Disney Dinning Reviews - 11/10 to 11/18

[danjoan14]

We returned Sunday 11/18 from another wonderful trip to Disney World. Here is a list of restaurant's that I will be reviewing:

Yacht Club Galley - Dinner
Garden Grove Cafe - Character Breakfast
Tony's Town Square - Lunch
50's Prime Time Cafe - Dinner
Crystal Palace - Character Breakfast
Coral Reef - Dinner
Tony's Town Square - Dinner
Cosmic Ray's - Dinner
Pecos Bill - Dinner

Character's include DW, who is Disney maxed out and wants to take a year off next year , DS, who can't wait to go again , and myself, who's like DS and can't wait to get back to WDW.

I only have a couple of photos. DW thought it was dumb that I was taking photos of my food. DS thought it was great! I hope you enjoy the reviews...

 

[Disney owl]

look forward to your reviews

 

[danjoan14]

YACHT CLUB GALLEY:

We ate at the Yacht Club Galley on our arrival day. We had an ADR for 5:30pm. After arriving at the Tampa Airport at 1pm, driving to Orlando, and checking in at the Dolphin, everyone was ready for dinner. We arrived on time after a nice walk from the Dolphin, and were seated without a wait. The restaurant was pretty empty, but filled up by the time we were done with dinner.

DW is the picky eater. She had the grilled pork chop, and requested that it would be plain and cooked medium well. She didn't like the sides, so she ordered steak fries instead. Unfortunately, the pork chop was already marinated. But she still ordered it. It was good. The meat was nice and moist, and she loved the steak fries.

DS ordered the chicken noodle soup, and the chicken strips with fries. He had no problem enjoying his meal.

I ordered the special which was prime rib and mashed potatoes. I always like to have my meat cooked medium. It was cooked the right way, and was very good. I needed to order more side juice as the potatoes did a good job soaking it all up. The food was rather good, nothing special. I've read a lot of good reviews about this restaurant. I'm glad we gave it a try.

Food: B+
Service: B+
Atmosphere: B+

After our dinner, we return to the Dolphin by boat. We headed back to our room to unpack and get ready for our wonderful week at WDW.

More reviews soon...

 

[wilma-bride]

Great start - looking forward to more. My DH thinks I'm crackers for taking pics of the food too - but he's getting used to it now

 

[TigerKat]

Looking forward to more!

 

[danjoan14]

GARDEN GROVE CAFE:

This is a character breakfast which is located in the Swan Resort. They do not take an ADR, and the character's are only at the restaurant on weekends. After a good nights sleep, we walked to the Cafe around 9:30am. We were able to be seated right away. The character's on the Sunday were Goofy, Pluto, Chip and Dale. You're able to order from the menu, or select the buffet. We decided to have the buffet due to the fact they have had made to order eggs. They also had bacon, sausage, Mickey waffles, pancakes, home fries, toast, assorted fruit, cereal, oatmeal, and assorted pastries. They food was good. We had dined there a few years ago, and the food wasn't good at all. I was really surprised this time. Due to the fact that the Cafe was not busy at all, the character interaction was great.

Food: B
Service: B+
Atmosphere: A

 

[danjoan14]

TONY'S TOWN SQUARE - LUNCH:

I had scheduled a late lunch at Tony's. Despite some bad reviews, we've never had a bad meal at Tony's. Our ADR was scheduled for 2:45pm. We arrived, and was seated in about 10 minutes. I had requested an outdoor table to watch the Share A Dream Come True parade at 3pm. We had no problem getting a table outside. Great view of the parade!

DW had the spaghetti and meatballs which is always good.

DS had a salad with ranch dressing, and the spaghetti meatballs. He also had the Pirate's Punch which is Minute Maid Light Raspberry Lemonade served in a souvenir Pirate Cup with a glowing Captain Hook clip-on light.

I had the meatball sandwich with melted provolone and mozzarella cheese which was very good.

All of our meals were very good. However, the service was not as good as the past. Our server name was Robert, and you can tell that he did not want to be there that day. This was the first time we did not receive good service at Tony's.

