VDay Trip Dining Report highlights: Tea, Brunch with a Twist, V&A's UPDATE 5/13 Finished V&A's
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TeresaNJ
Magic Begins With Me
- Joined
- Sep 13, 1999
Love your DR! Your husband's take on everything is hilarious! I'm really enjoying the two different points of view. I did the GF tea four years ago when my BFF & I took a girl's trip. Enjoyed it a lot, and think it's time to do it again after reading about yours!
Thanks! You definitely need to go back. I enjoy the tea a lot. It's such a fun afternoon break from the parks.
Brunch with a Twist
We found out about Brunch with a Twist maybe a month before our trip, on Twitter. We immediately discussed how awesome it was that there was a cool food thing happening while we were there. It was definitely something we wanted to do AND we’d have a built in baby sitter for us to go. However, I realized that I wouldn’t really want to be left on my own with both kids at a Disney park for several hours. I do that several times a week at our local zoo and those two kids can be exhausting. I didn’t really want to put that on my mom. Plus it would happen during a meal time. I had nightmare situations run through my head of my mom trying to order food and then carry it to a table while trying to coax my DD5 and especially DS2 along with her. Trays of food flew right and left in my visions. So we talked ourselves out of the brunch right after talking about how amazing it would be. I decided to ask my mom on the off chance she might say yes. I barely brought up the fact that there was a fancy brunch and my mom straight up offered to watch the kids. I made sure to give her as many details as possible (maybe without giving her a FULL picture of the time the brunch would take with transportation). I told her about bathroom breaks, changing diapers, dealing with the food situation, not to mention carrying on and completing our mission of accomplishing attractions at Hollywood Studios. She said she was game. “I can just give them ice cream for lunch.” I guess that is her ‘right’ as grandmother after all. We booked the brunch right away.
Fast forward to the day before/day of the brunch and my mom was asking exactly how long we would be gone. Then there might have been some eyerolling and/or heavy sighing. But she was really excited with having the kids all to herself in the park. I had been prepping the kids pretty much since we booked the brunch for this exact moment. “Remember, listen to GranMar and do as she says. Don’t run off. Help her out. Have fun!” “I KNOW, Mom!” They don’t always listen to me very well, but the magic of grandparents is alive and well in my mom. They listen to her really well, so that’s good. Less for me to worry about.
I wasn’t sure Disney would let us leave them unsupervised. I mean sure, the kids would be fine. But would they let a Grandmother be in the park without supervision? We would find out soon enough (spoiler alert: it was allowed).
I was happy that the brunch fell on our Hollywood Studios day. After many visits to the world and especially with little ones not quite tall enough (or too afraid) to ride the two big rides, we find this more of a half day park. There’s only so many times I can watch the Beauty and the Beast show. So after doing our must dos (GMR, TSMM, and Star Tours) it was time for us to head out. The brunch started at noon. They told us to allow an hour and a half or so for Disney transportation. I’m always one to arrive early. I hate being late to anything. However I wanted to stay with my mom for as much time as possible so that she wouldn’t be too worn out or sore from carrying DS2 the entire time. I guess I haven’t mentioned that we don’t do strollers. We like to walk fast and weave through crowds. That’s not easily done with a stroller. The kids can ride on our shoulders if they get tired. Though I carry DS all the time. Anyway, all that to say since we could just take a bus straight from the park to the Grand Floridian we decided to leave at 11. Of course right after we said our goodbyes I noticed two Storm Troopers heading for GM, DS, and DD (who happened to be dressed up as Princess Leia). I paused to take sneaky paparazzi type photos from far away knowing that my mom didn’t have a camera with her. That ate up a couple of very precious minutes. At the time I knew we didn’t really have the time to stop for this distant photo op but I also knew that I’d much rather have some photographic evidence of my daughter being detained by Storm Troopers.
We hightailed it out of the park and all the way around the bus stops to the GF stop. We saw as we were heading there that the bus was there! Great timing! Just as we reached the beginning of the line/queue area the bus left. What?! Are you kidding me?! Did the bus driver just wait that entire time until we were almost there and then laugh and drive off? I think so. This is the big villain type park. Ok, so now we wait. There should be another bus soon. It was like 11:10 now and the brunch wasn’t until noon. Still had time to make it. We discussed out options though as the minutes kept ticking by. Do we get an Uber and head over? That would be way too easy. (Really we didn’t want to pay any money when we already had free transportation.) Surely another bus was on its way. I think we hit 11:30 and we were wondering if they were just running one bus. We saw a couple buses for another resort come and go. There were two people in line behind us. A Wilderness Lodge/Contemporary bus pulled up next to us and the other two people jumped out of line to get on that one. We joined them. We’d still be good as long as the bus went to the Contemporary first. But why would it do that when the Wilderness Lodge is the first hotel it comes to? I was really freaking out at this point. If everything went perfectly we could still make it…as long as the monorail was running. I nearly had a heart attack when we turned into the WL first. Just skip it! Fortunately we didn’t wait long there.
During this whole transportation fiasco we recalled our first time staying on Disney property back in 2003, our engagement trip. We were seniors in college and somehow managed to swing a trip over Thanksgiving to stay at the Wilderness Lodge. This was back in the day of $50 a day park hoppers. That was SOOOO expensive back then, especially to us at the time. Anyway, our first night we had reservations at Jiko. We had no idea how long Disney transportation could take especially when there are transfers you have to make. It took us a million years to get from the WL to AKL. Well, at least 2 hours plus. I was freaking out the entire time. We were really looking forward to eating there and I knew they weren’t going to let us in (I think this was ON Thanksgiving day too) because we were so late. When we arrived they found a spot for us. It wasn’t a big deal after all. I was overly anxious for nothing.
I digress…Back to the bus to the Contemporary. As we were getting close we saw a monorail heading for the Contemporary. I thought we’d have enough time for that one to leave and be well on its way to coming back around by the time our bus pulled up and we got to the monorail stop. Alas I was wrong. We hopped off the bus and booked it upstairs to the platform just in time to see that same monorail just closing its doors to leave. Foiled again! Now we knew there was zero hope. We were officially going to be late. Having never done this brunch before or finding a review for the one that happened during the last F&W festival, I didn’t know how this brunch would go down. Are there only 10 spots available and everyone can sit at one table? Are we going to stick out like sore thumbs for not being there on time? Are we doomed to miss the first couple of courses? Are they going to even let us in? No clue! The monorail finally came back around and we got on and waited through two more painstakingly long stops before pulling up at the Grand. We didn’t even sit down on the monorail. I had to stand so that I could pace and fidget and move as if that would help us get there faster. We jumped off. Like, literally hopped right out of the car and speedwalked (spedwalked?) to Citricos. At least it was on the same floor as the monorail. We knew that and were happy we had that going for us. We pretty much did a Kramer as we skidded into the entryway/check in area for Citricos. There were a bunch of people there sitting and mingling at the tables in the lobby area. The lady at the desk greeted us by name. Yikes, we did stick out like sore thumbs. Last ones there. Horribly embarrassed, I apologized profusely. While smiling as if this happened all the time and was no big deal whatsoever she said, “The important part is that you’re here.” Huge sigh of relief. Then we were handed the last two Prosecco Cocktails and our brunch officially began.
The moral of the story I suppose is that if you think you are leaving stupid early to go to something and you’re taking Disney transportation, you’re probably about five minutes later than you should be. If everything works right, you will get there super early. If it doesn’t go according to plan, you will probably be late.
I have to head out now, but will post the food that goes along with this tale later this afternoon.
