The good and the bad

[BuzzBiteyear]

Just a really brief review of our trip.

Friday, August 20th - Crystal Palace dinner buffet

This is always one of our family's favorites. I wasn't feeling too adventurous this day though I did try ratatouie for the first time, really liked that, along with some of the different veggie salads, which one would never guess by looking at me. Desserts were very good, had some tiramasu, and then some warm bread pudding with some ice cream.

We will definitely return here.


Saturday, August 21st - Rose & Crown Pub dinner

We had a later reservation and were pretty okay with having to wait an additional 30 minutes for our table (people were hanging around as it was raining). Our server came promptly, and asked if we would like to eat in time for Illuminations. We greatly appreciated her consideration of that, as that was one of the main draws for us to eat at R&C this trip, and as we finished she took us to the VIP area where everyone was standing to watch Illuminations.

DW and I ate here 8 years ago, but for some reason not since. She was a bit worried about her father, who is kind of picky. I went all out and got the surf 'n turf. I took the server's advice, and got the steak done medium rare, instead of medium. DW and DFIL just looked at me as if I was going to be getting the moo with the steak. (They always get burnt, I mean well done). Absolutely loved my meal, the steak was so good, as was the fish, and the Yorkshire? pudding. This seemed to be a hit with the men, but not so much with the women at our table. Dessert I had the Bakewell tart, which I thought was just so-so. After eating, I told DW, that I thought it was the best meal I've ever had at WDW.

I might eat every meal here next time.


Sunday, August 22nd - 50's Prime Time Cafe dinner

Again, due to rain, our reservation was set way back. In fact, we were checked in for nearly 90 minutes before our table was ready. I spoke to the hostess, and she said because of the rain, people were taking very long to eat, some in excess of 2 hours.

So we get seated, and the waitress takes our drink, entree, and dessert orders all at once. I don't mind getting the drinks and entrees right away, but didn't care to feel as if we were going to get "rushed" just because they were so far behind at that point. That said it took very long to get our food. And even when we got our food, we still weren't able to eat because we never were given silverware, something we mentioned to the waitress twice before. I got the meatloaf, and I tend to like drier meatloaf, but this seemed moreso than I can remember in the past. Got the PB&J shake for dessert, which I always like. What we couldn't figure out, is once we were done eating our entrees, we didn't see our desserts for a good 20 minutes, even though these had been ordered, pre-meal. This now makes 2 straight years, where the service here has been ridiculously slow. Even though we did try to eat quickly, we were at our table for about an 1 and 45 minutes. No wonder they were so far behind.

This might be it for a couple years for us here.


TO BE CONTINUED

 

[DLo]

good start = looking forward to the rest. appreciate you saying wether or not you would return.

 

[catne]

never thought about rain affecting reservations, guess we've been lucky on that count. Sounds like the waitress at 50's was wrong about why people were lingering...if it took 1 hr 45 for your party, not lingering...probably was the same situation with delayed food at the previous party's tables too.

Enjoying your reviews so far.

 

[BuzzBiteyear]

Monday, August 23rd - Liberty Tree Tavern lunch

Another rain-filled day, causing patrons to stay a bit longer, but we were seated within 15 minutes of our ADR. Now I've seen people mention being cold at WDW during the summer, but thought it would never happen to us, but the combination of being wet, and then sitting near a vent did make it a bit chilly for lunch.

I ordered the Tri-Corner sandwich with fries. We made our first lunch stop here a year ago. I ordered this same sandwich last year, which is roast beef with a horseradish cream sauce and slaw on it, definitely not too spicy. Sandwich isn't going to be the best thing you eat, but I like it, a step up from your ordinary "lunch meat" sandwich and I generally try to avoid burgers at WDW, thinking I'll get a bunch at QS's, which I never end up doing either.

Now the real reason for coming back to LTT for lunch was dessert. DW is a chocoholic, and she was very displeased with her selection of the Three-Chocolate Brownie last year. Was it bad? Not at all, but she tried my dessert, the Caramel Apple Tart. This year almost everyone ordered it at our table. To me this is about the best apple pie you can have with a crust made of shortbread, which I love. Only downer was they were out of butterscotch ice cream (that's what the server said, although I thought it came with cinnamon), so we received vanilla. Still very good, and service was prompt.

Definitely a regular on our ADR list now.


Tuesday, August 24th - T-Rex dinner

As far as we're concerned, the food is secondary at places like this and Rainforest, as the boys really love the atmosphere. DS6 only ranks Chef Mickey's ahead of this, which sounds about right, as it is here and Chef Mickey's that he seems to eat the least, being caught up in the whole experience.

I ordered the Paleo Shrimp, which was a parmesan crusted shrimp with linguini tossed in a pomodoro cream sauce. I very much dislike alfredo, but I liked this alfredo/marinara-combination. I thought the shrimp would be mixed in with the pasta, but there were 5 or 6 decent sized parmesan crusted shrimp along the edge of the pasta bowl. Best pasta dish I've ever had? No, but I thought it was pretty good. Service was quite quick, right after ordering, DS6 and I walked around the restaurant, and our food made it to the table before we had returned. Best part of this meal was my sister paid for everyone. She was sort of tagging along, and we only made her pay the difference between the vacation package for 2 vs. 3 adults, so she felt she owed to us and my inlaws.

Since neither of the boys are frightened by the dinos or noise, this will probably keep getting the nod over Rainforest on our Animal Kingdom days.


Wed - Fri in the next post.