Some ramblings and reviews from 10/23 to 10/30/10

[hdmichael]

We are just back from 8 days and 7 nights (October 23-30, 2010) at Port Orleans Riverside Alligator Bayou, and I thought I would share some of our dining experiences. I have some pictures (sometimes of half eaten food when everyone was starved, so I don’t know how much food porn I am actually going to post) and quite a few opinions, commentaries, and ramblings. We had some wonderful experiences, some not so wonderful, and a few that left an ick sort of feeling with us. Overall, though, we loved our dining experiences.


Who we are:

Me- We were celebrating a milestone birthday for me, and at my son’s insistence, I wore my birthday button everywhere, and my birthday was noted on every reservation: my travel agent(who is absolutely fabulous) and husband double confirmed this. My son even made sure it was noted on the reservation when we checked in at each restaurant. (Keep this in mind throughout the reviews.) This trip was one of my birthday presents, and my birthday was actually on October 26. I eat just about any type of cuisine or food. However, I am a fairly good cook and can be picky about how some dishes are prepared, but overall, I am fairly easy to please.

DH- He spent the first few days in Orlando during actual working hours as he had some business there. He loves all things Disney: WDW is his favorite vacation site, and he and my son constantly campaign to go to WDW. Dining out and riding the thrill rides are his two favorite Disney activities. He loves salty food, but he also appreciates well-seasoned foods from a variety of cuisines (except French, due to an old encounter with blood sausage). He likes meat, potatoes, and a few vegetables.

DS- This is my 13 year old son (weighing in at 80 pounds) who alternates between this wonderful, fun, thoughtful child and this incredibly rude, whining, spoiled teenaged brat. Both of his personalities were in full evidence during the trip. He has several food allergies. A few of them (soy, wheat, eggs, dairy, etc.) we don’t note on the ADRs because he can manage them by watching how they are cooked and limiting the amount of each that he eats. He only eats these foods when they are one of the ingredients in a prepared dish. The allergies we noted on the ADRs were peanuts (deadly allergy), tree nuts, salmon, mustard, and coconut. He is very, very careful when it comes to these foods. He likes to think of himself as a budding connoisseur, albeit an extremely picky one. He eats meats and starches, forget the vegetables and fruits unless they are pureed to add flavor to a dish, then he is all for them! He loves well-seasoned, hot and spicy, exotic foods. He has to eat every two hours, or he is a total grump, bar none other.

DCD- My cousin’s 13 year old daughter, who was the bane of our existence during the trip with her pouting, bullying, and sullenness, says that she is not a picky eater, but, as she says, she really loves processed food. Think the Lay’s French Onion dip that tastes like starch and preservatives, Tostino’s frozen pepperoni pizza rolls, and Original ranch dressing. She did try several new foods during the trip and even found a few that she liked.

DSF- My DS and DCD begged to bring a friend, so we agreed to bring another 13 year old girl with us (DCD’s best friend and a good friend of my son’s) on the trip.(I found out the day before we left for the trip that she had had been recovering from mono for the last six weeks, and this may have affected both her taste buds and her appetite.) She says she eats anything but brussel sprouts and lima beans. This is so not true! She basically had a difficult time finding anything on the menus that appealed to her except mashed potatoes. (On the other hand, she was, by far, the sweetest child we had with us, but her feelings were easily hurt, and she spent half the trip in fear of angering DCD so she missed out on several things she wanted to do because DCD thought they were beneath her. I am so upset that I didn’t know the dynamics of that relationship until a few days into the trip, and DSF was begging me to take DCD with me and let her hang out with just DS because DCD was being such a B****. Urgh!!)


Onto to the reviews:
I am going to mix up how I do reviews a bit this time. I am going to separate out the character interactions and the service from the food and atmosphere: I think that, all things being fairly equal, these two factors can influence where some people (like me) choose to eat.
We ate at the following restaurants (we split up for a few meals):

Wolfgang Puck Café (lunch)- 10/23
Citricos- 10/23
1900 Park Fare (dinner)- 10-24
Narcoossees- 10/27
Mama Melrose (lunch)- 10/27
Crystal Palace (dinner)- 10/27
Jiko- 10/28
Boma (dinner)- 10/25
Biergarten- 10/28
LeCellier (lunch- twice)- 10/24 and 10/30
Chef Mickey (dinner)- 10/29
Akerhus (lunch)- 10/30
Garden Grill- 10/30
Ohana (breakfast)- 10/25
Tusker House (breakfast)- 10/28
Tusker House (lunch)- 10/26
California Grill- 10/26
50’s Prime Time (lunch)- 10/29

