Mickey4me!
Lost my screen name so I'm starting from scratch!
- Joined
- Aug 30, 2005
- Messages
- 550
Just got home Frday from a wonderful trip and thought I'd post a dining review. Participants were just DH and I.
Sunday 11-13
We arrived at BWV around 3PM and had not set plans for dinner. I had made prior arrangements through Room Service to have a birthday cake delivered to the room around 7PM (DH had turned 50 the Friday before) so I wanted to make sure we were in the room. After a quick trip to DTD to get our annual passes, we decided to pick up a pizza from Spoodles and enjoy it in the room. We got sausage and onion and it was really quite tasty. Will definitely try it again. Room Service arrived with the cake and balloons around 7:30. Cake looked wonderful and was presented on a large wooden tray with 2 party hats and horns along with a candle and matches as well as a cake server, plates and forks. Cake was yellow with white chocolate icing and was good. The icing was not overly sweet and the cake had a nice texture to it. As soon as I download my pics, I will post one of it.
Monday 11-14
We had ADR for 2PM late lunch at Libery Tree Tavern. This is one of DH's favorites and since we had only tried their dinner, we decided to see what lunch was like. It did not disappoint. DH had the Pilgrims Feast as he is a huge fan of turkey and could eat it 7 days a week! The turkey was real, not pressed and the stuffing and mashed potatoes were good as well. He did not care for the green beans because he felt they had too much garlic. I on the other hand thought they were great. Tender crisp with a strong punch of garlic. I choose the Sandwich Heard Round the World which was a grilled turkey panini with applewood smoked bacon, swiss cheese and a nice little cranberry spread all served on a wonderful multi grain bread. Very tasty and would definitely order it again. We both decided to splurge and order dessert. DH got the Caramel Apple Tart and I opted for the Butter Grilled Poundcake. The tart was a rustic shaped sugared pastry filled with slightly tart apples served with cinnamon ice cream and drizzled with caramel sauce. DH gave it a thumbs up (apples are another of his fav.) The grilled pound cake was a wedge slice with light grill marks on it also served with ice cream (vanilla bean) and covered with caramel pecan sauce. I think the grill marks were just for show, as it didn't task like it had been grilled. It actually had a slight lemon flavor that reminded me of prepackaged pound cakes you buy in the freezer section. It was still tasty and the ice cream and pecan sauce were quite yummy. All in all a good meal and we'll keep it on the "do again" list. That night we headed over to Beaches and Cream for a quick dinner before Illuminations. Since it was the week after Food and Wine, we had no wait for a table. DH and I both ordered burgers and he opted for onion rings with his. Burgers were not outstanding but were good and quick and well probably return for ice cream next trip.
Tuesday 11-15
Another 2PM late lunch this time at L'Originale Alfredo di Roma. This has been a tradition for us for a number of years. Years ago, DH and I ate at Alfedos in New York City and had the most wonderful meal (I think it has since closed). I'm not sure if it was had any ties to the one at EPCOT, but on our next trip to WDW DH wanted to try it. He really enjoyed his meal (some kind of sausage and peppers thing?) and we've kept going back. We've had mixed experiences with the food and the service and this year it was just OK. My major complaint about this restaurant is that is smells bad! Sort of musty/dirty combination. Service is hit or miss. Sometimes the wait staff is great (esp if our 21 yr old daughter is with us) and sometimes they are very snotty. Service this time was good. We ordered the Mozzarella alla Caprese to start with - bufala mozzarella with sliced red and yellow tomatoes drizzled with olive oil. Sounded yummy but we were very disappointed. The dish was served very chilled which to me, did nothing for the taste. I would have preferred the mozzarella to be at room temp as well as the tomatoes. It really had no flavor to speak of. DH ordered the Lasagne which was pretty average. I had the obligatory Le Originali Fettuccine all'Alfredo and it too was quite average. We skipped dessert and opted instead to pick up some pastries in France later. I think this was our last visit to Alfredos for awhile. The inconsistency in service, average food and above average pricing has removed it from our list of must dos.
Later in the evening, DH got a sausage basket from the cart on the Boardwalk and proclaimed it to be the worst hed ever had. We had both gotten the corn dogs there on prior trips and they were pretty good. I had a tooth that was bothering me that evening, so I passed on dinner. DH did bring me back an eclair from the BW Bakery which I ate for breakfast the next AM. It was very yummy! I may be going out on a limb here, but I much prefer the BWB for pastries over the pastry shop in the French pavilion. Maybe Ive never gotten the right thing there, but it never tastes as fresh to me.
