Our fabulous Disney Dining! Lots of photos -Day 8, Pop Century Food Court- Completed!

[AussieAngel]

So we’re back from Disney World, and wow, did we have some yummy meals!! Can’t wait to share them all with you!

There was me – Julie, 25, and my fiancé, Conan, 27. We stayed at Pop Century, and were on the free dining plan… What a bargain!!

This was our first trip to Disney World, and our first trip to the US, actually! We’re from Australia - we visited Disney in the middle of a 7 week holiday around the US and Canada. We were pretty overwhelmed with the amount of food everywhere – much bigger than Australian servings!

I took lots of food photos, much to the embarrassment of Conan, but hey. It was fun!

So here’s a list of the places we ate during our 7 night stay…

* Table Service –
- Sci-Fi Dine In
- Raglan Road
- The Plaza
- Boma
- ‘Ohana
- Le Cellier
- Spoodles
- 50’s Prime Time Café

* Counter Service -
- Pinocchio’s Village Haus
- Liberty Inn
- Tusker House
- Lottawotta Lodge
- Pop Century Food Court

Just for fun, I’ll give each restaurant a score out of 5 little yellow smiley men…

I tend to rave in my writing, so if you like reports with lots of details on your food, keep reading! Feel free to ask lots of questions along the way!!

So let’s start!

Our arrival evening – Pinocchio Village Haus

We arrived at Pop at around 5pm, and checked in with no hassles. Settled in, unpacked, had a quick look around, then we were off to the Magic Kingdom!

We hadn’t planned anything in particular for this night, considering we weren’t sure what time we’d get there, or if we’d be too tired to do anything, so once we had a quick play at Magic Kingdom, we decided on dinner at Pinocchio Village Haus.

It was about 7.30pm when we ate, and the place was deserted! There was one other family there, and us! I took a photo of the empty restaurant, just because it seemed a bit bizarre!

After much deliberation about what to have for our first Disney meal, I decided on the turkey and bacon panini, which came with a packet of Lay’s chips, a drink, and a rice crispie treat…

My panini was fresh and tasty, except the bacon had lots of fat and not much bacon. My Lay’s chips were a nice treat for later, and the rice crispie? Luckily, I didn’t eat it - it was out of date by 3 months, which I didn’t discover until we were back in our hotel room. Very sad! So that had to go in the rubbish bin, unfortunately!

Conan had the pepperoni pizza, which came with a salad and the chocolate cake. He said his food was “alright”, which in Conan-speak, means, “Pretty average.” And it looks pretty average, too!

So overall, we weren’t really that impressed with what we ate at Pinocchio Village Haus. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t that great either!! I’d try somewhere different next time.

Our score – out of 5

Next up… Sci-Fi Dine In Theater, and Raglan Road! Yum!

 

[Dani&TJsMom]

Love your review! Looking forward to more!

 

[Schucraig]

Thanks for the review! Can't wait for more!

 

[princesstigerlilly]

Thanks for the review!
THe 'out of date' remark caught me a little, and then it occurred to me that the date on the treat would be month, day, year here in the US. In Australia do you do day, month, year? My Dh is from Ireland and the first time his dad came over he thought all the bread in the grocery store was past it's date

Anyway, lol, I am looking forward to more!

 

[AussieAngel]

Thanks Dani&TJsMom, schucraig, and princesstigerlilly for reading and making nice comments!!

Princesstigerlilly, I know what you mean about the date thing being backwards, but unfortunately the rice crispie bar really was out of date!! By 3 months. I would have returned it, but I was already back in the hotel before we noticed. Oh well! I had lots more during our week there, so I definitely made up for it! Hehee!!

(And the date thing? I'm still used to the USA way of doing it now, even though I'm back in Australia! I need to adjust back!! Ha!)

Thanks again, guys!

 

[princesstigerlilly]

Thanks Dani&TJsMom, schucraig, and princesstigerlilly for reading and making nice comments!!

Princesstigerlilly, I know what you mean about the date thing being backwards, but unfortunately the rice crispie bar really was out of date!! By 3 months. I would have returned it, but I was already back in the hotel before we noticed. Oh well! I had lots more during our week there, so I definitely made up for it! Hehee!!

(And the date thing? I'm still used to the USA way of doing it now, even though I'm back in Australia! I need to adjust back!! Ha!)

Thanks again, guys!

Well, that really bites that the bar was SO FAR past due. Glad to hear you had plenty to make up for it!

 

[Minniespal]

Enjoyed reading your report ~ Lovely piccies as well.

 

[VistaLeigh'smommy]

great reviews!!! I am looking forward to the rest!!

