Category Archives: Food Review

Turf Club – January 9, 2017

This was a restaurant we didn’t really read many reviews of, and just don’t see mentioned all that often to be honest. But, we were staying at Saratoga Springs for 4 nights so we had to make a reservation to try it!

We made our reservation for fairly late at night, on the same night as the Star Wars Dessert Party – our reasoning was that we would be skipping supper to have our dessert first, and then after we returned to our resort we would have a late supper.

The restaurant itself is located in the main building at Saratoga Springs, at the end of a hallway.

If you read my review of the Star Wars Dessert Party, you’ll know that we were both feeling pretty good, and had drank quite a few of the cocktails offered there… and we were still feeling the affects of that when we arrived at The Turf Club.

We checked in, and did not have to wait very long before we were led to our table. Our waiter came over immediately to introduce himself – his name was Coy and he was amazing! He was probably the best waiter we had this entire trip, and I’m not just saying that because we were both drunk haha.

Here’s the menu that Coy dropped off for us to look over:

And they were also offering this Prixe Fixe Menu:

Luke decided to keep the drinking going, and ordered a Mint Julep – bourbon muddled with fresh mint and agave nectar, $11.25

So, they definitely stuck a piece of mint on top for garnish, but I’m pretty sure that entire cup was just ice and bourbon. Luke says it was one of the stiffest drinks he’s ever been served at a restaurant. I tried it, and I think they forgot to add the muddled mint and agave and it was just straight bourbon. Luke just decided to suck it up and drink it though, but our server noticed that he was struggling with it so he brought over a glass of ginger ale to mix into it. This was not something we asked for, but it was appreciated!

Waiter Coy also dropped off some bread:

With butter (and I don’t remember what was on the salt, sorry! Just be happy I remembered to take pictures haha).

The plan was to just order appetizers, since we had ate/drank so much at the dessert party, but then I saw this on the menu, and it was screaming my name.

This is the Rigatoni Fiesolana – rigatoni pasta, creamy tomato sauce with sausage, portobello mushrooms, parmesan and fresh basil, $22. I asked for it without mushrooms of course, but everything else in that description was ok by me! This was so great, but I didn’t come close to finishing it. I did take the leftovers with me though, and reheated it in the microwave in our room and it still tasted good!

Luke decided to stick with our original plan of appetizers, and ordered the Buffalo Chicken Dip – spicy ranch sauce with saratoga chips, $10. This was much better than we expected, it was shredded, white meat chicken mixed with what I assume is just ranch and Frank’s Red Hot, served with lots of homemade kettle-style chips to dip in. This was a huge serving, and meant to be shared – which we did. Also, here’s proof of how much we had drank that night – this is the only picture I took of this dish:

Yep, I should probably quit my job and become a professional food photographer based on that last picture….

Luke also ordered the Braised Beef Short Rib – creme fraiche- parmesan polenta, baby heirloom tomatoes and crispy fried potatoes, $13. I have no idea what creme fraiche is, and no idea what polenta is (I assume it’s that odd-coloured smear on the side of the plate), but Luke really enjoyed this. I tried some of the meat, and it was so fall-apart tender and delicious!

Overall, we really enjoyed this meal, and would not hesitate to return to the Turf Club if we’re ever staying at Saratoga Springs again. As I mentioned earlier, we loved our waiter, he was attentive, friendly and funny!

Our bill came to $63.63 (I forgot to mention up above that I ordered a coke to drink at $3.49).

After paying, I stopped on my way through the main lobby to use the bathroom before walking back to our building. While I was in there, Luke realized he had drunkenly forgot his hat in the restaurant and had to go back to get it – so then when I came out of the bathroom I had no idea where he was. Once we found each other again, we headed back to our room and called it a night!

T-Rex, Lunch – January 5, 2017

After waking up at an ungodly hour, and putting way more steps on my Fitbit than I care for, we were both exhausted by the time this reservation rolled around. We thought about cancelling it, we weren’t even that hungry after just eating at Peco’s Bills a few hours earlier, but we also really wanted to see the inside of this restaurant – who doesn’t love dinosaurs?!

So, after leaving Magic Kingdom and heading back to Old Key West to change, we made our way over to Disney Springs to check in at T-Rex.

