Turfs Up: Too Much Food for Happy Feet - Sept DxDP Lots of Pics *Update: Post 129*

[Nancy for Disney]

Great start to the reviews. Keep them coming.

 

[mcrabeck]

Enjoying your reviews and pictures! Thanks for sharing!

 

[Pooh&OurHunny]

Thanks for sharing. Great start and can't wait to read more

 

[DLo]

Great reviews. Love your sense of humor amd writing style. Looking forward to some more giggles and pics.

Going to sc fi for lunch next month for the first time in a while - hope you liked it.

 

[iluvpluto27]

Enjoying your reviews, looking forward to the next installment.

 

[Golf4food]

Our ADR at Tutto Italia was for 6:00 p.m. but we were in the area, it was looking like rain, and we were tired so we went ahead in around 5:30 expecting to just sit on a cushy bench and relax for a while, but as soon as we checked in they said they were ready for us and escorted us into the first long skinny room on the left, giving us a table for two right next to the window/door things that open onto the patio area (which wasn't in use due to the ugly looking clouds outside):

The patio right outside our window:

The ugly clouds overhead:

And for good measure our view of the inside part of the main dining room:

We were served by Tiziano from northern Italy, a very nice, very friendly, and very Italian young man who was great. We'd be happy to have him serve us any time. (And yet he was only the second best server of our trip! Who was best? Stay tuned!)

Ok, so enough with the preliminaries, I know what you are all asking:

Che cosa mangiamo? (What did we eat?)

I started with something I normally wouldn't order, a zucchini, arugula, parmesan, and balsamic salad:

And a shot with the arugula pushed a bit to the side so you can see the zucchini and balsamic:

I thought the balsamic was too overpowering for everything else - maybe I just don't like balsamic much (I don't have it very often). The arugula and parmesan and zucchini were all nice, but the balsamic was too sweet and strong, covering up most everything else. But if you like balsamic don't hesitate to try it yourself!

I started with the Fresh "Bufala" Mozzarella:

Fresh mozzarella cheese, fresh tomato wedges, and fresh basil with a drizzle of really nice olive oil. This was so amazingly good. I sang the praises of this appetizer throughout the rest of our trip. The flavor of everything together was so great and light. It was a perfect balance of flavors. Insert five thousand other similar phrases here. Golf4Food sampled some and wished he had ordered it, too. I made myself stop after eating half (had to save room for dessert!! It's all about priorities. ) and he finished off most of the rest of it and really enjoyed it, too.

For my entree I had the lasagna:

Call me old-fashioned, but I like lasagna. This lasagna was perfect - it uses bechamel cheese and I loved it. The perfect blend of pasta, cheese, meat, and sauce. Everything shined, nothing overpowered, nothing under-represented. If we had an Italian place that served lasagna like this in our home town I'd eat out for Italian more often. Wonderful.

For my main course, I had the Cannelloni al Forno (baked pasta wrapped around a mixture of spinach, ricotta, bechamel and parmesan cheese):

This was so darn good. My exact notes from this meal read: "Totally, unspeakably, wonderfully amazing! Stuffed with cheese, covered in melted cheese, and sprinkled with cheese, but still nice and light." This is the best pasta dish I've ever had anywhere. The flavors were amazing and clean. I tried to ask Tiziano if I could have the recipe to make at home, but he said it's really complicated. Guess we'll just have to go back. I also finished only half (still thinking of those darn priorities!), because Tiziano swore that dessert would outshine everything we'd had so far. I thought for sure that he must be crazy until...

To be continued... (ha-ha)

 

[Golf4food]

Copetta Sotto Bosco (berries, zabaglione cream gelato and chocolate sauce):

He was totally right! This is going to sound so weird, but I thought the custard flavor was kind of similar to egg nog, but the berries and whipped cream were so great with it. It was simply wonderful. And the berries were ginormous!!!

I also had the copetta.

It was awesome. I love the slight egg nog flavor - like a cross between vanilla and egg nog. The berries were giant and tasty, the whipped cream was yummy, and the chocolate sauce - was chocolate sauce (hard to screw that up!). There are also small sweet crouton-tupe things inside the gelato to add some crunch that were also great. I wanted to eat the whole thing, and probably would have if Tiziano hadn't have brought out...

