"I Heard They Shaved A Gorilla" - Reviews & Pix - COMPLETED Post # 155

Loved the Il Mulino review! Great pics too!

We've never tried Il Mulino. Had I known there was even a chance of getting free Limoncello I would have sooo been there! ;)

I do wish the Swolphin restaurants would get on board with the DDE card. It definitely makes a difference for us. 20% discounts on even the adult tasty beverages or NO discounts at all :confused3 makes choosing to drink & dine there a bit tougher.
 
REVIEW: Bistro de Paris

SUMMARY: Did I just eat snails? Or ‘Lost in Translation’


A fantabulous review by Oybolshoi, a desire to try new things, and a 20% DDE discount converged to form Le Perfect Storm, and drove us ashore to the Bistro this visit. Seriously though, we have had this place on our radar for a few years now, and with this being a short and unexpected trip, the new place got the nod.

PRELUDE:
Though I won’t go into the details now, since the story is being optioned by a well known Hollywood studio, Robert P (escorted by Mrs. P to digitally record the event for posterity sake, and bring me any bail money that may be required), attempted to accomplish his dream of drinking around the world (showcase). This plays into my review because while the skies were hazy that day, so was my memory. Thank goodness for the camera.

We arrived at France, in EPCOT, at 5:45 for our 6:00 p.m. ADR, with my Moosehead Light beer in hand (as Canada ran out of LaBlatt’s). We decided this was just too early to go into the restaurant, and certainly too early to rush through my beer, so we sat in the courtyard off to the right in France, and made some phone calls. “Ah beer, the cause of and solution to, all of life’s problems”. At 5:55, all phone calls (and beer) were done, so we went inside. The beautiful parlor was nice, with a few chairs for sitting, and a gorgeous staircase leading up to the Bistro. I couldn’t decide if it was more Moulin Rouge or Gone With The Wind. Having never seen the movie Moulin Rouge, I went with the latter (no pun intended there)..... We were told to have a seat, and someone would come for us in just a moment. We had enough time to look around, and take a few pictures, and exactly at 6:00 a charming young lady with a lovely French accent came down the stairs calling for our party of two. I half imagined she would say “Butler, Rhett Butler, Party of Two”.

Bistrostairs.jpg


Up we went to the second floor, with no green drapes to be found, and were led into the dining room where we were the 4th party seated (all of us in opposite corners of the room, no less). Our table, in the Northeast corner, looked out right toward a tree, with a view of the boat dock underneath.
Our waiter took his time coming over to greet us, but Romain (pronounced more like Roman, less like the lettuce) was quite efficient. Not the chattiest waiter we’ve ever had, but polite and professional, and an excellent server all in all. After greeting us, he briefly covered the menu items, and went to get us water. He came back with our water, and quickly followed that with the amuse bouche, which was a devine tuna tartar, with a lentl puree garnish. Very nice, and a promising start to the evening.

amuse.jpg


After perusing the menus for a minute, we had pretty much decided to try the set menu, or should I say Menu Degustation, which would allow us to experience more dishes during the evening. The tuna tartar sealed the deal on that decision. We both chose the escargot to start, but we split our choices on the fish selection, with Mrs. P ordering the scallops, and I went with the red snapper. We both selected the beef tenderloin for the next course. I then bowed to my newfound cheese addiction, and added a cheese selection to my line-up. Then for dessert, the set menu had the dessert sampler. No arm twisting needed there.

About the escargot - I had made it 39 years without eating snails. Our starter choices were either a saffron and mussel soup, or the escargot. As this entire meal was uncharted territory, and because by the time we sat for dinner, I had been drinking, A WHOLE LOT, I figured what the hey, if I’m ever going to try snails, this is the time and place to do it. So, here we go…..

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The escargot was prepared in a butter, garlic, parsley sauce. I was expecting more in the bowl, to be quite frank, but the serving size was perfect. The escargot tasted, to my naïve taste buds, like rich clams. The sauce was not overpowering with the garlic, but balanced well enough to hide any 'snaily' tastes from me. In the end, I ate all of the serving, and it was okay. Nothing I will order again anytime soon, snails just aren’t my thing, but my wife (the escargot pusher for the evening) declared them among the best she has ever tried.

