8caliace
United States Air Force
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2000
Just back from a 9-night stay at SOG. I cannot remember a previous trip where we ate so much. Anyway, just about everything was great as you will read below.
Background: Me, DW, DS(9), DD(3), my mom, my brother and his fiancee Ali were the players. Not much of a breakfast group here, we tried to get to 1 counter service and 1 table service meal per day.
Arrival night: Since we got to WDW late (around 8:30pm), we decided to just hang out at SOG at went over to Evergreen's for some food. We ordered a pizza for the table to share, with a foot of onion rings, some chicken wings, a couple of dinner salads and some cheese fries(horrible!) with a couple of beers to wash it all down. The kids had cheeseburger kids meals. All in all, a very healthy start to our 9 days of pigging out. Food was what you might expect at any sports bar, and fairly cheap. Pizza was pretty good, but the cheese fries were terrible. The menu states "melted cheese", but it was actually like the cheese you get on nachos.
Rating: 6 out of 10 (mainly for convenience)
Day 1
-Breakfast: Starbuck's at SOG: DW and my mom were beyond thrilled to here about this new coffee stand featuring Starbuck's as they are both officially classified as Starbuck's junkies. Again, not a lot of breakfast reports with us but the one AM constant for DW and mom was coffee. There had been a lot of bad reports about the coffee here, but I am happy to say that they gave it big thumbs up. Some mornings also included pastries (muffins, scones, etc.) purchased with the coffee.
Rating: 10 out of 10 (from DW and mom, based on convenience, price and the fact they weer actually able to have Starbuck's while at WDW)
-Lunch: Coral Reef: Originally planned for later in the week, we were able to bump this up because my brother actually ended up having to leave earlier than planned. We had an ADR for 2pm, but showed up at about 1:30 and were seated within 10 minutes. We got a table in the middle row towards the far end of the restaurant. Great view of the tank obviously, and the kids loved it. Our server was very attentive, taking the time to go through the menu and answer all questions. My brother ordered the calamari appetizer and we even managed to get the kids to try a little. It was very good. We then received a basket of warm sourdough bread to keep us occupied until the entrees arrived. I ordered the NY strip with the au gratin potatoes and vegetables. So good! The steak was the perfect size and the demi glace really enhanced the flavor. The potatoes were awesome as was the roasted corn (didn't eat the aspargus). DW had the Mahi Mahi, my mom had the Vegetable Strudel, my brother also had the NY strip, Ali went with the Grilled Chicken Casear. DS enjoyed the kids Catch of the Day (Mahi Mahi), and DD had the pizza. As tempting as the desserts looked, we were to stuffed to eat anymore. All in all, this was right up near the top of our most enjoyed meals of the trip. Service was outstanding-plenty of drink refills, extra bread, etc. Great atmosphere, and the food was outstanding. I definitely think this will become a repeat restaurant for us.
Rating: 10 out of 10
-Dinner: Evergreen's: Ordered some takeout and ate in the room. Pizza, wings, and salad.
Rating: 8 out of 10 (good food while relaxing in the room)
Day 2
-Breakfast: Cinderella's Royal Table: After our last trip, this was all that our DD could talk about. The ADR was made as soon as we were able and she was ready. Our mealtime was at 8:10am, so we were at the gates of MK by 7:45am. People with ADR's were guided to the right side of the entrance to MK and allowed entrance. I seemed to remember having to provide our names last time, but this time it seemed like almost anyone could have said they had an ADR and were allowed in. Anyways, we took our time down Main St, pausing for pictures and such. We arrived at the Castle and waited a couple minutes in line to check-in. We were called in within minutes of arrival and entered the waiting area for DD's meeting with Cinderella. Again, just a couple minute wait as DD, dressed in her Cinderella dress, was ushered up to Cinderella for autograph and pictures. It was a rather quick meeting, which was somewhat disappointing, but she had a blast meeting and chatting with her again. Made our way upstairs where DD recieved her pink magic wand, and were seated in what would end up being a good spot, on left side of restaurant at a table in the second row from the windows. Turned out that we would be the 3rd or 4th table visited by the Princesses as they came out. Our server was great as we were immediately provided juice, coffee, pastries, and fruit upon sitting. DD was rather excited and had to be reminded to actually eat. The cinnamon rolls were rather good, and DW and mom enjoyed the muffins and croissants. The hot plates were next to arrive, with scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, potatoes, and the blueberry pastry. DD's plate included french toast stick with syrup, bacon and eggs. The food was good, nothing spectacular, but good breakfast food. For us, it is more about the experience for DD than the food. Our server was very attentive, with plenty of juice and coffee refills. We were pretty well full with the initial offerings, so did not request anything more than some more strawberries for DD. The princesses on hand were the Fairy Godmother, Belle, Snow White, and Alice. I, for one, was thrilled to see Alice, as she has been my favorite since I received a kiss from her at Disneyland for my 5th birthday. All the ladies took the time to chat, sign autographs and pose for pictures with DD(and Alice with me!). We received our pictures about halfway through the meal, and they turned out very nice. As the meal required pre-payment, we were able to finish up and leave at our leisure and ventured downstairs for the opening of Fantasyland.
