mid-trip dining review

[collegejunkie]

never written a dining review before (or any review, really haha), as we usually do a lot of CS and eat off property. this time, however, it's me, my boyfriend, and a friend who has never been so we've been a little more adventurous.

so far we've eaten at:
les chefs de france
plaza restaurant
flame tree bbq
cosmic rays
chevy's (off property) twice
bahama breeze (off property)
house of blues
main street bakery
wolfgang puck express
sunshine seasons
other CS places that i can't remember
...some random chinese/pizza places that are probably not of much interest (buf if they are, i can tell you about them!). this week, we'll be adding another chefs de france, sci fi dine-in theater, 50s prime time cafe, rainforest cafe, and others that we're still deciding on. i don't have pictures, sorry! this trip we haven't really been taking many pictures and we're usually starving and focused on eating by the time we get to restaurants. hopefully that doesn't bother anyone and this will still be helpful.

some background of the eaters:
me - i love sweets, but also love savory foods. i don't eat seafood except shrimp. i hate spicy food, as black pepper even sets my mouth on fire. i must be really sensitive to spice. i love chocolate. i can be really picky about my food and usually stick to favorites
andy - boyfriend who loves all things spicy. he will add hot red pepper or any sort of hot sauce to absolutely everything he eats. very adventurous and willing to try literally anything.
jeff - friend from school who is basically the same as andy, except he hates onions, eggplant, chives, and avocados.
mom - likes mostly everything, but not too adventurous and prefers simple dishes over complicated ones.
brother1 - a mixture of andy and jeff - loves spicy, but has his dislikes.
brother1 and mom were with us for the first week, and it's me, jeff, and andy for the rest.

i will try to do one post per restaurant/eatery. happy reading and i hope this works well and helps!

 

[collegejunkie]

plaza restaurant

eaters: andy and me
thoughts: the restaurant is much smaller than i expected and i didn't like that there wasn't a bathroom. it was freezing tonight, so we waited until we were done to rush out to use the restrooms, which are just the public ones outside. the overall impression i got was that it was a disney diner of sorts. the selection is also limited, but having checked the menu online, we were prepared for that. we picked this place based on how cheap it seemed for an in-park restaurant and because it was the only place besides CRT that had reservations available when we checked.

i had the cheese and steak sandwich without mushrooms and french fries. i started with the soup of the day, which was potato soup. andy had the reuben with broccoli slaw and no changes.

my sandwich wasn't really good. i ate it because i was hungry, though i wouldn't get it again. the cheese looked hardly melted and didn't taste like anything. the steak was fine, but cut weirdly into small pieces. the red peppers seemed like a strange addition to me, but they did seem to add a little pizzazz to the otherwise boring sandwich. the fries were good, no complaints. just your standard fries. the potato soup was quite good, though it was bit more liquidy than i'm used to. i was told it came with cheese, chives, and bacon on top so i asked for no bacon. the chives were a wonderful surprise, as i haven't had potato soup with chives but it really made it so much better. i would get the soup again. i had walked in planning on getting a turkey sandwich but changed my mind because we bought turkey for our villa and i didn't want to get sick of it too quickly. i regret my decision, as i would have been much happier with a turkey sandwich.

andy said his sandwich was fine, but nothing to write home about. the only comment he really had was about his bread, which was a swirly cinnamon type bread, which didn't seem to fit the reuben flavors. he said the broccoli slaw seemed more like a weird salad, but he ate it without complaint.

overall, this place is not really on our list anymore, unless we really are in need of a cheap lunch or dinner. i wouldn't go back unless i'm really tight on money or there is no where else to go in magic kingdom.

