MONKEY CHOW -- 8 days of dining! **updated pg 4 - post #56 w/ pix (10/15)**

[CanadianPaco]

So far so good! THX!!

 

[Minniespal]

Excellent

 

[7beasley]

Monday, September 15, 2008


Dinner: MAMA MELROSE – MGM

We loved this meal. The lovefest for this meal was proportionate to the hatefest for our Marakesh meal! I would recommend this place. We have been several times and it always ranks high up there for me!

There were very few negatives – but alas – there were some. Those were:

1. we were only a party of 2 so we were given a very small table in a very bad location. It was the first table closest to the kitchen and the door. We would have preferred something actually in the dining room but the table location certainly did not detract from our enjoyment of the food!

2. our waitress was a little bit inattentive. Not rude or anything – but we just felt like she forgot about us.

3. the service was a bit slow. Our dining experience lasted over an hour and a half. That is a long time at a Disney restaurant in a park! We were trying to make the Fantasmic show after dinner (and did not have a fantasmic package) – our ADR was at 6:00pm (and we were seated pretty much immediately) but did not get out till after 7:30pm. We rushed to get to Fantasmic and made it! (originally we were told it was standing room only but eventually some seats opened up a the far right [near the Ursula/handicap section] and we were able to sit!

But now on to the positives – of which there were many!

I love appetizers – for me they are the best part of the meal. I was super bummed when the appetizers were taken off the dining plan but my wonderful DH to the rescue said not to worry we would order them anyway and just pay OOP for them – which we did! Yeah!

We shared an order of calamari to start with. It was great – a big favorite of mine. And no tentaticles just calamari rings – which is how I like it! The dipping marina sauce was very good as well and the hot pepper relish had quite a kick.

Next, I ordered a ceaser salad and TC had a bowl of minestrone soup. Both very good! I loved the ceaser salad there. The crostini bread that is served though in place of croutons is very hard/crispy. So I did not really eat that. TC enjoyed his soup as well.

For the entrees I ordered the penna ala vodka. My favorite! I was going to branch off and try something new but in the end I went back to my old standby reliable favorite penne ala vodka – and I am sure glad I did. It was excellent! My only “complaint” is that I was so full from the calamari and salad that I did not have room to eat much of my dinner! Mama Melrose makes the best vodka sauce ever – I have tried it elsewhere at home and it is no where near as good.

TC had the Eggplant Napolean which he thought was good but not great. The eggplants on the bottom were not that crispy. Plus – the worst offense was that the eggplant did not come with macaroni/pasta! We are Italian and have never ordered an Italian entrée which did not come with pasta. So that was a bummer for my husband. I think that if he was not stuffed from the calamari and soup he probably would have ordered a side of macaroni. But the eggplant was good. He probably wouldn’t get that entrée again but he would still return to Mama Melrose.

Although stuffed – we decided to have a few bites of dessert. I had the spumoni gelato – good! And TC had the lemon custard with berries. Also good! To drink we both had sodas (diet and ginger ale).

We will definitely eat here again!

There was a small “dispute” as the banana rating between me and DH. I thought 4 bananas he thought 3 bananas – so we have compromised!

Banana Rating:

Three and One Half Bananas

OOP cost: ~$32 (appetizers and tip).



Up next: Pepper Market

-Nicole

 

[wahoostampingirl]

I'm enjoying your reviews! We had the same type of experience at Mama Melrose's where the food was good (loved the vodka penne!), but the service was indifferent. It also made us late for Fantasmic and we ended up in standing room only. My dh's memory of that night is holding our then 60 lb. ds on his shoulders for the whole show so he could see.

We would still go back to Mama Melrose, but would definitely get an earlier ADR.

Can't wait for some more great reviews.

 

[jeminni]

Great reviews, WPE is my most favorite CS .

 

[Sawyer]

AIRBELLE --- Thank you for your long and reasoned response to my dining report. That is what makes the Dis great -- people of differing opinions can share those opinions in a friendly enviornment!

Actually, my companion was disappointed with the meal as well - he enjoyed the cous cous very much however! We have eaten at Marakesh consistently for the last 5 trips and have always loved it and I always order the Lamb Shank. I can tell you it was never as fatty as this one was - the one from Sept 14th was covered with fat -- think of the skin on a chicken - this had a skin of thick yellow fat. Perhaps it is not clear in the picture but it was gross.

As for the chicken, my husband usually orders the chicken so I knew what it looked like and what to expect and this was different from years past. While again, you are right that I knew it had olives and that some people like olives and therefore would not be at all bothered by the fact that olives were smeared all over the chicken -- this report is really just a report of my opinions about where I dined last week.

As for the surcharge - the point, as you rightfully point out, is not the $2.16 tip on the surcharge -- the point was actually that those paying cash paid $43 for the feast while those paying with the dining plan paid $49 for the feast. That seemed wrong to me. Maybe I am alone in that thinking but it seemed wrong to me.

As I pointed out in my report - the service we received at Marakesh was excellent. And again, this has always been a must do restaurant for us. Perhaps that is why it was so disappointing to have a once great restaurant fall so far to the depths of a terrible restaurant that we probably won't return to. Again however, that is just my opinion and not a personal attack on anyone else who happens to love Marakesh or who has recently had a great meal at Marakesh.

And while you are also correct that Moroccon food is different than American food -- that was one of the problems with this place on this trip -- it was trying to hard to be "more americanized" and in doing so - it not only failed miserably but wrecked the fact that this place - when it was serving Morocon food is great - but when it was serving Americanized Morocan food was not great.

