DINKS on the dining plan: TS REVIEWS UPDATED: FULTON'S CRAB HOUSE and FLYING FISH

[Valjean13]

We just got back from 8 days in the world! I'll only be reviewing our table service restaurants, since I don't feel that CS deserves reviews. All the reviews are for dinner. The restaurants will be:
Ohana
Rose and Crown
Jiko
Spoodles
Fulton's Crab House
Flying Fish

 

[Valjean13]

May 14, Ohana for dinner.
First off, I'd like to say that one day DH and I would LOVE to stay at the Poly! It's not in our budget right now, but it's in the (far) future. So pretty there.

We checked in for our 7pm dinner a few minutes early, but had to wait 30 min to get seated. It was quite busy. This was our first time at Ohana, and we'd heard good things. It didn't disappoint! For me, the highlight was the sticky wings, they were fabulous! The wonton type things were fine, but nothing special. The salad had a very yummy dressing. The garlic broccoli was great, just a bit crunchy, the way I like it - and I love broccoli! The noodles were just ok, again, nothing special. They were a bit slow bringing the meats to us, so we had filled up on everything else first. I thought the steak was good, and DH loved the shrimp. The other meats were a bit dry for my taste, but the sauces helped. Overall, it was a great meal (my stomach is growling just thinking about the wings!). Oh yes, the pineapple bread! We loved it!
Desert was the bread pudding, and I have to warn you, I hate bananas. So I didn't try the banana sauce, but DH did and said it was great. I just ate the bread pudding on it's own, and it was good.

We'd definitely recommend Ohana, especially for a larger group. With just two of us, we felt like a lot of food got wasted because there was no way we could eat everything. It seemed like a great place to go with children, because of all the games and entertainment.

 

[Valjean13]

May 15, Rose and Crown and Illuminations

I made my ADR for 7:10, hoping to get a seat on the patio and watch Illuminations from our table. When we checked in I was told we couldn't request a patio table, but we could stand outside just before the show started and watch from a special viewing area. When they buzzed us, we were told our table would be inside....boo. So on the way to our table, DH asked if there was any way we could get a table on the patio (since there were plenty of empty ones). The very nice host went back to the front, made a switch for us, told us to wait a few minutes....and voila, we had a table on the patio! We were quite happy!

We were in the dining plan, but decided to order an appetizer as well. We shared the Samosas, which were quite good. The mango sauce was my favourite, but DH liked the tamarind sauce better.

For dinner DH had the Steak and Fish. The fish was pretty good, not too much batter. The steak was also good. The mashed potatoes were really good, I helped DH finish them off

I ordered the Tamarind-glazed Pork Loin, which was also quite good. I really like tamarind sauce, it's a nice flavour. I need to remember to try cooking something with tamarind at home, since I enjoy it so much. The pork was moist, and the roasted potatoes were excellent.

For desert we shared the Sticky Toffee Pudding (we were too full to each get our own). It was also very yummy. We got our desert just as Illuminations started. We had a great view of the stuff on the water, but because we were on the upper patio we had a hard time seeing the big fireworks. Our table was also against the building, not on the edge of the patio, so that might have made it harder to see. The tables on the lower patio have umbrellas, but they close them just before Illuminations starts, so they do not block the view from the upper patio. All in all, it worked out perfectly.

The food was good, the view was great, but with all the other restaurants we haven't tried yet in Epcot, it will be a while before we eat here again. Unless it's for the take-out fish and chips. I'd still recommend it though, especially if you time your meal to coincide with Illuminations.

 

[MickeyNicki]

Great start, cant wait to hear about Jiko and Foultons

 

[TigerKat]

Great so far, can't wait for JIKO, Spoodles & FF!

 

[Valjean13]

May 16th, Jiko for dinner

We had a long, HOT day at the Animal Kingdom, and for some strange reason I'd made our ADR for Jiko at 7pm, even though the park was closing at 6. So when we were ready to leave, at 5pm, I was really hoping we could get into Jiko earlier. We arrived at AKL around 5:30, and I asked very nicely if there was any possibility we could get seated earlier than 7pm. Again, lots of empty tables, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask. The host didn't make any promises, and gave me a pager. Less than 5 minutes later we were seated! We were very glad, as the thought of waiting around for 90 minutes was not very appealing.