After the course that I still refer to as ‘snail city’, and an appropriate amount of time had passed, Romain brought out the seafood portion of the meal.

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The three scallops were, in my opinion, small, but were perfectly cooked, and the ham, sweet peas, pearl onions and cream sauce were amazing accompaniments. The dish was delicious, and all of the flavors worked well together, but still let the scallops stand out. The pea puree base (think hummus-like), and crispy flat treat were okay, but really served only as decoration. A great dish overall, as my wife only shared a few bites with me.

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The red snapper was, in a word, perfection. Broiled in the oven, with crispy skin, flaky and light in the middle, and perfect flavor. The sauce was a cream sauce with a hint of curry, and was great just by itself. The other items on the plate were sliced boiled pumpkin, which had no spices added, which I believe was to keep from confusing any flavors with the delicate hint of curry in the sauce. The white things were, I think, parsnips. We lost something in translation with Romain on this one, and it’s either parsnips or turnips. There is an outside chance he said catnips, but that would just be silly.

On a side note, after my infrequent series of camera flashes, my wife was mortified that I was lighting up our table, taking pictures of the food. “I can’t believe you are taking pictures of each plate of food. Nobody does this”. No more than 5 seconds later after she said that, a table nearer the middle of the restaurant lit up brightly. It wasn’t a retaliation flash though, but an older gentleman, with a really really really nice digital camera, and he was taking pictures of his entrée. He then proceeded to turn the plate a few degrees, move something that was causing a shadow, and took another two pictures. The smug look on my face when I turned back to my wife must have been too much, because all she said was “Don’t even say it”. The timing of the entire exchange was just too perfect.

End Part One:
 
Bistro de Paris

Part Two:

Before I go further, three observations. 1 - The Bistro only had male waiters in tuxedos, and no females that we saw were waiting on tables. There were two young ladies in the dining room though. One was serving bread to each table, and the other was refilling water for the tables. Don’t know if this is the norm for France, or the Bistro, or if it was just that way on this night. 2 – Romain, our waiter, wasn’t very chatty with us, but came out of his shell (so to speak), when the party of six sat down in his section. He talked to them about the college program, and his home town in France, just to name a few of the topics. I briefly had the theory that his chattiness was due to the larger party size and the potential for a bigger tip. That theory went down in flames quickly, because if he came out of his shell for the group of six, he came clear out of the ocean for the table of two young (early 20’s) ladies, who were seated across from us just as we started our desserts. They were very attractive, he was turning on the charm, and they were eating it up. Ah, to be young, and in Paris (sort of). 3 – The Menu Degustation portion sizes are not full portions, like a regular entrée. The regular scallop entrée had six scallops, and the red snapper entrée was made up of two nice sized pieces. So, I believe I can say that our set menu entrees were roughly half of a full entrée order. Just FYI.

After the fish course, he brought out something with a fancy French name, and explained it was to cleanse our palates between courses, and is customary when having multiple entrees in a French meal. What he brought each of us was a key lime sorbet, over an unknown granite (see Lost in Translation comments at the top of the review), and some, drum roll please……. straight vodka.

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That’s right, that little cute decorative pitcher in the corner of the plate, which looks like it came straight from a Barbie tea set, contains about half a shot of good vodka. We were told to combine all three ingredients, mix them up a little, and enjoy. We did, we did, and I did. The vodka was a bit too ‘direct’ for my wife, so I bailed her out, and finished hers. I have since named this part of the meal the ‘do it yourself daqua-rita’. It served it’s purpose though, and erased any remnants of seafood taste we may have had lingering on our tongues.

bistro7.jpg


After the palate cleansing shots, maybe ten minutes passed before the beef tenderloins arrived. The tenderloins were served in a simple presentation over a bed of cooked mushrooms, with just demi-glace sauce, and a single piece of asparagus, which had been peeled, boiled, and flash cooled. The sauce was rich and tasty, the asparagus was perfectly cooked, and the meat was very tasty. Our only complaint about this course, which was not drastic, was that we ordered the tenderloin medium rare, and what we were served was overcooked, I would say it was medium well to well done. Fortunately, when dealing with a choice cut like tenderloin, it doesn’t get as chewy from overcooking, and the taste was very good. So, we let it slide, rather than delaying the meal further by sending it back and having them cook a new order.

