Violet & Chernabog Do Disney Dining: Veggies and seafood abound!

[wishicouldgomoreofte]

Oh, I am enjoying your review so much. I hope you finish it soon. If you have revealed what the top restaurant & top dessert were, I missed it. So you might need to repeat it in your summary.
I have been debating Akershus lunch or dinner, or something else altogether, and posted that question.
I found your review through a search. The search tool rarely seems to work for me. So I am so glad it did this time. I now know we will go with Akershus dinner.
I do WDW solo, or 2 of us, more frequently solo. I frequently am "forgotten" by waitstaff. It is infuriating to have to wait for the check! And it seems to happen so often to me, I wonder if I appear too timid or just melt into the surroundings?:
Looking forward to the rest of your review.

 

[TillyMarigold]

Oh, I am enjoying your review so much. I hope you finish it soon. If you have revealed what the top restaurant & top dessert were, I missed it. So you might need to repeat it in your summary.
I have been debating Akershus lunch or dinner, or something else altogether, and posted that question.
I found your review through a search. The search tool rarely seems to work for me. So I am so glad it did this time. I now know we will go with Akershus dinner.
I do WDW solo, or 2 of us, more frequently solo. I frequently am "forgotten" by waitstaff. It is infuriating to have to wait for the check! And it seems to happen so often to me, I wonder if I appear too timid or just melt into the surroundings?:
Looking forward to the rest of your review.

I'm saving that for the end, but honestly there wasn't anywhere we didn't like the food (at a minimum--some we loved but the worst meal was still perfectly fine) and the only place we had bad service was Mama Melrose's.

 

[disneyfav4ever]

Were you on deluxe dining, or was the appetizer included with the Fantasmic dinner package?

 

[TillyMarigold]

We didn't get out of dinner until almost 5 pm, and we were supposed to be at Fantasmic! at 7:30 according to Youniss, but we're not big Studios fans so we just wandered around, saw the rest of One Man's Dream, poked around in Art of Disney and Villains in Vogue.

Chernabog decided to get a pretzel at Anaheim Produce, again it was a plain SuperPretzel and it was hot and fresh and he really liked it. And then, remembering the soft-serve at Mrs. Potts, I went on a quest for soft-serve.

And discovered that most food places at the Studios close about 5 or 5:30 pm. Dinosaur Gertie's? Closed. Min and Bill's? Closed. Starring Rolls? Closed. Anyway so I ended up getting Edy's mint chocolate chip hard ice cream with hot fudge sauce at Anaheim Produce. Had a nice conversation with the CM, though, who was on the College Program. He went to the same college that my CP roommate had gone to, and she'd worked as a campus recruiter there for awhile after she went back. But he didn't know her. Anyway, it was pretty good, if you like Edy's, which I don't particularly. I mean it was fine, not freezer burned or melting or anything and the fudge was nice and hot and didn't have that weird glue-y texture, but give me Breyer's over Edy's any day. It was a decent size, in fact I couldn't finish it. So if you like Edy's, I recommend Anaheim Produce, but if not, you're out of luck for ice cream at the Studios at night.

As I said, it was the first night for the new entrance to Fantasmic! for dining package holders, and there were CMs enthusiastically directing traffic that way, so rather than continue to meander around ToT, we just went into the Fantasmic! amphitheater and sat down.

There were vendors there selling soda, beer, popcorn, and hot dogs in the aisles, and more stands at the back of the theater, but we didn't buy anything from them

 

[TillyMarigold]

Were you on deluxe dining, or was the appetizer included with the Fantasmic dinner package?

It was included with the dinner package. We were on the regular dining plan.

 

[Smiling Cheshire Cat]

When I read your review of Mama Melrose I thought we must have had the same server, but ours was female so I guess not. Others around us with different servers seemed to be getting good service, but not us. We only had 2 bad experiences with servers out of the 12 TS meals we ate so I think can't complain much.

I'm glad you enjoyed your food at MM. I was so annoyed with our server that I really can't give it a fair judgement.