We decided to try the ostrich schnitzel as an appetizer. DH has never eaten ostrich before and wanted to see how it was. It tasted fine, but nothing memorable. I find that most breaded, fried foods tend to taste "fine". I kind of wish we'd had a flatbread instead, but sometimes you have to keep the husband happy!

DH decided to skip out on meat, and order the vegetarian dish. I think it's Grains, Peas, and Vegetables, according to the online menus. It was a huge bowl filled with couscous, barley, tofu, and lots of vegetables, in some sort of sauce - almost like a less-saucy vegetable stew. There was no way DH could eat it all, it was a massive meal! He enjoyed it, and he ate a lot...but it's one of those meals where you eat and eat and eat, and the bowl still looks full! If you are really hungry, I would recommend it.

I ordered the lamb shank. It was very tasty (I love lamb), and I shared some of the meat with DH. I couldn't let him only eat tofu, when I had such great meat in front of me! I honestly don't remember what came with it, but whatever it was it must have been good, because I ate it all!

For dessert I had the "no sugar added" spice cake. It was drenched with honey, so I am sure it was just as bad for me as a regular "sugar" dessert. It came with fruit on the top, and was served in a martini glass. I quite enjoyed it. DH ordered some sort of marble cheesecake (I think) that came with lavender ice cream. The cake was obviously not memorable, but the ice cream was great! It tasted exactly like you'd think it would, basically it tastes exactly like lavender smells. That explanation may not have been very good, but that's really the best way to describe it. I quite enjoyed the ice cream, but DH was not a fan.

Our server went into great detail describing the items on the menu, which was nice...but made for a long spiel. Oh, and we don't drink, so I don't have any wine reviews - except to say that the wine menu was huge, it was pages and pages long.

Jiko was good, we'd eat there again.

 

[Valjean13]

May 17, Spoodles

The Boardwalk was quite busy on Saturday night, and there was lots of entertainment to keep us happy while we waited for our table. ADR was for 8pm, but they said we'd have to wait at least an extra 15 minutes for a table, as they were so busy. This made me a little anxious, as we wanted to see Fantasmic at 10:30pm. However, they buzzed us 8:05, so that was great.

For the sake of time, we skipped out on ordering an appetizer. For our entrees, DH ordered the Lemon Garlic Shrimp Linguine, and I had the Oak Fired Steak Kebobs. DH's pasta had tons of shrimp, so he was happy. The lemon sauce was good, not too over-powering. The Kebobs were quite tasty, I enjoyed the taste you get from cooking them over a wood fire. It's much different than doing kebobs on a gas BBQ (which is how we cook them here at home). The kebobs have cherry tomatoes on them too, which I don't like, so I had to leave them to the side. The menu didn't mention the tomatoes, otherwise I'd have mentioned my dislike of tomatoes to the server. The pilaf was very good, a nice break from having rice. The server warned me that the sauce was spicy, and asked if it was ok to put it directly on the meat. I said sure, no problem. I didn't find the sauce spicy in the least. It had a tiny tiny bit of a bite to it, but nothing I think you'd need to warn people about. It was very tasty.

For desert, I ordered the Baklava. I've tried a few different kinds, with different fillings, and I love them all. This one had dried fruit in a honey glaze on the top - a very nice, although very sweet, addition to the pastry. It was soaked in honey, as Baklava should be, and the pastry was flaky. I couldn't eat all the fruit topping, as the apricots and dates just made it too sweet. Still, a very nice desert.
DH ordered an apple tart for desert. He really enjoys any type of apple desert - pie, crumble, cobbler, you name it. So of course he enjoyed the tart. I am pretty sure it came with vanilla ice cream too.

We were finished in time to walk back to Hollywood Studios and catch the late show of Fantasmic - my favourite show!

 

[TigerKat]

Although I could make a meal off of the appetizers alone at Spoodles I do love the Shrimp Linguine with the preserved lemon!

