This was our (my wife and I) second trip to WDW; the first one being our Honeymoon in 2008. The first trip we paid OOP for everything and mostly did CS meaning chicken breast nuggets everywhere! They’re so good!
This time around we did the Deluxe Dining Plan. It was overkill! Even with all the walking, our appetites weren’t enough to take full advantage. We struggled to use all the credits. We also aren’t dessert people. We really just wanted to do a few signature restaurants and take advantage of having the appetizers. Would we do it again? No, we’d probably do the regular dining plan next time.
Some things you should know: I’m what I call “moderately lactose intolerant”. Essentially lactose intolerance varies person to person. For me, I cannot do milk, cream, cheese. But I can do butter in moderation. It’s kind of a PITA (pain in the ****) but Disney as we all know, does an excellent job accommodating folks like me. I wish I could say the same about Top Chef Fabio Viviani but that is a different story. I’ll share if anyone truly wants to hear. Nothing spectacular – basically me losing every ounce of respect I had for the guy after eating at his restaurant.
Also, my wife is allergic to Salmon. But that is a lot easier to avoid than dairy products.
On to the reviews… sans photos for the most part since I always forget to snap pics of food because when I eat, that is what is on my mind.
Day 1, February 28, 2011:
- Yak & Yeti – We decided to try Y&Y based off reviews and suggestions here on the DIS. I’m glad we listened to you guys! After riding EE twice in a row, we headed to Y&Y where we were seated promptly. Our waiter Stephen was great. Very friendly and attentive.
For appetizers my wife ordered the seared Ahi Tuna and I ordered the pot stickers. We both really enjoyed our respective dishes. I’m not a huge tuna fan so I didn’t try it. She agreed with me that the pot stickers were very good; chewy with a bit of crunch and a nice sweet and spicy dipping sauce.
My wife also ordered a drink, the Big Bamboo. It was very fruity and girly and she loved it. A nice break from our usual: craft beer.
For entrees she ordered the crispy Mahi Mahi and I ordered the Chicken Lo Mein. While she said her’s was disappointing and a little dry, she still enjoyed it but probably wouldn’t order it again. We probably could have shared my lo mein and been fine. The chicken was cooked nicely and the dish wasn’t overpowered with garlic. I felt bad tossing away a lot of it but we didn’t have a fridge to keep leftovers.
Would I eat there again? Yes!
Sorry, took pics after eating
- Hooptie Doo Review – We thought this would be a great way to burn 2 TS credits and hey, all you can eat? How about yes?
Sadly, we were let down a little. Hooptie Doo is great for families with kids. The food wasn’t terrible by any means and all you can drink was nice. It may have been because we did it our first night of the trip or maybe because we don’t have kids but it was loooooong! I personally thought it was a bit boring. I thought the ribs were ok but over sauced. I can’t comment on the cornbread because I didn’t have any and the salad was straight out of a bag. The chicken was just ok. It was a bit too greasy, even for fried chicken. I’d say the highlight of the meal were the roasted potatoes the chef made special for me. They were really good. So points there, for sure.
Would I do it again? No.
Day 2, March 11, 2011
- Hollywood Brown Derby – She ordered the Tuna tartar in that fancy cup with the blue stuff on the bottom. I had the crab cake. Both were excellent. I really liked the slaw under the crab cake and the remoulade was a bit spicy for my taste but I integrated small bits of it and it really added some great layers of flavor.
For entrees she ordered duck two ways and I had the pork chop. She wasn’t the biggest fan of the duck but wanted to try it since when do we really have duck? Never! My pork chop was good but not memorable. It was cooked nicely.
Would I eat there again? Yes – but I’d order a different entrée and probably try to do dinner. It wasn’t really my type of lunch food.
- Big River Grille and Brewing – If you’re a beer geek like me, you may not like this place. I know, weird, right? See, it suffers from chain brewpub syndrome. The range of styles on paper is a great selection to introduce to Disney folks who may not be into craft beer. A nice stepping stone from fizzy yellow wussy beer into a flavor filled world of craft beer.
