SupercalafragalisticexpialaDELICIOUS:9 days of Disney Dining with pics-Completed!

[Sunshein]

This is my first ever Disney Dining Review. I had been reading the DIS boards for months and months before our trip and based most of my dining decisions on them. Now I get to return the favor. I was truly inspired by Oybolshoi’s awesome reviews which had me smiling all the way through so I took pictures as much as I could and even met up with a fellow DIS boarder at Boma! So here is who we are in a nutshell.

Me: Chris, a 33 year old who’s first visit to Disney World didn’t happen until I was in my mid-twenties. I had the idea that it was a glorified version of the local county fair. Boy was I wrong! I have been in love with the place ever since. I love to try new food and love everything from sushi to steak.

DH: Gary, a 34 year old computer programmer and baseball lover who introduced me to DW and later blessed me with marriage and two beautiful daughters. He is basically a steak and mashed potatoes kind of guy. His idea of a good vacation is no vegetables other than the odd Caesar salad.

DD4: Paige is a very good eater. She loves shrimp as long as it is warm and even eats sushi.

DD3: Naomi is a bit pickier but she eats well too. She calls all meat chicken and as long as it gets her eating it I don’t argue with her about it.

We were also traveling with friends who may sometimes pop into my reviews. They are a family of 5, having kids the same age as ours as well as having a 9month old baby. They are very brave!

Liz: loves sushi and key lime pie!

Roly: is an adventurous eater who is up for trying anything.

Tristan: a very picky eater who often had his parents rinsing some sauce or piece of parsley off of his food.

Maya: is allergic to eggs and peanuts so this put Disney chefs to the test. They really came through!

Leah: loves to suck on broccoli, cantaloupe and is pretty much trying to get her hands on everything at the table as babies often are.



Ok that’s us! So here is what I will be reviewing:

Table Service:
‘Ohana Post #12
Raglan Road Post #14
CRT Post #16
Chefs de France Post #19
Coral Reef Post #28
California Grill Post #33
Boma Post #43
Crystal Palace Post #45

Counter Service
Restaurantosaurus
Toy Story Pizza Planet
Columbia Harbour House
Riverside Mill

Ok, I just got back last night from our vacation so I will post this now and hopefully get the first of my reviews up soon!

 

[gogo65]

Looking forward to reading all about it.

 

[Tink rules]

I'm in - sounds good!!!

 

[TigerKat]

I'm in too.......

 

[butterfly8]

Ready and waiting!

 

[Busymom85]

Look forward to the reviews.

 

[my3disneygirls]

Can't wait!

 

[Minniespal]

Looking forward to reading more

 

[khurley23]

Ready!

 

[DLo]

Looking forward to your reviews.

 

[momtoccc]

I want to read these too! We are headed to WDW soon with almost 4yo dd so I will be anxious to hear how it went with your dds!

 

[Sunshein]

I will do my best to give ‘Ohana it’s due, but to be honest, we had been traveling since 4:30 am and the nap we had been hoping to have to regroup before dinner never came to be since our resort did not have a room ready for us until after 5:00 pm. We were exhausted! We had a 7pm ADR and we got there around 6:40. Paige was really looking forward to the coconut races I had told her about and I was looking forward to dessert. We took some time to look around the lobby and it truly was beautiful with rushing waterfalls and tropical décor. It took about 30 minutes to get to our table which just seemed to add to my luck for the day. It was very busy and we ended up around the corner from where all the action was.

Due to Maya’s allergies, the chef came out to discuss out options and it was decided that other than the peanut sauce for the wontons and the bread pudding dessert, she was able to eat pretty much everything so we were cleared for take off. At this point all of the kids were crawling under the table or playing sword fight with the cutlery.

Out came the salad, mixed greens with honey-lime dressing and the fried wontons with the peanut, chimichurri and harissa sauce! I found the salad very bitter but the dressing was alright. The wontons had so much oil in them they had become more chewy than crispy. I did enjoy the dips however, especially the chimichurri sauce.

Then came the sweet and sour shrimp and the honey-coriander chicken wings. When I hear the word peel and eat shrimp, I picture little shrimp that are hardly worth the effort of peeing them. This was not the case here. The shrimp were quite large and well worth the effort! Paige and Tristan cleared out pretty much all we had on the table! The wings however, I found the taste to be off, maybe a little too sweet.

