The Good, the Bad and the Ugly - Nov Trip Dining Reviews

[kayteekt]

Let me preface by giving you a little background. This was our first trip without kids and without Deluxe Dining Plan. DH and I planned a last minute trip to celebrate my birthday and our summer anniversary (refuse to go in summer months -- back fired!).

So...we are foodies, not the classy kind...the average real person kind. My husband likes Disney, but is in to multiple trips for the food and the food alone We don't mind paying for a good meal. We enjoy a beer or glass of wine, well I enjoy a glass of wine. We are not picky eaters and I don't think we have unrealistic expectations.

As mentioned before, we've always gone with DDP. We've used 5 times now and always felt like we came out good on it. Eating at least 2 TS per day....we've tried a good many signatures over the years. However, this year we decided to forgo any DP...reason #1-These boards seem to slam the value of the DDP, so I thought we'd experiment #2 We were there for F&W and planned on eating at the booths a good bit. #3-Since it was just DH and I felt we could control price a little better, #4 We are used to going in January and knew we wouldn't eat as much in warmer weather and #5 we've never eaten much QS, so I wanted to give some things a try.

My plan derailed pretty quickly. Only had a few ADRs made (Y&Y and Kona were the only originals).
During day 1 DH had a food tantrum, it may have actually been during our first meal, lol. I warned you he was in for the food.

I'll get to the reviews...but here's a list of the places we ate:

Day 1
Harambe Marketplace: 1st and last QS meal - so much for that plan, lol
Yak & Yeti: You had me at Fried Wonton's
Ohhhh-there may have been a night cap and Beignets once back at POFQ

Day 2
Kona Kafe: A new favorite
An attempt at Food Wine
Trader Sam's
California Grill: Elation then reality :/

Day 3:
Writer's Stop: A stop for cream cheese, ummm I mean danishes and coffee
Food & Wine - gave it another try ended up at...
San Angel Inn: A walk up with a happy ending
La Cava for margaritas!
Coral Reef: It was actually good!

Day 4
SciFi Breakfast: Strange but tasty
Boathouse: Until we meet again truffle fries

 

[pumba]

your words are making me chuckle...anxious for the reviews...

 

[chocolateMinnie]

i'm in

 

[kayteekt]

Ok, so let's start with the Ugly...I mean Day 1

HARAMBE
We hadn't eaten breakfast that morning so by lunch we were pretty hungry.
I said let's try the Harambe Marketplace! It's new and I hear there are lots of different choices.
We decide on Ribs and Sausage, so I head for the sausage line and DH for the Ribs. Lines were long, as it was right at lunch time. They really weren't moving quickly either But we've just arrived and I'm in good spirits
A good 20 minutes later DH has his food, but no where to sit....he wanders around looking for a seat while I still wait...another 15 min or so, I get mine, yay! He's just found a place to sit, ahhh the stars collide. Well after about 35 minutes...but whatever.
We ate: ONE Karubi Rib, Corn Dog (they called it a Curried Sausage) and DH had a beer. (no other drinks, just water)
We paid: right around $35

THE Rib - It tasted great, sauce was good...on what there was of actual rib. However a good half was fat . I know ribs are fatty, but for $15 I think I'd like to eat most of my one rib. There was some slaw on top that was good and Chickpea salad that was pretty good.
My "Sausage" - I ate it, I would rather eat something bad then starve, lol. But I wouldn't really call it good, could just be me, I thought the breading was strange and mushy. DH tried a bite, made a face and left me to my own. It did come with some sort of cold broccoli salad, that was the best thing on the table.

THE SUMMARY: Wellllll, this is where the food tantrum happened, alright I may have exaggerated. It wasn't exactly a tantrum more of a stand for justice (justice in his eyes anyway). I'll summarize, "I am not waiting 30 minutes for my food in the hot sun, then table stalking for god knows how long to eat half a rib for $35! Where are we eating dinner? It better be good.

I had an ADR for Yak & Yeti, which seemed to appease him. I could care less what else we would be eating I made the reservation for one reason and one reason alone...Fried Wontons.

So, I don't think I have time to get into our Y&Y dinner. It was really the worst experience we've ever had anywhere at DW. I think listening to the podcast has cursed me! We've never really had bad service at any of the TS meals we've done over the years, but when I listen to Kevin and John's reviews, they always have the craziest stuff happen.

I'll save that madness for another day...I have to gather my thoughts and calm myself before I can re-live that horrific incident...

 

[JAMIESMITH]

Reading along! I have a feeling this is going to be funny!

 

[goodeats]

We had a similar experience at Harambe Market - never again!

 

[wed100105]

I'm excited to read the rest!!

 

[kastoney]

Sounds like you didn't start out on the best foot but have some of my fav restaurants and more importantly drinks planned. Can't wait to see how it unfolds.

 

[Vernie822]

Oh my gosh can't wait to hear about this one! We also just ate at Yak and Yeti this week and had an off experience. Our server was not good and it was just an odd meal.

 

[samsteele]

Colour me excited as well to read more. I agree with Harambe Market. I even ate a late lunch at an off time and still way too few tables for the people milling around trying to eat. Musical seats. Waiting in line in the sun for the ribs. Lucked into a table but quickly shared with a family with toddler in tow. But they were friendly so that was a plus. However, no shade at the table. My ribs were also fatty and just nowhere near as good as FlameTree. Great theming but the food wasn't great and the whole dining area is as hot as the sun. Once and done.

