Our first F&W Festival: October 15-24 (with pictures) - Updated 11/3 F&W

[ShuisFan584]

I guess I should start by saying that I've actually been on the DIS for almost 10 years now and have never done a dining review. But I guess now is a good time to start.

We (me, 26 and DH, 25) just got back from another wonderful trip to Disney. We actually spent the first 2 nights at Universal (Royal Pacific Resort) and the last 7 nights at Disney (Animal Kingdom Villas - Jambo House). I've never been to Disney in October (except for when I was really little) since my schedule never allowed it. But since this was the first October I was able to go - I knew I had to go for MNSSHP and the Food and Wine Festival!

We had only booked 2 sit down restaurants in advance, but ended up eating table service almost every day. We also went to Epcot every day except one during our 7 days at Disney, so we have tons of food and wine reviews and pictures.

We tried to rate everything we ate and drank on a scale of 1 - 5. In simple terms, this is what they mean:
1 - bad
2 - just ok
3 - good
4 - excellent
5 - OMG amazing!

Anyways, I hope you all enjoy our reviews.

Friday October 15
Cafe 4
NASCAR Sports Grill

Saturday October 16
Emeril’s Tchoup Chop

Sunday October 17
Boma
Food and Wine Part 1

Monday October 18

Tuesday October 19

Wednesday October 20

Thursday October 21

Friday October 22

Saturday October 23

 

[ShuisFan584]

Friday October 15

Cafe 4 - IOA

This was our arrival day. I had booked the 7am flight since it was the cheapest and I'm glad I did since every flight after ours had been delayed because of the crappy weather in NJ. We landed in Orlando before 10am. We quickly got into a taxi and headed to Royal Pacific. It was so weird landing in Orlando and not heading straight to Disney. But we were excited since I haven't been to Universal in almost 10 years and DH has never been.

After checking into the resort and taking maybe a good 15 minutes in our room to relax , we were ready to head off to Islands of Adventure. I had told DH that I didn't care how hungry I was, we had to make Spiderman our first stop...which we did. After Spiderman and the Hulk, we were getting hungry and decided to eat at a counter service restaurant.

Since we were in Marvel Super Hero Island, we decided to just eat at Cafe 4 (I had to look this up online since I had no idea what the name was). There weren't too many options - basically pizza and pasta. We ended up getting a slice of veggie pizza, a slice of BBQ chicken pizza, and breadsticks with marinara.

Veggie pizza

BBQ chicken pizza - although I have yet to find the chicken in this picture

Breadsticks

Everything was basically like typical counter service food. We would have given everything a good rating for the flavor. But nothing was actually hot. The pizza was actually on the cold side. So we rated everything here a 2.

 

[Pooh&OurHunny]

joining in...

 

[MickeyNicki]

Love WDW in Oct!

 

[ShuisFan584]

Friday October 15

NASCAR Sports Grill - CityWalk

Since we were only spending 2 days onsite at Universal, we decided to spend all day at IOA on Friday, and all day at US on Saturday. We stayed pretty much until park closing which was 8pm that day. We had a chance to do everything we wanted to do with extra time to do our favorites again all because of the FOTL that comes with staying onsite!

The park for the most part wasn’t too busy. But once we reached the WWOHP section of the park, it was a completely different story. I think the first time we reached that section of the park it was around 4pm and it was just way too crowded. There were even lines for stores which I thought was insane. Since neither DH or I are Harry Potter fans, we had no problems passing right through without spending time here. We did plan on coming back to ride Forbidden Journey. I think the wait time was 90 minutes and since this ride didn’t have FOTL, we decided to come back later. We ended up coming back after 7pm when the wait time was 45 minutes. The wait actually wasn’t too bad since the line kept moving. We’re glad we came back since this ended up being our favorite ride at IOA. Surprisingly, I liked it even more than Spiderman!

It was now close to 8pm. We were hungry, but also didn’t want to miss ALCS Game 1! So we decided to find a restaurant at CityWalk where we could watch the game. My first thought was NASCAR Sports Grill. We checked with them, and since we’d be able to watch the Yankees game, we decided we would eat here. We were taken to our booth and had a TV right at our booth so we were able to put on whatever we wanted to.

DH and I absolutely love nachos. So we had to have the Nachos Grande for an appetizer. We ordered it with the chili on the side since I don’t eat meat.

We were so happy to see that the cheese was actually melted since some places seem to not understand how to melt cheese. We scarfed these down very easily. We gave these nachos a solid 3. It would have gotten higher if it would have been a spicy nacho cheese. It seemed like it was just like a velveeta cheese.

