I still have a day and a half left after this installment plus I was going to add some final thoughts about the dining plan. It probably won't be finished up until tomorrow. Sorry...
January 26th, continued:
Le Cellier
DH: Asian Shrimp Cocktail, New York Strip Steak, Chocolate Whiskey Cake
Me: Vine-Ripe Tomato Stack, Butternut Squash Risotto, Chocolate Whiskey Cake
DH really liked the shrimp cocktail a lot. It was his favorite part of the meal. His steak was cooked perfectly. My tomato stack was okay. I think that everything except the tomato was good, but I guess that it's hard to get decent tomatoes this time of year. The Butternut Squash Risotto was excellent. It might have been my favorite entree of the week. I was concerned after reading the menu on allearsnet.com that it would have a strong goat cheese flavor (not a big goat cheese fan). The flavor was very mild. DH and I both LOVED the pretzel bread. I had read so many great reviews about the pretzel bread, but didn't get my hopes up about in case the reviews were inflated. I have to say, they were not inflated. I also thought that the multigrain bread was good, but the sourdough was a disappointment. After our desserts the night before at Coral Reef, the Chocolate Whiskey Cake was a letdown. It certainly wasn't bad, just not on the same level as the Chocolate Wave or Chocolate Adrift.
Service: B+
Atmosphere: B
Food: B+
Friday, January 27th
My Birthday!
Pinocchio Village Haus
DH: Grilled Turkey and Bacon Panini, Vanilla Shake
Me: Cheese Pizza Combo Meal, Chocolate Shake
As I mentioned earlier, we are big Columbia Harbour House fans, but we decided to change things up and try Pinocchio's since we thought that it would be fun to sit and watch the boats from IASW take off. I didn't like the fact that the restaurant didn't open until 11am. We like to eat right at 11am and by the time the cashiers were up and running, we weren't served until 11:15am. DH usually loves panini sandwiches, but he thought that this one was only okay. My pizza was probably the worst of the three pizza CS meals I had. It was overcooked and hardly had any cheese on it. It also came with an unremarkable small salad with italian dressing. For our desserts, we both had shakes. DH described his shake as "Dairy Queen ice cream." I thought that the chocolate tasted like a Wendy's Frosty. It was definitely fun to watch the IASW boats, but I don't think that we'll be back unless it's for milkshakes on a hot afternoon. For meals, we'll stick with CHH.
Atmosphere: A
Food: D
Cinderella's Round Table
DH: Seafood Spring Roll, Filet of Beef, Chocolate Fairytale Cake
Me: Salad, Grilled Portobello Mushrooms and Roasted Asparagus, The Royal Crown Sundae
This was my birthday dinner! My review for our dinner doesn't really matter since the menu and format changed earlier this week, but I'll let you know what we thought anyhow. DH thought that the Seafood Spring Rolls were excellent. His filet was very good too. He especially liked the sauce on it. My meal was okay. The quinoa balls were pretty similar to falafel balls with a ranch dressing for dipping. I thought that the ranch dressing was pretty uninspired, but it actually tasted pretty good. Most of the vegetables were good except for what I believe were finally cut potatoes. They were basically burned on one side and raw on the other. Oh well. I was there for the atmosphere, not the food, and that did not disappoint! We were lucky enough to snag a window seat overlooking the carousel. Service was actually pretty bad. We had a hard time getting drink refills, our check, and an answer to whether or not the ice cream had eggs (it didn't). As for our desserts, the ice cream sundae was pretty ordinary, but the chocolate cake was really bad. Maybe we had too many really good pieces of chocolate cake throughout the week to spoil us. It was very dry.
Service: D
Atmosphere: A
Food: C
Saturday, January 28th
Tusker House
DH: 1/2 Rotisserie Chicken, Carrot Cake
Me: Vegetable Sandwich, Chocolate Cake
I'm a glutton for punishment and went back for the icky vegetable sandwich, but I didn't really mind because I knew we were going to Boma that night for dinner. DH's chicken was okay. He thought that it was dry for rotisserie chicken, He had it when we were there in September and thought that it was much better that time. The restaurant was significantly more crowded on this day because of the EE preview which is why I'm downgrading the atmosphere grade even though we sat in the same area.
