mcsue's Tasty Trip Notes

[Guest]

Tasty Trip Notes (May 2004)


Chefs de France - Lunch

I love the relaxed French Cafe atmosphere in here. It has always been a favourite of ours, particularly at lunch time.
We were shown to our table right next to the window (I love people watching, and we were in a perfect position to watch the antics of the Chair Act!) We were introduced to our waiter Franck who was polite and helpful. Apparently he works upstairs in the Bistro in the evenings – I’d love to eat there too one day!
He promptly brought us our warm crusty rolls and unsalted butter. The bread here is the best on property in my opinion.
We ordered a Carafe of House Red (very acceptable!)
I was quite hungry so I had the Steak with Peppercorn Sauce and French Fries, plus a House Salad. The salad consisted mainly of mixed leaves, thinly sliced red onion and baby tomatoes with a very light French dressing.
They’ve changed the cut of steak from a Sirloin, to a French cut called a Hanger Steak. I’m not familiar with this cut at all, and I have to say I found it slightly tough with rather a strong flavour. Not horrid – just a bit strange! The dark peppercorn sauce was unchanged, thankfully!
Paul had the Goats Cheese Salad. This was a large salad of arugala and a few other types of leaves. The peppery leaves complemented the richness of the warm, soft goat’s cheese, which was thickly spread on a piece of toasted walnut and raisin bread. There were also some strips of marinated, roasted red pepper draped over the leaves. This is just Paul’s kind of food, and he didn’t leave a scrap!

Carafe of Red Wine $13.95
Steak and Fr Fries $17.95
House Salad $3.95
Salade Chevre Chaud $9.95

Total inc tax $48.78


Chefs de France – Lunch 2

We were given those lovely rolls again and of course ordered our Carafe of House Red!
We both plumped for the Vegetarian Lasagne, and shared a House Salad and some French Fries. We found the lasagne to be quite heavy (maybe not the best choice on a hot day). Although it tasted good, we’ve had better lasagne at Chefs.
Managed to find room for dessert this time! I had the Profiteroles. They were generously filled with vanilla ice cream and covered in a warm chocolate sauce, with toasted almonds sprinkled over the top. So yummy, I wanted to lick the plate!
Paul had Ille Flottante (Floating Islands). It’s one of his most favourite desserts ever, and he quickly declared that this was a good one! It is a lightly poached meringue, floating in a custardy vanilla sauce. That’s the best way I can describe it! (Can you tell I was more interested in my profiteroles?)
Our waiter today was Frederick. Handsome, charming and very efficient, he wins our best server of the trip award!


Carafe of Red wine $13.95
Vegetable Lasagne $13.75
Vegetable Lasagne $13.75
House Salad $ 3.95
French Fries $ 1.25
Profiteroles $ 5.95
Ille Flottante $ 5.95

Total inc tax $62.36






Columbia Harbour House - Lunch

I had the Garden Galley Salad and Paul the same but w/o the chicken. I was surprised that we were charged the same price for both, but we soon found out that Paul had a lot of extra feta cheese in his. This is a very filling salad of mixed leaves, pineapple, pecan nuts, feta cheese and chicken. I found there was a lot of dressing already on my salad, but Paul still managed to use a couple of pots of honey/mustard dressing on his!
We also shared some Fries and a Diet Coke
It was quite busy in here today. We struggled to get a table by the window upstairs, which is often completely empty. We eventually managed to get a nice view overlooking a packed Fantasyland.

Garden Galley Salad $6.39
Garden galley Salad $6.39
Fries $1.79
Diet Coke $1.99

Total inc tax $17.64


Pecos Bill’s - Lunch

We both had the Kit Carson Salad - Paul’s w/o the chicken.
This salad had iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, grated carrot and some small cubes of very mild cheese. I think it had a lime based dressing which I found a bit sweet. My chicken was a bit flabby and I left a few pieces, along with some of the salad. It seemed to go on forever and I’m afraid I just got bored with it! Paul ate every bit of his though, and really enjoyed it. They have a great fixin’s bar here, and we added sautéed onions and mushrooms to our meal as well as extra slices of tomato. They also have that hot processed-cheese, which I feel compelled to dip my fries into. Yum!

