Two Germans Dine Deluxe Again ... (FINISHED!)

[Linda67]

Another wonderful review

I love the picture of you sitting wrapped in a table cloth

You have just got me very excited about my HDB reservation; it is the one ADR that I have often considered cancelling but I really think we should give it a try

 

[nicole0992]

I read this entire thread from start to finish today. Your reviews are wonderful. So many of the restaurants you have reviewed are ones I have on my list for February. Looking forward to reading the rest.

Thank you so much for taking the time to do this for us!

 

[NessieBird]

Thank you so much for your really nice and cute post!
I'm glad that looking at my kitties made you remember yours with a smile. I love and adore them, even though they sometimes make our lives a living hell. The other night the red tomcat, that ever-active little bringer of chaos and mayhem, threw everything off the drawer that was on there, pushed stuff around for a couple of hours on the floor, then climbed all over on my husband trying to lick his face and screaming for food (as if, at two in the morning!). And then he managed to flick the lamp switch and turn on the light - that was when he finally had us wide awake. I constantly pray that this was just by accident and he won't show us that little trick every night now!

Ha HA! That story made me laugh, imagining him flicking on the light. Hilarious
Looking forward to the rest of your reviews!

 

[librarygeek]

I cannot agree with you more about the air conditioning! I find that I must be a naturally cold person, because I'm usually chilly in places that aren't even all that cool. Especially in Florida I find the AC a problem - it's like they are overcompensating for the heat outside and just don't realize that making it super cold inside doesn't make up for the fact that it's super hot outside. I am thinking about bringing a sweater or light sweatshirt with me around Disney just so I don't freeze during my meals. You're already dressed in shorts and t-shirts anyway, so they should take that into account when setting the AC levels.

 

[librarygeek]

I cannot agree with you more about the air conditioning! I find that I must be a naturally cold person, because I'm usually chilly in places that aren't even all that cool. Especially in Florida I find the AC a problem - it's like they are overcompensating for the heat outside and just don't realize that making it super cold inside doesn't make up for the fact that it's super hot outside. I am thinking about bringing a sweater or light sweatshirt with me around Disney just so I don't freeze during my meals. You're already dressed in shorts and t-shirts anyway, so they should take that into account when setting the AC levels.

 

[smile4stamps]

Hello! I stumbled upon your reviews as I was trying to satisfy my cravings for WDW dining! You have some great reviews!

I'm really sad you didn't like the Goat's Town salad at Raglan Road though! That is something both my hubby and I loved and actually the one thing that may convince him to return to WDW!

 

[Pinkgirl]

Great update. I'm another one with you about the AC. We visit in August and I always take a little cardigan with me to wear over my vest or dress when we go to a restaurant. Its even worse if you have just been caught in a downpour and then venture into an AC'd shop or restaurant.

 

[annichan]

Thank you so much for all your replies, everybody! Work has been crazy busy lately so I am really struggling to find the time to write these reviews adequately and not just make them really brief, so thank you all for your patience in waiting for the next instalments!

Brown Derby is GREAT! The price might be less than other signatures and it might not be quite as fancy as some... but our dishes were outstanding.... so much we went back for lunch in the same trip. Here's some of what we had (detailed review - see the link below for 2010 dining review).

Thank you for your review - that sounds wonderful, especially the oyster and brie soup sounds intriguing!

It's a statewide phenomenon. Everywhere in Florida is an ice chest in the summer. Partly due to the change in temp between outside and inside. Partly because of the temps the AC is set at. Most Floridian women that I know keep a light sweater or shawl in their car/bag just for that reason when they go out.

Amazing. I will just have to remember to bring a sweater next time ...

So true! I am also a Floridian woman, and in the summer months I never go to any restaurant, mall, movie theater, or church without a sweater in hand. As a result, I use sweaters all year round - in the winter I remove them when I come inside, and in the summer I remove them when I go outside!

