Happily Ever After Dining Reviews - Day 3 Done!

[Thumper's Tara]

If you are jumped over from our trip review - http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=23166452#post23166452 – thanks! I love food, so dining is always an important part of our trips. I love reading detailed food reviews, so I will do the best I can on supplying all of the details and pictures (when we remembered to bring the camera).

Here is a list of where we dined: Earl of Sandwich, Artist Point, Boardwalk Room Service, Chef Mickey’s – Dinner, Cosmic Ray’s, Liberty Tree Tavern, Chefs de France (Tara), ESPN (Matt), Cape May (Welcome Dinner), Grand Floridian Room Service, 1900 Park Fare – Dinner, Chef Mickey’s – Breakfast, Victoria & Albert’s Chef’s Table, Tusker House – Character Breakfast, Narcoossee’s, Columbia Harbor House, California Grill, and Kona Café.

Day 1 – Earl of Sandwich and Artist Point
Earl of Sandwich
Matt and I love Earl of Sandwich and try to make it here once each trip. On this trip, Matt had the Le Frenchy and I had The All American (I always get this ) and we each got a bottle Coke.

For those of you who have never been to Earl of Sandwich, I know what you are thinking. What is the big deal? They make sandwiches. How good can a sandwich really be? I used to be the same way. I would read the rave reviews and be doubtful. Then, I actually ate at EoS. Personally, I rank these as the best sandwiches ever. As I said, Matt and I make it a point to eat here once each trip. Grand total - $19.14.

Artist Point – Wilderness Lodge
Our dinner at Artist Point started out a bit rocky, but this was our own fault. I had thought that I had made the reservation for 7 pm, but in actuality it was for 6:10. To top it off, we were running a few minutes behind schedule and didn’t arrive at the restaurant until 7:15. Luckily, it was not a busy night and AP was able to fit us in.

Unfortunately, in our rush to get to the restaurant, we left the camera in the car. We were both exhausted and I just didn’t have the heart to ask Matt to go get it! I will do my best to do justice to the menu without having any pictures to back me up.

Our server, Jack, was a bit slow to greet us; however, he made up for his delay by being extremely friendly and knowledgeable. As we were celebrating the kick-off of our wedding festivities, we ordered a bottle of champagne. Unfortunately, I did not remember to get the name of the champagne. For what it is worth, our receipt calls it “CSM Brut”. It was a decent bottle and reasonably priced ($35).

For our first course, we decided to split the Selection of Artisan Cheeses – Riesling-poached raisins, dried cranberries, and walnut toast. The cheeses were all from the Northwest – a blue cheese, a goat cheese, and a cheddar. We both loved the cheddar. Matt liked the blue cheese, but thought it was very strong. I didn’t care for the blue cheese, but I also am not fond of strong smelling cheeses. On the other hand, I enjoyed the goat cheese, but Matt wasn’t thrilled with it.

For our entrees, Matt choose the Grilled Beef Tenderloin with Roasted Garlic Potato Cake, Wild mushrooms, Spinach, and Caramelized Onion Sauce. I choose the Grilled Buffalo Sirloin Steak with Sweet Potato-Hazelnut Gratin and Sweet Onion Jam.

My dish was good; Matt’s dish was wonderful! I need to learn to always pick what he gets – he is almost always right when it comes to food! The beef was exquisitely tender. The sweet onion sauce was amazing and Matt enjoyed the garlic potato cake.

The buffalo was good. If I hadn’t tasted Matt’s beef, I would have been perfectly happy with the buffalo. As soon as he shared a taste with me, I became disappointed. His beef was so delicious that it made my buffalo seem boring. I liked the sweet potato-hazelnut gratin, but felt it was more hazelnut than sweet potato. I think I would have loved it if it had more sweet potato.

For dessert, we decided to split the Coffee Two Ways and the Hazelnut Chocolate Tortes. The Coffee Two Ways is Mochaccino Bread Pudding and Vanilla Latte Crème Brulee. The Hazelnut Chocolate Tortes was served with Blood Orange Sauce and Honey-Lavender Ice Cream.

We started with the Mochaccino Bread Pudding – it was very yummy. However, the Vanilla Latte Crème Brulee was amazing. Absolutely fabulous. So good, I would go back to Artist Point just for the crème brulee.

