Though my original plan had us returning to AK today (5/10), with an ADR at Yak and Yeti for lunch, Mike and I were pretty beat, and Mom was fine with just hanging out around OKW. Mike and I wandered over to Good's to Go to grab us all some lunch. (sorry, forgot to get pics of this!)
We ordered a soft pretzel and Mickey Bar with snack credits, and then 3 burgers (probably relieved I don't have pics of those...) with fries for our lunches. I got 1 chocolate cake and 2 key lime pies for desserts.
The burgers were fine, pretty much standard counter service. The fries were good, still hot even when we got back to the room. The chocolate cake was for Mike, of course. The key lime pie was really, really good - tart, like it's supposed to be, with just the right amount of sweetness. Hear that, Coral Reef? Beaten by counter service... sad. Good pretzel, though extremely salty. Mike's first soft pretzel!
Ok, now on to the real stuff: Jiko! We got our car back just in time to drive to the Lodge, so that made us happy. We checked in a few minutes before our ADR, and we'd just sat down in the bar when our buzzer went off. I was hoping for a table by the window, and almost asked, but I didn't. Instead we were given one of those table by the wall o' birds.
Our server's name was Oscar, and at first he was excellent. We started, of course, with appetizers...
I went for the ostrich schnitzel...
Hhmm. My feelings about this dish are a wee bit mixed. The ostrich was nice and crispy, but overall the dish lacked a bit in flavor. The breading wasn't seasoned at all, as far as I could tell. Of course ostrich is a very rich meat, but still. The lemon caper aioli was lovely, but still very, very lightly seasoned. I actually wanted *gasp!!* salt. Yes, salt. It was fried, what can I say? Fried food makes me want salt.
Mike got the maise and sweet potato tamales...
I was very proud of him! I thought this was a bold choice for him. He liked it very much, though he only ate one to save room for dinner. I have to confess... I honestly can't stand this dish!! I love the flavor, but the texture... awful. Mike gave me a bite, because I just keep tryin, and yep... still hate it!! If it were nice, crunchy corn it would be ok, but as it is, no way! But Mike liked it, and that's what's important.
Mom got the chef's specialty flatbread...
It had artichokes, spinach, bacon, cheese, and some sort of yummy sauce on top. It might as well have had my mom's name written on it: the woman is mad for artichokes. She loved it. She didn't eat it all, also saving for dinner, but she took the rest home.
For our entrees, I ordered the spice-crusted pork...
The pork here was excellent, though a tiny bit spicy for me. That wouldn't have bothered me if I'd had something to eat it with, some sort of starch. But there was nothing. Underneath it there was a sort of ragout with mushrooms, onions and bacon, and then, I kid you not, 1 baby potato cut in half. I was feeling very starch-deprived, and there was nothing to absorb the "oomph" of all that flavor. So great dish... just needed something *else*.
I'll skip Mike for a sec, because his was a bit of a saga, and talk about Mom's... she got the curry shrimp...
She was
with this dish. She *loved* it. It was her favorite entree of the trip. I had a bite, and I had to agree - amazing. It was curried shrimp and veggies (look, artichokes!) served over coconut rice, and all the elements combined to make a truly wonderful dish. Yumyumyum. Wish I'd ordered it!! See, Jiko? Rice. It's a starch.
Ok, back to Mike... he ordered the filet over mac and cheese...
Now as I've mentioned several times, Mike orders his steaks medium well. Every other steak or burger he'd ordered this trip had been perfect. He cut into this one, and it was perfectly... medium. I was about to drool. We waved down Oscar, and Mike asked for it to be cooked more. We waited a while, Mom and I sort of fiddling with our food (rude to eat when Mike has nothing), and at last a runner brings Mike a new steak. He cuts into it, and it's *less* cooked than before. After a while we wave down Oscar again, and he doesn't understand the problem.
"That is medium well," he says. Mike sort of blinks at him. "If we cook it more it will be well done," he says. Mike kind of smiles and says, "Then cook it well done, please." He looks a little affronted, but he whisks it away to cook it more. Poor Mike still has no food, and we have no bread, but I managed to wave down Oscar to get us some bread... which I didn't take a picture of, btw.
Finally Mike gets a third steak, and it's right. But. His first two steaks were medium. They were perfect for *me*. When the runner put down his first steak, she actually said, "Filet, rare." Um. Anyway... He said it was good, but not as good as Yachtsman. I think the whole problem rather put him off Jiko.
Ok, on to dessert... I ordered the pistachio creme brulee...
I've had this before, but only as part of a dessert sampler. As a whole big serving like this, it was just too much pistachio flavor for me. I ate about half of it, and Mom ate the other half. It was creamy, with a nice crunchy top - two musts for creme brulee - but the pistachio taste was much stronger than I remembered.
Mike ordered the vanilla mousse...
He said it was very light, which at the time I took as a compliment. Later he clarified to mean it was *too* light, as in it didn't have enough vanilla flavor for him. I had a bite and quite liked it. I don't like things to have an overwhelming vanilla taste, and I found it rather refreshing after my spicy entree.
Mom had the tanzanian chocolate cheesecake with lavender ice cream...
Mom was definitely the winner all around tonight. This dessert was fantastic. If you stuck your spoon through the whole thing and got a bite of ice cream, cookie, and cake, it was like a flavor party in your mouth.
The cake was dense and chocolatey, and the ice cream was light and flowery, with the nice crunchy cookie... sooo delicious!
Oh! I almost forgot. Before dessert we all ordered tea...
Super cute, huh?
We didn't realize that coffee (or tea, I guess) was included with the DxDDP, and no server chose to tell us, either. We wondered why we weren't charged for our tea, but we figured Oscar just worked some sort of magic to make up for the filet thing and for his sudden onset of Disappearing Server Syndrome. Anyway, I got green jasmine, Mom got chai, and Mike got black thunder. We all enjoyed them, though green jasmine isn't really meant for a press pot; it was a tiny bit bitter. I added honey to mine, and Mom added a raw sugar cube. Mike took his black, though I suggested he ask Oscar for milk. He said he was fine.
Overall: We'll return to Jiko, though probably not next trip. Mike was a bit bothered by the steak incident, and Oscar's reaction to it. Mom *loved* her meal, so she'd go back tomorrow!