Friday, October 23rd - Dinner for Two at Jiko or a Feast for Four at Bluezoo???
Long story short ... Jay and I had an ADR for Jiko this night. And we had been trying like mad for several days to change the reservation from two to four so that Chelsi and Jason could join us. But there was no room at the cooking place for just two more bodies and that meant that no one was going to be eating African donuts for dessert because Jay and Bendy weren't rolling into the high plains of Florida's Serengeti without their new, long-lost foodie friends!
So we implemented plan Bluezoo: show up with no reservations, claim a table in the lounge, order a gaggle of appetizers and drinks, and finish off a fine trip in style. It was an extra added bonus that the restaurant was only a five minute walk from our respective vacation club hotels. From a purely selfish point of view I was actually kind of glad the evening worked out the way it did; I hadn't been feeling well most of the day and could tell that I was getting sick, so not having to deal with the transportation headache of getting to the Animal Kingdom Lodge and back was a welcome relief.
Jay and Bendy
Chelsi & Jason
For a Friday night Bluezoo was deader than the Dead Sea ... only with less salt. We could have had just about any table in the restaurant but decided to stick with the lounge. After settling ourselves in a nice, comfy corner booth, we proceeded to do what we always do: order drinks!
Jay and I started with an unidentified drink and a Veev-A-Acai. The Veev-A-Acai was a gamble on my part ... described as Veev Acai Liqueur, Grey Goose le Poire, Youngberry Juice, Lemon Juice, and Fresh Berries served over ice topped with Youngberry Foam, I had absolutely no idea what this was going to taste like. And what is a youngberry, anyway? The opposite of an oldberry?
As drinks go it wasn't bad but I seem to recall it being a little too sweet ... in retrospect: DUH! I should have stuck with the zooberry.
Jay's mystery drink and my va-va-voom!
Kirkland? Belvedere? Forgetful minds want to know!
We then spent the next two hours horrifying our waitress by ordering almost every appetizer on the menu along with more drinks and then dessert. I bet management was worried that we might eat the wall coverings.
First up, something I didn't eat ... a plate of sweetbreads. I object! This is blatant false advertising ... there is nothing remotely sweet nor breadlike nor sweetbreadlike about these gooshie little glands. In the words of Danny Vermin, "I tried them once. Once."
Glands as viands?
For the less adventurous (but no less hungry) we also ordered a flatbread. I was jonesin for that four cheese and garlic baby that we'd had here last year but it was no longer on the menu .... oh cruel disappointment! The margherita flatbread was an acceptable substitute ... acceptable enough that we ended up ordering two ... but it just wasn't the same.
Margherita Flatbread
Then there was the short-rib in cauliflower puree ...
YUM!
Shrimp cocktail and paint schmear dipping sauces ...
Shrimpie good times!
Haricot Verts (fancy-schmany Frenchie green beans) ...
French Beans!
And last but not least: Shake and Bake Fries ...
French Fries!
Jay also ordered a second drink: The Bacon Bourbon Smash! This drink was made with Maker's Mark Bourbon infused with smoked bacon, muddled lemon and mint, and organic maple syrup served over crushed ice.
Bacon and Booze? We've died and gone to hog heaven!
I think my second drink was a Strawberry Nitro Fizz, made with 10 Cane Rum, Lemoncello, Pama, muddled fresh strawberries and lemon, and topped with Red Bull.
It's very tall and very potent
For dessert we ordered the trio of Cocktail Sorbets ... and I have no idea what they were but they were all very tatsy - refreshing and flavorful and a definite light alternative ending to the meal.
Boozie sorbet
And we also ordered the Chocolate Melange ... which was five different types of chocolatey goodness that were rich and gooey and unspeakably good!
Sinfully tasty
This evening went a long way towards restoring Bluezoo in our opinion. We'd had a fabulous dinner here in October 2008 with friends and then attended the F&W signature dinner here in October 2009 with mixed results. This evening of gorging proved that the kitchen staff knows what it's doing and Todd English needs to leave them alone. Would Jay and I go back to Bluezoo in the future? Yes, I do believe we would - we would likely stick with a mess of appetizers and drinks because we enjoyed sampling so much of what the restaurant had to offer that way.
But the best part of the evening was sharing it with Chelsi and Jason - it was the perfect end to one of the best trips we've had to WDW in a long time and the start of a wonderful, real-world friendship. Who can ask for more than that?
. Dunno how that happens. I'm glad that someone else recognizes this phenomenon . . . when I try to explain it to service personel (in refund attempts), no one has ever heard of this!!!
