The "Mr. and Mrs." Report--6 days DXDP, partly vegetarian, with pics, 8/26-9/1

[smartestnumber5]

The Preliminaries

Who are we?
GF--32. She works in IT and is a recent WDW convert thanks to me.
Me--26. I'm a grad student, have loved WDW since teenage-hood.


What kind of food do we like?
I'm a vegetarian, so while I do like a lot of meat, I don't eat any of it. She is an ex-vegetarian who really loves fish and beef.

I love a lot of variety when I eat, while she is happier with the typical meat-potato-vegetable kind of meal.

We both love cheese. Neither of us are big on goat cheese, but most any other kind is yummy!

I love very, very sweet and/or very rich desserts. I am a peanut and chocolate fiend. I do not think that fruit belongs in dessert. Fruit is healthy for you--dessert should not be. She likes fruity desserts and doesn't like things that are overly sweet. (It's amazing I stay with her given that kind of sacrilege ) Her favorite desserts are creme brulee and panna cotta.

She is a bit of a coffee connoisseur (well she's picky let's say) whereas I can't drink coffee (darn acid reflux ).

What are the details of our trip?
We arrived in Orlando from Tuesday, August 26th and will leave on Labor Day (Monday, Sept 1st). Our first night we stayed off-site, and then in the morning of Wednesday, August 27th we checked into POFQ and began out stay with the deluxe dining plan. We've done free dining twice before, but this trip we decided to go all out and we purchased the DXDP at the discount rate.


What was our ADR schedule?

Tuesday, 8/26
Dinner--walk-up--The Cheesecake Factory

Wednesday, 8/27
Lunch--12pm--Raglan Road
Dinner--9:10pm--California Grill

Thursday, 8/28
Breakfast--9:20am--1900 Park Fare
Dinner--7:50 PM--Flying Fish

Friday, 8/29
Lunch--12:00pm--Tusker House
Dinner--6:05pm--The Wave (last minute ADR)

Saturday, 8/30
Lunch--walk-up--Beaches and Cream
Dinner--8:00pm--Jiko

Sunday, 8/31
Lunch--12:00pm--Liberty Tree
Dinner--8:30pm--Narcossees

Monday, 9/1
Lunch--12:50pm--LeCellier


How was the food?
DELICIOUS!

 

[mom2my3kids]

How far is the cheesecake factory from Disney??

 

[smartestnumber5]

How far is the cheesecake factory from Disney??

We were staying about 5 minutes outside of Disney property our first night, and it was about a 20 minute drive for us (it's in the Millenia Mall in Orlando). So it's probably more like 25-30 minutes from WDW.

 

[wilma-bride]

Bring it on - enjoy the rest of your trip

 

[adsrtw]

Oh how fun! I'm always intrigued with vegetarian meal choices ~ love variety. I'm not vegetarian myself, but I enjoy eating meat-free here and there. Can't wait to read more!

 

[iluvpluto27]

I'm in. I love vegetarian reviews as my DH is vegetarian and as I do all the restuarant planning, I'm always on the lookout for new places to try with good veggie options.

 

[disneyfav4ever]

Can't wait to read your reviews.

 

[The Marsons]

I'm in, looking forward to it!

 

[habg1]

Sign me up!

 

[tiggerlvr27]

I'm in!!!

 

[Rebelmom67]

Anxiously awaiting more...

 

[AnninIowa]

Another vegetarian subscribing!!

 

[smartestnumber5]

Dinner—Cheesecake Factory

I know it’s not a Disney restaurant, but it’s where we ate our first night, so I’m including my review of The Cheesecake Factory. We’ve been two other times and had really great food both times (GF loves the miso salmon dish), so when our flight was moved a few hours earlier and it became clear that we’d need to eat dinner one night without the DXDP I suggested The Cheesecake Factory.

