Our reviews from 8 days on Dining Plan (sorry no pics) COMPLETE

[jabead]

What do you think? Traveling with 11y/o and 3 y/o also, No fish, peanut or nut eaters. want to try a few new places
Coral reef, raglan road, chefs de france, le cellier (have not been), narcosses (not sure if it is worth it doing a signature? is it 2 credits).

what 2 would you recommend out of those?
we are staying at beach club

1) Coral Reef - All 5 of us really enjoyed our meal here, but 4 of the 5 got the same entree (steak). So if you like steak, I would definitely recommend it here . We also really enjoyed the non-alchoholic drinks that were offered here under the Dining Plan. Oh, and the desserts were very good as well. Also the aquarium would be entertaining for your kids. One more plus is that it's an excellent value if using the Dining Plan, especially if most of you order steak like we did .

2) Raglan Road - This is pretty much a bar-type atmosphere. It was quiet during our last visit because we were there at 5:00, but on previous visits it was pretty noisy with the band playing, the dancer doing her thing, and many people drinking and having a good time. Most of us enjoyed this, however DS who was only 10 on our first visit fell asleep . So on the plus side, the noise level did not keep him from falling asleep, but on the other hand I would say he was pretty bored with it all. Therefore I would have to say that this place is more enjoyable for adults .

3) Chefs de France - We enjoyed some of the food here, like the steak and salmon entrees and dinner (more so than lunch) is a very good value if using the Dining Plan. Also if you have an early dinner then maybe your kids might get to see Remy. As of now, I think he performs here everyday except Sunday but his last performance is around 5:20 I believe. Hopefully he will still be there in November.

4) Le Cellier - Just like Chefs de France, our feelings are mixed about this one. The atmosphere (cellar) is nothing special (think dark and cool, as in temperature) so nothing which would appeal to the kids. As I'm sure you already know, the food is good here and again it's a good value if using the Dining Plan. Oh, and it is the self-proclaimed most popular restaurant at Epcot .

5) Narcoossee's - We all really enjoyed our meal here but it is much farther out of your way from the Beach Club than the Epcot restaurants. We went here during our 2 night stay at the Poly and while we were on the DeLuxe Plan so had extra credits to burn. If you are on the regular plan, then I'm not sure that this would be worth the 2 credits each.

So I guess the two I would recommend for you would be Coral Reef and Chefs de France (especially if your kids are Remy fans). We found that the Epcot restaurants were very convenient when staying at one of the Epcot resorts. We had park hopper passes so went to different parks during the day and then to Epcot in the evening to have dinner.

 

[Belle5]

I just have to tell you, IMO, your reviews are the best I've read in a long time! I love your style--even without pics.

I also wanted to say that agree with you completely about Tutto. It was such a horrid dining experience for our family of eight a few years back--what was I thinking to reserve it for our party of eleven the next year when half of our family met with a few other families at WDW? (Folks on this board convinced me that we ordered the wrong thing and just had a bad server--give it another try)

I appreciate the way you let us know when there was enough food to share as only some of the people we are going with will be on the dining plan this time.

 

[vitamingirl]

Thank you so much. You just helped me make my decisions! A friend of mine just came home last week and also loved coral reef and everytime we passed chefs, I just wanted to go inside, I thought it looked so..... French and I loved Paris years ago.

so I am crossing Raglan Road off the list and narcosse.
I might still try to do le cellier b/c DH just wants to try it. But they are steak eaters so that is good.

Thanks again!

I am also going try for CRT, for bf for 3.5 y/o DD, teppan edo, which everyone loves, england for illuminations, and maybe capns grill at resort before a EMH night somewhere.

Thanks!

 

[jabead]

I might still try to do le cellier b/c DH just wants to try it. But they are steak eaters so that is good.

I am also going try for CRT, for bf for 3.5 y/o DD, teppan edo, which everyone loves, england for illuminations, and maybe capns grill at resort before a EMH night somewhere.