Skewers of meat were brought around and by this time the kids were pretty much done for. The sing along and the limbo portion of the night had come and gone and still no word on the coconut races. They servers brought marinated sirloin steak, Asian BBQ pork loin, mesquite grilled turkey, and Hawaiian pork sausage with pineapple-teriyaki glaze. The only thing I enjoyed was the turkey, which I was least looking forward to. I found the rest very dry and tough. The turkey however was moist and juicy and full of flavour.

Finally the dessert! I had really been looking forward to this as so many of you raved about it. The waiter came with a giant plate of bread pudding a la mode with Banana Foster sauce. The kids were much more interested in the giant bucket of flavoured snow cone ice with a shovel and I thought to myself, great! More for me! But I found out that night that I really am not too fond of bread pudding or at least that is what I told myself. It just wasn’t all that exciting to me. There was one little banana slice in the whole plate! Again, it may have also been that my tastebuds had quit on me by then and gone to sleep. I didn't get too many pictures from this meal but I promise I did better with future meals.

Oh I forgot to mention that I did have a Lapu Lapu with dinner. I don’t see what all of the excitement was about. There was not a whole lot of drink for a whole lot of pineapple. It was mostly ice and it was definitely not worth $15 a drink!

From Liz:

Roly liked the fried wontons and sauces, in particular the peanut one. The other two he described as mediocre. The salad of mixed greens was, as per both of us, really good, the dressing was sweet and yummy and it went really well with this type of mix. I think this was the best dish actually. Roly thought the Lapu Lapu was okay but not what he expected for 15$. Next time he will pass. Roly liked the mix of flavor, cinnamon actually in the chicken legs, but I found it a little weird. Didn't suite my taste, but Maya liked it. The scalloped potatoes were really yummy, creamy and good mix of herbs and cream in it. The fried veggies were just fried veggies, not exciting at all.

Ok! Next up is Restaurontosaurus and Raglan Road!

 

[Melisa1]

great report and pics!

 

[Sunshein]

Restaurantosaurus and Ragland Road:

Gary wasn’t feeling too well that morning so I headed out to Animal Kingdom with the girls on my own. It isn’t easy to do but definitely doable. We headed to Restaurantosaurus for lunch. Now this was definitely not easy to do alone with the kids. I thought Counter Service was supposed to be easy but not in this case. The food was McDonald’s-like very few options. I think there was a hamburger, a cheeseburger, some chicken nuggets and a hot dog to choose from. Then we got the burgers and they weren’t dressed. So we had to go and find a free table in the maze of little rooms and then haul ourselves back to the dressing table to put the toppings on the burger and get ketchup, straws and cutlery. There were no caps on the drinks so sure enough one of the spilled and we ended up having to give a blankie and bath to get rid of the sticky syrupy stuff it had been soaked with. I was not impressed with the way this place was organized or by the food we eventually got to eat. I was very disappointed to see that Tusker House was closed for refurbishment. It didn’t leave us a lot of lunch time options.

I came back to the resort for the afternoon and then headed off to Downtown Disney to shop. One of our suitcases hadn't shown up yet and I made use of our insurance for once to buy some micky crocs for the kids and some clothes. Then we headed to Raglan Road for dinner.

I was really looking forward to this restaurant. I have heard almost all fantastic reviews. My only concern is that we had 5 children 4 and under in our party and I wasn’t sure it was the best place for them. The only ADR I could get was for 7:00 pm which was late for the kids, but they were troopers.

We arrived at 6:50 and we were seated within 10 minutes. I loved the pub atmosphere of this restaurant. It was still too early for the entertainment though. I would love to go back to RR without kids on my next visit.

The waitress seemed a bit put off by having so many children to wait on and made herself pretty scarce. She brought us some soda bread with a dipping sauce. The bread was nothing special and I think we were expecting a vinegar based dipping sauce. It was sweet and that put us all off.

We started out sharing the appetizers. Gary and I shared the Dalkey Duo and we loved it! The flavour was amazing and the dipping sauce was perfect for it. We loved how it came on rows of forks too.

Roly and Liz shared Calamari City - Salt and pepper calamari and mixed tempura vegetables served with a spicy remoulade. They loved it. The dipping sauce was mayonnaise based and delicious! Their only complaint was that the portion was rather small for two. Rarely did we come across small portions but in this case it was a tad small. Regardless it earned a 2 thumbs up from Liz and Roly!

We waited a long time between courses and this was not helping the attention span of the kids. We had long since stripped them of all cutlery and they were crawling under the table or trying to do headstands on the bench seats along one side of the table. We were doing our best but I don’t think the tables next to us were very impressed. I have to say for the most part our kids did very well in restaurants but this one was not one of our most shining moments.