I'm glad to hear that you all agree with me! I was thinking that maybe I just overreacted, especially since DH wasn't feeling anywhere near as cold as I did. (But then again, that has got to be a universal male-female phenomenon, doesn't it? )

I think you'll find that many women think it's too cold but in this guy's opinion I have never felt any Disney restaurant in my vast dining experience has been too cold and some instances (especially at the F&W fest) the venues have been way too warm to be comfortable for me. I'm also the type that complains about the ridiculously hot water temperatures at Disney pools. When we were at SAB in May it was a bathtub and not enjoyable at all.

See my post above
I'm with you regarding the water temperatues, though - I really don't like it when a pool has neraly body temperature! I don't remember finding the pools at Wilderness Lodge and the Beach Club too warm, but I really did not enjoy the overheated Adult Pool on the Disney Magic during our recent Mediterranean cruise. Not refreshing at all to jump into that pool - and no, I'm not talking about the hot tubs !

Every dish we ordered was WAY too salty! I went with my Grandma, and we both like things heavy on the salt....so for us to find the salt level overwhelming is really a concern. Our server didn't do a good job either...I couldn't even see him anywhere for 3/4 of our meal.

That said, I do want to give Kouzzina another try someday. I went shortly after it opened so I'm hoping they've ironed out some of the kinks.

I see what you mean. I also eat much too much salt, so to think that I would find things too salty ... Yuk, that must have been bad! (Incidentally, do you have the same saying as we do in Germany, "when the food is too salty, it means that the cook is in love"? He must have been truly infatuated then!)

Loved reading your review of BD and seeing the great pics of the food.

Having never visited Germany I had no idea the A/C is lacking there in warm weather, most interesting

Excellent review

Yes, maybe it is different in different places, so I can't really talk about all of Germany here - but in this Northern German town which usually does not get all that hot weather for all that very long in summer, it definitely gets unbearable once it DOES get hot!

I can't wait to see your Boma review! It's one of the places I am most looking forward to trying during our upcoming trip.

Sorry for taking so long - I will have it up in a minute!

I've really enjoyed reading your dining review--it gives me so many great ideas for my next trip! (I snuck back in time and read your previous one, too--I couldn't resist!)

I was quite convinced that I was going to have the Cobb salad at the Brown Derby, but I may have to reconsider after seeing your tuna appetizer. It looks INCREDIBLE.

Thanks for reading my previous review too! THat tuna appetizer was absolutely heavenly. For me, it was much better than the Cobb Salad (which I had last time), but that was also due to the fact that the Cobb had so much blue cheese and I didn't really like that.

 

[annichan]

This tuna thing looks indeed very funny! But good to hear that it also tastes delicious. We will eat lunch at the Brown Derby in October and the tuna appetizer is on my list of possibilities...

Oooh, I envy you for getting to go back in October! I will probably have to wait until late 2013 to go back ... But then again, I do have my back-to-back Disney cruises in August 2012 to look forward to!

Another wonderful review

I love the picture of you sitting wrapped in a table cloth

You have just got me very excited about my HDB reservation; it is the one ADR that I have often considered cancelling but I really think we should give it a try

I know, I looked so silly wrapped in that table cloth - but our server was really so cute, she took really good care to drape it all around me, very sweet and motherly!

I read this entire thread from start to finish today. Your reviews are wonderful. So many of the restaurants you have reviewed are ones I have on my list for February. Looking forward to reading the rest.

Thank you so much for taking the time to do this for us!

Thank you so much for the compliment!
I love writing these reviews and it is not a chore at all for me, however I do admit that it has been a bit hard lately finding the time to do it, which is why I am making you all wait so much at the moment. Really sorry about that!

Ha HA! That story made me laugh, imagining him flicking on the light. Hilarious
Looking forward to the rest of your reviews!

