I spend too much on Food&Wine -DxDP/F&W/CL Fun - Last Day!

[Dis_Yoda]

Wow, you had some wonderful food there!

I knew I wanted that festival lava cake before, but your picture sealed the deal!

I loved the California Grill review, too. The shrimp dish looked great, and I alraedy know I love the flatbreads. I order that for sharing. And I like the Valrhona cake, and the salted caramel ice cream sounds great to me.

I had to chuckle because I saw your thread about the salted caramel trend. My friend thought she'd scream if she saw another creme brulee, so I understand the frustration.

Aye, that lava cake is soo good. In fact this afternoon, my husband and I went and each got one to have some more. I think it's my favorite dessert from all the boothes we've tried even now.

Aye, Creme Brulees are everywhere too along with Cheesecake. Then again - I understand the reasoning with trying to offer 5 different desserts at a restaurant you probably are goin to get some major overlap among the types.

the last time I had the chocolate lava cake at CA Grill I wasn't impressed but if they're still offering it with the caramel ice cream I may just have to bite. I understand your annoyance with it seemingly showing up on all the dessert menus, that would drive me buggy, but in this instance it looks tasty.

I also like the looks of your hubby's flatbread.

Yup it was tasty too! Hopefully they still have it in a couple of weeks for you!

Everything looks sooooooo good at CG. They used to have a firecracker shrimp flatbread that was so good. I wish I could taste the food if I just licked the computer.

Oh, I think I remember that flatbread and it was soooo good. Mmmmm. They used to have a beef tenderloin one (pre-dining plan era) that was awesome.

 

[Dis_Yoda]

Day 4 - Part 1 - Kona Cafe

Originally we had ADRs for The Wave but the menu didn't really appeal to us when we knew we would much rather have Kona. We walked up to the podium and were taken for a walk-in around 7:45am.

I went w/ Tonga Toast - 10.99 and Lilikoi Juice

It was very good but very heavy on the stomach. I could only eat about half before I called it quits or else I wasn't going to have a happy stomach for the rest of the day (granted, after what happens later my stomach wasn't happy anyway)

My husband went with the Big Kahuna - 11.99 and Orange Juice

Bacon, Sausage, Ham, Pancakes, Potatoes, Eggs, Toast. He was a proud member of the clean plate club here! He enjoys good breakfast food as he doesn't ever get it at home.

We'll return to Kona for our next trip we take together!

24 meal credits remain

 

[Dis_Yoda]

Day 4 - Part 2 - Liberty Tree Tavern Lunch

After enjoying a very lightly crowded morning around the Magic Kingdom, we were ready for lunch. We ended up going to Liberty Tree Tavern. I had lunch here for the first time 2 years ago and was looking forward to going back.

I enjoyed a Pomegranate Lemonade while my husband got a Sprite (shocker I know!)

We both went with the same appetizer -Tavern Fried Cheese $5.49

Basic mozzarella sticks and fried cheddar bites. Again - large portion for a lunch appetizer so neither of us finished them all.

For my lunch I went with the [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Colony Salad - Washington apples, sweet pecans and applewood smoked cheddar and grilled chicken tossed with field greens in honey shallot vinaigrette $13.49

I did not touch any of the chicken as I really just wanted the lettuce and apples and pecans. The dressing is on the sweeter side but very good. Perfect lunch entree and if we return here for lunch again, I'm definitely getting this.

My husband got [/FONT]the Angus Chuck Cheeseburger topped with bacon and provolone served with tavern fries $11.99

While still a wheat bun, it seemed to be a better quality bun than the ones they serve at the Quick Service restaurants. The bacon didn't have the edges around it that comes with the 'pre-cooked' bacon that Disney uses so much these days.

For dessert, I had the Ooey Gooey Toffee Cake -- vanilla cake with a gooey toffee filling and caramel sauce $4.99

I had seen pictures of this on the Dis before and never really believed that a Table Service in the Magic Kingdom could have a dessert that really wow'd me. This well blew that thought out the window.

My husband had a Dark Chocolate Brownie - with vanilla ice cream $5.99

He also enjoyed this!




22 meal credits remain

 

[Dis_Yoda]

Day 4 - Part 3 - Narcoossee's

We arrived right on time for our ADR at Narcoossee's and were seated shortly after. We were towards the back of the restuarant with a view of the dock and the building that is under renovations.

We begun with cocktails - myself a Glowtini, my husband a Sunken Treasure

For our appetizers, I had the Duck Roll

I had this in July and loved it enough to have again. The sauce pairs great with the duck.

My husband had a Caesar Salad

A decent Caesar Salad.

Right after we were finishing up our appetizers, my stomach decided it was not going to like me and was shooting pains up and down my torso. As I got served my entree of Filet w/ Lemon Sticky Rice (Yes I subbed as wanted something other than potatoes) I did not want to touch the Filet. My server noticed and when I asked for ginger ale to see if it could settle it, she replied -I have something better. She returned with a glass of bitters, soda water and something else and told me to drink it, even if it doesn't really taste good. (And boy did it not taste good) I picked at the rice as it was plain and sipped on my stomach remedy cocktail.

