Food, food and more food! And lots of pics! COMPLETE!

[jayhjay]

Kinda OT; worst Reuben ever... when I take it out back home what I got was (you just won't believe this):
toasted whole wheat (NOT grilled rye or pump)
corned beef HASH
cheddar cheese (NOT Swiss)
and cole slaw instead of sauerkraut!!!
I had to laugh and actually tasted the thing (where is that puking smilie?).
Live and learn!

No! That is awful! The wheat bread alone is practically sacrilege, but adding corned beef hash and cheddar! Ugh! And at a diner no less - it should be a staple there!

Thanks for the review of the Yacht Club Gallery. We'll be trying it for the first time on Saturday 11/10.

Glad you enjoyed the review! I hope you have a good time at YCG!

 

[jayhjay]

And now we come to the highlight of our dining experience - our anniversary dinner at Jiko! Let me start the review by saying this was by far our best meal all week. Comparing Jiko to the other TS meals we had is like comparing CS to TS - no matter how good a CS meal is, it is never going to equal a good TS. The same was true of our meal - it was just another level of quality that even our best TS dinners couldn't match. So now that I raised your expectations, here goes...

I learned from my past travel mistakes with Boma and this time we took a cab from BC to AKL (It cost us about $15 with tip each way - and well worth it!). I wasn't going to let motion sickness from the long bus rides ruin my anniversary dinner!

We had a 7:30 ADR and arrived a bit early. We waited in the bar and DH got a cocktail and I just had a water. We were seated within about 5 minutes and led to our table by a very nice South African host. The restaurant is really lovely - the birds on the ceiling were really nice. Our server soon greeted us and gave us an overview of the menu, highlighting some things he thought were the best.

DH and I decided to order the Taste of Africa appetizer to share. It was three kinds of breads and three kinds of dips. The breads were a lavosh (sort of a flatter pita), a softer yeasty bread with flax seeds, and a paper thin crispy bread w/cracked black pepper. Everything was delicious and this was plenty big enough to share (in fact I think one person would have been hard pressed to eat this as a solo appetizer).

The only bad thing about this appetizer is that it replaced the bread basket they normally bring to the table. Of course I am sure they would have given us one if I asked but we would have been way too full. For dinner, DH had the grilled scallops with chakalaka (I think he just liked saying chakalakah!). It was essentially grilled scallops over a spicy tomato mixture. This was so good and the scallops were quite big. DH really loved it (sorry the color is a bit off).

I had the ever popular filet over mac and cheese. Let me say now - there is a reason everyone orders this! Seriously, the best steak I have ever had! This was so good I can hardly do it justice with my description. The sauce is sort of a rich wine based sauce. The steak was so rich and tender. And the sharpness of the mac and cheese contrasted so well with the richer steak and sauce. There was a bit of greenery that added a bit of crunch and cut some more of the sweetness. And as the mac and cheese sat in the hot steak sauce, the cheese sort of melted in, making the sauce creamier and adding some sharpness. This really was amazing - all the flavors worked together and it was fabulous!

We had asked our server for wine recommendations and he suggested one for each of us based on our meal and our wine preferences. I had a Graham Beck Merlot which was great. Very mild and smooth. DH had something called Bukkatraube - it was a light chardonnay with some sweetness and fruitiness (almost like a mild Reisling). Both were delicious.

Ok, on to dessert. DH ordered a tea (Lemon Verbena) and the pistachio creme brulee. The served the tea in one of those press pots like you sometimes get for coffee:

DH loved the creme brulee. He really likes nut flavored desserts and so this was right up his alley. Huge portion too! I was sort of surprised that the chocolate bottom was soft (I guess I was expecting sort of a shell) but i guess that is not really typical of creme brulee. He loved this.

I had the House-made Lemon Curd with pomegranate and raspberry compote, white chocolate macadamia nut biscotti, and sour cream ice cream. OMG! Heaven in a bowl! The sweet and tangy lemon curd contrasted nicely with the sweet berries. And the sour cream ice cream was very mild (not sour) and was a nice mix with the stronger flavors of the lemon curd and berries. Underneath all the soft stuff was crushed up pieces of biscotti. So in each spoonful you had the sweet, creamy, tangy, cool tastes along with the slightly crispy chewy biscotti. The mix of flavors and textures were amazing. I usually am not this over the moon about desserts that aren't chocolate, but this was great (This is a seasonal dessert so not sure how long this will be on the menu so grab it now!)

