After our lunch at B&C we went back to our resort, picked up our groceries and stroller, and settled in to our room (BTW, kudos to Garden Grocer and Orlando Stroller Rental for their excellent service!).
Considering we were up at 4 am, we settled in for a nap in the hopes our kids would not be total bears come dinner time. Then we set out for Epcot and dinner at Tutto Italia.
Surprisingly, with all our visits to WDW, we have never eaten at the Italy pavilion, even when it was Alfredos. But I have read so many great reviews of Tutto we decided to give it a try. Plus, Italian food has the advantage of being on the short list of things my kids will eat.
Our ADR was for about 6 and it was pretty close to that when we arrived. It looked like they were seating walk ups outside and ADRs inside (although I am not sure if those with ADRs could have gotten an outside table if they asked). DH heard the wait was a couple of hours, but I am not sure if that was for inside or out. We waited for about 10 minutes in the cool lobby and then were seated.
The restaurant is very nice looking, although it is one big room so fairly bustling, but not too noisy. I started off with a Bellini which was quite yummy (sorry, no pics) and everyone else had waters. We weren't that hungry after the big lunch so we skipped the appys, although they did bring out a little bread basket with some fancy butter. It had some breadsticks and other kinds of bread. You can sort of see it to the right here in the picture of DD. Also some pickled veggies that none of us ate (well DD tried one of the pickles and promptly spit it out - lovely).
At most of the TS places DDs got little menus with games and puzzles and some crayons which kept them busy. Although little kids wouldn't be able to do much on them. Even DD5 needed help with most of it. But for kids a little older, this will help keep them busy a bit.
The kids got appys with their meal and they both ordered the Fruit Cocktail. Which basically was chopped up cantaloupe, pineapple, and honeydew. And when I say chopped, I do mean CHOPPED. Teeny tiny pieces you could barely pick up with a fork. We ended up asking for spoons which made it easier, but I am not sure why it was all diced up like that. Making it harder of course to pick out the dreaded honeydew! Neither of them will eat that nor the pineapple so I had to painstakingly pick out each microscopic piece of cantaloupe from the bowl. DD5 has eagle eyes - I tried to sneak in some pineapple and she caught me every time!
Oh, they also ordered waters and got little bottles again like B&C, fwiw.
For dinner, DH ordered the Pollo al Mattone (roasted-pressed chicken with lemon, herbs and hot red peppers). It wasn't spicy though for those worried. I thought it was very good. Huge portion too, which came in handy as you will see later!
I got the Cannelloni (baked with spinach, ricotta, bechamel and parmesan cheese). It was delish! Creamy, cheesy, fattening, yummy! It doesn't look that big but it was quite filling. I'd definitely recommend it.
DD8 got the grilled chicken with vegetables. Grilled chicken is actually one of the few things she eats so I was hopeful here, but no luck. It was sort of strange, so I am not sure I blame her.
I mean that is one flat, perfectly round piece of chicken. She said it tasted weird. And of course those veggies were not crossing her lips for anything. I asked if they could substitute them but they had nothing else. She ended up eating DH's chicken instead.
DD5 ordered the farfalle pasta with butter sauce (it was supposed to come with cream sauce but she wouldn't eat that). I made the mistake of letting them put on Parmesan cheese b/c she loves it at home. Of course at home it is called "sprinkly cheese" and is made by Kraft. This was real cheese and it had a bit more bite than she is used to. I loved it, but once it was on there, she wouldn't eat one bite of her noodles. Lovely! So we are 0 for 2 with the kiddies. But she also ate DH's chicken. Lucky him. I apparently didn't take a picture of this, but if you can imagine noodles with butter and parmesan cheese, you've got it.
For dessert, I had my absolute favorite - Profiteroles! (ok, secretly the reason I picked this restaurant was so I could get this dessert!). And they did not disappoint. Basically they are little cream puffs filled with vanilla gelato and topped with chocolate sauce. These came naked and they poured the hot chocolate over them at the table. Heavenly!
DH ordered the chocolate torta (chocolate and hazelnut torte with whipped cream and raspberry sauce ) w/o the raspberry sauce. Nothing could top my dessert (imho) but he really liked it and said it hit the spot.
The girls got the gelato with chocolate sauce. They had some sort of sundae but it had bananas so we had to adapt. It was a large bowl and they sucked it down.
And here we are at the end of the meal, full, fat, and happy!
This was our first
DDP meal and it is sort of confusing with the new system where tip is OOP. We got one bill with all our food (DDP and OOP) that indicated the recommended tip. Then once we filled it out with our tip, they took it back and gave us two separate bills, one with our DDP food and one with the OOP charges (in this case the bellini and the tip). It sort of makes these confusing dealing with all the paper. I forgot to write down our total cost, but DH left a $26 tip which was 20% so I will leave you all to do the math! Total OOP was $35 counting my drink.
Overall I thought it was an excellent meal and I would definitely be back. DDs meals didn't turn out ideal, but they are not your typical eaters and it wasn't the restaurant's fault. My food and DHs food were delicious. For a PP, I though it was better than Mama Melrose (or at least my memory of MM).
Ok, as Tigger would say TTFN (ta ta for now - our families new favorite slogan!). I have to actually do some work, but hopefully I can get back online soon. Next up, lunch at CHH and dinner at Kona. Both yum!