Some chocolate mousse thingy in a dark chocolate shell with whipped cream and a raspberry sauce:

The mousse was wonderful. Perfect texture, tasty shell, rich and creamy without being too strong. I could finish a whole one and be happy. (The bright thing is a burning candle, yours might not be on fire - unless, you know, it is also your birthday...)

This was so good (like everything else I'd had so far). The chocolate mousse was rich and creamy and went really really well with the raspberry sauce.

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Overall Rating: Solid five penguins.

I thought the service, food, and atmosphere were outstanding. At the time, this was the best meal we'd had on Disney property. Ever. Tiziano was wonderful and attentive without being smothering. And he even sang to Golf4Food (with a group of other servers) for his birthday. I'm adding this to our list of must do's when we're in Epcot (and on the DDP - it was expensive!). Don't get me wrong, I love Le Cellier as much as the next gal, but this was a magnificent meal from start to finish (even considering that I didn't have any meat at all!).

I also give them five penguins:

In spite of the appetizer that I didn't enjoy, that was just me. (Tazicket's app was great and I'd happily eat one of those next time!) Both entrees were wonderful and the desserts are something I shall dream about for years to come (and wake up drooling from, no doubt). Tiziano was fabulous as well. All around great experience well deserving of five happy penguins!

Cost: $117.15 (2 DxDP credits)
Tip: $22.00


Believe it or not - by the end of our trip, we'd been somewhere that somehow managed to outshine Tutto. Where was it? You'll have to keep reading to find out.



Up next: our intrepid travelers hang ten in search of Big Z, Cody, Lani, and Chicken Joe (and real coffee, of course) as they hitch a whale ride to the Kona Cafe.

 

[Shenanigoat]

Tutto Italia was my favorite restaurant on my last trip, I'm glad you two had a good time. I love balsamic vinegar, so I might have to check out that salad. I can't wait to hear what the "best" meal you had was.

 

[MA pigletfan]

i am IN!!! Great start..and i see in your lineup a few places we are hitting next month for a our disneymoon! YUM

 

[John's Mom]

Great reviews and pics! Can't wait to try Tutto in December.

 

[Krissalee]

I am loving reading your reviews - thanks for sharing them!

 

[jeminni]

Great reviews. I love Tutto Italia. I cant wait to hear where your favorite restaurant is.

 

[Golf4food]

On our first full day we started things off with a 7:30 a.m. ADR at Kona Cafe in the Polynesian resort. It looks a little something like this inside:

We had two main reasons for wanting to come to Kona:

1) The breakfast gets good reviews and we wanted to try a few things, and

2) They have real coffee! Duh!

So of course we had to start out with a press pot of Kona coffee (allowed as drinks on our DxDP by our server since we both shared it - we also each had a glass of orange juice):

The press pot coffee was so good! About as strong as I can handle, but rich and full of flavor. Neat to see it made.

The OJ was great. I grew up in an area with a lot of orange groves and this was just like the fresh squeezed we made when I was little with oranges just picked off the trees.

The press pot coffee was great. Not too strong, but on the stronger side of middle, which is how I like it (or even a little stronger). But it had great flavor.

The OJ was very good, tasted fresh squeezed and not all sugary.


So with our beverages out of the way it is on to the main courses!

What did we eat? (Um... What did we eat? Google translate doesn't have an option for Polynesian!)

I started with the Tonga Toast with Bacon:

Full plate:

Close-up of the interior view:

I guess I'm too much of a French toast purist. It was ok, but not what I expected at all. The crust is quite crunchy and the cinnamon sugar is almost overpowering. The combination of textures and flavors just wasn't my thing. I know most people seem to love it, but I'll take regular ole' French toast any day. That said, I tried some of Tazicket's various things and they were all pretty good - especially the regular French toast and the eggs. Next time I'll just get normal French toast. Other items of Tazicket's that I tried: pancakes were very good, eggs were great, potatos just ok, ham was good, bacon a little on the thin side (more pig!) but tasty.

