Dining Review - September/October 2023

[Noreen411]

Introduction and a bit about our trip:

Noreen - Senior Vice President at an Investment Banking firm in New York City. I will be the author of the report.

Scott - my husband; Independent Contractor

I’m going to post a picture (or few) of Scott and I so you see what we look like







I also started working on a review/travelogue of our trip that I have to finish then get posted.

We drove from Northern New Jersey to Florida.

We spent the time at Disney at a sister resort to our timeshare (Vistana Resort) and stayed at Vistana Villages. Both are great properties; we enjoy the large 24 hour fitness center at Vistana Villages so have been choosing this resort when available lately.

We were away from Thursday 9/21/23 until Saturday 10/7/23

We have Disney World annual passes. We have Incredipass as out of state pass holders.

I logged onto Disney’s app or website 60 days before our trip each morning right before 6am when they open and would book dinner reservations. I kept checking and changing things as we went along. We continued making changes even when we were already at Disney, including some nights choosing to cancel our dinner reservations and wing it.

We had a few offsite meals that I will review as well.

Where you see well written descriptions of the dishes, I copied it from the menu.

During our trip, we normally had a basic breakfast in the timeshare and some lunches were things like a protein bar and some baby carrots, so I won’t review those meals.

Our normal routine most days was to go to the gym in the morning, come back to the villa to shower and get dressed, then have breakfast before leaving for the park. Since we have annual passes, sometimes we would hop to another park during the day or after dinner.

 

[Noreen411]

Thursday 9/21/23
We left our house at 4:30am to start the drive; a little later than our goal of leaving at 4am.

We stopped in Santee, South Carolina around 6pm and checked into the Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott for the night. We booked this while driving when we were ready to stop.

We went to Clark’s Restaurant for dinner and sat at the bar to eat. We enjoy sitting at the bar.





Scott had a Martini and I had a White Sangria.



For dinner I had the Roasted Chicken: tender and juicy slow roasted baked chicken with aromatic vegetables, served over a bed or our savory rice and drizzled with a kale and garlic aioli, served with our fresh seasonal vegetables. I asked for the aioli on the side. Scott took the meat off the bone for me; I have some weird food quirks and won’t eat food that looked like it did when alive or on a bone. Once off the bone this was really good. I didn’t use the aioli and didn’t eat the collard greens.



Scott had the Fried Chicken: most famous item on the menu - hormone free chicken breaded in lightly seasoned flour fried until gold brown, served with mixed green beans and red skinned mashed potatoes. Scott asked for fries instead of the green beans and mashed potatoes. Scott said this was OK but my chicken was better.



For dessert we shared the Butter Pecan Turtle: chunks of homemade pecan pie, creamy butter pecan ice cream, chocolate syrup and topped with whipped cream and fresh pecans. This was very good.



We would definitely eat at Clark’s again if we were stopping in Santee SC. We enjoyed the food and chatting with the bartender and other customers.

 

[Noreen411]

Friday 9/22/23
The hotel has an included breakfast that we enjoyed. There were a decent amount of options to choose from. My favorite was the cutest little waffle makers that we used. You pour the batter in, flip it over, it beeps and you have waffles. I took some pictures of the breakfast area but didn’t get it all.










This was my plate. Another food quirk…I don’t like my food touching each other. I had some syrup on the side that I dipped my waffles in since I don’t like them getting soggy.


Scott’s breakfast plate is below. He likes his food all together.


We left about 7:25am to continue our drive to Florida.

 

[Noreen411]

Friday 9/22/23 Continued
By the time we got to Vistana Villages, checked in, went to Publix for some groceries, unpacked, cleaned the villa and went out to dinner it was about 7. We both overpack so it takes us a while to get ourselves settled in.

We didn’t make any dinner reservations for tonight since we weren’t sure what time we would get here or what we would be in the mood for.

We decided to go to Saltgrass Steakhouse on 535 across from Vistana Resort (not the one we’re staying at which is Vistana Villages). We’ve been here before on prior trips and always enjoyed it. We sat at the bar to eat.

This is probably my favorite time on vacation…you have arrived and settled into your villa and you still have the whole trip in front of you to look forward to. That’s a great feeling.

Scott had a Martini. I had a Tropical Sangria: Absolut Vodka, Malibu Coconut Rum, Pineapple, Cranberry & Orange juices, topped with Calabrian “private bin” Moscato and Q Ginger ale. The drinks were tasty.



The salad and bread remind me of the ones you get at Outback; that’s not a complaint, we like Outback, it’s just an observation.




We shared the Salmon Oscar with Macaroni and Cheese: Lump crab meat, lemon butter, red pepper flakes, capers, fried asparagus. This was a pretty good meal. Scott loves macaroni and cheese and will order it whenever he sees it on the menu; I can take it or leave it. The fried asparagus was very tasty. We’ve had this dish before on prior trips.



