Well it's been an eventful few days with my annual girl's weekend and Jury Duty today (and I actually got selected for a case! and we wrapped it up before lunch, lol) but it's time for more food reviews!
Day 3: Be our Guest Dinner!!!
So, sad but true, I've never even set foot in Be our Guest. Last trip we had one evening where I was on the fence about a 3:45 'Ohana or 4pm BoG before the christmas party and I chose 'Ohana. The picky kid has been for lunch with dad but it was a disaster. Dad & family made him order off the kid menu and he grudgingly tried the Turkey meatloaf but there are bits in it so he was not a fan. He eats meatloaf at home but I use Ina Garten's turkey meatloaf recipe and puree the aromatics so there is no textural issue... and I would have known that was gonna be a miss but Dad didn't. Also, Dad had no idea about preordering so they waited in a HUGE line to order and then their order got lost and it was 45 minutes after sitting down before it got resolved. They got a free meal and a couple of FP+ for their trouble but the whole thing did not leave kiddo with a good impression.
I finally convinced him to give it another try for dinner because dinner is a table service and we checked out the menu and there were several options, so he was ok with it. I made another early adr, 4:30 and we checked in pretty early - around 4pm. The check in process is REALLY confusing for people who haven't been there before. We blew right past the check in desk, didn't even notice it and finally asked a CM by the door what to do and then had to go back. It was not very busy that time of day so I think part of why we missed it is that the hellacious line that was there when we left was nonexistent when we got there. But anyway we finally figured it out and got checked in and the kid requested the West Wing. I'm standing there all like
but he knew what he wanted and was asking for it so I went along with it.
So after checking in the right way we walked into the waiting area and sat on a rock. I took a photo of the mosaic outside because I
mosaics. Apparently, I also
smilies tonight too.
It was not much time at all before we were called and brought to our table. The greeter/seater person explained a bit about the castle and the various rooms and explained that we could explore the castle if we wanted and that we'd be seated in the west wing. Which was DARK. Which is ok, I actually didn't mind, but at first I couldn't see ANYTHING coming in from the blinding Florida sun. I was wary when I sat down because I could barely see a thing, but as soon as my dang pupils opened up a bit it was actually kind of nice. The seater also warned us that there is a lot of noise when the last petal falls but I didn't really notice anything, I wonder if it was working? or I was too buzzed. Not sure which but it did not bother the kid one bit.
A review of BoG dinner is not a review of BoG dinner without a picture of the napkins folded like a rose. It's a nice touch and their signature thing, so here you go.
Kind of a crazy angle but at this point I could barely see what I was photographing still, lol.
Anyway the waitress came by to take our drink orders. The kid got an apple juice and I decided I really Really REALLY wanted a glass of wine... so I went to order the reisling. She let me know that it was not sweet AT ALL and I haven't had wine in so long, I really wanted something sweet and easy (kind of like me, lol) so I backed off and she suggested the moscato instead. So I didn't even see it on the menu, maybe because it was so dark, but I found it online so here it is:
Terra d'Oro Moscato, California
Opens with elegant bouquet of honeysuckle, orange blossom, litchi, and nectarine. Sweet finish of apricots and rose petals
here is a picture. fair warning: it looks like wine, in the dark, with a candle behind it.
One of the "things" that you may not know is that you can't eat and drink together once you've had surgery like this. My surgeon's rules is you can drink 15 minutes before or a half hour after eating. Some doctor's guidelines are much longer. A sip or two won't kill me but more than a tiny sip or two and it actually creates a lot of pressure and hurts. I will only take a sip of water swished around my mouth if I just ate something very salty but in general I don't eat and drink. That rule makes having a glass of wine with dinner problematic, so I really wasn't sure how I was going to handle this whole thing but I ordered the damn wine anyway.
