FOOD FRENZY: 21 Days of disney dining with pics! -COMPLETED!

[taylorl25]

Hi all, thanks for your comments.

Being there 21 days was so much fun, it was a really relaxed pace as we knew we had time to see everything, only problem is I now have to go back to work tomorrow after 3 and half weeks leave, that's going to be hard!

Priorityonecb- definetely towards the end of the holiday I was a bit tired of eating in general and looking forward to getting back to a normal diet. I knew we would never eat 21 table service meals which is why we did 5 signature meals to use up credits, but it was still a lot of food. We stayed at Universal for two nights towards the end of the holiday and we just didn't feel like eating proper meals as we'd already ate out so much. I was a little disappointed as there are some restaurants there I really wanted to try, but there's always next time!

 

[taylorl25]

Today was our first MGM day and we had a lunch reservation at Mama Melroses. I wasn't looking forward to this one too much as it gets slated on these boards, and a friend of mine had been and said it was terrible. But it had some good choices for DH and it was one of his picks. I also thought may be it was really busy when they were doing the fantasmic package which could contribute to peoples bad experiences, so we chose lunch thinking it would be quiet.

As soon as we walked through the door I gave up on the idea of quiet, the best way to describe it would be manic, there were people milling around everywhere, and a huge queue waiting to check in at 12:50. We eventually made it to the hostess and checked in, then tried to find a seat in the small lobby. As they didn't give you a pager and it was so loud I was worried about hearing our name called, however the seater came right over to us and called our name in about 10 minutes. I realised later they mark on the ticket what your wearing so the seater already has an idea your the right party before they call your name, my ticket said lady in pink tank top.

Anyway we were seated at a nice table next to a wall and one other table. It was really dark but it had a nice atmosphere. Service was efficient if a little rushed, but she greeted us straightaway and got us drinks.

I chose Bruschetta to start. This was quite good, the tomatoes were really tangy and tasted quite fresh. I wasn't too keen on the crostini though, it had melted cheese baked on it but it was really hard and just wasn't that tasty.

DH chose the Artisan breads and spreads. This was nice but was a huge appetiser. There was a good selection of bread including breadsticks, wholemeal and white bread and it all seemed quite fresh. The dips were good, especially the pesto.

For my entree I had Oven Baked Chicken alla Parmigiana. This was really nice, the chicken was moist and the sauce was really tasty, the spaghetti was plain so didn't eat much of it but overall it was an enjoyable entree.

DH chose the Four Cheese flatbread, pizza is actually one of his favourite foods so you'll be seeing quite a lot of pizza choices in these reviews. He described it as good, a typical stonebaked pizza.

I was pretty full when it was time to order dessert so I wanted something light. I chose the Crema Limone - no sugar added lemon custard topped with fresh whipped cream and berries.

Surprisingly this turned out be one of my favourite desserts of the trip. It was a light custard with just the right amount of sweetness, there were strawberries and raspberries inside and the biscotti had dried fruit in it as was great when dipped in the custard.
DH chose tiramisu. He said this was ok, not enough coffee flavour and no real alcohol taste. It looked pretty good though.

Overall a much better experience than expected. I felt rushed between appetisers and entrees, with the entree arriving before DH finished his breads, but aside from that service was good. Rating 3/5.

We weren't hungry again until quite late that night so we decided to walk over to POR to check out the vegetarian options for DH there. This food court was much busier than POFQ but it was bigger with more choices.

I went for the Make your own Salad. I chose chicken with spring mix leaves, with tomatoes, cucumber, feta cheese, roasted red pepper and mandarin sesame dressing which was reallly good with a combination of sweet and spice.. I really enjoyed this, there was a wide variety of things to add and dressings and everything I chose was fresh and tasty. The chicken is hot as well, overall really good CS choice.

Sorry you can't see it too well. DH took the photo while I was getting cutlery and left the lid on.

DH chose make your own pasta, fettucine with pesto sauce and parmesan. Again it was freshly cooked in front of you meaning it can take quite a while. It was served with a slice of garlic bread and he rated it as very good. It looks quite a small portion in the photo but it was really filling.