We also added the fried shrimp add-on. While a little spicy, it was very good.


For dessert we had the chocolate cake. This was pretty good, but not our favorite dessert.


We will often share meals or it’s just too much food.

Saltgrass is a great offsite restaurant, we both enjoy it.

 

[nw6675]

I remember your previous reports!

 

[Noreen411]

I remember your previous reports!

Hi
I enjoy doing them - it’s like re living the trip

 

[Noreen411]

Saturday 9/23/23
We did a four park challenge today and went to all 4 of the Disney theme parks. We started at Animal Kingdom, went to Hollywood Studios, Epcot, and ended the night at Magic Kingdom. We didn’t book any dinner reservation for tonight since we weren’t sure where we would be at what time and didn’t want to lock ourselves into a set dinner time.

We ended up going back to Saltgrass Steakhouse for dinner. We were tired after the 4 parks and wanted something easy. We sat at the bar again for dinner and the same bartender from yesterday took care of us. We enjoy the interaction with friendly employees and other customers.

Scott had an Old Fashioned and I had a Pomegranate Mojito: Bacardi Superior Rum, Liber & Co. Real Grenadine syrup, fresh mint and lime juice, topped with club soda. The drinks were very good.


We shared a bacon cheeseburger with fries. We added the grilled shrimp add-on. Scott also ordered the macaroni and cheese. The food was very good.




For dessert we shared the pumpkin cheesecake. This was delicious; we really liked it.


I know it’s a Disney Dining review and I haven’t gotten to any Disney food yet. We start eating Disney food tomorrow.

 

[nw6675]

We used to live somewhere with a Saltgrass. I always thought it was better than the similar chains.

 

[Noreen411]

We used to live somewhere with a Saltgrass. I always thought it was better than the similar chains.

Hi. I just checked their locations; unfortunately none are near where we live in Northern New Jersey. I guess we’ll have to wait for our next Disney trip to enjoy Saltgrass again. It’s not fancy, but it’s pretty consistent and we’ve always enjoyed our meals there.

 

[Noreen411]

Sunday 9/24/23
I was looking on the Disney app in the morning and was pleasantly surprised to see a dinner reservation at Space 220 show up for 8:30 tonight so I booked it. We changed a lot of reservations throughout the trip.

We went to Disney Springs this morning and did some shopping.

We decided to have lunch at the Boathouse at Disney Springs.


It was crowded and we were lucky to find two seats at the bar (where we wanted to sit).


Scott had a Beefeater gin straight with lime. I had Duck Duck Razz: Stoli Razberi, Peach Schnapps, Blue Curaçao, Lemon Juice, Simple syrup. This drink is adorable and tastes good, but it’s a lot stronger than it looks.


We shared most of what we ordered.

We started with 6 Wild Caught Sea of Cortez Shrimp: London dry gin cocktail sauce. The shrimp are really good and super fresh tasting.


Maine Style Lobster Roll: Chilled Maine Lobster, lemon-chive dressing, buttered toasted split top bun. This is normally served with kettle chips but we asked for French fries instead. Scott enjoyed the lobster roll, but I wasn’t crazy about it so gave him my half. The fries were really good (it’s rare for me to meet a French fry I don’t like).


Shrimp & Andouille Mac N Cheese: Shrimp, smoked sausage and pippette pasta in spicy cheddar beer sauce. This was for Scott since I don’t like spicy food, and can take or leave Mac & cheese in general. They initially brought him the plain macaroni & cheese but quickly corrected it and brought him the shrimp and andouille one. Scott enjoyed this. I took a bite to taste it but it wasn’t really something I would eat and it was a bit spicy.


I took a picture of the plain Mac & cheese when they delivered it, it was quickly replaced with the correct mac & cheese so we didn’t eat it, just took a picture.


We also received their rolls which had a sort of cinnamon/honey type glaze on them. These were really good. I don’t remember the cinnamon/honey glaze from our prior trips here; I thought it had more of a butter glaze, but maybe this is special for Sunday Brunch. They had a special brunch menu, but we ordered from the regular menu. Whatever the reason the glaze was different these were fantastic and I ate most of them.

 

[Noreen411]

Sunday 9/24/23 Continued
We went to Epcot later and went to Space 220 when it was time for our dinner reservation. It’s very cute how you go up in an elevator that makes it seem like you are blasting into space.


We had a nice table in the back but on a raised platform so had a good view of the whole room and the windows. This is the first time we’re eating in the dining room at Space 220. We ate in the lounge during our last trip and had drinks, a few appetizers and dessert but not a full meal. In the dining room it’s a pre-fixed meal and we each get an appetizer, entree, and dessert. We made sure to order different things and shared them all.


