Our walk up SCI-FI lunch and V&A dinner

[fairycat]

The cast is simple

Stupid Monkey*- DH the meat eater, who loves good food and will try just about anything

Poppet- Me the lacto-ovo veggy who will also try anything as long as its veggie and the Birthday girl!!!

**The names came from a recent party game were we had to pick pirate names both historical and from movies we both went with POTC names which have stuck for now, especially when his 5 year old brother heard them hehehe!

We originally had three TS ADR's but sadly had to cancel one before the trip (Citrico's to meet his Bro at Universal instead) and one during the trip (because Jiko's and the F&W festival do not mix sadly ), but we kept our V&A ADR of course.

Sci-Fi

We arrived on a red eye from Los Angeles on October 7th and after checking in at the Poly we headed over to MGM, we rode a few things and decided we were hungry, but after looking at ABC I have to say the selections looked as bad as I had heard from reviews so we decided to walk over to Sci-fi and see if we could get in, well we were thrilled to learn we could, so we put our names in and waited. I will add here I think others with larger parties were having issues getting seated even with ADR's but having a small party I believe is what helped. In case any one was wondering no one at this point asked how we were paying.I was not expecting a lot of the food but thought this place would be fun for my Sci-fi loving Monkey and we were starving!!!!!!

Rather quickly we were seated (though they had some issue with some people who had originally been seated in the first two rows of a car taking up all three, but they left them in all three and sat us in another car), we got the back seat and I giggled that they must trust us a lot to put us in the back seat . We were seated and given menu's and realised that though hungry with being so tired we didn't want a lot to eat so we decided to share a salad, an order of onion rings and the apple strudle dessert. Our waitress was very nice about us sharing and was great about helping us chose a drink (I don't remember what it was but it was fruity, alcoholic, good and had a light up ice cube!).

She was also super nice about getting me some water quickly so I could take an Emergen'C ( a mega dose of vitamins that I had been taking to help keep off some ick I had and to help keep me awake) we also chatted about it, at some point a nice family was seated in front on us. This girl was great (I need to find her name to give her huge bravos!), she helped us perfectly and was really cute with the kids in front of us. She was personable and quick with getting everything for all of us.

We got our food including the salad that she split on two plates, which was simple and pretty good, the onion rings were very YUMMY! and the apple dessert with ice cream was excellent. The view of the movie trailers was too fun and makes us want to go find some of these winners This was a great surprise stop over and for lunch it was a great place to go I am very glad we got in!

Victoria and Albert's

Let me start with this is not the first fine dining with Disney we have done, back for NYE 2007 we did Napa Rose's coursed menu at Disneyland. We had some idea of what to expect and VERY high expectations, especially myself since my menu there had been one of the best meals I have ever had.

We arrived a little early dressed and ready to go and were instructed to wait outside. They called us in and were seated, in the very empty restaurant. It seems this late seating (9:15pm) was fairly light this evening. The place is smaller then we expected but very pretty, the harpist was lovely and a nice touch, though I think the outfits are personally not as nice as some others I have seen it still felt like a very nice place.

Our servers introduced themselves Ann and some other gentleman whose name I forgot and didn't serve us as often as Ann did except to fill our waters which were always quickly filled.

I of course had the vegetarian menu and DH went with the meat menu though against my advice, as we felt at Napa Rose more effort had been made with the veggy menu then the standard menu and in the end DH wished he had listened to me. Sorry Monkey!

I had little choices but was ok with what was offered and chose the Mango-
Blood Orange Gelato and Monkey chose the cheese pairing which we were going to share and for dessert the Grand Marnier Souffle and the Creme Brulle also to share. We also requested red wine pairings which we recieved but sadly when I asked to have them written down I was told they would be on the menu, which they were not which was too bad since I would have liked to have tried to find some of them later.

This was one of the issues we had with the service, they seemed often like they wanted to drop our food and run off sometimes even as we were beginning to ask a question (this didn't happen just once but several times ). Sadly the service was not as good as what we had hoped for or for what we were paying. In fact our service was more personable at Sci-fi but I wouldn't say it was awful.

