Oh Sweet Mother of Bread Pudding...What have I got myself into? 9/26 Update!

[Pamlur]

I am here and reading along, trying not to run screaming for cupcakes.

There is a Gigi's in Memphis, and various other brands cropping up around the area. I haven't tried any of them (diet).

 

[Tracerr00]

I don't have time to do the review right now...all I can say is I am debating driving 2 hours each way to get cupcakes from Savannah because it is the closest location for GiGi's to our wedding destination.

YOU NEED to go there. You need to go to the website, figure out what cupcakes they have on which day, order them in the morning and they will pull them and have them boxed for you when you can get there. Do not assume you will have many choices left by the end of the day.

She started in 2008 and now has over 50 franchises.

I found them by driving by a location in Lexington, noticing the colorful decor on the outside and the fact they had a delivery van. Told Dan we needed to stop and now, I cannot even begin to tell you the addiction it started. Nothing like you have ever had before. BEST cakes and frostings. Made fresh each day and they have like 40 cakes that rotate throughout the week that are totally unique in flavor and style.

I will try and get pics posted later but get yourself there!!!! I love to bake and cook and would never make another cupcake in my life if they were nearby. Why bother trying to make something when perfection is already achieved. Take off half the frosting when you eat it because it is soo rich you will have a sugar coma but the presentation is outstanding.

Here is a link to some pics:
http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&...=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&biw=1024&bih=581

If you are a cupcake fan, I have to tell you about a woman in Eden Prairie who makes the best cupcakes ever!! We ordered her cupcakes for our company employee party and they were heaven. She makes them all herself and she bakes out of a commercial kitchen that she rents. She's amazing and she doesn't even have a website - it's all word of mouth. They were a little spendy but well worth it. We decided to start a "cupcake club" here at work after trying them and we get together, pool our money and order from her once a month now. If you ever want to try, let me know and I'll give you her number. So far we've had red velvet, white/white frosting, chocolate/white frosting, coconut and chocolate/chocolate frosting and we were never disappointed!

 

[bluejasmine]

Oh my goodness, so I never noticed there are tables outside of MSB? I am so unobservant my dad actually hid my christmas in the top of my closet once when I was 16! LOL

Where are these tables, DH loves the cinnamon roll here but I always hated fighting for a table..

The review on the tea was mouth watering, I had this booked last yr during DH and I trip alone w/o the teens and I ended up canceling it for CG Adr DH asked me to make.. Now Im thinking about making one for DD and I..Hmm..

 

[PISCESANGEL]

Great reviews- I love how candid you are... I know from one foodie to another I'm getting an honest opinion and I'm loving it!

Looking forward to more!!!

Carla

 

[sue and co]

We have never tried MSB due to the queues and how crowded it always seemed but I think next time we must - that danish looks scrumptious - and the alley is ideal for a peaceful breakfast.

 

[Mrs. Sojourner]

Oh, I am defnitely going to have to try the Tea Room next time! Everything sounded delicious. Thanks for another great review.

 

[Mndisneygirl]

Yup, the tea room is on my list!! I would like to take the girls there for a special mother -daughters thing someday. I love tea and would have such a hard time deciding - but that fruit tea over ice sounds refreshing!

Those cupcakes!!! OMG!!! I must stop there one day! They look amazing!

 

[rndmr2]

Great reviews! We went into the MSB and saw all kinds of good stuff but we had just eaten dinner and didn't get anything other than a couple drinks at the time but I have plans to go there next trip.

I have wanted to try the GF Tea Room for a while now too. Looks like it would definitely be worth it.

I have to agree about the binky, but your comments made me remember one time we were on the curb waiting for the MSEP to start and there was this girl, she had to be 8 years old and had a pacifier in her mouth!! I couldn't get over it. It was definitely hers too, no younger siblings around that she could have taken it from...

 

[Tinkerbellie16]

I'm so glad I found this thread! Great reviews!! I LOVE Cheese Danish's but have never seen one at MK bakery - I can't wait to try it!!!

