Quickie Review - Just Back

[melomouse]

Just back from 8 nights at WL with DDP in celebration of DS's 16th birthday.Here's where we ate:

Yak & Yeti Counter service
Columbia Harbour House
Wolfgang Puck Express
Roaring Forks
Artist's Palette
Ohana Breakfast
Kona Cafe
Le Cellier
Tutto Italia
Raglan Road
Whispering Canyon Cafe
Spoodles
Crystal Palace
Hollywood & Vine

Best of the bunch was Wolfgang Puck Express, with great food - homemade pasta and bang for the Dining plan buck. Raglan Road was a nice surprise - love the atmosphere and the creme brulee. Tutto Italia had the best service overall, Spoodles the worst. Kona and Le Cellier, excellent as always. Ohana Breakfast was a great disappointment, but we were there for the characters, and there was plenty of interaction.

And yes, apparently all CS places have gone to wheat bread, which breaks up and tastes stale everywhere. Rolls, grained sandwich bread - all not too great.

Hopefully, I'll be posting reviews in more detail, but if anyone has questions, fire away!

 

[MickeyNicki]

Would love to hear all about Yak & Yet and Tutto Italia...we are going to try these places for the first time in 54 days

 

[craz4disney]

our family ate at Wolfgang Express and decided it was our favorite meal out of all our meals in one week he loves the chicken my girls loved the pizza and I have some roast beef thing that was to die for!!!!! YUMMMMMMM Just thinking of it makes me want to go back to disney!

 

[TigerKat]

Subbing....

 

[ampc3]

why was Ohana bad?? have upcoming ressie for our trip? How was yak and yati too?

 

[melomouse]

Hi All - ( Dis'-ing from work as I cannot seem to get over the fact that vacation is over!! )

Yak & Yeti's Counter Service has lots of outside seating. Lots of it in the hot sun. We ordered two CS and a snack credit here to sshare among the three of us: Crispy Honey chicken, Shrimp Lo Mein and a pork fried rice as snack credit at $3.99, which was allowed on DDP. It was more than enough for the 3 of us, and the kids couldn't even finish the frozen lemonade desserts, each of which was listed as serving TWO! The chicken was best - flavorful, crisp and served with broccoli in a quart sized colorful Chinese food container. While the shrimp was plentiful, the noodles were overcooked and lacking flavor. The fried rice was good.

The cashier did well ringing up the bill, but he had to run the snack credit separately. No biggie.

Tutto Italia! Best service last August and again this trip under the new name. Tablecloths for real. No empty beverages - ever. Attentive, friendly, patient service. We had a screaming 2 year old a couple of tables away. No one flinched! A bread assortment and olive oil for dipping appeared, as well as a dish of raw and blanched veggies - the asparagus were perfect!

DD had the pork shank with root vegetbles. Although it came with polenta, she asked if she could get pasta plain instead. She did enjoy it, and I also found it rich and flavorful. They did, however, add $9.50 onto the bill as the cost for a child's pasta. I was not terribly happy, but I let it go. DS enjoyed the lasagna, a flavorful twist on the standard with bechamel sauce and a touch of nutmeg. He won't eat my homemade lasagna, but he loves it in WDW! I had the Tagliatelle with Bolognese sauce with the homemade fettucini-like noodles and a meat sauce made with veal, pork and beef! MMMM!

Dessert was chocolate gelato for DS, served with a candle and a song, while DD ordered the Blood Orange Sorbet, and I had the Zabiglione gelato with fruit and chocolate. DD and I traded. The sorbet was refreshing and true in flavor - nothing artificial in there! DD found the largest blackberry she's ever seen along with an extremely rich french vanilla gelato.

I love this place. Truly professional service with authentic food!

(oops! back to work!) Ohana later...

 

[TigerKat]

I love a good Bolognese sauce, sounds yummy!

 

[familyS]

Thanks for writing and posting your reviews

I am looking forward to reading more

 

[melomouse]

Since you asked...

Our breakfast ressie at Ohana's was for 10:50 - near the end. We were seated within 5 minutes, and it was fairly empty. Took awhile to get the coffee and juice, and our server was training a new CM. We had to ask for every beverage refill, even though we were in plain sight, outside the kitchen door on the perimeter of the room.
Many here have raved over the pineapple bread. It was just okay. When the skillet came, the scrambled eggs were in a big solid heap. Sausages were good, bacon overcooked. Didn't try the biscuits.I had some cantaloupe from the fruit tray.Mickey waffles arrived later, pretty cold. I later asked the server if he could get my a couple more that were warm. He forgot.That about covers the food.
The characters, however, were terrific! Lilo was sweet and huggy, Stitch played with DS after he pretended to drink my coffee, and Mickey of course was adorable. All took pictures and patiently signed DD's autograph book. Pluto was harder to find, but that was fine. They passed out the maracas and did the parade. Characters came by several times - much more visible than our server!
At $18.99 a head...? up to you...

 

[Kae]

Wolfgang Express was a huge hit on our last trip too. Now we have eaten at Wolfgang Express on previous trips & it was fine but then we started going to Earl's instead. Well Earls was packed so we went over to Wolfgang Express and everthing was so good, much better than I ever remembered. Ohanas we had a little better service but the best character interaction ever, the kids went crazy when Stitich came out.

Kae

 

[Minniespal]

Excellent

 

[photobob]

We tried to go to Wolgang Puck Express Monday evening and it is has been closed for refurb..

 

[WETWHISTLE]

We tried to go to Wolgang Puck Express Monday evening and it is has been closed for refurb..

I was just going to say I thought Wolfgang Puck Express was closed?

 

[wilma-bride]

Thanks for the reviews. Would love to hear about your experience at Kona as we have an ADR there in April but am second guessing because of the changes to the menu and poor reviews regarding service lately.

 

[Disneyof3]

Glad you had a good trip. Keep the reviews coming. Intrested in your meal at Crystal Palace. We have one for dinner in March and have heard nothing but great reviews and the food looks good too....

 

[melomouse]

I had expected Wolfgang Puck Express to be closed - but it was still open.Are there two of them?? We were at the one across from Virgin , down by HOB and DQ.

Kona's service was less than stellar last time, but the food so impressed us and particularly DD, that we returned. This trip our server was a bit more attentive, but it was also less busy than August. She went to great pains to explain the DDP in detail. Although not included this time, I ordered the crab cakes anyway as an appy and DS shared with me. They are flaky, flavorful, well-presented and better than any I've ever tasted.

I ordered the filet with Yukon mashed potatoes and asparagus, while DS had the teryaki shell steak with mashed and broccoli.DD ordered her prime rib again, but this time it was a bit too rare, though we had ordered everything medium, and DS and me had perfect steaks. She had a few bites and asked if it could be less rare. The waitress took it away gladly and offered to adjust the color. When the dish finally retiurned, it was a full dinner w/ sides again. DS and I were done, and she was ready for her Kona Kone.The runner offered to wrap the untouched dinner up, which we agreed to.

Desserts were great - white chocolate cheesecake for me, Kona Kone for DD and fruit chocolate fondue for DS> He went nuts for the fondue and kept recommending it to everyone for the remainder of the trip.

 

[tigger536]

Great reviews!

Yes there are two WPE. One is by HOB and DQ - the one you ate at. (This location also has Wolfgang Puck Cafe (TS) and Wolfgang Puck Upstairs (fancier TS). The other WPE is in the marketplace (kind of near RFC).