Tinkerbelll's 11 Day Free Dining Report 2007 (with F&WF pics!) COMPLETE!

[Tinkerbelll]

Ok.. DBF and I are back from 11 days of madness. I have so much food porn to post it is ridiculous so it will probably take me a few days or so to get it all up here. I can't wait to relive it all through pictures because that is the only thing that's going to keep me going for the next 22 days until I go back to the Food and Wine festival for a long 4 day weekend with Mom. So...let's get to it.

First, the cast.

Me - I love trying new foods and will try anything once. I am always watching my weight and have been at my goal weight for about a year, so vacation is extra special for me because I go all out. No holding back! Not a big dessert person, I prefer meat to fish, and LOVE learning about wine and how it is paired with food.

DBF - Just your regular meat and potatoes kind of guy, but with my help, he is slowly becoming a little more adventurous. He likes to learn about wines and taste them, but doesn't really like to drink them. So, he is usually the designated driver. Tall and skinny, but can eat almost twice his weight in food. Usually ends up cleaning his plate, and then cleaning mine.

DBF and I did a lot of sharing because I don't usually eat a lot in one sitting and this was just so much food. We also had a fridge in the room and brought leftovers back quite frequently. We still ended up throwing a lot of it away and never could have eaten everything. Not even close. It truly is way too much food. But we're not complaining...

Now, The places we ate:

Table Service
Citricos
Kona
Chefs de France
Jiko
Coral Reef
Spoodles
California Grill

Counter Service
Pizzafari
Pecos Bill's
Starring Rolls
Tangierine Cafe
Sunshine Season
Wolfgang Express (2x)
Pinocchio Village Haus
Boulangerie Patisserie
Casey's

And we ate and drank at every Kiosk at the Food and Wine Festival except for 4: Great Beers of the World (we're not big beer drinkers), Iced Teafusion, Oklahoma -Rose Rock Diner, and USA. We basically got one of everything that appealed to us and split it so that we could make it all the way around the World .. and we did it in 3 days! Those snack credits from the DDP really came in handy!

I'll post day 1 soon! Cheers!

 

[my3disneygirls]

Kona, Chefs de France, Jiko and Coral Reef are places I want to checkout for my upcoming trip. I get to make ADRs soon.
I'm looking forward to your reviews,

 

[TigerKat]

Can't wait!!!!!

 

[Tinkerbelll]

Day 1

Lunch at Pizzafari

Meals: Pepperoni Pizza and a Hot Italian Style Sandwich with grapes
Dessert: Apple Tart and Frozen Lemonade

We love this place. Great food, large dining area, good price.
Total -- $25.61


Dinner at Citricos

This may very well have been our favorite meal of the trip. Everything was amazing, including the service. It was our first time and is now on our list of must do's.

Bread... the butter from here was DELICIOUS...

My Appetizer: Gateau of Crab - Jumbo lump crab and orange fennel cream and tomato fennel slaw. This was fantastic. Not too fishy, very rich.

DBF's Appetizer: Warm Goat Cheese Salad - with arugula, frisee, lardons and marinated tomatoes. Very good.

My Entree: Citricos Filet Sicilian - oak-grilled filet of beef with wood-roasted Spanish onions, quattro formaggi crushed potatoes and veal glace. I thought this was the best filet of the trip, rivaled only by California Grill's, which comes in at a close second. Ordered medium, and was cooked perfectly.

DBF's Entree: Braised Veal Shank - with carrot-potato puree and roasted vegetables. We both agree that this was the best entree of the entire trip. The meat just fell off the bone and literally melted in your mouth. Words can't even describe how good this was.

My Dessert: SURPRISE! DBF ordered me the Cinderella's Slipper dessert from the Grand Floridian Bakery. I had wanted this dessert so badly when they offered it at the Castle two years ago, but when we got there, they had stopped serving it. So he called in advance and they had it waiting for me and just as I was about to ask for the dessert menu, our waiter snuck up behind me and plopped this on the table. What a guy, huh? lol. It tasted just as good as it looks...

DBF's Desserts: He got 2, because he had to pay OOP for the Slipper and we used the DDP here. So, #1 was the Tropical Fruit Creme Brulee. This was different, but very good.

#2 was the Tiramisu with sauces of chocolate and vanilla. We enjoyed this more than the Creme Brulee, and we were so full we could only take a couple bites of each, but both were very good.

I did the wine pairing with this meal and they did a fantastic job pairing the wines with the different flavors of the food. I recommend doing it. And then I got the French Press Coffee Pot with dessert as my beverage. This coffee is outstanding and I had trouble drinking coffee after having this 2 nights in a row (they offer this at Kona as well). Other WDW coffee just does not compare. Our waiter also gave me a to-go cup so I could take the rest with me!

Total: $150.83 (Doesn't include the wine or Slipper, which we paid for OOP)

Citricos was, by far, an amazing experience. We will most definitely be back.

 

[MickeyNicki]

Looking forward to your reviews, can you tell me what IceTea Fusion is? We will be there in 11 days and I LOVE ice tea.

 

[Tinkerbelll]

Looking forward to your reviews, can you tell me what IceTea Fusion is? We will be there in 11 days and I LOVE ice tea.

Iced Teafusion was a kiosk around the World Showcase. We kind of always just walked right by it on our way to stuff our faces with more food, but according to the festival guide, it offers "Lady Grey, Indian Spiced Shai, Green Tea & Mint, Honeybush, and Mandarin & Orange".

 

[tyandskyesmom]

Subscribing...

