Two Germans Dine Deluxe Again ... (FINISHED!)

[DisneyMamato4]

Can't wait to hear about California Grill, I'm so adding that to our ADRs for next time. I keep hearing fabulous things about it.

 

[cbg1027]

Today was our first ever visit to Universal Studios (actually I just almost typed "Disney's Universal Studios", so this is how thoroughly disneyfied I am ), and we had not planned anything specific for lunch – we were just going to grab a bite anywhere once we felt like it.

We went in and I explained to the lady at the podium that we did not have any advance reservations and hoped they could accommodate us anyway, but she just looked at me in a slightly amused way and said we did not need those there. Well, Toto, I guess we're not in Disney anymore …

That's funny about the no reservations!

Can't wait to hear about Cali Grill!

 

[Disneyfreak616]

The Big Kahuna is BIG! Woah! Looks delish though!!

I like the atmosphere outside of Lombard's a lot.

 

[wilma-bride]

We love Lombard's - we have eaten there on several occasions. The fish and chips is fantastic, much nicer than any I have had elsewhere in Orlando. They also do a really nice asian chicken wrap

ETA: I found a (very old) menu on Allears. Looks much the same as the current one, although there may have been a couple of changes in the last couple of years.

http://allears.net/uni/menu/men_lomb.htm

 

[annichan]

The dark chips are Blue Corn Tortilla Chips. They are made with blue corn. I am not sure about color additives, it depends on the brand. The ones we buy are organic and have no additives. Just blue corn. I have never seen red ones.

Love your reviews!!
Terri

Okay, good to hear about no additives in the blue tortilla chips! (That still leaves the mystery of the red ones, though )

Looks like a nice meal! I haven't eaten anywhere in Universal, except for CityWalk. And by the way, I'm totally with you on the bleu cheese - I really don't like it, the taste is very strong, and they put so much of it on food!!

My father actually loves blue cheese, he recently spent two weeks in the States and all he could talk about afterwards was the wonderful blue cheese in almost every dish. Not a hereditary thing, obviously.

Great review of somewhere different!

Can't wait to hear about your experience at California Grill....

I'm sorry that it has taken me so long, but the Cali Grill review is coming right up!

just chiming in again to say how much I am enjoying your reviews and really looking forward to your California Grill review - it is our favorite place at Disney

Thank you! It is our favourite as well, or maybe our second favourite - hard to say as another restaurant also totally won us over. Read on for that!

Can't wait to hear about California Grill, I'm so adding that to our ADRs for next time. I keep hearing fabulous things about it.

I think I can pretty safely say that I'm going to add it on to our ADR's for every single time that we shall be revisiting Disneyworld! (But that's easy to say since that will be no more often than every other year, if that ...)

That's funny about the no reservations!

I know, I could almost see the lady at the podium thinking "Not one of those Disney weirdos again!"

The Big Kahuna is BIG! Woah! Looks delish though!!

I like the atmosphere outside of Lombard's a lot.

I know, I still can't believe I finished every bite of the Big Kahuna this time without any aid from DH .
Yes, the outside seating area at Lombard's looked very inviting - if it hadn't been so hot that day we would surely have tried it out.

We love Lombard's - we have eaten there on several occasions. The fish and chips is fantastic, much nicer than any I have had elsewhere in Orlando. They also do a really nice asian chicken wrap

ETA: I found a (very old) menu on Allears. Looks much the same as the current one, although there may have been a couple of changes in the last couple of years.

http://allears.net/uni/menu/men_lomb.htm

Oh coo, good on you for finding that! I looked pretty much everywhere but it never occurred to my to try allears .

 

[annichan]

The year before, California Grill had been our absolute favourite Disney dining experience, so we were very much looking forward to it this time. Like the previous year, I had managed to schedule our dinner for the time the fireworks would be on – unlike last time, though, it was to be the special Halloween fireworks called "HalloWishes" (those that caused both DH and me to break out uncontrollably into singing "boo to you, boo to you, happy Halloween" for what felt like months afterwards ).

When checking in at the podium on level 2, I tried my luck and requested a window table (hadn't worked on our honeymoon, but we had gotten close enough). This time, however, everything worked more than smoothly – we were brought up in the elevator, sat in the bar area just barely long enough to order a couple of Bud Light beers, and were escorted to our window table . Yay!

