"I Stuck My Finger in Your Caramel" and Other DDP Shenanigans w/Pics (Complete 6/19)

[tndisneyfan]

Just got back yesterday from 9 days and 8 nights of WDW and Basic DDP. We had a great trip and want to share all my food pics and reviews.

We are a party of three WDW vets. It seems like we eat at the same places every year, but every trip we try to add a new place. The cast consists of me TNDisneyfan , DH (both of us are in our early to mid 40s), and DS(18) . DS and I are fairly adventerous eaters, but me more so than him. I will try anything, but DS stays away from some fish, mushrooms, and mayo. DH is a little pickier but not as picky as he used to be. He doesn't like any fish or seafood, none. He also will not eat mushrooms or anything with mayo that looks like it has mayo in it. We've done WDW many times (at least a dozen) and have done the DDP a lot of those times. It's funny because anyone who askes my advice I tell them not to do the Dining Plan but we use it for some trips.

I will finish these reviews. I WILL finish these reviews. The last couple of reviews I started I lost steam about halfway thru, but I WILL FINISH THESE REVIEWS. I have lots of pictures to share, and this time I even took snack pictures. I hate for all that picture taking effort to go to waste so I WILL FINISH.

So anyways,,,the pictures are loading on photobucket. I'm trying to get everything rolling. Here's a list of places we ate so you can see if you want to come along for the ride.

May 25
Starring Rolls
La Hacienda

May 26
Sunshine Season
50's Prime Time

May 27
Crystal Palace
Magic Kingdom Snacks

May 28
Tamu Tamu Refreshments
Riverside Mill Food Court
Boma

May 29
Backlot Express
Portobellos

May 30
Starring Rolls Snack
Pepper Market
Chef's de France

May 31
La Cantina
Epcot Snacks
Be Our Guest

June 1
Riverside Mill Food Court (2nd Visit)
Teppan Edo
Goofy Glaciers

June 2
Pepper Market Breakfast
Beaches and Cream

Overall Thoughts and Opinions

I have lots of pictures to share and lots of food to critique. I hope you'll come along for the ride

P.S.-- I'm sorry in advance for all the typos. When I get to typing I type faster than I can think, or think faster than I can type. Either way, I will try to correct them later when I reread over them.

 

[tndisneyfan]

So we left East Tennessee about 2 AM. We stopped for a quick Cracker Barrel breakfast somewhere in Georgia then drove on into Coronada Springs for a crazy busy check in around 12:30. After check in we drove (yeah you read that right, we prefer to drive) to DHS to do some SWW shopping and activities. We hadn't been there long and DS decided he was getting hungry. I should mention here that we call him The Pit becuase he can eat whenever. But anyway, DHS doesn't have a lot of great CS so we decided to do Starring Rolls

Starring Rolls

Ham Sandwich with Chips


All three of us got this sandwich so I didn't see any use in posting three pics of the same thing. All of us enjoyed the sandwich. It always surprises me that DH and DS like it because it has horseradish on it and neither of them like horseradish. It's has a lot of meat on it and I like the bread, it's kind of chewy. As you can tell by the picture it has some kind of fancy greens on it, but I'm not sure what they are. Overall a good sandwich, it's something a little less heavy on a hot day

Yoda Cupcake



So I read the description of this cupcake online and I HAD to have it. I read that the icing was chocolate and hazelnut. Well you know what's chocolate and hazelnut.....Nutella. I just knew this was going to be a chocolate cupcake with a Nutella icing because well it said hazelnut and chocolate right? Not so much. The cupcake part was actually good, a rich, moist chocolate cake. The icing, well not so much. It wasn't bad it just didn't taste like anything but sweet. I couldn't detect any hazelnut or chocolate, just sweet. DH tried it and couldn't detect any flavor either. The Yoda was actually good, it tasted like white chocoate.

Darth Vader Cupcake


This cupcake was much tastier. The same chocolate cupcake but with a fluffy peanut butter icing that isnt very heavy and rich. It's my favorite cupcake at WDW.

Overall Thoughts and Opinions Starring Rolls is a must do every trip. Though the sandwiches are limited, there are lots of desserts to choose from. It can be hard to find a seat and it can be even harder to find a seat where the sun isn't shining on you. Overall though we enjoy this CS location so I give it two thumbs up

 

[tndisneyfan]

I just want to add that all of these pictures were taken with an iPhone 4s. A lot of them were taken at bad angles too. I have a fancy Canon Rebel DSLR but we didn't even get it out of the bag this trip. So my mediocre to pretty bad pictures are going to have to do

 

[tndisneyfan]

Shew, I hate resizing pictures on Photobucket. Anyways onto more reviews.

To start this review I'm going to have to gripe at WDW a little. Our plan was to do SWW then head to Epcot for a later dinner. We planned this six months in advance. Well just a few weeks before we leave we find out that SWW is now doing a fireworks show . I'm OK with having to plan stuff out six months in advance but I really wish Disney would put all the info out there. We definitely would've planned differently had we known. So because we wanted to see the fireworks we changed our ADR time to 6:00 from the 6:40 or so it was originally planned. It was the only day we could work it out. OK, I'm pretty much over the fireworks rant so I will move on to my reivew of ......