We found out about Brunch with a Twist maybe a month before our trip, on Twitter. We immediately discussed how awesome it was that there was a cool food thing happening while we were there. It was definitely something we wanted to do AND we’d have a built in baby sitter for us to go. However, I realized that I wouldn’t really want to be left on my own with both kids at a Disney park for several hours. I do that several times a week at our local zoo and those two kids can be exhausting. I didn’t really want to put that on my mom. Plus it would happen during a meal time. I had nightmare situations run through my head of my mom trying to order food and then carry it to a table while trying to coax my DD5 and especially DS2 along with her. Trays of food flew right and left in my visions. So we talked ourselves out of the brunch right after talking about how amazing it would be. I decided to ask my mom on the off chance she might say yes. I barely brought up the fact that there was a fancy brunch and my mom straight up offered to watch the kids. I made sure to give her as many details as possible (maybe without giving her a FULL picture of the time the brunch would take with transportation). I told her about bathroom breaks, changing diapers, dealing with the food situation, not to mention carrying on and completing our mission of accomplishing attractions at Hollywood Studios. She said she was game. “I can just give them ice cream for lunch.” I guess that is her ‘right’ as grandmother after all. We booked the brunch right away.
Fast forward to the day before/day of the brunch and my mom was asking exactly how long we would be gone. Then there might have been some eyerolling and/or heavy sighing. But she was really excited with having the kids all to herself in the park. I had been prepping the kids pretty much since we booked the brunch for this exact moment. “Remember, listen to GranMar and do as she says. Don’t run off. Help her out. Have fun!” “I KNOW, Mom!” They don’t always listen to me very well, but the magic of grandparents is alive and well in my mom. They listen to her really well, so that’s good. Less for me to worry about.
I wasn’t sure Disney would let us leave them unsupervised. I mean sure, the kids would be fine. But would they let a Grandmother be in the park without supervision? We would find out soon enough (spoiler alert: it was allowed).
I was happy that the brunch fell on our Hollywood Studios day. After many visits to the world and especially with little ones not quite tall enough (or too afraid) to ride the two big rides, we find this more of a half day park. There’s only so many times I can watch the Beauty and the Beast show. So after doing our must dos (GMR, TSMM, and Star Tours) it was time for us to head out. The brunch started at noon. They told us to allow an hour and a half or so for Disney transportation. I’m always one to arrive early. I hate being late to anything. However I wanted to stay with my mom for as much time as possible so that she wouldn’t be too worn out or sore from carrying DS2 the entire time. I guess I haven’t mentioned that we don’t do strollers. We like to walk fast and weave through crowds. That’s not easily done with a stroller. The kids can ride on our shoulders if they get tired. Though I carry DS all the time. Anyway, all that to say since we could just take a bus straight from the park to the Grand Floridian we decided to leave at 11. Of course right after we said our goodbyes I noticed two Storm Troopers heading for GM, DS, and DD (who happened to be dressed up as Princess Leia). I paused to take sneaky paparazzi type photos from far away knowing that my mom didn’t have a camera with her. That ate up a couple of very precious minutes. At the time I knew we didn’t really have the time to stop for this distant photo op but I also knew that I’d much rather have some photographic evidence of my daughter being detained by Storm Troopers.
We hightailed it out of the park and all the way around the bus stops to the GF stop. We saw as we were heading there that the bus was there! Great timing! Just as we reached the beginning of the line/queue area the bus left. What?! Are you kidding me?! Did the bus driver just wait that entire time until we were almost there and then laugh and drive off? I think so. This is the big villain type park. Ok, so now we wait. There should be another bus soon. It was like 11:10 now and the brunch wasn’t until noon. Still had time to make it. We discussed out options though as the minutes kept ticking by. Do we get an Uber and head over? That would be way too easy. (Really we didn’t want to pay any money when we already had free transportation.) Surely another bus was on its way. I think we hit 11:30 and we were wondering if they were just running one bus. We saw a couple buses for another resort come and go. There were two people in line behind us. A Wilderness Lodge/Contemporary bus pulled up next to us and the other two people jumped out of line to get on that one. We joined them. We’d still be good as long as the bus went to the Contemporary first. But why would it do that when the Wilderness Lodge is the first hotel it comes to? I was really freaking out at this point. If everything went perfectly we could still make it…as long as the monorail was running. I nearly had a heart attack when we turned into the WL first. Just skip it! Fortunately we didn’t wait long there.
During this whole transportation fiasco we recalled our first time staying on Disney property back in 2003, our engagement trip. We were seniors in college and somehow managed to swing a trip over Thanksgiving to stay at the Wilderness Lodge. This was back in the day of $50 a day park hoppers. That was SOOOO expensive back then, especially to us at the time. Anyway, our first night we had reservations at Jiko. We had no idea how long Disney transportation could take especially when there are transfers you have to make. It took us a million years to get from the WL to AKL. Well, at least 2 hours plus. I was freaking out the entire time. We were really looking forward to eating there and I knew they weren’t going to let us in (I think this was ON Thanksgiving day too) because we were so late. When we arrived they found a spot for us. It wasn’t a big deal after all. I was overly anxious for nothing.
I digress…Back to the bus to the Contemporary. As we were getting close we saw a monorail heading for the Contemporary. I thought we’d have enough time for that one to leave and be well on its way to coming back around by the time our bus pulled up and we got to the monorail stop. Alas I was wrong. We hopped off the bus and booked it upstairs to the platform just in time to see that same monorail just closing its doors to leave. Foiled again! Now we knew there was zero hope. We were officially going to be late. Having never done this brunch before or finding a review for the one that happened during the last F&W festival, I didn’t know how this brunch would go down. Are there only 10 spots available and everyone can sit at one table? Are we going to stick out like sore thumbs for not being there on time? Are we doomed to miss the first couple of courses? Are they going to even let us in? No clue! The monorail finally came back around and we got on and waited through two more painstakingly long stops before pulling up at the Grand. We didn’t even sit down on the monorail. I had to stand so that I could pace and fidget and move as if that would help us get there faster. We jumped off. Like, literally hopped right out of the car and speedwalked (spedwalked?) to Citricos. At least it was on the same floor as the monorail. We knew that and were happy we had that going for us. We pretty much did a Kramer as we skidded into the entryway/check in area for Citricos. There were a bunch of people there sitting and mingling at the tables in the lobby area. The lady at the desk greeted us by name. Yikes, we did stick out like sore thumbs. Last ones there. Horribly embarrassed, I apologized profusely. While smiling as if this happened all the time and was no big deal whatsoever she said, “The important part is that you’re here.” Huge sigh of relief. Then we were handed the last two Prosecco Cocktails and our brunch officially began.
The moral of the story I suppose is that if you think you are leaving stupid early to go to something and you’re taking Disney transportation, you’re probably about five minutes later than you should be. If everything works right, you will get there super early. If it doesn’t go according to plan, you will probably be late.
I have to head out now, but will post the food that goes along with this tale later this afternoon.
TeresaNJ
Magic Begins With Me
- Joined
- Sep 13, 1999
Oh my gosh, I can just picture this scene in my head, you both skidding to a stop in front of Citricos, lol! 
I suppose it wasn't funny while it was happening. Can't wait to see the brunch pics! We did the Sunday Brunch at the Contemporary on our trip this past November. It was heavenly!
I suppose it wasn't funny while it was happening. Can't wait to see the brunch pics! We did the Sunday Brunch at the Contemporary on our trip this past November. It was heavenly!
StarWarsMomofGirls!
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 16, 2015
I just found your trip and I love the two sides! I don' know if I could get DH to do one with me. Although, he is a much funnier writer than me!
We just went for the first time at Goody's Candy Co. So fun looking at all the options!
As any good parent does...
They all look amazing!
Grapefruit Hefeweizen is the BEST! I think part of it is the Disney effect of everything tastes better at Disney but it it just enough alcohol content to refreshing in the heat of Florida!
Too Cute! It's what Disney is all about!
