Dining Review - Sept/Oct 2021

[Noreen411]

Tuesday 10/5/21
Our day started with our normal routine but we weren’t heading to a park today.

Instead, we headed to Cocoa Beach to meet my sister Jennifer, my brother in law Kevin, and Dana. Dana lives in Florida. My sister and brother in law live in Staten Island but were on a cruise that had a port stop in Port Canaveral. We all spent the day at the beach and had a lot of fun.

It was Dana’s birthday so we wanted to have some sort of birthday treat, but at a beach in the heat, we knew cake and/or cupcakes wouldn’t be a great idea. We stopped at Publix before going to see what they had and we found a large cookie that they wrote Happy Birthday Dana on for us. This would travel well and not melt too much



The beach was a lot of fun and something different to do while we were there. Jen and Kevin got back on their ship, Dana headed home at the end of the day.

For dinner Scott and I went to Saltgrass Steakhouse. It’s not a fancy place; it’s kind of like Outback Steakhouse. That’s not an insult, we like Outback; it’s a decent chain restaurant that’s pretty consistent. Saltgrass is on 535 across from Vistana Resort (not the one we are staying at this trip). We found it on one of our prior trips and liked it. The menu has changed a bit from our last visit.



I had a tropical sangria and Scott had a martini





We shared a bacon cheeseburger and onion straws; Scott also had macaroni and cheese. Our food was very good. We enjoyed it but were too full for dessert. So we ordered dessert to go - Carrot Cake and Cheesecake. We ate some of the dessert later but they were huge portions.

I’m surprised at myself; I forgot to take pictures of the rest of our food. Everything we had was very good and we enjoyed it.

 

[Noreen411]

Wednesday 10/6/21
We spent the day at Epcot.

In France, we got a berry crepe at the crepe stand (the quick service area). We both enjoyed this treat.



From the Food & Wine booths, Scott got a lobster tail. He said this was good, better than he expected.



That night we drove to the Grand Floridian for dinner at Narcoose’s. This was our first time having dinner here.

We had a drink at the bar before dinner. Scott had a martini. I had a mango mojito. Only at Disney would the limes on a glass look like Mickey Mouse; it was adorable. Even Scott’s olives in his martini look like a hidden Mickey from this angle.



We were seated right at our reservation time.

We were brought bread with butter and sea salt; we each received our own butter/salt ramekin. The bread was good so we had to remember not to fill up on it.



For our appetizer we shared the shrimp and crab cake served with herbed remounted sauce and red cabbage slaw. They split it for us. This was very good.



We watched the Magic Kingdom fireworks from the table. They came over to ask if we wanted to go outside and watch from the porch but we were fine at the table. The lights were dimmed in the restaurant and the music played. It was a nice way to watch; not the same experience as standing on Main Street in the Magic Kingdom but still very nice (and not crowded).

For our entrees:
Scott ordered the scallops: Pan-seared Georges Bank Day Boat Scallops - Parisian style gnocchi, peas, ham and truffled Meyer lemon cream.



I ordered the sweet potato gnocchi: Poma Rosa tomato Ragu (plant based).



We also ordered the brussel sprouts: sweet and sour Brussels sprouts with thick cut bacon lardons and sorghum malt gastrique. These were just OK.



We ended up switching entrees, both were good, but surprisingly I preferred the scallops (and I don’t normally like scallops). These were the best scallops I ever ate. Scott loved the gnocchi.

We were stuffed and ordered dessert to go.

Almond crusted cheesecake with lambert cherry sauce. I noticed when I opened it later that my cheesecake was missing the cherry sauce. It was still very good.



Carrot Cake - southern style plant based carrot cake with pineapple popping boba, praline croquet, salted caramel and candied pecan-coconut milk frozen dessert. This was also very good.



We really enjoyed Narcoose’s and will definitely come back. I’m glad we tried another new to us restaurant.

 

[Noreen411]

Thursday 10/7/21
We spent the day at Hollywood Studios.

I wanted to try one of the pop tarts from Woody’s Lunch Box and tried to use mobile order but the first available time was a few hours away. We walked over and I ordered a raspberry pop tart the old fashioned way and had it within a few minutes. It was pretty good. After a bite or two we wrapped it up (love carrying a few little ziploc bags with us) and put it in Scott’s bag for later.



