Mickey Bars in Bed & Dole Whips for Lunch - Nov 15 Dining Report - Complete!

[Jerusalem Gal]

Following! This is awesome!

 

[pregnantw4thprincess]

Loving your review! Off to check out the last one you did!

 

[Vernie822]

Following! This is awesome!

Thanks for reading! Glad you are enjoying it so far.

Loving your review! Off to check out the last one you did!

Thank you so much for reading! Congrats on your 4th princess.

 

[Mich123]

Nice review! I agree, I like Yak n Yeti apps and desserts better than their entrees.

 

[kastoney]

Love the idea of pizza for a snack ; ) And totally agree that carrot cake cookie is pure perfection.

 

[Xclusive2WDW]

Following Really nice reviews thus far

 

[Skip3key]

Just had to come see your trip once you posted on ours! So great! We had a resize at Yak and Yeti and ended up cancelling and now Im super sad... Cant wait to read more! Maybe we will run into you guys on a future trip!

 

[Vernie822]

Nice review! I agree, I like Yak n Yeti apps and desserts better than their entrees.

I have been dying to try their cream cheese won tons.. someday!

Love the idea of pizza for a snack ; ) And totally agree that carrot cake cookie is pure perfection.

A little pizza never hurt nobody!

Following Really nice reviews thus far

Thank you for reading!

Just had to come see your trip once you posted on ours! So great! We had a resize at Yak and Yeti and ended up cancelling and now Im super sad... Cant wait to read more! Maybe we will run into you guys on a future trip!

Thank you for reading! Perhaps we will run into you guys in the future. Since unfortunately we had to leave the Polynesian. Could've lived there in a studio forever

 

[Vernie822]

Thank you all for reading! I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. Sorry if this gets to be updated slowly - for some reason my Photobucket app is only letting me access the most recent photos I've taken which unfortunately leaves out like half of our trip so I need to figure out what's going on there or try something else.

When we left off, Justin and I had spent the evening checking out the Osborne Lights and seeing Fantasmic. Surprisingly, the spot where we sat down for an hour or so before the lights turned on ended up being perfect. We were right in front where the turn the lights on. And Fantasmic was great too, I had not seen it since 2009 and Justin had never seen it. I remember we always saw Fantasmic when we were little, so I was excited to see it again (we usually don’t make it that late at DHS.)


After Fantasmic let out, we had a good 15 minutes or so and we made our way over to 50’s Prime Time. We had passed by earlier that night and it was a madhouse, as I’d expected since it was an EMH night. It took me forever to get an ideal reservation time, so I wasn’t surprised when there was quite the line to check in.

We checked in around 7:30 for our 7:50 reservation. We were finally seated at 8:10 (the waiting area was crazy) and we had the sweetest, yet sassiest, aunt (or cousin, I can't remember). I think her name was Carol. Now, Justin does NOT like restaurants where they give you sass. He prefers to “watch from the fence” at Whispering Canyon. I swear I had mentioned a time or two that 50’s servers play along, but he must have forgotten. And I definitely forgot to mention it before we got there that night. He also must have forgotten to take his hat off, because when Carol came over, she yelled at him and told him to have some manners.. Oops!!

I told him that I’m sure this wasn’t the first time Aunt Carol would be joking around with us, so to be on his best behavior. She told us she would be right with us (she was serving the table next to us their entrees) and he gave me THE GLARE. He thought she was 100% serious about the hat! I mean, he should’ve taken his hat off, but he was so embarrassed.. I felt so bad.

Carol was really funny with the table next to us – I think it was a husband and wife, their 2 kids, their aunt, and their 2 cousins. The little boy’s birthday was that month so she brought him a treat and we all sang to him.

Justin and I both had a Diet Coke to drink here. I have always wanted to try the PB&J shake but I wasn’t starving so I didn’t want to over do it.

I once again had no idea what I wanted to order, I hate ordering the same dish over and over again because I love it, but I’m also usually afraid to try new things when I know I love something so much. You guys get it, right!? FOMO. Fear Of Missing Out. Don’t wanna miss out on a good entrée by not trying it, don’t wanna miss out on the entrée I love by getting something else.