 

[collegejunkie]

wolfgang puck express, marketplace

eaters: andy, jeff, me
thoughts: after hearing so many wonderful things about this place, i thought we should check it out since we're always in DTD. i was a bit surprised at how pricey some of the items were since it's a CS, but we had a wonderful cashier who gave us a discount. he had asked if we had any of the memberships he listed (AAA and a few others) and my response was "we can pretend we do", and pretend we did. it was very nice of him.

i had the warm turkey melt with sweet potato fries, andy had the creme brulee (and half of my sandwich, oye), and jeff had the pennette chicken alfredo.

i originally wanted the rotisserie turkey club and had asked for it without bacon or onions and was disappointed to find that i couldn't order it changed in any way because they had the mixes prepared already. i switched my order to the warm turkey melt because it was still turkey and i didn't think i needed to change anything on it. i was thrilled with my choice. it was delicious. the bread was some sort of herb bread that by itself would have made me happy. the cheese was the perfect amount and melted on top of the turkey without spilling out all over the sides. the remoulade, arugula, and caramelized onions were the perfect combination. my sandwich was warm and perfectly so; the temperature definitely brought everything together. my only complaint is that it was hard to hold together. they did put a stick thing (i don't know what they're called.. silly me) through the center but if it wasn't held properly, it still came out of the bread on all sides. the sweet potato fries were fine, but then again, i'm not a huge fan of sweet potatoes. jeff and andy, however, loved them and ate half of them before i even had one. in their words, they were "amazing".

andy enjoyed his creme brulee, but said that it wasn't as good as the one from chefs de france. i tried it and for the most part agree. i would say it was sweeter and therefore not enjoyable. jeff's pasta was bland and he ate about half of it before deciding that he would give it away to andy. andy took a few bites and then said that it felt like he was eating nothing and that it was just taking up space in his stomach. i took a bite and agree - it tasted like heavy nothing. there was no seasoning at all and even the sauce was bland.

overall, we would return. they both liked my sandwich and i loved it, so i think we'd go back and all get sandwiches or pizza.

 

[auntfrannie]

Great reviews! WPE is one of my favorites; the food is always good and I like it that they bring it to your table. I've only been to the Plaza once and I enjoyed my meal....some kind of salad with chicken. But it is pretty small compared with other TS restaurants.

 

[crazycatlady]

Very interesting reviews and you made my morning when I saw there was a new review to read before work! I love your description of the Plaza because I have never been there and was amazed to hear there was no bathroom. It has never been high on my list to try and now I think it will go a few notches lower.

Wolfgang Puck Express is great when you are on the dining plan because it is so expensive for a CS that it is a great use of dining credits plus the food is great (usually).

Excited to hear more after work!

 

[collegejunkie]

yay, readers! that makes me endlessly happy we were supposed to go to both 50s prime time and sci fi dine in today, but we decided to cancel our sci fi dinner reservation (which makes me sad, actually, because it was one of the ones that i had been really looking forward to) because we only had an hour until DHS closed and we still needed to see muppet vision and ride TSM once more.

50s prime time cafe

eaters: andy, jeff, me
thoughts: i was really excited to try this because i'd always walk by and wonder what went on in here. lots of friends have mentioned it and they said there were lots of cutesy things, like pretending it's "mama's kitchen" and that there were rules that would be enforced, like eating all your vegetables and keeping your elbows off the table. i loved the waiting area - it was like a large living room, except there was also a bar, which made newly 21 andy happy. we really liked the set up and that each table has a tv that plays clips from old shows. we were disappointed with our service. all of the tables around us were joked with, told the rules before they were allowed to order, etc. our server mostly ignored us and literally came to do the basics - dropped off the menus, took our order, and gave us the bill (someone else delivered our food). we felt like we were missing a key part of the experience not being played with a bit.

i ordered the char-grilled chicken sandwich with french fries, andy had a beer and onion rings, jeff had the crab cake appetizer, chicken noodle soup, and cheesecake. my sandwich was okay, but the bread took over most of it. the bread was really thick and i just tossed out the top half, but then that meant that a lot of the bbq sauce that came on it was also gone. the chicken was slightly burnt, but overall juicy and fine. i'm not sure why they put regular onions on the bottom bun, as most chicken sandwiches i've had that have bbq sauce usually come with onion strings or an onion ring. i pulled about half of them out as they overpowered the chicken. the cheese was normal. the french fries were pretty good, but then again, it's pretty difficult to mess up french fries. andy's onion rings were greasy, but he ate them as they were "just onion rings". jeff, however, absolutely loved his crab cake, minus the onion straws that came on top of it (he scooped the off and gave them to andy and me). he said it was delicious and perfectly cooked, though he didn't know why it came with some of the vegetables on the bottom, like peas, some sort of beans, and onions. the presentation of his crab cake was also lovely - it looked like it belonged in a fine dining restaurant. the noodle soup was nice because it was warm and it was cold out today. he ate about half of it and then didn't want the rest because he dislikes onions and carrots, but was happy overall. his sugar-free cheesecake also came out looking beautiful. he was surprised that it was "missing half". i didn't know what he meant, as i don't like cheesecake, but apparently it was missing the pastry part. he really enjoyed his cheesecake despite the missing pastry half and said that he couldn't believe there was no sugar in it. andy took over the whipped cream piled on top of the cheesecake and declared it "almost as good as starbucks'", which, apparently, is a huge compliment.

