Vegetarian and Omnivorous family, five days of December dining!

[Jennia]

Hello all, this is my first time writing a dining review! I was determined to contribute to this board after it helped me so much with figuring out where to make our reservations for our December trip. Being a vegetarian, it was important to me to have variety (ie, not eat pasta with marinara sauce every night for dinner!). The rest of the party (my mother, father, brother, uncle and 2 year old daughter) all have various tastes. You'll see my dd pretty much stuck to "cheesey noodles" (or what most of us call mac and cheese). She never gets this at home, so this was a treat for her!

We visited from December 5 to December 11 and stayed club level at the Poly. Here's a line up of upcoming reviews:

December 5:
Spirit of Aloha Polynesian Luau

December 6:
Club Level breakfast (will just review it once, was pretty much the same every day)
Tusker House
ABC Commissary

December 7:
Boulangerie Patisserie
Garden Grill character dinner

December 8:
Crystal Palace character lunch
Cosmic Ray's

December 9:
Kona Cafe
Pinnochio Village Haus
1900 Park Fare

December 10:
Brown Derby

December 11:
Ohana character breakfast
snacks from Poly CL lounge

As soon as I get photos sorted out, I'll begin!

 

[mom2meiko]

also a vegetarian, with a very un-vegetarian dh - we could split one meal in 1/2 but we'd fight over the starches. lol. looking forward to your report!

 

[MickeyNicki]

Count me in, we stayed Poly CL a few weeks before you so I will be interested to hear your reviews of it

 

[Jennia]

I'm still trying to sort photos out, it's taking more time than I thought! It looks like I somehow skipped all of our first day photos when I began downloading, so I'll do that sometime this evening and try to get the first review or two up by tomorrow.

 

[Linda67]

Perfect reviews for me, I am vegetarian and DH loves, ,loves, loves meat

 

[Alice in Oz]

Hi, looking foward to your dining reveiws, me and bf are vegans and going to wdw in October...

 

[Jennia]

Polynesian-Spirit of Aloha Luau

When you first sit down at your table for this dinner show, they bring out a platter with salad, fresh fruit, and coconut bread:

Normally, I don't like food that has coconut in it or coconut flavor, but this bread was delicious! It tasted slightly sweet and was very soft. I thought that the salad was so-so, it tasted like a salad mix you could buy at the grocery store. The fresh fruit all tasted fine, nothing too ripe. Next they brought out the main dish platter, and I received a separate plate with vegetarian stir fry:

My stir fry was FANTASTIC! Everything was steaming hot, the flavors were excellent, and the tofu was cooked just right (so many places it's mushy/dried out/lacking any taste). The portion was very large, and even though I'd skipped lunch that day and was starving, I still had enough left at the end of the night for a second meal. I had my mother taste some of my stir fry, and she thought that the seasoning was the same as what was on the vegetables in the center platter.
According to what others thought: the ribs weren't very good, a little on the dry side. I've never seen my brother not devour a plate of ribs if given the chance, but he hardly touched these. The chicken, however, was said to be "some of the best chicken" my dad had ever eaten. My 2.5 year old daughter enjoyed it, as well as the rice, which just looked like your standard everyday rice you'd have at home.

During the end of the show, they brought out dessert. I was so stuffed I just took a couple of bites:

Personally, I thought it looked better than it tasted. It looked almost slimey to me, and had that same texture somewhat in my mouth when I tried it. I do love anything resembling chocolate (usually) but this just wasn't doing it for me. No one else commented on it being outstanding or otherwise, and my father almost acted like he was doing us a favor when he polished it off. I don't know if this is because it really was that mediocre, or if we were all so full from the entree that we had no room for dessert.

 

[msce2]

I'm in! Great start! One of these days we're going to have to try the show. Maybe 2012?

 

[eventamy]

I'm in! My DDs and I are pescetarian but 99% veg, so I'm interested in what you got and what your choices were!

 

[MelanieC]

I'm in - can't wait to see more

 

[Jennia]

Club Level breakfast:

Meh. It wasn't better than any continental breakfast I've ever had, but nothing seemed poorly made. Everything was definitely fresh, but the variety was definitely lacking. It pretty much consisted of a few pastry options (bagels I think were the only pastry out every day), some fresh fruit, and cold/hot cereal. On the plus side, the oatmeal tasted like it was from scratch and not instant! Also, we were able to obtain yogurt and chocolate milk by asking for it (neither was mentioned as being available or out with the other breakfast items). There was a woman loudly complaining about no proteins being available, and I do think that this is something they should remedy (especially for the price of club level). Even just having some scrambled or hard boiled eggs out with the rest of the spread would be a huge improvement in making it more balanced.

Also, sorry for no photos! I've gone through the nearly two thousand (!!!) that we collectively took and there is not a single one of our breakfast in the lounge!

 

[Jennia]

I'll be adding the Tusker House review tonight, hopefully I can also get some feedback from my family on their food (since I don't really remember their reactions, just my own and dd's lol!).

 

[danalee]

I'm in!

 

[Jennia]

On our first day in the parks, we went to Animal Kingdom. For lunch, we chose Tusker House and I made our reservation for a bit after one to secure the Nemo tickets (which we never received, but we got in with no problem anyway). My dh, dd and I had eaten breakfast at Tusker House the year before and really enjoyed it, and I thought that my family would appreciate having a variety of food to choose from. Unfortunately, my family doesn't seem to really remember anything about this place, except that the fish was dry.

