And then there was food-A Free Dining Review

[VernRDH]

We were at the World from 9/12-9/16. We are a family of 3-myself age 36, not terribly picky; DH age 37, getting better about expanding his palate; and DD7-loves fish, cheese and veggies.

We are currently trying to lose weight, and combined have lost 75 lbs. I am doing WW and DH is just counting calories. This may color some of my review as my eating habits/preferences have changed quite a bit. Forewarned ye be.

We stayed at Coronado Springs and were on the free dining plan.

These are the restuarants we ate at:

Rainforest Cafe at AK (DH and DD)
Cosmic Rays (DH and DD)
Pecos Bills
Maya Grill (dinner)
Sunshine Seasons
Biergarten
Pepper Market at CSR (lunch and dinner)
Maya Grill (breakfast)
Plaza Restuarant

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I will have to get DH's impressions/review of RC and Cosmic Rays, so I will start with the ones I actually went to.

Pecos Bills-We have wanted to eat here, but never seemed to be in Frontierland when it was time to eat. So we made a point of being there this time. This was our first meal using the plan (DH had paid OOP for the previous meals) We both decided to have the chicken wrap. He wandered off while I waited in line and came back and said to only get one, they were huge and we could share. DD had chicken nuggets. The chicken wrap was very good, we both enjoyed it. DD thought the nuggest were "okay". She got a cookie for dessert and we had the PB chocolate thingy. Not bad, but did not rock my world.

Rating: A solid dining experience and the fixins bar is awesome should you get a burger. I would definately eat here again.


Maya Grill-We decided to eat dinner here as we planned to return to CSR for a swim/rest in the afternoon. As was the theme for the week, they were turning people away from the podium who did not have ressies, yet the restuarant was half empty!!! Our server was Zohair and we was a nice young man. We ordered drinks (cokes and lemonade) and he brought out the bread with the dipping oil. This was my favorite part of the meal. Seriously. DH had the mixed green salad, the filet mignon and the cheesecake. I ordered the seafood chowder, the filet, and the churros. DD got mozzarella sticks for an appy, fried ravioli for her entree and chocolate ice cream. The salad was fair, the soup was not even fair. DD's mozz sticks were really good. The filets were okay. Now I will say that they may have been good pieces of meat, but they did not thrill us. The desserts were small and okay, but overall this meal was not all that and more.

Rating: Definately not worth paying for and I doubt I would go again

I will continue in the next post with Sunshine Seasons and Biergarten.

 

[khurley23]

I'm on board for more. Thanks for posting!

 

[Luv2Roam]

Thanks for sharing.

DH and I one time tried doing a walk up at Maya Grille and were refused. Had the place been busy, I could have understood. But like you, as we were being told no walk ups, we can see the place had LOTS of empty tables. Seemed to be more empty than full, from what we saw. I don't know if they just don't have enough servers and leave the palce half empty or what.
We ate instead at Pepper Market and just have not bothered to return to MG, although I am sure we will sometime.
That last time left us scratching our heads too.

 

[TigerKat]

I'm in.......

 

[Busymom85]

Good review so far. Looking forward to more.

 

[VernRDH]

Day 2: Epcot

Sunshine Seasons: This was our choice for lunch as we were right there after riding Soarin for the second time (and had already been on Test Track 2x to boot). I like the concept of the "fresh" food, and it seemed to fit the bill for us. DD got the kids chicken leg meal with mashed taters and carrots. I had the chicken casear salad. DH got the veggie sandwich. Now I would think you would get chips with a sandwich, but apparently not. So we paid OOP for the chips and got everything else on DDP. DD had pudding for dessert and DH and I had the choc PB thingy and a brownie. DD LOVED her meal-prefers roasted chicken to nuggets these days and is a total mashed tater hound. My salad was good-though it was small for what they charge for it ( I didnt mind as I was trying to be good ) DH said his veggie sandwich was excellent and he really liked it. The desserts are okay, nothing special.

Rating: Lots of healthier choice alternatives, and a nice selection.


Biergarten: This was the one we were looking forward to the most. We were supposed to eat here last year, but due to circumstances beyond my control (read PIA travelling companions ) we did not. So here we were. I will say that this was the ONLY TS that was taking walk ups, and it was 45 minutes wait, which aint to bad really. We were seated with a family from Alabama (roll tide, ZZUB) and a couple from Canada. The show was just finishing when we arrived and we were seated right next to the dance floor). The buffet was really good and I tried a little of a number of things. Being of German descent (both DH and I) potatoes are one of those things we love. But as I have done WW, they thrill me less and less. The German potato salad was good and the roasted potatoes were really good. I liked the pork schnitzel with red cabbage and DH enjoyed all the sausages. DD had mac and cheese and roasted chicken. The desserts were good too-DH really liked the pudding. We enjoyed the company of our tablemates and the server was really good with refilling drinks. The entertainment was fun.

Rating: I would go again in a heartbeat.