La Hacienda

We've ate here a couple of times before, it's a family favorite. We all knew we wanted to eat here again. I was disappointed that the steak was off the menu. It was DS's favorite. You could only get it as part of the La Hacienda platter to share. We arrived about twenty minutes before our ADR and were seated almost immediately.

Chips and Salsas


This is the chips and salsas. The green salsa is mild and the red is hot. The red has a smokey almost BBQ flavor to it. The green tastes like some kind of mild pepper. These are fine but nothing special.

Shrimp Tacos


There are fancy Spanish names for all the food but I'm just going with what they are, and these are shrimp tacos. I wasn't very hungry because of our late lunch and I knew there tacos weren't very big so that's what I went with. You can see from the pic there was four small tacos. Each taco had four average size shrimp (I'm pretty sure). The tacos were good. The shrimp was fried but they had very little, if any, batter on them (which is a good thing because I prefer grilled shrimp). IMHO this is a smallish meal, if you are a big eater you'll probably be disappointed.

La Hacienda Platter


DH and DS shared this so DS could get steak. The platter comes with New York Strip steak, grilled chicken, chorizo sausages, grilled veggies, and corn. Both of them like the steak, it had a good flavor but was a little overcooked. The chicken was moist and tender with a good flavor. Both liked the chorizos. The mixed veggies were onions, peppers, and zucchini. They were fine. The corn was a little odd. I thought when we had it last time it was like spicy corn. I don't know if I'm remember wrong or not. This time it was almost like a lightly pickled corn with a cheese on it. It had a tart vinegar taste to it. Neither DS or DH cared for it but I liked it.

Rice and Black Beans



This is just Spanish Rice and Black Beans they serve in large bowls for the table. I'm not a huge fan of Spanish Rice but DH and DS said it was fine, nothing special, just rice like you would get out of one of those bags of flavored rice. None of use are are fans of black beans. We all like black bean salsa but not the refried black beans, we prefer the pinto. I tried some and they were OK, but I'm not a good judge since I don't care for them.

I'm not really sure what's going on with my pictures. I had to go back and rechange the sizes and basically do everything over. GOing to take a quick break and get on with the desserts.

Hopefully I got my photbucket squared away. So onto the dessert.

Chocolate Mousse with Almond Brittle


I actually got this but ended up switching with DS after a few bites. This was OK but not great. Just some chocolate mousse with a very small piece of almond brittle. I was expecting a larger piece actually, but hopefully you can see by the picture that it's very small.

Empanada with Caramal Apple Filling and Dulce de Leche Ice Cream


This was just basically a puff pastry apple turnover with the dulce de leche ice cream. DH said he didn't taste any caramel flavor in the empanada though it did have a decent amount of apple and apple goo. He thought the ice cream was good though, I tried a bite and enjoyed it too. Would be better with a better empanada.

Helado de Maiz


DS and I both wanted to try this, so we decided he would get it, but guess who ended up eating it. We wanted to try something different, and well, yeah this was different. It was basically corn ice cream, with caramel popcorn, and some kind of orange something on the top. When I first saw the orange stuff I thought it was maybe some kind of spicy ground chili or possibly some kind of fancy salt. When I tasted it, it was sour. I thought it would be better with the ice cream but it wasn't. The ice cream tasted like frozen creamed corn with not a lot of corn in it. It was only slightly sweet. The caramel corn was delicous and when you ate the caramel corn with the ice cream, it did make the ice cream better. I did try to get one "perfect bite" with caramel corn, ice cream, and the orange stuff all in one bite. I still didn't care for it. It was just too "out there" for me, I guess my taste buds aren't advanced enough to enjoy it. I'm glad I tried it though because I always would've wondered.

Overall thoughts and opinions: Overall the food and service was good. We had one minor glitch with our server who didn't understand us when ordering dessert. She thought we didn't want dessert, but we just told her we didn't need to see the menu. No big deal. None of the desserts were great but I try not to judge a whole meal by not great desserts. Our family enjoys eating here, I don't know how authentic it is but I'm sure it's more authentic than the Mexican places we have in East Tennessee.

 

[phabric]

Enjoyed reading your reviews with pictures. We will be going to some of the same restaurants.

 

[princess aleya]

Looking forward to hearing more

 

[tndisneyfan]

So yeah me and photobucket aren't getting along real well today. I don't recall having so much trouble getting my pics the size I want them. Oh well, onto the reviews.

Today was an Epcot day. DS slept in a little while DH and I did Rope Drop. That was one of the reasons DS decided to go with us, we told him he could sleep in some and join us at the parks when he got up.

We always enjoy Sunshine Seasons so of course we headed there around lunch time.