That place was slammed! And our reservation was at 2pm – not exactly peak time for lunch… luckily we did have a reservation so we only waited about 10 minutes before being called.

We were led to a little two-top table right beside a – whatever this dinosaur is. Triceratops? Let’s go with that. (I actually don’t know much about dinosaurs…)

The menu had lots of things that appealed to me, but I was so exhausted I didn’t think I could eat much of anything.

We looked at their cocktail list, and most of it sounded amazing but I just wasn’t feeling it at that point. So, I ordered a fancy glass bottle root beer ($4.99) and a glass of water.

Luke got way too excited about ordering a Blue Raspberry Icee, $4.99. If you read my Disneyland trip report from his birthday, you’ll see he also ordered an Icee the night we went to the movie theater – they don’t sell them in Canada so he has to get one whenever he has the chance in the States. He also ordered a coffee (not pictured), $3.79

Despite not being hungry, one item on the appetizer menu was calling my name – Mega Mozzarella – seared mozzarella, marinara and mozzarella fingers, $9.99

Just look at that beautiful plate of cheese! This was nothing special, but it was exactly what I wanted at that point, and Luke was kind enough to spilt it with me (eating that much cheese all at once would make me sick!). The mozzarella fingers (finger? who calls them that? They are mozzarella sticks!) were standard but delicious. I had never heard of seared mozzarella before, but it was exactly as described, and quite tasty!

We also decided we needed to share a dessert, so we ordered this beauty:

This is the Ice Age Indulgence – layers of ice cream sandwiches, fudge sauce, whipped topping, Heath Bar Crunch, $9.99 (for two). This was awesome! It’s a very generous serving, and is definitely meant for two people. It was so good.

The total for our meal was $35.20 – pretty cheap meal!

The restaurant itself was really awesome!

This was not a very exciting meal, but we were so tired we would not have enjoyed a full meal. After we paid our bill, we actually went back to OKW and had a long-overdue nap that was wonderful…

Peco’s Bill’s – Lunch, January 5, 2017

After our crazy early morning and completing my first ever 5km, and a few busy hours at Magic Kingdom, we realized we were hungry. So, we had to go to one of our favourite quick service locations – Peco’s Bills!

Luke decided to keep it the same as last year, and ordered the fajita platter – with barbacoa beef and chicken, cilantro rice, beans, and tortillas, $14.99.

The main difference from 2016 to 2017 was the meat. In 2016, we had a choice of beef or chicken, but in 2017 you receive both on the platter. I believe you can still request all one or the other, but it’s nice to have the option of both!

I went for an option that wasn’t on the menu in 2016 – the beef nachos – tortilla chips topped with seasoned ground beef, tomatoes and lettuce, $11.99. Of course I requested mine sans tomato – because gross!

The nachos do not come with cheese, but this is a very easy fix – Peco’s Bill’s has a really fantastic “fixin’s bar” – they have little plastic cups and self-serve salsa, shredded cheese, guac, sour cream, etc. Here’s our food and tray after our visit to the fixin’s:

Not pictured is the large Coke we purchased to share, $3.29.

We didn’t realize until we sat down just how tired we were. It had been such an early morning, and once we sat down, it took awhile before we were ready to stand up again haha.

This meal was fantastic once again, and easily remains one of our favourite food options at Magic Kingdom! I love that the fajitas are build your own – so you can add as much or as little as you’d like (you receive 3 flour tortillas – that’s what’s inside that tin foil), and the nachos were super basic – which is right up my alley!

Our total cost for both of us was $32.24.

Star Wars: A Galactic Spectacular Dessert Party

We decided months and months before this trip that we wanted to do a dessert party, the only question was which one. We tossed around the idea of the Wishes one, but the cost was $69/person and it did not include alcohol (not that either of us are typically big drinkers). Then we looked at the Star Wars one for $79/person but it did include all-you-could-drink (the extra $10 seems worth it to me!). There were only 2 problems – #1) Disney had announced the Christmas-themed dessert party for Hollywood Studios, with no guarantee if/when the Star Wars one would return, and #2) I had never watched a single Star Wars movie…

Then, in November Disney announced the dessert party dates, and one of them was the Monday we were hoping for! So, we booked and paid for that. Then, the week between Christmas and New Year’s, we sat down and watched all eight of the Star Wars movies which had been released to that point (and I’m probably one of the few people who can say I watched in chronological order haha – A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, Rogue One, The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith and The Force Awakens. We actually had to watch Rogue One in theaters since it had only been released a few weeks prior. So – both issues tackled! Now I was really excited for this dessert party!

