One of Luke’s favourite restaurants on our December 2018 trip was Kona Cafe for breakfast, and he was quick to request a return on the May trip. We booked an early reservation (7:45am), and caught a Lyft over to the Polynesian from OKW.

I love the Polynesian – we will stay here one day! It’s so beautiful (but just a little out of our price range) –

We headed upstairs and checked in. It was still early, so we only waited a minute or two before being called and led to our table.

• 

• 

We both knew exactly what we wanted to order – the exact food we had ordered in December!

Luke went for the Seven Seas Samoan – poached eggs with citrus hollandaise sauce on pulled pork and turkey hash with mustard greens and tomatoes tossed in a citrus vinaigrette -$14

Luke loved this – he tends to order whatever version of a benedict is on a menu, and this is one of his favourite ones. The mustard greens is basically just arugula. It doesn’t look like a huge portion (and it isn’t), but it’s very rich and contains a perfect mix of sweet, savory and salty with a bit of of freshness added in from the greens.

He also ordered the Freshly Brewed Joffrey’s Coffee Hawaiian Kona Maragogype Press Pot – $9.5

I don’t drink coffee, but according to Luke this is one of the better ones available on property – in his words “it’s smooth and has great flavour”.

I went for the famous Tonga Toast – banana stuffed french toast rolled in cinnamon sugar and served with a strawberry compote and your choice of ham, spiced ham, bacon or sausage – $16

They brought over a plate with condiments – butter, ketchup, maple syrup and strawberry compote.

It’s all about that strawberry compote on the tonga toast! It’s a huge piece of sourdough bread, stuffed with bananas and coated in cinnamon sugar after being fried – I barely put a dent in this before I was full, but it’s so good! It’s a large serving, and I could easily share it with someone.

Total Cost was $37.87 after applying my 10% AP discount, and we will absolutely be back again on a future trip! Luke says that Kona is his favourite breakfast on property (but he might only be saying that to make Boma breakfast jealous…)

Total Food Cost: $396

One of Luke’s favourite meals from our 2017 trip was breakfast at Boma, so we made a reservation to return there. Our reservation was early, 7:30am, but we were there on time and were seated in a fairly empty restaurant.                

Our waitress took our drink order (juice for both of us – I can’t remember what they call it at Boma, but it’s the same delicious POG juice they serve at many other locations on property, and a coffee for Luke). We went then went up to the buffet.

My first plate, starting at the top and going clockwise: a plantain, strawberries and grapes, bread pudding with pecan caramel sauce, asparagus, carved turkey and tater tots. Not overly exciting, but everything was really good, I especially love that sauce for the bread pudding!

My second plate: made to order omelet with bacon, ham and mozzarella. I don’t typically eat eggs, but I just can’t pass up the opportunity to have an omelet that’s made to order. I didn’t finish this entire thing, as eggs are a food that bother my stomach (I have GI issues), but I did enjoy what I ate of this!

Luke’s first plate, starting at the top and going clockwise: goat cheese and chives scrambled eggs, turkey bobotie, asparagus, bacon, ham, tater tots and smoked salmon. The bobotie was one of the main reasons he loved this place so much, and he really enjoyed it again.

Also – proof of our drinks haha –

Luke also had a bowl of African fruit salad

Luke had a second plate of food, but I obviously didn’t take a picture of it, and it was so long ago now that neither one of us remember what he had -opps.

The cost for this meal was $27/each (it’s probably more now, most buffet prices seem to have increased since this trip). I was able to use my Tables in Wonderland card again (after being blacked out the previous two days), so our total bill came to $55.73 with the 18% gratuity added in.

