July Dining Around the World with my Best Friend

[texaslover]

This is the dining report that I am writing as repayment for all the hours of enjoyment you guys have given me. Reading all these wonderful reports and seeing the pictures of my favorite place has helped me through the downtime between Disney vacays !

DS and I have visited Disney together every year since he was 4. This year was our 7th trip and one of the best ones yet! The players:

Me - Mom, teacher. Over 21 . Love Disney, love traveling, love good food, and love my son.

DS - 11. Great student, athlete, loves Disney and theme parks as much as mom. My greatest accomplishment


We stayed at Port Orleans - Riverside for 7 days and ate at lots of great places. The most fun we had was snacking and buying soveniers around the world. Will post that day soon, it was a blast!

Ok, coming up. Day 1 - Kona Cafe.

 

[texaslover]

DS and I had a great morning and afternoon at Magic Kingdom and took the monorail to the Poly for our dinner at Kona Cafe.

I knew what I was going to order from studying the menus online. The Tuna Oscar looked amazing and I couldn't pick anything else. So I ordered a beer and let DS look over the menu.

One thing that was totally different this year is that DS is certainly not a kid's menu eater anymore. Wow, what a change in the budget! He decided on the Teriyaki Style New York Strip. Without the pineapple because, you know, we wouldn't want a fruit or veggie to actually hit his digestive system . Plus he got mashed potatoes and french fries as his two sides. Okayyyyy.......

Here are our meals. Please excuse that a few bites have been eaten, we are new to the food pic thing:

The tuna was amazing! It had fried green tomatoes underneath and a wasabi hollendaise over the top. It was just the right amount of spice. It also had 3 little pieces of fried crab on top that were delicious with the sauce! Outstanding.

DS loved his steak and ate it all, most of the mashed potatoes, and half of the french fries. He said it was a great steak!

All in all an excellent meal and good atmosphere. The waitress was good and didn't rush us at all. It was loud but not too loud for us to hear each other. We really enjoyed it!!!

Next: Tusker House

 

[DLo]

Great start!! We love Kona - skipping it this year to try new places Looking forward to more.

 

[Pooh&OurHunny]

Count me in. Thanks for sharing and can't wait to read more.

 

[texaslover]

Today we had lunch at Tusker House. Before we went in we watched the awesome African dancers outside the restaurant and DS participated which was so cute (but don't let an 11 year old hear me say that). The drummer actually motioned to me to get him up there and then came up to me later and said, "He did great, good job for getting him up mom!". Here he is:

We were seated and went through the buffet. DS said he wasn't super hungry but got a slice of pork, canalope, macaroni and cheese, and a chicken leg. His plate:

I got a bit of all my favorites. Couscous, hummus, tabbouleh, risotto, and the seafood stew with pita bread. The seafood stew was definitely my favorite and I got another small bit of it.

We shared a dessert plate with some good desserts. The bread pudding was the best. The chocolate chip bar was good, macaroon good, and strawberry mousse in a choc cup was ok.

Tusker House was good for a buffet. Buffets are not my favorite just because they are seldom hot and the food is usually mediocre because it's quantity over quality. This buffet had some good cold items and was clean and full. We enjoyed it for a get away from the park and a nice cool lunch.

 

[ChelleinNC]

One thing that was totally different this year is that DS is certainly not a kid's menu eater anymore. Wow, what a change in the budget! He decided on the Teriyaki Style New York Strip. Without the pineapple because, you know, we wouldn't want a fruit or veggie to actually hit his digestive system . Plus he got mashed potatoes and french fries as his two sides. Okayyyyy.......

I hear ya, DS 12 thinks filet mignon & creme brulee are the best foods in the world. Not that he's wrong...... but those hot dogs he used to love were a lot cheaper

and the fruit/veggie, so true!

 

[texaslover]

Later in the evening of day 2 DS and I decided just to grab some food to go from the food court. We were tired and it was SO loud in there all the time that we just wanted to eat in peace.