I think you should definitely try Le Cellier if you have the time to fit it in and are able to get a reservation, just so you can decide for yourself if this place is worth all the hype it gets. If you aren't able to eat here though, I would not give it a second thought. IMO, this place is not a must do.

However CRT is a must do, at least once anyway. We went 5 or 6 times when the kids were younger . Now that they are teenagers though they no longer enjoy character dining (in fact they think it's downright annoying )

I also think both Teppan Edo and Rose & Crown are good choices. I debated on whether to dine at Rose & Crown or Tutto Italia and sadly let the almighty $ sway my decision. The food at Tutto is so much more expensive than that at R & C that it made Tutto seem to be the better choice with the Dining Plan. However, as you can tell from my review, this turned out to be a bad decision. We have been to Rose & Crown many times and have always enjoyed it. On the other hand, Tutto is now 0 for 2 and we'll probably not give it a third try.

As for the Captain's Grill, even though we have stayed at the Yacht Club a couple of times, we have never tried it so if you do, I'd be very interested in your review .

 

[jabead]

That completes our reviews, so crunching the numbers here were our results for the 5 days which we had the regular Dining Plan...

Total value of food and drinks covered under Regular DP: $1421.33
Cost of DP for 5 adults for 5 nights: $1175.00 or $47 pp per day
Value received exceeded cost by $246.33

or taking into account what we paid in tips...

Total tips paid OOP: $158.32
Value received exceeded cost (including tips) by $88.01

Regular Dining Plan vs. DeLuxe
So not a whole lot of savings for our group with the regular plan, especially compared to the 3 days in which we had the DeLuxe Dining Plan ($570.91 or $365.92 if you include tips). I guess for our group the flexibility of the DeLuxe Plan made it a better deal. With the addition of appetizers we were easily able to share meals and stretch out 2 days worth of credits over 3 full days. However, I still don't think we could have eaten "DeLuxe" for 8 days without exploding from food overload. Someday though I'd like to try the DeLuxe plan for a few more days (maybe 4 or 5) and dine at more of the Signature restaurants (2 credits), as we haven't yet tried Artist Point, Citricos, Yachtman's Steakhouse, and Flying Fish. Maybe when our group is smaller, because $72 pp x 5 or 6 people x 7 days makes the cost of the DeLuxe Plan surpass my Disney food budget for a family trip.

TIW vs. Dining Plan Comparison
Had we used TIW (20% discount) instead of the regular Dining Plan we would have paid a total of $1269.53 (not including tips) for these five days worth of dining. The tip amount would have been the same since an 18% tip (calculated on your pre-discounted check total) is automatically assessed when you use the TIW discount. So again I found it interesting that we saved $94.53 (TIW Total cost of $1269.53 vs. Dining Plan cost of $1175) by doing the Dining Plan.

One more thing regarding TIW...even though we didn't use it nearly as much as I thought we would (we only had alchohol at one meal, for one thing ) we still came out ahead, largely due to using it for the discount on our CRT breakfast. Our total savings with the TIW card was $96.15 less the $75 membership fee means we came out ahead by $21.15. Nothing to get too excited about but better to save $20 than lose it

Next up: A Quick Review of our Reviews (aka the Best and the Worst)

 

[jabead]

Now for our "Review of our Reviews" (aka the Best and the Worst)...

Our group of 6 dined at 13 sit-down restaurants during our 8 day Disney trip. Here is the short version of our reviews.

SERVICE
Our Best Server Award goes to...Blanca at Coral Reef
Blanca was our friendliest server and really added to our enjoyment of our meal at Coral Reef. I did a search for "Blanca Coral Reef" here on the disboards and her name came up several times, all glowing reviews of her service. I feel lucky that we got to experience her exceptional service first hand.

Honorable Mention Award goes to ... Tom at Narcoossee's
Tom was very funny, he even got the teenagers in our group to laugh out loud a few times . This was our first sit-down restaurant after driving 18 hours straight to get to WDW. He did a great job of keeping us all awake, which was not an easy task .

