Mnemonic's Review of: Liberty Tree Tav; Boma; Marrakesh; Hollywood & Vine; Ohana

[Mnemonic]

Greetings from Atlanta, Georgia, and one Disney Traveler who is already missing his bed in AKL.

<sniff>

I found the reviews I read on this board indispensible before our trip, so I will strive to be as helpful. I have SOME photographs, but between wrangling my son, and enjoying the food, I probably did not take enough.

Here are our cast of Characters:

Me (Mnemonic): a foodie and wine snob, frustrated chef. I work to pay my food & wine bills. The last time I had been to Disney, there was nothing but the Contemporary, the Poly, and the campgrounds.

DW: My school teacher princess, and the responsible one in the family. She could not even remember if she had ever been to Disney before. She made the reservations because I have a more grueling work schedule (or so my excuse went).

DS: My little perpetual motion machine - 4 years old and has a broader palate than most adults, at least, he usually does. He tasted almost everything... as long as it was mac & cheese or chicken nuggets.

 

[iluvpluto27]

Looking forward to your reviews.

 

[TigerKat]

Can't wait!

 

[Mnemonic]

Sorry for the delay... I didn't know about the "10 post rule" to imbed pics... now I do.

We arrived on a Sunday, and dropped our bags at AKL and took the bus to MK. Had a blast (Thunder Mountain, Splash Water, some shows...) then realized that our reservations for Liberty Tree Tavern were not until 9:10 pm.

<groan>

We were seated relatively promptly (if you had no reservation, you were NOT getting a table) by Chip himself!

There was so much going on here, I could not get any decent pics of the food. It is a family style meal, meats are all on one plate: flank steak, turkey and ham. Our family does not eat much ham, and my wife does not eat Turkey, but there was no shortage of Beef! It was well cooked (as in Medium-Well), but still flavorful and moist. Therre was some better than average gravy in a gravy boat, and this was perfect for the excellent mashed potatoes.

Sadly, this meal did not have a lot in the way of variety: mac & cheese and green beans were the only other components - but the green beans were EXCELLENT.

Also - the character interaction here was remarkably well done.

 

[Mnemonic]

This review has no pics, because I'm lame (and because we were rushing for a spot to watch Illuminations).

Cantina San Angel was a rocking joint, given their excellent tables for fireworks viewing. We only ordered one adult meal (DW can get quite ornery if not fed), but leftovers were available for ME!!!

Plato Combinacion - Chicken taco, Beef burrito and a Quesadilla served with Black refried beans and Mexican salsa. - $8.75

This was a LOT of food. It also came with a churro - as did my son's child's meal of cheese nachos and tacos. Three people ate well off of the two meals - and Churros are great with beer!

 

[Mnemonic]

The next meal for which there are no pics (sorry) was at the ABC Commisary. Nothing great to report here - the cheeseburger was pretty darned bland, the fries average. The SALAD, however, was quite good. Asian inspired salad with lots of soy beans (protein), and yummy crunchy bits. This was not a great place to burn 2 CS creds, but we were hungry, and DS was having a meltdown...

Clean restaurant, and well laid out - right next door to the Sci-Fi drive in.

 

[Mnemonic]

Flametree BBQ - Animal Kingdom in the shade - Woo Hoo!

You eat outside at Flametree... but it IS barbecue, and pretty good at that.

The sandwich was HUGE. The BBQ beans were outstanding, and the lemon meringue pie was, well, not great, but certainly refreshing. Cobntrary to the menus website, you do NOT get corn on the cob at Flametree... or at least I did not.

After getting my sammich, I saw the ribs... next time, I am DEFINITELY getting the ribs. Don't get me wrong - I am a 'cue expert, and the pulled pork was quite good... the ribs just looked better.

My son's hotdog was, well, a hotdog. At least he ate it.

 

[Mnemonic]

Best meal of the trip: Boma.

What has not been said about Boma? Let me tell you, I just simply was not hungry enough to do this place proud. I'm surprised I was able to take a picture - the food just wanted to jump into your mouth & be eaten.

Our first plates:

I could have just eaten the hummous, and been satisfied: white bean hummous, sundried tomato hummous, and balck olive hummous. Yum. With a choice of either flatbread or pita to scarf it with. The plate to the right was my "salad" plate: corn salad with fried plantains (refreshing and crisp); Watermelon rind salad (hot with ginger, perfect); and two green salads - one was a jicama, and the other was... I don't know what it was - I loved it, DW did not.

Bowl was a crab soup - excellent. There were 4 other soups/stews, I did not have the stomach capacity to try them all - but they all looked/smelled delish.

Top plate is my son's plate - he liked the salmon, and my wife's favorite was the chicken. We were not big fans of the meats at the carving station, but there was so MUCH good food that we didn't care!