overall, we'd like to go back with high hopes of getting a more playful server. i wouldn't order the chicken sandwich again, but i could see myself enjoying the turkey sandwich or chicken pot pie.

 

[collegejunkie]

chefs de france, visit #1

considering there is a visit #2, you can probably guess that we liked it enough to go back, which will be happening tomorrow!

eaters: andy, jeff, me
thoughts: we went for a belated birthday lunch for andy. i was stressing that we would miss our ADR, which i had timed perfectly for remy, because ratatouille is one of andy's favorite movies. we had a 1:20 pm ADR and we arrived 10 minutes late. upon check-in, i pushed andy away and asked the seating hostess if we'd still get to see andy and she said that we would. she was very nice about helping me keep remy a secret. we were seated in what i would call the side room, next to wear the dessert chef makes the desserts and puts them on the counter. it curved around a bit and we could look out the windows and saw pere noel and marie from the aristocats pass by. i thought it looked nice inside, though the tables were pretty close together. all of the servers were very french (if you know what i mean), thin, and good-looking. our server was attentive despite the full restaurant and always made sure that we had lots of water and soda. i was surprised at how late remy came out after freaking out about missing him. i think he makes a tour of the entire restaurant, going down all the aisles that the servers walk down, and we were at the end of his tour. we enjoyed a leisurely, long lunch and remy came around the time that we were almost done with our entrees. i have 2 wonderful photos of andy's surprised face when remy was presented. there is a cast member pushing around a white cart with a silver platter on it. luckily, andy was facing away from where the cart was coming from and did not see remy before, though i had noticed and was secretly jabbing jeff and making him look when andy wasn't paying attention. the cart came right next to andy and i, as we were sitting by the aisle, and at first andy was confused and thought that i'd ordered something for his birthday. then the top came off and poof - remy! andy was absolutely delighted and i was so happy that it worked out perfectly. on to the food.

all of us chose from the prix fixe menu. i started with the french onion soup and both boys started with the lobster bisque. for my entree, i had the baked macaroni and cheese. jeff had the croque monsieur and green salad, and andy had the quiche lorraine, also with a salad. for dessert, the boys got the creme brulee and i got the profiteroles. my soup was divine. i have never had such good french onion soup. the bread at the bottom stayed together despite my stabbing, so i was able to cut it off into perfectly sized pieces for my spoon. the broth itself was wonderful and warmed me all over. the cheese is where i was happiest. it was seemingly endless, filling spoon after spoon no matter how much i'd thought i'd eaten. i'm a big fan of the right types of cheese, and this was certainly my kind of cheese. it was gooey and melted without being burnt and i think i could have just had the broth and cheese by itself and been happy. the onions were lovely and not too sweet, so they added a nice texture and subtle taste to the soup. i sincerely considered ordering a second soup in place of my entree. i tried the lobster bisque from andy and i thought it was too ocean-y, but then again, i don't eat seafood so i suppose anything with fish or shellfish would taste that way to me. andy and jeff, however, loved every bit of it and finished it all. they especially enjoyed dipping bread into it and eating it that way. they said it was creamy but not too heavy. my macaroni and cheese was good, but when i got through half of it, it felt a bit heavy. i'm not sure if it was because i'd just had cheese with my soup or because there was a lot of cream in addition to the cheese, but i couldn't eat more than half of it without feeling like there was too much something. what that something was, however, i had a difficult time naming. jeff ate all of his croque monsieur, but eventually just called it a "fancy grilled cheese with ham". he really liked it, but that was the description i got as a non-pork eater. the salad was lightly dressed with olive oil and vinegar, which made it a good match for the sandwich. andy liked his quiche and didn't comment much on it, though he said he would have liked a stronger salad dressing to offset the cheese. i was really excited for my profiteroles because before college, i spent all of my summers in europe and had loads of these and haven't come across many good profiteroles back here. i was disappointed with what i got, but i will caution that i believe that this is simply because they were different from the ones that i was used to and not because they were bad. i'm used to getting puffed pastries with cream or custard in the middle, and the ones here came with vanilla ice cream instead. the ones i'm used to getting are usually surrounded by chocolate mousse, and this had what seemed to be either melted dark chocolate or dark chocolate fudge on the bottom of the plate to dip pieces into. i don't like chocolate that isn't sweet, so this was not what i expected. again, it wasn't bad; it just wasn't what i had wanted or expected it to be. the creme brulees were absolutely delicious. i ended up trading my profiteroles for half of andy's creme brulee and it was wonderful. the top cracked open effortlessly and it tasted like a little piece of heaven. i vowed to get it the next time we went, and i'm happy to say that that day is tomorrow.