We also bought a Mickey Pumpkin spice cookie that we wrapped up and put in Scott’s bag for later.


Early afternoon we decided to leave the park and planned to go swimming back at the resort.

As we were driving we had a spontaneous change of plans and went to Disney Springs instead to have lunch at the Boathouse. Scott enjoyed it the other day when I had lunch with the ladies from Tampa.

We sat at the bar and shared a few things.
Tuna Poke Appetizer: Yellowfin tuna poke with avocado, mango, soy lime vinaigrette. This was really good, super fresh tasting.


Sea of Cortez Shrimp: Wild caught sea of Cortez shrimp with London dry gin cocktail sauce. Another great choice.


Lobster Roll: Maine style lobster roll. Chilled Maine Lobster, lemon-chive dressing, butter toasted split top bun. This was good too.


We enjoyed our lunch. We don’t normally eat a big lunch like this.

 

[Noreen411]

Thursday 10/7/21 Continued

Later that night for dinner we met Scott’s ex-wife Jen for dinner at Steakhouse71 at the Contemporary. This was the first week the restaurant was open.

We checked in a bit early and wanted to have drinks at the bar first. Both Jen and I ordered the EARidescent Sip-a-bration: Minute Maid premium lemonade and fruity strawberry punch served in a souvenir 50th Celebration Cup with a surprise character and a little bit of magic. They were out of the glasses so brought us the drinks in a regular glass and just charged us for the glow cubes. Scott had a Martini. We enjoyed our drinks.



The hosts were a bit confused and kept losing our reservation. We chalked that up to the restaurant being new. But they sorted it out and we were seated.

For appetizers we shared the Brioche, the Onion Rings, and the Bacon & Eggs. The brioche was good but charging for 2 rolls is a bit odd when the onion rolls at Yachtsman Steakhouse were better and you aren’t charged extra for them. We wanted to try them so were OK with it, but it‘s a bit odd. The onion rings were OK but the batter fell off them like tempura. They both liked the Bacon & Eggs. I tried a piece of the bacon but I won’t eat runny eggs.





For an entree, Jen ordered the Vegetable Wellington and mashed potatoes. She said both were very good. She liked the vegetarian spin on the beef Wellington and said it was something she would definitely have again.




Scott ordered Prime Rib but they were out of it. He asked If he could have a burger which isn’t on the dinner menu but was on the lunch menu. The burger came with fries and he also ordered Mac & Cheese. He said the burger was just OK. He compared it to the burger the other night at Saltgrass and said he preferred the Saltgrass burger. He also said the burgers at Boot Camp (when he was in the Marines) were better too. So he wasn’t a big fan of the burger.



I had the filet mignon and charred asparagus with chimichurri sauce on the side. My food was very good.



For dessert Jen wanted the crème brûlée but they were out of it. We ordered the chocolate layer cake that we all shared. This was a huge piece of cake. It was OK.




Overall we weren’t huge fans of Steakhouse71. I know it’s their first week open so will give it another try in the future.

 

[TwingleMum]

Monday 10/4/21
We spent the morning and early afternoon at Magic Kingdom.

We left Magic Kingdom and drove to Disney Springs deciding to go to Splittsville Bowling. We haven’t bowled in ages. We had so much fun and it was nice to do something different. They have lane-side service so we ordered soda and shared a kids pizza. This was pretty good.

View attachment 641386

For dinner later we drove to the Contemporary and valet parked. We had dinner at California Grill. It was the first night of the special 50th anniversary pre-fixe menu.

I had a Mai Tai and Scott had a martini.

View attachment 641387

We were served bread with a dipping sauce made with roasted tomatoes and chive. This was really good and we had to remind ourselves not to fill up on bread.

View attachment 641388

Since this is a pre-fixe meal, we each had an appetizer, entree, and dessert. It was a lot of food.

For my appetizer I had the sushi trio: blue crab California roll, shrimp tempura roll, and spicy Kazan roll. The spicy Kazan roll was too spicy for me so Scott finished that, but the others were very good.

View attachment 641389

Scott chose the House-made Artisinal-style Duck A’L’Orange Pizza (with no blue cheese): Duck prosciutto and confit, pickled shallots, orange-black mission fig jam, aged blue cheese, arugula. This was really good. Both appetizers were good but I think Scott’s was the better one.

