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

[Jetta8300]

My husband and I just got back from an AMAZING couples trip yesterday! 2/28/16-3/5/16. It was our 4th trip and probably the best yet. And while I do not have time to write a long dining review working full time with a toddler (I'm not that creative at writing anyway) I have a TON of pics, and there were a few thoughts I wanted to share about our dining experiences!

I took pictures of EVERYTHING. Most mornings we ate breakfast at the Port Orleans Riverside food court, so I'll post those together. Overall here is where we ate:

Day 1- Lunch at Yak and Yeti
Dinner at Boatwright's Dining Hall

Day 2- Lunch at Sci-Fi Dine in
Dinner at Liberty Tree Tavern

Day 3- Lunch at Skipper Canteen
Dinner at Jiko

Day 4- Breakfast at Kona Cafe
Lunch at Wolfgang Puck Cafe
Dinner at California Grill

Day - Breakfast and lunch at Universal Studios
Dinner at Trattoria al Forno

Day 6- Lunch at Flower and Garden Booths
Dinner at Tokyo Dining

Day 7- Breakfast at Olivia's Cafe


Overall we were really impressed at the "1 credit table service" type restaurants. (We were not on the dining plan). Some of our favorites were Yak and Yeti, Boatwright's, Skipper Canteen, and Tokyo Dining. PHENOMENAL!!! I have pictures of them all, and we were extremely surprised and impressed with these places.



However we were EXTREMELY disappointed in the signature dining. In our first two trips, we dined at signature restaurants every night and were always impressed. We are no stranger to fine dining around our home as well, and the small portion sizes they usually serve.

However, Jiko was RIDICULOUS, and also my meal at Cali Grill. The portions sizes this trip were absolutely laughable. We were so disgusted after Cali Grill that we ended up cancelling Citricos and Monsieur Paul and booking other choices. ( and ended up VERY happy). The pictures of these meals are very deceiving and look much larger in pictures than they really are. My husband and I both ordered the "Tile Fish with vegetable and tomato butter Sauce" at Jiko. This was literally a 2 inch x 2 inch piece of fish with 4 PEA PODS UNDERNEATH. And one cherry tomato. THAT'S IT. It was $45 a meal. It was the absolute smallest meal I've ever been served in any restaurant, EVER. All in all maybe 6 bites of food if you ate each pea pod individually.


At Cali Grill, my husband ordered a scallop entree, which actually was an acceptable portion size for scallops (scallop meals are usually small). And there were 4 scallops with a decent amount of some sort of vegetable puree and apples. However, my filet was $50 and it was probably a 3.5-4oz filet, with literally TWO TEASPOONS of risotto underneath. Oh yeah, and one cherry tomato. Again, ridiculous. I've ordered Filet out quite a bit, and while they can be small, usually they beef up the side dishes sometimes to still make you feel like you had a full meal. Don't tell me that for $50 they couldn't have provided more than 2 bites of risotto. It was a real turn off and ended up cancelling our other signature experiences from then on.

So that's the bad, but most of our other meals were VERY GOOD!!! And here are the pictures...

 

[Jetta8300]

YAK AND YETI- This meal was absolutely phenomnal. My husband said the burger was one of the best things he's ever eaten. The dessert kabobs were every bit as good as people say!!!!!!!!!

Korean Beef



Kobe Beef Burger, and slaw on the side






FRIED CREAM CHEESE FILLED DESSERT WONTONS, WITH VANILLA SAUCE--- WOW!!!

 

[Jetta8300]

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.







Warm Corn Bread



Pirogue Platter (the middle is the SWEET pepper jelly) These were very generous portions of everything. Huge chunks of cheese.



French Onion Soup



the "Louisiana Lugger" Pork with cornbread pudding and tomato jam (tasted like apple butter)



"the Big Easy" strip steak with peppercorn cause and crawfish mac and cheese. This was a very big bowl, with TONS of crawfish in it. Absolutely wonderful.

 

[Jetta8300]

Sci-Fi Dine in lunch was very good. we both had the Smoked Turkey Sandwich with sweet potato fries (ask to substitute. These were FANTASTIC, yes that's powdered sugar on top). The sandwich was average/pretty good (we were trying for a bit healthier, it was just a lot of thick wheat bread...the bread was a little overwhelming) but the sweet potato fries were amazing. My hubby enjoyed his oreo milkshake very much also. (lighting is BAD for picture taking!)

 

[webcreatrix]

YAK AND YETI- This meal was absolutely phenomnal. My husband said the burger was one of the best things he's ever eaten. The dessert kabobs were every bit as good as people say!!!!!!!!!

Definitely my favorite! I regret we are passing it up for Tusker House this year!

