Our delicious Deluxe Dining Adventures! Lots of pics! Final thoughts - All Done!!
- Thread starter AussieAngel
- Start date
AussieAngel
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 26, 2006
After our icky meal at Yak & Yeti, we spent a little bit of time at Animal Kingdom, before heading back to our room for a rest. We needed our sleep for our big dinner that night at... Cinderella's Royal Table!!
After our nap, we called home to DH's parents to see how Annie was going, and it was good news! They said she had responded really well to the antibiotics and seemed like her regular cute self, apart from the sore on her head. Yay! That made us both feel a lot happier. Still worried, but not as much as earlier that day.
We got ready and headed to the Magic Kingdom for a little play before checking in for our 8pm ADR at the castle!
(I looked everywhere for the sign that said "Cinderella's Royal Table", but for some reason I couldn't find it!
)
We actually checked in early at the podium, since Wishes was on that night at 8pm also. We had made our ADR time deliberately to match Wishes, with the hope that we'd be able to watch the fireworks from inside the castle.
We we escorted inside to the foyer area of the castle, where Cinderella was waiting for us! Eeek! There was only one other family in the foyer at this time. Very quiet and peaceful! We headed over to get our photo taken with Cinderella, and I was surprised that I actually felt a bit nervous!! I've never been a Cinderella fan. I'm much more a Tink girl. But she looked so pretty and regal standing there waiting for us!
We headed over to her and said hi, and posed for our photo. She commented that I have found a very handsome prince! Hee! DH loved that. There was a problem with the photographer's flash on his camera, so he had to fiddle with it for a little bit. While we were standing there waiting, Cinderella said to us, "Oh no! Maybe the Fairy Godmother will have to pay us a visit to sprinkle some pixie dust on the camera to fix it! Hehee!" To which DH and I both smiled and nodded. Seriously, how does one reply to that without sounding crazy!?! Hehehee. She was very cute and giggly and very much in character the whole time.
After our photo was taken, we sat in the foyer area for a little while and waited to be seated. And then... it was 8 oclock!! Time for Wishes! Oh no!! I had hoped we'd be seated by then, so we could actually see the fireworks from the windows! There was nobody else in the foyer - everybody else had gone, even Cinderella!
We decided to go for a little explore, and found Cinderella sitting on the ground in the walkway of the castle, watching the fireworks!! Wow!! Two little girls were snuggled up next to her, and there were probably 4 or 5 other adults standing around watching the fireworks with her.
This truly was an amazing experience! We felt so lucky to be watching Wishes with Cinderella!! Those little girls sitting with her must have been even more excited! It really was a lovely moment and something I'll always remember about my time at Disney World.
Shortly after Wishes ended, our names were called and we were taken to our table. It was a lovely little table for two, right by the window. It would have been perfect to watch Wishes from, but our experience with Cinderella was even better!
Here's a view of the castle from the inside...
Our server was a friendly lady called... nope, I forget again! Sorry! I really am bad at remembering our servers names. I should have written it down somewhere. Whoops! Anyway, she was very easy to chat to, and made us feel very much at home in the castle!
First up, we received some little bread rolls and butter...
That's a lot of bread!! They were nice and warm and soft, and a nice start to the meal.
Our appetizers were next. DH surprised me and ordered the Vegetable Spring Roll...
That was totally what I was going to order! Hehee! I didn't mind though, because I felt like I'd had an overload of greasy food that day at Yak & Yeti. He enjoyed the Spring Roll and said he could have had a couple more!
Instead, I decided on the BLT Salad - a mixture of frisee, iceberg lettuce, baby spinach, with applewood bacon, tomato, eggs, red onion and roasted shallot vinaigrette...
Yum!! This was great!! Very light and refreshing, and the dressing was delicious! So tasty! I nearly ate the whole thing!
It was about this time that the Fairy Godmother appeared and sang her magical songs! She was lots of fun, and danced around the room happily!! Almost too happily, in fact! DH and I giggled and wondered if she'd added a little something to her drink. She was seriously full of beans!
We met the mice too. I really don't know their names, but they were cute!! (I told you I wasn't a Cinderella fan!)
Our entrees were next. DH went with the Lemon Lavender Chicken on Mashed Potatoes served with Wilted Spinach and a chicken Jus...
He said this was really good! He nearly polished the whole thing off, which meant it must have been good! I had a little taste and couldn't taste any lavender... I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing!
I ordered the Cheese Tortellini with julienne vegetables, garlic marinara Sauce and grated Romano...
Again, yum!! The pasta was fresh and very tasty, although it didn't really have any sauce on it, which I found a little odd. Lots of nice vegies though, which was good! I was craving some good healthy fruit and vegies by this stage, and this helped a teeny bit!
So far, we were really impressed with our meal at CRT. To be honest, I didn't have high expectations for the food. I'd read it's more about the experience than the food, and we'd had a great experience, but we'd also had great food so far! Would dessert live up to the rest of our meal?!
DH ordered the Seasonal No Sugar Added Sorbet with berries...
He really loved sorbet on this trip! It's definitely a nice light alternative for dessert, after such a big meal. He loved this sorbet too, and really enjoyed the mixed berries too. And it looks pretty too!