 

[staxia]

Aye Aye captain!! BTW - GiGi's cupcakes in Madison and other locales...the holy grail of cupcake shops we discovered this last trip to SC...review on it's way!!!

I hope you can use it!!!

Don't know now that I'll get to use it... Wanted to eat super cheaply, started reading fine print and realized it's on certificate per table.. 25 bucks for a 31 dollar meal, plus tips, and still needing my friend to be there.. I wanted to be able to pay for them.. buuuut.. it's still in the back of my mind.

and now.. on to Gigi's... I thought I was seeing things seeing this mention.. I live outside of Nashville where Gigi's started, and there's one like, 2 miles from my house.. BEST.CUPCAKES.EVER!



Currently Gigi's Cupcakes and Sweet CeCe's frozen yogurt are the two "It treats" that Nashville is exporting left and right all around the country, and for good reason, both are DELISH!!

 

[AugustDisney]

Oh my word...I booked the tea room for the same day we are doing 1900 Park Fare and Citricos! I couldn't help but do it after reading your review. We will just have to bounce back and forth from Magic Kingdom that day! BF thinks I've lost my marbles, but the tea room sounds like one place that will surprise him!

 

[hmillerbarilla]

These reviews are great! We did the tea almost a year ago now, with my mom, sister and my two DDs. It was lovely!!! The strawberries were my favorite!

Can't wait to hear more!

 

[Linda67]

I loved your review of the Tea Room

You write in a wonderfully descriptive way

We've never tried the Afternoon Tea at GF as coming from England it seems a bit too 'English' does that make sense

Looking forward to more

 

[GoofyWife]

The tea room looks wonderful! I'm not sure DH would go, although he is used to having brewed tea when we visit my parents (mom is Welsh and dad Canadien so we grew up drinking hot tea); but I would love to take my daughter, even if she is "grown up" now. Those strawberry tarts and scones looked amazing; love the honest reviews, please don't stop!!

 

[kimgof]

Love the GF Tea Room. Me and my DD went there last trip and will be returning this trip as well. It is a great place with a wonderful atmosphere. Makes my DD feel grown up to drink her Mrs. Potts tea(which is chocolate milk) from real china.

 

[Dizneydawn]

The rest of the day 3 dining extravaganza was more like a snackapalooza than any real meal entertainment.

At the MK again we snacked on a few things in the early evening hours.

Again, I will apologize for the partially chomped on food. Next time we will not act like savages and cut into the food so you can see the middle. We were just not thinking of pictures every time we got food until after the first bite!!! Then we would look at one another like, "Are we certifiable moronskies or do we just play them on Food reviews?"

Reading the accolades of the egg rolls by Adventureland, we had to get one and determine their worth compared to the ones at Yak & Yeti or China in Epcot.

They were not too bad. Tasted pre-made, frozen and then re-heated but it was hard to tell if they did them in an oven or deep fryer. Not very greasy at all but the shell was crisp so I am leaning towards oven. We got the vegetable egg roll because the only meat option was shrimp and again, no thank you to things that swim in it's own poo.

The veggies were not mushy and the flavor was there in the cabbage and shredded carrots. I asked the cart CM how close the kitchen was because if they had a long trip from being cooked to the warmer, they would not have too long of a shelf life and although mine might have been good, I did not want to recommend them if it was pure luck and you might get one that has been out for 2 hours.

He looked around and said he could not tell us everything but as we leaned in and were waiting for NATO forces to ambush us for learning secrets only top level officials and the Egg Roll CM are supposed to know, he whispered, "You might be standing on one kitchen for example right now. They are all around you."

We leaned back from the counter, swore secrecy to the God's and to Egg Roll chefs everywhere, gave the handshake of the brotherhood and said, "We understand Confusciouslikestothinkheishotstuff, we understand."

The pronto-pup we split, was not as good.

