The Many years disney review-a-thon - Update 8/26 Kona Cafe

[jezebella]

After long discussions this weekend about how entirely too much we eat out and go to Disney, DF and I have come up with a plan.....a plan which may take us a couple years! I, being the self taught chef, and DF being the Foodie he is, have decided that it is our duty to try every restaurant in Disney with no repeats until we have finished. We are hoping to complete 2 TS and 2 CS minimum per month and keep the reviews, with pictures, all on one VERY long thread.

The restaurant list is below. Those highlighted in red are restaurants we've eaten and reviewed within the last month and won't be repeating until the end. I will post dates and times in which we have ADR's for each restaurant as they come up. Of course, if anyone has a pending vacation and wants a review within a week, we will do our best to accomadate, just let us know! Let the glutton feast begin!

P.S. We will also be having our Wedding reception at Cafe D'Antonio's in Celebration on August 2nd and will include that. We'll try for any off site requests as well!

NOTE: I am changing this format and going to add the restaurants to the list as I go...this place needs a little "cleaning up".

Counter Service

Artist's PalattePage 10
Tangerine Cafe Page 4
Columbia Harbor House Page 6
Beaches & Cream Page 7
Pinocchio Village HousePage 12
Studio Catering CompanyPage 13
Cosmic Ray'sPage 15




Table Service


Rose and Crown Page 1
San Angel Inn Page 4
Liberty Tree TavernPage 2
Plaza Restaurant Page 9
Artist Point Page 10
Fulton’s Crab House Page 2
Crystal Palace Page 12
Sci-Fi Dine In Page 12
Tony's Town SquarePage 13
JikoPage 14
Le CellierPage 14
Kona CafePage 15

Other Stuff:

Celebration Cafe D'Antonio's Wedding Reception Page 12

Disney Wonder Food Porn Page 11

 

[kyirish25]

How exciting! Can't wait for all the reviews to start rolling in.

 

[honeybee213]

This is a really good idea. Will you take lots of pictures too? Please

 

[swankybeth]

Looking forward to this!

 

[ufgator]

Looking forward to this!

 

[rkandmjsmommy]

Awesome idea, do you take requests???

 

[Simba's Mom]

I think that's a great plan! I can see it now-"But dear, we HAVE to go to WDW next month in order to keep on our resturaunt review schedule." Works for me! The only potential problem I see is what if you find someplace you really enjoy ( I'm sure there'll be a few of those)? You have so many more resturaunts left to try, have you allowed time to return to "old favorites" or have you resigned yourselves to eating at each resturaunt just once, even if you really like it?

 

[jezebella]

First of all..yes, we take requests! Let us know if you want something soon and we'll do it.

As for the amount of restaurants---to be honest, between the two of us we've eaten at almost all of them over the years. This is just starting from scratch and actually doing proper reviews with pictures, etc. Sad thing is, our favorite was Portobello, which was horrid last time, so we're actually in search of a new "favorite"...I figure this will assist us!

We're at Disney waaaay too much for our own good. DF took DD5 yesterday during the day, then dropped her off at Grammy's house and DF and I went when I got off work until 11 last night...we're sad, sad people. No dining last night though..just munched on a turkey leg (I know I know, I've said blech before, but I tried it again) and a dole float---I told you all in the dole whip thread, I've made a monster out of DF.

Stay tuned for LTT this weekend and a host of undecided CS -- requests anyone???

 

[Tarheel Girl]

Can't wait to follow this thread through the coming months.

Did you post a review of your recent Rose & Crown meal somewhere on the board? I've made reservations there for us with the plan of our seeing the fireworks from there. My DH is excited about the Harp on draft, but I'm actually interested in the food.

 

[Tumbleweed]

Count me in as part of an eager audience!

http://www.disboards.com/newreply.php?do=newreply&noquote=1&p=12821804#
http://www.disboards.com/newreply.php?do=newreply&noquote=1&p=12821804#

 

[disneyfav4ever]

What a great idea. Looking foward to all of the reviews.

 

[TruBlu]

WOW! I am jealous. I can't wait to read more.

