Our 1st Dining Report - August 11-18th, 2009

[dina7]

Like the title says, this is our 1st Dining Report after visiting the World countless times. This is also our 1st time on the Dining Plan.
Our family consists of me(42) who absolutely loves food, DH(45) who is a picky eater, DS (turned 14 on this trip) & DS (8) who are both somewhat picky. I spent a lot of time looking over menus on Allears.net to find places where "the boys" would all find something they would eat. So we are somewhat limited in our restaurant choices. I was really excited & looking forward to trying the DP. It did not disappoint...I loved it & my DH & I liked having our meals paid for ahead of time.

These are the Table Service Restaurants we ate dinner at:
Sci-Fi Dine-In
Crystal Palace
Boma
Chef Mickey's
Tutto Italia
Mama Melrose's
Tony's Town Square

Here are the Counter Svc. Restaurants we ate at:
Columbia Harbour House
Restaurantosaurus
Pecos Bill's
Backlot Express
Cosmic Ray's
Pepper Market at CSR

Plus various places for Snacks

Ok, so to start off we checked in to CSR & headed out to HS. We don't normally go to a pk. on arrival day, but we had an early flight & were at HS by 1:00. We had an early dinner ADR at 5:20 at Sci-Fi so we decided to have a snack at Starring Rolls Bakery.

I had the Napolean & everyone else had the Marble Cupcakes.

The Napolean was yummy, but couldn't finish it. My DS(8) loved the marble cupcake, DH & DS(14) liked it, but said it was a little too sweet. It had chocolate cake in the center surrounded by yellow cake. Nobody finished theirs...they were pretty big. We bought 3 bottles of water oop which cost $2.50 each, thinking we should save our snack credits. I know everybody says to just use them & not save them, but we thought we would run out. Of course everybody is right...we should have used them for the waters. As a note, we did use up every last snack credit & we did not have to load up on packaged snacks at the last minute to use them up. Once we got the hang of it, we were regularly snacking away! BTW, cost of these 4 Snacks would have been $16.47 if not on DP!

More to come...

 

[mefordis]

Looking forward to the reviews!

 

[milmore104]

Great start.

 

[dina7]

Now for our 1st Table Svc. Restaurant of the trip: Sci-Fi Dine-In at HS. I know many people aren't crazy about the food here, but we have eaten here on several trips & have always been pleased. Besides the fact that the atmosphere is just great & a lot of fun with the whole drive-in movie experience. We love it & weren't disappointed this trip.

Here we are in our car. Our wonderful server Nick offered to take the photo for us. BTW, he was the best server we have had in WDW & in my DH's opinion in any restaurant. (& we go out to eat pretty often here in NY)

Next is DH's Bacon Cheeseburger, which is not on the dinner menu (we were here for dinner), but I knew from other posters that you could ask for it. We did & of course it was not a problem. My DS (14) also got a cheeseburger, but I did not take a photo of it since it looked pretty much like this one. Also, I did not take photos of a lot of my family's ctr. svc choices because very often they chose burgers & basically if you have seen one Disney burger you have seen them all.

 

[dina7]

Btw, DS (14) is of course, considered an adult on DP, so he did order off Adult menu at every meal. They both enjoyed their burgers. Next is DS(8)'s Cheeseburger & for an appetizer, the Garden Salad.

I did mention my family is picky & just an example of this is my DS(8) doesn't eat salad. Nobody besides me does. So I ate his salad for DP review purposes only. The weird thing about it was that the lettuce was shredded...almost like what you would top a burger with. It also had tomatoes & cucumbers with a ranch type dressing. It was tasty & very fresh, just a strange texture w/ the shredded lettuce.

Last is my St. Louis Ribs with fries & cole slaw. You also had a choice of other sides like baked beans, veggies, basically anything they offered according to our svr. Nick. Even a double portion of fries if you wanted.

 

[dina7]

Forgot to mention drinks: DS(14) & DH had Chocolate shakes which Nick explained at the beginning of our meal were included as beverages on the DP as well as smoothies. DS(8) had bottle of water & I had a coke. Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of shakes I guess. They loved them & said they were very thick!

My ribs were really good, not over the top great, but nothing I would complain about. I was also glad that it was not a huge portion. I almost finished them. The cole slaw was excellent...like homemade & fries very good too. Nick brought me a small bowl for the bones & a stack of wet towelettes in the packet to clean up with, along with extra napkins for everyone. He was always one step ahead with everything we needed, but not obnoxious & in your face. We never had to look for him when we needed something or for the check. He was great with the kids too.

My Dessert--Celebration Cheesecake With Treats

This was one of the best desserts of the trip for me. If you like cheesecake, you have to get it! I didn't eat the M&Ms, but did have a few pieces of the caramel corn. The Celebrate Today sign was white chocolate--DS(8) loved it!

 

[dina7]

DS(8) was too full for dessert as he had cleaned his plate. Unfortunately, the dessert choices on the kid's menu are fruit cup or ice cream sundae. So since neither travels well in the heat, DS(8) skipped it. DH & DS(14) both ordered the Peanut Butter Chocolate cake "to go" since they were too full to eat it then also. It is normally served w/ ice cream, but obviously in the FL heat they got it without. We were returning to CSR after dinner as it was our 1st day there & we were tired. After settling into our room, DH & both sons ate the PB Chocolate cake. Actually, DH didn't get to have very much as the boys truly enjoyed it. Each piece wasn't huge, but in a chubby cylinder shape if that's a description. The cake was chocolate & the center was warm peanut butter. They raved about it & said they will order it again! Sorry I didn't take a photo, but was unpacking while they were devouring the cake. As we went along, I did forget to take photos of some ctr. svc. food as well. It always seemed like my DS(8) would remind me to take a photo after everybody was halfway through w/ their meal. I did take some though & will post what I have.