overall, we loved it. i already know that i will be getting the french onion soup and creme brulee, but i want to try a different entree. depending on what's offered, i may or may not just do the prix fixe menu again. i believe andy will switch his lobster bisque to an onion soup as well, and jeff may very well just order the exact same thing, so i apologize in advance if it's a boring review. we will be going at 1:20 pm tomorrow, so we expect to see remy once more as well!

 

[pumba]

fantastic reviews...thanks so far for doing this...as I know if I hadnt taken notes on the days where we ate ..I would forget.

thanks again

 

[Rafikifan]

Thanks for your reviews! Looking forward to more. I love lunch at Chefs. Would also love to have some of their onion soup right now.

 

[crazycatlady]

I SO know what you mean about the mac and cheese at Chefs! The first half was great and then it was too....something. I wasn't full, I just got sick of the taste or something. My son happily ate the rest of it because he loved it, but I had had enough. The french onion soup was so good and I loved the profiteroles, although I barely got any since I shared with my pigs...I mean...my loving children.

Looking forward to more reviews!

 

[collegejunkie]

thanks for the positive feedback!! i'm happy to help, as i know i spent hours reading through reports figuring out where we should go!

house of blues

eaters: me, jeff, andy, mom, brother1
thoughts: brother1 had been dying to go here, as he had heard that live bands play and he's very into playing and making music. after trying to get reservations and find restaurant.com gift card deals, we were able to go. the restaurant itself is dimly lit and is decorated with musical memorabilia, which was neat to look at. the restrooms looked a bit out of place, as there was lots of metallic silver and that material that's sometimes used in airports (i have no idea what it's called, sorry) when you're walking up stairs to get onto an airplane outside all over the place. lots of names and dates carved into the stalls, which i was happy they kept, as it gave it a feel of having experiences lots of people and things. the menu was seafood-heavy, which i wasn't expecting.

i ordered the voodoo shrimp to start, because after hearing so much about it, i had to try it. for my entree i decided on the prime rib with mashed potatoes. brother1 ordered the gumbo to start and the penne pasta for his entree. andy shared my shrimp and also had the penne pasta. jeff only ate a gumbo, as he ignored my advice and ate a huge funnel cake an hour before dinner and was full. mom had the salmon and shared my shrimp and brother1's gumbo. my prime rib was good until i got to the sauce that was put on top. i have absolutely no tolerance for anything even slightly spicy, and the sauce was spicy enough to set my mouth on fire. i moved the (yummy) onion straws that were on top of my steak to the side and then tried to dab off the sauce as best i could. there was still a bit left, so i had to drink a lot during my meal to cool my mouth off. that issue aside, my steak was nice. a lot of fat, but i should have expected that from a prime rib. the mashed potatoes were nice, but they had a few chunks of un-mashed potato that was a little annoying. the seasonal vegetable that came with it was carrots, which were fine, but nothing to write home about. i would order the same entree next time without the sauce now that i know it comes with sauce. the voodoo shrimp gave me the same problem, as it was much too spicy for my liking. brother1, mom, jeff, and andy, however, all gobbled it up and raved about it. the bit that i had did taste awesome until my mouth started to burn. the cornbread in the sauce had some herbs in it, which i thought was a lovely touch. the shrimp were plump and big and nicely cooked. brother1 and jeff liked their gumbo. i tried brother1's and it was too busy for me - i would have rather had one meat instead of the chicken, sausage, and shrimp all mixed together. i wasn't a fan of it, but jeff and brother1 ate all of theirs. brother1 and andy liked their pasta, but it wasn't exactly an adventurous choice to begin with, as it was just penne with sauce and vegetables. i suppose they had enough protein between the gumbos and the voodoo shrimp. brother1 said he'd order it again and andy said he liked it but thought it was safe and that he should have gotten something else. mom really liked her salmon but didn't have much to say about it. the boys all took bites (i don't eat fish) and said it was cooked well and that the sauce really made the dish.

