’s Head beer, and I just don’t like beer, but it was drinkable for what it was. We also had soft serve from Auntie Gravity’s in MK one day- just plain ice cream, but it was very good! Oh, and we had a slush type drink (nonalcoholic) at Universal as well- I had a pina colada one, and it was great!

We also did the Wine and Beer Walk at AK during the Taste of Africa street party. This was fun, the bartenders were all nice, and there was a good variety to choose from. Not a bad amount of liquor for the $9 price either.

And I think that’s all we had!

Loved your reviews. I'll have to mention that beer at Rose & Crown to my hubby next time we go. And I personally think the french fries at the Plaza are the BEST fries in all of Disney.