 

[Jetta8300]

Dinner at Liberty Tree Tavern- Overall this was just not very good. Probably Our least favorite meal of the trip. The salad we thought was outright gross. It was like old bagged brown lettuce and bad dressing. The rolls were rock hard and cold, even though they look like they'd be soft. cornbread was decent. The main course was OK, kind of like what you'd get for $9.99 at Golden Corral. Not that there's anything wrong with that if you're in the mood, but for $33 per person it was BAD. The Mac and cheese was definitely the TV dinner kind, but we still enjoyed that and asked for extra. I also liked the cranberry sauce. We could have just eaten the turkey and left the ham and pot roast (even though all the meats were all pretty decent, again if you're expecting Golden Corral $9.99 type food)

The dessert was like a weird, tiny, rock hard apple tart (forgot a pic unfortunately). I thought there was some sort of warm cake and ice cream but they changed it apparently.

The salad, bread, and desserts were all just really bad, much worse than I thought. While the meats and sides were average, about what I expected. It also took the waitress 20 min. to find us, and then and like 30 min in between courses. it was SLOW. And the server definitely had a bit of a bad attitude about being busy. We won't do this again.

 

[Jetta8300]

Skipper Canteen was VERY good. We ended up here for lunch unexpectedly. I'm one of the people annoyed that they don't do 180 day adrs. So I had reservations at Kona Cafe for lunch while we were at the MK, but the monorail was down. So after calling the dining line, they let me cancel Kona without penalty since the monorail was down. Skipper Canteen was at least 2/3 full. We sat in the "butterfly booth" and our room was completely full, as was the other smaller room. The large room was 2/3 full. The service here was EXCELLENT!!!

The portion sizes for the chicken meal looks large, but it was deceptively small. (however VERY good, and still MUCH bigger than meals at Cali Grill or Jiko, so it was just fine!). On the other hand, I ordered the "mac and cheese" which looked small in pics, but was deceptively LARGE. I only got about half way through. FYI, the "mac and cheese" tastes like a taco!!!!!! I had no clue what the heck it would taste like from the pics, I figured like a tomato sauce. NO, it's like taco seasoned beef with creamy noodles (not cheesy in any way). My husband said it tasted like an enchilada in a bowl.

BTW if you sit in the butterfly booth everyone will ask to take pictures of you...



The honey bread was wonderful


S.E.A. Shu Mai


Mac and Cheese (or we thought "deconstructed taco in a bowl")



Tastes like Chicken (hubby loved it)



Kungaloosh = WOW.

 

[jimim]

Jiko had tilefish? I'm suprised cause I always thought tilefish was one of those fish u eat if there isn't any other fish to eat. Bottom feeder with high mercury levels? I had it once and I remember I wasn't impressed and then read that it one of those fish that are bottom of choice fish.
Jiko can have access to so many other wonderful cuts of fish and they choose tile fish? Maybe cause most people might not have heard of it? I don't k ow weird.

I'm sorry about jiko we have eaten there for multiple multiple years. We never miss it. We always love it. Cues portions are small. But the menu is really good usually.

We gave up on cal grill after they reimagined it. Went when it first reopened and never looked back. So sad cause again eat there every trip for the past 15 years but not since they changed it. I feel like they are trying too hard. It was good before why change.

I'm excited about yak and yeti. Our friends always say it's great so it's going to go in the try pool this trip.

Thanks for the reviews. Don't give up on the sign places. Try narcoossee's. It's just so consistent. The food is always the same. Just good. Try yachtsman steakhouse. It's awesome. Our favorite with jiko. The staff is like family now. All so nice.

Citricos is good but we always end up at narcoossee's cause we know the food will always be good like past trips.

Thanks for the pics and reviews! Glad u had another good trip! Many more to you!

 

[loveshak22]

Loved the reviews and all the pics!!

 

[Jetta8300]

Jiko had tilefish? I'm suprised cause I always thought tilefish was one of those fish u eat if there isn't any other fish to eat. Bottom feeder with high mercury levels? I had it once and I remember I wasn't impressed and then read that it one of those fish that are bottom of choice fish.
Jiko can have access to so many other wonderful cuts of fish and they choose tile fish? Maybe cause most people might not have heard of it? I don't k ow weird.

I'm sorry about jiko we have eaten there for multiple multiple years. We never miss it. We always love it. Cues portions are small. But the menu is really good usually.

We gave up on cal grill after they reimagined it. Went when it first reopened and never looked back. So sad cause again eat there every trip for the past 15 years but not since they changed it. I feel like they are trying too hard. It was good before why change.

I'm excited about yak and yeti. Our friends always say it's great so it's going to go in the try pool this trip.

Thanks for the reviews. Don't give up on the sign places. Try narcoossee's. It's just so consistent. The food is always the same. Just good. Try yachtsman steakhouse. It's awesome. Our favorite with jiko. The staff is like family now. All so nice.

Citricos is good but we always end up at narcoossee's cause we know the food will always be good like past trips.

Thanks for the pics and reviews! Glad u had another good trip! Many more to you!

Thanks! We did have a very good time, overall!!! I hate to say that we wouldn't book another signature because we are foodies and we have always enjoyed the restaurants. But we were seriously put off by both of the meals we had. $180 for 2 people at Cali grill (without alcohol or dessert) and we left hungry. ($160 at Jiko and same. No alcohol or dessert and were by no means full). We replaced Citricos with Trattoria al Forno, and Monsieur Paul with Tokyo Dining. We had wonderful meals there.