Here is why you may not like it if you’re a beer geek: like I said, on paper it looks great- the execution was not. I found the beers to be bland and lacking flavor. I found that were not great representations of each style. I cannot fault them for promoting the world of craft beer. I’m glad there is such a thing at Disney. I just wish the beer was better. Dogfish Head and Russian River started out as brewpubs and are now some of the best beers in the world. You don’t have to make bad beer!!
Ok, so we split a sampler before our dinner at Kouzzina. Honestly, we didn’t finish it. I couldn’t. To top it off, the bartender really could have cared less that we were there. Not the best service of the trip.
- Kouzzina – Kouzzina was…I dunno… not my favorite. People rave about it. I wanted to like it but I just didn’t.
I had the Avgolemono - Traditional Egg-lemon Soup with Chicken and Rice. It just didn’t jive with my taste buds and I try to be pretty open to different things.
I don’t recall what appetizer my wife had.
As far as entrees go she ordered the whole fish and I had the pasta with lamb ragu. She really enjoyed the fish and said it was cooked very nicely. I didn’t enjoy my entrée a whole lot.
Dessert- this is where it was good. She ordered the baklava and I had the loukoumades (doughnuts). Man! Both were great! The doughnuts had a raspberry sauce that was excellent!
Would I eat here again? No, unless I could order just the dessert.
Day 3 March 2, 2011
- Cosmic Ray’s – we just did a quick CS lunch since we knew we would be doing CA Grill that night.
She ordered a bacon cheeseburger and the whole staff sang happy birthday to her since she was wearing her button. I was at the next station over cracking up. I just ordered my favorite chicken breast nuggets. My only complaint was the lack of sweet and sour sauce. I remember having it in 2008 but couldn’t find it at Ray’s
- California Grill – WOW! What a meal! We had an ADR for 5:30 and we got there a bit early and decided to hang out at the bar for a drink. I had an old fashioned and my wife had a martini or some sort that was purple and topped off with champagne. Both were very nice.
We sat at the chef’s counter because we love to do that. When we lived in CA and splurged on Napa Rose at DLR we always sat at the chef’s counter and ordered the tasting menu. It was so much fun interacting with the chefs and cooks and having like 8 surprise courses. I was a little disappointed that they didn’t offer a tasting menu at CA Grill but likely due to the dining plan.
For starters, the fresh baked bread and salted butter was awesome! I ate like 2 loaves myself! For appetizers she ordered Yellow Fin 3 ways and really enjoyed it. I had a California Roll. It was good with real crab. I don’t recall the wines we had I know I had a white and then a red and one was Tobin James and one was something Soleil.
For entrees we both had the oak fired filet. We agree that it was good. The sauce was a bit too much. It really didn’t need it. But a solid piece of beef.
For dessert she had the bananas and caramel and really enjoyed it. I had some mango sorbet and it was alright. Not a huge mango fan.
After dinner we were just in time to head out to the deck and watch Wishes. It was very cool.
Would I eat here again? Yes! It was a nice, slow paced meal with good service and good food.
Day 4, March 3, 2011
- Teppan Edo – What can I say? It was a nice meal. I always love Teppanyaki. We had a 12:30 ADR and were sat with a family of 4 and another couple who were great to chat with.
For appetizers she ordered what else? Tuna sensation! Lol which she loved BTW. I had the Wafu ribs. I was a little disappointed with mine because they were kept on the grill for a very short amount of time and were kind of cold. But they were tasty and the meat came right off the bone.
For entrees we both had chicken and steak. It was good but I thought a couple of things were odd with the meal compared to when I usually have Teppanyaki. A) no fried rice and B) no carrots. I really look forward to those two things. The noodles were a nice touch, though.
I don’t remember what we had for dessert.