The main courses finally came. I had the “It’s not Bleedin’ Chowder!” It is not listed on the on-line menu but it was a chowder like dish with big chunks of fish, scallops, shrimp and calamari. I loved this dish! I am a big chowder fan and this satisfied my craving for shellfish too. It wasn’t too heavy and had a lot of creamy flavour. The was one piece of fish in the bowl however that tasted like a smoked cooked salmon that I really didn’t enjoy the flavour of though, but that was the only part that went uneaten.

Gary had the Serious Sirloin Steak. You will see a theme with Gary and his steak. Given the option he will stick to what he knows. In this case he thought the taste was a bit like liver and not to his liking. I don’t think he finished it. He really liked the crispy onion bits on top and the mashed potatoes underneath.

Liz had Sod… The Stew. She said that the Stew was yummy, but very salty. She could handle it but another might find it too much. There was a hint of beer taste, yummy enough.

Roly had the Salmon of Knowledge and he thought that the salmon was the best he had at Disney. He loved this dish, a good combination of flavors, but he can't remember what the side was, potatoes maybe... but he really remembers how good the salmon was.

Two of the kids had the Dalkey Duo as a main course. Naomi loved them, but of course wanted ketchup to dip them in. Tristan had to peel the batter off of them all before he would eat them. He ate all of his and finished Naomi’s too. Paige had the shrimp and chips. She too peeled all the batter off but ate every last shrimp. Maya was tired and never really got past the first course.

It seemed like forever before dessert came. I had the Dunbrody Kiss. I had originally planned to have the bread pudding but my experience at ‘Ohana had put me off the idea. The Kiss was very tasty, but nothing really special. Gary was too full for dessert this meal.

Liz ordered Ger’s Bread and Butter Pudding. From Liz: “My dessert was so good. I didn't think I would like wet bread, but it was to die for with the cream and syrup. Very good and warm.” I tasted some of it and I wished that I had given bread pudding another chance! Wow was that good!

Roly had a strawberries and ice cream dish not listed. He thought it was good, but nothing over the top.

It was well after 9:30 before we got out of there. Two of the five kids had fallen asleep at least but we were more than ready to get them back to the hotel room. We all LOVED the food at this restaurant, and I will definitely return on my next trip. However, next time I will go later, without kids and I will enjoy one of the incredible looking beer flights we saw going around. I can’t wait to go back!

Up Next: Cinderella's Royal Table and Casey's Corner!

 

[DISNEYJAZZ]

love the pix in your report.....will cross restuarantasaures SP* off our list,very few places to chose from at animal kingdom i have noticed from reading and looking at the dining plan list. looking froward to pizza planet/cinderella's table/coral reef reviews since we plan to eat at them ...we made our adr's yesterday adn got everything we planned!! now the count down begins....can't wait to check back in for yur tasty reviews w/wonderful pix....

 

[Sunshein]

The next morning we headed off to Downtown Disney to take the three girls to Bibbidee Bobbidee Boutique. As an fyi, there is now a boutique right in Cinderella’s Castle so there is no need now to split your day. However, at the time I made my reservations this was not the case. As the girls were being combed and primped and painted, the guys headed over to the toy store to make their own light saber. I guess some testosterone was called for today.

We had 1:35 pm ADR’s for CRT and we arrived basically at 1:30. We had been trying to maximize rides and fast passes at this our first day at magic Kingdom and came in barely on time. We heard person after person being turned away since they haven’t taken walk ins in almost two years. I was very surprised by this but ever more thankful for having squeaked in an ADR about 165 days in advance. First you are corralled into a waiting line to meet the Princess herself. Depending on your party size, you get a certain number of poses. We were 9 in all so we were able to have 3 different shots taken. Then right away we were ushered the columnar stairs 3 flights up to the dining room.

The restaurant is as beautiful as I remembered it from our honeymoon. It is worth it just for the experience! We were shown to a table and once again the chef came out to discuss what Maya could and could not eat. As parents, we decided that the kids had already eaten enough fried and fried food, so since none of them can read yet, all the children ordered the grilled chicken strips with a pasta side au gratin and some salad I think. We didn’t take a lot of pictures for some odd reason. I was off my game today!

The adults had a set appetizer and dessert and a few choices of main course. Platters of antipasto including grapes, salad, cheeses prosciuto and cold chicken made the plate really colorful and I was pleasantly surprised by the plate. The flavours of the dressing and cheeses were really nice and I found this refreshing in a park mostly filled with deep fried food items.

