Just Back 3/5/16...some AMAZING meals, disappointment at Signatures. (TONS OF PICS!) FINISHED

[Jetta8300]

I appreciate all your pictures and few review. Sometimes a picture is more helpful in making a decision on where to eat. I think we will now add Yak and Yeti to the agenda for our May trip. I'm struggling a little with places that we have not been that I believe would appeal to our family of four. And completely unrelated, I wanted to ask what camera you use? It looks like it might be a point and shoot maybe? I want to leave my super heavy one at home. Thanks! Kelly

No prob . It is a point and shoot! But it unfortunately was about $400 new when I got it about 4 years ago. It's the Canon powershot S100. They do sell a newer version but it's basically the same camera.

http://shop.usa.canon.com/shop/en/catalog/powershot-s120-black

 

[erin1715]

The next morning was our relaxation day, no parks. We went to Kona Cafe for breakfast after sleeping in, and of course, it was amazing as usual. Not a lot to say other than, WOW!!! Everything was of course fantastic. We had the Pineapple Macadamia nut Pancakes with a side of fruit, and hubby had the Big Kahuna.

Man, I love love love Kona and the Big Kahuna, but I'm a bit disappointed to see the potatoes! They used to have thick sliced regular potato wedges that were SO good. Maybe I've been out of the WDW food loop and missed this change, but its a bummer.

 

[mom2my3kids]

Everything looks really yummy....

 

[jen73]

Wow! Thanks for the great pictures! POR looks gorgeous can't wait til our trip!

 

[serenitynow]

The Prime Rib at Boatwrights is amazing too!

 

[DisOrBust]

i jsut saw this on the rumors board and thought of your trip report. I wonder if this explains your portion sizes experiences.

Only 50% of the painting will be done for the Shanghai Disneyland opening. There have been changes at the executive level vin Shanghai. Cost overruns at the Chinese Resort have required double digit percentage cuts at the domestic parks. Chefs have been asked to use cheaper ingredients and use creative plating options to reduce portion size.

 

[Mousetopia]

I really shouldn't have read this. Now I want ADRs at Boatwright's, Yak & Yeti, and Wolfgang Puck. Thanks for the review!

Let me weigh in and say Boatwrights was a big amazing surprise in November. First visit! With mixed reviews I read we hesitated. WE LOVED it! I highly HIGHLY suggest the shrimp and Cheesy grits..made my eyes roll back in my head!

 

[Eastern]

Thanks for your reviews. I think I may change my adrs around a bit.

 

[summerw]

I enjoyed your report although it made me apprehensive about our ca grill adr. However, it's date night and we're going for the ambience so I'll just expect small portions. Thanks for the warning though. Your Tokyo dining pic is making me think I need to make a reservation there! Do most of the tables have some kind of view of did you just get a great one? And can I ask, did you let Disney know how you felt about the portions? It seems to me disney has made a lot of changes lately, and they'll continue unless they get feedback. Just my two cents.

 

[Jetta8300]

I enjoyed your report although it made me apprehensive about our ca grill adr. However, it's date night and we're going for the ambience so I'll just expect small portions. Thanks for the warning though. Your Tokyo dining pic is making me think I need to make a reservation there! Do most of the tables have some kind of view of did you just get a great one? And can I ask, did you let Disney know how you felt about the portions? It seems to me disney has made a lot of changes lately, and they'll continue unless they get feedback. Just my two cents.

At Tokyo dining, a little more than half of the tables sit very close to that window. With a beautiful view. The other tables sit in a neat little room that sort of glows blue where the sushi chefs are. I'm sure you could ask to be put in the room with the windows but the other side is neat too. The whole restaurant is very pretty.

I did take a survey after the trip and wrote extensively about our disappointment at the signatures, although I'm not sure if anyone will actually pay attention to that. I'm sure the servers are getting the feedback because the woman at the table next to us at Cali grill complained to the server about the portion size as well and she did not order the filet. He gave them a free dessert... We didn't get one but we also were not complaining like she was.

