collybird's Unfinished Business [a Fall 2019 Report] - COMPLETE

[collybird]

Originally Posted by Pez01

I’m sooooo hoping you likes M. Paul! 😊😊😊

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You'll soon see

Originally Posted by Dr.JumbaJookiba

Cali Grill looked good, not the perfect table but there's worse believe me

Chef's de France looked very nice too, I'm the opposite though - I prefer confit leg to breast

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They must be saving the worst table for our next visit

Originally Posted by sha9

We did Chefs de France years ago and I always swore we’d go back but have never managed it. It’s on my list for the next time we have DDP!

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It's a pretty solid choice I think, I don't think it would be first on my list though, although it might be for Nik.

Originally Posted by Goldia

I'm glad Nik enjoyed his soup at Chefs, more lovely meals. I'm mostly interested in your thanksgiving dinner though, you've mentioned it before and I decided to copy you this year but we're having ours this weekend as work got in the way on Thursday

I've got the turkey out and I'm ready to make my stuffing and mash and gravy. Do you have a pumpkin or pecan pie for dessert? Max wasn't keen on pumpkin or pecan so we've ended up with a berry strudel I know it's hardly American but still at least pastry based! I hope your meal was delicious. I'm aiming for the perfect Garden Grill dinner. We'll see how it turns out.

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You'll have to post pictures of your dinner!

Excuse the disposable trays, no pomp and circumstances for just the two of us. We had roast potatoes, parsnips, honey glazed carrots, sprouts, green bean casserole, sweet potato mash, pigs in blankets (you have to!), stuffing, Yorkshire puddings, corn and bread rolls. An amalgamation of the US and UK.

We cheated on dessert and I made a cheesecake. I'm absolutely not a baker (the mess ) so cheesecake is my limit. I love strudel, I didn't think of that. We'll probably do apple pie next time.

It was so yummy, I could eat it all again today. I might do a mini version tomorrow as I am actually off work.

[collybird]

Monsieur Paul

We had a few hours back at CSR before going back to Epcot for dinner and I started to see reports about an incoming tropical storm. I was a little nervous as we were flying home the next day and as we had to be back at work on Monday we really didn't need any delays.

I had been a lovely day but by the time we reached World Showcase after parking at the Beach Club it was drizzling.

You can see the menu here: disneyworld.disney.go/en...ur-paul/menus/

They have an a la carte menu, a pre-fix menu and a tasting menu. The latter two may have an extra charge depending on which dining plan you have. We stuck with a la carte as I knew exactly what I wanted to eat.

Eating here has been a long time coming, other than Victoria and Albert's it was the only Signature restaurant we were yet to try. I was very excited.

We were checked in by a lovely manager who was most affronted that despite having a French name I cannot speak French. I did do Standard Grade French in school so can order food but that's my limit and if anyone says anything to me I am at a loss. He said he had a nice window table ready for us but if we were happy to wait he could get us one overlooking the lake and we could watch Epcot Forever. This was a lovely gesture after the disappointment at California Grill the night before but we had a FP for the fireworks so took the first table.

It was a lovely table overlooking the fountain and the courtyard. I was worried that the restaurant would seem stuffy by it had a nice ambience and was bigger and busier than I expected.

We were brought the bread basket and offered a choice of olive bread, baguette or cheese bread.

Nik went for the cheese bread and thought it was lovely. I had the olive bread and enjoyed the delicate flavours. I would have liked more bread, and although they did bring the basket around later in the meal I felt greedy taking anymore I do wish I had tried the baguette.

Escargot Tart with parsley coulis, whipped cream and ricotta with garlic, marinated vegetables

I had purposely not ordered escargot at lunch as I was planning on having it here, I almost opted for the crab at the last minute but stuck to my guns in the end. I liked the presentation of this and the flavours went well together, it was very light and nothing like the heavy Food & Wine croissant.

Nik had Oxtail Broth with braised beef, vegetables, and black winter truffles covered in puff pastry

He loved this, they were very generous with the chunks of beef inside, it was like a steak pie!

Now for the mains, I have been waiting years to try this dish. I was hoping it would compare to the much missed potato wrapped snapper at Flying Fish.

Black Sea Bass in potato scales, rosemary sauce, and endive gratin

So beautiful, I felt almost guilty taking a fork to it. The fish was lovely, soft and flaky. Only criticism is perhaps needed a bit more seasoning. The potato scales were crisp and added a lovely texture. I don't like rosemary so the sauce (in the words of Tim Tracker) 'wasn't my favourite'. The gratin. I didn't enjoy, probably because I am quite averse to vegetables.

