Dining Extravaganza 9/23-10/3/06, Free & otherwise-Pics. Updated 10/16/07 Last Meal

[swankybeth]

Great reviews so far, looking forward to the next installment.

[Goofy_4_WDW]

Thank you for your pictures and reviews! I really enjoyed reading them.

[TyRy]

I just wanted to asy thank you to all of you who have stopped by and are enjoying the reviews and pictures. HOPEFULLY I'll have at least one more installment up on Monday or Tuesday.

Ty

[D&R love Disney]

Great reviews and I love the pictures.

[bigbabyblues]

Enjoying your reviews, we have several of the same places on our list for May!

[TyRy]

Originally Posted by D&R love Disney

Great reviews and I love the pictures.

Thank you very much! If life would stop being so crazy I could get more up!

Originally Posted by bigbabyblues

Enjoying your reviews, we have several of the same places on our list for May!

YEAH - someone with similar tastes! Hope your visits are as good as our were.

[Tasmen]

Definitely thanks for posting pictures of the drinkies Great reviews!

[TyRy]

Originally Posted by Tasmen

Definitely thanks for posting pictures of the drinkies Great reviews!

You are very welcome Tasmen...I still have almost a whole week left to post, including The Brown Derby, Cali Grill, Jiko and CRT.

Ty

[TyRy]

EEEK - I just realized I skipped a day, I'll try and get that up next (Brown Derby) So sorry!

Today was our Animal Kingdom day so we had lunch at Tusker House. I love chicken and garlic mashed potatoes so we decided to eat here over Flame Tree since we’d been there a few times. And after this meal, it will be where we will be going back to from now on. We wandered in around 2ish so most of the lunch rush was gone. There were only a couple people ahead of us. We were using the DDP for this meal (thankfully). DH ordered Tusker House Chicken Salad and chocolate cake for his dessert – shocking because I don’t think I’d ever seen DH ordered a salad!! I ordered the 1/2 rotisserie chicken w/ garlic mashed and carrot cake. Along with two pops.

DH liked his salad but wasn’t very hungry so he only ate about half of it. This worked out well for me, because two bites into my chicken and I was done. It was the greasiest, slimiest, grossest chicken I’ve ever tried. I was so very disappointed because it looked good but was just awful. Even DH was grossed out by it. I know many people love this place, and I probably just had an “off” piece but just thinking about it makes me queasy. I actually finished DH’s salad although I did pick the chicken out

That night we had an ADR for California Grill – our first time for this restaurant. I had tried earlier in the day to change our ADR from two to four – DH’s parents were now in town – but they said they had us at a three top, so we could not do it. Ok – not a problem. We still met up with D-IL’s and they said they would just join us for a drink at the bar and then go. Well, when we checked in and asked again about four - no problem. Our table was actually ready and we headed up right away. We weren’t by the castle side by still had a nice view (which I have no pictures of for some reason!) We also were greeted with Mickey confetti for our anniversary.


Mike was our server who started out a little slow in my opinion, but quickly redeemed himself and made our meal very enjoyable.

We started with a bottle of wine which was really good and ended up getting another one.


We then were served bread and olive oil which is a favorite of mine!


For appetizers DMIL and I had the romaine salad,

DH had the Yellow Fin Tuna three ways (which we forgot to get a picture of) and DFIL had the flatbread. It was yummy and we almost did not get a picture of it.


For entrees, I had the Oak-Fired Filet of Beef – YUMMY!!!

DH and DMIL had the Grilled Pork Tenderloin

And I think DFIL had some type of fish….


Everything was delicious and timed well. We went out to the balcony after dinner and Mike held our desserts so we could watch Hallowishes – for which they did pipe the music in. It was awesome seeing it from that view.

We then went back in for desserts which were so good we forgot to take pictures!!! DH and I had the Blueberry Blast and Banana and Butterscotch Buzz which we shared with DIL’s.

We were very pleased with the CG and will probably be going back. Our bill without alcohol came to 158.12. Well worth it to us to use 4 dining credits.