Rating: Food-7 out of 10, Experience for DD-10 out of 10
-Lunch: Pecos Bill's: Not a lot to report here as those of us who ate at Cinderella's were still pretty stuffed. But the others reported thumbs up on their items. Mostly burgers and fries for the group, and kid's chilled chicken and veggies for DD, who ended up falling asleep and finishing it off later. Her meal was a great deal considering it included chicken, celery, a mini bag of baby carrots, and applesauce.
Rating: 7 out of 10
-Dinner: This will be a split report as the group was split for dinner
Group # 1: Sunshine Seasons at the Land: DW, my mom, and DD ate here this evening and reported they liked the new set-up of the seating area. DW ordered from the Asian counter and shared with DD, while mom went with the Sandwich area. Both said the food was fine, but nothing spectacular.
Their ratings: 6 out of 10
Group # 2: This may not help anyone out there, but I will report anyway. Group 2 included myself, DS, my brother and his fiancee. Our dinner consisted of ballpark food at Tropicana Field. Our trip magically coincided with our beloved Anaheim Angels on a road trip to Tampa Bay. Upon arrival at the rather empty stadium, we were informed it was $1 hot dog and soda night. After watching batting practice and DS getting some Angel autographs and a ball tossed to him from an Angel, we made our way up to the food court area. The park had a nice variety of items to choose from, including an Outback stand and Papa Johns, and items including buffalo wings and sandwiched, and the more standard ballpark fare. DS and Ali went with the personal pizzas from Papa John's, surprisingly rather inexpensive at $5.50 when compared to prices at other stadiums. My brother and I ended up with the Buffalo Chicken sandwiches, which actually were a nice lightly breaded chicken breast with the buffalo wing sauce($7). The $1 sodas actually ended up being rather small cups, so 2 for each of us got us through the game just fine. The stadium was much nicer than I had anticipated, and I felt bad for the lack of support for the home team. I am not kidding when I say there were a lot of red shirted Angel fans in the park. Managed to chat with lots of people from near where I grew up in Southern Cal.
Ratings: 9 out of 10-c'mon, what is better than enjoying some food at the ballpark? I mean, aside from eating at WDW.
Day 3
-Breakfast: None to report as late arrival from baseball game, coupled with early wake-up(5am) for surfing lessons.
-Lunch: Typhoon Tilly's: After no breakfast, then the workout of the surfing lessons, I think I would have eaten one of the lounge chairs. But I did not have to as we went to Typhoon Tilly's after it opened. Food selections by the group included the Chicken Wrap, BBQ Pork sandwich, Chicken Caesar salad, and burgers. My chicken wrap was alright...a bit on the dry side, but I was really hungry so I did not mind. Everyone else seemed pleased, but we were not expecting gourmet fare in a water park. One additional thing, beware the psycho squirrels in the eating area. They were rather aggressive and hard to scare away.
Ratings: 5 out of 10
-Dinner: Kona Cafe: This was an unplanned meal, as we had visited MK in the late afternoon after recovering from the surfing. I was chosen as Veteran of the Day for the Flag Retreat ceremony at MK. We were without a plan for dinner, so we hopped on the monorail and decided to try for Kona Cafe. Checked in and were told about 30 minutes for a table. Well, we were seated in about 15, so all was good. We ate here on our first trip in 1999 and liked it a lot. This time was even better. First off, our server was awesome. Never near an empty glass for anyone, lots of bread and attention for all. After much deliberation, I went with the Turkey Medallions and I was not sorry at all. Fantastic meal...such tender and flavorful turkey with great chile sauce...mmm. My wife went with the pot stickers and a caesar salad and she thoroughly enjoyed all of it. My brother had the slow roasted prime rib, which was a nice sized piece and he devoured it. Both my mom and brothers fiancee did the Pan Asian pasta. I tried a bit of my moms, and it was great. Both the kids had the pasta, which was pretty standard. Only negative of the meal was that they ran out of the Apple Brown Betty dessert, but no hard feelings now. Again, overall great meal from beginning to end, not just because of the great food but also for the terrific service we received.