Our server arrived, and he was just wonderful. I neither remember his name nor where he was from, but wherever that was, he had such a heavy accent that I had serious trouble understanding him (definitely a native speaker's accent, though – Scottish maybe?). So I had to ask him a seemingly endless string of "pardon?"s and "come again?"s, but he did not mind and stayed very chatty for the whole meal. He was the same with all his tables, so sometimes we would have to wait a while for him to come back as he was busy chatting at another table, but we totally didn’t mind as he just made us feel so welcome by being so nice.


Anyway, food was our main goal here, not idle chitchat – so here goes:

My appetizer, the Crispy Asian Rock Shrimp Salad - with Asian pears, red onions, soy reduction, and wasabi cream. Delicious!


Meanwhile, DH had this – and I was lucky enough to be allowed to share a bit of it, since it was quite huge:

The Chefs Garden Brick Oven Fired Flatbread with Heirloom Tomatoes, Mozzarella, Balsamic Onions and Micro Basil. A very good choice.


Oh, and I did not take any pictures of them, but we also had some yummy non-alcoholic drinks: a Virgin Pina Colada for me, and a Virgin Strawberry Daiquiri for DH.

For alcohol, we had our beers and had not really planned on ordering anything else. Then, though, our nice server came over once again, and informed us that he had opened a “wonderful bottle of white wine” for one of his other tables, and they would not be finishing the whole bottle. Would we like a couple of glasses of that wine, as it would go wonderfully with our main courses?

I admit that since I did not understand him very well, I was totally unsure whether he meant that this wine was to be a present – but as it turned out, it was!
He brought us two more-than-generously filled glasses of very nice wine which did not show up on the bill later. I don't think I have ever had this happen before at a WDW restaurant, but we were very happy about it. I wonder why they could not keep the wine to sell the last two glasses out of it later? (Oh, and of course he also told us the name of the wine, and some more about it, but I am afraid that has all been lost in translation … )


Unsurprisingly (but after a very nice little pause – I really enjoyed the slower pace of this meal, which we had not asked for but very much appreciated), our entrées arrived next. This was DH's:

The Crispy Seared Chicken with Olive Oil Crushed Potatoes, Chorizo Succotash, Green Tomato Marmalade, and Sherry Jus.

(At least I believe so – the menu does not list the green beans which I see clearly in the photograph, so I hope I am not quoting an outdated menu here, sorry.)


My main course had pretty much been decided on a year ago – when I had picked sushi for my appetizer and thought that I would definitely try them as an entrée the next time. I did not regret it:

Yoshie's Deluxe Sushi Platter, which was great. The sushi were not really exotic and adventurous but really rather regular fare for a sushi lover, so there were no big bangs and surprises there. Those were not needed, either, though – it was wonderful to just enjoy the yummy freshness.


In the meantime, darkness had fallen outside our window – only disturbed by some shining little sea creatures slowly making their way across the lake:

(I love, love, love the Electric Water Pageant! )

Once those were gone, it was time for things to get spooky:

This was the extra-spooky lighting used for Halloween ... looked really different from the colours that they normally use.


Our desserts conveniently arrived just in time for the fireworks:

My Coconut-Mango Panna Cotta (Coconut-infused Panna Cotta with Mango Gelée, Almond Biscotti, and Coquitos).

Sadly, this was rather bland in taste – but I should have known that, shame on me for ordering the no sugar-added dessert (is it only me, or are those really never very good at Disney restaurants?).


DH had chosen so much more wisely:

The absolutely delicious Tanzanian Chocolate Crème Brûlée with a Citrus Financier (with a what? I shall never fully understand menuese) and Chocolate-Hazelnut Bark. And a cup of cappucino to go with it. There is so much I can still learn from that man, I thought as I sat there looking at him and nibbling at my largely taste-free dessert.


Anyway, we quickly had a few bites and then settled back to enjoy the fireworks:

Just as I had planned it – a grand finish to a wonderful meal and a very enjoyable evening. This was one of our two top meal experiences during this trip (the other one yet to come in this report) … and we will definitely be back next time!