 

[TillyMarigold]

On Friday, September 11, we were scheduled to take the Wild by Design tour, for which we had to be at the gates to the AK at 8:15. We knew this tour included a continental breakfast midway through, so we didn't want to have a big breakfast. So the night before, we bought a box of Entenman's doughnuts in the gift shop. I think they were $3, but they were definitely not available for a snack credit. We each had a couple with our coffee, before we headed to the bus.

The tour is from 8:30-12:00 or so, including a break at about 10 am for breakfast in a back room of Pizzafari. Our tour guides took our drink orders and then gave them to the Pizzafari staff and showed us around the restaurant, pointing out the different themes of each room and asking us to guess what they were. (That's the point of the Wild by Design tour.) When we got back to the room we were in (the one that's on the right past the ordering area), there was a platter of muffins, Danishes, and fruit, and our drinks. While we were there, we talked about the theme of the room we were in. And let me just take a moment to say that the two women on the tour with me and Chernabog were the two dumbest people I have ever met. The only thing I heard them say, other than at breakfast, was "Could they get out?" every time we passed by an animal exhibit. (So we heard lots about the way Disney makes invisible barriers to prevent that happening.) I couldn't figure out what tour they thought they were on, but they seemed to think the whole idea of theming was dumb, and turned up their noses at the chance to get the very first FastPasses for Expedition Everest (our tour guide did explain that even though the return time was right away, we'd be able to use them all day) and for the Safari (which we passed by not long after, but of course our EE FPs were already mature so we could get another one).

So sitting in that room at Pizzafari, our tour guide is trying very hard to engage them. "What do you think could be the theme of this room? It has a tiger, and a wolf, and a lemur, and a raccoon... does that wall there, the dark blue one with all the big abstract stars, remind you of a famous Impressionist painting, maybe?" The light dawned. "The Scream?" {headdesk}

Yes, we were in the Nocturnal Room. Which does have one wall that is a nearly exact replica of Van Gogh's Starry Night.

I didn't take any photos at the time, but here is the list of rooms at Pizzafari. They are, from front to back: Upside Down (left), Swimming and Flying (right--ordering area), Animals That Carry Their Homes (left), Nocturnal (right), Camouflage (all the way in the back--largest room).

 

[TillyMarigold]

The Wild by Design tour lets out by the end of Pangani Forest Trail, and by then we were pretty hot. We rode the safari, wandered back down to Discovery Island, poked in the shops, and then decided to figure out lunch. Flame Tree didn't seem like such a great idea as it's nearly entirely meaty, and Chernabog decided he really needed something with protein, so we decided on Restaurantosaurus instead of Pizzafari. By the time we got there, it was about 1:15 pm and threatening to rain.

I know a lot of people hate DinoLand USA, saying it's cheap and tacky and doesn't make any sense. Now, I did already happen to know most of the backstory, but since we had taken the tour that morning, I can now tell you all of it. I hope it improves your opinion of Dinoland.

Once upon a time, there was a remote lake with only a few fishing cabins with an attached restaurant [Restaurantosaurus] and a gas station [Chester & Hester's] nearby. A paleontologist happened to stay there and discover dinosaur bones. Excited, he and his Very Serious paleontologist friends bought almost all the surrounding land [DinoLand] and built a fancy-schmancy research center [The Dino Institute and the Boneyard]. However, there were two holdouts: Chester and Hester, who owned the gas station (no one knows if they're a couple, or brother and sister, or what). They refused to sell, partly because they wanted to make a little money off the discovery and partly because they thought the scientists were too stodgy. They converted the gas station/convenience store into a souvenir stand (the pumps are still outside) and the parking lot into a carnival [Din-O-Rama]. They put up a lot of things just to poke fun at the Dino Institute, like the giant yellow cartoonish Cementosaurus that's a parody of the Olden Gate Bridge brontosaurus skeleton replica at the other end of Dinoland. The professors, of course, needed grunts to do all the hard work, so they brought in graduate students and put them up in the former fishing cabins/Restaurantosaurus, which serve as their dorm, lounge, and cafeteria. The grad students have a terrific sense of humor ... well, okay, a bad sense of humor. They are the ones who are responsible for writing "-osaurus" at the end of everything, including RESTAURANT, and for the suction-cup arrows stuck on the water tower, among other things.