 

[kayteekt]

Ok, so I'm glad to see it wasn't just us with Harambe Market. I thought maybe we'd spoiled ourselves with too much TS to appreciate to the CS locations.

So on to...Day 1-Part 2-The Ugliest

Now I had Y&Y scheduled for 4pm, early dinner because we were going to HS for eve EMH. BUT I couldn't leave AK without "the wontons" So I planned a whole meal around dessert, sounds logical if you ask me.

Being a non-busy time of day we were seated right away with no problems, even requested upstairs...while we didn't get a window seat they sat us up there right away. So that was nice. Upstairs across from the window tables they have these little two tops smashed against the wall, and being a party of 2, that's where we were sat. Not ideal, but understandable they didn't want to take up a larger table with just 2.

So, pretty soon a lady comes to the window table across from us, she gets their drink order and turns around to us and says she'll be right back. We say ok, but why she couldn't take ours too and do all at once, who knows, I mean that would be easier.

Now before I go on, let me say the other table I'm referring to is like 3 feet away so when the waitress comes she is literally (well her backside) is practically at our table too.

Welp, she's gone for a while...must take a long time to get 4 peoples drinks. I imagine they thought it was a while too. We've decided on drinks and food by this point. Aha, she's back...exciting! She gives the other people their drinks takes their order and then turns to us AGAIN and says she'll be right back.

WHHHAAAAATT, really? I think we were the dunce table! So I guess she goes and puts the order in for the other table and who knows what else, but it took her the longest time to come back....we finally get to order, YAY! Of course we order drinks and food all at once. We're afraid we may never see her again, so we'd at least like to ensure we get some sort of food!

While the waitress was there taking our order, I told her I was a Landry's Club member but hadn't received my card yet. She was nice enough to get me to write down my name and address so they could look up. I wasn't banking on being able to use the $25 credit for signing up, but figured I'd give it a shot. So she goes to get our drinks.

Then a glimpse of hope! The manager comes out she's very nice but says they can't find my account. I tell her I just signed up about a week before, maybe that's why. I'm not expecting much from that...after she leaves DH and I discuss that maybe the manager saw we don't have drinks yet and will say something to the waitress.

A little while later, I don't know how long it takes I stop caring at the point, the people across from us already have their food. We finally get DRINKS!! Hooray!

We're not happy but it's pretty laughable at this point. So a minute or two after we get our drinks our food comes out.

We had ordered 3 apps to share...yep, after all that complaining about lunch DH wasn't as hungry as he'd let on, well that and from our last experience we enjoyed the apps more than the entrees. So we got the wings, firecracker shrimp and dumplings. Once we were finally allowed to order and received they were all good!

While we were eating, the manager came back and was so kind and helpful. She had tracked down my membership on their "back computer" no clue what that meant, but I did understand she had to look harder and do extra to find. She informed me that I had $50 on my account and asked if I would like to use. (My birthday was at the beg of the month I signed up in, so I didn't think I'd get that credit this year, so that was a pleasant surprise!). I really appreciated the manager, she didn't have to do any of that, very kind of her!!

Back to the missing waitress....we're eating the waitress comes to check on the table across from us several times, without even acknowledging us. I mean my elbow would have hit her butt if I didn't watch it!! It's like we were invisible. Can you see me? Can you hear me? "Ma'am, Ma'am could I get some napkins, water, anything? PLEASE!" Some of the cries were audible, we tried to flag her down a couple times...finally did get a water refill when she brought the check?! WTH, she didn't ask if we were done, which I WAS NOT - you know I couldn't leave there without the wontons! I tell her we'd like to order dessert and can I please have a refill on my water?!?!?!?!

The other table has left, she brings my water, WONTONS come and for a brief moment all is right with the world. Now if you know about the fried wontons, you know they come on skewers with pineapple chunks, strawberries ice cream and the most wonderful vanilla glaze on top. There's prob 3 wontons on each skewer. Well we're starting to dig in and DH is kindly giving me all the fruit...ummmm, no! You need to eat your share of fruit so you won't eat all the wontons, I tell him jokingly. I swear it was a joke, I didn't even realize it at the time....but once the plate is cleared he starts laughing at me and was like do you realize you ate all of those wontons except for one?! Ok that was an aside, a brief glimpse into the glutenous life I live lol.

Anyway, so here's the kicker on the server. She brings the ticket back out with the wontons on it. We start to get our card out to pay and she says we don't owe anything (because of the $50 credit). One of us, said something about the tip and could she run our card for tip and she says you can just leave cash and WALKS AWAY! Ummm...ok, so we had a $5 cash and I think that was too much!

 

[kastoney]

Wow, what a horrible service experience at Yak n Yeti. We've always had really good service there, so who know what was going on that day. Service aside though glad you enjoyed the food and price tag ; )

 

[kayteekt]

Wow, what a horrible service experience at Yak n Yeti. We've always had really good service there, so who know what was going on that day. Service aside though glad you enjoyed the food and price tag ; )

Price was great! I guess that was suppose to make up for the horrendous service. We were both really surprised, we have been before and never had a problem. Hopefully that was a one time thing, or just that waitress, because I'll definitely be back in a couple months for my favorite dessert. My husband has already warned the others in our group that i will not be sharing any of mine and if they'd like to try they should order their own.