For the main course I ordered the Pan-Seared Salmon - Saffron crab risotto, grilled asparagus and lemon beurre blanc. The salmon itself was pretty dry. Salmon is tricky to cook. Even too long in a warmer can really kill it. The rest of the dish I had was amazing. I ended up only eating half of the salmon fillet.

Gary had the Herb-Crusted Pork Tenderloin – mustard cheese grits, cabernet sauce and crispy onions. Here is his review of the whole thing:
“Cinderella’s Royal Table was an event more than it was a meal as it revolved around meeting princesses and announcements and being at the table only half the time despite the fact it wasn’t a buffet. That being said, it was a fun experience and I believe the girls enjoyed it tremendously, even if it doesn’t show through in the pictures with the princesses.

The service was very good, if you could get past being called m’lord or your highness every time the waitress came by. The starter was very good, including some fruit, cheese, chicken strips and some vegetables. Very unique. I had the pork tenderloin which was actually very good. I remember eating at the castle for lunch in 2001 and thinking how ordinary the food was but this time, I was impressed. The dessert was also very good but then again, put some chocolate and ice cream in front of me and its 10/10 all the time.

But like the Rainforest Café, eating at the castle is not about eating great food, its about WHERE you’re eating and its about the novelty and uniqueness of the experience. You’re not going for great food. But the castle was better than it needed to be, which is a good sign.”

I don’t know about you but I would much rather sit in a very nice air conditioned restaurant, munching on some food while the characters come to me than stand in a long hot sweaty ling waiting to get two seconds worth of attention from some guy in a costume. Call me a spoil sport but the heat and I are not great pals. This was wonderful. Belle, Snow White, Jasmine and The Fairy Godmother all came by out table and posed for pictures with us. Now that was the way to go!

We would definitely return again. This is what Disney World is all about!

On a side note we had ordered a birthday cake for Maya to celebrate her 3rd birthday at the castle. Someone even called to confirm with me a week before we left and yes it was to be an egg free, peanut free cake. When dessert time came, the waitress came out with the standard little birthday offering sprinkled with mickey sprinkles. They had already told us the sprinkles were made in a factory that has peanuts so why were they giving Maya this? Our cake was no where to be found and of course since the cake was an allergy cake, they couldn't just zip down and pick up a generic cake. So no cake for maya.

Later that night we had plans to go to a Grand gathering experience: The Magical Fireworks Voyage. We had to be at the Contemporary by 7:45. We figured we would pick up a few quick hot dogs on our way out of Magic Kingdom. We seriously underestimated the time needed to grab a few hotdogs! We got to Casey’s Corner around 7:00 and there were people lining the streets for Spectromagic at 8 already. There were a lot of people lined up inside Casey’s Corner, but worse than that, it seemed to take an average of 8 minutes per customer to get through there! I don’t know who was more confused about the menu; the customer or the cast members! It took us over half an hour to get hot dogs and to be honest, we ate the so fast, while pushing 3 strollers through the gathered crowds down main street no less, that I truly did not remark on the taste of the hot dog in the least. I think it was pretty good though. The cracker jacks and apple slices made good snacks later on. We made it to our gathering with a few minutes to spare but by then we seriously needed a rest.

I would like to try this place again under less stressful circumstances and maybe by then the servers will have picked up the efficiency factor.



Up Next: Toy Story Pizza Planet and Chefs de France

 

[IWISHFORDISNEY]

Great reviews I can not wait to hear the rest!!!

 

[DaisyLynn]

Looking forward to more!

 

[Sunshein]

Day 4 arrived and we were on our own for the first half of the day so we decided to head to MGM with the girls. After only a couple of hours, we realized that all of this go-go-go was seriously catching up with our little ones. At 11:30 we decided to have lunch and then head back to the resort for some downtime. Gary had really wanted to take them to Toy Story Pizza Planet because they had seen it on Toy Story the movie. I didn’t have any preference at MGM and since I called most of the shots with the table service meals, when he makes a request I usually go along. At first I thought this was nothing special. There is really very little to choose from. You can have cheese, pepperoni or vegetarian. What ever happened to the old stand-by all dressed? So we ordered two 4 pepperoni meals. Well who knew that it came with a large salad and choice of dressing and a dessert? It turned out to be a lot of food, but the salad was fresh and the lettuce crisp. I loved the touch of cherry tomatoes. I really enjoyed the pizza too. We had chocolate chip cookies which were pretty generic and the standard mickey rice krispy treats for dessert. The kids like the rice krispy treats but I find they are soggy. I love rice kirspy squares but only when they are fresh and the rice krispies haven’t turned to stale mush. We were very satisfied after all this food.

