Review: Il Mulino
I made this reservation through the Swan & Dolphin dining reservation link on their website. Many guests dont know about this feature. I did this as an experiment, since it was a new thing for myself as well, and we were staying at the Dolphin this trip. I requested, and was given, the earliest possible dinner seating at 5:00 p.m. Crazy early indeed, but we were trying to get back to MK for EMH that evening, so we wanted to have an early dinner so we could get moving.
We arrived at the Swan at 4:55, to find the restaurant open, but a few parties sitting near the check in stand. Not wanting to queu up yet just to stand around and wait, I went and snapped my pix of the Garden Grove menu (posted previously), and also found where Kimonos was (I never paid much attention, and thought this was some sort of lounge, not the sushi restaurant). I was going to take a picture of the Il Mulino menu, but could not get the camera to focus through the frosted glass display case. After further review, it had not changed, so I skipped a menu picture altogether. I may have snapped a photo of the drink menu, and if so, will add that later today.
Upon returning to Il Mulino, we saw that they were seating parties, so we checked in. Oddly, we were told it would be a few minutes. I still dont get this. There were no more than 12 patrons in there, because they had just opened for dinner, yet we had to sit and wait 3-4 minutes to be seated. Weird. If anyone has the magic answer to this riddle, please let me in on it. I mean we smile, dress appropriately, use deodorant, the whole magilla. Are they waiting those few minutes to see if we have any psychotic outbursts, transform in to a breakdancing robot, spontaneously combust, etc
..????
After 3-4 minutes of unspecified limbo, we were seated at a window table in the corner, in the section on the right, which was completely empty. Our server was Jem, who was very pleasant. He quickly brought over the complimentary chefs appetizer, which has changed some since our previous visits. It now consists of roasted eggplant, tomato, garlic, oregano and basil, topped with parm, alongside a few small slices of cured meat. Not sure when the tomato got added, that's new for us, but it is still a very nice appetizer, especially if you like eggplant.
The bread basket was simple, yet perfect for the meal. A light Italian bread, and a thinly sliced toasted olive oil coated bread with red pepper flakes. Warning: if hot sauce is too much heat for you, you may not like the toasted bread. The red pepper flakes throw in a bit of sudden heat when you catch one. We found the toasted bread worked best with the eggplant appetizer.
From there, we ordered drinks. Another new feature we found is listed on the menu as a Five Dollar Glass of Wine. Sheer intrigue lured us into trying this, and we each got one of the choices, which are defined as Red or White. Mrs. P got the white, I got the red. The white tasted like a chardonnay blend of some sort, while the red could best be described by my limited wine knowledge as tasting like a chianti with some merlot added. Nothing to blow us away, but a very fair value for $5 a glass, and a generous serving size as well (no jokes about the glass being half empty or half full).
About this same time, I ordered an Italian Margarita. Listed on the drink menu, it features Don Julio Anejo, which I confirmed again before I ordered it. Don Julio is an under publicized top shelf tequila, and has been one of my favorites for at least 2 years now. I happen to keep a bottle at home as part of my tequila arsenal.
Not wanting to be trekking around MK fully loaded and feeling logy from too much food, we skipped any other appetizers. The girls decided to split a pepperoni pizza, though half pepperoni half cheese. We ordered them an adult entree size pizza. It was delicious, though not a great value at $16. The second picture here includes the knife from the silverware, for size reference. The knife is 8.5 inches, maybe 9. The $16 pizza was less than 12 inches in diameter, though totally delicious. After looking at the second picture, it looks like a pizza angel.
Mrs. P ordered a Caesar Salad, which did not warrant a picture. It was fine, she said it was very good, but hey, it was a plain Caesar salad. No picture of that. She also ordered a pizza margherita, which was similar in size to the pepperoni pizza.
I fell back on my favorite, the pollo fra diavolo. Lightly breaded chicken breast, with Italian sausage, some veggies, all served in a spicy red sauce. How spicy you ask?? Think Texas Pete, plus two notches. It isnt jalapeno or Serrano hot, but somewhere between that and hot sauce hot.
While everyone else had gone to visit the restroom, one of the secondary servers came over and asked if we were celebrating a birthday. (I had noted this on the online reservation system, so he must have seen it there). I said yes, and he asked if chocolate cake would be acceptable. I said sure. At the same time, I order one tiramisu for Mrs. P and I to split.
I thought the cake was nicely presented, though as I found out later on the bill, it was not complimentary. (Disclaimer: It was a fair value for $8, but I believe that the charge should have been mentioned in advance. But, no biggie). The tiramisu rocked, as always, though the shape seems different than on previous visits. This is one of my two favorite desserts currently available at WDW, the other being Gers Bread & Butter pudding at Raglan Road.
At the end of the meal Jem came over and served us our complimentary chilled limoncello shots. I did not take a photo of this, as the description says it all, and a picture would not add much to that. (I note this mainly because on a previous visit, we were not offered this at the end of the meal, so we did not know if the practice was still continued).
All in all, this was another great meal. Service was well above average. Food delicious throughout. Il Mulino offers no discounts that we have discovered yet, so this meal did not benefit from the DVC discount. pre tip total with tax was just under $120, making it our most expensive meal of this short trip, but well worth it. We will definitely be back there again later this Fall.
That is our 1st night tradition.
Especially since with the whole Celebration theme people are used to getting a free little cupcake here and there. Your pollo fra diavolo looks wonderful, I love food with a kick to it. I'm really enjoying getting reviews of places that hardly get lip service on the boards.