We finished our dessert course with the Hazelnut Chocolate Torte. The torte itself was a disappointment. It was very dry and did nothing for me. The Honey-Lavender Ice Cream was a weird experience. I can’t say that the ice cream was bad, but it caused a very weird sensation. Lavender is a scent that I normally associate with cleaning and so my mind had a hard time with the flavor. For Iron Chef America fans, I felt like a judge presented with a weird flavor ice cream purely because of the secret ingredient. Matt’s reaction was “it was like eating a urinal cake.” I didn’t think it was that bad, just strange.

Overall, we really enjoyed eating at Artist Point. Jack, our server, was friendly and spent a good amount of time chatting with us. When greeting us, he offered up what he felt were the best dishes on the menu. Jack was quick to refill our champagne and water glasses. He was one of the best servers we had during our trip.

Interestingly enough, gratuity was not automatically added to our meal when we presented our Disney Dining Experience (DDE) card. I even confirmed the lack of gratuity with a manager. This was the only restaurant where it was not automatically added.

Pre-DDE Total: 153.36
20% Food Discount: 21.80
20% Beverage Discount: 7.49
Tip: 30.31
Grand Total: $153.00

 

[TruBlu]

I'm in!

 

[Minniespal]

Excellent

 

[Thumper's Tara]

Day 2 – Boardwalk Private Dining and Chef Mickey’s Dinner
*
Boardwalk Private Dining
As there was a shortage of half & half, I decided we would have room service for breakfast on our second morning in WDW.* Matt had the All American (two scrambled eggs, bacon, fruit, and potatoes) and I had the pancakes and bacon.* We also shared a pot of coffee.* The food arrived quickly and was pretty hot.* My breakfast came with a HUGE amount of bacon – I think it must have been 10 strips.* I was in heaven!* Matt’s meal was lovely as well.* The coffee was fresh and hot.
*
All-American $11.99
Pancakes with bacon $12.99
Coffee $6.99
Trip Charge $3.00
18% Gratuity $5.75
Tax $2.28
Total $43.00
Additional tip - $2.00 – we left extra because the CM was extremely sweet and helpful.
Grand Total - $45.00
*
Chef Mickey’s – Dinner
Chef Mickey’s was so much fun!* When booking our reservations, I thought that we would be a larger party than we actually were.* Because we were a considered a “grand gathering”, our only choice was an early reservation - 5:20 pm.* We arrived on time and were seated almost immediately.* Of course, we had our photo taken before being seated…

The best part of this meal was the character interactions.* Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, and Pluto were at dinner.* Mickey, Minnie, and Pluto mainly interacted with my nephew, Rylie, but Goofy and Donald got the whole table involved.* I loved watching Rylie’s face during his first experience with the characters.*
*
The food was great for a buffet.* My family has a couple of very picky eaters, but everyone was able to find something they liked!* My dad was frustrated by the potatoes – at first he couldn’t find any potatoes and then he found that that the mashed potatoes has cheese in them.* He likes his potatoes without any “extras”.*** Personally, I enjoyed the beef (prime rib, I think), the Mickey raviolis, and a pasta of the day dish they had.* Also, I really enjoyed the chocolate covered Oreos with Mickey ears.* They probably have an official name, but I don’t know it
*
In general, I enjoyed our meal.* The food was yummy, the drinks good, the service solid, and the characters great.* The only negative thing about this restaurant is after a few trips, it seems stale.* We ate here in August and twice on this trip…I just feel “done” with this restaurant and I think we will skip it for a couple of trips.* Lot’s of other places to try!
*My father ended up getting this meal for us, so I can only guess at the totals…I believe that the meal would have been roughly $200 before tip, and that we saved $40 with our DDE card.

 

[Dana49]

Thanks. Great reviews.

 

[swankybeth]

Enjoying your reviews so far, can't wait to read about V & A.

 

[phabric]

Enjoyed your review. Looking for more.

 

[BabyPiglet]

Great reviews! Can't wait for more.

 

[TigerKat]

Enjoying your reviews!

 

[mindyd]

Great Reviews!

