dlmaranich
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Sep 17, 2005
- Messages
- 41
We just got home early Monday morning and I wanted to share our dining experiences! We stayed 8 nights at POR on free dining! It was our first time doing the DDP and we're sorta hooked now...Enough about that though, on to the good stuff!
The cast:
Jiminy Cricket: AKA Grams, my 67-year-old grandmother who braved our Disney trip. She eats like a bird usually, but she actually put some food away this time!
Chicks Thunder Hicks: AKA Dennis, my 53-year-old dad. Hell try anything but pasta. He loves beer.
Lady: AKA Michelle, my soon to be 50-year-old mom. Shes a chocoholic. She won't touch seafood and her tastes aren't that adventurous.
Tink: AKA me, Darcie, soon to be 20+10. I dont eat red meat, pork, or much seafood, but I will try most anything once (even Calamari this trip which I promptly regreted after I looked more closely and distinctly spied a little octopus head and tentacles on hanging little legs, ew).
Timon: AKA my 28-year-old DH, Jeff. Hell try just about anything (he was the one who ordered the calamari and ate most of it until I pointed out my findings).
Cinderella: AKA my 13-year-old daughter. Loves candy, candy, candy.
The other members of our party are children and I didn't review their meals because, frankly, they were quite boring. Standard fare: chicken strips, mac'n'cheese, hot dogs. You get the idea.
Ariel: my 9-year-old daughter
Tigger: my 7-year-old daughter
Stitch: my 4-year-old nephew
And last but not least, Pooh: my 13-month old son
I dont know about all of you but when Im reading dining reviews on these boards I have two main objectives: #1 SEE THE PICTURES! And #2 I want to know the bottom line: was it good? I usually skip over the details about the food, but then again, Im not really a foodie. So, my review is going to be made up mostly of pictures and a brief description of our experiences at each restaurant. If youre looking for an in-depth review, this one probably isnt your cup of tea! Oh, and I will include a lot of pictures, but with four children to worry about at the restaurants, I wasnt able to get pictures of everything. Sorry
Restaurants to be reviewed:
Kona dinner
Starring Rolls CS breakfast
Mama Melrose Dinner
Pecos Bills CS lunch
Crystal Palace Dinner
Wolfgang Puck Express (3 times) CS lunch
Whispering Canyon Café Dinner
Sunshine Seasons CS lunch
Ohana Dinner
Flame Tree BBQ CS lunch
Spoodles Adults only Dinner
Boatwrights- Breakfast
Liberty Tree Tavern Dinner
Le Cellier Dinner
Okay, so there is the background. Now, as Peter Pan would say, "Here we go!"
We started our trip with a dinner at Kona café. My expectations were high as Id heard so many rave reviews here on the boards. Im not sure our experience lived up, but it was not a bad experience nonetheless. Id heard (read actually) it told that the restaurant is open to the lobby and therefore very noisy. Id say noisy is an understatement. We were there on Saturday, Sept. 22nd. Our ADR was for 6:40 and we arrived without a minute to spare. The area surrounding the restaurant was incredibly hectic and horribly loud (the kind of loud where you have to lean over and speak directly into the ear of the person youre talking to). It was what I commonly refer to as a madhouse. After about a fifteen minute wait we were shown to our table which was right in the center of the madness, er, restaurant. Our server didnt show up right away and as the meal wore on we found her disappearing act to be a common occurrence. She went over the dining plan options with us and let us know that specialty drinks (smoothies and virgin pina coladas and daiquiris) were included on the plan. Our table ordered two virgin pina coladas, one virgin strawberry daiquiri, one strawberry smoothie, and then a bunch of boring drinks like coke, bottled water, beer, and wine (okay, okay, the wine wasnt so boring).
