The Breakfasts Heard 'Round the World

[daisymomof4]

Thanks for the info about the meat at Tusker House! If I can't talk my DH in to it, we'll have to take a cue from chocovrdmicears and grab jalapeno pretzels and pineapple spears.

Now I'm hungry and have to go throw dinner together!

 

[bostonminnie]

Love the Sanaa review and the turtle picture! We love Sanaa and can't wait to go back just for the bread service alone

 

[mindylee847]

I'm so sorry about the delay in posts everyone! I'll be sitting my butt down tomorrow and doing at least three for you guys!

 

[we3travellers]

Loving your review! Please keep it coming!

 

[mindylee847]

Hey everyone! So sorry about the delay in reviews! I have NO idea where this whole week has gone. It all just flew by!

Here's a short review on what we had for dessert after Sanaa (but don't worry, more posts will be coming your way today).

After hitting EPCOT and MK all on our very first day and already visiting AK on our first full day, we had one more park to get to! We headed over to Hollywood Studios. This park actually ended up being my favorite of the whole trip. Crowds were the lowest here every time we visited and CMs were definitely the friendliest! I mean, when Toy Story is only a wait of 80 minutes... you KNOW it's not busy there!

When we arrived, we came across this GREAT topiary! My husband's favorite movie is Monsters Inc so he just had to have a picture.



We enjoyed some rides and it started to downpour. I knew it was time for dessert! We made our way to the Writer's Stop. Now, I've always GONE here every time I had been to HS. I actually never got anything though! I always look around at the mugs and recipe books and the cute items they have, but this time I was determined to get something from the bake case.

I picked up this beauty:



It's a gingerbread cookie with chocolate ears and some frosting buttons. Now, I have high expectations for my gingerbread cookies. I have one every time I go to Bristol Rennaissance Faire. It's my tradition and they make THE best gingerbread cookies in the world (besides myself ). This cookie was good, but it wasn't the best. It was your basic gingerbread. Although, the Mickey ears made it about 100 times better! Absolutely adored them.

My husband got this:



He picked up a macadamia nut cookie. It was so smooshy and good that it just fell right apart as he was trying to take it out for a pic. I'm not a big macadamia person, but this was definitely delicious! My husband liked it a lot.

Overall, I will be making this a stop and actually getting something when we go in. It was far less crowded than I expected and I did see the famous carrot cake cookie in the case as well. I'm just not a carrot cake person - I don't get it. Carrots don't belong in cake!

Get ready for the reviews of our absolute favvvvorite breakfast the entire trip!

 

[mindylee847]

To be honest, I didn't expect to like this place as much as I thought I would. I made the reservation at my husband's request and since I wanted to visit the Boardwalk at some point on this trip, I was willing. I had heard some negative reviews about it on the DIS boards... never anything that really made me think, "Yes, I need to go here. This has to be on my list."

To get to the Boardwalk, since we were staying at the POP, we decided to take a bus to Hollywood Studios and get on a boat to head over to the EPCOT resort area. The buses were running at 7 AM, but the boat doesn't start until 8 AM. We were a little early and had to wait in the rain for a while. To get to the boat dock from the buses... just head toward the entrance to Hollywood, but stick by the lake and just keep following that path. It's a great way to get around, because every time we used the boats they were never that busy. ALSO, I normally get really sea sick on smaller boats. These were very smooth rides, unless there were some big waves. This only happened once on all our rides.







We actually got off of the boat at the Swan and Dolphin and decided to walk over to the Boardwalk since we were early for our reservations. Since it was raining and I was in flip flops, I slid along the Boardwalk a LOT. So just a heads up - if you're wearing cheap flip flops from Old Navy and it recently poured, the Boardwalk is VERY dangerous!



We finally slid our way to our destination - Kouzzina!



Here are some menu pics:





The first thing we HAD to order was the press pot of coffee. All Ears describes the pot: "Enjoy the robust and unique flavors of this signature blend coffee available only at Kouzzina!" This pot will serve two unless you're a heavy coffee drinker. For me, press pot is always so strong that I can barely finish one cup. It was SO good!



Next came out our breakfast "appetizer". Most breakfasts in Disney don't seem to come with fruit so we ordered the Seasonal Fruit Bowl. This was the best fruit bowl I've ever had. Not only were there honeydew and melon as ALWAYS in bowls... there were blueberries, pineapples slices, apple slices, orange slices, strawberries, and grapes! It all tasted very fresh and I was seriously in heaven. I absolutely love fruit.