Kit Carson Salad $6.39
Kit Carson Salad w/o Chicken $4.69
Fries x 2 $3.58
Lge Diet Coke $2.29

Total inc tax $18.06


Tusker House - Lunch

I had the Grilled Salmon with rice and veggies. Paul had the Veggie Sandwich. My salmon tasted very fresh and had a slightly spicy flavour. The veggies were a mix of green beans and carrots. Paul’s sarnie was served on light focaccia bread. He subbed the fruit that came with it for a side of fries, and to his great pleasure they were the big fat ones! A rarity around these parts!
At first we couldn’t find a table, but to the right as you come out of the back door there are some steps leading down to a quieter area which was just perfect!
We enjoyed the food here greatly. Fresh tasty food at a bargain price!

Grilled Salmon $7.99
Veggie sandwich $7.29
Lge Diet Coke $2.29

Total inc tax $18.72


Lotus Blossom Café - Dinner

This is always a good standby for us when we’re too tired to have a proper meal, but need something hot, tasty and quick!
The Veggie Lo Mien here fits that bill perfectly. Stir fried noodles with mushrooms, Chinese leaves and green pepper. The sauce is a little bit spicy, but I always add extra chilli sauce to mine. My sort of comfort food!

Veggie Lo Mien x 2 $9.18

Total inc tax $9.78


Brown Derby - Lunch

We’ve been here many times and thoroughly enjoyed it. Our last visit however, was very disappointing! We decided we had to give it another go, and I’m very glad we did!
We were seated in exactly the same booth as we were last time – thankfully we didn’t have the same server…
I had the Cobb Salad. I can’t believe I’ve waited so long to have this dish. It was deeelish! It’s a combination of lettuce, tomato, hard boiled egg, avocado, blue cheese, bacon and turkey breast. All the ingredients are finely chopped, and lined up next to each other on top of the lettuce. The waiter offered to toss it for me, but I wanted to take a picture first, so I declined – I like to have control of my own mixing anyway! Once tossed together, the salad does look a bit strange, but I found that the taste and texture of the combined ingredients were sublime. Paul didn’t find the idea of food chopped that miniscule at all appealing - but I loved it!
Paul had the Thai Noodle Bowl. I was surprised he chose this again as it was a bit of a disaster the previous time!
I’m happy to report that this time it came out cooked perfectly. The golden, coconut crusted Tofu sat on a bed of noodles, along with ****ake mushrooms, pak choi and mange tout. It was prettily garnished with a long stem of lemon grass. (what do I do with this?)
The Thai red curry sauce was perfectly seasoned this time, and Paul devoured it all deftly with his chopsticks (show off!)
I had a glass of Honig Sauvignon Blanc and Paul had a glass of Brancott Pinot Noir
We were both pretty full so we shared the dessert of Bananas Foster Mascarpone Cheesecake. Very nice! I had hoped there would be a more of a pronounced banana/caramel flavour, but I was very impressed with the red cherry compote that was served alongside. I wouldn’t have thought cherries and banana would be an obvious match, but it was just right ingredient to cut through the richness of the rest of the dessert. If I’d known it was going to be such a small portion, I’d have had one all to myself!
The Brown Derby has redeemed itself in our eyes and we’ll return next time. I still miss the warm chiabatta (I dislike pt/bake rolls) I also miss the piano player. If Disney aren’t going to bring him back, they should at least invest in a good sound system. Hollywood style background music really added to the theming of this venue.