View attachment 641390

For my entree I had the Oak-fired filet of beef; black truffle-brown butter chateau potatoes, golden raisin vinaigrette, cauliflower, roasted tomato butter. This was very good.

View attachment 641394

Scott had the Monterey Bay Cioppino: Pink shrimp, clams, mussels, scallops, butterfish, uni butter and crab sourdough, rich tomato broth, handmade fregola. He enjoyed this; it was so much better than the one he had at Yachtsman Steakhouse.

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For dessert Scott had the Five Magical Bites: Honey, Lemon, Carrot, Strawberry, and Chocolate Bites. This was great. It was a good way to get a taste of different types of sweets.

View attachment 641393

I ordered the Earidiscent Grand Marnier Soufflé: Creamsicle ice cream, macerated Florida citrus.

A manager delivered our desserts and my soufflé was deflated. I mentioned it to the manager and his response was that “it’s delicate”. Even worse was that it wasn’t cooked (It was eggy). When the waitress came by and asked how our desserts were I told her mine was deflated and not cooked; she immediately wanted to fix it and bring another one. I didn’t want another soufflé after being served one that wasn’t cooked so had the 5 bites instead.

View attachment 641392

Everything was great except for the soufflé and the manager’s handling of it. I know soufflés are delicate but if you have them on your menu and it’s the first night of the special 50th anniversary dinner, they should be perfect. It should not have left the kitchen like that.

We enjoyed our meal, but enjoyed the regular menu better than the special 50th pre-fixe menu.

 

[TwingleMum]

Monday 10/4/21
We spent the morning and early afternoon at Magic Kingdom.

We left Magic Kingdom and drove to Disney Springs deciding to go to Splittsville Bowling. We haven’t bowled in ages. We had so much fun and it was nice to do something different. They have lane-side service so we ordered soda and shared a kids pizza. This was pretty good.

View attachment 641386

For dinner later we drove to the Contemporary and valet parked. We had dinner at California Grill. It was the first night of the special 50th anniversary pre-fixe menu.

I had a Mai Tai and Scott had a martini.

View attachment 641387

We were served bread with a dipping sauce made with roasted tomatoes and chive. This was really good and we had to remind ourselves not to fill up on bread.

View attachment 641388

Since this is a pre-fixe meal, we each had an appetizer, entree, and dessert. It was a lot of food.

For my appetizer I had the sushi trio: blue crab California roll, shrimp tempura roll, and spicy Kazan roll. The spicy Kazan roll was too spicy for me so Scott finished that, but the others were very good.

View attachment 641389

Scott chose the House-made Artisinal-style Duck A’L’Orange Pizza (with no blue cheese): Duck prosciutto and confit, pickled shallots, orange-black mission fig jam, aged blue cheese, arugula. This was really good. Both appetizers were good but I think Scott’s was the better one.

View attachment 641390

For my entree I had the Oak-fired filet of beef; black truffle-brown butter chateau potatoes, golden raisin vinaigrette, cauliflower, roasted tomato butter. This was very good.

View attachment 641394

Scott had the Monterey Bay Cioppino: Pink shrimp, clams, mussels, scallops, butterfish, uni butter and crab sourdough, rich tomato broth, handmade fregola. He enjoyed this; it was so much better than the one he had at Yachtsman Steakhouse.

View attachment 641391

For dessert Scott had the Five Magical Bites: Honey, Lemon, Carrot, Strawberry, and Chocolate Bites. This was great. It was a good way to get a taste of different types of sweets.

View attachment 641393

I ordered the Earidiscent Grand Marnier Soufflé: Creamsicle ice cream, macerated Florida citrus.

A manager delivered our desserts and my soufflé was deflated. I mentioned it to the manager and his response was that “it’s delicate”. Even worse was that it wasn’t cooked (It was eggy). When the waitress came by and asked how our desserts were I told her mine was deflated and not cooked; she immediately wanted to fix it and bring another one. I didn’t want another soufflé after being served one that wasn’t cooked so had the 5 bites instead.

View attachment 641392

Everything was great except for the soufflé and the manager’s handling of it. I know soufflés are delicate but if you have them on your menu and it’s the first night of the special 50th anniversary dinner, they should be perfect. It should not have left the kitchen like that.

We enjoyed our meal, but enjoyed the regular menu better than the special 50th pre-fixe menu.