Amuse Bouche
Brut Rose

Poppet- Roasted Butternut Squash Soup (with a side of squash puree)- delicious!!!!!!!!!! This was in fact one of the best things all night, it was smooth, flavorful and just lovely. I threatened to lick the tureen (bad choice of dish since some got lost in the cervices), but I minded my manners

S.M.- he can't remember but he thinks it was crab and it wasn't that great but he is not a big crab fan

1st Course-Red Wine French???

Poppet- Heirloom Tomatos w/braised fennel Hearts of Palm and 100 year old Balsamic vinager
This dish sadly was only ok, I felt the tomatos were a bit grainy and the salad like toppings didn't really have enough flavor, though the vinager was very good (and expensive, served on the dish by dropper, decoratively), the vinager did shine but did not serve to flavor all of the tomato that was served. But I would say it was refreshing and the wine was very nice that was paired here. But overall I would say this dish was forgetable.

The bread and butter I would like to add was ok, the bread was in no way the best I have had and in fact the bagette was not very flavorful it was just floury, but the butter was very nice. Funny since I don't tend to like butter especially on bread.

S.M.- Walnut Oil Seared Duck w/ Hearts of Palm, Huckleberry Vinigrette and Fourme D' Abert Fondue- He felt the fondue was very good but the rest was only ok, he felt in the end most of it was unmemorable. But I know he talked about wanting a whole bowl of the fondue at the time. The duck was ok at best.

2nd Course-
Red Wine French? Unknown (I believe this is the course we recieved one extra wine a Spainish wine that was fruity and quite nice)

Poppet- Handmade Potato Gnocchi w/ Scottish Chanterelles and Black Truffles
I would say first when Monkey recieved a spoon for his consomme I noticed all my broth and also wanted a spoon, after recieving a odd how uncouth face from our server I did and was happy I did, even if I did a clear faux pas. I can't say I tasted the truffles but the mushrooms were stunning in this lovely brothy dish and the gnocchi was pretty good. This had a homey flavor with a touch of richness.

S.M.- Ballotine of Poulet Rouge w/ chicken Consomme, Scottish Chanterelles and Black truffles- He said was Ok it tasted pretty much like a bowl of broth with some stuff in it, it really didn't do much for him either way.

3rd Course-
Red Wine again unknown French or possibly Californian

Poppet- Vegetable Ratatoullie Stuffed Tempura Squash Bloom I wish I remember this one more, I remember it being nice not heavy, the ratatoullie was good, but sadly this one was again not memorable. But was still good.

S.M.- Gulf Shrimp served two ways we can't remember if the shrimp came with watermelon or the Amuse Buche was crab in watermelon but either way he didn't like it he thought it was too fruity and not well matched he didn't care for it no matter what seafood it was. He did like the tempura shrimp though

4th Course-
Lynmar Pinot Noir for Poppet
Seqouia Grove Carbernet Sauvingon Napa- for S.M.

Poppet Bamboo Rice and Artichoke Risotto with Fall Vegetables
On the plate I had in a small cup the garlic potatos that SM also had, a mix of veggies and a bowl of the rice rissoto. The garlic potatos were odd and had a smokey almost meaty flavor that turned me off, even after taking this one for leftovers I still was not into the flavor. The veggies were in a light sauce and over all good though some seemed a smidge under cooked, the candied small potatos were very good, but the Rice Risotto though a bit salty was excellent. It was again homey but complex, it was very delicious and would be my second favorite thing all night (number one the soup!), I am glad I learned a lesson from my last coursed meal to not be afraid to take things home, because I enjoyed the rice risotto just as much the second time!

SM Kansas City Angus Beef w/Candied Yukon Potatos- He loved the garlic mash potatos and the candied potatos where really good as was all the sides with this, but felt the beef was nothing special and that it hadn't even been seasoned, but it was cooked correctly. He wanted more of everything on the plate but the beef was just not as good as a restaurant of this quality should serve.

5th Course
Cockburn's 10 year old Tawny Port
Paolo Saracco Moscato D' Asti

I originally ordered the Gelato and S.M. the cheese platter but for some reason they switched them on us, which was ok on the Port but not ok with me on the Moscato, in the end they did bring us a second glass of the moscato which made both of us happy campers!

