Anniversary Dining Review - Sept'15 Trip and my introduction to Dole Whips! - 12/3 Updates!

[snj0504]

Welcome to our first Disney Dining Report!

I'm back from the happiest place on earth and while I'm sad to be back to reality - I'm excited to re-live our food adventure with you guys!

So let's start with the basics...


Who are we? (hey, I said ‘basics’)

My name is Stephanie, I’m 29 years old, and I live in West Virginia with my wonderful husband Adam.
I discovered the magic of Disney post-childhood and my first trip was when I was 18 years old. BUT that didn’t seem to matter that I was slightly out of the ‘believing in magic’ stage because it was absolutely love at first sight and I’ve been a Disney fanatic ever since! I try to make at LEAST one trip a year down there a year.

My other half, Adam is 26 years old and had only ever been to Disney prior to going with me for a school trip – so he didn’t really know what he was getting into with my extreme love of the place. Now, however, 5 trips later he’s on the Disney bandwagon and talks about planning trips and making it to Disney right along with me! I’m guessing he knew I wouldn’t have it any other way

So that’s it! It’s just the two of us traveling to Disney World every year, but even without kids in tow – we still have such a blast and get to experience the magic and live in the ‘bubble’ for as long as we can (or as long as we can possibly afford to stay)

This trip to Disney was actually to celebrate our 1 year wedding anniversary! Hard to believe it’s been a year – and we actually honeymooned in Disney last year as well! (in case anyone underestimated the term ‘Disney fanatic’ I used in my description)

We stayed at Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa – one of our all-time favorites due to its proximity to Downtown Disney. We spend so much time in DD, that the convenience of just walking over there and back anytime we feel like it definitely puts SSR at the top of our resort choices each year.

So now on to the food!

We unfortunately barely missed the F&W festival – our stay was from Sept 11th – Sept 20th, BUT we did try a TON of food on our trip. We made a deal for this trip that we’d try to only eat things or eat at places that we hadn’t tried before. We are usually creatures of habit and stick to our favorites, so this trip was interesting but it was great going to new places!

So let’s get into the food details…


List of everything we tried that we’ll be reviewing:

Day 1:
Snacks at Magic Kingdom
Be Our Guest (Lunch)
Pinocchio Haus (Dinner)

Day 2:
Sunshine Seasons (quick breakfast)
Refreshment Port Cronut – finally had to see what the hype was all about!
Yorkshire County Fish Shop
Tangierine Café
Les Halles Boulangerie-Patisserie (France Bakery)
Kringla Bakeri Og Kafe (Norway Bakery)
Electric Umbrella (quick rain stop)

Day 3:
Grand Floridian Café (breakfast)
Hollywood Studios Snacks – aka infamous Carrot Cake Sandwich
Rosie’s All American Café
Min and Bill’s Dockside Diner
The Boathouse (dinner)

Day 4:
Earl of Sandwich (lunch)
Dole Whip/Citrus Swirl 1st Timers! (I know, I know – I said I was a fanatic…in my defense, I underestimated their amazing-ness!)
Sanaa (dinner)

Day 5:
Harambe Market (lunch)
Wild Africa Trek (afternoon snacks)
Casey’s Corner (dinner)

Day 6:
Kona (breakfast)
Katsura Grill (lunch)
World Showcase Snacks
Trader Sam’s Grog Grotto
Artist Palette (late dinner)

Day 7:
Wolfgang Puck Express (breakfast)
Les Halles Boulangerie-Patisserie (France Bakery - lunch)
Raglan Road Irish Pub and Restaurant (dinner)

Day 8:
Boma (breakfast)
Splitsville (dinner) – no pics though!

Day 9:
Kringla Bakeri Og Kafe (Norway Bakery – snacks)
Via Napoli (lunch)
Les Halles Boulangerie-Patisserie (France Bakery) – we clearly fell in love with this place
Hood-Dee-Doo Review

 

[snj0504]

Day 1:

Snacks at Magic Kingdom


We took an early flight out of Pittsburgh and landed in Orlando around 9:30am. I got a text while we were still at the airport saying our room was ready, but when they said which room it was I was SOO disappointed!
We had requested a room in the Congress Park section of SSR and near the walkway to Downtown Disney and the room they gave us was on the other side of the resort!