The wheat breading has a limited shelf life of about 30 seconds from oven and these dogs were DOA. Not crisp, not soggy but rather the consistency of a wrung out sponge, this was possibly the worst corn dog/pronto pup I had ever had. This made me even more sure they baked their items, not fried them but an egg roll has a thin, wonton like coating that stays crisp for a long time after being baked, a thicker breading like wheat, needs a really hot cook in a fryer to get crunchy and stay crunchy. Otherwise you are eating a hot dog in a bun, on a stick and what is calorically satisfying about that?

BTW - Dan is a ketchup man and I am only mustard so we need to take turns with our condiment packets when we split a corn dog. I am sure the lookers-on, wonder how we got to our size if we split a single corn dog at WDW!

So the Egg Roll Wagon gets an:

The egg roll was decent, not as good as Yak & Yeti counter service or restaurant at all. In a pinch it will fill ya up but if you are Jonsing for an egg roll, wait for AK day.

The pronto-pup, I would not feed to my neighbors dog, who I can't stand because it thinks are yard is her personal toilet. I am surprised she does not bring over the newspaper to read while she is doing her bidness to make herself feel more at home.

Then, because Dan is an ice cream freak, he stopped and got a dole-whip pineapple float.

I had a taste and it was okay. Sweet and creamy like you would expect. Dan though, says he will not get another one, he would stick to the ice cream alone because they always fill it up too much with the juice and he always spills it while walking. Then he is sticky, has a spot on his shirt and curses the fact he got one again after listening to me talk him into it, when he knows I won't have more than an ounce and he ends up wearing more than I ate.

What???

Like it's my fault he falls for it every time? My mamma did not learn me to look a gift horse in the straw!

So the float gets an:

Simply because it can be messy while trying to eat and walk. Even if you drink quite a bit of the juice when you start off, the ice cream melts faster then you are drinking and it always is about to spill unless you can slam it like a Frat Boy at homecoming.

A bit later we made one of the biggest mistakes of the food portion of the trip. We were fans of Casey's Corn Dog Nuggets two years ago when we first had them on a Christmas trip. We also split a serving in October when we went to MNSSHP.

In the past 5 months, I am not sure what happened to them but they are rancid. An abomination to hot dog enthusiasts elsewhere. WE might have been jaded because we had split the stupid pronto-pup a few hours earlier but since that one was as bad as it was, Casey's only had room for improvement.

First off, the hot cheese sauce they have, tasted like watered down water. There was no hint of faux cheese, real cheese or someone who cut the cheese. I kept touching it to my tongue, hoping to give it CPR and resuscitate it to life.

Nada. Pull the plug and call the coroner, this cheese was as lifeless as Pamela Anderson's implants. It may have jiggled or wiggled, but it was not the real thing my friends.

Next, let us explain that while paying unGodly amounts of money at WDW for many things, I expect some quality for my investment. These hot dogs were cheaper than the cheapest .75 cent store ones you can buy here. Ya know, the kind you buy when your kids have friends over you don't like but need to feed? The ones you have on the grill when friends arrive for a BBQ, so you don't suffer the embarrassment of opening the package of cheap in front of them. The kind you may cut up and put in bake beans or mac-n-cheese as a cheap filler.

Those are better than the ones here.

They were just horrible. We did not even eat the cup we ordered to share. No matter what combination of mustard/ketchup or cheese you placed on them, made a difference.

Not even location helped because we ate it in our quaint side street from breakfast and that could not up the value point of the atrocity.

They were hot. They were crunchy. They had all the individual qualities that could have salvaged the pronto-pup from Adventureland but alas, these were so bad, you could have had them light rockets from their bottoms and sing, "I wish I was in Dixie" and they still would get the worst score.

We will never again order these and after having hot cheese elsewhere this trip, we know that not all hot cheese, is created the same.

These disgusting creatures of nuggets gets an:

Gordon would have walked them back and threw them at the cooks through the delivery window.

Later that night, we had hoped Baylor would be in early enough to head over to House of Blues. His flight was supposed to land at 10:00 p.m. but due to weather, he did not arrive until midnight. So we went to the food court and spent two CS credits on a large pepperoni pizza, two brownies and some drinks. He would be back after the food court closed and it was the only thing I could think might not be bad re-heated.