I think any woman who has had kids, finds little I can' sit still 2 year old boys sooooo cute. And it's because THEY aren't the one trying to keep them sitting still!
His face is awesome! And super cool that he went the extra mile for the little boy drink chocolate milk and not tea.
It's always so nice to hear, isn't it?
You go Grandma!. As my mom says, “I’m on vacation!” Great times had by all. I’m just happy no one noticed our son wasn’t wearing a shoe for most of the tea.
1809
I feel like every parent has at least one of those moments! I am pretty sure we have/had many of those moments!
I will have to try this one time! I make a Shawarma Platter at home that has basically all of those components. It is soon good! And I don't love tabloueh, but put a little hummus and tobloueh on a piece of the pita bread..yum!!!
Those looks amazing!!!Box of Macarons
I never knew that Tusker House was menu restaurant! What kind of food did it have?
Got to love how kids eat hot dogs... My youngest DD NEVER ate the bun! Sigh...
That is seriously THE Worst! I know they have to leave at some point. But it is soooo frustrating! Glad you made it to the brunch eventually. Can't wait to hear all about it.
Whew! I meant to respond earlier but we went to a 5 year old's birthday party this afternoon and ended up staying for 5.5 hours. Yowza! We are usually the last to leave places, but man, I didn't plan on that. The kids were having a ton of fun though. Back to brunch!
Let me give you a brief overview of what I knew about this going into it. The brunch was a special event dining experience that had a prix fix menu accompanied by bubbly pairings. Champagne is only truly champagne if it’s from Champagne. So I’m going with ‘bubbly’ mainly because it’s fun to say, and I guess because it is technically correct. I think. The special event was taking place at Citricos, a signature restaurant, thus we needed to dress accordingly. Finally, an occasion for me to wear those khaki shorts that go just about to my knees that have been hanging in my closet for far too long. Oh, and my green tinkerbell polo shirt. DH wore a pair of dress slacks and his Grumpy polo shirt. It was really weird dressing nice enough to go to the fancy brunch while also taking into account the fact that we would be going straight from a park. I actually discussed this with the nice castmember on the phone when I made the reservation. She helped point me in the right direction. It’s a five course menu (six courses with the hors d’oeuvres included) with each course being presented by a different chef from the following restaurants: Victoria & Albert’s, Citricos, Narcoosee’s, Grand Floridian Café, and the GF Bakery. Unfortunately I don’t remember where each of them is from with the exception of two of them and a super quick search didn’t help me out that much either. Oh well. On with the food!
I was a bit out of breath from the heart pounding journey just to get there…all because of the Storm Trooper pictures. But I took a sip, more of a swig really (I was parched) of my prosecco cocktail and all was well with my world. Then we were asked if we’d like a Smoked Bacon Fritter. Yes please! At this point they started seating guests in the dining room of Citricos. Then to my horror I realized that we had missed out the rest of the passed Hors D’oeuvres as well as the chef’s discussion of said food. Man! That’s why several people looked at us as we came in. Also, were they waiting to see if we showed up before they started seating people or was that just a happy coincidence? Not sure. We’ll pretend that we are that cool for them to wait. On the other hand, I would hate for anyone to have to hold off and wait for us. I’m sure that wasn’t really the case. I looked around and noticed many glasses of unfinished cocktails. We pretty much guzzled ours. We felt we needed to hurry up to catch up with everyone else. I really wish I could have finished off the leftover cocktails because they were really good!
Prosecco cocktail and bacon fritter
We were the last to be seated, naturally. I guess this was actually the time where I realized we missed out on the other bites because we had a menu for the meal at our seats. Darn! However just as we were talking about how lame it was to miss out on the food, who comes to our rescue but Israel Perez, from Victoria & Albert’s! He comes over to our table with a big smile and a plate of all three hors d’oeuvres. (Does anyone else say hohrs deh oovrez in their head while trying to spell that, or is it just me?) He wanted to make sure we were able to try them since we missed out earlier. Now I don’t know how the earlier portion of the brunch worked out since we missed it. I know the bites (I don’t want to keep spelling out the impossible to spell word) were passed so maybe everyone could have a second of something or maybe it was limited to just one. Whatever happened, we felt super lucky to get a second smoked bacon fritter. The other two bites were Farm Egg Omelet with King Crab and Caviar and then a Bloody Mary Shooter with Jumbo Shrimp. Yowza! These were all fantastic. Because of our tardiness our omelets didn’t match. I think I had the one with crab and DH had the one with a piece of ham(?). Not complaining. Just grateful we got them at all. The omelet was a perfect little bite of egg, caviar, and crab in my case. I’m not a fan of caviar by itself. (I swear I say I’m not a fan of something in every other review.) Caviar IN something however can be fantastic. It offered a great touch of saltiness to the bite. The smoked bacon fritter was excellent, I’m glad I ended up having two. There was a drizzle of a chive oil of some sort maybe? I’m just guessing here now. We didn’t hear the description and it’s now a month since I ate it. But it has bacon. Thus it is amazing. The bloody Mary shooter was also great. I AM a fan of bloody Marys so I really enjoyed it. The salted rim was great. I loved the celery. The added shrimp was just a bonus in my eyes.
Israel is a really great guy. We bounced in to the party late and all jacked up on adrenaline, and he didn’t miss a beat in giving us a warm greeting. I don’t remember if he came up to us or if we passed by him on the way to the seating area, but I think I was thinking to myself “oh no, there’s Israel and we are so late. Maybe he didn’t notice us at all. That’s pretty possible, right?” But instead he gave us a very warm greeting and, as DW mentioned, brought out the missed ‘ours devowers’ (that’s my pronunciation, and yes I know it’s technically not right). Consummate professional . We were feeling pretty bad about being late, but none of the staff there made us feel bad about it. We decided that we needed to make it up by showing up on time to the V&A dinner when we went later on. We’ll see how well that went… The servers knew their stuff very well, which I was pretty impressed with considering this dining experience was a one-off service with items that are specifically not on a menu. For each course, the different drink was described and provided, and each food item was also given a brief narrative before the course chef came out to give the official description of the dishes.
Bloody Mary Shrimp shot, Bacon Fritter, Omelet
The three appetizers had some serious range. The Bloody Mary shrimp cocktail had what I would think of as a classic taste, but with the addition of a little lime. The nice peppery/salty tomato juice mixed with alcohol and accented with celery. The alcoholic content was easily strong enough to notice, but not overpowering. It made me ponder whether I had just never noticed that shrimp cocktail is always a Bloody Mary with shrimp in it (admittedly, I do have limited experience with shrimp cocktail). The lime juice really was where the magic happened as far as I was concerned. So many Marys focus on being more spicy or more salty. The lime really added some brightness that I thought elevated the shot. Funny thing is I don’t have any idea if lime was in the drink or if it was just part of the salt rim. But, as I will probably keep repeating for this meal, the balance was spot on.
Bloody Mary Shrimp Shot up close
The second appetizer was the smoked bacon fritter. I was reminded strongly of aroncini, the fried rice balls. I was very glad that we stumbled our way into getting two of these. I remember it as fried cheesy bacon goodness. Maybe like the texture of a fairly tight risotto, with the cheese and bacon mixed in. Seasoning on this was spot on, and the chive oil that was with it was a very nice oniony hint.
Bacon Fritter (minus the extras from earlier...we were late afterall)
The omelet bites were good, but it is fairly difficult to impress with an omelet any more than the initial ‘it’s an omelet’ level. The bites, as shown, were about the size of a fork and about one bite in total. The impressive part to me was the fact that they came out at good temperature and had a good cook on them even though we were late, got them after being seated, and were possibly the only people who had any at that time. We didn’t get a leftover, forgotten bit of egg that had been nuked back to temp. The bite, as I would expect, was very good.