Wednesday 11-16
We had an ADR for 5:30 dinner at Le Cellier prior to the 9PM La Nouba show. We decided to see if we could get in for lunch instead and had no problem being seated right away. This is one of our favorites and it did not disappoint. Dh ordered the Steakburger and I had the Vegetarian Sampler. We choose not to order the cheese soup this trip, and now I wish we had! The Steakburger was good as always - served on a thick English muffin which makes eating it with a knife and fork almost essential. Dh got the potato salad instead of fries and it was very tasty (I tried some!) - slightly firm red potatoes with diced onion, celery and green pepper in a light mayo dressing. The vegetarian sampler was very different and good and a lot of food. It was served on a large platter that had Udon noodles piled high with a wonderful spicy vinaigrette. Served with it were mushroom potstickers and a very tasty spring roll. Several dipping sauces also came with it and each were very interesting. One was a type of plum sauce and one was a mustard based. All very good and would order it again.
That evening we had 9PM tickets for La Nouba, so we headed to DTD early to get shopping out of the way. We stopped at Earl of Sandwich and Dh got the club (again with the turkey!). As usual it was delicious and priced right! I wasnt hungry so I passed on dinner even though I love their sandwiches (the Scuddeto minus the marinara is my fav.)
Thursday 11-17
I got up early and went down to the bakery and got some pastries for bfast. Yummy as usual!
Lunch was at MGM. We wanted something quick and decided on Backlot Express. Lines were very long for some reason (park was not crowded at all) and we ended up with Turkey sandwich and chili for DH (surprise!) and a hotdog with fries for me. The sandwich looked identical to the one I had at LTT earlier in the week only instead of cranberry relish, they had big strips of roasted red peppers on it. DH declared the sandwich pretty good and chili was OK. The hot dog was actually quite good and big! This was an early lunch as we had big dinner plans!
Dinner was a 7:30 ADR at California Grill! This was a first for both of us and we were excited to try it given all the rave reviews. The food did not disappoint! We arrived about 5 min early and were given a pager and told we had about a 25 min wait. No problem, well just head up to the bar. We did and boy was it crowded up there! No place to sit and kids running everywhere. Very busy and loud place. When we were checking in downstairs, there was a family asking about the menu. There were the parents and two boys about 9or 10 and one about 12 or 13. They were told that it was booked for the evening but that they could go up to the bar and order the full menu there. This was sort of surprising to me as the bar is not that big and almost a part of the restaurant. I guess thats why it was so full. They were also told that they would have to take off their hats (baseball caps). The oldest boy looked at the hostess and said in a really snotty tone Why do we have to take our hats off?. Now as an adult, I would have responded with the because I said so answer, but the hostess said it was because it was business casual and no hats allowed. Keep in mind, these folks had come straight from the parks and were in T-shirts and shorts as well. I did notice that only about half of the patrons were in business casual. Most had on jeans or shorts and T shirts.
We were seated after about 20 min at a wonderful table right by the window. It was about 10 min until Wishes, so Gary our waiter quickly introduced himself, brought us water and bread before the show. We had perfect seats for the fireworks and the music was piped in as well. They did make an announcement prior that the lights would be dimmed so to please stay seated but they never did dim them. Gary said later that it was because there were so many kids running around they didnt want them to get hurt.