The portions were so small that it can't be a surprise to them that they're unacceptable. To me it's like pointing out something so obvious they have to be aware. I would be more than happy though to let anyone else at Disney know our experience if there is a better way to make our experience known. And we voted with our wallets as well, cancelling our other two signature reservations!

 

[summerw]

At Tokyo dining, a little more than half of the tables sit very close to that window. With a beautiful view. The other tables sit in a neat little room that sort of glows blue where the sushi chefs are. I'm sure you could ask to be put in the room with the windows but the other side is neat too. The whole restaurant is very pretty.

I did take a survey after the trip and wrote extensively about our disappointment at the signatures, although I'm not sure if anyone will actually pay attention to that. I'm sure the servers are getting the feedback because the woman at the table next to us at Cali grill complained to the server about the portion size as well and she did not order the filet. He gave them a free dessert... We didn't get one but we also were not complaining like she was.

The portions were so small that it can't be a surprise to them that they're unacceptable. To me it's like pointing out something so obvious they have to be aware. I would be more than happy though to let anyone else at Disney know our experience if there is a better way to make our experience known. And we voted with our wallets as well, cancelling our other two signature reservations!

I emailed guest services about all the hours cuts and they called me back. I doubt it will change anything, but it certainly can't hurt. I totally agree with voting with your wallet. I would think if they get enough complaints, they might get tired of hearing them enough to try to fix this pennywise and pound foolish approach they've developed in the last month.

WDW.Guest.Communications@disneyworld.com

 

[sleepydog25]

At Tokyo dining, a little more than half of the tables sit very close to that window. With a beautiful view. The other tables sit in a neat little room that sort of glows blue where the sushi chefs are. I'm sure you could ask to be put in the room with the windows but the other side is neat too. The whole restaurant is very pretty.

I did take a survey after the trip and wrote extensively about our disappointment at the signatures, although I'm not sure if anyone will actually pay attention to that. I'm sure the servers are getting the feedback because the woman at the table next to us at Cali grill complained to the server about the portion size as well and she did not order the filet. He gave them a free dessert... We didn't get one but we also were not complaining like she was.

The portions were so small that it can't be a surprise to them that they're unacceptable. To me it's like pointing out something so obvious they have to be aware. I would be more than happy though to let anyone else at Disney know our experience if there is a better way to make our experience known. And we voted with our wallets as well, cancelling our other two signature reservations!

We had met the general manager responsible for Artist Point some time ago, so when we had our last bad experience in January, we contacted him directly. He was very open to honest criticism (minus vitriol), and in addition to ensuring our last meal there was superb, in the interim, they actually tweaked the recipes at AP (I'm sure those changes weren't just based on our input, but perhaps we joined a chorus of voices). My moral is, if there's a way to find the actual person in charge, I suspect you might get a more personal response than Disney's general guest services complaint line.

 

[jon18uk]

Were the small portions not quite so bad that you wanted to send them back? Thats one of those things that I'm not sure I could bring it up in that style of restaurant, but if the meal seemed strangly small I might have to ask for more risotto!

Boatwrights has always had amazing portions though, I have never been able to finish their Jambalaya!

 

[Jetta8300]

Were the small portions not quite so bad that you wanted to send them back? Thats one of those things that I'm not sure I could bring it up in that style of restaurant, but if the meal seemed strangly small I might have to ask for more risotto!

Boatwrights has always had amazing portions though, I have never been able to finish their Jambalaya!

haha! Yeah I don't know if I would feel comfortable sending something back just for being small. There was nothing wrong with the dish other than the fact that it was 5 bites of food! They are well aware when they send a dish out that it was tiny... so it would have been pointing out the obvious. The woman beside us made it well known to the server she was unhappy. I did make a comment that we would go elsewhere for dessert because we were still hungry. This was ONLY an issue at the signature places. The non-signature had more than enough food! Boatwrights was amazing!

