Go Big or Go Home! 17 Days of Disney Dining! COMPLETE & Food & Wine Fest Index

[jerseytinkerbell]

Playing catch-up again as usual. :

Wow - the rainbow trout at F&W looks and sounds divine. That is not something that I would normally think to get at the F&WF, but I would now!

Honestly though, all the F&W options look so yummy!

I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy the California roll. There are much better rolls out there, so maybe you will find one you like! (I am a HUGE fan of sushi, but I could almost never be bothered with a California roll.) I’m glad that France treated you better!

So glad you two got to enjoy an Eat to the Beat event! Too cool!

Love your Micke-shaped food quest the next night!

The trout was incredible! We had so many great things at F&W that it's hard to pick a favorite.

Good to know with the California Roll. I'm definitely open to trying different sushi in the future.

One of my favourite things to do when we stay at the Boardwalk is to get the fried cheese basket from Boardwalk To Go and sit out next to the lake Like you say, not the best culinary experience but still one that is a tradition for me nonetheless.

How was the Mickey Oreo Head? It looks pretty cute but how did it taste? What did it consist of? We need details (well, I do anyway)

I'm really not keen on those breakfast sandwiches (muffins) at DHS. The egg just doesn't taste quite right to me I am, however, a huge fan of that walkway to Hollywood Studios. Another tradition for us, when staying at BWV

Fried cheese with that view sounds like an awesome tradition!

I guess I should have described the Mickey Oreo head. The outer crust was like a chocolate cookie and the cream on the inside had a slight Oreo flavor, but more of an overall chocolate flavor. It wasn't particularly memorable, but it was pretty tasty. Better than a few of the other items I tried there.

I understand what you mean about the breakfast sandwiches. Those fake eggs patties, or whatever they are, are alright but definitely aren't as good as some real scrambled or fried eggs. They definitely need better breakfast options at HS. We love that walkway too. I would rather walk than wait for the boat. Although the boat ride is nice sometimes just for a change of pace.

Hi Jeri,
I'm joining in. That pool looked great! We're thinking of trying Beaches n Cream on our next trip after Hollywood Studios, how far of a walk would you say it is? Or the boat launch? The only place to eat for us is 50 Primetime. Not alot of choices..... P.S. They are saying 3iches in CT for Sunday's storm. My boys have 2 more days till the last day of school is June 30th which will be HOT! Then they take away from their April vacation. I think another storm on Thursday too! Alicia

The walk from HS to B&C is probably about 30 minutes. You could also take the friendship boat to Beach Club from HS. The times might be similar depending on how your timing works out with catching a boat, but if you want to relax on your way there it is a fun option!

I am so sick of all this snow. It's supposed to snow again tomorrow, but hopefully it's not too bad. At least the few inches we got last night melted up by this afternoon, so the roads are clear again. At least until tomorrow anyway.

Just wanted to say I'm loving the review!!! Lucky to have stayed @ BLT, How exciting!!!!

Now I'm all caught up finally!! [I hate not having time for Dis boards -lol!!!] It's so enjoyable to read along on your adventures. You two are such a cute couple. We were @ WDW in the same week & we missed Boys II Men b/c of our exhaustion. It was sad. But you have me wanting to switch some ADRs around for our summer trip. I now really wanna try Trails End. It looks really good & my mom said it was great too!

We really loved BLT! I am hoping to book our September stay there within the next week or two.

My Disboard time has been seriously cut down. I used to be able to check it out throughout my work day, but with my new job there is no downtime at all. It's so hard to keep up with all the great threads on here!

Thanks so much for the kind compliments! Boyz II Men were awesome, but I know what you mean about the exhaustion. We skipped Wilson Phillips the one night for the same reason.

You should definitely check out Trail's End! We are really looking forward to going again next trip.

Great trip report!

I love love love the cheesecake at Narcoosee's. I would have never thought to just pick up dessert. You are brilliant!

Thanks for the great tip.

Thanks so much! Hope you get to take advantage of the cheesecake to-go.

I am so enjoying your review
They are getting me so excited about getting back to F&W this year
So many yummy items in your reviews

Thanks Linda! That's exciting that you are going for F&W this year! I think we are going to miss it by a few days. I'm debating about switching our trip to a week when we can be there for it. I'm so torn!

and I wanna take a Disney trip with you!!!! I cannot figure out how you manage to eat so many great things. Truthfully I think that while reading almost every dining report. How the heck do you not all explode??? When DD and I go, we split breakfast & lunch (with the little package of fruit for dessert) then each get our own dinner and can't manage to finish THAT dessert!!! I took that fabulous bread pudding from Raglan Road back to the room and you are right, its not as good cold and leftover!!! But after eating too much of the bread and my entire meal there's no way I could manage a bite of dessert.

