Lisa F
is a very wise woman
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2000
Day 2: Epcot
PPO Breakfast at Garden Grill
Well I'm supposed to be unloading and reloading the dishwasher but instead I'm here continuing my dining review. Dishes and Laundry are my life sometimes, and right now I'd rather be at Disney!
So to start off our first full park day at Epcot, I booked a PPO at Garden Grill for 8am. We left the room right at 7:15 so I figured it might be less hassle to go through bag check at the resort and take the resort monorail to TTC than go through bag check at TTC... but what I started to learn the hard way is that bag check will mean you JUST MISS every monorail that you see... so we ended up having to wait for the next one, then it was delayed several times, then we transferred monorails at TTC and JUST MISSED the Epcot monorail and waited for the next one, then got to bag check right as a tram arrived so it took us the full 45 minutes to get to garden grill. I was starting to get a little antsy as I hate being late, but it worked out fine.
I requested a table on the bottom level and got it no problem. We got a large booth actually as there were maybe 10-12 families seated total the entire time we were there?
Anyway obligatory hidden mickey table setting:
I won't lie. I LOVE IT.
We were seated and the waiter was right there with fruit and cinnamon bun bake and to take the drink order, followed quickly by the big cheese himself, Mickey Mouse! Kiddo decided not to bother with autographs this time so it was kind of nice to just interact. Mickey did not feel rushed AT ALL like he does sometimes and stood there and listen to the kid chatter away, posed for selfies, and it was just generally pleasant and a great way to start off our morning. One thing I noticed during the breakfasts we did is that the characters no longer have individual handlers so we missed a lot of pictures together because no one was around to take them, especially in PPO time when the restaurant is more than half empty... so I have a lot of selfies that don't look so hot since their heads are so big.
BUT onto the food.
As I said, first came out the cinnamon bun bake and the fruit.
The cinnamon bun bake had tons of icing on top and the kid kept requesting more and more servings of this because he was starving. I tried a tiny little piece and some fruit, my plate:
The fruit was not as good as last time but since I couldn't eat nearly as much as last time, I was able to pick out just the best parts and what I had was good... but you can probably see from the above picture, most of the strawberries are questionable.
The sticky bun was as eh for me as last time. I guess it's just not my thing.
Then he brought the drinks. I forgot to ask for just like 1/4 glass of POG juice but I had to have some... he brought me a very full glass and I had a couple of sips. There is probably nothing worse for a bariatric patient than juice, except maybe milk shakes. Anything high in sugar that goes down in large volume without stopping is generally a nono.
I really wanted to drink more or get it in a to go cup but as I said, that calorie bomb in liquid form is the last thing I need. Also I can't drink and eat at the same time so I would have had to hold it for a good half hour after breakfast.
Then the skillet came out, which is what I was really waiting for (PROTEIN!) and I think I forgot to take a picture of the whole thing this time, but here is my plate:
The scrambled eggs were cooked well and fluffy (not dried out but not runny) and the salsa is apparently back!!! This was not available when I went in 2016. I LOVED the salsa, it was nice and fresh and tomato-ey. The server warned it might be spicy for little ones but it was not spicy to me at all. That said my little one won't touch salsa with a 10 foot pole so it was no worry. I also had a few tater tots, which were crispy and like crack frankly... a couple of pieces of standard disney bacon, that was cooked just right and the ear off of a mickey waffle drenched in chocolate hazelnut sauce. Also I had half a sausage once I discovered they were on the platter too. I ate everything I dished out except a slice of bacon (that I gave to the kid), about half the eggs and a few pieces of fruit (which I had cut into smaller pieces.)
The kiddo of course had his 3 basic food groups:
Carbs, chocolate and bacon. We ended up requesting more waffles and chocolate sauce for him even after he ate the 3rd one minus one ear. The waffles were hot and crispy, the chocolate sauce was delicious, and he ate his weight in bacon. He also got apple juice with his breakfast and the waiter correctly surmised he was a "cup with a lid" type of a kid.
