srothenberg
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Mar 10, 2008
- Messages
- 3
My son and I just returned from a 9 day trip to WDW. We stayed at AKL on the club level which was a wonderful experience. The food offerings, particularly at breakfast and in the evening between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. were quite sufficient to serve as meals for us on a couple of days. The evening selections were all from Boma or JIKO and were excellent: there was always a soup selection, two or three hot food selections (grilled chicken, sausage, meatballs, ribs, etc.) as well as hummus (2 or 3 kinds), flatbreads, olives, marinated veggies, cheese, crackers, the works! Plus African wine, beer and soft drinks. Breakfast offerings included all the yummy pastries from Boma, as well as hot/cold cereal, yogurt, fruit, etc. A very good deal for us.
Our favorites this trip were two new places for us: the two new restaurants in Epcot/World Showcase: the new restaurant in Italy as well as Tokyo Dining in Japan. I have never received such excellent service as we did at Tokyo Dining. Despite the crush of people in the waiting area, once we were seated, the wait staff was so wonderful and attentive. We order a sushi sampler (very fresh and very good), as well as edamame (cleverly served in a oragami-type box), a kids tempura meal (which was also cleverly served in a monorail type ceramic box) and a adult shrimp tempura which was a HUGE serving of six enormous shrimp plus veggies, rice, and seaweed salad. A very good value at $20.
We also had lunch at the new Italian restaurant in World Showcase. Again, excellent service and a good value. The ensalada mista I had was one of the most delicious salads I have enjoyed -- a beautiful combination of greens simply dressed with an olive oil/lemon vinegarette. We both had pasta -- again a simple preparation of penne, crushed tomatoes, basil and mozzarella. My son loved his buttered penne. Great fresh bread and a nice bowl of olives came before the meal.
We also enjoyed a nice lunch at Le Cellier. I love the mussels and cheese soup. My son enjoyed his cheese soup and pasta as well.
We enjoyed several character meals. The new character breakfast at Animal Kingdom (Tusker House) was excellent. Great food. Wonderful character interaction. It's essentially breakfast selections offered at Boma, but with the added benefit of characters. Again, terrific service. We also had breakfast at Crystal Palace. Good food, but it seems like it takes forever for all the Pooh characters to make it through the restaurant. Our breakfast there took well over an hour (close to 90 minutes). We would have left, but we went specifically to get Piglet's autograph (we had met the other characters at Epcot earlier in the week) and, predictably, Piglet showed up last.
We did not enjoy the character dinner at the Liberty Tree Tavern. The food was really dismal (although my son and I both loved the rolls and butter) and the service very poor. It was the only ADR we could get before the Pirate and Princess party, so I guess we shouldn't complain, but it was really lousy and expensive considering the cafeteria-level food quality. Another downer was our dinner at Chefs de France -- a place we've always loved, but this meal was really poorly paced and I ended up canceling half my meal because my son was long finished before I had received my entree. The lobster bisque was pretty thin and salty. I don't know how soon we'll be back.
We liked the counter service at Mara very much. We also had a great lunch at the Mexican restaurant in Epcot. We had eaten there a few years ago and weren't much impressed, but this year was very good. I had a nice strip steak, huge and potent margaritas, and my son loved his quesadilla. The service has really improved as well. And it seemed we stopped in the Norway bakery at least four or five times. My son loves their Viking chocolate chip cookies, so I could indulge in school bread, almond pretzel and rice cream! Yum.
Overall, we had a great time and found the crowd levels to be very, very low. We walked on pretty much everything most days. The weather was cool, but not cold, and we had only two evenings of rain (and boy can it rain in Florida). But it was a great trip.
Our favorites this trip were two new places for us: the two new restaurants in Epcot/World Showcase: the new restaurant in Italy as well as Tokyo Dining in Japan. I have never received such excellent service as we did at Tokyo Dining. Despite the crush of people in the waiting area, once we were seated, the wait staff was so wonderful and attentive. We order a sushi sampler (very fresh and very good), as well as edamame (cleverly served in a oragami-type box), a kids tempura meal (which was also cleverly served in a monorail type ceramic box) and a adult shrimp tempura which was a HUGE serving of six enormous shrimp plus veggies, rice, and seaweed salad. A very good value at $20.
We also had lunch at the new Italian restaurant in World Showcase. Again, excellent service and a good value. The ensalada mista I had was one of the most delicious salads I have enjoyed -- a beautiful combination of greens simply dressed with an olive oil/lemon vinegarette. We both had pasta -- again a simple preparation of penne, crushed tomatoes, basil and mozzarella. My son loved his buttered penne. Great fresh bread and a nice bowl of olives came before the meal.
We also enjoyed a nice lunch at Le Cellier. I love the mussels and cheese soup. My son enjoyed his cheese soup and pasta as well.
We enjoyed several character meals. The new character breakfast at Animal Kingdom (Tusker House) was excellent. Great food. Wonderful character interaction. It's essentially breakfast selections offered at Boma, but with the added benefit of characters. Again, terrific service. We also had breakfast at Crystal Palace. Good food, but it seems like it takes forever for all the Pooh characters to make it through the restaurant. Our breakfast there took well over an hour (close to 90 minutes). We would have left, but we went specifically to get Piglet's autograph (we had met the other characters at Epcot earlier in the week) and, predictably, Piglet showed up last.
We did not enjoy the character dinner at the Liberty Tree Tavern. The food was really dismal (although my son and I both loved the rolls and butter) and the service very poor. It was the only ADR we could get before the Pirate and Princess party, so I guess we shouldn't complain, but it was really lousy and expensive considering the cafeteria-level food quality. Another downer was our dinner at Chefs de France -- a place we've always loved, but this meal was really poorly paced and I ended up canceling half my meal because my son was long finished before I had received my entree. The lobster bisque was pretty thin and salty. I don't know how soon we'll be back.
We liked the counter service at Mara very much. We also had a great lunch at the Mexican restaurant in Epcot. We had eaten there a few years ago and weren't much impressed, but this year was very good. I had a nice strip steak, huge and potent margaritas, and my son loved his quesadilla. The service has really improved as well. And it seemed we stopped in the Norway bakery at least four or five times. My son loves their Viking chocolate chip cookies, so I could indulge in school bread, almond pretzel and rice cream! Yum.
Overall, we had a great time and found the crowd levels to be very, very low. We walked on pretty much everything most days. The weather was cool, but not cold, and we had only two evenings of rain (and boy can it rain in Florida). But it was a great trip.
