Dining Review - March/April 2022

[itsherhappyplace]

Thursday 3/24/22 Continued:
I liked how they have a block of knives for you to choose from
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For our entree Scott and I shared the Daily Market Fresh Fish - Cobia. When this came out we knew something was wrong - it smelled really fishy (like it was bad). We tasted it and it tasted off. While the bad Cobia was a disappointment they made it right by replacing it for us. We got the Salmon instead which was good. Once you have something bad it kind of turns me off the rest of the meal.

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Scott also ordered the Macaroni and Cheese: Cavatappi pasta, Gouda and cheddar cheese sauce, bread crumbs. He really liked the Mac and cheese. It was one of his favorite ones of the trip.
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Mike and Donna shared the Coaches Cut Prime Rib: Herb crusted and served with Yorkshire pudding and an jus. They said it was OK, but not great. They were happy they shared given how huge the serving is
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For dessert each couple shared a chocolate soufflé. OMG these are so delicious.
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Scott and I really like Shula’s, even after the bad Cobia.

 

[itsherhappyplace]

the prime rib looks fantastic and that chocolate soufflé looks AMAZING!

 

[Noreen411]

Thursday 3/31/22
We spent the day at Epcot

At the Sunshine Griddle booth we tried the avocado toast: Marinated toy box tomatoes on toasted ciabatta. This was very good, better than we expected. And a nice sized portion.



At the Hanami Booth we tried the crushing: Strawberry, Pineapple, and Cantaloupe wrapped in sweet rice and pink soy wrap served with whipped cream, drizzled berry sauce, and toasted coconut. This was adorable. It tasted good too.


Later that evening we headed to the Grand Floridian.

Before dinner we went to the Enchanted Rose Lounge for drinks.
I had the Garden Spritzer: Seedlip Garden 108 Herbal Distilled non alcoholic spirit, Lime, Agave, and soda. This was light and refreshing.
Scott had a Martini.


We saw someone order mac and cheese at the bar so had to see what type it was. With Scott’s love of mac and cheese, we ordered it. Crab Macaroni and Cheese: Lump crab, gnocche sardi, mornay sauce, and citrus breadcrumbs. Scott liked this a lot.


We hung out here for a while, enjoying the atmosphere and just being on vacation.

 

[Noreen411]

Thursday 3/31/22 Continued
We had dinner at Citricos.

I ordered the London Dry Juniper Seltzer: Authentic Cinchona Bark and smoked rosemary, blended with citrus, lemongrass, and juniper aromatics. This was delicious; I would definitely order this again. Light and refreshing.
Scott had a martini.


For an appetizer we shared the smoked duck breast: fresh tagliatelle pasta, celeriac purée, duck confit. This was great.


Service was super slow after our appetizers came. Our waiter sort of disappeared. Everyone around us was getting their food, and we waited.

Finally our dinner arrived.
I had the Butter Poached Florida Mahi Mahi: mashed fingerling potatoes, grilled asparagus, local mushrooms, grapefruit beurre blanc. My dish was delicious; I really enjoyed it.


Scott was not as happy with his dish. He ordered the Oak-grilled filet mignon: potato purée, broccolini, cipollini jam, bordelaise. When it arrived he confirmed with the waiter that is was actually filet; it looked different than most filet mignon we’ve had in the past; kind of thin rather than thick. The waiter confirmed it was filet. He said it was just OK


We also ordered the Smoked Cauliflower: green curry, chili crunch, citrus crème fraiche. We’ve been eating cauliflower at home often so wanted to give this a try. This was pretty good.


When it was time to think about dessert, Scott said how about Pineapple Bread Pudding from Tambu Lounge? So we headed over to the Polynesian.

I had the EARidescent Sip A Bration: Minute Maid Premium Lemonade and Fruity Strawberry Punch served in a souvenir 50th Celebration cup with a surprise character and a little bit of magic. You put the Red Mickey Mouse into the drink and it dissolves turning the drink pink. OMG this was horrible. One sip was all I could take. It looked cute but yuck.
Scott probably had Grand Marnier.