I decided on the sampler because I love the pot roast and fried chicken. I also thought about the pot pie which always looks SO GOOD. But I don’t really get fried chicken very often and my pot roast usually sucks, so..

A Sampling of Mom's Favorite Recipes - Crispy-fried Chicken, Fork Tender Pot Roast, and Traditional Meatloaf with all the fixings $21.99

This portion was huge. You can see the large chicken breast, there was another leg underneath that.


Justin went with the meatloaf. Meatloaf Muffins (meatloaf in a muffin tin) is one of my specialties. I make them by the dozen and freeze them, so for a while we were having it every 3 weeks or so. Yeah Justin got sick of my usual meatloaf/mashed potatoes/green beans dinner real quick.

When he told our Aunt what he wanted, she said “Oh honey are you sure, it’s not that great” – in a joking, yet I’m really serious tone – but he ordered it anyhow.

Cousin Ann's Traditional Meatloaf - A blend of beef and pork topped with tomato glaze, roasted garlic mashed potatoes, and green beans $16.99

Justin really liked his meatloaf. He said it’s better than mine and had no problem finishing his plate. He rated this a 3.5 because he said it wasn’t outstanding but it wasn’t bad. His portion really wasn't all that big.

I really liked mine as well, the meatloaf is probably my least favorite item so Justin got that plus one of my chicken pieces. The sampler came with a chicken breast and a chicken leg, which alone is enough for me, so I was happy to give him one of those. He really enjoyed it.

I just love the pot roast – for some reason I can’t make it as good at home so I was glad I got that. And those mashed potatoes.. they are always so good! The green beans on the side weren’t bad either. I rated the sampler a solid 4 – great old-fashioned home cooked food.

Our meal only lasted 40 minutes from the time we sat down to the time we got up to leave – really quick by Disney standards. Our total was around $48 plus tip, definitely one of the “cheaper” table service restaurants. This was my second visit to 50's and it did not disappoint, however I think I'll be up for trying somewhere else next time. Maybe Mama Melrose.

We high tailed it back to AKL.. but no worries, we’d be back to DHS for some rides the next day. After breakfast at Boma, of course.. ​

 

[Vernie822]

Since we were staying at AKL, I wanted to take full advantage of the awesome restaurants on site. Unfortunately we did not get to Jiko this trip, but we did get to both Boma and Sanaa (on the same day, actually.)


We were up before the crack of dawn as per usual and ready to go. Originally, our Boma ADR had been for 8:10 but my early bird of a fiance asked me to push it up because he knew we’d be ready earlier and he did NOT want to miss rope drop at Hollywood Studios -- who are you and what have you done with Justin!? I have created a monster! So the night before I had bumped it up to 7:35 AM, thinking we would be there in plenty of time. Mm hmm.


We left our room around 7:10 with 25 minutes to spare). Knowing that Boma was at Jambo and we were staying at Kidani, we figured we would walk. That’s usually our thing in Disney – if we can walk there, we’ll do it. Never know what you will see or find along the way. So we decided to do just that, except when we got to the end of our floor at Kidani, we couldn’t find our way out of the building. Seriously!? So we walked back to the lobby.. I told Justin I had read online that you can take the bus from Kidani to Jambo, since it stopped there before exiting AKL for the parks. Yep.


So, we get on a bus to Animal Kingdom. Justin looked at me like “I sure hope you’re right or we’re going to Animal Kingdom” – surprise! We were going to Animal Kingdom! Oops – so we got off the bus and asked if the driver was going back to AKL and he said “Nope, All Star Sports.” Ok. So we high tailed it all the way over to where the AKL bus stop was and basically RAN towards a bus… got there and it was empty. So we stood there and a driver came up and told us to hop on. He was much friendlier than the last driver and explained to us that people complained about multiple internal stops, so until 11 AM, they ran separate buses. I guess it makes sense – I mean I wouldn’t want 6 or 7 internal stops but I don’t think 1 is too bad.


So much for simply walking over to Jambo that morning.


