Luke and I were both very excited about this meal – we were meeting up with a large group at California Grill for Brunch. We took a Lyft from OKW over to the Contemporary, and found the group. We hung out on the second floor, waiting for everyone to get there before checking in and being led to the top floor in the California Grill elevator.

We reached the restaurant, and were each handed a glass of sparkling wine with boba balls.

I’m always fascinated by the wine selection here – even though I have zero taste when it comes to wine. I like my wine cheap and sweet – this amazing wall of wine is completely lost on me…

Our group was assigned two long tables, side by side, closest to the door out to the observation deck. If you’ve never been to California Grill – this is the best view in the restaurant – seriously, look at this view from our table! <3 <3 <3

We chose our seats – Luke and I were at a table with Billie, Jenny, Joe, Ariane, Steve, Kari, Kelly, Renee and Chad. We were each given a menu listing the entrees to choose from, and our server let us know to help ourselves from the buffet options.

This is a unique meal. It is a prix-fixe price on the high end ($90/person at this point in 2019), but it has a very impressive self-serve buffet mixed with entree selections. It’s not advertised, but there actually isn’t a limit on the number of entrees you can order so Luke and I each ordered two since we couldn’t decide. It’s a good thing we were hungry!

It’s not my thing at all, but they offered a Bloody Mary bar for an additional $10/drink. From what I know about Bloody Mary’s – this was an impressive spread.

I ended up taking a million photos of the buffet – enjoy!

My plate wasn’t too full after our trip through the buffet, since I don’t eat eggs or seafood of any kind. I did sample a few items from the charcuterie board as well as the strawberry salad (and then a plate full of bread/carbs from that section haha).

Luke ordered a coffee, and we thought the raw sugar on the table was so cool –

On to our entree selections! For my main meal, I knew I needed to try the Steak and Eggs – two eggs any style, charred tomato barbecue, sage fingerling potatoes, lime aioli (I told my server to hold the eggs, since they would just go to waste)

OMG. This was so good!The lime aioli on top of the steak and the charred barbecue sauce under the steak were both fantastic, lots of flavour and complimented each other extremely well. The steak was cooked perfectly to my liking (well done) without being dry at all. Even the potatoes were incredible – I was very happy that our server had brought an extra bowl of potatoes for our table because I could have had an entire meal of just those.

I couldn’t help myself, and also ordered the Lemon Ricotta Pancakes – hazelnut granola, yuzu curd, strawberry syrup

These were good, and the plate was very pretty – but I would have been upset had I just ordered these as my only entree. I would not consider these to be $90 pancakes.

Luke’s main choice was the Bison Burger – house made brioche bun, Neuske’s bacon, fried egg, truffle onion jam, dill pickle seasoned waffle fries

Luke LOVED this! To this day, he declares this as the best burger he’s ever had on Disney property. He thought the bison was great, the egg was great, the onion jam was great – he really liked this. I’m a lover of all things potato, so I did steal a waffle fry to try it, but I didn’t notice any dill pickle seasoning…

Luke’s go-to option anytime we ever go out for breakfast is whatever benedict they offer, so he decided he had to try the one from Cali Grill. Eggs Benedict – two soft-poached eggs, toasted english muffin, orange honey jam, classic hollandaise

There was absolutely nothing special about these. They were fine, but completely forgettable and he didn’t even finish them. Luke told me he’s so glad he didn’t just order these – he would have felt terrible spending so much money on something that was just ok.

At some point, our server brought over another glass of sparkling wine for everyone. This one was pink, so clearly a rose of some kind? Did I wine properly there?

There’s also a dessert tray brought over at the end. I don’t even think I tried anything off of it (I’m weird and don’t like macarons). Since our table was fairly large, they brought over a few plates for us.

At some point, we took a bunch of group photos. I’m not sure exactly who’s phone they were taken with, but I only have these two saved in my Google Photos account –

This meal was awesome, and I’m so glad we had a chance to try it. The view while we ate was stunning, the food was fantastic and the company was top-notch. Hopefully we get the opportunity to enjoy Brunch at the Top again one day!

Total Trip Food Cost: $987