This is a great option for breakfast, although it is a bit out of the way. We did skip it on our last trip to Disney (December 2018), but we are staying at Animal Kingdom Lodge on our upcoming trip (May 2019), so we do have plans to eat both breakfast and supper at Boma 🙂

Tables in Wonderland original cost: $150                                                    Break Even Point Before this meal: $130.60                                            Savings this Meal: $10.80                                                                                     Total Until Breaking Even: $119.80

Predicted food budget: $2631.67 (does not include tip)       Estimated Cost of this meal: $53.25                                                                   Actual Cost: $46.01 (before tip)                                                     Over/Under: Under by $7.24                                                             Remaining: $2143.45

We had it in our heads that we needed to watch the fireworks at least once from the 15th floor observation deck at the Contemporary Grill, and this was the only place to squeeze in a reservation. We knew we wouldn’t be hungry after eating at a buffet but we figured we would go grab a drink and an appetizer or dessert.

We finished up at 1900 Park Fare later than we thought we would, and headed straight for the monorail. As we arrived at the Contemporary, we heard the first fireworks go off, so we hustled over to the check-in counter for the Cali Grill and they quickly put us into the private elevator leading to the restaurant. While in the elevator, a cast member told us that as soon as we arrived at the restaurant, we should head directly outside and our table would be waiting for us once Happily Ever After was finished.

We took her advice and headed out onto the observation deck. We had missed less than 5 minutes of the 18 minute long show, and we knew we’d be seeing it later in the week so we weren’t upset. It was also a pretty cold night, especially up that high with the wind blowing , so the deck wasn’t crowded at all and we had no issues finding a great spot to watch despite being late. Most people were huddled inside, not brave enough to come out into the cold for a better view.  It was a great view though, and we enjoyed Happily Ever After for our first (of many viewings on this trip). I honestly only took two or three pictures, I wanted to just enjoy the show.

Once the fireworks had ended, we made our way back inside, where our table was ready for us. We knew we weren’t hungry at all, so we decided to share an appetizer, eat quickly and allow them to turn over our table to another couple who would spend more money than us.

Like ordered a drink as well, the Blackberry Lemonade- which doesn’t appear to be on the menu any longer, and I didn’t get a picture of the description. It was $13, and Luke didn’t love it. The stir stick was cute though with its little monorail! 

We wanted to share an appetizer, but there wasn’t much on the menu that appealed to a picky eater like myself. We ultimately ended up ordering the Pepperoni Pizza -House-made Pepperoni, Tomato Conserva, Fontina, Asiago, Parmesan, Mozzarella, Basil-Oregano Pistou, $16.

I did not like this at all.  I tend to like wood-oven pizza, but this had too much char on it, it tasted more burnt than anything else. I also hated the basil-oregano pistou (which is weird, because I tend to like the flavours of both of those herbs) – but I have no idea what a pistou is so maybe that’s the part I didn’t like?

Our server did bring us a basket of bread, and I did eat some of that. I enjoyed the fancy butter haha. I love bread, and I’m not difficult to please with that stuff…

Our total bill came to $29.19 after saving $1.60 on our pizza with my annual pass.

I know there are so many huge fans of California Grill out there, but I wasn’t overly impressed. Although, I do recognize that we did not give it a fair shot, neither one of us ordered a steak (or an entree of any kind for that matter). We actually have reservations for the brunch there on our trip next May, where we will be sure to show up nice and hungry and be able to give this restaurant another chance.

No TIW – blackout day

Predicted food budget: $2631.67 (does not include tip)       Estimated Cost of this meal: $60.71                                                          Actual Cost: $29.19 (before tip)                                                    Over/Under: Under by $31.52                                                                         Remaining: $2189.46

 

 

Easily one of our favourite meals from our 2017 trip was at Homecomin’. We actually loved it so much that we decided it was the perfect venue for our wedding reception- fried chicken while wearing a wedding dress? Yes please! We knew we would not be brave enough to enter any of the theme parks on New Year’s Eve, so we planned on spending time in Disney Springs that night. Despite having the reception booked at Homecomin’ the following week, we decided we needed to eat there on our own as well. We made a late reservation, 8:50pm since we were going to be volunteering at Give Kids the World until 6pm and we weren’t sure how long it would take to get back to Disney property.