We had refillable mugs so my plan was to always get drinks we could store in the fridge from the food court.

I have read here that some CM's allowed you to use one CS credit for a large pizza but that was not the case here at all. They did allow me to get ranch dressing which Baylor likes on his pizza for free and they also had cheese packets and pepper packets for those who want to add some spice or more cheese to the pizza.

I think the quality of the pizza has improved since Dan and I ordered one at CBR a few years ago. It tasted better than a Dominoes, had enough sauce, cheese and meat on it. The crust was thin but the edges thick enough to use as a bread stick. It was not soggy or too greasy and Baylor who ate his about one hour after we got it, said it tasted good and he is a picky leftover eater. He was also starving but I have seen him turn down cold pizza before.

The brownie was divine. Very chocolaty and rich an we ate it slowly over a few days. It lasted fine and never got really hard. The base was more fudgey than cake like so I think it lends itself to a longer shelf life. The frosting tasted like a dark chocolate coco and was very creamy.

The drinks were okay. Baylor dies not find he likes the Nestle bottled Chocolate milk but I think it is because they put so many darn preservatives in those convenience size milks. Have you ever looked at an actual expiration date on them? It is like two months out!

They did have though the smaller jugs or the bigger ones available and the register let you have either or for your beverage credit towards a CS.

Overall, we would give it an:

There are many worse pieces of pizza I have had and the desserts were fresh!

For those wanting to know OOP & money spent....

I found the receipt for the MSB from that morning.

We used 2 snack credits for the Cheese Danish ($2.39) and the Fruit ($3.79) but did OOP for the ham/cheese/egg croissant ($6.38 w tax.) **Dan also reminded me to suggest that you have the CM's ring up the transactions separately from the start for the dining plan and the OOP because she tried to do it as one and had to re-ring everything up.


As for Garden Grove - any drink you order is OOP - so stick with water to save $. If we had not ordered a coke or a drink for Dan, the bill was $59.98 for the two buffet meals. You pay 18% gratuity on that full price. They then took off the $25.00 coupon.

I cannot find the receipt for the egg roll wagon. I believe we paid OOP for the food. $4.25 for corn dog, not available for snack and $2.00 for vegetable egg roll so not worth it for snack.

Casey's was also OOP. We did not want pop and we were staying away from french fries and we were not hungry enough to use it as a CS credit. $4.47 w/ tax.

The Sassagoula Food court for pizza & extras was 2 CS credits and the total was $28.60.

Hope that helps!!!

 

[GoofySon'sMom]

Oh no! I am so sad to hear about the corndog nuggets at Caseys! Tradition for us to have them during Spectro (or maybe this year the MSEP) whether we are hungry or not! Last trip for us was Christmas 2009. Really hoping you just got a bad batch and our beloved nuggets will be Ok in August!

 

[Stacybaeasm]

I actually like to get a Sassagoula pizza delivered in the first couple of days I am there. It stays fairly fresh in the fridge and it makes a great snack late at night when returning from the parks. It's interesting that you got it for 2 CS credits though. When I tried to use my counter service, they told me it was 2 TS credits. Yep, not worth that so I paid OOP for it. still, keeps well and I like to have a snack before I go to bed when I get home from teh parks.

 

[sbprincess]

That pizza actually looks really good and so does the brownie! Good to know.

Sorry about all your disappointing snacks though.

MSB is my favorite place in MK for breakfast. Although, I usually get the gigantic cinnamon roll... Even just half of that baby and I'm good until well past noon! My DH loves cheese danishes so I'll have to remember this for our trip in October.

 

[Cruella 66]

I was intrigued by the GiGi's cup cakes! I went to gigiscupcakes.com and this is 2 sisters in NJ. That's not even NEAR Savannah, GA or Nashville, TN. Can you tell me, is there a different web site? I'd like to try them and see where they are located. The cup cakes places here where I live are nothing to recommend.