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

[cheshirecatattack]

The photos from Shula's are making me drool! I definitely am putting this on my must-do list for a future trip. The lava cake looks devine.

 

[smile4stamps]

Fabulous reviews of Shula's ladies! I'm excited to try it for the first time!

I'm not so sure about the ordering dessert at the start though... I usually am fine waiting the 20minutes for dessert AFTER the meal.. helps to make some more room!!

 

[Linda67]

Linda, you've got me drooling over your cocktail from CG.

Oh you have to try it if you get a chance ….. simply delicious

 

[Couchy]

Fabulous reviews of Shula's ladies! I'm excited to try it for the first time!

I'm not so sure about the ordering dessert at the start though... I usually am fine waiting the 20minutes for dessert AFTER the meal.. helps to make some more room!!

Paula, just make sure you try that lava cake... this is not a WDW desert. This is absolutely amazing

 

[emmysmommy]

Beth: Thanks for answering the TiW card question AND for reminding me of the wine that I had. It was very good.

Barb: We'll definitely need to share some sides at Shula's. Even when Em and I order a side we still don't finish. I would love to try their mushrooms.

Paula: For those chocolate lovers, they give the lava cake a thumbs up so you just may have to try it!

 

[buzz1121]

Brenda and Beth, Shula's looks amazing!!

It's definitely going on my bucket list!

 

[buzz1121]

It was another nice, cold December evening as we made our way to dinner in Epcot. It wasn't bitterly cold, but it was a little cooler than it had been. It felt a little more festive and "Christmasy" to me.

As we pulled into the main parking lot, I had just finished a nice text conversation with Barb. Despite the fact that I did not have the opportunity to see her beyond MVMCP on Tuesday evening, I did stay in "text touch" with her.

When I hear of new food or drink items in the parks, I like to try them so I can give an opinion as to how they are. After our dinner at Chefs the previous evening, I was intent on sampling the peanut butter hot chocolate. I made my way around only to discover they were out for the evening. As a substitute, I chose the mint tea with chocolate. Besides being warm, there is little I can say about this tea as I found it to have very little flavor.

Determined to correct my error, as we were early for our ADR, I decided to have a pre-dinner peanut butter hot chocolate. They did indeed have quite a supply. I had read that this tasted like a liquid Reese's peanut butter cup. I love peanut butter almost as much as lemon curd/lemon flavor and to be honest my serving tasted nowhere close to a peanut butter cup. My serving had only a vague hint of peanut butter. However, I should add that this hot chocolate was stored in huge containers. My suspicion is that the peanut butter component varies as it is made from batch to batch, and sadly for me I happened to sample a "peanut butter light" batch.

It was nice to have the warm cup in my hands though, as we strolled to the Italian Pavilion and our Buzz family "must do" dinner.

On the sixth day of our Christmas trip, our family chose to eat...Dinner at Tutto Italia.

Despite being a little early, we were seated immediately and lucked up with one of our favorite servers here.

We were served the complimentary olives and bread service.








DH usually enjoys the olives and the kids tend to be fans of the rosemary focaccia, leaving me with a crunchy bread stick or two. I happen to like the bread sticks though so I keep this information secret so they aren't gobbled up immediately.

DS and DD chose the same kid's option, the mozzarella cheese sticks with marinara sauce.





I have not tried the cheese sticks, but I could tell they were a little better quality than the average frozen cheese stick. The kids enjoyed them.


DH went with his stand by, the Lasagna.





This picture is a little blurry as I was multi-tasking holding little DD and taking the picture. I did not sample the lasagna on this night, but I have had it before and it is very good. The bechamel sauce, cheese, and finely ground meat make this a very rich, filling lasagna.


I went with one of my favorites and one that I knew little DD would enjoy as well, the Spaghetti with meatballs.





This was so very good. The sauce has such a nice fresh tomato taste, the veal meatballs were delicious, and the pasta was perfectly prepared. I wish I had taken a picture of little DD's mouth because it was more than obvious that the pasta got her seal of approval as well!

Another great dinner completed, we headed out to enjoy EMH at Epcot. But we would be back in the morning for another Epcot area breakfast!

 

[Linda67]

Great Tutto review, we've still yet to try it
So many restaurants, so little time

 

[vettegirl]

Love the lasagna at Tutto!!

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[marshallsmommy]

Haven't had time to read the last 10 pages or so but thought I would say that we ate at tutto on the 16th of Dec and Marshall ate a whole child size portion of spaghetti and meatballs he LOVED it!!! Plus they gave it to us free since he was under 3, I was so surprised!!! I loved my fettuccine and my Husband made himself I'll eating so much of his lasagna. It is our new favorite Italian place for sure!