I had the Big Kahuna:

Macadamia nut butter and pineapple on the side:

(I would also order the butter and pineapple on the side in the future just so I can control the amount in each bite.)

Pancakes: amazing - I would totally order just these!
Macadamia nut butter: warm and fluffy
Scrambled Eggs: delicious! Creamy and rich
French toast: good
Sausage: great
Ham: good
Potatoes: ok, not bad but didn't waste much tummy space on them
Bacon: same as potatoes

Tonga toast: nice and crispy outside but probably wouldn't order just this. A little to rich for me and I tend to go for savory breakfast over sweet. Strawberry sauce was yummy. Glad I tried it.

Our server, Ann, was great. Nice and attentive without being smothering. Friendly and funny.

The atmosphere is great. Nicely decorated, wonderful music, and as there were only four or five other tables of guests the entire time we were there it was pretty quiet and relaxing. Ann even brought me a cupcake and birthday card before we left:

How was the cupcake? We have no idea. We took it to go but by the time we got off the monorail at the MK the icing was already melty and smeared on the box top and neither of us wanted to eat it any time soon, and since it would only melt more and we couldn't carry it on a ride, we threw it away... gasp! O, the cupcakemanity!

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Final ratings:

Both us of give Kona a solid four penguins:

I'm sure that next time with both of us ordering just our favorite item we'll be willing to give Kona a full 5 penguins, or at least 4.5 penguins.

Even the Tiki breakfast gods were happy:

Cost: $37.33
Tip: $8.00


Next, after a morning in the MK ride hopping and Dole Whip tasting, we tie on a more refined feed bag at the Grand Floridian Cafe.

 

[Shenanigoat]

Thanks for the Kona Cafe review. I was looking forward to getting the big kahuna and didn't even think of getting the fancy stuff on the side. Just curious, since I'm eating there same time of the day you did-

How long did it take you to eat, then take the Monorail to MK? You were probably there for RD but were there already alot of other people waiting to get in?

 

[Golf4food]

Thanks for the Kona Cafe review. I was looking forward to getting the big kahuna and didn't even think of getting the fancy stuff on the side. Just curious, since I'm eating there same time of the day you did-

How long did it take you to eat, then take the Monorail to MK? You were probably there for RD but were there already alot of other people waiting to get in?

We took our time and were not rushing at all, firstly. After we finished eating we walked out to the Poly pool and sat down to write out our notes, then walked back through to the car, then moved it from the Poly lot to the TTC lot (and sat behind a bus that would not turn despite multiple openings to do so before we could even get out of the Poly lot), then took the monorail to the MK and got there around 9:10, shortly after rope drop. If we had wanted to hurry to be there by RD we probably could easily have done so, it just wasn't a priority at all. We've seen MK RD many times and still got there right afterwards.

 

[Pooh&OurHunny]

thanks for a great update...can't wait for more

 

[Shenanigoat]

We took our time and were not rushing at all, firstly. After we finished eating we walked out to the Poly pool and sat down to write out our notes, then walked back through to the car, then moved it from the Poly lot to the TTC lot (and sat behind a bus that would not turn despite multiple openings to do so before we could even get out of the Poly lot), then took the monorail to the MK and got there around 9:10, shortly after rope drop. If we had wanted to hurry to be there by RD we probably could easily have done so, it just wasn't a priority at all. We've seen MK RD many times and still got there right afterwards.

Thanks. It's good to know that even with taking your time you get there right about opening time.

 

[MA pigletfan]

mmmmmmmm i am dying to try those pancakes...we are only set to go to Kona for dinner but perhaps we can get lucky with a walk in if we are feeling it! Although, maui is our stop before WDW so maybe we can get some macadamia pancakes there and fill the void
I meant to praise your pictures as well last time, but i was too hungry ..they are beautiful..what kind of camera do you use?

 

[DLo]

We have eaten at Kona for lunch and dinner _ looks like I will have to try breakfast next!!!

 

[iluvpluto27]

I'm trying Kona breakfast for the first time in two weeks, and it looks really good. Happy to hear you could get the press pot on the dxddp, as my DH is a big coffee lover so that should keep him happy.