When you go into Restaurantosaurus, the "cafeteria" is the ordering area and the dining room to the left. To the right is another dining room/library, above which is the students' bunkroom. If you go through that dining room, you find the student lounge. I'll get to those in a minute.

Okay, so on to the food. We ordered veggie burgers. I took my burger to the toppings bar first, and then Chernabog went and took his, which is why you can see only one burger here:

I had the water (really wanted some that was cold; we did carry water with us but it had warmed up quickly) and the chocolate cake. Chernabog had the carrot cake and a Coke (what else?). The burgers were good, the fries were good. If you like a veggie burger and fries, this was (again) a particularly good example of it. The toppings were all fresh (again, I'm relatively un-picky about produce, since the stuff we get here is so poor, but the stuff at Disney always seemed quite nice). The cakes were both nice and moist. Overall, it was significantly better than the veggie burger you'd get at Burger King, and there's not much more to say.

Most of Restaurantosaurus is made to look like a fishing cabin, with dark wood and heavy furniture. (In fact, the chandeliers in the ordering area are identical to the ones at Wilderness Lodge, except with dinosaurs trekking around them!) For example, here is the view up into the students' bunk room:

You can see the books in the library section, too.

We went and sat in the student lounge, which was obviously meant to be a later addition (sometime in the 1970s) with whitewashed walls, formica tables, and chairs covered with that glittery vinyl you used to find in diners and bowling alleys. If you've been to college, you'll recognize this room: a random mishmash of movie posters, probably-stolen speed limit signs and quirky neon, possibly also stolen ...

(man, it took me forever to get a pic of it almost completely lit up!)

... clever scribbles on the wall, and a dartboard painted on ...

(no darts, probably for safety reasons, but yes it had dart holes)

... and of course an old-fashioned jukebox tucked in a back alcove.

I didn't see anyone but me go up and look at it, which is a shame. Notice the songs—all dino-themed. Some are real songs (like Born to be Wild and Dust in the Wind) and some are modifications of real songs (50 Ways to Dig Your Dino and Oh Pretty Woolly by Roy Orbison). It wasn't functional, unfortunately, although it did seem to be more or less the same songs that were actually playing through the speakers overhead.

Aren't you just a little bit more in love with DinoLand now?

 

[TillyMarigold]

Let me start out by saying that I LOVE African food and also that I LOVE to dress up. The latter of which explains why, even though I was wearing a perfectly nice pair of khaki-colored linen capri pants with a sleeveless sweater that day, I insisted on carrying around a skirt all day to wear for dinner.

The former, of course, explains why, on the theory of "saving the best for last," we had our dinner on Friday night at Jiko.

Jiko was the meal we had been most excited about all along, and it definitely did not disappoint and was far and away the best meal of our trip.

We had gotten to the Animal Kingdom Lodge really early so that we could look around, but unfortunately very few of the animals were visible, although we did have a nice conversation with a CM at one of of the outlooks. We wandered around past the pool, and checked out some of the artwork in the lobby, but we'd already done that a few days before when we had breakfast at Boma. So all in all, we were quite early to our dinner reservation. I think we got there about 6:10 for a 6:40 reservation. The restaurant was open, and some people were eating, and there were several hostesses, but nonetheless we had to wait about 5-10 minutes to be seated. Which was bizarre--we were sort of just staring at the hostesses and they were staring at us.

