Plain Jane dining reviews Dec 11 - 17

[handinpocket]

Sorry folks no pictures.

I'm just going to get right to the meat of it, let's go:

Day 1

Raglan Road: We arrived pretty late and decided to have an early supper. Raglan Road was a ghost town and we were seated immediately at 5:30. We started with a beer flight (league of nations) and the crock of pate. The beer was phenomenal, as always. The pate was a bit different than usual. Mind you, it was still good but it had a firmer consistency in years past....today it was runny. Yummy, but runny and I don't prefer my pate to be runny. I'm happy to report those horrible little soda muffins have been replaced by slices of soda bread, this was much better. On to the entrees.
We had 3 adults and 2 children. The adults chose the lamb shank, the serious sirloin and the It's not bleedin' chowder. The children had the burger and macaroni and cheese.

The lamb shank was heavenly, truly one of the best entrees of the trip. It was HUGE, think bigger than a turkey leg and fall off the bone tender with an amazing rosemary glaze. It was served with perfectly cooked crisp vegetables and creamy mashed potatoes. A true winner.

The serious sirloin - it was a solid steak. I wouldn't give it a great rating, but it was very good. It was cooked to perfection, rare, and the mashed potatoes and onion straws complimented the steak nicely. The only complaint was, there was a bit of gristle, but with a sirloin, that is to be expected.

The It's not bleedin' chowder - was heaven in a bowl. Seriously, it was just lovely. It is an enormous portion, but it is just so savory and so yummy, you have to eat it all. The prawns, mussels, scallops and salmon were cooked just right....no rubbery seafood in this feast. They were all blended in a wonderful creamy sauce with potatoes and onions. I'm dreaming about eating this again.

Kids meals - the kid's mac and cheese is "different", it is white cheese with a little bit of a bite, but the child loved it. It came with lovely chips that were crisp on the outside, soft on the inside and lovely with vinegar. The kids burger...was not good. It was a tiny little patty that had been cooked to death with a huge, huge bun.

Desserts

Ger's Bread Pudding - Very good, but a really heavy ending to a really heavy meal.

Dundon's delight - Raspberry pavlova with ice cream. Light, refreshing and perfect. My favorite dessert of the trip. It was a meringue cloud with with raspberry sauce, fresh raspberries, mint and ice cream.

Creme Brulee Tart - Creamy with hints of vanilla but very heavy.

 

[handinpocket]

Day 2

Biergarten

This has always been a tried a true favorite since the Akershus was ruined by the princesses.......not today however.

We had a reservation at 12:00 and was about 10 minutes late checking in due to the HUGE check in line. We were seated after a 10 minute wait with a party of 3. Here is where things start to go downhill.......

The party of 3 looks at the german hostess and says, "do we have to sit with them?!" The poor little waitress looks like a deer in the headlights and says, why yes, it is communal seating. They were NOT happy. They gave us glares and stomped off to the table..... After being seated the party of 3 pulls their chairs as far away from us as possible and huddles together. Don't ask me, we are friendly folks and don't stink....I guess they had hoped to have a private table.

We get in line for the buffet. OMG, what a nightmare!! The line is crazy!! I waited 30 minutes just to get my plate and get food, crazy.

The food, I'm not even going to give it a mediocre rating. It was pretty darn bad. The soup was not the heavenly potato and leek soup...oh no, it had been replaced by sausage and barley and it was awful. The shnitzel was no longer pork but dried out chewy chicken. The dill salmon was so fishy it was offensive, the pork roast was dried out and needed about 5 minutes of chewing to finish one bite. The potato salad was good ( the hot and cold) and the purple cabbage was tasty too....that is pretty much all I ate.

Just had to add, that the party of 3 dining with us, was openly hostile during the whole meal. When they did make eye contact (accidentally), they looked thoroughly disgusted. They made snide remarks about our children singing the oy, oy song. Come on, who DOESN'T sing the OY OY song at Biergarten when the band is playing?! Thank god we decided to forgo the huge tankards of beer, that might have sent them over the edge.

Crossing Biergarten off my list, it was that bad.

 

[handinpocket]

Day 2 Cont.

Mexican counter service - sorry forgot the name

This was really good. We had the Tacos el carbon and the nachos.

The Tacos el Carbon were a huge portion. I know I have read that they were tiny but they were not, they were more than enough to fill my husband up and he made full use of the green verde sauce and the hot picante sauce at the stands.

The nachos were huge, absolutely huge and were great! I got extra cheese, sour cream and jalepenos and that was all included with the dining plan. The chips were crispy and the beans, beef and all the toppings made it an excellent use of a cs credit.

Dessert was the churros. They were ok. We ate them all, so no disappointments here.

 

[handinpocket]

Day 3

Hurricane Hannah's

3 Angus cheeseburgers with fries and a Mickey Bar. These are some of the best burgers on property. There are no nasty wheat buns here, oh no, these are luscious and huge white buns and they grill the buns before putting the patty on there. The patties are huge and juicy and topped with lettuce and tomato. The fries are fresh and crispy and the mickey bars were just great. Couldn't ask for a better counter service meal!


The Turf Club

The Turf Club has always been a favorite and our reservation was for 7:30 that night. We arrived at 7:10 and ordered a few cocktails from the lounge - 2 pear martinis and a key lime coconut martini. They were good but certainly not worth the 11 dollars each. I don't know how you can skimp on alcohol when making a martini, but the Turf Club figured it out!

We waited, and waited and waited. I finally went back up to the check in podium at 8:15 (they had been seating EVERYBODY but us). The girl just looked at me and said, it will be a few more minutes. At 8:45, I returned the pager and just told them to forget about it, the food definitely wasn't worth that wait.

Soooo, off we went to Captain Hook's at the Polynesian. We found a table and then I ordered 2 double cheeseburgers, 2 aloha pork sandwiches and a flatbread pepperoni pizza. The double cheeseburgers were good, not on par with hurrican hannah's but good. The pork sandwiches were awesome, just loved them and the fried wontons served with them. We dipped the wontons in the honey mustard sauce from the station with napkins and such. The flatbread was just ok. I wish they would do away with flatbreads and bring back a more traditional crust, but it was ok, just burnt in a few places and the cheese and pepperoni weren't very evenly distributed.

The star of the meal was the dole whips. We loved our make your own and all opted for the vanilla and pineapple.

 

[crazycatlady]

Great reviews!

I agree about the Biergarten not being as good as I remembered it from our last visit. It was the one sit-down restaurant that we went to in 2009 and we had a great lunch. When we had the DDP in 2010 it was a must-do because of the past experience, but the food was not nearly as good. I don't know if it was because it was dinner instead of lunch or what, but it went into the "skip next year" group. I would try it again some time, just not the next time. They didn't have the potato leek soup when we were there, either.

 

[handinpocket]

Day 4

Columbia Harbor House

It was crazy crowded. No, seriously, you do not understand it was CRAZY!! We waited at least 40 min. in line before we could order!!

My husband took the kids and found us a table. I know some people are against that but it was so crowded that we needed to secure a table.

We ordered Shrimp plate, two fish and fries, one fish and chicken and fries and one salad.

It was awesome. Out of this world good. The shrimp platter consisted of 15 perfect shrimp with coleslaw and fries. It was so good. The fish was nice and crisp and very tasty. The salad was far superior to any CS salad we have ever had.

The only donwn side was the crowds. There were people trying to start fights over tables....ridiculous.