 

[SoCalTrojanSkip]

Dinner at Boatwright's Dining Hall at Port Orleans Riverside (our hotel) was fantastic. The cheese plate was the best cheese plate I've ever had (pepper jelly to put on everything?!?!). I'd go back just for that. But the entrees were VERY good. Everything was cooked perfectly and the crawfish mac and cheese was much better than the "mac and cheese" side at Jiko. This place got very busy as the time went on. They were not taking more walk ups until after 9:00. We stayed here but would come back even if we didn't. But definitely make a reservation if you can.

Boatwright's was one of the surprise gems on our last trip...! We also stayed at the POR and after a long day, and me not feeling particularly well, we decided to try and see if Boatwright's was taking any walk ups. To our surprise they were, and we had one of the best, most relaxed meals of our trip. Even though we were one of the evening's last tables, our server never made us feel rushed and took care of us really well. After dinner, we took the bread pudding to go and enjoyed dessert in our room. I've heard that some people have had not so great experiences in the past, but they are really firing on all cylinders IMO.

 

[richkaryn]

Tokyo Dining was our last dinner at Disney after we had previously cancelled Monsieur Paul. We thought it was FANTASTIC and we were impressed with absolutely everything, including the service. We are kind of picky about our sushi and thought the volcano roll we had was excellent. We were afraid after some comments about it being grocery store quality. But we didn't think so at all. The main course were perfect, and the beef rice was to die for. It's a beautiful restaurant with an amazing view. The only negative is that it was FREEZING in there. Like meat locker freezing. Everyone was shivering. And we forgot our coats. So it was a bit uncomfortable. But we will definitely book a meal here again.





View from our table



The Volcano Roll- A++++



I had a meal with 4 huge fried shrimps with sweet hoisin sauce, a ton of beef rice that was the most amazing thing I've ever tasted, soup, some sort of cold noodle salad, and these little pickle like cucumbers.



My husband was also really impressed. he had the grilled chicken with teriyaki, veggies that tasted like hibachi style veggies, some sort of friend mashed potato and sweet potato, and the phenomenal beef rice.



We skipped dessert since none of the options really appealed to us, and we were STUFFED!!!

Oh, but the green tea cheesecake with a raspberry sauce is actually VERY good (I got it just because we were on the DxDP when we ate there and figured if I didn't like it oh well.)

 

[zebsterama]

Great reviews and pics! Thank You!

 

[tinkerbella16]

The next morning was our relaxation day, no parks. We went to Kona Cafe for breakfast after sleeping in, and of course, it was amazing as usual. Not a lot to say other than, WOW!!! Everything was of course fantastic. We had the Pineapple Macadamia nut Pancakes with a side of fruit, and hubby had the Big Kahuna.

My most favorite breakfast! The macadamia pineapple pancakes are my absolute favorite pancakes, I've ever had! My mouth is watering just looking at your picture! I had them in November and even when I got full, I couldn't stop eating because they are too good to leave behind!

Thanks for sharing! I also love Yak & Yeti! The food there is fantastic and the cream cheese wontons are my favorite dessert - probably my favorite dessert in all of wdw! So sad it is not on our line up for our Sept trip.

So glad you enjoyed POR! It is my favorite resort. Of all the times we've stayed there, we have never eaten at Boatwrights, but will have to try it in the future. They used to serve breakfast - really wish they still did, as it was great! Riverside has one of the best food courts on property in my opinion. We love it there.

 

[joannamet]

We love POR. Last trip we tried ASMu and we were shocked at the differences between the 2 resorts.
Thanks for the great reviews. I'm reminded why DH and never eat at most of these places. If we spent $200 on dinner and left hungry we'd feel like we were robbed.

 

[tstidm1]

Based on the pictures and thoughts of various reviews of Boatwright's I've seen, I'm going to try it on the last night of our trip. I like Cajun food, so this place sounds good.