Next: Pepper Market and Pepper Market

 

[VernRDH]

Day 3: After a HOT morning at AK, we headed back to CSR to swim. As we don't find that AK has a great dining selection, we opted to eat at Coronado at the Pepper Market.

Pepper Market: The concept is a little different-you are seated and a CM gets your drinks. You are given a card that you take to each of the stations and they stamp it with what you have ordered. When you are done eating, then you check out by handing in your card and are charged accordingly. I found the selection here to be the best of any food court yet. There was soup and salad, pasta, pizza, burgers, sandwiches, mexican, chinese. If you couldn't find something to eat here, something is wrong with you. DD had the kids pasta, which came with an orange wedge and a chocolate chip cookie and a apple juice or milk. DH and I both got cheeseburgers with fries and they were HUGE!!! The steak fries were excellent and the burgers were really good. I could not eat all of mine. For dessert, there is a limited selection on the DDP, but we got a couple really big cookies.

Rating: My new favorite CS. Lots of choices and made to order.


Pepper Market-Again!! We spent some time at the pool and then headed off to Epcot again. We tried getting a walk up anywhere but there was nothing. So we headed back to CSR for a late dinner. At dinner time, they have ribeyes and some nights have Prime Rib (and yes all for a CS credit!!) DD wanted the pasta again, so she had the same thing. DH couldn't decide and ended up with the burger again. I had the taco salad. AWESOME!!! and HUGE!!! It was one of the best salads I have every had. And I only ate about 1/3 of it because it was so big!! Very fresh and yummy. We skipped dessert tonight as we were really full.

Rating: Ditto above

Next: Our last day and some good, some bad

 

[VernRDH]

This was our last day and we had a TS to use. We decided to try the buffet for breakfast at Maya Grill. We got there around 7:30-7:45 and there was no one there. We were seated quickly and the buffet explained to us. There were many choices, but the food was sub-par. WAY sub-par. The problem: the food does not turn over fast enough so it stays under the heat lamps and gets dried out. The french toast was hard. I had fruit, a little bisuit and coffee (still not as good as my own, but I needed a fix). DH had cereal and DD only would eat a cinnamon roll.

Rating: I would have been p.o'ed if I had to pay for this one. It was not up to Disney standards, and perhaps they should consider making this a regular TS.

Off to MK for our last hurrah:

Plaza Restuarant-This was a last minute choice that we made once we had gotten to WDW. What a gem!!! Tucked behind the ice cream parlor on Main Street, it is a quaint little place. Since it was still face of the sun hot, we did not want the appy and dessert with our meals, just the entrees. DD wanted PB and J. DH had the turkey sandwich and I got the strawberry chicken salad. DELICIOUS!!! It was all soooo good and again, I could not finish all the salad. The waitress seemed perplexed that we did not want one of the sundaes for dessert (since don't all fat people want big, sugary desserts ) but we had other plans for dessert:Aloha Isle and the highly coveted DoleWhip.

Rating: A nice little place to sit and enjoy a nice, lighter meal. On my list to revisit.

Next:Snacks, snacks who wants a snack?

 

[TigerKat]

Wow - Ribeyes and/or Prime Rib for a CS credit? That's an awesome value!!

 

[VernRDH]

We had 12 snack credits. Half were used for water (did I mention it was really really hot? ). Everyone had a Mickey Bar on Friday at Epcot and we each had a Dole Whip on Sunday before leaving. We are not big on "snacks" anymore and with the heat, all we really wanted was liquid refreshments.

Some random thoughts on the DDP: The lack of available TS seatings if frustrating. Now I did make ADR's before leaving, based on the EMH posted on Disney's website. They changed them. So I was scrambling to rearrange things to maximize our time in the parks, as we were only there for four days. Many restuarants had empty tables, yet were turning people away and not even trying to accomodate them. I think there needs to be some type of change to the reservation system to prevent double, triple, quadruple, quintuple booking ressies for the same meal. Also, Epcot was at a bit of a loss as Teppanyaki and Alfredos were both closed. The buildings between Future World and World Showcase on the side by Mexico which stand empty would be great for more dining, perhaps an international buffet with food from a variety of nations?

As I said, we are on the weight loss track and some of the meals are just WAY too much food. I feel bad doing TS when I really can't eat it all. Another suggestion: Half portions. This would seem like a no brainer as most people are not going to take home leftovers since they have no where to store or reheat them.

I know they are changing the DDP for next year, but I came up with a better alternative: a points system. For each night, each guest gets 6 points. A snack is worth 1 point, CS 2 points, TS 3 points. (equals 6 points, same as what you get now) Signature dining (like CRT) could be 5 points. Then people could make use of the dining any way they wanted. Only want CS or lots of snacks? No worries.

I will post the reviews of RC and Cosmic Rays once DH catches up with the football and will tell me what I (and all of you) want to know.

Please feel free to ask any questions and I will do my best to answer. Sorry we did not take any photos-DH doesn't photo food!!