When You Wish Upon An ADR...3 Adults Dine in Disney - UPDATED 26/6 - Kringla Og

[Tink2312]

Hi all,

Well, here I am 2 months after we flew home from our trip to the world, remembering (and salivating over) all the wonderful food we sampled while on the trip!

Guess I'd better start off with the cast (seen as they've snuck into some of the photos I was meant to be taking of just the food!):

Me (Catherine) - Total Disney obsessive and the main trip planner - maker of all the ADRs
I'm not a fussy eater and would've been a lot more adventurous with the restaurants on this trip, but had to gradually introduce parents to the art of eating in WDW

Mum - Loves Disney and good food but has some digestion problems so mainly has to stick to non-spicy, less adventurous foods.

Dad - Loves Disney and enjoys food (and lots of it). Has borderline Type 2 diabetes so has to watch what he's eating and tries to steer clear of the desserts.

So with all needs taken into account we decided the safest option was to stick some buffets into the mix along with some of the most recommended eateries from the DIS

So the restaurants we ended up eating at were:

Earl of Sandwich - Dinner
Boma Thanksgiving Dinner
Backlot - Lunch
Hollywood & Vine - Dinner
Raglan Road - Dinner
Ohana - Dinner
Sunshine Seasons - Snack
Everything Pop - Breakfast
Everything Pop - Lunch
Liberty Inn - Dinner
Sci-Fi - Lunch
Pepper Market - Lunch
Kringla Bakeri Og Cafe - Dinner
Columbia Harbour House - Lunch
Tusker House - Dinner
Earl of Sandwich x2 - Lunch

Right, I think that's the background taken care of! I'll update soon with my first review.
Thanks for looking
Catherine

 

[wilma-bride]

Looking forward to it

 

[TigerKat]

Looking forward to your reviews!

 

[50 years Too!]

Looking forward to your reviews.

Deb

 

[arieljasmine]

Subscribing, looking forward to your reviews.

Laur's

 

[phabric]

Looking forward to your reviews as we plan on eating at some of them

 

[mindyd]

can't wait for your reviews we are staying at Pop also.

 

[my3disneygirls]

Can't wait!

 

[TruBlu]

Great title!

 

[Minniespal]

Looking forward to reading your reviews

 

[Tink2312]

Ok, I feel a bit weird using a post to explain my reviews before I’ve even started them, but I just wanted to say a bit on the cost and ratings section:

Cost - I’ve added this in as we weren’t on the DDP and thought it would be useful for people using/ considering the DDP to compare the OOP cost.
As we didn’t keep all of the receipts, I’ve calculated the cost of what we ate using menus from the DIS. Also, unless stated, the price is exclusive of tax.
Also, I’ve noted down the cost in GBPounds, which I’ve calculated using the exchange rate of 1.9. This was the rate we received while we were over there when we used credit cards etc.

Ratings - Just to let you know, these are out of 5.

Ok, boring bits over… on to the reviews….

 

[Tink2312]

11/21/2007
We’d been to MK today and originally booked Trails End so that we could go straight from the park. Unfortunately, the park was really busy (well it was the day before Thanksgiving), so we decided to go back to the hotel. For the first week we stayed offsite at the Buena Vista Palace, which is opposite DTD. So, when we began to feel a bit like Pooh bear with his grumbly tumbly, we decided to walk over to DTD and try Earl of Sandwich - Fantastic decision!!
I have a bit of a sandwich addiction and will put anything between two slices of bread, so this was heaven for me!

THE MEAL
Me and Mum: Earls Club. This was fantastic.
Dad: Best BLT. He said it was nice but that the bacon was really salty.

The sandwiches were really large and packed full. The ingredients seemed really fresh - no soggy lettuce here! Also, they were really well put together and when you opened the wrapping, didn’t look like they’d been put together during a hurricane (like some fast-food chains I won’t mention)!
Our only complaint is that there’s not enough seating and the inner seating in particular seemed cramped. It’s perhaps best not to go at peak times, as by 7pm we did see people hanging around waiting for tables.
Other than that, Earl of Sandwich is definitely one of our favourite CS location in WDW.