The restaurant is in Orlando at the Millenia Mall which is apparently about 20-25 minutes away from the WDW area (or that’s how long it took us to get there at least). We arrived sometime after 8 pm and were given a pager. They told us it would take 20-30 minutes but the pager went off in about 5 minutes. We were seated at a two person booth in between the hallway to the bathrooms and the entrance to the kitchen which is right next to the bar. It was a perfect seat for us—a little bit secluded and not too close to other people.

We decided this trip to control ourselves and order less food than we thought we needed. Our reasoning was that the next day we were getting the DXDP and would be eating 3 course meals twice a day. We had to preserve our eating ability—no getting overly full before the DXDP even starts!

So we ordered: two Iced teas, the Avocado Eggroll appetizer, The Vegetable Chopped Salad, and a side of mac & cheese. The server started us out with our drinks and bread. The iced tea was mango flavored which I thought was a nice change, but GF didn’t like it. There were two kinds of bread—one brown with oats on the crust and one white. Both were good and we had to remind ourselves not to fill up on bread.

About this time as we were enjoying the beginning of our dinner, we notice a man and a child around age 10 loitering nearby our table. The man also seems to have parked a stroller about 3 feet from our table, and it seems to be partially blocking the entrance to the kitchen. The stroller was not a problem for us (though I’m sure the servers didn’t appreciate it!), but the child eventually took a seat on the floor in between the stroller and GF’s side of the booth. He was essentially a food away from GF, or as she put it “in my lap.” The father seemed to not only have no problem with the child sitting there, but seemed to have suggested it! He stepped over to order something at the bar leaving the child next the stroller. A few minutes later he returned with a drink for himself and a soda for the child. After handing the soda to the child, he walked back over to the bar and stayed there.

GF and I were giving each other the “*** is going on” eyes this entire time. She was clearly annoyed and whispered to me, “Are we crazy? Is this normal?” This kid was standing/sitting at the same distance a server would stand when checking on you, so it was quite close. He would have heard every bit of our conversation…if we had been having one, but his presence made it impossible!

We just sit and watch thinking maybe the man (his father I assume?) will realize how rude it is to park his child in the middle of our dinner or maybe a server will suggest that he move the child and stroller. The dad comes over again and talks to kid and then goes back to the bar with the child following. We are hopeful that they will stay away, but I suggest if the child comes back that perhaps we should break into an NC-17 rated conversation next time the dad makes his way over. Surely knowing he would make the child move then!

At that point we witnessed what was apparently the rest of the family coming to join the man, the child, and the stroller. They huddled around the man and child at the bar hence completely blocking the kitchen. Servers kept coming out with plates and almost smashing into a person or having to squeeze by. They were clearly quite annoyed, but amazingly no one said anything to these folks. Finally after one more round of kid and dad walking back and forth to the bar the entire family moved and we didn’t see them again.

Thank goodness—no more sweaty child interrupting our meal! Our food came out shortly after and we happily dug in.

We both really enjoyed the avocado egg rolls a great deal.

GF described them as innovative—rich and satisfying. The sauce which accompanied them was a little sweet with a hint of peanut and cilantro. I had been unsure about whether avocado was going to work in an eggroll (I mean, Mexican and Asian mixed together—doesn’t sound good). But it WAS good. I really liked the sauce as well--I love peanut sauce. And the wrappers were nice and fried but didn’t seem too greasy.

The mac and cheese was good old satisfying comfort food. We only had a side of it, but it was quite a good amount.

The salad was the one downside of the meal. It had been described as:

VEGETABLE CHOPPED SALAD: Asparagus, Green Beans, Tomato, Cucumber, Roasted Beets, Apple, Edamame, Radicchio, Romaine and White Cheddar Tossed with Pomegranate Vinaigrette

on the menu. It was listed under “small salads” so imagine our surprise when we were presented with this (actually this picture is after we had eaten it for awhile):

It was huge.

I took one bite and said “this tastes like fish.” GF said it was probably just the pomegranate and I thought “since when does pomegranate taste like fish?” A few more bites and I decided specifically it tasted like sushi (but I don’t eat sushi with fish in it). What part of sushi? No idea. GF tasted it and agreed that it did taste like sushi. She couldn’t figure out what the particular flavor was either. The cheese also wasn’t working in this as it was in huge blocks—it really needed to be spread out more evenly.

