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Two honeymooners conquer deluxe dining!!!

K

kdluscher

Mouseketeer
Joined
Nov 28, 2009
Hello and welcome to my second dining report. This report will be filled with many reviews on many great restaurants. As the title states, I was on my honeymoon and conquered deluxe dining, meaning we used every single credit Disney gave us!! So now onto the intro...

The Who:
Me: Kristen, a 26 year old newlywed from Ohio. I am a chef at a local family owned Italian restaurant. I consider myself a food snob, especially when it comes to Italian food. I work at one of the best restaurants in the area. So I can be a little snobbish when it comes to dining, but really I just love good food and good service. I will eat just about anything, except olives and blue cheese. My favorite disney restaurant is Kona Cafe.

DH: Brandon, a 21 year old newlywed, also from Ohio. He works in a graphite mill. He used to work at the restaurant with me, so he can be a little bit of a food snob with me, but not as bad. He eats pretty much anything you put in front of him except raisins. He also is a much more adventurous diner than me. His favorite disney restaurant is also Kona Cafe.

The What: Our honeymoon of course!

The Where: Port Orleans Riverside

The Why: Do we even need an explanation for why we go to Disney?!?! Because it is the best place on Earth!! Oh and because we had free dining!

The When: September 10-17, 2012


I would like to mention, that there will not be any pics of the food because DH thinks it is strange to take pictures of our food. But I do promise you that this report will be filled with very detailed reviews of all of the meals and snacks we had. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.....
 
So I wanted to give everyone a preview of the restaurants we ate at while on our disneymoon. I will add the snacks in along the way.

Monday September 10:
dinner @ Kona Cafe

Tuesday September 11:
Lunch @ Via Napoli
Dinner @ Jiko

Wednesday September 12:
Lunch @ Sci-Fi
Dinner @ Artist Point

Thursday September 13:
Breakfast @ Tusker House
Dinner @ Fulton's Crab House

Friday September 14:
Breakfast @ Crystal Palace
Dinner@ Brown Derby

Saturday September 15:
Lunch @ Grand Floridian Cafe
Dinner @ California Grill

Sunday September 16:
Lunch @ Rose and Crown
Dinner @ Yachtsman Steakhouse

Monday September 17:
Breakfast @ Kona Cafe
Lunch @ Earl of Sandwich


During the time we were there, the free dining promotion was going on. DH and I had decided to upgrade to the deluxe dining and give it a go. For those of you who do not know, on the deluxe plan you get a non-alcoholic drink, appetizer, entree, and dessert per person. I will be breaking down how much each meal and snacks cost each day in order to compare it at the end with what I spent overall. I hope you enjoy my review!!
 
DAY 1, September 10:

We arrived into Disney around 4:30 this day, after a long 2 day 18 hour drive from Ohio. We had a 7:30 dinner reservation at Kona Cafe this night. After getting checked in, finding our room, and showering, we headed over to the Polynesian Resort around 7:00. We checked in about 10 minutes early for our ressie and got seated almost immediately. We were seated in a tiny 2 person both against the right wall.

We were greeted right away by our server, Sandy, who actually had family who lives about an hour from us. She explained the dining plan to us and took our drink orders, a coke for me and a sprite for DH. A food runner delivered some bread with macademia nut butter. let me just say that the butter is wonderful and I wish I could buy it by the tub. It is so sweet and goes so well on the bread. We then glanced at the menu, even though we normally have an idea on what to get. I forgot to mention that Kona Cafe is a must-eat-at restaurant for us every trip. We just love the food and service here.

Anyways, back to the review....we ordered and our food came out very quickly. First the appetizers...the Polynesian Barbecue Pork Ribs for me and the Pot Stickers for DH. OMG...those ribs were AMAZING!!! I seriously dream about them! The sauce was so delicious, I literally licked the bones clean! They were served with a vegetable slaw, which was ok, but I didn't care because I loved those ribs. DH and I still talk about drinking a vat of that sauce!! DH liked his pot stickers, but they were not as good as the ribs. They came with a creamy ginger-soy sauce, but they really needed more sauce. But we love sauce and you will notice this as the review goes along.

So next, on to our entrees. I had my usual, Ginger Crusted Ribeye with mashed potatoes and snap peas. And as usual, ut was delicious. I never order anything different here because the ribeye is always good, so why change it up?! DH ordered the Coffee-Rubbed Pork Chop with au gratin potatoes and corn. He absolutely loved it. The bite I got was so tender and melted in your mouth.

