From The Past to The Future - Dining Reviews and September Trip Preview!

[Mr Lee]

Hello everybody!

My name is Lee, and my friends sometimes like to call me Mr Lee hence my name at the Disboards!!

I have been enjoying many of the great reviews here and felt it was only fair to share my experiences with all of you here.

Firstly, a little bit about me. I am 31 years old, male and live in Scotland. I travel with my girlfriend Anna who is 26 to the world as often as possible. We try our best to make it to WDW 2 times a year!!

What I intend doing with this thread is reviewing all of the meals we enjoyed on our visit in Sept/Oct 08,when we experienced the dining plan for the first time!

I will also review some restuarants from our last minute trip in January this year to celebrate Anna's birthday. In this trip we stayed off site and also spent some time seeing Universal, so will be discussing dining from an OOP perspective.

I will also be looking forward to our trip in September. We have made our reservations, so will let you know what we managed to book and and provide an insight into why we made these choices. I will also discuss possible choices for counter service throughout our stay.

I hope you find the reviews entertaining, and if you want to add any comments I would be more than grateful!!

Coming Up, a summary of where we visited on our September 2008 trip!

 

[Mr Lee]

On our trip back in September 2008, we had the pleasure of staying at Coronado Springs resort. It's a resort that definately has many pro's and cons to it,which is for another post elsewhere on the forum!

It was also the first time we utilised the free dining plan, which gave us the opportunity to experience many restuarants that we had yet to try, and return to some that we had enjoyed previously.

Here is a list of what reservations we made prior to arriving at Disney:

20/9 -Maya Grill 9.00pm
21/9 - Le Chefs De France 5.00pm
22/9 - Teppan Edo 5.00pm
23/9 - 50's Prime Time Cafe 4.55pm
24/9 - Boma 9.35pm
25/9 - Planet Hollywood 9.00pm
26/9 - Coral Reef 2.00pm
27/9 - O'Hana 5.00pm
28/9 - Mama Melroses 4.50pm
30/9 - Artist Point 5.30pm
1/10 - Le Chefs De France 5.00pm
2/10 - Maya Grill 9.00pm
3/10 - Le Cellier 1.40pm

We did make some changes when we were there, as can happen!

On the 25th we had went shopping and ended upsotired we never made it out of our room for the Planet Hollywood reservation.

On the 28th we ended up really hungry and going to 50's Prime Time again at 3.00pm and cancelling our Mama Melroses reservation.

On the 1st we decided to go back to Teppan Edo again and have something to eat earlier. On our last night we used our spare credit on visiting Restuarant Makharesh in the evening.

I really need to head to bed now as it is fast approaching midnight here in Scotland! I will begin my reviews tomorrow!

 

[butiflfeet]

Me first! I'll try to be patient waiting for your reviews

 

[danalee]

im in!

 

[MickeyNicki]

Sounds great, count me in!

 

[Mr Lee]

On our first day we checked in at coronado Springs after a marathon journey involving a five hour bus journey, waiting several hours atthe airport and a nine hour flight plus all the time it takes to get through customes and transferring from the airport to the hotel.

Tired and jet lagged, we freshened up with a nice shower and got ready to head to Maya Grill.

We really liked the theming, reminding me of some of the nicer Mexican restuarants back home, and we were ead to a quiet table by our server, who was most helpful, and could obviously see we were a bit worse for wear!

As we were on the dining plan we decided just to order our main course and dessert. I went for the shoulder beef tender and ordered a nice dessert that was some kind of pastry and came with coconut ice cream (my memory is a little hazy here!) and Anna ordered the salmon and a chocolate cake.

Our server then kindly brought us over some bread to enjoy prior to the arrival of the main course. I have to say the flavourful dip was most interesting and realy went well with the fresh bread.

I really enjoyed my Beef, which I ordered with a baked potato, and it was cooked as I requested (medium to well done). The baked potato was a little dry but the vegetables were very tasty!

Anna thoroughly enjoyed her salmon, which she said was one of her favourite meals at Disney yet! Of course we still had another 13 nights of disney dining ahead of us, but we were really impressed by the mains at our resort.

As I said, I cant really remember my dessert, but the coconut ice cream was such a great highlight! I wish I could have got a plate of it by itself! Maybe next time I will make that a request!