Thank goodness, he hasn't repeated that trick since. He always comes up with something new, though - shouldn't he slowly start to unwind and become calmer at age 5, now? (HE certainly doesn't seem to think so! )

I cannot agree with you more about the air conditioning! I find that I must be a naturally cold person, because I'm usually chilly in places that aren't even all that cool. Especially in Florida I find the AC a problem - it's like they are overcompensating for the heat outside and just don't realize that making it super cold inside doesn't make up for the fact that it's super hot outside. I am thinking about bringing a sweater or light sweatshirt with me around Disney just so I don't freeze during my meals. You're already dressed in shorts and t-shirts anyway, so they should take that into account when setting the AC levels.

So true! I really wonder how these ACs work, because from what our server at the Brown Derby said, it didn't seem like you could just turn a switch and regulate the temperature a little, she seemed to be saying that it was either on or off, but couldn't be influenced ... Seems a bit impractical to me, really.

Hello! I stumbled upon your reviews as I was trying to satisfy my cravings for WDW dining! You have some great reviews!

I'm really sad you didn't like the Goat's Town salad at Raglan Road though! That is something both my hubby and I loved and actually the one thing that may convince him to return to WDW!

Hello to you, too, and thanks for your comment! Yes, for me the Goat's Town would have been better with less sweetness and less goat's cheese (but then again, how can you expect small amounts of goat's cheese in something called "Goat's Town" ), but I am glad that you like it so much.

Especially as you seem to find it difficult to convince your husband to return to WDW, so you go ahead and shamelessly exploit the Goat's Town toward that end!

Great update. I'm another one with you about the AC. We visit in August and I always take a little cardigan with me to wear over my vest or dress when we go to a restaurant. Its even worse if you have just been caught in a downpour and then venture into an AC'd shop or restaurant.

Eww, I can imagine that! Actually, I have even experienced something like that on this trip, when we were caught in the "Great Dole Whip downpour of post #37". After that, everybody on the bus back to the Beach Club was completely drenched, including a small toddler on her father's lap whose little teeth were chattering so badly and whose lips were all blue (we were sitting directly opposite them). Her dad took off everything he was wearing on his upper body to wrap her in, so naturally he was then freezing badly. Eventually, the driver actually turned off the AC completely as maybe someone had asked him to, and then finally that little family could warm up a bit!

 

[annichan]

The next day we were headed for another half-day at Animal Kingdom, and we had decided to frame that visit with correspondingly African-influenced breakfast and lunch experiences.

For breakfast, we had a reservation at Boma. We had tried both breakfast and dinner here last year and had liked both, even though I admit we were not so completely overwhelmed with it as many of the other raving Boma reviews suggest – anyway, we liked it enough to come back again this time!

We were sat quickly, and as we had such an early reservation (seven-somethingish), the restaurant was still nicely quiet and there were no long lines at the buffet.

The view of the restaurant from our table.


We started by ordering a nice strong press pot of coffee (perfect for DH, bit even a bit too strong for my taste so I made it a nice café au lait), and then strolled over to the buffet.

DH's plate with lots of potatoes, scrambled eggs, ham, toast and a tomato:

Meanwhile, I started the day with some fruit and muesli …

… and for my second plate, moved on to some more African dishes, like the mealie pap (sorry, I am not entirely sure anymore what the rest was).

DH made another couple of trips to the buffet as well but for some reason I did not take any more pictures – sorry about that!
Anyway, there is more to come in a moment …

… with lunch at Sanaa!

 

[annichan]

On our last trip, this restaurant hadn't existed yet, and we had read some great reviews so we were really excited to try it:

Sanaa, the African-inspired restaurant at Animal Kingdom Lodge's Kidani Village.

One of the main draws here, apart from the food, is that if you get a table close to a window, you get to dine with a view of the animals in the Kidani savannah.
I had really been looking forward to that, so I was delighted when we were shown to this table (and had this slightly overexposed zebra already waiting patiently for us):

Isn't that just the best of views?