We decided to split a grilled chicken sandwich with fries and a make your own pasta with alfredo/chicken/parmasean. We found that the food court food was very average and the quality has definitely declined since the last time we stayed at PO.

They used to have good sandwiches, quesadillas, and breakfast items but we found nothing we liked at all except Mickey waffles. One morning we ate the breakfast sandwich which was fake egg between 2 pieces of HUGE bread that was hard. Same thing for the turkey sandwich, huge foccacia with dry turkey. We didn't even take pics of those items cause after we bought them they did not look appetizing!

Back to dinner, here is the pic of our tray:

The sandwich was ok but DS got nothing on it (remember no veggies shall touch his lips) so it was borning. The pasta was what I would consider good but not great. We each ate about 1/4 of each so there was definitely some left. It wasn't worth stuffing ourselves for!

 

[eventamy]

I had the Tuna Oscar in February and WOW, one of the best entrees I've EVER had! Now I want it tonight!

 

[texaslover]

Day 3 DS and I spent the morning in Downtown Disney and then had lunch at the TRex Cafe. We thought it was pretty cool even though DS is really too old to be incredibly impressed by this kind of thing. I will say it would be nice if there was something available for tweens like the make a dinosaur thing but maybe without the stuffed animals looking so babyish? I don't know exactly what but DS would have liked to make or do something in the gift shop but it was all very young.

The food was very much what you would expect at a chain (Rainforest, Chilis, etc.). Good but not great.

For some reason I just was not hungry at all so I just ordered French Onion Soup. I could have done a salad but my stomach was a little upset and I didn't know if that would be a good idea . DS got the chicken sandwich wrap with no veggies inside (surprise!). It came with waffle fries.

The soup was ok but too sweet for me. I like my onion soup more savory. The chicken wrap was very good and had sliced chicken, bacon, cheese, and a ranch sauce. The waffle fries were a little spicy and very good. Basically DS and I split his plate because I didn't care for mine too much.

Pics of the restaurant:

There was a meteor shower every 20 min or so and all the dinos went crazy. It was pretty loud but not overpowering. We liked the atmosphere but the food left a little to be desired.

After more shopping we stopped in to Goofy's Candy Co. We got 3 pretzels covered with nuts, peanut butter chips, and oreo and marshmallows covered with sprinkles and peanut butter chips. Both were drizzled in caramel. They were very rich and good and we kept them in our fridge for 4 days while slowly eating on them. Delish!

 

[texaslover]

We had breakfast this day at Wolfgang Puck Express. We made a special trip because I had heard it was great and we were having a sleep in day.

DS had the waffle with berries and whipped cream. I had the breakfast pizza. They were both huge! I liked the pizza and it was very tasty but I had buyers remorse after studying the menu a bit more. I wished I would have gotten the breakfast wrap when I saw someone else eating it. Next time! The pizza had eggs, bacon, and cheese with a ranch type drizzle and some veggies (mostly tomatoes which were a little soggy). It was good but really didn't have much egg and was more pizza than breakfast. The crust was delicious however!

DS loved the waffle and ate the whole thing, even the fruit . I had a bite and it was great.

That evening we had Biergarten and I know I took pics but they were not on the camera. Weird!

We have eaten there before and liked it and this time was no exception. DS ate each type of sausage and liked them all, liked the spatzel with gravy, thought the schnitzel was ok, and ate some sliced pork and various cheeses.

I had the schnitzel which was tasty but a little dry (the mushroom gravy helped), spatzel which was delish, a few cold salads which were all good, some good roasted potatoes, and two big beers. The beer was the best part of the meal .

The desserts were not great but I ate a little of each. DS said they looked gross! He waited and had a Napolean from France later in the night which was out of this world.

The food was all tasty and hearty and we enjoyed the show. We especially enjoyed watching this obnoxious kid whose parents thought it was cute to let him go up to the performers while they played the instruments. The singer actually stopped singing at one point and said, "Please don't touch the instrument" because he was banging on the xylophone as the guy played it! You would think the parents would be embarrassed but they just ignored it.....
We kept hoping the mallet would "slip" and catch a finger .