The star of dessert; the Pineapple Bread Pudding was delicious. We were laughing at how many times we’ve come back here for this dessert. Our overall favorite dessert of the trip.



Scott is going to try to re-create this when we’re home

 

[Noreen411]

Friday 4/1/22
We started the drive home this morning.

We stopped for the night in Dunn, NC. We asked at the hotel for restaurant recommendations nearby and there weren’t many choices. The place the woman working at the hotel recommended the most was Little Caesar’s Pizza.

We don’t have a Little Caesars near us, we’ve never tried it, but we like pizza. OK we’ll give it a try. Scott ordered one with different toppings like sausage and hot cherry peppers (or something like that); I don’t remember all the things he added. I was traditional and went with plain pizza. Scott also wanted to try their wings.

It was take out only so we brought it back to the hotel and ate while watching a movie. We had soda with our pizza. It was OK, not either of our favorite pizzas. It was way too much food; we should have shared one pizza.

They were doing a booming business; the place was super crowded and most people were ordering many pizzas.

 

[Noreen411]

Saturday 4/2/22
We continued our drive home.

At one of the rest stops in Maryland we were excited to see an Earl of Sandwich. It was midday so perfect timing for lunch. The menu was limited; they didn’t have all the choices they had at Disney Springs. I ordered the Turkey club and Scott ordered the Cuban. This wasn’t as good as the Earl of Sandwich at Disney but it was pretty good.






We got home around 4:15 or so. The cats were happy to see us.

We didn’t feel like going out to dinner so Scott picked up sushi from a neighborhood place that we really like.


For dessert we shared one of the Gideon’s chocolate chip cookies. These are awesome cookies. I’m so glad we brought home a whole bunch of them frozen and will be able to enjoy them over time.



After this, we’re back to our more normal type of eating.

 

[Noreen411]

Final Thoughts
This was a great trip.

We still enjoy driving to Florida and still love Disney. I’ve had my timeshare for years and I’m really glad I do as it makes the trip easier having the space and amenities of a condo rather than just a hotel room.

We tried some new restaurants this trip and now have some new favorites.

I won’t stress next trip if I don’t get all the restaurants I want 60 days out as we can keep changing them as we go with people cancelling all the time.

If you have any questions, please ask. I love talking about my trips.

I want to work on a trip review/travelogue but haven’t started that yet

Noreen

 

[HolRae]

Thank you for taking the time to share your dining adventures. I have enjoyed following along.

 

[Ss77]

Awesome dining report! You were living your best life! I love all of the drink suggestions and martinis
I am curious for your advice. If you could recommend your top 5 dining musts on property what would it be?

 

[Mich123]

Great report, now I want a martini! And the ‘Ohana bread pudding!

I had a few of the meals you did when I was at WDW in May. One of my favorite dishes was the mahi mahi at Citricos. That place is a hidden gem.

 

[need2travel]

Enjoyed your review, thank you!!

 

[erinch]

Thank you for sharing! I think you should call your report Scott had a Martini!

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Great report! You had some really great meals! I'm not sure I should admit this, but I've never had the bread pudding at the Poly ... I think I might need to rectify that situation soon!! Totally agree about not stressing over ADRs - as long as you're flexible, good stuff almost always becomes available the day before as people firm up their plans. I still do make some because I'm food obsessed and love the planning. I will look forward to your next trip and report!

 

[Noreen411]

Awesome dining report! You were living your best life! I love all of the drink suggestions and martinis
I am curious for your advice. If you could recommend your top 5 dining musts on property what would it be?

Hi. Thank you for the kind words.
It’s hard to pick just 5 but let me try to narrow it down…

In our top restaurants I’d say (not in ranked order): Citricos, Narcoose’s, Shula’s, Yachtsman’s, Morimoto, Jiko, and California Grill (before the Pre-Fixe menu).

We ate at California Grill twice during our Sept 2021 trip (there was a dining review for that too). The meal before the PreFixe was great; the prefixe not so much and we haven’t been back.

