"Can I get an Island Sunset with that?"

[MomofLogan&Evan]

We are back from a fabulous trip 9/24-10/1, so I thought I would take a few minutes to give a report on the restaurants we picked. I will try and keep it simple and short! Because I have three children under the age of 8, I had little time to take pictures because of cutting up food, so there are no pics. I could barely eat my own food! I’ll rate the restaurants on: atmosphere, service, and food. 1 * is the worst 5 ***** is the best. We were on the deluxe dining plan – so there was A LOT of food! We have used the DDP in the past and always had left over snacks or meals. This year however, WE USED THEM ALL! Granted, the baby was not included in the meal count, so we used some of them for him when the meal wasn't a buffet.

9/24/11

QS at Captain Cooks – Nothing special here. It was nice to be able to grab something quick though.

Atmosphere: **
Service***
Food ***

Chef Mickey’s – My dh’s favorite restaurant for both atmosphere and food. I thought the characters were great but it was my dh’s birthday and besides the cake that I had pre-ordered, there wasn’t really anything special done for him. Not even a signed birthday card. Our waitress was slow and didn’t come back for drink refills. I am not really a fan of the food here but keep coming back to it as our 1st night must do.

Atmosphere: ****
Service**
Food *** (me) ***** (dh)

9/25/11

Tusker House Breakfast – we had a 9:00 ADR and were seated at our table around 9:30-9:45. I expected longer because of past experiences, but it was not too bad. Our server was sooo good! He was attentive, fast, and had a great personality. The characters were also fun though I kept getting annoyed because people kept grabbing the characters when they were not at their table for autographs or pictures. Not sure if they were just in a hurry and didn’t want to wait for them or if they had forgotten. I LOVE the food here! I think the selection is great and my children can always find something they like. This is a must do every time we go to AK. We really liked getting to the park early too and walking in without any crowds.

Atmosphere: *****
Service*****
Food *****

Yak & Yeti lunch – skipped. (We weren’t hungry and had an early dinner ADR) We had snacks instead!

O’Hana Dinner – we had a 5:15 ADR. I stood in line to check in and after 10-15 minutes I realized that the line wasn’t moving because it was the “no reservations” line! I think there needs to be a little more clarification there! Once I got in the right line, we were seated right away. The service was good – we had two people serving. I also love the smell of this restaurant! This is another one of my husband’s favorites. He wanted to eat here every night! One of my boys really liked the pot stickers and wings and the baby liked the noodles. My oldest was being very difficult and refused to eat anything so we got him a kids meal instead. This caused some tension between my dh and him, so it was not the most enjoyable meal. In fact, I wished we could have had a “re-do”! But the food was great. My dh and I are not big alcoholic drinkers, but we wanted to try something here. I got one drink that I didn't like. He got 2 Island Sunsets and then let me try it! It was so yummy! We had more and more of these throughout the week!  If anyone has the recipe, please PM me!

Atmosphere: ***
Service****
Food ****

9/26/11

This was our IOA day. We grabbed a quick croissant and banana from Captain Cooks and waited for our 7:30 shuttle.

Narcossee’s Dinner – SKIPPED!

When we were leaving IOA, it started to downpour. By the time we got to our hotel it was 6:15 and we had an ADR for 7pm. We decided to skip it and order room service instead. We were all pretty tired because the past 3 mornings were early days. So we all took baths, got in our PJs and I set up a table with seating for the kids. My dh and I ate in bed. Let me tell you, the kids LOVED it!!! We have never done it before, so it was new to them. Two of my kids got pasta and the other got chicken. My only complaint was the only dessert option was fruit or pudding – and they didn’t want either. It would have been nice to have other choices. My dh had the steak and I had the asian pan noodles. I thought it tasted good, but had way too many veggies in it for me. The chocolate cake was great! I also asked if they could bring us some Island Sunset drinks. I expected a "no" but was excited when they brought them in all packed with ice!! I think we will do this every trip now!

Service****
Food ****

More to come……………………………….