 

[smile4stamps]

We haven't dined at Tutto!! Why?!? Cause I can't give up my love of Via Napoli pizza!!

 

[emmysmommy]

DeeDee: I haven't been to Tutto in years... that lasagna and the spaghetti looks fabulous. Oh man! I'm craving Italian food now.

Paula: I hear ya! It's hard to give up Via Napoli.

 

[Couchy]

We haven't dined at Tutto!! Why?!? Cause I can't give up my love of Via Napoli pizza!!

I am with you on this one... I can not give up Via... it is so good. We have had both the pizza and pasta and we love both

 

[jabead]

For my final review of this trip, I'm actually going to be reviewing two very popular Downtown Disney restaurants...actually two of the four top-ranked restaurants in all of Disney World. Let me explain.

I was talking to a friend at a bridal shower on Saturday and she asked me about my trip to Disney World in December. While talking to her about the trip, the DIS boards (especially the Dining Review section) naturally came up frequently in the conversation. She and her family have also been to Disney World many times and she said that though she was familiar with the DIS boards, she didn't find them to be helpful when planning her Disney trips. Instead she uses TripAdvisor, even when planning her Disney dining. Now I have often used TripAdvisor when planning trips outside of Disney World, but had never really researched Disney restaurants there. So out of curiosity I checked out this site to see what the top-ranked Disney World restaurants were according to TripAdvisor members. While I was not at all surprised at the #1 ranked Disney restaurant, actually #1 ranked for all 1,997 Orlando restaurants...




...I had to chuckle when I saw the #2 and #4.





So though I have never been to #1, I did dine at #2 and #4...both on the same day.


Following our lunch at Wolfgang Puck Express, we did some shopping at World of Disney, as well as a few other shops.





Then it was time to have our dessert at the #4 ranked Disney World restaurant...






Here is some of what they have to offer here...






Now ever since Paula (smile4stamps) introduced me to this sundae while doing a live review from Disneyland, I knew that I had to try it.



Sea Salt Caramel Sundae - Vanilla ice cream smothered with creamy caramel, freshly homemade hot fudge and sea salt. Perfectly topped with whipped cream, creamy caramel, sea salt and a Ghirardelli SQUARES® Milk Chocolate.


This was incredibly delicious!!! It definitely challenges the No Way Jose for my favorite Disney World ice cream treat. Since I haven't had a NWJ in nearly 2 years, I think a visit to Beaches & Cream is in order during my next trip so that I can refresh my memory and properly declare a winner. Now I just need to figure out where to fit it into my busy dining schedule. But anyway, if you are like me and love salted caramel, then I highly recommend giving this Ghirardelli sundae a try.


Emily was a little boring here and went with just chocolate cookie dough ice cream topped with whipped cream.




Chocolate chip cookie dough is her favorite ice cream and she said this one was very good.



Her friend was even more boring than Emily, as I think she just went with chocolate ice cream and even skipped the whipped cream.





Then before catching a bus back to the Wilderness Lodge, we made one more stop at Downtown Disney's...





Here is the Hot Sandwich part of the menu at the #2 ranked Disney World restaurant...





We all got sandwiches to take with us. Emily and I ate ours while we were waiting to board our plane at the airport. Her sandwich choice was the...



Italian - Salami, capicola, roasted ham, mortadella, mozzarella, tomato & Italian dressing (minus the tomato)


While I went with a sandwich that I have long wanted to try...



Holiday Turkey - Turkey, stuffing, gravy & cranberry


Now granted, in my rush to take this photo of my sandwich posed on an airport bench, it is kind of blurry. Plus there wasn't a Christmas tree nearby to serve as a backdrop. But even so, the look of this sandwich was quite disappointing after seeing this photo on the EOS website...




So did it taste better than it looked? I would have to say that I was also a little disappointed with its taste. While I enjoyed the combination of the turkey and cranberry sauce, I didn't really like the stuffing. So on my next visit to EOS, I think I'll be trying another sandwich...like maybe the Chipotle Chicken Avocado.


Surprisingly we didn't have to wait long for a bus this time, so we made it back to the lodge with plenty of time to spare before our ME pick-up. So to pass the time we sat on the comfy couches in the beautiful Wilderness Lodge lobby and did some people watching. The most interesting of these was a couple who was apparently taking their afternoon nap on one of the lobby couches...




Though I had suspected that they were also waiting for a ME pick up, now I'm not sure since they were still sound asleep on the couch when we boarded our bus to the airport. So during my bus ride I couldn't help but ponder this question...Just how long could one camp out in a Disney resort lobby before they would "show you the door"? Would you be ok as long as you didn't pull out your pjs and toothbrush?