In any case, we were eventually given a tour of the restaurant by a hostess who told us it was her first day. Unfortunately I forget her name and her country of origin, except that it wasn't any of the countries from which Disney commonly recruits (i.e. not South Africa, Kenya, or Tanzania). She was very young, very short, very nervous, and trying very hard. Anyway so as I said she took us on a tour around the restaurant first. She told us that the columns have wooden rings around them because women in South Africa wear them around their necks; the more upper-class the woman, the more rings. (She didn't say, but the Internet suggests she was referring to the Ndebele people.) Here is a very artsy picture of the column next to our table:

She also pointed out the <i>jiko</i>, the large oven in the middle of the room, and told us that the walls around the upper level would change color to imitate the sunset. (She neglected to mention something our server told us later, which is that the significance of the birds is that it is a sign of coming prosperity to see birds flying into the sunset.)

I didn't get any photos of it, but the wall did turn dark blue before going back to white and starting over. It did this about every 30-45 minutes, I think. Overall the restaurant was gorgeous, in a very sophisticated, understated way. (Except for the color-changing wall, which was definitely not understated, although still gorgeous.)

The only weird thing was that there were a lot of great seats still available, near the windows and also under the birds on the wall; but we were led to a table at the edge of the second level, and even though the place was mostly empty, there was another couple sitting at a table directly below us. And our hostess had put the silverware and menus on the table on the side next to the aisle, which was really dark. There was recessed lighting above the table on the side away from the aisle (by the railing) but it was very directed so we couldn't read our menus. So we got up and scootched over one seat ... and the manager came rushing over and asked if the table was okay and whether we wanted to move! We explained that no, we just wanted to be able to read our menus.

Okay, on to the food. Our server, Paola from Colombia (I think—I've known a lot of Paolas from Colombia so I might be mis-remembering; she could have been from Ecuador, Venezuela, etc.) came and explained the dining plan and took our drink orders. We each asked for a glass of water and a glass of white wine. I forget what wine we had (sorry), but it was really good, although I was disappointed they didn't have the same South African chenin blanc I'd had at Narcoossee's. But the water was yech! It was just regular Florida tap water, not filtered or anything like it had been in other places we'd ordered it. I guess they really want you to order a drink! But we were holding out for fancy African tea with dessert.

So a bit of a bumpy start, altogether. Anyway Paola saw me taking the artsy column picture above and offered to take one of us:

Then the food started arriving:
Savanna Rolls (filled with corn, greens, and goat cheese, served with a curry vinaigrette):

I really liked these, and I don't even like corn! Or spring rolls. But they were yummy, much more flavorful than the description suggests, and the vinaigrette was awesome. Just a little spicy, but not too much.

Swahili Curry Shrimp:

This was easily the yummiest dish I had the whole trip. In fact, it ranks in the top few best dishes I've ever had in my life. It's kind of hard to explain, but there were seven ingredients (curried shrimp, coconut rice, tomatoes, green beans, peas, red peppers, and artichoke hearts). Each ingredient had its own distinct flavor, and each ingredient was very good; and yet any combination of any number of ingredients mixed together to create an entirely new, yet delicious, flavor. The possibilities were endless. Shrimp and rice? Shrimp and rice and tomatoes? Peas and tomatoes? Artichoke hearts and rice? All distinct from each other, yet all heavenly. It was almost like a game. How would the rice be with the tomatoes? How did it change if I had rice, tomatoes, and an artichoke heart? It wasn't just an entree, it was an experience. I'm fairly sure I completely ignored Chernabog the whole time I was eating it.

This was a really big portion and I wasn't able to finish it, although it broke my heart to leave it.

But that's okay, because he had:
Seared Maize Cake with Chakalaka and Beurre Blanc:

Personally I don't like corn, so I wasn't too fond of this, but I could taste why he liked it. The maize cake (a little like cornbread, but denser and less sweet) was served over roasted vegetables with two different spicy sauces. It looked a little boring to me, but he not only wolfed it down and cleaned the plate, but called the manager over to thank her for how seriously the restaurant took vegetarian dining, instead of copping out and serving pasta mixed with vegetables. She told us that the dish was new that week (the previous one had been piquillo peppers stuffed with the maize, so it was the same flavors but in a different form) and she personally couldn't decide which she liked better.