Time for dessert. We had agreed ahead of time that we would share one piece of cheesecake even though usually we have trouble agreeing on one. GF is more into plain, unadulterated desserts so she prefers the plain cheesecake or the cheesecake with strawberries. I like a lot of flavors so I would always go for peanut-butter chocolate or macadamia nut caramel banana. We compromised and decided upon the turtle cheesecake—nuts, chocolate sauce, and caramel. It was quite good and actually had a great big ball of really rich chocolate on top which pleased me greatly.

Overall this was a really good meal. I was actually quite amazed how little food we really needed. I was trying hard not to overeat and so I ate 2 eggroll thingies, about 1/12th of the salad (which was huge!), and less than half of the mac and cheese. I actually remarked to GF at one point: “why do they give such huge portions? Doesn’t that just negatively impact their dessert sales since people get too full before dessert time?”

Final word: Great food. Good service. Good atmosphere (except for the random child joining us!). We will definitely be back (but won't get the veg chopped salad this time).

Iced tea (x 2)= 5.90
Avocado Eggrolls = 9.95
Veg Chop Salad = 8.95
Side of Mac & Cheese = 5.95
Carmel Pecan Turtle cheesecake = 6.95
Tax = 2.46
Tip = 8.50

Total = 48.66

 

[AussieAngel]

Yum!! DH and I LOVE The Cheesecake Factory! We don't have it here in Australia, so both times we've been to the US, we track down the closest Cheesecake Factory and pig out!!

I totally agree about the massive meals. They are SO big. We figure you don't have to eat it all though. I usually eat about half. It sometimes gets a bit embarrassing when the server takes away my plate and says, "You didn't like it?!" and I have to say, "It was great, but I'm full!!" Although that tends to happen at pretty much all American restaurants - HEAPS more food than in Aussie restaurants!

Once in the Hawaii Cheesecake Factory, DH ordered an enchilada, and it was bigger than his forearm. Seriously. We laughed for about 5 minutes at the size of it.

Anyway, can't wait to hear about the rest of your reviews!!

 

[butiflfeet]

I love Cheesecake Factory! We don't have one near us either so whenever we travel we search out a Cheesecake Factory. Thanks for the review!

 

[adsrtw]

I've never been to the Cheesecake Factory. Honestly, I thought it was a dessert only place. That looks tasty.

 

[smartestnumber5]

We were staying off-site for our first night so our plan for day two was to get up and check in at POFQ and then head to Downtown Disney by lunch time for lunch at Raglan Road.

Shortly after waking up I actually had an attack of acid reflux that manifested differently than usual. Most of the time I suffer from a lot of pain and burping. But this time there was nausea too which was a new symptom . I kind of started freaking out--not just because it was unpleasant, but because I was thinking "how in the heck am I going to enjoy this trip which is scheduled around meals!?"

I took a crap-load of prilosec and zantac and thought maybe I just needed some food in my stomach. We stopped at Starbucks and GF got a mocha while I went for a coffee cake and chocolate milk. (Granted chocolate milk is probably not the best thing for an upset stomach, but I was really trying to convince myself that I would feel better once I ate something.) I had a few bites and a little milk, but it really didn't do much to make me feel better, and I hit the zantac again when we left Starbucks.

Breakfast—Starbucks

Mocha—3.65
Cinnamon swirl coffee cake—1.95
Bottle of water—1.8
Chocolate milk—1.5
Tax--.37
Total—9.27

This was all a big downer of course and I started contemplating whether I'd have to skip lunch and just let GF eat . We drover over to POFQ and checked in. Turned out our room was ready even though it was early, so we were able to bring our suitcases in. We decided to take the boat over to Downtown Disney (which again was probably not the smartest choice when someone is suffering from nausea! ). It turned out fine, though, because around that time I started feeling better. Just in time for lunch--how weird is that?

