Variety is the spice of life...I'll taste it, for the review - COMPLETED

Hello.

Main cast of characters:
Me: I'm Irene. I'll try anything once and will eat anything except mushrooms.
Fave TS: O'hana
Fave CS: Contempo Cafe

My boyfriend: Scott. I've gotten him addicted to all things Disney and he goes along with my plans. He's more of a meat and potatoes eater, no seafood or mushrooms for him. Or anything with too much sauce. Or cheese.
Fave TS: Be Our Guest
Fave CS: WPE

We had a few friends visit us too, more on that later.

I'm a DVC member so we come to Disney usually once per year.

Our Disney eats:
Day 1:
Art of Animation food court
Jock Lindsay's Hangar Bar (just drinks)
Morimoto Street Food
Boardwalk to go
Boardwalk Bakery

Day 2:
Food & Wine until we bust! So many booths for 2!
Gasparilla's Grill

Day 3:
Grand Floridian Cafe

I'm a planner by nature and enjoy planning our Disney trips. One of my favorite things to do is read Disney dining reviews and try new things at new places. We just came back from a brief 3 night stay with a lot of variety, hence the title. We were resort hopping (3 hotels in 3 nights), it was our first time at F&W and the whole long weekend revolved around eating. I figured I'd give my first dining review a stab and took more pics of food than us.

I hope this review will pay it forward and help someone else with some decisions the way reading other reviews helps me. Here we are, checking into our first room (Art of Animation, little mermaid room) at 2:30am after a full day of work and some flight delays....um, once I figure out how to upload a picture...

Following. Sorry I’m no help with the file uploads but look forward to reading your reviews.

Following. Excited to hear about all of the food!

dnllmz said:

Following. Sorry I’m no help with the file uploads but look forward to reading your reviews.

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paw1968 said:

Following. Excited to hear about all of the food!

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Thank you and
I was worried I'd be "talking" to myself. At least I finally got how to insert emoticons. Once I can figure out the pics I promise to get started...still trying!

I guess I'll just get started and add pics hopefully soon...

Day 1, meal 1: Art of Animation food court
By the time we found our room it had been 3am.
We woke up, put on our bathing suits, headed to bell services to drop off our luggage for resort #2 and headed to Animation Hall for breakfast while enjoying the theming. It was 10:50am at this point and we were torn - do we order breakfast or wait 10 min for lunch? We were concerned about getting food that had been sitting under a heat lamp so decided to wait. But first- refillable resort mugs because we both needed some coffee! Cost was $40. Our first time not on a dining plan.

Finally the food! I knew that if we ever ate at AoA, I was getting the surf and surf burger with a choice of 2 sides. Isn't seafood the first thing most people put in their belly?

This burger is a crab cake patty with 6 fried shrimp on top. There was a really good aioli on this. The crab cake itself was ok, the fried shrimp on top had a really nice flavor but they weren't too crunchy. For my 2 sides, I got fries which were hot and crispy. I also got cole slaw which I liked and could've sworn I tasted some apple.

Scott got a burger, for his 2 sides he chose fries and potato chips which they put in the cup for him so we could take it to the pool. The burger was the standard Disney burger (no cheese) with bacon. He *loves* pickles so asked for extra. The cost was $29 for both entrees. We refilled our mugs with some soda to go. In New York, we can't get Mello Yellow which Scott would pump through his veins if he could, so he was very happy it was available. We never got to the chips.

Thank you for taking the time to do this. Good luck with the pictures, wish I could help.

ibcindyb said:

Thank you for taking the time to do this. Good luck with the pictures, wish I could help.

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Thanks for joining. And yay I finally figured it out!

Still Day 1, Disney Springs - Jock Lindsay's Hangar Bar
I had *really* wanted to go to a tiki type bar so we met up with friends at Jock Lindsay's Hangar Bar.

It had only been about 3 hours since we ate our early lunch so we weren't hungry yet, but we were thirsty! I had a cool headed monkey for $9.25. I thought it was a tasty rum punch in a cute cup. Scott had a pumpkin ale, he very much enjoyed this beer with notes of brown sugar, $6.50 on happy hour. Our friends had an Elephant ipa on draft. I am not at all a beer drinker but they are literally judges and said it was a good solid ipa. They had some disagreements on how hoppy it is, whatever that means. That said, it was good enough to take it to go. Sorry this one is so dark. There is no glowing cube in the pumpkin ale, it's just the lighting.