Food: B+
Service: C
Atmosphere: A

Here is the view we had of the parade from our table at Tony's.

I'll post more reviews soon...

 

[TigerKat]

Great pics and reviews!!

 

[danjoan14]

50'S PRIME TIME CAFE:

After spending a great day at DW's favorite park, MGM, we headed for our 5:10pm ADR at 50's Prime Time Cafe. We waited for about 20 minutes before we were seated. Our waitress was Tracey Sue. She was wonderful! Pleasant, great personality, and really funny. We sat next to a family of four from Washington state. They were really nice, and we had a wonderful evening filled with a lot of laughs.

DW had the Char-grilled Pork Tenderloin. She requested it plain, and they had no problem making it the way she wanted. She didn't care for her side dishes, so she selected fries instead. Tracey Sue also brought out green beans for her as well. She told her that she needed to eat them or she would be in big trouble. DW is really not a veggie person, so DS and I had to help her eat the green beans so she wouldn't get into trouble. DW now owes me one! DW also had a hot tea for dessert.

DS started out his meal with the chicken noodle soup. He had no trouble finishing it. He then had the meatloaf and fries. He inhaled the whole dish with no trouble at all. Maybe next time we might have to order an adult size dish for him. DS also had the make your own ice cream sundae for dessert.

I started my meal with the shrimp cocktail. Five good size shrimp that were nice and cold and crunchie. I usually order the fried chicken, but Tracey Sue talked me into getting the Old Fashioned Pot Roast. She told me that after the first bite if I didn't like it, she would let me order the fried chicken. We'll I did a pretty good job cleaning the plate. I did such a good job, Tracey Sue made it known to the whole restaurant. Because I did such a good job, I was able to order dessert. I had the hot apple cobbler with ice cream on the side. It was soooooooo good. I gave my ice cream to my DW.

We had a great time that evening. DS got in trouble by shooting straw papers at Tracey Sue. He had to hold a sugar packet on the wall with his nose. And I got in trouble with the DD from Washington state for having our elbows on the table. Tracey Sue made us stand up and do the little tea pot song in front of everyone. We had a lot of laughs. We actually spent 2 hours in the restaurant, but had a lot of fun.

After dinner, we headed out to get our EMH bracelets, and enjoyed the Osbourne lights and the rest of MGM. It was truely a magical day!

Food: A
Service: A
Atmosphere: A

Up next, Crystal Palace breakfast.

 

[wilma-bride]

Really loving your reviews

 

[danjoan14]

Really loving your reviews

Thanks!

 

[danjoan14]

CRYSTAL PALACE:

We had a 9:25am ADR for our character breakfast at Crystal Palace. This is DW's favorite breakfast. We arrived on time, and waited around 20 minutes to be seated. I find that this restaurant is always crowded for breakfast. While we waited, we were able to catch the Main Street show.

This another restaurant that we've never had a bad breakfast. We love having made to order eggs. CP is loaded with food choices. They have Mickey waffles, pancakes, bacon, sausage, breakfast potatoes, assorted fruits, and the list goes on and on. DW had ordered her eggs over hard. I waited for her eggs while she got DS situated back at the table. I kept telling the cook to crack the yolks as soon as the hit the grill, and to keep turning them. Well, he wasn't listening, and the eggs were over cooked. She wasn't to pleased with them. She had to go back and have him cook her more.

Here is a photo of my first breakfast plate.

I have to say that overall the food was just OK. Some of the foods weren't that hot. I was disappointed that they didn't have any hash browns with cheese. They had other breakfast potatoes that were just OK. If this was our first time, we probably wouldn't return. Hopefully they were just having an off day. I originally had scheduled two ADR's for CP. But after our disappointment, we decided to cancel the other.

The character's were good. DS took part in the parade. It ususally takes about an hour for all of the characters to stop by the tables. We were there for about an hour an twenty minutes. DS never got the chance to see Tigger.

Overall, we know that the breakfast is usally good. We will visit CP again on our next journey to WDW.

Food: B-
Service: A
Atmosphere: B+

Next Review: Our best meal of the week, Coral Reef...

