How to go up a pant size in 5 days! Disney Foodies at their finest :) UPDATED 2/1

[NHTikiBeckie]

Hi Everyone!

My DH and I travelled to the World 1/16-1/20 and we came back with several extra pounds and very full bellies! Luckily vacation weight comes off pretty quickly!

Now, it is time for my DH and I to have a getaway without our beautiful 2 year old daughter, who happily hung out with her grandparents at home during this trip! DH and I have been to WDW 7 times in 8 years, and only once all alone, so we were really looking forward to this trip! We tried a few new restaurants and had a great time!


Ok, so let's started! On this trip we ate at:

Ohana
Sci Fi Diner
California Grill
Coral Reef
Biergarten
Columbia Harbor House
Earl of Sandwich
Katsura Grill
La Cantina
...and more!

We started off our first night at Ohana. I know this restaurant gets mixed reviews, but it is a must for us every trip and we really love it. I had heard the menu changed before we left to include more veggies besides broccoli, less sauces, and the salad would have different dressing and fruit added (mango & papaya). I was okay with all of this except for hearing the salad dressing changed. No, not my FAVORITE salad dressing! Whatever will I do!

We started off with some coconut bread:

Then came the salad. No fruit was added at all, and the dressing was a passion fruit vinagarette. Honestly, I was pleased because it tasted almost the same as the honey lime dressing! Very similar, though I do still prefer the honey-lime. We got the pot stickers and chicken wings at the same time:

Then of course came the veggies and the noodles:

I actually was expecting to like the new veggies more, but found myself just picking out all of the broccoli! The noodles tasted better than ever, and those chicken wings are delish! Time for some chicken and steak:

YUM! So tender and falvorful. DH got some pork, too...and a couple shrimps but I missed them. Of course the best part of this meal....the bread pudding!

My freakin' goodness do I LOVE this dessert! I seriously wish I could somehow not be full by the time this comes! So yum-yum-yummy!

I will post some more very soon!

 

[tluvstink]

You're off to a great start and I'm looking forward to reading more

Terri

 

[rachel09985]

Im in! I am bummed about that dressing! I don't like passionfruit!

 

[iloveeeyore]

I'm in. Love your review and photos of 'Ohana. Can't wait to read more!

 

[butiflfeet]

'Ohana looks fantastic! I can't wait for more!

 

[NHTikiBeckie]

You're off to a great start and I'm looking forward to reading more

Terri

Thanks for reading!

Im in! I am bummed about that dressing! I don't like passionfruit!

I actually don't like it either, but I can't say that it really tasted like passion fruit at all!

I'm in. Love your review and photos of 'Ohana. Can't wait to read more!

Thanks!!

'Ohana looks fantastic! I can't wait for more!

I could eat at Ohana several times a trip if it was a little cheaper and I wouldn't have to be rolled out!

 

[NHTikiBeckie]

Time for Coral Reef! We had never eaten here before, and this is somewhere that people seem to love or hate, so I was very curious about it!

We were one of the first tables seated, right up against the tank! It was so fun watching the fishes, sharks, sting rays, etc.

We started out with some bread and salted butter, this was very good, tasty butter!

Hubby and I had a hard time deciding what we wanted. Both the Mahi Mahi and the Chicken with Spaetzle sounded good to us, so we shared with each other. Here is the Mahi Mahi:

And here is the chicken:

I really loved the Mahi Mahi, I just didn't love the hearts of palm in the rice. Other than that, this was perfect! The chicken was also very good, moist and tasty...the spaetzle and veggies were good, but I think the Mahi Mahi was the winner of this meal!

We were headed to the World Showcase so we decided to save some room for dessert to try the newly renovated french bakery. I know I am in the majority here, but most of the selections here didn't appeal to me. I think I enjoy the German caramel snacks and the Norway snacks a bit more! But I did get an apple turnover, DH got some wine:

This was good, nothing exceptional, but good. The middle had applesauce in it and not apple chunks which was a bit weird to me. It sort of tasted like apple babyfood!

Then we went and watched my favorite Epcot band, Off Kilter!

Coming up...Katsura Grill!