It might be worth mentioning at this point that I do not eat chocolate. I used to have an unhealthy addiction, eating five or six bars a day so I stopped eating chocolate in March 2003. This limits what I can choose for dessert (and I am fussy to start with!!)

Anna had an incredible slice of chocolate cake. The slice itself was pretty thin, but she described it as delightful, one if the nicest cakes she has had the pleasure to eat, enveloping her mouth in chocolate goodness! She said she would definitely get this again… and she did on our second visit!

So after a nice meal we decided to head back to our room to catch up for some much needed sleep! On our way back Anna almost trod on a snake, and being from Scotland we got the fright of our lives, but survived to tell the tale!

To summarize, here are the final marks for the meal:

Bread 4/5
Shoulder Beef Tender 4.5/5
Salmon 5/5
Dessert with Coconut Ice Cream 3.5/5
Chocolate Cake 5/5

Restaurant Presentation 4.5/5
Service 5/5

Overal Score 4.5/5

If you are staying at Coronado Springs you should definitely take the opportunity to check Maya Grill out! The food and service is excellent and if on the dining plan it is great value for money! We would have considered it for our forthcoming trip if it wasn’t for the fact we are staying at Saratoga Springs and want to try several new restaurants on this visit. Will definitely return on a future visit!

Coming next: The first day at the parks, with Chefs De France and a Counter Service meal!! Can you guess where?? I was in another park before Epcot (a little clue!)

Have fun until later!

Lee

 

[disneyfav4ever]

I may have to try Maya Grill on my next trip.

 

[Mr Lee]

As you can imagine, our first day at the parks was filed with excitement, as we got ready and left in time to see the opening ceremony to the Magic Kingdom.

We headed straight for Tommorowland to ride some of our favourites such as Space Mountain and Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin. By eleven o’clock we were ravenous so made our way to our first counter service at Cosmic Rays.

You certainly know when your at Disney when you have a big hearted alien called Sonny Eclipse playing the tunes and amusing you with his corny jokes and I always make this my first stop when I go to WDW. As it was still quite early we sharded a chicken sandwich and fries which was delicious, and Anna had a Sprite whilst I bought a coke which helped cool us down in the first day getting used to the heat outside.

After spending most of the day at the Magic Kingdom, we ventured over to EPCOT by monorail and on to World Showcase for our reservation at Chefs De France.

We were greeted by our server, who had just arrived from France on his work placement, and he was a really nice guy. He seemed a bit nervous being new to the World, and my only negative comment was that he would be coming up to our table constantly during our meal to ask us if we wanted drinks or side dishes which he would probably be a direction given by the manager.

On our previous visit Anna had the chicken with mashed potato and half a tomato, and even though I had the lamb I much preferred her dish. So this time we both went for the chicken as our main course.

Prior to our main course arriving we enjoyed some nice rolls with butter, that was a great way to warm us up for the food that was almost upon us.

The main course then arrived and I have to say it was not as nice as when Anna had ordered it previously. At the time we thought that we had set our expectations too high, and we cancelled our reservation for later in the holiday. Looking back we think the chef may have had an off day as our January visit was exceptional once again, more on that later!

This was followed by our desserts. My trio of sorbet was nice and refreshing, with mango, strawberry and kiwi fruit favours, and I enjoyed having different flavours to try which makes things interesting. None of the flavours had a wow factor to it, just a nice dessert to me. Anna had the crepe filled with ice cream, apple and caramel sauce, and felt the sauce was overpowering, making the dessert overly sweet. She would only consider getting it again if there was less caramel sauce used.

The following ratings is what we gave Chefs De France on this occasion:

Bread 4.5/5
Chicken with Mashed Potatoes 3/5
Trio of Sorbet 3.5/5
Crepe with Ice Cream and Apple 3/5

Restaurant Presentation 5/5
Service 3/5

Overall Score 3/5

It seems that there were a number of factors which lead to us not enjoying this meal as much as we had hoped. What I will say is that on our previous visit and our visit in January we found the food to be much better and service was more relaxed. I still believe that this is one of the better World Showcase restaurants and it has a sophisticated charm that will keep me coming back!

 

[butiflfeet]

Thanks for sharing about Chefs de France! DH and I seem to have had a similar experience. We may have also gone into our last meal there with higher expectations and were disappointed. We'll definitely try it again, it's just not one of our top choices anymore.

 

[natalielongstaff]

Fab reviews so far, i look forward to hearing more

 

[TigerKat]

Great start, count me in!