In 12 trips to the Mouse, I have never been able to eat at Ghiradelli's or Boardwalk Bakery or Main Street Bakery or any other darn good snack!!!! I swear next time, we are doing a snacks ONLY trip, meals be damned!!!!

Great report, thanks so much for taking the considerable time to write it!

Oh and I agree abour BOG lunch. Took 6 weeks to get the lunch ressie & the food was less than meh.

I'll leave room in the suitcase!

I really don't know how we eat so much either! What really boggles my mind is how much more we ate on DxDDP. I don't know how we ever did it.

That bread pudding is really almost impossible to eat. You need to go and have that as your meal. I was ready to eat that stuff until I was sick. It's too good!

You could definitely make a trip out of snacks alone! There are too many amazing things to try!

Thanks! I love writing these! This one has taken me a lot longer than usual, but I really enjoy it.

That's a shame that you had a less than stellar experience at BOG as well. They had better step it up there. Although, they have no shortage of people trying to get in there, so I don't think they care too much at this point.

 

[jerseytinkerbell]

After spending some time in HS we walked back to Boardwalk and then made our way over to Epcot while we decided what we wanted to do for lunch. It was pretty hot out and I wasn't quite in the mood to walk around F&W in the heat, so we made our way through WS and ended up at San Angel Inn.


We asked if they had any openings and fortunately they did! We were seated right away with a lovely view.


I could eat here just for the atmosphere alone.

We spent some time looking over the menu.


While we waited our server brought us chips and salsa.


I really enjoy the chips and salsa here. The red salsa has a little bit of heat to it which I definitely like.

Rob and I both ended up deciding on the same entree. Tacos de Carne. Grilled New York strip on flour tortillas, topped with chipotle pepper sauce, scallions and avocado. served with rice and beans.


These were very good! I love the rice and beans here. The meat on the tacos was very tender. I wish the sauce had a little more flavor, but overall they were delicious. We both cleaned our plates.

The service here was great and we had a really relaxing meal.

We ate here for the first time on the trip before this and it has become a new favorite. If you enjoy Mexican food and love the atmosphere in the Mexican pavilion I would definitely recommend it!

 

[jerseytinkerbell]

Just wanted to wish you all a very Happy Valentine's Day!

 

[RGirl]

I know it gets mixed review, but I have SAI near the top of my WS list of restaurants to try. I love the ambiance SO MUCH! And even less-than-stellar Mexican food is GOOD, you know? I'm so glad that you enjoyed it - looks like you had a great view too.

 

[wilma-bride]

That's exciting that you are going for F&W this year! I think we are going to miss it by a few days. I'm debating about switching our trip to a week when we can be there for it. I'm so torn!

Personally, I think you should consider going during the last two weeks of October

Great review of SAI. Whilst the food there really doesn't seem like it would be to our family's taste, the atmosphere looks great and I would want to eat there for that alone. So cool.

 

[jerseytinkerbell]

I know it gets mixed review, but I have SAI near the top of my WS list of restaurants to try. I love the ambiance SO MUCH! And even less-than-stellar Mexican food is GOOD, you know? I'm so glad that you enjoyed it - looks like you had a great view too.

We are definitely SAI fans! This was only our second time there, but we really enjoy it. And I agree with you about Mexican food. I love it! While this may not be the best Mexican food I've ever had, it's still very tasty. I hope you get a chance to try it on a future trip!

Personally, I think you should consider going during the last two weeks of October

Great review of SAI. Whilst the food there really doesn't seem like it would be to our family's taste, the atmosphere looks great and I would want to eat there for that alone. So cool.

Oh man, I wish I could! We need to use our APs before they expire in early October. Otherwise I would wait. My SIL will be there around that time too, so we're missing everyone by a few weeks unfortunately.

We did however just get our next trip booked! September 14th-20th at Bay Lake Tower! Not the longest trip this year, but at least we'll get there. We're going to do another week long vacation somewhere this year, but we're still figuring out where. Next year I am trying to plan a 2 week trip to England, so maybe I could meet up with you on your home turf!

Anyway, that's a shame you don't like the look of the food. Just get a table and enjoy a margarita... or two.

 

[wilma-bride]

Oh man, I wish I could! We need to use our APs before they expire in early October. Otherwise I would wait. My SIL will be there around that time too, so we're missing everyone by a few weeks unfortunately.

That's a real shame as there are quite a few of us from the Dining boards going to be there then.

We did however just get our next trip booked! September 14th-20th at Bay Lake Tower! Not the longest trip this year, but at least we'll get there.

Awesome, glad you have another trip to look forward to

Next year I am trying to plan a 2 week trip to England, so maybe I could meet up with you on your home turf!