 

[SunnieRN]

Yummm, your reviews are making me hungry! Everything sounds so yummy! Looking forward to more!

 

[Valjean13]

May 19, Fulton's Crab House

For this night, we originally had an ADR for Blue Zoo at 7pm. However, when we returned from Epcot in the afternoon we decided to take a nap....and woke up at 6:45pm. We decided to just hit up downtown Disney, since it's usually easier to get a table there without an ADR. We wandered around, and eventually found ourselves deciding between Fulton's and Portobello Yacht Club. I'd heard lots of good things about Fulton's, so we decided the 20 min wait would be worth it. And we were not disappointed!

We had a great table, upstairs right beside the window. The view was great. They brought us a basket of flatbreads with a crab spread, which was delicious (even gave us the recipe with it) and a basket of sourdough bread.
All of their seafood is freshly caught, so the menu changes daily. One nice touch was that they included, along with the location, the name of the boat and the name of the fisherman who caught each fish! Very neat.

We decided to order calamari to start. We were expecting the typical chain restaurant calamari, with lots of little rings and a few with the little tentacle things, all covered in thick breading. But this calamari was so much better! The pieces were huge, thick and long, with light breading. Nothing rubbery about them, they were fantastic! I didn't realize calamari could be so "meaty", (for lack of a better term).

DH ordered a seafood trio for his entree. I can't remember all the fish, but I think one was Mahi Mahi. He enjoyed his meal, and the fish came with potatoes and a few vegetables too. Which is important to know....because some of the items (at least that night) do not come with sides. I was craving surf and turf, and since there was filet mignon and lobster on the menu, I decided to order it. The only problem was that both items were considered a la carte, so the filet just came by itself. No sides, nothing. At $40 for the filet, I was a bit annoyed that they couldn't throw in a few veggies too.... oh well. I have to say, it was the best steak. Cooked to a perfect medium, very tender, and it came with a sauce that was lovely. I can't remember what kind of sauce it was, it seemed like some sort of reduction flavoured with rosemary. Very good. The lobster tail I ordered with it came from Australia. Usually the lobster we get at home (in Canada) comes from PEI, Maine or Cuba. You can taste subtle differences between them. This Australian lobster had a fairly mild taste, and the meat seemed less stringy than what I am used to. All in all, it was an excellent (although pricey!) meal. We were stuffed, so skipped out on desert. I'd highly recommend Fulton's, everything was wonderful.

 

[Valjean13]

May 20, Flying Fish

This was our last night, so we were hoping for another great meal. And we were not disappointed!
For our starter we chose the steamed mussels in pesto sauce. They were very lovely. Thankfully we saved some of our bread (a very good sourdough) because the sourdough crostini that comes with the mussels is not enough to dip in the sauce. Trust me, the sauce is yummy enough that you will want to eat it all! And thankfully all the mussels were open, it's such a disappointment to order mussels and find half a dozen are not edible. Thumbs up for this starter!

DH ordered the New York Strip Steak. It was nicely charred on the outside, and pink inside. It came with roasted root vegetables. Very delicious.
I ordered the organic Salmon - but because it came with vegetables that included asparagus, I asked for the root vegetables instead. (I really dislike asparagus). For some reason I got about 50% more vegetables than my DH did, but that was ok by me! The salmon was very good, it came with a lemon caper sauce that was excellent.

For desert DH had the pecan tart, which must have been good because it disappeared fast! I had the Pineapple, Passion Fruit, and Coconut Panna Cotta. This came with little cookies on the side, and the fruit was cut into little chunks garnishing the top. The coconut panna cotta was heavenly, I loved it....but I was so full, and the desert so rich, that I couldn't finish it.

 

[John's Mom]

Great reviews! Thanks for sharing!

 

[KatMark]

May 19, Fulton's Crab House

For this night, we originally had an ADR for Blue Zoo at 7pm. However, when we returned from Epcot in the afternoon we decided to take a nap....and woke up at 6:45pm. We decided to just hit up downtown Disney, since it's usually easier to get a table there without an ADR. We wandered around, and eventually found ourselves deciding between Fulton's and Portobello Yacht Club. I'd heard lots of good things about Fulton's, so we decided the 20 min wait would be worth it. And we were not disappointed!

