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Early June 2012 Dining Experiences
Here are some quick thoughts and recollections about our meals during late May and the first couple weeks of June. We are fairly frequent visitors with an 8-year-old boy and a four-year-old girl, and we were occasionally joined by my mother-in-law and aunt, and a few times we had other friends as well.
Ohana
We have had breakfast and dinner here several times, this trip we had s a supper. We started on rough note somehow, our beeper didn't work and after waiting half an hour we checked and they said oh, your table is ready right now. I guess they had given our table to another family because the hostess who was leading us got a little stunned when she saw a family already there at the table and she left us hanging out in the middle of the restaurant for five minutes or so while she went somewhere to talk to someone to figure it out. But then we were seated and the pace picked up quickly. Our cousins whisked us right through, and honestly it felt pretty rushed. I guess the flip side is having to wait for your cousin to bring a skewer around we had none of that on this trip. It felt a little like an assembly line coconuts were raced, shrimp were dipped in peanut sauce. The food was just as expected and fine. The pace was a little too brisk though.
Chef Mickey's breakfast
Check in was smooth, they beeped us before we got through the photo line so thankfully we got to skip that. Our server was good. The food was fine. I had smoked salmon and cream cheese bagel which is my favorite character breakfast thing, and the kids were able to find waffles and eggs and so on. The characters were a little too much on the drive by side (See you Goofy, glad you could wave on the way by our table, pal), but overall this was fine and just what you expect.
Artist's Point
My wife and I were married at wdw in 2000 and honeymooned in the lodge, and we've returned here for an anniversary dinner every year since. So this was my 13th go at the cedar-planked copper river salmon. The truth is, some years have been up and some years have been more down, and I'd put this year on the down side. Some things were traditional and good as ever the smoky portobello soup, the bread (this year's twist on the bread was a walnut /olive oil pesto that I loved). The current chef was previously at the corral reef, and I hate to say it but I think brought the coral reef's tendency to gaum things up a little too much. The salmon was served with caviar that was fine, it was delicious and complimented the salmon and fingerling potatoes and some sort of green bean. Should have stopped there. But there were also some kalamata olives thrown in the mix, and to me they were just a distraction, and some sort of eggplant based puree of a sauce that to me just didn't add anything. Unfortunately the fish itself was overcooked and dry, which is a shame really, and let's just say the serving portion wasn't as generous as I'd been treated to in years past. Melissa had the buffalo that had the flavor of tasteless pot roast. She was sad not to have the option of sweet potato hazelnut graten.The kids love this place, and it met all their expectations my son loves the salmon and had it cleaned off his plate before I looked over at him. My daughter likes the pasta and cheese and it was fine for her. They are both big fans of the desert paint a puzzle, and they look forward to it and really enjoyed it. Melissa had the cobbler and I had a french press of coffee which was very good.
I got in to the mood for a burger, so one morning we walked up to beaches and cream at 11:00, but they already had an hour wait and I wasn't that in the mood for a burger. So the next day we went to:
Sci-Fi Drive In
I had a really good $15 cheeseburger and $7 beer. The kids enjoyed it. The AC was a nice break from star wars weekend. We enjoyed our friends' company in the back of the car. The service was, well, non intrusive let's say.
The Chinese place that delivers to beach club
I don't know what it is called, but they give you the number if you call the front desk. It was fine. If you live in DC or New York you will be disappointed, but if you have modest expectations and are tired and just want something easy it will get you through. I had the general's chicken and it was mostly harmless.
Cape May Cafe Breakfast
Down to three characters now, and those three seemed to be in a hurry. The food was fine. It seemed like they had cut out the pastry area where you walk in. They still had smoked salmon and cream cheese so I was OK, and they still had micky waffles and scrambled eggs and paper thin Disney bacon. Oh, they had some kind of cheese grit thing that was good.
Oh, our last two trips all the breakfast buffets have had glaze on the chocolate croissants, and I'm not a fan of it, I'd rather have it without the sugar glaze.