My husband got the Surf and Turf

He did not like the choron sauce on the beef at all. He did like his lobster though.

Our waitress returned and boxed up my untouched filet and brought me another drink. We sat for a while and the cocktail was working

Eventually we decided to order our desserts. I wasn't sure I was even going to touch mine much but figured I could take a bite and see how I felt.

I got the Key Lime Creme Brulee

This was good. It was easy on my stomach as it was light.

My husband had the almond crusted cheesecake.

Also very good but his only comment was it was too many almonds.

This meal continues to be one of our favorites. Our server went beyond a normal server and was caring. She brought me one of the biter drinks to go as she said I would need it for the road. This is also the meal that kinda made me glad we were on the dining plan rather than out of pocket. Since I really felt I was only wasting points rather than seeing the large amounts of cash leave my pocket while I'm already feeling bad. We tipped probably right at 30% if not more for this level of service as she was great.

18 meal credits remain

 

[Me&3]

Sorry you didn't feel well but the food looks great. Hope your feeling better today

 

[Pooh&OurHunny]

joining in and loving your food reviews.

 

[Dis_Yoda]

Sorry you didn't feel well but the food looks great. Hope your feeling better today

Thanks! I felt a lot better the next morning and for the most part we took it easy anyway as we slept in, mini-golfed, shopped some, ate some kiosk food at a slow relaxing pace that made us happy. We had ample time to enjoy ourselves without over doing it.

joining in and loving your food reviews.

Glad you are enjoying.

 

[Dis_Yoda]

Day 5 - Part 1 - Kouzzina by Cat Cora

We slept in this morning to around 8:15am which is late for us even in real life as at home, our puppies make sure we are up by 7am at the latest. We debated between room service or seeing if we could get into Kouzzina and we decided to go downstairs to see if we could eat there. The restaurant was about a third of the way full and taking walk ins so we were shortly seated.

I went with a Frappe and the Golden Waffles w/ Bacon

My husband had an orange juice and the American

Both of them were basic breakfast foods done well. Our server was incredibly slow though. Overall, if we stay at BWI again, we'll come here for a morning when we want breakfast but we won't go out of way to travel here for a breakfast like we would for Kona.

16 meal credits remain

 

[janloz]

Great reviews so far. I'm in.

 

[MomsOf2boys]

I am so enjoying this report. I have never been to the F&W festival or V&A's. I have never even heard of sweet Sundays until now.

 

[MickeyNicki]

Thank you for the Kouzzina review...we are supposed to go there for breakfast bright and early tomorrow morning before our Epcot day....

 

[Me&3]

Glad you are feeling better. I will send you more to help you out. So where will you be eating next? Can't wait to see and hear more.

 

[kxs401]

I'm having a great time living vicariously through your food!

I remember seeing a ton of salted caramel last winter -- Starbucks had a salted caramel hot chocolate, and Hagan-Daas had a salted caramel ice cream. I loved them, so I hope Disney is still in the grip of this trend when I'm there in two months!

 

[Dis_Yoda]

Great reviews so far. I'm in.

Thanks for joining in!

I am so enjoying this report. I have never been to the F&W festival or V&A's. I have never even heard of sweet Sundays until now.

You should visit for F&W some time. Its my favorite time of the year at Disney. I never really knew about the special events until I got to the age where I had to start paying for things myself rather than living off my mother for trips and it was by complete chance I found the little info that used to be online back then even.

Thank you for the Kouzzina review...we are supposed to go there for breakfast bright and early tomorrow morning before our Epcot day....

You're welcome! I hope you had a good meal there and your server was better than ours. The food isn't bad - its just not travel worthy.

Glad you are feeling better. I will send you more to help you out. So where will you be eating next? Can't wait to see and hear more.

Thanks We ate at Flying Fish, had room service breakfast, yak & yeti, a whiskey seminar, the F&W Signature Dinner at Jiko's, lunch at Tutto and dinner this evening will be at Citricos so lots more to come.

I'm having a great time living vicariously through your food!

I remember seeing a ton of salted caramel last winter -- Starbucks had a salted caramel hot chocolate, and Hagan-Daas had a salted caramel ice cream. I loved them, so I hope Disney is still in the grip of this trend when I'm there in two months!

Hopefuly they will still be in this trend for you in two months! I return on Dec 9th and kinda hope I can still get the California Grill dessert again then.

 

[Dis_Yoda]

Day 5 - Part 2 - Food & Wine Kiosks

After a day of mini-golf (which I lost ) and spending too much money at DTD on artwork, we decided around 1pm to walk through EPCOT and try more things around the festival.

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Marrakesh, Morocco[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Kefta (Ground seasoned beef in a pita pocket) $5.00[/FONT]

Um, yuck. Thats all I'm going to say about that.

19 snack credits remain

Italy
Italian Margharita $10

Sour, Sweet, and cooling you off on a warm day.

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Melbourne, Australia[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Grilled Lamb Chop, Red Wine Sauce, Murray River Sea Salt $5.50[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]
[/FONT]

A bit fatty but rather tasty.