- Kona Café – Originally we had Kona scheduled for lunch the day before and cancelled because we didn’t want to be too full for CA Grill. Also we probably committed a DIS sin for this dinner because we originally had Le Cellier booked at 4:45 and cancelled and did Kona instead. We decided we didn’t want another heavy meal and so early after eating lunch. I know, we’re weird, but also I would have been limited with my non dairy choices at Le Cellier and I get mad when I see others enjoying beer cheese soup and I can’t have any.
So we walked into Kona after relaxing with a cocktail on a hammock at the Poly. Holy cow the bread and honey macadamia butter is good! I would been happy if that was all I had!
I ordered a DFH 60min IPA and my wife ordered a Lapu Lapu! Strong drink!
For appetizers I had the pot stickers which were good but not as good as Y&Y. She had the braised mussels. She just told me to make sure I let you know that they are spicy but really good and that our waiter ignored her water requests. Yeah, the service that night was less than stellar. Homeboy disappeared for long periods of time. I think we were at Kona almost as long as CA Grill.
For our entrees she had the steak. She didn’t find it too special. I had the Pan Asian noodles. I wasn’t a fan of these. The veggies were a little undercooked making the red onions pungent and there weren’t enough noodles in the noodle to veggie ratio.
Dessert was pretty good. She had crème brulee and I had rice dream ice cream. Pretty good.
Would I eat here again? Yes, but I’d order something different and hope for a different waiter.
Day 5, March 4, 2011
- Grand Floridian Café – We decided to hang out at the GF for a bit and were hungry so we went to the GF Café. The food was meh. We both had the strawberry salad for appetizers. She liked it, but she loves all things strawberry. For entrees she had the Roast Beef sandwich and I had the Grand Sandwich sans fromage. Neither of us enjoyed the entrees too much. Mine was too salty and greasy and probably a bad choice on my behalf for having at that point in the day. It just bogged me down.
- Would I eat here again? Nah, I’ll pass.
- Flying Fish – Ok, so we originally had an ADR at Yachtsman. My wife’s feet had some serious blisters and even with all the precautions she took and minor surgeries and moleskin, she just didn’t want to walk anymore than necessary (Yacht Club’s dock was closed). Also, the ADR was pretty early. We gave Yachtsman the axe and decided to see if we could walk into Flying Fish.
We got lucky and were able to walk right in and get a seat at the counter. It was really cool.
This was probably food wise, the best meal of the trip.
For appetizers she ordered the artisanal cheese plate and wine pairing. While she enjoyed it, she thought it should have been for dessert, especially with the recommended wines being ports and sherry. The chef made me a dairy free version of the steamed mussels with pesto. I’ve never had mussels before and I’m not a huge shellfish person (all the crab mentioned above is also rare for me to eat). But as I said, I try to be open to new foods. I actually liked it a lot! I had a nice white wine with it (I’m a beer geek, I know nothing about wine). They toasted some sourdough bread on the wood grill and I mopped up the pesto with it. Delicious!
For our entrees she had the Surf and Surf which featured Tilapia from the Land Pavilion and some shrimp. I had the Char Crusted NY Strip and some red wine. Man, this was a great steak. My wife kept stealing bites of mine! Once again, a really accommodating chef and a wonderful meal. Oh, yeah! Dessert! They brought my wife a crème brulee for her birthday on top of the banana Napoleon she ordered. She really loved them both, especially the Napoleon. I had a trio of sorbet which included one that was like a berry and basil and very unique but refreshing.
Would I eat here again? Definitely! It will now be a tradition.
Some random things I should throw in because I don’t remember the order in which we consumed them:
- Grand Marnier slushy – very good!
- Key Lime martini at Territory Lounge (Wilderness Lodge) – little taste of heaven according to my wife.
- Yuengling at Territory Lounge – Wish the distributed out here.
- Chocolate croissant from Boulangerie Patisserie – was good, not great
- Chocolate croissant from Main Street Bakery – much better than Epcot
- Apple Turnover from Main Street Bakery – good
- Tie Dye Cheesecake – apparently it was disgusting
- Kona French press coffee – excellent!