Anyway it was nice, and light, and a little sweet and fruity and I couldn't tell you about honeysuckles or litchi and it certainly did not finish with the flavor of "rose petals"... which I STILL remember from childhood (my neighbor had a rose garden and NO they did not taste nearly as good as they looked, I learned that the hard way... in fact they are absolutely revolting, so who the heck would want a wine to finish tasting like that!?!
But hey, I'm not a wine expert either)... but I liked it a lot, and what I ended up doing was drinking about half of this while waiting for my meal. It probably was not a full 15 minutes before my meal came but it was enough that I experienced no discomfort and a light buzz on the empty stomach.
Also with the drinks came the bread and it was right up the kid's alley. I just had a teeny bite to taste it since I had my wine, but the kid loved it - nice crusty, chewy warm rolls with butter... pretty much a win all around.
At that point we placed our meal order and decided to take that opportunity to walk around the West Wing a bit. The level of detail is truly astounding. The rose was really pretty and we took a selfie with it:
The other thing I agonized about in advance was whether to get the kid's steak or the adult steak for the kid at like 3x the price when you account for dessert and beverage. Luckily a friend had experience with the kid steak and said it was a decent portion and they had no problem subbing the fries, so we had a talk and he told me he was ok with the kid's steak... we also had the dessert party planned for later so I was PRETTY sure he wasn't going to actually starve or anything, especially not with 4 rolls in his belly (yes the picture was after he had tucked into 1 and he ate all of them! I normally put the brakes on but... was buzzed and didn't care.)
So the kid ordered:
Kids' Mickey Check Meal - Grilled Steak
with Seasonal Vegetables and Fruit Cup. Choice of Small Lowfat Milk or Small Dasani® Water. Meets Disney Nutrition Guidelines for Complete Meals without substitution
As you know (or should know) the sides, desserts and beverages are just suggestions to meet the mickey check guidelines... but they will in reality sub anything you want as far as sides, beverages and any kid dessert (which at BoG is the same as the adult desserts). So the kid wanted the fries, and here is what came to the table:
He doesn't eat condiments (but does eat some sauces) so I removed the offending containers from the plate and then spread the steak a bit so that anyone who was wondering as I was just how big the portion is could see it. Here is another picture:
Portion-wise, I'd say with my mad guestimating skillz that this is between a 4-5 oz portion of steak and from what I saw going by, it was the same as the adult portion of fries. Also. The steak was actually tenderloin. It was two thin (maybe like 3/4" at most) steaks but definitely tenderloin. I've always speculated that the kid's nonspecified "steak" is whatever is leftover from butchering other cuts for adult meals. At Coral Reef I was pretty sure his chunks of steak were tenderloin tips. But this was for sure the small end of the tenderloin cut into small slices. It cut easily with a butter knife and the kid was once again in HEAVEN. I didn't take a bite but it was cooked perfectly, a true medium (a bit more done than the other "medium" steaks he'd had but I'm guessing because they were thinner). The fries were good, I tried a couple. The kid gave this two enthusiastic thumbs up.
I ordered the mussels appetizer:
Marseilles-style Mussels
Steamed in a Smoked Tomato and Saffron Broth served with a Garlic Crostini
And here is what I got:
If you'll see in the middle there is something that looks like onion, but it's actually FENNEL. I do NOT like fennel. like, at all. I mean, I tolerate it a bit in sausage... but I basically do not like a licorice taste at all. I don't like tarragon either for that reason. Luckily, fresh fennel does not have as strong a flavor as the seed and I was able to just push it aside, the broth was not infused with it... it was just kind of sitting there, so no big deal.
The broth was absolutely delicious, smoky tomato like the description said. I used a mussel shell to pull another mussel out, drop it in the broth, then used a spoon to eat a spoonful of broth with the mussel. It was sooooooo good, I really enjoyed it.... until I realized that there was a little vat of garlic aioli sitting there and remembered back when we lived in Maryland and I was doing a project in Baltimore and we used to go to Bertha's Mussels that they had an aioli sauce one time we were there that was sooooo good with mussels.
