Food Fest '07 with lots of pics!

[intricatejewel]

Well, here's my second attempt at writing a dining review. At least this time I'm armed with pictures! I swear, we ate and ate but neither of us gained a pound!
You've got me, an addicted self-proclaimed Disney expert that'll try just about anything when it comes to food. And you've got my dear sister, complete Disney newbie and happy to try anything you put in front of her.
If you need to skim through, here's where we ate:
CS: World Premier Food Court
Cosmic Ray's
Pizza Planet
FoodQuest
Leaning Palms

TS: Le Cellier
Crystal Palace
Ohana
Coral Reef
Garden Grill
Boma
Donald's Breakfastosaurus
Narcoosee's
Let the reviewing commence!!

Tuesday, October 4th (Day 1)

After checking into our room around 2:00pm, we were starving so we decided to stop in at the World Premier Food Court at All-Star Movies. I opted for a chicken salad- the CM behind the food counter fixes the salad fresh and however you want it- it was great! I chose a Mickey rice crispie marshmallow treat. My sister chose a steak salad and a fresh chocolate chip cookie. I got a powerade and my sister went with water.

I thought my chicken salad was absolutely delicous! The ingredients were fresh, vegetables were crisp and it was full of flavor. I really enjoyed mine.

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My sister didn't enjoy her steak salad so much. She agreed that the vegetables and other fixings were fresh and wonderful, her steak on the other hand, tasted 'funny.' Kinda made her sick for the rest of the day.

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The atmosphere was a little rowdy, but we expected as much. There was plenty of seating and the tables were clean, at least. We came back here for some more grub later on throughout the trip.

Afterward, we traveled on over to Epcot to enjoy the evening over there. We pushed our time limit by riding Test Track, but it was worth it. We were actually about 15 minutes late for our reservation at 5:00 pm over at Le Cellier. I called about a dozen times before we left to get a reservation here. If you REALLY want to get in at a particular restaurant and they're booked solid, just call and call again. SO WORTH IT!!
Got a little distracted there, Well, we arrived 15 minutes late for our reservation, but they took us right in. I was surprised because there was a good deal of people waiting in that tiny little entryway. We were sat in the Ontario section and our server was Lauren. It's true what the reviews said about tables being REALLY close together. Gave a whole new meaning to getting to know thy neighbor. I actually inspired the table next to us to start taking pictures of their food.
I started with a glass of reisling and my sister chose a pinot noir. I can't recall the vineyards, sorry. Our server suggested them, so we just went with the flow. I ordered the shrimp and wasabi slaw for my appetizer. The shrimp were coated with a horseradish coctail sauce with just the right hint of spicyness and the wasabi slaw was surprisingly pleasant.

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My sister chose the Duck Confit. She thought this was delicious. I tried a bite and agreed.

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After we polished off our apps, we watched a 10 year old kid enjoy a whole strip steak by himself. He was very proud!
My sister and I both ordered the Le Cellier Filet Mignon, medium rare.

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We also got a side of asparagus, which was cooked perfectly. Crispy enough to enjoy the flavor, but not so tough and stringy that the table next to you could hear you crunching away.

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We both thought it was amazing! The filets were tender, melt in your mouth goodness! The fried parsnips added a really nice flavor to the dish. I'm not a big fan of risotto simply because of texture issues, but I have to admit it was to die for. Course, I love mushrooms so that helped. We made little piglets of ourselves and enjoyed every bite.

I was close to bursting, so I opted for a lighter dessert the maple and vanilla creme brulee. Our server was sweet to remind us that we still had a beverage we could use and suggested coffee drinks. I immediately went for the decaf cappuccino. (Got caffiene issues) My sister went for the fully 'leaded' caffienated cappuccino and the creme brulee, too. Sorry, I forgot to take a picture before I took a couple spoon fulls.

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All in all, our service was great, the food was AMAZING and we really stuffed ourselves silly. Would you believe we went straight to Mission Space from dinner because we had fast passes? We made sure to warn our fellow riders, too. ^.~ The expressions on their faces was priceless.

 

[intricatejewel]

Plunging straight on for Day 2.

