Ok, on to the sumptuous part of the program!
My day so far consisted of lunching at the Fountain; catching the Martin Short updated version of the Canada movie (I enjoyed it); and seeing this guy welcoming us DVC members "home" (and hosting a DVC game show a la Jeopardy).
Rex, Deevy See's friend from Wisconsin
I got a nice blue DVC member baseball cap out of this. But you don't care about that, you want more food reviews! Since I was already a sweaty mess, since it was still hotter than I like it, I showered and changed for my dinner at:
Todd English's bluezoo
I have a running joke going that I can't talk about this restaurant without putting Mr. English's name on it (since he already labeled it himself), and the little trademark was a glib jab at the ego involved with that choice.
But when you slap your name on a restaurant, your name, your entire
reputation is at stake. And I'm here to tell you that good ol' Todd has nothing to worry about.
I was meeting up with Brenda (oybolshoi) and her DH Jason, aka "Jay", along with Michelle (TheDISneyFamily) and her DH, Steve. We were also supposed to dine with another Michelle (Tink_rules), but she had to cancel her trip. Wish she could have been there.
Our reservation was set for 8:30, but Brenda said she and Jason were arriving early to hang out in the bar, maybe hoping we could get seated earlier. Gee, Brenda heading for a bar? What a shocker.
Ok, I headed there early, too. I arrived about 7:45pm, and Brenda and Jason were already at the bar. I eventually got to them after weaving my way around a bunch of conventioneers.
I found the bar booth bench tough to haul my butt onto. It's so high off the ground, and I'm not a short girl by any means. I am picturing my 4'10" friend having to pole vault onto it. After I got settled in, I knew I wanted a drink.
I settled on a drink I heard great things about, the
Zootini:
My first blurry photo of the report! This thing was quite tasty. Slightly sweet, not as sweet as I expected, with a hint of tartness to it. It was berry, berry good. I made Brenda try it, and she gave it the Bendy Stamp of Approval.
Brenda and Jay were ravenous, but I wasn't that hungry. But after they twisted my arm (which wasn't that hard to do), I agreed to share a part of the flatbread they ordered.
Blanco Flatbread
This flatbread isn't on the dining room menu, and I didn't take a good peek at the bar menu offerings. All I can say is that this was a really garlicky, cheesy goodness on a plate. I think it had parmesan and asiago, but I could be wrong. I ate two pieces, hoping I did not ruin my appetite for the big dinner I planned to order.
Soon after, Michelle and Steve arrived, and we hung out at the bar a bit before our table is ready. Brenda averted her eyes to avoid looking at the "Dancing Fish" (basically a fish skewered on a vertical spit), because really, it is a bit disturbing to look at.
Before I get on with the food, here's a few pictures of the cast of characters for tonight's dinner. First, there's Jason and Brenda:
Hey, is that Sarah Palin gossiping behind Brenda's shoulder?
Here's a photo of everyone at the table.
From left to right: Jason, Brenda, Lori, Michelle and Steve
That navy top I was wearing got double duty a couple nights later at Party for the Senses.
And we can't forget Homer:
He was doing his best Hulk impression. Michelle gave this to Brenda, along with some other goodies. Michelle handed me my own goodie bag that I was blown away by her generosity. I had wine lanyards for her and Steve, but I admit that I came up short when it came to Brenda and Jason, and it was Brenda's birthday a couple days later.
Not even more Toblerone. Heh.
We ordered a bottle of Pouilly-Fuisse for the table and lifted a glass in salute to the other Michelle, Tink_rules, who couldn't make it.
Since we all are geeks about food porn, I wanted to share a rare moment with Brenda:
Brenda in her natural habitat
But why is Jason giving me the hairy eyeball?
For my appetizer, I ordered:
Teppan seared jumbo sea scallops....braised beef short rib, silky cauliflower puree
Check out the beautiful scallops! They were done to perfection. The cauliflower puree was more like a sauce that went well with it, but the short rib fell flat for me. It wasn't warm enough, and it just didn't have a lot of flavor. The scallops really were the stars of this dish, though.
Brenda offered her plate for my photo op. She ordered:
Garlic roasted jumbo shrimp
creamy polenta, fennel butter
Doesn't that look incredible? I'm sure she enjoyed it, but I'll let her tell you about it in her food report in about 6 months from now.
Do we really need a photo of the bread basket? I took one but it's rather boring. I'll pass on it. I know some of us ordered the same appetizers, but I wasn't taking notes. Let's go to the main courses!
Surf and Turf
char grilled kobe ny strip, butter poached lobster,
au gratin potato, truffled asparagus, celery root
I decided to go for broke! I normally don't splurge like this, but I felt like doing so this trip. Why not start on the first night? My immediate thought was that the lobster decided to scream "yeeeeeeeeeehawwwwwwww!" and make a flying leap onto the Slip n' Slide of the butter sauce on the plate, where it finally skidded to a halt for my enjoyment. The greens on top were unnecessary, but the lobster was perfect.
I ordered my beef medium rare, and it was done right. The vegetables seemed a little "busy", but they tasted fine, about what I'd expect by the description.