I had the pina colada. I found it to be way too sweet. I didnt drink the whole thing. Cinderella had the strawberry smoothie. I tried it and lo and behold, it too was way too sweet. In spite of my complaints about the noise level in the restaurant and the service and the sugary drinks, Im really not a chronic whiner. I swear Im not. Read on, youll see. Anyway, Timon, who is a big fan of kool-aid and equally sugar-laden drinks even thought these things were too sweet. The sweetness overpowered any coconut or pineapple flavor that may have been lurking underneath all that syrup! Nice presentation though.
For appetizers, Jiminy Cricket got the crab cakes. She absolutely loved these. Shes not a big eater because she tends to get ill when she eats a lot, but she ate almost every bit of these.
Lady and Timon both ordered the Sticky Wings and both ate them clean to the bone. Later in the week we visited Ohana and Lady commented that the Kona Sticky Wings were better than the Ohana ones. Ive read that the wings are the same at both restaurants, but the ones at Kona were presented with a mustard-color sauce where as the ones at Ohana were not. Perhaps it was the sauce that made the Kona wings better to her.
Thunder ordered the Kona Seafood chowder which I unfortunately didnt get a picture of. He licked the bowl clean though. Me, Tink, ordered the Kona salad. It was yummy yummy yummy. It had these sugared nuts on it and the dressing was Yum-O as Rachael would say. I ate every last bite.
Cinderella ordered the Caesar salad. She enjoyed it so much that she ordered another Caesar later in the trip.
We were starting to wonder if wed get the Kona bread because it took forever for the server to bring it out. We finally did though. The butter really makes the bread. Its some sort of honey butter with macademia nuts and it was also Yum-O.
For entrees, Jiminy, Cinderella and Lady all ordered the Filet Mignon. The consensus was that it too was very good.
Thunder ordered the beef teriyaki. Again, he said it was good. Well-cooked and flavorful.
Timon ordered the Coconut Almond Chicken. The server warned him when he ordered that it was a salad and it was very light. Once it was served we both agreed that it should not have been described as a salad because it was clearly a piece of meat with a small salad on the side. Timon and I shared it. He liked it more than I did. We both agreed that it was sort of bland; again, it was lacking the coconut flavor. In fact, I only ate a bite or two. It wasnt bad, but it wasnt nearly as good as the Pan Asian noodles I ordered (which we also shared). The dish was slightly salty (thats a good thing if you ask me) and the veggies were crisp and flavorful. I wished that I hadnt agreed to share with Timon, but there was plenty of food to go around so it wasnt bad.
For desert, Jiminy, Thunder, and Timon got the Apple Brown Betty and each of them slurped up every last bite of it.
Lady got the Kilauea Torte. She loved it, but then again, she is a total chocoholic. She really liked the warm chocolate liquid inside the brownie.
Unlike my mother, I am not a huge chocolate fan so you wont find me ordering any overly chocolate desserts this trip. In fact, youll probably begin to notice a crème brulee pattern, but thats a story for another day. At Kona, I ordered the White Chocolate Cheesecake. It was okay. There wasnt much flavor to it really. If I had it to do over again I most likely would have gone with the Apple Brown Betty.
Cinderella ordered the Kona cone because in an effort to encourage her that ordering off the adult menu wouldnt be a bad thing, Id been telling her about it for months. She wasnt disappointed either, though she couldnt finish the whole thing. She left Kona that night voicing her opposition to ordering three things at every meal. My response was that there was no rule requiring her to eat every bite of it! I encouraged her to just try some of the appetizer she ordered and then pass it around the table. She was much happier with that arrangement during the meals that followed!
Overall, I would give Kona a B-. In spite of the food being good, the ambience really distracted from the enjoyability factor at this meal. Maybe it would be better for a night other than arrival night because after safely maneuvering multiple airports with four children and fifteen bags in tow, I think we just needed a more relaxing environment. Also, our server was gone for long periods of time and wasnt prompt with refilling drinks and bringing out bread, etc. Id probably try Kona again, but Im not dying to go back.