Sunshine Seasons

Mongolian Beef


DS almost always heads to the Asian counter and gets something from there. This time is was the Mongolian Beef. He enjoyed it, that's about all I could get out of him. Sorry about the picture, I don't know why it's so blurry. I also have to mention, they have a vegan beef option. DS was debating whether to get it or the Mongolian. I had to explain to this young man who graduated high school with honors and is heading to college to be an engineer that vegen beef wasn't real beef

Pork Chop with Garlic Mashed Potatoes


DH got this. It was a very big, thick pork chop with a sweet BBQish sauce on top. The mashed potatoes just tasted like instant garlic mashed taters. They had very little garlic taste. For a CS meal, this is a nice meal.

Togarashi Seared Tuna Noodle Salad


This is what I ordered. I also have to mention that I am getting most of the names of the items off allears.net. I swear I don't think this one is right. I could have sworn is said something like Spicy Tuna or something. I don't know. But I digress..... So onto the salad. I had gotten this before and liked it, nothing else was really calling to me so I got it again. I have to say I enjoyed it as much this time as last time. It's cold noodles that taste like they are lightly tossed in a vinagrette. It doesn't look like it from the picture but there was a fair amount of tuna in there. One thing that I didn't remember from last time is the tuna had some spicy seasoning on it. It was good but kind of hot. I consider myself to have a average to slightly above average tolerance for hot food. I put jalapenos on Mexican and burgers and fuss at DH when he buys the mild salsa and taco sauce. But I was sucking down the coke while I was eating it. Anyone who doesn't like spicy hot food may find the tuna too hot. I liked it though and would order it again.

Now onto the good stuff......DESSERTS......

Red Velvet Whoopee Pie


Did I spell whoopee right? Oh well. Ever since I had the coconut pineapple cupcake here, I have looked for it every time we come. I have been disappointed every time and this time was no different. I wanted something a little different so I went with the red velvet whoopee pie. This was just OK. I'm southern so I'm picky about red velvet cake. I ate some of the cake part by itself. It tasted pretty good, it was moist and dense, but it was missing that hint of chocolate taste that's in a true red velvet cake. Also I guess I'm the only person in the US that doesn't care for cream cheese icing. I don't know why I thought that this wouldn't have it but of course it did. It wasn't as rich as some cream cheese icing so I didn't have much trouble eating it, but I personally wouldn't preferred just regular icing. But it was a decent dessert overall and the something different that I was looking for.

Creme Brulee


DS got the creme brulee. He ate it so quick I barely got the picture. He said it was good, I doubt he even tasted it as quick as he sucked it down.

Apple Caramel Crunch


If you hadn't noticed DH likes apple caramel things. This wasn't in the bakery case, DH saw it on the screen above the bakery station and asked about it. The lady went to the back and got him one. He said it was OK but could've used a little caramel drizzle on top, it was kind of dry and the apples were a little firm. He wouldn't get it again.

Overall thoughts and opinions: Sunshine Season has become a must do for our family. There's a lot of different choices, my only complaint is, like Cosmic Rays they only have certain things at certain stations. If you are a family with several people wanting thing from different stations it could be a pain. But overall, we like all the different options and love the bakery items. Also there is a LOT of seating. We ate at prime time lunch time and only had to search a minute to find a seat.

 

[Nohal]

Enjoying your review. We are eating at a lot of the same places on our next trip so I am looking forward to the rest of your reviews.

 

[tndisneyfan]

Tonight ws our DHS night. Our last meal here was just OK, but we really couldn't find anything else in DHS that appealed to us.

It was very crowded when we walked in. DH checked in and luckily DS and I were able snag a couch for the three of us. We didn't wait long until we got called. The guy who seated us was great, I wish I could remember his name. He had went into the bar area to look call for us but we were on that couch right next to check it. So we pop up behind him and I guess startled him. He got a kick out of it and so did we.

Our server was good too, I also do not recall her name because I'm terrible with names and forgetful too. So she starts going on with the rules and all the whole show, but eventually she notices DS's Star Wars stickers he had on his MB so she basically stopped doing the show and just started being real friendly but normal. I was fine with it.

So now onto the food.....

Battered Onion Rings


I don't know if I said or not, but we were on the basic DDP which doesn't include appetizers. We normally don't spend extra for appetizers, but DS saw this as we were walking to our table and pointed it our to us. He thought it was interesting they had served it in a fry basket. He kept talking about it, so we decided to order some. I'm glad we did. They were hot and fresh, and I LOVED the horseradish sauce. DH even tried some and liked it, and as I said in my OP DH won't eat anything that looks like it has mayo in it. DS wouldn't try it though. There were 10 onion rings in there that varied in size. Everyone got three and me and DS split the last one. Not sure about the cost but it was worth it.

