DxDDP review , RR,Jiko,Biergarten,CM,Turf Club,Yachtsman and Akershush *DONE*

[TigerKat]

Honey, I know what you mean about being scared to give a bad review of the YSH. I already got my hand slapped yesterday for daring to give a bad review....oh well. I'm not here for a popularity contest, I'm just here to give my friends an honest and no holds barred review.

That is precisely what a review is for - post your experiences, good AND bad!!!!!!!

 

[tiggersmom2]

I was very morose today. My father felt ill and he decided to leave a day early. My sweet oldest son, didn't want Papa driving back alone so he left too. Oh well, what are we EVER going to do with all the extra credits!!

We get to EPCOT around 10:45 and I'm cautiously excited about eating at the Akershush. This used to be my MOST FAVORITE RESTAURANT ANYWHERE......before they put those damn princesses there! Well, I was blessed with a little princess of my own in 2007, so I figured, why not.....let's give it a shot.

Well, we get to Norway at 11:00 for our 11:25 reservation. The girl at the podium asks me my name and the time of our reservation and then tells me to come back in 15 minutes to check in. Okaaaaay, don't even know why she bothered asking all that crap, but whatever.

We know the line here gets long, so we parked our fannies right by the check in station. 10 minutes later we check in and about 15 minutes are taken inside. The kids get pictures with Belle and we are seated at a nice window table for 4.

I had heard many times that you could still order as many hot items (main entrees) as you wanted off the menu, but one at a time. Nope, according to our waitress you can only order one thing. Okay. Well, I ask if I could order the lamb stew and get a side of the rutabega mash...NO. Okay, whattheheckever. Sooooooo, I go to the cold bar......what a sad, sad day. This is nothing like the cold bar of Akershush past, there is no goat cheese, no wonderful bread selection (only hard generic rolls), no meat salad, no eggs, NO SOUP, sparse sampling of herring.

Anyway, I put the "salad" consisting of lettuce on my plate and drizzle with french dressing. They do have chicken salad, beet salad and shrimp salad - I try that. The little bit of herring they do have available is the peppered herring and the tomato, so of course I get some of that with the salmon.

All the items I got was as I remembered them. The shining star was the herring in tomato.....it was vinergary and surgary and delicious.

The main courses came out:

Me: Lamb stew
DH: Lamb stew
DS: pizza

The lamb stew was just a sad, sad shadow of the lamb shank and cabbage they used to serve at the "Akershush of old". There was plenty of lamb, but it wasn't the best I have ever had....and the cabbage was mush, literally MUSH. I could have cried.

You must remember, I am an ol' time, die hard Akershush fan, so this was particularly painful to me. For someone that had never eaten here before, the food would be decent, or dare I say....adventuresome and good. I just wasn't feeling it, neither was my husband.

Service: Great, we even bought the picture cause we know we won't be back

Final Outcome: Hurts my heart to compare the old to the new. I hate what WDW has done. Probably won't be back.

 

[tiggersmom2]

Okay, we have tons, upon tons of TS credits left!! I am so disappointed in Akershush that we decide to just leave EPCOT and call it a pool day...cool.

We get back to SSR and realize just how many credits we have left! *22*!! So, we decide to just order some stuff from the Artist Palette and see how it is.

We get (now brace yourself, this is obscene)
Chicken tenders
pepperoni flatbread
BBQ flatbread
Jumbo hotdog
Vegetable sandwich
roast beef with portabello mushroom sandwich

The flat breads were very good, loved them both.
Chicken tenders my BUTT! These were scraggly little nuggets and nothing special. Jumbo hotdog - eh. Roast beef with portabello, yummo, in the words of Rachel irritating Ray! The absolute star was the vegetable sandwich. It was sooooo heavenly....spread with a liberal amount of red pepper hummus and layered with mushrooms, onions, red peppers and zuchinni. It was sooooo good.

I must say, I was very disappointed in the AP. There were NO burgers, NO fries and the refrigerated selection SUCKED.....it was limited to fruit bowl, grapes, tuna sandwich, side salad and yogurt cups.

 

[tiggersmom2]

We were scheduled to eat at Boma, but it was raining HARD and we headed to the Turf Club. Luckily they were able to seat us immediately!

I'll just get right to chase:

Appetizers:

Me: Calamari
DH: Buffalo stips
DS: Chicken noodle soup

Entrees:

Me: Lamb chops with gouda polenta
DH: Burger and fries
DS: Beef Macaroni

I was even more in love with this place after I finished. They have the second best lamb in WDW, trailing behind Jiko. That polenta, is food for the gods...yummy. My husband declared this the best burger of the trip as blood was oozing out of it. He loves a medium rare burger and this is pretty much the only place he has found that will do it.

Desserts:

Me: Mixed berries
DH: Apple pie
DS: Ice cream sundae

Wonderful

 

[tiggersmom2]

Well, we have 13 TS credits to burn. We order 3 bountiful breakfasts from AP.

I wasn't expecting too much but they were really excellent. They came with scrambled eggs, roasted potatoes/with cheese, mickey waffle, sausage and 5 strips of bacon and a biscuit.

This was a LOT of food and very, very good. We enjoyed it and hated to leave.




Final thoughts: Loved the Deluxe Dining Plan, but it was toooooo much food!!! We had to scramble to use all the snack credits left, over (32), and we used those on cokes and nesquick milks to bring home. We LEFT *10* table service credits....no way we could use them.


We are going for free dining in August and did NOT upgrade to the Deluxe plan.

 

[MousekaMaddi]

nice job, thanx for sharing

 

[SmallWorld71]

Thanks for sharing! We're going for free dining in August, too.

 

[Lureen]

Your reviews were a pleasure to read. Thanks for posting them.

