PCH Grill Dinner Dining Review

[gregf71]

My family and I enjoyed a dinner here on the Friday of the D23 EXPO. Staying at the Anaheim Hilton, it was somewhat of a short walk from our hotel to Disney's Paradise Pier Hotel, where PCH Grill is located. Several weeks ago, when we heard that a dinner buffet service was being added, we made a reservation for around 7pm. When we arrived, we immediately realized that the reservation was not necessary, as easily half of the tables were open. Greeted warmly, we were immediately escorted in and given a tour of the buffet areas: the separate carving station, the main buffet, and the dessert buffet. Upon being seated, our waitress promptly visited to take our drink orders. At that same time, she informed us that we could also order, at no additional charge, a fresh made flat bread pizza; of the two options, we chose the traditional margherita. My first visit to the buffet took me to the carving station, where I got a few slices of the tri-tip, drizzling some of the sweet BBQ sauce upon it (there is a second, spicier sauce also available)...the meat was prepared perfectly, spicy, but not too much so, and the BBQ sauce was a delicious accompaniment. Scanning the main buffet area, I found most of the offerings to be tapas style, single serving. I grabbed a Tillamook mac and cheese, a small caprese salad (mozarella and tomatoes with a little pesto and balsamic drizzle), a fish taco, and a medium size pork shoulder, and a smashed potato. The only negative of this bunch was the mac and cheese. It was dry and not very flavorful. Admittedly, it was the last one on the serving tray, so it may have been sitting there under the heat for several minutes; a fresh one may have been better (but I never tried another to find out). The caprese was delicious; the fish taco was ok (not great, just ok...the shell was a tad chewy); the pork shoulder was juicy and flavorful, and the smashed potato was surprisingly good, so being as simple as it was. The hit of the meal though had to be the fresh baked flat bread pizza! Perfectly prepared, the crust was thin and crunchy, but not fragile. The tomato sauce was sweet and delicious. I wish we ordered another or one of the other kind (which I regrettably forget). The dessert buffet was where we ran into a little problem. The selections were great, but for some reason, no one noticed that they had virtually run out of most everything. We waited and watched patiently, ultimately notifying both the manager and our server. After several minutes, they were refreshed and we tried several items. The dessert filled ice cream cones were the consensus favorite, but I LOVED the haupia pudding with mango coulis. I also tried a slice of the fruit pizza, which was good, but was not pleased with my sampling of the seasonal berry crisp...strangely, I found it a bit spicy (not hot spicy), overly baking spicy (i.e. cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, etc.); not sure what exactly it was, but the spiciness overwhelmed the potential sweetness.

Overall, we enjoyed the meal. The restaurant was clean. The staff were very nice, especially our server, and attentive (to us, not so much the dessert buffet that night). For the price though and the somewhat remote location (vis a vis Disneyland), I don't know that I'd make a special effort to go over there for this again if I was at the parks. If I was staying outside the parks, like this trip, then I would definitely consider it. That said, I think adding characters to the dinner service, like they do for breakfast, might make this more appealing.