Hollywood and Dine Breakfast
There was some confusion here, it kind of bugged me. The hostess that seated us said the breakfast was 24.99, but it turned out to be 28.99 it turns out the price went up the day before we came. Which sort of bugged me because there are no signs or anything saying what the price is, and when we made the reservation a couple of days before it was 24.99. The 12 bucks doesn't bother me as much as the idea of it you have to put a credit card down for the reservation and they would charge you if you canceled that morning when you got there and they had jacked the price on it. What bugged me was that the rationale was that it was summer season and that crowds would be heavier and so they had to charge more because there would need more food for larger crowds. That isn't a logical explanation. First of all, that day was no more crowded than other star wars weekends days. But moreover, the restaurant capacity doesn't change and so they don't need to charge more for handling more people. And besides, if somehow they did have more people, they would have more people paying. That was a really poor explanation. What they mean is more people are here so we can raise the price and there will be enough people willing to pay it. I think they are gouging to charge more in summer to pay for free dining to get people to come during off season. It seems to me it would cost more to run the place with it underutilized than with it full. Anyway, the characters were June, Jake, Osso, and Manny. The kids had fun. No smoked salmon. No seasonal addition to the buffet food to account for the price increase, that's for sure. Our server was great though.
Another thing I just realized just now. I talked to the manager after we paid the bill, and I told her I wasn't asking for the 12 bucks or anything just that it rubbed me wrong that the price went up yesterday and there was no sign or anything that said it. This is what I just realized - she was so used to one-shot customers that she couldn't understand how we'd know what was yesterday or the day before. This was the fourth weekend of star wars, so we'd been to the studios the last four weekends. She asked me "well, how do you know what the price was a couple of days ago?" and questions like that. She was really nice, don't get me wrong. We had literally made the reservation the day before - we had gotten tired of trying to find something to do between 7:30 opening and things starting after 9 so we were trying to find away to fill in that time. Which it did.
Tony's Town Square - lunch
I had the eggplant and I liked it. Everyone else had spaghetti and meatball and everyone liked it fine. The only downside was we were seated inside (it was hot) and we were too close to the server's station, and we heard way to much about how late they had to stay last night and who wasn't going to do that again and so on.
Chef's des France- lunch
Holden really likes it here. It is his favorite Epcot place, and he likes Remy and he loves the children's fish dish. I had the burger and fries which is what I usually get. It was pretty good. A couple of times I've had a really great burger here, and once an only so-so burger here, this one was pretty good. The fries were good. So another good $15 burger. I fell in love with their iced tea and their lemon ade. Melissa had the lobster bisque which was good this time and the ham and cheese sandwich which was good. MH had chicken fingers and pasta and liked both.
The Land Food Court
We stopped here one day and got the kid's a chicken leg children's meal and a macaroni and cheese kid's meal which they basically split and they enjoyed both.
ABC Commissary
Melissa and her Aunt and the kids went down there one night. I had a sausage roll at that stand there near Echo lake and American idol it was sort of good. I've never had one they take a roll and stab a hole in it and stick a sausage up the hole. Seriously.
Studio Catering Co,
we got the children meals here one day and enjoyed the coke zero machine.
Backlot Express
I had a buffalo chicken sandwich here one day, it was mostly harmless. It wasn't a bad fried chicken sandwich or anything, there just wasn't much buffalo about it. MH had an uncrustable which she liked.
Pecos Bill's
About what you would expect. Everybody had burgers, except for me. In a moment of temporary insanity I just couldn't say I wanted a burger and somehow I ordered the pork sandwich. I knew it wouldn't be good bbq, but it was worse than I thought it would be. Don't do it.
Counter Service in Mexico
Cantina San Angel? I don't know, there are like three places here now. This was the counter service outside. Melissa had the chicken tacos, she's had them a couple times before and is a fan. They probably aren't worth the price but they are good. The last couple of times I had gotten the beef tacos which I like, but I got a wild hair and decided I wasn't that hungry and would just get the chips and guacamole. This was a mistake. Don't make it. It is pre-fab, preservative yucky tasting goo full of green food coloring.