We got back to AKL where we then had to get in and find Boma (another challenge in itself). I like to think I am a pretty prepared (and always on time) person, but not this time! Haha. We finally got to Boma around 7:50.

We were 15 minutes late but they had no problem seating us, seeing as half of WDW was still asleep and the restaurant was 1/3 full. They laughed at me when I asked if they could still seat us! No cancellation charge here and we were just fine.

The buffet is $22.99 for adults and $12.99 for children. Ohana was $29.99 per adult – so $7 more for the character interaction. But Boma has more food choices, so.. to each their own.

Boma is a beautiful restaurant. I really enjoyed Tusker House last March, and I had read many people’s reviews saying Boma was just as good if not better. Justin and I both ordered a glass of POG juice (our new absolute favorite) and headed to the buffet.


First of all, the people at this restaurant were SO NICE. We had multiple people behind the buffet walk up to us and ask us how we were, where we were staying, etc. Very friendly!


We started at the end of the buffet where they have all of the carved meats (to the right if you are facing the buffet). I meant to take some pictures of the buffet, but I totally forgot. I was still flustered from our bus experience.

I started with some oak grilled asparagus and tomatoes (bottom left of my plate), along with some carved ham and I think what was called Boma mustard (bottom middle). I think they also had carved turkey and other types of mustard at the carving station.


Next up was some bacon and some breakfast potatoes. These potatoes had red and green pepper and I think paprika in them. They had a specific name, might have been African Breakfast Potatoes?!


Then, my favorite part of any wholesome breakfast, CARBOHYDRATES. I had seen that Boma had French toast bread pudding (!!!!) so I made a mental note that I had to have some. So I scooped up some of that along with the pecan praline sauce. Drooling right now thinking about this.


I also grabbed a Simba waffle (how cute) and a French toast stick. We only covered ½ of the buffet!


We missed plenty of options including bobotie, pap, chakalaka, and I think corned beef hash. They also had a really good looking biscuits and gravy bake.



My absolute favorite thing on this plate was the bread pudding, hands down. The ham with Boma mustard was also really really good. The potatoes were seasoned nicely and were a good break from the typical breakfast potatoes found at Disney. The Simba waffle was delicious of course, and the French toast stick was average but good. I really liked the oak grilled asparagus and tomato. The bacon was fine, normal Disney bacon.

​

Justin’s first plate consisted of (starting at the top and going clockwise): Ham with Boma mustard, sausage links, breakfast potatoes, scrambled eggs with ham and cheese, French toast sticks with chocolate syrup, and bacon. He really liked everything on his plate. Except for the eggs where the chocolate sauce got into! He thought it was syrup but he didn’t mind the chocolate. He loves the sausage at Disney and really liked the eggs and ham the most. He also thought the breakfast potatoes had a nice seasoning.

My second plate was all about the carbs. I kind of just nibbled at each item except for the bread pudding, I think I ate all of that.


I had to get a Mickey waffle (of course) and more French toast bread pudding. I got another piece of bacon, some shrimp (they were peel and eat and had some seasoning on them), and some smoked salmon. I also stopped down at the bread/pastry area and got a piece of banana bread and a small seasonal scone (they were pumpkin).


The shrimp were yummy but I’m not really a shrimp-for-breakfast kinda gal so after one I was good. The smoked salmon was great and they had lots of accompaniments such as capers, cream cheese, etc.


The scone and banana bread were decent, I know the banana bread is often found at buffets but it was good. The scone was definitely pumpkin-y and I liked it.


Other offerings on that side of the buffet included: bagels, toast, donuts (nothing special), fruit, yogurt, granola, oatmeal with all of the accompaniments, little muffins, little danishes, croissants, cereal, cottage cheese, etc. They definitely have something for everyone, no matter what kind of breakfast you usually like.

Justin rated this breakfast a 3.5 and I rated it a 4.5. We both really enjoyed it. There were so many options, including traditional options and unique African options. I absolutely loved it.