We love just walking over to Downtown Disney and it only taking 2 minutes to get there – so we decided that we’d stop at the front desk on our way in and see if they could switch us.

Lucky for us – they had a room in Congress Park they could give us that just wasn’t ready yet, which was fine by me because I was ready to get to the parks!

They gave us our adorable anniversary pins at the front desk so we immediately put those on and headed off to the Magic Kingdom.


First stop – the new Starbucks location on Main Street. I hadn’t been in here since they had turned the bakery into a Starbucks, so we wandered in to see what all they had. I was actually surprised how many pastries and sandwiches they had – but I opted for the most basic thing on the menu:

The Chocolate Chip Cookie (apologies for the half-eaten pics - we were soo hungry!)

Aaaand, since it was our anniversary, they doubled our order and gave us two of them – the second one for free! I was instantly happy that we’d decided to put on our pins immediately.
Verdict – These were OK. Definitely not anything special to write home about, and I’ve definitely had better cookies on property before. We gave them a 5 out of 10.

Next stop – the Confectionery. I realized while browsing the dining reviews before our trip that I had never actually tried a cake pop so that was one of the first things I sought out once we got there. And as you can tell, we loved the ears so those were the first to go before I even remembered to take a picture:

Verdict – Better than the chocolate chip cookies for sure, but sooo dense! The ears were amazing (chocolate covered marshmallows so how could you go wrong!) but the cake itself left a little to be desired. We tried one of the red velvet cake pops and one of the vanilla ones and Adam liked his better and I liked mine better – overall we’d give them a 7 out of 10. The ears by themselves get a 10 out of 10 though!

 

[snj0504]

Day 1:

Be Our Guest (Lunch)

We’ve been to BOG for dinner before, but this was our first lunch QS experience at BOG. We managed to find a 4:25pm reservation that day that was still considered lunch – they weren’t doing dinner that night because it was the ‘Night of Joy’ so there were still openings for lunch later in the day.

I decided to pre-order my food online after I read about all the issues people had waiting on the long lines to order, but that ended up being a waste of time.

When we got there, we were given a buzzer to wait out on the bridge before we could enter, but we only waited maybe 2-3 minutes and it went off. We were then lead inside and instructed to get in line with everyone else to order, even though we had pre-ordered online already. Everyone had to wait in the same line regardless so it ended up not helping at all. Once it was our turn, a person took our order (again!) and we didn’t use the kiosks at all. Not sure if that was something new or not, but it made the entire process take WAY longer than it should have.

We finally entered the main ballroom and all tables were full in there AND in the west wing so we ended up in the Library room towards the back, which was fine and ended up being nice and quiet compared to the rest of the rooms.

Our food ‘magically’ found its way to us after about 10 minutes (which seemed WAY longer since I was starving) and we were told by the person that brought our food that we needed to go get our own utensils/straws/napkins/etc. which I thought was odd. They were close to the drink station though, so I guess it wasn’t too big of a deal.


For lunch, Adam ordered the Roast Beef Sandwich - Served warm on a Baguette with Horseradish Sour Cream and Pommes Frites and comes with a side of ketchup.

Verdict – he liked it, but said it wouldn’t win any awards. The fries were REALLY good and they were the best part of the meal, but overall he gave it a 7 out of 10. You can’t tell by the terrible picture he took of it, but it was actually pretty full of meat and he said the horseradish sauce on it was pretty tasty too.

I ordered the Quinoa Salad - Quinoa Salad with Green Beans, Potatoes, Olives, Roasted Bell Peppers, Golden Beets and Tomatoes. This comes with a sort of ‘patty’ of the cold quinoa salad and an arugula/spinach salad on the side with some sort of vinaigrette on the side.

I actually REALLY loved this. I didn’t have extremely high expectations for it, but I really enjoyed this meal and would definitely get it again if we had lunch there. I give it a 9 out of 10.