If you made it this far, thanks for reading along. I hope to add Starring Rolls and Mama Melrose tomorrow. And do me a huge favor: read my Mama Melrose review! It gets such a bad rap on these boards and I think it is totally undeserved!
The cast:
Jiminy Cricket: AKA Grams, my 67-year-old grandmother who braved our Disney trip. She eats like a bird usually, but she actually put some food away this time!
Chicks Thunder Hicks: AKA Dennis, my 53-year-old dad. Hell try anything but pasta. He loves beer.
Lady: AKA Michelle, my soon to be 50-year-old mom. Shes a chocoholic. She won't touch seafood and her tastes aren't that adventurous.
Tink: AKA me, Darcie, soon to be 20+10. I dont eat red meat, pork, or much seafood, but I will try most anything once (even Calamari this trip which I promptly regreted after I looked more closely and distinctly spied a little octopus head and tentacles on hanging little legs, ew).
Timon: AKA my 28-year-old DH, Jeff. Hell try just about anything (he was the one who ordered the calamari and ate most of it until I pointed out my findings).
Cinderella: AKA my 13-year-old daughter. Loves candy, candy, candy.
The other members of our party are children and I didn't review their meals because, frankly, they were quite boring. Standard fare: chicken strips, mac'n'cheese, hot dogs. You get the idea.
Ariel: my 9-year-old daughter
Tigger: my 7-year-old daughter
Stitch: my 4-year-old nephew
And last but not least, Pooh: my 13-month old son
I dont know about all of you but when Im reading dining reviews on these boards I have two main objectives: #1 SEE THE PICTURES! And #2 I want to know the bottom line: was it good? I usually skip over the details about the food, but then again, Im not really a foodie. So, my review is going to be made up mostly of pictures and a brief description of our experiences at each restaurant. If youre looking for an in-depth review, this one probably isnt your cup of tea! Oh, and I will include a lot of pictures, but with four children to worry about at the restaurants, I wasnt able to get pictures of everything. Sorry
Restaurants to be reviewed:
Kona dinner
Starring Rolls CS breakfast
Mama Melrose Dinner
Pecos Bills CS lunch
Crystal Palace Dinner
Wolfgang Puck Express (3 times) CS lunch
Whispering Canyon Café Dinner
Sunshine Seasons CS lunch
Ohana Dinner
Flame Tree BBQ CS lunch
Spoodles Adults only Dinner
Boatwrights- Breakfast
Liberty Tree Tavern Dinner
Le Cellier Dinner
Okay, so there is the background. Now, as Peter Pan would say, "Here we go!"
We started our trip with a dinner at Kona café. My expectations were high as Id heard so many rave reviews here on the boards. Im not sure our experience lived up, but it was not a bad experience nonetheless. Id heard (read actually) it told that the restaurant is open to the lobby and therefore very noisy. Id say noisy is an understatement. We were there on Saturday, Sept. 22nd. Our ADR was for 6:40 and we arrived without a minute to spare. The area surrounding the restaurant was incredibly hectic and horribly loud (the kind of loud where you have to lean over and speak directly into the ear of the person youre talking to). It was what I commonly refer to as a madhouse. After about a fifteen minute wait we were shown to our table which was right in the center of the madness, er, restaurant. Our server didnt show up right away and as the meal wore on we found her disappearing act to be a common occurrence. She went over the dining plan options with us and let us know that specialty drinks (smoothies and virgin pina coladas and daiquiris) were included on the plan. Our table ordered two virgin pina coladas, one virgin strawberry daiquiri, one strawberry smoothie, and then a bunch of boring drinks like coke, bottled water, beer, and wine (okay, okay, the wine wasnt so boring).
I had the pina colada. I found it to be way too sweet. I didnt drink the whole thing. Cinderella had the strawberry smoothie. I tried it and lo and behold, it too was way too sweet. In spite of my complaints about the noise level in the restaurant and the service and the sugary drinks, Im really not a chronic whiner. I swear Im not. Read on, youll see. Anyway, Timon, who is a big fan of kool-aid and equally sugar-laden drinks even thought these things were too sweet. The sweetness overpowered any coconut or pineapple flavor that may have been lurking underneath all that syrup! Nice presentation though.