It didn't really satisfy our Mexican jones, which led us the next day to
Chevy's (crossroads shopping center).
Chevys is more fresh-mex than tex-mex' so don't come here if you are looking for stick-to-your-ribs-mamacita-soul-food. But the salsa and guacamole are good! Melissa had fajitas and I had some sort of south west salad that was fine. Holden had a taco and half his mom's fajita, MH had I think chicken fingers she wasn't sharing that Mexican jones.
Speaking of off-property-
Miller's Ale House (four corners).
Friendly service, low prices, decent quality pub grub, good serving sizes. After a few days of Disney dining these things are shocking. I had the 4.99 fish and chips lunch special and the 4.95 pint of Guinness and the 3.95 second pint of Guinness. They have a great kid's menu, and MH really likes the fried shrimp here.
Gator's dockside (Cagan Crossing)
Melissa and I shared the buffalo shrimp which was good, and I had an oyster poboy which was OK. The bread was good, and the oysters were fried well they were a little on the skimpy side for how I like a poboy and the sauce wasn't my favorite. But it was pretty good. They don't have as good a beer selection here as at Miller's. Overall, for central florida bar food I'd go with Miller's.
We stayed three nights at hard rock hotel.
The Kitchen (hard rock hotel).
This was the best dining of the trip. The kids and our friend's kids did the kids cook make a pizza thing and it was great. They got a ton of special attention and the castmembers at the kitchen did such an amazing job with them they got to make the pizzas how they wanted and then paraade back to the wood fire oven. Super fun for the kids. I had the burger which was the best $18 burger of the trip. Margaret had the meatloaf which was apparently very good and was huge serving size. Melissa had the chicken also a huger serving size and also very good. The potatos were amazingly good,. Bobby and Gina split some sort of steak taco-like something something and something else, they seemed happy about it. Really great service, really good food. I know it is unfair to compare universal to disney because Disney is so much bigger and everything, but it is a shame that Disney can't have a more relaxed dining atmosphere somewhere that you don't feel rushed, the food is great, and there are great activities for the kids without a mob.
The Three Brooksticks (breakfast)
This is kind of a weird set up. You get tickets for this at your hotel, but apparently they take walk up to, maybe, who knows. Nobody really seems to know. Then you pick one of several choices. We had a party of 9, most chose either the American breakfast which came with things like bacon, eggs, sasuage links, potatoes, or a pancake breakfast which had pancakes, bacon, sausage. The bacon was so good after that crappy disney bacon. I had the English breakfast which is a little different than the American you trade bacon for ham, and add beans (which were good) and some sort of black sausage, which was OK but not my favorite. Altogether I liked it. So you go up in one line and tell them what you want and give them your tickets, then you go to another line and get a tray of food, and then a wizard shows you to a table. It's sort of confusing to get started but once you get to your table it is fine.
Louie's Italian place (Universal)
OK, the thing about universal's fast food is that they have like three different variations the burger place, the Italian place, the chicken place. I had had the fantastic four cafe last year, which is an "Italian place" and it wasn't so great, so I figured that this Italian place would be the same. You know, theme park fast food that isn't so great. The thing is, this one is better. The pizza was like actual pizza. I had a meatball sub it was good if I'd been served it at a non-theme park quick casual place I'd have been fine with it. I liked it. It was the best theme-park fast food meal of the trip by far.
Mel's Drive in (Universal)
Theme park burger that reminded me of a burger king taste. Not good but not bad. The kids had chicken fingers and they were typical chicken fingers.
International Food and Film Festival (Universal)
This one isn't my favorite. I had a chicken parm sandwhich, it was OK but not really that good. Theme park food. Holden had pepper steak - about what you would expect from a mall food court "chinese" place.
I'm probably missing some but that is what I can remember right now. We had take pizza delivery and made supper in our room twice and picniced in the parks one day.