The official sign-in time for the party was 6:30, but they actually allowed people to start checking in earlier than that. We wanted as much time as possible to eat/drink so by 6:15 we had our lanyards and were heading in.

There were a number of high-top tables spread throughout the party area, with 2 buffet tables of food in the centre, a bar at one end, another table at the other end with more food and another table with non-alcoholic drinks.

The red glowing thing were the centerpieces on each table – very simple, but fit well with the Star Wars theme. You can also see Luke’s first plate of food, and the first drinks we each got (better pictures below)

Water, watermelon lemonade and juice.

Coffee, decaf coffee and hot water, with a selection of teas nearby.

Our first order of business was drinks! Here’s the list of specialty cocktails they offered for this party:

I went for the Cosmic Citrus Twist as my first choice, while Luke decided to try to the Light Speed Margarita.

Cosmic Citrus Twist – citrus lemonade and watermelon lemonade

Light Speed Margarita – tequila, blood orange syrup, sour mix and lime juice

I’m not a huge tequila person, and that drink was strong! I can deal with my drinks getting stronger as I continue drinking, but I prefer my first one to be weak and sweet – my watermelon vodka drink was just that! I didn’t take a picture of every drink I had, but I believe I had 4 of these light pink delicious things during this dessert party, and they continuously got stronger with each one…

Now for the food:

To satisfy your savory tastes, they had pita bread with dips – one was a black bean dip and the other a pretty standard, straight forward red pepper hummus.

Watermelon Sabers

Cheddar and Green Olive Sabers

Provolone and Tomato Sabers

Grape Sabers

All of the “sabers” were pretty straight forward, and I ended up trying them all (obviously, I picked off the tomato/green olives and just ate the cheese cubes from those ones haha).

BB-8 Lemon Cupcake

Darth Vader and Stormtrooper cookies

From left to right: Citrus Financiers, Pistachio Morella Cherry Bites and Mini Chocolate Cakes

“Blue Milk” Panna Cotta with Crispy Pearls

Rice Crispy Bon Bons

R2D2 Vanilla Cupcake

Darth Vader Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

That last bowl doesn’t look like much, but it was freeze dried nutella with raspberry sauce and dark chocolate sauce, and it was so good! The little bit in the bottom of the bowl is seriously all you need though, it’s so sweet! (I don’t think I even finished all of that, since I wanted to try so many things).

Red Velvet Brownies

Warm Bread Pudding  with pretzels and M&M’s

Vanilla bean sauce and fresh berries for the bread pudding. Not pictured: vanilla bean ice cream and whipped cream

Galactic Punch – coconut rum, spiced rum, mango syrup and passion orange guave juice , and another Cosmic Citrus Twist

Luke switched it up at one point and got a rum and coke. And yes, there’s another Cosmic Citrus Twist in the background there…

I *think* I had 3 Cosmic Citrus Twists and a Galactic Punch over the hour and fifteen minutes or so we were there, and when it was close to time to start heading out to the viewing area for fireworks I grabbed one of the to-go coffee cups they had and the bartender mixed me another cosmic citrus twist in that so I could drink it while watching the show… I swear I rarely drink, but I was going to get my money’s worth out of this dessert party haha! I can’t remember exactly, but I think Luke had 2 of the margaritas, 1 cosmic citrus twist, 1 galactic punch and 1 or 2 rum and cokes. He also had a drink mixed in a to-go cup, but I don’t remember what it was.

Around 7:30, Stormtroopers began leading the way with lightsabers to the reserved viewing area for the show. Seriously, the view could not have been better! That alone is almost worth the cost of the party!  (And instead of staking out a viewing spot 1-2 hours in advance, we were filling our bellies with wonderful sweets and alcohol!).

As we entered the reserved viewing area, cast members were handing out our keepsake Chewbacca mugs. These things are ridiculous!