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Now to the cheese plate (loud sigh here) - this was the disappointment of the evening. First, it was $10 extra to add the cheese plate. Second, it came with only 3 small-ish pieces of cheese. And the kicker – nobody seemed to know what 2 of the 3 cheeses were. Seriously, we tried to find out. Romain was sure that the first one (top left) was Camembert, and I have to agree. Smooth, rich, very nice, with a mildly bitter rind. The third one (middle right) was, from what we could tell, a soft goat cheese, of unknown name and origin. It was nice, with good flavor, but not memorable. The second one though (middle bottom), I still don’t know what it was. Romain said it was a ‘cooked’ cheese, which made no sense. It had a red rind, which is turned away from the camera, and the texture reminded me of a hybrid between parmagiano reggiano and gouda. The taste was rather bland, and provided no help at all. Despite sending Romain back to find out what the cheeses were, we got no more information than what I just wrote. For $10 extra, I expected something distinctive, memorable and French. But even now, I’m still not sure exactly what was on that plate.

bistro9.jpg


On to dessert. Ah dessert, In France. Ah.
We were each presented with a plated dessert sampler. And it was every bit as good as it looks. UPPER LEFT – Apples, pastry, sugar, light crème. Wonderful, but overshadowed by the others. BOTTOM LEFT – Chocolate dome, with an orange crème center. Chocolate city people, way too much chocolate for me, but my wife enjoyed it. A chocolate lover’s dream. MIDDLE – Pineapple sorbet, over a what I would call a mild pineapple chutney or even hash. Fresh, fruity, and delicious. BOTTOM RIGHT – Vanilla Crème Brulee. It’s France people, there had to be a crème brulee somewhere. Crunchy thin top, thick rich bottom. Just great. And unlike the crème brulee offered during the Food & Wine Festival, no hammer and chisel required. TOP RIGHT – Chocolate lava cake. A light and fluffy cake, with a liquid chocolate center, and gets out vote for the best dessert of the evening.

Check:
Total tab for the two of us, before the DDE discount, was $160 pre tax and tip (note that the cheese plate was up to $10, rather than the old price of $5). Had we opted for the wine pairings, it would have added another $100 to that $160. This was by no means a cheap meal in any sense. But you get what you pay for. With the exception of the pitiful cheese plate, everything was delicious and fairly priced.

Summary:
Great meal, very good service, and we are glad we did it. Our experience was not as good as others I have read about, but it was a nice ‘dining experience’, that’s for sure. Will we be back, sure, but not in the next 12 months, and not without a DDE card. This was a special meal, and we’ll have to save it for special occasions in the future. I would whole heartedly recommend it to anyone wanting to try something more elegant, or just out of the norm.

NEXT UP: Fresh (breakfast)
 

Wow, I was wondering when they were going to stop bringing out the food. Everything looks fantastic. Except the tiny cheese plate. Did you both get one of those for $10?

I hope Flexo stops by with comments. :thumbsup2
 
Excellent review and way better than anything I was able to produce. You actually know what you're talking about! :thumbsup2

I'm so happy to read that you enjoyed your Bistro experience (aside from the cheese) and I'm jealous that your sorbet included vodka ... that sounds like a killer palate cleanser!

Keep up the great work Mr. Scorpio!
 
Wow, I was wondering when they were going to stop bringing out the food. Everything looks fantastic. Except the tiny cheese plate. Did you both get one of those for $10?

