My Dining Reviews - May3rd - May 6th

PeggyKate

Earning My Ears
Joined
Jul 8, 2004
Messages
40
Hi Everyone,

We got back from a trip to WDW and wanted to write about our meal experiences. We had some really great meals and a few just okay ones, but all and all we had a great time!

Tuesday - Lunch at the Earl of Sandwich. This was our first time eating at this place and all I can say is great sandwiches and great prices! We noticed that many of the people getting food at the restaurant were Disney employees, which I've never seen at any other restaurant at WDW. We split The Original and got a side of potato salad and chips. This was one of the best sandwiches I've ever had - freshly made and high quality ingredients. The sandwich was only $4.95 - amazingly inexpensive! We will be going back to this place - I think it's the best deal in WDW.

Tuesday - Dinner at the Maya Grill. We were staying at the Coronado Springs and decided to eat at their restaurant. It was pretty good, nothing special but the service was very attentive. My husband and I both had the Seasonal Green Salad to start and the Steak & Catch for the entree. The "Catch" was a large filet of Mahi, which was grilled and very good. We ordered our steak rare and it was blue. Our fault, but we really don't like our beef overcooked and thought that the restaurant would overcook all their steaks - they don't. My baked potato came totally rotten in the middle, but was quickly replaced by our server.

Wednesday - Lunch at Flame Tree BBQ at the Animal Kingdom. We have been here before and the food is always good. We had pork sandwiches and seasoned fries, both fresh and hot. However, we had to wait several minutes for the fries as they had not started cooking them yet (at 11:30 a.m?) but they were good. I'd rather wait for fresh, hot fries than eat cold, sitting under a hot lamp fries.

Wednesday - Dinner at Ohana's. This place had been recommended to me by several people and I had read the reviews here so I thought I knew what to expect. Wrong - we were horrified and wouldn't come to this restaurant again if they paid us. Our daughter (25) had driven up to join us in Orlando for a few days and the three of us enjoy fine dining at a leisurely pace. That is not what you get at Ohana's and I should have known better. This is a restaurant for families with young children who want to eat a lot of food quickly. We wondered when we were seated why we were facing away from the windows and toward the fire pit, until this woman in a hawaiian outfit announced the coconut races that began right in front of our table. We were instantly surrounded by about 25 young children, swinging brooms and their parents taking pictures around our table. Our waiter also showed up and plunked down a lazy susan full of different appetizers, which were okay. A couple of minutes later, he returned with the giant skewers of beef and turkey and gave us all huge chunks of protein. If you want to eat a lot of meat at an all you can eat price and don't care about quality, tenderness or flavor - this is the place for you. Even though we ordered a bottle of wine, we felt the waiter rushed us through the meal so they could seat another party quickly. It was such a terrible meal it got to be funny and we couldn't stop laughing at the food, the hula-hoop contests right in front of us and just the general circus atmosphere.

Thursday - Breakfast at Pepper Market. We stopped for breakfast here before going to the Magic Kingdom for the day. The Pepper Market is a really cute, fun food court at Coronado Springs and we really enjoyed it. I had the waffle with banana topping and it was good, my husband had a bagel and fruit cup that he enjoyed and our daughter had a breakfast burrito that was excellent. However, it was really expensive - breakfast for the 3 of us with beverages was $35!

Thursday - Dinner at California Grill. This is one of my favorite places at WDW and this meal was absolutely fabulous. We had a priority seating at 7:30, but checked in early so we could have a drink in the lounge. We were escorted upstairs and found a great table in the lounge. We all had a martini and just enjoyed the view. At 7:30, the hostess came to get us and escorted us to our table right by the window overlooking the Magic Kingdom. We started off our meal with a cheese tray and a glass of wine. The cheese tray was amazing, 4 different cheeses served with marmalade and an assortment of breads and crackers. I enjoy white wine and my daughter and husband like red so our server brought over an assortment of wines for us to try so we could choose our favorite. I had a wonderful, buttery chardonnay and my husband and daughter shared a bottle of a great oaky cabernet. For our next course we each had the hearts of romaine salad with green goddess dressing. The salads are a nice size, not huge but the green goddess dressing was wonderful. We had let our server know that we wanted to have a nice, leisurely meal and he was fantastic, allowing us to take our time between courses. For dinner I chose the Pork Tenderloin with Polenta (excellent) and my husband and daughter had the filet with were both perfectly cooked medium rare. For desert we spit a Chocolate Lava cake that was delicious. It was a perfect meal, capped off by the fireworks. We stopped the manager of the restaurant on our way out and complimented our server who really did an amazing job. Dinner was over $300 with the wines that we had, but for a really excellent meal and great service - it was well worth it as far as we were concerned.