The top of the head lifts up and you drink from there. I know one of these is currently sitting on our kitchen island, but I have no idea where the other one went? There’s also no way I would ever buy these things, but they were included in the cost of the dessert party…

As soon as we entered the reserved viewing area, most people immediately started crowding their way to the front of the roped-off area, but not us! We hung to the back – I had read that the reserved area was larger than the number of people at the dessert party, so I knew we wouldn’t be crowded at the back – and look at all the space in front of us!

While waiting for the show to start, two little boys (brothers I assume) were having a lightsaber fight in that space in front of us, when all of a sudden one brother drops his lightsaber to his side and raises his other hand to “force choke” his brother. The other little guy’s eyes went huge, and his hand flew to his neck – Luke and I were laughing so hard! Clearly these kids had seen the Star Wars movies a few times…

As for the show itself – I loved it! We had just watched all of the movies a few weeks prior, so they were all still nice and fresh in my memory. There’s lots of projections and lasers and lights, in addition to some fireworks, and it really does a great job of telling a story. The music is fantastic as well, lots of classic Star Wars stuff. I didn’t take a ton of pictures, I was really enjoying the show but I did snap a few with my iPhone.

Would we pay the money for this dessert party again? Absolutely! We asked about doing a private dessert party with viewing of this show for our wedding, but that was a no-go (due to all of the construction happening in Hollywood Studios, they don’t currently have a private location to set something up). But, we plan on taking some of our family to the regular dessert party anyways!

 

Beaches and Cream – Lunch – January 9, 2017

After reading so many rave reviews about this place, I knew we had to try it! We managed to score a reservation within a few minutes of when we wanted to – not an easy feat, this is a teeny-tiny little place!

It’s located at the Beach Club resort, close to Stormalong Bay. It’s designed to look like an old fashioned soda shop, decorated in pastel colours and retro designs.

The menu is fairly basic – hamburgers, hot dogs, etc.

To start, we both ordered a Vanilla Coke <3 . I love vanilla coke so much, and wish it was available more places.

For my main meal, I went for the Grilled Cheese with Tomato Bisque – with six-cheese blend, $10.50

This might have been the best grilled cheese I’ve ever had. I’m a person of very simple taste, but seriously – this was amazing. The bread was great, the cheese blend was great and the ratio of cheese to bread was perfect! You might laugh, but there really is such a thing as too much cheese, and it completely ruins a sandwich for me. (I love cheese, but there’s a fine balance you need to find in creating a perfect grilled cheese).

The tomato bisque was also wonderful! Luke hates tomato soup, but he tried this and actually loved it. The flavours were fantastic, and my only complaint was that I wanted more!

Luke went for the Beaches Patty Melt – angus beef burger served with sauteed onions, swiss and garlic-peppercorn dressing on rye bread – $16

This is typically served with fries, but Luke decided to switch those out for onion rings. I did steal an onion ring (and pulled the onion out of course – I only eat the batter…), and it was pretty good! I didn’t try his sandwich due to all the onions on it, but Luke said it was good (but not necessarily great). I don’t think he loved it like I loved my grilled cheese, but he ate it all and didn’t really have any complaints.

Luke also decided he wanted a cherry Coke –

While we were waiting outside to be called in and seated, there was a group of 5 friends who were clearly having a good time, and had made up some song/chant about getting the kitchen sink. They were seated shortly after us at a booth beside our little table, and sure enough, they ordered the kitchen sink – scoops of vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, cookies and cream and mint chocolate chip ice cream smothered in every topping we have (including a full can of whipped cream!). Also available: chocolate lovers or Neapolitan.  $29

The group noticed me trying to snap a picture of this monster, so they invited me over to get a better shot before they started digging in.

That was obviously way too much ice cream for Luke and I, so we decided instead to share a No Way Jose – a peanut butter and hot fudge delight featuring chocolate and vanilla ice cream, peanut butter and chocolate morsels, whipped cream and a cherry $9.

Not only is there hot fudge, but the peanut butter was also warm and melted. I’m not even a huge peanut butter person, but this was INCREDIBLE. Oh. My. God. Seriously. It’s also huge – 3 generous scoops of ice cream and no shortage of whipped cream – it was more than enough for the two of us to share.

Look at all that peanut butter!

And after we were finished:

This is a place I would not hesitate to return to. It’s a terrible use of credits if you are on the Disney Dining Plan though, as it costs a table service credit – but if paying out of pocket it is a great deal (as far as Disney deals go…)

The total for our meal was $48.17 (we had no discounts, so that is full price), plus tip. It was actually one of our cheapest meals on this trip.

