Just back - quickie review - Update the hits, the misses and the rest!

[mhalpern]

I planned on taking lots of food photos and doing a full blown report but that never happened. I thought at least I would share some of our hits and misses. We were there June 13 - 20th at the BWI. Here we go....

Favorite breakfast: Garden Grove at the Swan. Delicious buffet. No reservation and we walked right in. Not on the DDP which is a shame but it was worth it. My picky kids said the scrambled eggs were the best they ever had. Our waitress asked if we wanted to know the secret ingredient. Sure. It was heavy cream. I wish I didn't know.

Favorite lunch: Le Chef de France. Funny thing is I made this reservation specifically to see Remy. Since my picky kids often don't eat I figured at least Remy would be entertaining. Well Remy was "out sick" the day we were there and it was still one of our favorite meals! My kids cleaned their plates. I really wanted to try the onion soup but it seemed so heavy for such a HOT day. I got the soup of the day (pumpkin), the mac and cheese (YUM!) and the creme brulee. DH got the lobster bisque, the Salade Nicoise, and something that looked like creme puffs with chocolate sauce. We had the BEST waiter named Gwendael. I would definitely eat there again.

Favorite dinner: Teppan Edo. OMG just the smell in that place is heavenly. Picky kids only ate white rice but they enjoyed watching the chef make our dinner. I had the steak and shrimp and DH had the chicken and shrimp. Everything was SO good. For dessert I had the chocolate ginger cake and DH had ice cream.

Favorite CS: Columbia Harbor House. DH and I split the Anchors Aweigh tuna sandwich and the Harvest salad. Just right for a hot day. We were supposed to split our desserts but he loved the chocolate cake so much and I loved the apple crisp so neither of us would share! Picky kids hated the nuggets, the mac & cheese and the apple sauce. They had carrots and grapes for dinner. Oh well.

I'll be back later with the "misses".....

 

[1disneynutt]

Thanks for the review? Cant wait to see the Miss's hope they are not on my list LOL.

 

[Pooh&OurHunny]

Thank you for sharing. Last year we did not have any ADR for lunch and decided to try Chefs de France and my husband & I were very surprised how good the food was...this place is a must of our next trip.

My husband and I like Columbia Harbour House too but there is nothing my son would like to eat there (he does not eat chicken nuggets, mac & cheese) so we ate there only once and had to go somewhere else to get my son a meal...so I know how you feel about the kids chooses.

Thanks for the review

 

[JoePa4Ever]

Thanks for your reviews! We have a Teppan Edo adr for this Sept - it will be our first time eating there & we're looking forward to it. That chocolate ginger cake sounds great.

 

[natalielongstaff]

Thanks for your reviews, i love CHH

 

[mhalpern]

Time for The Misses.....

Our least favorite meal was Mama Melrose. The best thing we ate was the bread basket. It was downhill from there. My Brushetta appetizer was inedible. I should have sent it back but I didn't really need an appetizer - it came with the Fantasmic package. For dinner I had the eggplant napolean and DH had the chicken parm. Both were okay at best. If you like good Italian food you should skip this restaurant. DS ate his plain spaghetti (hard to get that wrong) but DD wouldn't eat her pizza. I didn't blame her. Even the tiramisu was not good. I had one bite. AND of course it rained that night so we ended up at the 10:30 Fantastmic and didn't use the passes they gave us. I won't be going back to this restaurant.

Our other Miss, I'm sorry to say, was Prime Time. I was really looking forward to this meal and I think we ordered the wrong things. I would try this restaurant again but this time was not successful. First of all our waitress was "mean" but not in a funny way. It freaked DD out (even though we warned her in advance) and it set the tone for the whole meal. The other problem was that it was a REALLY HOT day. I wanted to try the potroast that everyone raves about but I couldn't eat such a heavy meal. I didn't want a salad or a sandwich so I was at a lose for what to order. I ended up with the stuffed pepper which was a mistake. It wasn't very good. Likewise DH wanted something light. He ordered two appetizers - the mixed salad and the crab cake. Both were just okay. I have to say that the onion rings were outstanding and DH enjoyed his brownie sundae.

Next up "the rest or the inbetweens"....

 

[JoePa4Ever]

Time for The Misses.....

Our other Miss, I'm sorry to say, was Prime Time. I was really looking forward to this meal and I think we ordered the wrong things. I would try this restaurant again but this time was not successful. First of all our waitress was "mean" but not in a funny way. It freaked DD out (even though we warned her in advance) and it set the tone for the whole meal. The other problem was that it was a REALLY HOT day. I wanted to try the potroast that everyone raves about but I couldn't eat such a heavy meal. I didn't want a salad or a sandwich so I was at a lose for what to order. I ended up with the stuffed pepper which was a mistake. It wasn't very good. Likewise DH wanted something light. He ordered two appetizers - the mixed salad and the crab cake. Both were just okay. I have to say that the onion rings were outstanding and DH enjoyed his brownie sundae.

Sorry your 50's experience wasn't very good. I love this restaurant - we've been fortunate to get good waiters/waitresses who play their roles well. It's a shame it was too hot for you to order what you had intended on getting because I love the pot roast there.

 

[catne]

Thanks for the review...we may have to give Les Chefs a chance for lunch one of these trips, we enjoyed it for dinner on our last two trips.

Sorry your Mama Melrose wasn't the best -- DD had that bruschetta also & said it was nothing special at all.

Question -- were you on the dining plan? I ask because you mention the appetizer came with the Fantasmic dinner package...recent speculation about the "new" information on allears.net that the dinner package is no longer fixed price but "ala carte"...anyway people are suggesting that means no more appetizer if you get dinner package on the dining plan. Just curious if you had the dining plan and did you eat there after June 1?