We headed back to POR for a nice swim and some relaxation. We had arranged to a babysitter from the Fairy Godmothers to come and stay with the girls so that we could have some park time along with out friends who had done the same thing at their resort. Once the girls were well taken care of, off we went feeling as light as a feather to Epcot.

After riding test track a coupe of times and then Soarin’ we headed off to France for a 7:20 ADR. Being from Quebec, we are fluent in French as well as English and happily greeted the Maitre D in French. He was quite happy to converse with us in his native tongue, but our waiter was less than enthused. We were seated fairly quickly at a nice round table. We didn’t feel too cramped as we have read complaints about this from other disers. The waiter was cold and standoffish but he did nothing outright rude. This is just the French way and we are used to it.

We were so happy to be out on our own and able to just relax and enjoy the evening. We actually took the time to taste the food! We actually relaxed and had a glass of wine.

For appetizers Roly and I both ordered the Cassolette d'escargots de Bourgogne au beurre persille - Casserole of Burgundian escargots baked in parsley and garlic butter. These were delicious. I love escargot and I used the lovely baguette to soak up all the parsley butter left in the dish. Roly did this as well.

Gary ordered Soupe a l'oignon gratinee - The classic onion soup topped with Gruyere cheese. “I thought it was absolutely perfect.”

Liz ordered the Soup of the Day which was a tomato soup with pesto. “It was not up my alley. I hadn’t realized that it was served cold, and I found it was lacking salt. I didn't finish it and I rarely don't finish a dish.”

There was nice spacing between courses and we were able to have nice adult conversation and sip our drinks. For our entrees we all chose differently much to my reviewers delight!

I chose the Noix de Saint Jacques et gambas sautees Flan d'epinards, sauce a l'oseille - Sauteed scallops and black tiger shrimp served with spinach flan and sorrel sauce. This was delicious. The portion size was perfect and the shrimp and the scallops were cooked to perfection. They are both very easy to over cook especially the scallops. The sauce was so creamy and rich and complimented the seafood perfectly. I actually really liked the spinach flan as well. I had never eaten anything like that and I was pleasantly surprised! I polished everything off!

Gary ordered Plat de cote de boeuf au cabernet et polenta de Savoie - Beef short ribs braised in Cabernet wine on a bed of polenta. “The Prime Rib was good, I didn’t really care for the Polenta. It had no taste. This was actually my first time ever hearing the word Polenta let alone eating it.”

Liz selected the Filet de saumon, crepe de pommes de terre coulis de poivrons rouge - Grilled salmon on a potato pancake with red pepper sauce. “The salmon was perfectly cooked, flaky and moist. The creamy red pepper sauce was a nice match that I wouldn’t have thought to pair with salmon, but they went really well together.”

Roly had the Canard au miel, haricots vert et pommes de terre douce - Roasted breast of duck and leg confit, French green beans and sweet potato, spiced honey sauce. He said that it was the best duck dish he had ever eaten. The portion was quite large and there was nothing left on the plate at the end of the meal.

Of course since we were on the dining plan, we couldn’t resist the desserts. And again, we all chose different things.

When in France, choose the crème brulee I say! I find madelaine cookies pretty bland, but like the almond cookie at Chinese restaurants, they do fill a need to bite something crispy. The crème brulee however was really nice. It was very creamy and not too chilled which I dislike in a crème brulee. Sometimes it feels like the just grabbed it right out of a fridge, blow torched it and then tossed it in front of you. I imagine that is usually the case, but here, the topping was a lot thinner tan normal so it didn’t stick to your teeth and that probably allowed for the custard to heat up a bit more. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Gary chose Assiette de Sorbets du jour et son palmier - Daily assortment of fresh sorbets served with an elephant ear. He really enjoyed the flavours and thought it was a great ending to a great meal.

As for Liz, she decided on the tarte au chocolat - Chocolate tart with chantilly vanilla cream and praline sauce. She said the tart was delicious but the sauce made the dish.

Finally Roly had some sort of apple crepe with ice cream that I can’t seem to find on the menu. He doesn’t even remember eating this so obviously it wasn’t that remarkable.

Would we go back? Sure! I would love to try more of the different ethnicities within Epcot, but I would not hesitate to dine here again.


Up Next: The Coral Reef

 

[mom2fivecs]

Looking forward to the Coral Reef review...thanks for taking the time!