We had a lengthy wish list of dining options we wanted to fit into this trip, and one of the fancy brunches were at the top of the list. I was leaning a bit more towards the Brunch at the Top at the California Grill, but on our ADR day we were able to book Narcoossee’s, so that’s the one we were going with. I’m now glad this is the one we did, as it ended up being canceled shortly after this trip. We were both excited for it!
We caught an Uber from Pop Century over to the Grand Floridian, and walked over to Narcoossee’s.
Our reservation was at 11:25, and the restaurant was fairly empty. After we checked in, I had to stand and admire this thing for a few minutes – so impressive!
It only took a few minutes before we were led to our seats, a 4-top right by a window with a great view of Seven Seas Lagoon and Cinderella’s Castle in the background.
The brunch menu at Narccoossee’s was a prix fixe, and included drinks, an appetizer, an entree and a dessert plate.
When our server came to take our order, we both went for a Mimosa, and Luke also asked for French-press coffee (we thought there might be an upcharge for this, but there wasn’t). Our server, Nelson, also came back with glasses of water, lemon slices and Mickey straws for us as well (our server told us the straws were a New Year’s Eve present, so I don’t think they gave these out all the time).
We also had a basket of pastries brought to our table – croissants, cheese danishes and mini citrus muffins.
Accompaniments for the pastries were fresh jam and fancy butter (if I remember correctly, that was hibiscus on top – I call butter with anything added to it “fancy butter”).
I’m not typically a big pastry person – I like white bread but could care less about croissants. That said, if all croissants tasted like that one, I would eat them a lot more frequently! It was so flaky and fresh and buttery (also helped along by me smearing butter all over it haha). I tried the danish, but I’m still not a fan (no complaints from Luke, it meant he got to eat both of them haha). The mini muffins were pretty good, nice and moist and really delicious with that jam.
We could each choose an appetizer, so that was an easy choice for me – I don’t eat seafood of any kind (personal preference, not an allergy), and three of the four options had something from the sea (crab, shrimp and salmon). So, I went for the only other option, the Romaine Salad – tender leaves of romaine, marinated half-dried tomatoes, shaved pecorino Romano, garlicky focaccia croutons and creamy Caesar dressing.
This was pretty good, although fairly standard. Yes, I realize Caesar dressing typically has anchovies in it, but for some reason I’m okay with it.
Luke wanted to try something different, and since he has a mild shellfish allergy he decided salmon would be the safest bet, so he asked for the Salmon Rillette with fine herb Bavarols – served with whole-grain cranberry baguettes. Neither one of us knew exactly what he had just ordered (we are not fancy foodies at all), but what showed up was nothing like we could have imagined.
Luke wasn’t 100% sure how to eat this, so he just started spooning it onto the baguette pieces they provided. Clearly he wasn’t putting it on thick enough, he had a lot of the salmon mixture left once he quickly ran out of bread. He did like it though – although he wishes he had just gone with the Caesar salad as well.
Entree’s were a difficult decision, I really wanted to try multiple. I’ve heard that the servers will sometimes bring you more than one entree at these brunches, but despite my not-so-subtle hints at that, our server never mentioned that as an option so we decided on one each.
Luke opted for the Chicken and Waffles – crispy fried boneless breast and thigh with creamy collard greens on a waffle with maple-bacon bourbon jam, house-made apple butter and candied walnut crumble.
The syrup came in a separate little dish to pour on yourself
This sounded amazing, and was one of the front runners for my top choice of entree, but it really wasn’t that great. Luke described it as McNuggets on an okay waffle. He didn’t hate it, but he really regrets not getting the other entree he was eyeing up – the Swordfish. He felt that the Chicken and Waffles was not worth the price we paid for this meal – but he blames himself for choosing the safe and comfortable option over being a little more adventurous.
I went for the Steak and Eggs – black angus hanger steak, two cage free brown eggs any style, marble potato home fries and truffle aioli.
This was a winner (although the plating left a bit to be desired)! I don’t eat eggs very often, they can sometimes be a trigger food that aggravates my Crohn’s disease, so while ordering I let Luke decide on those (he kept it simple and asked for scrambled). I did steal a little bite of them, and they were ok… I’m actually weird and when I do eat them, I like my scrambled eggs really browned up (basically burnt by egg standards haha). Those potatoes though, oh man. Incredible. I probably could have made an entire meal just out of those! The truffle aioli on top of them was fantastic, I didn’t want to share any with Luke (but of course I did since he was a bit disappointed in his meal).
The steak, while not the fanciest cut, was perfectly cooked well done as requested. I really enjoyed it! I know – I’m about to hear all the boo’s from you rare-medium steak people – I just can’t do it. If there’s so much as a speck of blood on my plate, I’m done. I prefer my steak to no longer be mooing…
The dessert was a Trio of Desserts – Valencia blood orange bar, triple chocolate cake and lemon blueberry timbale. I believe they only brought us one plate of these for the two of us to share – I’m not sure if that’s standard, but I’m sure we could have asked for a second one. However, we were both really full by this point, and sharing the three desserts was more than enough. We also didn’t want to take any with us, as we were not heading back to our hotel room for awhile and didn’t feel like carrying them around.
They were all really good! I loved the edible gold on the triple chocolate cake (which didn’t actually have any taste, but I just felt so fancy eating it – not hard to tell we don’t eat out at nice places very often haha). The chocolate cake was my favourite of the three desserts, which wasn’t a huge surprise to me. I’m not always a huge lemon or blueberry fan, but this timbale was ok. I honestly have no idea what timbale even is (a common theme with this meal haha) but it was good. I also liked the orange-flavoured one – but I tend to like anything orange.
After we ate, we headed out onto the deck overlooking the water. Such a nice view!
Since it was New Year’s Eve, it was a blackout day for my Tables in Wonderland card. However, I was able to use my annual pass discount, so it was at least something (10% discount). The total cost for both of us came to $132.28 before tip.
This brunch disappeared a few weeks later, which is too bad since I’ve heard the brunch at California Grill has gone downhill a bit. Even if it were still an option, I’m not sure if this would be something I’d do every single time (there are other meals/experiences I enjoyed more on this trip), but I’m really glad we did this at least once. We both definitely felt like I made the better decisions when it came to the menu, but Luke didn’t hate the three or four mimosas he had haha (they were bottomless!).
TIW – black out day
Predicted food budget: $2631.67 Estimated Cost of this meal: $146.97 Actual Cost: $132.38 Over/Under: Under by $14.59 Remaining: $2447.37
Next meal: Homecomin’
*more unexpected Photopass pictures haha*