By the way, both entrees were somewhat spicy but not very. Somewhere between "mild" and "medium" at an Indian restaurant, about the same as "mild" at a Thai restaurant. Spicy enough that we noticed but not enough that we had to drink extra water or anything.

I'm a serious dessert fanatic, but dessert at Jiko had a lot to live up to. But we were game! We ordered press pots of tea with our dessert. I'd thought tea was a big deal at Narcoossee's, but Jiko put them to shame with this:
Accompaniments for tea:

Cream, jar of honey, cubes of white sugar and raw sugar, and packets of Splenda and Equal.

My press pot of hot tea, which I think was masala chai. Notice that, again, we got two cups per press pot.

For dessert, I had the:
Meyer Lemon Curd with blueberries and pomegranate compote, sour cream ice cream, and white chocolate biscotto:

This was a similar type of experience to my curry stew: several different foods with various textures and temperatures and flavors, that each worked interestingly together in any combination. The lemon curd and the berries were excellent. Actually the ice cream and biscotto were excellent also, they just didn't taste very much like sour cream or white chocolate (respectively) but instead more like plain cream-flavored ice cream and a plain biscotto (which was fine). It was a nice, light dessert and a nice bright counterbalance to the strong, spicy flavors of the curry.

Chernabog loves crème brulée, but wasn't sure how well it would stand up to chocolate. But against his better judgment, he ordered the:
Pistachio Chocolate Crème Brulée:

This turned out to be absolutely perfect. The crème itself had just a hint of pistachio, and the "chocolate bottom" turned out to be not a thick crust, but just a thin layer of liquid chocolate painted on the bottom of the ramekin before the crème was poured in. So he pronounced this his favorite dessert of the trip.

We decided that Jiko was the only restaurant at which we would willingly pay Disney prices in real life (occasionally ... on very special occasions). I think our total meal came to almost $150 including everything (if we had been paying out of pocket). It had the best food both in terms of how much we liked the things on their menu and how well-prepared everything was for what it was. The service was not the best we had, but Paola was the second server of the trip to earn herself a 20% tip.

 

[somethingblue]

Totally loving your reviews!!

 

[Linda67]

Wonderful review of Jiko
I am beginning to think we should try to get an ADR for our March trip
I eat fish but not meat and this looks like a perfect choice
Thanks for sharing

 

[TillyMarigold]

Wonderful review of Jiko
I am beginning to think we should try to get an ADR for our March trip
I eat fish but not meat and this looks like a perfect choice
Thanks for sharing

Thanks! There were a couple other fish options as well, and you can also get the Swahili Curry Shrimp with tofu instead. I had really thought Chernabog would go for the swordfish, but he was in a vegetarian mood that day.

What part of England? My father-in-law lives just outside Derby, and my sisters-in-law live in Leeds and ... Hertford maybe? (She only just moved wherever it was, and she travels a lot so it seems like she's never there anyway.)

Jiko was the best meal of the trip, but we had good seafood and good vegetarian options everywhere we went.

 

[TillyMarigold]

On Saturday, we planned to be at the Studios for Rope Drop at morning EMH, but it was absolutely pouring and miserable out, so we didn't get there until 8:20.

We grabbed TSM FPs, rode, then headed over to Starring Rolls for breakfast.

We were, unfortunately, among the first unfortunates to learn that Starring Rolls had stopped selling lox, which both of us love. So we settled for splitting a chocolate chip muffin and a plain bagel with cream cheese (two snack credits, except I think the cream cheese was OOP) and two cups of coffee. All pretty good. We huddled under an umbrella on the patio (snagged the last empty table).

Later, we bought more coffee at the Writer's Stop, which was also pretty good.

 

[Linda67]

Thanks! There were a couple other fish options as well, and you can also get the Swahili Curry Shrimp with tofu instead. I had really thought Chernabog would go for the swordfish, but he was in a vegetarian mood that day.