It was "Maize Crusted Golden Tilefish". We also thought the items on the real menu at signatures were all a few dollars more expensive than the menus they advertise on their Disney website. Not that it makes a difference when you're spending $180 for dinner, but still not worth what we got. I will include the pic of the 4 bites of tilefish soon! Haha

 

[jimim]

I always get the boar for an app and my wife and I split the tibs. I just had the lamb. It was really good. I would never spend 45 on tilefish though. Maybe it's cause I'm a snob fisherman. Lol. I like my fish.

Sign are always going to be more and also cause it's Disney and they could just get away with it. It's like eating in New York City we always say. Lol

Try yatchsman next trip or narcoossee's. Both expensive but portions are better to an extent.

 

[kastoney]

Thanks for the reviews so far. Your pictures are absolutely gorgeous!!!! Sorry the signatures were a bust for you but it sounds like you found plenty of other goo eats

 

[pumba]

thank you for taking the time to do the reviews.... I have had one experience where we ate at a TS and had to go to American Pavillion to eat MORE FOOD...hahaha..thanks again..and loved the photos

 

[Noah S.]

Very surprising. Not sure if I should be happy for the less fancy restaurants or be disappointed in the fancy 2 punch restaurants. Thanks for all the helpful reviews!

 

[DaisyDuckGirl]

This post really helped my planning for next WDW trip in May. Thank you

 

[GoofySon'sMom]

Great reviews so far! That Orange Beef at Y&Y looks delicious! And DH and I will be staying at POFQ in October so I have been debating Boatwrights. That cheese plate looks like it will be worth a stop! Looking forward to the rest!

 

[Jetta8300]

JIKO-

So here's where things got a bit disappointing. We had been to Jiko in 2010 and it was our least favorite signature of the trip, so we thought we'd give it another shot this time around.

These are the rolls. They're kind of hard, dense room temperature rolls. If you've ever asked for the multigrain roll at Panera instead of the baguette, same thing. Not great.



We then had a flatbread to share (it was the only flatbread available): Millett Flatbread, apricot chutney, manchego and midnight moon cheese, charred red wine onions, heirloom tomatoes. Sounded amazing, but This was like a 3/5. It was extremely salty and crispy, almost as if the cheese was the crust. The apricot chutney was the highlight, although it didn't have nearly enough, maybe a teaspoon in total. Some parts tasted like the salt shaker lost the lid and it got accidentally dumped on. there was no real sauce to it. So it was just kind of like a dried cheese crisp with tomatoes on top. Needed more chutney.



We also split a side of their Maccaroni and Cheese "enhancement". This was also like a 3/5. It tasted more like a zesty tomato soup noodle casserole. It was sort of watery, with a lot of tomatoes and tomato juice in it. Supposedly it had sausage in it, but we didn't see any. It was ok, just not what we expected. It was about the size of a coffee mug for $16. I cut into it before I took the pic.



So Onto the meal, this was ridiculous. We both had the Golden Tilefish with vegetables of the moment and tomato butter sauce. Again, about 5 bites of food, $45. From the picture it all looks pretty decently sized...It's very deceiving. It was about a 1-2 oz piece of fish with only 4 tiny pea pods underneath. Then all of the garnish. It was about the size of one of the $6 offerings at the flower and garden booths we would have later in the trip.

To get a good idea, the purple thing to the side (tomato maybe?) was the size of a small red grape. The picture makes the meal look huge and it was smaller than the size of my fist. We both laughed hysterically when we looked under the fish and both saw 4 tiny pea pods. My husband bragged because he also got one piece of broccoli the size of his pinky nail. As for the taste, There was so little of it it was hard to remember. The sauce was very good but there wasn't much to eat it with. The fish tasted like Tilapia.



After that, We did not want to see what dessert they had in store at Jiko. SO... we Went to Beaches and Cream!!! haha. And ended the night with a wonderful Root Beer Float for me, and a Cookies and Cream milkshake for hubby.

Jiko? Never again. But the night ended on a high note at Beaches and Cream!

 

[Jetta8300]

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.

 

[Ensusieasm]

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!!! We had the Pineapple Macadamia nut Pancakes with a side of fruit, and hubby had the Big Kahuna.

Yum!

 

[Jetta8300]

Wolfgang Puck Cafe Lunch- My husband is one of those people that can eat and eat, and stay annoyingly super fit. So of course even after the Big Kahuna at Kona he's hungry around noon. We went to Wolfgang Puck (the actual sit down restaurant and sushi bar) knowing they had sushi, which is my favorite. This was phenomenal.

If you're in search of sushi at Disney, don't forget about this place. I don't see it mentioned a lot. I believe this was called the "Dancing Roll", and it was very very good. I can't find a detailed sushi menu of what exactly was in it, but I know it was a few different kinds of fish with tuna on top, and some kind of fruity sauce. They had about 10-12 rolls to choose from with about 5 of them being "special" rolls like this. So not a huge selection but they all sounded yummy. They may have more options if you sit at the sushi bar.



My husband really enjoyed the barbecue chicken pizza. Not a whole lot to say about it, other than it was very cheesy, and very very good.