It's All About the Food

[kizzy]

Headed to WDW this week with DH, 46. This is our first trip, of 19 total, without the kids, both of whom are in college and chose other spring break options. And, as you can probably guess, those options included destinations with their girlfriends. Go figure. But it does give us the chance to do what we want, when we want. Such a novelty! So off DH and I are going to Disney, and of course, as always, it is all about the food.

In fact, menus and trip planning are how I always survive the Midwest winters--especially this one! So here are the restaurants we have planned:

Be Our Guest (dinner)
Sanaa
Kona Café (breakfast and dinner)
Kouzzina (dinner)
Beaches and Cream (lunch)
Mama Melrose (dinner)
Artist Point (dinner)
Brown Derby (dinner)
Yak and Yeti (dinner)
Captain's Grille (breakfast)
Tutto Italia (lunch)
San Angel Inn (dinner)
Grand View Tea


New to our list is Artist Point, Grand View Tea and Beaches and Cream (well, if you count the take-out ice cream, it's not new, but we have never eaten a meal there). We have been to Kouzzina for breakfast, but not dinner. Can't get California Grill reservations at a decent time, so we opted for Artist Point. I keep wondering if I should switch to Narcoosees or Citricos, but the menu at AP looks pretty good. DH wants to go to San Angel--not really sure why, but he likes the margaritas at La Cava and the overall atmosphere.

This is the year, after so many tries, that I am going to make it to the Grand View Tea. Seriously. In years past, we have cancelled many ADR's and changed our schedule frequently. That may not work so well this year. So, armed with FP+, magic bands, and credit-card guaranteed ADR's, off to WDW we go!

 

[wilma-bride]

Have a fab trip, I look forward to hearing all about it

 

[dachsie]

Is Grand View Tea the afternoon tea at the Grand Floridian? If so I have done that and really enjoyed it. Sounds like you are going to have a great time!

 

[CanadianPaco]

How wonderful for you two!!!! That'll be us soon ... this is probably our last with DD! Your restaurant selections sounds fantastic!! Enjoy!

 

[kizzy]

Thanks for joining in! I am bittersweet about this adult-only, empty nest trip. On our first visit to WDW, DS1 was 5 and DS2 was 2. Time goes so fast!

I have been in a last-minute ADR changing frenzy today. I added Narcoosees and Bongos for dinner; Liberty Tree Tavern for lunch; and gasp--I might give up the Garden View Tea. DH is less than thrilled about having tea--have never been able to talk him or either DS into it. I will just console myself with a fruit and nutella waffle in MK.

Bongos is a random pick, but we have friends who love it and it is another place that is new to us, so we are going to try it out. I am having lunch at LTT solely to try the Colony Salad and the Ooey Gooey Toffee Cake.


We leave early Tuesday morning. Can't wait for all that Disney food!

 

[Dislover1991]

Excited to see your reports!!

A few of those places are on our "maybe" list for next year's trip so i'm very interested to see those reviews.

Have a great time!

 

[lovin'fl]

Can't wait to see your dining reviews!!! Enjoy that sans kiddo trip!!!

 

[kizzy]

I spent the entire day changing my ADR's! So here is my revised list of restaurants in order of appearance:

Be Our Guest (dinner)
Sanaa (lunch)
Kouzzina (dinner)
Mama Melrose (lunch)
Flying Fish (dinner)
Kona Café (breakfast)
Artist Point (dinner)
Yak and Yeti (dinner)
Captain's Grille (breakfast)
Brown Derby (dinner)
Tutto Italia (lunch)
San Angel Inn (dinner)
Liberty Tree Tavern (lunch)
Narcoosee's (dinner)

New to us will be Artist Point, Captain's Grille and Narcoosees.

 

[kizzy]

We are in WDW now--still have five days left. Have eaten soooo much food so far that after every meal, we swear that we are never going to eat again. That being said, the food has been great so far.

Up first was dinner at Be Our Guest. We had lunch at BOG last year, and I had not intended to book it for dinner this year. But a couple weeks before we left, an ADR time of 7:55 p.m. happened to pop up, and on a whim, I took it.

They were running slightly late, but seated us about 15 minutes late. We were seated in the ballroom. Since we had just arrived in Orlando about four hours earlier from the very snowy Midwest, we had to laugh about the gently falling snow outside the windows. The effect was totally lost on us this year, because we have seen far, far too much of the real stuff.

Anyway, on to the dinner. Our waiter was nice and efficient. DH had a beer and the mussels; I had the potato leek soup and the salad trio. All of it was good, not amazing, but good. Honestly, IMHO, I would eat at BOG for more of the atmosphere than the food. The food was fine, but nothing amazing, really. We shared the lemon meringue cupcake, and that was quite good. Now that I have had both lunch and dinner at BOG, I don't think we will be in a hurry to return.