Scott had a Makers Bourbon. I had the Illumination: Bacardi, Malibu, passion fruit, blood orange, pineapple, lime sour, passion fruit boba.


For appetizers we had
Starry Calamari: Fried calamari, italian cherry peppers, spicy marinara, roasted pepper citrus aioli. We really enjoyed the calamari, it’s probably the best fried calamari we’ve had at Disney. It was crispy and not greasy.


Neptuna Tartare: sushi grade yellow fin tuna, avocado crema, mango oculi’s, edamame, wonton crisp, yuzu dressing. This was also good. We both enjoyed it.


For entrees we had
Galactic Miso Salmon: Miso glazed salmon, glazed rainbow carrots, edamame, celeriac purée. This was decent, but the salmon was on the dry side. We normally like salmon cooked a bit more but this was a little too dry for us. When we watch cooking shows like Hell’s Kitchen or Masterchef, Gordon Ramsay expects the salmon to be pink and glistening and will have a fit when it’s cooked a bit longer. We prefer it that bit longer, but this was beyond that. It wasn’t bad, the flavor was good, and we ate it, but we would try something different if we have dinner here again.


Slow Rotation Zero-G Short Rib: Braised short rib, cheddar grits, bacon, rainbow carrots, haricots verts. The short rib was well cooked, not fatty like short ribs sometimes can be. We enjoyed this; it was the better of the two entrees.


For dessert we had
Chocolate Cheesecake: whipped chocolate ganache, chocolate sauce, white chocolate crunch pearls, cookie crumbs, dark chocolate shards


Chocolate and Raspberry cake: raspberry chocolate cremeux, raspberry marmalade, dark chocolate ganache, cocoa nib glaze


The desserts were OK, not spectacular, but decent. We probably would try something different for dessert next time.

By the time we finished, the restaurant was pretty empty.


We enjoyed our meal at Space 220 and would come back again. I think we prefer the lounge over the restaurant as it gives you the flexibility of either ordering ala carte or the pre-fixed meal. It’s a lot of food with the pre-fixed meal.

 

[ThreeBoyMama]

Glad to see you doing another report! Looks like you guys are off to a great start.

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Hurrah! Always enjoy your reports. I agree with you on that first night of vacation feeling -- nothing like it. Also very much agree on Space 220 lounge over dining room. And, I too, have pretty much never met a french fry (or any potato dish) that I didn't like. Looking forward to hearing about your other dining adventures.

 

[Noreen411]

Glad to see you doing another report! Looks like you guys are off to a great start.

Thank you for joining

 

[Noreen411]

Hurrah! Always enjoy your reports. I agree with you on that first night of vacation feeling -- nothing like it. Also very much agree on Space 220 lounge over dining room. And, I too, have pretty much never met a french fry (or any potato dish) that I didn't like. Looking forward to hearing about your other dining adventures.

Hi. Best feeling in the world that first night of vacation. Hoping to get a bit more written up soon.

 

[Noreen411]

Monday 9/25/23
We spent the day at Hollywood Studios.

We had dinner at Roundup Rodeo. We were excited to try a new restaurant.


We both drank soda.

The prospector’s homemade cheddar biscuits served with sweet pepper jelly were great. They didn’t even need the jelly, just the biscuits themselves were really good.



All three of the greens were brought to the table. When the waiter was talking to us we started to tell him which one we wanted and he said he’s going to bring all of them.

Rootin Tootin Tomato Salad: Cucumbers, picked red onion, white balsamic vinaigrette. We didn’t think we would like this one since we don’t like balsamic, but it was surprisingly very good.



Rex’s Romaine and Kale salad: Apples, dried cranberries, pumpkin seeds, green goddess dressing. This was pretty good too.



Wheezy’s Watermelon said with fresh-torn mint. This was OK, but the watermelon wasn’t as sweet as we expected it to be.

 

[Noreen411]

Monday 9/25/23 Continued
The platter (main course) of the house-smoked items came out next. This includes Evil Dr Smoked ribs, Buttercups’ beef brisket, sausage in my boot, and BBQ chicken. We were also offered the wood plank salmon so had that as well. Unfortunately, we didn’t enjoy the meat very much. The salmon didn’t taste at all like salmon; I’m not sure what it tasted like, not much of anything really. The brisket was very fatty. The chicken was odd tasting to us but we think it’s just the smoky flavor. The ribs were pretty good once Scott pulled the meat off the bone for me. The sausage was OK.




We chose four of the sides: Married Spuds (loaded potato barrels), fried pickles (Scott likes pickles but I don’t), Mac and cheese (have to get this if it’s on the menu since Scott is a Mac & cheese lover), and campfire-roasted vegetables. It was nice to have so many different sides to try but they were all just OK. The waiter told us to pick four to start and he would bring us others if we wanted; we didn’t want any others.





