ScubaCat
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 12, 2008
I've been reading some fairly good things about Spice Road Table for a while now. The menu has some interesting options and the location looks lovely, so I've been wanting to try it for a while now. We finally booked it and went for dinner last week. Since it was still 95 degrees when our 5:45pm reservation rolled around, we opted to eat inside despite the overwhelming almost-rotten fish smell we were greeted with.
Before getting to the food, if you do decide to try this place I suggest either wearing gloves or making every effort not to touch the table. The metal tables (brass?) will rub off on your hands and your hands will smell like rust. I thought I just needed to wash my hands until I realized I already HAD washed them and had made the mistake of touching the table again. My bad there. Anyhow, let's get to the meat and potatoes, if you will.
We decided on the Mixed Grill Skewers. DW chose them right away. I was leaning towards the NY Strip Steak, but the waiter convinced me to go with the skewers for a "more authentic experience". Fair enough, it was more of a variety. This entree is "Marinated Beef and Chicken with French Green Beans, Toasted Almonds, and Rosemary Potatoes". It sounded like a good combination. I get some good beef and chicken with Mediterranean seasoning that I don't experience very often. And $31 isn't too bad for an Epcot entree for beef AND chicken. I knew it wouldn't be a big portion at that price point, but I'm going for quality here over quantity. There's always F&W booths if I want a snack later.
A solid 30 minutes after ordering (a total of 3 other tables had people seated), we were presented with our authentic Moroccan entrees. Let's start with the skewers. One was 4 white cubes with a little curry pepper on them. I'm sure they started as a form of chicken, but they were overcooked to something better used in construction. I spit out my first bite (that I had to cut off with a knife) and DW saw me and didn't even attempt it. We flagged the waiter and asked for another beef skewer instead, which he did promptly bring us in about 5 minutes. As for the beef, it was low grade stew meat. Some pieces were tougher than others, some were mostly gristle and thus inedible, and some were tolerable enough to chew and swallow. This was beneath what Golden Corral would use. The small mound of french style green beans was ok, but obviously just heated out of a bag..... which brings us to the "rosemary potatoes": They were Alexia-brand oven fries. We make them at home from time to time, and now I've had them in Epcot. The waiter brought us a bowl of ketchup packets (nice touch) for the fries -- sorry, "rosemary potatoes" -- but it doubled as an accessory to the edible part of the steak as well. So overall, for $30.99 plus tax and tip, a poor Moroccan person is hired to run to Publix, dumpster dive for the lowest grade of stew meat and chicken, and buy a few bags of frozen french cut green beans and Alexia oven fries. Then you come in for a nice dinner, someone else hangs out for 30 minutes, nukes it all, and throws it on a plate for you.
Welcome to the Spice Road table. I really thought Tony's Town Square was literally the worst restaurant I'd ever been to in my entire life, but I may have to try it again so I can do a more fair comparison.
In closing, if you'd like to make your own authentic Moroccan rosemary potatoes, look for this in your grocer's freezer section:
https://www.alexiafoods.com/chef-inspired/oven-fries-olive-oil-rosemary-and-garlic
Before getting to the food, if you do decide to try this place I suggest either wearing gloves or making every effort not to touch the table. The metal tables (brass?) will rub off on your hands and your hands will smell like rust. I thought I just needed to wash my hands until I realized I already HAD washed them and had made the mistake of touching the table again. My bad there. Anyhow, let's get to the meat and potatoes, if you will.
We decided on the Mixed Grill Skewers. DW chose them right away. I was leaning towards the NY Strip Steak, but the waiter convinced me to go with the skewers for a "more authentic experience". Fair enough, it was more of a variety. This entree is "Marinated Beef and Chicken with French Green Beans, Toasted Almonds, and Rosemary Potatoes". It sounded like a good combination. I get some good beef and chicken with Mediterranean seasoning that I don't experience very often. And $31 isn't too bad for an Epcot entree for beef AND chicken. I knew it wouldn't be a big portion at that price point, but I'm going for quality here over quantity. There's always F&W booths if I want a snack later.
A solid 30 minutes after ordering (a total of 3 other tables had people seated), we were presented with our authentic Moroccan entrees. Let's start with the skewers. One was 4 white cubes with a little curry pepper on them. I'm sure they started as a form of chicken, but they were overcooked to something better used in construction. I spit out my first bite (that I had to cut off with a knife) and DW saw me and didn't even attempt it. We flagged the waiter and asked for another beef skewer instead, which he did promptly bring us in about 5 minutes. As for the beef, it was low grade stew meat. Some pieces were tougher than others, some were mostly gristle and thus inedible, and some were tolerable enough to chew and swallow. This was beneath what Golden Corral would use. The small mound of french style green beans was ok, but obviously just heated out of a bag..... which brings us to the "rosemary potatoes": They were Alexia-brand oven fries. We make them at home from time to time, and now I've had them in Epcot. The waiter brought us a bowl of ketchup packets (nice touch) for the fries -- sorry, "rosemary potatoes" -- but it doubled as an accessory to the edible part of the steak as well. So overall, for $30.99 plus tax and tip, a poor Moroccan person is hired to run to Publix, dumpster dive for the lowest grade of stew meat and chicken, and buy a few bags of frozen french cut green beans and Alexia oven fries. Then you come in for a nice dinner, someone else hangs out for 30 minutes, nukes it all, and throws it on a plate for you.
Welcome to the Spice Road table. I really thought Tony's Town Square was literally the worst restaurant I'd ever been to in my entire life, but I may have to try it again so I can do a more fair comparison.
In closing, if you'd like to make your own authentic Moroccan rosemary potatoes, look for this in your grocer's freezer section:
https://www.alexiafoods.com/chef-inspired/oven-fries-olive-oil-rosemary-and-garlic