Mother, Daughter and Sausage Dining Review! Final Meal - Complete 9/27!!

[momof2disprincesses]

Hello WI neighbor!

I'm very much enjoying your reviews. Thanks for sharing!

We too ate at Le Chefs de France and didn't think we'd like it as much as we did. It is now one of our favorite places.

 

[vettegirl]

Cant wait to hear about the Cali Grill!

 

[Tracerr00]

After breakfast at CRT we hung out at Magic Kingdom all day. Rides and shopping of course! After a while we decided we'd like to head back to the room to chill out before dinner at California Grill. On the way out we wandered into Main Street Confectionery and decided to get a few snacks for later. Look at these yummy treats in the cases!

I was in line for one of the Mickey head cake pops! The person ahead of me kept changing her mind as to what she would like and every time she'd ask for something she would decide on something else just as the CM was pulling it out of the case. Then the CM would have to put it back. At one point the CM got a chocolate cupcake with white frosting out of the case and into a container when the person decided they didn't want it. I felt bad for the CM! When she came to help me I said that I would love that cupcake that she'd just boxed up as well as a Mickey head cake pop. I didn't go there for a cupcake but I remembered that one of my goals was to try three cupcakes so I just decided to add that on seeing as she already had it in a container. So I got these two items to bring back to the room for later.

A chocolate cupcake with white frosting and a red velvet mickey head cake pop.

As I'd said earlier in my report, once Eilee takes her medication she is usually not very hungry for close to 8 hours and I didn't have her take it until after breakfast at CRT so she could enjoy it. So while she didn't want any lunch, I did but I also didn't want to ruin my appetite for California Grill because I was very excited about this! So this is what I had.

Fries from the POR food court! By the time I got them back to the room they were a little bit limp and not so hot anymore. But I ate them because I was hungry and they kept me from getting hangry!

After a few hours we got changed and ready to make our way to CG! We took the bus to MK and decided to walk over to the Contemporary. On our way, Eilee spotted this.

She is a HUGE Avengers geek (she loves Captain America). She has Avengers notebooks and shirts and folders, you name it. Please remember this little tidbit for later in the report. You can see her in the photo taking a photo of the Avengers monorail.

We checked in at the desk and we were given a pager. Our reservation was for 5:45 and we were a bit early. So we sat down on to rest for a moment!

Even though we were early our pager went off within a few minutes and we made our way back to the check in desk. We were directed to the elevator up to the restaurant. As soon as the door opened and there was a smiling face inside the elevator to greet us and bring us up. I thought that was a nice touch.

We were taken to our table for two which was right against the window! This trip is Eilee's final activity on the "13 Fun Birthday Activities" for her 13th birthday and this is the only restaurant that I had indicated it was her birthday when I made the reservation. And I was happy to see how cute the table looked!

And Eilee noticed right away that our table was decorated differently than the others. She felt very special!
And this was our lovely view!!

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There is something absolutely (for lack of a better, less cliche term) MAGICAL about sitting down to a meal while looking out the window at a view like this!

Our server was Jillian and she was very pleasant and friendly. Eilee started out with a Coke to drink and I had a glass of much needed wine!

This is the Schloss Wallhausen Riesling and I really enjoyed it. It was not the sweetest Riesling that they have but not the most dry so it was perfect for me! I think this was my very first taste of alcohol so far during the trip! It's just been so hot and I usually want something I can slam...probably not a good thing to do that with alcohol.
edited to say that I did slam that Grey Goose slushy the day before!! Ha ha! Oops!

Here is the menu for the evening!

This is getting to be quite a long post so
To be continued...

 

[Tracerr00]

As you can see, Eilee was having entirely too much fun with the confetti!

Jillian came to take our order and we told her that we were going to skip appetizers and we'd each get a main course and a dessert. And then she brought us basket of bread with salted butter

I probably could have made a meal out of wine and this bread and butter. Because you all know how much I love butter - but butter with sea salt on top of it?? Yum!!

