No Longer coming to you Live from Disney World! Take 3 DDW'S TAMBU LOUNGE 8/6

[jabead]

After our slushie rendezvous in France, it was time for lunch. Linda & Philip were off to their homeland (or at least the Epcot version ) to have their Candlelight Processional Package lunch at Rose & Crown. Brenda, Vicki, Paula, Hunter and I headed in the opposite direction...back again to Italy, only this time to




Here are some photos of the menu which was presented to us...







And the Dessert menu...




Vicki and I decided to share both an individual size pizza and the zeppole for dessert. I asked Vicki to take our photos of these, since I had forgotten my camera back in the room and had only my phone. Both the pizza and zeppole were delicious, as always. While Via Napoli's is not my favorite pizza, as I'm partial to the Chicago-style deep dish, it is always very good.

Paula & Hunter also ordered a pitcher (or two?? ) of the sangria and I believe that I had a couple of glasses of this. This was the first time that I had had the sangria at Via Napoli, but it will definitely not be my last.



The only other photo that I took during our lunch at Via Napoli was of the three wood-burning pizza ovens, Stromboli, Vesuvio, and Etna...



...and would you believe that Paula & Hunter photobombed my picture?


Following our tasty lunch at Via Napoli, we had planned to meet Linda & Philip at La Cava for one last drink...which for me, would have of course been an Avocado margarita. Brenda though decided after lunch that she would go back to her room at the Boardwalk to check on Em, as she had stayed back to do school work. The remaining four of us got as far as Germany before we were diverted by (correct me if I'm wrong, but) I think this cart...








If my memory serves me correctly, Paula & Hunter bought us each a shot, and mine was the Apfel (apple) one. I really have no recollection though as to how this tasted, as it was my 6th drink of the day. I guess I'll need to try it again sometime to find out if I liked it or not. Paula and Hunter were then off to DHS for a FP+ ride that she had scheduled. So that left just Vicki and I to forge ahead toward Mexico. I believe that we made a few more stops though along the way, as Vicki was shopping for some surprise Christmas gifts for the Goofyson, Andrew. Just as we walked into the Mexico pavilion I received a text from Linda saying that their lunch had run longer than expected and they needed to get in line for the CP show, so they wouldn't be able to meet us at La Cava after all. I must admit though that I was a tad bit relieved, as I was afraid that a 7th drink might do me in. I then left Vicki at Epcot to do a little more shopping while I headed back to the Boardwalk to pick up my camera. Our group had some great plans for the evening and I did not want to be without my camera. ​

 

[Linda67]

Barb, we need to start in Mexico next time!

 

[jabead]

Barb, we need to start in Mexico next time!

Yes, you better add La Cava to our list Joh!

 

[wilma-bride]

Yes, you better add La Cava to our list Joh!

Oh my goodness, do NOT let me drink any tequila

 

[wilma-bride]

Can't believe Paula and Hunter ruined your picture at Via Napoli

Sian and I are hoping to try this place on our trip - Gary doesn't like pizza so normally we have to bypass it.

 

[GoofySon'sMom]

Via Napoli has become one of my favorite WDW restaurants so I was very happy that we planned a meal here. I like it so much that DS and I ate here twice in August! As a New Yorker, I love the pizza here! (That stuff they serve in Chicago is just not pizza, Barb! )

One of the ovens without Paula & Hunter ...



Our Sangria being served ...



Mine and I think Brenda's glasses ...



Bread service ...



I don't recall if I had any. I usually try to save room for the pizza ...

Another shot of the yummy sangria ...



My favorite pizza here is pepperoni with ham & olives added. Since Barb and I had decided to share, I was delighted that she agreed ...



Toppings were a bit lopsided but the pizza still lived up to my dreams of it at home!

And we also shared the zeppolis for desserts (notice how much we all hated the Sangria by the pitcher on the right of the picture!)







Of all my favorite desserts in Disney, this may be my most favorite. I love the chocolate sauce and could just eat that with a spoon!

The only other picture I have is of the train "people" enjoying the holidays as well!

 

[rachel09985]

Did Paula fill up her waterbottle with the Sangria again? The sangria looks delish! The bar crawl looked like fun! I love the citron slushie as well!

 

[GoofySon'sMom]

Did Paula fill up her waterbottle with the Sangria again? The sangria looks delish! The bar crawl looked like fun! I love the citron slushie as well!

There was no leftover Sangria for Paula to fill that water bottle! Two (maybe 3?) pitchers went down way too easy!

 

[emmysmommy]

Brenda's Via Napoli Review​

Pardon my tardiness in updating this VN review. However, I spent some time today with one of our Via Napoli dining companions at Disneyland....