O
M
G
talk about being kicked up a notch, mussels dipped first in smokey tomato broth and then in garlicy aioli. Holy cow this was delicious. and Decadent. and definitely turning an otherwise fairly lean protein into something not so healthy. But OMG it was good. seriously if you get the mussels, consider getting some of that french fry dip for it. I had a fry dipped it in but it was better with the mussels. Now i want to get mussels and make a smoky tomato broth and some aioli. SO GOOD!
The crostini were just ok, mostly a vehicle for dipping into the broth. I may have eaten half of one, the kid tried one but preferred the bread.
We had decided not to get dessert but I didn't realize that unlike many other kid meals, the BoG kid meals get a "regular" dessert. I guess because they are all basically cupcakes and then the grey stuff thing, which does kind of resemble a real dessert. This thing changes a lot it seems but this is what it looked like when we were there (the description on the website does not match this so I won't c&p it):
The waitress brought this but only one spoon (bad waitress! not a good way to impress the tip giver right before the check!) but the kiddo let me try with his spoon. It took a while for it to come but the kid actually did not get antsy waiting because he had a fully belly so the timing worked out ok... I wonder if most people get up and walk around the castle between dinner and dessert and that's why it took so long.
I was starting to worry if maybe having the surgery turned on my sweet tooth since every other dessert I had was SOOO good but this was just meh and I was relieved, thinking the other sweet stuff I had that was so amazing were just a string of exceptional choices. It was some generic soft cookie type crust with some generic custard in it and the grey stuff just tasted "sweet" and like nothing else. The pearls were beautiful and crunchy and didn't taste bad but I could definitely live without this dessert. The kid, however, disagreed and dug right in and happily demolished this thing.
By then I'd digested a bit too and I was able to sit and sip the rest of my wine, while the kiddo ate his dessert. Didn't 100% follow the rules but wasn't uncomfortable so we'll call it a win. By the end of the meal when I got back to my wine my buzz had worn off and sipping it on probably a half full stomach? didn't really seem to have the same effect as before dinner. This nice sweet fruity wine tasted great "with" the mussels... although I didn't have it truly WITH it, there was no clash or anything.
This meal was
$43.83 after AP discount, tax and 20% tip. It was well worth it and we both really enjoyed it. The kid's meal in particular was a tremendous value between the perfectly cooked tenderloin, the adult portion of crispy fries, and the full sized adult dessert. I was really glad I had gone with it rather than the adult steak where he would have probably eaten the same amount of steak and the fries and I would have picked at the veggie, which from the look of them probably would have been more green beans with a flavor that was too green bean-y for me. This was not much more than LTT, or even that much more than a full CS for 2 (which cost me about $30) yet the kid had bread, tenderloin and a full dessert and I had a full meal and glass of wine and we were waited on by a decent enough waitress whose only fault was not bringing mommy a spoon to indulge in dessert. I would DEFINITELY do this again. except I won't be able to with the upcoming changes unless I pay for a lot of food I can't eat and ditto for the kid who will be a Disney adult. oh well
Glad I got to try it once and we are thinking about doing breakfast there and splitting one adult entree... with the pastries it won't be bad and I'd pay the $25 for the both of us... kid can have pastries and bacon and some potatoes and the drink and I can have the eggs and some sausage and I just get the feeling breakfast might be more low key than lunch is, especially when it's PPO.
coming up next: HEA dessert party with plaza viewing.
Don’t beat yourself up! You always do an amazing job planning and your son’s big grin in your photos is a testament to that.
MLK weekend will be crowded so I'm thinking sunday we'll RD the MK and then do an 11am horseback riding session (the kid rides at a therapeutic program here and I used to ride when I was younger and thinner, and now i'm well within their weight limits so YAY!), then have brunch at Trail's End (I know, it's no CA Grill but it's under $50 for the two of us, lol) and then maybe do other activities. It should be fun!