Wednesday, September 5 (Day 2)
We decided to spend the day at Magic Kingdom. My sister was hungry, so we stopped in at Main Street Bakery and tried the cinammon loafs. Don't flame me, but I completely forgot to take a picture of it. But I can tell you it was pretty darn big and VERY sticky. AND, it was yummy. I got a pic of some guys singing to the table next to us, though.

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Around 11:50am, we arrived at Crystal Palace for our reservations. We hardly had to wait long but I got a little irritated with the check-in staff because they kept getting my last name wrong. Varga is not that complicated. I spelled it out for her: V as in Victor and so forth. She got an attitude and said she couldn't find Bargos. I had to tell her three times, using the letter V in three different examples. I gave up and went to someone else.
We decided ahead of time to pay out of pocket for this one. My sister's one condition before we left was to make sure we get a lot of character interaction. I figured it was worth the price.
Here, you've got your typical buffet food faire. The lines were pretty long, as to be expected for prime lunch time. If I remember correctly, they had a huge array of salads, lunch meats, curried noodles, fettucine alfredo, baked chicken and prime rib. Oh yeah, the salmon was to die for. See how loaded up our plates were?

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My sister decided to tell our server that it was my 'unbirthday'.

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I couldn't resist and she'll kill me if she reads this, but doesn't it look like my sister is choking poor little piglet? I think I can hear him gasping for air...

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We really enjoyed the food, character interaction and atmosphere. The glass windows are absolutely beautiful! This is one of my favorite places to visit.


We were extemely stuffed from the buffet until late at night. We cooled off with a pinapple dole float from Aloha Isle during the day and I have to say, "Am I glad I read the DIS board!" I don't think I'd have ever tried one of these refreshing beauties if I'd never read such rave reviews. Add mine to the list! And, uh, sorry... didn't get a picture of this one either.

Right before SpectroMagic, we finally got a grumbly in our tummies and headed to Cosmic Rays. Be forewarned, we decided not to hold back on this trip and ordered whatever we normally wouldn't order at home. And yes, our personal trainers gave us such a lecture when we returned, my eyes are still blistered.
Well, I'm pretty sure you guessed that we both ordered the Rib Combo, with chicken, carrots, dessert- the whole nine yards. The ribs AND the chicken were very tender and tasty and the carrots were sweet. I hardly had room for mashed potatoes, but they were good, too. My sister got the carrot cake and I chose the chocolate cake for dessert. Sorry, but neither of us had room for these. We took them back to our room to eat later, but we never touched them and they went to waste.

That ended this days food binging. More to come, later!

 

[c4alymom]

Really enjoying the pics. Keep it coming!

 

[intricatejewel]

On to Day 3!

We chose to have breakfast at World Premier food court again and both ordered the breakfast croissant sandwich.

The sandwich was okay. Better than the breakfast platter, which is another review entirely. But later. The sandwich is nothing more than a croissant sliced down with an optional slice of cheese, eggs spooned in and two slices of bacon on top. Actually, it's not a bad sandwich at all and I chose this for breakfast a couple more times throughout our trip, as did my sister.

We headed out for MGM- Studios and hit up the usual; Tower of Terror, Beauty and the Beast, Car Stunt Show, you name it. My secret favorite thing to do is go to Art of Disney Magic and go into those art classes that teach you how to draw a character. I have to admit, I did an awesome Minnie and carefully carried it around with me all day to take home as a souvenier. (My mom likes them so much, she frames them on her walls) More on the drawing later. We decided to have a late lunch over at Pizza Planet. Fortunately, it was fairly quiet and we were able to order immediately. My sis went with the Woody's meal - pepperoni pizza, salad, bottled water and chocolate chip cookie. I wanted a Junkyard meal- veggie pizza, salad, bottled water and sugar cookie.

The pizza was good, hit the spot. My veggie pizza, however, was very cold in the middle. The salads were fresh and we really enjoyed those.