Gary did a great job of presenting the menus (dinner and dessert) to us and left us to make our choices. I had ordered a glass of the Haven merlot and he returned with 3 wine glasses and 3 different bottles of merlot for me to sample and choose. Very nice touch! I ended up choosing the Annabelle which had a nice fruity, full body flavor. He also presented a cheese menu which he said was something new. Several cheeses were listed with a description of each. I believe it was $10 ti sample 3 and $15 to sample them all. We ordered the Quadruple cheese flat bread to start and DH and I both ordered the Oak Fired Filet with Tamarind bar-b-que sauce. The flat bread was nice and as expected - thick layer of melted cheeses interspersed with chopped sundried tomatoes and basil and a healthy dose of garlic (which for some reason DH didnt mind. Go figure....). The entrees arrived and the smell alone was enough to send taste buds into a frenzy. They were both cooked to perfection and tender to cut with a regular knife. The texture of the filet was excellent. I sometimes prefer other cuts of beef over a filet because they are so lean they dont have any mouth feel if that makes sense. This one was perfect. Extremely tender but had enough texture to make it satisfying and the sauce was absolutely one of the best Ive ever tasted. The filet was served with a scalloped potato made with a mild cheese and thin layers of onions as well as some steamed broccolini. For dessert we order the apple tart (heres that apple thing again) and shared it. It was a mini tart filled with thin sliced apples and glaze served with vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce. Quite yummy! Gary also brought out a slice of choc layer cake with a Happy Birthday from the California Grill choc banner on it. It too was quite tasty, but I only had a bite or two. The only disappointing part of the meal was the coffee. Very weak and bland.
DH declared CA Grill a new favorite and is now on our must do list. It was one of the best meals Ive had in a long time and look forward to returning. The only negative besides the loudness of the place, is that it took forever to finish our meal. Long wait between each course. We finished about 9:45. I dont know that this was our waiters fault or if it was just the time of night and crowd. Wont keep us from returning though! This was with out a doubt, the best meal of the trip.
Saturday 11-18
Sadly, this was our scheduled day to depart. DH is not a big fan of breakfast in the AM, while I on the other hand love to get up early and go out for a nice sit down bfast (I usually skip lunch). So every trip we compromise and start our departure day with a nice breakfast. Last year we did the Princess breakfast in Norway with my daughter and her friend and the year before we tried Boma. Both good. I originally planned for us to eat at Boma again if only for the coffee and Frunch, but neither of us felt like driving over there so we opted for Spoodles instead. We arrived around 9AM and were seated immediately. They had the typical breakfast fare and we both ordered the All American. It came with scrambled eggs (about 3?), bacon, one sausage patty, breakfast potatoes and a biscuit. The eggs were not too soft and not to hard and the potatoes were delicious. Chunks of potatoes fried with onion and chopped red pepper. The bacon was too limp for me so I passed on it and the sausage. All in all a decent breakfast for the price and its another one well consider again.
Well thats it for our Disney dining experience. Sorry this got so long and please email me with any questions.
Sunday 11-13
We arrived at BWV around 3PM and had not set plans for dinner. I had made prior arrangements through Room Service to have a birthday cake delivered to the room around 7PM (DH had turned 50 the Friday before) so I wanted to make sure we were in the room. After a quick trip to DTD to get our annual passes, we decided to pick up a pizza from Spoodles and enjoy it in the room. We got sausage and onion and it was really quite tasty. Will definitely try it again. Room Service arrived with the cake and balloons around 7:30. Cake looked wonderful and was presented on a large wooden tray with 2 party hats and horns along with a candle and matches as well as a cake server, plates and forks. Cake was yellow with white chocolate icing and was good. The icing was not overly sweet and the cake had a nice texture to it. As soon as I download my pics, I will post one of it.
Monday 11-14
We had ADR for 2PM late lunch at Libery Tree Tavern. This is one of DH's favorites and since we had only tried their dinner, we decided to see what lunch was like. It did not disappoint. DH had the Pilgrims Feast as he is a huge fan of turkey and could eat it 7 days a week! The turkey was real, not pressed and the stuffing and mashed potatoes were good as well. He did not care for the green beans because he felt they had too much garlic. I on the other hand thought they were great. Tender crisp with a strong punch of garlic. I choose the Sandwich Heard Round the World which was a grilled turkey panini with applewood smoked bacon, swiss cheese and a nice little cranberry spread all served on a wonderful multi grain bread. Very tasty and would definitely order it again. We both decided to splurge and order dessert. DH got the Caramel Apple Tart and I opted for the Butter Grilled Poundcake. The tart was a rustic shaped sugared pastry filled with slightly tart apples served with cinnamon ice cream and drizzled with caramel sauce. DH gave it a thumbs up (apples are another of his fav.) The grilled pound cake was a wedge slice with light grill marks on it also served with ice cream (vanilla bean) and covered with caramel pecan sauce. I think the grill marks were just for show, as it didn't task like it had been grilled. It actually had a slight lemon flavor that reminded me of prepackaged pound cakes you buy in the freezer section. It was still tasty and the ice cream and pecan sauce were quite yummy. All in all a good meal and we'll keep it on the "do again" list. That night we headed over to Beaches and Cream for a quick dinner before Illuminations. Since it was the week after Food and Wine, we had no wait for a table. DH and I both ordered burgers and he opted for onion rings with his. Burgers were not outstanding but were good and quick and well probably return for ice cream next trip.
