An Anniversary Trip Deluxe Dining Report... Updated 7/11

[irongirlof12]

loving your report , and wow can your hubbie tunr out some awesome desserts, no wonder you have been disappointed by disney's puddings. he has a gift!

 

[smile4stamps]

Fantastic reviews!! I am looking forward to your revisited Citricos review!! What wonderful pixie dust your desserts were! We are going to Yachtsmans and Jiko in Sept. I hope we have better experiences, but even if we don't, I will be happy to be in the world and it will leave me more room for food and wine snacks.

I lived in CA all my life until 2 years ago. I have relatives in San Jose and my Dad lives in Walnut Creek. I understand what you mean when you talk about typical mexican food.

I hope your experiences are better as well. Like I said Yachtsman wasn't bad but it wasn't spectacular and I think if we had directly paid OOP for that meal I would have been very upset since it is pretty pricey for those steaks. Although OOP my hubby and I probably would have shared a steak as well so it's hard to put a true price on the meal.

We are looking to move from CA hopefully soon. Hubby wants to move to TX. I see you are also an RN? What type of nursing?

loving your report , and wow can your hubbie tunr out some awesome desserts, no wonder you have been disappointed by disney's puddings. he has a gift!

Thanks! He really is talented. I hope he gets back into making them sometime...

 

[smile4stamps]

A little background... (This should be in a trip report but I felt the background would be necessary to the upcoming story)


AS I was planning our trip to WDW my hubby was not very enthused so I kept asking him if there was anything he wanted me to plan into our trip. He responded... "It would be awesome if I could stáge (work with) the Pastry Chef that does wedding cakes and stuff at WDW."

My first thoughts were well heck.. How IN the WORLD am I going to make that happen? So I tried calling... I tried e-mailing... After about 10 days of not getting anywhere Hubby said "nevermind" Well I hadn't given up and just that afternoon I got a return e-mail saying that Chef Erich Herbitschek had 2 hours on Tuesday May 5th! Awesome! Now hubby would have liked to have spent a whole lot more time there but we felt blessed to even have gotten this! (I rec'd SEVERAL more e-mails from other people at Disney telling me this was NOT possible so I was blessed to have gotten a hold of the right person that made it happen for us.)

So my hubby had his time with Chef Erich Herbitschek which he greatly enjoyed and really made his trip to WDW worth it! I was so happy that this had come true!

So as I said we didn't have plans for dinner this night. Chef Herbitschek recommended California Grill after hearing where we had already dined. So we stopped at the conceierge desk at the Grand Floridian to see if there was ANY way we could get into Cali Grill tonight. We were told NO that is was booked solid. Which I had expected... So a reservation for THE WAVE was made instead. Now I really wanted to try the WAVE but I wanted to try Calif Grill as well.

When we got to the Contemporary Resort (after checking out the gift shop) we got on the elevator. I wanted to see if there was any way at all we could get into Cali Grill. I of course didn't know that you couldn't take the elevator up there... So we asked the security gaurd how we got to the restaurant. He said that there is a check-in desk on the floor below us. So we went down and I sksed if they had any openings. (I had on my anniversary button and they asked us about that.) They said they didn't have any tables but that if we wanted to eat now. (It was early) we could eat at the Sushi Bar. Well that was cool. We would take it! So they escorted us up to the restaurant and told us to wait just a minute. So we waited... AND then they escorted us to a TABLE! WITH more MICKEY CONFETTI!

More to come on the meal....

 

[Pumbaa_]

you ate at some great places! Thanks for posting all your reviews. I am truly enjoying reading about your culinary adventures.

I feel the same way about the desserts in the world. i want them to be great, but they are meh

So glad you had some sent your way at Citriccos - amazing!!

 

[~M&M~]

Great reviews of all these restaurants! I really enjoyed reading them. We have dined at a lot of the same places on previous trips and it's fun to read about other experiences people have had. Thanks so much for sharing!

 

[tlynk]

Wonderful reviews!

 

[DisneyMomma81]

Never mind. Great reviews.

 

[disneycrew]

We are heading back to Disney in Jan, 2011. We have never tried Mama Melrose. We love the Fantasmic package and did Brown Derby last year. I didn't want to use 2 meals for this again so I really wanted to try Mama Melrose. Of course, Mama Melrose isn't offering the Fantasmic package the week we are there. We are going with H&V - which we didn't like when we went this year. I think I may just have to cancel our Sci Fi reservations and go with Mama Melrose. Thanks for the review.

 

[smile4stamps]

This Review is from May 2009. I feel awful never having finished it so will be posting the pictures so it can be completed. I obviously do not remember what the food tasted like except to note if I liked it or not!

In an earlier post I had mentioned the Pixie Dust of getting into California Cafe. We had been told we would have to sit at the bar but when we got up to the restaurant we were shown to a table!

And it had been decorated with Mickey Confetti!

Which again my hubby used...

Since this meal was out of pocket we shared an appetizer.

Hubby got the chicken dish

I had a pork dish (which I remember as being wonderful but no other details)

Us after the main course.

Dessert!

After the meal we went out to take in the view. It was still light outside so not chance of fireworks for us!

I remember the meal being very pleasant and would definitely return!

 

[smile4stamps]

The following day would be our last full day at WDW! Our favorite ride had been Toy Story Mania so we returned to DHS.

And had our first CS meal of the trip!

We stopped at Backlot Studio Cafe and had an okay lunch. I have no clue what we had so I will just continue on with the highlight of our trip!

My husband had had the luxury of meeting the Executive Pastry Chef at the Grand Floridian the day before and had a great time. Also since we had enjoyed our meal at Citrico's so much we decided we would return!

Florida Sweet Corn Soup

I don't remember what this was?!?!

We also repeated our apps from the first time at the restaurant. I had the Gateau of Crab and Hunter had the Goat Cheese Truffles! Both wonderful!

For my main course I had the Roast Breast chicken (Yummy!!)

Hunter had the Braised Short Ribs! Also Delicious!!

And then came the crown jewel of the dinner and the trip!

The Exec pastry chef had his assistant put together something special for us!!

A platter O' Dessert!

Close-ups

And then because we hadn't had enough dessert...

Overall another wonderful meal and an excellent way to end our last night at the World!!

 

[smile4stamps]

Our last day at Walt Disney World had come and we wanted one last meal before heading on our LONG flight back home.

As we had SO enjoyed our meal at Raglan Road we decided we would return there and then take a cab back to the airport.

We knew we were getting the Goat's Town salad. We find this just outstanding (and is actually one of the reason's I am getting hubby to return to WDW hopefully in 2012!)

We also shared the burger.

Apparently I did not get photos the second time around but the salad was the same!

The burger was also very good and the 2 items were enough for us after our 10 days of eating!

I'm sorry I never finished this when I should have but now I can say it is complete!