Having stumbled away from Cava del Tequila (although still not drunk enough to make Maelstrom exciting...), dinner was at Tokyo Dining.
I've wanted to try this restaurant for some time having had my first taste of Japanese food at WDW in 2010 visiting the predecessor of Katsura Grill - whose name totally eludes me.
The restaurant itself is lovely, it's very open and stylish and the staff were delightful: very polite and helpful. I decided not to be terribly adventurous and had the Gozen Tempura combination of Tempura Fried Chicken and Shrimp (quick cut in here, I'm recalling all the menu details due to the wonderful WDW Dining app for iPhone / iPad, which is indispensable. The menus are very occasionally not completely up to date, but it's the handiest and most succinct guide to all the WDW restaurants I've ever found for the iPad).
The presentation was great and the shrimp was delicious and I really enjoyed this, but the chicken seemed bland and I wasn't particularly fond of it. Now a proviso here, I suspect this has more to do with my lack of experience with Japanese food than any negative on the restaurant's part. It wasn't what I was expecting but may well have been perfectly prepared. The mass of accompaniments also didn't work for me, but not being a vegetable fan, the somen salad, sunomono and the Miso soup probably were always going to be an issue. Again, I think this was more my failing and I suspect were my taste for Japanese food slightly more developed I would have gained more from the experience.
However, I enjoyed the opportunity to eat in Tokyo Dining and it did highlight for me the reason why the
free dining plan is so wonderful (aside from making our holiday affordable), you can afford to try something different and take a risk and if it doesn't work out, hey, it's basically cost you nothing and you can always go and grab a burger afterwards with a counter service credit! To me, that is the great thing about free dining, the chance to try things you would never normally try because it's not really costing anything.
And if nothing else, the Kirin beer was lovely...