 

[slh1913]

Great review! I like how you got right to the point of each restaurant and included the matching pics.

 

[texaslover]

We ate a small breakfast of bagel and fruit so were hungry for lunch. We had an ADR at Liberty Tree and waited for about 20 minutes due to lots of large parties.

I was soo stoked about the toffee dessert so I decided on a salad to minimize the fullness . DS chose the pasta even though it had veggies in it - WOW! My salad had good dressing, was crunchy and fresh, and the chicken was tasty. Typical chain restaurant salad but good. DS loved his pasta even while picking around the spinach and other large veggies. He almost finished it which is great for him.

Ok, now I was ready for dessert. I hadn't really ordered one yet this vacation and was excited! So, we waited. And waited. And waited. Where was our waiter? Yeah, the food was slow coming out but what happened? He came by and said there was a problem at the other table and cleared our dishes and said he would be right back. 10 more minutes. Apparently the party of 16 beside us hadn't told him they wanted separate checks and the parties were not seated beside each other so he was having to go line by line with the group and separating. We tried to get his attention. Nothing. He disappeared.

By this time I asked another waiter to help us or get the manager. The waiter ran back (they had apparently told him) and asked what we needed. Uh, at this point just the check dude. Check came, another 10 minutes to process and we were out of there 1.5 hours after entering having only eaten one course. Unacceptable. No apology.

The food wasn't great and service was awful. I didn't even get my toffee cake dessert . So we won't be back again.


That evening we got something when we returned to POR after the parks. This was the night of the nasty turkey sandwich and another pizza for DS. The turkey sandwich was two pieces of foccacia (huge!) with 4 slices of turkey, 1 piece of american cheese, and wilted lettuce. Bleh. Ate the Lays that came with it and the turkey out of the middle. DS liked his pizza again!

No pics because it was just not worth it

 

[texaslover]

This was my favorite day of the whole vacation. When you see the pictures you will probably notice why (drinking around the world !).

DS and I spent the whole day at Epcot which is our favorite park. We did a few Kim Possible missions which were a blast and then decided to start at one end of the World and work our way around. The plan: To buy a cheap souvenier and some kind of food or drink item in every country. The souvenier had to be under $5.00 but that rule went out the window several times. Oops.

Here we go:

In Canada we decided to start slow and we bought a Caramilk bar and a dreamcatcher. DS immediately wolfed down half of the candy and said it was "deliciously chocolately". lol. The dreamcatcher is hanging in his room with many other Disney soveniers.

In the U.K. we broke the $5.00 rule and bought DS a Manchester tshirt that he was dying to have. He has worn this every week since we got back from Disney so it was well worth it. Plus it is unique in our area and all the soccer playing kids are jealous - what could be better for an 11 year old? Our snack was fish and chips with were good but a little greasy. We find that sometimes they are and sometimes they aren't. We shared these but didn't finish everything as we knew there was more eatin' to be done! To wash it down I had a Bass which hit the spot.

Next up, France! We bought an Eclair, a Napolean, and a tiny metal Eiffel Tower (cute!). The tower looks great on one of my sofa tables. DS was disappointed that the eclair had chocolate filling instead of cream. The outside was also pretty tough. We didn't eat it. The napolean however is de-li-cious!!!! It was our second of the trip and just as good. We snarfed that sucker down

We wandered into Moracco and needed something savory and filling to cut that sweet! So we got a Chicken Swarma platter which is my favorite counter service in the World. It was just as delicious as ever. DS ate most of the chicken and I ate the tabboulah, hummas, and couscous. Delish! We also bought a little egg cup that was hand painted. It sits proudly in our kitchen, displayed but not yet used. I need to learn to cook a soft boiled egg ! Oh, I also had a Moroccan beer that was very good.

DS had already broken his bank in Japan on a previous day so he used the rest of his money to buy Yu-Gi-Oh cards and a Domo figure. Since we were full we got a small package of gummy candies which were surprisingly good when we ate them on the plane. Very fresh and not sticky or hard at all!

