A short and very very sweet food review September 2012

[DisneyElles]

So we (boyfriend and I) went on our amazing holiday in September 2012, with ten nights on site at Port Orleans French Quarter with Free Dining followed by four nights at the Hard Rock.

I haven't got any pictures as generally I was too busy enjoying myself, but thought I'd write a little review also so I can recap what we had...

Disney Table service restaurants in order of best to worst with criteria being service, ambience, deliciousness and (lack of) stress factor.

1) California Grill Dinner (2TS)
Service: Amazing, our server knew her stuff about wine and was extremely accommodating of our requests (e.g. I wanted a glass of prosecco to drink to be timed with Wishes and despite being very busy she remembered in good time)
Ambience: We arrived and had a cocktail at the bar before heading over to our table which was set a couple of rows back from the windows overlooking the Magic Kingdom. When the fireworks went off, many headed to the terrace but we were very happy watching from our table. The view was truly spectacular and exceeded my expectaions.
Deliciousness: The Sushi was the best I have had, we went for the Tempura Seafood Roll. I went for the scallops with sweetcorn risotto and tomato broth, the scallops were sweet and the combination of flavours was interesting and not something I had tried before. Dessert was the only "meh" bit of the meal for me, the key lime pie cheesecake was lacking- I guess I wanted a bit more zing. However boyfriend went for a chocolate pudding with berries/fruit which was lovely. Boyfriend also had a glass of port which was apparently the best he had ever had!
Stress factor: Zero stress! and was followed by Extra Magic Hours at the Magic Kingdom although we were a bit tipsy by the time we got on Big Thunder Mountain.

2) Le Cellier Lunch (1TS)
Service: Okay, the server spoke so quickly I hardly heard what she said but it was all fine.
Ambience: Our table was a bit crammed in, but we didn't mind at all, the restaurant was full but had a nice atmosphere and made me feel a world away from the theme park above us.
Deliciousness: Le Cellier gets top marks for deliciousness, I kept it classic by going for a cup of chedder soup, pretzel bread, steak with mushroom risotto followed by the nanaimo bar with mocha ice cream. Boyfriend also had steak but with the chocolate moose. We loved it and thought the food was excellent, and certainly worth our 1TS.
Stress Factor: None caused by Le Cellier, but we arrived a bit sweaty having run across Epcot to make our reservation on time!

3) Les Chefs de France Dinner (1TS)
Service: Fabulous, our waitress was from the South of France and was really polite and as this was our first dinner on the the DDP made sure we knew how it worked without being overbearing.
Ambience: It was busy, but I liked the style of the restaurant and it did remind me of a traditional Parisian Bistro.
Deliciousness: We thought the set-menu looked too prohibitive so decided against it. I went for the beef with dauphinoise potatoes and boyfriend had the duck, both were lovely. I had the sorbet for pudding which I enjoyed, but boyfriend said the profiteroles were not great... (cream felt a little too solid)
Stress Factor: We had a little wait after our ADR time and there were a lot of annoyed people trying to get walk up reservations but once we were seated it was fine..

4) Brown Derby Fantasmic Dining Experience Dinner (2TS)
Service: Our server was a little slow and it seemed like she had too many tables, but she was very sweet.
Ambience: I love hollywood/film history so I was in my element looking around the restaurant.
Deliciousness: Highlights were the Dorma Nesmond cocktail (which I had to have being a HUGE fan of Sunset Boulevard) the stuffed chicken with asparagus and the grapefruit cake. The 2TS gave us three courses and we were so full, but the food was of a higher quality than I was anticipating so it seemed like good value regardless of fantasmic.
Stress Factor: The fantasmic entry pass worked perfectly, the seats were right in the middle, and I really appreciated taking our time and not feeling rushed. Well worth doing.

5) O'Hanas Dinner (1TS)
Service: Initially great, but we are only a table of two so the tables before us were on dessert, and the tables after us were still on their welcome bread when we were in meat mode! The servers with skewers totally bypassed us because of this. However, we took the is a chance to take our time and enjoy our cocktails and I was quite strict by saying we were not ready to move on to dessert etc.
Ambience: I was a bit worried about O'Hanas but in the end it was the atmosphere that made it, the children racing coconuts were so sweet, plus the lady with the ukulele was lovely and ensured I got Lei/garland and came over to talk to us. We then went outside and watched Hallowishes on the beach- these were the most impressive fireworks I have ever seen.
Deliciousness: Loved it all! But scores lower as boyfriend did not like the pudding (spoilsport) Super impressed, the meat was medium rare and I really rated the salad dressing and style of the meal. I would love to come here with a larger group of people.
Stress: It took forever to get our pre-drink cocktail and there were a couple of horrid women who pushed in at the bar in front of another group, they just had a terrible air of self-importance and were so rude. However, did get my backscratcher cocktail in the end and the barman although stressed was a lovely man.

