My First Ever Dining Report - a Vegetarian's Perspective, Now w/ Index

[disney_mommy]

Okay, here's the skinny - I'm 30 years old and recently came back from a trip to the World with my mother. I have a separate trip report here, but I will attempt a food report for all the foodies out there.

Everything went pretty much according to schedule until the last night. First, the meal schedule:

Wednesday (Hollywood Studios)
Lunch - Counter service
Dinner - Il Mulino

Thursday (Epcot)
Breakfast - Counter service
Lunch - Counter service
Dinner - Spoodles

Friday (Animal Kingdom)
Breakfast - Boma
Lunch - Counter service
Dinner - Kona

Saturday (Magic Kingdom)
Breakfast - Counter service
Lunch - Tony's Town Square
Dinner - Trail's End

Sunday
Breakfast - Counter service
Lunch - Wolfgang Puck Cafe


Index:
Introduction (Cast of Characters)
Day 1 - Hollywood Studios (50s Prime Time Cafe and Il Mulino)
Day 2 - Epcot (Sunshine Seasons and Spoodles)
Day 3 - Animal Kingdom (Boma, Tusker House and Kona)
Day 4 - Magic Kingdom (Tony's Town Square and Crystal Palace)
Day 5 - Downtown Disney (Wolfgang Puck Cafe)

 

[disney_mommy]

Okay, this is the cast of characters for this foodie report:

Me - 30 years old. I have been a vegetarian for 9 years and am bordering on veganism. Still not there yet (I do love me some cheese!) but I am working on it. I don't eat any meat at all, including fish. I am pretty simple in my tastes, I like your basic spaghetti, mac 'n cheese and sandwiches. I don't like to push the envelope too far in my venture for new foods.

Mom - eligible for AARP benefits. She eats chicken and fish but hasn't had a steak in many years. She still eats a hamburger maybe twice a year. She likes all varieties of foods and isn't afraid of trying something new. I didn't take too many notes her food, but I will add it in whenever I can, but this will mainly be my report.


Now, on to the actual report...

 

[TigerKat]

Jumping in here.....

 

[disney_mommy]

On our first day, we arrived at Hollywood Studios around 1:00pm. We had intended to do a counter service place, but we walked by the 50s Prime Time Cafe (which we originally had an ADR for at dinner, but canceled), and it looked like fun, so we walked in to see what our chances were of getting a table. They said it would be a while, but we waited. It is a very fun place to sit and relax. We sat in the corner, with the orange couch and the bookcases, watching the black and white TV with the old show clips looped. Mom kept saying, "We had one of those in our house." And "That's just like the clock that was in our kitchen!" She had fun.

We both ordered a salad ($5.49) with ranch dressing and shared a basket of onion rings ($5.99). The salad was quite good, very fresh. The ranch dressing was super yummy. The onion rings were okay. We ate them all, but we weren't crazy about them. They were not very crisp, just sort of breaded and limp.

For dinner, we met two local family members at Il Mulino in the Swan. Very upscale place. We used the valet parking and they told us to get our ticket validated, so it only cost us the tip. The waiter brought out a plate with an eggplant dip type of thing and a basket of 2 types of breads. I'm not an eggplant fan, but I squished a piece of plain bread into the mixture and it was quite good. The other bread was a hard, crispy bread with red pepper flakes. I thought that one was spicy and could only have a bite, but my mom didn't feel it was very hot at all. Maybe I got all of the red papper flakes...? For my entree, I had the Penne Rigate ($20.00), which is penne pasta with a marinara sauce. The sauce was almost cheesy and was very pale, not bright red like a usual marinara. It was good but a tad bland. For dessert we had the flourless chocolate cake ($8.00) which was divine but very rich. The four of us shared one small serving.

 

[disney_mommy]

Jumping in here.....

Oooh, my first reader! Welcome, and I hope you enjoy reading my foodie report.

 

[KatMark]

Count me in.

 

[natalielongstaff]

And me

 

[danalee]

me to, me to!