 

[jezebella]

Ok, as for the Rose & Crown, this is actually when we decided to do this dining adventure last Sunday. I wasn't prepared with my digital camera, so I took some pics with my phone. I apologize in advance for the graininess (is that a word??), but the future photos will be high quality.

After years of coming to Disney, my DF and I had never been to R&C. Me, mostly because I wasn't exactly eager to eat up English food, and him, well...he's English and why would he want to eat that while on vacation? After a bout with the DD people, we ended up here because our only other choice was China.

Keep in mind, we are not on the DDP---the only time we will be is for our honeymoon in August.

DD5-- from now on, we're just going to call her Belle started off with the kids appetizer of fruit, carrots, cheese, and crackers.

As Belle loves grapes, she gobbled this up and I helped her out with the cheese!

DF -- from now on we lovingly call him Mr. Brit had the leek and potato soup, which I didn't get a pic of because he gobbled it up so quickly I couldn't snap one in time. Side note---early that day he had been whining about how his favorite soup was potato and leek and that he really wanted some then after we made the R&C ADR and saw it on the menu, I thought he was going to do backflips in the house!

As for me, I started with the prawn cocktail.

Prawn Cocktail - Petite bay shrimp tossed in a traditional cocktail sauce

Sorry..but this is about the moment when we decided to start doing pics... Let me describe:

A round cut out of brown bread, topped with cucumber shredded length wise and had been marinated in some sort of vinegar, then topped with petite shrimp. The shrimp were tossed in a "cocktail" sauce, which is not what us colonists think of as your typical ketchup and horseradish cocktail, but more of a mayo based cocktail, with what I would assume is ketchup and a few spices. It wasn't spicy, as in heat wise, at all...but very light and refreshing. I had to swordfight DF to keep him away from it!

Next up, Princess had the mac&cheese ---over the next year or so, you will see this trend. She's not too adventurous, although her favorite meat is corned beef???

Standard mac and cheese--she liked it, so I didn't care..and more grapes!

Mr. Brit went for the Bangers and Mash.

Bangers and Mash - traditional English sausages, with cabbage and onions, mashed potatoes and gravy

All I can say about this is YUM-O! The sausages were kind of like a cross between a bratwurst and a mettwurst. It has the spicyness of a bratt, with the smokey flavor of a mett. The potatoes were perfect and the gravy was delicious. I'm not that huge of a sausage fan, but I would certainly get this again, or, er, make Mr. Brit get it again and then steal half of it.

Against Mr. Brit's wishes, I went with the Chicken Pasty. I thought it sounded like a yummy little pot pie, but he told me beforehand that he didn't like them and didn't think I would. Ok...FINE....YOU'RE RIGHT!

chicken and fresh vegetable wrapped with pastry, topped with cream sauce and served with mashed potatotes and green beans

It looked absolutely lovely, but when I cut into it, I noticed that it seemed to be filled totally with carrots, onions, and red peppers. The red pepper overpowered every flavor in the pasty and that was all I could taste. To be honest, I think I've found more chicken in a Swanson's $0.99 pot pie! Where was the chicken?? The sauce on top of the pasty, however, was smooth, rich, and creamy and would have lent itself very well to a host of other dishes. The mash was just as good as Mr. Brit's and the green beans were blanched and still crunchy, but really need a good dose of salt & pepper. Good thing Mr. Brit had all those sausages for me to eat!

Overall---R&C was good. I'd give it a 7 out of 10--just avoid the pasty unless you really like all your food to taste like red peppers. Our server, Andrea was excellent!!! This is a big thing for me being a prior server/bartender all the way through college. I'm fierce on service, but she was a doll!

Once again, sorry for the pic quality, and we'll have much better food porn for you coming soon!

 

[Uncleromulus]

Great start!! Keep them coming!!
OH--to live closer than 1,000 mile to WDW!!
Just a Q-anyway to enlarge those pics a bit????

 

[wilma-bride]

Really looking forward to this. We have an ADR for the R&C for October (even though we're Brits, DH and I met in a pub called the R&C here in the UK so thought it apt). I suspect DH will opt for the bangers and mash

Which Rainforest Cafe are you going to try? We are thinking about RFC for our October trip, probably the AK one so would love a review of that if you make it there before then

 

[jezebella]

No worries about future pics...they will be taken with the digital camera instead of this stinking cam phone that only saves things at itty bitty sizes and when you blow it up it looks horrid! Grrrr!