After we saw the awesome stunt show, my sister and I were feeling overheated and dehydrated and hit up a vendor for some frozen drinks. My sister got the blue rasberry and I felt adventerous enough to try the banana- excellent choice! Remeber how refreshing it was when you were a kid to pull a banana pop out of the freezer on a hot august day and let the cool sweetness melt in your mouth? It was at least ten times more refreshing. After my sister tasted mine, she tried to switch smoothies but I ran and protected my 'nanner' smoothie inside a store. Definitely go try these out, people. The vendor was located right in front of the stunt show, next to Al's Toy Barn. Sorry, too busy protecting my drink to get any pictures.
We left around 8pm to head over to the Polynesian for our dinner reservations at Ohana at 8:25pm. We were on time, but had to wait another 30 minutes or so. We headed to the art store that featured the most gorgeous pics of M. Wylands sealife artwork incorporating Disney. We were given permission to take photos of the art work, but I'm afraid I might infringe on some laws if I show them here.
Afterwards, my sister and I grabbed a quick coctail at the bar and ordered the pomagrante cosmo. It was good, but too sweet.

Finally we were seated at a table to the far right of the room. Sadly, we didn't get a good viewing spot of wishes, but that was alright. I was excitedly telling my sister about the great food and service my DBF and I had last year. Should've known....
Well, our server(s) started friendly and abiding, but as the night progressed, service took a drastic plunge. My sister was extremely unimpressed. But, here are some pics of the food, which is important to mention was good!

Good Salad. We really enjoyed this.

We had roasted vegetables, scalloped potatoes, peel and eat shrimp and BBQ sesame wings; all of which was delicious.

I got a great shot of the server (when he did finally come around) offering smoked turkey and pork. The turkey was by far, my favorite. My sister really liked the pork. But the servers also bring around beef and sausage, which neither of us enjoyed that much.
Almost an hour sitting at our table, STUFFED, we had to ask a neighboring server to clear our table for us because we could't find OUR servers. She immediately cleaned it up, but I could tell she wasn't happy about it. I sympathized.
After we were cleared, a chef came by to our table and he asked how our evening was going. We sugar coated it a little, but still told him that we had terrible service, but at least the food was good. He apologized and chatted it up with us a bit before heading back into the kitchen. My sister thought he was just the cutest thing since her reminded her of someone that she works with. Within minutes, our servers magically appeared with our dessert, the bananas foster.

I have to say it was delicious, but the ice cream was far too melted by the time we got to enjoy it. We both agreed if we had more room in our stomachs, we might have had more than the sample we quickly tried. We were just anxious to get out of there because the other two tables in our servers station were arguing loudly for their checks.
On our way out, we asked for the chef to come back out so he could take a picture for my sister. It made her day! (which I was grateful for because the dinner experience had spoiled her mood for the night)

My sister and I agree that this was the worst service we'd had while we were there. Not that I don't recommend it. It's still an excellent place to eat and I plan to go again in the future. Servers are just pick of the draw and it wasn't only just us our two servers were ignoring, so I can't blame the dining plan. They just sucked. But, please try this restaurant as it's one of the most charming. Coconut dancey, leie necklaces, live hawaiin music... it has great ambiance. Definitely check it out, still.
And going WAY back to earlier in the day with my Minnie drawing that I was so 'carefully' keeping on me? I accidentally left it at the restaurant and didn't get a chance to go back and retreive it. I've been beating myself up for that everyday!!

 

[medicgirl911]

Great pics!! Sounds like you are off to an awesome start and I can't wait to read more!!
Oh ya, and I know that banana drink you speak of...my DD stole mine, so I don't blame you for running into a store to protect it LOL!

 

[suzimar57]

great pictures!

 

[sandybobandy]

What a great thread! Love your pictures.

I'm glad the chef tried to make the situation right! He looks super nice!

 

[icouldlivethere]

On to Day 3!

We chose to have breakfast at World Premier food court again and both ordered the breakfast croissant sandwich.

The sandwich was okay. Better than the breakfast platter, which is another review entirely. But later. The sandwich is nothing more than a croissant sliced down with an optional slice of cheese, eggs spooned in and two slices of bacon on top. Actually, it's not a bad sandwich at all and I chose this for breakfast a couple more times throughout our trip, as did my sister.

We are heading out in a couple of days and staying at the All Star Movies and would love to know more about the breakfast offerings there. Do you know if they offer egg beaters and if they allow you to make any subsititutions?

Also, did you eat any dinners at the World Premier food court? Are all of the dinners on the disney dining plan?