Continued in next post...

[DisneyElles]

6) Boma Dinner (1TS)
Service: Good, considering how busy they were... I really felt for the waiters and waitresses in this place as they spent so much time clearing up plates.
Ambience: It was certainly like a noisy market! I found it quite hectic, but hey that's what buffets are about I guess?
Deliciousness: The food was really patchy. It was nice finding some lentils and cous cous at Disney, and there was some pork which was amazing and some interesting dishes... but the desserts including the famous zebra domes were not to our taste at all. Just felt kind of bland.
Stress Factor: Stressful only because we got lost beforehand (went to the wrong bit of Animal Kingdom Lodge) I also found the scrum for food a little too much to handle after a day at the parks

7) T-Rex Dinner (1TS)
Service: He was rushed off his feet, and made some errors on our bill. However these were amended- he was a little defensive as clearly he deals with some horrible people on a day to day basis, but once he realised we weren't mean and were buying alcohol he was an adequate waiter.
Ambience: This was my boyfriends choice as he loves this place (comes here with his family). It was my first time and I did enjoy the theming. I managed to look past the tired children and enjoyed the surroundings.
Deliciousness: The food was what you'd expect, slightly upscaled fast food. The cocktails were good however.
Stress Factor: Very stressful initially. Their computers went down so they couldn't access who did and who didn't have reservations. We got put in several different queues and were issued with a piece of paper. A woman then asked for this, but boyfriend cleverly hung onto this- as it was our only evidence that we were to be seated... the group behind us gave up I think! We were also lucky in that a table of two is quite easy to fit in. The restaurant was manic and packed so I was relieved to get seated and away from the angry hoards.

8)San Angel Inn Dinner (1TS)
Service: Our server was perfectly nice, but a bit slow and went missing for a large section of the meal.
Ambience: Very nice, I liked the pyramid and the sky above- it could have been a great meal...
Deliciousness: Sadly everything was a bit plain and mushy and quite frankly made me feel a bit ill. The quality, seasoning and spice/flavour were all off. It felt cheap. The dessert I don't know what it was but it was not good. Thumbs down.
Stress Factor: Took ages to get seated, many people left on account that if they ate dinner here they would miss illuminations despite having a 7.30 reservation. The wait was alleviated by the fantastic margheritas at la cava, and meeting two sets of just engaged couples who were also waiting and also a bit merry on account of previously mentioned drinks! (The avocado and cucumber were amazing and the staff at la cava were awesome).

Notable quick service mentions:
Flame Tree BBQ (Animal Kingdom) Yummy food and great seating area overlooking the lake and exhibition everest.
Columbia Harbour House Brown Bread! (and a lovely upstairs seat watching the Magic Kingdom go by) thought the food quality was good here.

Snacks
Best snack: Storybook treats brownie sundae in fantasyland in the MK, big enough to share if you want to!
Worst snack: Peanut butter cupcake from Starring Rolls (Hollywood studios) was seriously disgusting. Dense, horrible chocolate and stodgy. This happened on day 2 of the holiday, so got me worried that all food in Disney was going to be horrendous, luckily I was wrong.

Off-site mention for super deliciousness, excellent service and romantic ambience: Melting Pot! I loved this place- check out the menu here: meltingpot/orlando/welcome

Off-site mention for the only truly rude and awful server: Hard Rock Cafe We had a waitress who didn't care, wandered off, got our orders wrong then criticised our choices. (The food and cocktails were okay however)

So all in all Orlando exceeded my expectations. Disney food is far better than I had imagined, I loved making my own salads at the salad bars and found there was more variety than I had previously thought. We received almost always great service and were surprised at how well the ADR system worked. Would definitely dine at Disney again although not until I get over the amount of food, which might take a while!

[col1968]

thanks for sharing, gives me some fab ideas for our soon to ADR booking spree

[Guest]

Thanks for sharing - sad to hear about a bad experience in Hard Rock, this is normally one of our fave places. Don't let it put you off in future. I remember once going to Planet Hollywood and being abandoned by the waitress, we walked out after a while and swore we'd never go back...but we have and we love it.

[Col&Ali]

Fantastic summary! Thanks for sharing

[Trance]

I've been tempted with the melting pot so thanks for the nudge to try

[DisneyElles]

Originally Posted by Trance

I've been tempted with the melting pot so thanks for the nudge to try

See more...

We had a fabulous time and really wonderful service. I wasn't sure before we went but the fondue concept was great. I can't pick a favourite course but for dessert we had the ying and yang (white chocolate and milk chocolate) with lots of fresh fruit and marshmallows. So simple but so yummy! Hope you get to go on your trip.

[DIBBadmin]

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