And finally dessert....I got the no sugar added Apple Stacker. It is layers of apples, cream, and crispy wontons topped with vanilla ice cream. It was wonderful. Heck, who needs sugar in desserts?!?! Not this girl. It really ended my meal so well. DH ordered the Coffee Panna Cotta. He said it was delicious. I am not a coffee person, so I did not taste it, but I will take his word for it because he cleaned his plate.

Once again, Kona did noy disappoint us and we will definitely go back again. I feel that Kona is a hidden gem in disney and more people need to go there and try their delicious food.

Overall: excellent food, good service
Highs: ribs and macadamia nut butter!
Lows: the small table
OOP price: $91.51 (not including tip)


*With the FD udgrade we paid $67.96 per day for both of us for food, so this meal has already paid for itself today!
 
Great start :thumbsup2 I'm excited to try Kona for dinner in January. We've only ever had breakfast there :confused3
 


I'm in!! Also from Ohio (near Cleveland). The drive is something, isn't it! Way down, not bad, way home - terrible!!
 


Day 2-September 11:

This day was our first full day at Disney and it was spent at Epcot!

Breakfast:
For breakfast we grabbed a quick breakfast from a stand in front of the Epcot gate. I had a Pastry stuffed with strawberries with strawberry glaze. DH opted for a plain glazed donut. Both were very delicious and huge in size. It was definitely worth the two snack credits we used.

Overall: good
OOP price: $7.00
Total credits used: 2



Lunch:
We had a 11:30 reservation at Via Napoli this day. We had never eaten here before, but thought we would give it a try because we love Italian food. We showed up a little early for our reservation, but were seated within mintues. The restaurant had just opened so we were one of the first tables seated. I love the look and feel of this restaurant. We were seated right inside the door at a small two person table by a window.

We were greeted promptly by our server Simone. He was so helpful and went over the menu throughouly with us. We also sat and talked about Italin food for a while as well since I work in an Italian restaurant. We ordered our drinks and read over the menu and snacked upon some bread with olive oil and balsamic. That balsamic made the difference with that bread!

We both decided on sprites and then placed our orders. Our appetizers arrived very soon after. For me, I decided upon the arancini, which are fried saffron risotta balls filled with mozzerella and meat ragu with marinara on the side. OMG, I thought I had died and gone to heaven. These rice balls were phenomenal. Even better then the ones in our restaurant (dont tell my bosses that). DH decided upon the calamari fritti with spicy tomato sauce. These were also delicious, but hey, we can eat that any day at my job.

After we cleaned our appetizer plates, we had a short wait for our pizzas. I had decided upon the indicidual capricossa pizza, which has eggplant, artichokes, muschrooms, and ham. This was amazing!! All of the flavors worked so well together. I loved that the crust was so thin because I do not like crusty pizza, I would rather taste my toppings. DH got the individual ortolano pizza, which is a veggie pizza. This pizza was also delicious. DH ate the whole thing. The flavors all worked well together. We were so pleased with our pizza choices.

We took a short break between our meals and dessert, but we were not leaving there without dessert in our bellies! I chose the coppa di brutti ma buoni for my dessert, or in other words, an ice cream sundae. It had vanilla gelato, amarena cherries and carneavel cookies. This was so refreshing and light that I did not feel too full after eating it. DH got the zeppole di catarina or ricotta cheese fritters. These were so good. They were crisp and hot, but way too heavy for me to eat after two other courses.

Via Napoli did not disappoint and we will definitely be going back there again!

Overall: Very good!
Highs: rice balls and thin crust pizza!
Lows: not enough rice balls!! mediocre calamari
OOP price: $110.05 (with tip)
 
I have to agree with you on the calamari. My nephew had them last year. There was a huge pile of them but they weren't very good. Their pizzas, on the other hand, are wonderful! Glad you enjoyed your meal!
 
Great reviews. Your Via Napoli review is getting me excited for December. Can't wait to try it.
 
Thanks for the VN review. I will be dining there this weekend for the first time and am trying to read as many reviews as I can.
 
Great descriptions....who said one needs a picture...you are doing excellent with your descriptive words!
 
