Golf4food
Male pirate last time I checked. Yep. Still male.
- Joined
- Feb 10, 2005
- Messages
- 8,175
Part Deux
After a day at DHS, where we never spend a full day most of the time unless we plan to stay for Fantasmic, we headed back to the room around 3:00 to rest and clean up for our only signature meal of the trip at Jiko. So back to the AKL we went for the second time that day (after our breakfast at Boma that morning). Our ADR was for 5:40 p.m. and we arrived around 5:30, waited very briefly to check-in, were given a buzzer and took a seat at one of the tables in the lounge area and glanced over a menu. After only a minute or two we were taken back to our table near the back of the restaurant on the main level, in a table for two with a bench back on one side a chair on the other with a column on our far side (a few feet away) - it made for a nice buffer.
After getting settled and taking a couple of photos our server came over. Ron, whose name tag I believe said he was from Packistan, introduced himself, told us a little about the restaurant, talked to us a bit, and attempted to take our picture but the camera kept having trouble focusing in the dim lighting and it just would not release the shutter, but Ron, ever patient, kept with it and eventually we got the photo. Ron was great throughout it all, though.
Since it was our first visit Ron spent at least five minutes walking us through the menu, describing multiple dishes - the ingredients, preparation, flavors, etc. - and made a few recommendations of his favorites and the most popular items. Even though we both had read every online menu ahead of time and gone through many a review it was great hearing him describe everything and I think both of us nearly changed our pre-made minds on what to order!
After taking our drink orders he returned with the bread basket - a honey based bread and a caraway seed bread - and tandoori butter (and our drinks, of course):
I only tried a small bite of the caraway bread but did enjoy the honey bread quite a bit. It is a thick bread, heavy but the taste and texture are light and softy and chewy. The smell of honey is much stronger than the flavor of honey. Very nice, I've never had anything quite like it before.
House breads - So good! The caraway seed bread was yummy and really great with the tandoori butter. The honey bread was also very good - it had a really deep, rich honey scent with a light taste. Completely delicious!
After some time to enjoy our breads Ron brought out our appetizers:
I went with the oft touted BBQ Chicken Flatbread:
The BBQ Chicken flatbread is tasty and different - I've certainly never paired BBQ chicken with jicama and green apples before. (Not your typical Southern BBQ joint menu item!) The flatbread itself was very nice - chewy, slightly crunchy on the edges and outside. Chicken and BBQ were great. I'm not a huge fan of the jicama, but that's probably just my general dislike of most green veggies shining through. Mild white cheese. A wonderful flavor combination in your mouth - earthy, sweet, a little spice, rich... a great way to wake up your taste buds before the main course. It lived up to the hype, IMHO.
Meanwhile I went with the Taste of Africa:
Taste of Africa - all three breads were good. I don't remember what each one was (sorry!), but if I were to rank them from most to least favorite, it would be seeded, then not seeded, then the cracker like bread. All three of the dips were likewise good. The olive hummus was yummy, but a little too olive-y for my taste (I'm not overly fond of olives). The spinach and lentil dip was really great - a nice blend of herbs and lemon. The tikka masala was my favorite of the three dips. The flavor was nice and citrus-y to begin with and then gradually got spicier as time went by. Ron actually teased me about ordering this when we already had the house breads, but I had read on the DIS that the Taste of Africa was really nice and I wanted to try it. It was good, but he was right - I'll probably go with a flat bread next time.
Main course:
I nearly went with a halibut dish but stuck with the plan and ordered the fillet minion and mac 'n cheese. Since I like mine medium-well they butterfly the fillet to cook each piece up to temperature:
It was cooked a perfect medium-well. Tender and juicy, not overly seasoned so the beef's own flavor could shine through. The red wine sauce was fantastic. The mac 'n cheese is wonderfully creamy and quite mild (not a strong m&c like Stouffer's, for instance). Great flavors all around. Awesome.
For my main course I also had the Oak Grilled Filet (cooked to a perfect medium rare) with the Mac and Cheese:
This was truly perfection on a plate! The flavors meshed perfectly and were really nice and rich. The steak was brilliantly cooked (a wonder considering how thick the cut was!), and was just delicious with the Mac & Cheese and the red wine sauce. I would absolutely get this again next time we go to Jiko (because there will TOTALLY be a next time!). My favorite steak ever on Disney property. Ron supported my decision to go with this as my entree.
