Tonight's dinner was going to be at Whispering Canyon Cafe - another one which I had gone back and forth on. This ADR was originally meant to be Liberty Tree Tavern, but I'd changed it and luckily bagged a 7pm at WCC.
However, we were running late again tonight (this will be a regular occurance!), around 15mins late! But they were really cool about it and gave us our very first pager. I got picked on before we even checked in, as this little old guy made fun of my 'First Visit' pin! Now I have to say about the Wilderness Lodge - it is just beautiful. Me and Els walked through the door and our jaws hit the floor! It just feels so homely and really feels like you're in a Lodge somewhere else.
We only had to wait 5 minutes before we were paged, and we were sat in a booth the other side of the check-in desk overlooking the lobby - we really loved this position as we could see the goings on in the dining room, but we could also look at the beautiful WL lobby a bit more and watch people coming and going! Our server was Candi Kane and she was a hoot! She sat down on the booth with us and whispered something in a huge Southern accent to me, so I had to tell her - I don't understand your accent! She had a field day with this since she kept claiming, I don't have an accent, you're the one with the accent! (Which I do, I have a Welsh accent) so we had some fun there.
We ordered our food, and drinks (a Sprite for both of us) and she brought them in the little jars and tossed our straws at us. Of course I didn't want a little jar, so I drank mine in one gulp
Our appetizers soon came out, and as we'd ordered the skillet we got Mixed greens with apple vinaigrette dressing and fresh baked cornbread:
Both portions were just huge for 2 people, and especially since we're not really salad people - but this salad was really good! The dressing worked with the salad, but it wasn't drowning it if you know what I mean. However we hardly made a dent in it! I also tried a piece of cornbread as I'd never tried it before. I have nothing to compare it by, but I thought it tasted good and a bit sweeter than I'd imagined it to be.
By now, Candi Kane had noticed my super speedy drinking skills and with a "Thirsty girl are you?!" she was off again, and soon returned with a super huge jar... this was more like it! The poor table next to us had arrived the same time as us and like us had never eaten here before, but unlike us, I don't think they'd done their homework before coming as they genuinely looked shock when it rained straws and this huge jar arrived at our table:
One thing I hadn't been expecting with the jar was the huge straw - except it wasn't really a straw, but more like a plastic pipe! That thing just could not be bent and to drink I either had to stand up, or prop the jar next to me in the booth!
Our entree, the skillet quickly came out and consisted of mashed potatoes,
coleslaw, cowboy beans, seasonal vegetables, smoked pork ribs, pulled pork, oven-roasted chicken, Peel-n-Eat shrimp:
I'll try and remember the items one by one.
Mash potatoes: These were really good, fluffy and lots of flavour - and no lumps! Always a bonus!
Coleslaw: I really liked this! I don't like coleslaw over here in the UK as I don't like the dressing, but this coleslaw was much sweeter than the one we have so I really liked it.
Beans: I don't like beans so I didn't try these, but Els did and he thought they were very good.
Veggies: I think they mean the corn with this right? I love corn on the cob and this was no exception - not overcooked in the slightest!
Ribs: Els loved these, but I wasn't too keen since they were a bit too fatty for me.
Pulled Pork: This was sooo much better than I thought it would be, and one of our favourite things from the skillet. The pork wasn't fatty at all and the meat was so tender. Els enjoyed this especially since it was the only thing we ordered seconds of - however I was waaay too full to have a bite!
Chicken: We don't usually eat chicken on the bone, but there was loads of white meat on these and they weren't dry at all, but very tender.
Shrimp: I had these all to myself since Els doesn't like shrimp! They had some kind of dressing on them which was really tasty - it was a bit messy as peel and eat shrimp always are, but it was a huge portion and the shrimp were a good size!
Overall: We really enjoyed the skillet! There's a really good variety of items and I bet even the fussiest person could find something. As I said before I'm quite fussy with meat as I hate fat, but the only thing that I wasn't too keen on were the ribs. The BBQ sauce was really good with everything too! You can order seconds on anything, but I was just too full, plus I wanted to save room for dessert!
Candi Kane came around and asked about dessert, but I already knew what I wanted and I knew what Els would choose too: CHEESECAKE! So we both ordered the S'more Cheesecake:
(Apologies, I totally forgot to take a photo so I found this one on the Food Porn thread - I hope that's okay with the person who took it)
OMG This cheesecake was one of the best cheesecakes I have ever had! It was soooo good, you have got to try this cheesecake! The Chocolate, Caramel and Marshmallows was a really good combination and despite being full to the brim I demolished mine!
Ambience: This was a really cool restaurant! I really like the setting, that it's practically in the lobby of the WL and that you can see everyone come and go. It can get pretty loud in here, but it's all part of the fun, and we were lucky enough to see some WCC action! We saw a couple of teens on the hobby horses singing happy birthday, we saw all the ketchup coming and going, we saw and participated in some napkin twirling, and what had us in stitches was a little girl who had a birthday cake nearby and Candi Kane cut herself the first slice and stuffed it in her mouth - it was hilarious!
You can just see Candi Kane in this shot.
The big drinks were a nice touch too! We'd love to have had a bottomless milkshake but we didn't think a belly full of milk and meat would be a good idea! The drink really conquered me!
H RATING: 9/10
E RATING: 9/10
WOULD WE EAT HERE AGAIN? Definately, we plan on eating here on our first night next trip! It isn't gourmet food, but it's good food and the restaurant is SO much fun, we had a blast! Although I can see that what type of experience you get very much depends on the server.