Eilee said that she wasn't hungry quite yet and I'd end up eating the entire appetizer if we'd ordered one. And then I knew that I would be full from the appetizer so I might not be hungry enough for more. I was positive that she'd order the filet and I was not wrong. I was determined to get a different main course but when it came down to it, I was dying for a filet myself! So we both got the filet.

My heart dies a little bit every time Eilee orders a well done steak. So my heart died a little on this day. However, I ordered mine medium and it was perfectly done! Oh man, this steak comes with a teriyaki barbecue sauce but I think this cut would have been just fine without it. But then when you add the flavorful sauce it was even better! The green beans were tender crisp, exactly the way I like them and the potatoes had a lot of flavor. I ♥ this dish!

Eilee on the other hand said that it was ok and that her steak at Le Cellier on our last trip was better. Boo. Now I'm wondering if she didn't fully enjoy it because she had taken her medication late that day and she just wasn't hungry? This kid is a steak eating machine so her comment surprised me. And the fact that she left some on her plate makes me believe she just wasn't hungry enough.

And now on to dessert!
I had the Valhrona Chocolate Cake with cherry ice cream.

And I had to include a picture of the ooey gooey chocolaty inside of this sucker!

This was hands down the best dessert of the trip for me! I was stuffed but I made myself eat every last bite. It was very sweet but the tangy cherry ice cream really evened it out. I've eaten plenty of molten chocolate cakes in my time but this is by far my favorite ever!!!! I want to marry it

And Eilee had the banana dessert (and the name escapes me right now because I didn't write it down).

She also loved her dessert!! She said it was her favorite dessert so far but she didn't finish it. So again, confirming my suspicion that she just wasn't hungry.

I also have to say that there was someone extremely important sitting behind us but no one that I recognized when they said the name. I swear to god every person in the restaurant including the manager and chef came out to introduce themselves and they got lots of items sent to them. I wish I knew who it was because they were given royal treatment. Not that we were overlooked or anything because we weren't!! We had great service, fantastic food and an amazing view!

I thought it was a great experience and I would absolutely eat here again!!

I don't know if it gets a full Aaron Rodgers rating just because Eilee didn't think so, but to me it was!!

 

[jabead]

Yay...I am so glad you loved California Grill, Tracy! That filet is the absolute favorite steak of 2 out of 3 of my kids. I still prefer the one at YSH (mostly because I like the red wine sauce better than the teriyaki barbecue), but the CG one is very good. California Grill is currently my favorite Disney restaurant...the great food plus the wonderful view is a combination that will be hard to beat.

 

[dixonsontour]

What a great table..food looks lovely aswell

 

[DonaldDoleWhip]

So glad you enjoyed California Grill! The chocolate lava cake with seasonal ice cream is always a solid choice, and the view is just so wonderful.

 

[vettegirl]

Excellent review! I am the same way with the bread and sea salt on the butter that is a meal in itself. The CG makes an awesome filet, I am so glad you enjoyed it.

 

[smile4stamps]

Your meal looks delicious!! I need to make sure I am hungry the night we go as I see lots of items I want to try!! Unfortunately we will be having Tusker House for breakfast and yak n yeti for lunch lol!

 

[Tracerr00]

Hello WI neighbor!

I'm very much enjoying your reviews. Thanks for sharing!

We too ate at Le Chefs de France and didn't think we'd like it as much as we did. It is now one of our favorite places.

Hello! I'm glad you are enjoying the reviews! Yes, we didn't think we'd like Les Chefs as much as we did either. It's so nice to get a pleasant surprise like that.

Yay...I am so glad you loved California Grill, Tracy! That filet is the absolute favorite steak of 2 out of 3 of my kids. I still prefer the one at YSH (mostly because I like the red wine sauce better than the teriyaki barbecue), but the CG one is very good. California Grill is currently my favorite Disney restaurant...the great food plus the wonderful view is a combination that will be hard to beat.