everyone loved this place, minus my mouth. we'd go back, but i would have to be very careful about ingredients and be sure to ask for things as non-spicy as can be.

 

[collegejunkie]

chevy's visit #1 (off property)

eaters: andy, jeff, me
thoughts: andy and i really like chevy's. jeff has never had mexican food, which completely shocked us, so we knew we had to take him. we went here our first night in orlando after our 22 hours drive from school in central NY. we were starving and didn't really ask jeff what he wanted so we just dragged him along. we ate pretty late, so there was no wait for a table.

chevy's gives you chips and salsa instead of bread and butter, which we all devoured. since i hate spice, i dip my chips into the liquidy part of the salsa and don't actually scoop anything on to it, and even that is hot enough to make my eyes water (seriously, there is something weird going on with my tongue). the chips are light but pretty greasy, so i don't have too many. the boys jumped right in and ate several baskets full by themselves and they ordered special "extra hot" salsa because the one that came originally was apparently too mild for them. more power to them if they truly like the burning sensation in their mouths. for our entrees, we all got fajitas - i got steak, andy got chicken, jeff ended up with chicken, steak, and shrimp as a result of a kitchen mix up. andy and i knew we wanted fajitas before we even got there and jeff, not knowing anything about mexican food, decided he'd just follow suit and order one as well. jeff's original order was for chicken and shrimp, but they had brought out chicken and steak so they later brought out a separate plate of shrimp so he got to have all 3 (lucky duck!). now, i eat everything in a weird way, fajitas included. this basically means that i don't wrap anything into my tortillas and i just eat things piece by piece in whatever combination i feel like tasting at the moment. all of our fajitas came with tortillas, meat, onions and peppers on the hot plate with the meat, black beans (you get to pick, but we all chose black beans), rice, sour cream, guacamole, lettuce, corn cakes and pico de gallo. i cut my steak strips into 2 or 3 pieces each and then dip them in guac or sour cream and then take bites of rice, beans, tortilla, or whatever. i loved everything. there wasn't a single thing not cooked to perfection and there is so much food to choose from at any moment. it's hard to pick a favorite side or accompaniment just because it's all so good. my only complaint would be that the guacamole had chunks of avocado and wasn't completely smooth all the way through, but that's not even really important. the rice was delicious and the beans were nice and warm. my only issue with the beans is that they put a dollop of feta cheese on top of them and that kind of messes with the taste of the beans. i scooped it off and then i was good to go. while all of the sides were good, i have to say that my heart belongs to the corn cakes. oh, those wonderful, sweet, soft, warm, corn cakes. i'm a huge fan of corn and these just blow me away. i always want to order a huge plate of them and that seemed to be the general consensus, because as soon as jeff tasted them (for the first time), he asked me what "these magical little things are called" and said he wanted a huge bowl full. my steak was cooked to my favorite medium well and was nicely seasoned. i finished every strip minus the few that i gave andy. andy's chicken was also very good and he ate all of it. jeff ate all of his shrimp and all of his chicken, and only some of his steak, but i think it's just because he happens to like chicken and shrimp better. this ended up working out nicely because after eating a good amount of my steak, i told andy to just eat jeff's steak so we could all be happy. everyone finished everything and we were way too stuffed for dessert.

we went in knowing that we'd leave happy, and we were not disappointed. jeff liked it and we returned with mom and brother1 a few days later, which i will write about soon. i'm glad that this was jeff's first mexican experience, even if it's not 100% authentic.