 

 

Trader Sam’s – Disneyland – January 26, 2017

After we booked our flights and knew we would be spending Luke’s birthday in California, I asked him what he wanted for birthday supper. I told him it would be my treat, whatever he wanted – Napa Rose, Steakhouse 55…. but he decided he really wanted to go to Trader Sam’s to celebrate being another year older. So, Trader Sam’s it was!

This Tiki Bar is located by the Disneyland Hotel – not quite inside the hotel, but close to the pool.

We arrived, and were able to find a table right away – we were pretty excited about that! We had been to the one at Walt Disney World a few weeks prior, so we know how busy these places can get.

First things first – some pictures of the drink menu!

I had the Uh-Oa in Florida, so I already had that souvenir glass. I knew I wanted something different this time, so my drink #1 was the Hippopotomai-Tai – light and dark rums, orange curacao, orgeat (Almond) syrup, organic agave nectar and fresh lime juice. Served in a souvenir Tiki glass, $21.

Before you see the picture I’ll tell you exactly what our server told us – even though the menu states that it is served in a souvenir glass, they actually serve it in a normal, plain, boring glass. I did get the Tiki mug to bring home though 🙂

I love that the one I brought home actually says Disneyland Hotel, Anaheim CA on the back – I guess I now need to get one from Florida so I have the set 😉

The drink itself was like all Trader Sam’s drinks – very strong! It was good though, and definitely one I would order again.

Luke’s first drink was Shipwreck on the Rocks – Bourbon with freshly muddled lemon and mint with organic agave nectar. Served in a souvenir tiki mug.$25

This pretty much tasted like straight bourbon. I hate the taste of alcohol, but for some reason have always liked bourbon, so I thought this was pretty good. Luke liked it once he got over how strong it was.

I loved the mug this was served in, and I was really excited to add it to our collection. When you pay for the mug, it shows up on your receipt, and you pick up a brand new mug on your way out of the bar. When they are handed to you, they are boxed up and taped shut. I didn’t open the boxes until we were back in Canada, and instead of getting this awesome barrel-looking glass, they accidentally gave us the Shrunken Zombie Head mug (that was in the picture with my Hippopotomaitai glass). The Zombie Head was going to be one of my first choices on our next trip, and it’s a really cool addition to our collection, but I’m a little sad we didn’t get the Shipwreck One. I’m sure I could have contacted Disney somehow, but I had no idea how to go about that.

When we placed our order for our first drinks, we also ordered food! The first thing to come out was the Pu-Pu Platter : sweet and spicy Asian wings, glazed Portuguese sausage bites, panko-crusted Chinese long beans, tropical slaw and sriracha aioli $17.

The wings were too spicy for me, but Luke really enjoyed them. The sausage bites were really tasty, the sauce on them was so good! I’m not a big coleslaw person, so I have no comments on that. The sriracha aioli wasn’t too spicy, and was so amazing with those beans. Oh, those beans. So, so, so delicious. Shortly after this trip, Luke actually tried making his own version of them using green beans, and they were also awesome. We both agreed we would order this platter to share again.

For my main entree, I ordered the Kalua-Style Pork Flatbread: Pulled pork, barbecue sauce, red onion, cilantro and mozzarella cheese $9.49

This was also really great! I ordered it without the red onions of course… The sauce had a nice flavour, the flatbread was good. I wouldn’t hesitate to order this again either!

Luke’s main entree was the Angus 1/3LB Hawaiian Cheeseburger: Ground Angus burger wit teriyaki sauce, fresh caramelized pineapple, havarti cheese, bacon, lettuce and tomato on a multi-grain bun. Includes choice of one side: sweet potato fries, classic french fries, island fruit or tropical slaw $12.49

Luke chose the sweet potato fries as his side. He said this was a really great burger, and he ate it all. According to him, the flavours all worked really well together and he would gladly order this again sometime.

While we were eating, Luke ordered his second drink of the night – a Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Rum: reserve rum, cream of coconut and pineapple and orange juices dusted with cinnamon and nutmeg. $12 (no souvenir mug).

