Sweet Tooth & Salt Nut's TOTALLY Live TiW Dining Extravaganza! 1/17 DESSERT PARTY!

[BlovesC]

1/16 Dinner at Kona Cafe

Finally it was time for dinner at our favorite resort TS, Kona Cafe!

We were seated right when they opened and shortly we were served the star of the restaurant; their hawaiian sweet bread with honey-macadamia butter!

Sorry but I have to insist that this stuff blows the friendship bread at 'Ohana out of the water. This bread is a billowy cloud of sweet, sweet happiness. No bread service at any other restaurant has ever compare for me, but then I am awfully swayed by sweet stuff!

We've never tried anything from the Kona Island sushi bar before, so we decided to try the volcano roll as a shared appetizer. Unfortunately, although our server kept informing us of its status, it wound up coming out AFTER our entrees were already delivered. Didn't bother us at all, but it was kind of amusing how the server kept stressing during her apologies that it was delayed because it was 'made fresh'. Isn't ALL their food made fresh?!

It sure was a beautiful presentation:

The volcano roll is spicy tuna, tempura crunch, and "seafood lau'ai". It had a great crunch to it, but I didn't taste as much heat as I expected from it. DH is by far the bigger sushi nut so I left it to him. He LOVED all the excess lau'ai bits around the plate, even though we still aren't sure what exactly that IS.

For our entree, we ordered the same thing; pan-asian noodles with shrimp. I ordered mine without peanuts, and stressed to the server that I didn't have any allergies, I just didn't like them. They wound up leaving them off of DH's plate as well though, woops!

We've both ordered this dish a few times before, and it was as good as always. The shrimp are always perfectly cooked, never rubbery, and the noodles never taste as greasy as similar dishes elsewhere.

For dessert we split a Kona Cone; DH ate the cotton candy, I ate the ice cream!

I've always loved how whimsical and cute this dessert was when I've seen it passed around so I had to try it. I don't think I'd get it again, because it's essentially $6 for two scoops of ice cream and I LOVE their white chocolate cheesecake, but I'm glad we tried it once!

And I got another birthday cupcake, this time with a cute cocoa powder image of Lilo and Sitch:

Another great meal at Kona. Our server was very friendly and warm and joked around a lot with us. We've never had anything but exceptional service here with minimal waits and minimal crowds. I think the prices are very reasonable for the quality and quantity of food delivered, so it remains at the top of our list.

up next, the Wishes Dessert Buffet!

 

[Delphinidae]

Just had to say that your reviews are hilarious! (and also quite good!) I have laughed out loud several times. Nice pictures too.

 

[Linda67]

I just love the photo of you in front of the castle

Your breakfast at CP looks delicious. I too am a bit of a carb-monster when I hit a breakfast buffet and agree that the puffed french toast is well worth a couple of visits for

The Sushi and Noodles at Kona look wonderful, I am seriously considering changing around my next set of ADRs (again!) to fit it in

 

[BlovesC]

1/16 Wishes Dessert Party
aka "unidentifiable mousse-like substance party!"

This was our first dining event experience so we were a little uncertain of how things worked. The reservation time when I booked said 7:20, so DH and I killed time in Tomorrowland until we could head over to the noodle terrace. When we finally wandered over a few minutes early, it looked like the party was in full swing and plenty of folks were eating. I'm not sure if if the event starts at 7 and I just failed to read properly, or they stagger out ADR times so as to not be slammed with arrivals? In any case, we checked in, got our wristbands, and were given a great little table right by the ledge. Then we hit the buffet!

It's VERY dim in the terrace area and there were no signs or menus of any kind that we could find that said what each item was. A buffet like this would be a nightmare for anyone with allergies I'd think! But, everything looked beautiful so we just picked items at random.

