- Joined
- Jan 19, 2006
******LINKS TO COMPLETED REVIEWS AT BOTTOM OF THIS Post!!!!!!!!!!!
I am usually on this portion of the Dis to look and linger over others food choices and wonder what I can do to make the most amazing dining experience for my family.
I stalk, I obsess and I often second guess every last resie I get and review at what the final spreadsheet looks like from a distance
, upside down 
, from friends opinions 
and if I could get Obama to return a call, a presidential seal of approval would be a nice touch.Usually I write TR's. I write them with fervor and angst. I put in details I often should not, am honest about my wackadoo family and what we run into which is never simply Disney"ish" behavior from ourselves or others. We have met some of our best friends through the Dis and now, with this next trip approaching chop chop wickie wickie, I decided why not?
Why not try a dining report?
I am a good writer.
I am a good eater.
(Too good if we will be honest and we should be honest at a dining review thread right??? 
)So why not combine my loves and try one??? I always post my recipes from our famous Road Trips. People seem to love them and I never have an empty plate at my table from guests so I know I can cook and maybe I can help figure out what a meal lacks that is just so-so.
Maybe I can tell you all what is a MUST EAT so you do not waste a resie like we have done, with food that was not worth the money or time we spent on it.
I am also a stickler for customer service and will review our experiences with wait staff. If I get a waiter or waitress that acts like we should be grateful they are simply in the same air space we are, I will call them out.
I never treat people with disrespect and will not tolerate it in reverse. I will also be up front about the exceptional service we experience and give beyond any standard tip when they deserve it! 
This trip will be a couples start with myself and Dan. Then a few days in, we will be joined by my son Baylor who is 15 and eats more than Dan and I put together and won't gain an ounce.
Our lineup will have a few "on the road" stops as we will be driving from Minnesota!
Once we arrive at WDW, the dining lineup looks like this:
TS
Garden Grove - !!!!!!!!! review done & posted below at bottom of post
GF Garden Tea Room
Yak & Yetti
The Wave
Tutto Italia
Las Hacienda
Spirit of Aloha
Kona
Ohana
Le Cellier
California Grill
Boma - Breakfast
Via Napoli
Raglan Road
House of Blues
CS
Starring Rolls
Casey's
Columbia Harbor House
Wolf Gang Puck Express
Earl of Sandwich
and many more I am sure!
***WILLING TO TAKE SUGGESTIONS!!
Snacks and some adult beverages will also be reviewed!!
Thinking about what clever grading scales I could have...I have decided to go with this:
Paula Dean:
(I love Paula!!! She always makes you feel like you can easy peasy be her, live her life, eat some good food that might not always be good for you and find love in your food, friends and family. I have never made a recipe of hers and questioned an ingredient or had an outcome different than I expected.)
Emeril Lagasse:
This is a solid B! This meal is just missing something to send it over the top. It might be one aspect of the meal was not flavorful, service could be lacking or maybe the atmosphere is neutral and does not add to the dining experience.
(Emeril, IMO, is a solid, technical chef with great ideas but sometimes he is so busy explaining to himself what he wants to do or likes that he forgets he has others watching who want in on his thoughts as well. Sometimes you cook and eat one of his recipes and will go back to the recipe after because you feel you must have missed a step because something is just off.)
Anne Burrell:
This is a C! The food and everything surrounding it is just ...eh! Like a corn dog you enjoy from the stove at home (soggy and lifeless) versus a State Fair dog of goodness! (Crispy battered and yummy!) Nothing horrible. Nothing Memorable. Something you do not want to waste calories on again because you know it will never be better the second time around. All you can do while eating is think of how not good it is compared to something else you have eaten in the past.
(Anne Burrell is just one of those people for me that is annoying. Nothing unique. Nothing I have not heard of before and every time I read an article or watch her, I wonder why she has made it to where she is. I cannot remember a single tip or trick I have stored in my brain from her and I store recipe ideas like an Egyptian archeologist stores mummies!)
Andrew Zimmern:
This is a D. An easy D. Something minimal saved it from the F but it is a long ways from a C. The food made you queasy. The ambiance reminded you of a frat party, the day after. The server, the food, the decor put together is like a car accident. You know you should not look but you cannot help yourself. Like the Naked Mole Rat at AK.
(I love Andrew. He has been a local Minnesota guy for a long time and I watch his show religiously. That being said I would never eat 1/400 of what he does. The fact he considers seeing what he is going to eat, alive and squirming, seconds before he eats it, means there is no way I would travel with him. He is though, just endearing and I am amazed at his gross gluttony...from a distance!)
Gordon Ramsay:
You have received an F and you better pray and run for it! This means the entire experience is an abomination. From start to finish there is not a single redeeming quality. No mincing of words. No hiding behind smiles of courtesy. You would rather eat a centipede and feel it crawl down your throat with Zimmern, then eat there again!
And who will be doing the expert critiquing??
This is Dan! As you can tell he is not shy about his palette opinion!
This is me, Dawn, and my absolute favorite server and dining experience last year at Y&Y!!
This is Baylor a month ago after he got his braces off!!!
The journey starts next Monday, March 7th and will last almost 2 full weeks with a few days at the Beach in Clearwater at the end!!
Food Review links:Day 1 Food
Day 1 & Start of Day 2
Day 2 still
Day2 Garden Grove
Garden Grove Part 2
Day 3, Main Street Bakery Breakfast
Day 3 - GF Tea
Rest of Day 3 - Casey's, Egg Roll Wagon & Sassagoula Food Ct.
Day 4 - Breakfast at Sassagoula & Lunch @ Yak & Yeti
Ragland Road - end of Day 4
Day 5 AT LAST...Tutto Italia
Treats from Epcot
Epcot Snacking Cont'd
Floatwrights at PORS
WPE
WPE Lunch
Planning to eat at many of the same restaurants in August so really looking forward to your reviews!
but you should read my TR's if you want actual laughter. I always have links to the updates on my TR's and will here as well to make it easy to skim through for those that just want the meat and potatoes of a TR!
