The Deluxe Dining Adventures of the Indecisive DISer - CA Grill added, 1/5

[Colleen27]

After changing dates, resorts, and just about everything else about our trip, the Indecisive DISer and crew are finally off to the World! We leave in five short days for 8 fabulous nights of deluxe dining and Disney magic.

I’ll keep the introductions brief. If you’re looking for more, it is all in the PTR in my siggie.

The cast:

Me: 30 year old Disney nut and master planner of the adventures. I love food of all sorts and trying new things. The only thing I’m really picky about is dessert. I’m just not a sweets person and I don’t really care for chocolate except in small doses, so sometimes finding the right dessert can be a bit challenging. I’m also a bit of a camera nut, so expect lots of food porn and probably some restaurant photos to set the scene.

DH: 39 and just along for the ride. He’s a meat & potatoes guy for the most part, loves shellfish but is allergic to fish, and like me, isn’t all that into desserts.

DS11: Totally not into kid foods and very excited to be an adult on the DxDDP for the first time on this trip. His favorite foods are sushi, lobster, and crab, and he’s come into his teenage appetite early; without the dining plan, I don’t think I could afford to feed him!

DD8: A much more typical kid. She’s starting to branch out more but still likes having a ‘safe’ kids’ meal to fall back on. A very light eater, she’ll be sharing with us when she wants to try new things and sharing her kids’ meals with the baby. She’s the only one in the family with a sweet tooth, so she’ll be the go-to girl for dessert reviews.

DD15mo: Itty bitty garbage disposal. She’ll eat just about anything except store bought baby food! Since she’s too little to be on the dining plan she’ll be getting a little of everyone’s food, but I don’t imagine she’ll have much to say about it.

The ADRs, subject to change of course :

Artist Point
Yak & Yeti (lunch)
Jiko
Liberty Tree Tavern (lunch)
Kona
Raglan Road (lunch)
California Grill
Akershus (breakfast)
Teppan Edo
Captain’s Grill
Brown Derby (lunch)
Crystal Palace (breakfast)
Narcoosees
Chef Mickey (breakfast)

Other dining plans:

The only CS I expect we’ll have will be at the resort food court and maybe a stop at Main Street Bakery, because I find the whole CS experience kind of a headache with 3 kids in tow.

I don’t really plan snacks, but I have printed out park-by-park cheat sheets from the sticky at the top of the dining plan board and will be making a point to hit up some DIS favorites, including some I’ve never had before like schoolbread and kaki-gori. And of course there will be plenty of old favorites from the Main Street Confectionary and Bakery, Dole Whips, and whenever possible, coffee drinks to get my caffeine fix! I might even make it to Goofy’s for the very first time, though in the interests of honesty I must admit to saying that every trip and never actually getting there.

We’ll probably also try to get a last minute breakfast at Grand Floridian Café or Captain’s Grill one morning for DH to get his eggs benedict fix, and I’m sure we’ll be trying the in-room pizza delivery at CBR one evening while the kids swim.

And of course, being true to my indecisive self means that some plans may end up changing on the fly!

Day 1: Old Port Royale and In-room Pizza delivery, post 14
Day 2: Yak & Yeti and Jiko
Day 3: Liberty Tree Tavern and Kona
Day 4: Old Port Royale and California Grill
Day 5: Akershus and Teppan Edo
Day 6: Raglan Road and Captain's Grill
Day 7: Hollywood Brown Derby and In-room pizza delivery
Day 8: Crystal Palace and Narcoosees
Day 9: Sunshine Seasons

 

[mom2ee]

i am along for the ride. can't wait for the pictures.

 

[KatMark]

What a great line up. Can't wait for the reviews.

 

[MickeyNicki]

I'm in!

 

[eventamy]

Woo hoo! I'm in! Have a great time!

 

[natalielongstaff]

Hope you have a great time

 

[msce2]

Looks great. Can't wait to hear how everything was. Have an amazing trip!

 

[dizneeat]

Sounds great! I am in for this one! Have a wonderful time at WDW!

 

[meloneyb21]

Can't wait to see the pictures! Have fun!

 

[katiebelle21]

It looks like you have some good choices.
Have a great trip!

 

[Colleen27]

Yay, I have readers!! Welcome everyone!

Why do the last few days before a Disney trip always take longer than the 6 months of planning that went into it? 3 days until we leave and I'm already at that can't wait/too excited to sleep point!

 

[cdotla]

Looking forward to it!

 

[Pooh&OurHunny]

Joining in. Have a great trip.