This was my first plate of food, which I shared with my dd. The samosas had a very authentic taste to them with just the right amount of spice. My dd isn't fond of overly spicy food, but she enjoyed these. This was one of my favorite parts of the meal. The couscous wasn't anything special, and the potato wedges were on par with those from a grocery deli counter. They were well made, crispy skin and soft on the inside!

These were photos of other people's plates in our party. The shrimp was well liked, everyone thought that the fish was too dry, and they liked the different bread options that were available. My uncle and brother both loved the green beans, but never really said why/what made them special.

Here was my last plate, I used the bread to eat my rice/curry Indian style (in other words, sans silverware):

This bread was delicious, very fresh and easy to break apart, and the basmati rice tasted spot on and not like something that came from a box. The jollaf rice was interesting, but it didn't taste that unusual to me, almost like Spanish rice. The vegetable dish was the worst thing I ate, I took two bites and I was done. Everything was mushy and tasted very overcooked.

Whoo hoo, dessert! GREAT baklava, very flakey with the right amount of sweetness. It wasn't too sticky or messy, which I appreciated since I was sharing with a toddler. The cake squares were very heavy and dense, the frosting was creamy and extremely rich, so much so that I couldn't finish both pieces. My dd's favorite was the little chocolate cup filled with mousse and the chocolate "straw".

 

[dpndka]

First, thank you for the review. I hope to try Tusker house during my next visit to WDW.

Second, the samosas on the plate look just like the frozen kind I buy at the local ethnic grocery store. Do you recall what type of filling was in it?

 

[Jennia]

First, thank you for the review. I hope to try Tusker house during my next visit to WDW.

Second, the samosas on the plate look just like the frozen kind I buy at the local ethnic grocery store. Do you recall what type of filling was in it?

They were better than the kind I get at Trader Joe's and were about the same quality as those I've had from Indian caterers. It was a very typical samosa filling, with potatoes and peas and the general spices (cumin, etc). I don't remember if there was onion now or not, but I don't *think* there was (mostly because I'm not a huge fan of onions, and I wouldn't have eaten as many as I had if they'd been stuffed with onion pieces).

 

[Jennia]

I'll be posting at least one new review tonight, my brother's coming over this afternoon so I'll have him look through a few days' worth of photos and tell me what he remembers about his food.

 

[Jennia]

ABC Commissary

Okay, this was FAR from my first choice, but it was late and we were all starving. For some reason, I hadn't made an ADR for this night (wish I had!) and this is what we were stuck with since Pizza Planet was closed. I thought I'd taken photos, but I can't seem to find any (guess that shows how unimpressed I was lol!).

Here's what we had:

1. Kid's cheesburger with no meat (for me) with carrot sticks and applesauce.

Well. . .what can I say? It was a so-so bun with warm cheese on it. Nothing fantastic, not very filling, and I still got charged the full price even though I wasn't getting any meat. Personally, I think there should be a discount for this, even if it's a small one.

2. Cheeseburgers with fries

My brother said that he'd equate this to a Happy Meal hamburger since it was on the skimpy side and he got more bread than meat. To him, the portion felt overly small and the fries weren't anything special (more substance than, say, McDonald's fries but no better than the kind you can buy in the freezer section). He said that the meat tasted very plain and had no real taste to it.

3. Fried Fish with apple slices

My uncle ate this, and he liked that the fish was soft since he has some issues with his teeth, but I can see how someone else would dislike it for this same reason. If I were to eat fish, I'd want my fried fish nice and crisp on the outside (which this wasn't).

 

[Jennia]

It's been a busy week, but I'm ready to continue with the reviews! Plus it's a nice way to help me delay planning our DLR trip in early March.

One of my FAVORITE places at WDW is Boulangerie Patisserie. LOVE it! I always get something different than I've had the year before, but this time was a little unusual since we had so many people in our group that I was able to sample more items than I usually do.

I had the apple tart. Amazing, so well done, one of the best I've ever had (also voted to be the best item out of what we all chose). Apples were easy to bite into, soft without feeling limp, and they had a sweet versus bitter taste (might have been golden delicious apples). It was very delectable and made the perfect sugary snack.

The chocolate eclair was, to me, just okay. It was very light, the filling was fluffy and airy, but it didn't have nearly as much substance as the tart. I've had some that were heavier, which I prefer, and with a creamier filling. I only had one bite of this.

My mother and uncle both purchased a sandwich, which they had toasted. I'm not sure if this was a result of having them toasted or not, but both complained that the bread was too hard. My uncle, who has issues with his teeth, couldn't eat the bread at all. My brother describes it as tasting like Oscar Meyer Deli meat, or a larger version of a lunchable (in other words, nothing spectacular).

Here was my brother's favorite part, the chocolate mousse (obviously, since he finished it before I took a photo!). He says it was "just regular mousse" that was very sugary and denser than what he's used to. He said it was also much sweeter than usual.

One note about seating: if we hadn't left my mother outside stalking tables, I'm not sure we would have had a place to sit down. This had been a problem last year, as well, and it wasn't even busy then. The lines were very long, but it did move pretty quickly. It's also quite crowded inside, and you did get a bit of that sardine in a can feeling when you're waiting in there. Overall, though, it's definitely worth at least one trip.

 

[Jennia]

I'll be adding the Garden Grill review tonight.