This is totally unacceptable, especially at a Signature Restaurant. The soufflé should never had left the kitchen. And when you pointed out the problem either a new one should have immediately been brought out or you should have been comped someway. Very poor service

 

[ThreeBoyMama]

Great reviews! Thank you for taking the time to share

 

[Noreen411]

Friday 10/8/21
We spent the day at Magic Kingdom.

That evening we met Jen and headed to the Grand Floridian where we had dinner reservations at Citricos.

I had the Magical Beacon Cocktail. Scott had Bourbon and a Coke. Jen had Pomegranate Beer.



For appetizers Scott and I shared the Duck and the Pork Belly. Jen had a strawberry salad. Since I included the menu descriptions of the food on our prior visit and we ordered some of the same things, I’ll just include the descriptions of those that we didn’t order previously.

Strawberry Salad: Chamomile-infused goat cheese, frisée, bacon vinaigrette, spiced sunflower seeds.





For our entrees I had the Cobia, Scott had the tilefish, and Jen had the rigatoni.

House-made Rigatoni: Bolognese, seasonal vegetables, roasted hen of the woods mushrooms, vegan “egg yolk”





Scott and I knew we would enjoy our food since this is our 3rd visit to Citricos this trip. Jen enjoyed her food as well.

For dessert. Scott had the blackberry mousse. Both Jen and I had the chocolate dessert. On her plate in chocolate it said “Happy Birthday.”

Chocolate Torte: Chocolate Financier, Dark chocolate ganache, morello cherries, vanilla mascarpone chantilly.





Citricos is a great restaurant; we’ll definitely be back on future trips,

 

[gosalyn_mallard]

Friday 10/8/21
We spent the day at Magic Kingdom.

That evening we met Jen and headed to the Grand Floridian where we had dinner reservations at Citricos.

I had the Magical Beacon Cocktail. Scott had Bourbon and a Coke. Jen had Pomegranate Beer.

View attachment 648636

For appetizers Scott and I shared the Duck and the Pork Belly. Jen had a strawberry salad. Since I included the menu descriptions of the food on our prior visit and we ordered some of the same things, I’ll just include the descriptions of those that we didn’t order previously.

Strawberry Salad: Chamomile-infused goat cheese, frisée, bacon vinaigrette, spiced sunflower seeds.

View attachment 648637
View attachment 648638
View attachment 648639

For our entrees I had the Cobia, Scott had the tilefish, and Jen had the rigatoni.

House-made Rigatoni: Bolognese, seasonal vegetables, roasted hen of the woods mushrooms, vegan “egg yolk”

View attachment 648640
View attachment 648641
View attachment 648642

Scott and I knew we would enjoy our food since this is our 3rd visit to Citricos this trip. Jen enjoyed her food as well.

For dessert. Scott had the blackberry mousse. Both Jen and I had the chocolate dessert. On her plate in chocolate it said “Happy Birthday.”

Chocolate Torte: Chocolate Financier, Dark chocolate ganache, morello cherries, vanilla mascarpone chantilly.

View attachment 648643
View attachment 648644
View attachment 648645

Citricos is a great restaurant; we’ll definitely be back on future trips,

Wow, Citricos looks so good! Those desserts are beautiful!

 

[Noreen411]

Saturday 10/9/21
After our normal morning routine, we had a change of plans. The last day or so it started getting much more crowded in the parks. Probably the combination of the 50th anniversary and Columbus Day weekend. We decided to leave today instead of tomorrow. We finished packing but didn’t make ourselves crazy rushing.

We headed out about 10:30am. The navigation in the car says it’s 1,107 miles until we are home.

While this is a Disney Dining review, I’ll continue the review for the restaurants we stop at offsite in case anyone else is doing a similar drive and interested.

We stopped at the other Peach World in Georgia and bought some pecans.

While driving we booked our hotel for tonight - Courtyard by Marriott in Florence, SC. We were at the hotel by about 6pm.

We walked to a nearby Longhorn Steakhouse for dinner. There is a Longhorn maybe 45 minutes from our house and we’ve never been there. Every time we’ve passed it, Scott always says he wants to try it. It’s a chain restaurant.

I had White Peach Sangria and Scott had a martini.



For an appetizer we shared the Wild West shrimp. This was good but a bit too spicy for me so Scott ate most of it.