Next up: Sanaa

 

[BOG Obsessed]

Looking forward to your dining reviews

 

[vettegirl]

I agree regarding BOG, nothing to write home about. Excited to hear what you thought if Sanaa, it's my fav!!

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[wilma-bride]

I am still excited to have dinner at BOG next week but have a feeling that once will be enough.

 

[msmith27]

I spent the entire day changing my ADR's! So here is my revised list of restaurants in order of appearance: Be Our Guest (dinner) Sanaa (lunch) Kouzzina (dinner) Mama Melrose (lunch) Flying Fish (dinner) Kona Café (breakfast) Artist Point (dinner) Yak and Yeti (dinner) Captain's Grille (breakfast) Brown Derby (dinner) Tutto Italia (lunch) San Angel Inn (dinner) Liberty Tree Tavern (lunch) Narcoosee's (dinner) New to us will be Artist Point, Captain's Grille and Narcoosees.

I loved Narcooses! They had the best almond cheesecake and halibut! Plus it has a great view of the fireworks. One of my favs!

 

[kizzy]

After our 'meh' dinner at Be Our Guest and since we shared only one cupcake there for dessert, we opted for a cake cup at Cheshire Café. In my world, there can never be too many cupcakes. The flavors were a white chocolate and a strawberry shortcake. We chose the strawberry cupcake. We both liked it--DH thought there was too much frosting, but I love frosting. Just like cupcakes, you can never have too much frosting. A lot of sugar, for sure, but yummy!

Actually, that cake cup represents a slight theme this year in our Disney dining. As always, I have sought out new or favorite snacks. We have not been to Epcot yet (going Monday) so our current list does not include the ones I want to try there. But so far we sampled the samosas at Bradley Falls in Animal Kingdom. Really good, not amazing, but solid. Not too spicy. If you want to try samosas, these are a good start. Filled with peas and potatoes, but no meat.

My favorite snack so far remains the nutella and fruit waffle at Sleepy Hollow in MK. We actually went out and bought a waffle iron (the one we got as a wedding gift was long gone) last year to make them at home after having them for the first time. Oh, and egg rolls at MK--I have to make the trek to Adventureland to the egg roll cart before I can leave the park.

After seeing a review online, I have sought out the lemon meringue tart at the Boardwalk Bakery twice now. Perfection. Both DH and I loved it. Perfect combination of tart, creamy and sweet. If I wasn't going to AK tonight, I would seriously consider going back to the Boardwalk just for another one. DH also got the fruit tart and thought it was great. Fruit was very fresh.

And I can't forget to add the peanut butter chocolate cupcake at Starring Rolls. Not as good as the one I had last year. Just slightly dry, but still a chocolate explosion. Definitely needed coffee to go with it, though. Or maybe a big glass of milk.

 

[kizzy]

Just made it home--we got a bonus day of vacation after our flight was cancelled due to a winter storm at home on Wednesday. We pretty much stuck to our original plan, but made a few changes along the way.

I'm not sure how I feel about the new ADR cancellation policy. I felt like it was a little bit restrictive, since we couldn't change plans on the spur of the moment. They will allow you to modify times within the 24-hour window, but it has to be a the restaurant where you already have an ADR. Otherwise, you have to cancel by 11 p.m. the previous day. Anyway, there were a couple of times where we would have liked to change our plans, but didn't want to pay the $20 cancellation fee.

Our first lunch of the trip found us at Sanaa--a previous favorite from last year. It did not disappoint. One of the top meals of the trip for us. We had a window-side table and enjoyed a very relaxing lunch. We shared the Naan bread and dips--awesome. Best appetizer of the trip. I had two vegetarian options--the paneer cheese and channa masala with five grain pilaf. It was great. Not as spicy this year as it was last year, which I liked. DH had the butter chicken, which he had been dreaming about since last year, and the sustainable fish, which was mahi-mahi. He loved his lunch. We also shared the chai cream--you can get three cups of it on the dessert sampler. It might have been a little overboard on the chai cream, but that stuff is simply awesome. Nice, cold and creamy after the slightly spicy lunch. Sanaa remains a must-do for us.

For dinner, we headed to Kouzzina. We had been there for breakfast in the past, but dinner was new for us. It capped off a great day of dining. I had the house salad which was awesome--fresh greens, tomato and cucumber with a honey thyme dressing I have to figure out how to replicate. It was seriously good. I also had spanakopita, which was among the best I have ever had. DH had the fisherman's stew and enjoyed it very much. Along with the bread and olives, we really enjoyed this meal. For dessert, the Loukoumades were so yummy. Not too sweet or really overly dessert-like. But we both like honey, and these had a really nice flavor.