I ordered the spinach, tomato, and feta scrambled eggs with breakfast potatoes, chicken sausage, and a croissant. All of it was delicious. By the looks of the croissant, I thought it was going to be hard. It was actually very light and fluffy. Wow!! I've never had a piece of bread that I've ever liked THAT much! It didn't even need butter.



Mike ordered the Stacked Kouzzina Breakfast. This consisted of two pieces of olive toast, chicken sausage, and then two poached eggs with artichoke spread on top of some sweet potato hash. My husband basically died of the amazing in his mouth! He still talks about it. He just said "I'd write poetry about it, if I could write poems." I did try a bite and it was VERY good! I'm not normally a sweet potato person, but all the tastes together were just fabulous. I'll have to try and make this on a weekend for him.



Not only was all the food great, the service was also wonderful! It was pretty quiet in the restaurant so the server was able to spend a lot more time helping us and suggesting items. The decor was great, but since it was so cloudy out - I felt that it was a bit dark for breakfast. I like windows open and sun shining in, not that Disney could control the weather or anything... yet. This will definitely be a MUST on every trip from here on out. I'd even consider staying at one of the EPCOT resorts just so we could eat here most mornings!



Next up, we're headed to EPCOT for the day!

 

[mindylee847]

We planned to spend most of the day at EPCOT and we didn't want to eat too much. We had a huge and wonderful breakfast at Kouzzina and we were going to Pioneer Hall that night at 8:30. As that was all you could eat, I didn't want to over eat. We planned to spend most of our day in Future World since we were going back to EPCOT on the 4th and spending that day in World Showcase.

So one of our obvious first stops was Club Cool.



This is a must do for us, especially on hot days! For those of you who haven't stopped in here, you can try different cokes from around the world.



My husband loves the one from Israel. It tastes similar to Sprite or 7UP. I do like that one a lot as well, but I enjoy tasting the ones China and Mexico. They're just super fruity. It's not something I could take more than a few sips of, but I just love the different tastes. They kind of just tastes like suckers.

We later made our way to Mexico to visit La Cava del Tequilla. We wanted a "light" lunch that consisted of guacamole and some tasty drinks. The decor and atmosphere was about what I expected. I was happy to find a table available upon entering. I think that at first I was a little sticker shocked at how much just some chips and guacamole was, but when we got them - they were HUGE! and DELICIOUS! I'm still thinking about that guacamole. We're both huge into Mexican cuisine, and we didn't really want to go to Disney and have something we go out for all the time at home... so just a taste was great!



I also ordered the cucumber margarita. You can see it in the picture above. It was good but so weird. It tasted very much like a cucumber, but minus the crunch. Next time, I'm going to go with one of the fruity ones. I was dying to try the jalepeno one, but I just can't imagine drinking something so hot on such a hot day.



Mike ordered a beer - a Dos Equis. He said it was alright, better than Miller Lite but he has had better. He has somehow become quite a bit of a beer snob over the last few years.



We then made our way to Gran Fiesta Tour and then went over to The Land for our Behind the Seeds tour. I'm really only mentioning this because you get a taste of some fresh cucumbers!! Delicious! Now, that was what my drink was missing!!

Then we made our way to an ice cream cart.





I got my Mickey Premium Bar.



Mike got his favorite - chocolate covered banana. Apparently it was a bit harder than normal though on this trip. Perhaps they amp up the freezers because of the heat.



Next up, we head out to Fort Wilderness for a rootin' tootin' good time and some tasty food!

 

[bostonminnie]

I had to laugh because I have the same problem with flip flops on the BW!!! I'll be walking slowly and gingerly to avoid slipping and falling while everyone else around me does not seem to have any problems

I really enjoyed your Kouzzina review. My husband and I ate there when it first opened and it was not great, I think they were still working the kinks out. We really want to like it because we typically stay at the BW and it would be a convenient breakfast option. Your food looked really good so we hope to try it again during our next trip!

Also enjoyed your margarita review, you can't go wrong at La Cava

 

[mindylee847]

I had to laugh because I have the same problem with flip flops on the BW!!! I'll be walking slowly and gingerly to avoid slipping and falling while everyone else around me does not seem to have any problems

I really enjoyed your Kouzzina review. My husband and I ate there when it first opened and it was not great, I think they were still working the kinks out. We really want to like it because we typically stay at the BW and it would be a convenient breakfast option. Your food looked really good so we hope to try it again during our next trip!

Also enjoyed your margarita review, you can't go wrong at La Cava

Seriously!! It's like my husband and everyone else had some sort of magic shoes on! Hahaha.

It seems they must have worked those kinks out. You should definitely give Kouzzina another go!