For our entrees Scott had a burger with Mac & Cheese. He enjoyed this. I had salmon with rice and broccoli. My dish was good too.



For dessert we shared the strawberry shortcake. This was very good.


We both enjoyed everything we ate, we may try the Longhorn in New Jersey. It’s not fancy but it was pretty good and since it’s a chain, it should be just as good at home.

 

[rlk]

I am enjoying your reviews and Scott's t-shirts!

 

[starousse]

I just noticed that you guys were able to order burgers at dinner at Steakhouse 71? Did they give you a hard time about it or does it seem like a common practice? I wanted to try to the burgers here but didn't feel like schlepping over for lunchtime. I'd rather try for dinner.

 

[Noreen411]

I just noticed that you guys were able to order burgers at dinner at Steakhouse 71? Did they give you a hard time about it or does it seem like a common practice? I wanted to try to the burgers here but didn't feel like schlepping over for lunchtime. I'd rather try for dinner.

Hi. They didn’t give us a hard time at all. They were out of the Prime Rib that Scott originally wanted so maybe they didn’t want to disappoint him twice.

 

[Noreen411]

Sunday 10/10/21
We didn’t use the gym at the hotel this morning, we just showered and got ready to go.

We left about 6:45am.

We figured once we get home we aren’t going to want to go back out, so we stopped for dinner at Bonefish Grill about 6:45pm in Paramus NJ. We’ve been here before, it’s a chain and pretty consistent. It’s maybe 30 minutes from home.

Scott had a Martini and I had a white sangria. They make the best white sangria.


For an appetizer we had the seared Ahi tuna. Their bread is warm and served with a great dipping sauce. This is one place we always fill up on the bread; it’s that good.



For our entree. We shared the swordfish (it was a seasonal special). Scott also ordered bacon Mac & cheese.



We were stuffed but couldn’t pass up a piece of their key lime cake to go. This is one of my favorite desserts.


I know it’s not Disney food, but since it’s part of our trip I figured I’d include it here. The food is always good here.

The cats were happy to see us when we got home.

 

[Noreen411]

Monday 10/11/21
We were home doing all the after vacation chores like going through mail, unpacking, etc. But since we originally would have just gotten home today, we tried to keep the vacation mode going.

We went out to dinner to a restaurant maybe 30 minutes from home - RP Prime Steakhouse in Mahwah NJ.

Scott had a Martini and I had a White Sangria


For appetizers we had the bacon and the tuna tartare. Their tuna tartare is really good. This isn’t the full order of the bacon, the waiter started serving it to us before I was able to get a picture of the whole plate.




The salad was nice, light, and refreshing. We don’t know what type of dressing they use, but it’s good. I only took a picture of one salad as they were identical.


For our entree we shared the veal chop parmigiana which is served with spaghetti. It’s a huge portion. They split the dish for us in the kitchen which was really nice. We each had our own bowls of spaghetti so only one picture. Scott had the veal with the bone and I had the non bone portion. I know it’s a bit odd that we went to a steakhouse and didn’t order steak. Their filet mignon is great and what I usually order here. We were both in the mood for veal, have had it before and know it’s really good.





Even sharing we didn’t finish our food and brought home leftovers. I don’t think we ordered dessert, we were too stuffed.

After this meal, it’s back to normal. Vacation mode is over.

 

[Noreen411]

Final Thoughts
This was a great trip. We enjoyed driving to Florida and still love Disney. I’ve had the timeshare for years and am really glad I do as it makes the trip easier having the space and amenities of a condo rather than a hotel room. We like to have a simple breakfast and the kitchen makes it easy.

We tried some new restaurants this trip and now have some new favorites.

I won’t stress as much next trip if I don’t get all the restaurants I want 60 days out as we can keep changing them as we go with people cancelling.

If you have any questions, please ask; I love talking about my vacations.
I want to do a trip report/travelogue also but haven’t started that yet.

Noreen

 

[ThreeBoyMama]

Loved your report and the bonus food pics! There is a Bonefish Grill about five minutes away from me and I’ve never been. Might need to remedy that!

 

[DonTheDuck]

Great reviews thank you!

 

[purpliequeen]

Awesome report. Thank you so much!

 

[Raeven]

I really enjoyed your report! Shula's is amazing, we go on every trip. I'm a big mac and cheese fan too and all of those mac and cheese dishes looked delicious!