Aunt Liz's Fried Chicken



So every time have eaten here, when we leave DH says your chicken looked good, I wish I had ordered the chicken. So I told him I don't know how times over the last six months that he's getting chicken. Right before we walked in I said get the chicken. But he decided to look at the menu anyway, but he did finally get the chicken. Now DH doesn't like cooked greens of any kind, so he asked if he could substitute. The lady told us he could get doubled mashed taters, corn, and I think green beans. He went wit the corn. I was just going to post the one pic but since we got different sides I wanted to show both. OTOH I love greens especially collards and I have to say these are the second best collards I've ever had. The last time we ate here the chicken was just so-so, this time it didn't disappoint. It was hot and fresh, the crust was crispy. Wonderful. Neither DH or I can cook fried chicken, it never had that great crust so it's a treat for him to have good fried chicken. I get really good chicken from the cafeteria at work (oddly enough) so I wasn't as fried chicken deprived at he was. The mashed taters were fine, just mashed taters with the PEEL still in them. I swear I don't understand this obsession with peel in taters.....

Mom's Old Fashioned Pot Roast


THis is DS's meal. He LOVES this. I tried a small bite of the roast because, well, I AM doing the reviews and SHOULD try a small bite of EVERYTHING, don't you think I tried the one SMALL bite and it was very tender and had a good flavor.

Dad's Brownie Sundae


DH got this. He enjoyed it, it was a rich brownied with ice cream and lots of toppings. I know there was caramel corn and sprinkles but not sure of what else. It was a BIG brownie though and after eating all that chicken he couldn't eat it all.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Milkshake


Nothing on dessert menu called to me, so I decided to go with the peanut butter and jelly milkshake I had read so much about here on the DIS. I LOVE peanut butter shakes, a local fast food chain makes them in just a few of their stores (Pal's for any of you who read this who may be from East TN or SW VA). THe shake was pretty god bur I think I prefer just the peanut butter shake. I couldn't really identify the jelly in there but there was just an extra level of sweetness. It was good, and I would consider getting it again though.

Chocolate Malt


Sorry for the blurry pics. The iPhone didn't know what to focus on. So DS tried this. He didn't know what it was so DH and I had to try to explain to him what a malt was. Try to explain the taste of malt to someone...... Anyways we finally told him like Whooppers, not the BK burger but the candy. So he decided to try it and absolutely loved it, he decided it was his new fovorite dessert. I tried it and it was good. The malt adds such a unique flavor. I should also add here that both of these are very, very large servings.

Overall thoughts and opinions:After being somewhat disappointed on our last trip here, we weren't as excited about eating here again but just couldn't find anything else we liked any better. But this time 50's PT didn't disappoint. The foood was fresh the desserts were wonderful. There all the servers seemed to be "into it". We all enjoyed this meal a lot. The only thing to me that seems to be missing is some kind of bread. A roll or something would really take this meal over the top.

 

[chocolateMinnie]

great pics and reviews - thanks for posting. Looking forward to the rest

 

[tndisneyfan]

So the plan today was early morning at MK and little later breakfast at CP, snacks for lunch, and a later dinner offsite at Texas de Brazil. I was hoping for a 10:30ish ADR but the closest I could get was 9:50.

I always struggle with how to take pics at a buffet. I just went thru with my phone and took snapshots of most of the food item and I will comment on the things we ate.

Crystal Palace

We are not a big breakfast family, mainly because no one likes to get up early enough to eat it. On longer trips we try to do one breakfast and we almost always to CP because of location and the food. So onto the pics.

Pooh's Puffed French Toast and Mickey Waffles


Oh yeah, that's the stuff we keep coming back to get. Poohs Puffed French Toast. We LOVE the stuff. Bread with deep fried bread around it rolled in cinnamon and sugar.....what's not to love. The Mickey waffles were good too.

Bagels and Bread


This is just a shot of the different bagels some different breakfast type breads. There were several different types of bagels, plain, raisin, and maybe blueberry.

Boiled Eggs, Salmon, Cheese, and Jellies


I also believe there are some capers there, cream cheese for the bagels, jellies, and butter on the bottom left. Also some cheese and tomatoes. I do love those little balls of butter Disney has.

Fruits and Yogurt


Various fruits and yogurts. DH ate some of it, the only thing I remember him commenting on was the watermelon. He said it was good and ripe.

Cheese Potatoes and Potatoes


The cheesey potatoes on the left and I can't remember if they were called hashbrown or homestyle potatoes on the right. I tried the cheesey taters and they were OK, a little bland.

Grits and Biscuits


It always surprises me that the grits are as good as they are. They were creamy and buttery, but they leave it up to you if you want them sweet or savory. I prefer a little salt in my grits but I think some people like to put sugar in them and have sweet grits. The biscuits taste just exactly like Kentucky Fried Chicken biscuits. They probably come from the same supplier. DH saw them getting the frozen one out of the box and putting them on a pan for baking. I was surprised a little. DH said do you think there's someone back there rolling out and cutting biscuits by hand? Oh well, they're still decent biscuits.

Gravy and Corn Beef Hash


DH tried the gravy but I knew better. He said it was very chalky and he had to put a bunch of salt and pepper on it to be able to choke it down. Now this totally goes against my Southern raisings, but I love corned beef hash. LOVE IT. I never get it at home, so it's nice to eat it as Disney. This is pretty good, but to me it's got way too much green pepper.