 

[yolie912]

Subscribing.....Love your report

 

[Mr Lee]

Our second day at the World brought us to EPCOT, and after having fun at Future World, we headed over to the World Showcase to peruse the shops and attractions.

We had made a reservation at Teppan Edo for an early lunch. TE is one of our favourite restaurants in the World Showcase, firstly because we love Japanese cuisine, and secondly we always enjoy the show the chef puts on while preparing our food.

Today we had a very nice female chef, and the server came round to take our order. We decided to share some beef sukiyaki roll sushi, and Anna ordered the chicken whilst I ordered the fillet mignon. We decided to skip dessert as there was nothing out of the ordinary here, and we didn’t want to be bad just for the sake of it!

Anna was slightly wary as last time we were there the chef managed to get one of the shrimp tails that he was doing a trick with in amongst her food. She was worried in case we had him again, but we could see him at another table!

On to the food, and we started with the Beef Sukiyaki Roll, which I have to say is one of my favourite things to eat! It is essentially sushi with the beef replacing raw fish, and the combination of flavours after it is cooked on the Teppan grill is fantastic. It is probably worth noting that I have an aversion to sea food and sushi, so this is ideal for me! We order this every time and it tasted great as always.

For the main course you have the chef prepare your meal in the teppan grill in front of you. A server comes round and pours three different sauces in a side dish for you, and I have to admit that we don’t usually touch the sauces as they are not very nice in our opinion, but we don’t feel that it effects the enjoyment of our meal.

The chef usually starts by preparing the vegetables and a little bit of showmanship usually takes place at this time, with some neat tricks. Of course I won’t spoil for those who have not tried but its great fun and children especially enjoy this part of the meal. Once the vegetables and noodles are prepared each of the adults round the table receive a portion on the plate provided by the server prior to the preparation of the meats and shrimp that has been ordered.

Now here lies my only complaint about the Teppan Edo experience. I like to eat my whole meal at the same time, rather than have my vegetables and noodles served to me first as it can take another five or ten minutes to receive the rest of your meal. You can either eat your vegetables while they are still hot, or wait and eat them lukewarm when your meat comes. Well, we both just pick at our meal, attempting to tide off the hunger whilst trying had to keep some food to go with the rest of our meal.

The chef usually prepares the shrimp first, followed by the steaks and fillet mignon, and lastly the chicken. I requested that my fillet Mignon be done medium, and that’s exactly how I got it! It was a really nice cut of meat and I really enjoyed it as did Anna who had a little taste too! Anna enjoyed her chicken and I tried this too, always good!

As we decided to skip desserts, we shared some conversation with some of the other guests at the table before making our way back into the world. I always enjoy my experience here and the service was exceptional as always. One thing that may be worth noting is that we did not realise that you could order the combination meals on the dining plan. If we had realised we would definitely have gone for them as they offer a larger portion, which is needed to keep you going for the rest of the day! We made sure we used the dining plan to our advantage on our second visit later on our holiday!

Here’s our marks:

Beef Sukiyaki Roll 5/5
Chicken 4.5/5
Fillet Mignon 4.5/5

Presentation 4/5
Service 5/5

One of our favourite World Showcase restaurants, it never fails to disappoint! Whilst not the best Japanese cuisine we have enjoyed the food quality is fantastic and the experience a lot of fun. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys Japanese/Chinese cuisine or wishes to try something a little bit different, yet not delve into some of the more ethnic foods available at other restaurants throughout Disney property.

 

[Mr Lee]

Thanks for sharing about Chefs de France! DH and I seem to have had a similar experience. We may have also gone into our last meal there with higher expectations and were disappointed. We'll definitely try it again, it's just not one of our top choices anymore.

I definately agree with you on this one. when we returned in January paying OOP we decided to stop here for lunch, and have to say it was great value! It is aso more relaxing at lunch time with less hustle and bustle to worry about.

However, with the DDP and so many more restaurants to try for the first time, we have decided to miss it out of our forthcoming trip dining arrangements!

 

[Mr Lee]

Thanks to everyone who let me know they are enjoying the reviews! Unfortunately we didnt really get the chance to take pictures of our meals on previous trips, but we will be taking photos of everything come September!

I am going to work my way through my reviews from previous trips before talking about the forthcoming adventure, or do you think I am better starting a new thread for the next trip?