The menu at Sanaa offers lots of samplers, giving you a change to try different things and usually even choosing something like "three out of five", making this a great spot for adventurous eaters or people wishing to try lots of different dishes and not minding the fact that there will not be a lot of each single thing there.

This is one of the appetizers we shared, and my decidedly yummy Mango Lassi in the background (DH had a Mega-Berry Smoothie):

The Sampler for Two - Potato and Pea Samosa, Pulled Duck with Red Curry Sauce, Roasted Cauliflower.
Very tasty, especially the duck! Oh, and don't you just love the beautiful table design?

Even though that sampler was billed as an appetizer for Two, it only counted as a one-person appetizer on the Deluxe Dining Plan, so we also shared The Salad Sampler, which gave us a choice of three salads out of five:

We chose the Chickpeas with cucumber and tomato, the Kachumbar (cucumber), and the Carrot, orange, and mint salads.
The other choices would have been Roasted Beets (which was out pretty much at once because I strongly dislike beets) and Watermelon, lime, and radish (which also sounded very good).


We quickly decided that we would also decide on our main courses together and split both of them.

The first one was the Vegetarian Sampler, allowing a choice of two dishes (out of four available) and served with either Basmati Rice or Five-Grain Pilaf:

We had the Vegetables and Chickpeas with Green Curry Sauce, and the Stewed Lentils. The chickpeas were a great choice, but the lentils were a bit bland and we did not much care for their slightly unappetizing colour and texture, either. We should probably have chosen the Spicy Cauliflower, Onions, Tomatoes, and Mint instead – something to remember for next time!


Our other main course - Slow Cooked in Gravy, Simple and Well Seasoned, where we got a Choice of two of three possible variations, again served with either Basmati Rice or Five-grain pilaf:

We chose the Chicken with Red Curry Sauce, the Shrimp with Green Curry Sauce, and the Basmati rice to go with it. We could also have had Beef Short Ribs, and the fact that my DH let me talk him away from them towards the two curry dishes is a big sign of how much he loves me.


While we were enjoying our food, an ostrich outside seemed to be doing the same:

Apparently, he was constantly snapping flying insects out of the air. As we couldn't see the insects, however, he looked decidedly odd wandering around with his mouth open and continually snapping at the air as if he was singing an aria with the volume turned off .


Anyway, moving on to desserts. There were two alternatives offered that had mangoes in them, and those are one of my favoured fruit, so I was happy. One of these contained tapioca though, which I have never had before and didn't feel like trying today, so my choice was clear:

The Mango Pudding – simply delicious. (Sorry about the rather unappetizing empty glass in the background! SCHULTERZUCKEN)


Meanwhile, DH had this:

The Dessert Sampler - Chocolate Cake, Passion Fruit Kulfi, and Chai Cream.

All in all, this was a wonderful meal. We loved the inspired ethnic cooking, as well as the chance to sample so many different dishes. The view with all the wild animals was wonderful and added so much to the atmosphere - and since the restaurant was so new, everything just seemed so clean and sparkling new.
A wonderful restaurant and an absolute must for our next trip!


Coming up next: Dinner at the Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue!

 

[Flossbolna]

Yes, maybe it is different in different places, so I can't really talk about all of Germany here - but in this Northern German town which usually does not get all that hot weather for all that very long in summer, it definitely gets unbearable once it DOES get hot!

It's the same in the Souther German town I live in - as I got to experience fully last week with temperature of around 35°C (about 95°F)!!

Oooh, I envy you for getting to go back in October! I will probably have to wait until late 2013 to go back ... But then again, I do have my back-to-back Disney cruises in August 2012 to look forward to!

Well, I think between my last trip and the upcoming one you have been to WDW and on a DCL cruise in the Mediterranean... Sooooooo... I am not sure you have too much to complain about!!

I am thinking I might not be back until 2013 either - I really would like to see DL next year and there are lots of other destinations which I would love to see as well!

