Day 3 - Part 3
We left Maelstrom wondering what Norwegian mysteries eluded us, not being able to see the film. “Det kan forbli et mysterium for alltid.” (Hint: punch that into Google Translate, Norwegian to English.)
We had about 15 minutes before our ADR time at Biergarten, so just headed directly there. The kids obviously knew the way, as this picture shows.
We loved this restaurant last year, and other than Boma, which is always a ‘must do’, it was the only restaurant that we unanimously wanted to repeat.
We were seated pretty quickly, and our table was in almost the same spot as last year. I took a couple of pictures of the dining room.
Our server came over and introduced himself. His name was Uli and he said he was new, like 2 days new. We told him that we’d go easy on him. And we did, mostly.
Now, I haven’t mentioned it before in this trip report, but I was carrying a $25 Disney gift card with me that I won on Jordan’s (jordanyosh) PTR thread playing his “Guess my itinerary” game. As we’d gone through various gift shops in the parks and stores at Downtown Disney I was looking to see if anything grabbed my attention, begging for me to use that gift card on it. So far nothing had. But when I sat and looked at the beverage options at Biergarten, I knew that there was something of which Jordan would approve: a beer flight. I imagine if he were there with me he would have wanted to buy it, gift card or not. I gave Uli my drink order and wasted no time in getting to the buffet.
Below is a picture of my first plate, consisting of light fare…salads and such, which hardly warrant being counted at all. So maybe I’ll call my next plate “my first plate” since this one hardly counts. But anyway, it had cucumber salad, another salad that I can’t identify anymore but appears to have julienned carrots in it, macaroni salad, sauerkraut, sausages, pretzel bread, and cream of potato and leeks soup. Mmmm.
You can also see the lovely beer flight all lined up for me. Looks like one sip is missing -- Uli!!!
Then I went and got my first “real” plate. This time I sampled salmon, potatoes, spaetzle, some kind of meatloaf I believe (maybe veal loaf), with a mustard sauce, and chicken.
The band, Oktoberfest Musikanten, came out and played. Same guys as last year. Same lederhosen. I wouldn’t have it any other way!
While they played, I went to do a little more sampling of the buffet. Since this was merely more sampling, I count this as just a continuation of my first “real” plate.
Here we have…well, I’ll start with the obvious chicken leg, meatballs, pork schnitzel, braised red cabbage (I think), and something I have no recollection of. If I didn’t know better I’d say it’s kim chi, but I highly doubt that.
Again this year the band performed the “battle of the beer barrel bells”.
Is it really a battle if no one gets knocked over the head with a cowbell? If it were a cartoon I think we all know how it would turn out.
Then there was a new item, or at least something we didn’t see last year. This guy came out and performed on this wooden xylophone-thing.
With his blurred hands he’s trying to give Yeehaa Bob a run for his money.
And of course, what would Biergarten be without the giant alphorn. “Ricola!” (I know I used that joke last year. It’s still good!) The accordion guy looks like he’s blowing into his microphone. Either it’s a sobriety thing to start the accordion or he’s making the alphorn sounds and the other guy is just lip-syncing.
You’ll be happy to know that I only made one trip to the buffet for dessert. (Although I did grab a regular-sized plate for efficiency!) We have rote gruetze with vanilla sauce, Bavarian cheesecake, apple strudel, blackforest cake, and a blueberry thing (you can sure tell when I hit an item that isn’t listed on the allears.net menu listing, can’t you).
The best dessert in my opinion was the cheesecake, by far. It was wonderful! The apple strudel was only “meh”. I don’t think it was as good as last year’s.
Again, we loved Biergarten. Two thumbs up!
Oh, I just realized that you’ve been wondering about Judy’s stomach this whole time, haven’t you. She did fine. She had gotten over her case of space sickness enough to enjoy the meal without any issues.
One last little story from Biergarten. For all of our purchases up to this point I’d been using a Visa rewards card, with “cashback dollars” from our Disney Visa card purchases loaded onto it. I knew we were getting close to fully depleting it, so when Uli came with our check I gave him the rewards card and my credit card to put any remaining balance on, in case there wasn’t enough to cover the bill. When he came back to the table I saw that he had to charge my credit card for 25 cents! Poor Uli…sorry about that!
Up next: Bathrooms and Lost and Found
Link to next chapter
Sounds like I'd better work on another TR installment!
I love the photos! The food looks very tasty! I am definitely going to have to put Biergarten on my list next time.
