Slightly Delayed Dining Review - with Pictures - updated 3/2 Sunshine Season and Jiko

[Flossbolna]

I'm so glad you posted those Mara photos and tips. We will be there this summer and I love seeing the restaurant area. It just gets me more excited about our upcoming trip!

BTW, love your reviews so far....more, more, more!!!!

I think Mara is a beautifully themed restaurant, I really like it a lot!! AKL is fantastic!

I was glad to see a review for Teppan Edo, I am considering it for a trip this year. But are you sure your picture is chicken and not steak? Either you have your pics mixed up, or that is some nasty looking chicken and I think I'll pass!

I guess you are right, this is the steak. When I looked at it on photbucket I realized it was only one type of meat, but the picture was much smaller, so I decided it had to be the chicken...

Where are your Zebra Domes???

Elin, pleas don't tell anyone. You have discovered my secret: I don't like Zebra Domes I guess this is the reason why I am not an official member of the Wilbunch Gang

 

[PNO4TE]

Elin, pleas don't tell anyone. You have discovered my secret: I don't like Zebra Domes I guess this is the reason why I am not an official member of the Wilbunch Gang

Magdalene, I am not crazy about them either. I think it is the flavor of the Amarula Cream Liqueur. I am not an official member either, so maybe that is why!

By the way, I think your flume hood is what we call a vent hood.

 

[Flossbolna]

This was our absolute favourite counter service restaurant in 2007. So we really had to make a repeat visit!!

I went with my favourite dish from last year: the salad with seared tuna:

The salad was good but not as great as in 2007 . I found the tuna to be a bit tough to eat. Do you see the white in the meat, that was not chewable. The rest of the meat was fine, though. Carola got the same salad and she had no complaints.

We are planning a return trip again this year, but I think I want to try something else. The sandwiches sound really nice, but so does the caesar's salad. That's another dish not really available in Germany, and I really love it! Carola always says that I would be happy to only eat caesar's salads and ribs while I am on holiday in the US.

 

[Flossbolna]

Magdalene, I am not crazy about them either. I think it is the flavor of the Amarula Cream Liqueur. I am not an official member either, so maybe that is why!

By the way, I think your flume hood is what we call a vent hood.

Thanks for help with the language!

I think for me it is that it is too sweet and possibly the coffee taste. I love Amarula, I once brought a bottle back home from South Africa when it was not yet available in Europe. And me and my friends agreed that it tastes like Bailey's, only better!

 

[Flossbolna]

Sorry, I totally forgot that I had tried to take quite a lot of restaurant pictures as well as those of the food.

So here are my picures of Backlot Express. I think it is an extremely well themed restaurant. And by the way, there also is a Backlot Express restaurant at the Walt Disney Studios Paris (the second theme park at Disneyland Paris). They nearly are twin brothers!!

 

[All7OfUs]

I've been lurking on your report since the beginning, but this is the first time I've posted here. I was glad to see the review of Teppan Edo also, as it's on my list of next trip tries. I was especially glad to see that sharing was okay. I was a little skeptical that it could be done, being the nature of the restuarant, but my friend and I are both pretty lite eaters and we wanted to get appetizers as well.

Thanks for your hard work for us! Keep 'em coming!

 

[John's Mom]

Magdalene, I am not crazy about them either. I think it is the flavor of the Amarula Cream Liqueur. I am not an official member either, so maybe that is why!

I must admit that I don't like zebra domes either. To me, they have a coffee flavor. I love coffee, but won't eat anything coffee flavored.

And that's coming from a member!

 

[Flossbolna]

I've been lurking on your report since the beginning, but this is the first time I've posted here. I was glad to see the review of Teppan Edo also, as it's on my list of next trip tries. I was especially glad to see that sharing was okay. I was a little skeptical that it could be done, being the nature of the restuarant, but my friend and I are both pretty lite eaters and we wanted to get appetizers as well.

Thanks for your hard work for us! Keep 'em coming!

