I dont understand why Studios is such a food disaster area. EPCOT and AK do so well with their counter service options; heck, even MK CS tastes gourmet in comparison. So the lack of good food options in Studios is really puzzling. Perhaps its due to the whole Hollywood/Movie Studios vibe filled with actresses and actors who dont really eat. In that case, they might as well just ditch what pathetic counter services they have and replace them with vendors selling Diet Coke and 8-balls.
At any rate, we opted for lunch at our usual Studios spot: Toy Story Pizza Planet. We find it moderately tasty and a good value. We usually split one pizza and each get our own salads. The salads are nothing spectacular but usually fresh: iceberg lettuce with a few shavings of carrot and two grape tomatoes. The dressing options are severely limited: ranch, Italian, and blue cheese but they serve their purpose and all-in-all, the salad feels like a nice, healthy change.
If you get there when the pizzas are fresh, they are quite tasty. Not as good as my favorite pizza place, but better than my high school cafeterias. They remind me of DiGorno, or another one of those better tasting frozen pizzas. The crust is usually dense, but tender and chewy; the sauce appropriately mild and the cheese is always nicely golden brown and stringy. Bonus points that Ive never had to sop up puddles of excess grease with my napkin.
Dinner was at the infamous Le Cellier. Its pretty much been a Disney Dining staple for us since the buzz about the Cheddar Cheese Soup started floating around The DIS. I told you, I like cheese!
We barely waited at all for our table to be ready, and while we were waiting the staff joked with me about the tiara I was wearing (left over from last Octobers trip to BBB).
As excited as I get about other options on the menu I simply cannot bring myself to stray from the dining options I order every time I visit Le Cellier. What makes matters worse is that Jeff and I order the exact same thing, so our menu diversity at Le Cellier is quite low.
We started with the infamous Cheddar Cheese Soup, which was spectacular as always. Rich, creamy, velvety, with the slight sharpness of the Black Diamond Cheddar and just a hint of the bite of the Moosehead Beer. Paired with the soft, chewy and slightly salted pretzel bread this is my idea of comfort food heaven!
We both ordered the 14oz. NY Strip Steak with sautéed leeks, frisee and roasted Yukon gold potatoes, finished in a veal demi-glaze. We specified medium rare and were presented with a beautifully seared steak with a juicy pink-red center. Perfection! The strip steak is a true meat and potatoes type meal. The veal demi-glaze is minute, leaving the steak to ring true with the flavors of a good cut of beef; the potatoes lightly seasoned and baked fork-tender. The dish is rustic yet elegant; hearty and yet refined.
For dessert I had the Duo of House Made Sorbets. The sorbets of the evening were blackberry and white peach. Both sorbets were smooth and creamy; the blackberry was tart and robust, its lack of sweetness pairing nicely with the maple sugar cookie; the white peach was very sweet and very mild in its peach flavor, it went well with the lightly citrus-sweetness of the Inniskillin Ice Wine.
Jeffs dessert had a cherry-almond shortcake topped with lavender ice cream and almond nut brittle. The cake was softer than a traditional shortcake and flecked with sweet, dried cherries. The strong almond flavoring was mellowed with the rich sweetness of the lavender ice cream. The almond nut brittle was nutty, buttery and melt-in-your-mouth delicious.
, but I'm sure you are just as important(just maybe not in Oscar's eyes
).