Of course we had to sing the name of this drink over and over… It was really tasty! Not as strong as our first two drinks, but it was not lacking in rum either! The cream of coconut was interesting, and the cinnamon/nutmeg really brought some new flavours into it. I would order this myself next time!

My drink #2 was Piranha Pool: Strawberry vodka blended with pineapple juice, cream of coconut, strawberry puree and blue curacao $11(again, no souvenir mug)

Mmm, a drink named after bloody water…. The name of this drink aside, it was tasty! I love slushie-type drinks, and I love flavoured vodka – this checked off two of those boxes! Again, the cream of coconut is interesting – I don’t think I love it, but I did finish this drink… I think I need more taste tests before I determine my feelings on it haha.

Luke decided to order one more drink – it was his birthday after all! He asked our waitress for a Murky Mojito but she told him that it was a terrible drink haha. She said most people that order that one end up sending it back, and she can’t figure out why it’s still on the menu. We took her word for it, and he instead went for the Mosquito Mojito: strawberry rum, organic agave nectar, falernum, mint and fresh lime juice topped with soda water $10.75.

I loved the slight Strawberry taste the vodka gave this! This was probably my favourite drink of the night, and Luke seemed to enjoy it as well.

By this point, we had spent about 2 hours at our table and had drank 5 drinks between us. This might not seem like a lot, but those drinks all packed a punch, and neither of us drink all that often. When we stood up, oh boy. We were having a good time!

Since I had just purchased an annual pass, this was my first time getting to use it 🙂 It saved us 15% off the food only, so $5.85. Our bill came to $121.63 after the discount – it was an expensive start to our vacation, but a very tasty one! Happy birthday Luke!

 

 

Garden Grill – Supper – January 4, 2017

We enjoyed this meal so much on our January 2016 trip that we made it one of the few repeat restaurants on our January 2017 trip. We also figured it would be a good option for the night before our 5km race – not that a 5km is that hard, but I knew I didn’t want to be eating greasy, deep-fried foods the night before my first ever runDisney event.

We checked in for our 4:50 reservation pretty much on time, and didn’t wait long before being led to our table – a 4 seater on the top level (same as the year before). According to the time stamp on the following picture, we were at our table by 4:56 (with a cute hidden Mickey formed out of a plate and 2 bowls).

For those not familiar, Garden Grill is a pre-set menu served at your table family style. The restaurant itself revolves around The Land – but it is very slow and you barely notice the movement.

The first thing your server brings to your table are the warm buns – which are fairly basic, but I will rarely complain about warm white bread served with soft butter!

Next up is the salad, some of which is made with ingredients grown by Disney themselves. Immediately, we placed all of the egg, the radishes and the cherry tomatoes on Luke’s plate, I don’t like any of those things haha. But, there’s still plenty in this salad for me to eat – fresh mixed greens, cucumbers, bacon!, shredded carrots, etc. I also like the light dressing they put on this. I’m pretty sure we cleaned out this entire bowl.

Then the main platter comes out – turkey, green beans, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, stuffing, sausage and pot roast. The presentation was different from the previous trip, and the beef option was different, but everything was still so delicious!

They also drop off some side dishes – sweet potato fries and mac n’ cheese with Goldfish crackers.

Since it is a family-style meal, you can ask for seconds of any item you wish – we asked for more green beans and pot roast. We were both hungry clearly – here’s the empty plate that had our second helping of beef and beans haha –

Here’s the picture Luke took of our food:

I tried the mac and cheese again this year – I’m still not a huge fan… The sweet potato fries are ok, but kind of unnecessary with everything else. The mashed potatoes were good and creamy, the turkey was nothing special, but we ate it all, the gravy on it was fairly standard turkey gravy.  The stuffing was good. I let Luke eat all of the sausage, since I’m not a huge fan (and it wasn’t huge anyways). The green beans were clearly cooked in lots of butter/oil – making them delicious! And the pot roast was so tender – yum!

Once you’re stuffed, they bring out dessert:

A mixed berry shortcake. This is sooo good! There are large sugar granules on the cake which is just so amazing mixed with the tartness of the berries. We weren’t able to finish this, but we made a decent dent in it!

Of course, this is also a character meal! So while you are eating, Chip, Dale, Pluto and Farmer Mickey are making their rounds to say hello.

