You know the thing about good food – it brings people together. Dining review w/ pics

[MrsDrewsky]

I thought during my break from school I would finally write a dining report. Husband and I traveled to WDW at the end of May to celebrate our first anniversary. We decided to try the basic disney dining plan this trip for the first time. I thought it was a bit too much food, Husband enjoyed not flinching every time he received the bill. He’s a bit of a frugal fellow and decided to tell himself it was “free.”

The happy couple on arrival day with their fresh faces and non-swollen feet:

Husband and I are by no means foodies, but we do like to eat and try new things. Our ADRs were highly based on the dining reports I had read here on the boards, and we were not misled.

Where we ate:

Day 1 (Arrival):
Restaurantosaurus
Boma

Day 2:
Old Port Royale
Pretzel Cart
Sci-Fi
Tangierine Cafe

Day 3:
Old Port Royale
Cooke’s of Dublin
Goofy’s Candy Co.
Cosmic Ray’s
Wishes Dessert Party

Day 4:
Le Cellier
‘Ohana

Day 5:
Wolfgang Puck Express
Wild Africa Trek snack
Margaritas
Pretzel Cart
Kona Cafe

Day 6:
Crystal Palace
Casey’s Corner
Rose and Crown

Day 7 (Departure):
Wolfgang Puck Express

Our analysis of the Disney Dining Plan

 

[MrsDrewsky]

Animal Kingdom is my favorite park, and has one of my favorite counter service locations. Unfortunately, we knew it was about to downpour any second, and Flame Tree didn’t seem ideal due to the outdoor seating. We headed over to dinoland to try Restaurantosaurus. I absolutely loved the decor. I would have taken pictures, but over half of the place was roped off so we could only dine in the main area. Husband and I decided to split a shrimp po boy. Our meal also came with fries and “cheesecake” in a glass.

The size of the po boy was definitely large enough for us to share considering this was a late lunch and we had a dinner ADR for boma around 6. I found the shrimp to be nice and crispy, and not greasy at all. Under the shrimp was a small bed of shredded lettuce and it was all topped with a small drizzle. The sauce was definitely needed as the sandwich is a bit dry without it. The sauce added a small bit of spice to the sandwich, and was similar to a spicy thousand island dressing. I just wish there had been more to break up the dryness of the po boy. The roll was pretty much your standard counter service roll and wasn’t anything special.

We enjoyed the fries, which were classic WDW fries. They were nice and crispy and paired well with ketchup. The cheesecake in a glass was disappointing though, and I am the kind of girl that loves cheesecake in any form. I thought this was a bit slimey, and needed to be a bit more solid. I wasn’t expecting a literal piece of cheesecake inside of a glass, but this wasn’t even as good as cheesecake flavored jello pudding I have had. I think I saw it hanging out on our tray for awhile before we were given our food so maybe this was the issue. The cheesecake in a glass is topped with a citrus gelatin, which I wasn’t a big fan of. I was wanting to enjoy this, especially since it’s not offered at many counter service locations, but this allowed me to save more room for Boma.

Overall, the meal was satisfying and if I were to be caught in a rainstorm while in Animal Kingdom again I would be happy to head over to restaurantosaurus.

 

[nanienamou]

Can't wait to read more! Thanks for taking time to share your reviews!

 

[butiflfeet]

Thats a great lineup of restaurants! I can't wait for more of your reviews

 

[MrsDrewsky]

We arrived almost an hour early for our Boma ADR. This was our first visit to AKL and we immediately fell in love with the resort. Once we proceeded to the podium, we were informed we would likely be seated closer to our original ADR time. We decided to make the most of our time by enjoying a beverage in the lounge. Husband enjoyed an Ultimate Long Island Iced Tea while I sipped on a Black Cherry Twist. The drinks were average, but the overall atmosphere was nice.

Our server at Boma, Jeff, was wonderful and truly made our experience memorable. This was our first time dining at Boma, and he explained the buffet and gave us a brief description of some of his favorite dishes. I did not take photos, for I was pretty exhausted from traveling that day. My favorite dishes from the evening were the durban spiced chicken, bobotie, FuFu, and the sun-dried tomato hummus.