DH had the Buffalo Chicken Sandwich as his entree. He ordered it as a wrap instead of on a bun.

DH is a big fan of buffalo chicken and ended up eating the whole thing. He gave his entree a 4.

For my entree, I ordered the Fresh Tomato and Basil Pasta. It's on the menu as a chicken pasta but can easily be made into a vegetarian pasta.

I thought the pasta was good, but nothing out of the ordinary. I gave it a 3.

I'm usually not one to pass up on dessert, but my stomach was way too full and we already had a long day (since we were up since 4am for our 7am flight), so we had to skip. Overall, we really enjoyed the NASCAR Sports Grill and would eat here again, especially if we had a game to watch.

 

[butiflfeet]

I'm excited for more of your reviews! And I am of the belief that you can never go wrong with nachos for an appetizer. Those look so good!

 

[ShuisFan584]

I'm excited for more of your reviews! And I am of the belief that you can never go wrong with nachos for an appetizer. Those look so good!

We love nachos and it's always hard to pass them up. And they're so much better with melted cheese than just shredded.

 

[ShuisFan584]

Saturday October 16

Emeril’s Tchoup Chop – Royal Pacific Resort

Today was our Universal Studios day. We didn’t do anything special for breakfast. We just went to the lounge in the lobby and had bagels and English muffins at the Continental breakfast. So there’s really nothing to review. However, I was a little surprised that we had to pay. To me, “Continental breakfast” means free breakfast.

We got to US shortly after the park opened. For lunch we ate at International Food and Film Festival. We forgot to take pictures here, but we both just had pizza. We thought the pizza here was better than the pizza from the day before since the pizza was actually warm. We gave it a 3/5.

We ended up spending the whole day in the park since park closing was at 5pm for Halloween Horror Nights. Again, because of FOTL, we were able to do everything we wanted to do in one day.

We were looking forward to tonight since we had heard good reviews about the restaurant and this was one of two reservations we had actually made for this trip. This was basically our date night.

When we got to the restaurant, we were seated very quickly since we already had reservations. We took a look at the specialty drink menu and even though they were quite expensive, we both decided to order one.

Here is my drink. I don’t remember what the name of it was, but it was a banana pina colada with coconut flakes in it.

This was so good! I’m a big fan of tropical drinks especially pina coladas. I also really loved the coconut flakes that were in it. Since it was so expensive, I only had one and had to make sure to take my time with it. I give this drink a 4/5.

This was DH’s drink. Again, I don’t remember what the name of it was since I didn’t write them down. All I know is that DH enjoyed it.

Before we ordered our meal, they brought out some Shrimp chips along with a dipping sauce for us to enjoy.

I didn’t know what to expect, but these were really good! They were light and airy and the dipping sauce that came with it made them even better. I know DH liked the sauce because he made sure to get every last bit of it. I didn’t take a close up picture of the dip but you can see it in the picture of DH’s blue drink. We gave these chips a rating of 4/5.

I’m a used to be vegetarian who started eating shellfish recently. The vegan option didn’t seem interesting enough for me, so I went with the Garlic Grilled Black Tiger Shrimp on Chinese Style Noodle Cake and Lemongrass Infused Wild Mushroom Crèma.

I thought the presentation of this was really nice and I was excited to try it. I thought the shrimp were cooked perfectly and all of the flavors blended really well together. I wanted to finish it since it was so good but I was starting to feel full and had to leave room for dessert! I definitely ate a good portion of it and felt this deserved a 4/5.

For his entrée, DH ordered the Mongolian Barbeque Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Caramelized Sweet Onion-Orange Confit, Stir Fried Lomein Noodles.

I obviously didn’t try this since I don’t eat meat. But DH really liked it and gave it a 4/5.

After our excellent meals, we were ready for dessert. I love dessert and there’s not much I won’t eat as far as dessert goes so I usually have a hard time choosing just one. I asked the waitress what the best desserts were. I ended up going with the Kahlua Chocolate Cake - Peanut Butter Mousse Filled Chocolate Cake Topped with Bananas Foster Sauce.

OMG, this was so good! Chocolate and peanut butter are two of my favorite foods…especially when combined so this was perfect. And the banana foster sauce was a nice addition to this. I was so full after eating about half of this, but thankfully I was able to take it home and ate the rest of it the next day. I gave this a 5/5.

DH was really in the mood for chocolate so he went with the Rich Flourless Chocolate Decadence Torte drizzled with a Milk Chocolate Sauce.