After walking around Disney Springs, we checked in to Homecomin’ early where they told us we probably wouldn’t be seated until our ADR time since they were busy. They handed us a pager, and Luke decided to run to the public bathroom right across from the restaurant since we were expecting a 15-20 minute wait. Of course, the pager went off about 90 seconds later and we were led to a table in the bar side of the restaurant. – I was excited for a minimal wait since I’d been dreaming about their food haha!
We were handed menus which we didn’t really need since we knew exactly what we both wanted to order already.

Of course, first up were drinks! I ordered my favourite, the Moonshine Mash – watermelon infused moonshine, fresh watermelon, lime juice and simple syrup, $12. My drink was as delicious as I remembered it, and it was not the last one I had on this trip…

Luke opted for the Rumshine Punch –  strawberry rumshine, blackberry brandy, banana liqueur, pineapple juice and house-made grenadine, $12

For food, we both pretty much knew what we wanted before we even got there. Luke wanted a few appetizers so he ordered the Church Lady Deviled Eggs – HFK style whole deviled eggs, $12 and the Thigh-High Chicken Biscuits – three biscuits topped with Chef Art Smith’s famous fried chicken thighs and bread and butter pickles. Drizzled with honey, $15.

Luke had tried the deviled eggs the previous year, and they once again did not disappoint. I rarely (if ever eat eggs), so I skipped trying these. The chicken biscuits were a new item for us to try, but we’d read/heard lots of great things about them – and they were fantastic! I’m not even a big fan of chicken thighs, I prefer white meat, but this stuff was cooked so well I enjoyed it. I’m also not a big fan of pickles, so I did remove those from the few bites I had, but the honey was a nice addition to the already delicious biscuits. Luke loves their hot sauce, and added it to both his eggs and his chicken biscuits.

I wanted fried chicken, so I ordered Art’s Famous Fried Chicken – buttermilk brined for 24 hours then perfectly fried served with creamy mashed potatoes and a cheddar drop biscuit, $28.

At one point, Luke asked me if I was angry at him for something since I was being so quiet – I was just too busy stuffing my face with fried chicken that I didn’t even realize I wasn’t talking! I guess that’s a sign I was enjoying my meal haha. The chicken is so juicy and tender, the cheddar drop biscuits are amazing (I’ve heard that the secret ingredient in those is cream cheese, but I have no proof of this) and the mashed potatoes were creamy and  delicious. I did have a side of gravy as well – which is southern sausage gravy and has a really great flavour!

At some point, Luke ordered another drink, a Muleshine – Tim Smith’s Climax Moonshine, peach puree, fresh lime juice and a splash of Q Spectacular Ginger Beer, $13.

Luke loves mules, so I’m surprised he didn’t start with this drink! He actually preferred his first drink a bit more, but there was nothing left of this one.

Despite being stuffed, there’s always room for dessert when you’re at Homecomin’ – there’s only a few options, but all the ones we’ve tried have been great!

We decided to share something, so we ordered a slice of Hamilton County Chocolate Pecan Pie – a 100 year-old traditional Smith Family Farm recipe. Served with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream, $10.

This was amazing – my new favourite dessert! It seriously doesn’t look like much, but it was so rich and chocolately and filled with pecans – and those pecans by the scoop of ice cream were candied -yum! We actually have one of Chef Art Smith’s cookbooks, and Luke made this pie one day. It turned out really well, and was so delicious!

The place was really busy this night, since it was NYE. People were having a good time, and since we were sitting beside the bar we could see the amount of drinks the bartenders were making – it was a lot. The service was a little slow that night, since it was one of the bartenders assigned to our table – but no real complaints!

Our total bill came to $100.64 after saving 10% with my annual pass.

