They Should Make Margaritas a Snack Credit! - September 2011 Dining Review

[deenbrad]

Hope you have a great trip! Can't wait for the reviews...

 

[jenneth79]

Hi everyone! We're back, and only missed 3 of our planned meals (Liberty Tree Tavern, Crystal Palace, and Kona Cafe) so I'll have LOTS of reviews to share (and quite a few pictures as well!)

 

[disneyfav4ever]

Looks like you ate at some great places! I hope you had a fantastic trip!

 

[Dizneydawn]

Here and ready to drool!!!!

 

[onelilspark]

Joining in...mainly because I agree that margaritas should be a snack credit!

 

[jenneth79]

Hey everyone! Just wanted to let you know I will be posting our first review (Tokyo Dining) either tonight or tomorrow once I get the photos uploaded... thanks for following along!

 

[MickeyNicki]

Hey everyone! Just wanted to let you know I will be posting our first review (Tokyo Dining) either tonight or tomorrow once I get the photos uploaded... thanks for following along!

Oh good! That is a new meal for us so I cannot wait to hear your thoughts

 

[jenneth79]

Tokyo Dining

On our arrival day, I booked a late lunch at Tokyo Dining for us. It was a place I was interested in trying but figured if we missed it due to a late arrival, etc.; it wouldn’t be the end of the world. I have to say I’m really glad we didn’t miss it though, because it was simply fabulous.

To start, we were walked over by an extremely friendly hostess to a gorgeous window seat in the corner of the restaurant. I can only imagine what Illuminations looks like from this vantage point, it must be fantastic! When we return to Disney, we might make an evening ADR here, just to see what they look like when we don’t want a heavy meal.

(our view from our table, can't you just see this during Illuminations?)

The service was great. Our server was very sweet, and when she noticed it was our Anniversary trip, she made sure we were able to take our time with the menus, and didn’t rush us at all. She was extremely attentive and had that sixth sense that good waiters have, knowing when to come back and check on us / take our orders. Knowing that WDW has a habit of rushing you through your meal, this was a nice change.

The waitress brought out warm lemon scented towels for us to clean our hands before our meal. Another very nice touch.

Since we’re on the “Gain 10 Pounds Before You Leave” plan we could order an appetizer, entrée, and dessert. However, since we were not that hungry and neither of us is a fan of Green Tea flavored desserts; we only ordered app and entrée.

To start, I ordered the Ultimate Unagi. I am a huge fan of eel, so I typically will order it whenever I see it on a menu. If you’ve never tried it and think it looks disgusting (well, it does… even I can admit that) close your eyes and order it anyway! You’ll be glad you did. The portion was only three pieces of the roll, but they were pretty large, and more than enough for an appetizer portion, in my opinion. The eel was cooked very well, though I have had better. The most intriguing part of this roll is what is inside it, and what’s on top! The orange zest on top of the roll and the tamago (sweet cooked egg) on the inside gave the roll a totally different (and good!) flavor.

(yummy happy eely goodness....)

Mike went for the Kakuni, or braised pork belly. I work for a Japanese company, and when explaining this dish to a coworker he said it’s typical pub food in Japan…. And it’s GOOD. While it may be a way to slowly braise less tender chunks of meat (anyone from the south is probably well versed in the joys of pork belly) it also releases an amazing flavor. The broth, made of sake, soy sauce, and ginger, had to be my favorite part of the dish. You have to enjoy piggy (Not Miss, mind you…) but if you do, this might be a dish you’d want to try!

(Kakuni, the other white meat.)

I’ll take this moment to mention our drinks, not included on the dining plan, otherwise known as Adult Beverages. With an umbrella in mine to make it look less adult focused. This ploy did not work however, as it packed a MAJOR punch. In a good way. Here we have a Shochu Sunrise, a take on a screwdriver, but with some serious Japanese Shochu, basically grain alcohol. It’s an acquired taste, but since I like the Korean version of this (Soju) I thought I’d give it a try. Really yummy, but I didn’t finish it for fear of falling off a Friendship Boat later.

(so good. so evil. so why not?)

Mike ordered a sake sampler. They wrote down the names of them all for him to remember. I can’t make them out on the picture but will be showing it to my coworkers to see if they can figure it out. The one on the far right was really yummy. Mike liked them all, but he is a sake fan. I wasn’t impressed with the other two. They are all served cold. Don’t get me started on the warm stuff that comes in a box…. Yes, I am a sake snob. I own it.

