Let's Get Ready to Crumble!- COMPLETED!

[MamaPotts]

I kept an eye (and an ear) out for you and your family our entire time at OKW and didn't see you once! What's up with that? Just not fair!

Thanks for your lovely dining reports... we ended up cancelling lots of our ADRs (we weren't on the dining plan) because it was just so hot and large meals were just not on my list of things to do. Glad you were up to the challenge though... I'll just live vicariously through you.

 

[Piglets Mommy]

I'm loving your report! Getting lots of great ideas for our late 2011 trip!

 

[ellie0311]

Great report so far!!

 

[fizz13]

Really enjoying your reviews..a little too much maybe as its making me rethink all my ADRs Looking forward to more

 

[mamaboogie]

Subing

Hi from an Ex pat living in the US, can't wait to read more.

Hi! Thanks for taking the time to read - lots more good food coming up!

Really enjoying your trip report- Looks like you had a fabulous time!

We really did have a brilliant time - partly thanks to the food!

I kept an eye (and an ear) out for you and your family our entire time at OKW and didn't see you once! What's up with that? Just not fair!

Thanks for your lovely dining reports... we ended up cancelling lots of our ADRs (we weren't on the dining plan) because it was just so hot and large meals were just not on my list of things to do. Glad you were up to the challenge though... I'll just live vicariously through you.

I know! I was sad not to bump into anyone I 'know'! It was really hot wasn't it? Everyone we spoke to said it was unusual even by Florida standards. I was really pleased that us brits coped so well with it - we certainly aren't used to it!xx

I'm loving your report! Getting lots of great ideas for our late 2011 trip!

Thanks! I read so many food reports before I went. It really does help to get an idea of what's out there and what you like the look of.

Great report so far!!

Thanks Ellie!

Really enjoying your reviews..a little too much maybe as its making me rethink all my ADRs Looking forward to more

Choosing ADRs is soooo hard! You don't want to miss anything great but it's hard to fit everything in. Thanks for reading!

 

[mamaboogie]

Monday 16th August - shopping day!

Today was our shopping trip to Florida Mall. To fortify us for the task ahead we had booked an ADR at Olivia's for breakfast.

It was quiet in there and we were seated once more in a booth (ooh, I love booths!)

We all tried different things - Sarah had the pancakes with bacon and maple syrup - this came with three huge pancakes that filled her plate! Kate had a cheese and ham omelette breakfast and Simon had the full Olivia's breakfast. I only took one picture and that was of my breakfast - the poached eggs with hollandaise over sweet potato hash with a buttermilk biscuits:

The eggs and the hollandaise were delicious and I'm seriously addicted to buttermilk biscuits (we don't get them over here) but I wasn't too keen on the sweet potato hash. There wasn't anything wrong with it but it just wasn't to my taste for breakfast.

But we really enjoyed this breakfast and it set us up for the day! We decided to pay OOP for it as we realised that breakfasts aren't always a good use of a DDP table credit.

It cost $63.06 including tip.

Crumble rating: 6 out of 10

Then it was on with the shopping adventures!

In previous years, we'd stopped for lunch in the Florida Mall food court. Sarah had always enjoyed going to Chick-Fil-A for a milkshake and some waffle fries. Remember this?:

Quelle horreur! We got to the food court only to find that Chick-Fil-A was no more! And in it's place was the decidedly less appealing 'Chicken Now'

Simon and I had something to eat from there (it really wasn't worth writing about - you know when cheap food actually tastes cheap? Yuk.) but Sarah wouldn't be unfaithful and went for a sandwich somewhere else.

To cheer myself up, I later bought myself a Bailey's haagan daz milk shake which was all creamy and delicious!

I also stocked up on lots of hersheys chocolates to enjoy later - yummy!

After exhausting ourselves shopping, we went back to OKW to prepare for evening ADR at Sanaa.

I was really looking forward to this meal (yes, I know I say that about most meals!) - we'd heard some exciting things about this new restaurant. It was also a chance to have a nosy around Kidani Village - which was totally beautiful!:

It was a lot quieter than Jambo House and had a lovely atmosphere to it. We went down to the restaurant to check in - early again! We were seated almost immediately. The CMs at this restaurant were all amazing polite and friendly.

Our server was called Mary - Mary rocked. She was informative and friendly - yet never intrusive. She looked after us so well that we wanted to take her home with us (I wanted to take most of the Sanaa staff home with us - they were all brilliant.)

We were seated at a table in the middle of the restaurant, which I don't normally like. But it didn't feel cramped or crowded or in the middle of the thoroughfare. And we could still see out into the savannah.

Apologies in advance about the photo quality as the restaurant was quite dimly lit - but the tables were well lit so you could see your food perfectly.

Mary recommended the bread service - I told her I had heard about it and we were keen to try it. We chose naan, paratha and paneer paratha along with cucumber raita, coriander chutney and mango chutney (sorry - they were gobbled up before I could even reach for the camera!)

The breads were delicious and it was nice to have small tastes of different things. The dips were good too and Mary left them so we could have them with our main courses - fantastic!