Port Orleans Riverside food court
Pizzafari
Yak & Yeti counter service
Pizza Planet
Peco Bills
Lotus Blossom Cafe
Kaki Gori
Mickey cookies and cream ice cream sandwiches
Food and Wine Samplings
Starring Rolls
Kusafari
Goofy’s Candy
The Writer’s Stop

We cancelled the following reservations for a variety of reasons- most of the time because DCD had somehow managed to “accidentally” mess up our plans for the day, and we were either not where we should have been (the actual park where the ADR was) or we were running so far behind we had no hopes of getting there anytime near the ADR time. I was really looking forward to several of these because I haven’t tried them before. (Have I said, “Never again, yet.” If I haven’t, get ready to hear it a lot):
Raglan Road (The kids found the menu more appealing at Wolfgang’s.)
Flying Fish (DH and I slept through this one, and the kids had already decided to go to Chef Mickey’s because they were tired of the two TS restaurants.)
Via Napoli (We had to switch to a different park that day.)
Tutto Italia (We had to switch to a different park that day.)
Yachtsman (We got a late start and ended up staying later at the park than we wanted.)

Just a note:
We have been to WDW several times, and my 13 year old son always takes an active interest in deciding the ADRs. We didn’t decide to take the trip until the middle of August, but we were still able to score several ADRs.

We typically pay OOP, but have used the basic dining plan in the past. This time, we were on the Deluxe Disney dining plan, which I would do again if it was just DH, myself, and DS, AND we planned to eat at several 2 TS restaurants. Having two snacks a day and the option of sit down meals sometimes works for us because we usually do one sit down meal a day and always get appetizers and desserts. With the kids we had with us this time, I should have just gotten the QDSP because they were so difficult to please and kept begging for McDonald's.


I hope my thoughts and comments help some of you when you make your ADRs.

 

[hdmichael]

First, you need to understand that all three kids are very well-behaved when it comes to interacting with characters and other adults. With characters, they are out-going and try to make nice comments and small talk to get some response from the characters. Second, we love character meals because they are so representative of the Disney spirit.


Character Interaction (Note- we did not have autograph books- we just wanted some pictures and some laughs):


1900 Park Fare- For the most part, this character interaction was fun and fabulous. The stepsisters were looking for husbands, and they both keyed in on my son. Well, they actually keyed in on all the boys. They were fun and playful with all of their expressions and intonations exaggerated. One of them kissed my son’s cheek!! Lady Tremaine was stately and made a few off-hand comments- she wasn’t exactly approachable because she was in character, but she was extremely cooperative about posing. Prince Charming was, well, charming: when asked, he pretended to kiss the girls’ hands as I snapped pictures. Cinderella was a disappointment- she wasn’t very friendly and, when we attempted to have a minor conversation, she was quite disinterested. As it was DSF’s first character meal and her first princess encounter, Cinderella’s attitude was a bit of a letdown. Character interaction- B+ (it would have been an A+ if Cinderella would have been a bit friendlier).


Crystal Palace- My DH, DCD, and DSF ate here while my son and I ate at Narcoossees. They had one of the last seatings that night and got a partial view of Wishes. The girls and my DH came back in stitches, thanks to my DH’s sense of humor, due to the horrendous character interaction. My DH laughingly said that he didn’t have my touch when it comes to character interaction (i.e., getting the characters to pose for individual and group shots and sticking around for more than 15 seconds), and they all teased DCD about how she scared off the characters. In the picture, you can see Tigger already turning to leave before the picture was snapped, and this was the only picture they had taken with him. Eeyore was probably the best as he actually responded when the girls asked him about his tail. Piglet was as big a disappointment as Tigger, which was a shame, as DSF was really looking forward to seeing him. He walked away when they tried to get individual shots (since they are not siblings we tried to get individual shots for all sets of parents). This used to be one of our favorite restaurants for character interaction, but the last few times we have had to work really hard to get any real interaction: it may be because we don’t have little kids anymore, but that doesn’t mean that we still don’t love characters. At this point, I am not sure I would return here for the character interaction, but, for families with younger children, the characters may be more responsive. Of course, the girls would have given the character interaction an F, but my DH, who is a bit more objective, gave it a D.