 

[Caltha]

Hello fellow Aussie. We are going to WDW in January with our three kids. Can't wait to read more of your reviews.

 

[fizz13]

Thanks for posting, don't think I need to rush there then

 

[serendipity]

great review! I've eaten at the haus a few times but never really go for the food, it just has such a cute addicting ambience! How nice that you had the place to yourself, usually it's at max capacity!

 

[BLUEAPPLE422]

Can't wait to hear more........

 

[Buzzandthemermaid]

Thanks for your review.

 

[dawgfan]

Thanks for the review!

 

[AussieAngel]

Thanks everybody, for reading and replying to my first review! It's nice to know people are enjoying it!

So we're up to Day 2, which was actually our first full day at a Disney park. Yay! We headed to MGM, and had a lunch ADR at...

Sci-Fi Dine In!

I'd read lots of negative reviews on the boards about the food at Sci-Fi, but the place looked like so much fun! We had to go there! It was our first time at Disney, and we were there to have fun, so why not!?

The setting of Sci-Fi didn't disappoint - it really was very cute! We were seated as "hitch-hikers" in the back of a car, behind a nice little family of four. The movie clips were fun too, with lots of wacky old advertisements thrown in for a chuckle!

So for drinks, Conan ordered a Cookies & Cream milkshake, which he said was delicious, and I had a pink lemonade. It's rare to find nice pink lemonade in Australia, so I was addicted to it while in the US!

Being a DIS nut, I knew what I was going to order at each restaurent months in advance. Hehee! For appetizer, I chose the onion rings...

(By the way, my photos at Sci-Fi aren't the best, sorry! It was so dark in there! )

My onion rings were delicious! At first I was blown away by the size of the actual rings - they're massive! There must be a whole onion in there! But actually, they tasted very sweet, and the outside was so crispy and good! I thought they would have been even nicer with a yummy dipping sauce, but they were great, anyway.

Conan ordered the 7 Bean Beef Chilli, which he also loved, and gobbled down extra fast!

For my main, I chose the BBQ Chicken Breast Sandwich...

I liked the sandwich, but it was SO big! It was kinda hard to know where to begin. It was very tasty though! I think I ended up only eating half of it, at most.

Conan ordered the Chicken Caesar Salad...

He enjoyed his salad, but thought it could have done with a bit more salad dressing. The chicken was good though, and the lettuce was nice and fresh.

And now the best part.... dessert! I chose the Chocolate Tart, and YUM!! It was SO good! Definitely the best part of my meal! It kinda tasted like cold melted chocolate, and it just melted in my mouth! I definitely recommend the chocolate tart!!

Conan had the Hot Fudge Sundae, which he really liked, but couldn't eat much of, because he was so full!

We walked out (or should I say rolled out!!?) of Sci-Fi, feeling really, really full. Almost to the point of feeling pretty yuck. I know that was probably our fault by gobbling down our appetizers and not leaving much room for the rest of the food, but auh! If you saw a couple of Aussies walking around MGM groaning and holding their tummies that afternoon, that would have been us. Hehehee.

Anyway, Sci-Fi was fun as a cute novelty, but I don't think we'll go back there. At the time, we thought the food was great - but comparing it to other restaurants we went to later in the week, it wasn't really that fabulous. Oh, except for the chocolate tart. That really WAS fabulous!!

We gave Sci-Fi out of 5!

 

[AussieAngel]

After stuffing ourselves over lunch at Sci-Fi, we had dinner reservations that night at ...

Raglan Road!

This was a last minute reservation that I made purely because of photos I saw on the DIS boards! If you notice, we stayed for 7 nights, but actually ate at 8 table-service restaurants. That's because we couldn't choose any restaurant to cancel, after we made our ADR at Raglan Road! We ended up paying for The Plaza, and using our free dining for everything else. Yahoo!

We really loved the atmosphere at Raglan Road. Being Australian, we're always up for a good pub, and Raglan Road didn't disappoint! The wait staff were friendly and relaxed, the Irish music being played was great, and the Irish manager popped around to all the tables at least twice to check that everything was going okay. Nice!!

For appetizer, I ordered the Dalkey Duo...

In the menu, it actually says the Dalkey Duo is for 2, but they let me order it by myself! Auh! I actually only ate about half - we learnt to pace ourselves after our Sci-Fi experience!! The little things on the forks are actually battered sausages, which were really yummy - if not a little bit too oily. Very cute presentation though!

Conan ordered the Drunk Chicken for his appetizer...

... which he also loved! The chicken was delicious (I had to have a taste!) and it came with a lime sauce which topped off the chicken beautifully.

For my main meal, I ordered the Keen Eye For The Shepherd's Pie...