As we sat waiting for the boat, I turned to GF and said, "Honey, what if I'm pregnant?" I suppose for many couples, this could have been a moment of panic (or for some a moment of joy). For us though it was a moment for . GF being female just doesn't have the right equipment.

 

[smartestnumber5]

We arrived at Raglan Road about 10 minutes ahead of our ADR time (which was noon) and found the restaurant surprisingly empty. Maybe it was because Downtown Disney is not as busy as the parks and it was kind of early. But we were in the restaurant until at least 1 pm and the entire time we saw probably only five parties in the restaurant.

We had tried Raglan Road on an earlier trip a few years ago and we hadn't had a good experience that time. It had been the last dinner of our first trip together (a free dining trip) on the 7th day. This was before GF had been treated for sleep apnea and plantar faciitis (a foot problem) so she was quite miserable by the end of the trip and wanted to skip our last dinner. I was tired too, but I wanted to have that last dinner and so we went. We had a late ADR and ended up being late for it--so late that the kitchen had technically stopped serving. Our server didn't seem very happy to have to deal with us and our food was luke-warm and not good. GF even got the bread and butter pudding to go and didn't enjoy it when she ate it the next day.

So we didn't have great aspirations for this meal, but we also figured there was no where to go but up!

We ordered as follows:

Goatstown salad—10.95
Soup—4.95
Lobster Club—13.95
Port Burger—11.50
Dundon’s Delight—7.99
Bread and butter pudding—7.99
Iced tea—2.5
Iced tea—2.5
Tax—4.06
Total—66.39 2 credits
Tip—12.01

The appetizer menu had only three appetizers that were designed for one person--all of the others could be chosen on the DXDP only by using two people's appetizer credit. The shareable appetizers were all meat which meant that they weren't something GF and I were about to share. So we were limited in our choices. There was soup of the day, the Goatstown salad, and I'm drawing a blank on the third one (I know it was seafood or meat).

We asked the server about the soup of the day and she said it was tomato gin soup. That sounded good to me, but given my earlier stomach problems I was worried it would trigger more acid reflux symptoms given the alcohol and acidity of the tomato. The Goatstown salad didn't sound very good to me (I think I may have even had it as an appetizer the last time we ate here), but it was my only option. GF decided to go for the soup and offered to let me have some (hence guaranteeing that she got to eat some of my salad).

Here are our appetizers:

You might be wondering why the tomato soup is green. We had the same question when it was served (by someone other than our server). We both tasted and thought "doesn't taste like tomato either" . Then we discussed how perhaps it was made with green tomatoes. In any case, it was quite good and creamy--though, the complete lack of a gin taste should also have been a tip off.

I had a few more spoonfuls and GF was chowing down when the server came to check on us. She took one look at the soup and said, "What happened to tomato soup?" We said, "Uh, we thought this was the tomato--but we were wondering why it was green." I believe she said it was Colcannon soup--which apparently has ham in it. Oops--well it didn't taste like meat.

GF asked if there actually was any tomato soup since we were planning to share the soup and salad and the server said she'd check. Turned out that the tomato gin was the soup for dinner only so they hadn't made it yet. Didn't matter to GF, though, as she was quite enjoying the soup. She described it as a light thin cream of broccoli with a noticeable hint of butter.

My salad was fine. GF seemed to enjoy it more than me even though she usually doesn't enjoy goat cheese very much. I used to be more of a fan and she really hated the stuff, but somehow that changed recently and now she likes a lot of it and I'm more grossed out. Strange She thought they selected a good goat cheese which was creamy and not too goaty and she liked the raspberry puree with it.

On to entrees. I had only one option--the portobello sandwich. And GF decided on the lobster club mostly just because it was something new and different. We got to pick one side along with our entrees. She chose roasted veggies and I chose potatoes.

