Biergarten
Germany Pavillion - Epcot
Sept. 23, 2007
You may notice I am missing a meal or two.
I do believe that after Chef Mickey's,
we went to the Pop Century food court.
I can't find my notes, and I know it wasn't too exciting,
so I'll skip that for now.
And now that I have this review done,
I realized I also forgot Pizza Planet.
But, never fear, I will do the PPlanet report,
even if it is out of order.
So, on to Biergarten!
We were going to spend the day at MGM,
and then hop over to Epcot for a 4 pm dinner ADR at Biergarten.
If you have been following my report since the beginning,
you know that I have felt trepidation over this ADR.
I have heard sooooo many mixed reviews,
was worried about the group seating,
and all around just not sure.
And, on a funny note...
When I was growing up,
my grandparents had a neighbor who was a bachelor farmer,
and also a bit of a drinker.
He spent a lot of time down at the bar.
But I never once heard my grandparents say that.
They always said, "There goes Pete, off to the Biergarten."
So they'd probably be shocked and appalled that we were taking my Mom
AND my kids to the Biergarten.
We left MGM after waiting a bit for a bus.
This was making me nervous!
We had time to get to our ADR, but not A LOT of time,
and we still needed to get all the way back to Germany from the front of the park!
As we stood at the bus stop at MGM, it started to rain.
By the time we got to Epcot, it was really coming down.
That meant that we had to slog all the way back to Germany in a steady downpour.
It was another “Just Keep Swimming” moment, only almost literally this time! One foot in front of the other, we slowly made our way back.
Here is actually documentation of the event:
When we arrived at Biergarten and checked in, we were fine for time.
What a relief!
Let me just say the the waiting area at Biergarten
leaves MUCH to be desired.
Strollers are parked everywhere, people trying to stay dry.
I wish I had taken a picture.
We finally snagged one of the tables outside there
(I believe they belong to the CS restaurant,
so apologies if we took your table,
but it was necessary in the interest of crowd control!
There wasn’t anyone standing around looking for one,
so I don’t feel so bad.)
They FINALLY called our name after a bit of a wait.
I was kind of worried that we would all be freezing
after being so soaking wet, but it actually was not bad at all.
We were seated at a table for ten, which was great.
I think it did help to have an early seating.
Smaller groups definitely run into the possibility
of being at a table with other people,
which would be kind of weird,
but not the worst thing ever.
Babycakes liked the shiny table:
We were seated on the upper tier.
There are also tables down on the floor by the stage.
Our servers were excellent, very attentive and friendly.
The decor here is awesome.
It was hard to take decent pics, as it is supposed to be night time,
so it's very dark in there.
You are supposed to believe that you are outside in a German village,
under the stars,
with the October leaves changing,
and the water wheel turning.
You are celebrating Octoberfest with a few hundred of your closest friends.
The servers pointed out the flags of all the German...provinces? States?
And then explained the buffet.
We were really pleased with the selection here.
Mom and I love German food, as we were both raised on it,
and there was still enough basic and just plain good food
that everyone was satisfied.
Potato soup and an assortment of things:
Sausage, salad, pretzel bread, and regular bread:
John was extremely well pleased with his Beeeeeeer Flight.
He also was pleased with all the meat and potatoes.
And yes, that's a Diet Coke on the side.
The entertainment soon started, and we really enjoyed it!
The band members sang, played their instruments, played the cowbells(!),
and the alpinehorn (I think it’s called something like that)
- which of course is the horn from the Ricola commercial.
It was really fun. Several couples got up and danced.
I can remember several weddings from my childhood that had polka music,
and it was a lot like that.
It was totally a German party,
and my mom and I understand German parties!
Mom seemed really comfortable here.
I think it was that it was familiar,
but it also may have been because of this:
Yup, that's mom's beer. She enjoyed it!
[You can also see a lemonade in the backgroud.
Their glass mugs were really cool.]
We had joked that it's a good thing we had a
double stroller
in case we had to "help" Mom and John back to the buses.
No, never fear, there is no drunkeness in the Hick's reports.
Mom and John can hold their likker.
Mom kept teasing DisneyGirl that the waiter was fond of her.
(He
was kind of handsome.)
He was also a good waiter, keeping our drinks filled and clearing plates.
We did check out the bathrooms here, (when do we not?)
and they were very nice.
All in all, I was sooooooo glad I made this ADR.
We are even hoping to go back next time.
So if you want basic good food, with a German twist,
in a German party atmosphere,
check out Biergarten!
Next up: The Lost Food Report - "Pizza Planet Pleases"
Come on along!