Coming up next: From best to worst – breakfast at Captain’s Grille …

 

[wilma-bride]

Great meal at Cali Grill. A financier is a little biscuit (or cookie)

Uh oh, Captain's Grille doesn't sound good. We were thinking about eating dinner there in October but I think I'll wait until I've read your review before making the ADR.

 

[Pinkgirl]

Just read all your report and sub-ed so as not to miss the updates

Brill piccies and loving your choice of restaurants. We will have deluxe next trip and I am soaking it all up.

 

[Linda67]

Wonderful review of CG

Your sushi looks wonderful

I think we are going to have to try CG again as I was not wowed by it last time, I think the appetisers there are much better than the entrees so I think I would order a flatbread and sushi just like you did in the future

Wonderful that you got a window table

 

[angelmav]

Hey I remember your last reviews, my how time flies! Loving these ones too!

 

[cdtommie]

Great CG review, but Germans drinking Bud Light??? What has the world come to!!!

 

[LuluLovesDisney]

I absolutely love your dining reviews! They are wonderful! It is amazing how you can be so descriptive in a language that is your second (or third, or . . . )I thoroughly enjoy your writing style!

California Grill is my favorite restaurant and I love to hear another great review. It is also where I was married, so I am probably biased. I have eaten that flatbread and I know how delicious it is, but I have never had that Tanzanian chocolate creme brulee. Much like your husband, I am a creme brulee fiend and it looks amazing!

 

[cbg1027]

I love CG! Everything looks wonderful! That sushi platter is gorgeous, and I don't even like sushi.

 

[marcus.ka]

I can't wait for your breakfast at Captain’s Grille update. Because we almost had breakfast there at our last trip but then we decided to go for Cape May Café. At Cape May Café the character interaction was great but the breakfast food was for us Europeans not so great.

 

[annichan]

Great meal at Cali Grill. A financier is a little biscuit (or cookie)

Uh oh, Captain's Grille doesn't sound good. We were thinking about eating dinner there in October but I think I'll wait until I've read your review before making the ADR.

Captain's Grille review coming right up. Personally, I shall definitely never go there again, but dinner of course may be totally different ...

Just read all your report and sub-ed so as not to miss the updates

Brill piccies and loving your choice of restaurants. We will have deluxe next trip and I am soaking it all up.

Thank you! Will try to be quicker with the updates again, worked well in the beginning but lately I have been slacking badly.

Wonderful review of CG

Wonderful that you got a window table

Yes, isn't it? I could hardly believe it, and with almost no waiting!

Hey I remember your last reviews, my how time flies! Loving these ones too!

Thank you! I can only hope that time will fly for our next WDW trip to come up - currently loosely planned for late 2013 ...

Great CG review, but Germans drinking Bud Light??? What has the world come to!!!

You are so right, I'm feeling a bit ashamed myself! I told DH what you wrote and he mumbled something along the lines of "Bud Lite is okay, of course it's not beer, though ...".

I absolutely love your dining reviews! They are wonderful! It is amazing how you can be so descriptive in a language that is your second (or third, or . . . )I thoroughly enjoy your writing style!

California Grill is my favorite restaurant and I love to hear another great review. It is also where I was married, so I am probably biased. I have eaten that flatbread and I know how delicious it is, but I have never had that Tanzanian chocolate creme brulee. Much like your husband, I am a creme brulee fiend and it looks amazing!

Thank you for the nice compliments! What a great place to be married!

I love CG! Everything looks wonderful! That sushi platter is gorgeous, and I don't even like sushi.

Okay, sounds like I should take up advertising photography, as my photos seem to work miracles!

I can't wait for your breakfast at Captain’s Grille update. Because we almost had breakfast there at our last trip but then we decided to go for Cape May Café. At Cape May Café the character interaction was great but the breakfast food was for us Europeans not so great.

Personally, I liked Cape May Cafe much, much better. The decoration, the characters, even the way the buffet is placed prominently in the middle of things and not hidden away in a side room ... much better. But that's only a personal opinion, of course.

 

[annichan]

As all of you who have been following my report know, we have had many nice and enjoyable or even downright fantastic meal experiences at WDW. Sadly, this breakfast at Captain’s Grille was not one of them. At all.

