3 trips in 40 days: LET'S EAT! (tandem reviews): FLYING FISH CAFE! [updated 7/3/13]

[Linda67]

Morning ladies

We've never been to CMs so thanks for the awesome pictures

I love a good character breakfast so I am going to have to drag DH over there some time

Patty - good look with your studies; I really admire your work level!

 

[emmebear]

updated 5/18/13


CHEF MICKEY'S BREAKFAST

i randomly stumbled upon a chef mickey's adr for 7 am & booked it immediately. we did not want to do crystal palace again, despite having a pre-park ADR booked. i've only had dinner at CM with the last experience being absolutely horrific. so much so that i didn't send a single update to barb in the live thread...ha ha.

we finally made it to CM's at 10am. ironically, despite being late we waited less than 5 minutes for our table. i was early for dinner both times and waited 30+ minutes for our table.

after checking in, we took our picture with the chef mickey statue. this is the photo that they try and sell for $30.00+.

a rarity...emme's looking at the camera.


i didn't have much hope for the breakfast at CM. this no hope attitude was because my last dinner experience was absolutely terrible. we got seated at a booth and it was a really nice table. the atmosphere was completely different from dinner. people seemed happy, the servers were happy & the characters were happy. our server was one of the best i've had at disney. she was very friendly, engaging & refilled everything quickly & efficiently. she was awesome.

emme was starving so i fixed her plate first:

she absolutely devoured her pancakes & mickey waffle. she also loved the blueberry yogurt. everything was fresh & tasty.



after my disappointing cheesy potatoes experience @ 1900 park fare the day before & regretting not booking akershus breakfast (i am still bitter over the $134.00 i paid for 3 adults), i was so excited to see this:

these potatoes gave akershus cheesy potatoes a run for their money. i think akershus was a wee bit better but man, these cheesy potatoes were divine. they were fresh, warm & oh so creamy. totally scrumptious.



and here is my first plate of food:

i have a whole bunch of fake egg stuff on my plate. i have no idea how that happened but egg with the vegetables scrambled inside was really good. i thought the "corned beef" was a bit weird though.

after we finished our first plate of food, some friends stopped by to visit.

another shocker as emme's looking at the camera!

that didn't last very long.



onwards to my second plate of food:

the smoked salmon with capers & red onion was spot on. of course, i had to get more cheesy potatoes with a sausage link. the honeydew was added on my plate for some nutritional value as i was totally pigging out on carbs...lots of carbs.



we had some more friends visit:

we used my TIW card for breakfast.

even with the discount, breakfast was an expensive meal. however, we had such a great experience at CM. chef mickey's was my surprise meal of the trip. it exceeded my expectations in every way. breakfast was hot, fresh & very good. there was a ton of variety on the buffet....even dessert was out. also, our server was fantastic & the characters were really into it. i'm probably going to stay away from chef mickey's for awhile so that i don't ruin this experience with another bad one! i really loved my breakfast & the cheesy potatoes were divine. i'm so glad we went to chef mickey's as we were so close in cancelling it.


afterwards, we headed to magic kingdom.

someone had given emme this pooh balloon while we were in the contemporary.

however, she did not want this balloon. so we tied it to a railing close to the castle. i hope the balloon found a new home & made another kid happy.



speaking of balloons....

ps: i've been updating my BLOG with disney pictures & from my recent trip to NYC.

 

[DLFan123]

Great pics of those beautiful Epcot flowers! Cheesy potatoes sound like just what I need right now...that plus salmon, capers and onions. Will have to try Chef Mickey's one day!

On another note, I love how you two post your reviews in the same thread. It's neat to see each of your perspectives and the different food pics you took.

 

[daisymomof4]

All caught up here! Thanks ladies for the duo CM reviews! I am looking forward to breakfast there with my gang

Rachel, this is way OT for a food thread, but how did you like your Tevas? I think I posted on your thread when you were sandal shopping, lol. Tevas are our go-to sandals and yours are really cute!

 

[Schmoopsie Poo!]

Can I just say that I love your (both of you!) writing styles?! Your pictures are great and I like your food reviews so much!!! I love scrolling through.

Just my two cents!

 

[emmebear]

Great pics of those beautiful Epcot flowers! Cheesy potatoes sound like just what I need right now...that plus salmon, capers and onions. Will have to try Chef Mickey's one day!