After tax and tip it was somewhere over $50, which is about what I expect from a breakfast buffet at Disney. We definitely felt as if this was a great option for breakfast. I don’t know if I’d make the trip here if I wasn’t staying at AKL. Maybe if I had a car, but it just seems like a far way to go for breakfast. If we did it on a “day off” then maybe. I definitely want to return here, because everything we ate was delicious! Reminded me a bit of Tusker House, but much more calm, and no characters. So if you ‘re a TH fan and you’re in the area, definitely give Boma a try.​

 

[AllyinWonderland]

I keep wanting to try 50's PTC but still haven't gotten around to it. The fried chicken and pot roast look fantastic.

Boma looks delicious, but I agree that it is a bit of a hike if you aren't staying there. We have done dinner there but haven't tried breakfast yet.

 

[Vernie822]

I keep wanting to try 50's PTC but still haven't gotten around to it. The fried chicken and pot roast look fantastic.

Boma looks delicious, but I agree that it is a bit of a hike if you aren't staying there. We have done dinner there but haven't tried breakfast yet.

We have been wanting to try dinner! I think that would be a good option for after Animal Kingdom.

 

[Vernie822]

After a morning at Hollywood Studios, we took the boat over to Epcot to try some more of the offerings at Food and Wine! Before we went, I had put together a list in Excel of each of the offerings, that way Justin and I could mark off what we wanted to try. I didn't want to miss some things and I also wanted to get an idea of how much we thought it would cost. F&W definitely isn't cheap, but it was part of the reason we booked in November, so we wanted to make sure we had a chance to try everything we wanted to.

First we stopped in France.

(I love the outfits that the CM's wear here. So cute)

Last year, Justin really enjoyed the boeuf bourguignon (I have to look at the menu every single time to figure out how to spell that) so we decided to try that. I also decided on the ice pop pomme.

Boeuf bourguignon: Braised short ribs in cabernet with mashed potatoes – $5.95, DDP Snack Eligible

Ice Pop Pomme: Apple juice, vodka, and St. Germain liqueur – $6.75

First we'll start with the good: The boeuf (I'm just gonna say beef) was delicious. The mashed potatoes weren't "crusty" and were nice and moist thanks to the cabernet sauce. The short ribs definitely fell apart and the flavors all went well together. We liked this last year but I liked it even more this year. It did not have the "I've been sitting under a heat lamp for 20 minutes" taste, we got lucky and had a fresh one. Justin ate most of this and rated it a 3. I'd agree with that. Not the best thing we ate all week but not bad.

The bad: the ice pop pomme. Cute idea, terrible execution. The popsicle holder was of awful quality and the first "push" I gave it, the entire thing was leaking all over the place. It was extremely messy and just fell right apart. It was all over my hands and my shoes, and was impossible to eat. I gave up about halfway and just threw the rest away. The taste was okay, but I'd get the La Passion Martini Slush instead, that looked great. I'd give this a 1 because of how messy it was.

After France was a favorite booth of ours... Belgium!

It was WAFFLE TIME!

Last year we really enjoyed the berry waffle and the chocolate waffle. Justin chose to get the chocolate waffle again and I chose to try something new to me, the braised beef waffle.

Belgium waffle with warm chocolate ganache and whipped cream – $3.75, Vegetarian, DDP Snack Eligible

Potato and leek waffle with beer-braised beef and smoked gouda cream – $4.25, DDP Snack Eligible

I thought about getting a beer here as well but since I'd just had the ice pop pomme, I decided against it. They definitely have lots of great beer options here.

We took our waffles to a ledge near the water and dug right in. A tip that I read somewhere: we grabbed a bunch of forks/knives/napkins here and just stuck them in a side pocket of my backpack. That way each time we stopped we didn't have to get any silverware and we didn't have to worry about carrying them either.

Onto the waffles. The chocolate ganache waffle was delicious, it's really nothing revolutionary but it is done right with a crispy outside and soft, fluffy inside. The CM's decorated it nicely. Justin and I rated this a 3.

The potato and leek waffle with braised beef was one of the best things we ate all week at the festival. It was unique, something different (for our usual tastes), and absolutely delicious. The waffle was nice and thick and heavy, the gouda cream was really yummy, not too thick, and there were nice chunks of veggies and beef. Definitely worth the money for $4.25. We meant to go back and get another of these but we never did. We rated this a 4. I asked Justin "4? Why not 5?" and he said "It's hard to give something a perfect score." However, when I asked him about it, he said "I loved that!" so definitely a great item, in our opinion.