Next time, though, I want to try Brenda's dish, the "simply fish" selection:
Just for the Halibut (my wording, not theirs)
warm crabmeat, dijon mustard, chives
I added the description of the crabmeat dijon sauce, since it was inside that copper pan. I'm not sure they'll always have halibut available as a selection. It would have been my choice had I not splurged.
Michelle ordered a different kind of splurge (well, splurge in my opinion, at least!)
Two-pound maine cantonese lobster
fried and tossed in sticky soy glaze
It looked interesting, but I really didn't want fried lobster. I enjoyed my poached lobster just fine, but Michelle was in raptures over this dish. She says she never can bring herself to order anything but this dish when she eats at Todd's Place because for her, it's
that good. In addition to all this great food, the others decided they wanted the shake and bake fries and tempura haricot vert (fancy name for french green beans), but I didn't take any photos of those. You can view them when Brenda posts, I'm sure.
The servers kept bottled water for us on ice. The rest of them got Pellegrino, but I prefer Fiji. Since I was sort of trapped in my booth seat, Brenda did her best Vanna White impression and took over:
And this fabulous rusted bucket can be yours if you win!
Work it, Brenda! The servers weren't slacking off by any means. They were always very good about filling my glass. It's just that Brenda offered to fill it when I made a comment that I was going to get up and do it myself.
Before I get to the desserts, I have to share something funny that happened. Somehow the topic turned to those little mini bottles of liquor you can get on airplanes, and out of nowhere, Brenda said that she had some in her purse! I didn't believe her, and sure enough, she pulls out a tiny bottle of whiskey. I stated on another thread that it felt like she was the boozy version of Mrs. Olsen, pulling liquor out instead of a cup of coffee.
At one point, Brenda got a bit embarrassed when the server came by, so she hastily put the bottle back. One of the bottles was Courvoisier, which I had never tried. I told everyone that when I think of Courvoisier, this image comes to mind:
Leon Phelps - The Ladies Man
But Brenda being the booze pusher that she is, insisted that I take it and try it. I still have it, waiting until I get some good chocolate. I missed the opportunity after Party for the Senses a couple days later, but I had posed the bottle alongside the mini martini glasses the chocolate truffles came in:
I liked how the glasses made the bottle look a little bigger than it was. And I did have extra truffles in the fridge, so there really is no good excuse why I didn't try it while at WDW! Slap me around with a wet noodle.
Ok, back to the desserts! Many of us got different kinds. Let's start with mine...
Warm chocolate cake with liquid ganache center
maracaibo chocolate cream pudding, peanut ice cream
That's what I'm talking about! Brenda immediately stated the obvious about the decorative record album (yes, I'm dating myself here!) of chocolate on top looked cool, and it tasted even better. Yum. I didn't see much ganache in the middle, but I think it blended in with that really good chocolate pudding goo on the plate. It was really good, one of the best desserts I've had at WDW.
The most interesting part was the peanut ice cream. I thought it would taste like peanut butter ice cream, but it didn't. Instead, it had a more savory distinctive peanut taste, the kind I associate with peanut sauces in Thai cuisine. I think I liked it more because it was more of a true peanut taste, and it worked really well with the chocolate heaven on my plate.
Brenda got the dessert that messed with my head.
Zweet burger, berry compote and citrus cream fi lled lemon cake
berry orange zest sorbet and beignet
How cute is that? I couldn't stop staring at it. And if you look closely and read upside down, it said, "Happy Birthday" on her plate in chocolate. I say her dessert messed with my head because it looked savory but it was all sweet. Brenda said there was a lot of fruit tastes going on, even with the "cheese". I told her I couldn't eat that because my mind couldn't handle expecting one taste and getting a different thing altogether.
She couldn't handle the overpoweringly orange sorbet, but the beignet sticks were nice. She gave me one, and I dragged it into the chocolate on my plate. I told Brenda she must do the same. It was really good. Of course, I could dunk almost anything in chocolate and be happy!
I regret not getting a before and after shot of Jason's dessert. Because before I knew what was happening, the server poured a warm sauce over a globe of some kind, which caused massive disintegration of said globe. In other words, it looked cool to watch his dessert melting down. This is the aftermath:
Help me! I'm melting....melting...
The sad part is that I have no idea what dessert this is, so until Brenda can clue me in on Jason's Mystery Dessert, you'll have to all guess. I know that I tuned out the server when she tried to push some banana dessert on us. I saw the chocolate dessert on the menu and only heard: "Blah blah blah
banana...blah blah blah."
I was pretty stuffed by the time dessert was over, even though we were in the restaurant for about 3 hours! When we left, the kitchen staff had looked like they were done, and there were not that many people in the restaurant. So Brenda was once again spared the horror of seeing any Dancing Fish.
I thought this restaurant lived up to all the good things I've heard about it. I can't complain about the service or the food, and I would definitely eat there again.
Next: Kitchen Conversations with Robert Irvine...up close and personal.
I'm excited to hear what y'all thought of bluezoo!!!!! I LOVE that place....