Now, our original plan for the entire trip while on the DxDP was that, since there was going to be so much food, to only try to eat half of everything we ordered (portion sizes are generally far too big to be considered healthy anyway). However, we both loved our fillets so much I think we both about licked the plate clean!
Part 3 Coming Up Next!
After a day at DHS, where we never spend a full day most of the time unless we plan to stay for Fantasmic, we headed back to the room around 3:00 to rest and clean up for our only signature meal of the trip at Jiko. So back to the AKL we went for the second time that day (after our breakfast at Boma that morning). Our ADR was for 5:40 p.m. and we arrived around 5:30, waited very briefly to check-in, were given a buzzer and took a seat at one of the tables in the lounge area and glanced over a menu. After only a minute or two we were taken back to our table near the back of the restaurant on the main level, in a table for two with a bench back on one side a chair on the other with a column on our far side (a few feet away) - it made for a nice buffer.
After getting settled and taking a couple of photos our server came over. Ron, whose name tag I believe said he was from Packistan, introduced himself, told us a little about the restaurant, talked to us a bit, and attempted to take our picture but the camera kept having trouble focusing in the dim lighting and it just would not release the shutter, but Ron, ever patient, kept with it and eventually we got the photo. Ron was great throughout it all, though.
Since it was our first visit Ron spent at least five minutes walking us through the menu, describing multiple dishes - the ingredients, preparation, flavors, etc. - and made a few recommendations of his favorites and the most popular items. Even though we both had read every online menu ahead of time and gone through many a review it was great hearing him describe everything and I think both of us nearly changed our pre-made minds on what to order!
After taking our drink orders he returned with the bread basket - a honey based bread and a caraway seed bread - and tandoori butter (and our drinks, of course):
After some time to enjoy our breads Ron brought out our appetizers:
The BBQ Chicken flatbread is tasty and different - I've certainly never paired BBQ chicken with jicama and green apples before. (Not your typical Southern BBQ joint menu item!) The flatbread itself was very nice - chewy, slightly crunchy on the edges and outside. Chicken and BBQ were great. I'm not a huge fan of the jicama, but that's probably just my general dislike of most green veggies shining through. Mild white cheese. A wonderful flavor combination in your mouth - earthy, sweet, a little spice, rich... a great way to wake up your taste buds before the main course. It lived up to the hype, IMHO.
Taste of Africa - all three breads were good. I don't remember what each one was (sorry!), but if I were to rank them from most to least favorite, it would be seeded, then not seeded, then the cracker like bread. All three of the dips were likewise good. The olive hummus was yummy, but a little too olive-y for my taste (I'm not overly fond of olives). The spinach and lentil dip was really great - a nice blend of herbs and lemon. The tikka masala was my favorite of the three dips. The flavor was nice and citrus-y to begin with and then gradually got spicier as time went by. Ron actually teased me about ordering this when we already had the house breads, but I had read on the DIS that the Taste of Africa was really nice and I wanted to try it. It was good, but he was right - I'll probably go with a flat bread next time.
Main course:
It was cooked a perfect medium-well. Tender and juicy, not overly seasoned so the beef's own flavor could shine through. The red wine sauce was fantastic. The mac 'n cheese is wonderfully creamy and quite mild (not a strong m&c like Stouffer's, for instance). Great flavors all around. Awesome.
This was truly perfection on a plate! The flavors meshed perfectly and were really nice and rich. The steak was brilliantly cooked (a wonder considering how thick the cut was!), and was just delicious with the Mac & Cheese and the red wine sauce. I would absolutely get this again next time we go to Jiko (because there will TOTALLY be a next time!). My favorite steak ever on Disney property. Ron supported my decision to go with this as my entree.
Now, our original plan for the entire trip while on the DxDP was that, since there was going to be so much food, to only try to eat half of everything we ordered (portion sizes are generally far too big to be considered healthy anyway). However, we both loved our fillets so much I think we both about licked the plate clean!
Part 3 Coming Up Next!
DH will be bringing his Nikon D80, maybe I will try it out. 
):
Atleast there is breakfast at the Grand Floridian Cafe to get us started on the right foot - or does it? Oooooooo. Inquiring minds (
)