COST
$21.90 - 3 sandwiches, 2 coffees and 1 fountain soda
£11.53

RATING
Atmosphere: 2.5 / 5
Quality of food: 4
Value for money: 4.5
Overall: 4
Would I eat here again: Yes!

Up next... Zebra Domes for Thanksgiving...

 

[arieljasmine]

Great first review. I love Earl of Sandwich though it is like Disney's worst kept secret - it gets so busy!

Laur's

 

[Tink2312]

11/22/2007
We decided to make an ADR at Boma for Thanksgiving as we ate there for Christmas dinner in 2006 and really loved it.
I personally love the marketplace atmosphere and theming at Boma and like the fact the food is on “pods” rather than just in one line. The only criticism about the layout, particularly on Thanksgiving, is that the carved meats are located at the far end of the restaurant, usually attracting a mammoth line snaking back around some of the tables at that end.
The ADR was for 7.30pm and we arrived at AKL at about 7.00pm. We decided to book in early just in case there was any chance of getting to the gorgeous food earlier. We ended up waiting about 20 minutes before our buzzer went off. We were led to the middle right side of the restaurant by the windows, feeling pretty pleased we hadn’t got one of those tables right by the buffet line, as we could see the line for the meats was already huge!

THE MEAL
To begin with, I attacked the salad stations, trying the seafood, potato and curry-cucumber salads, all of with were really tasty. The only thing I wasn’t keen on was the watermelon rind salad. I tried this last time and didn’t like it, so why I put it on my plate again this year I have no idea. It’s just far too bitter and chewy for me; strangely enough my Mum can’t get enough of it!
My Dad’s not a salad person - he likes “real man food not rabbit food” (his words not mine) - so he went straight for the soups. He tried both that were on offer, one being some kind of curried chicken and the other tomato. He said he liked the flavour - particularly the tomato - but said they were only luke-warm.
Now I’ve got to put in a little anecdote here about Dad and his soups. The first time we went for Christmas to Florida, in 2000, it was absolutely bitterly cold for most of the holiday. One of the days we went out to TGI Fridays for some dinner (this was before we knew the words Disney Dining or ADR). As it was so cold, Dad ordered a soup - French Onion I think. Anyway it was served to the table and Dad took one sip and proclaimed “ugh it’s cold”. He called the server over and explained to him that the soup wasn’t warm enough. The server apologised, took said soup back, reheated it and brought it back to the table. Dad took a sip of the (now reheated) soup and again said “it’s only luke-warm”. Again the poor server came back, reheated the soup and brought it back. This time Dad actually finished the soup without comment. When he was finished, I asked “was that nice?”. He replied, “not really, it wasn’t warm enough”. You can imagine my and Mum’s reactions!
Anyway - to cut a long story short- my Dad is very faddy about the temperature of his soup, so I don’t know whether the soups were actually luke-warm or whether the temperature would be satisfactory to anybody but Dad aka asbestos-mouth!
Back to the review, the main courses centred around traditional Thanksgiving - there was turkey, ham, sweet potatoes, Yukon mashed potatoes, cornbread, green beans, cranberry sauce etc. Then there was the “traditional Boma” fare. I tried the coconut chicken stew and the salmon - both of which were packed with flavour. I think that’s the best thing about Boma, that you can really taste all of the different ingredients that go into the dish. I also had some fufu, which is a delicious sweet potato dish, albeit extremely sweet.
My Mum mainly stuck to the salmon and the turkey, with my Dad seeking out the prime rib, which he assured me was lovely and a lot warmer than the soups thankfully!
The best thing about Boma though is the desserts. As it was “Thanksgiving themed”, we had gingerbread cakes - which were heavenly - as well as the usual zebra domes (and orange zebra domes), banana bread pudding, fruit tartlets, Simba paws and fresh fruit.
Here’s a few photos of our dessert plates - yum:

Oh and how could I forget about the drinks? I had a Mt. Kilimarita which was absolutely gorgeous - very refreshing - and my Dad partook of a speciality beer, which I think was called a Tusker Beer(?)
For some reason in this photo my Mum’s got her hands on my drink…