 

[mindylee847]

Time for another "Revue"! I was pretty torn between picking the luau or Hoop Dee. I chose HDDR based off of all the wonderful reviews I had read. Everyone seemed to always have a great time and love the food. I was a bit concerned because I do not eat chicken on the bone and I most certainly do not eat ribs. Although, I knew my husband would love them. So, I sucked it up and threw down on the reservation that I wanted the vegetarian option - if there was one.

It took us a while to get to Pioneer Hall. We hopped on the bus straight from EPCOT to Fort Wilderness. Of course, the first stop was Wilderness Lodge. I could only see it through the rain and it looked gorgeous. I'm definitely going to make that a stop on our next trip - I want to try out Whispering Canyon! We were dropped off at another bus location and had to hop again onto a bus. This is something I didn't know going to this resort. For those of you that don't know, the camp grounds are huuuuuge. They have their own bus transportation system. We hopped on the next bus that took us toward Pioneer Hall, the "food court" area, and the boat docks. If coming from MK, I'd suggest just hopping onto the boat and taking a gorgeous ride on over to the grounds.

Our show was at 8:30 and we got there around 7.





Hmm... what to do with all that extra time? Play the super huge checker game they have!! (Plus, that is out of the rain!)



After a while, we noticed some people starting to line up around 7:30... we sort of finished up our game and headed over to the line that was starting to form. Around 8, a man with a clipboard came around and checked us in. He wrote our table number on our tickets and handed them back. My husband was getting impatient and he was verrry hungry... this to me is not bad at all! You want to be hungry for all you can eat, ravenous even! But he was not pleased. I tried to convince him that I heard wonderful things and that they would probably let us in soon. He was just not havin it so he went for a walk and hit the restrooms. Eventually the show prior to ours let out and we finally went in.





They had menus placed on the tables:



On our table, ready for us to devour was this:



This salad dressing was A-mazing. The cornbread was absolutely delicious too! I've found the bread recipe online, but I'm going to have to scour the internet for the salad dressing! The veggies were fresh and crisp.

Our waitress came and we ordered our drinks. I had the sangria and a water. My husband had a beer. They had something other than Bud so he jumped at the opportunity. Neither of us remember offhand what it was, but Mike says it was a "foreign name"... not that that really tells you anything! He says it was "adequate" and my sangria was tasty but I wasn't wowed by it like I am by Carrabbas. It was definitely good though and oh man, do they keep your unlimited drinks flowing! So beware!





Here's a very blurry picture of the performance - I forgot to put on the flash.



The buckets came out and first up were the ribs. My husband LOVED these. The came right off the bone and he barely wanted to eat anything else!



My husband took a few bites of the chicken ONLY because I told him he had to for the sake of my review. He thought it was alright, but nothing compared to the ribs and he thought the chicken was pretty much the norm for good fried chicken.



The chef had come out to me as we were eating our salads and bread and asked if I'd be alright with some grilled veggies. Uhmm, yes please!! I got a plate with mushroom, zucchini, squash, tomato, and spinach. Yummm!! Now, I wish there had been a little... somethin' to it. But I can't complain. It was still tasty. The squash and tomato were my favorite parts. It was probably the best tomato I have ever had.



This is my special bowl of beans that came without the pork. It was good. I mean, baked beans are baked beans right?



The corn was good. Nothing to really write home about.



Here are the potatoes and the cowboy beans. Those. Potatoes. LOVED THEM!! They were so creamy and delicious. My husband thought the beans were pretty basic.

And then... dessert. Strawberry Shortcake. Strawberries are in my top three favorite fruits of all time. And in dessert makes it EVEN better!! I really loved the shortcake, but couldn't eat too much of it. I was already so full. My husband barely took three bites. And as you can see, I was too excited to dig in that I forgot to take a picture at first!!



For my review of the show, I don't want to really give anything away but it's hilarious and it's very much based off of crowd participation. I loved the corny songs and dances. It was an amazing time! I think we'll be hitting this place up at least every other visit. It's so fun and it's great to get away from all the crowds!

My husband realllly loved the show. He thought most of the food was pretty basic, but it was all prepared very well and it was fresh. But, the show was really what sold him. At least now, when we go wait around outside for an hour and a half he'll know what he's in for and be excited! Another Disney win for us!

 

[mindylee847]

Alright, I'm about to give a review that the DIS Boards will probably ban me for... well maybe not that serious, but I'm expecting that people won't be too happy when I talk about my feelings on this next breakfast.

It was a beautiful and sunny day, for once! We took a bus to MK and then hopped on a boat to our destination. I must quick say, that the boats are definitely my new favorite form of transportation around WDW. So smooth and easy going, so relaxing. We passed the beautiful Grand Floridian.