Thanks!!

 

[my3disneygirls]

Thanks for the reviews and pics. Can't wait for more.

 

[mom2fivecs]

Loving the reviews and pictures...thanks a bunch

 

[maraki527]

Great reviews so far. Sounds like you had a great time.

 

[Tinkerbell_Girl]

Great reviews and pics!

 

[intricatejewel]

We are heading out in a couple of days and staying at the All Star Movies and would love to know more about the breakfast offerings there. Do you know if they offer egg beaters and if they allow you to make any subsititutions?

Also, did you eat any dinners at the World Premier food court? Are all of the dinners on the disney dining plan?

Thanks!!

Honestly, I don't know if they offer egg beaters as an alternative. I'd recommend calling the resort front desk and asking. They're EXTREMELY accomodating over there. If they can't help you, they do offer oatmeal, cinammon buns, mickey waffles and various breakfast sides like bacon or sausage. They also offered muffins, bagels and fresh fruit like apples or bananas. My sister and I really enjoyed grabbing a quick bite for breakfast here before heading into the parks for the whole day! I'm sure you'll find something!

As for dinner, I believe everything but the whole pizzas were on the dining plan and use only a CS credit.

 

[Krissalee]

Love your reviews! Keep them coming

 

[intricatejewel]

And moving on....

Friday, September 7 (Day 4)
We decided to head on over to Blizzard Beach for the day, but not before stopping at the World Premier Food Court for breakfast again. My sister and I both opted for a breakfast platter which included scrambled eggs, potatoes, bacon, sausage and biscuits.
Honestly, it was just okay. To put it simply, the eggs were dry and we both thought the sausage tasted funny. I've had the same thing only better before at the same resort last year. Maybe it was just an off day...
Oh yeah, don't mind all the pepper coating the food... just a personal preference.

Neither of us felt hungry while we were at Blizzard Beach so we skipped eating lunch there and went back to our room around 3pm. There, we rested for a bit before heading into Downtown Disney for DisneyQuest.

We headed straight to FoodQuest for some dinner and I chose the Chicken Teriyaki Wrap with fries. Argh, I forgot to get a picture of mine. Anyway, I was extremely disappointed in this. The rice in my wrap was hard and crunchy and hurt my teeth. The flavor was okay, but I didn't eat very much of it. My sister and I both got the cheesecake brownie for dessert and waters for our beverage. Personally, the brownie was WAY too rich for me. I pretty much made a feast of my french fries for this night. It was kinda annoying having to eat around the small bits of burnt chicken finger bits in my fry basket. They should do a better job of cleaning the fryer after each order...
My sister chose the Fajita Wrap. She let me have a taste and I much preferred hers. At least HER rice was soft and fluffy. She never ate her brownie, so I didn't get an opinion from her about it. At least I got a pic of her food before it was all gone...

but worth mentioning are the simulated roller coasters that you can build to your preference. AWESOME! We built two coasters, level 5 thrill factor and it was amazing! We decided to buy the video of us riding both times. I decided to wear a long white skirt this day and every time we flipped upside down, my skirt would flip up. Hysterical!

 

[intricatejewel]

Saturday, September 8 (Day 5)

Once again, we grabbed breakfast at the food court and got the croissant sandwiches again and a bottle of water. (These sandwiches hit the spot every time) But I learned something new! As we were checking out using our CS credits, the CM told me that it included juice. So for 1 CS credit, we got our breakfast, a bottle of water AND an apple juice. I feel a little cheated from my past usage of CS credits for breakfast cuz we'd only been getting one beverage with our meal up till then. At least I know now and can pass this along.

We left for Epcot for the day and played as we pleased until our reservation time of 1:20pm at Coral Reef. I fought so hard for a dinner reservation, but they didn't have anything available and I was lucky to get us in at all. They seated us within five minutes of checking in and sat us in the second tier. I have to say this restaurant is GORGEOUS! The ambiance is simply amazing! I wasn't surprised to see the place was packed.
We had to wait about 10 minutes or so for our server. When you're extremely thirsty, that seems like a VERY long time. When she finally arrived, she quickly went over the dining plan and said non-alcoholic frozen drinks were included. Yay! I went for a frozen strawberry daquiri. It really hit the spot!