On another note, I love how you two post your reviews in the same thread. It's neat to see each of your perspectives and the different food pics you took.

thanks or reading along!! it's been a blast doing this with rachel! hopefully we can finish before she returns in july!

chef mickey's was such a pleasant surprise. it was a really fun character meal and the food was yummy!

All caught up here! Thanks ladies for the duo CM reviews! I am looking forward to breakfast there with my gang

Rachel, this is way OT for a food thread, but how did you like your Tevas? I think I posted on your thread when you were sandal shopping, lol. Tevas are our go-to sandals and yours are really cute!

hope you enjoy your breakfast.

i'm not rachel but those were tevas.

Can I just say that I love your (both of you!) writing styles?! Your pictures are great and I like your food reviews so much!!! I love scrolling through.

Just my two cents!

thank you for reading along & for the nice comments!!!

 

[emmebear]

updated 5/23/13



GARDEN VIEW TEA ROOM Part 1.

hello everyone.

i've made two prior attempts to have lunch at the garden view tea room at the grand floridian. both times, emme & i could not make it. emme is slightly obsessed with her tea parties at home & i really wanted to experience a real tea party with her.

but after having experienced tea, i'm really glad i got to do this with rachel as emme passed out midway through the meal but it was really nice to experience this with an adult....and even better, an adult who likes disney!!


this was the only ADR where we were actually early. ironically, this was the only ADR where we waited close to an hour to be seated. emme was getting cranky, the cheesy potatoes i devoured at chef mickey's no longer occupied my tummy & i was hungry.


we were finally seated & the view was totally worth it.

our table was pretty large! i was so happy with that as i've seen some of the small tables from various pictures online. also, we have so much "stuff" such as cameras & phones...the large table was a welcomed treat.

cranky emme


rachel & i notice that it was really really cold inside of the room. maybe it was because they wanted us to enjoy our tea but dang, it was freezing inside!

gorgeous flowers!



our CM was riley & she was very knowledgeable about all things tea. here are some menu pictures.

i selected the "grand tea" as my meal & chose the "certified organic pear tree green" as my tea.

the china was so pretty. i was a bit worried for emme to touch it but i think with all the tea parties she has at home, she was a seasoned pro. no excessive clanking & nothing broke.


with my grand tea, i also got a nice glass of bubbly. yummy.

i ordered the "mrs. potts tea" for emme & asked if they could bring emme her sandwiches asap. i also requested all peanut butter sandwiches for emme as well as white milk as her tea.

emme & her "tea"



emme really liked her sandwiches. she was pretty hungry.

but she was totally falling asleep. it was so cute & so pitiful all at the same time.

for my tea, i ordered:

Certified Organic Pear Tree Garden

this was a green tea with a slight pear after taste. it was heavenly! i really enjoyed my tea. the great thing about the tea room is that the CM listens to your likes & dislikes & recommends a tea. if you don't like it, you are free to order another variety. i'm so glad i enjoyed my tea especially since it was freezing inside of the place.

the tea came in this fancy cozy that kept your pot well insulated. fancy schmancy!



for my meal, i took barb's advice & did not order the smoked salmon sandwich. instead, i substituted for an extra pear & gorgonzola cheese sandwich.

the sandwiches were: pear & gorgonzola cheese (2), cucumber & watercress, chicken curry & egg salad sandwich.


my favorite of the bunch was the pear & gorgonzola cheese. second was the cucumber & watercress sandwich. the egg salad was nothing spectatular & neither was the chicken curry sandwich. they weren't bad by any means but i wasn't blown away by the latter. i definitely could have done without the egg sandwich & wished i would have substituted for the cucumber sammy.

i'm not quite sure if it's how the sandwiches were suppose to be but some of my bread was on the "hard" side. it wasn't pillowy soft as i had envisioned. not sure if the sammies were sitting out for a bit but emme's peanut butter sandwiches were super fluffy.

Cucumber & Watercress tea sandwich

this sandwich was super refreshing. i loved the crunch of the cucumber. yummy!



in addition to the tea sandwiches, we got a slice of pate & an onion tart.

i absolutely loved the pate. it was wrapped in bacon! rachel wasn't a fan but me being the good friend that i am, ate her pate for her. that's what friends are for, right??



however, the star of this tea party was this onion tart. OMG! this tart was epic. i loved everything about this tart. the onions were beautifully carmelized and the pastry was fluffy & buttery. together, it was magical. i was so sad when i took my last bite of the onion tart. i could have easily eaten about 2-3 of them.

