Day 1 Dinner: CA Grill, AKA the kid's favorite restaurant ever.
If you'll remember from our last review (haha, like you have nothing better to store in your brain than my dining reviews!) our CA Grill Dinner was amazing. I know it gets mixed reviews, especially post remodel, but we honestly have always had excellent meals here. This is the place of my son's introduction to filet mignon and there's been no looking back. He declared it (and the mac and cheese on the side) the BEST THING HE HAS EVER EATEN.
Now for me, I try to space out my restaurants a bit. I feel like the best way to have a bad experience is to keep going back to the same thing. Things just lose their shine if you go too much and somehow never compare favorably to a previous amazing experience. BUT. That is not how my autistic child rolls. He thrives on familiarity and routine and THIS is where he wanted to go. Non-negotiable. If he could only pick ONE place it is CA Grill, and since we had a packed park schedule I scheduled it on our first night.
So we left AK, returned our one way rental to the car care center, got a shuttle to the Poly, got checked in, got our luggage, and had about 10 minutes in which to change/freshen up. I decided I didn't want to bother digging out clothes and we could go in our tie dye mickey mouse head tshirts. I know there are numerous debates on this and we were a bit under dressed (I usually do put on something nice) but oh well. I did run a brush through both my and the kid's hair (For whatever little good THAT did when he put his hat back on immediately) and put on deodorant, and off we went to the CA Grill.
We had an ADR at 6:30 and got there about 15 minutes early. We checked in and went up to the lounge and settled into a table (there were still plenty) and I really just wanted some water (afraid to try a cocktail yet) but as soon as I ordered water, I got a text that our table was ready so I chased down the waitress hoping to not make extra work for her and told her.
Typically I like to book right at restaurant open because it is a short wait, you get your choice of table request (I ask for near the window), and service is a bit faster since they are not at capacity yet. I didn't make a table request because we were both hungry and I just wanted first available, and we got one of those booths sitting across from the open kitchen. As it turned out, the kid LOVED sitting near the open kitchen and watching what was going on in there.
I was a little concerned that the booth looked a bit oddly like it was sitting in the middle of traffic but as it turned out, the fact that it was a booth made it feel quite private and comfortable even though it looked a little weird on approach just sitting in the middle... I think I preferred it to a regular table similarly situated.
this is our view of the open kitchen:
It was actually even more fun that looking at the magic kingdom. Those people move fast and it's amazing to watch them work.
As I said before, CA Grill had a very high bar to clear. We had an amazing waitress, amazing food, amazing overall experience last time. Last time we were on DxDDP so we did appetizers, entrees, and desserts. This time we just stuck to entrees since I can't even finish that (and the kid was not so much into his appetizer last time). The waiter was nice too, not as amazing as our waitress but he was friendly and took good care of us.
First came out the water and the bread. I think the bread last time was sourdough rolls and focaccia but this time it was just a boring boule, maybe sourdough but it kind of looked like that bread you buy at the supermarket and bake at home. It was nothing special by itself and the bread was much better last time... but the kid isn't that fussy as long as the crust is chewy and it's some kind of bakery bread and some kind of white bread, and I couldn't eat much so it wasn't a huge deal. BUT they also recently started bringing out a little dish of fire roasted tomato with garlic, basil and olive oil.
OMG, this stuff was AMAZING. I had some on bread with a little butter and the mediocre bread was suddenly the best bread I ever ate. I ate some of it with a spoon (just the tomatoes, not spoonfuls of olive oil!) trying to be good and it was really good that way but I had to grab another couple of bites with bread because it was AMAZING on the bread. What you'll probably learn about me going forward is that I'm always in search of the perfect bite and like to combine food.
The kid ordered the adult filet. I won't bother to copy the description here because he didn't have any of the sides, but I explained to the waiter that it was the best thing he ever ate and we were hoping to recreate that magic tonight. It was a plain filet with mac and cheese and served with some butter on top. Here is what he got - last time the mac and cheese was on the side, this time the filet was on top... luckily mixing foods is not one of the kid's "things" as he didn't care. This is the gouda mac and cheese from the ribeye entree, it's the same thing he had last time:
Oak-fired Filet of Beef
Aged Gouda Mac and Cheese
This was served with a side of herb garlic butter that I smeared on top and melted in before I cut it up for him. It was a little less pretty when deconstructed this way but the filet was a perfect medium, cut very easily (no tendon or anything weird) and he declared this as living up to the memory. He ate all of the steak and about half the mac and cheese.