What part of England? My father-in-law lives just outside Derby, and my sisters-in-law live in Leeds and ... Hertford maybe? (She only just moved wherever it was, and she travels a lot so it seems like she's never there anyway.)

Jiko was the best meal of the trip, but we had good seafood and good vegetarian options everywhere we went.

Hello again and Merry Christmas.
I am based in London but I am originally from Leicester which is not far from Derby at all - enjoy the holidays

 

[TillyMarigold]

Sci-Fi had been one of Chernabog's requests, even though the Unofficial Guide said to avoid it at all costs. Overall, we're glad we ignored them and ate there anyway.

I should add that earlier that day, we got some bad news, so we were a little distracted during the meal because Chernabog was trying to call his family in the UK. Also, most of the pictures are really ugly, because I was trying not to use a flash, and I hadn't yet figured out how to take high-speed pictures with my camera. (I figured it out on our last night, after dinner, so there won't be any pictures taken at that setting.)

We had a 12:00 reservation and checked in about 11:50. We waited a couple minutes (by the way, at the time there was no wait for walk-ups for the picnic tables, 20 minutes for walk-ups for the cars ... of course if you have a reservation, you're guaranteed a car).

Since there were two of us, we were seated in the back of a car behind a family of four (parents, teenage girl, boy about 7). Since the cars are sort of angled, we could easily see the screen between/around them.

I forget our waitress's name but she was really good, so I feel bad about that. Anyway so we ordered our drinks:

Real cherry Coke (made with cherry syrup) for me and strawberry milkshake for Chernabog. These were excellent, although ISTR that Chernabog had to let his melt a little before he could really drink it. But it was still excellent.

We also ordered the onion rings as an appetizer, by Chernabog's request:

These were ... well, they were onion rings. Onion rings can go wrong in a lot of ways; the batter can be too thick (think Burger King's onion rings), or they can be greasy, or the onion in the middle can slide out of the batter when you bite it, leaving an empty tube of batter. These had none of those problems, which is pretty impressive because when was the last time that you had onion rings that didn't? But I mean, I like onion rings, these were good onion rings and we ate most of them, but they were ... just onion rings.

Chernabog was apparently still in a vegetarian mood, because he ordered the
Seared Marinated Tofu

It was served with a mango glaze (not vegan), over vegetables and rice. He says the flavors were good but the tofu itself was not great, maybe it would have been better if it had been in smaller pieces because it was just a couple big limp pieces and it might have soaked up the marinated better and been firmer in smaller pieces. The tofu was basically serving as a delivery medium for the sauce and the vegetables and rice, which were all very good. He did think it was another example of Disney doing something interesting for vegetarians, so it got for that.

I ordered the Shrimp Pasta (bow tie pasta and sauteed shrimp tossed with artichoke hearts, Kalamata olives, baby spinach and feta cheese) without the olives. When I asked if I could get it without olives, our awesome waitress warned me that it also had sun-dried tomatoes and capers and asked if those would be okay, which I really appreciated, even though I love sun-dried tomatoes and capers.

This was actually really good. In general I think comparisons between Sci-Fi and Applebee's are pretty fair, and this was definitely the type of dish you'd see at Applebee's, but the quality was much better. Unfortunately for Sci-Fi, however, it was fairly similar in composition to what I'd had the night before at Jiko, and it suffered by the comparison to them. I mean, all the ingredients were still good and fresh and tasty, but they didn't play off each other as amazingly as they had at Jiko.

We had been going to skip dessert, but the waitress brought us the menus, and Chernabog decided he needed apple crumble, I think because crumble is a very typical British dessert and he was missing his family.

He said this was very good crumble, well-made, good quality ingredients, but nothing special.

