Get me out of the cold! 13 days of sunshine and good eats!

[roxysmum123]

Hello all!

Welcome to my 2nd (or maybe 3rd?) Disney Dining Review! We are leaving in one week (!!!) and I figured now is as good a time as any to set it up!

Travelling and eating will be myself and my boyfriend. I'll eat pretty much anything, but he's a little pickier....needless to say he will have the steak dinner reviews covered! On tap are a number of spots that are favourites of ours as well as a LOT of new stops for us. We are really excited to be leaving home, as we're starting to think Polar Bears will journey across our streets....we live in Southwestern Ontario and needless to say it is FRIGID right now! Looking forward to some Florida sunshine and above zero temperatures!

As for the dining, here are the ADR's we have lined up for now:

Breakfasts:
Trails End (new to us for breakfast)
Olivias (new to us)
Boma (new to us for breakfast)
Crystal Palace (new to the bf)

Lunches:
Via Napoli
Trails End (new to us for lunch)

Dinners:
Coral Reef
Trattoria al Forno (new to us)
Narcoossees (new to us)
The Plaza (new to us)
Spice Road Table (new to us)
50's Prime Time Cafe (new to the bf)
Sanaa
San Angel Inn (new to us)
Jiko
Mama Melrose (new to us)
Boma (new to the bf)

Something special:
Tea at the Grand Floridian (new to us)
Tomorrowland Terrace Fireworks Dessert Party (new to the bf)
Staying Club Level at Wilderness Lodge (new to us)

Hopefully I get some great meals and pictures for everyone! I'll also add in the QS and Snacks as they happen. I'll be using my iPhone 6 for most of the photos so I apologize in advance if some of them aren't prize winning quality.

Also, I'll be trying to update as often as possible over the trip, so lets call this a semi-live report!

That's it for now, thanks for joining in!

 

[kastoney]

Subbing in, can't wait to read all about it

 

[nessz79]

Looking forward to your reviews

 

[dvc at last !]

Looking forward to reading your TR -
will it be live ?

 

[vettegirl]

Count me in

 

[roxysmum123]

Subbing in, can't wait to read all about it

Looking forward to your reviews

Looking forward to reading your TR -
will it be live ?

Count me in

Thanks for joining in all! To answer your question, I will be making this as live as Disney's Wi-Fi will let me, lol! My goal is to update at least nightly, but we'll see what the Wi-Fi decides is fit.

We arrived today and I'm going to share our first treat now! Mostly because I want to make sure I remember how to work the Photobucket situation, lol. Breakfast was a bag of cookies courtesy of Southwest Airlines....I did not get a picture, because, well, its a bag of cookies.

Our first park food was......



from Caseys Corner!

I HAD to get Corn Dog Nuggets for lunch, so that's what we got!



I feel these don't really need a review because they're practically legendary, but they were as fabulous as always and hit the spot.

A quick one for now, but I'll be back later with some Coral Reef love!

 

[roxysmum123]

Dinner last night was at Coral Reef. This is one that we've been to before and we had a great dinner there last time. This time shaped up to be a good, but not great dinner. However, our server Hassan was FABULOUS. I would request his table next time we come here for sure! Yesterday was a very busy and exciting day (which I'll get into in a future post) so not a lot of great pictures but I promise that will improve from here on out!

I ordered a Pina Colava which is my fave 'by the pool' drink, it was perfect! The bf ordered an "Abyss". He doesn't drink alcohol often, and he loved this one...it was gone pretty quickly.


It's very....vibrant in color, lol.

For appetizers we had the Caesar Salad and the Lobster Bisque:





The salad was good, as was the soup. However, the pieces of lobster in the soup were not. They were fishy tasting and almost tough. I would order the soup again for sure, I would just eat around the "lobster" on suspicion it was surimi.

For our meals I ordered the Oven Baked Chicken Breast and he ordered the Peppercorn Steak.





I usually get the Mahi Mahi here, but for some reason I was feeling more turf than surf. The chicken was surprisingly good! The polenta cake it came with looked odd, but was fabulous and creamy. The other sides....if you could manage to get it all on one fork, were amazing.

Comments on the steak were "it was good! A little on the rare side, but better under than over cooked. Also less peppercorn-y than last time, but still quite good". The cheddar mashed potatoes it came with, we could probably eat a bucket full of.


Today's plans are grabbing some breakfast in the Club Level Lounge, lunch at Art of Animation, and then dinner at the new Trattoria on the Boardwalk! Noms away!

 

[kastoney]

Looks like a great start to your trip. The corn dog nuggets are always a good go to, and my daughters name is Casey so we are even more endeared to it.

Glad to hear you got such great service at coral reef. We've never been due to the mixed reviews, but your meal looks pretty solid.