I needed to up my cocktail quota so I ordered a Kande coconut cooler - this drink was simply outstanding! I loved it so much it was probably my favourite drink of the holiday:

Kate's mango lassi smoothie is on the left. Simon had a Tusker beer and Sarah stuck to sprite.

For main course, both Simon and Kate got the tandoori chicken:

I had the tandoori shrimp:

These portions look quite small but they weren't. The dishes were beautifully flavoured and all our plates were cleaned.

Sarah, bless her, struggles with food that is at all spicy. She chose from the vegetarian sampler:

I think this was the stir fried green beans and the lentils. I think it was a bit spicy for her but she made an effort with it.

During dessert, Simon and I decided to try some of the pressed pot coffee - now this was amazing, rich coffee. And all the better when we realised that it didn't cost us anything - Mary put it down as our DDP non-alcoholic drink. It was a huge pot of coffee too!

Sarah has recently started drinking tea and she decided to try a pot of the vanilla rooibos tea which she really enjoyed. This was also 'free'.

Kate and I had the dessert sampler:

Left to right - chocolate cake, chai cream and kulfi. Each of these little desserts were gorgeous!

Simon had the chocolate cake by itself:

And Sarah had the mango pudding:

Here are a couple of pictures of us enjoying the evening:

On the DDP this meal cost us $62.74 - this includes the tip, bread service, my cocktail and Simon's two beers.

I'm having to check the bill twice - $62.74 for a simply amazing meal in a wonderful restaurant.

Crumble rating: 9 out of 10

We all loved it here and it is definitely top of our must do list now. Even the bathrooms are amazing.

Some of the signature restaurants need to sit up and take notice of Sanaa. We had a brilliant meal. For the first time ever we plucked up courage to mention how great Mary had been - and they had us fill in a little slip to make note of it.

My final thoughts on this evening - GO. TO. SANAA.

Ok?

 

[bluejasmine]

Oh Sanaa does look good!

I LOVE chick fil a myself.. Great now I want Chick File A at 530 in the morning! LOL

 

[mamaboogie]

Oh Sanaa does look good!

I LOVE chick fil a myself.. Great now I want Chick File A at 530 in the morning! LOL

Sanaa was amazing! I want to go back right now!

We really missed Chick-Fil-A!!

Thanks for reading!

 

[Krissalee]

I have really been enjoying your reviews. I keep thinking about Saana, but then always change my mind. Your review has moved it to the top of the list for me!

 

[ChristyWI]

Great report so far, thanks!

 

[mamaboogie]

I have really been enjoying your reviews. I keep thinking about Saana, but then always change my mind. Your review has moved it to the top of the list for me!

I would heartily recommend Sanaa - I know everyone has different experiences but it was such a lovely atmosphere!

Great report so far, thanks!

Thank you so much for reading!

 

[mamaboogie]

Tuesday 17th August

Today was so HOT! But we wouldn't let that put us off our food!

We had breakfast in the villa and then headed out to AK. We had lots of AK fun before deciding that we needed FOOD!

With Flame Tree BBQ being closed we decided to try Restaurantasaurus(?) for a quick counter service meal.

This turned out to be a good decision. (Sorry no pics)

I didn't really how big it was inside - several large dining areas that lead into each other. We easily found a table.

The girls and I were in the mood for something a bit different so we each got a hot dog. This was very tasty and satisfying. Of course, Simon had a burger. We all got the chocolate mousse for dessert which was very light and yummy. We were very pleased with this CS choice.

After going on more rides in the afternoon, we headed back to OKW to get ready for our ADR at Narcoossees. When I say 'Get Ready' I mean crawl under the covers and go to sleep - that's what I did at least - I think the kids watched more Hannah Montana.

Anyway, fully refreshed we headed to EPCOT so we could catch the monorail to MK and then the Grand Floridian.

We had a slight panic when we got there and I looked at Simon's very neat, organised laminated card with all our ADRs on - it said we were due there on the 19th not the 17th! Simon dashed off to check while we waited in the main foyer. He came back (slightly out of breath) to say were were due tonight - he'd obviously just made an error when typing out the cards! Phew! What a relief we hadn't got gussied up for nothing - and we were starving!

So we went and checked in on time - but we had to wait about ten or fifteen minutes. Here's Simon and the girls outside:

The restaurant is beautiful - it over looks the Seven Seas Lagoon with excellent views of the Magic Kingdom, The Contemporary and The Polynesian. It has a viewing deck - but it was quite breezy out there.

Our table was up on the second tier and we had nice, elevated views out of the window. We were quite near the bar but it didn't get too busy and there was plenty of space - we didn't feel at all squashed.

Our server was Rita and she seemed pleasant enough. But she wasn't great. She didn't refill our glasses or check if we needed anything the whole night. Our whole meal took only just over an hour. A bit rushed for a signature meal if you ask me.

This is the first place we had eaten at that being on the dining plan, and not staying at the GF gave us a different standard of service. It wasn't bad. Just not signature standard. Not really Disney standard even.

Luckily, the food was very good.

