Old Favorites and New Eating Adventures- Quick Reviews May 3-8

[walker0829]

Despite being a member of DISboards for a few years, this is my first full Dining Report. It won't be fancy and filled with pictures(we generally don't get pics of our food) but will be filled with lots of honest feedback of the food.

My wife and I love food. While we don't consider ourselves foodies, we probably are. We love trying a new place just as much as going back to an old favorite. This trip was filled with both! Our hotel was the French Quarter and many late night meals were had there!

Just some quick info:

• Tips to Disney(as husband/wife): 3 times in 3 years (2014-2017)
• One child (DS4)
• My Favorite Food- Pasta of any kind. Marinara or Cream Sauce.

We had been dieting for about a month prior to Disney knowing we were going to indulge. The original order of restaurants was as follows:

1. Tuesday Lunch- Trails End
2. Wednesday Breakfast- Open/Sassagoula Floatworks
3. Wednesday Lunch- F&G booths
4. Wednesday Dinner- 50's Prime Time
5. Thursday Breakfast- Crystal Palace
6. Thursday Lunch- Open
7. Thursday Dinner- F&G booths
8. Friday Breakfast- Open
9. Friday Lunch- Open
10. Friday Dinner- Raglan Road
11. Saturday Breakfast- Tusker House
12. Saturday Lunch- Open
13. Saturday Dinner- Ohana
14. Sunday- Transfer to Universal, dinner at Emeril's on CityWalk for Mother's Day
15. Monday- Margaritaville for Dinner

I'll be doing a new post for each day as time allows. I've got it all in my head and I'm pretty sure it's not going anywhere anytime soon!

 

[walker0829]

Tuesday May 3rd- Trail's End(planned)- Liberty Tree(Actual)

This was arrival day and we had a reservation for Trail's End. The weather was a bit rainy and we realized going out to the FW campsites was a bit of a trek for arrival day so we decided to book one of our usual favorites that was closed for refurb last year. Got Liberty Tree for lunch time.

Liberty Tree Review-

I've been coming to Liberty Tree since I was a kid and my wife fell in love with it in 2014. It was down for kitchen refurb last September so we didn't get our fix. We decided not to try and make the FOF parade and instead settled for a good meal.

We started with the corn fritters which were like fancy corn nuggets(deep fried cream corn balls). This was our first time eating these and they had a perfect crunch. There was a light spiciness to them(enough to keep DS from eating more than a bite) and plenty of flavor. A nice appetizer to start with.

We shared the Pilgrim's Feast which is essentially Thanksgiving lunch/dinner. They were kind enough to bring it on separate plates. I'm not one to eat cranberry sauce usually but the front end nutmeg flavor along with the OJ finish really complimented the meal nicely. I think DW was a little bit mad because I never comment on her homemade cranberry sauce. The turkey was cooked well and the veggies were done well enough. Not much flavor to them but that's to be expected.

In a theme we should have been used to by now, DS got an expensive bowl of macaroni.

This meal was the start we were hoping we would have. Even though we were sad about missing Trail's End(I forgot to call and cancel and likely ate a $30 charge for this one...oops), the meal was great.

 

[walker0829]

Dinner(May 3rd)- Sassagoula Floatworks QS

I was still craving ribs which I didn't get at Trails End so I decided to try the rib dinner at Sassagoula. It came with 2 sides from a selection of baked beans, greens, mac and cheese, and some other choices. I chose double beans.

DW got the Bistro Grilled Chicken Sandwhich and DS got chicken nuggets.

Ribs were pretty dry and they didn't appear to have sauce to pour on top. Flavor wasn't bad but it's no Texas BBQ. Beans were not cooked enough. They were a bit on the hard side. The Bistro Chicken sandwich was really awesome. The chicken looked to be freshly grilled and had plenty of flavor. Bacon and cheese with whatever their Aioli spread was went together perfectly. I decided that would be my meal the next time we ate here.

Chicken nuggets were chicken nuggets. One thing about this QS is the food seems to take a long time to come out. For a QS, I suppose it's not so bad. Especially considering I could walk out of my room and go to the closest stairway and be right next to the entrance. I often took trays up to the room then brought them back to throw away the trash once done. The proximity also made the souvenir mug finally worth the cost!

 

[ariane37]

Joining in! We haven't eaten at LTT for a couple years but I'm hoping to in Nov. for lunch. We've always enjoyed it.

One thing about this QS is the food seems to take a long time to come out

We've stayed at POFQ twice. DH and DS's like it, the theming just isn't my style. I have to totally agree with you on the above; while the food court food for the most part is ok, no matter what meal we were eating or what we ordered someone's food took FOREVER to come out . Other resorts we've stayed at with food courts didn't seem to have as much of a problem in this area!
Looking forward to reading more

 

[walker0829]

Joining in! We haven't eaten at LTT for a couple years but I'm hoping to in Nov. for lunch. We've always enjoyed it.