The character interaction was EXCELLENT. Both Chip and Dale went completely gaga over his ears, Chip pantomiming all sorts of loving gestures and Dale trying to flick the mini Chip off, lol. Pluto was great too, giving lots of nose bumps and other affectionate gestures. I won't bore you with all of our character photos but I love the look of pure joy on the kid's face in this one.
Anyway the Garden Grill PPO is 2 enthusiastic thumbs up. Yes it's a bit pricey for how much I can eat... It was $59.10 with 20% tip and AP discount, but our waiter was great about mentioning we could pay the bill early if we wanted to get a jump on Soarin' (he did NOT make it sound like he was rushing us at all but the table next to us kept asking about that) and I did and we were down at Soarin' at about 8:45.
For what it's worth, a 45 minute breakfast when there is no lag time for ordering or cooking food to order was pretty much just about right. We saw all the characters, they spent as much time with kiddo as he wanted and only left when he indicated he was done by sitting back down and we both ate plenty at a leisurely pace (my typical meal at home takes about 20 minutes to eat, after that I'm supposed to stop because if I sit at the table I can graze in another whole meal in that time). They did come around again but the kid was so busy shoveling waffles and bacon into his mouth that he just waved as they passed by.
The best part was they let us on Soarin' at about 8:50 and when we were done, the rope drop crowds hadn't arrived yet. "Do you want to stay on again?!" They didn't have to ask us twice! So we got to ride kiddo's favorite ride x2 in the top middle. He was THRILLED and it was an extra bit of pixie dust that got us ahead in our touring plans by about a half hour since I had allocated a half hour to ride Soarin' a second time.
Garden Grill was a huge hit for us, the food was great (if basic) and it was so low key with the restaurant half empty, awesome character interaction. Enthusiastic 2 thumbs up and not sure I could do Epcot any other way now! This is on the kid's "must do on next trip" list.
PPO Breakfast at Garden Grill
Well I'm supposed to be unloading and reloading the dishwasher but instead I'm here continuing my dining review. Dishes and Laundry are my life sometimes, and right now I'd rather be at Disney!
So to start off our first full park day at Epcot, I booked a PPO at Garden Grill for 8am. We left the room right at 7:15 so I figured it might be less hassle to go through bag check at the resort and take the resort monorail to TTC than go through bag check at TTC... but what I started to learn the hard way is that bag check will mean you JUST MISS every monorail that you see... so we ended up having to wait for the next one, then it was delayed several times, then we transferred monorails at TTC and JUST MISSED the Epcot monorail and waited for the next one, then got to bag check right as a tram arrived so it took us the full 45 minutes to get to garden grill. I was starting to get a little antsy as I hate being late, but it worked out fine.
I requested a table on the bottom level and got it no problem. We got a large booth actually as there were maybe 10-12 families seated total the entire time we were there?
Anyway obligatory hidden mickey table setting:
I won't lie. I LOVE IT.
We were seated and the waiter was right there with fruit and cinnamon bun bake and to take the drink order, followed quickly by the big cheese himself, Mickey Mouse! Kiddo decided not to bother with autographs this time so it was kind of nice to just interact. Mickey did not feel rushed AT ALL like he does sometimes and stood there and listen to the kid chatter away, posed for selfies, and it was just generally pleasant and a great way to start off our morning. One thing I noticed during the breakfasts we did is that the characters no longer have individual handlers so we missed a lot of pictures together because no one was around to take them, especially in PPO time when the restaurant is more than half empty... so I have a lot of selfies that don't look so hot since their heads are so big.
BUT onto the food.
As I said, first came out the cinnamon bun bake and the fruit.
The cinnamon bun bake had tons of icing on top and the kid kept requesting more and more servings of this because he was starving. I tried a tiny little piece and some fruit, my plate:
The fruit was not as good as last time but since I couldn't eat nearly as much as last time, I was able to pick out just the best parts and what I had was good... but you can probably see from the above picture, most of the strawberries are questionable.
