Five Days of Disney Dining - Sept. 30 - Oct. 4th, 2008

[kittylady1972]

Ok, so we arrive in the practically empty Captain's Grille and we are seated. See the photo of me and the empty tables below. Our waitress Jessica was very friendly. We started dinner out with some fancy drinks, so we had to try the Glowtini - one for each of us.

Now I have to admit, this was a pretty weak martini overall. Did not have much bite to it, but hey it had the cool light-up cube inside and we did get to take those home. For the $9.75 each I think we'd rather have more drink!

Decided against an appetizer to make room for the all-important dessert of course, as we had viewed the tray when we walked into the restaurant.

DH ordered the Chef's Pasta. I believe it contained scallops and shrimp and mussels. Honestly he said this didn't have too much flavor overall. I have to say my husband is VERY Italian (his grandparents were born in Italy) so he's picky about his pasta anyway. He ate it but I don't think he would order it again.

As for me, I'm a seafood lover from Maryland. I love a good salmon. The market fish of the day was Salmon and it was very good. I think the lemon butter sauce really made it, and the sauce with the potatoes was also very good. The potatoes had cabbage in them and had a good flavor. I would definitely order mine again.

Now it was dessert time...my favorite time of the day! It was a tough decision for me, but I went with the Chocolate Mousse Cake. It was nice and moist, not too heavy, and yummy. Those little things on the top...also good. That brown cookie thing was light and spongy, reminded me of one of those Snackwells Devil's Food Cakes if you have ever had one of those.

DH ordered the Vanilla Creamery Cake. He enjoyed it and I love the little Chocolate thing in his too.

OVERALL RATING: I think I'd give this place a B+ overall. I enjoyed my food but it wasn't anything overly spectacular. DH wasn't thrilled with the pastas. They could stand to make the drinks a bit stronger for what they charged for them.

Cost for this meal would have been about $75 with tax. We got about a $15 discount using DDE so we paid about $74 with tax and tip.

 

[kittylady1972]

We come to another restaurant that I have always wanted to try for breakfast - Kona Cafe. It is a favorite for dinner (as was the Concourse Steakhouse...I'll miss that place) but we've always done the character meals for breakfast or just had food at our villa. Now it was time to try Tonga Toast. I am not a big fan of the sweet breakfast...I prefer sausage, ham and eggs instead...but this reservation was made so we could try new foods!

So of course, I ordered the Tonga Toast with Sausage:

Oh man, was it a LOT of food. First of all, why do they give you syrup for this? It was coated with sugar and didn't require any more sugar for it at all. The bananas inside were good. The sausage was huge and was a tad bit spicey, but not too much. Here is how much I was able to finish of this meal:

DH ordered the Samoa I believe it was called. Now let's see if I can remember what was in it. I know the menu said it had ham, but it's actually pork becuase the waitress said the ham made it too salty. There was egg in there and it was topped with a hollandaise sauce. DH seemed to enjoy it. I think we'd definitely try to come back here for breakfast.

Since we were wearing our anniversary shirts so it was obvious that we were celebrating, after breakfast the waitress brought this out for us:

They were two light and fluffy cream puffs stuffed with vanilla pudding or cream and though we weren't hungry, we ate them and they were WONDERFUL. I loved the little Lilo and Stitch on the plate too. Here it is up close:

Our total bill here would have been about $30 with tax and tip. We got a DDE discount of $5.17 so we paid $26.69 with tax and gratuity (we tip a little more for breakfast).

OVERALL RATING: We love the Kona Cafe, and breakfast was no exception. We'd give it an A for sure and we might be back if we plan to dine out again for breakfast, which is rare for us right now unless that breakfast is a character meal.

 

[kittylady1972]

After some shopping in Downtown Disney, I was determined to introduce DH to Wolfgang Puck Express, where we could also use our counter service credit.

I ordered the Chicken Caesar Salad, a cookie and a drink. Total cost was $17.52 all covered by my CS credit. DH wasn't too hungry, so he just had some Chicken Tortilla soup. That was another $5 or so.

