Thursday, May 31st - You Ruined Our "Perfect" Vacation You Ruiner; You Ruined Everything!
A little background is in order, I think. Originally we were supposed to finish off our week of gastronomic adventures at Rose and Crown, followed by a viewing of Illuminations and then perhaps a quick visit to the Adventurers Club at DTD before returning to the villa to pack it all up for the return flight to Stinktown on Friday morning.
Sometimes you should just leave well enough alone.
But shortly before the trip I started thinking
always a dangerous pastime and I decided that we needed to try another new restaurant. Besides, it's more fun to go to Rose and Crown when staying at the Beach Club Villas - then you can just stagger out of the International Gateway and blunder through the gardens until you find your room...but that's a story for another time.
I poked around the review board...I looked at menus...I asked for advice and two things, no wait, three things, yes three... three things changed my mind and led me to replace Rose and Crown with Artist Point.
1) Jay would really enjoy their menu, even though I found it highly unappealing;
2) Consensus (the DIS, Jay's brother and his wife, actual written reviews) held that Artist Point was a fine meal with a charming ambience;
3) The restaurant offers a port flight on their dessert menu.
I gotta be honest... point number three really drove it home for this drinking girl. How was I to know that by the time this dinner rolled around drinking would be the last thing I really wanted to do?
Anyway... here we are, looking all cheerful and relaxed before leaving for one final Disney Transportation adventure on our way to dinner.
Where's the airbrush? I've fallen prey to the flabbening...
As a reference for those of you who may stay at SSR sometime in the future and wonder how best to get to the Wilderness Lodge from the resort, we caught a bus to the Magic Kingdom and then just missed the bus to the Wilderness Lodge. Eh, so what? It was a nice evening and what better way to help put us in the mood for one last romantic dinner than a boat ride?!
I'm posting this next picture as visual proof that I was enjoying myself; this will be an important part of the story, so remember...Brenda was having fun...Brenda was happy...Brenda did not look like she was going to have an emotional melt-down.
Look at us, we're so cute!
This review will be a little different in that you're going to hear from both Jay and I individually; I think that's the most even-handed way to work through the evening. So, without further ado...
Artist Point
This is a signature restuarant located in the Wilderness Lodge and I believe certain choice tables have a view of Silver Creek Falls; our table had a great view of the ramp that leads from the lobby out to the pool deck - wow.
The interior of Artist Point - picture once again courtesy of the DIS:
Upon checking in at the podium we were seated promptly at a table for two right next to a family of five that included a rather screechie baby. I just checked with Jason to make sure that I am not being unduly harsh about said baby; I tend to be noise-sensitive and I don't want to be unfair, but Jason...who comes from a monstrous-huge family agreed that this baby was annoying. It was the kind of noise that makes you think, "Should that family really have a baby in this kind of restaurant?"
And the parents weren't doing anything to lessen the noise or distract the baby; they just kicked back with their wine and pretended that all was right with the world. Maybe they had earplugs.
There were a lot of kids in the restaurant too, which I always expect at Disney, but I was a little surprised to see so many at AP given their menu. And these were the "running around" kids who, quite frankly, annoy the crap out of me. I'm not looking to turn this into a debate and I'm not ragging on kids in general, but an upscale signature restaurant is not the place for parents to allow their children to wander around disrupting the staff and other guests.
And then there was our waiter, who made me sad by not even noticing our anniversary buttons. Let this be a lesson - wear your button but don't get your hopes up because someone will just come along and crush them as carelessly as a cigarette butt under the heel of his shoe. Don't misunderstand...it wasn't just the button, although I do think I was starting to get a little spoiled by all the attention we'd received elsewhere during the week. I thought the waiter was slow and his service was spotty at best. We ordered a bottle of Pellegrino and not only was it not chilled but he didn't bring us any ice and he didn't give us a chilling bucket to help cool it down. When we finished that bottle he never brought us a second one, even though that was the only beverage I had all night.
He also reeked of cigarette smoke, which really turns my stomach (I'm sensitive to a lot of odors, too... or should I say I'm scents-itive?
).
And then the thing that really finished it for me was this: There was no Copper River Salmon on the menu.
Jay loves salmon and I was really excited that he would have a chance to try this special salmon that is only available for a few weeks out of each year. The executive chef at Victoria and Albert's talked to us about the Copper River salmon while we were having dinner there on Tuesday and he raved about it's delicate flavor - Artist Point is the only restaurant at WDW where this salmon is available.
Except for this night. The waiter said they'd had it the previous night and expected to have it again by tomorrow night, but for those of you dining this evening, well, you're screwed.
We placed our orders and then it happened...I started crying. Luckily I'm a silent crier, but I was still sitting there at the table with tears streaming down my face with a bewildered husband sitting across from me.
And I couldn't talk because I was too busy crying. Even if I could have spoken I'm not sure he would have been able to follow the rather complicated thought pattern that was just making me more upset.
It went something like this:
This isn't what I pictured at all.
