For dinner, I made my way over to Gasparilla Grill at the Grand Floridian. I've had some great salads here, and I was looking forward to getting another one.
As it turns out, Gasparilla Grill has replaced its composed salad concepts with a create-your-own salad, like what's available at AoA. For some people, this might be good news, since they can get exactly what they feel like. For me, however, this is a negative change, since the more unique salad offerings have disappeared. From the fattoush salad (a dish inspired by the Middle East containing romaine lettuce, radishes, cucumber, tomato, onion, parsley, garlic, mint, and focaccia croutons with a lemon vinaigrette) to the lobster cobb salad (with lobster, cucumber, tomato, avocado, and croutons with a ginger papaya vinaigrette), the salads here used to be very unique and flavorful.
The new protein options were chicken and 'steak' - I picked the steak. My salad also contained cucumber, tomato, pepper, broccoli, and olive.
It was fine for the most part, although the beef was relatively chewy and fatty (so I didn't finish it). Here's a picture that shows some of the beef.
Overall, I was disappointed with this dish, since the beef was mostly inedible to me, and since the flavors of this salad couldn't compare to what was once offered at Gasparilla Grill.
The redeeming factor of this meal would be the view from my outdoor table.
I also had fun observing the flock of birds that were gathering around, hoping that I would share some of my food.
It started with one.
Then a duck showed up.
Then more ducks arrived.
The number kept growing - I couldn't capture all of them in a single picture.
The first duck eventually gave up and took a nap.
On a positive note, Gasparilla Grill is currently offering a variety of unique cupcakes. I didn't try any (although I seriously wanted to - they sound great

).