I tried one of the cheeses and quickly learned this was not for me and S.M. felt the same about the gelato and we switched plates. He found the cheese selection to be good and I liked the gelato, neither was outstanding or special but both were good.

6th course
Coffee (we were a little sad they did not have a dessert liqour or something for this course as we had at Napa Rose but enjoyed the coffee a lot)

We shared the souffle and S.M. ate a couple bites of the Creme Brulle there and we took the rest home with us. While I learned I am not a huge souffle fan I thought this was good and the sauce was delicious! The Creme Brulle was so worth taking home and enjoying when we weren't so full, it was good, not the best or the worst we have ever had but good.

Overall the experience was fun and a nice part of our trip I wish that the service had been a little better, though it was very nice of Anne to take us back to see the chef's table. But it was a very nice evening that we are so glad we did. I would go again for sure if we could get the chef's table.

 

[Minniespal]

Enjoyed reading your review, thanks for posting.

 

[bunnyfoo]

I ate at V&A for the first time on our most recent trip. We did the earlier seating (5:30) on a Saturday and the main dining room seemed to be about 70% full - there were more groups than there were couples it seemed. We had 2 "Victorias" serving us and I wasn't terribly thrilled with the one who took our orders (I can't remember her name). She seemed rushed and didn't stop to ask if we had any questions about our menus (on which my last name was spelled incorrectly). Fortunately, she only stopped by occasionally and our other waitress was around a lot more. I did watch the other waiters, waitresses and hostesses interact with the other guests and it seemed like they were the complete opposite. I wondered if she had a different attitude with us because we looked younger. I dunno...

 

[Prinny27]

Thank you for your reviews! It's terrible that you had such bad service at V&A's. DH and I ate there for our honeymoon this past May for the first time and thought it was just fabulous. All of our wine pairings were on our menus and the food (espeically the Japanese Kobe beef!) was amazing. We had two 'Alberts', one whose name I cannot remember, and Allen who was so attentive and was very personable. He relaxed us and made it a really fun evening, as opposed to a stiff, uptight one. He was so wonderful, in fact, that at the end of the night he gave us a card and wrote his home phone number on it, telling us that if we ever had trouble getting a reservation from the main dining line, to give him a call and he would see what he could do to get us a seating. Now *that's* service!

 

[John's Mom]

Thanks for posting your reviews.

 

[fairycat]

First I wanted to say I finished up S.M.'s reviews, sadly they were hard to get as he had forgotten most of what he had eaten

I also felt I should add some of the opinions S.M. and I had been sharing, during our meal and this afternoon while discussing his opinions on his food. Both of us agreed we felt the meal was not worth the price, we most likely would only go back if we did the Chef's Table. S.M. also reminded me at V&A I had said that I felt the menu had been "dumbed" down a bit for a standard tourist, S.M. agreed. We both felt they were afraid to take chances when they have so many tastebuds to appeal to. We knew we would never be served a egg yolk with foam and cavier at V&A, a course S.M. had been served at Napa Rose. No offense to anyone meant it just felt like they were taking in account the steak and potatos people up to the more experienced foody, but focusing somewhere in the middle. Which while needed in a tourist center just feels a bit unfair for the price.

I admit we are foodies so have very high expectations, but having dined with Disney before we were hoping that a location that does this kind of coursed meal nightly would far exceed a one night affair but sadly it didn't. I will say I think that the service is want made us most disappointed, the food was good but it just wasn't great.

Prinny27- the reason our wine was not on the menu is because we wanted to switch the white wines at the beginning of the course with red's, we have all the whites on the menus still. I am sad our server didn't think (when I specifically asked) of this cause I really did like a few of the wine pairings the chef chose. The only red's we know we had were later in the pairings since they were pre-selected.


Thanks everyone for reading!

 

[The Red Head]

The first time we ate at V&A I was not as impressed with it as I wanted to be, because I had heard so many great things about it. I have eaten at Napa Rose and Club 33 and have always enjoyed the meals we have eaten at both of those places. The next time we ate at V&A we booked the chef's table rather than the regular dining room and that was a world of difference. We had the best meal and a great experience. I am waiting for our 90 day window to open up to try to book it for our next trip.