 

[Thumper's Tara]

Day 3 – Cosmic Rays and Liberty Tree Tavern

Cosmic Rays
For lunch this day, we had eleven people – including a couple of picky eaters and a vegetarian. I choose Cosmic Rays, because I felt it had the largest amount of choices for the picky eaters.

For those people who haven’t been at Cosmic Rays, when you enter you will find several different sections. Each section serves a particular type of food. There is a section for sandwiches & salads, burgers & such, and chicken & ribs.

The vegetarian in our group got the vegetarian wrap. She thought it was very tasty. She did feel that they had a very limited selection though. I can understand her point of view on this one – there didn’t seem to be any other choice for her.

I was in charge of getting food for myself, Matt, Tessa (5 yo), Rylie (2 yo) and my sister. The kids got chicken nuggets, carrots, and apple sauce. Matt got a double cheese burger with fries, my sister and I each had a hot dog with fries. We also got two large cokes and a lemonade.

The food was hot and fresh. We did have to wait a little bit, but it wasn’t too bad. I love the condiment bar at Cosmic Rays. It totally rocks – Matt and I love to get a big stack of pickles with our meals.

The rest of the party enjoyed their meals as well. I do have that a couple of people had eyes bigger than their stomachs. My dad got chicken noodle soup and a double cheeseburger – he did finish it, but I thought he was going to burst. My grandma (a diabetic) loved the fact that they had sugar free brownies.

Our total for the kids meals, 2 hot dogs, double cheeseburger, and drinks was $37.62.

Liberty Tree Tavern
For dinner, we ate at Liberty Tree Tavern. We were a large party – 13 people – so we had an early reservation at 4:30 pm. About five minutes after we checked in, they were ready to seat us. Because my mother was not able to walk up stairs, they brought us around the outside of the building to a side door. They called this the VIP entrance. It looked like a side door to me

We were not seated at one table, but were split between two large round tops. The tables were right next to each other. I was a bit disappointed about this, because it meant that Rylie was at one table and Tessa was at another. I would have loved to see both of their faces with the characters.

The food was good. I loved the salad and the rolls & butter. The salad dressing is amazing. The turkey, steak, and ham were all good. My favorite was the turkey. I don’t care for “real” macaroni and cheese, so I skipped out on that. Tessa liked it though. The mashed potatoes, green beans and stuffing were all yummy. I do wish that they didn’t bury the stuffing beneath the meats. I think it is hard to get to! I vaguely remember them bring out an apple cobbler and ice cream, but I don’t remember if I actually ate any!

The only problem I saw was service – I do feel that it was a little slow. Some of that may have been the size of our party, but I don’t think that was everything. We received our salad and rolls before we got our drinks. That kind of bothered me. Overall, the service wasn’t horrible, but it didn’t impress either.

The characters were great though! Chip and Dale both snuck up behind me and played hide and seek. Each character spent several minutes with each child. With all of the cameras going, they must have walked away from our table blind!

Here are a couple of character photos:

As with Chef Mickey’s, my father picked up the bill, so I am not sure of the exact totals. I estimated that we saved $55.98 with the DDE card and that the total bill was $338.60. My estimate included dinner for 11 adults and 1 child, gratuity, and tax.

 

[SmallWorld71]

Great list and great reviews so far! Can't wait to hear more.

 

[BabyPiglet]

Great!

 

[Suzibrat]

Awesome reviews! I'm in!

 

[Disney owl]

great reviews thanks

 

[brookelizabeth]

We started with the Mochaccino Bread Pudding – it was very yummy. However, the Vanilla Latte Crème Brulee was amazing. Absolutely fabulous. So good, I would go back to Artist Point just for the crème brulee.

Glad I'm not the only one who feels this way! We ate there on our first night of our honeymoon and, being the coffee freak I am, I ordered this. I was in HEAVEN! Woooooooooooow. We are staying at the WL this trip, so I am praying I can just get the dessert "to go" and eat it in my room! Then again, this might be very dangerous considering we'll be in the lobby quite a bit and I could just make a quick pit-stop...!)

I dream of this dessert. HANDS DOWN the best dessert I have ever, ever had in my life!

Loving your report-though I've only read the first post! We are going in November and I really want to eat at EoS. Okay, gotta read the rest of your report. I'm taking notes!