(meh. but the on the right.. yum.)

Now, on to the main dishes. It’s key to note if you are on the dining plan, you do have the option of items from the sushi menu as your entrée. Mike did this and ordered a deluxe sushi plate from the sushi menu. I pretty much devoured all the tamago off his plate, it was that good. Another thing, if you ever get a chance to watch a sushi chef make this, it’s fascinating. It’s basically a sweet egg omelet, but with really thin layers, that the chef folds over and over again, then cuts into strips to put on top of sushi rice. It makes you realize what an art form sushi is.

(quite a bit of sushi for the price, to be honest)

I decided on the Fuji Bento box as my main meal. This is a lot of food, as it comes with miso soup and a bowl of rice along with a few slices of sashimi, tempura, and California rolls. There was so much food in front of me I literally forgot to eat the miso soup! Didn’t even taste it. Whoops. The fish sashimi (salmon and tuna) was very fresh, and the tempura (and sauce to dip it in) was really yummy. The sweet potato was my favorite, but the shrimp was good too, and a very large portion. The California rolls were nothing to write home (or the DIS) about, but they are not my favorite in general.

(see? they just look sad sitting in there with all that GOOD food...)

A note to sushi lovers: we kind of expected there to be fresh grated
wasabi on our plates, as this was a very authentic Japanese restaurant, but we were given wasabi paste instead. I’m not sure if you can request fresh or not, just know it doesn’t automatically come to your table. However, the paste they gave us was very fresh and still packed a punch!

At the end of the meal our waitress brought us a check with the cutest little origami heart, made from HELLO KITTY paper (for my obsession with HK, please refer to our TR where I will explain in detail) which guaranteed that not only do I heart sushi, but I heart Tokyo Dining as well!

(Hello Kitty Rocks. For realz.)


So that ends our first meal at Disney, I hope you found something useful in my ramblings, and look forward to sharing all our meals with you in the coming days...weeks....whenever I get to it.....

Cheers!

Jen

 

[jenneth79]

BTW guys, I'm new to using Photobucket, so let me know if the pictures don't come through for you...and if anyone knows how to size down the pictures so you all aren't scared by the godzilla size of my face, I'd appreciate it !

 

[vettegirl]

What a nice review! I love the hello kitty heart at the end.

 

[PixieMama]

I'm not a fan of sushi... if I were to dine in Japan, I'd go with Teppan Edo. But I will admit that your bento box looks appetizing!

You had a great view from your table! It would be fabulous for IllumiNations, too.


P.S. I think your photos are fine, but if you want to edit your pics in Photobucket: click on the photo you want to resize, there should be a menu bar right on top of the photo (you may have to hover your mouse on the pic to see it) "Resize" is one of the options. Hope that helps!

 

[natebenma]

I am gonna LOVE this report!

I am totally in awe of your food porn pictures and your fantastic descriptions!!!

Everything looks YUM!!! The view from your table is beautiful and was transformed into gorgeous with the drink in front of it.

I would so go for the Bento box!

Don't hear much buzz on this restaurant. How crowded was it?

3 of the 4 of us enjoy sushi, including the 10 year old. His biggest food dilemma was when we were at a Japanese restaurant in Mexico and he couldn't decide if he should get the octopus or squid sushi. My DH got one and he got the other. Problem solved!

Photobucket- I didn't learn this until recently so my first trip report has GINORMOUS photos.

You can individually resize the pictures you want to 640x480 (Large). You can also change the settings so that all of your pictures are uploaded at this size.

When you are in the Upload mode, if you scroll down you should see a Customize my Uploads Option (mine is in blue letters). Click on that and you can specify the size you want for your photos.

HTH!

 

[Queenofallthings]

Oh my!! What a great review! Your pictures are fantastic and the sushi looks to.die.for!! I can't wait to hear about your next meal!

 

[disneyfav4ever]

Great review of Tokyo Dining. That was one of my favorite meals last trip, I'm glad you enjoyed it too.

 

[Ciciwoowoo]

Yum!

Love the Hello Kitty heart... I totally remember how big HK was in the late 70's!

 

[Linda67]

Yay you've started

Lovely photos and your lunch looks delicious

We ate dinner at TD whilst Illuminations was showing and they pipe the music in; it's a really great place to get an evening ADR

 

[jenneth79]

What a nice review! I love the hello kitty heart at the end.

Thanks! I thought that was such a sweet touch, and I made sure to pack it for our trip home... pulled it out and put in into the scrapbooking box this morning!