 

[Colleen27]

We're home, and I miss Disney food already!

No pictures with my first day's reviews, but we did have a change of plans. Shocking, I know.

Our travel day ended up being a lot longer than we planned, due to DS11's request not to miss a school event the night before we left. So we cancelled our room at the airport and braved the early morning start, which ended up making for much too long a day for signature dining at night.

Lunch: Old Port Royale

When we checked into CBR around 2, we were all hungry, having not really eaten a real meal yet. So DH headed to Old Port Royal and came back with two chicken caesar salads, a 'royale' sandwich, three bowls of fruit, a kids' pizza meal, a bottle of apple juice, two chocolate milks, and a bottled water, plus our refillable mugs. The salads were really good, just the right amount of dressing and cheese. DH really enjoyed his sandwich and couldn't finish it. The chips that it came with were really good, house-made and well seasoned. Nothing really outstanding, but a good tasting food court meal that really hit the spot after a very long morning of car/plane/bus rides.

Total cost if paying OOP: $50.57
Meal credits used: 4
Mug cost: $55.34

DxDDP value so far: $105.91

Snack: Old Port Royale

DD16mo got hungry while we were at the pool, so I headed up for a couple snacks. I love moderate food courts for their selection! Got her a bowl of strawberries and a big blueberry muffin, which was plenty for both the girls to share.

Total cost: $8:49
Snack credits used: 2

DxDDP value so far: $114.40

Dinner: In-room pizza delivery

Around 4pm, I realized we'd already been up for 12 hours and that the kids were not going to be interested in making our 6:30 ADR. They were perfectly happy in the pool, I had a bit of a headache from the long, caffiene-less travel day, and it just wasn't happening. So I called and canceled, and when the kids got tired we ordered pizza to the room and relaxed in front of some Christmas special on ABC Family.

Disney pizza gets solidly slammed and with good cause, but this time it wasn't bad. It wasn't good and certainly wouldn't have been worth the price had we been paying cash, but it was as good as your average Little Caesars or similarly cheap chain pizza. We had a pepperoni pizza, breadsticks with sauce, carrot cake, and a 2ltr of Coke. The breadsticks were on the greasy side but the sauce they came with was quite good, so I just dipped my pizza crusts instead. The carrot cake was the standard packaged desserts, but of Disney's generic counter service desserts it is my favorite.

Total cost: $41.19
Meal credits used: 2

Total DxDDP value so far: $155.59

 

[cdotla]

Yay! You've started!

I understand the changes for the 1st day...it is so hard to predict what you will feel like after a long travel day!

Can't wait for more!

 

[Colleen27]

Snack: Safari Coffee

We're not breakfast people, so even though we were at AK just a few minutes after rope drop, we didn't really stop for food until lunch. The kids needed a little something, though, and I wanted a caffeine fix, so we hit Safari Coffee for a few snacks. I didn't sample the food here, but it looked pretty good. DD16mo had a blueberry muffin and the big kids got sticky buns. I got a cappuccino, the big kids shared a strawberry slushie, and the baby got a bottled water.

Snack cost: $19.33
Snack credits used: 6

DxDDP value so far: $174.92

Lunch: Yak & Yeti

We had as 12:30 ADR here and checked in just a few minutes early. It was only a 5 min wait to be seated, which was good because DH was getting pretty hungry by now. The decor here is really cool, but this is one very LOUD restaurant! We were seated towards the back of the big room, near the stairs to the second level, and it was loud enough that conversation was difficult. This is where we saw the beginnings of a pattern with DD16mo's behaviour - I worried about how she'd be at the quiet signature restaurants, but it worked out just the opposite. She was much more of a handful at the louder restaurants. So bear with me on the less-than-stellar photo quality here, because I was doing a bit of baby-juggling through much of this meal and 'auto' mode isn't ideal for food pics.

I didn't catch our server's name, but he was just okay and had an accent that made him difficult to understand in the noisy setting. We all ordered sodas, which took a while to come. Thankfully, that wasn't the beginnings of a pattern - once we ordered our starters and entrees, the service improved, and refills and meals were well-paced.

I ordered the lettuce wraps, which were quite good and an absolute hit with DD16mo, who ate 2 on her own! The sauce really made this dish, and the portion was large enough to make a meal of them.

DS had the egg rolls, which we all tried and enjoyed. They were very nicely crispy and not too greasy, good egg rolls but nothing really outstanding.

