Day 3 Dinner: Liberty Tree Tavern
This was probably kiddo's most anticipated meal of the entire trip (after CA Grill). On our last trip we were going to do LTT and at the last minute I changed it for Skipper Canteen because I felt like trying something new. I loved my appetizer that I had for lunch but thought the kungaloosh dessert was disappointing. Kiddo had basic mac and cheese with a side of fries subbed for the broccoli and the mac and cheese was cold and fries were steak fries (that was still in the days of "there is too much potato in this french fry" - he has a wider range of acceptable fries now) so he was not a fan, but he did really love the volcano dessert. So basically while I'd go back to Skipper Canteen and want to try other things, it did not hit it out of the park.
LTT is an old favorite of mine too. I have those dated souvenir glass steins from the late 90's and early 2000's and then a couple when they stopped dating them (the ex kept some so I only have one or two). It used to be my favorite character meal. I have a degree in art history and historic preservation so I am really into any kind of old americana stuff, it just makes me feel warm and fuzzy and at home in that restaurant. The kid was really looking forward to it too, because he played Ben Franklin in his school's "revolutionary wax museum" where the kids were all "wax figures" that came to life to talk about their life and times. He was so stinking cute too, just have to embarrass him for life and share:
So I may sound like a bit of a broken record, but really it is the best way to get what you want and avoid waits, an 11am LTT lunch was an absolute MUST on this trip. We only had one full and one half day in the MK and I know LTT can get backed up at peak times so I didn't want to wait a long time for a table. I did warn the kid, however, that I wasn't sure how they opened the restaurant and whether we'd be able to sit in the Ben Franklin room, but we could ask. He seemed ok being flexible on that.
So we showed up around 10:50 and checked in. There were not a lot of people there. I do love a mostly empty restaurant. Kiddo got a kick out of the fact that we are from a "colony" when almost everyone else was from the territory of Florida or Texas. I asked for the Ben Franklin room and someone came up to us a couple of minutes later and asked if we'd be ok waiting 10-15 minutes for that room because they weren't seating there quite yet, and the kiddo was all a huge enthusiastic YES so we settled in to wait. And once again it was really more like 3 minutes before we were surprised to be called.
Our waitress was kind enough to take our photo with good old Ben, kiddo was thrilled:
We were seated at a truly lovely table right in a bay window. I would book this at opening again and request this again, it was really nice! So nice I had to grab a pic of it ("MOOOOOOOOOM ENOUGH WITH THE PICTURES ALREADY!")
So once again, we had decided WAY in advance what we wanted to eat. I wanted the kid's pot roast, and the kid had originally wanted the turkey but then decided that the AYCTE sounded better. We were planning to share an ooey gooey toffee cake for dessert and a the price of a kid meal + OGTC = the AYCTE option with OGTC included for kids, so I said sure, why not? The one thing I fretted over internally was whether there would be BIG DRAMA over me having a few bites of the cake after not paying for AYCTE. I'm sure if you go over to the restaurant boards you will see people who will give dire warnings about that, if you eat so much as a morsel off of someone else's AYCTE meal, expect to be charged the full amount for an AYCTE meal. Spoiler alert: It was NOT BIG DRAMA.
I will just say quickly here that the kiddo did 3 AYCTE family style meals where I ordered a la carte and all 3 times we were explicitly told it was no big deal. I will go into detail about that as I go, but if anyone cares... but in general I think if you are ordering your own food and not asking for refills on the AYCTE option, they don't really care.
Anyway our waitress was super sweet and she started us off with rolls and butter. I did not actually try these but the kiddo had a piece of one.
He ate it but didn't ask for more and I should have realized something was amiss at that point. See, kiddo is on meds for his ADHD and did not react well to the long acting version so he takes 3 doses all day long. There is a period when he has no appetite after taking them and it is a real balancing act for me to juggle his ability to regulate his body and not be sensory seeking in a way that is disruptive to people around him and for him to have enough appetite for him to enjoy mealtimes. Also I get about 12 hours of "regulated kid" and our disney days are longer than 12 so it is hard to manage all of that. Well I had given him a pill with the dole whip, around 10am because quite frankly he was driving me bonkers with the sensory seeking stuff and the park was getting more crowded so it was getting harder to manage... but unfortunately that put us into prime "not hungry" time when we showed up for this meal. It has actually gotten a lot better and he seems to have more appetite for a longer stretch of medicated time but I really did not know when the cutoff was and so I wasn't thinking. I was thinking "omg I can NOT take this anymore, this kid needs a chill pill and if I start now 12 hours from now will get me close enough to park close, by which time he will be too tired to be doing the stuff he's doing now."
But anyway, he still ate half of this roll and I think he liked it, not his favorite (which is a crusty roll) but not something weird with seeds that he won't touch. The roll was soft and the butter was soft and very spreadable, which is a must with a soft roll (rock hard butter + soft bread = not a good combo).