I wish I could have packed some of that food though!

I'm not a fan of sushi... if I were to dine in Japan, I'd go with Teppan Edo. But I will admit that your bento box looks appetizing!

You had a great view from your table! It would be fabulous for IllumiNations, too.

They had quite a few non-sushi meals as well... I haven't tried Teppan Edo, though I know the kids love it. We have a few Japanese Steak houses at home and I always take the wee ones to them, they love watching flying shrimp! I am always scared the little onion volcano will blow and set ME on fire.

P.S. I think your photos are fine, but if you want to edit your pics in Photobucket: click on the photo you want to resize, there should be a menu bar right on top of the photo (you may have to hover your mouse on the pic to see it) "Resize" is one of the options. Hope that helps!

Thanks! I think Day 1 is going to be ginormous, but I'll try to get them all shrunk down for the following days.... some I think I'll leave big just because they're such amazing pictures.... it's kind of nice to see them full screen!

My face, not so much.

 

[eyeslikeanocean]

If you don't mind, could you tell me exactly where ya'll were sitting? LIke, where would i ask to be seated if I wanted to have that AWESOME view ya'll had. My family will be at Tokyo dining in 19 days, during Illuminations and I REALLY wanted to get a good view during dinner. Thanks!

 

[jenneth79]

I am gonna LOVE this report!

I am totally in awe of your food porn pictures and your fantastic descriptions!!!

Everything looks YUM!!! The view from your table is beautiful and was transformed into gorgeous with the drink in front of it.

I would so go for the Bento box!

Don't hear much buzz on this restaurant. How crowded was it?

3 of the 4 of us enjoy sushi, including the 10 year old. His biggest food dilemma was when we were at a Japanese restaurant in Mexico and he couldn't decide if he should get the octopus or squid sushi. My DH got one and he got the other. Problem solved!

Photobucket- I didn't learn this until recently so my first trip report has GINORMOUS photos.

You can individually resize the pictures you want to 640x480 (Large). You can also change the settings so that all of your pictures are uploaded at this size.

When you are in the Upload mode, if you scroll down you should see a Customize my Uploads Option (mine is in blue letters). Click on that and you can specify the size you want for your photos.

HTH!

It helped a lot, thanks! I'm going to start selectively importing pictures after my Day 1 plans, which are already all uploaded and I'm too lazy to change it.

These are probably the best "food porn" pictures we got... some are kind of blurry, especially those in the places with low light. I promise to try to make up for that with my descriptions, though!

We ate lunch around 1:45 and the place wasn't empty, but it wasn't packed either. I would say there were about 8 tables empty in the restaurant while we were there. Also, even with the high ceilings, it wasn't terribly loud.

Oh my!! What a great review! Your pictures are fantastic and the sushi looks to.die.for!! I can't wait to hear about your next meal!

Thank you! It was a great start to our trip, and it's on our list of "must return" places when we head back!

Great review of Tokyo Dining. That was one of my favorite meals last trip, I'm glad you enjoyed it too.

Thanks - I almost don't want to tell people about it, I'm so possessive!

Yum!

Love the Hello Kitty heart... I totally remember how big HK was in the late 70's!

Oh man, you aged me! Just kidding. I grew up loving HK... though a lot of the "minor characters" that were big back then are hard to find today. Not in Epcot though.....Hello Kitty Paradise.

Yay you've started

Lovely photos and your lunch looks delicious

We ate dinner at TD whilst Illuminations was showing and they pipe the music in; it's a really great place to get an evening ADR

That's great to know, thanks for sharing the tip about the music! I can't really think of a horrible view in the restaurant either for the FW show.

 

[jenneth79]

If you don't mind, could you tell me exactly where ya'll were sitting? LIke, where would i ask to be seated if I wanted to have that AWESOME view ya'll had. My family will be at Tokyo dining in 19 days, during Illuminations and I REALLY wanted to get a good view during dinner. Thanks!

Not at all, though it's going to be one of those seat of the pants kind of descriptions. You've been warned

When you walk into TD, you face the hostess desk. Basically our table was behind the hostess desk, along the window on the right corner. I think no matter where you are along the window seats (which run the length of the restaurant) you'll have a great view. Ours was just extra nice because it was the corner table, effectively along two windows and kind of private.

Now that I think about it, if you ask for the "corner window seat facing the lagoon" you should be ok.

Honestly, though, we had what I think is the best seat in the house, but unless you want to sit at the sushi bar... you'll have a great view.