Just Back Dining Reviews - February 20-26th - Garden Grill, Coral Reef, Crystal Palace, +

chloelovesdisney

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jul 19, 2007
Hi! We’re just back from a quick trip to our favorite place, just me and the kid together on a Disney adventure! :yay:

As always, my best made plans and adrs ended up getting changed around a little but it all works out in the end. :idea:

I’ll be reviewing our meals at POP, Garden Grill, Coral Reef, Pinocchio Haus, Crystal Palace, the Plaza Dessert Party, Al Forno, and Wolfgang Puck Express with a few snacks thrown in here and there.

Thanks for joining. :disrocks:
 
POP

We arrived at POP in the late afternoon with fastpasses ready for DHS. Wouldn’t you know it, the kid just wanted pool and arcade time, and after a long day of traveling that was okay with me. We had dinner at POP, I had the pot roast, kid had the child’s salmon and I also picked up a refillable mug.

I forgot to take pics of this meal. The pot roast was pretty good, not great, and the salmon was very dry. It was the last piece of fish they had out and I think we just got there at a point where it had been sitting there for a while. Wasn’t bad, but could have been better.
 
Garden Grill PPO Breakfast

Next day, our PPO breakfast at Garden Grill. We arrived about 7:30am since a bus came right away and was a faster ride to Epcot than I expected. We were one of the first parties to be seated and our server came by for our drink order immediately. We had a nice breakfast, the characters swung by twice while we were there and we were on the first ride at Soarin for the day.


My favorites here are the juice (a mix, can’t remember what’s in it, but it’s delicious), the cinnamon bun, eggs, bacon and the Mickey waffle of course. I wish they had some real breakfast potatoes and not just the tater tots, but other than that it’s a solid meal. We’ll be back for this again.

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Soft Serve Ice Cream in France

We headed to the World Showcase when they opened and made it to France about 11:30am. The soft serve ice cream and crepe stand was just opening. It took about 15 minutes for the ice cream machine to get going but it’s our favorite ice cream so we waited. As always, a great treat. I had a soft serve cone, the kid had a cup. In the past it’s been a much larger portion in the cup, but he couldn’t even finish what they gave him so no biggie.

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Coral Reef Lunch

We had a later lunch scheduled a Coral Reef right before we hopped over to Animal Kingdom. It was our first time here and did not disappoint. I requested a table near the aquarium if possible on check in, and we got lucky there was one table for two available!
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Since we had a big breakfast and the ice cream, I went with the lobster bisque soup and crab cake appetizer as my meal. The kid had the child’s salad and junior reef steak. I also got this blue drink, I don’t remember what it was called but the server recommended it and it was quite good.

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We were both quite pleased with this meal. The soup was even better than I had expected and I ate every last drop in the bowl, lol. The crab cakes were also good, with a nice salad on the side and dipping sauce. The kid ate his entire steak meal. I figured he was full but he wanted a cupcake, he ended up taking a few bites and that was it.

kids salad

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lobster bisque

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Junior reef steak (I forgot to take the pic till after I cut it up)

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Crab cake appetizer

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We will definitely be back here again, I’ve already told all my family it’s on the to-do list for next time. We had a great experience from our server, to the food to enjoying watching all the fish go by.

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At Animal Kingdom we ended up being busier than I anticipated, so we just had some snacks I had packed in my bag when we were seated for Rivers of Light (I brought a bunch of granola bars, bags of pretzels, etc., with us for the trip).

When we returned to POP we stopped in the food court. I had the chicken parm with a side of green beans and pasta and the kid had macaroni and cheese (it’s elbow pasta and they spoon the cheese sauce on top). This was much better than our first meal here, the food was fresh and hot and I’d get the chicken again. The place was pretty busy, seemed like a lot of folks were returning to the resort at the same time and stopping for a late dinner.

POP food court Chicken parm and side ceasar salad. I have no idea why the pic keeps turning on the side when I paste it in. I also seem to have forgotten to take a pic of the mac and cheese.

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The next day we went to the MK. We were supposed to go for an early breakfast at 1900 Park Faire followed by a midday lunch at Skippers Canteen. I felt like we were both wiped out the night before when we finally got into the room and canceled both meals and instead scheduled a late lunch the Crystal Palace. My son really wanted to see Pooh otherwise I would have kept the Skippers Canteen which I really wanted to try. The extra hour of sleep was good for both of us though and I think it was a good swap.

We had some breakfast bars in the room that morning along with some juice I had in the fridge. After seeing Talking Mickey and a couple of rides, we had an impromptu early lunch at Pinocchio Haus. Since we would be eating a few hours later at the Crystal Palace, we shared a kids cheese pizza meal plus I had a side Caesar salad. He had the apple sauce and fries, and we split the pizza. This was the perfect amount so we felt ready to go till our lunch later but wasn’t so much to fill us up. We also enjoyed watching the boats go by at IASW and when our Peter Pan FP time came up we headed back out.

