Disney Food Pictures...Part III

[jjohnson]

How did I ever miss this place!!! Thank you too for the SC update.

 

[pianoronni37]

Raglan Road

 

[pianoronni37]

Mama Melrose

 

[pianoronni37]

Chefs de France

 

[pianoronni37]

California Grill - Horrible Photos, but Delicious Food!!

 

[pianoronni37]

Coral Reef

 

[MickeyNicki]

We are back early tonight because of the dumb rain...we wanted to stay out late but it is just miserable outside so we are back in the room and relaxing, digesting from tonights dinner at California Grill.

We left our room and went to the bus stop at 4:45...within minutes the bus for MK pulled up, we are the only ones on it...the driver said "so where are you going to dinner because you are too dressy for MK!" I told him Cali Grill and he said get the pork....funny because the doorman at POFQ main lobby said the same thing.

The thunder and lightening was going but no rain yet. We checked in at the 2nd floor podium, requested a window seat. We were brought up to the 15th floor, lots of people in the lounge area and at 5:35 we were all seated. We had a fantastic window seat with a view of the GF, the monorail line, the Castle and such...except it was getting ready to storm big time.

And then our view turned into this:

Our server let me keep the menus...

 

[MickeyNicki]

We also had a view of the kitchen and the bar.

Our server was Erika and she was wonderful...great service at Cali Grill...we felt spoiled!

DH started with a sparkling wine, I have no idea why he likes sparkling the best but this one was very dry and too bitter for me but he enjoyed it. Roederer Sparkling Brut, Anderson Valley

Thanks to TinkerBelle_325 for recommending Conundrum...I had a glass of that and it was wonderful!

Out came the bread and butter, the butter is room temp with rock salt on top...very creamy rich wonderful REAL butter! The bread was a warm mild sourdough and we loved it...I could have had 2 baskets of that stuff....DH said sure beats Soda Bread huh!

The starters were a huge problem for us, did I want to try sushi (Todd said UH NO THANK) and did I want a flatbread (Todd said he wasnt FEELING the flatbreads) and would the risotto be too filling...well my beloved ordered a .... wait for it... FREAKIN CAESAR SALAD...dude what the heck? We are at Cali Freakin Grill and you order a salad? He looked at me and said "Did you just meet me?" So the boy ordered his lame salad ... except it was excellent. I practically begged to try it and it was awesome, so much flavor, so fresh...it was wonderful.

Now I had a tough choice to make because I wanted sushi, flatbread, the lobster risotto and the shrimp salad but I decided on the lobster risotto with midnight moon goat cheese, lobster oil and meyer lemon beurre blanc. This was great but you get maybe 3 tablespoons of food....DH said it tasted rich, I thought it was very good, not too rich, not too salty and there was a lot of lobster pieces in it. I had to resist the urge to get more bread and sop up all the wonderful sauce...hey I am Italian, we eat with a fork in one hand and a loaf of bread in the other!

So I knew I was going to order the Grilled Pork Tenderloins with Goat Cheese Polenta, Button Mushrooms and Zinfandel Glaze. The pork is cooked medium and is literally melt in your mouth tender, the polenta was super creamy and had a wonderful tangy rich taste...went perfect with the pork. The zinfandel glaze was amazing, it was the best sauce I have ever had with pork. DH had the mushrooms and he said they were great. DH loved my pork...but wasnt keen on the medium part so he ate the edges and I ate the wonderful middle. This was a huge amount of food, 3 huge portions of pork!

DH had the Oak Fired Filet of Beef with Cheesy Idaho Potato Mash, Buttered Asparagus and Teriyaki BBQ Sauce. I told him to order it medium, the boy prefers his steak gray but on this single occassion he actually listened to me...first time for everything I guess! The filet came out med-rare, my favorite but he shocked me by eating some of it! The potatoes were great, the asparagus was wonderful but the teriyaki bbq sauce ruined the filet...it was just too smokey tangy for the filet but DH said it reminded him of the BBQ Maple Filet from Le Cellier..he was happy BUT he said the pork was clearly the winner of the best entree award. Next time we would order it without the sauce

Dessert anyone? Of course and this time I made DH get a different dessert than me so we could try more things! Again he listened! He had coffee, I stuck to water.

I ordered the Black Walnut and Chevre Cheesecake, it was so light, so flavorful, the berries were fresh and delish, the raspberry coollie was tart and sweet and the perfect twist to the cheesecake...I think I had 2 bites and Todd's fork made it to my plate and I lost custody of my dessert.....he ate cookie and said it was like a nut brittle and he ate my chocolate stick and said it was a great chocolate...not waxy at all....wish I could experience it!