Day 1, still Disney Springs - Morimoto Street Food

We're from NY. We eat enough Asian food at home. Like literally every week. This was totally not on my radar except for all the dining reviews that raved about the ribs. And I love me some ribs. So we stopped for a quick snack, planned to share only an order of ribs...

An order of ribs is $10 and you get 3. Not sure if these were smaller than normal but they gave 6 so I thought it was a terrific value. The meat literally fell off the bone, sauce was a little too sticky sweet but very yummy and literally lick your fingers good. I also decides to get the sesame balls as it was a special of the day because I enjoy a good sesame ball - which this was! I hope they add this to their regular menu. These were an order of 6 for $5 and served warm and absolutely delicious with a red bean paste in the middle.

Our friends got the ribs as well, along with the cold noodles which were sweet and kid approved by their 4 year old. All agreed it's what good noodles should be. An order was $12 and a good portion for sharing. They also got the rib taco bao buns (also $12) which were good. They were a little doughy and somewhat spicy but the spice was offset by the cucumber. I had to sample all. For the review. Because I'm dedicated like that.



Next we had planned to go to Homecomin' because I wanted to try the chicken sandwich from the to go (for $10) but they weren't offering the to go menu anymore but you could order off the regular menu (for $17) and they'd pack it for you. Umm, thanks. So if anyone else is planning on the to go, you've been warned!

Scott was still full from his burger and had only eaten 1 rib which means I "had to" eat the other 5 plus the balls so I was quite full. I pleaded with him, let's just share a sandwich but he wouldn't and I really didn't want my own so we decided to go to resort #2, go for a swim, and figure out dinner.

Good tip on Homecomin' no longer doing the to-go menu; I was planning on that!

Also,

ibela said:

In New York, we can't get Mello Yellow which Scott would pump through his veins if he could, so he was very happy it was available.

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following along

earfulofmagic said:

Good tip on Homecomin' no longer doing the to-go menu; I was planning on that!

Also,



following along

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Not sure when they dropped the to go but I guess someone figured it wasn't profitable enough?

Anyway, . He's literally still talking about the mellow yellow. Ah, at least he's easily pleased.

Day 1 - Dinner on the Boardwalk

Our resort for this night was Boardwalk. We had a Boardwalk view room with Epcot in the distance so thought we'd grab dinner to eat on the balcony and catch whatever we could of Illuminations.
Our view:

We walked up and down the Boardwalk. Do we get mediocre pizza? Do we try the Boardwalk to Go? Do we get pre-made food at the Bakery? Do we go to Beach Club? So many options and we were running out of time. We went to refill our mugs at the bakery and it smelled SO darn good that I had to get dessert. I settled on a peanut butter log cake and Scott got an eclair. These beauties cost 7.50 after the DVC discount.


But no dessert before dinner!!

We decided on boardwalk to go, it was not the typical Disney burger. Scott said it was nasty. Kinda looked like a school burger from when I was a kid, which I enjoyed then but probably not now. I didn't try it because I was busy trying to eat my grilled chicken sandwich, it was literally a plain grilled chicken breast. No seasoning, no toppings on either sandwich. I seriously think there wasn't even salt and pepper. Just super bland. I also got onion rings which were pretty greasy. The cost for the 2 sandwiches and 1 order of onion rings was 13.50. One of our friends ordered wings from the same to go booth. It lasted 2 bites until he tossed them because he said it tasted like bone crumbling in his mouth. Our other friend ordered a turkey sandwich with soup from ESPN which packages food to go, she said it was fine. We did it make it for fireworks and had a good view.

Our friends left close to midnight and we were absolutely exhausted and wanted to get to bed because day 2 was park/F&W Day! Before bed, I took a bite of the peanut butter log in case we wouldn't get to it in the am. I thought it was moist and very peanut buttery which surprised me but I liked it, even though it was a little too sweet. Sadly I didn't get to finish it the next day or try the eclair because we forgot about them when we checked out since we were in such a rush to get to F&W. I'd literally been wanting to go to F&W for the past 10 years so was very excited with my must do list that I had been fine tuning for months.