Tuesday 11-15
Another 2PM late lunch this time at L'Originale Alfredo di Roma. This has been a tradition for us for a number of years. Years ago, DH and I ate at Alfedos in New York City and had the most wonderful meal (I think it has since closed). I'm not sure if it was had any ties to the one at EPCOT, but on our next trip to WDW DH wanted to try it. He really enjoyed his meal (some kind of sausage and peppers thing?) and we've kept going back. We've had mixed experiences with the food and the service and this year it was just OK. My major complaint about this restaurant is that is smells bad! Sort of musty/dirty combination. Service is hit or miss. Sometimes the wait staff is great (esp if our 21 yr old daughter is with us) and sometimes they are very snotty. Service this time was good. We ordered the Mozzarella alla Caprese to start with - bufala mozzarella with sliced red and yellow tomatoes drizzled with olive oil. Sounded yummy but we were very disappointed. The dish was served very chilled which to me, did nothing for the taste. I would have preferred the mozzarella to be at room temp as well as the tomatoes. It really had no flavor to speak of. DH ordered the Lasagne which was pretty average. I had the obligatory Le Originali Fettuccine all'Alfredo and it too was quite average. We skipped dessert and opted instead to pick up some pastries in France later. I think this was our last visit to Alfredos for awhile. The inconsistency in service, average food and above average pricing has removed it from our list of must dos.
Later in the evening, DH got a sausage basket from the cart on the Boardwalk and proclaimed it to be the worst hed ever had. We had both gotten the corn dogs there on prior trips and they were pretty good. I had a tooth that was bothering me that evening, so I passed on dinner. DH did bring me back an eclair from the BW Bakery which I ate for breakfast the next AM. It was very yummy! I may be going out on a limb here, but I much prefer the BWB for pastries over the pastry shop in the French pavilion. Maybe Ive never gotten the right thing there, but it never tastes as fresh to me.
Wednesday 11-16
We had an ADR for 5:30 dinner at Le Cellier prior to the 9PM La Nouba show. We decided to see if we could get in for lunch instead and had no problem being seated right away. This is one of our favorites and it did not disappoint. Dh ordered the Steakburger and I had the Vegetarian Sampler. We choose not to order the cheese soup this trip, and now I wish we had! The Steakburger was good as always - served on a thick English muffin which makes eating it with a knife and fork almost essential. Dh got the potato salad instead of fries and it was very tasty (I tried some!) - slightly firm red potatoes with diced onion, celery and green pepper in a light mayo dressing. The vegetarian sampler was very different and good and a lot of food. It was served on a large platter that had Udon noodles piled high with a wonderful spicy vinaigrette. Served with it were mushroom potstickers and a very tasty spring roll. Several dipping sauces also came with it and each were very interesting. One was a type of plum sauce and one was a mustard based. All very good and would order it again.
That evening we had 9PM tickets for La Nouba, so we headed to DTD early to get shopping out of the way. We stopped at Earl of Sandwich and Dh got the club (again with the turkey!). As usual it was delicious and priced right! I wasnt hungry so I passed on dinner even though I love their sandwiches (the Scuddeto minus the marinara is my fav.)
Thursday 11-17
I got up early and went down to the bakery and got some pastries for bfast. Yummy as usual!
Lunch was at MGM. We wanted something quick and decided on Backlot Express. Lines were very long for some reason (park was not crowded at all) and we ended up with Turkey sandwich and chili for DH (surprise!) and a hotdog with fries for me. The sandwich looked identical to the one I had at LTT earlier in the week only instead of cranberry relish, they had big strips of roasted red peppers on it. DH declared the sandwich pretty good and chili was OK. The hot dog was actually quite good and big! This was an early lunch as we had big dinner plans!
