Review of 3 Days of Dining, including La Hacienda, Jiko & Narcoossee's; with photos

[k&a&c'smom]

DD(21) and I made a quick, 3-night trip to the World last week. Here is my review of our dining.

La Hacienda de San Angel
Grand Floridian Café – breakfast x3
Garden View Tea Lounge
Jiko
Raglan Road – lunch
Narcoossee’s
Yak & Yeti – lunch

On our first night, we checked into the GF around 6:00 p.m., and tried to make it to our dinner reservation at La Hacienda by 7:00 p.m. Due to the usual snags, we were about 35 minutes late, but we were still given a pager and waited another 30 minutes or so for a table. We were seated in the main room, we were not next to the windows but still had a decent view of the water and Illuminations.

Immediately ordered two margaritas, the Lime Raspberry for DD and the Cucumber from La Cava for me – our server sent their “Tequila Ambassador” over for my drink. We also ordered a shot of Don Julio Reposado, so we could get that wonderful sangrita. All were yummy.

We enjoyed the chips and salsa, we thought the tomatillo version was better than the chipotle type. We were so hungry, we ate far too many chips! For an appetizer, we had the Botana – very good, but I forgot to take a photo.

DD ordered the tilapia, and I ordered the taquiza appetizer for my entrée, with a side of esquitas. Everything was very flavorful, we agreed that this was a new favorite. We loved the fresh corn tortillas; they were a bit thicker than we expected, but so soft and the flavor was good. Side note - the taquiza appetizer has the same 3 meat bases as the Botana (beef, pork, chicken), for anyone wanting to sample several items.
Tilapia:

Taquiza:

We were not sure what to expect from this restaurant, it gets very mixed reviews here on the DIS. On the night we were there, everything was perfect - food, drinks, service. Loved it!

 

[k&a&c'smom]

Grand Floridian Café is a long time favorite for breakfast and lunch. DD and I had breakfast here every morning, and each time we had nearly the same thing, so I’ll just review the first meal.

DD ordered coffee, and I had a small OJ and water. She got the regular Eggs Benedict, and I had the Citrus pancakes – both very good, as usual. The coffee is no longer Nescafe, it’s now from a different vendor, and DD declared it much better.

On our subsequent mornings, the only things that changed were the Tropical Splash juice (OJ & strawberry puree) and side of potatoes (sadly, the potatoes are now a hash brown casserole-type wedge, rather than the nice breakfast potatoes we are used to), and I had lobster eggs Benedict rather than regular on our last morning.

The lobster EB is slightly different yet again, with lobster bread pudding as the base, rather than the brioche. With the Hollandaise, lobster sauce and egg yolk, the bread pudding makes the dish just a tad too rich – but it was still very good.

 

[k&a&c'smom]

The Garden View Lounge was just as wonderful as usual. We both ordered the Grand Tea, which comes with a glass of Domain St. Michelle sparkling wine – very nice. The sandwiches were much as usual, though the chicken salad is now a curried version that we enjoyed even more. For dessert, DD had the strawberries and cream, which were sweet and delicious, and I had the two pastries. Sorry to say, we didn’t take photos of this meal.


Our dinner at Jiko was delicious, as always. We arrived a bit late (a theme for this trip, lol) and were given a pager, so we grabbed a table in the bar. DD ordered a Hanging Out in Cape Town, which took forever, there were a number of people in the bar and waiting for a table, and the bartender was absent much of the time. When she did reappear, she seemed harried and a bit confused. This may explain the taste of the drink, which we both agreed was horrible! Like tangerine cough syrup.

When we were seated at our table, we explained to our server, who immediately removed the offending drink and volunteered a replacement – DD wanted a glass of wine with dinner, so that worked out well. They brought her a glass of the Cederburg Cabernet Sauvignon, which was incredible! I had a small sampling (couldn’t get my own as I was driving), and it was one of the best Cabs I’ve had. Very soft, rather more like Pinot Noir than Cabernet, which probably explains why we liked it so much.

We ordered the Kalamata Olive flatbread, a favorite and must-do each visit. As always, it was delicious. DD ordered the beef short rib for her entrée, and I had the grilled shrimp curry. The shrimp was delicious, with the coconut basmati and vegetables, but I was sorry I hadn’t ordered the short rib. It was that good!
Curried shrimp:

Yummy short rib:

For dessert, we had the amarula crème brulee. It was executed very well, the brulee top was nicely done, very crisp and required a sharp stab to break it – just as it should. The crème had a subtle flavor, and wasn’t too cold, as often happens. With a couple cappuccinos, it was the perfect ending.