Ooh, thanks for sharing! Everything looks good so far. I can never get my pictures to load, they are too big and I don't know how to make them smaller. Any tips?
Also, do you know if Jock Lindsey's has pumpkin ale even at Christmas?
Looking forward to reading more of your reviews!

Following along...thanks for the reviews!

DrunkJam said:

Ooh, thanks for sharing! Everything looks good so far. I can never get my pictures to load, they are too big and I don't know how to make them smaller. Any tips?
Also, do you know if Jock Lindsey's has pumpkin ale even at Christmas?
Looking forward to reading more of your reviews!

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I had a super tough time with the pictures too because mine were also too big. If you're doing it on your computer you have to resize the file and can drag and drop somehow. I'm doing it off my phone so have to first post the photos on imgur and then copy the link to clipboard and insert the link here through the image button. What's funny is I'm also getting some comments on there about my pics. One person commented that the portions are smaller than the cell phones the table. It did look that way but it really wasn't. I thought it was a hilarious observation though.

I'd guess they'd have the pumpkin ale then? It was good and I'm not a beer drinker.

ibela said:

I had a super tough time with the pictures too because mine were also too big. If you're doing it on your computer you have to resize the file and can drag and drop somehow. I'm doing it off my phone so have to first post the photos on imgur and then copy the link to clipboard and insert the link here through the image button. What's funny is I'm also getting some comments on there about my pics. One person commented that the portions are smaller than the cell phones the table. It did look that way but it really wasn't. I thought it was a hilarious observation though.

I'd guess they'd have the pumpkin ale then? It was good and I'm not a beer drinker.

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Thank you.
I've never tried pumpkin ale and I really want to!

Day 2
We woke up Saturday morning excited for our big park day. We initially had high hopes - all 4 parks in 1 day! But when it was time to wake up, we decided against it. So no Hollywood Studios. Scott went to the bakery to get us some coffee while we enjoyed our boardwalk view 1 last time. We made sure we had all our stuff and dropped off our luggage with Bell Services for our final transfer to Grand Floridian.

Food & Wine part 1
At 11am, with no food in our bellies since the debacle that was dinner the night before, we made our way to walk to Epcot along with everyone else.

I had very big plans and had about 10 "must Do booths", especially Canada (in all our trips, have never eaten at Le Cellier), Hawaii, and Coastal Eats. To tackle this, we agreed to share all non-seafood dished.

Stop 1: France. I wanted to ease into eating so decided to start off with a passion fruit martini slush ($10.75). I know, I'm a weirdo. Anyway, it was delicious, light and refreshing. Maybe there's some passion fruit juice which is juice so technically it's ok for breakfast since I usually just have coffee and this is just juice (well, with alcohol but it's after 5pm in Eastern Europe)...?


Scott decided to dive in with the beef bourgeninon ($5.50 I think). The meat was "wow" tender and had great flavor. I think. Because I only got 1 bite. He wanted to lick the cardboard clean. Can't take him anywhere. It was a great start! I asked him to hold my drink so I could jot down notes but he kept taking sips and said he should've got one too.

The beef dish in France:

The big bite on the fork with the potato, that was my share. I remembered to take a pic right before we dug in.

Next stop: Brazil. Scott wanted to try the meat pie. This had a great ratio of meat to potatoes, very good flavor tomato sauce and garlic. I meant to take a picture but couldn't stop eating. Sorry. I had also decided to try the cheese bread but it wasn't quite what I expected. It was moist but not really cheesy so I only had 1 to save room for more food.


At this point it was starting to get crowded and hot. Like 200 degrees hot. All Scott wanted was a soda and all I wanted was some shade. But we were approaching Hops & Barley where the lobster roll was also on my must list so I went to get one while Scott had to go into Liberty Inn for a Coke.

I *loved* this and this turned out to be my favorite food item of the day. It was definitely worth the $8 price tag. This was real chunks of lobster, not mayo drenched, served on crunchy garlic bread. There were murmurs of approval from people next to me too. It was so good that I gobbled it up right as Scott triumphantly returned with his soda.
I had wanted to try the carrot cake too but he didn't want it and I needed a food break. The people next to me made me jealous going on and on about how good it was and how it was the best cream cheese icing they'd ever had.