Onion Tart


the onion tart was one of the best things i have eaten in my entire life. it was soooo delicious. it was probably the best bite of food i've had that entire weekend.

 

[emmebear]

Garden View Team Room Part 2



after the delicious onion tart, i finished my sandwiches while sipping my bubbly & tea. emme at this point had given up & finally surrendered to sleep. she was happily snoozing away inside of the jogging stroller while rachel & i continued our tea party.



btw, this meal is a complete carb fest. it helps that you are walking a lot around the parks but it's a whole bunch of carbs in one meal.



but onwards to more carbs....we move onto the scone & tart course.

i chose the scone & strawberry tart with the strawberry preserve.

the scone was pretty light and fluffy. it wasn't as dense as a biscuit but not as light as a croissant. i tried the strawberry preserve & it tasted like strawberry jam. rachel was loving her lemon preserve so i had to ask for a side of lemon preserve.

Lemon preserve


the lemon preserve was very very very yummy. it had the right amount of tartness to it. it was scrumptious with the scone. i recommend it over the strawberry preserve.

Lemon preserve



the strawberry tart was pretty lackluster. i wished i could have gotten an onion tart instead. man, that onion tart was so dang good!

at this point of the meal, i'm not going to lie....i really wanted some meat. it was so much white carbs & i don't have much of a sweet tooth. it was a lot of sweet things & i prefer savory. i think that's why i enjoyed the pate, onion tart & the sammies so much. next time, i think i will get the gentlemen's plate as there's more savory items on there.

but i digress....



and then riley brings out this:

normally, i think you only get 2 choices total per meal. however, since we had to wait so long, we got 2 of everything. i thought she said 1 of each but she gives us 2 of everything. and when i mean everything, it really was 2 of everything on that plate. not that i'm complaining but it was just so much sweet....i wanted some bacon or a burger by this point.

two of EVERYTHING.



not to mention, we also got this:

and this:

we got the strawberries & cream and the english trifle. more sweet!


the presentation was beautiful but it was just so much sweetness in one sitting. did i mention that i wanted some bacon at this point??



i think my favorite was this:

the swan was so pretty & filled with the lemon taste that i loved in the preserve. it wasn't overly sweet & the pastry was light. it was my kind of dessert. i felt kind of bad biting the face off the swan but it had to be done.

the tea room accepts TIW:

all in all, despite our extra long wait, the tea experience was definitely worth it. i had a really great time having a real tea party with emme & it was really nice to have an adult to talk to as well. rachel was the perfect tea companion! i loved our table & we had a spectacular view.

it was such a nice reprieve from the park. during super hot summer days, this would be the ideal place to have a late nosh especially since they keep the place so cold. it's the perfect place to catch up and just relax with friends & loved ones.

i just wished they had some sort of bacon goodness added to the menu.

 

[rachel09985]

Great pics of those beautiful Epcot flowers! Cheesy potatoes sound like just what I need right now...that plus salmon, capers and onions. Will have to try Chef Mickey's one day!

On another note, I love how you two post your reviews in the same thread. It's neat to see each of your perspectives and the different food pics you took.

Thanks for reading! hopefully we can continue to do this for our next trip whenever that will be!

All caught up here! Thanks ladies for the duo CM reviews! I am looking forward to breakfast there with my gang

Rachel, this is way OT for a food thread, but how did you like your Tevas? I think I posted on your thread when you were sandal shopping, lol. Tevas are our go-to sandals and yours are really cute!

Yes, that was me on that thread! I did like them, they were much better than wearing tennis shoes all day. They weren't perfect but it was great to switch them up with my tennis shoes. My feet would start hurting again around 3 then i would switch to tennis shoes then switch back to the tevas around 8 or so. I also got a pair of Mush that are comfy but I didn't wear them to the parks.

Can I just say that I love your (both of you!) writing styles?! Your pictures are great and I like your food reviews so much!!! I love scrolling through.

Just my two cents!

Aw thanks soo much!!! It is fun doing it this way!