For appetizers, Jiminy Cricket got the crab cakes. She absolutely loved these. Shes not a big eater because she tends to get ill when she eats a lot, but she ate almost every bit of these.
Lady and Timon both ordered the Sticky Wings and both ate them clean to the bone. Later in the week we visited Ohana and Lady commented that the Kona Sticky Wings were better than the Ohana ones. Ive read that the wings are the same at both restaurants, but the ones at Kona were presented with a mustard-color sauce where as the ones at Ohana were not. Perhaps it was the sauce that made the Kona wings better to her.
Thunder ordered the Kona Seafood chowder which I unfortunately didnt get a picture of. He licked the bowl clean though. Me, Tink, ordered the Kona salad. It was yummy yummy yummy. It had these sugared nuts on it and the dressing was Yum-O as Rachael would say. I ate every last bite.
Cinderella ordered the Caesar salad. She enjoyed it so much that she ordered another Caesar later in the trip.
We were starting to wonder if wed get the Kona bread because it took forever for the server to bring it out. We finally did though. The butter really makes the bread. Its some sort of honey butter with macademia nuts and it was also Yum-O.
For entrees, Jiminy, Cinderella and Lady all ordered the Filet Mignon. The consensus was that it too was very good.
Thunder ordered the beef teriyaki. Again, he said it was good. Well-cooked and flavorful.
Timon ordered the Coconut Almond Chicken. The server warned him when he ordered that it was a salad and it was very light. Once it was served we both agreed that it should not have been described as a salad because it was clearly a piece of meat with a small salad on the side. Timon and I shared it. He liked it more than I did. We both agreed that it was sort of bland; again, it was lacking the coconut flavor. In fact, I only ate a bite or two. It wasnt bad, but it wasnt nearly as good as the Pan Asian noodles I ordered (which we also shared). The dish was slightly salty (thats a good thing if you ask me) and the veggies were crisp and flavorful. I wished that I hadnt agreed to share with Timon, but there was plenty of food to go around so it wasnt bad.
For desert, Jiminy, Thunder, and Timon got the Apple Brown Betty and each of them slurped up every last bite of it.
Lady got the Kilauea Torte. She loved it, but then again, she is a total chocoholic. She really liked the warm chocolate liquid inside the brownie.
Unlike my mother, I am not a huge chocolate fan so you wont find me ordering any overly chocolate desserts this trip. In fact, youll probably begin to notice a crème brulee pattern, but thats a story for another day. At Kona, I ordered the White Chocolate Cheesecake. It was okay. There wasnt much flavor to it really. If I had it to do over again I most likely would have gone with the Apple Brown Betty.
Cinderella ordered the Kona cone because in an effort to encourage her that ordering off the adult menu wouldnt be a bad thing, Id been telling her about it for months. She wasnt disappointed either, though she couldnt finish the whole thing. She left Kona that night voicing her opposition to ordering three things at every meal. My response was that there was no rule requiring her to eat every bite of it! I encouraged her to just try some of the appetizer she ordered and then pass it around the table. She was much happier with that arrangement during the meals that followed!
Overall, I would give Kona a B-. In spite of the food being good, the ambience really distracted from the enjoyability factor at this meal. Maybe it would be better for a night other than arrival night because after safely maneuvering multiple airports with four children and fifteen bags in tow, I think we just needed a more relaxing environment. Also, our server was gone for long periods of time and wasnt prompt with refilling drinks and bringing out bread, etc. Id probably try Kona again, but Im not dying to go back.
If you made it this far, thanks for reading along. I hope to add Starring Rolls and Mama Melrose tomorrow. And do me a huge favor: read my Mama Melrose review! It gets such a bad rap on these boards and I think it is totally undeserved!
. You have an adorable
family!!!