My first plate:

I'm not much of a creme brulee fan, but the little cup of it was pretty good. The white cup to the left was a cheesecake mousse which was very tasty, but the 'crust' was basically just a loose spoonful of graham crackers thrown in the bottom, so you basically get a sudden mouthful of sweet sawdust. The similar cup was a chocolate mousse, which was fine, nothing special, but pretty rich. The next item I'm not sure of...I thought it was a chocolate coffee tart, DH swore it was peanut butter. Either way I didn't like, or the lemon tart that's hidden in the picture. But the chocolate-covered strawberry...THAT was amazing. Again with these freakish Disney strawberries that are the size of baseballs! It was SO juicy and huge and delicious. The chocolate wasn't even needed.

DH's first plate, which is mostly similar:

The only different item he added was the mango shooter, which he didn't like because he's not a fan of mango and had no idea that's what it was when he chose it. He's more of a creme brulee fan than I am, but he didn't like this at all, he thought it tasted like straight up eggs. He enjoyed the cheesecake, but didn't like the strawberry at all...he said it didn't seem ripe! So there you have it, two polar opposite reviews!

My second plate:

The cannoli was really good, the shell was very soft but I didn't mind that. The cream was delicious....the last time I had a cannoli was at the Italian Food and Wine Festival booth in October and I passed it to DH after one bite, this little buffet one was actually better! The other items were not as successful, though they were all lovely. To the right of the cannoli was a tiramisu, which I had the hardest time figuring out. It tasted like whipped cream and berries to me. The berry tart next to it I honestly don't remember anything about. In the left is a banana cream tart that I didn't even eat...in the dark I thought the topping was just a slice of banana and scooped it into my mouth with a spoon and nearly lost a tooth when I bit down and realized it was a a rock-hard banana CHIP. There was also a brownie, standard stuff, and another delicious strawberry.

DH's second plate...

He added a kiwi fruit tart, the lemon tart I'd tried earlier, and a vanilla cake that he was disappointed by because he thought it was something more exciting and couldn't tell it was basically a tiny version of the free birthday cupcakes! Unlike me, he loved the tiramisu and banana pudding.

DH's third plate:

although to be fair I did eat several of the grapes, and he wanted it to be known that he grabbed the fruit and I stuck the cheesecake on there, even though sadly it remained untouched.

During the feasting we were able to watch the Main Street Electrical Parade! The floats were partially blocked by trees and lampposts, but it was visible enough for us to enjoy it and the music certainly made our desserts seem more festive! There were numerous beverages offered during the party; lemonade, iced tea, water, coffee, decaf, and milk. We enjoyed some lemonade and coffee while watching the parade.

As the Magic, Memories, and You show started, a few people took places at the ledge. No one was seated directly behind them so viewing wasn't an issue. However as Wishes began, it became a bit chaotic. The roof of the terrace is a bit restrictive in that if you're seated with someone in front of you, you can't really just look UP to see the fireworks. It was slightly stressful to all sandwich together at the ledge in that way; there was one family who, instead of grouping up like the rest of us, putting shorter members/kids at the ledge and taller members standing behind them, spread out at the ledge and then had to talk around and over the rest of us from afar. But it was a really nice vantage point of the castle from the terrace!

All in all, the Dessert Party was definitely fun for a special occasion. You do feel priviledged getting into the event, and the cast members working it were very friendly. It's also great to not have to worry about jostling crowds during the MSEP, the MMY show, and the fireworks (for the most part!). Barring the strawberries, none of the desserts were particularly delicious or inventive though, so, much like CRT, you're NOT booking it for the food, just the experience. Well, unless you're a BIG fan of ambiguous mousses and mystery tarts, in which case you're set for an incredible feast!

 

[Bonniec]

Yumm! I'm laying here with my iPad browsing your threads. I should be sleeping but now I'm starving! Thanks for the Ohana and Dessert Party reviews. I finally get to try them next week. SO excited!

 

[Tinkerbellah]

Such a fun review!! This year was our 1st time @ Ohana & I agree w/ you 100%. AMAZING!! That's my #1 fav place to eat anywhere & I have only been there once.