Teppan Edo is a great experience! I really can recommend to get an early lunch ADR to catch the opening cermony. It was such a nice touch. The cast members there are great, very polite and lot's of bowing!

Also, I have shared a number of meals and never had a problem with it. I never felt that the service was lacking because of it. That's why we generally tip a bit more when we share.

I must admit that I don't like zebra domes either. To me, they have a coffee flavor. I love coffee, but won't eat anything coffee flavored.

And that's coming from a member!

Wow, and I always was so quiet about my dislike because I felt there must be something wrong with me. It's great to know that others have the same problem...

 

[Flossbolna]

Breakfast this morning was a again the lovely kids meal waffle. I told you, we really liked it a lot!!

Flame Tree is once again an old-time favourite. I think we have by now certain counter services we like and don't really make many experiments. Perhaps we really need to change our habits a bit on our upcoming trip!! At AK we have never eaten anywhere else. Both Carola and I fell in love with AK on our trip in 2007. The first time we were there in 2004 we found the park to be boring. But in 2007 we spent more time there and started to explore it properly and enjoy all the incredible details. If I could only visit one park at WDW, I think I would choose AK, even though it would be a very hard choice. And the food has to come from Flame Tree.

As I told you, I really like ribs. These can be bought in Germany, but they are different here and they never have this barbecue taste which I love.

We both got the ribs as well as a side of fries which we shared. The ribs were great, but it ended up being too much food for each of us and we have the very best intentions to share in two weeks time! I liked the beans, Carola the corn bread muffin, so sharing will work quite well and leave more room for a treat. I really missed the corn on the cob and would love for it to come back

Here is the picture:

We had a very early lunch, the receipt is from 11 am! This was a great time to have lunch as there was no line and we had the seating area for ourselves. I love to sit all the way down by the water (picture from 2007, but we were at the same table again in 2008):

There was even a boat with characters passing us and it was fun waving to them!

As I said, this will be a definite return trip for us!! But we might have to get two lunches in AK, so perhaps we will get to try Pizzafari...

 

[Flossbolna]

Ok, now on to a more interesting meal:

Artist Point was a new experience for us. We had an early ADR here for 5:30 pm. After the morning at AK and a nice break at the hotel (a must do for us), we took the bus to MK and then hoped on the boat to WL to have a nice meal there before heading out to DTD for some serious shopping!

The WL is always stunning:

We arrived about 20 min before our ADR and were told that they are not open yet, but we should be back at 5:30pm. We shopped around a bit, I really like the WL store. I actually would really love to stay there one day, but Carola thinks it is too dark. So unless I find another travel companion (DBF made it very clear that it will never be him, well we will see ), I don't think I will get to stay there so soon.

When we returned to the podium we were immediately shown to our table. There was no queue to be checked in or so and there only was one other table occupied in the whole restaurant. It only started to fill up at around 6pm.

I really liked the atmosphere of the place, it was very bright with lots of daylight coming in. We were seated at a nice table at the window.

General view of the restaurant:

Trying to capture the nice wall pictures:

We had planned to share at this meal as we were still feeling very full from the lunch at Flame tree. So we ordered the portobello soup as appetizer and got the buffalo steak as our entree. we also got a glass each of the red wine that was paired with the buffalo, the Dusted Valley Stomp Cabernet Sauvignon.

The wine was really good and it went really exremely well with the buffalo. This is a picture of the wine:

They served us some nice sourdough bread which I really liked:

This is the Smokey Portobello Soup with Roasted Shiitakes and Chive Oil (I asked for a menu here, so I can give you its proper name):

This is actually a picture of the split portion. We each got one of those bowls! I really love it when they serve the split portions seperately! The soup is very rich, so we were really happy to have split it. I think I would be full after a eating the whole portion myself!