 

[ChelleMouse]

Great reviews! You have my mouth watering for my upcoming trip!!!

 

[cbg1027]

Mmmmm Sanaa looks amazing as always! It's always great icing on the cake when you get a window table there. I really want to try that appetizer sampler one day.

I see what you mean. I also eat much too much salt, so to think that I would find things too salty ... Yuk, that must have been bad! (Incidentally, do you have the same saying as we do in Germany, "when the food is too salty, it means that the cook is in love"? He must have been truly infatuated then!)

We don't have a quote like that, but I like it! I will have to use that!

 

[Linda67]

Yay more reviews

I think I am going to have to add Sanaa to my must do list

 

[Gregowa]

Annichan, thanks so much for the great dining reviews! I am thoroughly enjoying them. I am so glad you had such a good experience at Sanaa! It is one of our favorite Dis restaurants. We are DVC members and AKV Kidani is our home resort, so we have made it a tradition to dine at Sanaa for dinner on the day we arrive. Our meals there have always been wonderful. Reading your review made me excited for our December trip knowing we have reservations there and for all our other reservations as well. I also agree with you about WDW water - it is terrible! It has this sulfur taste to it you cannot hide. We try not to drink it if at all possible. I also ask at the restaurants if the iced tea is made with the local tap water because I have found it even makes iced tea made with it taste bad! Thanks again for your time and devotion in posting your reviews!
Annie

 

[librarygeek]

Great reviews! I'd really like to stay at the AKL one day, and that would be a great excuse to try all of the cool restaurants there

 

[annichan]

Hi everybody,

well I'mm not sure if anybode is still going to read this at all, after I have been slacking so terribly for the last two months .
Believe it or not but last night I actually dreamed that I wanted to continue this report and found that the thread had been closed down, so I am utterly relieved to be sitting here and finding that that is not the case yet!

In order to stop that from happening, though, I have decided to be a little less detailed and write the remainder of my reports quickly. I plan to be done with everything by next weekend at the latest, so you all get to yell at me if I don't hold that promise, okay?

Two new installments coming right up!

Great reviews! You have my mouth watering for my upcoming trip!!!

Thank you!

Mmmmm Sanaa looks amazing as always! It's always great icing on the cake when you get a window table there. I really want to try that appetizer sampler one day.

I am sure Sanaa will be nice even if not sitting near to a window, but I will make sure to at least try and ask for it next time, as it was so cool!

Yay more reviews

I think I am going to have to add Sanaa to my must do list

Absolutely do so! I think that we will try it for dinner next time, makes it easier just staying at AK until it closes, instead if making that trip in the middle of the day.

Annichan, thanks so much for the great dining reviews! I am thoroughly enjoying them. I am so glad you had such a good experience at Sanaa! It is one of our favorite Dis restaurants. We are DVC members and AKV Kidani is our home resort, so we have made it a tradition to dine at Sanaa for dinner on the day we arrive. Our meals there have always been wonderful. Reading your review made me excited for our December trip knowing we have reservations there and for all our other reservations as well. I also agree with you about WDW water - it is terrible! It has this sulfur taste to it you cannot hide. We try not to drink it if at all possible. I also ask at the restaurants if the iced tea is made with the local tap water because I have found it even makes iced tea made with it taste bad! Thanks again for your time and devotion in posting your reviews!
Annie

Thank you for your nice comments! Your December trip is not far away now anymore at all, so I hope you will have a magical trip and a great first night's dinner at Sanaa!

Great reviews! I'd really like to stay at the AKL one day, and that would be a great excuse to try all of the cool restaurants there

I am actually a bit torn about staying at AKL, to be honest. From what I have seen I really like it there, but I still think that I would rather stay at Wilderness Lodge again. It is a similar kind of decor (apart from the fact that the themings are supposed to represent places thousands of miles apart from each other, but you know what I mean ), but I really like having the lake there, and the possibility to access some places by boat instead if taking the bus everywhere. If there was no WL, though, I would certainly fall in love with AKL instantly!

