Final Boarding Call: Lunch at Maria & Enzo's
At long last, the reservation I'd been waiting for was here: a late lunch (3:15pm) at
Maria & Enzo's, a new-ish restaurant in Disney Springs.
We checked in early for our "flight reservation" at the checkin counter, which is themed like an airport's ticket counter at the gate. IIRC the checkin hosts also wear uniforms that resemble flight attendants. We were seated immediately, as lunch service was pretty much over. There was one other party wrapping up lunch when we entered, and then two parties were seated while we ate.
Walking into the restaurant feels very grand, like entering a ballroom. Huge, gorgeous windows on the far side give a beautiful view of the lake, hot air balloon, and Saratoga Springs. I am an aviation lover, so the Imagineered backstory behind Maria & Enzo's plays directly to my heart. The beautiful theme and atmosphere, which I think is influenced by the jazz age and travel of that era, was what I looked forward to most here. And it did not disappoint!
Unfortunately, I have to disappoint all of you instead because I took horribly unworthy photos. You'll have to experience it in person for yourselves
There's upper story seating in addition to the main level, and there's a "first class lounge" (although imo it did not seem very first class, but more like an overflow room
).
(Back of the menu)
Feeling sun-weary from that blistering hot safari, I ordered a mocktail, the
Sicilian Blush: blood orange juice, pomegranate juice, lime, mint, simple syrup, club soda | $6
It was refreshing on such a hot day! If I had to describe the taste, I'd say one part club soda, one part blood orange San Pellegrino, one part pomegranate San Pellegrino. And a mint leaf
Because I had seen beautiful photos of huge chicken parmesans pounded thin and wide until they were the size of a dinner plate (!!!) on M&E's Yelp page, I was set on ordering that myself. But at the time, the lunch menu only offered chicken parmesan in a prix fixe menu, so I ordered the caesar salad along with it. For $21 I thought it was a good deal.
At some point a caesar salad is simply a caesar salad and there isn't much to say. This one had excellent olive croutons, great dressing, and nicely shaved parmesan.
This was good; not exciting, but done well enough. The tomato sauce underneath was sour and watery, but the chicken itself was fine. Although their menu warns of this, there isn't actually parmesan on top, it's mozzarella. I felt like it was a good size for lunch: smaller than usual Disney portions, and I still did not finish it.
Also here I must add there was some kind of bread service, I didn't take photos of it, and I think T had it all. IIRC it was just plain bread, possibly those thin long "breadsticks," and olive oil.
T ordered the
Sicilian Oven Baked Pasta, which may have a different name now, but the ingredients will probably be similar: Sicilian baked pasta, meat ragu, peas, zucchini, caciocavallo cheese | $23.
As per usual, we only have one photo of the star of the meal. Like photographing an elusive unicorn in the forest, we have but a glimpse, and hardly a good one at that.
So this was definitely ugly delicious, but delicious. Our waiter played it cool, asking T how he liked it, and when T replied with how great it was, he went into total fanboy mode! He was super enthusiastic and ready to talk about how it's his favorite dish on their menu
You could tell he was like, waiting with bated breath for T to respond positively so he could gush over it too. Suffice to say, I had a few bites and it really was excellent. T practically inhaled it all. Highly recommended if you visit.
And so concludes our pre-flight lunch at Maria & Enzo's! I believe the bill was around $60ish with tax and tip, and there wasn't a Tables in Wonderland discount at the time. Lunch overall was so pleasant, calm, and relaxing -- a nice experience to say farewell to Disney, at least until we returned in June.
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That concludes this dining report, and I am going to skip over any "best of" categories for this round. I just didn't feel like we did enough ~exciting~ dining for it to matter...
...but more importantly, I am going to be back in WDW in two days for Food & Wine Festival!
I will be solo this time, which is almost tradition now -- I went this exact same time last year, solo, just for Food & Wine, but during the week instead of on a weekend. (It was during Hurricane Irma, remember her?) I don't have any TS dining on the agenda, so we'll see if there's anything worthy of a dining report once I'm back
Thank you for reading and chatting along the way.
And if anyone else is headed to WDW this weekend, I always wear a big black sunhat in the parks: please feel free to say hi!
Now I’m off to read your June report!
Your dinner at F&G looks like a perfect night! Getting me so excited for my trip in October for F&W!
I was so sad to cancel, but at least I'll always have the planning spreadsheet to remember it by 
Also, the housing prices here are astronomical. Already hoping to move back to our beloved pdx in a few years! I don't suppose you will be making a move back west too someday?
