1900 Park Fare - Thanksgiving Dinner
We had 3:10 ADRs and arrived on time, but unfortunately a bit too late to see the opening of the restaurant. I have to wonder how it was done, though, since the Fairy Godmother wasn't there that day. They had a substitute character in the lobby - Aurora from Sleeping Beauty. I didn't see her, but my little nieces went out to see her and they were very happy to get her autograph.
We were seated promptly at a long table for 12, chairs on one side, banquette on the other. Our drink orders were taken promptly. This was one restaurant where we were told that smoothies were not included on the plan. (Every other restaurant had included them at dinner.) I chose a pink lemonade.
We could see that characters (Cinderella, the mice and Prince Charming )were making their way around the room. I told the kids (and big kids) to hang tight and that the characters would get to us eventually. Before long, one of the mice (Suzy or Perla) made her way to our table and did pix and autographs with the kids. They were very happy to meet her. Over the evening, each character came over at least once and spent a significant amount of time with the kids. My 12 year old DS, in all seriousness, told Prince Charming that he was "glad to see a male gendered character" at the meal. Prince C. gave me a "huh?" look and I translated, "He's happy to see a boy character." DS really cracks us up!
As usual, the chef came to our table right away to discuss allergies. He told us 2 or 3 items to avoid on the buffet (nut items) and then discussed which desserts were safe. He recommended the ice cream, which I had already planned on. I told him that we had also ordered a safe cake. Since it was Thanksgiving, I asked if the pumpkin pie was safe. The chef said he would check and a bit later on a dish with a miniature pumpkin tart arrived at our table with the chef's okay that it was safe for DS. This is an example of the care and caring WDW takes with its food allergy guests. Not only did the chef check to see if the pie was safe, he sent one out that had never been placed in a buffet area next to other, unsafe, dessert items. DS was very happy to have this treat. Usually the only pumpkin pie he gets is homemade by me and not if we are at any other venue for Thanksgiving.
Shortly afterwards, we made our way to the buffet. For starters, I want to comment on the physical set up of the buffet. It was in a back area of the restaurant with two queues that didn't have the same items. Where the queues met up, there was a carving station with at least 2 meats. I didn't get anything from there, but one was a beef and the other might have been turkey. Since there was turkey on the line, I didn't really check it out. In front of the carving area were condiments including 2 kinds of horseradish (sauce and ground), cranberry sauce and marmalade. Oddly there dishes of cranberry were small and ran out quickly. They should know that on Turkey Day, that this would be a "hot" item and put out alot.
Anyway, the two lines both had different dinner items and different soups. The line to the right also had desserts and the one to left also had salad items. My mom and I both thought that it would make sense to keep all the dinner items together so that you don't have to get on 2 different queues to make up a dinner plate. For example, turkey, stuffing a gravy were on one side. Green beens and sweet potatoes were on the other. Also, it was a bit of a tight squeeze in for the lines in the space where it was set up. Not sure if this is the usual set up, or a Thanksgiving arraangement.
There was also a separate pasta station with 2 pastas which were ostensibly being made fresh by the man standing at the station. One was alfredo, I believe, and another was in a red sauce. I had the latter and it was okay, but didn't taste as fresh as you would be led to believe by seeing someone making it. It was actually scooped from a dish that contained already prepared pasta.
I then had a salad, which was good. There were 3 salad choices: Caesar, vinagrette and various lettuces and fixing and dressing for a custom choice. I selected the vinagrette prepared salad and also was very happy to see peel and eat shrimp and cocktail sauce. Both were good.
Now, you would think I would be full (NOT!!), so I went on to a plate of Thanksgiving traditional choices. I had turkey which was served in separate trays for white and dark meat. I chose white meat, added stuffing, gravy, a dab of mashed potatoes, green beens and sweet potatoes. All were very good, except the giblet gravy which is not to my taste. I don't like giblets.
I also took a small piece of salmon which was very good. There was also chicken marsala. I didn't try it, but DBIL did and he liked it.
The kids' section had pizza which was my older DS's thanksgiving dinner. He doesn't like turkey. There was also mac n cheese which I didn't try.
My younger DS tried the Strawberry soup and loved it. He didn't even want them to clear away his empty bowl (was he plannnig to lick it clean??). DH tried the butternut squash soup and also raved about it. There was also a tomato florentine, but none of us tried it, so I can't comment on it.
For dessert, there was bread pudding (great!!) and an assortment of mini pastries (including the aforementioned pumpkin pie tarts). I never tried any of the pastries, but the chef had mentioned that they were special for the holiday. Apparently, not the usual dessert. There was a soft serve machine with vanilla and chocolate which was very popular. DH commented at one point that the machine was out of chocolate. Since the restaurant had just opened and was going to stay open for many more hours, I assume that they must have refilled it at some point.
Our cake was delivered and it was beautiful. It was an 8 inch, 2 layer cake decorated to look like a wedding cake. It had white cake, with a layer of whipped cream and strawberries and was frosted with white buttercream. It was decorated with the kind of "trim" you would see on a wedding cake and white and gold roses that appeared to be made of sugar or chocolate.
The waitress served us all slices, which we could barely eat of course!
It was good, not the best cake I have ever had, but very tasty. The buttercream frosting was very good, but I love butter cream. I am not a big whipped cream fan, but I had chosen that because it was a safe choice for my son's allergies. The cake was huge, even for our group of 12, and to do it again, I would have a smaller cake. We didn't eat more than one quarter of it. We asked the waitress to box it up and keep it in the fridge and my parents picked it up the next day on their way back home (to southern FL).
Well, overall, this was a very good meal and a good choice for Thanksgiving. My little nieces and nephew were so happy to see the characters and there was a large selection of food for the picky eaters (like my pizza eating 16 year old). The service was good too. I give this restaurant a B+ for the food and and A for character interaction and service.