Here are pics of the two desserts (sorry not a great shot of the creme brulee):

And here is a pic of us our server took:

Overall, this was an amazing meal. By far our best. I would go back in a heartbeat and am sure this will be on our list next time we go to WDW. Total cost: $116.62 (our creme brulee was comped for our anniversary).

 

[oybolshoi]

Great reviews! We thought Jiko was terrific, too!

 

[disneyfan551]

Great reviews! Thanks for taking the time to share!!

 

[jayhjay]

Great reviews! We thought Jiko was terrific, too!

Thanks Brenda! I am honored with the compliment from such an esteemed reviewer as yourself!

Believe it or not I was just reading YOUR review when I clicked over and saw you were reading mine. I have followed your past dining adventures so I am looking forward to hearing more about your latest trip!

 

[TigerKat]

Curious as to your comment about the long bus ride. We'll be at BWI and were planning on taking the boat to MGM, then a bus to AKL. Is that not a good idea?

 

[jayhjay]

Curious as to your comment about the long bus ride. We'll be at BWI and were planning on taking the boat to MGM, then a bus to AKL. Is that not a good idea?

If you look at my post for Boma I go into more detail, but we took the bus from BC to DTD and then to AKL. It took forever. And was certainly not the best route. On the way home we took the bus from AKL to MGM then walked to BC. That was much better. I was very queasy all week so I wanted to avoid the bus, but the second leg wasn't a bad trip.

Personally, I found the boats running the MGM/Epcot resorts/Epcot to be very slow. If you are up for the walk, you may find it more pleasant to walk to MGM as BWI is even closer than BC. But if you are up for the boats, I think that will work fine.

 

[jayhjay]

Great reviews! Thanks for taking the time to share!!

Glad you are enjoying them!

 

[TigerKat]

If you look at my post for Boma I go into more detail, but we took the bus from BC to DTD and then to AKL. It took forever. And was certainly not the best route. On the way home we took the bus from AKL to MGM then walked to BC. That was much better. I was very queasy all week so I wanted to avoid the bus, but the second leg wasn't a bad trip.

Personally, I found the boats running the MGM/Epcot resorts/Epcot to be very slow. If you are up for the walk, you may find it more pleasant to walk to MGM as BWI is even closer than BC. But if you are up for the boats, I think that will work fine.

Thanks!!

 

[AnninIowa]

I LOVE the bakery in France, but I've never had the cheese plate! It's now going on my list for our next trip - I think I'll get it as a late snack the night we got for Illuminations!!

BTW - isn't the cake of the day there ALWAYS that chocolate cake?! Not that I am complaining as it is awesome!!

 

[englishrose47]

I'm putting the cheesecake on my list too after seeing on your report. I love cheese and will gladly pay oop for this and save a cs for my last day!!

 

[FirstMagic]

That House-made Lemon Curd dessert at Jiko! Thanks for posting a picture of it, I can almost taste it again just seeing it.... Heavenly!

Glad you enjoyed your anniversary dinner at Jiko!

 

[jayhjay]

I LOVE the bakery in France, but I've never had the cheese plate! It's now going on my list for our next trip - I think I'll get it as a late snack the night we got for Illuminations!!

BTW - isn't the cake of the day there ALWAYS that chocolate cake?! Not that I am complaining as it is awesome!!

Yeah, I noticed it was there later in the week too so it very well might be there every day. Definitely delicious!

 

[jayhjay]

That House-made Lemon Curd dessert at Jiko! Thanks for posting a picture of it, I can almost taste it again just seeing it.... Heavenly!

Glad you enjoyed your anniversary dinner at Jiko!

Yes, sadly I have been staring longingly at my picture of it in photobucket! Sort of pitiful!

 

[jayhjay]

Sunday, our last day. Boo hoo! We spent the morning in Epcot, planning on eating lunch at one of our favorites, Tangeriene Cafe. However, around lunch time we were still in Future World with some stuff left to do and we didn't feel like walking all the way to Morocco and back. Plus we knew we were having an early dinner so we didn't want a big lunch. So we decided to head to Cantina in Mexico for some nachos and to Norway for some school bread.

