This Gonna Be Good! Updated 8/16- Pecos Bill

SweetSerenity

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"You know the thing about good food? It brings folks together from all walks of life. It warms them right up and it puts little smiles on their faces."- James from The Princess and the Frog

Hello and welcome to my second Disney dining review! I'm also working on my first attempt at a trip report, which can be viewed here.

In September of 2010, we ventured down to WDW for seven nights and eight days of free dining while celebrating our anniversary. Using a Disney gift card, we did add a couple of out-of-pocket table services. Even though we were taking advantage of free dining so that it definitely was a value, (I mean, who can top free?) I did manage to hang on to every receipt so at the end I will be totaling what was spent on the plan versus what we would have paid for had we actually purchased the Disney Dining Plan.

Pictures. I took tons and tons and tons of pictures, much to the chagrin of my sweet Prince- who will also be narrating this dining journey with me. I do come with a disclaimer though: I am a terrible camera operator. Some of these pictures are not of the best quality, for which I do apologize. I did, however, manage to capture every edible item that went into our mouths with the exception of one meal because my camera batteries died at the worst time possible!

So, without further ado, lets get started!

Dates: September 15th- 22nd, 2010

The Cast:

I'm Miss Charlotte. I'm 26 and a recovering picky eater. I still struggle with introducing new foods into my diet, but I've definitely become more adventurous in the past few years. I am not a big fan of seafood, but I still try to stick to the motto of try anything once. I'll be using this icon when I'm narrating:
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Naveen. Represented by
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, our friendly neighborhood frog- I mean prince- is 27. He's somewhat picky when it comes to eating, but he is a junk food junkie! Or was until I sabotaged him with health food. :rolleyes1 When it came to Disney World, however, he was willing to try as many new places as I was.

As I stated earlier, we were on the free DDP. So that meant we were entitled to a total of 14 table services, 14 quick services, and 14 snacks throughout our week-long trip.

I started making the ADRs as soon as they were available to me in March. I was pleased to be able to reserve every restaurant we had wanted to either try or return to, but by the time September came I had made several additions and cancellations. Because we were staying at Port Orleans Riverside, I had considered taking advantage of the hotel table service, Boatwrights, for either our first dinner or last just to give ourselves a break from either our journey there or our preparations to return home. It became a running joke between us, but I will say this: Be careful what you wish for! I'll elaborate on that much later in this report. In the original ADR list we had Marrakesh and The Plaza listed, but neither of these made the final cut. Instead, we added Raglan Road for dinner and Kona Cafe for a breakfast while The Plaza was exchanged for Liberty Tree Tavern. I'd say Naveen was most excited to try Tutto Italia while I couldn't wait for our final dinner at Les Chefs de France. Unfortunately, we did have to cancel a reservation while we were there, but I'll reveal which one when it comes to that day.

In my next post, I'll be adding the final list of eateries. Snacks will be incorporated on their respective days, too.

Thanks for reading and hope you enjoy! :flower3:
 
Day One:
Lunch: Earl of Sandwich
Dinner: 'Ohana

Day Two:
Lunch: Pecos Bill
Dinner: Rose and Crown

Day Three:
Breakfast: Kona Cafe
Lunch: La Cantina de San Angel
Dinner: Teppan Edo

Day Four:
Lunch: Riverside Mill
Dinner: Raglan Road

Day Five:
Lunch: Liberty Tree Tavern
Dinner: Columbia Harbour House

Day Six:
Lunch: Anandapur Local Food Cafes (Yak & Yeti CS)
Dinner: Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater

Day Seven:
Lunch: Tutto Italia
Dinner: Les Chefs de France

Day Eight:
Breakfast: Riverside Mill
 
Very excited to read your review! I'm happy to see that you did Kona for breakfast and Raglan Road for dinner because I'm doing the same thing in august. I can't wait to read more.:banana:
 
Very excited to read your review! I'm happy to see that you did Kona for breakfast and Raglan Road for dinner because I'm doing the same thing in august. I can't wait to read more.:banana:

Thanks for stopping by! Though we had some trouble getting to Kona and Raglan Road was extremely crowded, I can say that we enjoyed both of our meals there. Kona was definitely a good value because we did pay out-of-pocket for that meal, and we'd like to give Raglan Road another try when it perhaps isn't quite as packed as it was that night.
 

Subscribing!!! this looks like a fun report so far!
 
Yea! Cant wait to see more! We were at WDW last Sept as well Sept 10-19th stayed at the Poly!
 
Yea! Cant wait to see more! We were at WDW last Sept as well Sept 10-19th stayed at the Poly!

Another September 2010-er, welcome! We visited the Poly on the 15th and 17th for 'Ohana and Kona so you never know, we may have walked right by each other.
 
I'll try my best to restrain myself! :rotfl2: Can't wait for the snacks and refreshments!popcorn::

:lmao: We'll be updating with our first stop later on tonight. Naveen is currently snoring, but when he gets to work tonight we'll be able to officially get this started.
 
Looking forward to these!

:welcome: I see from your ticker you're going to be staying at Port Orleans soon. Looks like Riverside? We stayed at POR in September and fell in love with it. Such a beautiful resort. It was only my fourth on-site stay and our first moderate, but we loved it enough to call it "home" so I can see why you have it labeled as a favorite!
 
Day One: Lunch- Earl of Sandwich

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Since we had only eaten a granola bar around 7 A.M. and it was now into the afternoon, we were both pretty ravenous. So after briefly stopping into our room to drop off our carry-on bag and receive our water delivery, we were ready for lunch. We first went to the Riverside Mill inside the resort, but didn't see anything that really stood out to us. I had heard all sorts of splendid things about quick services at Downtown Disney including Wolfgang Puck Express, Cookes of Dublin, and Earl of Sandwich. Because we could easily hop a boat over to DTD from POR, we decided to go there with the intention of trying WPE.

