Day 3
Food & Wine, Connections Eatery - Epcot
Columbia Harbour House + Auntie Gravity's Galactic Goodies - MK
We had breakfast in the room before making our way to the monorail and heading over to Epcot. Had a great day there with reasonable crowds. Went on Spaceship Earth, Test Track, Nemo, Soarin and Remy and decided to finally take a break for some lunch. I really wanted to try the Food & Wine booth in France but wow, was that line long. Seemed like everyone had the same idea!
So we walked a bit and spotted the Brazilian booth and I got the Pao de Queijo, aka cheese bread. This was also on my must have list and I found it quite good! I liked the texture and flavor of both of the breads. I also got my first Fromage Montage stamp there.
Rating 7/10
From there we decided to stop at Morocco inside the old Tangierine Cafe. This was primarily because they had good vegetarian options for my sister who often ends up with the short of end the stick at Disney, and also because they had some open air seating. It was inside, but not totally enclosed, and provided some good shade and air conditioning. It was boiling hot out and taking the time to sit and cool off was a big help.
I ordered a few lemon-garlic chicken kababs, a few fried falafel pitas, and a few stone baked Moroccan bread with dipping sauces for us to share (my sister skipped the chicken). This was a big hit with everyone for the most part. My son was not a fan of the falafel which surprised me. The bread and dipping sauces was popular and I ended up getting an additional order. I knew everyone would eat the hummus, but I was partial to the zaalouk and zhoug dips. Eggplant and cilantro are two of my favorite flavors so no surprise I leaned towards those options. The chicken kabob was pretty standard, the garlic aioli added a nice flavor and the salad it came was fresh and a good addition. Unfortunately I missed a photo of the dips.
Rating - chicken and falafel - 7/10
We had planned to continue our walk around the countries but I ended up getting an unexpected Genie+LL for Frozen Ever After that started soon after, so instead we caught the boat to Canada and walked over there. Then we stopped in Mexico and finally made our way to our GoTC for the virtual queue (the ride was amazing!).
At this point I really just wanted to hop to the MK, but my brother and son were requesting a stop for a break so we walked into the nearest location, the Connections Eatery.
Here my sister and son each had a mango-coconut milk shake. They must have liked it because they drank every last drop! My brother and I each got the classic burger meal with no cheese, and my mom had the kids chicken strips. This was one of our more disappointing meals. My brother's burger was ordered with no cheese or pickles and came with both. Both our burgers were dry, barely warm, and just not good. The fries were hard and luke warm at best. We won't return there.
Rating - Mango-coconut milk shake 8/10, Food 3/10
Finally made our way over to the monorail and hopped to the MK. Went on Buzz, Pirates, saw the Tiki birds, Haunted Mansion, IASW, saw the fireworks and used our SDMT ILL. Worked up an appetite and made a stop at Columbia Harbour House. This is an old favorite of ours that we have enjoyed for YEARS. I got the trio platter, my mom and son got the salmon, my brother got chicken strips and my sister got the Hail to the Leaf salad minus the chicken. My brother had ordered rice as his side instead of fries, I had ordered green beans as my side instead of fries, and my mom had ordered her fish with rice and green beans and ended up with fries and green beans.
They gave me my tray and I didn't even notice till I sat that all our orders had fries instead of the sides we selected (they repeated the order back to us and had it correct on our receipt as well). Not sure what happened, this basically kept happening at every counter service.
My brother went and swapped his fries for rice, I just gave up and didn't bother to go switch for the green beans. My sister raved about her salad which also looked fresh and well prepared. The salmon was okay, no big complaints but nothing great. My trio platter was surprisingly bland and overcooked. The fish portion was terrible compared to previous fish I had there, hard and just not good. The fried shrimp were edible but again, pretty hard. I didn't even want the chicken but it came with the order. The fries were not the nice large wedges that usually come with fried fish. This counter service just didn't wow us and was not nearly as good as in years past. I hope it goes back to its former glory. I rated it a 4.5 because my sister was pleased with her salad but would have given it a 3/10 otherwise.
I only took a photo of my trio meal.
Rating 4.5/10
Last but not least, we got some ice cream right before Auntie Gravity's Galactic Goodies closed for the evening. This is never my personal favorite, for soft serve I find it grainy and prefer a smoother/creamier consistency but my family was demanding ice cream lol. My mom got a float, I got a brownie sundae and everyone else soft serve cups. They were all fine, just very melty immediately and again the texture was grainy as usual. (for comparison I loved the soft serve they used to have in France but it's disappeared).
Rating 5/10