Sausage and Bacon


Another thing I don't get very often is link sausage. I love Disney link sausage, it has a good flavor. The bacon is also good, it's cooked to suit pretty much everyone. Not too crisp not too limp. I prefer mine a little crisper but this was pretty dern tasty. DH ate so much bacon I thought he was going to be sick.

Eggs


This is eggs and some kind of egg casserole type thing. Kind of like a premade omelet. I didn't try the casserole thing but I did try some of the eggs and they were good.

Breakfast Pizza and Pancakes


No one tried any of this. I prefer Mickey Waffles over the pancakes. DS got some fresh chocolate chip pancakes made at the omelete station.

There is more a little more that I didn't get pictures of. There was a station with bread and a toaster, so you could make your own toast. There is also a fresh egg omelete station. They make THE BEST omeletes and make Mickey pancakes (regular or chocolate chip) there too. I believe you can also get eggs to order but I've never tried.

Overall Thought and Opinions: Overall the food was good. We usually try to get an 8:05 ADR and the food lines are always packed. This time the lines weren't long at all. We did encounter more empty plates on the bar but they were always refilled. DS was disappointed because they have taken the whipped cream off the bar. He always liked it on his chocolate chip waffles. Service was good, we weren't interested in the character interraction so we just kind of waved and they went on. I've done Chef Mickey's and Boma breakfast buffet and by far this is the best one.

 

[tndisneyfan]

Since we had the large breakfast at CP we decided to just have a couple of snacks for lunch. I wanted to write out the name of the places we got our snacks but in this case I can't remember what it's called, I've looked online but can't find the actual name so I'll just call it what I want

Fantasyland Circus Big Top

So yeah this place is a little different, it's a store .....it has baked goods.....works for me.

Strawberry Goofy's Glacier


I was in the mood for a frozen, slushy type drink. DH loves such drinks too so I got this for us to split, but I ended up drinking most of it. Oddly enough, DH thought it was too strong. It was very sweet and had a lot of syrup in it. I thought DH would love it becuase he likes Kool Aid and other drinks like that strong. I thought it was good, though it was stout. I gave myself brain freeze twice trying to drink it.

Snickerdoodle Cookie


I took this picture in the room later. I was trying to get a closeup but it turned out to be blurry. I love chewy cookies, so I love these thick, chewy cookies you get at some of the places in WDW. If you like chewy ones, get the ones that are not as big around and really thick. I wish I had taken this at a different angle so anyone that hasn't seen one could see how thick it is. The cookie itself was good but it just tasted like a sugar cookie. IMHO it needed a little more cinnamon taste to be a Snickerdoodle.

Peanut Butter Cookie

I don't have a picture, I ate half of it before I remembered and I thought "well I'll be getting another on later in the trip and I'll get a picture then". Wrong. I did get one later in the trip but I didn't get a picture of it either, I ate it too fast. This is my favorite cookie at WDW. It is a thick peanut butter cookie with HUGE peanut butter chips in it.

Ice Cream Cart in Fantasyland

Mickey Bar


DS didn't want anything from The Big Top, he was in the mood for a Mickey Bar. So not far from the Big Top we found an ice cream cart and he got his favorite treat.

 

[tndisneyfan]

DS doesn't like Animal Kingdom for whatever reason. DH and I decided to let him sleep in and do AK in one morning. We rode Everest 4 times, the safari, and Primeival Whirl and we were out of there. But DH had read online about this item, I'm not sure whether to call it a drink or what. But we had to have it.

Dole Whip with Coconut Rum


I don't even know what to call it. Allears.net doesn't have it listed and I don't recall if it had a name. But anyways, it's basically Dole Whip soft serve with some Coconut Rum in the bottom. You could get the coconut rum or spiced rum.

Both of us LOVED it but it didn't have much liquor taste at all and you could just barely get a hint of coconut. Neither of us are big drinkers (We ordered two "drinks" during our 9 days trip) so we don't have a big tolerance to alcohol. I think this picture is deceiving, it looks like there is a lot of rum in the bottom but honestly there was barely any. We had a similar drink at Food and Wine Festival in October and it was very strong, but this has almost no taste other than Dole Whip. BUt we love Dole Whip, so as I said, we loved it.

 

[tndisneyfan]

So after spending the morning at AK, and BTW totally messing up our Fastpasses for the day and the next day (we went to the wrong park on the wrong day but it all worked out in the end), we went back to the room to get DS and think about lunch. I don't know if I mentioned we stayed at Coronada Springs Resort. DS LOVES the make your own pasta at Port Orleans Riverside Food Court so we decided to head there for a little lunch action.

I just want to add here that we drive to WDW so we have our own car. We drive to most of the parks (except MK and sometimes there too), so we have no problem hopping in the car and driving where ever to get food.