I hope Flexo stops by with comments. :thumbsup2

Flexo says, with metallic goatee in place of course:

"Robert P got screwed over on the cheese plate. Lucky only one of them ordered it. If it had been me, I would have bent some railings on the way out. Or at least stole some mints or messed with something." :mad:
 
/
Excellent review and way better than anything I was able to produce. You actually know what you're talking about! :thumbsup2

I'm so happy to read that you enjoyed your Bistro experience (aside from the cheese) and I'm jealous that your sorbet included vodka ... that sounds like a killer palate cleanser!

Your words are just too kind. "You are the wind beneath my wings", being sang in an off key Krusty voice. Have a great trip!!

p.s. vodka = good , pomegranate = bad
 
Gotta say I love French food and even though I usually have no idea what I have ordered. French cheese is great, (ah the memories of my bread, cheese and seafood tour of Brittany ;) well it was raining what else were we suppose to do but eat...) shame you missed out on what could have been a fantastic opportunity to show of some great cheeses.

Am looking forward to the next installment.

Kirsten
 
I'm so glad you are doing more reviews; I really enjoyed the last ones! THAT is the way I want my calamari--no tentacles! Maybe one day we can get to Il Mulino when DD is older.

Ok, so call me a hick, but is the green pea souffle looking stuff at Bistro something that was baked? It looked like it. Just odd, huh? Never seen anything like it. I did think that the vodka and key lime sorbet sounded great!
 
Great review!!!! I've got Bistro planned for our trip and we're doing the wine pairings, hoping for a very special night.:goodvibes
 
Ok, so call me a hick, but is the green pea souffle looking stuff at Bistro something that was baked? It looked like it. Just odd, huh? Never seen anything like it. I did think that the vodka and key lime sorbet sounded great!

You know, I'm not sure how they prepped or plated that one, because the top looks baked, but it was soft enough to stick that giant flat disk in there, and get it to hold in place.

I believe, based on watching too many cooking shows, they used a ring-mold, piped or spooned in the puree, and let it sit in a warm oven, or under some warming lights in the prep area. That disk had to be plated first, to keep the sauce from running under it, and warming lights or a warm oven would have dried out the top for that baked look. Pop it on the plate, remove the ring-mold, add the items around it, slit the top and insert giant disk, and bam, it's ready to serve. That's my best guess. It didn't taste like it had been baked, and the texture reminded me too much of hummus, so I don't think they baked it for the cooking method.
Just a guess though, so I could be wrong.
 
Flexo says, with metallic goatee in place of course:
"Robert P got screwed over on the cheese plate. Lucky only one of them ordered it. If it had been me, I would have bent some railings on the way out. Or at least stole some mints or messed with something." :mad:

Wait a sec?... Stealing mints is a bad thing? My husband has been known to grab two huge handfuls and shove them in his coat pocket. I really should stop taking him in public. :idea:
 
Thanks for the review, this is where DH and I will be having our 5th anniversary dinner in Octorber. It looks great, though if the cheese portion is so skimpy we may skip that part of the meal. Your review is fantastic.
 
I'm so excited to see another Robert P dining thread! A trifle disappointed you won't be reviewing the Frying Dutchman this trip though..... :rotfl:

Can't wait to read about the rest of your dining experiences for this trip! :goodvibes
 
Enjoying your review!
[Being a Oybolshoi fan, I was intrigued by another Simpsons reference.]

Looking forward to the rest!
 
Fresh (at the Dolphin) – without pictures. I didn’t take pictures because Reason A - I don’t think that a buffet, even one as good as Fresh, is the best opportunity to take pictures of the food. For example: Once Jimbo, Carnie, and Dolph get through rummaging through the banana pudding, do you really want a picture of that, plopped on a plate, beside several other picked through items.
And Reason B – I can’t multi-task well enough to juggle my camera along with a plate of food, all while snapping pictures and adding items to my plate, at the same time.

So, please be patient. Pictures will return in my next review, I promise.

Summary: It Ain’t The Frying Dutchman….