And WOW! I loved this! I'm not much of a red-meat eater, because I don't really like the taste, but this was really, really yum!

Conan had the I-Rental Chicken Salad for his main, which he also really enjoyed - especially the little onion straws on top! Can you tell he likes chicken salads!?

Dessert time! From the photos on the DIS boards, I'd decided to order the Raspberry Riot, which was a cookie with icecream, white chocolate, and raspberries - but they were all sold out that night! Oh nooo! I was very sad! Out waitress recommended the Bailey's Creme Brulee to me though, so I had that instead...

... and it was GREAT! It was so nice and light - perfect for a huge day of food! Plus, I love Baileys, and we were in an Irish pub, so why not!? Hehee!

Conan ordered the Dunbrody Kiss...

... and WOW! If you like chocolate, you'll love this! Conan loves chocolate, so he devoured it - but it was a bit rich for me! Great presentation, too!

Overall, we loved Raglan Road. It really did feel like a warm, inviting Irish pub, and the food was all really fresh and beautifully presented. We left feeling full, but not yucky full, like we did at Sci-Fi. Definitely one of our favourite restaurants of our trip! We'd go back in a flash!

Our rating... out of 5!

After Raglan Road, we had a look around Downtown Disney, and because I hadn't eaten enough that day, (*cough, cough!*) I decided to get a rice krispie treat made up at Goofy's Candy Co. I was so impressed that they let me use a snack voucher for it!

So I happily placed my order - Mickey Rice Krispie Treat, dipped in milk chocolate, with crushed m&m's, peanut butter cups, and white chocolate drizzle on top - and waited. And waited. And waited. Wow, I didn't know it would take that long. We were pretty much exhausted from our big first day at Disney, and were ready for bed... but we continued to wait happily for my treat. And wait. And wait.

I didn't really think about the fact that they'd have to put it in the fridge to make the chocolate set. Hehee. So about 20 minutes later, they produced my masterpiece. And then he put it on some paper. And then he wrapped it in some more paper. And then he put it in a white box. And then he put a Disney sticker on the white box. And then he wrapped the white box. Then he put the wrapped white box in a bag. THEN he gave it to me. Phew!!

Remember Love, Actually, when Rowan Atkinson's character is taking forever to wrap the necklace, and Alan Rickman just wants him to hurry up!? It was exactly like that. It got to the point where Conan and I were looking at each other and trying not to burst into laughter. All this for a rice krispie!!

And here it is. The masterpiece...

After all that, I took it home, and it was so big, I could hardly bite into it. Or, I could bite into it, but the crushed m&m's dug into my gums behind my teeth, and hurt! Hehehee. Conan made me eat it all though, since it had taken half an hour to create. Ahhh, it was all fun!

Next up... The Plaza and Boma!

 

[Beana9802]

mm...tasty! thanks for the tasty report

 

[DLo]

Great pics., funny commentary, cute rating system - what more could a review have !! Looking forward to more!!!

 

[PrincessAlways]

Great reviews! Love your rating system! Very clever! Now after seeing those wonderful pictures, what do I have in the kitchen????

 

[princesstigerlilly]

....After Raglan Road, we had a look around Downtown Disney, and because I hadn't eaten enough that day, (*cough, cough!*) I decided to get a rice krispie treat made up at Goofy's Candy Co. I was so impressed that they let me use a snack voucher for it!

So I happily placed my order - Mickey Rice Krispie Treat, dipped in milk chocolate, with crushed m&m's, peanut butter cups, and white chocolate drizzle on top - and waited. And waited. And waited. Wow, I didn't know it would take that long. We were pretty much exhausted from our big first day at Disney, and were ready for bed... but we continued to wait happily for my treat. And wait. And wait.

I didn't really think about the fact that they'd have to put it in the fridge to make the chocolate set. Hehee. So about 20 minutes later, they produced my masterpiece. And then he put it on some paper. And then he wrapped it in some more paper. And then he put it in a white box. And then he put a Disney sticker on the white box. And then he wrapped the white box. Then he put the wrapped white box in a bag. THEN he gave it to me. Phew!!

Remember Love, Actually, when Rowan Atkinson's character is taking forever to wrap the necklace, and Alan Rickman just wants him to hurry up!? It was exactly like that. It got to the point where Conan and I were looking at each other and trying not to burst into laughter. All this for a rice krispie!!

And here it is. The masterpiece...

After all that, I took it home, and it was so big, I could hardly bite into it. Or, I could bite into it, but the crushed m&m's dug into my gums behind my teeth, and hurt! Hehehee. Conan made me eat it all though, since it had taken half an hour to create. Ahhh, it was all fun!

...

Now THAT is a rice crispy treat!

Looking forward to your next reviews!