Can't wait for more

 

[Vernie822]

Joining in

Casey's Corn Dog Nuggets sound delicious. I don't even like hot dogs, but for some reason every time I see them on someone's trip report, it makes me want them - I'll have to try them someday.

Your meal at Coral Reef sounds good! A lot of people give that place bad reviews, but it sounds like your meal was yummy.

 

[vettegirl]

Yum corn dog nuggets! Never tried them but they sound good! That suspicious lobster in your bisque sounds bad haha! Looking forward to more.

 

[roxysmum123]

Looks like a great start to your trip. The corn dog nuggets are always a good go to, and my daughters name is Casey so we are even more endeared to it.

Glad to hear you got such great service at coral reef. We've never been due to the mixed reviews, but your meal looks pretty solid.

Can't wait for more

I had avoided it for a long time for the same reason, but I finally gave up on that because everyone has different opinions and there have been a few places I've enjoyed that I've red very few positives on. I've had fairly good meals there every trip, but I wouldn't call it a "must do"....put it on the B list maybe?

Joining in

Casey's Corn Dog Nuggets sound delicious. I don't even like hot dogs, but for some reason every time I see them on someone's trip report, it makes me want them - I'll have to try them someday.

Your meal at Coral Reef sounds good! A lot of people give that place bad reviews, but it sounds like your meal was yummy.

Even if you just eat the batter and spit out the dog, they're amazing!

Yum corn dog nuggets! Never tried them but they sound good! That suspicious lobster in your bisque sounds bad haha! Looking forward to more.

Any suspicious lobster is no friend of mine!!


This mornings breakfast was in the Wilderness Lodge Club Level Lounge. It was a good spread, with good sized pot of oatmeal. We grabbed a bagel and some fruit and got tea and juice to go. We agreed Club Level is a luxury and if you're trying to work out if its "worth it", it probably isn't. It's a nice treat though.









We then checked out of the lodge, and sent our luggage on its way to Saratoga Springs. We made our way over to Art of Animation for lunch. We also did a decent walk-around of the place. I will admit, it's pretty neat! I would definitely stay here with children, as an adult couple though probably not so much. The food court though is worth the trip! AND if you have Tables in Wonderland, the card works here for 20% off! They have a ton of variety and great options for everyone.

My bf wasn't very hungry so he just got the Pesto Cheese Bread from the pizza grill counter and I got the Surf and Surf Burger





It is now 5 hours later and he is still talking about that bread, so it must have been good, haha! The Surf and Surf is my go-to at Landscape of Flavors, it's a crabcake topped with fried popcorn shrimp. The fries are also seasoned (maybe Cajun spices?) really well! It's a great QS option, and the prices are reasonable in my opinion for the quality of food you get.

Dinner tonight has been changed! We're having a lazy day at Saratoga so we've moved our Trattoria reservation to Wednesday and will now be going to Turf Club for dinner! Excited to try this one out because I don't see it reviewed often, hoping for a hidden gem!

 

[kastoney]

Your pics of the WL lounge just took me back to our trip last September. May never see it again so good to reminisce ; )

That bread at landscape sure does look good.

Hope you enjoy dinner tonight.

 

[roxysmum123]

HIDDEN GEM FOUND!!!

Turf Club last night was fantastic! The atmosphere was great, our server was wonderful, and the food was so good! Highly recommend giving this spot a try if you're in the area....we will likely make the trip out here no matter where we stay in the future.

The inside waiting area is a great lounge with a pool table and a bar. We were asked if we wanted to sit inside or out on the patio....it was not warm last night and they assured us the patio was heated. I verified that if we wussed out there would be enough tables available inside that we could move, and they said yes. The heaters out there were great and kept the patio at a very comfortable temperature.


For appetizers we got the Seasonal Salad (which today was an antipasto salad) and the Butternut Squash Soup





I have a love of soups, so I will almost always get this as an appetizer. I may or may not have used to bread to not leave a drop of this stuff behind. It was great! The salad was also really good, I stole the mushrooms off it and the dressing used was perfectly sweet and salty. The bf has learned very recently that he likes charcuterie type platters, so he really liked this.

Dinner was Oven Fried Chicken, and the New York Strip



The chicken came with 3-cheese Mac and Cheese and green beans almondine. The bf didn't love the chicken, but could have made a meal out of the beans and mac and cheese. I tried the chicken and I really liked it, so maybe he was expecting something different? He agreed the meal was still great though, he'd just hadn't found his "go to" menu item on the first trip.



I generally do not like strip steaks....why did I order this then? Umm, lobster fondue. I had no idea what that was, but I had to find out. The steak was served with veggies (grilled asparagus which I love), mashed potatoes, and lobster fondue. The lobster fondue was far more successful than last nights lobster soup let me tell you!! This was an amazing meal and I'm so sad I found it in Disney instead of somewhere closer to home.