GF descried the lobster club as "a little strange, but good." First of all she didn’t think that it actually had lobster in it. She suspected it was 95-100% crab and that perhaps there was some lobster hidden in it; but all she could taste was crab (but high quality crab). The “lobster” was mixed with a little mayo and sandwiched between white toast and a little bit of crispy bacon and egg. The bacon was nice touch, but she couldn’t taste egg. She described the bread as "like eating sryrofoam, but the flavor of dish was pretty good and made up for the bread.

She had the roasted veggies on the side which had mustard sauce and were sort of sweet from roasting. (I tried these and didn't really like them, but I think I was still having some sensitivity given my earlier stomach issues.) She liked them but couldn't eat much as she was getting full by then.

I had the portobella mushroom sandwich with cheese and tomato relish and got potatoes as my side. The potatoes usually come with chive mayo but I don’t like mayo, so I asked if they were already mixed with the mayo. The server said no and I asked for them plain. As expected, plain potatoes are not all that appetizing, but I did choose it. The other sides just didn't sound good to me.

My portobella sandwich was good and I don’t even like portobella that much. It was cooked well (barbecued maybe?) and the bun was very tasty and had caramelized onions on top. The cheese and tomato relish were very good as well. Still, I didn’t love it. It was clearly a well done entrée, but I'm not sure it was for me. Of course, this was really only an hour or two after my bout of nausea so it might have been that I was just not in my normal state of appreciativeness of food at that moment.

And finally dessert. Here is a pic of the menu (which they bring to you on a big wooden slab):

Our server left it with us so we could read it and decide what to order, but she told us that technically they are supposed to hold it up in front of you while you read it. How weird! What if you are indecisive and need to study the menu for a bit? In the end I chose the bread and butter pudding (despite GF's warning that she hadn't liked it that much when she tried it). The perfect dessert for GF would have been the Three Times a Berry--a panna cotta with berries--since panna cotta is her favorite dessert. But they were out of that one that day. Nothing else really sounded good to her so she randomly chose the Dundon's Delight--"Strawberry pavlova with vanilla pod ice cream. Served on a strawberry and champagne consoome."

GF didn’t like her dessert. It came with two meringues which she is not a fan of given their sweetness. I tasted them also and the insides were kind of wet and smushy. GF said she's heard that that is how meringues are supposed to be, but I found it gross. I like my meringues very hard and very sweet. Along with the meringues was a scoop of garden variety vanilla ice cream. She described the raspberry mint champagne consume (soup) as a a thin sweet sugary raspberry sauce with some giant pieces of mint floating. The pieces of mint were unpleasant and bitter and she didn’t taste any champagne at all. (I thought it did taste like alcohol). So overall, a bad dessert choice.

My dessert, on the other hand, was sooo good! GF took one bite and realized how wrong she'd been. Apparently the bread pudding being fresh and warm makes all the difference. She loved the butteryness and especially the vanilla frothy sauce so much that she ended up eating half of it.

I thought it was great too. It was very hot when I got it and I burned my tongue a bit when I got a spoonful of the inside. While GF liked the cream sauce, I liked the caramel sauce (because it was sweeter of course!). I dumped both on top as soon as I got it and then thought, "Huh, maybe I shouldn't have dumped it all on top--how is it going to seep down to the bottom?" Since I used most of the sauce GF had to shake the container of the cream sauce to try to get the last remnants. She even tried to stick a spoon in there but the spoon she had was too big to get in there.

It was definitely one of the best desserts of the week.

Overall it was an okay meal, but nothing was exceptional other than the bread pudding. And while that was really good, I wouldn't want to go back for an entire meal just for that. I think maybe Irish food just isn't my thing. Objectively the food was really good, but it just didn't excite me.

 

[Mom of 2 Wife of 1]

Excellent review of RR. We're going there on our next trip for the first time. Could you elaborate on the appetizers available for one person on the DxDP versus those available for two by sharing a credit? Their menu lists six for "solos" and seven for "sharing". I'd hate to be limited to only three.

 

[adsrtw]

Thanks for the Raglan review. The soup does sound good, but I would have preferred the Tomato one also. As far as the pregnancy concern goes, if it is true, you will be one wealthy person!