Omelet bites, crab on the left, ham on the right
And this is kind of the essence of these type meal events. You are getting an item that is very well thought out by a great food mind, and executed at the highest level. You aren’t just showing up to see what Chef Scott’s pancakes taste like, you are getting a look at a brunch idea that has been fully conceived and executed just because it can be. And then, in the case of this brunch, you get to move on to the next chef’s concept and see what they have to say on the matter.
Let me give you a brief overview of what I knew about this going into it. The brunch was a special event dining experience that had a prix fix menu accompanied by bubbly pairings. Champagne is only truly champagne if it’s from Champagne. So I’m going with ‘bubbly’ mainly because it’s fun to say, and I guess because it is technically correct. I think. The special event was taking place at Citricos, a signature restaurant, thus we needed to dress accordingly. Finally, an occasion for me to wear those khaki shorts that go just about to my knees that have been hanging in my closet for far too long. Oh, and my green tinkerbell polo shirt. DH wore a pair of dress slacks and his Grumpy polo shirt. It was really weird dressing nice enough to go to the fancy brunch while also taking into account the fact that we would be going straight from a park. I actually discussed this with the nice castmember on the phone when I made the reservation. She helped point me in the right direction. It’s a five course menu (six courses with the hors d’oeuvres included) with each course being presented by a different chef from the following restaurants: Victoria & Albert’s, Citricos, Narcoosee’s, Grand Floridian Café, and the GF Bakery. Unfortunately I don’t remember where each of them is from with the exception of two of them and a super quick search didn’t help me out that much either. Oh well. On with the food!
I was a bit out of breath from the heart pounding journey just to get there…all because of the Storm Trooper pictures. But I took a sip, more of a swig really (I was parched) of my prosecco cocktail and all was well with my world. Then we were asked if we’d like a Smoked Bacon Fritter. Yes please! At this point they started seating guests in the dining room of Citricos. Then to my horror I realized that we had missed out the rest of the passed Hors D’oeuvres as well as the chef’s discussion of said food. Man! That’s why several people looked at us as we came in. Also, were they waiting to see if we showed up before they started seating people or was that just a happy coincidence? Not sure. We’ll pretend that we are that cool for them to wait. On the other hand, I would hate for anyone to have to hold off and wait for us. I’m sure that wasn’t really the case. I looked around and noticed many glasses of unfinished cocktails. We pretty much guzzled ours. We felt we needed to hurry up to catch up with everyone else. I really wish I could have finished off the leftover cocktails because they were really good!
Prosecco cocktail and bacon fritter
We were the last to be seated, naturally. I guess this was actually the time where I realized we missed out on the other bites because we had a menu for the meal at our seats. Darn! However just as we were talking about how lame it was to miss out on the food, who comes to our rescue but Israel Perez, from Victoria & Albert’s! He comes over to our table with a big smile and a plate of all three hors d’oeuvres. (Does anyone else say hohrs deh oovrez in their head while trying to spell that, or is it just me?) He wanted to make sure we were able to try them since we missed out earlier. Now I don’t know how the earlier portion of the brunch worked out since we missed it. I know the bites (I don’t want to keep spelling out the impossible to spell word) were passed so maybe everyone could have a second of something or maybe it was limited to just one. Whatever happened, we felt super lucky to get a second smoked bacon fritter. The other two bites were Farm Egg Omelet with King Crab and Caviar and then a Bloody Mary Shooter with Jumbo Shrimp. Yowza! These were all fantastic. Because of our tardiness our omelets didn’t match. I think I had the one with crab and DH had the one with a piece of ham(?). Not complaining. Just grateful we got them at all. The omelet was a perfect little bite of egg, caviar, and crab in my case. I’m not a fan of caviar by itself. (I swear I say I’m not a fan of something in every other review.) Caviar IN something however can be fantastic. It offered a great touch of saltiness to the bite. The smoked bacon fritter was excellent, I’m glad I ended up having two. There was a drizzle of a chive oil of some sort maybe? I’m just guessing here now. We didn’t hear the description and it’s now a month since I ate it. But it has bacon. Thus it is amazing. The bloody Mary shooter was also great. I AM a fan of bloody Marys so I really enjoyed it. The salted rim was great. I loved the celery. The added shrimp was just a bonus in my eyes.
Israel is a really great guy. We bounced in to the party late and all jacked up on adrenaline, and he didn’t miss a beat in giving us a warm greeting. I don’t remember if he came up to us or if we passed by him on the way to the seating area, but I think I was thinking to myself “oh no, there’s Israel and we are so late. Maybe he didn’t notice us at all. That’s pretty possible, right?” But instead he gave us a very warm greeting and, as DW mentioned, brought out the missed ‘ours devowers’ (that’s my pronunciation, and yes I know it’s technically not right). Consummate professional . We were feeling pretty bad about being late, but none of the staff there made us feel bad about it. We decided that we needed to make it up by showing up on time to the V&A dinner when we went later on. We’ll see how well that went… The servers knew their stuff very well, which I was pretty impressed with considering this dining experience was a one-off service with items that are specifically not on a menu. For each course, the different drink was described and provided, and each food item was also given a brief narrative before the course chef came out to give the official description of the dishes.
Bloody Mary Shrimp shot, Bacon Fritter, Omelet
The three appetizers had some serious range. The Bloody Mary shrimp cocktail had what I would think of as a classic taste, but with the addition of a little lime. The nice peppery/salty tomato juice mixed with alcohol and accented with celery. The alcoholic content was easily strong enough to notice, but not overpowering. It made me ponder whether I had just never noticed that shrimp cocktail is always a Bloody Mary with shrimp in it (admittedly, I do have limited experience with shrimp cocktail). The lime juice really was where the magic happened as far as I was concerned. So many Marys focus on being more spicy or more salty. The lime really added some brightness that I thought elevated the shot. Funny thing is I don’t have any idea if lime was in the drink or if it was just part of the salt rim. But, as I will probably keep repeating for this meal, the balance was spot on.
Bloody Mary Shrimp Shot up close
The second appetizer was the smoked bacon fritter. I was reminded strongly of aroncini, the fried rice balls. I was very glad that we stumbled our way into getting two of these. I remember it as fried cheesy bacon goodness. Maybe like the texture of a fairly tight risotto, with the cheese and bacon mixed in. Seasoning on this was spot on, and the chive oil that was with it was a very nice oniony hint.
Bacon Fritter (minus the extras from earlier...we were late afterall)
The omelet bites were good, but it is fairly difficult to impress with an omelet any more than the initial ‘it’s an omelet’ level. The bites, as shown, were about the size of a fork and about one bite in total. The impressive part to me was the fact that they came out at good temperature and had a good cook on them even though we were late, got them after being seated, and were possibly the only people who had any at that time. We didn’t get a leftover, forgotten bit of egg that had been nuked back to temp. The bite, as I would expect, was very good.
Omelet bites, crab on the left, ham on the right
And this is kind of the essence of these type meal events. You are getting an item that is very well thought out by a great food mind, and executed at the highest level. You aren’t just showing up to see what Chef Scott’s pancakes taste like, you are getting a look at a brunch idea that has been fully conceived and executed just because it can be. And then, in the case of this brunch, you get to move on to the next chef’s concept and see what they have to say on the matter.
I forgot to set up the scene when we first arrived at the table...
Menus and chilled bottled water on the table with lime and lemon wedges and butter. Lovely!