We've stayed at POFQ twice. DH and DS's like it, the theming just isn't my style. I have to totally agree with you on the above; while the food court food for the most part is ok, no matter what meal we were eating or what we ordered someone's food took FOREVER to come out . Other resorts we've stayed at with food courts didn't seem to have as much of a problem in this area!
Looking forward to reading more

I thought the design of the rooms was well done. The wooden enclosure that they built to cover the AC unit(we turned the heat on and put our shoes on the chair right up against the AC grates to dry them after a couple rain storms) was such a nice touch. The hanging rack in the sink area for clothes. The area right below that fit the stroller perfectly. All that kept the small space from feeling cluttered.

 

[walker0829]

Breakfast-May the 4th Be With You day- Sassagoula Again

No TS reserved for breakfast and DS was craving Mickey waffles so back we went. DW got the yogurt parfait with some fruit and granola. They have a choice of items and they build it for you. Since it's Disney, it's probably not worth commenting "it's expensive for what you get".

Kids meals appear to be the best prices items at QS restaurants. You get an entree, 2 sides and a small drink of your choice for what is usually pretty reasonable($5-7). Not a very exciting breakfast-sorry!

Lunch- Flower and Garden Booths???

When planning we figured that the F&G booths would be enough to satisfy our lunch needs so we never booked a TS meal. When we were planning, the menu items looked really good at many of the booths. By the time we got to Epcot though, I found myself skipping just about every booth when starting from the Mexico/China side. I wished I had paid more attention to other reviews of specific booths because I couldn't remember what was actually good. The first booth had a jerk grouper which didn't sound good at the time but the next time we went by the booth it smelled delicious. I never pulled the trigger on it though. We quickly realized the F&G lunch plan was probably a bad idea. Luckily we had 50's Prime Time at 4pm. DS had a variety of packed snacks and we got him to walk around half of the countries by buying him a bag of kettle corn from Club Cool. He was so caught up in eating that stuff I don't think he realized how much he walked.


Dinner review to come in the next post!

 

[walker0829]

May 4th-Dinner: 50's Prime Time Cafe

I've been going to PTC since I was a kid and back then the place was full of personality(love it or hate it). I remember the servers would give goofy nicknames to everyone and they took the theme a lot more seriously. Now it seems to be a shell of what it was and the servers halfway go through the routine. I don't know if the concept is as appealing to the current generation as it was to those who grew up in the 50's or had parents who grew up in that time.

We went here last September and I remember nothing stood out as being great but this time around my wife said it was on her must do list again. I wasn't arguing!

Service:
Not bad. Not great. Our server lacked much personality. She ran through the rules and called out my wife for elbows once but seemed like she was playing the part only because it was her job. We heard other servers use some similar lines but they took it even further which really had more of an impact(in a good way).

Food:

We got the Onion rings to start and the sampler of meatloaf, pot roast and fried chicken as our meal(we shared here). The onion rings came out completely soggy and didn't even appear to be cooked all the way. My wife refused to eat them. I didn't mind as much and I was hungry so I ate them. They were cooked enough for me.

All I can say is that I'm glad I shared. I wasn't impressed with the food last time and I never could have eaten a whole plate of the stuff this time. The meatloaf is dry and lacks much flavor. The pot roast isn't bad but it's not great either. The fried chicken was pretty good. If I had to come back, I'd just get that. Veggies are pretty bland as to be expected.

About midway though our meal I told DW that I was glad I didn't have a whole plate to eat. She then says "I know. I'm not sure why I wanted to come back here. I kept thinking that we had to come back but now I don't know why"

DS got what as far as we could tell was shake and bake chicken tenders for his kids meal. Lacked any flavor whatsoever. I think it was one of the healthy options.

Overall:

Next time we return, we'll try Sci-Fi or Mama Melrose. The declining personality combined with average food doesn't give us a reason to return soon.

Next up...breakfast at Crystal Palace

 

[vettegirl]

Great updates! That is a shame about PT 50s, you just never know with that place. LTT sounds great, we have not tried it yet.

 

[walker0829]

May 5th- Crystal Palace Breakfast

This was our 3rd time in 3 years doing the Crystal Palace character breakfast. For some reason DS has always loved Pooh and friends despite never watching the cartoon much(it's incredibly hard to find Pooh on TV these days). The first year was a great experience. Last year it seemed the characters were a little slower about coming around but we still had a great time. We always book it as close to 8am on a 9am MK opening day to try and get done prior to park opening. It also allows for some great castle shots.