DH ordered the Valrhona Chocolate Cake with Strawberry Ice Cream. It is served warm and the ooey gooey thick chocolate spills out all over the plate. It was fantastic. The strawberry ice cream was very mild, not too sweet and it was pretty creamy. The cake itself was great, I am not a chocolate fiend like DH is but I enjoyed it alot, I guess I had to since he commandeered my choice of dessert....just kidding you guys, nuttin but love for the boy!

Total with the TIW card was $159...a little much but oh goodness so worth it! DH said to put it on the list for Oct but he was quick to remind me that Jiko filet was still on the top so we have to make sure to go back there too. We had a very relaxing, wonderful fun dinner...but the rain killed the rest of our evening..now DH is snoring away, I am typing away and wondering if I should spike his food with NO DOZE so I can experince WDW! Oh well it is only day one and I know he is just dead tired...I will not complain anymore

For all of you that told me Cali Grill was awesome, a huge THANK YOU! You were all so right!

 

[micknpluto]

mickeynicki thank you so much!!

Love the pics and reviews. CG is on my list for september. I hope I can get a good time for dinner. I call this saturday.

 

[TheDisneyGirl02]

Mickeynikki - LOVED the pictures of the food and the scary storm! I'm sure you were glad that you were inside when that rolled in!

 

[ibouncetoo]

I grab some of these every trip. A great low fat salty/crunchy snack!

.

 

[DizneyDogs]

glad to see the flatbreads are back at Cali

 

[jennyf10]

Chefs de France

Oooh, is this the duck entree? Was it yummy???

 

[livinlife25]

oops wrong thread

 

[Picabo]

MickeyNicki - WOW those pix of the storm are cool! I used to live in Clearwater and brought back so many memories of those late afternoon storms that FL is so well known for!
Question - do you recall approx how much it costs to get those family sized snacked you had pix of? Like the Mini chocolate/vanilla cookies or the Sprees? Are these readily found around the parks or only specific stores?

 

[MickeyNicki]

Hi everyone! We are back in the room after a day at the pool...and we need some nap time, the sun just zaps your energy...well DH's energy I am still hyper and ready to go

We had breakfast at the food court again, it was a bit busier than yesterday but we did arrive earlier than yesterday too so that may have something to do with it. I went to get a bagel and a cinnamon bun and DH was to get his stuff and I requested a plate of eggs.

They were sold out of bagels so I got a croissant instead. It was very very greasy but still good...just too greasy for me to get another one.

And remember that I wanted JUST eggs? He doesnt listen to me all the time and got me sausage, which I do love but cannot eat it every day or my fingers will swell like little sausages! The eggs were not as dry as yesterday, much better this morning! Sausages were good too, had to eat them as DH doesnt like them (but he likes sausage gravy go figure)

More fruit, I just love fruit and eat it all the time. Again it was cold, fresh and sooo sweet!

Another cinnamon bun and I actually had more than one bite this time, I was allowed 2! It was warm and sweet and sticky and perfect, loaded with cinnamon too!

DH had the King Creole platter again but with all bacon, the bacon was crispy and not greasy, the potatoes were better than yesterday and he ate the biscuit with butter and jelly...I was surprised that he skipped the gravy..but there is always tomorrow!

We used our mugs for Nescape for DH and ice tea for me...the ice tea is awesome...very fresh! There are a ton of guests using old POR mugs, other resort mugs and such but we are using our 2009 mugs that we bought in March...hey at least our mugs are the current ones! Not one CM is commenting on the out of date mugs either....not saying it is right, wrong or whatever but I am just letting you know what I am seeing.

Saw lots of people checking out this morning, it was a gorgeous sunny day with a nice breeze...perfect for the pool! Tons of empty pool chairs, hardly anyone in the pool, the hot tub was closed this morning but opened at noon. We stayed out for a while, DH napped and I read a book..we had a great relaxing day. When the bar opened I went and got us these little treats, TIW is not accepted at this pool bar.

Here is a strawberry/mango with Bacardi frozen treat...it was great, nice and smooth, not gritty and not too strong, I would have preferred more rum but it was still good.

And this is the Fusion Lemonade with citrus rum, XFusion and minute maid lemonade and I think a splash of Sprite...OH JEEZ this was great! DH hogged the first one so I had to go back and get another...much more refreshing than the other drink, I could suck these puppies back all night long!

Someones belly starting rumbling so we decided to get lunch and go back to the room for a nap before heading out to MK. DH ordered another taco salad, beef one again, but this CM was super generous on the fillings so it was twice the size as the one last night, but it was still awesome! Very good food at this place!

He also had a chocolate chip cookie...he said it was terrible! Too greasy and had no flavor at all...I took his word for it because I could see the grease all over the napkin and his fingers...BLECH!