Here are some quick thoughts and recollections about our meals during late May and the first couple weeks of June. We are fairly frequent visitors with an 8-year-old boy and a four-year-old girl, and we were occasionally joined by my mother-in-law and aunt, and a few times we had other friends as well.
Ohana
We have had breakfast and dinner here several times, this trip we had s a supper. We started on rough note somehow, our beeper didn't work and after waiting half an hour we checked and they said oh, your table is ready right now. I guess they had given our table to another family because the hostess who was leading us got a little stunned when she saw a family already there at the table and she left us hanging out in the middle of the restaurant for five minutes or so while she went somewhere to talk to someone to figure it out. But then we were seated and the pace picked up quickly. Our cousins whisked us right through, and honestly it felt pretty rushed. I guess the flip side is having to wait for your cousin to bring a skewer around we had none of that on this trip. It felt a little like an assembly line coconuts were raced, shrimp were dipped in peanut sauce. The food was just as expected and fine. The pace was a little too brisk though.
Chef Mickey's breakfast
Check in was smooth, they beeped us before we got through the photo line so thankfully we got to skip that. Our server was good. The food was fine. I had smoked salmon and cream cheese bagel which is my favorite character breakfast thing, and the kids were able to find waffles and eggs and so on. The characters were a little too much on the drive by side (See you Goofy, glad you could wave on the way by our table, pal), but overall this was fine and just what you expect.
Artist's Point
My wife and I were married at wdw in 2000 and honeymooned in the lodge, and we've returned here for an anniversary dinner every year since. So this was my 13th go at the cedar-planked copper river salmon. The truth is, some years have been up and some years have been more down, and I'd put this year on the down side. Some things were traditional and good as ever the smoky portobello soup, the bread (this year's twist on the bread was a walnut /olive oil pesto that I loved). The current chef was previously at the corral reef, and I hate to say it but I think brought the coral reef's tendency to gaum things up a little too much. The salmon was served with caviar that was fine, it was delicious and complimented the salmon and fingerling potatoes and some sort of green bean. Should have stopped there. But there were also some kalamata olives thrown in the mix, and to me they were just a distraction, and some sort of eggplant based puree of a sauce that to me just didn't add anything. Unfortunately the fish itself was overcooked and dry, which is a shame really, and let's just say the serving portion wasn't as generous as I'd been treated to in years past. Melissa had the buffalo that had the flavor of tasteless pot roast. She was sad not to have the option of sweet potato hazelnut graten.The kids love this place, and it met all their expectations my son loves the salmon and had it cleaned off his plate before I looked over at him. My daughter likes the pasta and cheese and it was fine for her. They are both big fans of the desert paint a puzzle, and they look forward to it and really enjoyed it. Melissa had the cobbler and I had a french press of coffee which was very good.
I got in to the mood for a burger, so one morning we walked up to beaches and cream at 11:00, but they already had an hour wait and I wasn't that in the mood for a burger. So the next day we went to:
Sci-Fi Drive In
I had a really good $15 cheeseburger and $7 beer. The kids enjoyed it. The AC was a nice break from star wars weekend. We enjoyed our friends' company in the back of the car. The service was, well, non intrusive let's say.
The Chinese place that delivers to beach club
I don't know what it is called, but they give you the number if you call the front desk. It was fine. If you live in DC or New York you will be disappointed, but if you have modest expectations and are tired and just want something easy it will get you through. I had the general's chicken and it was mostly harmless.
Cape May Cafe Breakfast
Down to three characters now, and those three seemed to be in a hurry. The food was fine. It seemed like they had cut out the pastry area where you walk in. They still had smoked salmon and cream cheese so I was OK, and they still had micky waffles and scrambled eggs and paper thin Disney bacon. Oh, they had some kind of cheese grit thing that was good.
Oh, our last two trips all the breakfast buffets have had glaze on the chocolate croissants, and I'm not a fan of it, I'd rather have it without the sugar glaze.