 

[rachel09985]

Awesome tea review!! Great job! It is making me soooo hungry. I want that lemon curd preserve and an onion tart right now!!! Those two things were sooo good!

It was a lot of sweets now that I think about it. Especially with the two of everything on our plates. The sandwiches were pretty sweet as well and you are right the bread was a tad hard! Not crunchy but not soft.

I will do my tea review tomorrow! Such a great experience. I loved it and would do it again in a heartbeat.

 

[emmysmommy]

Everything about your tea looks wonderful. They have such a nice presentation for everything. Too bad it was so cold though. Do you have to call to make an ADR for the tea?

 

[daisymomof4]

LOL, thanks for the sandal answers ladies

I would like to do the tea too, probably only my girls would go with me.

Great photos!

 

[rachel09985]

Everything about your tea looks wonderful. They have such a nice presentation for everything. Too bad it was so cold though. Do you have to call to make an ADR for the tea?

Yep! I called to make the ADR.

 

[smiths02]

All caught up here! Thanks ladies for the duo CM reviews! I am looking forward to breakfast there with my gang

Rachel, this is way OT for a food thread, but how did you like your Tevas? I think I posted on your thread when you were sandal shopping, lol. Tevas are our go-to sandals and yours are really cute!

OK, OT, but I bought Tevas for my son when we went to Disney when he was 4 and they were great for comfort and feet not getting hot and not worrying about rain or a water ride except he had stinky feet issues LOL

 

[rachel09985]

We had a tea reservation at 4pm. We got to the Grand Floridian on time and looked around after we checked in.

We didn't get sat until like 35 minutes after our reservation, which was a bummer. I went up and checked and she said people were sitting there but not moving. I was kind of mad about that.

But, luckily we got sat at a very nice round top table. I am glad we got sat at a normal table and not those couch like tables with the small tables. We had a nice view out to the gardens.





The bouquet in the middle was beautiful.












The sugar is the cubed sugar which melts so nicely in the tea.





I ordered the Grand Tea that came with the sparkling wine! See, Patty and I were on the monorail pub crawl and this was our first monorail stop! So the glass of sparkling wine was my drink for the Grand Floridian!

I also ordered tea. I wanted the princess breakfast tea but that had no caffeine in it and I needed a pick me up! So I ordered the Mad Hatter's Tea Party, comprised of medium-bodied Ceylon tea leaves is scented with the essential oils of natural fruits - passion fruit, pomegranate, and vanilla. I was worried about the passion fruit, because I am not a passion fruit fan but this was very good!



Ste. Michelle sparkling wine. Delicious bubbly!





Patty and her sparkling wine



Me with mine! This was my FB profile pic for a while lol!

 

[rachel09985]

Now time for the food!

This was a pretty pricey experience at $32 knowing it wouldn't even fill me up but we could use TIW so that helped.

With my grand tea came sandwiches.



There was a pear/gorgonzola, cucumber, curried chicken, egg salad, and a salmon. My favorite was the pear/gorgonzola and the curried chicken salad. The egg salad was blah and the salmon was ok. The cucumber one was good though.

Our waitress was so knowledgeable about this experience and she really helped explain everything to me which helped because I am not a refined diner.

On this plate came the carmelized onion tart. Holy moly was this good. It was sweet yet savory at the same time. I thought the onions would be stringy and hard to eat but it was actually very jelly like. It was amazing.

The sandwiches are pretty tiny- note my hand for reference, so if you are expecting this to be a meal it might not fill you up 100%.



Tea finally got poured around our sandwich time.



Emme got her PB sandwiches because she was falling asleep fast and I happened to capture her gradual descent to sleepy mode. It was adorable and sad. She looked so tired.







She literally fell asleep while eating her sandwich. We wheeled her stroller in here so she could rest. It was a good nap environment.



Just look at those eyes!



Emme fell asleep and our next course came out! The scone with the lemon curd. I asked about the scone because it looked like it had raisins and I hate raisins but she said they were dried cranberries.

This plate came with devonshire cream which I have never had before. I guess you put that on your scone then the lemon curd. The cream was like a denser butter. It didn't really have a flavor. The lemon curd was ridiculous. !I guess it is one of the chef's family recipes. It is so good. I want a mason jar full of that stuff.