And with that perplexing question, I will conclude my reviews from this trip. Oh, but since I will back at the Wilderness Lodge in less than 3 weeks, I'll let you know if I see a certain couple still napping in the lobby there.

I'll be back in a day or two though with a quick dining summary from my trip. Plus our 3 other reviewers, Brenda, Beth, and DeeDee, still have several more great reviews for you, so please stay tuned. ​

 

[Couchy]

Barb - that sundae looks amazing. However I am thinking about trying it and having them add peanut butter sauce as well

 

[emmysmommy]

Barb that was a great wrap! Glad to see your choices were among the top Trip Advisor picks.

 

[emmysmommy]

Brenda's The Wave Breakfast review - Saturday December 14, 2013​

Our breakfast this morning didn’t take us far since we were staying at BLT. We had a reservation for The Wave, which is located on the lobby level of the Contemporary Resort.

With the enormous amount of food that I had consumed the entire week and the night prior in particular, I was ready to choose something on the lighter side. As some dining DISers may be aware, my first 3 trips to the Wave were less than stellar as far as finding something that I really enjoyed on the menu. Em is a fan of The Wave so I book this mostly for her dining enjoyment. That, and the fact that last trip Em had surprised me and cancelled our The Wave reservation and booked the Grand Floridian Café breakfast instead. I owed her!

It's never been a problem to be seated by walking up. I have yet to see the restaurant busy in the morning.

The Wave's official Christmas tree!

There is a breakfast buffet option in addition to a full menu. I have not peeked in the buffet area in several trips so I don't know if they change up some of the choices or not. This morning we were ordering off the menu so once again I didn't wander over there to check it out.

Menu options:

Em chose the multi-grain Mickey waffle with a scrambled egg instead of bacon or sausage. Excellent choice! This is THE menu item that I loved last time we had breakfast here in August. She also ordered hot tea and orange juice.

A shy kid or simply tired of having her photo taken??

I wasn’t feeling like a waffle and I certainly wasn’t going to order the icky spinach, tomato and feta cheese scrambled eggs so I went back to ordering a bowl of oatmeal with a bagel on the side.

Multigrain waffle - complete with batter over-run:

Side scrambled egg:

Em loves the multi-grain waffles with the fruit compote. I didn't hear anything but praise from her for this tasty treat. What can I say? Mickey waffles don't disappoint.

Steel cut oatmeal with raisins and brown sugar:

Bagel:

My choice was certainly nothing exciting but it was good. I don't add raisins or brown sugar to my oatmeal so by now you would think I'd order it without those sides that go untouched.

Restaurant photo

We had to chuckle at the kid that used the booth upholstery as a canvas for their Crayola artwork. Not sure what the parents may have been doing while their little darling was busy creating a uniquely themed booth. However, it was for us to enjoy that morning.

The Wave accepts TiW. I just noticed in looking at our bill that we were not charged for the hot tea, just the other two drinks. Odd.

I don't have The Wave booked for our next two Disney trips but then again I think my DH doesn't really have an opinion on Disney dining so I have complete control with the choices. Correction: As much control as I have being a contributor to the dining line up with Barb and Paula!

​

 

[smile4stamps]

I don't have The Wave booked for our next two Disney trips but then again I think my DH doesn't really have an opinion on Disney dining so I have complete control with the choices. Correction: As much control as I have being a contributor to the dining line up with Barb and Paula!

My hubby doesn't have a whole lot of opinion either all things considered! I think our choices were pretty much what we both wanted! I think it's Barb who didn't have much input into our dining line-up as we had it pretty established prior to her deciding to join in.

 

[dvc4life]

Loved the Shula's reviews. And they made me much more excited for our Anniversary Dinner there in September! Can't wait to try it.

 

[jabead]

My hubby doesn't have a whole lot of opinion either all things considered! I think our choices were pretty much what we both wanted! I think it's Barb who didn't have much input into our dining line-up as we had it pretty established prior to her deciding to join in.

And thank goodness you had, 'cause it's been a struggle for me just to decide on the few solo meals that I'm having. My indecisiveness is pitiful. When you don't have anyone else's tastes/preferences to worry about...well, the possibilities just seem endless!!

And speaking of those possibilities, I have never been to The Wave for breakfast, or any meal for that matter. I had thought about trying to fit it in on Monday morning before heading to Epcot, but then I saw DeeDee's review of the Berry Croissant Bread Pudding from Sunshine Seasons that I love. This reminded me that I didn't make it there in December, so I decided that that was what I needed to have for breakfast on Monday. Now Brenda's review from The Wave comes along and... I'm hopeless!!