I'm a dessert addict, he is not, so we will often only have one dessert to report. When we go out, we almost always get two forks or two spoons.....uhhh I'm not sharing and he knows better than to try lol.

Dessert for me was the Seasonal Fruit Crumble



This was perfect. It wasn't too much filler like I find crumbles and cobblers can be. Just apple slices, cranberries, spices, and a few spots of oatmeal crumble. The icecream ontop was great too, I could have had a bowl full of that alone.

Turf Club was a definite win for us, we look forward to coming back one day!

What's up for today? Lunch at Be Our Guest and dinner at Narcossees, forks away!

 

[apurplebrat]

Enjoying your reviews

 

[kastoney]

Wow, I must admit I don't know much about turf club but it looks like you all made an excellent choice. That lobster fondue sounds delish and I could so go for that antipasto salad right about now. Keep the good food coming...

 

[DisneyFan2015]

Joining in too... looking forward to hearing more!

 

[Pfau]

Lobster fondue! Nice! I don't recall seeing any reviews for Turf Club so thanks!

And corn dog bites ... my husband's restaurant serves them so I think we will be skipping them (my girls eat them all.the.time.) but I agree! They are tasty little things.

 

[roxysmum123]

Thanks for joining in everyone!

Lunch yesterday was at Be Our Guest. We've done lunch here before, and have zero interest in dinner here. There's just nothing on the menu that grabs us. We had Fastpasses for lunch, and when we got there they had a sign up saying that they were full for lunch...so I assume they're still working with the Fastpass only dining? Minimal wait to order food and the place was still a complete zoo inside, but it definitely beat the 30mins in pouring rain we waited last time.

I had the Carved Turkey Sandwich and the bf had....Chip's Delight - grilled cheese kids meal....He struggles at Disney sometimes because of the amount of food there is. At home he eats a lot of little meals, so its hard for him to adjust to 2 bigger meals in a day while away.





The sandwich was great and the fries were surprisingly good. His kids meal was actually perfect for him, first time I've seen him clear a plate at Disney lol!! He said the soup tasted like marinara sauce, which was weird, but edible.

I had the Eclair for dessert



Not sure how many Canadians are on here, but it tasted like a Tim Hortons Boston Creme Donut with a tinge of orange flavor. It was good, but not amazing. I've tried every type of dessert here now and can safely skip dessert going forward. It's just not worth the price to me, give me one of those chocolate cakes in a cup you get everywhere else!

Up next, Narcoossees

 

[roxysmum123]

Narcoossees (if I keep spelling that wrong, I apologize!) was completely new to us. We usually do one signature a trip, but since this was an extra long trip we decided to do two (happy dance!). This visit to Narcoossees is brought to you by two exciting events in the last week for me. I got a major promotion for work, AND on our first day at Disney we got engaged! We decided before we went that we would order whatever we wanted regardless of cost. I'm pretty sure it's the most expensive meal we've ever had together, BUT it's a once in a lifetime meal so we don't feel so bad.

I got the Unique White Wine Flight. It was good! The moscato was my fave, and I saved that one to enjoy with dessert.





The blend was a little potent, especially compared to the sweetness of the other two, so tread carefully with that one.

Our appetizers were the BBQ Shrimp and Grits and the Cheese Plate







The Shrimp and Grits was amazing, I could have ordered two for a meal. We don't have grits in Canada so I'm not sure what they're supposed to be like but these were so creamy and buttery, I only wished there were more! He had the cheese plate and the Midnight Moon was his favourite, and apparently the Brie on the far left tasted like butter.

For our mains I had the whole lobster, and he had the Steak but subbed the sides that came with the chicken.





The lobster came with a "Fallen Corn Suffle" that tasted fantastically like cornbread. This meal was good, but I learned I don't like whole lobster. It's just too much of the same thing I think? I wouldn't order it again, but I'm glad to have got it last night to try. His steak was declared good but not the best he's ever had, but the side dishes kicked up the meal and made him a very happy camper.

Dessert, we shared the Mango Sorbet. Dinner was very rich so the lightness of this was a good decision.



Would we come back? Eventually, but it won't be on the top of our list. The service was fabulous (we've lucked out so far this trip really), and the meal was very good, but it wasn't good enough to stop us in our tracks and declare Narcoossees our new favourite. Jiko still holds the crown for that.


Todays plans are to pack up and move over to our next hotel, spend the day in Downtown Disney (so fingers crossed for an Earl of Sandwich lunch!) and then dinner at Trattoria.

 

[jakenjess]

Great reviews! Agree with you on the Turf Club, it's definitely a hidden gem! Looking forward to more