Still Day 2, Food & Wine, part 2

It was extremely hot and I was thirsty. And had the sampler burning a hole in my pocket. Next stop: Joffreys! The f&w special at this one was a frozen strawberry lemon sunset with grey goose, it was so good and refreshing. I used a sampler tab. This was the perfect combination of tart and sweet and really hit the spot. I couldn't taste the vodka even though I watched him put a healthy pour. Dangerous.


We decided to take a break and ride on Mission Space because we hadn't done the new version of the Green side. And I wasn't going on Orange after eating and 2 drinks. The ride was cute but I still walked off a little dizzy. From the green side. I guess no more rides so back to f&w!

We stopped at the Light lab to try the blue spectrum drink and used 2 sampler tabs. It's just so pretty.


Unfortunately, the taste was meh. The boba balls at the bottom were the only saving grace, I loved how they pop in your mouth. I ended up pouring most of my drink out to get to the boba balls.

Next stop - 1 of my must do booths - Coastal Eats! Because Scott won't eat seafood, this booth was all me. I couldn't decide because all 3 dishes sounded so good but I knew at least 1 had to be cut. I decided to ax the crab cake since I had one the day before. I ordered the shrimp scampi and scallops. I guess the CM sensed my indecision because she asked if I wanted anything else. I said yes but he won't eat any with me so I won't order anything else.

The shrimp scampi had 4 tiny shrimp and I thought the scampi dip was a little too thick and heavy for the weather. The scallops were just slightly over done so they were a little rubbery. I tried a bite of the corn succotash but it was not memorable and I was honestly too stuffed at this point. Unfortunately, this was my most disappointing booth.

While I was on the line for Coastal Eats, Scott went to Active Eats for this:

The beef skewer minus feta. The portion started off bigger but this is what I was able to get a picture of because he started eating on the walk over. The 10 feet distance. As I said "why are you eating before a picture?!" I thought it had a good taste but was a little chewy. Or maybe it was just my piece.

It was time for another beverage. We made a stop at another Joffreys for their drink, the kahlua-tini.


I believe this was espresso with cream, kalhua, and grey good. My first thought was "wow this is heavy on the alcohol" but after a few sips it tasted fine. I normally put skim milk in my coffee and this was cream so it was definitely rich to me but very yummy. Another use of the sampler.

We passed so many booths that called my name - Canada and Hawaii had been the 2 that I was most looking forward to. I had planned to start there so we wouldn't be too full. But we entered the other way and I don't know, everything else looked so good. And then the chocolate studio, I said oh yeah the nitro chocolate dessert. Alas, it was about 2pm. We were hot, exhausted and stuffed. But we still had 3 sampler tabs left to use and plans for Magic Kingdom that night (midnight close!!) so had to use them now or lose them...

Day 2 - Wrap up of Epcot

We had fast passes for Flights if Passage and mk was open until midnight so wanted to go there after. Especially since we were staying at Grand Floridian this night. As I mentioned, we still had 3 tabs left so decides to go back to France for another passion fruit martini slush, this time he wanted his own. Which meants 2 tabs used and we still had a 3rd. He contemplated a repeat of the beef. But that wouldn't be a good use of the last tab so he decided to get 2 of the slushies instead. And they were still sooo good. On our way out I realized I hadn't had any dessert but I couldn't eat any more so stopped off at my favorite Germany caramel store for 2 treats to go. The caramel filled chocolate chip cookie, my fave, and a smores. Both were 4.49 after the DVC discount.


We finally left Epcot to check into our room before we collapsed. A slight drift away from food to show our standard room view:


While relaxing in the room, I decided to dig into my goodies. At first, the cookie didn't have caramel in it. Was my mind playing tricks on me and it never had caramel or did the guy give me the wrong cookie? There was finally a little by the time I got to the middle but it was not like usual. Hopefully just an off batch because I'd hate to take this out of my repertoire. I put it aside and took a bite of the smores. And wow, I may have a new favorite. A little too sweet (not sure what's going on this trip because I really like my sweets) but it was oh so good. There's a thick layer of caramel between the marshmallow and graham cracker. I was happily content with my dessert and enjoyed some down time before continuing our day.