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

[Linda67]

What a shame about Jiko

Just goes to show how different a restaurant can be from one night to the next

 

[liamsaunt]

Pattiserie Boulangerie.

This is always a stop in for us for lunch. I find the value to be good. So does everyone else, apparently, because both times we went the line was outrageous! The first time we ended up walking away after waiting for 15 minutes with no movement in line. The second time, we waited about 20 minutes to get our food.

I think the design of the shop is part of the problem--people are asked to order before being able to view everythinhg that is on offer, and so they delay until they reach the far end of the display cases. This creates a backlog outside the shop. I am not really sure how they could fix this.

Here is what we ordered. Cheese plate. We always buy another baguette to go with the one that comes with the plate, and then there is enough of everything for five people to share:

Napoleon. This is one of Caili's favorite things. I think she ate all but one bite of it. I know I did not get to try any!:

Vegetable quiche. I thought this was pretty good. It had lots of vegetables and the custard was nice and creamy. It could have used a little more salt.:

Turkey-swiss baguette. This was fine. John pointed out how much better it would have been if they had buttered the baguette like they do in Paris. Of course, if the bread was like the bread in Paris it would have been truly outstanding! But for Disney it was fine.:

We also had a piece of the dessert of the day, which was chocolate cake. I don't seem to have a picture of it, but it was way too sweet. Even Caili didn't eat it.

This place is a standby for us for a quick bite in EPCOT. I think it is one of the better places for takeout in the parks.

Liam cannot have any of the desserts in France, which necessitated a trip to Japan for me to procure some melon kaki gori:

I also bought a glass of the plum wine at this stand for the adults to share. Luckily for me, I tasted it before bringing it back to the table. Yuck! It was super sweet. It definitely rated as a "chuck it."


Next up: Restaurant Marrakesh

 

[Stringbean&Wingnut]

I'm sorry you didn't enjoy your meal at Jiko! It was our favorite meal on our trip! Hopefully you had more enjoyable meals than not during your vacation!

(Also, I don't blame Caili for not sharing her Napoleon...I have a tough time sharing those as well )

 

[liamsaunt]

Restaurant Marrakesh

Since we so enjoyed eating at Tangerine cafe earlier in the trip, on a whim we booked a lunch at Restaurant Marrakesh. The setting here is very nice, with mosaic tilework, high ceilings, and musicians and a belly dancer. Service was very friendly. Food, on the other hand, was decidedly mixed.

To start, we shared two appetizers (no pictures), the Morrocan Salad for two, and the Goat Cheese with Crispy Bread. For both, the flavors were fine but they were served much too cold.

Entrees were more problematic. Of the three we selected, mine, the chicken kebabs, was the best:

The flavor of the chicken was good, but the meat was overcooked. The couscous and olive salad are the same as what you get at Tangerine Cafe.

John ordered the Sultan Sampler, a chicken kebab, beef brewat roll, chicken bastilla, and couscous:

His chicken, like mine, was overcooked. The brewat and bastilla were dry and cold, and his couscous was very bland. Disappointing.

My sister ordered the chicken couscous and made out the worst of all. It was a dish of long stewed chicken over the same couscous John had--very bland overall, and again, overcooked chicken.

Overall, we were pretty disappointed. I don't think we'll be back, though we will definitely revisit Tangerine Cafe.

Up next, our final meal: BlueZoo.

 

[mandibc11]

That's been the overall theme of Marrakesh. I haven't read any decent reviews in years, and when we tried it last year it was by far the WORST meal of the entire trip, even that I've ever experienced at Disney!

Sorry you had a bad experience!!

 

[liamsaunt]

Bluezoo

Bluezoo is one of those places that we would always make a reservation at and then cancel. I guess it is because we are from MA and can eat at Todd English’s restaurants up here if we want to. This time, though, we were determined to keep our seating. It was our last night and we wanted some good fish. After our up and down experiences through our vacation, we were ready to give Bluezoo the old college try.