 

[disney_mommy]

This morning we had to be at Epcot by 8:45am for our 9:00am Segway tour, so we had some poptarts in the room (from a box that I so helpfully packed) before scooting out of our room.

For lunch, we hit Sunshine Seasons in The Land. We both had the Vegetarian Entree ($7.99) which consisted of a pile of garlic udon noodles, a heap of the stirfry vegetables, a scoop of white rice, and a bunch of broccoli. We also split the Apple Caramel Cake (aka the Apple Sauce Cake) ($2.89). The Vegetarian Entree was good. The noodles were very good and the rice was okay, kind of bland. The vegetables were okay, not very hot, and the broccoli was just this side of acceptable. Very bland and almost mushy. The cake was decent, it had a nice caramel flavor and the crumb crust was good.

For dinner, we drove to Spoodles at the Boardwalk Resort. This is tied with Kona and Wolfgang Puck as the restaurant with the best atmosphere. Very nautical and bright. The wood was a beautiful medium color and I loved the blue striped seat cushions. Every light fixture was different which I thought was very cool.

I started with a side salad with ranch dressing ($5.29) which was very good, very fresh. There wasn't much of a vegetarian selection here, so I chose the Margherita Flatbread ($9.99). I was thinking it was going to be like a thin pizza, but it was not. It was a giant slab of oval bread, very thin but not crusty. It had cheese and tomatoes and some kind of swirl on top, maybe a carmelized onion sauce? It was only okay, and I ate only two small pieces.

I also had a strawberry margarita ($8.25), which was quite good.

 

[msce2]

I'm jumping on the bandwagon! Great reviews so far!

 

[suzimar57]

you're doing a great job so far with your reviews!!

 

[TigerKat]

I love Spoodles! Now I'm craving their Sangria.....

 

[disney_mommy]

Thank you to everyone for the support! I love going through the trip and reliving all of the food and restaurants. I'm glad others are enjoying it as well.

 

[disney_mommy]

This morning we got to sleep in before heading over to Boma in the Animal Kingdom Lodge for the breakfast buffet. All I can say about Boma is YUMMY!

The buffet ($16.99) is amazing. So many choices it boggles the mind. Bagels and bread slices next to a toaster, several cereal choices, muffins, danishes, scones, bacon, made-to-order omelets, sausage, 2 kinds of scrambled eggs, sliced meats, potato wedges, french toast, waffles, pancakes, fresh fruit, juices and coffee... And every bite of it was delicious (especially the chocolate chip muffins).

This is our fourth time eating breakfast at Boma, and we've not been disappointed yet. The atmosphere is great, everything wood and dark greens and browns, giant windows to let in the sun and lovely themed music playing in the background.

Our waiter was great, I swear he walked around smiling the entire time, even when he wasn't helping anyone. He just seemed happy to be there. Mom had so much coffee she was about to explode and declared later that it was the best coffeee she had on the entire trip.

For lunch, we had intended to just grab something at a counter service, but we walked by Tusker House and I said "Remember that? We ate there last time and it was so good." So mom said "Let's see if they can take us." 10 minutes later we were ordering our drinks.

The buffet ($19.99) was just as good as we remembered. There were tons of vegetarian choices, incuding hummus, tabouleh, spiced tandoori tofu, couscous and pearl couscous. Of course, there were lots of other choices like green beans, mashed potatoes, rolls, cornbread muffins, several different salads, sliced meats and cheeses, macaroni and cheese, potato wedges, rotisserie chicken, top sirloin roast, pork loin and curry chicken.

The service here was acceptable and the atmosphere was nice. Loud, but that's to be expected. Very detailed theming.

And now onto my second favorite restaurant of the trip - Kona in the Polynesian. Beautiful restaurant, very tropical. I loved the fan system on the ceiling and the colors were very bright. When your host(ess) takes you to your seat, they stop at a high counter which has all of the evening's desserts displayed and they tell you about each one in detail. We were seated at a small table next to the open railing, and we looked out into the resort.