That would be great, keep me posted on your plans

 

[jerseytinkerbell]

After lunch we made our way over to Future World to partake in some rides and to get out of the heat. On our way we decided to use up the last of our Starbucks gift cards (thank you Disney Movie Rewards!) at the newly redesigned Fountain View.


This one feels a lot more spacious than the one on Main Street in MK. It was a lot less hectic and crowded too.



We ordered our drinks and while we waited we were chatting with the CMs who were all super friendly. They all seemed genuinely happy to be at work today.

Drinks in hand, we made our way to Living Seas with Nemo and Friends. A personal favorite ride.

Rob once again got the Java Chip Frappuccino.


And I went with a new favorite and got the Salted Caramel Mocha Frappuccino. I love how they spelled my name with a cute little Mickey head to dot the i.




Cold, refreshing, delicious!

Now it's time to take our caffeine buzz on some rides!

 

[jerseytinkerbell]

After a few rides in Future World Rob was craving a piece of cheesecake, so we made a quick pitstop before the walk back to Boardwalk.


He knew what he wanted and I spent a few moments perusing the bakery case to see if I could find something too. Nothing looked particularly appealing, but here are some of the goodies they had in the case.











Rob got a piece of cheesecake, minus the berries, which he enjoyed back at the room later in the day.


He said it was so creamy and delicious. It was his second favorite dessert of he trip. The man loves his cheesecake!

 

[wilma-bride]

Who doesn't love cheesecake (except my MIL who doesn't like cheese but that's just plain weird )

 

[jerseytinkerbell]

We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing at the pool and then got ready for dinner. Only problem was, we were being indecisive and couldn't figure out where we wanted to eat. We had no reservations and after checking for reservations around WS, we came up empty. I let Rob look at menus on the laptop for the different restaurants around our resort area. Then I pulled up reviews and pictures from Barb's awesome live thread to see if anything struck his fancy. After pondering over Flying Fish, Shula's and Il Mulino he finally decided on Captain's Grille. The temperature had dropped significantly, so we were able to enjoy a nice, cool evening stroll over to Yacht Club. We found Captain's Grille right off the lobby and we were able to put our name in for a table.



We looked over the menu posted outside the door and had a pretty good idea of what we wanted before we were even seated.


Within 5 minutes we were seated and our awesome server came over right away and took our drink orders. She returned a few minutes later with our bread and butter.




Delicious! I ate way too much bread. As usual.

She also returned with our drinks from the bar. I was THRILLED to find this item on the menu.


Oh yes, you are seeing that correctly. Schofferhofer Grapefruit Beer!


These were so delicious! They were especially enjoyable out of the frosted glass.

Rob decided to try this item off the drink menu.




He enjoyed it, but it was STRONG! One drink was all he needed for the evening.

Next we decided on appetizers.


Rob chose the Buttermilk Fried Rock Shrimp.


This was a ton of shrimp! You could have made a meal out of just these. He loved them and enjoyed both of the sauces that came with it. Rob is loving shrimp this trip. I love it!

I was torn because everything sounded great, but I ended up choosing the Pot-braised Mussels and Clams. Tomato-fennel broth with toasted foccacia.


Absolutely amazing! Once again, I could have made a meal out of just my appetizer. The broth was seriously amazing. I needed more bread to soak up all the delicious, flavorful broth.

Even though we were both pretty full, we still had entrees coming out. Here is the list of entrees.


Rob had the Chef's Pasta Creation.


We forget the exact description, but I do know that there were short ribs mixed in with all that yummy pasta. This was his favorite entree of the trip. He is still talking about this dish 4 months later. It was so much food! A lot of this got boxed up and brought back to the room with us.

I had the Lump Crab Cakes with Old Bay Gaufrette chips, Stone Ground Mustard Cream, lemon emulsion, succotash, and greens.


After looking back at the description once we got home I realized I never got the Old Bay Gaufrette Chips, which is kind of a bummer, but no matter, these crab cakes were awesome! No filler and tons of crab meat. Fantastic! As you all know by now, I HATE MUSTARD, so I asked for the sauce on the side. I tried it just to see how strong of a mustard flavor it had and it was way too mustardy for me, so I stuck with the other sauce, which was really tasty. The veggies paired nicely with it as well. I could only manage to eat one crab cake, so the rest got boxed up and brought back to room along with Rob's pasta.

Even though I was so full I could burst, I wanted dessert.



The Hazelnut Gianduja Chocolate Cake with salted caramel sauce and chocolate crispies was calling my name.


This looked amazing, but it was just okay. I really enjoyed the consistency, but the flavors weren't bold enough. It was still a nice end to the meal.

