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Old 7 Sep 18, 12:54 PM  
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#41
collybird
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I shouldn’t be reading this on an empty stomach.

It’s funny that Garfunkel’s at Gatwick is on your naughty list. We’ve never had a good meal at Garfunkels in London but had eaten several times at the Gatwick one and always been pleased.

We are fans of Friendlys too, if you go in with realistic expectations it’s never going to disappoint. The mini mozzarella sticks look incredible, and can you ever go wrong with the honey BBQ chicken melt!?
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Old 7 Sep 18, 06:49 PM  
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#42
wilma-bride
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Originally Posted by collybird View Post
I shouldn’t be reading this on an empty stomach.

It’s funny that Garfunkel’s at Gatwick is on your naughty list. We’ve never had a good meal at Garfunkels in London but had eaten several times at the Gatwick one and always been pleased.

We are fans of Friendlys too, if you go in with realistic expectations it’s never going to disappoint. The mini mozzarella sticks look incredible, and can you ever go wrong with the honey BBQ chicken melt!?
That's the mistake I always make - reading food reviews makes me hungry.

We've only ever had breakfast at Garfunkels at Gatwick - and both times been disappointed. So now we just avoid it.

Friendly's is great, although I realise I have been calling it cheap and cheerful, and it wasn't really all that cheap. Oh well, still cheap compared to many other options, I suppose.

Thanks for reading.
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Old 7 Sep 18, 07:31 PM  
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#43
wilma-bride
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Start as we mean to go on

Monday 20th August - Day 1

Breakfast

We started the morning with hot tea (Gary) and a cinnamon roll (Daniel) (no pictures, I’m afraid) at Orchid Court Lounge. I was still determined I wasn’t wasting calories on anything that was ‘ordinary’ so I skipped breakfast and just had a cup of water.

Total cost - $6.39 (paid cash)

Butterbeer and Ice Cream

After we’d explored Diagon Alley, Rea and Ben were keen to try the Frozen Butterbeer and the Butterbeer ice cream. I’m still not sure whether I actually like Butterbeer – it is so sweet and it has such an odd flavour, but for some reason I can’t seem to stop drinking it.

Artistic Butterbeer (resulting in a sticky arm)



I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream




The Butterbeer ice cream, however, is delicious. The soft serve from Florean Fortescue’s is so smooth and creamy, and there is just a hint of the Butterbeer flavour, meaning it isn’t too sweet.

Total cost - $7.45 for the butterbeer, $5.85 for the ice cream (paid cash)

Toothsome Chocolate Emporium

Lunch was at Toothsome, a place which I had mixed feelings about going in. There has been so much hype about this place since it first opened ad reviews have been mixed, from people who have raved about it to those who claim it is over-hyped and over-priced. Nonetheless, from the outset, this place had been on our list and I was keen to make up my own mind.



The guys had been there for quite a while, waiting for us to get sorted at Guest Services, so they had already been seated at the bar. When Rea and I were finally able to join them, we were shown to a large, comfortable booth upstairs.



Our server was Sean and he was amazing from the outset. He took our drinks order, made a recommendation for a beer (Yuengling) to Ben, even offering to get him a sample to try. Ben liked the beer and ordered one, while the rest of us stuck with soft drinks (Diet Cokes for Gary and I, Fanta for Rea and Sprite for Daniel). After pointing out the back story of the restaurant in the menu and suggesting we keep an eye out for the naughty monkey, who liked to steal pocket watches, Sean left us with the menus and went to fetch our drinks.

We had a good look around the restaurant while we waited. The creatures made out of cutlery were pretty cool. In fact, the whole place had great theming.





The menu was varied but essentially had a strong underlying theme of chocolate. After much deliberating, we finally decided on:

Me – Pork Belly Sliders (Daniel ordered the same)



Gary – May Contain Bacon Burger



Rhiannon – Totchos



Ben – BBQ Chicken Flatbread



We also ordered the chocolate almond bread, as that sounded delicious.



While we were waiting for the food, we were visited at the table by Penelope, who had previously spoken to the guys while they were seated at the bar. She was very funny and was giving us lots of ideas about mixing and matching the various options for dessert. She spent a lot of time at our table, which was nice. It didn’t feel like she was just playing a part, if that makes sense.

I really, really, really wanted to love the food. It sounded so promising. Unfortunately, the sliders were very disappointing. I was expecting thick slabs of crispy pork belly and, in reality, it wasn’t much thicker than bacon and it was floppy. The pretzel buns were dry and hard. Daniel adored the chocolate covered bacon, and polished all of mine off as well as his own, which was fine as I didn’t care for it at all. The BBQ flatbread was nice but, again, we were expecting something a bit more bready (pizza-ish), rather than what was essentially a thin cracker. Rhiannon enjoyed the Totchos, but she said the cheese sauce was quite sickly.

Of course, we couldn’t leave without having tried dessert which, I suspected is where Toothsome would come into its own. And it did not disappoint at all. On Penelope’s recommendation, we decided to mix it up a bit.

So Rea and I ordered the S’mores sundae to share, with a Brookie on the side.



Daniel chose the Cookie Jar milkshake, but subbed Nutella ice cream instead of the vanilla.



Finally, Gary went old school and had Crème Brulee.