To start, they brought out a huge ball of bread and individual butters. The bread was absolutely wonderful. We were tearing chunks out and wolfing them down. I ate it without the butter, the bread was sweet enough, but mom enjoyed the bread with the butter.

Mom had the Pan Asian noodles ($16.99) and I asked for them without meat. Our waitress asked if I would like tofu instead, which I agreed to. I ordered a strawberry margarita ($8.25) and mom ordered a cosmopolitan ($9.25). That was the best strawberry margarita I've had in a long time, and mom enjoyed her cosmo as well.

The entree was delicious. I was feeling adventurous (aka tipsy - boy the alcohol in that margarita is sneaky!) and ate my meal with the provided chopsticks, but mom used a fork. The noodles were fabulous and the veggies were fresh and crisp, especially the pea pods. The pineapple also was fresh. The sweet and sour sauce was amazing. The only con to this meal was the amount of tofu in the dish. It was just too much and I only ate about half of the tofu itself. This was my favorite meal for the entire trip. Very yummy and we will definitely be back during our next WDW stay.

 

[Krissalee]

Great reviews - looking forward to the rest!

 

[disney_mommy]

This morning, we got up early and just had pop tarts in our room as we were getting ready - we had to rush over to MK as soon after rope-drop as possible.

For lunch, we went to Tony's Town Square for our 12:00 ADRs. This is the restaurant that is "inspired by the charming Italian trattoria where Lady and the Tramp share spaghetti and a kiss in the Disney classic animated film, Lady and the Tramp." It is very nice, very peaceful and quiet. We didn't have to wait long before we were seated.

The menu is not very vegetarian friendly, so I made up my own sandwich - the meatball submarine without meatballs ($10.19 - $1.30 less than menu price)! It was the sub bread, carmelized onions, marinara sauce and mozzarella cheese. It was very tasty. The onions were sweet and the sauce was good, very mild.

Mom got the spaghetti with no meatballs ($14.69) and thought it was very good as well.

Our waiter was friendly and always ready with more diet coke when our glasses ran low. Overall, based on food and price and atmosphere, this is a place we will definitely consider in the future, but it will not be a necessity.

For dinner, we drove over to Fort Wilderness (well, first we drove to Wilderness Lodge - but that's a whole 'nother story!). We drove around forever and couldn't find the restaurant. Finally we come to the conclusion that you have to park in the main parking lot and be bussed to the restaurant via the resort bus system. By this time we were tired and hungry and cranky (the cranky was mostly because we were sad to be leaving the next day), so we decided to just head back to MK and get something there.

We decided to try Crystal Palace (this was around 6:45) and they told us to come back after 8:00 and see if we could get in then. So we just stood nearby and watched the parade. This was the first time we had ever seen it and really enjoyed it. At 7:45, we put our name down and watched the fireworks from a bench in front of the restaurant (which we made a note to do next time we're there) and finally, around 8:30 we were seated.

The buffet ($30.99) had several different salads and garlic mashed potatoes (yum!), broccoli, veggie medley with balsamic glaze, mac and cheese, rice, tofu curry, fire roasted corn spoon bread, prime rib, turkey, cheese pizza, mushroom and chicken pasta, chicken fingers, vegetable pasta. All of the food (except the mashed potatoes) was fine, unexceptional and not worth the hefty price tag. The desserts were average, too.

But, we know Crystal Palace is about the atmosphere, not the food. It is bright and pretty and loud and the characters are the best part. We might go back in the future (if we have a ton of extra money we need to spend and a hankering to see Winnie the Pooh).

 

[engle]

It is nice to hear a vegetarian review....while I am not one, I have several friends who are and are always seeking veggie friendly places!! Great reviews!!

 

[skellingtonfreak]

Good job on the reviews. Always glad to hear someone else's experiences.

 

[Disney owl]

enjoying these

 

[mrsturtle]

nice reviews. you just confirmed my choice of kona (vs. o'hana). we have several vegetarians in our party and i want to make sure they can find something (which also tastes good) to eat. keep 'em coming!!!