I had made us a 10:30 ADR here, thinking that we might want to sleep in that day. As it turned out, we were awake much earlier, went for a walk, did some shopping at the Boardwalk, and by the time our reservation came up we were both starving and pretty eager to be on our way to the parks. Therefore, DH suggested that we skip the seated breakfast and just go grab something from the counter service.

I now wish I had agreed – but I was thinking of this report, and wanted to review as many restaurants as possible (See, oh dear readers? All your fault ), and then I put my foot down and said we would just have something small, and it would all be quick so we would be on our way to Epcot in pretty much no time at all.

At first, that seemed highly likely because as we walked around the restaurant to the podium, we could see that it was about 80% empty. We were told there would be a short way anyway, so we were given a pager and sat down in the lobby. And waited. And waited.
15 minutes past our ADR time, I went back and asked if it would be much longer. No, just a couple of minutes, thanks for our patience (in this case I have to say, what patience?).

Another ten minutes passed, and I went back to the podium admitting that I hadn't had any breakfast and was starting to feel a bit faint, could they possibly seat us soon? (I felt a bit silly, but that always happens to me when I don't eat something pretty soon after getting up in the morning. Feeling faint, I mean. Not feeling silly. )
A server standing by the door overheard me, and he offered to bring out a glass of orange juice for me, which I gladly accepted (and felt much better afterwards). That very nice little gesture absolutely was the saving grace of the restaurant that morning, because it went downhill from there.

After a total of 35 minutes waiting in front of an empty restaurant, my husband pretty much livid by now (also at me, of course, since I was the one who had insisted on coming here), we were seated. And waited another five minutes for our server.

When she arrived, she was extremely busy. We decided not to order a la carte as we did want to minimize the waiting as much as possible, and she told us that the buffet was in the room around the corner. Then she was off again – without asking if we wanted anything to drink.

We then went over to the buffet – it was off in a side room and seemed rather small and uninspired to me, like any hotel buffet. I do admit that I may not have been the most objective critic at this point .


DH got himself this, which he said tasted alright:

Meanwhile, I had some muesli with fresh strawberries – those actually were good, much as it pains me to admit it :

After returning to our table, it took me quite a while to attract our server's attention again. She was obviously very busy and stressed out, and she let it show quite a lot. When I had finally flagged her down, I told her what I would like to drink, then I looked at DH so he could also place his order – but she had already said "okay" and rushed off again. At this point I was so annoyed with her I actually sort of yelled through the restaurant "Could you come back please, we’re not finished!!".

I do admit that she must have been very busy – apparently she was one of only two servers there that morning, and I certainly do not blame her for that. It would have been Disney's responsibility to make sure that there are enough servers. I know they don't always have enough servers on hand to fill a place to capacity, but this was plainly ridiculous – the restaurant was seriously only about 20% filled.

What I do blame the server for, however, is her attitude – she didn't have to act all that annoyed, we were not overly demanding and she could have smiled a bit more (and at the same time said this was a busy day and everything would take a bit longer, sorry about that ... Would have worked so much better with a smile).

Needless to say, we ate very quickly and just wanted to be on our way. She brought us the bill, told us twice (!!) where we should fill in our tip amount, and left. Honestly, I have had some servers explain the tipping procedure to us when the no-gratuities-included dining plan was still fairly new the year before, but this time she was the only one who mentioned it. What an unpleasant, rude person.

As somebody on this thread asked me about the difference between this place and Cape May Café, I’ll just quickly repeat my answer here in the proper report:
Personally, I liked Cape May Cafe much, much better. The decoration, the characters, even the way the buffet is placed prominently in the middle of things and not hidden away in a side room ... much better (even though it is not one of my favourites and we would probably have skipped it this time if we hadn't stayed right there at the Beach Club Villas). Captain's Grille doesn’t really have any theming at all, it could be anywhere.

So, especially taking into consideration that it is located at the Yacht Club, with an over-abundance of much better places to eat within walking distance, I consider it a complete waste of time.


Oh, but on our way out, we passed a Thanksgiving decoration cake which was really pretty:

At least one nice thing about this horrible joint. So, there.


Coming up next: Back to calm and relaxation … Lunch at Trails’ End.