Our Worst Server Award goes to... Our server at Tutto Italia
It's a long story, so if you want to know why Mr. Italian Waiter received this dishonor you will have to read our review.

Dishonorable Mention Award goes to ... Our server at Liberty Tree Tavern
Two words come to mind, unfriendly and pushy!


NON-ALCOHOLIC DRINKS(covered under Dining Plan)
Our Best Non-Alcoholic Drink Award goes to...Lava Smoothie at Coral Reef


Honorable Mention Award goes to...Chocolate Raspberry Milkshake and Red Maple, both from Le Cellier. DD1 also insists I mention here the iced green tea at Teppan Edo.

Also would like to mention the frozen latte from the Main St. Bakery at Magic Kingdom and the frozen raspberry lemonade from the cart across from the Toy Story Mania ride at DHS. Although they were not from a sit-down restaurants, they were both very good.

As for our Worst Award, happily none of our drinks deserve that dishonor.


APPETIZERS
Our Best Appetizer Award goes to...Tostadas at San Angel Inn
Both the chicken and crab tostadas were delicious!

Honorable Mention Award goes to...Sticky Wings at Kona Cafe and Shrimp & Crab Chowder at Narcoossee's
Both of these appetizers are deserving of this award. The Sticky Wings were excellent (just had way too many as the server mistakenly brought us two orders) and plentiful. The order is supposed to be for two but could easily be shared by four. The Shrimp & Crab Chowder was "lick the bowl clean" good. It was one of the best seafood chowders I've ever had.

The Worst Appetizer Award goes to...Crab & Spinach dip at Liberty Tree Tavern
This was served lukewarm along with stone cold (straight out of the refrigerator) pita bread. This had potential, but served at this temperature it was just YUCK!

Dishonorable Mention Award goes to...French Onion Soup at Les Chefs de France
This was such a disappointment! If you can't get a good cup of French Onion Soup at a French restaurant then where can you get one??? Actually, I'd really love to know this because I love French Onion Soup.


STEAKS (According to DS)
His Best Steak Award goes to...New York Strip Steak at Coral Reef
This was his favorite steak on our last trip to Disney in 2008. I was afraid it might have been a fluke and that he might be disappointed this time. Well, happily Coral Reef did not disappoint him or the other three of us who followed his lead and ordered the steak here.

Honorable Mention Award goes to...Filet Mignon at Narcoossee's
DS said that although this was very good (better than any of the others), it wasn't quite as good as the steak at Coral Reef.

According to DS, the steaks at the other six restaurants (Kona Cafe, San Angel Inn, Chefs de France, Teppan Edo, Le Cellier, and Raglan Road) were equally good. Since none of his steaks were bad, he left that award to be given by me.

My Worst Steak Award goes to...Ribeye Steak at Kona Cafe
This steak was full of fat and gristle. I definitely chose the wrong steak here, as those that ordered the Sirloin Strip Steak thought it was good.


ENTREES
Our Best Entree Award goes to...New York Strip Steak at Coral Reef
This was voted the best entree by 3 out of the 6 in our group.

Honorable Mention Award goes to...Whole Maine Lobster, Surf & Turf, and Filet Mignon all at Narcoossee's
The other 3 of our group each voted for a different entree as their favorite, but all three of these were at Narcoossee's.

Our Worst Entree Award goes to...Rotisserie Chicken at Les Chefs de France and Ribeye Steak at Kona Cafe (tie)
Just as DS loves steak, DD2 loves chicken but not this one. I think she will always remember it as "that yucky chicken from France".

Dishonorable Mention Award goes to...Shepherd's Pie at Raglan Road
Two out of the three that had this did not care for it, however DD2 did like it. Therefore, it only receives a dishonorable mention.


DESSERT
We had so many delicious desserts that each of us ended up having a different favorite dessert.