The first actual course that was intended to be presented at the table (unlike our late arrival “passed” hors d’oeuvres) was presented by Chef Dominique: Tuna Carpaccio ‘Nicoise’, ‘Riviera’ Salad, Quail Egg. Our bubbly for this course was a Bolla Rose, Veneto, NV for those keeping score of their bubblies. I’m not very well versed but in case you are I want to include all of the details I was given. Truth be told this was my least favorite course and it was…really good! I wasn’t that into the tuna carpaccio. Don’t get me wrong, it was very well done. Not in the ‘cook’ obviously. Ha, joke there. I’m just not a huge fan of carpaccios of any kind. It tasted very good though. My favorite was the quail egg on the toast. I’m not a fan (ha!) of runny yokes in general but this one was so little and perfect. I ate it in one bite along with part of the toast. Delicious! If you haven’t had a “fancy” meal at a really nice restaurant, let me tell you that all of the tiny details on the plate that make it look really amazing also make it taste really amazing. Remember when you would go to a fancy place like Western Sizzlin’ with your parents or grandparents or maybe you as an adult and the plate had the fancy piece of parsley on it? Did you ever eat that? Me either. But I talked my older brother into eating it once and he didn’t like it so much. It made the plate look nice but it didn’t enhance the flavor at all. That little bit of green on the top of your fancy dish at a truly fancy restaurant…SO much flavor! All of the little tiny bits in this dish added different bursts of flavor and texture.
Tuna Carpaccio with the drink in the background
I was on board with the tuna carpaccio. I know that people don’t like them because of the texture, but it doesn’t bother me. The funny part of this dish to me was that I possibly didn’t need the tuna to be happy with it. It did give a nice sea essence to the dish, and it mixed and played very nicely with the salad and the toast, but the big star of the dish to me was the toast with egg. You will notice from the picture that there is a lot of ‘stuff’ on the toast, leading all the way up to the egg. I honestly don’t know what that stuff is, and I am pretty sure I didn’t really know what it was when I was eating it. But it was really good. The gist is that there was flavor blasted across the toast, and then the egg at the top. I happily and immediately gashed the egg to make the yolk run across the toast. Then I started mixing and matching things together. I liked this course as a ‘let’s all play with our food, but in a dignified manner’ type course. Everything had the good seasoning to accent flavor, and then it was a matter of wondering what might go with what. I love these types of dishes. You could eat the same thing a few different ways, much like a culinary choose your own adventure book. Except I didn’t pick the one where I was murdered.
Close up. Look at those details! Such a colorful plate. The quail egg was perfection.
I’m not a big drinker but I wanted to make sure I finished all of my drinks. I saw one lady a couple tables away who had at least three glasses still pretty full of bubbly on her table at the end of the meal. Again, can I finish your drinks? Since it was a pairing I made sure to remember to take a bite and then take a sip to see how the flavors paired together with the bubbly. It all was very nice. Ask me again at the end of the meal how I liked the drinks though.
Menus and chilled bottled water on the table with lime and lemon wedges and butter. Lovely!
The first actual course that was intended to be presented at the table (unlike our late arrival “passed” hors d’oeuvres) was presented by Chef Dominique: Tuna Carpaccio ‘Nicoise’, ‘Riviera’ Salad, Quail Egg. Our bubbly for this course was a Bolla Rose, Veneto, NV for those keeping score of their bubblies. I’m not very well versed but in case you are I want to include all of the details I was given. Truth be told this was my least favorite course and it was…really good! I wasn’t that into the tuna carpaccio. Don’t get me wrong, it was very well done. Not in the ‘cook’ obviously. Ha, joke there. I’m just not a huge fan of carpaccios of any kind. It tasted very good though. My favorite was the quail egg on the toast. I’m not a fan (ha!) of runny yokes in general but this one was so little and perfect. I ate it in one bite along with part of the toast. Delicious! If you haven’t had a “fancy” meal at a really nice restaurant, let me tell you that all of the tiny details on the plate that make it look really amazing also make it taste really amazing. Remember when you would go to a fancy place like Western Sizzlin’ with your parents or grandparents or maybe you as an adult and the plate had the fancy piece of parsley on it? Did you ever eat that? Me either. But I talked my older brother into eating it once and he didn’t like it so much. It made the plate look nice but it didn’t enhance the flavor at all. That little bit of green on the top of your fancy dish at a truly fancy restaurant…SO much flavor! All of the little tiny bits in this dish added different bursts of flavor and texture.
Tuna Carpaccio with the drink in the background
I was on board with the tuna carpaccio. I know that people don’t like them because of the texture, but it doesn’t bother me. The funny part of this dish to me was that I possibly didn’t need the tuna to be happy with it. It did give a nice sea essence to the dish, and it mixed and played very nicely with the salad and the toast, but the big star of the dish to me was the toast with egg. You will notice from the picture that there is a lot of ‘stuff’ on the toast, leading all the way up to the egg. I honestly don’t know what that stuff is, and I am pretty sure I didn’t really know what it was when I was eating it. But it was really good. The gist is that there was flavor blasted across the toast, and then the egg at the top. I happily and immediately gashed the egg to make the yolk run across the toast. Then I started mixing and matching things together. I liked this course as a ‘let’s all play with our food, but in a dignified manner’ type course. Everything had the good seasoning to accent flavor, and then it was a matter of wondering what might go with what. I love these types of dishes. You could eat the same thing a few different ways, much like a culinary choose your own adventure book. Except I didn’t pick the one where I was murdered.
Close up. Look at those details! Such a colorful plate. The quail egg was perfection.
I’m not a big drinker but I wanted to make sure I finished all of my drinks. I saw one lady a couple tables away who had at least three glasses still pretty full of bubbly on her table at the end of the meal. Again, can I finish your drinks? Since it was a pairing I made sure to remember to take a bite and then take a sip to see how the flavors paired together with the bubbly. It all was very nice. Ask me again at the end of the meal how I liked the drinks though.
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They brought out bread between these two courses. It was a rosemary bread if I recall correctly. It came out warm and was delicious. The butter is also delicious. I could eat that by itself too, the butter. I always have at least one bite of bread while it’s still warm. However I’ll let you in on my fancy meal plan of attack. Yes, I have an attack plan for my fancy meals. Always try and appreciate the bread when it first comes out warm. That’s the best way to enjoy it. However, hold back. You don’t want to eat all of it and get too full. Mostly, you will need it for soaking up the amazing sauces. Yep, bread is just another utensil to me. I would just pick my plate up and lick it if people didn’t find it appalling to look at in a restaurant. Bread is my secret weapon for cleaning my plate.
This is a very good piece of advice. The bread was a Chef Erich original. This guy knows his baked goods. As far as the bread keeping you from licking the plate, it doesn’t always work. I did it at V&A a few times when I thought nobody was looking. Which brings us to another fancy meal piece of advice: try not to do more than three things you wouldn’t want to get caught doing. Oh, and while I’m giving advice: never lick the shell if one shows up on your plate. Whatever came out of there might be divine, but the shell is awful no matter where you are.
The bread and butter
Next up Chef Scott Hunnel from V&A’s (I know that one!) presented Farm Fresh Egg Ravioli with Lobster and Corn Butter paired with Iron Horse Fairy Tale Celebration Cuvee, Brut, Green Valley of Russian River Valley, 2013. WOW! This dish was incredible. It was my favorite of the afternoon. At least this far in, but if I remember correctly (and I may not) it was my favorite overall. This is another of the runny yolks that works extremely well. When I cut into the ravioli the yolk ran out and blended into the rest of the dish perfectly. For me though, the star was the corn. The corn made this dish. Such an odd thing to ‘make’ a dish, but that’s what really won me over. Perfection. Every part of this worked well. I just wanted to eat more and more and more. And by more I mean plate after plate after plate of it. Alas, I only had one plate. Wom womm. But I took full advantage of it. I cleaned my plate. I’ll prove it to you too.