 

[MickeyNicki]

Iced Teafusion was a kiosk around the World Showcase. We kind of always just walked right by it on our way to stuff our faces with more food, but according to the festival guide, it offers "Lady Grey, Indian Spiced Shai, Green Tea & Mint, Honeybush, and Mandarin & Orange".

Oh thanks so much for mentioning this, I may have passed by it too!

 

[ciera321]

Very sweet of your DBF to order you the slipper dessert Can't wait for more reviews...

 

[The Three Cabs]

Great start can't wait to hear more!

 

[lisalonglash]

Subscribing - I find I just can't stay away from WDW food porn ... um I mean .. food reports

Your report is just fantastic so far, so detailed! Well done!

 

[Busymom85]

Great review so far. I look forward to more. Thanks for taking the time.

 

[Tinkerbelll]

Thank you! I love going back through pictures. Especially when I get to go back so soon! I'm trying to post as much as I can today in between unpacking and laundry because I go back to work tomorrow.

I forgot to mention that on 9/22, the first night, DBF and I went to the Glow party DIS meet at POP. It was a lot of fun! We had some drinks with some nice DIS'ers and it was a good time. Here are some pics:

I still have to check out DisneyDad99's reports since he was nice enough to give me his Disboard Business card . He and his family were a lot of fun.

Ok, back to the food...

Day 2 - 9/23

Lunch was at Pecos Bills

Meals: Chicken Wrap and BBQ Pork Sandwich with fries
Desserts: Peanut Butter Brownie Mousse

The Chicken Wrap was excellent for theme park fare and DBF liked his sandwich. The brownie mousse was OK, at best. We don't really like any of these pre packaged desserts. But all in all, much better than a burger. Would do this again.

Total: $28.27


Dinner was at Kona

We fell in LOVE with this place. The best one credit meal in WDW, except for Le Cellier (which we skipped this trip because we've done it so many times) and Spoodles (which we did for the first time later this trip...).

To start dinner off, we had glowtinis! These are great fun little drinks. I just wish they weren't $9.25 a pop....

The bread... this was, by far, our FAVORITE bread of the trip. The butter was amazing here too... We now joke about going to Kona just for the bread.

My Appeitizer: Sticky Wings - crispy wings in a garlic glaze with a tangy mustard drizzle and toasted sesame seeds . They are a favorite here on the boards and they did not disappoint! But there were a lot of them and DBF had to help me eat them. They could have been a meal by themselves!

DBF's Appetizer: Caesar Salad Ahh... he was feeling less adventurous this evening. It was good.

My Entree: Macadamia Mahi Mahi - served with mushroom rice, sauteed bok choy, lime-butter sauce and crispy fried onions . I'm not a big fish eater, but I wanted to try this and I'm very glad I did. It was light and flavorful.

DBF's Entree: Slow Roasted Prime Rib - mashed potatoes and stir-fried broccoli florets He loves prime rib and didn't find it much at WDW so he was more than happy with this. He ordered it medium, and it was cooked perfectly. There have been a lot of posts about people getting overcooked meat, but we didn't have any problems getting our meat the way we ordered it.

My Dessert: Chocolate Macadamia Nut Tart - chocolate tart shell with chunks of macadamia nut and chocolate served with vanilla ice cream and caramel rum sauce This was one of my favorite desserts. It was just great, but I think they could have gotten away with giving just one piece. Two was just too much (although I did fill up quite a bit on that bread )

DBF's Dessert: Kiddie Kone Like I said, not very adventurous this evening. He said "It is what it is". You can't really screw up an ice cream cone.

Total: $94.77

I think the butter that came with the bread had macadamia nut pieces in it, which means everything I ordered had macadamia nuts, which I now know that I like very much! Plus, I had wine with dinner so I got another Press Pot of coffee with dessert as my beverage. That made me very happy.

One of the top 3 meals of the trip and we have decided that we will be back very soon.

 

[MOTHERGOOSE3]

YOU HAD ME AT HELLO!!!

 

[Tinkerbelll]

Day 3 - 9/24

We didn't have a Table Service today because we ate at 3 2 credit restaurants this trip. Had to take a few days off

Breakfast - Pop Century Food Court
Cinnamon Roll Exciting, I know. Nothing to write home about, but it did its job as a quick bite and was a good use of a snack credit.

Total: $2.56


Lunch - Starring Rolls

Meals: 2 Turkey Focaccia Sandwiches with Stacy's chips
Desserts: Breeze from the Keys Key Lime Tart and an Apple Tart
This place is one of my FAVORITE counter service locations. These are great sandwiches with a lot of meat, fresh veggies, and amazing focaccia bread and the bakery tarts are WAY better than any of the pre packaged desserts from the other counter service locations.

Total: $28.71

Dinner - Tangierine Cafe

Meals: 2 Chicken and Lamb Shawarma Platters - served with side of hummus, tabbouleh and Tangierine CousCous salad with fresh Moroccan bread.
Desserts: 2 Moroccan Baklavas

We really enjoy this meal. It is a little exotic, but the meats are good and it actually feels like you are eating a dinner, instead of the usual junk food counter service options. We've been here before, and will be back. And for those of you keeping track, I believe this was the most expensive of all the counter service meals we ate.

Total: $37.08

Everything has been good so far. We're getting really good at this Disney thing. No complaints yet!

Next up: Sunshine Seasons and Chefs de France

 

[Minniespal]

Excellent

 

[granmaz]

I'm enjoying thin, thank you!

 

[swankybeth]

Really enjoying your report so far. Looking forward to the F & W pics, I'll be there in less than 2 weeks!

 

[larklynn]

Tangerine Cafe is our FAVE!!! counter service

 

[TigerKat]

I adored that macadamia tart dessert at KONA and agree one piece would have been more than enough for me!