Garden Grill- This was phenomenal character interaction. Kudos to the characters and the entire staff. I cannot emphasize enough how much fun we had with the characters. Mickey, Pluto, Chip, and Dale were playful, fun, and willingly posed for both group and individual pictures for the kids. We asked each of the characters about their lives, and their responses were great. Chip and Dale were particularly fun when we asked about Clarice and whether one of the girls could take her place as the love of their lives. They really took the time to include DH and me in these interactions. This has always been one of our favorite character meals, and it lived up to our memories. Character interaction- A+++


Akerhus- The kids went to this character meal without any adults: my son was supposed to go to LeCellier with my DH, and I was going to lunch with the girls, but at the last moment he decided to join the girls (DCD was semi-behaving for a few minutes). They had one of the last lunch reservations for the day. The kids posed with Belle for pictures when they arrived. Belle smiled for the picture, but she didn’t really talk to the girls or interact with them. It gets a bit tricky when Ariel comes to the table, and lo and behold, she is Cinderella from 1900 Park Fare. And, no, she was not any more personable this time around. Jasmine spent more time with the two girls whose mother pushed them at her when she got to DS’s table. She was much nicer to those girls than to our kids, whose table she was at- she quickly posed for pictures with our kids and made some off-hand comment about DSF’s outfit before moving on. Snow White was a bit better and probably spent 45 seconds to a minute at the table- my son says she was okay. Character interaction- C (Snow White was decent, and Ariel and Belle were horrible, according to the kids.)


Chef Mickey- My DS begrudgingly did this meal alone with his DCD because DSF begged me and DS to rescue her from DCD because DCD was being such a B***** to her. The character interaction here was outrageously “sick” as my son says. This was due, at least in part, to our son and DCD relating DCD’s experience at Crystal Palace and the waitress telling the character handlers about it. Also, the fact that their ADRs were one of the last for the evening probably helped. The characters here went out of their way to “talk” with the kids, tease them, hug them, and pose for pictures. Character interaction- A+ (although I don’t know how much of this was influenced by the waitress’s efforts with the character handlers).


Tusker House (Donald’s breakfast)- Based on our past experiences with this meal at Restaurantosaurus, I was dreading this meal. At Restaurantosaurus, I always found the character interaction way too rushed and not at all fun. This was so not true this time. We had early reservations, and when we arrived, we had our pictures taken with Donald, and he even teased my son and DH a bit. All of the remaining characters- Daisy, Mickey, and Goofy- posed for pictures, teased, and “carried on” conversations when my son asked them silly questions about their “lives” as depicted in their cartoons. They really took the time to include DH and me in these interactions. This character interaction started our day off with a huge smile!! Character interaction- A+


Ohana- The character interaction here was good, not great like some of the others, but good nonetheless. The only character who was in a bit of a rush was Stitch, and we were his last table before break, which I think influenced how quickly he wanted to finish with our table. The other characters- Lilo, Mickey, Pluto- all willingly posed for individual and group pictures and spent a few extra seconds at our table waving and smiling to the kids. Character interaction- A

 

[micheleq]

We were there at the same time I agree with your reviews of Akershus, very rushed princesses, and Ohana, much better interaction. Thanks for the review of GG and Tusker House. I'll have to add those to the list next trip.

 

[hdmichael]

A note about desserts:

It seems that the desserts are made in facilities with peanuts and tree nuts (even some of the allergy, gluten free desserts), and that even in the signature restaurants, the desserts are made off-site in these facilities, even the gelatos. This was another huge surprise for me, because I expected the signature restaurants to make the majority, or at least part, of their desserts on site: from what the chefs told us, the desserts are actually only assembled on site.

We found DS could have sorbets and some allergy free special desserts, usually S'mores (the ingredients for these came from nut free facilities, even the candy bars) and some fruit, marshmallow, and chocolate syrup desserts. (Now he is an extremely picky eater when it comes to desserts, so a few places had one or two other allergy freen offerings in which he wasn't interested.) Garden Grill came through with Itsacadoozy (spelling) popsicles, which made his day.

 

[hdmichael]

I don't have all of the pictures resized and uploaded yet: I will have some done tomorrow, but I am going to go ahead and post this review, and come back tomorrow with the pictures.


Wolfgang Puck Café

We checked into POR at about 10:30 a.m., and our room was ready, so we dropped off the luggage, took showers, and attempted to take the boat to Downtown Disney. However, the boat only holds 25 people per trip, the wait between trips is 20 minutes, and we were at least 58 people back from the front of the line. Of course, we had already waited 15 minutes in line before we found this out. We walked to the South Depot and waited about 10 minutes before we hopped a bus to Downtown Disney and got off at the West Side. We had a few moments to look around before our 1:30 p.m. ADR. We were seated within a few minutes of checking in.