And then we came to our destination - the Polynesian.





The grounds were nice, but I wasn't as wowed as I thought I would be. The Boardwalk had really knocked me of my feet (almost literally!!) the other day. Plus, something in the air there was starting to make me sneezy. I must be allergic to some sort of flower or something...

We went up the stairs and got to Kona Cafe. We were early for our reservations but there was no line and tons of open seating. We were seated right away... by a very bored CM that apparently had not had coffee yet that morning. We glanced over the menus but I already had an idea of what we both would be ordering.





First up!



Obviously the Kona press! My husband and I were very eager to have straight up Kona coffee, we always have a Kona blend on the weekend from World Market that we press, but I knew it wasn't the same. The coffee was delicious, maybe a bit too strong for my liking - but who doesn't need a good, strong kick of coffee in the morning at WDW?

I must say that our server was very disinterested in us the whole time. In fact, disinterested in working entirely. It was hard to find him anywhere! Now, when I ordered my food, I asked if they had anything else to put on the side as I didn't really want meat, perhaps a vegetarian option... he offers me turkey bacon..... Uhmm, same thing right? No. So I ordered the pork sausage to go with my...









Tonga Toast - banana stuffed sourdough bread, rolled in cinnamon sugar and served with Strawberry Compote and your choice of ham, bacon, or sausage. Alright, it looks great. Everyone raves about it. I hated it. I was pretty sure I wasn't going to enjoy such a sweet breakfast and I was right. I should have gone with my guts, because my guts definitely disagreed with it too. Now, I suppose if I had had this since I was young and it was tradition - maybe I'd love it as much as everyone else. It's just not for me. I'M SO SORRY! PLEASE DON'T HATE ME!!

My husband got the Somoan - poached eggs with Hollandaise served over smoked pulled pork hash. It came with onions and my husband didn't know this - so it kind of threw off the whole plate. He also found the pork a bit chunky which he doesn't fault Disney for, but it still was kinda lackluster. He doesn't think it was bad, he was just kind of disappointed... maybe because I spoiled him too soon with Kouzzina.



So overall, our service was poor and our food didn't compare to all the rave reviews. Perhaps we put it on too high of a pedestal. Perhaps it's just not our style. The open restaurant right next to Ohana made it loud and seem more crowded than it was. I don't know if we'll go back, especially since the air makes me sneezy, but I don't think I'd say no if someone suggested it. Perhaps it was a bad day. And I know that I can't handle breakfasts that sweet - so at least I got that out of it.

Next up, we head over to MK to celebrate America - it was July 3rd after all.

 

[chocovrdmicears]

LOL! No from me on Kona. We have been ducking critics forever because we are apparently the only people who don't love Ohana.
As far as Tonga Toast goes - We love it - but if you don't like sweet for breakfast, is definitely NOT the thing for you!

 

[MinnieDaisy]

Thank you for the flip flops/rainy Boardwalk tip!! I am not a good walker, LOL.

I have never had the Tonga Toast, but I will let other people rave...covered in cinnamon/sugar is not my idea of a good time!

Has your husband tried a Dos Equis Amber? The beer in the pic looked like the lager. The Amber has far more depth of flavor...it's my favorite!

These are great reviews, thanks!

 

[bostonminnie]

Love your HDDR review. I haven't been there since I was a kid, so it was fun to read.

NOOOOO, not a bad Kona review!!!!! That is our must-do breakfast every trip!!!! Although, I will say that we have encountered our share of "bored" CM there as well. I am really enjoying your reviews, so I will keep reading despite the Kona review

 

[mindylee847]

Thank you for the flip flops/rainy Boardwalk tip!! I am not a good walker, LOL.

I have never had the Tonga Toast, but I will let other people rave...covered in cinnamon/sugar is not my idea of a good time!

Has your husband tried a Dos Equis Amber? The beer in the pic looked like the lager. The Amber has far more depth of flavor...it's my favorite!

These are great reviews, thanks!

He hasn't had the amber, I'll have to suggest it to him!!

Love your HDDR review. I haven't been there since I was a kid, so it was fun to read.

NOOOOO, not a bad Kona review!!!!! That is our must-do breakfast every trip!!!! Although, I will say that we have encountered our share of "bored" CM there as well. I am really enjoying your reviews, so I will keep reading despite the Kona review

I am so sorry about the Kona review! I really think we just hit it on an off day. I've heard the service can be hit or miss and I really should have ordered something I knew would be more to my liking. I'm glad you'll stick around, there's plenty more to come!