Next a picture of the Grilled Buffalo Sirloin Steak with Sweet Potato-Hazelnut Gratin and Sweet Onion Jam:

Again, this is only half of the normal portion. I really liked it that they split the meals in the kitchen. We had ordered the steak medium rare as it was advised by our server. The meat was really fantastic. The gratin went very well with the meat and so did the onion jam. I personally don't really like onions, but this was quite good, but I did not finish it. I am really sad that they no longer have the buffalo on the recent menu.

We had no dessert as we were really full after this. Which was a bit sad as there were some really yummy sounding desserts of the menu.

We had thought about a return trip to Artist Point, but to be honest, at the moment I don't find the menu very appealing, I would have loved to get the Buffalo again as this something so unique. Also, as I mentioned before, we really want to try new places. If we had stayed at WL, I am sure we would have eaten there again. Even though Artist Point sometimes does not get very good reviews, we really liked our dinner there a lot. We had no complaints, our server was great, wine and food were outstanding and the atmosphere was lovely. We really liked the early ADR time as the restaurant was so quiet!!

 

[Flossbolna]

The next reviews will be lunch at Liberty Tree Tavern and after that the highlight of our trip: dinner at California Grill!

 

[jess20k]

We also enjoyed Artist Point. I'm sad to hear they took the Buffalo Steak off the menu, that was my favorite dish there.

 

[Mahusky]

I actually would really love to stay there one day, but Carola thinks it is too dark.

This too funny my DW feels the same way about being too dark and she doesnt want to stay there either!

Again I love the report 32 days and counting for us..... although most of it will be at VB.

 

[darthtatty]

great reviews, look forward to reading more

 

[TigerKat]

Great review! Of all the signature restaurants Artist Point's menu just doesn't appeal to us.

 

[Krissalee]

Thanks for taking the time to share your reviews - looking forward to more!

 

[Donald is #1]

Great reviews! Do you remember how the service was at Artist Point? I tried it for the first time in December and while the food was excellent, the service was very slow. It took 1.5 hours for my meal and I was dining solo!

 

[chocolateMinnie]

great review of Artist Point, it looks like an empty restaurant when you visited. I found WL to be very dark also and very similar inside to AKL and Poly - assume they are same architect/designer

 

[tarheelmjfan]

I'm enjoying your reviews. It's so nice, when there's links to specific restaurants. Thanks for posting.

 

[Flossbolna]

We also enjoyed Artist Point. I'm sad to hear they took the Buffalo Steak off the menu, that was my favorite dish there.

I hope the Buffalo will come back one day - it would really make me want to come back there!

This too funny my DW feels the same way about being too dark and she doesnt want to stay there either!

Again I love the report 32 days and counting for us..... although most of it will be at VB.

And as you can see: Artist Point is actually a restaurant with lots of light!! Have a great trip, Vero Beach sounds like a lovely place!

great reviews, look forward to reading more

Thanks, next review will be up shortly!

Great review! Of all the signature restaurants Artist Point's menu just doesn't appeal to us.

That's the way I feel about Narcoossees: I am not a fan of sseafood and even though there are other options, it just does not appeal to me that much...

Thanks for taking the time to share your reviews - looking forward to more!

Welcome, glad you enjoy them!

Great reviews! Do you remember how the service was at Artist Point? I tried it for the first time in December and while the food was excellent, the service was very slow. It took 1.5 hours for my meal and I was dining solo!

Our server was nice, polite and unobtrusive, but she was always there when we needed her (but then as you saw, there were not many others she had to look after as well). I checked our receipt and it says 6:30 pm. So our meal took exactly one hour.

great review of Artist Point, it looks like an empty restaurant when you visited. I found WL to be very dark also and very similar inside to AKL and Poly - assume they are same architect/designer

It was very empty, but not is a scary way. It was getting filled up around 6:30 pm when we were leaving. AKL and WL had the same architect. The funny thing is that Carola my friend loves AKL and was happy to stay at the Poly this year, but not WL...

I'm enjoying your reviews. It's so nice, when there's links to specific restaurants. Thanks for posting.

Thanks! It is always good to know that there people enjoying what I write!