For dessert we had choc chip cookie and muffin, both were just ok and we had the muffin for breakfast the next morning.

I'll try and put day 4 up later today. Oh and I weighed myself this morning and put on 7 pounds, not too bad over a 3 week period but diet starts today!

 

[lawyergirl]

Great pics and I am loving the input from a vegetarian! Will help us with our planning for our next trip (we've got two veg-heads with us!)

 

[taylorl25]

Today was our magic kingdom day. I think we had donuts for breakfast today using a snack credit, so we were hungry for lunch around 11:40. As we were in Tomorrowland we decided to try Cosmic Rays.

We'd never been here before but I knew they had a couple of vegetarian options for DH. We decided to split a meal as we weren't sure if we needed the credits for later so chose a vegetarian wrap and chocolate cake.

The wrap was just ok, it was filled with salad and beans but it was a little dry. We put some honey mustard on and some mushrooms from the toppings bar which made it more tasty. It came with a choice of chips or pasta, I chose pasta and it was actually really good.
Dessert was a typical pre-packaged cake, but it was moist with plenty of fudge topping. Overall fine CS meal but nothing I'm desperate to eat again.

Tonight was our first signature meal of the trip, Citricos. I wasn't too sure about this one as you don't really hear much about it on these boards and there wasn't a recent menu available when I booked the ADR. A friend of mine went last year and said it was fantastic so I decided we'd give it a try.

We arrived about 15 minutes before our ADR and the lobby was really quiet, they were accepting walk in's here. We were seated within a few minutes at a window table and our waiter was really good. DH decided to go with the wine pairings for his meal, and our waiter helped me pick a red that would pair well with my entree.

For my appetiser I chose the Gateau of Crab -Jumbo lump crab and orange fennel cream with tomato fennel slaw as recommended by our waiter. This was absolutely fantastic, one of the best appetisers I've eaten anywhere. It was pure crab meat which literally melted in your mouth, with hints of fennel and orange, paired wonderfully with the slaw. I'm not even a huge fan of fennel but this dish contained just the right amount.

The only vegetarian appetiser choices were salads so DH went for the Warm Goat Cheese salad. This was listed as coming with bacon on the menus but they happily removed the bacon for him. Now he's not a big salad fan but he really enjoyed this, the cheese was encased in filo pastry and the dressing was good.

For my main I chose Tile Fish with English peas, lemon risotto, crispy Westphalian ham and thyme broth. This was a fantastic entree, the fish was perfectly cooked and the risotto has just the right amount of lemon in as too not overpower the fish.

By the way I really liked the plates they used in this restaurant, they were all different coloured glass and were really pretty.

The vegetarian option for DH was Seared Tofu with zucchini, eggplant, tomatoes, mushrooms, lentils, sun-dried tomato coulis. Now being vegetarian for 10 years he's eaten a lot of tofu and it can either work really well in a dish or just be bland and tasteless. Luckily this was the former and he described it as beautifully cooked, and one of the best vegetarian dishes he's ever eaten.

For dessert I ordered the lemon cheesecake. Now this was definitely the prettiest dessert I had all week, but it wasn't the best. It was a nice cheesecake, but just nice nothing really amazing about it.

DH ordered the Warm Chocolate and Banana tart. This was lovely, the bananas were warm and really went well with the gooey chocolate filling. The chocolate crown was a nice touch.

DH also really enjoyed the wine pairings and it was good value at $25 as he got decent tastings of them all. His dessert was served with a red ice wine which was very good and I didn't even know you could get red ice wine.
Overall service was excellent, our waiter was efficient and friendly and we never felt rushed. The restaurant was very quiet and it had a really nice adult atmosphere, I'd give it a rating of 4.5/5 and this actually turned out to be best meal of the entire trip!

 

[khurley23]

subcribing and.......YUM!

 

[my3disneygirls]

Great reviews! Thanks for taking the time. You must be exhausted after that long vacation. I would need a week of sleep in order to recuperate.

 

[Minniespal]

Brillant, looking forward to reading more

 

[taylorl25]

Great reviews! Thanks for taking the time. You must be exhausted after that long vacation. I would need a week of sleep in order to recuperate.

