First we eat, then we do everything else! 19 nights DDP/UNI -COMPLETE!

[disjunkie]

Today was one of the meals I was most looking forward to, brunch at California Grill. Our booking was at 10:25, we valet parked (included with the brunch) and arrived at 10:10. We were sat straight away and a two top one removed from the window, meaning you could still take in the views.

I had a few mimosas to drink while Neil had the non-alcoholic option and coffee as he was driving.

First course was from the buffet, there was a really good selection. I had California rolls and shrimp tempura rolls, both amazing, apple salad, make your own parfait with honeycomb, strawberries, granola and blueberries and a sticky bun.

Neil had sushi, salad, and an english muffin with smoked salmon. He did get a second plate I didn’t get a picture of which included a cheese scone which was amazing and I don’t normally even like cheese scones!

For his main dish Neil had a lobster omelet, this was really good but the filling included tomatoes which were so fresh and juicy they overpowered the lobster flavour a little. It included a lot of potatoes making it a massive portion.

For my entree I had eggs benedict with smoked salmon. Although this looks lovely I had to send first one back as it was stone cold but second version was really good with perfectly cooked eggs and a creamy hollandaise.

We were both stuffed by this time but still had desserts to come. A tasting plate was delivered contains macarons, fig cookies, chocolate bark, truffles and almond sponge cakes. The macrons were good but could have done with being removed from the fridge a bit earlier, the chocolate bark and almond cake was delicious. I didn't have fig cookie but Neil said it was like a posh fig roll!

Overall this was a very leisurely good meal, there was a nice atmosphere with guitarist and keyboard player playing a range of instrumental Disney songs amongst others. On the dining plan we would definitely do it again but with tip it was just over $200 which is expensive for brunch so don’t think we would pay cash for it.

[disjunkie]

Both full from brunch we had nothing to eat until our dinner at Jiko. We hadn’t eaten here for years so when I saw they were participating in Magical Dining Month it seemed too good an opportunity to pass up, a 3 course meal at Jiko for only $35 bargain!

We were sat a few minutes past our ADR time at a nice four top in the wine room and given the magical dining menu when asked.

Our server was ok here, she was efficient enough but didn’t seem thrilled we were ordering from the set price menu.

To drink I had the Syrah that was paired with my main which was excellent while Neil had an African Old fashioned.

We were given bread rolls and whipped butter. These were just ok, I used to love the bread served here previously with tandoori butter and this wasn't a patch on that.

For appetisers we both had the Inguay day tibs in brik. These are so good, crispy pastry with mushroom and creamy spinach filling, a little bit of spice served with curry sauce and a refreshing apple slaw.

My main was the Botswana style Seswaa short ribs, which was excellent. The meat was so tender it fell off bone, it was served on a cassava potato purée with roasted carrots. The carrots had a good flavour but weren’t as good as Tiffins as they were a little hard.

Neil had the Bo Kaap Malay Seafood Curry with calamari, red shrimp, mussels, coconut curry sauce and saffron rice. He said this was nice but the seafood was mostly mussels.

I had the Malva pudding which was very good, moist and light. The cinnamon ice cream it was served with was delicious

Neil had the Safari Sunset which was also very good, it was basically carrot cake with an amazing key lime layer which was so creamy and tasty. It was topped with coffee streusel which had a really strong flavour of coffee

Overall this was a great meal, especially for the price and I’m really glad we managed to squeeze a visit to Jiko in.

[Goldia]

The brunch at california grill looks great. A shame your eggs benedict wS cold though. I've not heard of magical dining month... $35 set menu from Jiko sounds like a steal.

[Palm trees]

You've posted so many amazing looking plates of food. I shouldn't have read this so close to bedtime, I'm feeling peckish now!

[Bobsledwheels]

Loving this report so far! Can't wait to read more.

Brunch looks fab - I love an eggs benedict too!

Jiko may have to go on our list for next time as we are staying in AKL - though we will have a toddler so may have to leave it for another time when the grandparents join us

[DisneyDreamer81]

We were there for brunch at Cali Grill on the same day as you, although, we had a later booking. Loved it so much!

Really enjoying your report

[disjunkie]

Originally Posted by Goldia

The brunch at california grill looks great. A shame your eggs benedict wS cold though. I've not heard of magical dining month... $35 set menu from Jiko sounds like a steal.

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It was a definite bargain, it runs across Orlando for the month of September but this is the first year Disney owned restaurants have participated. Jiko was the only signature participating but other non disney owned restaurants also took part including BlueZoo, STK and Paddlefish. We did the deal at BlueZoo last year and would have tried a couple of others this time if we hadn’t been on the ddp

Originally Posted by Palm trees

You've posted so many amazing looking plates of food. I shouldn't have read this so close to bedtime, I'm feeling peckish now!

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Thank you, it makes me hungry posting them too

Originally Posted by Bobsledwheels

Loving this report so far! Can't wait to read more.