Overall, this was one of our favorite dining days. Highly recommend with Sanaa and Kouzzina. Up next: Mama Melrose and Flying Fish

 

[vettegirl]

Sanaa is so amazing! I had the Mahi Mahi curry back in Sept and it was divine!!

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[kizzy]

After a rainy morning at Hollywood Studios, we headed to Mama Melrose for lunch. We have grown to like this restaurant over the past several trips, and this time was no exception. The lobby was very crowded--probably due in part to the rain--and they were turning away people without ADR's. We were among the first people seated. It was the perfect day to be at Mama Melrose--rainy and chilly.

We started with warm rolls with olive oil. Good and hot, nothing really out the ordinary or exciting, but just solidly good.

DH had the house salad--very good and fresh with cucumber and tomato; and the calamari appetizer as an entrée. He loved it! It came with three dips--marinara, honey and pesto. He loved all three, especially the honey.

I had my favorite Mama Melrose entrée--the penne pasta with vodka sauce (minus the pancetta). The service was fine--efficient and friendly. Once again, we really liked Mama Melrose.

Since we knew we wanted to get a cupcake from Starring Rolls, we declined dessert.

That evening, we went to Flying Fish for dinner. This was our second time at FF--the first was in 1999--so it had been a long time. Sadly, we didn't like it any better this time than we did back in the day.

Our waiter was not great. Attentive at first, but then inconsistent. He was gone for long periods of time. The food? Not great either.

DH had a couple of beers (can't remember the specifics) and the Flying Fish duo--the potato wrapped red snapper and the filet. Now, in the interest of full disclosure, he didn't really like the potato wrapped red snapper the last time he had it. Well, as you can guess, nothing had really changed in 15 years. He liked it, but didn't love it. As for the filet, it was a bad cut of meat. A lot of fat and gristle. He like the overall taste, but the quality of the meat left a lot to be desired. Didn't really feel like complaining, so made the best of it.

I had the tomato and mozzarella salad. It was fine, but not amazing like others I have had, such as the one at Yachtsman Steakhouse. I also had a side of risotto. It had shredded carrots in it, which was nice, but the overall flavor was disconcertingly sweet.

After two hours, we were just kind of over Flying Fish, so we declined dessert and instead went to the Boardwalk Bakery for my favorite dessert of the week, the lemon meringue tart. Awesome. Perfect combination of tart and sweet.

So overall, we once again really liked Mama Melrose. Flying Fish, not so much. I don't think we will be in a hurry to go back. Too many other places we do like--and also places we still want to try.

 

[guinness408]

Joining in.... Great reviews!

 

[kizzy]

Our second full day at Disney found us at Magic Kingdom. We are Starbucks lovers, so we picked up coffee at the new (well, new since we were at Disney last, anyway) Main Street Bakery/Starbucks. We made it to the MK before park opening, so enjoyed a relatively quiet morning. Instead of breakfast, we had a Nutella and fruit waffle at Sleepy Hollow and a couple of egg rolls. We obsess over the egg rolls. I don't know why. They are good. Not great. But it is a Disney habit/addiction. They were not very timely with the egg rolls. The cart opens at 11, but I would guess it was at least 11:20 before they showed up with the food. Love the waffle. It might be one of my top 10 Disney foods.

Since it was pretty chilly and overcast, we checked to see if we could be seated at Liberty Tree Tavern. We had an ADR for later in the trip, but switched it out. It turned out to be a really great meal. First, our server was hands down the best of the trip. He was the perfect combination of attentive and not overly so, if that makes any sense. I had the Colony salad (minus the chicken) I had read so much about and LOVED it. The smoked cheddar cheese went perfectly with the apples and dried cranberries. In fact, I bought all the ingredients once we got home to try and replicate the salad.

DH had the Liberty Boys BLT. He thought it was ok, but didn't love it. The pork was a little fatty and in his opinion, there was too much bread. The slices are really thick. He ended up eating it open-faced. And, of course, we had to have the Ooey Gooey Toffee Cake. Yum. Just yum. Very nice, relaxing lunch. Loved it.

For dinner, I had cancelled our Artist Point reservation. Kona Café was open, so we decided on that. I guess the reason we cancelled Artist Point was that DH had the filet at flying fish and didn't feel like steak again. He wanted sushi. So Kona it was. We had a nice dinner. DH had the crab cakes with jalapeno lime cream and a volcano roll. I had the Pan-Asian noodles with no meat. Oh, and the bread with macadamia nut butter. Worth the trip alone. No joke. LOVED the bread. Great dinner. Non-stressful, solidly good food. Overall, a really good dining day.

Next up: Flame Tree Barbeque and Yak and Yeti