 

[NHTikiBeckie]

Later on for dinner we decided to go to one of our favorite counter services...Katsura Grill! We love both the chicken and beef terriyaki here, they have a combo plate but we decided to get one of each because it was cheaper and share!

No complaints, we know it is packed with sodium but it's so delicious!

None if the desserts appealed to us, and we wanted to sit at La Cantina in Mexico for the fireworks so we decided to save room to eat something there. We got the cheese empanadas:

These are good, not amazing, but does the job It was REALLY cold this evening and sitting by the water...we just couldn't take it anymore! We went to a gift shop and bought an extra sweatshirt. We still were able to find a spot for Illuminations on the lagoon:

 

[Cyndibear]

It was such fun meeting and talking with you and your DH and having you be part of our DVC family for our Top of the World night!! We hope you enjoyed it and we were so glad to help out. Wonderful review, can't wait to read the rest!!!

Cyndi

 

[NHTikiBeckie]

It was such fun meeting and talking with you and your DH and having you be part of our DVC family for our Top of the World night!! We hope you enjoyed it and we were so glad to help out. Wonderful review, can't wait to read the rest!!!

Cyndi

Hi Cyndi! I am so sorry we didn't catch your names, thank you SO much for adopting us as family members for a little while We were so grateful because it turns out even though we were renting points, if the member we rented from wasn't with us we couldn't go up. We were really trying to decide between buying BLT or AKV so seeing that lounge was important to us! Thank you for being so nice and hope you enjoyed the rest of your vacation...who knows, going so often we may just run into each other again!

 

[NHTikiBeckie]

So the next day we headed to the Magic Kingdom...our plan was to eat at Be Our Guest, but the line was just so long (which I expected of course) but after watching it for 5-10 minutes, it wasn't moving. We were just too hungry and decided that we will try it on the next trip. Fantasyland was so packed that we were sort of looking to escape for a bit anyway! So we headed over to Columbia Harbor House...we both got the Chicken and Fish combo with broccoli. Tasted good...I love that they give you the choice of broccoli here!

Tonight we had reservations at California Grill, and I was SO excited because we haven't eaten anywhere "fancy" since I had my daughter over two years ago! We had never been here before and I was excited to try a signature restaurant!

We were seated in the "wine room"...it was lovely! I loved the view!

We decided to try the cheese flatbread:

Oops, we ate some to fast! This was good, really loved the bread itself! Speaking of yummy bread...

For a starter, we both agreed on the gnocchi dish with edamame and mushrooms and pork:

It may not look that great in the photo, but this was tasty! The homemade gnocchi was to die for!

I went with the pork tenderloin and goat cheese polenta dish:

The pork was great, but the polenta...out of this world!! I practically licked my plate!

DH got the filet:

I tried this and it was excellent, but I think my meal won this round

We were pretty full, and thought we would save room to have some dessert at Top of the World lounge on top of Bay Lake...we didn't realize we couldn't get up there because were were renting points and not with the owner. Luckily we ran into super nice CyndiBear and her husband and family and they invited us to come up with them as part of their family. Boy were we glad they did! We want to buy DVC and seeing this part of Bay Lake was important to us! It was so nice of them, and it was great hearing their thoughts and advice on DVC!

The view for the fireworks is amazing...never felt so relaxed watching Wishes ever!

After Wishes, we went back into the lounge, and while I was still too full for dessert, I wasn't too full for this raspberry pina coloda!

This definitely served as dessert, yum!

 

[Cyndibear]

We were really trying to decide between buying BLT or AKV so seeing that lounge was important to us! :

Just a heads up that DVC can change or remove the Top of the World Lounge for members only anytime they want to. We hope that they never do cause it is a neat feature of staying at BLT. Try not to base your decision on that alone.

I am so glad we ran into you in the elevator. We kinda thought only "members" could get up there but I wasn't sure how that worked renting points. It was fun to be able to help out. Let me know where your home resort will be and maybe I will run into you again on the DVC boards too!!!.

Cyndi

 

[NHTikiBeckie]

Just a heads up that DVC can change or remove the Top of the World Lounge for members only anytime they want to. We hope that they never do cause it is a neat feature of staying at BLT. Try not to base your decision on that alone.