I really was still not going to order dessert, but the waitress swore up and down that if I had the Celebration cheesecake (with caramel sauce and "treats") I wouldn't regret it, so I ordered it (minus the caramel sauce) even though I thought it sounded weird:

She was right. The cheesecake was lighter and fluffier than cheesecake usually is, and even though I know it sounds utterly bizarre, to take a piece of caramel corn or a bit of chocolate (or both) on the spoon and then take a spoonful of the cheesecake was absolutely heavenly. This was probably really the standout of the meal (unless it was Chernabog's milkshake). (By the way, the chocolate was like generic M&M's, they were a little softer and tasted a tiny bit different.)

Of course the reason one goes to Sci-Fi is for the drive-in movie experience, and that was pretty fun. I was more fascinated by the ambiance and the way they'd really made it look like you were outside at a drive-in, than the movies per se, although we did have fun laughing at them, of course. As others have said, the loop of the movies is too short, only about 45 minutes, so we had an overlap of about 10 minutes at the end of stuff that had been playing at the start (and it was the boring "Now is the time to visit the snack bar" stuff, too).

Overall: the food was good* and we were glad we had the experience, and the waitress was excellent. But we don't think we'd go back again unless we wanted to have the experience again ... maybe someday after we've experienced all the other restaurants at the Studios together. On the other hand, we would definitely recommend it, and if we were with someone who wanted to go there, we would definitely be happy to go.

*By the way, the food at Sci-Fi, which ranged from good to very good, was the worst food we had at any TS restaurant. That's not a criticism of Sci-Fi; it's praise for Disney, who could easily serve bad food and people would buy it anyway. If all the food we'd had, had been only as good as Sci-Fi, we would still have been happy with the quality ... although possibly not as happy if the food hadn't been free.

 

[mlg32]

Thanks so much for all of the reviews, I am really enjoying reading them on this peaceful Christmas Eve. I think I ordered the same curry dish at Jiko and I loved the peas, I wish I could figure out how to cook them correctly.

 

[Linda67]

Great review of Si Fi. I had the Tofu last time we were there and I agree it needed to be cut into smaller chunks in order to take on more of the flavours

 

[TillyMarigold]

Should I call this "The Return of Wolfgang Puck Express" or "Wolfgang Puck: the Rematch" or something? Anyway, on that Saturday night we had tickets to Cirque du Soleil, so after spending a couple hours at the Magic Kingdom, we caught the bus to Saratoga Springs and from there to DTD. (Honestly, I wish we'd ignored the bus driver who told us we'd get lost if we tried to walk to DTD, because even if we'd gotten lost it would probably still have been faster! Oh well.)

I should mention that both our WPE meals were at the Marketplace location, by the way.

Wolfgang Puck Express, as you'll remember from my first review of it, uses Niman Ranch for its beef and pork products, so we felt we could eat those things there. (Our objection is not to eating animals per se, but to factory farming.) Which means that for dinner, I had one of my favorite things in the world, for the first time in about eight years:

Roast beef sandwich!

Roast beef, cheddar, lettuce, tomato, horseradish sauce, and dijon aioli, on focaccia.

Honestly, this was just eh. I mean, it was all good quality, especially the bread (and tomatoes!); but it didn't hit that thin-sliced-rare-roast-beef craving ... it was shredded rather than sliced, and medium-well rather than medium-rare (I know, I know, medium rare roast beef is probably dangerous). And the "aioli" drowned out both the dijon and the horseradish, and a good roast beef sandwich needs a nice solid amount of hot mustard or horseradish or both. This sauce tried, but failed. So. Nice enough sandwich, but this was the one item on the trip that failed to meet my expectations.

The chips were housemade parmesan potato chips and they were ... this is going to sound weird. They were good, but not as good as you'd think they were from the fact that we just could not stop eating them. I don't know if they had some illegal substance sprinkled on them or what, but they were seriously addictive.

Chernabog claimed he wasn't hungry (think he was worried about his family) and only wanted a salad. So he ordered this:

Rotisserie Beef Salad:

Yeah, that would be a salad with a WHOLE PILE OF BEEF ON TOP. In any case, it was the same beef as on my sandwich, served over lettuce, tomato, and onion, with Gorgonzola on top and what claimed to be a horseradish Caesar dressing but was again lacking in the horseradish department.