Misc. info:
We stayed at the Dolphin in late 2006, and there was a mix up with the room, so they gave us two meal vouchers for any non-signature restaurant there, to make up for it. On that trip, Fresh was offering brunch, so we decided to give it a try. It was an excellent experience, one we would not have discovered for a few more years, if not for that mix up. Sometimes, strange or unexpected events lead to new opportunities….

This year, we checked into the Dolphin early on Sunday, about 10:30 a.m., and our room was not ready, as we had figured could happen. Our options were: catch a bus to Downtown Disney and eat, walk over and try Garden Grove at the Swan, or stay in the hotel and eat at Fresh. The pleasant gentleman checking us in at the Dolphin said that the system showed our room was cleaned, but hadn’t been checked yet, so the wait shouldn’t be terribly long before it was ready. Based on that information, we parked the car, and decided to wing it, which is unusual for us. We stopped and checked the menu at Fresh (FYI – it’s located across the way from BlueZoo, just past the Fountain diner, on the same level as the bottom of the lobby escalators). We glanced inside, and decided it was as good of option as we had available, if they could seat us without too much of a wait.

The multitude of podium people (there were at least 4 of them there) said there would be no wait, and were seated straight away in the 75% full dining room, at a table for four near a window. I think it would have been tight getting four people in there, but it was ample room for the two of us, and in retrospect it was a nice change from the week ahead, where we seemed to almost always be seated at the smallest possible table. Our server, Angela, was at our table within two minutes, and was quite efficient throughout the service. She explained the setup, what was available, and went to get our coffee and juice while we headed for the food.

This is when we first noticed the cyclical nature of this set-up. We got in line at the omelet station, and there were maybe 4 people waiting. In the three minutes or so it took them to make our omelets, the line grew to probably 20 people. Ten minutes later, the line was empty. This cycle continued throughout the meal, we observed, so by my second trip (this time to the waffle station), I was sitting at the table like Papillon, trying to time things to catch that seventh wave that would take me out to sea. Even on a small final trip up there, I found that with proper timing, the line would be 1 or 2 people at most. Good to know, for any future visits.

There were loads of fresh pastries, muffins, and croissants. Fresh fruit and cold cereal was also there.
The kitchen staff members were creating made to order omelets and eggs, and there were the usual breakfast foods everywhere (bacon, sausage, bagels, toast, muffins etc…). A potato dish was also available. The waffle/pancake/French toast station was great, and the waffles were being made fresh to order, just like the omelets. (Note: I saw a few Mickey waffles being served. Some with chocolate chips....) The one thing I noticed that was missing from our previous brunch trip was that there were no fresh crepes being offered, or should I say, no crepes at all. The custom made omelet fillings were bacon, ham, mushrooms, peppers, spinach, and several cheeses, to name the ones I can remember. There were many more, but I can’t recall them all.

The parfait station over beside the juice area was seldom staffed, which required me to swing back by there twice, and eventually, just stand there until someone handed me on from within the display case. The fresh squeezed juice station wasn’t staffed very often, but at least they left glasses on top of their counter, for the diners to take what they wanted. I tried two of the three juice concoctions they offered, including the green one with ‘wheatgrass’ listed as the first ingredient. Both were surprisingly delicious, and I felt detoxified in advance, well ahead of the copious amounts of alcohol that I would be consuming this trip. I think it gave a whole new meaning to the term ‘frontloading’.


Unlike many WDW breakfast buffets, this is not a character meal. No characters, no autographs, and no pictures. But there is Starbucks coffee, cooked to order omelets, and fresh-made waffles.... a great way to start off your day, if not your entire vacation. A definitely lower key meal than those available in many WDW resorts. No Frying Dutchman mass quantities here, no trays of food lying around in the open, made way ahead and kept warm til needed. At $17.95 per adult, it isn’t the cheapest breakfast on property, but all things considered, not a bad value either (especially if you get your last cup of Starbucks coffee to take with you).

Next Up: The Fountain (at the Dolphin)
 

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