Next up was the Chase Lounge.

The Chase Visa cardholder lounge is located in the American Adventure pavilion, to the left of the store and right behind the fountain. We don't have a Disney Visa, but we do have a Chase Visa, so we were able to enter the lounge.

There are stairs or an elevator to lead you up to the lounge. We exited the stairwell to the right, where there was a room with different drink options.

You could purchase beer or wine at the station pictured above. I'm not sure what they had but I think they had beer, red wine, white wine, and champagne.

They also had a few Coke Freestyle machines (love these) where you could fill up a glass of Coke for FREE!

The cups were plenty big enough and you could always go back for more. We did see people filling up their water bottles (I'm talking like the 32 oz Nalgene bottles) with Coke products and the CM's didn't say anything.

I'm pretty sure they also had tea and coffee as well but I didn't really take note.

To the left of the stairwell was an area with lots of open seating, some TV's playing episodes of The Chew, and this neat photo booth..

There was also a room with kids stuff like a Wii (might have been a Playstation.. honestly I don't know) and there were some nice bathrooms up there, too.

They also had a few tables with CM's that could answer questions about the Festival. They had another CM giving out wristbands for the Eat to the Beat concerts each night. Those were first come first serve but we were in the lounge a few days later in the late afternoon and they still had some.

Overall we were really pleased with the lounge. It was an unexpected "bonus" to our trip that I found out about a few weeks before. We popped in here multiple times during the week and it was a perfect spot to cool off, relax for a few, and have a Diet Coke or two..

We headed to Italy next.

I decided against anything here because I had other items in mind. I thought the chicken marsala dish sounded good but I wasn't feeling it at the time. And the cannoli.. who doesn't love cannoli!?

Justin decided he wanted to try the ravioli.

Ravioli alla caprese: Cheese ravioli, tomato sauce, mozzarella, parmesan and basil – $6.00, Vegetarian, DDP Snack Eligible

This was, to put it simply, very pedestrian. Justin's response to my asking how it was, was "Chef Boyardee does it better". There are 4 ravioli in the dish, with a bunch of cheese on top. I had a bite and I agreed. He rated this a 1 and said it should not be on their menu. I agree - F&W has so many "interesting" dishes and I think they could do much better. It's not that this was horrible, but it had virtually no flavor and was NOT worth $6.

After Italy, the smell of caramel lured me in to Karamell Kuche. I'm pretty sure it was subconscious. I don't even know how I ended up in there, but before I knew it, I had a bag of caramel corn in my hand.

I didn't take a picture of my popcorn, but I guess I took a picture of the case to remember what I got!? I snacked on this over the next few days. I love it so much!

The CM's here are really sweet, and reminded me that there is a 10% AP discount - which I didn't even know about - so that was nice, even though I only saved like .40 it was sweet of them to remind us.

Justin decided after that, that he wanted a margarita from Mexico. Yes, the ones at La Cava are delicious (and expensive) but the frozen margaritas are where it's at on a really hot day!

We went with a Lime but they also had Mango and Strawberry.. both of which we also like. (Note that this was from the Margarita stand on the right as you enter Mexico, which is open year round!)

As we approached Mexico, we noticed the super long line (to the left of the booth).. someone who had just come from the booth pointed out that to the right of the booth, there was NO LINE! See below..

So we jumped right in line with no wait.

I thought all of the dishes from Mexico sounded awesome, but since all I had really eaten was the braised beef waffle, I wanted something substantial and not sweet..

Justin decided on the chilaquiles de pollo:

Chilaquiles de pollo: Corn chips layered with seasoned chicken, queso fresco, sour cream and cilantro – $5.00, Gluten-Free, DDP Snack Eligible

and I went with the shrimp taco, which I had heard was delicious thanks to one of my favorite WDW podcasts!

