Tea for Two - An Offsite Dining Report - Oct/Nov 2019
I had originally planned to post this day by day, but when I went to post the first day, I found out that my new phone takes photos in a format that isn’t compatible with the Dibb photo uploader. The only way to make the pics compatible is to transfer them to a PC, and I didn’t have my laptop with me. So, now that I’m home I hope to get each day posted quite quickly.
Index
Intro, Pre Travel & Travel Days - Right here on Post #1
Day 1 - Denny's & Longhorn Steakhouse
Day 2 - Polite Pig & Publix Chicken
Day 3 - Bob Evans & Applebees
Day 4 - Keke's, Charley's Philly Steak & Chili's
Day 5 - Cracker Barrel & Blaze Pizza
Day 6 - Perkins & Olive Garden
Day 7 - Wawa, Arby's & Culvers
Day 8 - Market Street Café, Taco Bell & Outback Steakhouse
Day 9 - Denny's Perkins & Bamboo Wok
Day 10 - IHOP & Logan's Roadhouse
Day 11 - Teak Neighborhood Grill & Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen
Day 12 - Sweet Tomatoes & Texas Roadhouse
Day 13 - Perkins & Millers Ale House
Day 14/15 - Bob Evans & travel food
Introduction
So here I am again with another report, but a different kind of report for me, as I’ve never done a dining report before. This is a chilled out holiday in Orlando with no park days and no firm plans so there definitely won’t be enough material for a full blown trip report. However, we do plan on eating out a lot, so an offsite dining report seemed a good alternative. There will be quite a few breakfasts, some lunches and we hope to eat dinner (or tea as we call it most often in our neck of the woods) out most nights. Since there are two of us, Tea for Two is the name of our report. We are me, Lynda, and my husband Neil. This is my 8th trip to Orlando and Neil’s 10th. Here we are:
Before leaving the UK, we usually sign up to the email clubs of our favourite restaurants to get coupons for free appetisers or money off. I actually forgot to do it this year, but because I did it last year I’m getting some anniversary coupons coming through so you’ll see those coming off of the cost of our meals. It’s worth doing, and a great way to save some pennies towards other spends.
Wednesday 30th & Thursday 31st October 2019
Pre Travel Day - Wed 30th October 2019
We were working until 5pm today, so after work we popped home to get changed and grab our bags. Since our first flight tomorrow is very early, leaving at 6.20am, we travelled through to Aberdeen tonight to be close to the airport. Right next to our hotel (Moxy) is a Farmhouse Inn restaurant called Dyce Farm, so we had dinner there.
First up, our drinks. I had a Strawberry & Lime Kopparberg Cider and Neil had a Dark Fruits Cider. It was already quite late to be eating considering our early start tomorrow, so we only had a main course.
I had the Lasagne (
Beef Lasagne made with Italian red wine and pasta. Served with chips, garlic bread and a salad garnish). This was the strangest lasagne I’ve ever eaten. The mince had what seemed like gravy through it, rather than a tomato sauce. As if it had been used as a mince pie filling first maybe, then the leftovers made into lasagne. The cheese was very thick as well. It tasted fine, and I ate most of it, but it wasn’t lasagne as I would expect it to be. The best part of the meal was the salad which had a nice dressing on it.
Neil had
Wholetail Breaded Whitby Scampi (served with chips, garden peas, salad garnish and tartare sauce). Neil doesn’t like tartare sauce so asked for salad cream instead but they didn’t have any. When I asked him what he thought of his meal he said it was “just ok”. I asked again hoping for a more detailed opinion, but apparently that’s it!
Today’s food spend £24.68.
Travel Day - Thursday 31st October 2019
After a very early start, our first food stop today was the Northern Lights lounge at Aberdeen Airport. For our birthdays this year, we each bought the other a Priority Pass for airport lounges as we have a fair few flights coming up in the next year, so we thought it would be a handy thing to have. Because we each had our passes, with 10 “free” visits each, this didn’t cost us anything today. The breakfast offerings were out when we arrived, including hot items of bacon, sausage, mushrooms, scrambled egg and beans. There were also cereals, fruit and pastries. It was quite busy when we were in, with a lot of people milling around the food stations so I wasn’t able to get pics of the spread. This is my cooked breakfast, Neil’s was similar, although he inhaled it in about 5 seconds before I managed to get a photo. It was all hot and fresh.
Afterwards, I had a pain au chocolat which is my favourite pastry, with a cappuccino and Neil had a buttery and jam with a latte to drink. I’m guessing most of you won’t know what a buttery is, as it’s local to the N.E. of Scotland. It’s kind of like a flat roll, a little bit chewy but flaky as well, with a salty taste. I know that description sounds awful, but they really are delicious. I finished off with a bowl of fruit with a drop of yoghurt.
Next up was our plane food.
First, a drink and snack. A little bag of sour cream & chive pretzels, which we love. We sometimes buy the big bags of these in Costco. Neil had water and a Heineken to drink and I just had water.
For lunch the choices were chicken curry or a tomato pasta dish. We both chose the curry, which was Chicken Tikka Masala with basmati rice. Also on the tray was the obligatory hard roll, couscous, water biscuits, butter, cheese, a chocolate mousse and a small bottle of water. We both agreed it was very tasty, with plenty of chicken in the curry. The little chocolate and sea salt mousse was delicious. They also came round with tea and coffee to finish off the lunch service.
A couple of hours later we were given a mini Magnum ice cream - lovely. Excuse the dark photo, I was trying to be arty with the plane window behind
.
Tea was a pastrami sandwich and an apple flapjack. Neil thought he wouldn’t like the sandwich but decided to give it a try. We both really liked it, we were doing well with the plane food so far on this trip. We both had coffee and water with this as well.
We had planned to go into the airport lounge at Miami and grab some food there, but we have discovered that Miami is a nightmare to transfer through and we wasted so much time that it wasn’t worth it in the end. If we landed in Miami again we would drive to Orlando, it would be quicker! We decided instead to buy a sandwich to share from one of the shops near our gate. We bought a Turkey Club Sandwich, a bottle of Coke for Neil and an apple juice for me. I thought it was expensive at the time, but it’s airport food and I didn’t think too much about it when they asked for almost $20, but looking at my receipt now, I see that they charged me $3.59 for an orange juice that I didn’t buy
. How annoying! But entirely my own fault for not checking at the time. After all that, the sandwich was just “ok” in my opinion, but surprisingly Neil really liked it. It kept us going until we got to Orlando. Total $19.16.
When we finally arrived in Orlando, we popped to Walmart for a couple of essentials. We only bought milk, water and Pepsi. Unfortunately, I don’t have the receipt but it was around $10 in total. There is a Checkers fast food take away in the Cagan Crossings Walmart, so we bought some hot food there. Two boxes of chicken pops with fries $2 each. Neil had a baconzilla burger which was 2 beef burgers layered with bacon in between and cheese on top. He said this was excellent, the burger wasn’t greasy at all and it was very tasty. One of the best burgers he’s ever had, which is high praise indeed! I had a chicken burger, which by comparison was pretty average. A bit too much mayo on it for my liking but it filled a hole. We didn’t manage to finish all of the chicken pops and fries, but they were tasty too and great value at only $2 a box. In fact, the whole meal was good value at $13.47 in total.
And that ended the food intake for our very long travel day.
Today’s food spend: $42.63.