This year, MK was much more crowded at 8am. I'm not sure if we hit one of those early hours events or if other places are doing early breakfast now but the park sure was crowded prior to opening. Our reservation was for 8:10am so we got there right at 8am to check in. I gave my phone number and was told a text would be sent when our table was ready. We went off to take some pictures and waited, and waited, and waited for the text. Around 8:20 I went to ask and was told my name had been called. After explaining what happened I was told I'd be next. 5 minutes later we were finally called(after multiple other families). It was now close to 8:30am and we hadn't even been seated.

We got seated and not a single character was on our side of the restaurant. This was frustrating. In fact, they only ever had 2-3 characters out at once. I'm not sure what it is about CP but we've noticed they have terrible pacing of the characters compared to Tusker House(Our absolute favorite character meal). As much as the meal is for DS, it's also done to get us early access to the park. Within 15 minutes of sitting down, the entire park had opened to the public already. We got in 3/4 characters before we decided we had waited enough and were losing valuable time. We never saw Eyore in the 45 minutes we were there.

I think the food is good. Not great, not pretty good, but good. The pooh french toast is my favorite along with the breakfast pizza. I don't know if I'd eat here for Lunch/Dinner though. They have Mickey Waffles for the kiddos. DW liked one of the pastries with chocolate chunks and snuck a couple in a baggie.

Overall I feel like they need to work on the timing. I know they say it takes an hour for all the characters but I don't think it has to. I think they need to do a better job getting them all out in the open and moving them along. It's not rude if they don't spend eons at a table taking 12 different family arrangement pictures.

Right now, we're on the fence about returning. It depends how much DS cares about Pooh the next time we return. Since were targeting 2018 at the moment, I'm guessing it won't be high on his list.

 

[TeresaNJ]

Enjoying your reviews! It is sad about the decline of 50s PT. The last time we ate there, about a year ago, I had the gluten free version of the chicken pot pie. It was just a white gloppy tasteless mess. I could barely eat it, and I'm the least fussy food person in the world. I also agree about the servers. I have video from previous years where our server had us laughing so hard we were falling off our chairs. Our "mom" put my SIL in the corner for tattling, & fed my husband his green beans. We had the best time. We've always had consistently good food at Mama Melrose's, and Sci Fi, so we stick to them now.

 

[pumba]

thanks so much for your reviews so far...I guess we were at Disney at the same time...

 

[walker0829]

Enjoying your reviews! It is sad about the decline of 50s PT. The last time we ate there, about a year ago, I had the gluten free version of the chicken pot pie. It was just a white gloppy tasteless mess. I could barely eat it, and I'm the least fussy food person in the world. I also agree about the servers. I have video from previous years where our server had us laughing so hard we were falling off our chairs. Our "mom" put my SIL in the corner for tattling, & fed my husband his green beans. We had the best time. We've always had consistently good food at Mama Melrose's, and Sci Fi, so we stick to them now.

Those were the glory days. No idea if the food was any better then. I wasn't paying for it as a kid so I probably didn't care as long as it was edible. Glad to hear about Sci-Fi. I do remember not wanting to eat there as a kid because the hamburger was like $16 and I just couldn't fathom making my dad pay that for what should have been under 10. He had to explain to me that we were on vacation and it was ok.

thanks so much for your reviews so far...I guess we were at Disney at the same time...

I hope your vacation went as well as mine. I found the weather, the crowds and the experience to be better than expected.

 

[walker0829]

So I realized that I skipped a whole planned dining experience...

On Wednesday, we did 50's PTC except it wasn't really dinner, it was more like early afternoon. Since we shared a plate, we had finished our park for the night and were hungry later on so we figured we'd book Trails End. My wife knew I was still itching for it after having to cancel on Tuesday. So with DS wide awake, we book Trails End and make our way over to the buses. As soon we got to the bus for FW, we realized DS was out like a light. We had spent all day at the parks and never took a break. Even though we had retired early, non-stop the first day had it's toll on him.

So I spend 45min on the phone trying to cancel the reservation that I just made(which by the time I got someone on the phone had already passed). I started to think that Trail's End was not meant for me! Another night of Sassagoula it was!

 

[Jake&IzzyLand]

Your review sums up on why I've never felt the need to eat at prime time. It's a neat concept, but the food and execution of the theme seems lacking.

 

[Candycane83]

Great reviews! I was going to try 50s PTC but after reading your review and a few other negative ones, it gives me pause... I'll probably reconsider and just go for better food outside DHS.

 

[walker0829]

Great reviews! I was going to try 50s PTC but after reading your review and a few other negative ones, it gives me pause... I'll probably reconsider and just go for better food outside DHS.

If you've never been before, you wouldn't know that you were missing out on what it used to be but you would probably think similar to above that the food and execution of the theme is lacking.