This was the tiniest little Mickey! I’m only 5’2, and you can see above that I’m taller than this Cast Member…

This is not a cheap meal, as with all character meals the cost is $45/person. You leave stuffed though! We will definitely eat there again at some point.

Also – there is a hidden Mickey in the mural on one wall. It’s a tough one, but once you see it, you can’t un-see it!

 

Via Napoli – Supper – January 8, 2017

After watching the animatronic show about US history in the American Pavilion, we had to rush to get over to the Italian Pavilion to get to our reservation on time. We made it, and checked in at the booth about a minute before our reservation at 6:35pm…and then stood around for 20 minutes. That place was slammed! So many people were trying to get in without a reservation, and were being turned away – there were some angry people.

We were finally led to our table, a little 2-top against a wall. I had read so many fantastic reviews of this place, I was really looking forward to trying it.

Shortly after being seated, a young man approached us to offer water. Luke took him up on his offer of sparkling water, and ordered a bottle of it.

Yes, I forgot to take a picture of it until later. I think carbonated water is one of the most disgusting things ever created, so I did not try any of this. Luke seemed to enjoy it though. This bottle cost $5.

Here’s a picture of the menu:

Once again, we had read the menu prior to our trip, and knew exactly what we wanted to eat.

To drink, I ordered a Blood Orange Acqua Frescas – our signature house-made fruit juice cooler, $6

This thing was delicious! Our server was really trying to push us into buying alcohol, but neither one of us were feeling like it at this point. Then we apparently angered our server even more by ordering a large pepperoni pizza to split instead of separate entrees…

Let’s start by saying this pizza was really tasty! I love Neapolitan style pizza more than any other kind, and this one did not disappoint.

Now for the bad – our actual server didn’t even bring it to us – another server did. Our server did not stop by even once to check on us to ask if everything was ok, or if we needed anything else. Had he come by, I would have probably ordered another one of those blood orange drinks. We saw him checking in on the other tables he was serving around us multiple times, but not once did he acknowledge us after taking our order. We assume it was because we weren’t drinking and our total bill wasn’t going to be very expensive compared to what other tables were spending – but I find this very unacceptable. Then, once we finished our pizza, we ended up sitting there for awhile before he finally reappeared with our bill – without even asking if we wanted anything else. How did he know we didn’t want to order dessert or a coffee or something? (We didn’t want those things, but a server should not just assume that). It was very clear he just wanted us out of there as quickly as possible so he could get someone else at the table. I do understand that they were extremely busy, but I expect so much more from a waiter working at Disney.

Our total bill came to $46.54. The pizza was great, but the service left a lot to be desired. We did leave a tip, but not even close to what we typically leave. I imagine we’ll be back to eat there again one day, but it’s not at the top of our list.

Le Cellier – Lunch, January 8, 2017

After our morning at Epcot, it was soon time to check in for a meal I was very much looking forward to – Le Cellier! This signature restaurant is located in the Canada Pavilion at Epcot.

Can we just take a moment to appreciate how beautiful the Canada pavilion is?

We checked in, and only had to wait a few minutes before being led to our table. As the hostess was seating us, she told us we were sitting in the “Prince Edward Island” section of the restaurant, so I asked where the New Brunswick section was – she quickly pointed to the corner and announced it was that table over there haha.

When our server arrived, she again told us we were in the PEI section, and started telling us facts about the Island (while I sat there grinning and nodding excitedly since I knew what she was talking about haha).

It’s pretty dark in that restaurant, so it was difficult to get great pictures. Here is the menu though:

And shortly before we went on this trip, they had introduced a Prixe Fixe menu for lunch only, here’s that menu:

We had looked over the menu for every restaurant before the trip, and we thought it would be silly to spend $50++ on steak at a Canadian themed restaurant in Florida when we live in Alberta – home to the best beef in the country, so we had decided on splitting a bunch of appetizers. But then, once Luke saw the prixe fixe menu he decided to go with that instead.

First, they bring you a bread basket. There were two of each kind (Luke had already taken his before I took the picture, and he had already dug into the butter). The long one is pretzel bread and the other one is a multigrain roll. The butter was sprinkled with maple sugar and sea salt (ooo, fancy!). Both bread offerings were really excellent, but the pretzel bread wins for best hands down.