Day 2, continued

So when I last left off, we had just finished eating lunch at Via Napoli, which we will definitely be dining there again. We stopped around 3:00 or so for a snack in Japan. We each got a kaki gori, which are shaved ice with fruit syrups. I got the rainbow, which is strawberry, melon, and tangerine. And DH got just melon. Honestly, these were good and refreshing, but just not my thing. Plus they are very messy to eat.

Overall: ok, but a little too much ice
OOP price: $7.00


After touring Epcot all day, we went back to our resort to get ourselved ready for our first signature restaurant of the trip.

We had a 7:30 reservation at Jiko. We had never eaten here before, but had heard so many good things about it, we had to try it. We arrived about 15 minutes early, but were sat relatively quickly. Our table was a four top, right by the windows. Our server was Lucius and it took him a little time to greet us, but it gave us time to read over the menu. Once again we both ordered sprites and the bread was delivered promptly. It was almost the consistency of focaccia bread and served with a very flavorful butter.

Shortly after we ordered our meals and our appetizers were delivered rather quickly. I had the crispy beef bobotie rolls. It is served with a cucumber sauce. Let me just say that these were delicious. They had a little bit of spice, but nothing too overwhelming. The outside were so crispy as well. Honestly, I wish I could have had that as my entree because it was so good, I could have eaten more. DH got the fire roasted chicken flatbread. It had four cheeses, bacon, arugula, pepperdews (peppers), and african spices. He absolutely loved this flatbread. All of the flavors worked so well together. He cleaned his plate!

Now here is where our service got a little not so great. It took a long time for our server to clear our dirty plates and check on us. He was spending more of his time focusing on his tables that ordered wine rather than to us. We really felt like we were a bother to him. While he was talking to us, he kept looking over at his other tables. We just did not feel like we were given as good of attention as we should have, espeically at a signature restaurant.

Anyways, back to our food. For my entree, I had the famous braised beef short rib. It came with fingerling potatoes, pearl onions, baby carrots, and a cabernet sauce. Now, this meat was very tender. It just feel apart on my fork. The potatoes and vegetables were also very tender. The only part of the meal I did not enjoy was the sauce, which wasn't even sauce to me. It was thicker than a glaze in my opinion and was so rich that about halfway through the plate, I could no longer eat the sauce because it had such a strong flavor. I had read so many good reviews about this dish, but for me it just wasn't as good as everyone else had had. We serve a short rib where I work and the sauce is the braising liquid and is so delicious. I guess I just had such high expectations for this dish.

DH had the swordfish, which came with roasted vegetables. He loved this dish. Swordfish is a meatier fish and it does not have a fishy taste to it either. DH loved the texture of this fish and the seasonings were perfect on it. Of course, he cleaned his plate again!

Now dessert here was delicious. I had the cheesecake with strawberry-rhubarb topping. It was the perfect size for a dessert. The cheesecake was so creamy and the topping just went so well with it. I probably could have eaten two though, but then I would have had to roll out the door. DH had the milk tart with balsamic ice cream. Let me just explain that DH has a thing for balsamic, so he will eat it in any form. He loved his ice cream and the milk tart, which was really like a tart with a pastry cream filling. I thought the ice cream was different, but he loved it and that's all that matters. We had a good meal here and will go back and try it again.

Overall: good, but not great
Highs: appetizers
Lows: Short rib sauce
OOP price: $156.40 (with tip)
 
Day 2-September 12:

For breakfast this morning, we headed over to French Quarter to check out their food court. We walked in and new right away we loved this food court. I love Riverside and the feel of that resort, but French Quarter has a better food court. So, as we walked in we knew what we were there for...sausage gravy and biscuits. This is one of our favorite things to eat, so why not eat it in Disney. You get two biscuits smothered with sausage gravy. This gravy was delicious. It had a great sausage flavor with just the right spice. It was a great way to start our day because it was very filling. And the best part..one order equals one snack credit.

Overall: very good, will definitely go back
OOP price: $7.38
snack credits used: 2....many left



After breakfast we headed over to Hollywood Studios for the day. We started to get hungry around 11:00, so we headed over twoards our lunch reservation at Sci-Fi. Our reservation was at 11:30, but we were sat earlier than that. We were seated in a car near the back of the restaurant with a family of three. Honestly, we didn't bother them and they didn't bother us. Our server was Jim and he came over right away to greet us. We ordered our drinks and looked over the menu. I got a cherry coke and DH a vanilla coke. OMG, the drinnks were amazing. Nothing like the can stuff at all. I wish I could have had that coke at every restaurant.

