Episode 5- A leisurely meal is one thing, but this is getting ridiculous!
We headed back into the resort and took the elevator up to our room. While we were walking down the hallway, we were behind a dad and young daughter duo. They were walking, and then the Dad, stopped to put the little girl on his shoulders- perfectly normal right? Well as they continued to walk down the hallway, the Dad didn’t notice the low hanging exit sign- and SMACK- right into the girls head.
The poor little girl started wailing and the poor dad just looked defeated. She wasn’t really hurt, she didn’t smack that hard, but take heed- beware the low hanging exit sign! I could totally see DH doing the same with Everett!
After all that excitement, we were back into the room, and of course, the first thing I did was open the blinds and I saw this!
Giraffes! A whole herd of Giraffes! I was beside myself with excitement!
I had to be coaxed back inside to get ready for the evening, but after a quick shower, and changing into my favorite dress- I felt ready for a romantic meal.
I was really excited to be able to get dressed up, I can count the times on one hand that I’ve worn a dress since I had Everett. My exciting life of playgroup, grocery shopping and Gymboree doesn’t exactly lend itself to a fashion forward wardrobe. I swear, the “What Not to Wear” people are lurking, just waiting to jump out and get me for my mommy faux pas!
I was especially excited that I got to wear my favorite dress- my lighthouse dress- (because it is patterned with lots of little lighthouses). I am also excited that it fits! I gained a lot of weight during my pregnancy and I thought for sure that I would never be able to wear my pre-baby wardrobe again. Luckily the dress is forgiving!
I also got to bring along my Disney Dooney! I love my purse, and I rarely have the chance to take it out, since I’m mostly saddled with a diaper bag. I figured that a nice meal and then a few drinks was the perfect excuse to bring it out!
We took a taxi back to Epcot, because we didn’t want to risk being late for our ADR, and it worked out great because we were a little early and got to take some photos.
We made our way back to the France Pavillion and over to Bistro de Paris.
I chose this restaurant because I figured it was one that I would never in a million years bring Everett too. I know that people bring kids to signature restaurants, but those parents are either delusional, or have better behaved children than I do. There is no way that I would trust Everett in a fancy restaurant, and I’d feel terrible if I ruined someone else’s evening, so places like Bistro de Paris will be off our radar for a while.
While we were waiting for our table, I took a few pictures
Chefs du France
DH waiting
There was a really pretty chandelier hanging down into the lobby
And before long we were being lead upstairs
This is a very pretty restaurant, and we got a very nice table, right in the center of the room, but still with a view out over WS lagoon. If you are going to go for a romantic dinner, and it is still light out, I’d request a window table, I think that would be even nicer.
We got our menus and the wine list and we took a look. My original plan was to do the Prix Fixe menu, with the wine pairings, but really none of the appetizers were speaking to me. Also, the entrée I was most interested in was not part of the fixed menu, so I ended up deciding against it.
DH decided against it too, and we both declined an appetizer. Dh ended up ordering the lamb shank, and I got the red snapper with potato scales and rosemary sauce. I was initially a little hesitatnt, because I thought it might be too similar to my beloved red snapper at the Flying Fish, and don’t want to always have the same thing, but I think I made a great choice.
While we were waiting I had a nice glass of Pinot Noir (sorry, I forgot to write down the name), and Dh had a glass of wine as well.
It was so lovely to just sit back and relax and talk, and we were enjoying every minute of it! It was a real date, and we haven’t had one of those in such a long time!
While we were waiting on our entrees our waiter brought us out an amuse bouche- which was celery soup with (some sort of) cheese foam. It didn’t sound overwhelming appetizing, but it was worth a shot. I did like the soup itself, it was very creamy and rich, but I wasn’t a fan of the foam. It tasted a little odd and it was a strange consistency when paired with the soup.
It did serve the purpose of taking up some time while we waited, and waited and waited for our food to come out. Now, I was certainly looking forward to a leisurely meal, but when an hour had gone by and we still didn’t have our entrees, I was getting a little antsy ( and hungry). The waiter came by and apologized and told us the kitchen was running behind. Well, there wasn’t much we could do about that!
We still were enjoying ourselves and we chatted a little about the other diners. There were a lot of empty tables at the restaurant, which wasn’t all that surprising, since I was able to score a 6:30 pm dinner reservation less than one month out. The people that were there were mostly couples, I could tell a few were honeymooners, and some families with older children.
There were two families that had brought young children (a baby and a toddler) into the restaurant, and I was surprised. First of all there is no kids menu, so I’m not sure what they were eating, and the way that service was running, I couldn’t believe that they’d sit for so long.
One of the kids really surprised me, and was a complete angel. Not a peep through the whole meal, just sat happily in her high chair. If Everett would act like that I would have no problem taking him anywhere.
The other kid was acting like a typical toddler, and the parents let her up out of the highchair and was letting her run around. They were on the other side of the restaurant from us (the restaurant was separated by low cabinets), but I still found it disruptive.
these cabinets divided the restaurant in two
One other thing that I didn’t really love about the service was that our waiter would disappear for long stretches. If I’m not getting my food, please at least make sure my wine glass and water glass don’t become empty!
Another few minutes went by, and finally our food was brought out!
I have to say that it was very good! If we had to wait almost an hour and a half for bad food, I wouldn’t have been happy. The restaurant did redeem itself by presenting two very detectible dishes. My red snapper was cooked perfectly, the potato scales were not over done and the sauce was very light and delicious.
Dh’s lamb was tender and juicy and seasoned perfectly.
After we finished eating, we decided to take a look at the dessert menu, we figured that the desserts were all likely pre-plated, so they would come out quickly. I mean, that makes sense, right?
We decided on the chocolate almond cake, and we asked the waiter to please bring our check, because we would like to get moving. I think I told him we wanted to watch the fireworks, was was a little white lie, but I figured it might work better than just “We need to get to the next bar”.
I was a little disappointed that dinner took so long, because the plan was to use our Soarin’ fastpasses after dinner, and then go on to Jellyrolls. I figured that dinner wouldn’t take more than an hour and a half, and we were already at the mark, and dessert was still to come. We made the decision to skip Soarin’ today, and hit it up the next day. It was getting late and we wanted to be sure to get a table at Jellyrolls.
It took them another half an hour to bring our dessert (so much for the speedy plan), but it also was very good.
chocolate almond cake
All told, we were at the restaurant for almost 2 ½ hours! I was really glad in the end that we didn’t get the three course meal, the park might have closed before we even finished eating!
We left the park just as Illuminations was going off- and made our way to the Boardwalk.
We got into Jellyrolls scored a table (and a much nicer waitress than our last trip), and proceeded to settle in and enjoy the entertainment. We made a few requests and they were played, and we also figured out who .38 special was, because they played their hit “Hold on Loosely”. As soon as DH and I heard it, we were like “Oooohhhh- we recognize that song”.
We had a few beers, but at this point I was slowing down because the early AM wake up call was catching up to me, and I didn’t want to get too sleepy to enjoy everything.
We ended up leaving Jellyrolls around 11:30, I think it was earlier than DH would have liked, but I was about to fall asleep at the table.
We took a taxi back to the resort, and we were in bed by midnight. How long did we sleep in- well wait and see!
That margarita looks soooooo good. I've had strawberry margaritas but never strawberry & lime....I'm definitely going to have to try that out on our next trip!
I'm sure hearing your comment probably helped cut a little bit of the stress for the mom... the kids might not have thought it was so funny, but still 
!
Too bad you had to skip Soarin'. 
if you can't wear it to the grocery store, I don't wear it. (except to work but that doesn't count)