We had a great table, upstairs right beside the window. The view was great. They brought us a basket of flatbreads with a crab spread, which was delicious (even gave us the recipe with it) and a basket of sourdough bread.
All of their seafood is freshly caught, so the menu changes daily. One nice touch was that they included, along with the location, the name of the boat and the name of the fisherman who caught each fish! Very neat.

We decided to order calamari to start. We were expecting the typical chain restaurant calamari, with lots of little rings and a few with the little tentacle things, all covered in thick breading. But this calamari was so much better! The pieces were huge, thick and long, with light breading. Nothing rubbery about them, they were fantastic! I didn't realize calamari could be so "meaty", (for lack of a better term).

DH ordered a seafood trio for his entree. I can't remember all the fish, but I think one was Mahi Mahi. He enjoyed his meal, and the fish came with potatoes and a few vegetables too. Which is important to know....because some of the items (at least that night) do not come with sides. I was craving surf and turf, and since there was filet mignon and lobster on the menu, I decided to order it. The only problem was that both items were considered a la carte, so the filet just came by itself. No sides, nothing. At $40 for the filet, I was a bit annoyed that they couldn't throw in a few veggies too.... oh well. I have to say, it was the best steak. Cooked to a perfect medium, very tender, and it came with a sauce that was lovely. I can't remember what kind of sauce it was, it seemed like some sort of reduction flavoured with rosemary. Very good. The lobster tail I ordered with it came from Australia. Usually the lobster we get at home (in Canada) comes from PEI, Maine or Cuba. You can taste subtle differences between them. This Australian lobster had a fairly mild taste, and the meat seemed less stringy than what I am used to. All in all, it was an excellent (although pricey!) meal. We were stuffed, so skipped out on desert. I'd highly recommend Fulton's, everything was wonderful.

So glad to read your great review of Fulton's. We haven't been in three years because it is not on the dining plan. But we have an ADR this year. This is the first Disney restaurant my DH ever took me to so we are paying out of pocket and going for our special 25th wedding anniversary dinner with my best friend and her DH. You just reenforced my decision to pick this as our special dinner. Thank you!

 

[Valjean13]

So glad to read your great review of Fulton's. We haven't been in three years because it is not on the dining plan. But we have an ADR this year. This is the first Disney restaurant my DH ever took me to so we are paying out of pocket and going for our special 25th wedding anniversary dinner with my best friend and her DH. You just reenforced my decision to pick this as our special dinner. Thank you!

So glad to hear you are going! It really was a memorable meal. Hopefully yours will be too!

 

[iluvpluto27]

Great reviews.

 

[BriarRosie]

May 16th, Jiko for dinner

We had a long, HOT day at the Animal Kingdom, and for some strange reason I'd made our ADR for Jiko at 7pm, even though the park was closing at 6. So when we were ready to leave, at 5pm, I was really hoping we could get into Jiko earlier. We arrived at AKL around 5:30, and I asked very nicely if there was any possibility we could get seated earlier than 7pm. Again, lots of empty tables, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask. The host didn't make any promises, and gave me a pager. Less than 5 minutes later we were seated! We were very glad, as the thought of waiting around for 90 minutes was not very appealing.

The last part of your commentary made me wonder if you've explored AKL before. One of the things about arriving earlier than the dining time I enjoy is the ability to explore and perhaps catch some animals on the Arusha Rock savanna viewing area.

It's really cool when you visit AKL in the fall and winter months, when it gets darker earlier. There's a cast member stationed outside with night vision binoculars, and I've been able to spend a few minutes viewing the animals through them.

But I don't think it would take 90 minutes to explore AKL, so I know I would checked in super-early, too.

 

[Valjean13]

We have explored the animal viewing area at AKL on previous visits, and we did walk around after dinner....we were just so hot and tired that we didn't really want to walk around any more. But thanks for mentioning that!

 

[Camster0307]

We love Fulton's too!