Aren't the dolphins in the water glasses cute?

For our meals, my sister chose the crab claw salad. I almost ordered this, but chose instead the shrimp coctail. After sampling my sisters dish, boy was I glad I chose the shrimp. I've had my fair share of stone crab claws and I gotta say these tasted really fishy. And the mayonnaise sauce that came with it was not at all complimentary. My shrimp coctail, on the other hand, was fresh and oh-so delicious. The coctail sauce had a decent amount of horseradish and so it had a very nice bite.

For our entrees, we both ordered medium rare NY strip steaks. They came with scalloped potatoes and broccolini. Our food came out perfectly prepared and we enjoyed every bite. It was my sister who had to remind me, YET AGAIN, to take a picture of the food. Sorry, I'd cut my food up by then, but it's all there!

My sister ordered a B&B with her cheesecake and I simply went with the chocolate wave. I thought the sugar confectionary in the cheesecake was creative! We tried each others desserts and I can't really say which was better- they were both incredibly delicious! I recommend you go for broke and just order both if you try out this restaurant!

We finished our desserts and sat 15 minutes with no sign of our server anywhere. We had to ask another CM for our check. It took another 30 minutes for our server to come back, take my card to charge our TS credits and drop off the check for me to sign. Service was extremely slow, but the food was absolutely delicious. Who you get as a server is just luck of the draw... I'll definitely return in the future and just hope we don't get the same server again.

Later in the day we used a couple snack credits for the schoolbread in Norway. Oh, yum! I absolutely love coconut and custard and these things are HUGE! I didn't get a picture because they ran out of the plastic to-go containers and they had to smoosh it between two paper plates and then put it in a paper bag. It didn't look appetizing, but I assure you, it was oh-so-yummy!
Also worth mentioning are the kaki gori over in Japan. I don't know how they shave the ice to be that soft and fluffy but it's worth the $2.25 to get them. It had just finished storming and the heat and humidity was dreadful. These helped cool us off in no time.

My sister and I agreed the night before to eat at the Garden Grill for more character interaction. I stopped at concierge before we left that morning to get the last reservation at 6:10pm. We had to race from World Showcase to The Land for our reservation. We checked in exactly on time, but we still had to wait about 30 minutes or so. We killed some time by buying matching Soarin' T-Shirts which we immediately put on. We're so cool!
After we were seated, our server introduced himself and explained that this was a family style meal. He started us off with biscuits and multi-grain bread with cranberry butter- never had that before and I really enjoyed this. Then he brought out the salad which, I have to admit, we ate the most of.

Pluto came to our table almost immediately and his antics had us smiling with bits of lettuce stuck in our teeth! We had a really good time with him and get a laugh over the pictures.
Chip came soon after and then Dale. He just cracked us up and stayed at our table a good while.
Then our server came out with the platter which included: turkey with cranberry sauce, flank steak, scalloped potatos, breaded catfish filets and fresh green beans with baby squash. Everything was pretty tasty, though I regret to tell you we didn't eat that much since we weren't really all that hungry.

Mickey came around and had us both grinning like idiots. This was the first Mickey I encounted that made his nose wiggle up and down. He was priceless!
And then came my favorite dessert of the entire trip: a custard filled pastry with berries. The pastry was flaky and soft, the custard was decadently creamy and the berries balanced out the whole thing. Somehow, I found room to eat this whole thing!

It wasn't until the end of our meal that I realized the door along the wall was moving away from us and the scenery changed from a rainforest to a desert. I asked the server why the middle of the room moves and he said it was actually the whole restaurant dining area that slowly spins! He informed me that it takes a full hour for the restaurant to make a complete rotation. I must say, I was impressed... if not a little slow...
I'd definitely go back. The service was good, character interaction was GREAT and I like the idea that the whole restaurant spins!

 

[suzimar57]

still loving the pictures!

 

[intricatejewel]

Tinkerbell girl, that has got to be the cutest image of Tinker Bell I've EVER seen!

 

[BeckWhy]

How are the lines at World Premier Court in the morning? At Pop they are so bad!

 

[Minniespal]

Lovely photos, thanks for posting.