This was our first trip to Wolfgang Puck Café, and we loved how bright, airy, and modern the restaurant is. There are several high windows from which you can gaze out. I did not find the noise level to be particularly high. Actually, I thought it was rather subdued, but the restaurant was only about ½ full. The 4 person tabletop had adequate space to fit our entrees and condiments.
I was wearing my birthday button, and I do think the person who checked me in wished me a happy birthday, but I don’t remember our waitress acknowledging my birthday at all. For me, I found it odd, but not terribly disappointing. For my son, this was a slight that he had a hard time forgiving. (He wanted to deduct it from the tip. I didn’t, but this was his theme for the week.)

The chef arrived promptly and discussed the menu with my DS, telling him what he could and couldn’t have and working with him to modify the dishes for both his taste buds and his allergies. (She wished me a happy birthday.) He could not have any fried foods because of cross contamination with the macadamia nuts in the chicken dish, so he could not have his beloved fried calamari. This surprised me because I expected them to have an allergy free deep fryer or some way to deep fry food for people with allergies. As we found at most Disney restaurants, all desserts were off-limits. I asked about the sorbet that is found on the dinner menus, and she said that he could have mango sorbet for dessert.

We ordered three meals, because, at this point, we would be at least 4 TS credits short if we ate at the 2 TS restaurants for which we had ADRs.


For her appetizer, DCD ordered sushi. They have a separate appetizer sushi menu from the main lunch menu, which they will bring to the table upon request. She received a few types of sushi, and I can’t remember the exact names of the ones she had, but one of them resembled the California roll. It was a great introduction to sushi, due to its mild flavor and mixture of ingredients. She didn’t try the other sushi or the wasabi and pickled ginger, but I did and really liked them. The taste and smell were fresh. DSF tried one of the California type roll and couldn’t spit it out fast enough. Evidently, sushi was not to her taste!!!


DSF ordered the artichoke and five cheese dip. She ate a few bites of it, but it wasn’t exactly to her liking. I ate some of it and really enjoyed the flavors: you could definitely taste the sharpness of the fontina. However, I thought that it would have benefited from more mascarpone or some other creamy cheese as the dip was really too stringy to dip. The crispy flat bread it was served with was delicious.


DS ordered the crab cake for me. He couldn’t eat any of the appetizers he wanted to try. He could have had the cheese dip, the soups, and the sushi, all of which he hates. I am very picky about crab cakes, and this one was nearly perfect. The accompaniments were just right, and the cakes had been quickly sautéed or fried and were composed mainly of crab with very little filler. The seasoning was the perfect balance of herbs and spices, allowing the crab flavor to shine through. They are not huge in size, but more than adequately sized for an appetizer portion, or for me, a main course portion.


My DS had the BBQ wood-fired pizza without the onions, of course. He loved this: the barbecue sauce was nicely flavored- not too sweet or tart, and the chicken was moist and flavorful. These wood-fired pizzas are huge and can easily feed two people, three depending on how big everyone’s appetite is.


His DCD helped him finish his pizza as she was not too fond of hers.
DCD ordered the smoked salmon pizza. I did caution her against this, but she was feeling adventurous and loves sour cream. She took one bite, liked it when it first hit her taste buds, but the aftertaste of the smoked salmon and dill just wasn’t for her. I loved this pizza. This is not a hot pizza. While the crust is hot and nicely charred, the dill cream is cold and has a pronounced, but not overwhelming, dill flavor. The smoked salmon has a nice full flavor. The ingredients worked well together, and if you like lox and bagels, you will think you have died and gone to heaven when you taste this. I ate 2 pieces and only stopped because I was becoming too full. I found the flavor addictive.


DSF was super excited to order the fish and chips as she loves Long John Silver’s fish and couldn’t wait to see if this was as good. When the fish arrived, she took a bite and declared it even better than Long John’s fish. I tasted it: it had a wonderful crispy coating and mildly flavored fish. I found it pleasing, but DCD, who tasted it toward the end of the meal (about ½ hour after it was served), said it was too soggy. After ½ hour, I am not sure what she expected. The fries were perfect: a firm exterior and melt in your mouth interior.


My son left before dessert was served. He chose to forgo dessert and leave the restaurant so the girls could have the Snicker’s cheesecake for dessert, with the promise they would thoroughly wash their hands, faces, forearms, etc. and brush their teeth. They did. They each devoured a piece of this cheesecake and said it was the most delicious cheesecake they had ever had!


I had the classic carrot cake with the candied pecans. I love, love carrot cake and cream cheese icing. The candied pecans took the cake from good to sublime. The cake itself was moist and dense with a wonderfully mild flavor: I don’t like for the spices to overwhelm my carrot cake, and they didn’t here. The cream cheese icing was quite sweet and dense, but it is supposed to be. Because there wasn’t too much icing between the two layers, the icing didn’t overpower the cake.