Cobb Salad $12.99
Thai Noodle Bowl $13.99
Banana Cheesecake $7.29
Honig Sauvignon Blanc $7.75
Brancott Pinot Noir $9.50

Total inc tax $54.87








Grand Floridian Café - Dinner

I’m so pleased this light and airy restaurant is open again for dinner. It’s a nice place to have a ‘proper’ dinner before a late night at the Magic Kingdom.
Paul is a bread fiend and always enjoys the unusual offerings at the GFC. This time it was the organic wholemeal with currants that took his fancy!
I had the Roast Chicken, which was fresh and juicy. It was served on a bed of ratatouille with black olives. I’d eaten the lot before I even thought of taking a pic – it was that good!
Paul had the only Veggie offering, which was again an Asian influenced tofu and noodle dish. It was quite soupy and the tofu was very soft. There were some frizzled carrot and leeks on the top and I think the sauce/soup was miso based. He assures me that, although not his favourite dish, he did enjoy it. I didn’t like the look of it at all, and felt a bit guilty that I was enjoying mine so much!
At the GFC they serve what they call Mini – Desserts. I think it’s a good idea for those of us that often don’t have room for a large dessert, or those of us that would like to try every dessert on the menu LOL.
We both chose the Hazelnut Chocolate Mousse Cake. It was presented beautifully and tasted just how I like it. The mousse was very chocolaty, with the texture being dense but not too heavy.
We both had two glasses of wine. I had the Fess Parker Chardonnay and Paul had the La Crema Pinot Noir

Roast Chicken $14.99
Vegetarian Dish $12.99
Choc Mousse x 2 $4.78
Fess Parker Chardonnay x 2 $16.50
La Crema Pinot Noir x 2 $18.50

Total inc tax $72.17


Nine Dragons - Dinner

We almost never go out for a Chinese at home. So eating here is a pleasant change.
We chose two veggie dishes so we could share. We had Stir fried Seasonal Vegetables – a mix of broccoli, pak choi, mushrooms, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots and mange tout served in a very light sauce. We also had Eggplant Sautéed in Garlic Sauce, which was absolutely gorgeous. The aubergines were cooked in a garlicky sauce with water chestnuts, bamboo shoots and red onions. This dish and had a very robust and spicy flavour, which contrasted really well with the light veggies and plain boiled rice. The smoky aubergines just melted in your mouth. The tastes were so good I almost didn’t need the Cantonese BBQ Pork appetizer; I’d ordered to go with mine! That was tasty too – Six small slices of lean, moist, pork loin with a honey BBQ glaze.
Of course Paul used his chopsticks again!
I had three glasses of Sterling Sauvignon Blanc and Paul had two Tsingtao beers
Our server was Shi Lei who seemed extremely nervous, but eager to please. I think it must have been his first week on the job. We did notice that there were loads of Disney ‘suits’ in the restaurant that night, both eating and standing around watching – curious!

Stir Fried Vegetables $11.95
Eggplants in Garlic sauce $12.95
BBQ Pork $ 6.50
Sterling sauvignon Blanc x 3 $23.25
Tsingtao Beer x 2 $ 9.00

Total inc tax $67.79






Wolfgang Puck Express @ DD - Lunch

We have always loved the Gourmet Pantry at Downtown Disney and very sad to see it go. We’d heard some good reports about the Earl of Sandwich and thought we’d give it a try. Sad to say it didn’t appeal to us at all. Maybe we were a bit prejudiced because we loved the Pantry so. Well we were hungry bunnies, and now we weren’t sure what to do. Then I remembered that WPE was nearby!
There were lots of things on the menu that I fancied, but finally chose the 9” BBQ chicken pizza. Paul had the Cheese Quesadilla and we shared a large plate of Herbed Fries. Everything was fresh and hot and tasted delicious.
I had a glass of Camelot Chardonnay and Paul had a glass of Bogle Merlot
My only regret was that I didn’t have room for dessert. The Crème Brulee looked very tempting as did the Tiramisu!