Ratings: 10 out of 10
Background: Me, DW, DS(9), DD(3), my mom, my brother and his fiancee Ali were the players. Not much of a breakfast group here, we tried to get to 1 counter service and 1 table service meal per day.
Arrival night: Since we got to WDW late (around 8:30pm), we decided to just hang out at SOG at went over to Evergreen's for some food. We ordered a pizza for the table to share, with a foot of onion rings, some chicken wings, a couple of dinner salads and some cheese fries(horrible!) with a couple of beers to wash it all down. The kids had cheeseburger kids meals. All in all, a very healthy start to our 9 days of pigging out. Food was what you might expect at any sports bar, and fairly cheap. Pizza was pretty good, but the cheese fries were terrible. The menu states "melted cheese", but it was actually like the cheese you get on nachos.
Rating: 6 out of 10 (mainly for convenience)
Day 1
-Breakfast: Starbuck's at SOG: DW and my mom were beyond thrilled to here about this new coffee stand featuring Starbuck's as they are both officially classified as Starbuck's junkies. Again, not a lot of breakfast reports with us but the one AM constant for DW and mom was coffee. There had been a lot of bad reports about the coffee here, but I am happy to say that they gave it big thumbs up. Some mornings also included pastries (muffins, scones, etc.) purchased with the coffee.
Rating: 10 out of 10 (from DW and mom, based on convenience, price and the fact they weer actually able to have Starbuck's while at WDW)
-Lunch: Coral Reef: Originally planned for later in the week, we were able to bump this up because my brother actually ended up having to leave earlier than planned. We had an ADR for 2pm, but showed up at about 1:30 and were seated within 10 minutes. We got a table in the middle row towards the far end of the restaurant. Great view of the tank obviously, and the kids loved it. Our server was very attentive, taking the time to go through the menu and answer all questions. My brother ordered the calamari appetizer and we even managed to get the kids to try a little. It was very good. We then received a basket of warm sourdough bread to keep us occupied until the entrees arrived. I ordered the NY strip with the au gratin potatoes and vegetables. So good! The steak was the perfect size and the demi glace really enhanced the flavor. The potatoes were awesome as was the roasted corn (didn't eat the aspargus). DW had the Mahi Mahi, my mom had the Vegetable Strudel, my brother also had the NY strip, Ali went with the Grilled Chicken Casear. DS enjoyed the kids Catch of the Day (Mahi Mahi), and DD had the pizza. As tempting as the desserts looked, we were to stuffed to eat anymore. All in all, this was right up near the top of our most enjoyed meals of the trip. Service was outstanding-plenty of drink refills, extra bread, etc. Great atmosphere, and the food was outstanding. I definitely think this will become a repeat restaurant for us.
Rating: 10 out of 10
-Dinner: Evergreen's: Ordered some takeout and ate in the room. Pizza, wings, and salad.
Rating: 8 out of 10 (good food while relaxing in the room)
Day 2
-Breakfast: Cinderella's Royal Table: After our last trip, this was all that our DD could talk about. The ADR was made as soon as we were able and she was ready. Our mealtime was at 8:10am, so we were at the gates of MK by 7:45am. People with ADR's were guided to the right side of the entrance to MK and allowed entrance. I seemed to remember having to provide our names last time, but this time it seemed like almost anyone could have said they had an ADR and were allowed in. Anyways, we took our time down Main St, pausing for pictures and such. We arrived at the Castle and waited a couple minutes in line to check-in. We were called in within minutes of arrival and entered the waiting area for DD's meeting with Cinderella. Again, just a couple minute wait as DD, dressed in her Cinderella dress, was ushered up to Cinderella for autograph and pictures. It was a rather quick meeting, which was somewhat disappointing, but she had a blast meeting and chatting with her again. Made our way upstairs where DD recieved her pink magic wand, and were seated in what would end up being a good spot, on left side of restaurant at a table in the second row from the windows. Turned out that we would be the 3rd or 4th table visited by the Princesses as they came out. Our server was great as we were immediately provided juice, coffee, pastries, and fruit upon sitting. DD was rather excited and had to be reminded to actually eat. The cinnamon rolls were rather good, and DW and mom enjoyed the muffins and croissants. The hot plates were next to arrive, with scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, potatoes, and the blueberry pastry. DD's plate included french toast stick with syrup, bacon and eggs. The food was good, nothing spectacular, but good breakfast food. For us, it is more about the experience for DD than the food. Our server was very attentive, with plenty of juice and coffee refills. We were pretty well full with the initial offerings, so did not request anything more than some more strawberries for DD. The princesses on hand were the Fairy Godmother, Belle, Snow White, and Alice. I, for one, was thrilled to see Alice, as she has been my favorite since I received a kiss from her at Disneyland for my 5th birthday. All the ladies took the time to chat, sign autographs and pose for pictures with DD(and Alice with me!). We received our pictures about halfway through the meal, and they turned out very nice. As the meal required pre-payment, we were able to finish up and leave at our leisure and ventured downstairs for the opening of Fantasyland.