My Best Dessert Award goes to...the White Chocolate Mousse Dessert at San Angel Inn

DH's Best Dessert Award goes to...Strawberry and Apple Crumble at Raglan Road

DD1's Best Dessert Award goes to...Green Tea Pudding at Teppan Edo

DD2's Best Dessert Award goes to...Fruit Tart at Boardwalk Bakery

DD2's Friend's Best Dessert Award goes to... Chocolate Ginger Cake at Teppan Edo

DS's Best Dessert Award goes to...Valrhona Chocolate Cake at Narcoossee's

Although none of our desserts were bad, there were a few which were very disappointing.

Our Most Disappointing Dessert Award goes to...Copetta Sotto Bosco at Tutto Italia
The description of this dessert (Zabaglione cream gelato, berries, and chocolate sauce) sounded delicious and for $14 I figured it must be like heaven in a dessert dish . Needless to say, I was sadly disappointed. The top half of the dish was all whipped cream. Buried underneath this was a very small amount of gelato and a few berries on the bottom. Definitely not worth anywhere close to $14!

Dishonorable Mention Award goes to...Both the Apple Tart and the Ooey Gooey Toffee Cake at Liberty Tree Tavern
These desserts both had the potential to be good but they were served to us stone cold (straight out of the refrigerator cold) and as such they were not good at all!


ATMOSPHERE
Our Best Atmosphere Award goes to...San Angel Inn
Our family loves the atmosphere here! It's especially nice if you are lucky enough to snag a table by the water. It also seemed more quiet here than most of the other Disney restaurants.

Honorable Mention Award goes to...Sci-Fi Dine In
It seems our family enjoys dining in the dark Again we enjoyed the quiet here.

Our Worst Atmosphere Award goes to...Tutto Italia
Although this restaurant is pretty inside, it looks nothing like an authentic Italian restaurant. It feels more like you are eating in an art museum. Also, this was the noisiest of all the Disney restaurants.


More to come soon...

 

[jabead]

That just leaves our overall favorite/worst dining experiences of this trip.

Our favorite dining experience award goes to...Coral Reef
Coral Reef received four of our best awards...Best Server, Best Non-Alcoholic drink (covered by Dining Plan), Best Steak, and Best Entree (again for the steak).

Honorable Mention award goes to...Narcoossee's
Narcoossee's received one of our best awards (Dessert) in addition to several of our Honorable Mention awards...Server, Appetizer, Steak, and 3 Entrees (Filet, Surf & Turf, and Whole Maine Lobster).

Our group would like to give a second Honorable Mention award to...San Angel Inn
San Angel Inn received three of our best awards...Best Appetizer, Best Dessert, and Best Atmosphere. This restaurant has always been a family favorite and we have eaten here many times. However, previously we liked San Angel Inn more for its atmosphere than its food. The food was always just okay, nothing special. But this visit to San Angel Inn was a very different story. Gone from the menu were the usual items of nachos, tacos, combo platters, etc. that can be seen on most Mexican restaurant menus here in the U.S. I suspect these items will appear on the menu of the new Mexican restaurant that will be opening at Epcot in the fall. These items have been replaced by much more interesting and authentic items. As a result of these changes, we enjoyed the food at San Angel Inn just as much as we enjoyed the atmosphere.


Our worst dining experience award goes to...Tutto Italia
Tutto Italia received three of our worst awards...Worst Server, Worst Dessert (and most expensive), and Worst Atmosphere (least authentic and loudest). This was our second visit to Tutto Italia and for the second time it fell flat. I doubt that we give it a third chance, but we might try the new pizza restaurant.

Our Dishonorable Mention award goes to...Liberty Tree Tavern
Liberty Tree Tavern received one of our worst awards (Appetizer) and three Dishonorable Mention awards...Server and both of the Desserts. This was our first time having lunch here (have had dinner many times) so might give it another chance since there are few non-character sit-down dining options available at MK.

Ok, I guess that completes our reviews. Thank you for joining us on our trip down Disney Dining memory lane!

 

[Mom2Elliot]

Loved, loved, loved your reviews! Your format was great!!