DH had the fried green beans, which I've read so many good things about, but I wasn't impressed. To be fair, none of us are big fans of fried anything so it probably wasn't a problem with the dish but rather with our selection. The green beans themselves were very fresh and perfectly tender-crisp, and after trying a few with the breading, DH & the girls ended up peeling the breading off the rest and finishing them up plain.

For entrees, DS11 had the Shaoxing steak and shrimp, with the steak cooked medium. It came out a more like medium-well, but was very good and tender nonetheless, and DS especially enjoyed the shrimp. The rice and veggies went mostly untouched.

I had the tempura shrimp. This wasn't really an outstanding dish. The veggies were pretty limp and bland, the rice was just okay, and the presentation of the shrimp over the rice made for soggy breading. The shrimp were a good size and nicely cooked, and the dipping sauce was a good blend of spicy and sweet, but to me good tempura stays light and crispy long enough to eat and this fell short on that measure.

DH ordered the best entree of the meal, the baby back ribs. The meat was fall off the bone tender and the hoisin sauce was excellent. The fried rice was much better than my coconut or DS's jasmine rice too.

DD8 wasn't really happy with the kids' menu here. She had the chicken bites, which were basically tempura chicken nuggets, with applesauce & jello for her sides. She didn't care for the dipping sauce they brought her and used my chili-plum sauce instead, but didn't even come close to finishing her chicken and ended up eating her sides with some of my shrimp & DH's ribs. I don't have a pic of this either, I think because she wanted to take her own food pics with her camera and I haven't looked through her memory card yet. So I might add it later, or maybe not.

None of us were really sure on ordering desserts because we were pretty full, but I wanted to try the cream cheese wontons that I've seen in so many reviews so we braved another course.

The wontons were worth it! I'm not really a big fan of fried anything, nor of pineapple or vanilla, but this just looked so good in so many pictures that I had to give it a shot and I loved it. The flavors work so well together, especially when you pair the warm pineapple & wontons with the cool, creamy ice cream. It was just heavenly, but about twice as much as I could eat.

DH & DS both had the sorbet trio, which was a nice light finish to the meal. I liked the lemon best; they both liked the mango. The girls loved the strawberry.

DD8 skipped her kids' dessert in favor of sharing with dad. No big loss, Disney's kid sundaes are never much of anything special.

Would we go back? That's a tough one. I really didn't like the volume level of the restaurant. Some of the food was really, really good; other items just fell flat. But the options at Animal Kingdom are so limited and we don't really care for counter service, so Yak & Yeti will likely make our ADR list again at some point in the future.

Meal cost: $140.57
Meal credits used: 4
OOP costs: $28.00 tip

DxDDP value so far: $315.49

This has rambled on a little long, so I'm going to make Jiko it's own post.

 

[KatMark]

Great start to the reviews. We enjoyed our meal at Yak & Yeti (we had the duck and the sweet and sour pork), but those ribs seem to be calling my name.

 

[Colleen27]

Snack: Tamu-tamu

Only one noteworthy snack this afternoon because lunch was so filling - a chocolate shake from Tamu-tamu. I don't think I've ever read a review of these, because I walked up fully expecting a shake. What I got was something more like a Wendy's Frosty. There was no way to drink it through a straw! It was very, very good and the three kids made pretty short work of it and of the bottle of water I got to wash it down.

Snack cost: $6.91
Snack credits used: 2

DxDDP value so far: $322.40

Dinner: Jiko

This was our first time trying Jiko, and it was probably the restaurant I was most looking forward to on this trip. I've read nothing but good reviews, and it did not disappoint.

We checked in right on time and were quickly seated in a booth under the birds on the wall, which made DD16mo very happy. She loves sitting in a booth like a big girl, rather than in a high chair, and she was very entertained by the birds. This restaurant is often described as quiet, and it is very quiet by Disney standards but not quiet by real-world standards. I was a little worried about DD16mo at this meal, especially after she was so high-maintenance (for her anyway) at Y&Y, but as it turned out she took her cue from the quieter atmosphere and settled right in to play quietly and eat. This ended up being a constant throughout the trip - she behaved better in the quieter restaurants, and was more of a challenge in the noisier settings.

Our server came promptly to take drink orders and brought warm towels around to freshen up, which was lovely on a day when we had gone straight from the park to dinner. I really hadn't adjusted yet to the FL heat, coming from sub-zero wind chills at home to near-record highs in Orlando, so I stuck to iced tea with dinner instead of the wine I had planned on. DH & the kids ordered sodas.

