Captain's Grill, The Yacht Club Resort
We arrived at the Yacht Club a bit early (son & friend had earlier reservation at Biergarten, so we valet parked at Beach Club, and they walked over to Epcot, while we walked down to the Yacht Club. Since we were about 20 minutes early, we checked in at the restaurant podium, but ducked around the corner to the bar there (sorry, don't remember the name!) DH had a beer (nothing fancy) and I had one of my favorites, the pina colava:Yummy - full of raspberry-coconut goodness...can I count this as a fruit serving? Love these drinks, and you can get them virtually any bar in Disney World. I didn't actually remember to take a picture while we were sitting there, but here's one from a previous trip:
Once we were seated, DH & I debated getting the Chefs Choice/Captains Grill experience, which would allow you to choose an appetizer, an entree and a dessert...but since we were both feeling steak (and of course that's not one of the entree choices on the 3-some meal) we decided to skip the Chefs choice. Our waitress brought us ice water, and delivered bread & butter to our table. Didn't get a picture, and honestly don't remember a thing about it. So I guess it just wasn't impressive.
I chose the Grilled NY Strip which comes with Herb Potatoes...which were sliced whole potatoes with very slight seasoning (took a whole lot of salt & pepper to make these tasty.) The NY Strip also came with "seasonal Vegetables"...which was the very unfortunate broccolini you can see under the steak in the picture...when will Disney give up on this travesty of a vegetable! It LOOKS like it should be good, but it tastes like a cross between cooked celery & asparagus...even though it resembles leggy broccoli it doesn't taste like broccoli (why don't they just serve broccoli...that's plenty tasty & a lot of people like it.) This broccolini stuff is a very stringy texture (fiber overload!!!) & yuck, dirty flavor. Oh Well. The menu description says the steak is topped with "Red Onion Jam"...which certainly sounds fancy-schmancy, but, as you can see in the picture, the "jam" is just a mess of sauteed onions on top of the steak. Now the steak was cooked rare, as requested, but sorry to say it was not all that good. Had we paid cash for this meal, I think I might have sent it back...while it was a good-sized portion about 1/2 of the slab was gristle & fat. The edible 1/2 was seasoned well & tasty. Didn't bother sending it back because truth be told, there's no way I could have eaten the whole thing anyway...quite full from my pina colava. And here's a funny thing...the waitress brought out steak knives for us, making a point of telling us "here's your steak knives." They looked sharp -- edge was shiny as if it had been sharpened. But the darn "steak knives" would have been challenged to cut jello, they were that dull. Huh? The butter knife actually cut the steak, but the so-called "steak knife" wouldn't. Can't explain that one...but anyway I'd have to say my meal was just so-so: only 1/2 my steak was edible, yuck green veg & bland taters. Dang!
DH made the better choice: the Grilled Rib-Eye which was topped with a big ol' slab of herb butter (rare beef, dripping additional fat...DH was in carnivore-heart-attack-on-a-plate heaven!) His rib-eye was cooked perfectly, and came with delicious Garlic mashed potatoes and "seasonal Vegetables" which you would think would be the same "seasonal vegetables" as what I got, right? I mean, it was the same season on his side of the table as it was on mine, lol. But instead of being the grotesque broccolini, his "seasonal vegetables" were fresh, hot & crisp GREEN BEANS! Why does he get a normal, tasty veggie??? His rib eye had just the normal amount of fat and no gristle...and he got yummy taters and a decent green veg. My only consolation was that his steak knife wouldn't cut his steak, either. Bizarre how two similar sounding dishes can end up being soooo different. He loved his meal - meat, veg & tater all very, very good. And funny thing was, $$$-wise, my choice was priced out at $27.99 on the menu and his was actually $2.00 less...so the "cheaper" cut ended up the better meal
I had the Double Chocolate cheesecake with berries. Somehow, with that kind of name, I really expected this to be a chocolate dessert. But as you can see, it's mostly NOT chocolate, despite the double promise of the name. Basically the "chocolate" consisted of the smear of chocolate across the plate, the very thin chocolate cookie-crumb crust & I guess you have to count the thin slice "celebrate" wafer on the top - gosh, they could have exaggerated the chocolate-ness even more & called it a TRIPLE chocolate dessert, right. The cheesecake part tasted like plain ol' cheesecake - it was good, but if it had any chocolate in it, I couldn't taste it. The berries were fresh, the cream was whipped...but for a confirmed choc-a-holic this dessert severly underwhelmed. I mean, it
was a good cheesecake...but chocolate? DOUBLE Chocolate...no way, Jose! I did eat most of this since 1/2 my dinner had been left on my plate. I liked it OK, but was really disappointed that it was so lacking in true chocolate splendor.
Again, DH made the smarter choice. He picked the Key Lime Tart, described on the menu as being served "with Whipped Cream and a Macaroon." As you can see, they tossed on a few berries as decor, too. The key lime tart had a layer of whipped cream on it, with the Yacht Club chocolate wafer topping that. It was tart/sweet and very rich with the whipped cream layer. He was pretty full from having had a full edible dinner...so he only ate about 1/2 of this. It was delicious...and there was no creative license in the menu description: it really was key lime flavor!
OK, final thoughts on Captain's Grill. Decor is pleasant, vaguely nautical. Although it had the required too-many-tables, it was 1/2 empty, so the noise level was low. Service was excellent. Food...well, we were totally split on this one: DH would give it a 9 for sure...steak, veg & dessert were all very good and his dessert was all that was expected. My dinner...well, no more than a 6 on that steak & veggie combo. And there was nothing wrong with my dessert...except it just didn't live up to it's name of "Double Chocolate." Would we go back...well, yes we would. BUT I would order what DH ordered, lol.
NOTE: DS & friend went to Biergarten in Epcot for dinner. They liked the food, enjoyed the band and had a great time with interesting table-mates. Sorry, no pictures (I had the only working camera.)
Just a big empty space in the case!. We asked the lady working the bakery counter about it and she said it was GONE FOR THE DAY! It was only 12:45 P.M. - still prime lunch time, really. And she's telling us they have already served up the full day's supply? 
Wow, I guess the secret is out that the strawberry shortcake is the best dessert there. Well, there were some other good looking desserts...we'd have to make do, lol.
That was kind of a bummer, but at least they do still fill your plate. It's just less variety. DS chose the garlic udon noodles, Thai chicken and Asian veggies. He said the noodles were good, the Thai was not very spicy (tasty enough for fast-food, but not classic Thai flavorings.) He also liked the Asian veggies - crisp and fresh tasting. DS was looking forward to the shortcake (one of his favorite desserts)...but since that was gone, he chose the triple chocolate cake. He enjoyed the cake, but couldn't finish it. 