For dessert I had the Lemon and Blueberry cheesecake; Scott had the Cupcake a la Forky. He enjoyed his cupcake. My cheesecake didn’t have much taste so I didn’t eat it.




The restaurant is very cute and well themed. The majority of the seats are hard uncomfortable ones with a handful of softer seats. We were originally led to a table with hard seats (one of my pet peeves) so asked if we could have a different table with softer seats and they were able to accommodate the request. The waiter was very nice and attentive. This was a one and done for us as the only thing we really enjoyed were the biscuits and the greens. I’m glad we gave it a try.

 

[Noreen411]

Tuesday 9/26/23
We weren’t going to a park today; instead we’re going to Cocoa Beach. My sister Jennifer and her husband Kevin were on a cruise on Oasis of the Seas and they had a port stop in Port Canaveral. Dana lives in Florida and planned to drive over to Cocoa Beach with her son Aaron. The plan is to meet at Cocoa Beach in the afternoon.

We skipped breakfast planning to have an early lunch at Earl of Sandwich.

We went to an owner’s presentation at the resort this morning and while we learned a few things, it ended up being more of a sales push for us to buy more points than anything else.

We went to Disney Springs to get cookies to bring Dana from Gideon’s; it’s almost her birthday and she’s never tried them. We got a variety of cookies for Dana, and also got a few things for us - a Peanut Butter cold brew, a slice of vanilla Oreo cake, and a few crumb cake cookies for us to freeze and bring home.

While I waited in the standby line at Gideon’s Scott went to pick up Earl of Sandwich for us. He was back before it was our turn to go into Gideon’s.

We brought everything back to the villa, froze our cake and the crumb cake cookies to come home with us, made sure we had Dana’s cookies in the Gideon’s box/bag ready to go, then ate our lunch before heading to Cocoa Beach.






Scott had the Italian: Salami, Capicola, ham, pepperoni, mozzarella, rom tomato, Italian seasoning, and Italian dressing. He really enjoyed it.


I had the Original: Roast Beef, cheddar, and horseradish sauce (light on the sauce). This is always a good sandwich.


Even though we weren’t sitting at Earl of Sandwich enjoying our lunch, it was still really good. We were running a little late so decided to have him get them to go while I stood on the standby line at Gideon’s since they didn’t have a virtual queue today.

 

[Noreen411]

Tuesday 9/26/23 Continued
We drove to Cocoa Beach and met Jen & Kevin at the beach. It wasn’t a bright sunny day, it was kind of dreary. We hung out for a while but then it started to rain with lightening and thunder so we packed up and headed to Fishlips instead. Scott and I suggested it since we had dinner here years ago the night before a cruise out of Port Canaveral. It’s near the port, looks out over the water, and is a nice place to hang out. It was very empty so we didn’t feel bad hanging out there for a while. We were the practically the only customers in dining room and just a few people were at the bar. Dana and Aaron met us at Fishlips.



It was nice to see everyone and we spent a while just hanging out, laughing, and enjoying being together. The only negative is the hard seats (my pet peeve) but what can you do? I also forgot to take pictures of the menu so don’t have well written descriptions of the food.

Scott and I shared a tuna poke appetizer not being very hungry since we had our Earl of Sandwich lunch earlier.



I tried to get pictures of some of the food others ordered before they dug in.

I may not have everything that was ordered, but my sister Jen had the chicken nachos and she thought they were great.


Aaron had boneless wings and mozzarella sticks and he thought it was very good too



Dana had a chicken sandwich with French fries and liked it.



I don’t remember what Kevin had and don’t have a picture to jog my memory.

This is a really good place if you are near Port Canaveral.

Dana was very excited to finally get to try Gideon’s cookies. She opened the box up and tried a little of a few them before we left the restaurant.

While this wasn’t our original plan for the day, it ended up being a lot of fun.

 

[Noreen411]

Tuesday 9/26/23 Continued
Driving back towards Disney, it was a crazy Florida downpour. Later Scott and I went to dinner at Saltgrass Steakhouse, sat at the bar, and the same bartender was there to take care of us.


I had a Pomegranate Mojito and Scott had a Martini


The bread is good as always


We shared our food, ordering the filet with Mac & cheese, added grilled shrimp, and french fries. Everything was really good.




For dessert we shared the pumpkin cheesecake. We are really enjoying this cake


The bartender had us laughing. She’s gotten to know us a bit now that we‘ve been here a few times and jokes around with us. We’re easy going and have fun whatever we’re doing. Scott asked for a double espresso and her response was “This isn’t Starbucks” and she gave him a regular coffee. We are really enjoying not just the food and drinks here, but the interaction with the bartender and the other customers we’ve chatted with too.