Ravioli and drink
I had been hearing a lot lately about how great egg yolk ravioli is. People seem to have just started deciding it’s the next great thing and that it’s difficult to make. I figured the second part was true, but I have been very curious about how they taste. So imagine my excitement to find that one of my favorite chefs would be presenting this new mythical item. For those of you that haven’t heard of an egg yolk ravioli and are wondering how it’s different from any other ravioli (which are all essentially made with eggs), the egg yolk ravioli consists of pasta sheets that enclose an egg yolk. To my knowledge, that’s all that goes IN. So Scott made these and then put them on top of lobster and (for lack of a better phrase) creamed corn. And they went along with a cream sauce. What could go wrong, right? Absolutely nothing could go wrong from my perspective, but it looked like a rather technical dish. I am very glad it came out correctly. Naturally, I wanted to dive straight in on the ravioli, but then I wouldn’t be able to turn back the clock to have any of the other things in an un-yolked state. So I patiently tried a bit of everything on the plate and enjoyed. I feel like Chef Scott has a certain elevated level of love for corn, given the menus I’ve looked at and some of the dishes that get featured. This dish was kind of an exclamation point on how good corn is. To call it creamed corn doesn’t really do it justice. It was a very nice level of sweetness that had a nice salty counter to it. The lobster complemented nicely, and the sauce held up the rest of the flavor notes. I found myself wondering ‘why is there an egg yolk ravioli on this plate? So then I cut into it. Yolk oozed, running all over the beautiful food underneath. I took a bite of the ravioli and thought to myself “this is really good. I see why people are all about these!” You know how people like to say that fat is flavor? What Chef Scott did by introducing the ravioli to the dish was essentially finding the Spinal Tap amplifier and cranking the dish to 11. Where the dish had seemed complete and balanced before getting yolked, it now felt like all the essential flavors were dialed up. And where it had seemed like the sauce connected the corn and lobster, now it was like they had been bound together and reinforced, turning it from a javelin of flavor into a wheel of flavor and dimension. Yes, he created the wheel. Metaphorically. And if you’re into similes, it was like the plate without the ravioli was a beautiful valley, and then a raincloud of mana opened up on the valley, making all of the crop yields go up and providing general well being throughout the land. Probably went too far with that, but it’s after midnight, so…
Close up. Check out all the parts that made up this dish.
After cutting into the ravioli. You can see how the yolk looked on the inside.
Clean Plate Club. I'm serious, I don't joke around with bread and sauces.
This is a very good piece of advice. The bread was a Chef Erich original. This guy knows his baked goods. As far as the bread keeping you from licking the plate, it doesn’t always work. I did it at V&A a few times when I thought nobody was looking. Which brings us to another fancy meal piece of advice: try not to do more than three things you wouldn’t want to get caught doing. Oh, and while I’m giving advice: never lick the shell if one shows up on your plate. Whatever came out of there might be divine, but the shell is awful no matter where you are.
The bread and butter
Next up Chef Scott Hunnel from V&A’s (I know that one!) presented Farm Fresh Egg Ravioli with Lobster and Corn Butter paired with Iron Horse Fairy Tale Celebration Cuvee, Brut, Green Valley of Russian River Valley, 2013. WOW! This dish was incredible. It was my favorite of the afternoon. At least this far in, but if I remember correctly (and I may not) it was my favorite overall. This is another of the runny yolks that works extremely well. When I cut into the ravioli the yolk ran out and blended into the rest of the dish perfectly. For me though, the star was the corn. The corn made this dish. Such an odd thing to ‘make’ a dish, but that’s what really won me over. Perfection. Every part of this worked well. I just wanted to eat more and more and more. And by more I mean plate after plate after plate of it. Alas, I only had one plate. Wom womm. But I took full advantage of it. I cleaned my plate. I’ll prove it to you too.
Ravioli and drink
I had been hearing a lot lately about how great egg yolk ravioli is. People seem to have just started deciding it’s the next great thing and that it’s difficult to make. I figured the second part was true, but I have been very curious about how they taste. So imagine my excitement to find that one of my favorite chefs would be presenting this new mythical item. For those of you that haven’t heard of an egg yolk ravioli and are wondering how it’s different from any other ravioli (which are all essentially made with eggs), the egg yolk ravioli consists of pasta sheets that enclose an egg yolk. To my knowledge, that’s all that goes IN. So Scott made these and then put them on top of lobster and (for lack of a better phrase) creamed corn. And they went along with a cream sauce. What could go wrong, right? Absolutely nothing could go wrong from my perspective, but it looked like a rather technical dish. I am very glad it came out correctly. Naturally, I wanted to dive straight in on the ravioli, but then I wouldn’t be able to turn back the clock to have any of the other things in an un-yolked state. So I patiently tried a bit of everything on the plate and enjoyed. I feel like Chef Scott has a certain elevated level of love for corn, given the menus I’ve looked at and some of the dishes that get featured. This dish was kind of an exclamation point on how good corn is. To call it creamed corn doesn’t really do it justice. It was a very nice level of sweetness that had a nice salty counter to it. The lobster complemented nicely, and the sauce held up the rest of the flavor notes. I found myself wondering ‘why is there an egg yolk ravioli on this plate? So then I cut into it. Yolk oozed, running all over the beautiful food underneath. I took a bite of the ravioli and thought to myself “this is really good. I see why people are all about these!” You know how people like to say that fat is flavor? What Chef Scott did by introducing the ravioli to the dish was essentially finding the Spinal Tap amplifier and cranking the dish to 11. Where the dish had seemed complete and balanced before getting yolked, it now felt like all the essential flavors were dialed up. And where it had seemed like the sauce connected the corn and lobster, now it was like they had been bound together and reinforced, turning it from a javelin of flavor into a wheel of flavor and dimension. Yes, he created the wheel. Metaphorically. And if you’re into similes, it was like the plate without the ravioli was a beautiful valley, and then a raincloud of mana opened up on the valley, making all of the crop yields go up and providing general well being throughout the land. Probably went too far with that, but it’s after midnight, so…
Close up. Check out all the parts that made up this dish.
After cutting into the ravioli. You can see how the yolk looked on the inside.
Clean Plate Club. I'm serious, I don't joke around with bread and sauces.
Chef Lawrence brought out Duo of Duck: Crispy-skin Breast and Confit Leg Dumpling, Butternut Squash, Cauliflower, Pomegranate paired with Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label, Brut, Reims, NV. What do I always say? I’m not a big fan of duck. This duck was pretty tasty. It was probably the best duck dish I’ve had. The green thing on the top is fried sage. That was awesome. I’ll eat a bag of fried sage chips. The butternut squash was also delicious. I don’t remember the dumpling that much at this point, but it was duck and I liked it so that says a lot.
Duck and Drink. Sounds like a drinking game.
The duck was very good. There are a lot of things that can be problematic with duck. It can be greasy if it’s not properly rendered down. It can go from raw to too dry very quickly. It can be overly gamey if it isn’t handled properly. This is one of the places where it really pays dividends to have a good chef working the protein, and the execution for this dish was top notch. However, as I like to make my common theme, the most impressive thing about the dish was how well it balanced. The earthiness and richness of the duck was cut nicely by the pomegranate. The vegetables were well cooked and well seasoned, and I would be happy with a plate full of just squash puree and cauliflower. The duck dumpling was very good. I am a huge fan of dark meat/brisket/braised meat that has been encapsulated into a small package. This was a meaty flavor bomb of juicy goodness. I decided at this point that there may need to be a meal added for just ravioli every day.
Take a peek at all of the components. It's such a well placed presentation. You can see the roasted sage leaf on top of the dumpling. I love the color the pomegranate seeds provide with the micro greens tossed in.
Duck and Drink. Sounds like a drinking game.