DS was ready to bag the United States because he thought it was a waste of time but I insisted that would be cheating ! So we went into the little store and found a bag of pretzels (that's American, right?) and a little bookmark type thing that listed all the presidents. We figured it might come in handy at school someday . Continued....

 

[texaslover]

Continued..

To Italy where I found a nice wooden spoon on sale for $2.99. I use it all the time! I also found a glass of white wine that quickly disappeared in the heat. Guess DS lost out in France .

In Germany I got another beer (see why this was my favorite day?) and we found a beautiful bell for just over $5.00. The big ones were sooo expensive, some were $59.00! But we loved our little bell and it has a place of honor in our house. DH and I ring it when we bust out the beer...

Now China! We got an order of eggrolls to split and a little lucky Buddha. DS tried the eggrolls and pronounced the cabbage "disgusting" so I ate one and threw the other away. They were good though!

Norway baby! We found a beautiful hand tied Christmas ornament for only $3.95 that will hang proudly on our tree this year. We also got the School Bread. Woah! That is one hunk of bread! I enjoyed the part with the coconut (top) and the part that touched the cream (inside) but the other parts were a little bland. That said, I tore off the good parts and loved every minute of it. Definitely worth trying!

We made it! Mexico and I ran straight for the margaritas. I got the lime and strawberry with no mango. It was refreshing and very strong . DS got the famous Mexican hackisac (spelling?). He does play with it all the time so guess it was worth the $4.00.

This was so fun! We are trying to think of something we can look for next time we go around the World. Ideas?

We also caught tons of shows while we made our way around because we were taking our time and not worried about being anywhere at anytime. It was the perfect day!

 

[Schmoodle]

Thank you for the reviews! Your DS is very handsome. I love your voyage around the world. Sounds like a perfect day - Epcot is our favorite too. Maybe next time you could get all ornaments for your Christmas tree.

 

[texaslover]

I haven't had a lot of feedback but I hope you guys enjoyed this report. We are going back next June with my best friend and her 3 boys and 1 girl (turning 3 and my goddaughter plus quite a pistol !) It should be an interesting trip report so I'm hoping I can give you guys a laugh.

Our last day was spent at the MK in the morning and Epcot in the afternoon before catching a flight at 6:00 p.m. We actually had no ADR's because we weren't sure what we wanted to do but we walked up to Rose and Crown and got a table in 15 minutes or so.

DS had fish and chips which was a good sized portion. He ate most of the fish and 1/2 of the chips and said it was great! And he is just becoming a fish eater so I was happy that he ordered a bit out of his comfort zone.

I had something that I wasn't too excited about, just because I didn't want anything fried or made of sausage etc. This was one of the few lunch entrees that looked light. It was fab! The chicken breast was fork tender with cheese and a little dollup of creamy dressing. It had a delicious cucumber salad which was great in the heat and made me feel like I at least had some sort of veggies this week . It also came with a bacon cheese scone which was so flaky and decadent that the benefit from the veggies quickly went out the window . Worth it though, it was all great. I also got a black and tan followed by a lighter beer (forgot what kind) because we sat there just enjoying the lagoon and talking for 1 1/2 hours. I was sad to be leaving but I realized that this was why I kept bringing DS back. We talked about how DH and I met and girls in his class and dating and all the stuff he might never had brought up at home. We had spent 7 days together every waking moment and it was all worth it for that 1 1/2 hours. Ok, I'm going to tear up just a bit .

The trip was incredible and even though DS was 11 we had just as much fun together as our first mom/son trip when he was 5. Disney is truly magic!

 

[KatMark]

Enjoyed your reviews...thanks for sharing.

 

[GovieMom]

Your details and pictures were wonderful! Thanks so much for taking the time to post; it was one of my favorites.

 

[cglaura]

I have that exact same little red Buddha on my window ledge! I love your souvie/snack around the World idea. I think I will be borrowing it this winter

 

[GoofySon'sMom]

Came in a litte late! Loved your reviews. I took a very special trip with my DS last year and treasured every minute of it!