 

[MomofLogan&Evan]

Tuesday, Sept 27th:

O'HanasThis was our sleep in/pool day! We had an ADR at 10:00 for O'Hanas. We have been there in the past, and really enjoyed it! We were seated right away and the restaurant really wasn't crowded. The food is so good here and my kids love it! They had fruit, mickey waffles, and lots and lots of sausage! This is a place that we will always come back to! The character interactions were great as well. Pluto loved that I had my son in a pluto shirt (it even had a lei on it!) Lilo and Stitch were teasing my boys and Mickey of course was kissing all over my 2 year old!

Food - *****
Atmosphere - *****
Characters - *****
Service - *****

After breakfast we hung out at the pool, the baby took a nap, and we ate snacks throughout the day.

At 4pm we were at the turnstiles for MNSSHP! It was SOOOO crowded!

We rode some rides then went to the PLAZA for our 5:15 reservation. We did not get seated until 5:50! Service was very slow as well and we didn't finish until 7:00! This totally messed up my plan to arrive early for character lines! The server was very mean to my kids too, telling them to wait to ask her something until she puts down the meals on the table. She was acting like a school teacher correcting her students instead of a waitress. Not happy about that. The food was decent, not as good as I thought it would be. I don't think we will come back to this place.

Service - *
Food - **
Atmosphere - ***

Wednesday - Sept 28

We slept in today. We arrived at HS around 10:30 and we had a dining reservation at SCI-Fi at 12:10. We had about a 20 minute wait. My kids LOVED the atmosphere and sitting in a car! The two oldest sat up front, I sat in the middle with the 2 year old, and my dh sat in the last row. They were sooo quiet and really enjoyed themselves! I wish I could say that the service was good. It was the worst we had all week. First, the server took 20 minutes to come and take our drink orders. Next, our appetizers came out AFTER our meal! Then he never came back for drink refills and my dh had to go and hunt down someone to get a refill! He did eventually apologize, but the damage was done. The food was very good and the milkshakes were as good as everyone said the were! Unsure if we would return or try out Mama Melrose's next.

Atmosphere - ****
Food - ***
Service - *

Dinner - H&V

Okay, I know this place gets bad reviews. BUT this is our third time eating here, and my kids and dh LOVE it! They have food that my kids will actually eat! We all leave this place with a full belly and we will definitely return next time! Our server was very attentive and we only had a 10 minute wait for our table.

Atmosphere - *
Service - ****
Food - *****

More to come................

 

[auntfrannie]

Tuesday, Sept 27th:

We rode some rides then went to the PLAZA for our 5:15 reservation. We did not get seated until 5:50! Service was very slow as well and we didn't finish until 7:00! This totally messed up my plan to arrive early for character lines! The server was very mean to my kids too, telling them to wait to ask her something until she puts down the meals on the table. She was acting like a school teacher correcting her students instead of a waitress. Not happy about that. The food was decent, not as good as I thought it would be. I don't think we will come back to this place.

Wow. Did the server think she was working at the 50s Prime Time Cafe!?
Thanks for the reviews!!

 

[MomofLogan&Evan]

Thursday, Sept 29th

So we were moving rather slow this morning. We didn't make it to Epcot until 10:30. But we did accomplish most of the things we wanted to do. New things: Kim Possible - warning - do not do this at night! It was difficult! Maelstrom, Mission Space, Journey into Imagination. Can't believe this is our 3rd trip and we just got around to all of those things. We are usually too busy walking around the countries! On to the food.....

Lunch: 12:10 Teppan Edo
At first I wanted to cancel this because we had arrived late, but my dh said he was hungry and wanted to eat. We arrived ontime and given our table right away. We were seated with another couple with 2 children the same ages as ours. We had a very nice conversation with them at dinner. We were a little apprehensive at first, but by the end of the meal, we were all joking around and laughing at "life with kids!"

We had great service - probably the best this trip. They were teaching us Japanese words and gave my children chopsticks that they could use. The chef was really funny and had the kids laughing. The food was so good. All of my boys ate their entire meal! The baby shared well, technically ate my entire meal! He loved the rice and noodles! The ginger chocolate cake was a little too funky for me, but the main meal was great. I also had the assorted tempura for an appetizer. It was very yummy! We loved this place so much that it actually took our top spot away from LeCellier!

Food - *****
Service - *****
Atmosphere ***

Later that night we went to LeCellier.