 

[k&a&c'smom]

Lunch at Raglan Road was quieter than our previous visit for dinner, but we were glad to be back, as we had enjoyed it so much last summer. We both had iced tea, which was brewed on site and very good. Ordered the Dalkey Duo and the Crock o’Pate as appetizers; both were good, but the little sausages and mustard are always a hit! The pate was tasty, it was covered in a berry compote and came with soft grilled sourdough bread, but a huge portion. We were sad to leave most of it behind.

For entrees, we chose the Cashel Castle salad with shrimp, and the lobster club sandwich with the soup of the day – Colcannon, which is a cabbage, bacon and leek soup. Both were very good, but I felt the shrimp weren’t a necessary addition to the salad; they were grilled separately, and simply added to the plate, no real reason for them to be there.

Sorry, we did not get photos of our Raglan Road meal.

Our dinner at Narcoossee’s was early, reservation was for 5:35. We arrived around 5:45, and were seated within 10 minutes or so. We were seated at a table for two against the wall of the upper tier. DD had a nice view of the water.

We started off with a couple glasses of Iron Horse Fairy Tale Cuvee, which was decent but oddly, not as good as the Domain St. Michelle we had at the tea room. It seemed a bit less bubbly than usual.

DD and I decided we would have a variety of appetizers, rather than entrees. We chose the beet salad, tuna tataki, crab cake, shrimp and crab chowder, and brie en croute. We only got photos of a couple of the choices, and of the dessert, the almond crusted cheesecake. DD asked for extra cherry sauce, which we expected to be served on the side; instead, they put a double serving of the sauce on the plate. I had a couple bites, it was very good as usual. DD loves the compote so much, she left her last bite of cheesecake in favor of the vanilla whipped cream and cherries!
Beet salad:

Tuna:

Almond cheesecake:

 

[k&a&c'smom]

Our last meal was at Yak & Yeti. We discovered this restaurant last summer, and made an extra effort to go back this visit, on our last day. It’s a beautiful restaurant, and we were seated upstairs this time.

We had iced tea to drink. Decided to split the dim sum basket and the combo lo mein – both were excellent, though the lo mein noodles are a bit thin, more like vermicelli. Still, the flavors were very good. Had the pineapple wontons for dessert, and they were as good as everyone has posted. Wonderful sauce, we wanted to lick the plate!

This is the only photo we got of this meal, the pineapple wontons:

Thus ends our 3-day dining review. Hope you enjoyed it, wish I had more photos to share. We kind of dropped the ball this time.

 

[MyTwoPrincesses]

We also loved La Hacienda de San Angel on March 5. The food really is great!

 

[lilandvisma]

Thanks for sharing your reviews!!! With 3 kids now I also seem to always be running late anymore Hope you had a great trip!

 

[chocolateMinnie]

great reviews so far

 

[iluvpluto27]

Thanks for sharing your reviews. I really enjoyed them.

 

[iluvpluto27]

Thanks for sharing your reviews. I really enjoyed them.

 

[k&a&c'smom]

Thanks, everyone, glad you enjoyed the reviews! Sorry, I played around in my Photobucket account this afternoon, and must have broken my photo links. I hope they are visible now.

MyTwoPrincesses - You were at La Hacienda just two days before us. Glad to hear it was just as good then. I enjoyed your dining reviews, btw.

lilandvisma - Thanks, we did have a great trip, albeit a short one. Luckily, we've been so many times that a short trip works well. Not to mention, my kids are all adults, so it's easier to get places. I guess I've just outed myself as having no excuse for being late to nearly every reservation this trip.

 

[vinotinto]

Thanks for posting. I had wondered about La Hacienda. Nice to see the pics!

 

[jedijill]

Great reviews from another Missouri girl!

Jill in CO (originally from MO!)

 

[k&a&c'smom]

vinotinto - Glad you liked the photos. We very much enjoyed La Hacienda, and hope that it continues to be as good as the night we were there. Thought it was so cute that they had a runner called the "Tequila Ambassador" to fetch things from La Cava!

jedijill - howdy, former neighbor! Have you had a better winter than we have here? I hope so, our area got 2 foot of snow, with a couple inches of ice under it, in one storm this year. I think we had 41 inches overall that month, ick. Of course, CO has a lot of snow, so you are probably laughing at my disgust.

 

[jedijill]

jedijill - howdy, former neighbor! Have you had a better winter than we have here? I hope so, our area got 2 foot of snow, with a couple inches of ice under it, in one storm this year. I think we had 41 inches overall that month, ick. Of course, CO has a lot of snow, so you are probably laughing at my disgust.

Actually, I"m in Denver and we've been DRY DRY DRY! The mountains have had record snow but not much down here. I am happy that spring is finally here though.

Jill in CO

 

[princess aleya]

Great review!