We Got to Eat Dessert for Lunch and Dinner...Our Family on the Dining Plan

[c&m]

Breakfast
Crystal Palace. Our ADR was at 9:20am. We actually didn't get seated until 9:45am. It was extremely crowded at the entrance.

Again, the time difference and the travelling didn't really make us all that hungry for breakfast. But I don't think this place was all about dining. It was a character breakfast with Winnie the Pooh, Eeyore, Tigger, and Piglet. They made the rounds and we got autographs from all the characters.

There were lots of food at this buffet: Fresh fruit, yogourt, smoked salmon, sausages, bacon, potato casserole, corned beef hash, pastries, breakfast lasagne, scrambled eggs, made to order omelets, cereals, waffles, puffed French toast, doughnuts, etc.

Puffed French toast, scrambled eggs, potato casserole, corned beef hash, bacon, sausage, smoked salmon, strawberries:

Made to order omelet, smoked salmon, strawberries:

A Mickey waffle:

The breakfast lasagne:

The stand-outs were the breakfast lasagne and the puffed French toast. The puffed French toast was quite rich though and was filling. I wonder how many calories one of those babies have???

Verdict: / 5 A good breakfast, but fairly standard stuff.
How we paid: 4 TS credits
If I can have a do-over: I'd save this breakfast for later on in the trip. Still not really hungry as we were all still on West Coast time.


Lunch
Not really exciting at all. We went to Pecos Bill for hamburgers. The burgers came with fries. Our desserts were carrot cake. It was surprisingly moist and yummy. My DD9 got grapes and chocolate pudding. Though the burgers were not exciting, the fixings were quite impressive. There was a "buffet" of fixings that included mushrooms, tomatoes, lettuce, onions, salsa, cheddar cheese, ketchup, etc. Sorry no pics here to show as we were tired, not thinking, desperately in need of a break from the crowds. We didn't really manage to avoid the crowds as Pecos Bill was busy and difficult to find a table.

Verdict: / 5 The burgers were very mediocre. What really saved this burger and this review are the fixings and the carrot cake. If not for the fixings, it'd be a really sad looking bun with a tiny little beef patty in it.
How we paid: 4 CS credits
If I can have a do-over: I'd have picked somewhere less busy, crowded, with better, healthier food.

Snack Break!
DH got a Mickey ice cream sandwich. DD13 and I got Edy's frozen strawberry bars. DD9 got frozen strawberry lemonade.
Verdict: / 5
How we paid: 4 Snack credits
If I can have a do-over: I'd eat another frozen strawberry bar. Too yummy!

Dinner
Wolfgang Puck Express. We decided to leave MK for dinner at Downtown Disney. The crowds at MK got to us. (Side note: Of all the parks during our stay, MK was always busy all the time. Epcot and AK were never busy, so we spent a lot of time there.)

Here's how this place works: You order at the cashier, go fill your soda drinks/coffee/tea with the cups they give you, find a table and display the number they give you, and a server will come by to give you your meals. It's sorta like a CS, but sorta not. We loved this place and had a hard time for the rest of the trip deciding whether to come here or EOS.

ME: I had the roast chicken with mashed potatoes. The roast chicken was not as juicy as what I make at home, but the mashed potatoes were absolutely heavenly!

DH: He ordered the BBQ chicken quesadilla (the winner of the night!).

DD13: She ordered the Spaghetti with Tomato, Basil, and Garlic. Very tasty pasta.

DD9: She ordered the chicken strips with fries. It was the best chicken strips and fries we've ever had off a kids menu. Yum!

For dessert, we ordered 2 creme brulees, 1 chocolate brownie (so we can compare to EOS), and 1 fruit cup. The brownie had chocolate chips in it and for us, it was too over the top chocolatey. But the creme brulee was the winner here. It was perfect in every way.

Verdict: / 5 Not a perfect score because we were utterly disappointed by the brownie and the chicken was drier than I expected.
How we paid: 4 CS credits
If I can have a do-over: I'd try the Chinois Chicken Salad.

 

[c&m]

While the DDs were full from the WPE dinner, I figured it'd be a good time to wander over to Goofy's Candy Co. The girls were too full to "want" anything from there. Good strategy, eh?