That's what everyone says to me but I actually found it quite relaxing. We had so much time we just did half days at the parks, chilled out in the afternoon then went for a nice meal in the evening. I can imagine it would be exhausting to do commando touring for that long though!

 

[taylorl25]

We had planned to go to Blizzard Beach today but the weather was absolutely awful so we switched plans and spent a few hours in Epcot instead.

We'd got up later than usual thinking we wouldn't need to be at BB until 10, so got to the food court about 8:30. It seemed really busy at this time, the vast majority of tables were taken but there wasn't too many people queuing for food. Incidentally the bakery queue at POFQ is a nightmare in the morning as everyone is wanting the Beignets which need to be cooked fresh, so it just leaves loads of people waiting around and adds to the crowdedness of the area.

We split a cheese omelette which came with redskin potatoes. I like their ordering system, as you get given a pager and receipt which you take to the counter and pay. It means your food doesn't get cold while waiting to pay.
The omelette was fine and I enjoyed the potatoes but they were two salty for my DH. You get two drinks with a CS credit here, so we got water and orange juice.

We came back from Epcot and grabbed a quick lunch at POR.
I went for the make your own salad again, and went for chicken, feta cheese, dried cranberries, peas, croutons and a raspberry vinaigrette. It was good but not as good as the first one I had, ordering it was also really hard work as the woman making it knew very little English so I had to keep pointing to everything. I chose a brownie for dessert which was really good, it was rich and fudgey, we actually saved it and ate it for breakfast the next morning.

DH ordered cheese pizza and a chocolate muffin. He said this was good and better than the pizza he had at pizzafari. I don't seem to have a separate picture of it but you can see it in the background of the above picture.

Tonight we had a Boma reservation at 9:10, this was the first available seating they had when I called in May. We visited here on our last trip and both really enjoyed it so took the late reservation. It took ages for us to get there as we had to transfer at DTD so I checked in at 7 minutes past 9. The hostess told us they were running 20 minutes behind and we were seated at 9:30. It was still really busy but started to empty out before we left.

Service was just OK here but she looked really busy. We were greeted within about 5 minutes and we both ordered wine flights. About 5 minutes later she brought us water and said she'd be back with our wine. About 10 minutes after that we finally got our wine.

The flights were really good, including a little description of each wine.

On to the food, although it was late everything was still plentiful and fresh.
I had some fufu which is mashed sweet potato and was very good and sweet, pasta salad which tasted like coronation chicken, salmon which was ok but nothing special, lentil salad which was good, falafel which were really good and sun-dried tomato and white bean hummus.

For my second plate I had some more pasta salad and fufu, some Bobotie which is one of my favourite dishes and was very good, cornbread (I know it's not African but you don't get it in Britain), some couscous and more hummus with a piece of African bread. This all good but I wasn't too keen on the African bread.

DH made similar choices to mine, minus the meat options and he also had a bowl of carrot and ginger soup which he said was really good.

I was pretty full by the time it came to dessert but I had to have the zebra domes, so got two of them, a little fruit tart and some chocolate mousse. The domes were great as always, the mousse was rich and creamy but I couldn't taste the alcohol in it. The fruit tart was ok, but to be honest I was too full by this point to be able to enjoy these desserts to their fullest.

DH had some mousse, a zebra dome, coconut flan, Bread pudding with caramel sauce and something else is in the picture but I can't remember what it was. He said it was all good.

Overall I enjoyed this as much as our first visit, it's an incredibly popular restaurant with quite a loud atmosphere, but it's a good opportunity to try some new African foods. There are plenty of vegetarian options available and this was one of the few restaurants DH requested we visit again.

Rating 3.5/5.

 

[my3disneygirls]

That's what everyone says to me but I actually found it quite relaxing. We had so much time we just did half days at the parks, chilled out in the afternoon then went for a nice meal in the evening. I can imagine it would be exhausting to do commando touring for that long though!