 

[MickeyNicki]

Wow what great pics!

How did you like the ribs? We had lunch at Sci Fi and really enjoyed the burgers and reubens but the ribs look great...were they tender and tasty?

 

[dina7]

So overall, we loved Sci-Fi & will be returning next yr. It was a great start to our trip & Nick, our server topped it off. We felt he was so good that the day we checked out of our resort, I stopped at the concierge desk & asked to fill out a compliment card on him. (We had been meaning to do it at HS, but kept forgetting all wk.) Anyway, I was mistaken, they are called Guest Fanatic Cards & we did fill one out for Nick. The CM said that periodically they have a cash drawing from all the Cards filled out during that time period & even if Nick did not win that, the card would be put in his permanent record so that if he comes up for some kind of promotion or applies for a different position this would be looked at. At least we knew it couldn't hurt. So if you are lucky enough to deal with an exceptional CM, take a minute to fill out a Guest Fanatic Card. Just take note of the date & place that you dealt with them. Even if you fill one out & it's not at the location where they work, WDW will send it to the appropriate place through inter-office mail I was told.

Forgot to mention total cost of this dinner at Sci-Fi would have been $93.35 including tax if we were not on DP.

 

[dina7]

Wow what great pics!

How did you like the ribs? We had lunch at Sci Fi and really enjoyed the burgers and reubens but the ribs look great...were they tender and tasty?

Ribs were really good, but like I said not the best I've had. They were very tender, but there was a little bit of fat on them, which was hard to see since it's so dark at Sci-Fi. I would definitely order them again. Though, it's funny next time I think I want to try the Reuben. Was that good?

It's funny...I could see the food better in the photos than when we were actually there!

 

[MickeyNicki]

Ribs were really good, but like I said not the best I've had. They were very tender, but there was a little bit of fat on them, which was hard to see since it's so dark at Sci-Fi. I would definitely order them again. Though, it's funny next time I think I want to try the Reuben. Was that good?

It's funny...I could see the food better in the photos than when we were actually there!

The reuben was awesome, I would def order that again....I know what you mean about the pics...it is so dark in there and when I took my pics the food looked sooo great!

 

[Sandy321]

every review of Sci Fi makes me want to give it a try!! We've never done it - but I believe will put it on our must do list! (we like to try new places!)

Thanks for the review of the ribs - was that a dry rub? Did you have a sauce on the side? (Ribs are so different in every part of the country!) They look tasty - I didnt want to go and order a cheeseburger - was going to save that treat for Beaches and Cream!

 

[DLo]

thanks for the reviews and pics. The pb and choc cake sounds awesome. Thanks for mentioning the Guest Fanatic Card. Not enough people get props for their good service!

 

[milmore104]

It all looks so good! It makes me wish I was there now. We love Sci-Fi. It's been a favorite of ours since it opened. Although we can no long just walk up and get in!!!

 

[dina7]

every review of Sci Fi makes me want to give it a try!! We've never done it - but I believe will put it on our must do list! (we like to try new places!)

Thanks for the review of the ribs - was that a dry rub? Did you have a sauce on the side? (Ribs are so different in every part of the country!) They look tasty - I didnt want to go and order a cheeseburger - was going to save that treat for Beaches and Cream!

Sci-Fi is so much fun for a meal...such a unique experience! It wasn't a dry rub on the ribs. It was a barbecue sauce on them already that had a nice flavor. The sauce was not on the side. The ribs were pretty flavorful.

 

[pumba]

I love the photo of the cars you sat in......that is just to cute.......also thanks for the reviews ....it always helps to see it as well as hear about it..

 

[dina7]

BTW, we had a grocery delivery from Garden Grocer. Had the following items delivered: case of Deer Park Water-saved $ with that since we brought 4 bottles in a small cooler bag w/ us every day to the pks., 3 boxes of cereal, 1/2 gal. milk, Dixie Paper Bowls, (brought plastic spoons from home) 2 bags Goldfish, Fritos, & Baked Lay's. We used up everything except some bowls, 1 box of cereal because DS(14) decided to skip b'fast every day so we brought that home, part of 1 of the bags of Goldfish, & some of the fritos & chips...we just threw the rest of those out b4we left. To us it was still worth it to do the grocery delivery. Mainly for the water savings & saving time in the am by eating cereal in the room. I know a lot of people use their snack credits the nt. before to get bakery items at their food court to eat in the am, but CSR is very annoying w/ what is allowed as a snack. The only fresh bakery items that count as a snack credit at Cafe Rix, which is the grab & go food place, are Cookies & Muffins! The other items that count as a snack credit there are small containers of cereal & oatmeal, Pop Tarts, pint size milk, & candy. I think that is all I remember because I specifically asked the CM working there. Same thing at the Pepper Market Food Court...only cookies & muffins count as a snack credit. A Croissant or Danish cost over $4 each.

 

[Krissalee]

You are off to a fantastic start - looking forward to reading more!

 

[TigerKat]

Great start!!!!

 

[Samandmom]

I agree about PB cake from Sci Fi is absoultely wonderful. Thanks for the reviews so far.