Re: RFC---we will do the one at AK because I've eaten at the one in DTD too many times to count and need something new!

 

[jezebella]

Next up on the list---Liberty Tree Tavern! Oh...and there shouldn't be anymore complaining about small pics.

First of all, let me start by saying that I haven't eaten here since I was a wee little girl -- way before this family style thing. We started out the day the same as every Saturday lately---look at more houses, headed with my DM to Cast Connection to check for Disney reject bargains and then off to MGM. My father was in town last weekend and picked up a shift which translates to me = fastpass for the coaster.

Mr. Brit and I made these ADR's for the two of us and Princess, of course, a week ago after Mr. Brit saw the all you can eat carved beef and about lost it right then and there. DM and DD decided at the last minute to join us at the last minute. We love DM and DD...and we love the cast member discount too!

We had a table for 3 at 8:30 and I called 2 days ahead to see if we could bump it up to 5....ummm..NO! GASP! They're CM's and they must call the special CM line to make an ADR. Luckily, they had a spot open for two and just told us to ask to be seated together when we got there.

Fast forward...we arrived at LTT at 8:00, hungry and tired--especially DD after managing a coaster all day, so we decided to try to sneak in early. No problem and they can put us all at one table.

Our server was Sammy---and just a little warning...if you get Sammy...beware! He took our drink order and said he'd be right back with the salad. Now, this guy --I'm not sure if he was new, or scared or what but every time he sat a dish, glass or anything on the table he literally threw it at us . By the time he brought around the actual meal it had become comical as we all kind of leaned back and waited for the plates to fall, smack something and then watch him mumble 'ooops, sorry". So..to start off:

Salad with Strawberry Vinagrette.

I know there have been great reviews of this..but it must have been a serious off night with this salad. Nearly every piece of lettuce looked about 4 days old, wilted, brown, with a pink tinge around the edges. Ok, well, we didn't come here for salad, bring on the food.

Mac& Cheese

Standard Stouffers---but hey, I love stouffers...so fine with me!!

Gravy Boat--yes...I took a picture of gravy!

Carved Turkey, Ham, Roast Beef over Cornbread Dressing

Turkey was moist and well, turkey. Ham was, well, ham....but the Roast Beef was excellent. Juicy, tender, and seasoned very well. As for the cornbread stuffing...Being from Nashville, I was very skeptical of Disney cornbread stuffing, but this stuff would make even Paula Dean proud! Yum-O!

Mashed Potatoes

My plate---but the purpose here is of the green beans, which I didn't get a good pic of. I ate so many green beans I was worried I would turn into one. They are slightly blanched and served with julienne carrots and garlic. I'm working on the copy recipe this weekend and I could probably live off of the beef and beans. One of the best side dishes I've had in quite a long time.

The cobbler with ice cream was excellent as well--however, my family chowed it down so quick I couldn't even pause for a pic.

The characters were amazing. We saw Minnie, Chip, Dale, Goofy, and Pluto at least 3 times each--and I've got mega pics to prove it. Despite the Memorial Day weekend and LTT being so booked, it was virtually empty in the area we sat in. I'm hypothisizing it's that double booking you DDP'ers are doing...shame shame! Good for me though!

I would say that this is a perfect time to go as well because as soon as we walked out it was only 5 minutes until the parade and had a fab view from the steps of LTT. Overall---I would do this again. Character Interaction 10/ Food 7.5/10 Service---well..I'm not commenting on Sammy and his plate tossing abilites any more! If you've got kids--do it! I was pleasently surprised!

Next up...Fultons Crab House for Lunch as the Princess does the Bibbity Bobbity Botique Party!

 

[magicmouse2]

Great thread

 

[Minniespal]

Looking forward to the reviews.

 

[jezebella]

ARgh---double posting on me. Re: Pic size...apparently 50% isn't small enough from Photobucket, so now I'll go with 25%! Thanks for the tips guys!