The strawberry tart wasn't that great as I am not a fan of chunky strawberry preserves.

Aww!



Our messy table! With two iphones, two DSLRs, 2 Vera Bradley backpacks, plus 1 child we had a lot of stuff!



The last course of this is dessert and a massive amount of dessert at that!

I ordered the strawberries and cream, which I have been dying to have since I started reading about this.



I love the GF in red sugar.



This was sooo good! the whipped cream was so fresh and rich and the strawberries were ripe and great tasting. This was soooo good.

Next our waitress comes around and since we were the last people in the restaurant and we had to wait she gave us two of everything on the dessert place. You are only supposed to have two. We got two of everything minus the carrot cake, because I don't like it.

This was incredible awesome had we not already booked the dessert party for tonight! Haha, we were going to have so many desserts! And Patty isn't even a dessert person. I am though!







I don't even remember everything on this but there was a lemon mousse swan, eclair, magic cookie bar, chocolate covered strawberries. I loved the lemon mousse swan and the strawberry. EVerything else was good but too much!

All in all, the tea was excellent! So excellent that I will be booking it in March when I take my sister to Disney. Our server and the food were both awesome! It really was one of the highlights of my trip.

 

[Linda67]

Love your review of the GF tea

This is joining our ever growing list of places to try in December!

 

[emmebear]

great review rachel!

poor emme. she was so sleepy!!

i really enjoyed our tea experience together.

 

[DonaldDoleWhip]

It's been years since we last had tea at the GF, but it's always been a great experience and now I miss it more than ever. All of those sandwiches and the onion tart sound amazing.

 

[rachel09985]

Sorry this review doesn't have savory food, but it does have sweet food!

I booked the Wishes Dessert Party for us because I thought it would be fun to do something special and nice to have a reserved spot. I didn't realize we would have our own dessert party at the tea party though. Had I known we would have gotten like 12 mini desserts and a trifle and strawberries I might not have booked this. I believe it was $26.99 per adult.

Last time I did this was in 2011 and they completely moved everything around. In 2011 I entered from the right side of the terrace (looking at it). Now you enter from the left. I got there early and Patty and Emme met me after they got Emme some mashed potatoes.



Everything was basically the same in 2011 except they added ice cream, which I didn't partake in.

Mango shooters, pistachio creme brulee, fruit tarts, chocolate peanut butter tart, and cannoli



Apple tart??, Lemon tart??, chocolate banana tart, and chocolate covered strawberries.



Chocolate and regular cheesecake cups and tiramisu.



Fruit- sorry for the bad pic



Typical desserts: brownies, rice krispies, cookies, cupcakes



Our view





We had a table in the front row by the pole, which was nice. Everyone gets up but as long as you know that going in you will be ok.

I am ashamed. I don't know what happened but I must not have taken pictures of my plates with my nice camera, just the iphone!

Here is the one picture I did get.



Chocolate Covered strawberries!!! These are awesome! Honestly, you could come and eat your worth in them. They are normally $4.95 in the parks and these are just as big as them. So good!!

Iphone pictures of the food.

I knew what I liked so i basically tried those things again. This has pistachio creme brulee, tiramisu, cheesecake(nope still didn't like it), mango shooter (nope still didn't like it), and a cannoli.



The pistachio creme brulee is amazing! It is the same at Tonys, so if you like that you can get your money worth. The cannoli is very good as well. The tiramisu is actually surprisingly good. The fresh berries on top make it and it is very a light coffee flavor. If you aren't a fan of coffee and that is the reason you don't do tiramisu, try this one. It is very light.

More pistachio creme brulee and honeydew.



I didn't overdo it here but my thoughts are still the same as last time on the desserts- go for the chocolate covered strawberries, pistachio creme brulee, tiramisu, and cannoli.

Here is the view for Celebrate the Magic. Not perfect but decent enough.



I actually managed a makeshift tripod for my camera and stuck in between the rails to steady it.

Quite pleased with a lot of my shots!





To be honest it isn't the best fireworks view. Because of the roof it is really hard to see the big bursts that go off a ways behind the castle. In my picture you can barely see the big burst.




I don't think I would do the dessert party again, unless someone I went with wanted to. Same thing I said last time and I am the one who suggested it! haha. It is a fun thing and it makes you feel special. I would recommend trying it once if you are a dessert fan!