Un rapport de restauration rapide - DLP November 2021 - COMPLETE

[Gill H]

Ask for a seat near the water in Captain Jack’s. You might not be lucky, there aren’t many, but if you can it’s nice to be able to wave to the riders!

[Claudette]

Originally Posted by Gill H

Have just read ScoopsAhoy’s thread, they are back to allowing you to choose your breakfast slot or just go when you want. And back to proper buffets not platters brought to the table.

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Oh interesting, I might have a think about adding a plan in that case, if I can at this late stage. Not too bothered if I can’t though, I have got used to the idea of doing what I am doing.

[Claudette]

Originally Posted by MrsBC

Look forward to following along - DD and I love all our DLP mini trips and have our reservations made for the end of November. We were hoping for Inventions (that is the king of buffets!) but the Disneyland hotel is closed for the foreseeable future, and Downtown but we're unable to get a booking. Agrabah and Plaza Gardens are both good buffet choices, and Remy is a must just for the theming

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I couldn’t get Downtown either, I always find it annoying when I am staying in a hotel and can’t get to its restaurant.

[ScoopsAhoy]

I feel that the food quality has diminished sadly.
We have had two great meals at Remy’s in the past but we ate there on Thursday and dd and I had the steak which was as tough as old boots.
We both like ours medium but not even this could save it.
I powered through but dd being a child is not such a fan of having to chew every mouthful 20 times before she can swallow so just ate her ratatouille and mash potatoes.
The steak was seasoned really well but I just feel it was a cheap cut.
Dh said his fish was nice though and I loved the Pea soup.
Wouldn’t go again and after at least 5 trips with the dining plan I definitely wouldn’t bother next time as you get so much less choice for your money than you used to which is a real shame, it’s great for buffet restaurants though as you’re not limited but the set menus are disappointing with only 2 options for each course and one vegetarian option and they won’t let you swap things out.
Best meal we had was at the quick service Fuente del Oro where we had burritos, they were so good we ate there twice!

[princessnicki]

Ooo excited to read this, my husband will be very jealous you are staying in the Marvel Hotel

[Rescuer]

How fab! Have a fantastic time, I’m looking forward to reading along, it’s been years since we’ve been to DLP but we always loved our trips there.

[Claudette]

We arrived at the Sofitel at about 5:15pm and after dropping off bags headed down to the Sphere lounge which is situated to the right of the reception area. I had been given two free drink vouchers at check in and we decided to use these up on a couple of mocktails. There were only two on the menu, a Virgin Mohito and a Thai Lemonade so we decided to get one of each ...

Yes these are the two different mocktails, as you will see one is garnished with mint and the other with coriander! We thought they could have at least made one of them an orange colour. A bit more mocktail effort required here I think.

A couple of weeks ago, I had tried to book the Sofitel’s La Belle Époque restaurant for dinner and was very disappointed to find this marvellous restaurant is not currently open. As options around the airport seem to be limited, I instead booked Vivre, which is operating from La Belle Epoque’s space and seems to have decent reviews.

The Vivre menu is varied or dare I say, confused. The starters are similar to what might be on a fine dining menu, but then the mains are pub style grub. There follows a grill menu, with a selection of curry’s underneath and finally there are pizzas and pastas on offer.

We both decided to have a starter, confit duck leg for me and pork rillette for Nev. For main I chose the truffle and mushroom risotto whilst Nev picked chicken beast from the grill menu with new potatoes and red cabbage as his two included sides. He was also allowed to choose a sauce but none of them seemed to go with chicken, so he asked for something called the Albert sauce to have on the side. Here are our dishes.

Well my first surprise was that my “Confit duck leg” and it is definitely worded like that on the menu, did not include a duck leg. Underneath the parsnip crisps there was a mince like mixture of lentils, duck meat and a gravy / sauce. It was not unpleasant, but was very disappointing when I was expecting a confit duck leg. Nev thought his pork rillette was acceptable but nothing special, he commented that the toasts were cold, definitely not freshly made for him.

Things did not improve with the mains. First impression of mine was that the arty plate choice was let down by splodges on the rim, but there was a nice strong smell of truffle which was promising. I found it boring to eat though, a bit grey and watery too and I gave up about half way through. The presentation of Nev’s meal made us think they just grabbed the requested sides off a conveyor belt and slapped them onto a plate with the requested piece of meat. He liked the chicken, but said the potatoes needed seasoning and the red cabbage was shredded to mush.

We looked up Albert sauce when we got back to the room and found it is another sauce that is usually served with beef. The grill section of the menu included chicken, lamb, pork and fish as well as steaks, but all the sauces were for beef / steaks.

The meal (with drinks but no alcohol) cost £73 with service charge and was frankly a joke for the meal we had. There aren’t a lot of dining alternatives here or in the airport at the moment though, I think I will pack some sandwiches when we next travel in January!

[MrsBC]

That poor chicken breast looks a bit sad! Definitely a 'put together by numbers' dish!

[Nev20]

A couple of details Claudette forgot to mention.

* The Sphere bar serves food, but only until the Vivre restaurant opens at 6pm.
* Vivre does have Cocktails and Mocktails on the menu, but they are not available.
* We ordered a bottle of water, which never arrived. Thankfully it was not on the bill.
* The mains turned up before new cutlery.

This is not a patch on La Belle Epoque.

[Claudette]

I feel like we have done nothing but queue up this morning, starting with the queue for the lift between the Sofitel and the airport at 5am! Heathrow was busy and it took us about an hour to get checked in, through security and to the BA lounge for a spot of breakfast.

Each table in the lounge is now numbered and there is a QR code on the table to scan and order food. After picking up our hot drinks, we ordered a breakfast sandwich and a vegetarian breakfast sandwich. Very efficient, the food was with us in no time.

Nev had second breakfast on the plane, it smelt delicious but I resisted. After a very long immigration queue and a very long hotel check in queue, we finally got sat down in the Bleeker Street Cafe in Disney New York hotel for a well deserved cappuccino.