The duck was very good. There are a lot of things that can be problematic with duck. It can be greasy if it’s not properly rendered down. It can go from raw to too dry very quickly. It can be overly gamey if it isn’t handled properly. This is one of the places where it really pays dividends to have a good chef working the protein, and the execution for this dish was top notch. However, as I like to make my common theme, the most impressive thing about the dish was how well it balanced. The earthiness and richness of the duck was cut nicely by the pomegranate. The vegetables were well cooked and well seasoned, and I would be happy with a plate full of just squash puree and cauliflower. The duck dumpling was very good. I am a huge fan of dark meat/brisket/braised meat that has been encapsulated into a small package. This was a meaty flavor bomb of juicy goodness. I decided at this point that there may need to be a meal added for just ravioli every day.
Take a peek at all of the components. It's such a well placed presentation. You can see the roasted sage leaf on top of the dumpling. I love the color the pomegranate seeds provide with the micro greens tossed in.
We moved onto Chef Noah’s Veal Tenderloin, and Cheek, Trumpet Royale Mushrooms, Caramelized Onion Potato Croquette, Natural Veal Reduction paired with Raventos i Blanc De Nit Rose, Barcelona, 2011. The veal was great, cooked to perfection, however the mushrooms and croquette were my favorites. I believe this was the dish that the greens on top were pea tendrils…so very good! The flower is beautiful, really makes the plate stand out, and fun to eat. The mushrooms were amazing, earthy and wonderful. The croquettes were crispy on the outside and warm and fluffy on the inside. I wanted to eat a whole pile of those. The veal reduction went really well with everything on the plate. I’m pretty sure I cleaned this plate too. I don’t like to waste a good sauce.
Veal and Drink
This was a very good course, and I don’t have much I can add on top of what DW said. I do want to note the pea tendrils were a brilliant addition to the dish. Sure, they looked nice. But they gave a very strong fresh flavor over the top of whatever you ate them with. Very fun for the previously mentioned mix and match method of eating.
Close up. I love the flower. Probably my favorite part to eat just because how often do you get to eat flowers?
Veal and Drink
This was a very good course, and I don’t have much I can add on top of what DW said. I do want to note the pea tendrils were a brilliant addition to the dish. Sure, they looked nice. But they gave a very strong fresh flavor over the top of whatever you ate them with. Very fun for the previously mentioned mix and match method of eating.
Close up. I love the flower. Probably my favorite part to eat just because how often do you get to eat flowers?
Finally, dessert! All of the chefs came out and acted as servers to bring desserts to the tables. We were lucky and Chef Scott brought our desserts to us. Chef Erich (who is the mastermind behind the V&A desserts and breads) presented an Orange Scented Chocolate Sphere paired with Vietti Moscato d’Asti, NV. This was a beautiful piece of art. The kind you don’t really want to disturb…except for the fact that it’s chocolate, so I was excited to slide my spoon right into that sphere and wreak havoc on the pretty plate. I love orange and chocolate together and this was very nice. It was lighter than you would expect. A fluffy cake and chocolate mousse on the inside. Somehow even after all of the courses I managed to eat all of this including the lovely chocolate swirl arch.
Chocolate Sphere and Drink
The sphere’s lightness and fluffiness kept the dessert from being too much to handle after the courses. But the flavor of full on chocolate was there. It was the best of both worlds. I note that I don’t remember tasting very much of the orange, but the scent was there in full force. As a side note about the sparkling wines, you’ll notice a lot of them have ‘NV’ listed at the end. DW and I like to joke with each other that the state of Nevada is super proud of its wines, but that’s not what it means. For those of you who care but don’t know, NV is an indicator of a non-vintage wine. So now you know.
There are some finely diced strawberries and sauce peeking around the flower (another one!) Note the gold flakes sprinkled on top. Also fun!
I failed to mention that shortly after each course was brought out the presenting chef would step forward and discuss the food. They’d tell what was in the course as well as some of their thoughts on how it came to be or what it was a play on. I always like hearing from the chef. I will say that it was difficult to hear sometimes. We were seated on the far edge, pretty much the first table you walk by when you walk into Citricos. The chefs would speak from the center of the room turning as they did since the guests were seated all around them. Thus it was difficult to hear sometimes, especially when some guests didn’t realize the chef was speaking for a bit and they continued to talk. It was very interesting to see the guest interaction with the different chefs and their kitchen staff they brought with them. You could tell which people were regulars to various restaurants by the greetings they received.
Chocolate Sphere and Drink
The sphere’s lightness and fluffiness kept the dessert from being too much to handle after the courses. But the flavor of full on chocolate was there. It was the best of both worlds. I note that I don’t remember tasting very much of the orange, but the scent was there in full force. As a side note about the sparkling wines, you’ll notice a lot of them have ‘NV’ listed at the end. DW and I like to joke with each other that the state of Nevada is super proud of its wines, but that’s not what it means. For those of you who care but don’t know, NV is an indicator of a non-vintage wine. So now you know.
There are some finely diced strawberries and sauce peeking around the flower (another one!) Note the gold flakes sprinkled on top. Also fun!
I failed to mention that shortly after each course was brought out the presenting chef would step forward and discuss the food. They’d tell what was in the course as well as some of their thoughts on how it came to be or what it was a play on. I always like hearing from the chef. I will say that it was difficult to hear sometimes. We were seated on the far edge, pretty much the first table you walk by when you walk into Citricos. The chefs would speak from the center of the room turning as they did since the guests were seated all around them. Thus it was difficult to hear sometimes, especially when some guests didn’t realize the chef was speaking for a bit and they continued to talk. It was very interesting to see the guest interaction with the different chefs and their kitchen staff they brought with them. You could tell which people were regulars to various restaurants by the greetings they received.
Overall it was a fantastic meal that took place over roughly two and a half hours. In that time we ate six courses along with six pours of bubbly. I was definitely feeling the bubbly. I could see why the lady earlier probably didn’t finish all of her drinks. I didn’t want to waste any though. I was definitely in a more giggly mood after the meal and was happy I could take Disney transportation back to Hollywood Studios. On our way out of the restaurant we were each handed a little box and were told they were baked fresh that morning. In each box were two heart shaped cookies. They are the same kind offered at the end of a V&A meal but these were larger. We took them with us to share with our kids and my mom.
The after meal bonus cookies and we each got a box!
I would do that meal again every day of the week, but only once on Sundays. It was a very good meal, with a large range of foods and styles. For perspective, it was much like getting brunch from 5 different restaurants, and an appetizer course. If you were to do five different brunches, it would take an entire working week to cover the dishes offered. That’s rather a lot of brunching that would have to take place. And it was all in one place, prepared by some of the best chefs in the World (with the capital W). It was pretty cool to see them prepare the food too. I don’t think DW mentioned above, but there was a preparation area that was open to viewing. If you’ve dined at Citrico’s (I haven’t) you probably know all about it, but there’s a long table area where the chefs assembled the dishes. It wasn’t a one person act, and every chef was helping on every dish. So when I say Scott gave us a perfectly cooked and life changing egg yolk ravioli, it could have been any of the chefs who actually put the dish together. The power of teamwork. Also very fun to watch when we weren’t busy being distracted by how delicious the food was.
We hopped a bus back to Hollywood Studios and found the rest of our party. They had fun watching some shows including the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular. Oddly enough as I type this we are watching Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Both kids have been obsessed with Indiana Jones since watching the stunt show. After this movie they will have seen all of the Jones movies. I think Temple of Doom is their favorite. Anyway, they enjoyed ice cream cones with GranMar. They were very lucky and were given free ice cream because they won over the castmember at Gertie’s or so I’m told. They also shared chicken and waffles for lunch, but I don’t have any pictures. If you can believe it we headed out for the day once we met up with them and it was only 3:30. Everyone was done with the park. I think we are all really looking forward to the Toy Story and Star Wars expansions.