 

[mindylee847]

I am soooo sorry everyone for not posting all week! This month end hit us pretty hard at work, and I still haven't caught up on any sleep - but here I am.. I must post my next review!!

July 3rd we decided to hit up Magic Kingdom for the Fourth of July fireworks. (I planned this prior to finding out about the Limited Time Magic Independence Week.) It was a pretty hot day and there was a place on my list that I wanted to try. Not only that, the moment I had mentioned orange soft serve to my husband - there was no going back.

We made our way to Sunshine Terrace. Here's a shot of the menu.



I was pretty much sold on the All Natural Lemonade with Wild Berry Foam... until I saw this little sign.



So I ordered the Pomegranate Limeade with Lemon-Lime Foam. The CM hands me just the Pomegranate Limeade... with NO foam. So I say "Uhmm... where's the foam?" "Oh, our machine's broken for the lemon-lime foam." You really couldn't think to tell me that when I ordered it? You'd think I would have specifically said "No Foam, please" if I hadn't wanted any. I politely asked to then have the Lemonade WITH foam, if they had it. So here's my tasty drink.



I was VERY happy with this. The foam was delicious and it was a perfect compliment to the lemonade. I don't know if I would have enjoyed the limeade more or not, but I don't think I care! This is on my must list from now on! And my husband, of course, ordered the citrus swirl.



It was obviously very hot and his ice cream started to melt almost immediately! He did really enjoy this, but he does say that the best thing in the world is pineapple dole whip swirled with orange from Aloha Isle.

So to wrap that up - I'm allll about Sunshine Terrace, even though the customer service was severely lacking. I don't think I could have been more of an inconvenience for that employee. And I know - she should be called a cast member, but it's like she literally was just some employee at some random fast food restaurant who didn't care a lick about her job. But seriously - get this lemonade if you're looking for something to help cool you down from the heat!

 

[mindylee847]

There is a quick service restaurant that has always been on my must list, since one of my first trips. I always have to go here - and my husband likes it even more than I do, so there's no messing around. I don't have any pics other than that of our food. I think I was too excited. At least I got the food shot in!

We headed to Columbia Harbour House. I was pretty set on getting the vegetarian chili, but Mike pointed out a new item I hadn't had before. I ordered the Lighthouse Sandwich - hummus with tomato & broccoli slaw on toasted multigrain bread with potato chips. I asked to have it with the cous cous instead of the chips. My husband ordered the lobster roll, as is tradition.



I took a bite of the sandwich and immediately fell in love. It was a bit too salty, but wow. The hummus was delicious and with the broccoli slaw? Definitely a must get for any vegetarian out there! Mike took a bite of mine and immediately regretted his choice. He was a bit disappointed in the lobster roll - plus it had onions. He must not have remembered that bit about it from previous visits. That or they weren't in there before? I think it really comes down to how awesome my sandwich was.

His chips were basic chips, but my cous cous was also super tasty! It was warm, so that is something to keep in mind. I know in Morocco, they serve it cold. So I was a bit taken aback at first but I really ended up enjoying it a lot too! After that Tonga Toast this morning, I really felt like the food heavens had opened up and started raining on me! Let's see if my luck continued on the rest of the day...

 

[chocovrdmicears]

I'm from New England, - We definitely do NOT do our lobster rolls like that. Looks soupy with a lot of fillers.

Next time - if your DH likes shrimp, I highly recommend the fried shrimp plate.

 

[plumsiren]

I haven't even reached the end of what's been posted so far, but I had to stop and comment because I'm just loving it so much! This is one of the first dining reviews I've read (I'm a n00b!) and it's fantastic! I'm actually sitting here trying to figure out whether I should start a Word doc or scribble notes in my guidebook or what, because I will definitely have forgotten all this by the time I go!

Things that jumped out at me: whatever the frozen thing with rum was on the same menu as your pretzel? OMG I want one right now; real biscuits!; I have issues with meat texture too!; you've really inspired me to try Sanaa, a place I would never have thought twice about before seeing that naan sampler!!; the thing about flip flops in the rain? can happen anywhere! I usually just take them off and run for it!

Question: Do you remember if the sandwiches at Cosmic Ray's (specifically the veggie one) were pre-made or made to order? Thanks!

I'm from New England, - We definitely do NOT do our lobster rolls like that. Looks soupy with a lot of fillers.

Next time - if your DH likes shrimp, I highly recommend the fried shrimp plate.

My mom was just complaining the other day that so many places put all kinds of junk in their lobster rolls. She said that strictly speaking, a lobster roll is supposed to be just lobster & mayo.

 

[sazzifrazz]

I'm from New England (just north of Cape Cod) and thought the same thing: that looks soupy and just gross!