That polenta does sound like food for the Gods. We may just have to go to the Turf Club to try it.

 

[TigerKat]

Thanks for taking the time to share your reviews with us!

 

[Tatania]

I had heard so much hype about Jiko and was really excited about trying it. We all got dolled up and went to AKL for our 6:35 reservation. I remember the CM that made my reservation stated that the dress was "business casual", so imagine my surprise when I saw we were about the only people dressed nicely! Most everyone looked like that had just stepped out of the theme parks with t-shirts, flip flops and shorts.

That's exactly how I felt when I dressed to the nines for California Grill. Loved your Jiko review and I'm making of point of going there next time. I had heard mixed reviews about the Turf Club but would give it a try based on your reviews.

Can you please direct me to a link with information on the free dining in August?

 

[A&A'sGrammy]

Your review of Jiko has my mouth watering!!!! We are huge fans of the "better" restaurants at WDW. Jiko is one I haven't dared drag my plain eating family to. Being at AKL, I was afraid it would be too foreign for them. Your review assures me they (and I, ha ha!) will LOVE it. It is deffinatly on my next visit's list along with Artist Point.

 

[tiggersmom2]

That's exactly how I felt when I dressed to the nines for California Grill. Loved your Jiko review and I'm making of point of going there next time. I had heard mixed reviews about the Turf Club but would give it a try based on your reviews.

Can you please direct me to a link with information on the free dining in August?

http://disboards.com/announcement.php?f=127&a=234 LOVE free dining, it is really worth it for us b/c I have 3 kids!

Your review of Jiko has my mouth watering!!!! We are huge fans of the "better" restaurants at WDW. Jiko is one I haven't dared drag my plain eating family to. Being at AKL, I was afraid it would be too foreign for them. Your review assures me they (and I, ha ha!) will LOVE it. It is definitely on my next visit's list along with Artist Point.

You will LOVE this place. We are still dreaming of this restaurant, and it is a big reason we decided to book ANOTHER trip for next month....at the AKL...

 

[JerseyJanice]

Excellent reviews! I enjoyed reading them and appreciate your honesty.

Some years back, we took my in-laws to the Yachtsman Steakhouse for their 40th wedding anniversary. It was a lovely atmosphere and the service was impeccable, but I didn't find the food to be all that fabulous, especially for the price.

I decided to add Raglan Road to the list on our free dining trip. The food sounds very good, and I think my DS and DN will enjoy the entertainment there.

 

[tiggersmom2]

Excellent reviews! I enjoyed reading them and appreciate your honesty.

Some years back, we took my in-laws to the Yachtsman Steakhouse for their 40th wedding anniversary. It was a lovely atmosphere and the service was impeccable, but I didn't find the food to be all that fabulous, especially for the price.

I decided to add Raglan Road to the list on our free dining trip. The food sounds very good, and I think my DS and DN will enjoy the entertainment there.

Thanks sweetie. I KNOW your DS and DN will love Raglan Road, the food is excellent and the atmosphere is incomparable. Oh, I forgot to mention this in my review but my father did the beer flight and that was the best beer EVAH. I had a glass of meade ......my eyes almost crossed. They have wonderful spirits here, you should really check them out.

 

[Jfstorm]

I have to agree with your assesment of turf club. We tried it on a non-park swimming day at Saratoga Springs; and were absolutely blown away by it! Food was great, and we were on DDP to boot. My DS loved playing pool in the waiting / lounge area. The tuna was fabulous, crab cakes were good, and so far, the steak was the best on WDW property. (Including Yachtsman)
The only thing is it is so far away from the other parks that it can be a pain sometimes. Just take a bus to DTD Westside then take the nice walk path to Saratoga Springs.

 

[tiggersmom2]

I have to agree with your assesment of turf club. We tried it on a non-park swimming day at Saratoga Springs; and were absolutely blown away by it! Food was great, and we were on DDP to boot. My DS loved playing pool in the waiting / lounge area. The tuna was fabulous, crab cakes were good, and so far, the steak was the best on WDW property. (Including Yachtsman)
The only thing is it is so far away from the other parks that it can be a pain sometimes. Just take a bus to DTD Westside then take the nice walk path to Saratoga Springs.

Exactly, and this works to our advantage on crowded days. If everyone knew what a jewel it is, I dare say.....it would be booked up for months!

 

[ss9498]

Thanks for the review. My parents are foodies and are coming on the trip. I may have to add the turf club.

BTW, Love me some Anthony Bourdain.

 

[TigerKat]

Thanks sweetie. I KNOW your DS and DN will love Raglan Road, the food is excellent and the atmosphere is incomparable. Oh, I forgot to mention this in my review but my father did the beer flight and that was the best beer EVAH. I had a glass of meade ......my eyes almost crossed. They have wonderful spirits here, you should really check them out.

We'll be going to RR for the fist time next trip and believe it or not we've never ordered a "flight" of any kind. DH would love the beer flight here, is it offered on the drink menu or do you have to ask for it?

 

[tiggersmom2]

Thanks for the review. My parents and are coming on the trip. I may have to add the turf club.

BTW, Love me some Anthony Bourdain.

Oh YEAH!!! I thought of him everytime I ordered an alcoholic drink....

 

[tiggersmom2]

We'll be going to RR for the fist time next trip and believe it or not we've never ordered a "flight" of any kind. DH would love the beer flight here, is it offered on the drink menu or do you have to ask for it?

Yes, it is on the drink menu. I recommend trying them both (there are 2 flights with 4 different beers on each). The Guiness was even smooth and lovely! The Boddington's was my favorite....until I tried that Meade. Raglan Road really does have the best beer on property.

I take my alcohol very seriously and would not say this lightly.