This was extremely rich but good. There are two pieces but DH was only able to eat one. He asked the waitress if anyone ever finished the whole thing, since it was too chocolatey to finish in one sitting for one person. She said that only kids can usually finish the whole thing. We also took this home with us and I ended up finishing the rest since nothing is too chocolatey for me. He gave this a 3/5.

Overall, we really enjoyed Emeril’s Tchoup Chop. The service, food, and décor were all excellent. We definitely hope to eat here again next time we decide to visit Universal.

 

[BriarRosie]

I'm glad you mentioned Tchoup Chop, as I recently had a meal there a couple of days before your trip started. I hadn't eaten there before and I was very pleased with it. I sat at the counter and ordered the chef's tasting menu. It was not only fabulous, but a steal compared to getting tasting menus at Disney. Base price $55 and $22 for optional wine pairings. (Not optional for me!) With tax and tip, it was $100. They gave me 5 courses. Well worth it. If you ask in advance if they'd work with a pescatarian, they might give you a fish and veggie meal.

 

[ShuisFan584]

I'm glad you mentioned Tchoup Chop, as I recently had a meal there a couple of days before your trip started. I hadn't eaten there before and I was very pleased with it. I sat at the counter and ordered the chef's tasting menu. It was not only fabulous, but a steal compared to getting tasting menus at Disney. Base price $55 and $22 for optional wine pairings. (Not optional for me!) With tax and tip, it was $100. They gave me 5 courses. Well worth it. If you ask in advance if they'd work with a pescatarian, they might give you a fish and veggie meal.

I'm glad to hear you also had a great meal there. It's on the expensive side, but less expensive than most of Disney's signature restaurants. And I thought everything was a good value for the price. I didn't know about the Chef's tasting menu, but that definitely sounds like a good deal.

I really hope to eat at Tchoup Chop again next time I'm at Universal.

 

[ShuisFan584]

Sunday October 17

Boma – Animal Kingdom Lodge

Today was an early day since I had made reservations at Boma for 9am. So we woke up early, packed up all of our things, and said goodbye to Universal as we headed over to Animal Kingdom Lodge. I knew our room wouldn’t be ready so we checked in, handed all of our luggage over to bell services, and made our way over to Boma.

As we were seated, our server asked if we would like to try the juice which was a combination of orange/guava/papaya/passion fruit. I love juice and there’s no fruit that I don’t like, so I decided to try it. DH isn’t very adventurous and only really likes your ordinary fruits like apples, oranges, strawberries, and bananas. He figured he wouldn’t like it but decided to try it anyway.

Not surprisingly, he wasn’t a big fan. But I on the other hand loved it! I thought it was sweet and delicious. But then again, it’s hard for me to come across a juice that I don’t like.

We went up to the buffet and thought that there was a good selection to choose from. I didn’t really take any pictures here, but here is a picture of my first plate.

As you can tell, I like eggs. They had regular scrambled eggs, and goat cheese and chive scrambled eggs. I had to have both. I thought their scrambled eggs were better than at other buffets. And the goat cheese and chives version were even better! I had multiple helpings of these.

I also had some grilled tomatoes and another African dish that had tomatoes and onions. I thought both of these were delicious, especially the tomatoes and onions. I had to go up for these again as well.

I also tried an African fruit salad which was similar to ambrosia. I really enjoyed this dish as well.

We also had a lot of traditional breakfast buffet fare such as pancakes, waffles, breakfast potatoes, fruit, pastries, etc. We both really enjoyed our meal here and felt that Boma is one of the best breakfast buffets on property. There was nothing here that we didn't like (except for DH not liking the juice which was expected) and felt everything ranged from good to excellent. I think everyone should try breakfast here at least once, especially if you happen to be staying at Animal Kingdom Lodge. We gave the buffet here an overall rating of 4/5.

 

[Pooh&OurHunny]

Thanks for a great update, we love Boma breakfast (great coffee and juice ad wonderful buffet..fresh and hot)

 

[ronnmel]

Nice update. I'm looking forward to trying out Boma on my honeymoon. Every review I read for this place is great.

 

[ShuisFan584]

Thanks for a great update, we love Boma breakfast (great coffee and juice ad wonderful buffet..fresh and hot)

I'm glad to hear you love it as well. It's definitely now one of our favorite breakfast buffets.

Nice update. I'm looking forward to trying out Boma on my honeymoon. Every review I read for this place is great.

Congratulations on your upcoming wedding! DH and I also honeymooned in Disney this past January. I'm sure you'll really enjoy your breakfast at Boma.

 

[ShuisFan584]

Sunday October 17

Food and Wine Festival Booths Part 1

Finally onto some Food and Wine Festival pictures and reviews!