We have been here before so we knew what we wanted! We asked for only the pretzel bread and our server provided it. I had the canadian soup. I tried it last time we were here and didn't like it too much, but I wanted to try it again because everyone always says how much they like it. Well, I still don't like it too much! Next time I'll order a different appetizer. I had the filet with mashed potatoes and my husband had the ny strip. The food was good, but I don't know, something was kindof off. I don't know if it's because we had so many character meals and this meal was "boring" or what, but it was just "okay" and we're not sure if we'll be back next time. For dessert, my dh had the creme brulee and I had a lemon cake. Again, it was just okay. It was our 9th year anniversary, and even though I told them at the podium and had it on our reservation, nothing special happened either.

Food - ***
Atmosphere - ***
Service - ***

Friday, Sept 30th.
Breakfast - CRT! at 8:30.

We arrived a few minutes late because I had to buy new autograph books for my children because we had used up all of the pages! We were brought right into Cinderella who had no line. She was very friendly and joking around with my boys. This was a meal that was on "mommy's list!" I told the boys to suck it up and go! They had a BLAST! I told Cinderella that my 2 year old was "collecting" princess kisses. Since she was the first, she smacked him good on the forhead! He was giggling! We were then brought to our table and the food was brought out immediately. We asked for extra eggs because the only thing offered to the boys was french toast, and they prefer eggs. I think they were annoyed, but did it anyway. The princesses were very friendly and chatty which was very nice. Each one planted a kiss on the baby and he giggled every time. We were done breakfast in less than an hour because they kept rushing us. I'm not sure if it was because they had the whole thing timed and were trying to set other people down, but we were definitely rushed. The food selection was small. The food was just mediocre and in fact, I would NEVER pay the price to eat here. We had alot of extra credits because of our universal day, that the only reason we tried it. The food was just boring and bland. After we left, my 2 year old had soooo many comments about his face being all kissed. He was so proud and later that day when I tried to wipe it off because it was smearing, he yelled at me and said, "no! - princess kiss!" It was so adorable. The swords entertained my boys all day, especially when I was in the Christmas shop buying ornaments. A photopass person was walking by and stopped and took about 30 pics of them sword fighting!

Food - **
Characters - *****
Atmosphere - *****

Around 12:30, we were hungry again. Good thing I had a reservation at Liberty Tree Tavern. We were shown to our table after 20 minutes. Let me start by saying, my dh HATED this restaurant. Everything he ate was terrible to him and believe me when I say, he eats anything! He hated the salad dressing (there were only two choices) and then he hated the fish, and then he ordered the strawberry/rhubarb dessert and hated that too! It was a running joke that he kept saying, "the only thing good about this place is the drinking water and the bathroom!" At least my kids were laughing! I had a cheeseburger and mozzarella sticks for an app. I thought they were good. I also had the toffee cake which was FABULOUS! My kids also really enjoyed their meal and ate the whole thing. We said next time daddy can go somewhere else and we'll eat here!

Our ratings: Food - ***, Atmosphere - **, Service - ***
DH ratings: Food -10, Atmosphere - **, Service - **


Dinner at Crystal Palace - 6:30. This is another place my dh loves to eat at. The food is always great and the characters are always great. I made the reservation late because we were not attending MNSSHP. We were the only people in the restaurant at one point! The food was really good, but our server kept leaving and not returning for drink refills. My husband only gave him a 15% tip because he was so bad. At the end of the night, we were able to take pics with all of the characters together. My boys loved it. We will keep coming to this place!

Food - ****
Atmosphere - ****
Characters - ****

Friday, October 1st (our last day )

We had a quick bite at Captain Cook's because at the last minute we had a great idea of going to MK because our flight was at 5pm. I knew to my better judgment not to go because of the 40th anniversary. But I didn't listen. IT WAS PACKED! We left around 2pm and headed back to Poly to have lunch again at Captain Cooks. The food was good but we had to eat quick because we asked for a taxi to take us to the airport. The magical express is too early for us, so we pay for the taxi (which was $60).

We were really happy with the food choices at Captain Cook's and since our last trip was at the Beach Club were there is horrible quick service, we were very happy with it.

In closing, we had some great meals: Teppan Edo and some not so great meals: LTT, but we will go back next year and try some new places and some old favorites!!