 

[annichan]

I love Fort Wilderness. I really cannot say enough good things about it. True, we will probably never stay there as we are not avid campers, and the cozy cabins are just way too expensive for a family of two.
However, I love going there and spending a bit of time – or rather, between there and the Wilderness Lodge: rent boats at one of the marinas, watch the geyser erupt at the Lodge, go on a loop of the lake on the ferryboat, then wander to Fort Wilderness on the path through the forest, be sure to see some wild animals on the way, and then sit on the beach at the Fort. A wonderful way to spend a few leisurely hours. (Even though we missed out on the boat rental this time due to our extended breakfast at Captain’s Grille – by the time we finally reached the WL marina, we found it too hot to go out on the lake. )

And of course, as hunger is bound to overcome us sooner or later, stop for a spot of lunch: In this case, at Trails' End Restaurant. Very nice wilderness atmosphere, friendly service, always empty and never a problem for walk-ins. (Sorry for sounding like a know-it-all, I realize I have only been there twice, but every report I have read says how easy it is to get in there. )

One of the reasons why I love it here is entirely non-representative - and I know this sounds cheesy, but so be it: On our honeymoon trip, my first ever WDW trip since I was a little kid, this was the very first restaurant we dined at, having barely landed and checked into our hotel.
I was severely jet-lagged, tired and even a bit queasy of stomach that evening, yet as I sat down in that pretty little restaurant at the beginning of our dream holiday, sitting next to the wonderful man I had married, there was definitely Disney magic in the air .

Anyway, this time we had a reservation and absolutely no wait at all to be seated (what a nice change from breakfast!). At the time I had made the ADR, the restaurant offered a buffet and no a la carte service – in the meantime, however, they had changed to a la carte only. We were even told up front that this was the case, and they apologized in advance as they might still have to iron out some kinks. (As it turned out, there were none! )


We both decided on the same appetizer:

The Mixed Greens Salad - topped with cucumbers, tomatoes, red onion, blue cheese crumble, and cornbread croutons, and served with a choice of dressing, which in my case I'm fairly certain was Ranch Dressing. Very nice and fresh. (And I love the soft drink glasses they have here!)

This was my main course:

The Chicken Waldorf Salad Sandwich - with cranberries, grapes, apples, and walnuts on toasted multigrain bread served with house-made potato chips. The chips were the best, I had them packed up and took them with me – munched them on the Fort Wilderness beach later, very nice!


And this was DH's entrée:

Fried Green Tomatoes with marinated portobello mushrooms, roasted red peppers, smoked Gouda cheese, and fried green beans served with sweet potato fries. If he hadn’t ordered these, I certainly would have done it - I had never tried them before but I love the movie "Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Café" (as I think it is called in English?), so I had to give them a try. They were okay, not as good as the movie suggests, but the sweet potato fries were wonderful!

We skipped dessert as we had long reached the stage of "all those DxDP meals severely getting to us", and happily made our way to the beach, then to catch a ferry back to the WL where our car was parked. There we made the solemn declaration to definitely stay at the Wilderness Lodge again next time, as this is simply our favourite Disney hotel. Of course, that may well mean we will be back for a spontaneous meal or two at Trails' End ...


Coming up next: The briefest instalment ever – a quick stop at Ghirardelli’s!

 

[GoofySon'sMom]

Wow, taht fried green tomato lunch looks amazing! I have never even considered eating at Trails End. Unfortunately out days of staying Deluxe are behind us and it seems like such a hassle to get there when not staying at WL. But that meal has made me reconsider for a future trip!

 

[wilma-bride]

So sorry about your experience at Captain's Grille - that server sounds like she was unnecessarily rude OK, so maybe it hasn't put me off eating there but I may reconsider since, as a party of 8, we are likely to have the automatic 18% gratuity added to our bill and I wuld be reluctant to pay that if the service was as poor. I agree with you, too, there are much nicer places to eat in the locality.

Trails End sounds nice but is probably a bit of a trek if not staying at Fort Wilderness or Wilderness Lodge. Since we are staying at the villas in October, though, I will keep it in mind for October as a nice spot for lunch.

 

[cbg1027]

Sorry Capt. Grille was so awful for you! There's really no excuse for how that server treated you, especially at Disney!

Trail's End looks good though...your DH's meal looks really yummy, I'd love to get my hands on those sweet potato fries!