I really did love it! It was also fun to get dressed up for dinner and go somewhere fancy because we never do that. Now that I think about it, I think that might be an opportunity for us. We could try out some nice restaurants around here as well! That would be another fun mother/daughter thing to do as we won't be going to WDW any time soon.

What a great table..food looks lovely aswell

Everything was so great! The decorated table, the view, the food...it was so much fun for us.

So glad you enjoyed California Grill! The chocolate lava cake with seasonal ice cream is always a solid choice, and the view is just so wonderful.

I've never had such a great chocolate cake before!! The ice cream was not too sweet so they were perfect together. Now I will have to go on a cake hunt to see if I can find any around here to compare to the CG cake!

Excellent review! I am the same way with the bread and sea salt on the butter that is a meal in itself. The CG makes an awesome filet, I am so glad you enjoyed it.

Thank you! I really enjoyed the bread (and the butter goes without saying! ). I think that if Eilee wouldn't have ordered her filet well done I would have eaten the rest of hers too!

Your meal looks delicious!! I need to make sure I am hungry the night we go as I see lots of items I want to try!! Unfortunately we will be having Tusker House for breakfast and yak n yeti for lunch lol!

I hope you like it and that you have some room! But make sure you save room for dessert!!

 

[sushi candy]

Glad you loved the Cali Grill, Tracy! Eileen just cracks me up. She is so vivacious.

 

[chocolateMinnie]

your meal looks lovely. DS is a well done steak kid too while DD would leave hers walking around the restaurant she likes it so rare - go figure

 

[Tracerr00]

Glad you loved the Cali Grill, Tracy! Eileen just cracks me up. She is so vivacious.

That girl is a riot! She cracks me up every single day. I'm just glad I'm not one of her teachers though because she chatters all day long (when she's not texting)!

your meal looks lovely. DS is a well done steak kid too while DD would leave hers walking around the restaurant she likes it so rare - go figure

It really was lovely and we had a nice time! It's interesting that your DD likes her steak so rare! I think I was in my late teens before I could appreciate a steak that had some pink in the middle. And now I can't imagine eating a well done steak!

 

[happy2012]

CG looks great especially that dessert! Mmm cherry ice cream.

 

[Tracerr00]

It was great! I that may have been my favorite dessert of all time actually!

 

[Linda67]

Forgive me, I feel like the worst DISer of all time!
Having spent the last two weeks driving across your wonderful country, I am sooooo behind with my fave DIS threads!
I couldn't possibly comment on every one of your updates so let's just say AWESOME!!!
Wonderful reviews and photos and now I really want to go to Cali Grill for dinner

 

[Tracerr00]

Forgive me, I feel like the worst DISer of all time!
Having spent the last two weeks driving across your wonderful country, I am sooooo behind with my fave DIS threads!
I couldn't possibly comment on every one of your updates so let's just say AWESOME!!!
Wonderful reviews and photos and now I really want to go to Cali Grill for dinner

Linda! So happy to have you back and I am dying to hear about your trip!
And you can't possibly be the worst DISer of all time when you are traveling. We make allowances for that around here.

 

[Tracerr00]

Sorry - here is something that probably belongs in a trip report but just had to include this little story. After our dinner at CG Eilee was determined to go back to Epcot to get a henna tattoo in Morocco. I made the suggestion that we should change first as we weren't quite dressed for walking around (especially our uncomfortable shoes) but she said no, she was fine. So off we went to Epcot and we even got to ride the Avengers monorail this evening and she was thrilled. I never even saw the henna tattoo lady in the gift shop but she did and she led me directly to her. It's kind of like puff paint that has to dry and you just need to let it dry and crack and fall off. So when it was done we walked off down the path and within about TWO minutes, Eilee had walked too close to me, brushed her hennaed hand up against my hand/arm and smeared the henna all over me! She was devastated that her henna tattoo was now a big blob on her wrist so we turned around to beg the woman to fix it. And would you believe...she was gone??? We found a CM and asked her if the woman was done for the evening as it was getting very late. Thank goodness she had just moved her table outside now that it was getting close to Illuminations. We ran over to her and she saw the blob immediately and was able to fix it. I thanked her and gave her another big tip!