Then the waitress brought the salad and I said "oh, I'm sorry, I forgot to say that he won't eat that and you don't need to bring it!" She put it down in front of me and said "well maybe mommy wants a nice salad" and left. So here is the salad.
Now I eat a lot of salad at home and have even come to crave it, but since I can eat so little it's stupid for me to pay for a salad and eat a fraction of it and then eat even less of my meal. But I was really happy to have this salad. It was already getting quite hot out (it was already over 70 when we were on Splash at 8am!) and this salad was AMAZING. I know
@kastoney will completely disagree with me here, but I LOVED the iceberg in this. Maybe it's because iceberg is kind of taboo in salad now, sort of the "junk food" of salad, with little to no nutritional value. But this salad was ice cold, perfectly dry, perfectly CRISPY, perfectly dressed. I really really REALLY enjoyed the heck out of this salad. It also had other greens as you can see, spinach (which is my second favorite salad green, I think spring mix is my least favorite) and also spring mix, purple cabbage, shredded carrots, red onion, chopped english cucumber and grape tomatoes. This was the perfect garden salad. I love their house dressing too, a sweet and tangy vinaigrette. I also always ask for dressing on the side to minimize the extra calories but truth be told, I really PREFER a well dressed salad coming out of the kitchen that way, rather than a tiny taste of dressing on every fork, which is how I typically order it, so this was a huge indulgence to me. It was not swimming in dressing or going limp, it was just salad perfection. Have I mentioned just how much I love this salad??? I think I want to marry this salad.
Well the kid was nibbling bread and not too long after, the main courses came out. This is what they brought my child:
I will say that this happens rarely, but this plate being brought out made me kind of sorry I can no longer pack it away... like I wish there was a switch where I could throw open the floodgates and just go to town. Alas, it doesn't work that way but this food looked SO GOOD. Unfortunately, since the kiddo had a waning appetite due to his meds, this amount of food was completely overwhelming to him and he started to freak out a bit. I asked the waitress for a separate plate and talked him down about how he didn't have to eat it all and he calmed down... here is the plate I made for him:
I actually totally get how he feels to be honest. When I order in a restaurant I am often overwhelmed by the amount of food I am presented with and will ask for a bread or salad plate to portion myself out a comfortable amount of food. It's kind of weird how like me the kid is in some ways (he is a lot more like his dad than me but sometimes I come shining through). From 12 o'clock going clockwise he had turkey with gravy, mac and cheese, roast pork, pot roast, a tiny bit of stuffing and tiny bit of mashed potatoes. His appetite was definitely affected but he still ate about half of what I dished out. His favorite by far was the pot roast, he did not like the pork AT ALL (I tasted it and found it to be extremely salty/strongly seasoned on the outside and dry on the inside). The turkey was fine, but not his favorite and he liked the mac and cheese and considers it a step up from the bright yellow stuff. He was not into the stuffing or mashed potatoes.
I ordered a kid's pot roast and this is what I got:
I think this is actually a pretty generous serving for a kid's meal. it's a full big scoop of mashed potatoes, a decent serving of pot roast and a decent serving of green beans. The pot roast was KILLER. I'm not sure I ever ordered this here (or haven't in decades... but the last time I ate here they still had the tavern cheese appetizer!) but it was amazing. Fork tender, flavorful, not fatty, delicious gravy and even some caramelized bits. This was amazing. The mashed potatoes were creamy and buttery and the perfect bite was a little potato, a little meat, a little gravy. Seriously, heaven on a plate.
Now I AM a veggie eater but as beautiful as they were, I did NOT like the green beans here. They tasted too... green beany. You might think I am nuts but sometimes green beans have this flavor that I only associate with them as "green beany" that I do not like. I make them a lot at home and when I make them they are a little bit nutty, a little bit sweet. Maybe it's the variety of green bean, I don't know... these looked fancier and smaller than what I make... maybe these are french style? I also associate that "green beany" flavor with frozen green beans, I don't like them no matter how much I try. So the princess has to have green beans made her way or it's a no-go. I didn't like these, but luckily I had my lovely salad.
And here is what I had left when I was done eating. I ate a lot of the salad, but salad has a lot of air and water and crunches down to almost nothing in your tummy.
I really really REALLY enjoyed this meal. Like, I already had pretty high expectations and it exceeded them.
But the best was still yet to come... the ooey gooey toffee cake. But you're going to have to wait for the next post since I am at my image limit!!!!!!
I keep saying I'm not a dessert person but I found so many desserts to love this time. But I still really only eat a few bites and after that I've had enough. But I will eat myself sick on any chips with some kind of cheesy powder!
I made a lot of ADRs my first trip based off your last DR and I’m pretty sure I’m gonna do it again! Plus, your pics with the kid? STINKIN CUTE! Every single one! I snorted so hard at figment as a demon 
That's so hilarious. #ThanksPhotopass
I hate when you order a bagel somewhere and it's untoasted. I ordered room service at one of the Universal resorts last year, and had some VEMS (Very expensive mozzarella sticks). It was also a really poor experience with room service. 