I really enjoyed my meal, but Rob absolutely loved his meal. He said to tell you all that this was one of the top 5 meals of his life! That's a pretty bold statement, but he really did love it here. After we left he said, "First Beaches & Cream, now Captain's Grille, what other awesome food places around here are you holding out on?" There just isn't enough time, even in a 17 day trip, to get to all the awesome food that WDW has to offer. It just goes to show that you never know what new places you'll stumble upon any given trip.

Okay people, brace yourselves for a scare. As we walked back to our room we passed the pool with the scary clown mouth. Well it is even scarier at night. Check out this madness!


Whose sadistic idea was it to make the clown's eyes glow in the dark?!?! Not cool Disney Imagineers. Not cool. I may never sleep again.

 

[jerseytinkerbell]

Who doesn't love cheesecake (except my MIL who doesn't like cheese but that's just plain weird )

Doesn't like cheese?!?! How can that be possible?!?!

 

[wilma-bride]

Firstly, thanks for the scary clown photo - now I will not sleep tonight Actually, that damn clown is the only thing I don't like about the Boardwalk Inn/villas. It's fine (well, bearable) during the day but downright freaky at night - Stephen King's IT has nothing on that clown.

Secondly, how could you, how dare you like Captain's Grille? And, more importantly, how dare you post the picture of those buttermilk fried shrimp. Now I just HAVE to find a way to eat there next month just to have those

Doesn't like cheese?!?! How can that be possible?!?!

Weird, just plain weird (note: not a blood relative of mine so I take no blame for it)

 

[Mrs Doubtfire]

Captains Grille always looks so nice, glad you enjoyed your meal there

The clown looks like it as ten pin bowling pins in it's eyes

 

[athumann]

I have thoroughly enjoyed my afternoon reading your dining reviews. Many of them were off the beaten path and have made me re-think some of my choices for my trip in 15 days. Thanks so much for taking the time to be so detailed and informative!! Btw, you and your husband are adorable!!

 

[RDP]

Another fab review!

1999-Swan, 2001- Grand Floridian, 2002-Yacht & Beach Club, 2003- Animal Kingdom Lodge,2004- Grand Floridian&Disney Cruise,2006- Off site, 2008- Dolphin, 2009-AKV Kidani, 2010-Saratoga Springs ,2011-AKV Kidani ,2012 - Port Orleans, DCL-Dream & Beach Club, 2013 - AKV Kidani

 

[Linda67]

Wow, we've never considered Captain's Grille before but we will now!
The menu looks really good and it sounds like it's one of the easier places to get a last minute reservation

 

[happy2012]

Oh.My.Gosh. My DH & I are LOL right now @ Rob's drink choice b/c we BOTH ordered that thinking it looked amazing w/ the cherries, well.... strong it was!!!!! That was THE strongest cocktail ever! I was gasping for air after every sip until I had to ask the bartender for a large glass of ice & sprite or club soda to make it lighter. I tried the diluted version but finally passed it over to my hubby. I'm a sucker for cherries but I should have read the description closer. Less than 1/2 of that drink had me very buzzed. We have some good memories from that night though, singing on the bus & all kinda funny stuff.

Anyway...We loved SAI last trip, it was the perfect atmosphere & food! Loved that meal. CG is really good, but it's been years since we ate there & what you had looks amazing! +I think I wanna try the breakfast there. Yum!

 

[Haygar2]

Okay...you had me with the pictures of "Gnocchi Sea Gnocchi Do" at Raglan Road. I immediately put that one on my list. In fact, it's going to be dinner our first night. Now I see your pictures/reviews Captain's Grille. I have 3 weeks until I can make my ADRs (yes I am counting down). I thought I had everything picked out. Now, I am thinking of changing my Trail's End to Captain's Grille. It looks really good.

You've had both, which do you prefer (for dinner)? We are going to TE for breakfast. My husband saw the picture of the pulled pork eggs benedict and said we had to eat there. We are staying in the cabins, so I will be close.

We have 1 TS left. If you think something else is better than TE or Captain's Grille, please tell me. Right now we are eating at: Raglan Road, Boma, Teppan Edo, Be Our Guest (dinner), and 'Ohana. Suggestions for a non park dinner?

 

[emmysmommy]

I'm getting caught up Jeri.... I've missed a few meals, snacks, and food booth items! You had the ultimate Disney dining trip! I want to be you with a 17 day Disney trip during F&W!!

We unexpectedly loved SAI last August. It didn't hurt that we had that lovely seat next to the water and that we had a very sweet server. I thought the food wasn't that spicy but it wasn't bad. Glad you liked it as well.

Those eyes at night on the clown slide... creepy!

Captain's Grille being a surprise hit was great. And a top 5 for Rob. That's an impressive meal. We've had breakfast there many times which I love but dinner there twice and it was just ok. Maybe I have not ordered the few amazing dishes yet. We'll just say it's me!

Still following along albeit while catching up.