Here're some pics of some of their impressive treats:

 

[javaj]

Love your reviews! You just convinced me to go check out Tokyo Dining

 

[Ciciwoowoo]

I really shouldn't read these reviews before lunch...

Yum!!!

Thank you for sharing!

 

[Sandy321]

HOLY MOLY That Mickey is $49.95!!!

How much rice krispy can that be!!

and I've never been to CP for Breakfast, I've heard about breakfast lasagna - that picture looked gross!! (disclaimer, I'm not feeling 100%!! )

Good review!

Pecos Bill - I've heard they dont have chairs anymore - just stools, so that would make me hesitant... do they have BBQ ribs there? The burgers do seem to be getting smaller - we get dbl burgers...

 

[c&m]

I think Tokyo Dining and Teppan Edo are well worth dining at. They ended up being some of the best meals if you're searching for quality.

And I'm hungry myself thinking about all that good food we had. I actually think my stomach stretched out during the dining plan.

HOLY MOLY That Mickey is $49.95!!!

How much rice krispy can that be!!

and I've never been to CP for Breakfast, I've heard about breakfast lasagna - that picture looked gross!! (disclaimer, I'm not feeling 100%!! )

Good review!

Pecos Bill - I've heard they dont have chairs anymore - just stools, so that would make me hesitant... do they have BBQ ribs there? The burgers do seem to be getting smaller - we get dbl burgers...

I did wonder if anybody ever buys that big Mickey rice krispy head for $49.95.
The breakfast lasagna doesn't look too appetizing, I'll have to agree...but it was definitely a taste sensation I didn't anticipate. It is a concoction of bread pudding/fruit/custard that wasn't too sweet, just sweet enough. I can subsist on this dish alone.

You can only sit on stools at Pecos Bill, you are correct. I wasn't expecting this kind of setup. I didn't see any BBQ ribs on their menu, just burgers. I'm almost certain of that...but just in case, you may want to double-check the allears.net menus. My DD13 did get a double burger, but that looked like a standard size burger, which is kind of sad when it's supposed to be a double burger.

More later tonight, I hope...we have to go to a BBQ dinner at DD13's school.

 

[GoofySon'sMom]

I did wonder if anybody ever buys that big Mickey rice krispy head for $49.95.

Would be a cool treat to bring back to the office ... if I won the lottery or something!

Can't wait for the rest of the reviews!

 

[Reagan&Co.]

Great trip report so far!

Just say NO to the breakfast lasagna, though! Gotta say that the pic did look G-R-O-S-S!!!

 

[c&m]

Great trip report so far!

Just say NO to the breakfast lasagna, though! Gotta say that the pic did look G-R-O-S-S!!!

Maybe I should have taken a pic of a breakfast lasagna that wasn't so dug into. In retrospect, you're right...it does look kind of gross! But BELIEVE ME, it really was tasty!

 

[c&m]

Breakfast
Kona Cafe. Again, we woke up early for an 8:45am ADR and were not hungry at all. We were seated right away. We decided to share our meals, me with DD9 and DH with DD13.

I ordered the Big Kahuna which was a little of everything.

DH ordered the Tonga Toast, which came with the condiments (strawberry sauce, butter, syrup.

DH had the Kona coffee which he said was very good. He didn't get the pressed coffee pot because that would've been too much for him to drink alone. I'm not much of a coffee companion because I don't drink coffee or anything with caffeine.

It was a good thing we shared. The Tonga Toast was very filling. My DH and DD13 really enjoyed it. The Big Kahuna was very good too, though the winning item on that plate were the macadamia nut pancakes with the pineapple topping. Simply scrumptious.

Verdict: / 5 The Tonga Toast was clearly worth the hype. And the macadamia nut pancakes that have been touted on these boards were everything everyone says about them!
How we paid: OOP
If I can have a do-over: I'd just have an entire order of the macadamia nut pancakes.

 

[c&m]

Lunch
Teppan Edo. We couldn't get a dinner ADR here so we settled for a lunch. We went at opening time, so there was a special opening ritual the staff did in front of us, which was very interesting. Then we were taken to our table. We shared the table with another family with adult children from upstate NY. They were very nice.