I didn’t really eat too much meat this evening, but husband gobbled up the pepper steak.

The highlight of our evening was when Jeff brought us a special plate of desserts.

These far surpassed any of the desserts on the buffet. The most delicious being the beautiful chocolate truffle on the far right. Jeff offered us some well-founded marital advice, and we chatted about him and his wife recently celebrating their 20th anniversary. This was husband’s favorite meal, and we will be returning this January. Overall, I thought this was an especially great location to kick-off our trip. The resort atmosphere, the quality of the food, and the impeccable service made us even more enthused about our stay.

 

[MrsDrewsky]

Can't wait to read more! Thanks for taking time to share your reviews!

Thats a great lineup of restaurants! I can't wait for more of your reviews

Thanks for reading along. I love reading reviews and they really helped to make our trip the best we've experienced yet.

 

[vettegirl]

Jeff is a great server, we have had him twice at Boma

 

[Ro Z]

 

[MrsDrewsky]

I don’t think I mentioned we stayed at Caribbean Beach, so we started most of our mornings dining in the Old Port Royale food court.

Ahhh... Cheese danish. I dream about these. I have to make myself not eat one of these everyday during my trips to WDW.We arrived while they were being stocked and they were slightly warm and really fresh. This was just as delicious as I remembered. I like how the dough is more like a yeast bread than just a pastry dough, and that great big beautiful center of cream cheese... Mmm... It was like cheesecake for breakfast. I promise I only ate one, the other was for husband.

 

[MrsDrewsky]

Jeff is a great server, we have had him twice at Boma

He is fantastic. I am hoping we will have some pixie dust and have him again. He almost talked us into visiting again later in our trip.

Thanks for reading

 

[MrsDrewsky]

Husband and I are returning to WDW in only 59 days. This wasn’t really planned, we were originally planning on returning in January, but with free dining and a special promo for southwest we thought we would go ahead and go in October.

At this point ADRs were kind of picked over, but this will be a pretty brief and casual trip so I’m happy with what we have.

Day 1: MK or EP
Lunch: Pepper Market
Dinner: Kona Cafe

Day 2: HS
Lunch: Starring Rolls
Dinner: Cape May Cafe

Day 3: EP
Lunch: Food and Wine Festival
Dinner: Food and Wine Festival

Day 4: MK
Lunch: Columbia Harbor House
Dinner: Hoop Dee Doo Review

Day 5: AK
Breakfast: Pepper Market
Lunch: Flame Tree
Dinner: Boma

And we're leaving so early day 6 I'm not sure we will be able to fit breakfast in. But 5 days at Disney is better than none.

 

[Tracerr00]

Great reviews!! And woot woot for an upcoming trip!!

I can't wait to read more. And the cheese danish is calling my name today. I can't wait to have one at the end of the month!!

 

[blancah76]

Glad you enjoyed Boma, it's one of our favorites

We'll be ther Oct. as well

 

[ShortStuff]

Love Boma!! Looking forward to more!! :

 

[Linda67]

Signing on for more of your yummy reviews

Great that you have another trip to look forward to and good idea to schedule food and wine lunch and dinner days into your trip; there is so much good stuff to try

 

[MrsDrewsky]

Great reviews!! And woot woot for an upcoming trip!!

I can't wait to read more. And the cheese danish is calling my name today. I can't wait to have one at the end of the month!!

Thanks!

Woohoo on your upcoming trip. Enjoy one for me.

Glad you enjoyed Boma, it's one of our favorites

We'll be ther Oct. as well

I can definitely see why Boma is a favorite around here.

Love Boma!! Looking forward to more!! :

Thank you, more is coming soon.

Signing on for more of your yummy reviews

Great that you have another trip to look forward to and good idea to schedule food and wine lunch and dinner days into your trip; there is so much good stuff to try

Thanks for signing on! This is our first time to be there during food and wine, and we're pretty excited.

 

[MrsDrewsky]

Cream cheese pretzel

We arrived at HS before 8, and we had lunch ADRs at SciFi around 1:30. Around 11 we were feeling peckish so before we entered the line for the GMR we grabbed a cream cheese pretzel.

