Would love to hear about California Grill

[JKMastalski]

Any information for our anniversary dinner would be very appreciated!

 

[ducklite]

Well, what exactly did you want to know?

It's a nice restaurant with good food.

It can get very loud due to the open kitchen.

There's no guarantee of a window seat, although mention that it's your anniversay when you make the reservation, and make it for 90 minutes prior to the fireworks time. Get there early and again request the window seat and meniton the anniversary.

Anne

 

[BCV23]

It has wonderful food and a great view. As Anne noted the main dining room is busy and fairly loud. However there is a second smaller room that is very quiet and has subdued lighting, too. It has views toward the South so you can't see the castle but we don't care. You can check out the menu at wdwig.com. We're having dinner there next Sat. night and I can't wait!

Great choice for an anniversary dinner. Have fun and congratulations!

 

[dansyr]

Here's part of a review I posted last week



dinner - Calif grill
I had planned this one to coincide with the fireworks at MK. Well...it couldn't have worked out more perfectly. We were seated within 15 min of when we arrived. We sat at the bar and I had an apple martini and dbf had a margarita. The bartender here was not all that friendly.
Anyway....they seated us at a table right by the window with a perfect view of the seven seas lagoon and MK.
Jenny our server came over and we ordered appetizers. ( note - On the gold plan ...you are allowed appetizers and starters) and I also wanted to order an artichoke salad that looked good. Jenny told me I wasn't allowed both on the plan. I told her that we had done it at coral reef the night before. She said she'd check with her manager, came back and said at this restaraunt they didn't allow it. I said no prob...and just ordered a tuna roll as the app. BF ordered the asparagus soup. Bf was sweet and said if I wanted both to order it and he would just pay for whatever we owed....but I told him I really just wanted to try it and I would probably not be able to finish it anyway. Both apps were great. The tuna melted in your mouth.
For our entree I had seafood with a saffron fennel broth and dbf ordered the filet. My entree was very good. It had clams, mussels, shrimp, and calamari. The only thing I couldn't do was the tentacles of the calamari. The texture kinda grossed me out. DBF's filet was outstanding. Next time we go I am definitely ordering that. The fireworks began right before our entrees were served so Jenny asked if we would like our entrees held til after the fireworks and we said yes. We had already placed our order for dessert before entrees were served because Jenny said we need to do this for any of the baked desserts. I ordered the apple tarts with caramel sauce and caramel ice cream. DBF had the apple crepes with cinnamon ice cream. Both were delicious. i had 2 apple tarts and a scoop pf the caramel ice cream. There was no way I could finish it. We also had cappuccinos.
Jenny was great...she was funny friendly and was there with stuff before we even needed it. I joked that I thought she could read my mind. We left her an extra tip than the 15% that was included with the package. She was very gracious and thankful.
rating 5+++
dinner would have cost around $140 without the package.
After this we decided to do a monorail drink tour. We figured I had a couple of apple martinis here and dbf had a couple margaritas we might as well keep going. We we over to the poly. I ordered a Lapu Lapu. Dbf got a kick out of watching me drink this. I thought it was a little expensive til the bartender put down a whole nother drink next to it and told me when the pineapple is empty to pour the rest of it in there. Can't remeber what dbf got...I wonder why. Our monorail drink tour ended there...but we did walk the beach over the GF...the perfect end to a beautiful romantic evening.

 

[barbeml]

We really enjoyed California Grille last October. Despite other posts to the contrary, it was not very noisy when we were there, although it was filled. We were not right next to a window, but we had a spectacular view of the lagoon and Castle. The sunset was beautiful. Our server was friendly and helpful. We shared a flatbread appetizer with sausage and basil--outstanding. I had a glass of chardonnay, hubby had iced tea. He had a delicious salmon and I had the melt-in-your-mouth free-range chicken. Sooo good. For dessert, we shared the Chocolate Hazelnut Pyramid--can't say enough about how good that was! Our server encouraged us to linger over coffee to see the fireworks--they were fantastic. The restaurant dims the lights and pipes in the music. With a generous tip we spent well under $100.

Although I was not too crazy about anything else at the Contemporary (we stayed at Poly), would definitely do California Grille again.

 

[Micca]

We had Christmas eve dinner there. It was oustanding. I especially enjoyed the sushi, but everything was well prepared.
DW and DD's are dedicated carnivores and thought the steaks they had were some of the best they had ever eaten.

 

[lacool]

Originally posted by barbeml
For dessert, we shared the Chocolate Hazelnut Pyramid--can't say enough about how good that was!

I'll second the vote for the Chocoate Hazelnut Pyramid. It was absolutely decadent. Even DH, who is usually not a dessert person, could not stop eating it.

I'd recommend the beef. This was our second time there and I ordered the Lamb, but it was not nearly as good as my steak had been on our previous visit. DH had steak and said it was, once again, outstanding.

 

[wintermom]

I was just there Friday night and we loved it. We had
David for our server and he was outstanding. Don't worry
too much about getting a fireworks view. We had a window
seat but not facing the fireworks. Our waiter timed our dinner
so we ate our appetizers and then went outside to watch
the fireworks, they play the music outside and I think it makes
it more special. When we came back in our Entree was ready.
Everything was great, you will love it!
Wintermom