Riverside Mill Food Court

Make Your Own Pasta

So I claimed DS likes this and it's the reason we go, but I love it too. I don't remember what all was offered, allears.net used to have the items listed but they don't anymore. I will just list what I remember. So you pick a pasta, they have fettucini, penne, and I think just regular spaghetti pasta. Then you pick either pesto, marinara, or alfredo sauce. Then either chicken or shrimp but I'm sure you can get it without the meat if you want. So then you pick your toppings. I know they had spinach, artichoke hearts, green peas, yellow onions, red peppers, mushrooms, brocoli, and more that we can't think of.



This is the pic of pasta in various stages. You can see in the front they cook your meat first. In the back you can see some where they have added the toppings, pasta, and sauce and cook it for a while too.



A closeup of my food being cooked. If you look on the right side you can see the brown box the toppings are in and then the pasta in served to you in.



This is DS's pasta after he dumped in on the plate. Though this is still a pretty big serving it's a LOT smaller portion than we have gotten in the past. I have a picture from a previous trip, it may be in 2012 Dining Reviews link in my signature, and the amount he got was HUGE. It filled that same plate plus he still had almost that much again still in the box. But the pasta is good, it tastes fresh and you get to make it the way you want it with the ingredients you choose.

Bacon Cheeseburger


I'm sure it has a name but I couldn't find it. It's basically a bacon cheeseburger, but it has BBQ sauce and three really big onion rings on it. DH liked it. The onion rings make it better but it's still just a Disney burger. I do think though the bun was white and not wheat. Not sure though.

Magic Cookie Bar


DS gets this every time we come here, I don't know if it's because he likes it so much or because he can't find anything he likes any better. It has almost a chewy cookie base with chocolate chips, maybe peanut butter chips, and coconut. I've tried it before and thought it was just OK. I can't really describe the taste but this looks better than it tastes.

Mickey Rice Krispy Bar with Chocolate Ears


I think one of the downers of this food court is there's no great desserts. They have some bakery items but not many. They had cupcakes, but they were just plain, none of the fancy ones. They had some cookies but not the thick, chewy ones I like. Then I saw my favorite WDW snack, the Mickey Rick Krispy Bar on a popsicle stick. I was really looking forward too it but after I got it I wish I had gotten it without the chocolate ears. I have been laying off the sweet until this trip, so to me the chocolate ears were very rich. I was barely able to finish it, but I persevered . I think it was as good as always, it was just me.

Apple Blossom with Ice Cream


This is DS's dessert. I don't know comes with the ice cream or if he added it. I've seen this dessert before at many places at WDW and also other places. It's just some apple pie type filling with the crust on the bottom with it folded up around the sides with the top open. You can't really see the top of it because of the ice cream. DS enjoyed it, I thought about getting it myself but i knew I would be full from all that pasta and didn't want anything super heavy.

Overall Thoughts and Opinions: Our favorite food court varies every year or two. For the last couple of years this has been our favorite resort food court. There is a good amount of options with the make your own pasta and salad, plus the burgers and other sandwiches. The only downer would be I don't think they have any really great desserts. I guess the their "signature" dessert would be the Magic Cookie bar. I think a really nice cupcake or something would be nice here.

 

[tndisneyfan]

This crazy work thing is getting in the way of my reviews

 

[tndisneyfan]

This is our third time to Boma. The first time we really liked it, the second time not as much. One of the things we really liked the first time was the ribs that were not there the second time we went. I had no idea Boma is on some kind of rotation and they have certain things on certain nights. After posting here on the DIS and actually calling Boma directly, we found the ribs were going to be on the buffet on Wednesday so that's when we made our ADR. I also remember a little peanut butter dessert that was wonderful, I actually like it better than the famous zebra domes.

Once again, I just went thru and took some snapshots of the buffet. I will try to comment on them as I know what they are.


Rice and something else....This is at the very beginning of the buffet.

Salmon


This is the salmon with some sauce on it. I tried it and it was pretty good, but unfortunately I don't remember much about it.

Ribs and Beef


As I said, the last time we came everyone loved the ribs. This time not so much. Honestly they tasted old, like they had been sitting under that heat lamp a looooong time. They were tough and kind of hard, but not really like they hadn 't been cooked enough just like they had been sitting. Also the sauce was very, very sweet. No one liked them much this go around. I ate part of one, then tried another thinking that one may have been an odd rib but the other was the same. You can also see some kind of beef roast that they had a CM carving. I had a closeup of it with what cut of beef it was but it didn't turn out. There was some sauces there for the beef, one of them was a horseradish, not sure about the other. The beef was really good but the CM that was carving just cut off a small piece. I didn't ask for more as I went thru, I felt odd about doing that. Looking back I don't know why. It's a buffet and if I wanted two or three pieces of beef I should've just got them. I did go back thru the line and get another piece.

Bobita (sp?) and Tamarina Barbecue


I think Bobita is one of Boma's signature dishes, they have it on both the dinner and breakfast buffets. I tried it and it was good. I know it had egg, ground meat, and some spices, but not sure what else. not sure what else. I thought it may be too eggy, but it wasn't. The egg was more like a base to hold it all together. I didn't try the Tamarina BBQ.