That makes sense. Since our family only go on vacations a week at a time, we cram in more into a shorter period of time. By the last day I'm wiped out. Typically Americans only get two weeks of vacation a year and it usually can't be taken in a row. As you put in more time you get another week, but it's not usually allowed to take 2 or 3 weeks in a row.

I'm glad you had a nice vacation.

 

[DLo]

Great reviews and pics. I am sooooo jealous - 21 days. We only go for 4 at a time. Looking forward to the rest of your reviews and more pics!!

 

[YCFAN]

Joining in!!!

 

[sherry8253]

Looking forward to more of your reviews. Thanks for posting.

 

[MOTHERGOOSE3]

sounds awesome

 

[taylorl25]

Today was our second Animal Kingdom day. I think we just had a donut for breakfast so were hungry for lunch just before 12. With AK's limited CS options we decided to try Restaurantsaurus for a change.

We got there just before 12 and the place was packed with hardly any free tables, however the park was really busy today and with it's limited dining options I wasn't that surprised.
DH went for a veggie burger, which he rated as better than POFQ, and he enjoyed the toppings bar as well.
I chose chicken nuggets. These were actually good but 10 nuggets is way to many for me to eat for lunch, the fries were typical McDonalds fries.
For dessert we both went for strawberry shortcake. This was okish, the sponge was dry and the cream tasted synthetic, but the strawberries and sauce were ok. DH actually liked his so it may have just been my personal taste.

I know I took a photo of this meal but for some reason I can't find it at the minute, I'll hunt again later.

Tonight's reservation was at Kona Cafe. We'd never been here before and the vegetarian options didn't really appeal to DH, but it gets rave reviews here so I persuaded him to give it a go. We arrived slightly early so decided to have a wander round the lobby and I'm never seen such a busy hotel lobby anywhere. There were people checking in for the luau (which was cancelled soon after due to the major storm going on outside), people checking in for Kona and 'Ohana and it just felt crazy. The pagers for Kona (and I assume 'Ohana) only work on the second floor, and you could honestly barely walk round that floor without having to squeeze past people.

We checked in about 15 minutes early and we were paged about 5 minutes later. The restaurant was really busy and our table was too close to our neighbours for my liking but overall it had a nice ambiance to it. I ordered an Island Sunset, which was a good, slushy style cocktail and DH ordered a Mai-tai which was good but way stronger than my drink.

Service felt rushed to say the least. We were greeted after about 1 minute and asked what we would like to drink and were we ready to order. As I'd only looked at the menu for 30 seconds I said no, she came back about 3 minutes later with drinks and asked if we were ready now.

We were then given bread which was fantastic and was so delicious with the macadamia butter. I ordered Duck pot stickers. I thought these were lovely, lots of duck filling and the meet wasn't at all fatty. The pastry was kind of chewy and the sauce tasty. We don't really have pot stickers in England so these were the first I'd ever tasted but they seemed good to me!

DH ordered the only vegetarian appetiser choice, Kona Salad-Mixed greens, Maytag blue cheese, fresh fruit, red onions, and smoked almonds with a citrus vinaigrette As I mentioned before he's not a huge salad fan but he said this was very good, with a strong blue cheese flavour complemented by the apples in it.

For my entree I ordered the Shrimp and Scallops. This was ok, the shrimp was really good with a lovely crispy breading and the sticky rice was tasty. I felt the scallops were slightly overcooked and the wasabi sauce was good but had quite a kick to it. I also thought the dish could have done with more sauce to go with the portion of rice provided.

DH asked if he could get the Pan Asian noodles without any chicken. Our waitress offered to add tofu to the dish which I thought was really nice, however he really didn't enjoy this dish at all. He said it was just really bland with no real flavour to it. I know a lot of people on these boards have said they loved this dish so I'm not sure why it wasn't good that night. I wasn't feeling too well so didn't have a taste myself.

We asked for dessert to go as I was starting to feel a bit ill. Our waitress happily obliged and had them boxed up for us. I ordered the chocolate macadamia tart which was nice but not fantastic. The chocolate pastry was really good but the filling was a gooey caramel so it wasn't quite chocolatey enough for me.