18 snack credits remain

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Bangkok, Thailand [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Green Papaya Salad with Shrimp $4.25[/FONT]

Rather tasty. The papaya didn't have a lot of taste to it but overall it was ok.

17 snack credits remain

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Shanghai, China[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]• Chicken Ürümqi $3.75[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]
• Shrimp Rice Pancake $3.50[/FONT]

The chicken was a repeat from earlier. Still up there on my favorite items from this year's festival. My first look at the rice pancake kinda disgusted me. I thought it looked like a nightmare meatloaf. Luckily, it tasted nothing like a nightmare. I enjoyed its ricey and shrimpy flavors before we visited the trolls of Norway.

15 snack credits remain

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]San Juan, Puerto Rico[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Bacardi Frozen Dragon Berry Colada $7.25[/FONT]

No picture as I enjoyed it too quickly ><

It was absolutely amazing. Everyone should try one of these! We even bought an overpriced bottle of the rum from the festival store so I can attempt to make these at home when we return.

Edy's Flavorhood
Chocolate Ice Cream

No picture

It's edy's chocolate ice cream. Not great but not bad. My husband wanted something sweet and cold and that fit the bill enough to make him happy.

14 snack credits remain

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Montreal, Canada[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Maple Sugar Candy $2.25[/FONT]

Way way way way way too sweet. I've had maple sugar candy before but not this sweet.

13 snack credits remain

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Cork, Ireland[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]• Kerrygold Cheese Selection: Aged-Irish Cheddar, Dubliner and Ivernia Cheese with Apple Chutney and Brown Bread[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]$3.75
• 2 Warm Chocolate Lava Cake with Bailey's Ganache[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]$2.75[/FONT]

Repeats from earlier in the week. I made my husband get his own lava cake so he wouldn't steal any of mine.

10 snack credits remain

By now it was after 430 and we decided to head back to the resort to see the evening offerings at the Innkeeper's Club and relax until our meal at Flying Fish around 8:20pm.

The lounge had bbq chicken wings and some type of soup. The one wing I had was very tasty and fresh .

 

[Me&3]

I can't wait that all sounds exciting. I can't wait for us to go we leave 10/22-10/26. I know it will come fast but I could go to WDW everyday.

 

[Dis_Yoda]

I can't wait that all sounds exciting. I can't wait for us to go we leave 10/22-10/26. I know it will come fast but I could go to WDW everyday.

Oh you are getting close! You are going to have a great time! I would love to go to Disney everyday but I dont think my waistline would

 

[Dis_Yoda]

Day 5 - Part 3 - Flying Fish

Originally, we had Raglan Road planned for this evening. However, when we decided to get the dining plan, we had more credits than we had meals allotted for. Thus I decided to be adventurous and giving Flying Fish another shot. I was often dragged here by my parents growing up and I remember hating it. My father and I last went in May 2006 and it was my least favorite meal of the trip. I remember the Caesar being awful, the chicken dish having funky crap all in it that was just well bad and a dessert that hey messed up. It was a last straw for me and I vowed never to return. Obviously, I've grown up a lot since that trip and I've gotten better with eating different foods than I used to be.

We checked in around 8:10pm and were shortly seated towards the back. Our server initially was slow with coming to our table, but we noticed that behind us, he had many tables with young children that were well, a lot more needy than we would ever be.

I had the Magical Star Cocktail, my husband had the Boardwalk Baybreeze.

For our appetizers, I started with the Chef's Special Thunder Appetizer - California Rolls - $16

This was a huge appetizer. It was real crab with roe, bean sprouts, and some other vegetables. It tasted amazing. My only complaint that the pieces were cut too large to easy be placed in one's mouth in one bite which made for a messy eating experience.

My husband is boring and got the Caesar Salad - $11

For our entrees, I went with the Potato Wrapped Red Snapper - $36 and the pairing wine.

This was awesomely tasty. The wrap was crispy but the snapper inside was soft and flaky that the knife they gave me before it was served was never needed.

My husband had the NY Strip Steak - $42

I swear, my husband has had enough beef on this trip, I won't be surprised when he turns into a cow. He enjoyed this although there was a little bit of fat that had to be cut off but that can be expected with this cut of beef.

We also ordered the side of risotto - $9 (out of pocket)
I ordered this on a whim as I wanted rice. This was creamy and cheesy and had a ton vegetables throughout.

For our desserts, I decided to go with the Study in Chocolate - $11 and A Study in Icewines

The frangelico mousse was nice and light. The raspberry chocolate cake was too bittersweet. The white chocolate creme brulee was great. The ice wines were also very nice and a great value for the $14 it was.

My husband had the Cheesecake - $7

I was pleasantly surprised with how Flying Fish exceeded my expectations of awfulness. While not our favorite meal of this trip, it was above average for the signature 2 TS meals and will join into our rotation of places we'll go back to.

 

[MomsOf2boys]

I have never had ice wines before.

Flying fish sounded very delish and I may have to try it sometime.

 

[TigerKat]

So happy to hear you enjoyed FF! It's a fave of mine and I can't wait to go back in two weeks!