Speaking of drinks, last year at Boma I had the white wine flight and seen as we’re getting all boozy I thought I’d include it:

Here's me looking slightly intoxicated even before my wine:

COST:
$116 (3 buffets (inc soft drinks), 1 Mt. Kilimarita and 1 beer).
£61.05

RATING:
Atmosphere: 3.5
Quality of food: 4
Value for money: 3.5
Overall: 4
Would I eat here again: Yes, but as we've eaten here on our last two trips, I think unless I was staying at AKL, I'd try somewhere else next time.

Up next.. chasing hotdogs at Backlot

 

[TigerKat]

Atta girl, my kind of review - include the booze!

 

[arieljasmine]

The more I read about Boma, the more I want to try it. Your dad has my sympathies, I have an asbestos mouth too and hate anything not warm enough.

Laur's

 

[Tink2312]

Hi all,
Thanks for reading and for the comments

arieljasmine - I think it must be all the hot drinks he has during the day. As I'm not really a hot-drinks person, my mouth gets burnt just from the steam
As for Boma, you should definitely give it a try - if you have any questions about it that I didn't cover in the review, just ask

Thanks again for reading.
Catherine

 

[Tink2312]

11/23/2007 - Pt. 1
We’d already eaten a large breakfast and had an ADR for Hollywood and Vine that night, so we decided to share some food between the three of us at Backlot Express.
The timing also cleverly coincided with the Holly-Day Parade so we picked a table outside with a view over to the Jedi Training Camp stage.

THE MEAL
We ordered 2 hotdogs with fries, 3 fountain sodas and a marble cheesecake. Unfortunately, as soon as we put the tray down on the table we realised why everyone else had avoid this table like the plague - lets just say it had a lot in common with the Tower of Pisa! Never mind, at least we had a good view of the parade.
As for the food, the portion size was very good and 2 hotdogs to share would’ve satisfied the three of us even if we hadn’t had rather a large brekkie. And the oracle of food warmth even commented on how hot the ‘dogs were - so that has to be a good sign!
The cheesecake was nice also - I’d say it was a bit more of a mousse with a buscuity bottom rather than a true cheesecake, but as I find cheesecakes too sickly sometimes, I thought it was really nice.
As for the overall rating of the restaurant, I think there are plenty of better places to eat in the Hollywood Studios, but the outer seating here does have the added bonus of a view of the parade (that’s of course if you don’t mind a few random people trying to squeeze into the tiniest space in front of you while you’re eating, so that they can get a better view of the parade ).

COST
$23.13 (2 hotdogs with fries, 3 fountain sodas, 1 marble cheesecake)
£12.17

RATING
Atmosphere: 3.5 - the parade was on!!
Quality of food: 3
Value for money: 3
Overall: 3
Would I eat here again? There’s no reason why I wouldn’t, but I think unless it’s for a quick bite, I wouldn’t go out of my way to eat here.

Up next... Hollywood and Vine

 

[arieljasmine]

Thanks for the review and your kind comments to me about Boma. We probably won't be back in the World until next year so I can't think about it too much at the moment for fear of black depression! As a fellow Englishperson, do you find the American cheesecake totally different to ours? I am always strangely disappointed with the base

Laur's

 

[Tink2312]

Thanks for the review and your kind comments to me about Boma. We probably won't be back in the World until next year so I can't think about it too much at the moment for fear of black depression!

Yep same depression here - I'm on the verge of starting my LLM - so no Disney hols for me anytime soon

As a fellow Englishperson, do you find the American cheesecake totally different to ours? I am always strangely disappointed with the base

Laur's

I really don't like our kind of cheesecake - they're always too sickly and we tend to have a sweet buscuit bottom (ooh that sounds rude - of course I mean the cheesecake ) But I LOVE the New York vanilla cheesecakes you get in the US - I find them more tangy and do they not tend to have more of an oaty bottom?
Mind you though, I'll take anything that has chocolate in the title