The salad was VERY good just as I remembered. I had no room for the cookie. I absolutely love this place for counter service and hope to return. DH seemed to enjoy the soup and I had a taste and it wasn't too bad. No photos here...sorry.

DINNER at the California Grill was that night. We arrived a bit early but were seated quickly at a table by the window with THIS view:

We started with drinks. I had the Red Appletini as suggested by the waiter. DH had two bloody Mary's and enjoyed them.

The waiter highly recommended the sushi, but I'm not a big fan of it myself. DH ordered this:

He loved it but because it was a bit spicy, I didn't try it. Instead I decided to try the Triple Cheese, Pecorino, Asiago, Provolone with Sun-dried Tomatoes and Basil Pesto flatbread. It was INCREDIBLE. I think I could have had it for a meal.

As if that wasn't enough, we also decided on a first course. We picked the Sonoma Goat Cheese Ravioli with Sun-dried Tomatoes, Pesto, Shiitake Mushrooms, and Basil. It was two large Ravioli and it was split into equal portions for us. I didn't take a photo but it was also excellent. I used the bread served at dinner to sop up the broth (as suggested by our waiter) and it was YUMMY.

Really I could have stopped here but it's all about the food, right? We both ordered the Oak-fired Filet of Beef with Boniato Mashed Potatoes, Sauteed Haricot Vert and Teriyaki Barbeque Sauce. I got the sauce on the side but didn't really need it. The beef had a good flavor to it without the sauce. Honestly as far as beef goes, I've had much more tender beef. It was okay but nothing spectacular.

Since it was our anniversary, not only did they take the photo you see here and email it to us a few days later, but they also served up a huge slice of Chocolate Cake with a Happy Anniversary from the CA Grill chocolate. It looked fantastic, but we really wanted to try one of the desserts on the menu since we had the dining plan and they were free. We had them box up the cake and I ate it in the airport on the ride home two days later...it had been warmed up in the car all day...but it was still good though it didn't look as pretty.

So that night we got these desserts:

My husband, the Creme Brulee fan got this. He seemed to enjoy it.

As for me, I'm all about the chocolate:

The molten chocolate cake was EXCELLENT and I wouldn't have thought to pair it with the Apricot ice cream and sauce but it really tasted good together.

OVERALL RATING: I'd give this an A for the view alone from the restaurant. We were invited to return back later that night to view the fireworks from the terrace of the restaurant and we did and it was INCREDIBLE. I didn't think the beef was as tender as it could have been, but the other food more than made up for that. I think I'd go back and just have appetizers and first courses and I'd be good.

Total cost here was $175 before tip. $110 of that was the main course and dessert and was charged to the dining plan (2 credits). We paid another $20 in tip in cash. The remaining balance (drinks & appetizers) was $62, so it ended up being $49 with our DDE discount, and we paid about $64 with tax and tip.

 

[kittylady1972]

Ok, so I know this place gets a bad rap, but I go here for the Cuban Sandwich alone, which I think is pretty good. We used our remaining two CS credits here to get the Cuban with apples, Cheeseburger with fries, and two chocolate mousse cups and drinks. The chocolate mousse desserts are also excellent. Total bill here was $28.07 also charged to the dining plan.

Overall, I am not as happy with the new dining plan. Like many people I would rather have an appetizer over dessert most of the time. I would almost rather it be an option...one or the other. Our total Dining Plan charges were about $400 for a cost of $303. Of course, we still shelled out quite a bit in tax and gratuity and we did eat in two signature restaurants and used two counter service credits for breakfast, probably not as good of a deal as if we used them for lunches.

We head back to Disney next May, but I'm not sure we'll get the dining plan this time around. I definitely enjoy having the use of the DDE card though, so it looks like I'll at least have to renew that and my Annual Pass for our next trip. I've already more than made my money back on that with $62 in discounts on this trip alone.

 

[MousekaMaddi]

fantastic reviews Thank YOU

 

[SunnieRN]

What wonderful reviews!! We have a reservation for breakfast at spoodles on Christmas and I was feeling a bit worried about it. I feel much better now. Thanks!!
The picture of you and your hubby is so nice! What a great memory!!