This was supposed to be a quiet, relaxing dinner and instead it's like Romper Room.
That baby is really starting to get on my nerves.
I can't believe they aren't serving that salmon tonight.
I wish we'd just gone to Rose and Crown - it would have been more fun.
You know, getting upset over all this stuff that you can't control isn't making things any better.
Now you're ruining the dinner, Brenda; nice job.
And as I tried to get myself under control that whole list just kept repeating itself over and over again in my head. I don't normally make a habit out of weeping at the dinner table. I think it was a combination of being disappointed, tired, hormonal, and having an infection that my medication wasn't clearing up the way it should have. But let's be honest, I'm also just a big baby. **Or, as Jason likes to say, "You're not big."**
And then hope raised its head for a brief moment when the cheese plate we ordered arrived. It was dropped off with no explanation of which cheese was which and there was no handy cheese menu as there had been in the other restaurants.
You call this a cheese plate?
I confess to disappointment - by far the worst cheese plate of the trip. Only three cheeses? When we go to the local market they have
two just for sampling. Bah!
So what did we get? That middle cheese is the Rogue River Blue... no chance that I'm going to eat that. The one at the bottom is a type of goat cheese but very strong and hard - not appealing. The cheese at the top is some type of cheddar - good but nothing that really jumped out at us. The cheeses were served with riesling-poached raisins, cranberries, and some kind of applesauce goo.
Brenda: I do not recommend the cheese plate at Artist Point.
Jason: Part of the problem is that the signature restaurants seem to be offering a lot of the same cheeses. By the time we dined at AP, we'd already tried at least one of these cheeses elsewhere so it wasn't a surprise. If this had been the only cheese plate we'd tried it probably would have been fine, but we were comparing this to Chefs de France, Flying Fish, and Victoria and Albert's. Artist Point didn't stand a chance.
We also ordered the Crispy Venison Spring Rolls, which are served with hot sweet and sour sauce. This was obviously a stretch for me, but I was willing to give it a try.
Venison Rolls
Brenda: Well, I tried it but I didn't like it, no sir! Too gamey and too greasy; look at the picture, you can still see the grease glistening in the lamplight.
Jason: These were pretty good. They were crispy...had a good flavor and were equally good with or without the sauce.
Jason's entree:
Cedar Plank Roasted King Salmon
According to the menu this is servied with Haricot Vert, Carmelized Onions, Pork Belly, Butternut Squash and Lemon Grass Glaze. I'll just have to take their word for it because I have no idea what that pile of mush next to the salmon is supposed to be.
Jason: The salmon was good with nice flavor from the plank and it was moist - not dry at all, which is always a concern when using the plank method of cooking. The mush was acceptable.
My entree:
Roasted Chicken Breast
The menu claims that this is served with russet potato risotto and snap peas. I agree with the peas but am disputing the claim of risotto. Those are teeny tiny potato cubes, not risotto. I have risotto in my pantry and it's
rice, not potato cubes. The chicken wasn't bad - it was moist and did have a nice flavor, but I was very disappointed in the "risotto."
Do you think dessert might cheer me up? It's always worth a try.
Coffee Two Ways
There are two desserts here: mochaccino bread pudding and vanilla latte creme brulee.
Brenda: I thought the bread pudding was dry; I'm going to sound like Grimace but it needed more sauce. I'm no gourmet chef but my bread pudding is more moist than this. And that creme brulee is waaaaaaay too dark to be vanilla latte. I wasn't impressed with either dessert - they were OK that's about all I can really say. Maybe they would have been better with four 1-ounce pours of port, but there was no way I was going to drink booze after crying through my dinner.
Jason: That creme brulee was supposed to be vanilla? It tasted more like a mocha creme brulee. I agree with Grimace's daughter that the bread pudding could have used more sauce.
Overall Impressions
Brenda: Obviously an off night for me as well as for AP. In all fairness I bear just as much responsibility for the evening being sucky as the restaurant does, but I really wasn't impressed. The service was lacking, the menu just didn't appeal to me, and the ambience was definitely not there. I'm not going to recommend this restaurant to anyone, but I'm also not going to tell anyone
not to try it. Artist Point wasn't bad, but I don't think it lived up to its billing as a signature restaurant.
Jason: Depending on your dining itinerary you could set yourself up for disappointment at Artist Point. Following dinners at Jiko, Flying Fish, California Grill and Victoria and Albert's, this restaurant was something of a letdown. Had we eaten here earlier in our trip we might have felt differently. It was good, but for people on the dining plan I don't think AP is worthy of 2 table service credits.
Whew! Am I glad that's over! I'd like to leave you all with a smile, so here's a hint of things to come in The Shrubbery...update coming some time this summer!!
Now this is my kind of festival!
But, you could throw us a bone and post just one pic of your Chef's Table dinner... Make it a good one. 
We have so many good memories of that place. I hope it was just an off night, and not the new trend...
We are also eating at California Grill before the Pirate and Princess Party on Aug 21st!
I'm making myself hungry!