 

[annichan]

This is a place you don't really go for dinner but to enjoy the show, obviously.

Enjoy it we did, and we had a really nice evening (even though some of the jokes must have been "lost in translation" to us, so we sometimes just looked at each other and shrugged cluelessly ).
Nevertheless, we also enjoyed the rather basic but tasty (and plentiful!) food so it deserves to get its own little report.


This is what was on the menu:

We started by ordering a Bud Light each, and were a bit shocked when our server placed a whole huge pitcher of beer in front of us, so that we could continue helping ourselves . Well, I guess that is what you can expect when beer is included in the price!
I did not take a picture of the pitcher (what a weird sentence …), but let me assure you that we were being very atypical Germans and left it still half-full at the end of the evening .

Dinner started with a big bowl of tasty (yet a bit plain) garden salad with house vinaigrette:

Then began what we were really here for:

At some time in between the show, the main course was served - everything on the menu .
Somehow, I only took this one picture of the main course – and I am only just noticing that this is indeed also a "pitcher picture":

Corn bread, country-style baked beans and seriously yummy (though, in this picture, horribly overexposed) mashed potatoes for both of us, fried chicken for me, and finally some smoked barbecued pork ribs for DH, after he hadn't gotten any at lunch .

The dessert (strawberry shortcake, complete with its own theme song!) was brought to us directly from onstage:

This was rather nice as I recall – not especially fancy of course, but we enjoyed it.


All in all, the food is not what makes this place special as far as I am concerned, but I hadn’t expected it to be fantastic so we were not let down – to be honest, it was even better than I had expected.

Coming up next: Yet another breakfast at Kouzzina …

 

[annichan]

The next morning, we were back for yet another leisurely breakfast at Kouzzina – or rather, in the still quite deserted little outdoor dining area out front, where we contentedy sat people-watching and enjoying our two (!) press pots of wonderful coffee.

Incidentally, as we had breakfast here so often we really felt reminded of the movie "Groundhog Day" . I don't know if this movie has inspired any saying in English for a situation that seems to come up again and again, but in Germany it sure has. When such a situation comes up, we just use the movie's German title:
"... And the groundhog says hello every day!" (I know, German movie title translators sure are weird )

Anyway, back to our breakfast ...
We were wanting to try something different today, so we started with this:

The Assorted Basket of Kouzzina Breakfast Pastries.
At home, we don't really eat such sweet things for breakfast (and come to think of it, I guess it is really not customary in Germany to have sweet pastries for breakfast at all) so these seemed more like afternoon cake to us, but they were nevertheless yummy .

They were also the stuff that Hidden Mickeys are made of:

(To all the kids reading this: Of course it's not okay to play with your food, and we certainly ate it all up after taking these bites out of it!)


After the sweet stuff, it was time to go for something a bit healthier – and finally have the kind of breakfast that I usually have at home …

… except for the fact that I don’t usually get such delicious fresh berries at home except in high summer:
Create your own Yogurt and Granola – with Fresh Fruit, House-made Granola, Greek-style Yogurt, and Nuts. Wonderful!
I must admit that I did not get very artful with "creating my own", though – I just heaped everything into the bowl and ate it all up .


DH health-consciously had the same, only without the nuts as he is a little allergic to them.

We don't even mention his allergy usually, but this morning he was already sneezing from some pollen in the air so he thought it might be a good idea not to add any nuts on top of that – and as we had heard from others, the chef-de-cuisine came to visit straightaway and to discuss DH's allergy. American chefs certainly take their customers' allergies seriously – or is it really only that way at Disney World?


Anyway, this was our last visit to Kouzzina for this trip – but we will certainly be back for breakfast here next time, at least in case we get to stay in the Boardwalk area again. Can't beat it for convenience, fresh air and early-morning peace and quiet!


Coming up next: A marvelous last dinner at Flying Fish Café …