I couldn't wait to have the:
Pork Tenderloin
Goat Cheese Polenta, Button Mushrooms, Lacquered Belly, Zinfandel Sauce
This is a dish that I have had on and off for the last 20 years or so in various incarnations. I don't order it all the time but I do order it every few times. First I will say, I thought the presentation was beautiful. It had some little micro greens and teeny tiny tomatoes and was otherwise kind of a casual presentation in what looked like a hand glazed bowl. I'm a designer so while I won't not eat something that isn't plated well, it does delight me when something is. I was way more delighted by this more casual plating vs. the very structured plating I am used to at the CA Grill.
Here is what it looked like when I had it last in 2014. Yes I'm a weirdo, I still have this picture lying around... and also weird for making such a big deal about the plating. But I just really enjoyed it!
This dish (ca 2018) was... perfection. Maybe the best incarnation of this dish I have ever had. The goat cheese polenta was perfectly creamy with a little bit of bite from the goat cheese, the pork tenderloin was well seasoned on the outside and cooked a perfect medium and moist and tender enough to cut with a fork. The zinfandel sauce was a perfect complement to the meaty and perfectly cooked button mushrooms, but the star of the plate was the pork belly. It was absolutely delicious with a hint of smokiness and the fat was the most perfect melt in your mouth texture. Fat can be so nasty and I don't generally seek it out, but this was cooked PERFECTLY. The little tiny tomatoes provided the perfect bit of little acidity to balance the fat in the pork and that's how I ate it, with little bites of tomato. I ate less than half of it, but the kid helped me polish this off and he loved it too (But he has never met bacon he doesn't love.)
So knowing that the kid polished off the rest of the pork belly, this is what was left... I was able to eat a bit less than 1 of the 3 pieces of pork, a bit less than half the pork belly, about 1/2 of the polenta (it was not a huge serving) and maybe half the mushrooms. I still had a lot left!
But never fear, good planning prevailed here as we were planning to go straight back to the Poly studio after dinner and was able to have our leftovers wrapped up to bring back to the room. The food is too expensive here to just throw it away!
One of my anxieties (generated by what others have said) is having the server think that something is wrong with the meal because you didn't finish it. I really wasn't sure how I'd handle if it I had an overly enthusiastic server who was concerned with my dining experience based on how much I ate. I stemmed it off here by telling the waiter how I have been having this dish on and off the last 2 decades and I think this is the best. He agreed with me, having been a guest himself at the restaurant for even longer, but said last time he tried the pork shank version and it was even better than the tenderloin.
Another thing I noticed post surgery is that I was hungry much more often when I was walking like 8 miles a day... so this meal absolutely did not go to waste, I ended up having two post-park snacks out of it and it was the delicious perfect ending for the tiny tummy. One snack I reheated the rest of the polenta and mushrooms but ate one piece of the pork cold (I am not a fan of reheating and overcooking meat... I'd rather eat it cold. It was DELICIOUS cold) and the other meal was the last piece of meat and the kid's grapes from Satu'li Canteen, which I remembered to put in the fridge and were crisp and cold yummy by the time I remembered to eat them. The kid ate his leftover mac and cheese one of those nights too and wasn't hungry the other so we actually gave all of this yummy food a very good home.
The kid had decided way in advance he really wanted to get the chocolate cake for dessert here but we were both full after our entrees so we just paid the bill and went home. Besides... we had a backup plan for dessert at "home" anyway.
I would once again give this a 10/10. The total with $20 tip and 10% AP Discount was $107.23. Our most expensive meal!
Even though we went in with high expectations, the food was as amazing as I remember and the service was lovely. That means we're going back on our next trip because the kid won't hear of skipping it. Alright, twist my arm if you must! I will very likely book it for 5pm when it opens though as I do prefer the quieter, more empty restaurant... although the wait was short and pacing was just fine at 6:30.
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