Having actually eaten the Feast however as little as 10 days ago - I must disagree with your point about the food not being of poor quality and instead my issue being not liking the high quality food.....my issue was two fold -- I did not like the food and the food - in my opinion - at this meal - was not high quality food. Lamb, which I love and eat often, is not supposed to be covered in a thick skin of fat. Perhaps if you look at the picture again you can better see the thick skin of fat...

I too hope that people won't rule out an entire restaurant based on my dining report. I am sure that I don't have that kind of power though to influence the masses of where to eat and where not to eat via my dining report...I am sure those who love Marakesh (like we used to - again, we have eaten there for the last 5 years and it has always been DH's favorite -- in fact, it was DH who declared that this restaurant is no longer a must do for him - that was not my decision) will continue to dine there.

I wish you happy dining there on your next trip to WDW and I look forward to reading your dining report!

-Nicole

You TOTALLY validated my concerns and decision not to eat at this heinous restaurant! My DSIL and DB's family are always trying to get us to eat there. Have studied the menu and the reviews and have always thought that it would be G-ROSS!! I am SO glad I went with my instincts and will hence avoid this horror!

 

[7beasley]

Bumping...page 2 - cmon guys!!

Hey - where is everyone?

New review coming today. Pepper Market -- stay tuned!!

-Nicole

 

[tinkandonaldfans]

bring it on!

 

[estewart0901]

can't wait for the Pepper Market update they have fajitas and my hubby wants to go there in December...

 

[DSNY4ever]

Thanks for all the reviews. We are planning on eating at WGP express on our upcoming trip and your review made it sound pretty good! Looking forward to it

 

[sarehm]

Thanks for the great reviews! I agree, Mama Melrose is awesome!

 

[7beasley]

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

We had a great and enjoyable meal. This place is a great deal on the Dining Plan. We arrived just after the lunch rush around 1pm and we seated right away with no wait. We were surprised at how empty the place was!


Lunch: Pepper Market – Coranado

NC: I enjoyed the Rib Eye Steak. It was cooked to perfection a nice medium and it came with delicious steak fries (and lots of them!) and excellent roasted vegetables (squash, eggplant, peppers and mushrooms). I really enjoyed my meal – it was great! I had a diet coke to drink and got a cinnamon roll (which was huge) as my dessert which I took back to the room for breakfast the next day.

TC: DH had the Chinese sampler platter which was fried rice, an egg roll and 2 entrée choices – he had kung pow chicken and some kind of pork and vegetables entrée. He loved it as well and ate it all. Coke to drink and a pecan roll for dessert which also came back to the room with us for breakfast the next day.

Banana Rating:

Three and One Half Bananas

I really can’t say enough good things about the Pepper Market. We try to do it every trip. It takes a bit of planning to fit it in because its not in a theme park and you have to actually travel to another hotel to basically eat at their food court. But I highly recommend trying to fit it in. This is not a typical food court. It really is delicious and there are so many options. Go – you will be glad you did!!

Up next: Kona

-Nicole

PS: Sorry - no pictures from this great meal -- we were heading to the water park after lunch so I did not bring my camera.

 

[HappyCamper87]

Thanks so much for the reviews!

I am going to Mama M's this coming Sunday and you just made it harder to wait!

 

[raftislander]

Signing On.... Keep the reports coming!

 

[TPCShauna]

Great reviews. I'm in!

 

[7beasley]

I'm back...sorry for the long absence...on with the reviews!

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Dinner: KONA - Polynesian

This restaurant is fabulous! How is it that I have been to Disney so many times and have never eaten here before? My husband and I routinely dine at Ohana and every year we say to ourselves, we should try Kona some time but “some time” just never came – that is until this trip! The timing was perfect, we were going to MNSSHP this night and we knew we wanted to eat somewhere close – there was no where in the MK that jazzed us so we started thinking about the monorail resort restaurants and then it hit us – Kona!! It would be perfect!! And it was…

We were seated relatively quickly (about 10 minutes) and took our place amongst the many other costumed dinners that evening. We were given some bread with delicious macademina nut butter. It was the softest bread I had ever had. Every morsel was delicious!

You can order a non-alcoholic strawberry daiquiri or pina colada with your meal as your beverage choice on the dining plan. While the strawberry drink was calling my name – I knew it would fill me up to much so I passed and opted for a diet coke instead. DH however got the pina colada and loved it.

As previously mentioned, we are all about the appetizers. I love appetizers. I ordered a Kona Salad hold the onions and DH had the soup. Both enjoyable and filling.

For dinner, we both ordered the same thing. The teriyaki sirloin. It came with garlic mashed potatoes and brocollini. It was excellent. We ate every single bite with glee.

Unfortunately, by the end of the meal we were totally and completely stuffed!! So we skipped dessert. I know – terrible – but we did!

This meal was wonderful. Kona has now become a must do for us! I can’t believe it took us so long to try Kona but now that we have – there is no going back.

Banana Rating:

Four Bananas


Up next: Tusker House

-Nicole

 

[Michelle_and_Aaron]

nice update! I can not wait to read more!

 

[SunnieRN]

Love your banana rating scale! Very cute! Sorry to hear that your Marakkesh meal didn't please. My daughter wanted to go there in December, I voted for Teppan Edo instead. Thank goodness she agreed!
Looking forward to more.

 

[MousekaMaddi]

thanx for reviewing, your rating system is very "appealing" !!

 

[Rebelmom67]

Loving your reviews! I totally agree with you about The Marrakesh, it sucks. It used to be a favorite of ours but it has consistently gone down hill EVERY year. The portions have been reduced in size and the food quality leaves something to be desired. I think they have gone to serving mutton, not lamb!! Yes, it was that bad the last time we went.

Thanks for taking the time to type out these great reviews!