You can also kind of see it in the back of the picture with the bread, but Luke ordered a La Fin du Monde to drink. It’s one of his favourite beers, and it just happens to be Canadian! I didn’t take a picture of my drink, but it was a Coke – pretty standard.

Now for the good stuff –

Le Cellier Signature Poutine – fresh-cut french fries, Canadian Cheddar, Truffles and Red-wine Reduction, $10

First of all – this is not a proper poutine (which is pronounced pou-tin, NOT pou-teen!). In Canada, a traditional poutine has brown gravy and big, thick, squeaky cheese curds. That said, this was one of the most amazing poutines I’ve ever had in my life. All of the ingredients worked so well together, and the fries were thinner, shoestring style like I prefer – and they were hot and fresh! I want more of this right now…

Luke’s prixe fixe lunch was a 3-course meal that cost $49. For his first course, he chose the:

Canadian Cheddar Cheese Soup – Moosehead beer, Nueske’s Applewood-smoked bacon

 

I was looking forward to trying this, but also really apprehensive because of the beer. I was born and raised in New Brunswick, which is where the Moosehead Brewery is located. I’m not a huge fan of beer in general, but I really hate that kind. I was scared the soup would taste like beer, but it doesn’t at all! It was so rich and creamy and delicious.

For Luke’s main course in his prixe fixe lunch, he went with the:

Beef Tenderloin – with grilled asparagus, crispy onions and peppercorn butter.

I tried a small piece from the outside of this – I’m a steak well-done person, Luke is not, so the outside was the only part cooked enough for me. It was very tasty! I believe we were even told it was Alberta beef, which we laughed about since it’s the province we actually live in. Luke seemed to really enjoy this, and ate it all!

I didn’t order a main, but instead went for another side dish:

Loaded Mashed Potatoes – Nueske’s bacon, black diamond cheddar, chives, potato skin crisp, $9

These were really creamy, and really rich! The potato skin crisp was really enjoyable, and they were very generous with the bacon and cheese in these! I actually couldn’t finish them all myself, it was a bit too many potatoes after polishing off that poutine haha.

Luke’s third and final course was dessert. He went for the Maple Creme Brulee

I don’t think I had ever tried creme brulee before, and this was when I realized I don’t like it at all. I ate the chocolate stick and a raspberry haha. Luke loved this though, and ate it all.

Our bill came to a total of $85.99 – which isn’t terrible, but I also only had appetizers and Luke went for the lunch special. That said, we’d absolutely go back (even if it’s just for that poutine!).

 

 

Magic Kingdom Food

Quick Service:

  • Be Our Guest (breakfast & lunch only) – Beauty and the Beast themed restaurant, pricey for breakfast, lunch is probably the best. Make sure you pre-order to save yourself a ton of time! 2016 breakfast review here, 2017 breakfast review here, 2016 lunch review here
  • Casey’s Corner – hot dogs, corn dogs, french fries
  • Columbia Harbour House – sandwiches, shrimp, pot pie, nuggets, etc. One of the better reviewed quick serve options
  • Cosmic Ray’s – rotisserie chicken, cheeseburgers, chicken nuggets
  • Peco’s Bills – fajita platters, nachos, etc. Huge toppings bar. One of my favourite quick serve locations – 2016 review is here, 2017 review here
  • Pinocchio’s Village Haus – flatbreads, chicken parm, nuggets, etc
  • Tomorrowland Terrace – open seasonally, hamburgers, nuggets, hot dogs, etc

Table Service:

  • Be Our Guest (dinner only) – slightly French inspired. Can meet the Beast after you eat (only place to do so). 2016 review can be found here.
  • Cinderella’s Royal Table – princess character meal inside the castle, from reviews food is nothing special but it’s expensive – you’re paying for the characters and location
  • Crystal Palace – buffet with Pooh & friends. 2016 review here
  • Jungle Navigation Co. Skipper Canteen – chicken, steak, seafood, pork – Asian fusion
  • Liberty Tree Tavern – dinner is all you can eat turkey, pork and prime rib. Lunch has a few other options. I need to go just to try the Ooey Gooey Toffee Cake at lunch!
  • Plaza Restaurant –  mainly sandwiches/burgers
  • Tony’s Town Square – Italian restaurant close to the entrance of the park.