For dessert, I got the strawberry cupcake and Adam ordered the Chocolate Crème Puff:


We both loved these desserts. I had the strawberry cupcake the last time we had been there for dinner, so I already knew it would be amazing and it didn’t disappoint. I’ve tried a lot of cupcakes at Disney, but this is by far my favorite cupcake I’ve ever got there. I give it a 10 out of 10.
Adam loved his crème puff as well and gave it a 9 out of 10.

Overall, dessert and the French fries were the highlight of the meal for Adam. I liked my meal a lot, but we both decided we preferred dinner at BOG to lunch and would probably just go back for dinner if we head there in the future.

 

[snj0504]

Day 1:

Pinocchio Haus (Dinner)

Dinner was another first for us, and we decided to try the Pinocchio Village Haus after reading a lot of pretty good reviews for the place. We’ve tried just about every other QS at the Magic Kingdom, but never hit up this one because it always looked so busy! Well, this day was no different – and there was a huge line and not a lot of available seating.
We found some little section up a flight of steps that only had like 3 tables in it, but we managed to grab it before someone else came so we could sit down and eat.

Adam ordered the Italian Flatbread Sandwich, and I ordered the Caprese Flatbread. We also got a side of the Garlic Pesto Bread Knots that come with a side of marinara sauce.

Adam really liked the Italian Flatbread sandwich once he figured out a good way to fold it up and eat it. That thing is HUGE! Even after you fold it in half, it’s still pretty hard to keep it together without all the toppings falling off. He wished it would’ve been cut like a pizza instead to make it much easier to eat and hang on to, but overall he liked this sandwich. He also said it had a lot of peppers on it, but it wasn’t very spicy so no worries there. He gave this sandwich an 8 out of 10.

My Caprese Flatbread, however, was just not for me. It’s REALLY pretty looking on the plate and I was really excited to try it – but I just didn’t like it. It was dripping with balsamic dressing that got all over everything whenever you touched it, and the cheese and tomatoes were in such large chunks that they just slide off the pizza whenever you took a bite. I only ate about half of this pizza, and helped Adam finish off his massive sandwich instead – which I liked a lot better! I give it a 4 out of 10.

The Garlic Pesto Bread Knots were awesome though – warm, soft, and doughy. They’re also very large and 3 of them were plenty for both of us to share with our meals. We’d give those a 9 out of 10.

 

[MsHershey]

Following. I agree that dinner at BOG is the better meal. The steak is to die for.

 

[chocolateMinnie]

loving your reviews and photos - BOG lunch still seems a great way to see inside for a cs credit though

 

[jknicholas]

great reviews so far... cant wait for the rest!

 

[kastoney]

First happy anniversary from a fellow Virginian (we are in "East" Virginia ; ) but my hubby grew up in WV). Looks like a great start to your trip with much more to come.

 

[vettegirl]

Happy Anniversary and thank you for sharing your dining review with us. We too prefer the lunch at BOG over dinner and I have tasted those fried and they are quite good. Your pictures of the flatbreads look great, at least one of them scored high!

 

[snj0504]

Following. I agree that dinner at BOG is the better meal. The steak is to die for.

Yes! We love the dinner there! We've always had awesome luck with the service/food for dinner.
DH always gets the lamb - even though he says every time he wants to try the steak.
I'm the same way though - I absolutely LOVE the ratatouille so I end up getting it every time instead of trying something new.

loving your reviews and photos - BOG lunch still seems a great way to see inside for a cs credit though

Absolutely! We had been to BOG for dinner several times before we did lunch this trip, but to get the chance to see inside for a CS credit is definitely a great idea! It was a little confusing since it was our first time doing lunch there, but I'd still probably try the CS there again maybe for breakfast.

great reviews so far... cant wait for the rest!

Thanks for reading!

First happy anniversary from a fellow Virginian (we are in "East" Virginia ; ) but my hubby grew up in WV). Looks like a great start to your trip with much more to come.

Thank you! Aw, that's great! DH and I are both born and raised in WV so glad to hear from other fellow 'West Virginian/Virginian-ers'!