I’ll also give honorable mention to the Boathouse (this was great for the lunches we had there, dinner in the past was OK) and Homecoming (we used to love it, but our last experience during the Sept 2021 trip wasn’t as good as it was before, maybe an off night so we won’t write it off).

For dessert - hands down top choice (no surprise here)…the pineapple bread pudding from Tambu Lounge. We couldn’t get enough of it

Also great - Gideon’s cookies. They freeze well and we’re still enjoying them as a treat here and there. I’m hoping to stretch it out until our next trip so we can restock.

Noreen

 

[Noreen411]

Thank you for sharing! I think you should call your report Scott had a Martini!

LOL - I love it. I’m not that creative as you can tell from my normal Title

 

[ThreeBoyMama]

Great report. I am jealous of your sushi feast once you were back home. Perfect way to end your trip!

 

[Noreen411]

Thank you all for the kind words and encouragement. This was a lot of fun to do.

I still need to work on my trip report/travelogue for both our Sept 2021 and March 2022 trips; I hope to get those started soon.

Noreen

 

[SwanVT2]

Final Thoughts
This was a great trip.

We still enjoy driving to Florida and still love Disney. I’ve had my timeshare for years and I’m really glad I do as it makes the trip easier having the space and amenities of a condo rather than just a hotel room.

We tried some new restaurants this trip and now have some new favorites.

I won’t stress next trip if I don’t get all the restaurants I want 60 days out as we can keep changing them as we go with people cancelling all the time.

If you have any questions, please ask. I love talking about my trips.

I want to work on a trip review/travelogue but haven’t started that yet

Noreen

I love how you have all the fancy dining then Little Cesar’s!

 

[kimmylaj]

Thanks so much for sharing tomorrow is my booking day and you gave me so much to think about.

 

[nursejackie]

Monday 3/28/22
We spent most of the day at Animal Kingdom with Mike and Donna.

The four of us headed to the Grand Floridian for dinner at Narcooses. We went a bit early to have drinks at the bar before dinner. They didn’t have a non-alcoholic cocktail menu but they made Donna and I virgin Mango Mojito’s. These were just as good as the ones I’ve previously had made with alcohol. I love how they use the limes to make it look like Mickey ears. Scott and Mike both had martini’s.
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We were seated a bit before our reservation time.

Their bread is good, but makes a lot of crumbs.
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For appetizers each couple shared an order of the Crispy Rhode Island Calamari: Peppadew Banana pepper olive relish, tomato coulis. Just one picture since they looked the same. I avoided the olives since I don’t like olives. But the calamari was very good, nice and crispy.
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For our entrees, Donna wanted soup and salad. She ordered Maine Lobster Bisque: Butter poached lobster, coral, chervil. And Caesar Salad: Crisp romaine leaves, traditional Caesar dressing, grated house cured yolks, fried capers. She said it was very good and just what she was craving.
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Scott and Michael both ordered the same thing (so I’m only sharing one picture). Pan-seared Georges bank day boat scallops: Parisian style gnocchi, peas, ham, truffled Meyer lemon cream. They both enjoyed it. Scott and I have had this before and know it’s really good.
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I was originally thinking of the Mahi Mahi dish but the waiter recommended pretty much everything else but that so I went with the Sweet Potato Gnocchi: Poma Rosa Tomato Ragu. This was very good today and I enjoyed it.
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For dessert, Scott and I shared the Almond crusted cheesecake with lambert cherry sauce. This is such a great dessert; we both really liked it.
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Mike and Donna shared the Lemon Bar: lemon shortbread cookies filled with lemon mousse, topped with lemon curd, fresh raspberries, and white chocolate. They really enjoyed it and said it was a lighter dessert.
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We all enjoyed Narcoose’s. After dinner we hopped over to Magic Kingdom.

For many years Narcoosee's was our Christmas day dinner, but this year we're visiting in August, only to discover it's closed for renovations. I crave the almond crusted cheesecake, it's so good.