Pinocchio Haus

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Crystal Palace


We haven’t been back to Crystal Palace in a few years, I was a little concerned because I had read some not so favorable reviews. We thought the food was very good and had a nice lunch along with some fun with the Pooh characters. The fish and pierogis were delicious, and I also enjoyed their multiple vegetable selections. I had some of the beef from the carving station and potatoes. I passed on the desserts since we were going to the party that night but of course the kid had to try a couple. I only got a pic of my first plate.

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We headed out and ran into the start of the parade, we always enjoy a Disney parade! party:

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HEA Plaza Dessert Party

That evening we were booked for our first ever dessert party. I picked the Plaza Garden party, and we checked in right at 6:45p which was the time my reservation said. I was surprised there were already several groups seated and eating so I guess they open even earlier than advertised. We got seated right away and then checked out the desserts. We selected just about one of everything to try, although we took a few of the chocolate covered strawberries and macarons since those are our favorite. I also got a place of fruit and cheese to help round out the sweets, and my son got one of the sundaes made which was a huge hit. Of course we got the sparkling apple juice, and I also took a couple of bottles of water for later, and got a coffee to go to take over to the fireworks. My son also had a hot chocolate at the table.

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This was a huge hit with the kid, dessert for dinner was a fun treat, and I thought it was a nice selection. I went back for fruit and cheese for us a couple of times to help make it more of a meal. There was one point when the dessert buffet was quite crowded with a line, but for the most part there was little to no wait.

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We sat at the back edge of the middle grass area and took a photo before HEA started. The folks in front of us all stood once the fireworks got started, so we scooted over to the side and were able to sit and watch and still see well. I was a giant Wishes fan, but thought this was also excellent and we both enjoyed it.
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That's all for tonight, I'll try to finish up tomorrow. :thumbsup2
 
I love that you call your son "the kid" - I call mine that too :) love the reviews.
 
Legoland and POP again

The next day was a first time trip to Legoland which the kid has been asking to go visit. We started off with breakfast at POP, we both got a kids meal with eggs and sides. I used my refillable mug for coffee. Legoland was a fun day, we split an adult fried chicken meal which turned out to be very generous and even between the two of us we couldn’t finish it. We had dinner when we got back to POP, this time I had a burger and he had a hot dog meal. I forgot to take pics this evening, the burger and hot dog were okay, nothing great but not bad either.

The next day we checked out and hung out by the POP pool waiting for some family members to arrive and pick us up. They had a large rental house and we stayed there with them for the next two nights. I had a pina colava from the POP pool bar which was good.

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Al Forno


After we all settled into the house and took a little nap, we headed out to Disney Springs for dinner. Turns out Saturday night isn’t the best time go, the parking lots were all full and we made a last minute switch to the Boardwalk to try and get dinner. We tried for a walk up at Al Forno, and luckily they were able to seat us.

This turned out to be a great surprise. We all really enjoyed it. We shared a pepperoni pizza as an appetizer, along with a couple of salads. I had the lasagna which was quite good, and my family also enjoyed the chicken parm, pasta carbonara with chicken added, and the pasta with meatballs (they have spinach inside). Everyone raved about their dinner and we enjoyed some time on the Boardwalk as well.

Sorry for the pics, we were starving and dove right in, then realized I had to take my pics!

Pepperoni Pizza, seriously this was AMAZING, super delicious.

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Lasagne was excellent, very creamy. No idea why the picture flips sideways when I paste it, oh well.

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Kids pasta and meatballs, he really liked it.
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I didn't manage to get pics of the other meals, but this was a good meal for all!
 
Blizzard Beach, Lottawatta Lodge


The next day we went to Blizzard Beach after breakfast in the house. For lunch we went to the closest spot with was Lottawatta Lodge. I had the Harvest Salad with chicken which was actually pretty good. Everyone else had chicken strips or burgers and everyone seemed happy. I saw some folks getting the chicken or beef with rice bowls and they looked better than I had expected, I might try one next time.

I had put my phone into the locker so have no pics unfortunately.
 
Wolfgang Puck Express, Goofy's Candy and Ghiradelli's

For dinner we finally made it to Disney Springs. We walked by the Polite Pig which was packed and gave up and ended up at Wolfgang Puck Express. I had the chinois chicken salad along with a glass of white wine. I liked it, didn’t love it, I thought it would be a sweeter than it was. I ate all of it though so it wasn’t that bad. Everyone had something different, I don’t remember what everyone else got, but it was all pretty good.

Chinoix salad

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After dinner we stopped at Goofy’s Candy store for some treats to go. I always get some Disney fudge and again, it was super delicious. My favorite Disney treat. :banana:

I didn't get a pic of my fudge but here's one of the counter.

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After the candy store we walked over to Ghiradelli's. Most of us got good old fashioned hot fudge sundaes. These never disappoint, although I find them a little pricey.

Yum!
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We flew out the next day, everyone else stayed for the rest of the week. Thanks for reading. :lovestruc:thanks::daisy:
 
Great report! “The Kid” is a real cutie. Love that pic of you guys in front of the aquarium.
 

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