BBQ Chicken Pizza $9.25
Cheese Quesadilla $6.50
Herbed Fries $2.75
Camelot Chardonnay $5.75
Bogle Merlot $6.75

Total inc tax $33.02


Wolfgang Puck Express @ DD - Lunch

This was our last day and we’d been doing some last minute shopping at DD (as you do!) A logical place to eat was WPE as we’d enjoyed it so much before.
We had almost exactly the same as above, except that I had a BBQ Chicken Quesadilla this time. All the food was just as good as it had been the first time, I’m glad to say! Also the service on both visits was relaxed and very welcoming.

BBQ Quesadilla $7.50
Cheese Quesadilla $6.50
Herbed Fries $2.75
Camelot Chardonnay $5.75
Bogle Merlot $6.75

Total inc tax $31.15




Boma - Dinner

We’d been looking forward to eating here, since we’d missed it on our last visit. We’d heard there were many exciting foods on the menu, especially for vegetarians. We ate here early in the holiday so as to have enough time for a return visit if it lived up to our expectations!
We had a PS for 8.15 (as there are only the two of us we rarely have to make a PS, but BOMA is always busy). We checked in around 7.45 and went for a drink in the Victoria Falls bar. I love all the polished dark wood at AKL and the comfy leather chairs in here!
We got paged at 8.05. I did notice there were a few irate people waiting to be seated.
I noticed there was a chef by reception and told him that Paul was looking forward to trying the veggie dishes. He said to get the waitress to call him to out table as soon as we were settled and he would take us through all the veggie dishes on the buffet.
We ordered a glass of wine each and then our server Alison went to fetch Chef TJ. He excitedly pointed out the many veggie dishes and sauces. He also explained that all the utensils used for the veggie food are kept separate. Paul was going to feast tonight! He always does OK, but it’s nice to have lots of different choices.
Paul loaded his plate with roasted veggies, tomato sauce, spicy potatoes, falafel and vegetable cous-cous. While I went for the Durban spiced chicken and the pork loin in a coconut curry sauce – and potatoes and roasted veggies. Paul particularly liked the hot mustard sauce they make here (I must look up the recipe)
We were already getting a bit full, so we thought we’d try some of the lighter salads next. Before we could make a move TJ bought Paul out some carrot and ginger soup. It was very poshly presented and garnished.
I couldn’t resist just one more serving of Pork... Just as I got back to the table, TJ appeared again, proudly bearing an enormous wok full of ‘a little something I prepared especially for you!’ OMG it could have fed four easily! There were stir fried mushrooms, asparagus, noodles, peppers and sugar snap peas in a spicy sauce. All topped with a candy floss of fried rice noodles and fresh herbs. Arranged around the edge of the wok there were skewers of marinated/grilled tofu and butternut squash, along with some crispy peanut bread.
I helped Paul out with this heaving wok of deliciousness (it was the polite thing to do!) But sadly we had to leave quite a bit of it of it. We could hardly wobble up to the dessert counter, but we did manage a zebra dome and a choc mousse crunch each. Our tummies hurt now. Thank goodness for drawstring waists!