I opted for the hot muffaletta....this was wonderful. A generous amount of salty salami, ham and provolone with the olive spread on it. It was a nice salty though, like an Italian hoagie or something, The bread was soft and chewy and tasty and not prepackaged tasting at all...I would get this again in a heartbeat. It is a huge portion and I could only eat half, have no fear Todd stepped up and ate the rest.

You get a choice of homemade chips or pasta salad and I had the pasta salad...this was so fresh and clean and light tasting I wish I had a huge plate of it...chick peas, tender pasta, onions and cucumbers in a very light, almost Italian dressing like, marinade and it was so light you could not even see it on the pasta but one bite and the flavors just burst in your mouth....Poor DH he just had the one bite.....PAYBACK PAL, PAYBACK!

 

[alan_renfroe]

Appetizers:

Salad with an apple balsamic dressing. Awesome!

Southwestern Chicken Soup. This was really, really good.

Chips & Dip for two. Not nearly as good as the soup.

Children's fruit cup.

The Canyon Skillet: beef brisket, ribs, roasted chicken, pulled pork, barbeque beans, corn-on-the-cob, and mashed potatoes. Whew! That's a lot of food!

Roasted Chicken plate:

Children's Cheeseburger:

Vanilla Ice Cream:

Apple Pie. SOOOOO Good! (We were too full to eat it there, so we got it to go! It made an excellent breakfast the following morning!)

 

[maddhatir]

I may have posted these back in Aug after our trip- but they just look so yummy! I wanted to share again.

GF Garden View Lounge Afternoon Tea yummy

A Kir Royale (with a strawberry nice touch I guess) at 1900 Pare Fare Dinner

And this was an alcoholic beverage from PI- I forget the name of it. I was not too fond of drinking out of a bucket

And my FAVORITE- Chocolate Martini at the Coral Reef.
Heads were turning when this was brought to the table

Do you see a pattern here? If I remember, I do believe I had some real food while in Disney too

SIL and I made it a point to have mimosas at breakfast every morning and champagne every chance we got!

 

[MickeyNicki]

Here are some pics of the menu

Our server, Jay, was awesome, very nice and funny and quick on the drink refills which is a huge plus for DH. He gets nuts if is drink runs dry. Jay brought over hot fresh chewy and crusty bread with olive oil full of dried basil, red pepper and other spices...it was amazing..we killed off all 6 slices and Jay was quick to bring more...smart lad.

DH had (suprise suprise) a craving for a caesar salad...this one was great too! Lots of garlic, a little too much dressing for me but he likes his salad wetter than me, the croutons were nice and crunchy, it was a delish salad and we had no problem polishing it off (I am going to post the next few pics with and without flash, I was having camera issues)

And of course we had to have calamari..I wish I ordered this as an entree too...the calamari at Tonys is incredible...the coating is super light, not greasy at all, the squid is so tender and not chewy or tough..the olive relish that comes on it is soooo perfect with the calamari, a nice zing and you do not need the marinara sauce (which is ick anyways)

I decided on the veggie eggplant...and Todd took it over and I will tell you why in a sec. There was roasted eggplant, red peppers, onions and zucchini layered in the lasagne and it was awesome....delish, light, tons of flavor and I think I had 3 bites of it.

DH decided on the Rigatoni Fagioli with grilled chicken in a curry veggie broth...I told him he wouldnt like it but he loves pasta fagioli so he thought he would like this....he thought wrong. That is when he switched my plate with his. The dish was different thats for sure....there was alot of cannellini beans and pasta and chicken and that was very good with more parmasan cheese on it but there was a scazillion capers in it and we do not do that many capers...there was zip taste of curry broth, tasted like a chicken broth to me. But being a nice wife I ate the pasta and chicken while he raved over the lasagne. You can get this dish veggie style, with chicken or shrimp. I would get it again with shrimp and hold the capers.

We shared a dessert...the sorbet was green apple sugar free or the cheesecake was cannoli cheesecake and DH loves cannolis so we got that. IT WAS DA BOMB! Very light and creamy, hint of pistachio, chocolate and orange zest....YUMMO I could eat this all the time. We also had tea and coffee and just lingered for a bit...we were not rushed at all!

We really love Tony's, I know it gets alot of bad reviews but we think the appies and desserts are great and the entrees are pretty good. I would rather eat here than Crystal Palace.

 

[MickeyNicki]

Aloha Isle was open so I got a glass of ice cold sweet and tangy pineapple juice...love this stuff!

And DH got a baby aspirin dessert...oh my bad, the citrus swirl. It is orange sherbert like stuff and vanilla ice cream...basically a frozen baby aspirin! ICK but he loved it.