Tacos de camarón: Battered shrimp, pico de gallo, pickled onions, and chipotle mayonnaise – $5.50, DDP Snack Eligible


We found a spot on the promenade after Mexico and sat down. It was honestly not crowded that day (it was a Monday) so it was REALLY nice being able to leisurely stroll the World Showcase without the crowds being too crazy like they were on Saturday.

Justin thought the chilaquiles were fine but he didn't love them. I'm not familiar with chilaquiles but I imagine the Fritos on the bottom were in place of a tortilla? Perhaps not, I've never had chilaquiles so I'm not sure, but the Fritos were soggy (gross!) and Justin just rated this a 2 because he said it was not memorable at all. When I showed him the picture he had no clue what it was.

The shrimp taco was really good! I get shrimp any chance I can get. One of those things I can't make as well myself, these were battered and fried very nicely. The pico and pickled onions went really well with it, though maybe I would've liked a slaw to go along with the spicy mayonnaise instead. This was the perfect size - any bigger and I think it would have been too big. But the spicy chipotle mayo went along really well with the battered shrimp. I enjoyed this very much and gave it a 3.5.

Lastly, I decided to try one more item since I had really only ordered 2 food items. I had long been awaiting the booth in... Scotland!

I wasn't trying the neeps and tatties, sorry I'll try a lot of things but neeps and tatties aren't one of them. I'm sure they're good, but I decided on the always popular seared sea scallop.

Seared sea scallop with spinach-cheddar gratin and crispy bacon – $4.75, Gluten-Free, DDP Snack Eligible

I had marked on my list that I wanted to try this, and then drew 2 big stars next to it. You know, so it was one of those "I MUST TRY THIS" items, not an "I'd like to try this". And I was so glad I did! I don't eat scallops often but this was cooked nicely and it was very tender.

The star of the show, though, was the spinach cheddar gratin with bacon. OMG. I could've eaten a big bowl of this by itself. I'm gonna have to try to make it. It was so good!! So creamy and cheesy, with nice crisp pieces of bacon mixed in. Swoon. Yes, it looks like baby puke, but once I got past that, I was in heaven. Thank you Scots for this delicious dish. I rated this a 4 as it was one of the best items I had at the festival. No wonder it gets such great reviews!

So, that's all for now for the Food and Wine festival! We headed back to our room for a bit after that, then went to Disney Springs and back to AKL for a relaxing evening and dinner at Sanaa.

​

 

[Jerusalem Gal]

OMG, I'm drooling here! And it's not even 8 am!!

 

[Klinger13]

Really enjoying your reviews and that scallop dish sounds delicious!!

 

[Vernie822]

OMG, I'm drooling here! And it's not even 8 am!!

I am drooling all over again looking at the pictures. I swear all we did was eat!

 

[Vernie822]

Really enjoying your reviews and that scallop dish sounds delicious!!

Thank you for reading! That scallop dish was just wonderful.

 

[Vernie822]

(Excuse the terrible photo linking in this update - I ran out of time and once I saw that the links weren't working, I didn't have time to fix it! I'll get on that ASAP!)

We decided to take it easy that evening and have dinner at Sanaa, which is at Animal Kingdom Lodge Kidani Villas. I’d been wanting to get there for a while, and since we were staying right in the same building literally one floor up, I figured it would be the perfect opportunity.

If you enter Kidani through the main lobby, Sanaa is just downstairs.


We had a reservation at 7:50 PM that night. I had switched it from a different day with ease pretty close to our trip, so I thought we’d have no problem dropping in early if we got hungry before our reservation. Wrong!

At around 6:30 we went down to Sanaa to try to check in. We figured if we could, great, if not, we would just check out the animals with the nighttime goggles beforehand. We checked in at the front desk where the hostess let us know that they were “at full capacity that night”, no walk ins would be allowed and they were seated according to reservation time. Before we could tell her "that's okay, we'll come back at 7:50" she gave us our buzzer. We stayed within the area so we wouldn't miss our table being ready.

Our buzzer worked out on the back patio area, so we asked if we could view the animals with night vision goggles. The CM told us that they start the viewing at 7:30, but since it was drizzling they didn’t think they would bring them out. Understood since they are likely pretty pricy. They did have a cool rocking chair set up with a fire. It was a little rainy so no one was sitting outside.