- Johnnie Walker flight at Rose and Crown
Pineapple Margarita at La Cava del Tequila
All in all it was a good trip!
This time around we did the Deluxe Dining Plan. It was overkill! Even with all the walking, our appetites weren’t enough to take full advantage. We struggled to use all the credits. We also aren’t dessert people. We really just wanted to do a few signature restaurants and take advantage of having the appetizers. Would we do it again? No, we’d probably do the regular dining plan next time.
Some things you should know: I’m what I call “moderately lactose intolerant”. Essentially lactose intolerance varies person to person. For me, I cannot do milk, cream, cheese. But I can do butter in moderation. It’s kind of a PITA (pain in the ****) but Disney as we all know, does an excellent job accommodating folks like me. I wish I could say the same about Top Chef Fabio Viviani but that is a different story. I’ll share if anyone truly wants to hear. Nothing spectacular – basically me losing every ounce of respect I had for the guy after eating at his restaurant.
Also, my wife is allergic to Salmon. But that is a lot easier to avoid than dairy products.
On to the reviews… sans photos for the most part since I always forget to snap pics of food because when I eat, that is what is on my mind.
Day 1, February 28, 2011:
- Yak & Yeti – We decided to try Y&Y based off reviews and suggestions here on the DIS. I’m glad we listened to you guys! After riding EE twice in a row, we headed to Y&Y where we were seated promptly. Our waiter Stephen was great. Very friendly and attentive.
For appetizers my wife ordered the seared Ahi Tuna and I ordered the pot stickers. We both really enjoyed our respective dishes. I’m not a huge tuna fan so I didn’t try it. She agreed with me that the pot stickers were very good; chewy with a bit of crunch and a nice sweet and spicy dipping sauce.
My wife also ordered a drink, the Big Bamboo. It was very fruity and girly and she loved it. A nice break from our usual: craft beer.
For entrees she ordered the crispy Mahi Mahi and I ordered the Chicken Lo Mein. While she said her’s was disappointing and a little dry, she still enjoyed it but probably wouldn’t order it again. We probably could have shared my lo mein and been fine. The chicken was cooked nicely and the dish wasn’t overpowered with garlic. I felt bad tossing away a lot of it but we didn’t have a fridge to keep leftovers.
Would I eat there again? Yes!
Sorry, took pics after eating
- Hooptie Doo Review – We thought this would be a great way to burn 2 TS credits and hey, all you can eat? How about yes?
Sadly, we were let down a little. Hooptie Doo is great for families with kids. The food wasn’t terrible by any means and all you can drink was nice. It may have been because we did it our first night of the trip or maybe because we don’t have kids but it was loooooong! I personally thought it was a bit boring. I thought the ribs were ok but over sauced. I can’t comment on the cornbread because I didn’t have any and the salad was straight out of a bag. The chicken was just ok. It was a bit too greasy, even for fried chicken. I’d say the highlight of the meal were the roasted potatoes the chef made special for me. They were really good. So points there, for sure.
Would I do it again? No.
Day 2, March 11, 2011
- Hollywood Brown Derby – She ordered the Tuna tartar in that fancy cup with the blue stuff on the bottom. I had the crab cake. Both were excellent. I really liked the slaw under the crab cake and the remoulade was a bit spicy for my taste but I integrated small bits of it and it really added some great layers of flavor.
For entrees she ordered duck two ways and I had the pork chop. She wasn’t the biggest fan of the duck but wanted to try it since when do we really have duck? Never! My pork chop was good but not memorable. It was cooked nicely.
Would I eat there again? Yes – but I’d order a different entrée and probably try to do dinner. It wasn’t really my type of lunch food.
- Big River Grille and Brewing – If you’re a beer geek like me, you may not like this place. I know, weird, right? See, it suffers from chain brewpub syndrome. The range of styles on paper is a great selection to introduce to Disney folks who may not be into craft beer. A nice stepping stone from fizzy yellow wussy beer into a flavor filled world of craft beer.