Hollywood and Dine Breakfast
There was some confusion here, it kind of bugged me. The hostess that seated us said the breakfast was 24.99, but it turned out to be 28.99 it turns out the price went up the day before we came. Which sort of bugged me because there are no signs or anything saying what the price is, and when we made the reservation a couple of days before it was 24.99. The 12 bucks doesn't bother me as much as the idea of it you have to put a credit card down for the reservation and they would charge you if you canceled that morning when you got there and they had jacked the price on it. What bugged me was that the rationale was that it was summer season and that crowds would be heavier and so they had to charge more because there would need more food for larger crowds. That isn't a logical explanation. First of all, that day was no more crowded than other star wars weekends days. But moreover, the restaurant capacity doesn't change and so they don't need to charge more for handling more people. And besides, if somehow they did have more people, they would have more people paying. That was a really poor explanation. What they mean is more people are here so we can raise the price and there will be enough people willing to pay it. I think they are gouging to charge more in summer to pay for free dining to get people to come during off season. It seems to me it would cost more to run the place with it underutilized than with it full. Anyway, the characters were June, Jake, Osso, and Manny. The kids had fun. No smoked salmon. No seasonal addition to the buffet food to account for the price increase, that's for sure. Our server was great though.
Another thing I just realized just now. I talked to the manager after we paid the bill, and I told her I wasn't asking for the 12 bucks or anything just that it rubbed me wrong that the price went up yesterday and there was no sign or anything that said it. This is what I just realized - she was so used to one-shot customers that she couldn't understand how we'd know what was yesterday or the day before. This was the fourth weekend of star wars, so we'd been to the studios the last four weekends. She asked me "well, how do you know what the price was a couple of days ago?" and questions like that. She was really nice, don't get me wrong. We had literally made the reservation the day before - we had gotten tired of trying to find something to do between 7:30 opening and things starting after 9 so we were trying to find away to fill in that time. Which it did.
Tony's Town Square - lunch
I had the eggplant and I liked it. Everyone else had spaghetti and meatball and everyone liked it fine. The only downside was we were seated inside (it was hot) and we were too close to the server's station, and we heard way to much about how late they had to stay last night and who wasn't going to do that again and so on.
Chef's des France- lunch
Holden really likes it here. It is his favorite Epcot place, and he likes Remy and he loves the children's fish dish. I had the burger and fries which is what I usually get. It was pretty good. A couple of times I've had a really great burger here, and once an only so-so burger here, this one was pretty good. The fries were good. So another good $15 burger. I fell in love with their iced tea and their lemon ade. Melissa had the lobster bisque which was good this time and the ham and cheese sandwich which was good. MH had chicken fingers and pasta and liked both.
The Land Food Court
We stopped here one day and got the kid's a chicken leg children's meal and a macaroni and cheese kid's meal which they basically split and they enjoyed both.
ABC Commissary
Melissa and her Aunt and the kids went down there one night. I had a sausage roll at that stand there near Echo lake and American idol it was sort of good. I've never had one they take a roll and stab a hole in it and stick a sausage up the hole. Seriously.
Studio Catering Co,
we got the children meals here one day and enjoyed the coke zero machine.
Backlot Express
I had a buffalo chicken sandwich here one day, it was mostly harmless. It wasn't a bad fried chicken sandwich or anything, there just wasn't much buffalo about it. MH had an uncrustable which she liked.
Pecos Bill's
About what you would expect. Everybody had burgers, except for me. In a moment of temporary insanity I just couldn't say I wanted a burger and somehow I ordered the pork sandwich. I knew it wouldn't be good bbq, but it was worse than I thought it would be. Don't do it.
Counter Service in Mexico
Cantina San Angel? I don't know, there are like three places here now. This was the counter service outside. Melissa had the chicken tacos, she's had them a couple times before and is a fan. They probably aren't worth the price but they are good. The last couple of times I had gotten the beef tacos which I like, but I got a wild hair and decided I wasn't that hungry and would just get the chips and guacamole. This was a mistake. Don't make it. It is pre-fab, preservative yucky tasting goo full of green food coloring.