The sundae was to die for. It had massive warm, melty marshmallows on top. The Brookie was the perfect addition, definitely a good choice. Daniel loved his milkshake but it really was far too much. He was worried he would actually make himself sick if he carried on drinking it. Gary said the crème brulee was nice, but a little bit sloppy (which sometimes happens when you add other ingredients to the classic crème brulee custard base). He is definitely a creme brulee purist though, doesn't like it if you mess about putting other stuff in it.

Final scores:

Joh – 5 for the sliders, 9 for dessert (the Brookie was easily the highlight)
Gary - 7.5 for the burger, 6 for dessert
Rea – 6 for the totchos, 9 for dessert
Ben – 7
Daniel – 6 for the sliders, 8 for the chocolate covered bacon and 8 for the milkshake

Atmosphere: 9.5 (only because it was ever so slightly chilly)
Service: A stellar 10. Sean was awesome. He didn’t even charge us for the Brookie!

Total cost - $126.65 (after AP discount) before tip, $155 with tip
Total remaining on FairFX - $2745.00

Voodoo Donuts

Before we went back to the room, we bought donuts from Voodoo. Although we ate these for breakfast the next morning, I have included them today.

We got:

Chocolate Glazed Cake Donut with Peanuts


Universal Orlando Orangesicle



Voodoo Doll



We also got an apple fritter, but for some reason I failed to get a photo of that.

Considering these weren’t eaten until the next morning, they still tasted really fresh. The apple fritter was huge and Rea, Daniel and Ben barely managed to finish it between them. I wasn’t expecting much from the Orangesicle, but it was actually really nice, not too sweet. The Voodoo Doll remains my favourite (I had this one from Voodoo Donuts in Portland a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it then). What can I say? I’m a creature of habit. They really are quite reasonably priced, considering what you would pay in this country for specialty donuts like that, and they are huge. We could easily have shared 3 and had plenty.

Total cost - $11.08 (paid cash).

Drinks by the Pool

It has to be done – you are chilling by the pool, sunglasses on, you need a cocktail or two.

We had:

Me – Dragon Splash ad Rhiannon - Maui Sunset



Ben – Budweiser (no photo)

These were tasty but jeez weez, the drinks at the Universal hotels are expensive. Every time I forget just how pricey they are. I know you get the refillable souvenir glass, but that is really just an excuse to hike up the price. They aren’t even that big. Needless to say, we only had the one.

Total cost (including 18% service charge) - $45.37.

City Walk Dinner

Even though nobody was particularly hungry this evening, you know when you just have to eat something. We wandered around aimlessly for a while, the two parks had just kicked out and everywhere was heaving. I did suggest going back to the hotel and getting something at Jake’s Bar but was told “we don’t want a sit down meal” so it was a case of everybody fend for themselves. Gary wanted a drink but no food, Ben wanted a hot dog and Rea just wanted some fries or something. Somehow Ben and Rea ended up at Burger King and Daniel, Gary and I wound up at Bread Box.
Daniel and I decided to share and got the…

Beef Brisket Sandwich with fries



We also got a Sprite and a Diet Coke.

The sandwich was pretty good, although my half had considerably more brisket in it than Daniel’s. He wasn’t keen on the wholegrain bread, but I really liked it.

Total cost (with AP discount) - $17.80

Rea and Ben got a Whopper with Pepper Bacon and Chicken Fries (I don’t seem to have a picture of this). They also got a Strawberry Fanta and a Coke

It was Burger King, when all’s said and done. Rea let me try one of her chicken fries were quite tasty, I’d never tried them before (although Daniel insisted we can get them over here and have had them before).

Total cost - $18.93

Edited at 05:15 PM.
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Old 7 Sep 18, 08:21 PM  
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#44
theCMG
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Orangesicle and the brisket sandwich both looked lovely, brilliant start!
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Old 7 Sep 18, 08:45 PM  
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#45
Cinderella
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Nice cocktails ... I agree they are pricy! I always wondered about breadbox - is it takeout?
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Old 7 Sep 18, 08:56 PM  
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#46
wilma-bride
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Originally Posted by theCMG View Post
Orangesicle and the brisket sandwich both looked lovely, brilliant start!
Thanks, the sandwich was really lovely. Much better than it looked.

Originally Posted by Cinderella View Post
Nice cocktails ... I agree they are pricy! I always wondered about breadbox - is it takeout?
Yes, it's a Quick Services as such, but they do have tables you can sit at inside. It's my son's favourite QS option at City Walk - that and Panda Express!
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Old 7 Sep 18, 09:07 PM  
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#47
Floridaagogo
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Donuts look amazing x
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Old 7 Sep 18, 09:13 PM  
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#48
Jaspercat10
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We ate in Toothsome last week, and found the mains v disappointing as well, the kids loved the milkshakes, but overall I thought it was poor quality for the price I wouldn't go back
Look forward to reading more hope you are having a great trip 😄
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Old 8 Sep 18, 07:50 AM  
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#49
Dogwalker
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Great update!
I enjoyed Toothsome more than Philip if I remember rightly. Thinking we might try Cowfish next trip
Those Donuts look amazing! I NEED the Voodoo Doll one 😊
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Old 8 Sep 18, 10:39 AM  
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#50
caitlinsmummy
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Those donuts look lovely. It's a shame about Toothsome though, can you just go for the milkshakes or do you have to have food too? Xx
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