Happy Anniversary and thank you for sharing your dining review with us. We too prefer the lunch at BOG over dinner and I have tasted those fried and they are quite good. Your pictures of the flatbreads look great, at least one of them scored high!

Thank you!
Yes, I really love those fries. I should've ordered an extra side of them!
Those flatbreads do look amazing when you get them, and I'm sure anyone who REALLY loves Caprese flatbreads would probably have liked it a lot better than me! I just wasn't prepared for such a mess eating it!

 

[snj0504]

Day 2:
Sunshine Seasons


First stop of the day on day 2 was sunshine seasons! We headed over to the Land early that day and decided to grab breakfast at Sunshine Seasons while we assessed the line for Soarin and debated if we wanted to wait in the stand-by line or not.

I ordered the Strawberry Shortcake (yes – for breakfast!) after I had seen all of the amazing pictures on other dining reviews.

Verdict – This didn’t disappoint. It was first thing in the morning after they opened – so the ONLY negative critique I have is that it was half frozen tasting still because it was soooo cold and right out of their cooler display. It gave the cake a funky texture because of how cold it was, but it didn’t take away from the awesome taste.
I liked it a lot and would get it again – 8 out of 10.

Adam ordered the Croissant Berry Pudding.

Verdict – Neither of us cared for this much. I think maybe it was an off day, but it was dry and not very moist and tasty at all. It was right after they had opened, but it tasted like it had been sitting out under heat lamps for hours already for some reason. Adam didn’t even finish the whole cup of it and said it was like eating toast without butter or anything on it. We did, however, read some better review of it lately and people said their’ s was moist and delicious so we may try it again in the future and see if we just had a bad batch. 5 out of 10 on this one.

 

[snj0504]

Day 2:
Refreshment Port


After a quick stop at Sunshine Seasons, we decided that the Soarin stand-by line was too short to resist at 20 minutes so we went ahead and rode it while we were there. It’s always a favorite and I can’t wait until they refurb it and add ‘Soarin Around the World’!

Since we only had a short stop at Sunshine Seasons and Adam didn’t really like his choice, we headed off towards the World Showcase with the France Bakery in mind. We had never eaten anything there, and after reading SOOO many reviews on here about how everything they have is so good – we knew we had to give it a try.

HOWEVER, we also got side-tracked on our way towards France by the Refreshment Port. Another must-try favorite of other Disney goers that we had never eaten before – the Cronut.

We got one Cronut and decided to split it since we were headed off for more food anyways. Never again!! From now on I want my own cronut – this thing is amazing!

The description of it being a mix between a donut and croissant is perfect. It’s so flaky and delicious, and ours was JUST made right before they handed it over so it was also very warm and perfect. After we split one, I wanted another one immediately afterwards but we decided that there was too much other food on our list for that day to try so we trudged onward.

One of the first things I’m doing next time at Epcot though – is heading straight for those cronuts! We give them a 10 out of 10. Just remember to pick up the napkins – this thing is messy to eat!

 

[snj0504]

Day 2:
Yorkshire County Fish Shop

After our cronut of amazing-ness, we were walking a little slower and taking in all the sights around the World Showcase. We stopped in Canada and watched the lumberjack show – pretty entertaining if you’ve never seen it! We also went and saw the ‘O Canada’ 360 Circle-vision show for the first time as well. This was definitely cool, and Martin Short is pretty funny anyways so I really enjoyed it.

After stopping at a few other places as we made our way around the world (with the France bakery destination STILL in mind) we ended up in front of the Yorkshire County Fish Shop.

We’d always talked about eating at the Rose & Crown restaurant right there by the water, but for some reason had always just passed by the Fish Shop without even a second glance. Not this time! With our mission to try all the classics that we had never given a second glance too, we made a quick (and easy) decision that we had to stop and get the Fish & Chips and Victoria Sponge Cake.

We decided to split one order since we had so many other things on our list to try for the day – and the portion they give you is fairly big so splitting it worked out really well for us.
Verdict – We loved it! The fish was so flaky and good and the fries were awesome! The pieces of fish they give you are HUGE and we scarfed the whole meal down pretty fast because it was so good.