Brunch looks fab - I love an eggs benedict too!

Jiko may have to go on our list for next time as we are staying in AKL - though we will have a toddler so may have to leave it for another time when the grandparents join us

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Thanks very much. Eggs benedict is my favourite holiday breakfast! Jiko is lovely and definitely worth a visit, we’ve found if you go early there’s always quite a few families dining there.

Originally Posted by DisneyDreamer81

We were there for brunch at Cali Grill on the same day as you, although, we had a later booking. Loved it so much!

Really enjoying your report

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It was really good wasn’t it, I loved the keyboard/guitar player as it just added to the relaxed atmosphere.

[DisneyF1rstT1me]

Thanks very much for posting this trip/food report, especially loving the photographs of all the food - I've added a couple of your restaurants to my list of those to try and make a reservation at in the not too distant future. I look forward to reading the rest of it.

[disjunkie]

Originally Posted by DisneyF1rstT1me

Thanks very much for posting this trip/food report, especially loving the photographs of all the food - I've added a couple of your restaurants to my list of those to try and make a reservation at in the not too distant future. I look forward to reading the rest of it.

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Thank you, really glad you've found a few new places to eat at because of it.

[disjunkie]

It was back to Riverside mill for another breakfast using snack credits. I chose the ‘create your own yogurt parfait’, and picked blueberry yogurt, raspberries, strawberries and granola. This was a huge portion(the picture doesn’t really convey the size of the pot) and the raspberries were really tart so only ate about half of it. Neil had another cinnamon roll

Lunch was using snacks at the Food and Wine Festival, our favourite Epcot event. Today was the perfect day for it as it was a little cloudy which meant it wasn’t ridiculously hot.

We started at Coastal eats using a QS credit for all 3 items. The Crab cake was really good and probably my favourite item of the day. It was pretty much all crab and tasted great.

The Scampi dip was good, I’m not a huge shellfish eater, but the prawns were cooked well and the garlic buttery sauce tasty.
The third dish was Scallops, I really liked the bean succotash, but the scallops themselves were just ok, they were a little overdone and starting to get a bit rubbery.

Next we went to Canada for the fillet with mushroom and truffle butter sauce. The part of the fillet the was still pink was really good but the outside section was cooked well done, the mushrooms and truffle sauce was fantastic.

Then Ireland for the stout and cheese dip. I’d been looking forward to this one ever since I saw the preview of F&W, it was pretty good, but a bit too Guinnessy for me. There wasn’t enough bread to use all the sauce so Neil ate the rest with a spoon!

Next France - creme brûlée which was amazing but I forgot a picture and a Passion slush. This was lovely and refreshing but they’d ran out of the plastic martini glasses so were serving it in little plastic cups.

Finally we stopped at Hops and barley for a ‘cold brew coffee’ beer for Neil (he loved it, I don’t like beer anyway but this had a really strong coffee flavour and definitely wasn’t my thing) a lobster roll which was tasty and tons of lobster piled on, and a warm carrot cake with cream cheese saucea. This was amazing and was Neil’s favourite item today.

We enjoyed our first trip to the festival and it was a great use of snack credits.

Tonight we were at Disney Springs. This must be doing really well as it was crowded even on a Monday night. We checked in at Chef Arts Homecomin’ early but ended up waiting 20 minutes for a table inside. This was a new restaurant for us and one I was excited to try.

It was very loud and busy in the restaurant but I liked the atmosphere. After waiting 20 minutes for a table we then waited 10 minutes for our server to appear. I was hungry so we weren’t off to the best of starts, however when our server did appear she was friendly.

I ordered the Bootlegger - rumshine dark rum, blackberry jam, grenadine, simple syrup and lime juice. This was a strong cocktail but very good. Neil had the Old fashioned elder, he liked it but said Jiko’s was better.

For my main I went with the classic Fried chicken and donuts. This was so good, the chicken was moist and the crispy coating was delicious. The mashed potatoes were smooth and buttery and the sausage gravy I asked for on the side but I ended up loving it. The only element I wasn’t too keen on were the donuts as they had a bit of a cakey texture. It was a massive portion too.

Neil had the fried Catfish with hush puppies and grits. He really liked the fish, it had tons of flavour and the coating was as nice as the chicken, the hush puppies were good but he wasn’t keen on the grits saying they tasted like rice pudding. I had a taste and to be honest they kind of did!

Neil’s dessert was the shine cake. Again this was very good, the cake was quite dense but moist in the centre and you could faintly taste the alcohol.

I was way too full so got the Hummingbird cake to go. I'm so glad I did as it’s one of the biggest cake slices I’ve ever seen. It was really good, kind of a cross between carrot cake and banana bread with some pineapple chunks thrown in.

We both really liked this meal and it’s our new Disney Springs number 1 restaurant.