Here is why you may not like it if you’re a beer geek: like I said, on paper it looks great- the execution was not. I found the beers to be bland and lacking flavor. I found that were not great representations of each style. I cannot fault them for promoting the world of craft beer. I’m glad there is such a thing at Disney. I just wish the beer was better. Dogfish Head and Russian River started out as brewpubs and are now some of the best beers in the world. You don’t have to make bad beer!!
Ok, so we split a sampler before our dinner at Kouzzina. Honestly, we didn’t finish it. I couldn’t. To top it off, the bartender really could have cared less that we were there. Not the best service of the trip.
- Kouzzina – Kouzzina was…I dunno… not my favorite. People rave about it. I wanted to like it but I just didn’t.
I had the Avgolemono - Traditional Egg-lemon Soup with Chicken and Rice. It just didn’t jive with my taste buds and I try to be pretty open to different things.
I don’t recall what appetizer my wife had.
As far as entrees go she ordered the whole fish and I had the pasta with lamb ragu. She really enjoyed the fish and said it was cooked very nicely. I didn’t enjoy my entrée a whole lot.
Dessert- this is where it was good. She ordered the baklava and I had the loukoumades (doughnuts). Man! Both were great! The doughnuts had a raspberry sauce that was excellent!
Would I eat here again? No, unless I could order just the dessert.
Day 3 March 2, 2011
- Cosmic Ray’s – we just did a quick CS lunch since we knew we would be doing CA Grill that night.
She ordered a bacon cheeseburger and the whole staff sang happy birthday to her since she was wearing her button. I was at the next station over cracking up. I just ordered my favorite chicken breast nuggets. My only complaint was the lack of sweet and sour sauce. I remember having it in 2008 but couldn’t find it at Ray’s
- California Grill – WOW! What a meal! We had an ADR for 5:30 and we got there a bit early and decided to hang out at the bar for a drink. I had an old fashioned and my wife had a martini or some sort that was purple and topped off with champagne. Both were very nice.
We sat at the chef’s counter because we love to do that. When we lived in CA and splurged on Napa Rose at DLR we always sat at the chef’s counter and ordered the tasting menu. It was so much fun interacting with the chefs and cooks and having like 8 surprise courses. I was a little disappointed that they didn’t offer a tasting menu at CA Grill but likely due to the dining plan.
For starters, the fresh baked bread and salted butter was awesome! I ate like 2 loaves myself! For appetizers she ordered Yellow Fin 3 ways and really enjoyed it. I had a California Roll. It was good with real crab. I don’t recall the wines we had I know I had a white and then a red and one was Tobin James and one was something Soleil.
For entrees we both had the oak fired filet. We agree that it was good. The sauce was a bit too much. It really didn’t need it. But a solid piece of beef.
For dessert she had the bananas and caramel and really enjoyed it. I had some mango sorbet and it was alright. Not a huge mango fan.
After dinner we were just in time to head out to the deck and watch Wishes. It was very cool.
Would I eat here again? Yes! It was a nice, slow paced meal with good service and good food.
Day 4, March 3, 2011
- Teppan Edo – What can I say? It was a nice meal. I always love Teppanyaki. We had a 12:30 ADR and were sat with a family of 4 and another couple who were great to chat with.
For appetizers she ordered what else? Tuna sensation! Lol which she loved BTW. I had the Wafu ribs. I was a little disappointed with mine because they were kept on the grill for a very short amount of time and were kind of cold. But they were tasty and the meat came right off the bone.
For entrees we both had chicken and steak. It was good but I thought a couple of things were odd with the meal compared to when I usually have Teppanyaki. A) no fried rice and B) no carrots. I really look forward to those two things. The noodles were a nice touch, though.
I don’t remember what we had for dessert.
- Kona Café – Originally we had Kona scheduled for lunch the day before and cancelled because we didn’t want to be too full for CA Grill. Also we probably committed a DIS sin for this dinner because we originally had Le Cellier booked at 4:45 and cancelled and did Kona instead. We decided we didn’t want another heavy meal and so early after eating lunch. I know, we’re weird, but also I would have been limited with my non dairy choices at Le Cellier and I get mad when I see others enjoying beer cheese soup and I can’t have any.