We give this a 9 out of 10 and have this on our must-do list for all upcoming Disney trips.


The Victoria Sponge Cake was also REALLY good! It’s a delicious yellow sponge cake filled with jam and buttercream – awesome! I loved it and ended up grabbing it again as we walked by on another day at Epcot because I remembered how good it was! I give this an 8 out of 10 – probably only because I finally experienced the France Bakery during this trip and after that…not much could compare!

 

[snj0504]

Day 2:
Tangierine Café

Another must-do on our list for Epcot day was a platter from the Tangierine Café. It had started to rain and France was jammed full of people at the time with no available seating in front of the bakery that we could see - so we took off over towards Morocco to cross this quick service location off our to-do list.

We split the Shwarma Chicken and Lamb Platter - served with side of Hummus, Tabouleh and a Tangierine Couscous Salad with fresh Moroccan bread (Naan)

We really loved this. I’m typically not much of a hummus fan, and had never tried tabouleh before – so this choice was a shot in the dark if I’d actually enjoy it or not. We both ended up really liking it! I loved the chicken and Adam loved the lamb, and we both really liked the sides that came with it.
And – the portion size is HUGE. Another good meal to split for 2 people for sure – and I think we barely finished the whole thing. The bread they give you with it is so soft and great for holding all the meat/sides together.
We gave this meal an 8 out of 10.

This place is an excellent use of a QS credit if you’re on the dining plan since you get so much food in a meal. I was surprised since the park was so busy that day – that there was no one inside the Tangierine Café! It also may not help that there is only a few tables inside and a few more tables outside this restaurant and this food would be tough to take on the go. That might have been off-putting to some that day, but we took full advantage and had our choice of seating anywhere we wanted that day.

 

[snj0504]

Day 2:
Les Halles Boulangerie-Patisserie (France Bakery)

We finally made it here! After heading to Epcot that morning with only the France Bakery in mind – we finally managed to make our way over there for snacks later that afternoon. Unfortunately, however, we had already stuffed ourselves full of food that day everywhere else we passed, so we opted to only get a snack for each of us instead of a full meal (but that would still come later in the trip!).


I ordered the Tartine Aux Fromages - country bread, tomato sauce, swiss, parmesan & goat cheese (bottom of pic)
This was great. It looks a little funky at first glance, but it’s ultimately a big piece of bread with melted goat cheese in the middle and parmesan cheese melted over the entire thing! Under the cheese is also a really good tomato sauce which made it taste very pizza-esque – or maybe like a cheesy breadstick dipped in tomato sauce. It was extremely tasty Adam tried a bite of this as well and really loved the goat cheese. Goat cheese is usually a little strong tasting for me, but since there was only goat cheese right in the center it balanced out very well. I give this an 8 out of 10.

Adam ordered the Croissant Jambon Fromage - ham, cheese and bechamel in a croissant (top of pic)
When you order this it comes cold, so you have to ask them to warm it up for you to get the full amazing effect of melted ham/cheese on a croissant. The croissant was really soft and flaky, and warmed up with the melted cheese and ham – heavenly. You couldn’t really taste the béchamel much, but that was just fine because this sandwich was really good and would hit the spot for anyone that loves ham and cheese sandwiches – only this is a much more elevated version!
Adam gave this a 9 out of 10.

We took our food from the France Bakery outside to eat it since it had thankfully stopped raining by then and was still packed inside the restaurant. We wandered over towards the big empty area where the Aurora character spot is. It’s a nice little chill spot where not too many people hang out, and there’s several benches back there where you can sit and relax for a minute.

While we were sitting there, a photopass photographer coming off his break came over and chatted us up for a minute. There was a line already forming for Princess Aurora, and while we were sitting on the bench probably 30 feet away from her character spot, she came out of the back to head over to the waiting line of people. The photopass photographer that was chatting with us jumped up and had us stand up quickly to grab a quick picture. He told us we’d end up with an awesome shot of Princess Aurora ‘photo-bombing’ our picture – and it actually turned out pretty well!