After our breakfast at Boma, we decided to head to DHS for a little while since our room still wasn’t ready. We were really excited to go do some F&W booths since this was our first time doing the F&W festival, but we were incredibly full and I heard it was best to avoid Epcot on weekends, at least up until Sunday night. We stayed at DHS for a couple hours and headed back to the resort around 2pm when we got the text that our room was ready. We had a little bit of a break, but headed to Epcot around 4pm since we were getting hungry and were just too excited to try some samples at the F&W festival. We figured even if it was crowded, we could still try a few things and just come back other days during the rest of the week.

I was expecting the worst when we got there, but in all honesty it wasn’t as crowded as I was expecting. There were probably more people walking around World Showcase than usual, but the lines for the food booths themselves were not long at all. At most there were maybe 5-6 people in front of us on the lines we waited on. We also noticed the drunk people. Some guy completely walked right into DH and was slurring his “I’m so sorry man” so much. I guess he was enjoying himself just a little too much.

We had no plan of action and just decided to go to the right as soon as we got to World Showcase. Our first stop was New Zealand.

DH is not an adventurous eater (lamb is too adventurous) and he doesn’t eat seafood (so no scallops), so he didn’t order anything. I ordered the Seared Sea Scallop with Vegetable Slaw and Lemon Vinaigrette.

I didn’t know what to expect since I haven’t eaten scallops since before I became a vegetarian…which was when I was 10 years old. After taking one bite I decided that I love scallops! OMG this was so good. The scallop was huge and delicious. And the vegetables and vinaigrette gave it even more flavor. I don’t know if it’s only because it was my first time eating scallops in over 15 years, but this ended up being one of my favorites. I gave it a 5/5.

Next, we headed on over to Greece.

DH was interested in everything on this menu. We ended up getting the Spanakopita and Greek salad with Pita bread so that we could both share. DH also ordered the Atlantis White.

Spanakopita

DH and I love spinach so we both thought this was delicious. It was flaky, soft and warm. I gave it a 4/5. DH wished he had ordered it all for himself because it ended up being one of his favorites at the festival and gave it a 5/5.

Greek salad with Pita Bread

I’ve never had a Greek salad before so I didn’t really know the difference between a Greek salad and a regular salad. This was really good and DH and I really enjoyed it. I think the olives and feta cheese were what really made the salad excellent. We both gave this a 4/5.

Atlantis White

This was DH’s drink and I didn’t try it but DH said it was good – 3/5.

After Greece came the Charcuterie and Cheese booth.

We ordered the Cheese Fondue with Croutons and Roasted Potatoes to share and DH also ordered the Martini Prosecco.

Cheese Fondue with Croutons and Roasted Potatoes

This was one item that DH and I disagreed on. DH hated it and gave it a 1/5. I on the other hand loved the cheese. They definitely don’t give you enough to dip into the fondue and the bread wasn’t that great. But I didn’t care since the cheese made everything taste good! I gave the fondue a 4/5…but I guess the bread should have probably scored lower.

Martini Prosecco

This was DH’s drink and he also just said it was good and gave it a 3/5.

Next, we headed over to Canada. Since we didn’t make any ADR’s for Le Cellier this trip, DH was so excited to be able to get some of the cheese soup at this booth.

To no surprise, DH ordered his Canadian Cheddar Cheese soup along with St. David’s Bench Vineyard Merlot. I was in the mood for dessert, so I ordered the Nanaimo bar and Inniskillin Pearl Vidal Icewine.

Canadian Cheddar Cheese Soup

I know this is the most popular item at the festival and everyone already knows it’s good. DH feels the same way and of course gave it a 5/5. Since I refuse to eat meat, I guess I’ll never know how good it is. But I can always tell through DH how amazing it is.

St. David’s Bench Vineyard Merlot

DH thought this was just ok and gave it a 2/5.

Nanaimo bar

Since I love chocolate and peanut butter, I was excited to try this. It was good, but not as good as I was hoping. I gave it a 3/5.

Inniskillin Pearl Vidal Icewine

I had heard good things about the Icewine and this surely didn’t disappoint! I like sweet wines and this was sweet and delicious. I could have easily had a few of these, especially since it's so small. I gave this a 4/5.

 

[GeneralTso]

We LOVED the F&W Festival. Can't wait to go back again next year. The food was so great. OMG--Argentina and Puerto Rico!!! Did you have the cherry rum drink from Bacardi? Or how about that iced chocolate coffee drink from Belgium. Good night.

 

[basketlacey]

Love your reviews! Thanks for sharing. I'll check back for updates!

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Thanks for sharing! Hope that you enjoyed your first F&W festival!