Shortly after we ordered our appetizers and they arrived rather quickly. I had the BLT soup. This is a tomato soup topped with a couton, bacon, and lettuce. The soup and the toppings all go so well together. The flavors are amazing and the crunch of the lettuce and bacon add such a good texture to the soup. DH got the spinach and artichoke dip. It was very hot and the chips were nice and crisp. But in my opinion, it was just average, but it is probably because I make my own at home.

We had a short wait before our entrees came, but it was good because it gabe us time to digest. I got the grilled chicken sandwich with watercress, tomatoes, mayonnaise, and a balsamic drizzle with fries on the side. This sandwich was almost too big for the basket. Let me just say it had two chicken breasts on it and the bun was bigger than any I had ever seen before. It was so juicy and had so much flavor. The balsamic gave it a little bit of a bite to it, but it was so good. DH got the double bacon cheeseburger with fries. Once again this sandwich was huge! But it was so juicy and the bacon was so crispy. We both loved our sandwiches.

Luckily, our server was busy with a big table, so we had a break between our sandwiches and dessert. For dessert, I had the hot fudge sundae. It is pretty self explanatory what it is. It came in an old fashioned ice cream cup. It was the perfect ending to this meal. It went perfectly with the theming in this restaurant. DH got the warm apple crumble. It was delicious as well. We both loved our desserts and our meal in general, but even more, we loved the theming in the restaurant. We will be coming back here for sure.

Overall: great
Highs: cokes, service, theming
Lows: Spinach Artichoke Dip
OOP price: $89.90 (with tip)
2 TS credits used, many more to go
 
Day 3, continued:

By afternoon we were about done with everything at Hollywood Studios, so we headed over to Downtown Disney for some shopping. On our way out, we grabbed some snacks from Goofy's Candy Co. We both got chocolate covered pretzel rods, but mine had reeses pieces on it and DH's was just plain. These were good and a quick snack before dinner.

Overall: good
OOP price: $7.00


We had a 6:20 dinner reservation at Artist Point this night. We arrived a little early and were seated right away at a two top by the window. Our server was Donald and we greeted us right away. He was very knowledgable and exlpained many of the menu items. He brought our drinks right away as well, cokes for both of us.

We ordered our appetizers and they arrived fairly quickly as well. I got the mixed green salad with cherries, radishes, granola croutons, and wine vinaigrette. First of all, this salad was huge! The flavor, though was so good. Everything worked so well together. Dh got the famous smokey portobello soup, which is amazing!! Honestly, I wish I would have gotten this aas well. It had just the right amount of smokiness and mushroom flavor. I guess there is a reason that it is so popular.

Soon after, our entrees arrived. I got the Wild caught Jumbo Prawn and Crab Hot Pot with mussels, crispy pork, jasamine rice, and spiced coconut broth. If you do not like anything spicy, do not get this. I ordered this because I wanted something different than what I normally get, but it came back to back me in the backside. This dish was so spicy, it was almost inedible. The seafood was delicious and cooked perfectly, but the rice with the broth was almost too spicy to eat. Honestly, I wish I would have ordered something else because I only ate the seafood from my dish. Even DH who likes spicy foods said it was too spicy. I should have sent it back, but I hate being a pain like that. DH ordered the Buffalo striploin that came with mashed potatoes and corn. He really enjoyed this meal. I think that the meat was cooked wonderfully and I actually ate 1/4 of his steak.

For dessert, I ordered the berry cobbler with black raspberry sorbet. This dessert is as good as all the reviews I have read about it. The cobbler was full of berries and the sorbet was so light and went perfect with the cobbler. DH got the strawberry trio that comes with strawberry shortcake, cheesecake, and sorbet. The portions of each component were the perfect size and the flavors were really good. To me this meal was just ok and was actually my least favorite meal of the trip, but DH really liked his meal and we would probably go back there in the future and try it again.

Overall: good
Highs: soup and cobbler
Lows: prawn and crab hot pot
OOP price: $149.61 (with tip)
4 TS credits used
 
Really enjoying your reviews... Can't wait to hear more of you experiences. You chose some of our favorite restaurants, and a few we have never been to.
 
Interesting reviews. I particularly enjoy your Jiko review as we will be trying that for the first time on our trip next week.
 
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