For drinks, DH and I ordered the amazing iced green tea. It was not sweetened and was absolutely refreshing to drink. Loved it! And the best part was they kept refilling without being asked.

DH and ME: We each ordered the beef filet.

DD13: She ordered the Chicken and Shrimp. I don't know why, but I neglected to take a pic of her dish.

DD9: She ordered the kids menu chicken teriyaki.

All the meats came with mushrooms, udon noodles with veggies, 3 different dipping sauces (ginger, mustard, teriyaki), and a bowl of rice. Here are pics of our chef Mariko doing her thing:

The smoking onion volcano was a blast to watch her create. Dessert for our adult meals were the ginger chocolate cake.

We knew not to order the green tea pudding from our previous experience at Tokyo Dining. Dessert for DD9's kiddie meal was a fruit cup.

Verdict: / 5
How we paid: 4 TS credits
If we can have a do-over: I'd change nothing. This was perfect in every way, from service and food quality to entertainment.

 

[c&m]

Dinner
We decided to head to WPE to have dinner. The DDs really enjoyed their first meal there and really wanted more creme brulee!!! Off we went...

ME: I had the Chinois Chicken Salad.

DH: He had the Margherita pizza.

DD13: She had the BBQ chicken quesadilla.

DD9: She had the kiddie cheese pizza.

For dessert:

DH was the only one who opted not to get the creme brulee and got the fruit cup. However, before anyone praises him for his will power, he ate bites and bites of everyone's creme brulees.

Verdict: / 5 Not perfect because the salad, though good, was not as good as the salads I've eaten at the Cheesecake Factory.
How we paid: 4 CS credits
If we can have a do-over: I'd have had the spaghetti, basil and garlic dish that my DD had the first time we were there.

 

[BeccaGrace]

Your reviews and commentary are so wonderful! I love the do-over portion -- very helpful in planning our upcoming trip. Thanks for sharing!

 

[CanadianPaco]

What fabulous pics! Thx!

 

[gardengirl628]

I'm here and can't wait to read more!!! Thanks for sharing!

 

[bedillamouse]

I'm enjoying the reviews....We're going in dec but I'm not going to get to eat at the fun places...or at least the places where they serve other than American food. My FIL is going with us and is extremely picky eater so we're sticking with plain food for the most part! Looking forward to more.

 

[Disneyaunt4]

Thanks for sharing,great reviews!!!!

 

[c&m]

For those of you who want to see the EOS pics, please go back to page 1, post 6. Thank you!

 

[Jump4Joy8390]

We were there around the same time as you were (Aug 24 to 28 - boy, wasn't it hot?), and ate at many of the same restaurants! I'm finding it really interesting to read your comments because we felt very much the same. Can't wait to hear the rest! Your pics are really great, btw.

 

[c&m]

I am very sorry for my absence lately in updating my review. These past 2-3 weeks since school and soccer season began have been brutal. I've been torn in so many different directions. My head is literally spinning.

Thank you to all who have been following along and many thanks for your kind comments.

Tonight, I finally have some time to myself...so I'll quickly try to finish off this dining review, because I don't know when I'd have these precious moments again.

Lunch...SciFi Dine-In
My pics here didn't turn out as well, because this place is so dark. We came here, not for the food but for the ambiance. Surprisingly, the food was not all that bad. We stuck to the burgers and shakes, and we were very satisfied. It was one of the quietest meals we had...not a word...the kids were too absorbed in the clips being played

Me, DH and DD13 all had the same burger and strawberry shakes.

DD9 had the kiddie meal of meaty macaroni. She really enjoyed it. Sorry, I didn't take a pic of this one.

For dessert, DD9 had a sundae.

ME: I had the peanut butter chocolate cake.

DH & DD13 had the apple crumble because they both adore any dessert that have apples in them (i.e. apple pie, apple crisp, apple strudel...you get the drift...).

Verdict: / 5 Very satisfying meal. Not gourmet by any means. It's all about the ambiance.
How we paid: 4 TS credits
If I can have a do-over: I'd have tried some of the appies such as the onion rings -- felt like I missed out on something yummy in the appie menu.