Both of us had only been to DTD once, and that was at night during our December 2008 trip. When the boat pulled up to the dock, we honestly didn't know which way to go. Now, Naveen could have nicely asked our pleasant ferry captain, but everyone knows how men are with directions. :rolleyes2 Unfortunately, since I was our designated Trip Planner, I was about to be held accountable for the mistakes we were going to make.

We started out on the West Side where we located WPE. Only, once we were inside they didn't have anything I had seen on the menu. Did I miss something? By now, our stomachs are singing angry symphonies and Naveen is become a major Grumpy. So, we head back in the opposite direction with a look of daggers to my back and mutterings of how I was supposed to have done my research. ME? At this point I'm biting my tongue to resist telling him if he would have just asked for directions this would never have happened. Men.

After making the trek back to Marketplace, we finally spot the Earl of Sandwich sign. Hallelujah! We're both roasting alive in the sun, my head is pounding, and Naveen is telling me his feet are already starting to hurt. Once inside, we realize this place is a madhouse! It's extremely crowded and we're a little unsure about how the line works. When we stepped up to order, we told the CM we were on the Disney Dining Plan. She didn't explain it to us, but acted rather rudely instead. A manager finally appeared to tell us we could have either a side or dessert, drink, and sandwich.

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The way I remember this little scenario going was Miss Charlotte saying something to the effect of, "I'm certain that Wolfgang Puck Express is over on this side." Hearing this, I assumed we didn't need to ask for directions, not that I would have a problem doing so, I am a frog prince for the new generation, after all. After Miss Charlotte nixed the first stop at the Wolfgang Puck establishment we did find, we began our long trek along the horseshoe of Downtown Disney. Let the record state, that it was I, and not Miss Charlotte, that ventured into a magic shop there to inquire as to the whereabouts of the Earl of Sandwich. After precise directions and a mini magic show, we were off once again, eventually finding our way to the eatery. Barely controlled chaos would be the best term to describe the interior of the place. While a busy restaurant is usually a good sign that the food is tasty, in this case, it only showcased that The Earl of Sandwich was not quite up to Disney specifications as far as organization and crowd management goes. Neither the menu board or the woman at the ordering station was very clear about what exactly came with a dining plan meal, so taking what we knew from previous trips, we assumed we were entitled to a side and dessert. We were quite mistaken when we made it to the cash register. As a member of the service industry myself, I understand how a lunch rush can fray the nerves of even the most polite customer service representative, but in this case, the woman at the cash register was very short with us, bordering on rude. The manager that was called over to clarify things wasn't much better. It was made abundantly clear that the Earl of Sandwich was not a "pure" Disney establishment, their standards of customer service not adhering to the strict standards that Disney enforces upon it's own establishments. Once everything was sorted out, we headed to a table. Thankfully, the time we had spent in line had allowed for a bit of a lull in the crowd, letting us sit inside the air conditioning instead of out on the patio.


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This is The Original 1762 without Horseradish. The bread was crusty and a little dry, but the roast beef was extremely juicy and tender. Honestly, this place came with a lot of hype but I do understand why everyone raves about these sandwiches. Meat, cheese, and bread. So simple, yet absolutely incredible.

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Between the choice of sweet and salty, I went with the brownie. If I wanted sweet, I definitely got it. This was cavities-have-just-invaded-my-mouth-and-lassoed-my-teeth sweet. Bleh. :eek:

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I also enjoyed The Original 1762 sandwich, mine with the Horseradish sauce. I'm not sure if the sandwich was as tasty as I remember it, or if I was just too ravenously hungry to care, but that might have been one of the most delicious sandwiches I had ever had in my life. The roast beef was cooked perfectly, and the melted cheese balanced out the sharp horseradish perfectly. The only real complaint I have about it is I wish it could have been bigger!


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Not having a sweet tooth, I opted for the bag of sweet mesquite barbecue flavored kettle cooked potato chips. Whew, what a mouthful! The sweetness of the barbecue flavor melded nicely with the savory of the sandwich, and the crunch of the kettle chips gave a nice texture contrast to the melted tenderness of the roast beef and cheese. Again, the only gripe here is that I wished there were more, as the size of the bag was slightly misleading as to the actual amount of chips within.


Overall, now that I know where EOS is I think I would return. I may try another sandwich, but that one was so amazing I'm not sure I can. Like they say, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." Oooh, but I'd definitely steer clear of that brownie and opt for something else.

When we left, I spotted. . . Wolfgang Puck Express in bright letters. There are two? I can no longer claim the title of Disney Research Queen- not that I ever did outside of my own house anyway. Lets just say I navigated Naveen in the other direction so I wouldn't have to see the expression on his face when he saw it or hear the endless mockery. :rolleyes1

In conclusion, I would probably return to the Earl of Sandwich. Despite the lack of customer service, a good roast beef sandwich is hard to turn down. Also, I might try returning there when the crowd wasn't quite as large, I think the charm of the place might have been hindered by so many bodies being crammed in there, not to mention the rushed feeling you felt as new eaters hovered over the dining area, waiting to pounce on the next available table. Our stomachs sated for the time being, we boarded a return ferry to Port Orleans Riverside, intent on planning our next foray into the Wonderful World of Disney.

Total Price= $20.50- 1 CS used per person

 
Great first review ... can't wait for the rest!

The Original Roast Beef at EOS is truly one of my favorite sandwiches ever! Shouldn't have read this one before breakfast! :laughing:
 
Subbing, you are reviewing 6 of the places I plan on making ADRs for next week. We are on the DxDP or Earl of Sandwich would be a great place to grab a quick bite in DTD
 















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