DH ordered the Kilauea Torte which was really good but didn't travel too well and would have been better eaten at the restaurant. It was very rich and the chocolate centre was gorgeous.

Overall I enjoyed my meal there but DH not so much, therefore rating would be 3/5.

 

[taylorl25]

We had a lunch reservation at Coral Reef 1pm. When we checked in the lobby was busy with a fair few people waiting, but not crazy like at Mama Melroses.

We were seated in less than 10 minutes and got a table next to the tank. This was a great seat and offered a wonderful view, only downside was the children who came and stood right behind or beside you to get a better view.

Our waiter was friendly and he brought us drinks quickly, he explained they were waiting on the bread and would bring some as soon as possible.
For my appetiser I had the cod cake. This was good but not great, it had a slight spice to it but wasn't as flavourful as a typical crabcake, and had a fair bit of potato inside.

DH ordered the mushroom soup. He declared it as good, with a nice creamy texture.

You can also see the fish guide they give to help recognise fish in the tank.

For my main I ordered Mahi Mahi with Israeli Couscous and soy honey dressing. This was really good, I love mahi mahi and i've never been able to get it in England so make sure I order it at least once when I travel to the states. The fish was cooked beautifully and was complemented really well by the soy-honey sauce. I'd never even heard of israeli couscous, it was large grains with a soft texture but I really liked it and enjoyed the dish.

The vegetarian option was a Pumpkin risotto with cranberry sauce. This must have changed quite recently as I was expecting the pesto risotto listed on allears. This was only served warm, but DH said it was good but very sweet. He said the cranberry sauce didn't compliment the risotto well but it was an ok dish.

You can see the bread in the above photo that arrived just before the entrees did. It certainly had been freshly baked, it was piping hot and was gorgeous when the butter just melted on it.

For dessert we both chose the chocolate wave and a glass of Rosa Regale. I'd never tried either of these but heard a lot about both on the DIS so decided to see if they lived up to their reputations.
The chocolate wave was excellent, very rich and the grand marnier sauce in the centre was gorgeous. The brandy soaked cherries were too strong for me but DH enjoyed them. Dessert only got better when we got our glass of Rosa (initially our waiter forgot to bring it), it complimented the dessert perfectly and was a fabulous ending to a lovely meal.

I really enjoyed this meal, the food was good, the restaurants atmosphere was unique and service was good. This was one of the only non signature restaurants that I didn't feel a little rushed in, although some may have thought the pace of the meal was too slow, it was perfect for me.
Rating 4/5, although as a vegetarian DH only scored 3/5.

We came back to Epcot for EMH tonight and wanted to grab something to eat after illuminations. We went to Sunshine seasons and only the sandwich and bakery stations were open.

Therefore we split the grilled vegetable sandwich, this was good with a nice balance of vegetables and cheese, but a tad too much aurbergine for me, the bread was nice and crusty though. Totally forgot to take a picture of this.
We had a slice of chocolate fudge cake for dessert, this was a rich cake with plenty of buttercream. Very good.

 

[Eeyore's Tailfinder]

Great reviews

That Torte reminds me of Kona all over again and has got me hungry

 

[taylorl25]

Great reviews

That Torte reminds me of Kona all over again and has got me hungry

Thanks for commenting. I've been reading your reviews too and they're really good. We ate at a lot of the same places.

 

[Colson39]

Captain Jacks and no Clam Chowder!!! Blasphemy!!

Still one of my favorite restuarants/bars in all of Disney. The clam chowder is legendary in my family, and one of the nicest bars in all of Disney. Man I love that place, we'll be there in a few weeks!

 

[taylorl25]

Captain Jacks and no Clam Chowder!!! Blasphemy!!

Still one of my favorite restuarants/bars in all of Disney. The clam chowder is legendary in my family, and one of the nicest bars in all of Disney. Man I love that place, we'll be there in a few weeks!

Thanks for commenting. Sorry I'm too big a crab cake fan to have picked anything else for an appie! Captain Jacks was a strange experience because the appetiser was so good but my entree was just bad. We'll hopefully give it another try at some point and I may just try the chowder.