TIW black out day – But I was able to save 10% using my Annual Pass

Predicted food budget: $2631.67                                                                             Estimated Cost of this meal: $152.30 ( I budgeted more drinking, it was NYE after all! But, we were tired and didn’t feel like any more)     Actual Cost: $100.64                                                                             Over/Under: Under by $51.66                                                                 Remaining: $2346.73

Next meal: 1900 Park Fare

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’

One of Luke’s favourite character meals on property is at Tusker House at Animal Kingdom, and it has become one of our go-to’s on every trip. I made this reservation for 12 people, but only 5 of us actually ended up making it there for it – a few people were flying home that day, a group had went to Universal Studios for the day and a few were enjoying the hotel pool for the day. The cast members didn’t seem to mind too much when we checked in that our numbers were lower than expected. Enjoying this  meal would be Luke, my Dad, Ashley, Mike and I.

I checked in for our 10:45 reservation pretty much on time, and we only had to wait a few minutes before being called. We were led to a table in the room to the right of the buffet. Our waitress came over right away to take our drink orders (coffee, water and POG juice – or jungle juice as I believe they call it there), and we headed up to the buffet. I only took pictures of my own plates.

Plate #1: some bacon, a biscuit with gravy, banana bread pudding with a vanilla sauce.

The bacon was standard Disney bacon, the biscuit and gravy was ok, but the star of this plate was the bread pudding. I wish it didn’t have raisins in it, but that just gives me something to pick out haha.

Plate #2 (starting at 12 o’clock and going clockwise): ham, a roll with butter, curry chicken and basmati rice, roasted carrots, breakfast potatoes, a single corn dog nugget and mashed potatoes with gravy.

I enjoyed everything on this plate.  I didn’t really take any notes from this meal, sorry – I was pretty exhausted after the wedding the day before!

10:45am is the sweet spot for a reservation at Tusker House, since it allows you to hit both the breakfast buffet and the lunch buffet as they switch it over – this makes me very happy as I don’t really care for breakfast foods.

Of course, Tusker House is a character meal with four Safari-clad characters making their way around the restaurant while you eat. The first one to approach our table was the one and only Mr. Donald Duck. I wish Ashley and Mike would come with us to Disney every time just so I can watch Mike with the characters – I absolutely loved how happy it made him!

Next up was Daisy Duck, followed by the main mouse himself, and finally Goofy.

       This is the first character at this meal that my Dad agreed to have his picture taken with – he’s just not super into the character meet and greets.

By this point, we had all finished eating, but there’s always room for desserts when at Disney! We headed up for some sweets – and apparently I changed my mind once I got up there haha.

From 12 o’clock going clockwise: some kind of strawberry cake thing, a slice of pork, some green beans, a single cube of cheese (who gets just one cube?!), a few grapes, some kind of chocolate tart-like thing and a double chocolate muffin? brownie? Again, my notes on this day were terrible.

I remember liking the muffin/brownie thing the best of the desserts – but have nothing on the other items.

Donald and Mickey both stopped by again, and I made Dad take pictures with me.

When the bill came out, my Dad offered to pay for the entire table, which was so nice of him! I had already pulled out my Annual Pass and my Tables in Wonderland card, and our waitress told us she would apply the discount even though it wouldn’t be paid on my card (I thought the name on the TIW card had to match the card used to pay for the meal – hence why we’d been all paying cash at meals, but she assured us it would be fine). The total for all 5 of us came to $175.44 after the discount (and including the 18% auto gratuity that comes with using TIW). The waitress charged us for breakfast pricing of $34/person – typically when Luke and I go at that time we’ve always been charged the lunch pricing of $45. During our meal we had chatted with our waitress about our wedding the day before, so I’m not sure if this was just a bit of pixie dust or if they are supposed to charge you based on when you sat down compared to when you finished eating.

Tables in Wonderland Original Cost: $150                                            Break Even Point Before this Meal: $0                                                 Savings this Meal: $34                                                                                           Total Saved: Full cost of card +$297.34

Predicted food budget: $2631.67                                                                            Estimated Cost of this meal: $95.85 (Luke and I, based on $45/each – the lunch price)                                                                                                                   Actual Cost: $0 – thanks Dad!                                                                                   Over/Under: Under by $95.85                                                                  Remaining: $531.67

Next meal: Nomad Lounge