Roasted New York Strip Steak with duchess potatoes, shallot confit, red wine sauce

I was surprised with the presentation of the strip, and also the absence of fillet from a Signature menu. Nevertheless Nik though the meat was good quality, well cooked and nicely seasoned. His favourite thing on the plate was the Duchess potatoes, he wished he had more of them.

It was almost impossible to pick a dessert, everything sounded gorgeous and in the end we went for the same thing.

Milk Chocolate Sphere Chocolate almond cake, praline and chocolate cream, light hazelnut biscuit with chocolate ice cream, warm chocolate, and Cognac sauce.

They pour the chocolate sauce over the sphere in front of you and it melts away, very Masterchef-esque. As delicious as it looks and sounds, it was like a big Ferrero Rocher.

Dinner came to $179.88. I thought this was pretty reasonable for three courses each in a Signature and we left a $34 tip. Service was very personable and not intrusive. We had a really lovely evening and I'd definitely recommend Monsieur Paul if you want a special night out.

It was still drizzling when we left the restaurant to head to the fireworks viewing area. The rain had kept the Epcot Friday night crowds at bay and as we walked passed the America Gardens Theatre we felt very sorry for the poor Baha Men who had the tiniest of crowds. Not sorry enough to stop and watch though

We ended our final night with 2 credits remaining with lunch booked for House of Blues the next day before heading to the airport. Will we defeat the DxDP again!? Or will I be foiled at the dying end!?

DxDP Daily Cost: $290.24
Actual Daily Spend: $321.50
DxDP Cost to Date: $2,790
Actual Cost to Date: $3,391.07
Table Service Credits: 76/78
Snack Credits: 52/52
Unfinished Business: 12/12
Tips: $569

[MrsSilverStar]

Sounds like a lovely meal for your final full day. The food looks delicious. Poor Baha Men!

Fun to do a thanksgiving meal, I always think about it but am yet to actually bother!

Can’t believe your report is nearly all over, always zips by although I’m sure it doesn’t feel that way when you’re writing it up!

[Dr.JumbaJookiba]

Really nice looking dishes for your last evening's meal, I would love to try that Oxtail broth and sea bass

[dixonsontour]

Wow your fish and dessert look amazing at monsieur Paul

[Pez01]

Yay you liked it!

I’ve had the scaly fish it’s lovely.

And the sphere - yummy.

[Goldia]

I'm sorry I can't share photos of Thanksgiving as I didn't take any Dave asked if we could have corn bread but I said no! So I won't show him your meal as you had two types or bread and he will be really sad to the missed out on that. I set ours out in a similar way all on platters. We didn't have roast potatoes though we went for mash!

The Monsieur Paul dinner does look good, I would have been really happy with a huge ferrero rocher ball for dessert, I love them.

Ooh I hope you do get to House of Blues it was our last meal on travel home day in 2018 and I'm sure you remember that Kate said it was her favourite meal of the trip. Surely you won't have been defeated by the DxDDP surely you won the battle this year.

[gjdjud]

Some really nice updates. Some Of your signature meals look amazing

[collybird]

Originally Posted by MrsSilverStar

Sounds like a lovely meal for your final full day. The food looks delicious. Poor Baha Men!

Fun to do a thanksgiving meal, I always think about it but am yet to actually bother!

Can’t believe your report is nearly all over, always zips by although I’m sure it doesn’t feel that way when you’re writing it up!

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I thought the Baha Men were a strange choice for Eat to the Beat, who even knew they had more than one song?!

You should do a Thanksgiving meal next year, it is a lot of fun. I really look forward to it.

Originally Posted by Dr.JumbaJookiba

Really nice looking dishes for your last evening's meal, I would love to try that Oxtail broth and sea bass

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It was a lovely last evening, those were both fantastic dishes. I'd like to go back to try the lamb.

Originally Posted by dixonsontour

Wow your fish and dessert look amazing at monsieur Paul

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It was a lovely meal, I thought the presentation of the dishes was top notch.

Originally Posted by Pez01

Yay you liked it!

I’ve had the scaly fish it’s lovely.

And the sphere - yummy.

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I am so glad we went and enjoyed it, if it had been a bust I'd have been so disappointed!

Originally Posted by Goldia

I'm sorry I can't share photos of Thanksgiving as I didn't take any Dave asked if we could have corn bread but I said no! So I won't show him your meal as you had two types or bread and he will be really sad to the missed out on that. I set ours out in a similar way all on platters. We didn't have roast potatoes though we went for mash!