Adult Dinner x 2 $47.98
Brampton Chardonnay x 2 $15.50
Fairview Pinotage $ 7.75

Total inc tax $75.86




BOMA - Dinner

We were delighted to return to BOMA, but we knew our tummies couldn’t cope with a repeat performance of ‘a little something’ from the lovely TJ - LOL. So we stayed very low profile and determined to start off with the salads we’d missed last time. We’d try to pace ourselves a bit more this time.
Previously, we had been seated by a window, which we much preferred. This time we were in the middle of things and it was much noisier. Paul was seated on the banquette and spent half the time trying to rid himself of somebody else’s child almost sitting in his lap and leaning in his food. The tables weren’t that close, but the family of about eight had finished eating and the child was obviously bored. It was so irritating, because they could see what was happening but chose to ignore it. Had they stayed much longer we would have asked to be moved to another table. Anyway, eventually they left and we could relax!
The salads were so fresh and interesting. I couldn’t imagine what the watermelon rind salad would be like. It was sliced extremely thinly and tasted so refreshing and light. The kool slai was like a sweet coleslaw, and the avocado salad one of my faves.
Tonight I had some salmon with a sweet curry sauce and some prime rib. I found the beef to be a bit bland and also a bit fatty. Undeterred (I don’t get to eat meat very often) I returned to the carving station and asked for an end bit – much better, thank you!
We tried some fufu which we both enjoyed, a mix of sweet potato and white potato with some coriander, cinnamon and butter. We also ate a lot of roasted butternut squash. All the dishes were quite sweet tasting this evening - very tasty, all of them, but definably sweeter overall!
Talking of sweet things brings me to the desserts. We felt we’d missed out on them somewhat last time, so it was time to splurge!
I had more zebra domes (a bit too easy to eat LOL) pineapple cheesecake and I think it was papaya meringue tartlets. Paul had the same but also had some cocomisu which he was obviously enjoying! I tried a spoonful of it from his plate – oh! I was in heaven. I went and got an enormous plate of it for myself and scoffed the lot in no time! (Another recipe to re-create home)
Paul had a plate of tropical fruits and for some bizarre reason I had a piece of Spicy chicken and some mac’n’cheese !?!?
We really enjoyed both experiences at BOMA, and will definitely be coming back here in November!

Adult Dinner x 2 $47.98
Brampton Chardonnay x 2 $15.50
Brampton Red Blend $ 7.75

Total inc tax $75.86




Food Court at Caribbean Beach Resort

On a couple of occasions we had breakfast here. I am not a big ‘morning’ eater and found the kids breakfast to be plenty enough for me.
A large spoonful of scrambled egg, breakfast potatoes (a little underdone), four thin slices of bacon and a nice fluffy biscuit. All this for $3.59. A jolly good bargain, I thought!
Paul had a cheese omelette (far too much cheese) with potatoes and a biscuit, for $5.89
He joined me in having the kid’s brekkie the next time, subbing the bacon for extra egg, no problem!
Paul had a Veggie Burger $5.49, a couple of times. They cook it on a separate grill from any meat products, which pleased him. It comes with a packet of crisps, which is a bit odd. There is a small fixins bar, where you can add lettuce, onions, tomato etc for yourself. If you want Fries with it you have to get them at a different serving station!
One night I had a Pork Loin Platter $8.99.Three slices of meat with proper mashed potato, green beans, carrots and gravy. (Be sure to point at the brown gravy ‘jus’ or you’ll get white sauce!)
Paul had the Veggie Platter $6.99, which was a choice of any five of the veggie items on display. I think he had potatoes, green beans, carrots, yellow rice and a corn cob. As a vegetarian, the sauces weren’t an option for him. So he helped himself to some butter pats and no doubt doubled the calorie content of his meal!



I hope you’ve found these reviews helpful. If you’ve got any questions, then I’m more than happy to answer them. I love talking about food almost as much as I love eating it!

[Guest]

Wow Sue I just knew that special at Bomas would be good. I wonder if they'll prepare something like that again - it sounded gorgeous

Great food reports - thank you!

Lisa

[Stitchesmumanddad]

Wow those were really brilliant Sue...I feel absolutely starving now !

Loved the pictures as well!

thanks


Denise

[Clare]

Loved the report and the photos - makes me very, very hungry!

[Stu]

An excellent report Sue,
love the pics.

[Mike]

Great report Sue. Like others above, I am now ravenous and am off to snack heavily on inappropriate, calorie-laden junk as it's still a couple of hours off dinner!

Thanks for taking the time to do this! I'm printing it off as a guide for deciding on new PSs for next year!

Mike

(BTW..love the way the obscenity filters wouldn't let the mushroom name show! )

[Guest]

As a Participant in the Food proceedings aforementioned, I have to say what a delight the meals were. And people think we go to Disney just to 'do rides' . . . !

Paul

[elise]

Your food report was really useful as I am a vegetarian and a fussy one at that!

Thanks very much

[ANGEL]

Sue Ive only just found this... wow! what a great report thanks

[BevS97]

what a fab food report - we had a lovely meal at Boma's too - one of my favorite restaurants.