On with the review....Coincidently, the last time I ate at Via Napoli it was right before meeting Vicki for the first time in 2012. My hubby, Em and I had enjoyed their delicious pizza, caprese salad and zeppoles. This trip to VN I was dining WITH Vicki… as well as Barb, Hunter and Paula.

Looking through the menu I had a hard time deciding what to order since I’d just snacked on the antipasti platter at Tutto Gusto. Not to mention the fact that I’d lost my pizza splitting buddy since Em was back at the resort working on a paper for school. Portions tend to be large here so after going back and forth with a few options I ended up playing it safe and ordered a bowl of the pasta e fagioli soup. Boring, but safe.

Since we were technically still drinking around the world a pitcher or two or three? of Sangria was ordered. Delicious-ness! Our server needed some sangria pouring lessons since he kept dribbling sangria all of the floor and subsequently my foot. Oops!

Cheers to drinking and dining with friends!

A non-photobombed version of the pizza ovens!

Once the food arrived I said yes to a grating of parmesan cheese for my soup. Glad I did… the soup was on the bland side. I liked that it had small chunks of ham and carrots but honestly this just didn’t have a lot of flavor. Even more cheese didn’t help. Needless to say I didn’t finish. But I did enjoy a slice of the sourdough bread.

Pasta e Fagioli Soup – pasta and bean soup $9​

I passed on dessert since I’m not a fan of the dessert menu.

Final Group photo:

This may not have been a favorite meal of the trip but it didn’t lack for good company. I just need to make sure that I order pizza next time since that is what they do so well.

​

 

[vettegirl]

I still need to try their pizza! That's too bad about the soup, I will make sure to avoid it.

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[DisneyKid4Life]

And the one and only photo I have of Rob (DisneyKid4Life), who had joined us before we left France.
{A shout out here to our mystery guest, Rob! }
​

... And a shout out right back at ya Barb!!! And please do not feel bad about lack of photos. I plan to steal some as they're posted to make up for the supreme lack of photos I took.

Would love to know where Rob got his shirt. My son reenacts that picture on his shirt almost everytime we get on a ride.

Rachel, that was actually a home made shirt. Nothing but a $5 Wal Mart T and some T-Shirt transfer paper. I love to make home made shirts for Disney. It's pretty much all I wear.


And finally what a privilege it was to be included on some of the Epcot Bar Crawl, and a very special to Brenda for the invite, and to everyone else for being so incredibly welcoming. It was such a pleasure to meet and spend some time with these amazing people again. And also, so very happy that Rachel stopped in for a quick hello at Tutto Gusto AND for the AMAZING BIRTHDAY TREAT!!!

 

[buzz1121]

YES! Although I had no knight in shining van so I had to take good old Disney Transportation. We were headed to a 6:30 ADR at Sci Fi and we were only about 10 minutes late. I decided to also share my meal with my 2 year old....okay I ate the dessert myself. I looked for you and your family at the Osborne Lights that night but Marshall tuckered out early and was asking to go back to the room by 8:30pm so we missed you.

I hate we missed seeing you and your family. When are you headed back to WDW? I'm thinking you had mentioned the October time frame.

 

[buzz1121]

After having a terrific time at Epcot, particularly in World Showcase I might add, we headed back to the WL to take a break. We planned on going to MK later to take advantage of EMH.

And continuing on the Viva Italia train, we had our first ever dinner reservations at the only TS Italian dining in MK.

On the second day of our Christmas trip, our family chose to eat...Dinner at Tony's Town Square.

To give a little background, I had been reluctant to make reservations at Tony's due to the overall lackluster reviews of the food. But I like to try at least one "new to us" dining experience each trip and Tony's time was up.

I am happy to say that we had an absolutely wonderful dinner at Tony's. Our server was terrific. She was friendly, great with the kids, and she had the appropriate ratio of checking on us without overwhelming us with her presence. I'm always amazed by how much of an impact a server has on our dining experience. Literally, it can make or break the entire meal.

We were seated in the patio section. The kids really enjoyed looking out the windows.

DH went with a traditional Tony's standby, Chicken Parmesan, per a recommendation by our server.



DH said the chicken was moist and flavorful and he thought the sauce had a good flavor. After traipsing around Epcot for much of the day with samples and a chicken caesar salad for food, we were all hungry by this point.

Based on a review in the live thread that I had filed away for future reference and execution, I selected Chicken Parmesan with the substitution of alfredo sauce rather than the traditional marinara.