Bluezoo has many inventive cocktails on their menu using fruit infusions and house made liqueurs. John decided to give one a try, the Burnt Orange.

It’s a tequila-based cocktail with a flaming orange segment, citrus wedges and I don’t know what else. I do know it was really good! After taking a sip I wanted one for myself but since I already had a glass of wine in front of me I had to pass. Next time!

We started out with a bunch of appetizers. Liam ordered the New England Style Clam Chowder. It was thin, which is the style we all enjoy, but we missed the potatoes that are usually in chowder. John ate it though!

The kids ordered an “Olive’s Classico Flatbread” to share. Basically, a thin crusted cheese pizza.

They liked it. I tried a piece and thought it was OK, nothing special.

The kids also ordered the tempura green beans with truffle aioli. They didn’t eat the aioli (Liam can’t have it in any event), just the beans. I snagged a couple of these (with the aioli) and they were really good.

Then the adults had some raw oysters (yum, no pics), and the “Broken Rockefeller,” which is a riff on Oysters Rockefeller. Fried oysters with mornay, bacon, spinach. The mornay and bacon were combined and frozen and then turned into…something…a sand? An ice cream? The spinach was a rich sauce. There was also one traditional oyster Rockfeller on the plate (you can see it in the back):

Best appetizer of the trip, by far. The oysters were perfectly cooked, and the presentation and textures of the accompaniments was interesting and exciting. This is the kind of food I like to eat when I go out to dinner. I don’t want something I can make at home!

On to the entrees. My sister and I both chose to have the “simply fish.” The way this works is that they tell you the fish they have in stock that day, and you choose one to pait with your choice of sauce. Our sauce choices were crabmeat buerre blanc, sesame ginger, or carrot harissa. My sister loves buerre blanc, but since we cannot have shellfish at the table, she asked if they could prepare a lemon buerre blanc instead of crabmeat. They could, so she ordered that, with grouper:

Accompaniments

sides included a heart of palm-olive salad, potato puree, and a mache salad.

I like spicy food best and so chose the mahi mahi with carrot harissa:

Really, really good. The mahi was perfectly cooked and the harissa was nice. Mine came with the mache salad and a potato puree.

John, however, hit the jackpot with his dish. He chose the “Dancing Fish,” which was a whole red snapper with a smoked paprika rub, fingerling potato-chorizo hash, and a green olive-orange-saffron sauce. The fish comes to the table whole and they debone it for you tableside:

This was so good! I could have eaten the whole thing myself. OK maybe not, but I would have liked to.

Adults were completely sated at this point, but of course Caili had to have dessert. She chose the Chocolate Melange, which is five different small chocolate desserts. She cleaned the platter, no surprise there!

Left to right: chocolate malt crème brulee, crispy chocolate with chocolate cream, coriander chocolate truffle, cinnamon chocolate sorbet, chocolate mousse dome:

This was by far everyone’s favorite meal of the trip, kids and adults alike. The food and the service surpassed every other place we ate this time. When we come back next year, this will be the first restaurant I make reservations at.

That’s it for this time! Thanks for reading!

 

[Pooh&OurHunny]

thank you for your reveiws, I have enjoyed reading along. I love the review on Blue Zoo....we never ate there but we must try it next trip.

 

[NEVERENOUGHWDW]

Thanks for the reviews Becky!!!

We have passed on CG the last 3-4 trips. I don't see it in our future.

 

[shovan]

I want to be at Blue Zoo NOW!!! Yummy.

Loved the reviews!

 

[Aimeedyan]

Great reviews!

I think Disney Dining is consistent at one thing: inconsistency. You can eat someplace two nights in a row and get a completely different experience! Ridiculous.

My favorite CS is that vegetarian platter at Tanigerine Cafe. It has seemed consistent over the years.

 

[TigerKat]

I'm glad to hear y'all enjoyed Bluezoo!!!!! We try and eat there at least once every trip, we just LOVE it.

Thanks for taking the time to share your awesome reviews with us!