We wandered around and wouldn't you know it. Eilee's shoes were giving her huge blisters...just like I'd told her. So she complained and whined I only had one band aid in my purse. And would any mom do? I switched shoes with her and gave her my cute black sandals and I wore her red jelly shoes which did not match my outfit in the least. I was hoping to get over to Beaches and Cream for that No Way Jose but once again it was not in the cards as we were still too full from dinner.

After Illuminations we went back to the room for our final night in the POR Royal Guest room. Eilee had been reminding me about beignets every day and couldn't wait to have them so in the morning we walked over to POFQ. The path was beautiful and the resorts are both so relaxing. We went into the food court and I went to the window to order some beignets. The woman said told me that I had to go and pay for them first and bring back my receipt which was different than the last time we were there. So I did this and when I went back to the window to show her my receipt she looked at me like I was crazy and she had no idea why I was coming back with it. Anyway, I waited for them to be done as every order is cooked fresh! And here they are...

They were as good as we remembered them to be! I love any type of fried dough and these were wonderful and hot. The powdered sugar makes a huge mess no matter how careful you are. But worth it! Eilee ordered chocolate milk and I have been on an apple juice kick so that's what I had.

We went back to the room to pack up and to bring our bags to the luggage room to be sent to the Boardwalk Inn for our final night at Disney. And we then headed back to Epcot. We like to call this our Epcot trip. We had an ADR for lunch at Via Napoli!

We were taken immediately to a table for two on the right hand side of the restaurant right next to the window and this was our view.

And here is a view of the restaurant from our table.

Our server was Renato and he was great! He took our drink orders and Eilee had a coke and I had a Bellini!

Please note the photobomber!

Eilee doesn't eat things with red sauce so I already knew that she would be getting one of the white pizzas. But I'd heard that the individual pizzas were pretty big so we decided to split one. We ordered the Quattro Formaggi pizza.

This pizza was fantastic! It was piping hot and perfectly cheesy with a thin crisp crust. We split this right down the middle and neither of us had any left over!

We each decided to get a dessert. The second Eilee saw that they had pistachio gelato on the menu she was in heaven before she even tried it. We'd taken a trip to Italy several years ago and she said that she hasn't found any pistachio gelato to compare to the stuff she had in Italy (and she's tried a lot).

She said that this was just as good if not better than what she had in Italy!

And after seeing quite a few reviews here on the DIS I went with the zeppole!

The zeppole did not let me down!! Ermergerd!! They were hot and crisp on the outside but soft and fluffy on the inside. I think I was expecting some donut holes or something but my word, these were not like a donut at all! The inside was so light! On the side they had whipped cream and a warm chocolate sauce. If the chocolate cake at CG was my favorite dessert, this was not far behind. I may or may not have eaten every single one of these. Yum!

Coming up - Boardwalk and our final dinner! Would I finally get my B&C burger and No Way Jose??

 

[DonaldDoleWhip]

Not only was that a wonderful Via Napoli review, but it was also hilarious! The henna tattoo incident (I'm glad it had a happy ending), the switching of the shoes, the random bunny in a suit, the photobomb, and the "Ehrmergerd!" for the zeppole - all these little things had me cracking up.

The pizza there is wonderful. The pistachio gelato sounds fantastic (and that's a huge stamp of approval if it compared favorably to the real thing from Italy). Finally, the zeppole...I've never tried them at Via (partly because there are so many pizza joints at home where I can get them), but you know what? I never actually buy the ones at home, since they're too sugary and greasy for me! Those look excellent, and now I'm missing VN more than ever.

 

[sushi candy]

You ordered everything I wanted to eat at Via Napoli. I am glad it did not disappoint! I am so happy Eilee was able to get her henna tattoo fixed.