Up next (again) Brown Derby!

[jakenjess]

Thanks so much for your review! We'll be at the CG in a month, and I can't wait!

[caitann24]

Thanks for the reviews!

We had a similar problem last year at Le Cellier. Our appetizers and entrees were brought out practically on top of one another and then our server disappeared for quite awhile after. We waited for a solid 20 minutes to put in our dessert order. Like you, I'm happy it worked out that way though - I ate so much that I wouldn't have been able to finish the dessert had it been brought out right away.

Looking forward to more!

[TyRy]

Originally Posted by jakenjess

Thanks so much for your review! We'll be at the CG in a month, and I can't wait!

You are welcome jakenjess. My only comment is not rely on the menus you see online...they change them constantly. I had wanted something else only to be told they had just changed menus again.

Originally Posted by caitann24

Thanks for the reviews!

We had a similar problem last year at Le Cellier. Our appetizers and entrees were brought out practically on top of one another and then our server disappeared for quite awhile after. We waited for a solid 20 minutes to put in our dessert order. Like you, I'm happy it worked out that way though - I ate so much that I wouldn't have been able to finish the dessert had it been brought out right away.

Looking forward to more!

Thanks caitann24. I'm glad to hear it wasn't just us...perhaps Le Cellier plans it that way since they know we are soooooo full from dinner.

[TyRy]

9/28-MGM Day – We skipped breakfast this morning as I had to go on the dreaded TOT and did not want anything in my tummy for that. But as soon as that was over it was time for some food. It was probably around 11 when we decided to eat. We headed to Rosie’s All American Café (I think) across from the Beauty and the Beast Theatre. We used the DDP for this meal. DH had a double cheeseburger and I had the chicken strips. We had a chocolate cake and an apple pie – in containers – for dessert.

You expect burgers and chicken strips to be pretty much the same all over property. But for some reason these were not really all that great. Almost if they had been sitting for a long time under heat lamps or something. May have to skip this place next time and just grab some fries somewhere!

For a snack we had a couple of frozen lemonades from the stunt show food cart – we did not take a picture, but just picture a slurpee from 7-11. That’s what it was.


For dinner we opted to pay out of pocket and do Fantasmic Package at the Brown Derby, a great deal in my opinion. We had an ADR for 5pm and when we walk in, they were swamped. We kind of looked at each other like – uh-oh, here comes a wait. But thankfully that did not happen. We were given a beeper, but were probably seated after about five minutes. I don’t know if everyone waiting was a larger party or a walk-in. We were seated in one of the booths which was a really nice way to relax and we had a nice view of the whole restaurant.

Our server was Raul and he really seemed to time the dinner perfectly. We started with a couple of drinks, and bread and butter.



For our appetizer we decided to share the Cobb Salad for two. DH liked everything that was in it, while I’m a little pickier. But things are so small and chopped up that I actually ate quite a bit – which surprised DH…I think he thought he’d have most to himself.


For dinner I had the Char-grilled Filet Mignon and DH had the Roasted Pork Rib Chop. My filet was done perfectly again (asked for medium and got medium-rare which is what I was expecting by now) and very very tender.

DH had the pork chop and also really like it, as it was very tender and seasoned well.


For dessert we both had the Vanilla Bean Crème Brulee and DH had an after dinner drink.



Overall it was again a great experience and well worth the cost of the package. It was also really nice being able to walk into Fantasmic only 20 minutes or so before the show.

[jakenjess]

Did you order your filet at CG medium or medium-rare? I usually order medium-rare, but I at some places it comes out a little too rare. Just wondering how it was at CG. Thanks!

[TyRy]

Originally Posted by jakenjess

Did you order your filet at CG medium or medium-rare? I usually order medium-rare, but I at some places it comes out a little too rare. Just wondering how it was at CG. Thanks!

Hi jakenjess - I ordered it medium - but it came out medium-rare, which is what I wanted. Somewhere on this board someone had posted that in order to get med-rare they figured out tou had to order medium. It worked for us, as we ordered everything that way and it was never to rare.

Ty