On Friday morning we got up and got bagels and coffee at the Pepper Market. I would like to try lunch there as it is such a cute, fun place, however this was our last day and soon we were on the road back down to South Florida to visit with our daughter and her husband in their new place. We had a fantastic time, will definitely visit the Earl of Sandwich and California Grill again on our next visit. I can hardly wait - we're thinking about a September trip!
 
Thanks for the great reviews!
I had tossed around the idea of Ohana's but came up with the same conclusion as you - it is a loud atmosphere for families. Sort of like Whispering Canyon Cafe.
Glad you enjoyed your other meals.
 
Thanks for the reviews. We ate at the Pepper Market before and enjoyed it. Too bad about O'hana's, but live and learn and you did.
 
If I may ask a quick question;the waffles at the Pepper Market are they normal sized? I read a review recently that stated the Mickey Waffles were mini waffles. Thanks for the review. We have been debating wether to go to Ohana's or not I think we might skip it.
 

Thanks for giving you honest dining reviews, that's what I come here for! I know we all come from different backgrounds, and its ' to each his own'!!

For us, we have a 19, 17 and 8yr old, when we went to OHana's in July with just DD and dh and I we were pleasantly surprised, and enjoyed our time! DD was entertained (for free!!) dh and I had some valuable 'us time', while we could keep an eye on dd!! (for our Ohana PS)

As far as the meat go, I truly just let my pork and turkey stack up, I only wanted shrimp, couldnt convince the servers of that, dh valiantly tried to 'clean his plate' :rotfl2: I've read different reviews of the shrimp, for me, I'll take it!! Loved it!! I did enjoy the appetizers, throughout our meal! Dh and I also had a bottle of wine, but then, we werent seated at the center, or start of the races!! Truly I've read others here that have asked to be moved - esp if they didnt have children!! (just an fyi for others )

:wizard:
 
Fast Pass - there are 2 sizes of Mickey Waffles. The minature waffles were just available on the child's plates. My waffle was a normal size waffle and perfect for one adult.

Eeyore45 - I didn't mention the shrimp in my review but I did try it. It was much better than the beef and turkey, which in our opinion were both dry and tasteless. I'm sure you did enjoy O'hana's with an 8 year old along. I can remember when my daughter was that age and any restaurant that she was entertained and we could relax and enjoy ourselves was a great place as far as we were concerned! There are lots of great places for adults to eat at WDW and O'hana's is just not a place we would chose at this time in our lives.

Peggy
 
I just love the atmosphere and food. However, we have put it on the back burner now that we have 2 little boys with us. I'm absolutely jealous of what sounds like a fabulous meal.

Sorry you didn't like O'Hana's. It's one of our favorite restaurants for just the reasons you didn't care for it. We try to go at least once each trip. On our recent trip this past December, we were 5 people (my mom joined us) and ds#2 is not great with people he doesn't know. Well, he must have liked our server (perhaps she reminded him of a daycare teacher?) because no matter what this woman said or did, he was happy to comply. He sat for her, ate for her, did the coconut races and hula hoop contest for her. I was ready to offer her a job watching him for me! We're looking forward to going back next month. I can see, however, why you didn't care for it. I don't think that the loud, raucous atmosphere is particularly appealing to couples with no little kids or those trying for a more leisurely meal.

We agree with you about Earl of Sandwich. I was so impressed with it in December, both the quality and the price. Amazing that something so good could be so reasonably priced within WDW.

We'll be back in just 24 days with our boys so I'll be enjoying the dining experience soon.
 
Thanks for the reviews!! We leave in 9 days and are trying California Grill for the first time and can't wait...sounds like we won't be disappointed :)
 
Enjoyed the reviews!! Hope the "rotten potato" isn't always a menu item at Maya Grill---. Not a good way to attract customers.
 

New Posts


Disney Vacation Planning. Free. Done for You.
Our Authorized Disney Vacation Planners are here to provide personalized, expert advice, answer every question, and uncover the best discounts. Let Dreams Unlimited Travel take care of all the details, so you can sit back, relax, and enjoy a stress-free vacation.
Start Your Disney Vacation
Disney EarMarked Producer






DIS Facebook DIS youtube DIS Instagram DIS Pinterest DIS Tiktok DIS Twitter

Add as a preferred source on Google

Back
Top Bottom