The Monsieur Paul dinner does look good, I would have been really happy with a huge ferrero rocher ball for dessert, I love them.

Ooh I hope you do get to House of Blues it was our last meal on travel home day in 2018 and I'm sure you remember that Kate said it was her favourite meal of the trip. Surely you won't have been defeated by the DxDDP surely you won the battle this year.

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I was going to do mash and roast potatoes but as we had sweet potato mash I thought that would be a bit OTT. Did you all enjoy it?

I was determined not to cancel House of Blues as I thought Kate would be mad if I did. It had been shuffled around the schedule quite a bit but I very much wanted to go and try the Juicy Lucy.

Originally Posted by gjdjud

Some really nice updates. Some Of your signature meals look amazing

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I loved being able to eat in so many Signatures, if it wasn't for the DxDP we never would do it.

[collybird]

And so we come to the end

As we were leaving Epcot the night before the promised storm arrived and lasted through the night, when we woke up it was still pouring down outside

We decided that Disney Springs was a bad idea. It would be impossible to keep dry and who wants to sit on a plane soaking wet?! House of Blues bit the dust and for the second year in a row the DxDP won out

Although, we did have 6 extra TS credits due to our issues at CSR which means technically we did defeat it

I had badly wanted to do House of Blues so whatever replaced it had to be somewhere special, somewhere I had wanted to eat for a long time...

Cheesecake Factory

There are no words to describe how excited I was to be here

I knew to expect a wait and given that it was Saturday lunchtime I thought the 20 minutes they quoted wasn't too bad. The waiting area was jam packed, I have never heard so many Scottish accents in one place in the US before.

We eyed up dessert whilst we were waiting.

How can you choose!?

We were taking to our table and brought the bread very quickly. This was really yummy, I had to stop myself from gorging on it as I was starving.

You can see the menu here: thecheesecakefactory/menu/

Now, I knew that the portions here were going to be mammoth, but I had been waiting a long time to eat here, plus we were about to board a plane and not have a decent meal for a very long time. So we went to town.

Quesadilla [i]Grilled Flour Tortilla Filled with Melted Cheese, Green Onions and Chilies. Garnished with Guacamole, Salsa and Sour Cream with Chicken

So good! I'd happily eat this as a main.

Spicy Crispy Chicken Sandwich Crispy Chicken Breast and Your Choice of Spicy Buffalo Sauce or Chipotle Mayo with Cheese. Served on a Brioche Bun.

Nik says this was the best chicken sandwich he's ever had, I am sure he says this about everyone He had the chipotle mayo.

The menu is a novel so it was very tough for me to pick but I settled on the Stuffed Cheddar Burger Our Charbroiled Burger Stuffed with Cheddar and American Cheese with Grilled Onions and Special Sauce. Served on a Toasted Brioche Bun with Lettuce, Tomato and Pickles.

This was very similar to the burger I planned to have at HoBs. One of the best burgers ever, can you ever have too much cheese!?

This is where you decide we had lost the plot. We ordered a third dish to share between us.

Farfalle with Chicken and Roasted Garlic Bow-Tie Pasta, Chicken, Mushrooms, Tomato, Pancetta, Peas and Caramelized Onions in a Roasted Garlic-Parmesan Cream Sauce.

We make this at home all the time and we wanted to see how well the real thing held up. Can you believe this is a smaller lunch portion!?

The conclusion was that my one is better as I'm a bit more generous with the cream.

We weren't leaving without dessert and if this hadn't been our last day we'd have also been taking extra to go!

I had VERY CHERRY GHIRARDELLI® CHOCOLATE CHEESECAKE Cherry Cheesecake on a Layer of Fudge Cake, Loaded with Cherries and Ghirardelli® Chocolate.

One of the best things I have ever eaten, and I don't even like cheesecake. Very Black Forrest-esque.

Nik had CHOCOLATE HAZELNUT CRUNCH CHEESECAKE
Chocolate Hazelnut Cheesecake Topped with Hazelnut Crunch and Nutella®

He was just as happy with his choice.

Incredibly, all of this food only came to $87.12. I think I had forgotten how much cheaper offsite is! We left a $20 tip and it was well earned.

Absolutely loved our meal, am still thrilled I got to try it and will absolutely be back next year! Fantastic end to our trip.

One more review to go as we ate at Gatwick before our internal flight back to Glasgow