Now, you know us - being on the regular DDP didn't stop us from ordering starters if something took our fancy. But nothing did here and Rita seemed a bit put out with this and asked us if we 'were sure'....er...yes!

Bizarrely, when we sat down - I noticed that Rita called Simon 'James'..... she then proceeded to give him a menu with 'Happy Birthday James' on!

I'd like to take this opportunity to apologise to James, whoever he was, because we didn't dare to tell them they'd got the wrong person - so he never got his personalised menu!

I got a Narcoossees lemonade which was lovely and refreshing - but I finished it about halfway through my meal and was never offered another drink. I probably would have ordered another of the same drink if our server had been around. We weren't even brought water to drink as we were at every other signature restaurant we ate at. Likewise, Kate ran out of sprite and we eventually had to track Rita down to refill it. At many other restaurants in WDW our soft drinks were refilled before we even realised we were coming to the end of them!

Here is my cocktail:

And Simon and Sarah:

We were, at least, given some lovely sourdough bread and butter which was sprinkled with sea salt:

The entrees were quite delicious. Simon decided to try the surf and turf:

I tried some of the lobster tail and enjoyed it more than I thought I would. Simon was happy with his food.

Sarah and Kate both tried the chicken dish:

And they were both very happy with their choice.

I went for the crab crusted flounder with crushed potatoes and meyer lemon (Sarah and Kate teased me mercilessly about eating poor flounder!):

The was absolutely delicious! A serious contender for my favourite entree of the whole holiday - just a shame the whole experience was something of a let down.

For dessert - I knew what I wanted - I had been eyeing it up for months:

The almond crusted cheesecake! And it was yummy - I just couldn't manage to eat it all!

Kate and Simon both had the chocolate dome:

And Sarah had the gelato sampler:

Seeing as I hadn't managed to grab Rita for another cocktail I decided to order a liquer coffee with my dessert. Well, that never showed up but he bill did. Rita had obviously forgotten my coffee and we were past caring to make an issue of it (* take note of this event when we go to another signature restaurant and how THEY dealt with the same situation)

For the first time we didn't round the tip up past 20% - the service just did not deserve it. When we compared it to Sanaa there was no contest.

So, all in all, Narcoossees was a big disappointment to us. We just weren't made to feel comfortable. And anyone who read my 2008 food review will remember that we had a disappointing time at the Garden View Tea Room. (We call it Triflegate!)

This meal was Simon's first time eating at the Grand Floridian and he was disappointed - I don't think we will go back to eat there.

Total cost of meal: $264.33

We paid $59.44 for my Narcoossees Lemonade, Simon's beer and the tip.

Crumble Rating: 5 out of 10 (that's for the food)

Coming up: Don't worry folks - things get much, much better!

 

[lblume91]

Loving the reviews & all the pics! I've never given Yak & Yeti a second thought but you've put it pretty high on our possible to do list for May's trip. My DH is totally drooling over the steak & shrimp photo!!

 

[mamaboogie]

Loving the reviews & all the pics! I've never given Yak & Yeti a second thought but you've put it pretty high on our possible to do list for May's trip. My DH is totally drooling over the steak & shrimp photo!!

Thank you! We really loved Yak n Yeti - all the food was totally delicious! It was one of those unexpected delights that Disney do so well!

 

[merrymouse1]

Tuesday 17th August[/U

So, all in all, Narcoossees was a big disappointment to us. We just weren't made to feel comfortable. And anyone who read my 2008 food review will remember that we had a disappointing time at the Garden View Tea Room. (We call it Triflegate!)

This must have been a big disappointment! Nothing worse than bad service, definitely takes away from a great meal and evening. I hope you have better luck with your next meal. Again, loving the report! Thanks

 

[ilovepete]

loving your reviews!

 

[Tink2312]

What a shame about the server at Narcoossee's We're trying it for the first time on our next trip - the flounder looked lovely but I've been eying up the surf and turf for months!!
I may try a Narcoossee's lemonade too - what was in it?
Can't wait to read more

 

[dixonsontour]

Had to go and read your old review to find out about triflegate!

 

[mamaboogie]

This must have been a big disappointment! Nothing worse than bad service, definitely takes away from a great meal and evening. I hope you have better luck with your next meal. Again, loving the report! Thanks

A server certainly makes or breaks a meal experience. Delicious food, bad service = never going there again!

loving your reviews!

Thank you so much!

What a shame about the server at Narcoossee's We're trying it for the first time on our next trip - the flounder looked lovely but I've been eying up the surf and turf for months!!
I may try a Narcoossee's lemonade too - what was in it?
Can't wait to read more

I'm sure there are many attentive servers at Narcoossees - you will probably have a different experience to us.

The lemonade was great - I'll have a look and see if I can remember what was in it!

Had to go and read your old review to find out about triflegate!

Sarah still has flashbacks! Thanks for taking the time to read!

 

[mossyflossy]

Just found this review and have been loving every second of it...we were there at the same time as you (although not for as long at Disney).

Have to say I'd never seriously considered sanaa but your cocktail alone is making me want to check out the menu right this second!