 

[walker0829]

Sorry for the delay in updating. Things have been busy and it always gets harder and harder to complete reviews the more distant the trip becomes. With that being said, onward and upward.

Thursday May 5th- Lunch- F&G Booths

MK became a mad-house quite early today. It was the first day of good weather in the last two so this was probably adding to the crowds. DS had become obsessed with Test Track so we figured we'd hit up Epcot and then complete the other half of the WS.


Urban Farm Eats
I forgot that we actually stopped at a couple booths on Wednesday. This was our first stop and my personal favorite. DW got the watermelon salad and I got the pork tenderloin. I don't do all the fancy greens so I left the rabbit food to her. My pork tenderloin was delicious. There was a good amount of food overall and the mushroom ragout really went well with the spring vegetables(carrots/asparagus). This was a nice snack sized portion.

Italy
DW got the Cremoso al Pistacchio. I tried a bite and found it was pretty good. Nice and light. The portion size was really small for the price. Not one of the better values at the booths. I got the beer flight and learned that Italian beers are not my thing. Give me an American IPA any day!

Florida Fresh
DW wanted to try the Watermelon and Cucumber slush(NA). She took a couple sips and dumped it. I tried it and was less impressed than she was. The flavor was off. There wasn't much Cucumber and it was overly sweet.

Cider House
DW(she was really excited for F&G) wanted to try the Lemon Scone. This was probably the best item we tried. The lady in front of me ordered 3 of them and mentioned she had gotten the recipe from the chef. Perfectly flavored and perfectly baked. The lemon flavor really shines through. I'm not a fan of lemon flavored items but even I really enjoyed this.

The Smokehouse
I was looking forward to this one the most but it was probably the biggest let down food wise. I got the pulled pork sandwich and for some reason I kept expecting Florida BBQ to be like Texas(it wasn't). The pulled pork was cold which really threw it off. I doused it in each of the three sauces(carolina/hot bbq/one other) they had and it made it a little better. One thing I expect is my food to seem fresh. I also picked up the beer flight which was really good. One of these trips I'll make a trip to a liquor store and pick up some local beer for back home.


We ate these early afternoon and since we had a)shared and b) been pretty disappointed, we knew we needed a new plan for Dinner. F&G booths as our sole meal was not working like we had expected. So with the 3rd time's a charm mantra, we decided to book Trail's End for dinner and pray that DS would stay awake this time!!!

Stay tuned for our favorite dining experience of the trip!!!

 

[walker0829]

May 5th- Dinner: Trail's End:

Prior to this trip, we'd never even heard of Trail's End. I stumbled across it on this forum somewhere and saw it was mentioned as one of the best value buffets at Disney. I then saw it shared a kitchen with HDDR and thought we had to try it. It only took 3 tries to get here but it was definitely worth the wait and trouble.

Of course getting here is half the fun. We learned that we would never stay at FWC(far too big and spread out). We kept wondering if the next stop would be ours!

We checked in with the hostess a few minutes late and got checked in while DS went to play on the playground. It was a nice night and we liked that there was some entertainment for the kiddos nearby. We were seated fairly promptly and while it took a little bit for our server to come introduce himself, it was smooth sailing from there. When we mentioned we just discovered the place he was like "What took you so long?" It was said is a completely good nature'd way and got a laugh out of me.

The buffet is BBQ/Country Cooking heaven. Ribs, Fried Chicken, pulled pork, two types of Macaroni(baked and regular), cole slaw, corn bread(I tried all of those and loved it all). There was so much good food, I was sad that there was no way I was going to be able to try it all. The food was really cooked well also. A million times better than Sassagoula's ribs. After a couple trips to the buffet for main courses and sides I had to call quits so I could go to the desserts. My favorite was the grasshopper(choc mint) bar.

By the end of the meal, DW and I were ready to call it our favorite meal of the trip. Considering we still had Tusker House breakfast and Ohana lined up, we weren't sure if it would hold but it did. The best part, the dinner buffet with a higher tip % came out cheaper than Crystal Palace breakfast. Trail's End has a permanent spot on our list of must eats. The only trick is scheduling since it's so far out. It would probably make a good first night trip if we didn't care about making it to the park.

 

[SunnieRN]

Loving your honest reviews! I don't thinking read a negative review of Trails End, which is rare of Disney restaurants.

Thank you for taking the time to share your experiences!! Looking forward to your TH review.

 

[walker0829]

Loving your honest reviews! I don't thinking read a negative review of Trails End, which is rare of Disney restaurants.

Thank you for taking the time to share your experiences!! Looking forward to your TH review.

Thanks for stopping by. I should have it up tomorrow! It will be a good one.