So we walked into Kona after relaxing with a cocktail on a hammock at the Poly. Holy cow the bread and honey macadamia butter is good! I would been happy if that was all I had!
I ordered a DFH 60min IPA and my wife ordered a Lapu Lapu! Strong drink!
For appetizers I had the pot stickers which were good but not as good as Y&Y. She had the braised mussels. She just told me to make sure I let you know that they are spicy but really good and that our waiter ignored her water requests. Yeah, the service that night was less than stellar. Homeboy disappeared for long periods of time. I think we were at Kona almost as long as CA Grill.
For our entrees she had the steak. She didn’t find it too special. I had the Pan Asian noodles. I wasn’t a fan of these. The veggies were a little undercooked making the red onions pungent and there weren’t enough noodles in the noodle to veggie ratio.
Dessert was pretty good. She had crème brulee and I had rice dream ice cream. Pretty good.
Would I eat here again? Yes, but I’d order something different and hope for a different waiter.
Day 5, March 4, 2011
- Grand Floridian Café – We decided to hang out at the GF for a bit and were hungry so we went to the GF Café. The food was meh. We both had the strawberry salad for appetizers. She liked it, but she loves all things strawberry. For entrees she had the Roast Beef sandwich and I had the Grand Sandwich sans fromage. Neither of us enjoyed the entrees too much. Mine was too salty and greasy and probably a bad choice on my behalf for having at that point in the day. It just bogged me down.
- Would I eat here again? Nah, I’ll pass.
- Flying Fish – Ok, so we originally had an ADR at Yachtsman. My wife’s feet had some serious blisters and even with all the precautions she took and minor surgeries and moleskin, she just didn’t want to walk anymore than necessary (Yacht Club’s dock was closed). Also, the ADR was pretty early. We gave Yachtsman the axe and decided to see if we could walk into Flying Fish.
We got lucky and were able to walk right in and get a seat at the counter. It was really cool.
This was probably food wise, the best meal of the trip.
For appetizers she ordered the artisanal cheese plate and wine pairing. While she enjoyed it, she thought it should have been for dessert, especially with the recommended wines being ports and sherry. The chef made me a dairy free version of the steamed mussels with pesto. I’ve never had mussels before and I’m not a huge shellfish person (all the crab mentioned above is also rare for me to eat). But as I said, I try to be open to new foods. I actually liked it a lot! I had a nice white wine with it (I’m a beer geek, I know nothing about wine). They toasted some sourdough bread on the wood grill and I mopped up the pesto with it. Delicious!
For our entrees she had the Surf and Surf which featured Tilapia from the Land Pavilion and some shrimp. I had the Char Crusted NY Strip and some red wine. Man, this was a great steak. My wife kept stealing bites of mine! Once again, a really accommodating chef and a wonderful meal. Oh, yeah! Dessert! They brought my wife a crème brulee for her birthday on top of the banana Napoleon she ordered. She really loved them both, especially the Napoleon. I had a trio of sorbet which included one that was like a berry and basil and very unique but refreshing.
Would I eat here again? Definitely! It will now be a tradition.
Some random things I should throw in because I don’t remember the order in which we consumed them:
- Grand Marnier slushy – very good!
- Key Lime martini at Territory Lounge (Wilderness Lodge) – little taste of heaven according to my wife.
- Yuengling at Territory Lounge – Wish the distributed out here.
- Chocolate croissant from Boulangerie Patisserie – was good, not great
- Chocolate croissant from Main Street Bakery – much better than Epcot
- Apple Turnover from Main Street Bakery – good
- Tie Dye Cheesecake – apparently it was disgusting
- Kona French press coffee – excellent!
- Johnnie Walker flight at Rose and Crown
Pineapple Margarita at La Cava del Tequila
All in all it was a good trip!
The rest of my fsmily enjoyed it though!