The sticky bun was as eh for me as last time. I guess it's just not my thing.
Then he brought the drinks. I forgot to ask for just like 1/4 glass of POG juice but I had to have some... he brought me a very full glass and I had a couple of sips. There is probably nothing worse for a bariatric patient than juice, except maybe milk shakes. Anything high in sugar that goes down in large volume without stopping is generally a nono.
I really wanted to drink more or get it in a to go cup but as I said, that calorie bomb in liquid form is the last thing I need. Also I can't drink and eat at the same time so I would have had to hold it for a good half hour after breakfast.
Then the skillet came out, which is what I was really waiting for (PROTEIN!) and I think I forgot to take a picture of the whole thing this time, but here is my plate:
The scrambled eggs were cooked well and fluffy (not dried out but not runny) and the salsa is apparently back!!! This was not available when I went in 2016. I LOVED the salsa, it was nice and fresh and tomato-ey. The server warned it might be spicy for little ones but it was not spicy to me at all. That said my little one won't touch salsa with a 10 foot pole so it was no worry. I also had a few tater tots, which were crispy and like crack frankly... a couple of pieces of standard disney bacon, that was cooked just right and the ear off of a mickey waffle drenched in chocolate hazelnut sauce. Also I had half a sausage once I discovered they were on the platter too. I ate everything I dished out except a slice of bacon (that I gave to the kid), about half the eggs and a few pieces of fruit (which I had cut into smaller pieces.)
The kiddo of course had his 3 basic food groups:
Carbs, chocolate and bacon. We ended up requesting more waffles and chocolate sauce for him even after he ate the 3rd one minus one ear. The waffles were hot and crispy, the chocolate sauce was delicious, and he ate his weight in bacon. He also got apple juice with his breakfast and the waiter correctly surmised he was a "cup with a lid" type of a kid.
The character interaction was EXCELLENT. Both Chip and Dale went completely gaga over his ears, Chip pantomiming all sorts of loving gestures and Dale trying to flick the mini Chip off, lol. Pluto was great too, giving lots of nose bumps and other affectionate gestures. I won't bore you with all of our character photos but I love the look of pure joy on the kid's face in this one.
Anyway the Garden Grill PPO is 2 enthusiastic thumbs up. Yes it's a bit pricey for how much I can eat... It was $59.10 with 20% tip and AP discount, but our waiter was great about mentioning we could pay the bill early if we wanted to get a jump on Soarin' (he did NOT make it sound like he was rushing us at all but the table next to us kept asking about that) and I did and we were down at Soarin' at about 8:45.
For what it's worth, a 45 minute breakfast when there is no lag time for ordering or cooking food to order was pretty much just about right. We saw all the characters, they spent as much time with kiddo as he wanted and only left when he indicated he was done by sitting back down and we both ate plenty at a leisurely pace (my typical meal at home takes about 20 minutes to eat, after that I'm supposed to stop because if I sit at the table I can graze in another whole meal in that time). They did come around again but the kid was so busy shoveling waffles and bacon into his mouth that he just waved as they passed by.
The best part was they let us on Soarin' at about 8:50 and when we were done, the rope drop crowds hadn't arrived yet. "Do you want to stay on again?!" They didn't have to ask us twice! So we got to ride kiddo's favorite ride x2 in the top middle. He was THRILLED and it was an extra bit of pixie dust that got us ahead in our touring plans by about a half hour since I had allocated a half hour to ride Soarin' a second time.
Garden Grill was a huge hit for us, the food was great (if basic) and it was so low key with the restaurant half empty, awesome character interaction. Enthusiastic 2 thumbs up and not sure I could do Epcot any other way now! This is on the kid's "must do on next trip" list.
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Geez kid, where's your sense of magic!? lol