My DD loves scary movies, but has gotten to the age where she pretends to be scared by other things. So I occasionally find myself in a situation where she is terrified by cauliflower because it’s really scary, but then she watches the Temple of Doom and is all “hey, they just ripped that guy’s heart out and it caught on fire!! That’s amaaaazing.” As always in such situations, I blame children’s television programming. She also had a self-defeatist faze for a little bit when she heard Caillou whining about how he’s inept and not giving any amount of good effort on anything he tried to do. Pretty much ever. This is why I have no problems with adult ‘scary’ type movies with the kids, but loathe some kid shows. That’s my rant. Also, I probably wasn’t totally done with the park, but all the things I wanted to do were either already done (Indiana Jones show) or not for little ones (rockin roller coaster). So we enjoyed a leisurely pool afternoon. Good times were had by all.
(For those really paying attention, we wrote this review over the last couple of days. So we were writing after midnight last night but we were not watching Indiana Jones that late. That happened this morning. We don't play scary-ish movies for our kids while keeping them up super late. We aren't that cruel. At least not while they are 2 and 5. We'll wait until they are at least 4 and 7.)
The after meal bonus cookies and we each got a box!
I would do that meal again every day of the week, but only once on Sundays. It was a very good meal, with a large range of foods and styles. For perspective, it was much like getting brunch from 5 different restaurants, and an appetizer course. If you were to do five different brunches, it would take an entire working week to cover the dishes offered. That’s rather a lot of brunching that would have to take place. And it was all in one place, prepared by some of the best chefs in the World (with the capital W). It was pretty cool to see them prepare the food too. I don’t think DW mentioned above, but there was a preparation area that was open to viewing. If you’ve dined at Citrico’s (I haven’t) you probably know all about it, but there’s a long table area where the chefs assembled the dishes. It wasn’t a one person act, and every chef was helping on every dish. So when I say Scott gave us a perfectly cooked and life changing egg yolk ravioli, it could have been any of the chefs who actually put the dish together. The power of teamwork. Also very fun to watch when we weren’t busy being distracted by how delicious the food was.
We hopped a bus back to Hollywood Studios and found the rest of our party. They had fun watching some shows including the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular. Oddly enough as I type this we are watching Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Both kids have been obsessed with Indiana Jones since watching the stunt show. After this movie they will have seen all of the Jones movies. I think Temple of Doom is their favorite. Anyway, they enjoyed ice cream cones with GranMar. They were very lucky and were given free ice cream because they won over the castmember at Gertie’s or so I’m told. They also shared chicken and waffles for lunch, but I don’t have any pictures. If you can believe it we headed out for the day once we met up with them and it was only 3:30. Everyone was done with the park. I think we are all really looking forward to the Toy Story and Star Wars expansions.
My DD loves scary movies, but has gotten to the age where she pretends to be scared by other things. So I occasionally find myself in a situation where she is terrified by cauliflower because it’s really scary, but then she watches the Temple of Doom and is all “hey, they just ripped that guy’s heart out and it caught on fire!! That’s amaaaazing.” As always in such situations, I blame children’s television programming. She also had a self-defeatist faze for a little bit when she heard Caillou whining about how he’s inept and not giving any amount of good effort on anything he tried to do. Pretty much ever. This is why I have no problems with adult ‘scary’ type movies with the kids, but loathe some kid shows. That’s my rant. Also, I probably wasn’t totally done with the park, but all the things I wanted to do were either already done (Indiana Jones show) or not for little ones (rockin roller coaster). So we enjoyed a leisurely pool afternoon. Good times were had by all.
(For those really paying attention, we wrote this review over the last couple of days. So we were writing after midnight last night but we were not watching Indiana Jones that late. That happened this morning. We don't play scary-ish movies for our kids while keeping them up super late. We aren't that cruel. At least not while they are 2 and 5. We'll wait until they are at least 4 and 7.
)We tried a stroller when DD was little, but I had an unnatural fear that she was going to jump out while the thing was in motion and get sucked under. Naturally, I assumed that this would somehow become my fault. Also, we once rented a stroller for a Disney trip to see how it would work, but DD didn't like the stroller much so we ended up just using it to carry our backpack. That was handy enough for the bag, but it got me some odd looks at security when I pulled up with a bag and stroller and DW took DD through another line. I think when a guy shows up with all the essential items required to change a child's clothes and carry them out of the park, but doesn't have children with him he kind of SHOULD get an odd look, so I didn't take it personally. I just waved really big at DW and DD. This probably looked even more suspicious, but we do what we do. So we ended up deciding strollers are more trouble than they're worth for us. I did really like how they held my drinks though. I was very well hydrated.
jerseytinkerbell
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 17, 2010
Great report so far!
That's too bad about your D-Luxe burger experience. I'm glad I insisted on mine being well done on a past trip. Thanks for the warning about the issues with the medium doneness!
Your tea time looks wonderful! It's such a fun experience.
Oh I can just feel your panic with being late for brunch. Disney transportation is tricky. Especially when you have somewhere important to be. I feel like I only run into those issues when I'm trying to make a reservation. I had a total meltdown on a bus once over issues with getting to Narcoossee. It's such a bad feeling, but I'm glad it all worked out in the end. The Brunch with a Twist looks fantastic!
I think I need one of those huge pink frosted donuts next time. They look amazing!
That's too bad about your D-Luxe burger experience. I'm glad I insisted on mine being well done on a past trip. Thanks for the warning about the issues with the medium doneness!
Your tea time looks wonderful! It's such a fun experience.
Oh I can just feel your panic with being late for brunch. Disney transportation is tricky. Especially when you have somewhere important to be. I feel like I only run into those issues when I'm trying to make a reservation. I had a total meltdown on a bus once over issues with getting to Narcoossee. It's such a bad feeling, but I'm glad it all worked out in the end. The Brunch with a Twist looks fantastic!
I think I need one of those huge pink frosted donuts next time. They look amazing!
As soon as I had my drink in hand I was able to laugh at the situation. For the record, after all the build up and worry, we arrived around 12:05 ish. Our first picture of the drink was taken at 12:09. So we really weren't THAT late. But since you're technically supposed to arrive at least 15 minutes prior I was freaking out. I guess I was kind of right to be so concerned about being 'that' late since they had already passed out drinks and 3 different hors d'oeuvres and the chef had already talked about them. They did a LOT in the amount of time that we ended up being 5 to 7 minutes late for the official brunch time.Oh my gosh, I can just picture this scene in my head, you both skidding to a stop in front of Citricos, lol!
I bet that brunch was heavenly! I'm a big fan of brunch. It's such a fun type of meal, plus we don't get to do one very often.
Thank you! It definitely is always nice to hear a compliment about well behaved kids. It gives you hope that you just might be doing something right...at least at that moment in time. Or you just get lucky in that moment.
Tusker House used to be a counter service restaurant that had lots of great choices. A roast chicken meal with lovely crisp tender green beans and mashed potatoes I think (I may have made up the potato part). They had a wonderful corn chowder. Also a great turkey wrap. A lot of fresh, healthy options that were quick. I miss it a lot. To me Tusker House now is just a lamer, in park version of Boma. But it does make Boma flavors more accessible to more people (and hopefully keep people from Boma...one of our favorites! Though we haven't been there in years, not since having kids. We avoid the craziness of buffets with small children. I can't wait to get back for some Boma soups and salads and desserts and hummus and well, just about everything.)
Yeah, we were disappointed with D-Luxe burger. You were smart with going for well done. As for Disney transportation...when it works, it works and when it doesn't, it really doesn't. This was our fault for not allowing more time as I knew we should have. But just one minute or less would have saved a whole lot of anxiety. I totally feel for people who are fretting over getting somewhere on time. I've been there a time or two or three or four.
The brunch was fantastic and I would totally recommend it for anyone who is into that sort of meal or experience. It is definitely pricey but so delicious and so much fun. Just watch out for the wine! It sneaks up on you.Share this page
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