We hung out up in the lobby of Kidani for a bit. Our buzzer worked in the main lobby, downstairs at Sanaa, and out on the back patio. Did some people watching, then we went back downstairs and sat in the waiting area of Sanaa.


(This is the Kidani lobby - so gorgeous!!)

This was one of those “my gosh I just want to eat, I am so over it” moments. I was starting to get hangry. In hindsight we probably could’ve just eaten at the bar there, but we waited anyhow. We probably could’ve just had the waitress un-check us in and come back at our actual reservation time, but we figured we’d wait and maybe we’d get buzzed early. Our buzzer buzzed shortly after 8 PM (an hour and a half of waiting, but only 10 mins after our ADR time, so not bad).


We had a really really nice server named Ashley, and we were seated to the right of the entrance, kind of in a separate little room. The theming here was very cool. The ceiling was kind of like an umbrella you'd have at a patio table, with a huge pole in the middle.

I was skeptical about this restaurant because the food has a flavor that neither of us are quite familiar with. Except naan, I am extremely familiar with naan. Not really in a traditional sense though – I like to make pizzas with it. My office cafeteria makes a mean veggie naan pizza. Cream cheese, broccoli, carrots, green pepper, tomatoes, and shredded cheese on naan bread, served cold. Wow is it delicious.


Anyhow, I have seen many rave reviews about this bread service, so I knew we had to try that. As hangry as I was, I thought the naan bread service would fill me up so that’s all I really wanted. Justin decided he would order an entrée but he had no idea what. I thought he might like the lunch menu better but he seemed just fine with the dinner options here.


We ordered our bread service and decided on all 5 breads with all 9 accompaniments. We let our server know that we’d do that as an app, but Justin would be ordering an entrée, and she said it would be no problem to add on some additional naan since I planned on just having that. She was really sweet and super helpful with the menu.


The bread service comes out on this fabulous wooden board. The board has little crevices for all of the small ramekins of dip. The breads are in the middle and the dips are assorted from the most mild to the spiciest. Ashley went through each of them with us which was awesome!

Indian Style Bread Service - Choice of 3 breads and 3 accompaniments (get all 9 accompaniments for $11.99)
And a close up of the dips:

On the right in this picture is the most mild, a cucumber raita. This one was really delicious. It reminded me of a tzatziki sauce. It was creamy and yogurty. Next to that is the red pepper hummus – this was good, but I eat hummus often so it didn’t really wow me. Beneath that, the mango chutney, which was also really good. At the bottom is the tamarind chutney. We really liked this one. It was sweet but not too sweet, with a little spiciness. This was our second favorite.

The top one in the above photo is coconut chutney, which I expected to love since I love coconut, but I just thought that one was ok. Next up is the rather green one, the coriander chutney. We didn’t love or hate this one. I really expected to like the garlic pickle. I love garlic and pickle, but this had HUGE hunks of garlic in it. Way too garlicky for me.

The red chile sambal was our absolute favorite. This is on the left in the photo above. It was the second spiciest, but I didn’t find it to be that bad. Just the right amount of heat. The spiciest was the spicy jalapeno-lime pickle. We didn’t eat too much of this one because it was too spicy for us. I really can’t handle much spice AT ALL so others may not find this one to be too spicy. Justin didn’t mind it and he can tolerate spiciness much better than me.


The breads included are: regular naan, garlic ginger naan, spiced naan, onion kulcha, and papadum. The papadum I think was a bread with chunks of paneer cheese in it. All of these were SO good. I wish my notes were better because then maybe I’d elaborate on some flavors. Honestly I didn’t dislike any of them and they were all uniquely delicious.


We both gave this a 5, it was outstanding and I would come here again just for this! Spoiler alert: They will deliver this to your room. I called and asked. The next night I was seriously craving some naan with dip so I called to ask, and for a 20% upcharge (really not bad on a $12 appetizer) they will deliver it to your room. Almost did it. Like, had the phone in my hand.