I am so glad we ran into you in the elevator. We kinda thought only "members" could get up there but I wasn't sure how that worked renting points. It was fun to be able to help out. Let me know where your home resort will be and maybe I will run into you again on the DVC boards too!!!.

Cyndi

We are going to go with AKL...we really liked Bay Lake a lot, and we still hope to use our points at BLT once in a while, but I just love the theming of the AK rooms!!

 

[wiigirl]

Great pics....especially the food!

 

[NHTikiBeckie]

Today was our day at Hollywood Studios! We decided to check out EMH here at 8am...it was PACKED. My plan of getting a few things done before 9 didn't go great at all. This was the first time we tried EMH (we usually avoid parks those days) and it will be the last time! Waits were 120 minutes for the most popular rides, it was just crazy busy!

For lunch we gave Sci Fi Diner a try, another new restaurant to us!

I ordered the fried pickles appetizer:

This was alright...not as good as the fried pickles I have had at several other restaurants off property though.

I ordered the smoked turkey sandwich with the cucumber salad:

I loved the cucumber salad! The sandwich...not so much. It was really mushy! I was not a fan of the avocado mayo at all, and the turkey seemed a little slimey. Didn't love this

DH got the Reuben with fries:

I don't like Reubens, but he liked it and I thought the fries were good!

We got the chocolate peanut butter cake for dessert:

I had high hopes for this, but it wasn't very peanut buttery. And I didn't think the cake was anything special either. It was just alright.

Overall, we loved the atmosphere of Sci Fi, but we probably won't be coming back here anytime soon because the food just wasn't great to us

 

[wdwpirates]

Great reviews so far!! Glad to hear that the noodles @ 'Ohana are still awesome! Did you try the peanut sauce? Was it similar to what they've had in the past? I slather that stuff on everything! LOL!

The chicken & beef teriyaki from Katsura look wonderful! Katsura is on our list of places to try on our next trip! I think you sealed the deal for me on that one!

We felt the same about Sci-Fi the last time we were there (December)...the food was just "meh".

Can't wait to read more!!

 

[NHTikiBeckie]

Great reviews so far!! Glad to hear that the noodles @ 'Ohana are still awesome! Did you try the peanut sauce? Was it similar to what they've had in the past? I slather that stuff on everything! LOL!

The chicken & beef teriyaki from Katsura look wonderful! Katsura is on our list of places to try on our next trip! I think you sealed the deal for me on that one!

We felt the same about Sci-Fi the last time we were there (December)...the food was just "meh".

Can't wait to read more!!

I did try the peanut sauce once but it was my first time trying it! I rarely try sauces with meat though...but my DH had it on his stuff and from what I gathered it was the same! I think the peanut sauce was the one he liked best out of the 3 sauces they used to bring out.

Definitely try Katsura, it's our favorite CS in Epcot, I miss it already!

Yeah...I got the impression from reviews we weren't alone with Sci Fi...but honestly, I think we are easy to please so I thought "how bad could it really be people?!"...haha! And it wasn't HORRIBLE, just...meh, like you said!

Whereabouts are you in Mass?

 

[MrsB1228]

I'm really enjoying your reviews, looking forward to the next instalment!

 

[wdwpirates]

I did try the peanut sauce once but it was my first time trying it! I rarely try sauces with meat though...but my DH slathered it on his stuff and from what I gathered it was the same! I think the peanut sauce was the one he liked best out of the 3 sauces they used to bring out.

Definitely try Katsura, it's our favorite CS in Epcot, I miss it already!

Yeah...I got the impression from reviews we weren't alone with Sci Fi...but honestly, I think we are easy to please so I thought "how bad could it really be people?!"...haha! And it wasn't HORRIBLE, just...meh, like you said!

Whereabouts are you in Mass?

So glad to hear that the peanut sauce is relatively the same! Woo!!

We are in Somerset...south of Boston. I just noticed that you are in Portsmouth!! It's one of my favorite little cities!! DH and I visit a few times a year!!

 

[DLFan123]

Enjoying your reviews and pics!