He really liked this, actually, although he only ate half of it (and half of my chips). The only thing he didn't like was the bread thing, which was essentially a slice of cold pizza. You can call it a "sundried tomato flatbread" if you want, but really, it was cold pizza.

I think with that, I got a bottle of water and the crème brulée and Chernabog got a bottle of water and a Coke maybe? Anyway it was about this time that people started reporting that WPE didn't allow crème brulée on the dining plan. They most definitely did for me.

The crème brulée (of which I apparently have no pictures) was outstanding fast food crème brulée ... which is to say, it couldn't hold a candle to any of the TS crème brulées we'd had. But it was still pretty good. We shared it.

I should have mentioned (maybe I did? I started this report so long ago) that restaurants like WPE are really common where I live, and so that's what we were comparing WPE to: the local chain of cafés that has the system where you order at a counter and your food is brought to your table. Overall, WPE was about on par with them in terms of both food quality and price, but we prefer the selection of our local place.

I doubt we'd make a special trip to DTD just to eat at WPE, in any case, but it's definitely worth eating at if you're down there.

 

[flamingglobessigmund]

I saw the statement in your location, which is something my husband has said a few times to people. I clicked on your TR link and see you live in the Land of Enchantment as do we!

I've enjoyed reading your reviews. My son is a vegan and it's always interesting and informative for me to read what others think of the vegetarian options at WDW.

By the way, we stayed at POFQ in May 09. It was a nice change of pace to NM but man, that rain was exhausting.

 

[TillyMarigold]

I saw the statement in your location, which is something my husband has said a few times to people. I clicked on your TR link and see you live in the Land of Enchantment as do we!

I've enjoyed reading your reviews. My son is a vegan and it's always interesting and informative for me to read what others think of the vegetarian options at WDW.

By the way, we stayed at POFQ in May 09. It was a nice change of pace to NM but man, that rain was exhausting.

I've actually never had anyone ask me whether New Mexico is part of the United States or not, I've always considered it sort of an urban legend. A lot of people assume we're in Arizona though (maybe because Albuquerque starts with A?). Anyway ... man, vegan in New Mexico would be tough! I'm not sure most people here consider it food without cheese on it!

Anyway, I've been slacking because I've been depressed about getting to the end of the dining report, but that's okay, because now WE'RE GOING BACK!!!

The main professional organization in my field holds its conference every May, alternating sides of the Mississippi (2009 was Phoenix, 2008 was Pittsburgh,...) Until this year, the next location was always a big secret until it was announced on the last day of the conference. So when (back in March/April 2009) I booked our September 2009 vacation, I didn't know yet than in May 2010 I'd have to be in Orlando again so soon!

And in a further stroke of luck, in May 2009 they changed the policy to always announce the conference locations two years out, so I know that 2011 will be in Santa Ana, California (near Disneyland!) And this is particularly lucky because if they'd changed the policy a year earlier (and announced Orlando 2010 in May 2008), I would never have been able to convince my DH to go to Orlando in September knowing we'd go back in May. But this way, since September was already booked, we had decided we might as well keep it...

So when we were there in September, we upgraded to annual passes. We had just about decided to do CBR + DDP when the new AP rates were released, so we booked AKL instead! 6 nights, pool view. It was a big debate between AKL (DH's favorite resort) and Beach Club (mine) but in the end (1) transportation to/from AKL gets better reviews despite being farther away, and (2) Beach Club would have put us a bit over the budget we'd set for ourselves. I'm a little nervous, though--all of a sudden, after we booked, the boards are covered with people complaining about the AKL buses.


But we'll see--we have a dinner and breakfast booked at Boma, dinner at Jiko, and lunch at Sanaa, so we'll be spending a lot of time around our hotel anyway! Animal Kingdom is our favorite park, so hopefully the transportation to other places won't be bad enough to cancel out the benefits of having AK practically at our front door.