Pasta


When I first looked at this picture I thought the pan on the right that is almost empty was fries, but the more I looked at it I'm pretty sure it's pasta. Which makes sense because the sauce and looks like meatballs are next to it. This looks like the start of the Kids section

Mac n' Cheese, Mashed Taters, Chicken


I did try the Mac n' Cheese and it was fine. Just standard WDW mac n' cheese. The mashed potatoes were the same, just typical Disney buffet mashed potatoes. Not bad, not great. DS tried the chicken and said it was good.


This is some kind of corn, some pureed sweet potatoes in the middle, and I'm not sure what the triangle shaped things on the right are. I tried one and it was good though. It was a crispy crust stuffed with greens and some other things that I don't recall. It was really good with the puree.

Peanut Rice and Broccolini


The peanut rice is in the middle, not sure about the rice on the left. I tried the peanut rice and thought it was really good. It had a strong peanut taste, almost like peanut butter. It reminded me of the peanut sauce at Ohana, like if you took that sacue and mixed it with some rice. DS didn't care for it, I think he thought it was too sweet, and DH wouldn't try it.

The Soups


Not a great picture, you really can't see any of them but there they are. We didn't try any.

Fresh Fruit


I think DH tried some of the fruit. He liked what he ate.

Hummus and Breads


I like hummus and rarely get it so it was nice having some on the buffet. I liked the reddish hummus on the left. I can't remember now if it was roasted pepper hummus or sun dried tomato hummus, but either way it was good. I didn't care as much for the olive hummus on the right, just because I'm not an olive fan. I like the pita bread pieces but the Lavosh on the right was my favorite. It was very crisp and kinf of like a cracker. I think the middle container just had some rolls with a dish of butter in the front.

Apple Dessert and Cake


On the right is something like an apple crumble or cobbler, on the left is some small, round, bite size cake. I tried the cake but don't remember much about it. DH tried the cobbler or crumble and said it was OK but the topping was kind of dry.

Zebra Dome and Strawberry Mousse


The zebra domes were as good as usual. I tried the mousse but didn't care for it. It was tart and not very sweet.

Brownies and Pineapple Cheesecake


I didn't try the brownies but I did try the cheesecake. I didn't taste much pineapple flavor, just tasted more like mediocre cheesecake.

I did notice that my little peanut butter dessert that I had enjoyed so much the last two times we ate here was no longer on the buffet.

That's all my pictures, though there were more menu items. There was some premade salads and some mixed greens with some topping and dressing for a salad. Other stuff too that I just don't recall. There were more desserts but it seems lit was just plain stuff like cookies so I didn't take a picture.

Overall Thoughts and Opinions: I think the first time we ate here it was really good and different, the second time not as good, and I have to say the third time was about the same as the second if that good. Service was fine, we just found the food to be just OK. The ribs that we remembered being so good were not that good at all. My favorite dessert was gone. I realize they have to switch the buffet up, but it's always a disappointment when something you like isn't there. We usually don't do buffets, too much $$$$. We basically just did this one because we wanted to try the ribs again and we were on the DDP so it didn't hit us in the pocketbook so bad. I won't say I will never do Boma again, but I would really have to think it over.

 

[tndisneyfan]

I thought I would try to knock out one review really quick before work. This one should be easy, just two pictures.

So today was a DHS day, we did some rides and tried to make it to the Indy Show but dind't quite make it. They were announcing all seats were filled when we got there and we didn't care to stand the whole time. The plan had been to do Incdy then eat, so we just decided to eat and do Indy later.

Backlot Express

We arrived about 11:20 and honestly I just assumed that it opened at 11. I don't know if that's the case with all the CS places, but this one opened at 11:30. There were already a few people in line in front of us. DH and I got in line and DS went and got us a seat near the Coke fountain. I noticed this time that there was one big line, then a CM directed you to a register when one opened. I don't know if all the bigger CS places are doing this but I kind of liked it. I'm notorious for picking the slowest line.

So anyway onto the food.

8 Piece Chicken Breast Nuggets


This was DS's meal, and yes if you look there are nuggets under there. DS thought they were just OK, he wished he had got something else. I never really found out what wasn't great about them. They place had just opened so surely they were fresh Maybe they had too much breading on them. Who knows.

1/3 lb Angus Onion Straw Bacon Cheeseburger


DH and I both got this, but DH got it without the house sauce because he was afraid it had mayo in it. I'm not a great lover of WDW burgers so to me this was just OK. I think the WDW buger meat tastes funny, I can't really explain it. But if you put enought bacon, cheese, onion straws, and all that you don't notice the meat that much. One thing I did notice there were a LOT of onion straws, which is a good thing.

DS was disappointed that the cheesecake was off the dessert menu, so he ordered the Darth Vader Cupcake like both of us did. I've already posted a picture, so I won't do it again, but I will say they were just as good as the ones earlier.