Atmosphere: B
Food: C
Boma
DH and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Boma. Our first visit to this restaurant was only on our last trip, but I don't think that we will ever have a trip to WDW without a dinner at Boma. We arrived at AKL about a half an hour early and tried to check in. I have to say that I was a little annoyed because we have never had a problem checking into a WDW restaurant early, but they wouldn't let us do so at Boma. They told us we could only check in 5-10 minutes prior to our ADR time. Fine whatever, but what really, really annoyed me was when we went to check in at our ADR time, they were letting other people check in early and we ended up waiting almost a half an hour for our table (and at that point, we only were called for our table after I went up to see what was going on). Luckily, they had a drum player in the lobby that DD was very interested in and DH and I had a very nice conversation with a FL couple at WDW for the EE previews.
When we were seated, we were given a lovely window seat (made up for the wait). The server had a chef come and walk me though the line to go over what DD could eat. When I saw that the Butternut Squash Soup wasn't on the buffet, I said something like "oh, no butternut squash soup!" The chef was nice enough to say that she'd bring me out a bowl since they always have it at Mara. I love that soup, but I also learned on this trip that the Carrot Ginger soup is excellent as well! I started my meal out with a Zebra Dome because last time I was too stuffed to really enjoy it, but I think that I decided that I only think that they are okay. DH followed my lead with dessert first, but ate several desserts rather than just one. Bad move. I moved onto the hummus (all three are very good, and I love hummus) and salads next. I pretty much just had plateful after plateful of the salads. They are just so good. DH really liked some short ribs and a curry dish. We were allowed a smoothie in place of our drink. I had the mango and split it with DD. We both loved it. DH ordered a diet coke for his drink, but our server brought out a berry smoothie for him too. I sampled it and think that the mango was better. As we were finishing our meal, the chef brought out Rice Dream with Mickey sprinkles for DD and a bowl of gummy bears (she wasn't interested in those). This was my favorite meal of our trip for the second trip in a row. If you are looking for a good meal for a vegetarian, this is the place to go.
Service: D for check in staff, A+ for server and chef
Atmosphere: A
Food: A+++++++
January 26th, continued:
Le Cellier
DH: Asian Shrimp Cocktail, New York Strip Steak, Chocolate Whiskey Cake
Me: Vine-Ripe Tomato Stack, Butternut Squash Risotto, Chocolate Whiskey Cake
DH really liked the shrimp cocktail a lot. It was his favorite part of the meal. His steak was cooked perfectly. My tomato stack was okay. I think that everything except the tomato was good, but I guess that it's hard to get decent tomatoes this time of year. The Butternut Squash Risotto was excellent. It might have been my favorite entree of the week. I was concerned after reading the menu on allearsnet.com that it would have a strong goat cheese flavor (not a big goat cheese fan). The flavor was very mild. DH and I both LOVED the pretzel bread. I had read so many great reviews about the pretzel bread, but didn't get my hopes up about in case the reviews were inflated. I have to say, they were not inflated. I also thought that the multigrain bread was good, but the sourdough was a disappointment. After our desserts the night before at Coral Reef, the Chocolate Whiskey Cake was a letdown. It certainly wasn't bad, just not on the same level as the Chocolate Wave or Chocolate Adrift.
Service: B+
Atmosphere: B
Food: B+
Friday, January 27th
My Birthday!
Pinocchio Village Haus
DH: Grilled Turkey and Bacon Panini, Vanilla Shake
Me: Cheese Pizza Combo Meal, Chocolate Shake
As I mentioned earlier, we are big Columbia Harbour House fans, but we decided to change things up and try Pinocchio's since we thought that it would be fun to sit and watch the boats from IASW take off. I didn't like the fact that the restaurant didn't open until 11am. We like to eat right at 11am and by the time the cashiers were up and running, we weren't served until 11:15am. DH usually loves panini sandwiches, but he thought that this one was only okay. My pizza was probably the worst of the three pizza CS meals I had. It was overcooked and hardly had any cheese on it. It also came with an unremarkable small salad with italian dressing. For our desserts, we both had shakes. DH described his shake as "Dairy Queen ice cream." I thought that the chocolate tasted like a Wendy's Frosty. It was definitely fun to watch the IASW boats, but I don't think that we'll be back unless it's for milkshakes on a hot afternoon. For meals, we'll stick with CHH.