 

[snj0504]

Day 2:
Kringla Bakeri Og Kafe

After our snack in France, we spent the rest of the afternoon/day finishing our walk around the World Showcase. The next must-do food experience we had on our list was the Norway Bakery – or Kringla Bakeri Og Kafe.

This was a very small little bakery that you have to somewhat cram inside to order – but then in the back it opens up to a pretty decent seating area. We’ve walked past this place so many times without even realizing it was there, and really had to scope it out to notice it on the corner of the Norway pavilion.

We decided to try out several dessert options they had – but they also sell sandwiches if you actually want to stop there and do lunch.

The first thing we ordered and tried was a Lefse - traditional potato flatbread rolled with a sweet cinnamon butter.

This was very simple and good. It was cold though, and I think if I got it again I’d definitely have them warm it up and I think it would’ve been a LOT better.
We gave this a 6 out of 10 cold.

The next dessert we tried was the Rullekake - yellow cake layered with fresh raspberry filling and powdered sugar

I really loved this dessert! I talked about going back and getting another one several times that week but it never happened. Adam wasn’t as much of a fan because it has a few big chunks of raspberry in it – which I thought was one of the best parts! It worked out good that he didn’t like it as much though – more for me! I give this an 8 out of 10; Adam gave it a 5 out of 10 (craziness!)

Next up – waffles with brown cheese (the actual description they gave us when we ordered them)

Adam loved this and ended up eating all of them (I only got a small bite). While the brown cheese was really off-putting for me, he really liked it. It didn’t really taste like cheese at all, but just gave the waffles a nice buttery topping and they were very good.
Adam gave these an 8 out of 10.

They make these to order, so we waited a LONG time for them to make us these waffles. I think they were having issues with their waffle maker too, so after waiting over 5 minutes for them to finally be done – we ended up with another free dessert for the wait!

It was a pleasant surprise since we hadn’t complained about the wait, but when they finally stepped into the outside seating area to bring us the waffles, they also had in tow the famous School Bread.

School Bread - sweet cardamom bun filled with vanilla creme custard and topped with glazed and toasted coconut

I had always seen the rave reviews about this school bread, but since I’m not a big fan of coconut I didn’t really think I’d like it so that’s why we didn’t order it in the first place.

However, after we received it for free for our long wait, I tried it and it was really good! I didn’t really taste the coconut much even though the top is covered with it, and the sweet bun was amazing with the vanilla crème custard filling. Only complaint I had was that there was so much crème on the inside that it’s really all you can taste once you get to the middle – I wanted to taste more of that amazing sweet bun as well! I was pleasantly surprised by this dessert and can definitely tell why everyone loves it so much. We gave this a 7 out of 10.


Day 2:
Electric Umbrella (no pics)

After a long day at Epcot, it started to pour down the rain around 8pm. We ran inside Electric Umbrella to stay dry, and while in there I decided I wanted to order something to snack on since it seemed like it might be awhile before we ventured back out into the rain.

I grabbed a chicken nugget meal and fries (sorry – no pictures for this!). This really hit the spot for what I wanted right then, and I was happy with my choice. The nuggets were pretty basic and your typical Disney chicken nuggets you get anywhere else but the fries you get at electric umbrella were actually much better than other places on property. They were small and crispy little fries that were really good and a perfect snack while we were waiting on the rain to pass.

Once it finally let up enough that we were OK to walk in it, we decided we were finally done for the day and made our way back to the busses – end of Day 2!

 

[MsHershey]

Yes! We love the dinner there! We've always had awesome luck with the service/food for dinner.
DH always gets the lamb - even though he says every time he wants to try the steak.
I'm the same way though - I absolutely LOVE the ratatouille so I end up getting it every time instead of trying somethi

Ratatouille is something i definetly need to try. Just not sure i can give up the steak.

 

[MsHershey]

My quote and response didnt come out right. Im still learning how to do this quote thing.

 

[MsHershey]

I enjoyed your snacks around the world review. I really want to do this next year. Ive read so many rave reviews about the school bread that I must try it next year. Looking forward to more reviews.

 

[1983DisneyFanatic]

Enjoying you reviews so far!