It didn't really satisfy our Mexican jones, which led us the next day to
Chevy's (crossroads shopping center).
Chevys is more fresh-mex than tex-mex' so don't come here if you are looking for stick-to-your-ribs-mamacita-soul-food. But the salsa and guacamole are good! Melissa had fajitas and I had some sort of south west salad that was fine. Holden had a taco and half his mom's fajita, MH had I think chicken fingers she wasn't sharing that Mexican jones.
Speaking of off-property-
Miller's Ale House (four corners).
Friendly service, low prices, decent quality pub grub, good serving sizes. After a few days of Disney dining these things are shocking. I had the 4.99 fish and chips lunch special and the 4.95 pint of Guinness and the 3.95 second pint of Guinness. They have a great kid's menu, and MH really likes the fried shrimp here.
Gator's dockside (Cagan Crossing)
Melissa and I shared the buffalo shrimp which was good, and I had an oyster poboy which was OK. The bread was good, and the oysters were fried well they were a little on the skimpy side for how I like a poboy and the sauce wasn't my favorite. But it was pretty good. They don't have as good a beer selection here as at Miller's. Overall, for central florida bar food I'd go with Miller's.
We stayed three nights at hard rock hotel.
The Kitchen (hard rock hotel).
This was the best dining of the trip. The kids and our friend's kids did the kids cook make a pizza thing and it was great. They got a ton of special attention and the castmembers at the kitchen did such an amazing job with them they got to make the pizzas how they wanted and then paraade back to the wood fire oven. Super fun for the kids. I had the burger which was the best $18 burger of the trip. Margaret had the meatloaf which was apparently very good and was huge serving size. Melissa had the chicken also a huger serving size and also very good. The potatos were amazingly good,. Bobby and Gina split some sort of steak taco-like something something and something else, they seemed happy about it. Really great service, really good food. I know it is unfair to compare universal to disney because Disney is so much bigger and everything, but it is a shame that Disney can't have a more relaxed dining atmosphere somewhere that you don't feel rushed, the food is great, and there are great activities for the kids without a mob.
The Three Brooksticks (breakfast)
This is kind of a weird set up. You get tickets for this at your hotel, but apparently they take walk up to, maybe, who knows. Nobody really seems to know. Then you pick one of several choices. We had a party of 9, most chose either the American breakfast which came with things like bacon, eggs, sasuage links, potatoes, or a pancake breakfast which had pancakes, bacon, sausage. The bacon was so good after that crappy disney bacon. I had the English breakfast which is a little different than the American you trade bacon for ham, and add beans (which were good) and some sort of black sausage, which was OK but not my favorite. Altogether I liked it. So you go up in one line and tell them what you want and give them your tickets, then you go to another line and get a tray of food, and then a wizard shows you to a table. It's sort of confusing to get started but once you get to your table it is fine.
Louie's Italian place (Universal)
OK, the thing about universal's fast food is that they have like three different variations the burger place, the Italian place, the chicken place. I had had the fantastic four cafe last year, which is an "Italian place" and it wasn't so great, so I figured that this Italian place would be the same. You know, theme park fast food that isn't so great. The thing is, this one is better. The pizza was like actual pizza. I had a meatball sub it was good if I'd been served it at a non-theme park quick casual place I'd have been fine with it. I liked it. It was the best theme-park fast food meal of the trip by far.
Mel's Drive in (Universal)
Theme park burger that reminded me of a burger king taste. Not good but not bad. The kids had chicken fingers and they were typical chicken fingers.
International Food and Film Festival (Universal)
This one isn't my favorite. I had a chicken parm sandwhich, it was OK but not really that good. Theme park food. Holden had pepper steak - about what you would expect from a mall food court "chinese" place.
I'm probably missing some but that is what I can remember right now. We had take pizza delivery and made supper in our room twice and picniced in the parks one day.