Dinner was a 7:30 ADR at California Grill! This was a first for both of us and we were excited to try it given all the rave reviews. The food did not disappoint! We arrived about 5 min early and were given a pager and told we had about a 25 min wait. No problem, well just head up to the bar. We did and boy was it crowded up there! No place to sit and kids running everywhere. Very busy and loud place. When we were checking in downstairs, there was a family asking about the menu. There were the parents and two boys about 9or 10 and one about 12 or 13. They were told that it was booked for the evening but that they could go up to the bar and order the full menu there. This was sort of surprising to me as the bar is not that big and almost a part of the restaurant. I guess thats why it was so full. They were also told that they would have to take off their hats (baseball caps). The oldest boy looked at the hostess and said in a really snotty tone Why do we have to take our hats off?. Now as an adult, I would have responded with the because I said so answer, but the hostess said it was because it was business casual and no hats allowed. Keep in mind, these folks had come straight from the parks and were in T-shirts and shorts as well. I did notice that only about half of the patrons were in business casual. Most had on jeans or shorts and T shirts.
We were seated after about 20 min at a wonderful table right by the window. It was about 10 min until Wishes, so Gary our waiter quickly introduced himself, brought us water and bread before the show. We had perfect seats for the fireworks and the music was piped in as well. They did make an announcement prior that the lights would be dimmed so to please stay seated but they never did dim them. Gary said later that it was because there were so many kids running around they didnt want them to get hurt.
Gary did a great job of presenting the menus (dinner and dessert) to us and left us to make our choices. I had ordered a glass of the Haven merlot and he returned with 3 wine glasses and 3 different bottles of merlot for me to sample and choose. Very nice touch! I ended up choosing the Annabelle which had a nice fruity, full body flavor. He also presented a cheese menu which he said was something new. Several cheeses were listed with a description of each. I believe it was $10 ti sample 3 and $15 to sample them all. We ordered the Quadruple cheese flat bread to start and DH and I both ordered the Oak Fired Filet with Tamarind bar-b-que sauce. The flat bread was nice and as expected - thick layer of melted cheeses interspersed with chopped sundried tomatoes and basil and a healthy dose of garlic (which for some reason DH didnt mind. Go figure....). The entrees arrived and the smell alone was enough to send taste buds into a frenzy. They were both cooked to perfection and tender to cut with a regular knife. The texture of the filet was excellent. I sometimes prefer other cuts of beef over a filet because they are so lean they dont have any mouth feel if that makes sense. This one was perfect. Extremely tender but had enough texture to make it satisfying and the sauce was absolutely one of the best Ive ever tasted. The filet was served with a scalloped potato made with a mild cheese and thin layers of onions as well as some steamed broccolini. For dessert we order the apple tart (heres that apple thing again) and shared it. It was a mini tart filled with thin sliced apples and glaze served with vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce. Quite yummy! Gary also brought out a slice of choc layer cake with a Happy Birthday from the California Grill choc banner on it. It too was quite tasty, but I only had a bite or two. The only disappointing part of the meal was the coffee. Very weak and bland.
DH declared CA Grill a new favorite and is now on our must do list. It was one of the best meals Ive had in a long time and look forward to returning. The only negative besides the loudness of the place, is that it took forever to finish our meal. Long wait between each course. We finished about 9:45. I dont know that this was our waiters fault or if it was just the time of night and crowd. Wont keep us from returning though! This was with out a doubt, the best meal of the trip.
Saturday 11-18
Sadly, this was our scheduled day to depart. DH is not a big fan of breakfast in the AM, while I on the other hand love to get up early and go out for a nice sit down bfast (I usually skip lunch). So every trip we compromise and start our departure day with a nice breakfast. Last year we did the Princess breakfast in Norway with my daughter and her friend and the year before we tried Boma. Both good. I originally planned for us to eat at Boma again if only for the coffee and Frunch, but neither of us felt like driving over there so we opted for Spoodles instead. We arrived around 9AM and were seated immediately. They had the typical breakfast fare and we both ordered the All American. It came with scrambled eggs (about 3?), bacon, one sausage patty, breakfast potatoes and a biscuit. The eggs were not too soft and not to hard and the potatoes were delicious. Chunks of potatoes fried with onion and chopped red pepper. The bacon was too limp for me so I passed on it and the sausage. All in all a decent breakfast for the price and its another one well consider again.
Well thats it for our Disney dining experience. Sorry this got so long and please email me with any questions.