Thanks

 

[mhalpern]

Question -- were you on the dining plan? I ask because you mention the appetizer came with the Fantasmic dinner package...recent speculation about the "new" information on allears.net that the dinner package is no longer fixed price but "ala carte"...anyway people are suggesting that means no more appetizer if you get dinner package on the dining plan. Just curious if you had the dining plan and did you eat there after June 1?/QUOTE]

Yes we were on the DDP. Yes we ate there after June 1st. Yes we were informed by the waitress that an appetizer came with our Fantasmic meal plan. If anything is changing it hadn't changed when we were there.

 

[mhalpern]

Okay time for some more reviews. Before I get to "the rest" I have an addition to "the hits". I should have mentioned the fish & chips take away stand in United Kingdom. I can't remember the name but the stand is right near the International Gateway. I got some fish and chips to go and ate them at the pool while the kids were swimming. Delicious!!

Here's the rest of the places we ate:

ESPN: B We had lunch there when it opened so it was nice and quiet. I'm not sure I would like it there in the evening. My kids loved that there was a playstation (or some gaming program) at our table that they could play while we waited. You had to get joysticks from the bar. DH and I split the turkey & brie sandwhich and the asian salad. The sandwhich was great but the salad was nasty. The kids enjoyed their nuggets and hot dog.

Hoop De Doo: The show gets an A but the food gets a B- The fried chicken was delicious but the rest of the meal was mediocre. The ribs were chewy and the potatoes and beans were bland.

Ohana: Okay it's hard to rate this one...to be fair the food was good. It's your basic breakfast food but it was tasty and plentiful. I guess the only reason this wasn't in our "hits" was because of the character interaction. DD is a huge Stitch fan. She was really excited to show him all her stitch pins and her 2 stitch stuffed animals that she brought to breakfast. Unfortunately he barely gave us the time of day. It was a quick autograph and photo and he was gone. It was that way for most of the characters. We had late reservations (10:45am) so I don't know if they were tired and ready to leave or what? It's not fair to rate a restaurant on that because obviously that's not something you can predict but it was a little disappointing. However we were ready to leave and we still hadn't seen Mickey. Our server went and found him for us which was nice.

Yak & Yeti: B I had the steak and shrimp which was very good. DH had trouble finding something to order. He didn't want fried, or beef, or fish. He ordered the beef and broccoli and they changed it to chicken and broccoli for him. He said it was okay. We also ordered the fried green beans that everyone raves about and thought they were okay. I was really looking forward to the wantons for dessert that also gets rave reviews but I didn't think they were that great. Again DH was at a loss for what to order because the brownie was only for 2. They ended up bringing him some ice cream. The kids ordered the burger and the chicken bites and each ate about half.

Sunshine Seasons: B- Well I guess Sunshine Seasons gets an A for variety which is not easy for a CS meal. But the quality was mediocre. DH had the asian buffet and I had the beet and goat cheese salad. Both were fine but reminded us of mall food court food. DH enjoyed his cookie for dessert but the key lime pie had too much merenge for me.

That's all the meals I can remember. We also had plenty of soft pretzels, popcorn and ice cream sandwiches. I tried the carrot cake cookie at the Writer's Stop in HS but it was too sweet for me. I also had my 1st dole whip which was very refreshing.

We're looking forward to trying lots of new places next time - even though we don't know when next time will be.

 

[Sleeping Becca]

ITA about Chefs de France! Our meal there was awesome. Shame you missed Remy, he was pretty cool! DD had the kids baked fish and loved it (she is a fish person, she loves the stuff, she even loves sushi) I had the ham and cheese sandwich, I kid you not that was the best ham and cheese sandwich ever, yum. We had the cheese plate and the meat plate as an appetizer, I agree it was too hot for soup. DD had ice cream, and I had Creme Brulee for dessert.

Bummer about Prime Time, yeah I think you just orderd the wrong thing. We've always have had good meals there. Sorry your server was mean and not in a good way. That is disappointing.

ITA about Mama Melrose, we ate there once and never again! yuck!

Glad you like Teppan Edo, DD calls it the chopy chop or chopanese! We think it's a fun place.

We also like Columbia Harbor House, we eat there once a trip (the only fried food of the trip) lol.

ITA agree about the Hoop Dee Do! Love the show, hate the food. I don't normally eat meat off of a bone, but I tried a rib, I won't be trying it again. I picked the skin off of the chicken adn removed it from the bone and dipped it in the mashed potatoes. I didn't care for the beans. The salad, corn bread, and strawberry shortcake were yum! We do this show every trip, and every trip I say I'm going to call and get the vegitarian meal and never do. Next time I will, dog gone it!

I guess I'm unbeliveably lucky, DD will try just about anything. She ate the pate at Chefs. Sushi at California Grill. She ate all of the tea sandwiches at the tea room, watercress, pear and blue cheese, crab, and shrimp, Wow! I didn't even eat the watercress! I think traveling on cruiseships really expanded her food horizons. It gave her the freedom to try things and if she didn't like it she could get something else. It also helps that we are in South Louisiana, we eat some weird stuff, down here. lol How old are your kids? Hopefully it will get better as they get older.

 

[catne]

Question -- were you on the dining plan? I ask because you mention the appetizer came with the Fantasmic dinner package...recent speculation about the "new" information on allears.net that the dinner package is no longer fixed price but "ala carte"...anyway people are suggesting that means no more appetizer if you get dinner package on the dining plan. Just curious if you had the dining plan and did you eat there after June 1?/QUOTE]

Yes we were on the DDP. Yes we ate there after June 1st. Yes we were informed by the waitress that an appetizer came with our Fantasmic meal plan. If anything is changing it hadn't changed when we were there.

thanks for the update...sounds like the report on allears is old "news".