Rating: Food-7 out of 10, Experience for DD-10 out of 10
-Lunch: Pecos Bill's: Not a lot to report here as those of us who ate at Cinderella's were still pretty stuffed. But the others reported thumbs up on their items. Mostly burgers and fries for the group, and kid's chilled chicken and veggies for DD, who ended up falling asleep and finishing it off later. Her meal was a great deal considering it included chicken, celery, a mini bag of baby carrots, and applesauce.
Rating: 7 out of 10
-Dinner: This will be a split report as the group was split for dinner
Group # 1: Sunshine Seasons at the Land: DW, my mom, and DD ate here this evening and reported they liked the new set-up of the seating area. DW ordered from the Asian counter and shared with DD, while mom went with the Sandwich area. Both said the food was fine, but nothing spectacular.
Their ratings: 6 out of 10
Group # 2: This may not help anyone out there, but I will report anyway. Group 2 included myself, DS, my brother and his fiancee. Our dinner consisted of ballpark food at Tropicana Field. Our trip magically coincided with our beloved Anaheim Angels on a road trip to Tampa Bay. Upon arrival at the rather empty stadium, we were informed it was $1 hot dog and soda night. After watching batting practice and DS getting some Angel autographs and a ball tossed to him from an Angel, we made our way up to the food court area. The park had a nice variety of items to choose from, including an Outback stand and Papa Johns, and items including buffalo wings and sandwiched, and the more standard ballpark fare. DS and Ali went with the personal pizzas from Papa John's, surprisingly rather inexpensive at $5.50 when compared to prices at other stadiums. My brother and I ended up with the Buffalo Chicken sandwiches, which actually were a nice lightly breaded chicken breast with the buffalo wing sauce($7). The $1 sodas actually ended up being rather small cups, so 2 for each of us got us through the game just fine. The stadium was much nicer than I had anticipated, and I felt bad for the lack of support for the home team. I am not kidding when I say there were a lot of red shirted Angel fans in the park. Managed to chat with lots of people from near where I grew up in Southern Cal.
Ratings: 9 out of 10-c'mon, what is better than enjoying some food at the ballpark? I mean, aside from eating at WDW.
Day 3
-Breakfast: None to report as late arrival from baseball game, coupled with early wake-up(5am) for surfing lessons.
-Lunch: Typhoon Tilly's: After no breakfast, then the workout of the surfing lessons, I think I would have eaten one of the lounge chairs. But I did not have to as we went to Typhoon Tilly's after it opened. Food selections by the group included the Chicken Wrap, BBQ Pork sandwich, Chicken Caesar salad, and burgers. My chicken wrap was alright...a bit on the dry side, but I was really hungry so I did not mind. Everyone else seemed pleased, but we were not expecting gourmet fare in a water park. One additional thing, beware the psycho squirrels in the eating area. They were rather aggressive and hard to scare away.
Ratings: 5 out of 10
-Dinner: Kona Cafe: This was an unplanned meal, as we had visited MK in the late afternoon after recovering from the surfing. I was chosen as Veteran of the Day for the Flag Retreat ceremony at MK. We were without a plan for dinner, so we hopped on the monorail and decided to try for Kona Cafe. Checked in and were told about 30 minutes for a table. Well, we were seated in about 15, so all was good. We ate here on our first trip in 1999 and liked it a lot. This time was even better. First off, our server was awesome. Never near an empty glass for anyone, lots of bread and attention for all. After much deliberation, I went with the Turkey Medallions and I was not sorry at all. Fantastic meal...such tender and flavorful turkey with great chile sauce...mmm. My wife went with the pot stickers and a caesar salad and she thoroughly enjoyed all of it. My brother had the slow roasted prime rib, which was a nice sized piece and he devoured it. Both my mom and brothers fiancee did the Pan Asian pasta. I tried a bit of my moms, and it was great. Both the kids had the pasta, which was pretty standard. Only negative of the meal was that they ran out of the Apple Brown Betty dessert, but no hard feelings now. Again, overall great meal from beginning to end, not just because of the great food but also for the terrific service we received.
Ratings: 10 out of 10