Atmosphere: A
Food: D
Cinderella's Round Table
DH: Seafood Spring Roll, Filet of Beef, Chocolate Fairytale Cake
Me: Salad, Grilled Portobello Mushrooms and Roasted Asparagus, The Royal Crown Sundae
This was my birthday dinner! My review for our dinner doesn't really matter since the menu and format changed earlier this week, but I'll let you know what we thought anyhow. DH thought that the Seafood Spring Rolls were excellent. His filet was very good too. He especially liked the sauce on it. My meal was okay. The quinoa balls were pretty similar to falafel balls with a ranch dressing for dipping. I thought that the ranch dressing was pretty uninspired, but it actually tasted pretty good. Most of the vegetables were good except for what I believe were finally cut potatoes. They were basically burned on one side and raw on the other. Oh well. I was there for the atmosphere, not the food, and that did not disappoint! We were lucky enough to snag a window seat overlooking the carousel. Service was actually pretty bad. We had a hard time getting drink refills, our check, and an answer to whether or not the ice cream had eggs (it didn't). As for our desserts, the ice cream sundae was pretty ordinary, but the chocolate cake was really bad. Maybe we had too many really good pieces of chocolate cake throughout the week to spoil us. It was very dry.
Service: D
Atmosphere: A
Food: C
Saturday, January 28th
Tusker House
DH: 1/2 Rotisserie Chicken, Carrot Cake
Me: Vegetable Sandwich, Chocolate Cake
I'm a glutton for punishment and went back for the icky vegetable sandwich, but I didn't really mind because I knew we were going to Boma that night for dinner. DH's chicken was okay. He thought that it was dry for rotisserie chicken, He had it when we were there in September and thought that it was much better that time. The restaurant was significantly more crowded on this day because of the EE preview which is why I'm downgrading the atmosphere grade even though we sat in the same area.
Atmosphere: B
Food: C
Boma
DH and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Boma. Our first visit to this restaurant was only on our last trip, but I don't think that we will ever have a trip to WDW without a dinner at Boma. We arrived at AKL about a half an hour early and tried to check in. I have to say that I was a little annoyed because we have never had a problem checking into a WDW restaurant early, but they wouldn't let us do so at Boma. They told us we could only check in 5-10 minutes prior to our ADR time. Fine whatever, but what really, really annoyed me was when we went to check in at our ADR time, they were letting other people check in early and we ended up waiting almost a half an hour for our table (and at that point, we only were called for our table after I went up to see what was going on). Luckily, they had a drum player in the lobby that DD was very interested in and DH and I had a very nice conversation with a FL couple at WDW for the EE previews.
When we were seated, we were given a lovely window seat (made up for the wait). The server had a chef come and walk me though the line to go over what DD could eat. When I saw that the Butternut Squash Soup wasn't on the buffet, I said something like "oh, no butternut squash soup!" The chef was nice enough to say that she'd bring me out a bowl since they always have it at Mara. I love that soup, but I also learned on this trip that the Carrot Ginger soup is excellent as well! I started my meal out with a Zebra Dome because last time I was too stuffed to really enjoy it, but I think that I decided that I only think that they are okay. DH followed my lead with dessert first, but ate several desserts rather than just one. Bad move. I moved onto the hummus (all three are very good, and I love hummus) and salads next. I pretty much just had plateful after plateful of the salads. They are just so good. DH really liked some short ribs and a curry dish. We were allowed a smoothie in place of our drink. I had the mango and split it with DD. We both loved it. DH ordered a diet coke for his drink, but our server brought out a berry smoothie for him too. I sampled it and think that the mango was better. As we were finishing our meal, the chef brought out Rice Dream with Mickey sprinkles for DD and a bowl of gummy bears (she wasn't interested in those). This was my favorite meal of our trip for the second trip in a row. If you are looking for a good meal for a vegetarian, this is the place to go.
Service: D for check in staff, A+ for server and chef
Atmosphere: A
Food: A+++++++
A sticky for vegetarian dining reviews/experiences...it's hard to find threads so we know what we're getting at certain restaurants 
...and obviously there are quite a few of us!
I'm so sad they changed the sandwich at Tusker House...I hadn't tried that one yet. Maybe they'll change it back?
) Except it didn't get better for us...our server lectured us about how we should just be happy to be there and the chefs seemed to be avoiding us, so we skipped anything we weren't sure about. This was in 2003 and we're just now considering trying it for dinner again. We had also been to breakfast that year and everything was great.