Desserts were fun - our introduction to zebra domes. Some African themed pastries did not go over well with DW... but I liked everything of a dessert nature they offered.

 

[butiflfeet]

Keep the reviews coming!

 

[Mnemonic]

Tuesday evening we realized that we had TS rezzies for Crystal Palace at 11am (lunch) and Hollywood & Vine at 4:15pm (Fantasmic deal)... we knew that could never work, so we got on the phone and called to see what was available at a decent hour in Epcot for dinner. Our choices were Chefs de France, the Mexican TS, or Marrakesh. Well - we had just eaten Mexican on Monday, weren't sure if DS would like a French restaurant (in hindsight he would have LOVED their pan roasted flounder), so we went with Marrakesh.

Wow - this place was beautiful, the staff were friendly, and the food was superb.

My Seafood Appetizer, Seafood Bastilla

This was my "extra" for upgrading my meal to the "Night in Casablanca." It was very good, and I really liked the salad, as well.

Lamb Meshoui and Chicken Brochettes (kebab):

This was a LOT of good food. I believe I ate it all, but I can't be sure, because the belly dancer was rather hypnotizing.

Couscous M'Rouzia Fassi (DW's meal - she devoured it, I did not get a taste)

Did I forget to mention dessert? I'm sorry. How terrible of me...

Bastilla:

People came to our table to see what this was - it was a tasty as it was...large.

Marrakesh Delight

Other than Boma, this is the other restaurant to which I would like to return. Of course, Chefs de France beckons, now that I know they have a high quality fish dish on the child's menu (DS lives for fish).

Before I forget - Marrakesh had a half carafe of a fairly decent red wine for $10 - best alcohol deal in Disney that we found. This was better wine than the bottle of S. African Shiraz we bought at AKL.

 

[Mnemonic]

Now for the meal that scared the pants off of me... Hollywood & Vine. I had read so many negative reviews, but DW's response to my worries was to say "FINE - I was on the phone for 3 hours getting the reservations we have - if you think you can do better, YOU call them."

So - to H&V I happily went.

The real reason we ate there was for the Fantasmic Package, and given the effects of Hurricane Ike, we really did not need the seating, although it WAS nice to have a shorter walk to & from the amphitheatre.

In a nutshell, we liked H&V. The food was good (not superb), the service WAS superb, and we were seated promptly. Maybe eating at 4:30pm was the key - whatever... we had eaten sparingly at lunch, and were hungry at the appropriate time. Plus - this gave us time to do other things while everyone ELSE ate dinner before Fantasmic.

The buffet was not overly long, but did have some surprisingly goood items:

The PEI mussels were VERY good, although they were served cold, not my usual presentation, but it made sense, as they would have dried out if kept warm. The roasted beets were excellent, as was the watercress salad. The bowtie pasta had a nice Thai flair to it. The Bean cassoulet was superb - I went for seconds. Oh - and how could I NOT get a slice of fresh bread with apple butter?

This was the first plate that DW and DS shared. The BBQ pork loin was a favorite, as was the spoonbread (creamed corn... yummy). The mashed potatoes and MAc & cheese were so-so, and the roast was also a miss. I got a slice of the roast, and mine was better, different piece... so be sure to inspect before you get it on your plate.

Dessert selections (no photos - sorry) were basic Americana - the cobblers were very good. There is a soft serve ice cream dispenser, can't recall if they have fixins for the ice cream- I was too bloated to notice by this point.

 

[Mnemonic]

Our final TS meal was the character b'fast at Ohana... and I was somewhat disappointed. DS is a big Stitch fan, so this one was kind of a "must have" since we did not know where else in the "World" he could see Stitch, but the meal itself was a bummer.

Here is our plate of food for the morning:

Obviously some hungry little alien monster had already attacked it. Our last meal had been the early dinner the night before in H&V. In addition to this saucer of food, we had the obligatory Ohana bread basket (cinammon raisin and pineapple breads - yummy) and a fruit plate (very important later on).

Ohana's scrambled eggs really are as good as everyone says, and the sausage was amazing. We didn't want to fill up on silly biscuits, as we expected more food to come, since it was "all you can eat." We quickly learned it was "all you can eat as long as all you wanted was contained in this one platter." Seriously - if you go to Ohana and have an octogenarian named Marianne as your waitress, prepare to go hungry.

We also had the bad luck of having just missed the characters in our area. All of the characters go through in a single wave, so if you sit in an area right after they leave, you have to wait another hour before they come back. This is okay for dinner, but I hate wasting over an hour on a breakfast.

As you can see, eventually happiness was restored... even if we did leave hungry.

 

[MickeyNicki]

Thanks for the Boma and Marrakesh reviews, we are headed to both for the first time next month and I am planning on starving myself on our Boma dinner day so I can gorge myself that night!

 

[John's Mom]

Great reviews and pics!