Overall, this was a great meal, and I would recommend Wolfgang Puck Café without hesitation. I am not certain I would make an ADR here if I didn’t already plan to be at DTD, but only because there are so many other restaurants throughout WDW to choose from that I don’t find it necessary to venture too far from where I plan to be for the day in order to eat a good meal.

 

[Dizneydaz]

Great start to your DR! We didn't do WPC this time but only because, for the first time, we had QSDP, not regular DDP. We missed WPC.

What a wonderful son you are raising! Leaving the restaurant so the girls could have the dessert they wanted (with nuts). He sounds like a Prince! Too bad he couldn't have dessert at WPC. We ate there 3 times last year and loved our desserts.

Can't wait to read more...

 

[WDWisTheBest]

These were really descriptive reviews. Thank you.

 

[lblume91]

I'm in! I love your description of your son!! It seemed like you were describing my 12 y/o DD! Looking forward to the rest of your reviews.

 

[Pooh&OurHunny]

joining in, thanks for the review on Garden Grill (This is a new one for us for our upcoming trip)

 

[vitamingirl]

A note about desserts:

It seems that the desserts are made in facilities with peanuts and tree nuts (even some of the allergy, gluten free desserts), and that even in the signature restaurants, the desserts are made off-site in these facilities, even the gelatos. This was another huge surprise for me, because I expected the signature restaurants to make the majority, or at least part, of their desserts on site: from what the chefs told us, the desserts are actually only assembled on site.

We found DS could have sorbets and some allergy free special desserts, usually S'mores (the ingredients for these came from nut free facilities, even the candy bars) and some fruit, marshmallow, and chocolate syrup desserts. (Now he is an extremely picky eater when it comes to desserts, so a few places had one or two other allergy freen offerings in which he wasn't interested.) Garden Grill came through with Itsacadoozy (spelling) popsicles, which made his day.

I agree.. the desserts for my 10 yo ds with a peanut/nut allergy were very disappointing. It was basically ice cream and a few places had sorbets. We where did he have the smores? At least it is something different, even though it wont be one of his favorites. We are going end of the month. I also heard that the creme brulee in le cellier is okay for peanut/nut but your son has a few more allergies. Would also like to hear about the dishes your son had that was safe.
thanks!

 

[vitamingirl]

For my son, this was a slight that he had a hard time forgiving. (He wanted to deduct it from the tip. I didn’t, but this was his theme for the week.)


That sounds like something my DS would say too!!! He would keep bringing it up for the whole day. Thats funny.

SO I guess the pizza was safe for him.....We might try this for CS wpe but i was concerned with peanut allergy b.c I heard this might not be the best place for that. My DS gets mad when there is not alot for him to choose. Like at tutto italia, there was not alot of dishes he could have or the bread.

 

[JennsAStar]

love your descriptions!

 

[Flossbolna]

Wow, you are really great in describing every dish! Thank you for making the effort with your reviews!

Sorry that your travel companions were difficult! But I think your DS sounds like a very sweet kid caring for your birthday and even leaving the restaurant so that the others could eat peanuts!

 

[mstmp]

Count me in! I love your reviews

 

[hdmichael]

I agree.. the desserts for my 10 yo ds with a peanut/nut allergy were very disappointing. It was basically ice cream and a few places had sorbets. We where did he have the smores? At least it is something different, even though it wont be one of his favorites. We are going end of the month. I also heard that the creme brulee in le cellier is okay for peanut/nut but your son has a few more allergies. Would also like to hear about the dishes your son had that was safe.
thanks!

I haven't downloaded my pictures yet, but my son thinks the smores were from Narcoossees and the fruit and marshmallow pyramid at California Grill. As I go through the pictures, I will note which ones were the allergy free.

 

[hdmichael]

For my son, this was a slight that he had a hard time forgiving. (He wanted to deduct it from the tip. I didn’t, but this was his theme for the week.)


That sounds like something my DS would say too!!! He would keep bringing it up for the whole day. Thats funny.

SO I guess the pizza was safe for him.....We might try this for CS wpe but i was concerned with peanut allergy b.c I heard this might not be the best place for that. My DS gets mad when there is not alot for him to choose. Like at tutto italia, there was not alot of dishes he could have or the bread.

Except for California Grill, my DS was told not to eat the breads because they were all manufactured in plants with peanuts and tree nuts. California Grill has an allergy free bread they make. Ohanas did offer him Texas toast in place of the bread for breakfast.

 

[SPROUTY1]

Great review. Thanks

 

[cdsmom]

Subscribing with great list of restaurants.
Great start so far and can't wait to see the pics.

 

[chocolateMinnie]

subscribing - we ate at Boma the same day as you.