I think I will stick with a regular pretzel next time. Maybe I was on cream cheese overload from my danish earlier, but I thought it was pretty bland. Husband managed to power through it though. It wasn’t necessarily bad, and it helped to tide us over until lunch. At $4.50 a pretzel it was a good use of a snack credit.

 

[MrsDrewsky]

Sci Fi

We arrived and were immediately seated once we arrived to Sci Fi. I had booked this meal after inquiring where the best reuben could be found at WDW. Sci Fi was most recommended so it won. This was my second time dining here, and husband’s first time.

So my husband ordered a reuben and I just ordered the chicken wings as my entree since this was our OOP meal. My husband loves reuben sandwiches. He and his best friend like to send each other pictures of their latest reuben sandwich discoveries with a rating and then compare notes to rank all the reuben’s they’ve ever conquered.

Well this sandwich is probably in the lower middle range of husband’s reuben sandwich scale. Husband’s exact words were “it was alright, nothing special.” Now to me it looked like a reuben sandwich, which I would always think is nothing special.

As for the wings. These were nice and messy, like all wings should be. I like my bbq sauce to be bit more tangy and spicy, and I might be a bit of a bbq snob after growing up in Oklahoma and later living in Tennessee. I’m usually not one to use the word bland often, so I am wondering if something was up with my tastebuds that day. I thought the metal cone was cute, and probably necessary given the size of the table, but towards the end of the appetizer you’re having to put your hand inside the cone and the wax paper is covered in sauce which makes it even more messy. At least it’s a dark atmosphere so no one can see your bbq-covered face and hands.

Our server was MIA most of the meal. She brought our drinks, then our food, and then the bill. We needed refills at some point, but weren’t offered any until we were paying the bill. I think we’re likely to return if there are kids in our traveling party, until then, there are just better places on property I would rather dine.

 

[DLFan123]

Animal Kingdom is my favorite park, and has one of my favorite counter service locations. Unfortunately, we knew it was about to downpour any second, and Flame Tree didn’t seem ideal due to the outdoor seating. We headed over to dinoland to try Restaurantosaurus. I absolutely loved the decor. I would have taken pictures, but over half of the place was roped off so we could only dine in the main area. Husband and I decided to split a shrimp po boy. Our meal also came with fries and “cheesecake” in a glass.

The size of the po boy was definitely large enough for us to share considering this was a late lunch and we had a dinner ADR for boma around 6. I found the shrimp to be nice and crispy, and not greasy at all. Under the shrimp was a small bed of shredded lettuce and it was all topped with a small drizzle. The sauce was definitely needed as the sandwich is a bit dry without it. The sauce added a small bit of spice to the sandwich, and was similar to a spicy thousand island dressing. I just wish there had been more to break up the dryness of the po boy. The roll was pretty much your standard counter service roll and wasn’t anything special.

We enjoyed the fries, which were classic WDW fries. They were nice and crispy and paired well with ketchup. The cheesecake in a glass was disappointing though, and I am the kind of girl that loves cheesecake in any form. I thought this was a bit slimey, and needed to be a bit more solid. I wasn’t expecting a literal piece of cheesecake inside of a glass, but this wasn’t even as good as cheesecake flavored jello pudding I have had. I think I saw it hanging out on our tray for awhile before we were given our food so maybe this was the issue. The cheesecake in a glass is topped with a citrus gelatin, which I wasn’t a big fan of. I was wanting to enjoy this, especially since it’s not offered at many counter service locations, but this allowed me to save more room for Boma.

Overall, the meal was satisfying and if I were to be caught in a rainstorm while in Animal Kingdom again I would be happy to head over to restaurantosaurus.

That sandwich looks so good! I never would have thought I wanted that just by hearing about the menu. Thanks for your review; hopefully we can stop by this quick service location on our next visit. Too bad about the cheesecake; it looks so pretty in the picture.

 

[Linda67]

My DH loves Sci-Fi and although I love the atmosphere I don't usually love the food
I'm a big fan of those cream cheese pretzels