Justin decided to go with the tandoori chicken as his entrée. He was between that and the butter chicken but decided on this:

Tandoori Chicken – Basmati rice, lime, and coriander, $20.99


Well, this is where the meal fell flat! This just wasn’t great. Justin actually really liked the spices, but it ended up lacking much other flavor. The rice was really bland and the chicken was extremely dry. I had a bite of it and I agreed. I think he just chose poorly here. The entrees coming out around us looked fantastic and we definitely had entrée envy. He only rated this a 1.


Our bill was around $38 if I remember correctly. There is an AP discount but we forgot to ask! Our server was really sweet and we enjoyed her. Would we return to Sanaa? Absolutely. I would love to come back and try their lunch menu, and of course, the bread service. Again, I think Justin just chose poorly on his entrée and we were kind of envious of all the delicious ones coming out!


To make up for the dry chicken, we stopped upstairs at the store on our way back to our room and decided on a treat... Mickey Bars!! They are in the freezer section of the small store in the Kidani lobby. Best believe I had been eyeing them up every time Justin filled up his mug!


In all my trips to WDW, I don’t think I have ever had a Mickey Bar (blasphemy, I know). When I was little I always got the Minnie strawberry bars. We decided to get these, and I also grabbed a small container of cream cheese for my bagel. The CM was really sweet and didn’t charge us for it again! He also asked if we had any discounts – apparently there is an AP discount there, so we got 10% off which was unexpected.

Soooo this is where our TR title comes in to play. In a few short minutes we were back to our room, we changed into PJs, plopped down on the bed, and chowed down on our Mickey Bars. They were delicious and it was nice to have a little treat.

Next up, we snack around Food and Wine ALL DAY LONG!​

 

[Vernie822]

Tuesday was a day I was very much looking forward to because we had no ADR’s planned and we were literally going to eat around the World ALL DAY LONG.


For breakfast we just did our quick bagels and leftover carrot cake cookie in the room, which isn’t too exciting but did the trick and was CHEEEEEEAP. We’ll probably continue to do this because both of us are satisfied with a bagel each morning (well, as long as I get at least one breakfast with Mickey waffles, I’m good). And the carrot cake cookie was a nice touch.

After a few rides at Epcot, we made our way to the Joffrey’s Coffee area just outside of Test Track where they had all kinds of cool info about coffee. I have been doing my best to “see” more while I’m at WDW. Put the phone away, be present, walk through exhibits, and really read stuff. I feel like plenty of people just pass things by and miss them. And I LOVE COFFEE so why not learn more about my favorite bean!?

A nice CM gave us a 30% off Joffrey’s Coffee coupon upon exiting the exhibit. And, conveniently located next to the exhibit was a Joffrey’s Coffee cart. So obviously, since I had a coupon, I had to get something (I hate buying things without a coupon and I don’t know that I have ever used a coupon at WDW before).

They have SO MANY yummyyy looking pastries.

They had the Iced Coffee Dream, which I believe was special for the Festival:

Bold Roast Coffee, Chilled and Iced, with Light Cream, topped with Bailey’s Irish Cream and Whipped Cream for $8.49. This sounded SO GOOD but I decided on something a little more basic as I wasn’t quite ready for some libations just yet.


They also had a few holiday drinks to choose from:

For some reason I wasn’t in a pumpkin-y mood this morning (although I do LOVE pumpkin iced coffee from Dunkin) so I just decided on a caramel latte. After my 30% off I think my total was $2 something.

It was really good. I like Starbucks, I get their iced coffee just about once a week and their iced lattes maybe once a month. This was delicious and I have no complaints – I’ll definitely be stopping at Joffrey’s again sometime.


We also checked out the Festival Center to see where our wine seminar would be held later that day. We got a free sample from the nice ladies at Ghirardelli’s.

And we picked up our tickets for the Wine Seminar later that day. Since we had a Chase Visa, we were able to get a priority seating. A nice extra perk.

Here was the area where they held the beverage seminars:

We also went over to check out Club Cool before our FP to meet Mickey and the gang.

Bonus pic!

And next, we eat just about everything ​

 

[auntfrannie]

Wonderful updates! Thanks so much. I really enjoyed the Chase lounge but completely didn't even think about taking photos, so thanks!