Holy cow! This was so good! The Alfredo sauce had such a great flavor, with a good balance of cheese, creaminess, and spice. It easily surpassed the four cheese chicken pasta dish at Mama Melrose. The chicken was so tender and moist. I once again shared with little DD, and I could not give her enough to suit her. I kept hearing "more, more".

DS went with his favorite "go to" once again.....cheese pizza.



He enjoyed his pizza. There wasn't anything left on his plate.

DD1 chose the kids pasta with parmesan cheese on the side. This was one of the complete meals offered at Tony's for kids. It came with a small salad and a small rectangle of apple cake for dessert.



She loved this meal and thought all of the components arriving together was neat. I tasted a small bite of the apple cake and found it to be surprisingly moist and tasty.

We had decided to order dessert, as honestly this meal was in first place in terms of overall experience at this point in the trip.

After we ordered dessert, the kids had needed a refill of their drinks. When our server returned with them, they were in the Ariel and Buzz Lightyear cups with the light up clips. We had not ordered them, but a couple seated adjacent to us had. Our server said they had mentioned how well behaved the kids were and that they enjoyed providing random gifts to others while on vacation at Disney. I was amazed at their generosity so of course we thanked them and chatted with them a bit. It was another "wow" element to an absolutely wonderful meal.

We chose two desserts to share amongst all of us.



The Chocolate cake was selected by DS and DD. It had a crust of hazelnuts and was surprisingly good. DH is a big fan of anything chocolate and he gave it two thumbs up.

I believe I was the driver/instigator on our second selection.



The white chocolate peppermint cheesecake was incredibly good. It did not have a pronounced peppermint flavor, but was rather subtle with dark chocolate shavings throughout. I loved this dessert. I quickly yielded any portion of the chocolate cake for more of the cheesecake.

Tony's was an outstanding meal for my family. The setting was lovely, the service was gracious and pitch perfect, and the food was the icing on the cake.

 

[wilma-bride]

I'm guessing that cheesecake was a special just for the holidays - which is a real shame since I absolutely adore the combination of chocolate (any chocolate) with mint and cheesecake is my favourite dessert in the world.

Guess that's another reason to add to my ever-growing list of reasons to visit Disney at Christmas

 

[GoofySon'sMom]

I am so glad to read about your great experience at Tonys! It is a restaurant that I always gravitate back to with mixed (although usually more bad than good) results. I plan to once again return in September with DH because I just love the restaurant, especially the patio section. I don't have high expectations for the food but your review has given me hope!

 

[marshallsmommy]

I hate we missed seeing you and your family. When are you headed back to WDW? I'm thinking you had mentioned the October time frame.

Sooooo the beginning of last week we started kicking around the idea of doing something for my baby's 3rd birthday (April 8th) we looked at Wisconsin Dells (think water park / hotel combos) or even just a night or two at Mall of America but Marshall was adamant that he wanted to go "home" so finally he explained you know momma our other home, Disney World! Too cute to say no to, so my husband convinced me to try driving so we will be in WDW April 4th - 9th and yes October 17th - at least the 22nd for my 30 something Bday any chance the Buzz family will be around either of those times?

As for Tonys we may just gave to try it again the Live thread updates were always favorable and the Alfredo sauce chicken parm sounds awesome! Marshall was given a Buzz at Coral Reef that trip from someone who walked by and saw him looking at the drink menu and thought he was cute, our waiter at Sci Fi gave him a Lightning McQueen and kissed his head for being such a good little eater. I love those little surprises for the kids they enjoy it so much!

 

[vettegirl]

I really enjoyed Tonys when a friend and I dined there, plus I love Lady and the Tramp

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[Couchy]

I love love love the pizza at Via and also the Sangria. Sadly Wil won't split a pitcher of me so I always only get one glass Sad to miss out on this lunch, but I did dine here 2 weeks ago and it was fabulous

 

[smile4stamps]

Hmmm.... I do believe the oven photobombed the picture of Hunter and I and not the other way around!

I had a FABULOUS time in Disneyland! Thank you to Barb for posting a few of my meals! I did eat a few other times as well but was having so much fun that I simply didn't have the time to send them! (Normally I would have been on my phone while waiting in lines to do so but it rained most of the time I was there so the phone stayed put away so as not to get damaged!)

I'll be back soon to post my Bar Crawl and Via Napoli updates.

 

[JintyB]

Based on a review in the live thread that I had filed away for future reference and execution, I selected Chicken Parmesan with the substitution of alfredo sauce rather than the traditional marinara.

Glad you had such a great time at Tony's - we too had a great meal there last summer and I also had this entree based on live thread reviews. Our server (male) was great. We're definitely going back