 

[Minniespal]

Excellent

 

[danjoan14]

CORAL REEF:

After another wonderful day in the park, this time Epcot, we headed to our 5:10pm ADR at the Coral Reef. Epcot has always been my favorite park, and I've always wanted to try the Coral Reef for dinner. I picked up a lot of good pointers about the customized menus and diver signs from this board. Back in May, I contacted Debbi, the GM of the Coral Reef, and setup a diver sign for my DS. I also emailed her 14 photos to be included in our personlized menus. Debbi is wonderful!

When we arrived, I checked with the CM to see if everything was all set for our diver. He confirmed that everything was all set. We only waited around 5 minutes to be seated. The CM seated us right in front of the tank. DS was really excited. Our waiter was Jim. He was wonderful. The best service we received all week. DW was really excited about the personlized menus.

DW ordered the grilled pork chop. She forget to tell Jim that she wanted it well done. When the food arrived, her pork chop was still pink inside. She informed Jim, and he said that he'll make sure it was cooked better. And that he did. When he returned back with DW's food, it was perfect. She really enjoyed it.

DS had the grilled chicken and fries. He enjoyed his meal, but was much more interested in what was going on inside the tank.

I started my meal off with a caesar's salad. I had to share that with DS. My meal was the 12-oz Grilled NY Strip Steak served with potatoes au gratin, and broccolini. It was wonderful! One of the best steaks I've ever had. Cooked medium, and not a piece of fat. It was so tender, you could cut it with a fork. Here is a photo of my meal.

DW enjoyed a nice hot cup of tea for dessert, and I just had to try the chocolate wave. WOW.....it was the best!

Almost half way through the meal, there was no sign of the diver for my DS. Our waiter, Jim, told me that he was going to check into it for us. It didn't even have to ask him to look into it for us. He came back and told us that they had the diver time incorrect, and someone should be down shortly. Sure enough, the diver appeared and she held a sign up for my DS. He was really surprised. He even blew her a kiss, which made her laugh. It was great!

I was really nervous about this restaurant after reading some bad reviews. But I made sure that the good ones out weighed the bad ones. When we left, the restaurant was full. The waiting area was packed too. And I'm glad I kept this reservation. It ended up being our best meal of the week. And we weren't bothered by anyone where we were seated in front of the tank. Everything was perfect!

Food: A+
Service: A+
Atmosphere: A+

Up next: Pecos Bill's and Cosmic Rays...

 

[danjoan14]

PECOS BILL'S & COSMIC RAYS:

We had decided to take a break from all of the good eating and had a couple of meals at a couple of CS.

Pecos Bill's - Nothing fancy. DW wasn't hungry, so she just had fries and a hot tea. DS wanted chicken nuggets and fries. I ended up with a 1/4 pound cheeseburger and fries. And don't forget the best part, the fixin' bar. IMHO, I think that Pecos Bill's have the best burgers in the parks.

Food: B+


Cosmic Rays - Once again, nothing fancy. DW had the 1/2 Chicken and BBQ Rib Combination with fries. She gave her ribs to my DS. He loves ribs. They were very fatty, so she brought them back up to the counter, and they had no problem giving her new ribs. DS, in addition to the ribs, had the kids cheesburger with grapes and carrots. He also loves the watch the show at Cosmic Rays. I had the 1/4 pound Cheeseburger served with fries. Once again, a good fixin' bar and hot food.

Food: B+


Next: Our last meal at the world. Dinner at Tony's Town Square...

 

[danjoan14]

TONY'S TOWN SQUARE:

This was our last night at WDW. We had started our day with another visit to Epcot in the morning/afternoon. We then headed to the MK around 4pm for our last visit of our vacation. Our ADR was scheduled for 5:30pm. I've been looking for a nice Micky mouse watch this year. I was able to find one at the watch store on Main Street. The CM was very helpful. Her name was Heather, and she was originally from Boston. She was trying to take out the links to size my watch, and was being harrased by a customer who wanted to buy an item. I could tell that she was getting nervous. By then, it was almost time for our reserverations. I told her that I would return after dinner to have her finish sizing my watch. She was very grateful.

