Jeremy Nolen
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Dec 4, 2017
We tried a few new places and things (well, new to US anyway) this trip. Brief reviews/comments on each follow:
New Places:
Brown Derby @ DHS - we found available mid-afternoon ADRs on the drive to Orlando and decided to give it a try. We were seated immediately at an awesome raised table overlooking the dining room. I had the Cobb Salad and split the pastrami pork belly sandwich with my brother, and didn't have enough room for the Grapefruit Cake, sadly. Food was very good (good enough to not feel overpriced, even) and service was excellent.
Tony's Town Square Restaurant @ MK - we decided to give this a try and I was pretty disappointed. We had to wait almost 30 min for a table despite ADRs. They seated my party of 5 at a tiny 4-person table. The restaurant was extremely crowded and VERY loud. Service was quick and pretty good, but the food was mediocre (I think the flatbread here is the exact same one they serve at Pinnochio Haus?) and very overpriced. Would NOT eat here again!
Spice Road Table @ Epcot WS - we got late ADRs here to watch Illuminations. We were seated immediately. Service was pretty good; food was mediocre and very overpriced (but my son tried pesto for the first time and liked it, so that was nice!) Would not eat here again.
Bon Voyage Breakfast @ Trattoria al Forno - now THIS was a dining experience! We were seated immediately at our reservation time. The food was fantastic, the service perfect, and the character interactions with Ariel/Rapunzel and Flynn/Eric were great. It felt very unhurried (we were there for about 90 min.) I highly recommend their take on eggs benedict (2 eggs poached underwater?) and we got an extra order of 'Tower of Pancakes' by accident, which was also pretty good. Would I eat here again? Hard to say - character dining isn't really worth the premium to me, personally, but my wife and kids love it and this was the best character dining experience I have had at the parks.
1900 Park Fare breakfast @ the Grand Floridian - pretty good, although I was a little disappointed when I realized it was a buffet instead of table service. I think that character dining + buffet is a bad combo as you never know when a character will show up (usually right as your kids have wandered off to get more food!) The food was OK - nowhere near as interesting as the Bon Voyage, but a wide variety of stuff and it was well prepared. Character interactions were fun (the kids had dressed up as Alice and the Hatter) and we got some good pictures. I probably wouldn't do this again, unless my family insists on meeting these specific characters again
Pirates and Pals Cruise (departs from the Contemporary) - not really a 'dining experience', but since snacks were provided I'll list it here. This was a fun diversion; the 'snacks' provided were pretty mediocre although they did have a cooler full of ice cream sandwiches and dreamsicles, which was nice. The character meets (Cpt Hook, Smee, Peter Pan) were fun and engaging and the whole thing was very well run. Getting to watch the fireworks from an ideal spot in the lake with the audio synched up was cool. Probably wouldn't do this again, maybe if there was a new fireworks show in the future.
Behind the Seeds Tour @ EPCOT's Land Pavilion - also not a dining experience (at all, really) but super interesting and informative. We had a great tour guide CM (Mike!) who was engaging and funny and both kept things moving but never made us feel rushed. The tour lasted about 75 minutes and we learned all sorts of interesting things. For $20/person this was a great use of money and time, and my understanding is that even at peak times, you can basically sign up for it same day (I'm not sure how big the groups CAN be, ours was about 20 people)
New Places:
Brown Derby @ DHS - we found available mid-afternoon ADRs on the drive to Orlando and decided to give it a try. We were seated immediately at an awesome raised table overlooking the dining room. I had the Cobb Salad and split the pastrami pork belly sandwich with my brother, and didn't have enough room for the Grapefruit Cake, sadly. Food was very good (good enough to not feel overpriced, even) and service was excellent.
Tony's Town Square Restaurant @ MK - we decided to give this a try and I was pretty disappointed. We had to wait almost 30 min for a table despite ADRs. They seated my party of 5 at a tiny 4-person table. The restaurant was extremely crowded and VERY loud. Service was quick and pretty good, but the food was mediocre (I think the flatbread here is the exact same one they serve at Pinnochio Haus?) and very overpriced. Would NOT eat here again!
Spice Road Table @ Epcot WS - we got late ADRs here to watch Illuminations. We were seated immediately. Service was pretty good; food was mediocre and very overpriced (but my son tried pesto for the first time and liked it, so that was nice!) Would not eat here again.
Bon Voyage Breakfast @ Trattoria al Forno - now THIS was a dining experience! We were seated immediately at our reservation time. The food was fantastic, the service perfect, and the character interactions with Ariel/Rapunzel and Flynn/Eric were great. It felt very unhurried (we were there for about 90 min.) I highly recommend their take on eggs benedict (2 eggs poached underwater?) and we got an extra order of 'Tower of Pancakes' by accident, which was also pretty good. Would I eat here again? Hard to say - character dining isn't really worth the premium to me, personally, but my wife and kids love it and this was the best character dining experience I have had at the parks.
1900 Park Fare breakfast @ the Grand Floridian - pretty good, although I was a little disappointed when I realized it was a buffet instead of table service. I think that character dining + buffet is a bad combo as you never know when a character will show up (usually right as your kids have wandered off to get more food!) The food was OK - nowhere near as interesting as the Bon Voyage, but a wide variety of stuff and it was well prepared. Character interactions were fun (the kids had dressed up as Alice and the Hatter) and we got some good pictures. I probably wouldn't do this again, unless my family insists on meeting these specific characters again
Pirates and Pals Cruise (departs from the Contemporary) - not really a 'dining experience', but since snacks were provided I'll list it here. This was a fun diversion; the 'snacks' provided were pretty mediocre although they did have a cooler full of ice cream sandwiches and dreamsicles, which was nice. The character meets (Cpt Hook, Smee, Peter Pan) were fun and engaging and the whole thing was very well run. Getting to watch the fireworks from an ideal spot in the lake with the audio synched up was cool. Probably wouldn't do this again, maybe if there was a new fireworks show in the future.
Behind the Seeds Tour @ EPCOT's Land Pavilion - also not a dining experience (at all, really) but super interesting and informative. We had a great tour guide CM (Mike!) who was engaging and funny and both kept things moving but never made us feel rushed. The tour lasted about 75 minutes and we learned all sorts of interesting things. For $20/person this was a great use of money and time, and my understanding is that even at peak times, you can basically sign up for it same day (I'm not sure how big the groups CAN be, ours was about 20 people)
