The good, the bad, and the ugly: Our December dining experience w/pics: COMPLETE

[liamsaunt]

My husband and I took my sister and her two children to Disney for our annual trip this month. We are all well seasoned Disney travelers, and have eaten at most—though certainly not all--of the restaurants on property at one point or another.

About us: My husband, sister and I all love food, and cooking is one of my favorite hobbies. I also like to take pictures of food.

Caili is 9 and loves dessert (from the adult menu, please!) the most, but will try almost anything once. Liam is 11 and is a little more conservative in his choices. His favorite foods are pasta, burritos, and bread, and of course sweets! He will eat most vegetables, but does not eat very much meat. Liam is allergic to eggs and shellfish. His shellfish allergy is so severe that there cannot be any shellfish at the table he is eating at, so there will be no lobster, shrimp, or crab pictures in this dining report. His egg allergy also makes ordering dessert a little challenging for him—some chefs were able to come up with things he could have, at other places he was out of luck.

My husband (John) eats everything. My sister (Laura) eats almost everything. I don’t eat red meats or lobster, and I am allergic to kiwi, but otherwise if you put it in front of me I will probably eat it. We were not on the dining plan, though we did have the Tables in Wonderland card. Our experiences ranged from excellent to well….not. And I have photos of almost all of it!

The places that we ate (not including random quick service places that I did not photo):

Kringla Bakeri og Café (new to us this trip)
Tangerine Café
Sommerfest
Flying Fish
Raglan Road
California Grill
Jiko
‘Ohana (breakfast)
Main Street Bakery
Jiko (again)
Patisserie Boulangerie
Restaurant Marrakesh (new to us this trip)
Bluezoo (new to us this trip)

First up: Kringla Bakeri og Cafe

 

[Glynis]

Signing up! I've been dreaming about this report!!!

 

[TigerKat]

Oh baby, I've been waiting for this!!

 

[liamsaunt]

Kringla Bakeri og Cafe

For our first day in EPCOT, we decided to take a walk around World Showcase and sample a couple of tasty treats from various countries. I had read about the school bread on this board and really wanted to try it, so Norway was our first stop. On the way in, I caught sight of the savory items and decided to try one of those as well. I chose the potato, goat cheese, and sun dried tomato torte:

It looked so tasty! Unfortunately, it was not. The potato filling was gluey and oddly sweet. After a couple of bites, this item was rated a "chuck it" and into the bin it went.

Next, it was time to try some sweeter items, the cloudberry horn and the school bread:

Both of these were hits, though the group was divided on which was better. I personally really liked the delicate flavor of the cream in the cloudberry horn, but found the sugar coated pastry to be too sweet. No problem there, as it was Caili's favorite of the two and she made quick work of it.

She was not as big a fan of the school bread--probably because it was not as sweet as the horn. All the adults liked the school bread best. The cream filling was not too sweet--it kind of tasted like a less sweet version of the filling in a Boston Cream pie, and the coconut on top was really nice.

Next up: Sommerfest

 

[mandibc11]

I'm excited to read your reviews! I'm loving the way you write and describe everything

 

[Disney Ron]

Look forward to reading. Boy, the school bread looks alot diff than it use to. Glad you all enjoyed it.

Look forward to next chapter!

 

[TigerKat]

I may have to give that school bread another try. It's been a few years but it didn't impress and didn't look as good as it does now. Sorry about the torte, it sure looked tasty.

 

[MickeyShow]

I can't wait to read all the reviews

 

[mandibc11]

I may have to give that school bread another try. It's been a few years but it didn't impress and didn't look as good as it does now. Sorry about the torte, it sure looked tasty.

I will second that opinion about the school bread! Everyone has raved about it for years, but when I tried it for the first time a few years ago, it simply tasted like a soft piece of bread with some sugar in the middle! Nothing to brag about...but this picture looks more gourmet, less vending machine!

 

[MickeyNicki]

Im in!

 

[wdwlibrarian]

I'm excited to read more of these and see more pictures. My boyfriend and I are big fans of trying different restaurants when we go each year, and we always take pictures of our food too.

I'm sorry the torte was not good, though it did look delicious. We always do a quick service lunch at the Norway bakery for hot sandwiches and soup and cloud horns, and it's always wonderful.

 

[sunnysideup3]

I'm in....Dining reviews always make me so hungry...

 

[KadysMom]

Yeah! I love your pictures, and cant wait for the rest of them!!

 

[liamsaunt]

Hello to everyone reading! I hope you find my reviews helpful.

Next up on our tour of World Showcase was Sommerfest in Germany. Liam had his heart set on a bratwurst, and we were not going to disappoint him. Here is what we purchased--left to right, a bratwurst (this usually comes with sauerkraut but Liam does not like sauerkraut), a frankfurter, and a pretzel.

Both kids really enjoyed their sandwiches, and the pretzel was pretty good too. It had more chew than the usual super pretzels at the park snack stands.

Next up: Tangerine Cafe

 

[MarieA]

Can't wait to read the rest of your reviews!

 

[liamsaunt]

Continuing around the world, our next stop was Tangerine Cafe. The adults ordered two platters to share, the chicken schwarma and the vegetarian platter. This is the chicken plate:

This plate had couscous, hummus, tabouli, and chicken schwarma with grilled onions, plus a piece of thick pita. Everything on the plate was very good. The hummus with pita and the tabouli were our favorites. The hummus had just the right amount of garlic, and the tabouli salad was bright and refreshing. The chicken had a good lemony flavor, and tasted best when eaten with some of the grilled onions.

This is a picture of the vegetable plate:

Mixed salad in the front, cold lentil salad in the back, then more pita, an olive salad, more hummus and tabouli, and a sweetish couscous in the front that had chickpeas and raisins in it. We unanimously preferred the vegetable plate to the chicken. Not that the chicken was bad, but everything on this plate was nicely seasoned and it was nice to have all those vegetables. One peeve of mine when dining at Disney is that there often are not enough vegetables on the plate. We usually end up ordering a salad or two to supplement our meals to counteract this problem.

Next up: dinner at Flying Fish

 

[shovan]

So excited to see a WDW rest. review from the Queen of Home Cooking & Food Photography!!!

Your pictures look fantastic!

You have hit on two of our fav quick spots! Have to have a bratwurst in Germany every single trip! Also always very pleasantly surprised by Tangerine Cafe. I love that veggie platter!

I know lots of people love the Kringla Bakery. For us it's usually a disappointment, the sweets are much too sweet & the savory items are either blah or like you a toss in the trash.

Can't wait to see more!

 

[Disney Fan Katt]

I'm in. I love the school bread in Norway, not too sweet but a great texture. I also really enjoy the sandwiches there as well, the one with the apple slices is just lovely. We also enjoy the Tangerine Cafe!

It sounds like we have similar tastes, I can't wait to hear about the rest of your meals. We leave in a few weeks and i can always use advice as to where to eat.

 

[TigerKat]

That veg plate does look great! Can't wait for your FF review!

 

[liamandcaili]

Becky's sister Laura here: I think the most surprising and delicious thing on the vegetable platter from Tangerine Cafe was the lentils. We all really liked them. How often do you say, "Oh wow, these lentils are great!"