We got a nice table at the Cantina patio under an umbrella. Here are the nachos:

These were better than I expected, although nothing amazing. I prefer real cheese to cheese sauce on my nachos. But it was a huge portion. I ate most of it but DH helped. I liked the diced tomatoes and black beans and DH enjoyed the jalapeños. One thing that bugs me here is that all the food is in styrofoam containers. So it is cooked, and then put warm in the boxes. I think this tends to give food sort of a soggy feel. The nachos were fairly crunchy, but I'd worry about things that had been sitting too long.

Not sure if I'd go out of my way to eat here again, but if I was looking for a quick meal in this area, I would go back.

DH had been dying to try school bread as he is a donut and coconut fan.

It was huge! I am not sure if this picture gives you sense of size, but it was really big. I don't like coconut so I didn't eat much, just tried a bit of the dough and cream filling. It was sort of like a cream filled donut, but the dough was a little denser and less sweet. He thoroughly enjoyed it and would definitely get this again.

Next up, our last meal - Beaches and Cream a second time - as well as some final thoughts....

 

[John's Mom]

Thanks for your review of Jiko. I was a little concerned when there was a chef change. Jiko is our favorite restaurant at WDW.

 

[jayhjay]

Boo hoo, we have reached the end. Here is my final review and assorted thoughts....

After a final afternoon relaxing by the pool, we took showers at the spa and were ready for an early dinner before our car picked us up at 6:15. We decided to have our final hurrah at Beaches and Cream, a nice ending as that is where we started our trip 8 days before.

We got there about 4:45 and it was actually already pretty full. They told us a 15-20 minute wait but we ended up getting in within about 5 minutes. We once again got a booth, one up from last time. DH repeated his burger and vanilla coke. This time our server offered him onion rings instead of fries so he took it. I think if we had known this was an option we would have done this instead of getting the onion ring side order the first time since it was so huge. But his portion that came with the burger was pretty small, only 4-5 rings. But still plenty with the burger and ice cream. No pic of this, but looked the same as our first visit.

I ordered the steak sandwich w/fries and a vanilla diet coke:

Melted provolone, peppers and onions, nice crispy roll. This was actually really good. If you aren't specifically craving a burger here, I'd certainly give it a try.

For dessert I let DH choose since the No Way Jose we had previously had been my idea. He was torn between the sundae with caramel, fudge, and cake, and the brownie sundae. We ended up with the brownie one - lots of food, chewy brownie, very yummy:

It was definitely delicious, but in a "really good ice cream sundae" kind of way. Versus the No Way Jose which had more of a "stop traffic" kind of quality!

Overall it was a great meal and a nice way to close out our trip.

Final Thoughts:

First let me thank all you great DISers whose food reviews helped us make our choices. And all of you who have read and encouraged me on this trip report. Overall, it was a great food week. Here are my quick highlights...

Best Meal: Jiko

Best TS meal (non-signature): Le Cellier

Best CS meal: Cheese plate, baguette and chocolate cake at the French bakery (this blew away the competition, but if it hadn't been in the running, CHH and Sunshine Seasons were also really good)

Best New Restaurant: Jiko
(Yacht Club Galley, Raglan Road, and B&C were also good)

Best Repeater: Kona, Le Cellier

Most Pleasant Surprise: Sunshine Seasons, chicken flatbread at Hurricane Hanna's, Yacht Club Galley

Places were are unlikely to rush back to: Boma and Flametree

Places we will definitely return next trip: Jiko, French bakery, Le Cellier, Kona

Other places on my next trip to do list:
- Narcoosies
- LTT character meal
- Chefs de France (we had to cancel here twice this trip)
- Brunch at Kona, Boma, or Ohana

Anyway, thanks for reading and feel free to let me know if you have any questions. I am hoping to start my trip report today or tomorrow so check there if you want more trip details. Thanks! Julie

 

[Dis Ohana]

Thank you for posting your reviews. I am planning on dining at much of the same places you did, and decided to add Beaches and Cream and Yacht Club Galley based on your reccomendation. I'm most excited about the cheese plate at the French bakery, that is a great find! Thanks again for the reviews and pictures, it looks like you and your DH had a great time.

 

[TigerKat]

Thanks for taking the time to share your reviews with us!

 

[oybolshoi]

Nice job on the reviews, Julie! And I totally agree about the cheese plate from the French Bakery - I picked up one of those one night during our visit and I'm still dreaming about the cheesie goodness.

BTW, you and your hubby look so cute together!