My family was very excited for this meal!! We went on 12/30 at 6:15pm. I did a DisBound as Snow White and carried a Danielle Nicole Dopey purse, lol...I fit in with the little girls in their outfits, and met another adult decked out in evil queen wear. Overall most people were dressed pretty casually, in jeans or shorts and t-shirts.
Service was slow - our waiter had a ton of tables. I believe they were understaffed for the evening, because there were a lot of manager looking types (i.e. not in traditional server costuming) coming out to clear tables and things. When we were able to snag our server, he was accommodating, but I didn't end up with a single refill. My other family members did, b/c they drank at a speed that worked out with his timing. I'm slow I guess!!
Food was excellent!! The chicken pies were good, sort of tasted like an egg roll, which was odd but tasty. The shrimp was great! Plump and juicy, and the sauce was spicy but not *too* much, just enough for flavor, and whatever the other sauce in the jar with it was was really good (is it avocado cream? i can't remember, but it was good). Make sure you get all the saucy stuff in the jar onto your bite of shrimp! The butternut squash soup was the star app. I could have eaten a gallon of it, holy cow.
Oldest DS and I had the veal, and it was delicious. DH had the gnocchi, and it was the second best dish of the night. Youngest DS had the snapper, and while fine, it wasn't as good as the other two dishes. If we hadn't tasted the veal or gnocchi, our opinion may have been different.
Character interaction was pretty good, but we didn't engage quite as much as we do other places (weird, I know, since I was thrilled for these particular characters and dressed for the occasion). Snow was fine, and the dwarfs were both very fun. The queen was the real winner of the night. As we were being seated for dinner she was leaving for a break. She saw my purse and stopped me, and said thank you for bringing me the head of the dwarf, LOL!! When we met her officially as we were leaving, she said, "Ah yes, you are the one who brought me the head of the dwarf...next time bring me the WHOLE dwarf. You have three huntsmen with you, it shouldn't be too hard". She was gorgeous and perfect and amazing!
I'm not sharing the group photo with the queen, I look awful, LOL!!
Dessert was probably the weakest part of the meal, but definitely the most attractive. The little sour apple things were underwhelming after reading such positive reviews. I mean, they were fine, but sort of blah. The cake/frosting cup things were gross. The real winner was the gooseberry pie, and I'd have happily eaten all four of them myself! The popcorn/heart thing was dramatic and fun!! The chocolates were soft, with a creamy filling. The popcorn was...popcorn. The kind from Karamell Kuche in Germany is better in our opinion.
All four of us agreed we would return with no complaints. We were full but not miserable, the food was excellent as a whole, and the ambiance was so much fun. They did a nice job keeping Artist Point's signature look, but elevated it with the addition of the branches on the trees. It works, and doesn't look hokey or tacky - which it very easily could have!!
I would definitely recommend this meal, especially if they keep the food at this level of quality. Dessert was the only real weakness, but they sure were pretty.