Overall Thoughts and Opinions: We struggle to find places to eat at DHS, seems like we always do Backlot or Starrring Rolls. If there was something better I think we wouldn't do BE as often. It's just mainly burgers, hot dogs, and nuggets. The food was fine, the only bad thing was it took us a while to get our food considering how few people were in front of us. I wish BE had a topping bar like Cosmic Rays or Pecos Bill. But , OTOH, refills on Coke is nice.

 

[weswife]

I am enjoying your review! The pics are great! Keep it coming

 

[klacey1]

Great reviews so far! Can't wait for more!

 

[tndisneyfan]

On most of our trips, we like to try to eat somepleace we haven't ate before. We knew we wanted to go to Downtown Disney one night and do some shopping. We have eaten at several of the DTD restaurants already, so we thought this would be a good time to try something different. I looked at Portobello menu online and seemed like they had something DH and DS would eat, so we thought we'd give it a try. So onto the food....

Portobello

We drove to DTD and knew the parking was crazy. I told DH if we were taking the car, he was driving, and he did. You knw when you give yourself plenty of time it never takes nearly as long as you think. But if you don't it always takes longer. We didn't have much trouble parking and shopping didnt take as long as we thought. It looked like it was getting ready to come a downpour, so even though we were thirty minutes early for our ADR we thought we would go ahead and check in. We were seated immediately. We walked in and we thought the restaurant was pretty dark. I can't remember if it was here or another place, but at one place it was so dark I couldn't even read the menu. The tables were also close together.

Roasted Garlic and Olive Oil


Our waiter brought out the garlic on the plate and we added the oil. I assume this is roasted or baked garlic, but I'm not sure. I had seen the garlic like this before but I didn't know where it was served, so I was pleased when he brought it out. I was afraid the garlic would be strong, but it really wasn't. I guess cooking it takes a lot of flavor out of it. I'm not a real big olive oil fan and I wasn't crazy about the oil. To me it had a tomatoe taste to it, but DH liked it. I did mix some of the oil with the garlic and it was better but I preferred just the garlic on the bread.

Bread


The bread came out with the garlic, but I wanted to take seperate pictures. I was glad to see bread come out, I think a good meal is even better with a little bread. There is just regular roll and some kind of bread with I think rosemary in it. I liked the rolls, it was really good with the garlic. DS loved the bread with the rosemary. I don't like rosemary, to me it looks and tastes like pine needles. We asked for more of the rosemary bread a little later, and he brought us several more pieces.

Grilled Pork Chop


I wish I had taken a different picture so you could actually see the pork chop. This is a grilled pork chop with polenta, vinegar, and sweet peppers on top. LOVED this meal. I would go back just to get this. The pork chop was good but the best part was the polenta with the vinegar. I could've drank a cup of the vinegar. It had a berry taste to it, it was tart but a little sweet too. The polenta was wonderful also, and it was especially good with the vinegar. I don't care for cooked peppers so I gave them to DH. The pork chop was very thick and large chop. The whole meal was a large portion. I'm a heavy eater and I was only able to eat about 3/4 of it.

Steak


DH got the steak, on allears.net it refers to it as a flat iron steak, but I'm not 100% sure that's correct. It came with arugula, olive oil, and roasted tomatoes. DH wasn't sure if he would like the side item, so he asked if he could substitute. Our waiter gave him a few options but he went with the mixed vegetables. He said the steak was good, cooked to order and with a lot of flavor. The mixed veggies was mostly zucchini, some onion, and looks like some carrots. He said they were good though.

Fettucini with Shrimp


When DS ordered this I assumed it was going to be a Fetticini Alfredo, but it wasn't. I really don't know how to describe it. It has some kind of sauce in it but it was a thin sauce, not like an alfredo or marinara. There were 5 or six large shrimp in there. He was reluctant to get it because the description had tomatoes and I think asparagus, he doesn't care for either. I looked on allears.net but it doesn't have this on their menu. DS ended up really liking it. You can't really tell from the picture but it was a very large portion. He ate a lot of it, all of the shrimp of course, but couldn't finish it.

So after a couple days of technical problems I'm back to do my desserts and get on with the reviews.

I'm having trouble finding a menu for Portobello that has the items we got. I'll do my best....

Chocolate Paradise


There were several desserts on the menu that looked good, but I decided on this. It was a very rich chocolate cake drizzled in a caramel sauce. This is where my review title came from, because DH stuck his finger in the caramel first thing. The dessert was really good but really rich, it really could've used some ice cream or something to cut some of the richness.

Espresso Cake


DS got this. To me it tasted like a cheesecake with a strong expresso flavor and some chocolate. It was good but also very rich. DS who finishes everything didn't finish it becuase it was so rich.

White Chocolate Custard


DH loves white chocolate so this is what he went with. It reminded him of a creme brulee because it had some burnt sugar on the top. We both liked it, it had a very creamy texture and it had an eggy taste. There was quite a bit of white chocolate pieces too and DH said it was good quality chocolate.

Overall Thoughts and Opinions:This was the surprise meal of the trip, in a good way. All the food was good and service was great. We all enjoyed our meal and would definitely go back.