We arrived at Tony's right on time. The waiting area was very busy. DS really didn't care. He was happy to sit down and watch Lady And The Tramp. After waiting for around 20 minutes, we were called to be seated. DW said that if we had the same server we had earlier in the week (Robert), she wasn't going to stay. Luckly or server was Luis. He was very nice.

DW order the Spaghetti and meatballs. She was really hungry, and no problem finishing all of her spaghetti. She always passes the meatballs along to me.

DS ordered a salad with ranch dressing, and meatballs. He too had no problem finishing his meal.

I ordered the Eggplant Rotini with Spaghetti. I wanted to try something new this time. It was very good. I usually order the Chicken Florentine, but it wasn't on the menu. They had Chicken Marsala on the menu instead. The only thing I didn't like was that they gave me to much Spaghetti. I'm an Italian who doesn't care for pasta to much. I prefer other Italian dishes. But overall, the food was very good.

Food: A
Service: A
Atmosphere: A


After our meal, we headed out for our last night stay at the MK. And yes, I did return to see Heather to pickup my watch. She told me that the customer didn't even end up buying the item he was bothering her for. The park was crowed up until the SpectroMagic pararde at 8pm. After that, the park really emptyed out. To our advantage, the MK was opened that night until midnight. DS got to say his goodbye to Mickey, and left in tears. DW even filled up when she saw that DS was upset. And DW is kind of Disneyed out, and want's to take a year off next year. That's going to be hard to do for DS and myself. I guess I have a lot of work to do next year. Hmmmm, maybe a DS and DD visit to WDW next year!

Please let me know if anyone has any questions about the restaurants we dined in. I'll try my best to answer them.

This now concludes my dinning review for this trip!

 

[PoohFan97]

TONY'S TOWN SQUARE:


I ordered the Eggplant Rotini with Spaghetti. I wanted to try something new this time. It was very good.

This now concludes my dinning review for this trip!

I enjoyed your reviews. Thanks for sharing!

We recently had ADRs at Tony's and I'd been looking at the eggplant entree. Was it very cheesy? (We ended up cancelling the reservation and going somewhere else, so I never got to try the eggplant.)

 

[danjoan14]

I enjoyed your reviews. Thanks for sharing!

We recently had ADRs at Tony's and I'd been looking at the eggplant entree. Was it very cheesy? (We ended up cancelling the reservation and going somewhere else, so I never got to try the eggplant.)

Glad I could share my reviews.

The eggplant had quite a bit of cheese on it. To me, that's the best part. I even had the waiter add more cheese when my order arrived.

 

[JESW]

Nice reviews - thanks for posting!

We were there the exact same time - wasn't the weather GREAT???? We had such a wonderful week and the crowds weren't too bad. It was funny tho when the temps went down below 70 or so and all the CM's got their jackets on - and the rest of us were walking around in shorts!

We are from MA and just bought DVC in august so we will be going to Disney a lot - this last trip was our 4th this year!

Do the DIS boards need to do an intervention to get your wife to want to go more??? I am lucky as Disney is the one thing that all 4 of us LOVE.

Jill

 

[danjoan14]

Nice reviews - thanks for posting!

We were there the exact same time - wasn't the weather GREAT???? We had such a wonderful week and the crowds weren't too bad. It was funny tho when the temps went down below 70 or so and all the CM's got their jackets on - and the rest of us were walking around in shorts!

We are from MA and just bought DVC in august so we will be going to Disney a lot - this last trip was our 4th this year!

Do the DIS boards need to do an intervention to get your wife to want to go more??? I am lucky as Disney is the one thing that all 4 of us LOVE.

Jill

Hello MA neighbor. Yes, the weather was great, and the crowd level during the week was great too! It's funny about the CM's wearing jackets when the temps went below 70. I noticed the same thing.

DW does like going to Disney. We've been going the past 4 years. DS is at a good age now. She just wants to take a year off. I've got my work cut out for me to try to get her back next year. If not, we may go with my sister and her family. They usually go to WDW in the fall.