The bread here was very unique, slightly sweet with a little hint of ginger or cloves or some sort of spice I associate with pumpkin pie and squash and other fall foods, and served with a honey-spiced butter. I'm not a big fan of bread and butter, but even I had to resist the temptation to fill up on bread here!

I seem to have misplaced the pictures of our starters, but I swear I took them. But for now, the first course is sadly pic-less.

For an appetizer, I ordered the BBQ chicken flatbread. This was excellent, the tart apples a perfect complement to the slightly sweet BBQ sauce, and all three kids helped me finish it.

DH ordered the mussels, which he loved. I don't care for them so I can't give my personal opinion, but it was a very large portion for an appetizer and even with the kids' help he didn't finish them.

DS ordered the best appetizer of the meal, the ostrich filet. I'd never had ostrich before and would have guessed it to be more poultry-like, but it is definitely red meat, more like lamb or beef than chicken. It was seared rare and served over chick peas, and it was just melt-in-your-mouth tender and so perfectly seasoned. Absolutely amazing.

DD8 had the kids' fruit cup appetizer, and this was one of the best of the trip, with cantaloupe, honeydew, and lots of assorted berries. The girls happily shared this and it kept them both occupied until the entrees arrived.

For entrees, I had the signature filet over mac & cheese. This isn't the sort of thing I'd usually order and maybe I should have gone with my normal tastes, but the reviews and photos of this convinced me to give it a try. It was very, very good. The filet was perfectly medium-rare, and the red wine sauce was excellent. But I didn't really care for the way the mac & cheese paired with the beef, and DD16mo ended up eating most of the macaroni.

DS had the beef short rib, which was served with a warm potato salad. He really enjoyed this, and the bite I tried was excellent. It was literally fall-off-the-bone tender and nicely seasoned, not overpowering but very flavourful.

DH had the roasted lamb with curry, served over couscous. This choice really surprised me, because he seldom orders lamb or curry and doesn't usually care for couscous, but this dish was superb. The lamb was served medium-rare, seared on the outside and just warm on the inside, and the curry was a nice, fairly mild complement to the meat. And apparently, the curry sauce and lamb juices are the secret to good couscous, because DH even ate that!

DD8 had the kids' grilled cheese, which she really liked. That's saying something, because she doesn't really eat most grilled cheese - it has to be made on bread with some texture, no Wonder Bread for her!, and she much prefers real cheeses like cheddar or colby over American. Outside of a signature restaurant, I'd have discouraged her from even trying a grilled cheese at Disney, but at Jiko it was a more "grown up" grilled cheese and she did like it. Again, no pic because she took her own food porn and we haven't unloaded her camera yet.

For dessert, nothing really jumped out at me or DH, but since the kids really wanted the smores dessert from the kids menu, we decided to sample a couple things too.

DH had the pistachio creme brulee, which he liked but didn't love. As I said in my intros he's not a big dessert person, and he'd never had creme brulee before. I didn't care for it but I don't like pistachios, especially in desserts, so that wasn't much of a surprise. It had a nice, smooth texture and the top was perfectly crusted, just the pistachio flavour wasn't my thing.

I had the Tanzanian chocolate trio, which wasn't on the Allears menu last I checked. I don't remember the description of the first item on the left, but it tasted like a very rich chocolate cheesecake, served on a ginger-tasting little wafer cookie. The little hand in the picture is DD16mo, who wasn't about to wait for me to get pictures before helping herself to the little candy garnish! The middle item was described as hot chocolate, and was extremely rich as well. The final item was the reason I ordered the dessert - chocolate mousse. It was much thicker and heavier than I'd been expecting, and again very, very rich. This dessert would probably be a chocolate-lover's dream, but it just wasn't a good choice on my part.

One of the reasons my kids love signature dining is the creative desserts, and Jiko was no exception. They loved the presentation and taste of the kids' smores, and this was the first of many occasions where DS would happily eat adult appetizers and entrees, but ordered his desserts off the kids' menus. From bottom to top, this is chocolate sauce, marshmallow fluff, graham cracker, ice cream, and toasted marshmallows.

Will we go back? Definitely! The entire experience was excellent and there are menu items that I really want to try that I think are more my style. Both DH & DS want to stay at AKL for our next big trip, so we might even go more than once next time.

Meal cost: $206.68
Meal credits used: 8
OOP costs: $38.81 tip

DxDDP value so far: $529.08

 

[GoofySon'sMom]

That S'Mores dessert looks great! Can't wait to eat at Jiko ... we'll be there on Sunday!

 

[sherry]

Thanks so much for the reviews, my dd and I will also be at Jiko on Sunday.