For my dessert, I went with the Chocolate Cream Cheese Buckle - a single layer of chocolate cake stuffed with cream cheese topped with Cremé Chantilly and finished with Cremé Anglaise Sauce...
I didn't really know what to expect with this dessert. It always looked like a plain old boring muffin to me!! But actually, it was great! Very moist and chocolatey, and the cream and sauces were nice, light accompaniments. The cream cheese in the middle didn't really have a stong cheese taste - it was just a nice change of texture really!
So overall, we really, really enjoyed our time at CRT!! As I said before, we didn't know what to expect, but we ended up loving our dinner there! We felt very special to be dining inside the castle, and had great experiences with Cinderella. And surprisingly, the food was excellent!
As you know, I'd been feeling very worried that day for Annie (our sick cat at home!), but do you know what? Our night at Cinderella's Royal Table helped to take some of those worries away! I'm sure it was a case of the Pixie Dust working it's magic.
We really did have a lovely, relaxing night!
We gave Cinderella's Royal Table 4 smiley men out of 5!
Next up... Lunch at Grand Floridian Cafe!
After our nap, we called home to DH's parents to see how Annie was going, and it was good news! They said she had responded really well to the antibiotics and seemed like her regular cute self, apart from the sore on her head. Yay! That made us both feel a lot happier. Still worried, but not as much as earlier that day.
We got ready and headed to the Magic Kingdom for a little play before checking in for our 8pm ADR at the castle!
(I looked everywhere for the sign that said "Cinderella's Royal Table", but for some reason I couldn't find it!
)We actually checked in early at the podium, since Wishes was on that night at 8pm also. We had made our ADR time deliberately to match Wishes, with the hope that we'd be able to watch the fireworks from inside the castle.
We we escorted inside to the foyer area of the castle, where Cinderella was waiting for us! Eeek! There was only one other family in the foyer at this time. Very quiet and peaceful! We headed over to get our photo taken with Cinderella, and I was surprised that I actually felt a bit nervous!! I've never been a Cinderella fan. I'm much more a Tink girl. But she looked so pretty and regal standing there waiting for us!
We headed over to her and said hi, and posed for our photo. She commented that I have found a very handsome prince! Hee! DH loved that. There was a problem with the photographer's flash on his camera, so he had to fiddle with it for a little bit. While we were standing there waiting, Cinderella said to us, "Oh no! Maybe the Fairy Godmother will have to pay us a visit to sprinkle some pixie dust on the camera to fix it! Hehee!" To which DH and I both smiled and nodded. Seriously, how does one reply to that without sounding crazy!?! Hehehee. She was very cute and giggly and very much in character the whole time.
After our photo was taken, we sat in the foyer area for a little while and waited to be seated. And then... it was 8 oclock!! Time for Wishes! Oh no!! I had hoped we'd be seated by then, so we could actually see the fireworks from the windows! There was nobody else in the foyer - everybody else had gone, even Cinderella!
We decided to go for a little explore, and found Cinderella sitting on the ground in the walkway of the castle, watching the fireworks!! Wow!! Two little girls were snuggled up next to her, and there were probably 4 or 5 other adults standing around watching the fireworks with her.
This truly was an amazing experience! We felt so lucky to be watching Wishes with Cinderella!! Those little girls sitting with her must have been even more excited! It really was a lovely moment and something I'll always remember about my time at Disney World.
Shortly after Wishes ended, our names were called and we were taken to our table. It was a lovely little table for two, right by the window. It would have been perfect to watch Wishes from, but our experience with Cinderella was even better!
Here's a view of the castle from the inside...
Our server was a friendly lady called... nope, I forget again! Sorry! I really am bad at remembering our servers names. I should have written it down somewhere. Whoops! Anyway, she was very easy to chat to, and made us feel very much at home in the castle!
First up, we received some little bread rolls and butter...
That's a lot of bread!! They were nice and warm and soft, and a nice start to the meal.
Our appetizers were next. DH surprised me and ordered the Vegetable Spring Roll...
That was totally what I was going to order! Hehee! I didn't mind though, because I felt like I'd had an overload of greasy food that day at Yak & Yeti. He enjoyed the Spring Roll and said he could have had a couple more!
Instead, I decided on the BLT Salad - a mixture of frisee, iceberg lettuce, baby spinach, with applewood bacon, tomato, eggs, red onion and roasted shallot vinaigrette...
Yum!! This was great!! Very light and refreshing, and the dressing was delicious! So tasty! I nearly ate the whole thing!
It was about this time that the Fairy Godmother appeared and sang her magical songs! She was lots of fun, and danced around the room happily!! Almost too happily, in fact! DH and I giggled and wondered if she'd added a little something to her drink. She was seriously full of beans!
We met the mice too. I really don't know their names, but they were cute!! (I told you I wasn't a Cinderella fan!)
Our entrees were next. DH went with the Lemon Lavender Chicken on Mashed Potatoes served with Wilted Spinach and a chicken Jus...
He said this was really good! He nearly polished the whole thing off, which meant it must have been good! I had a little taste and couldn't taste any lavender... I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing!
I ordered the Cheese Tortellini with julienne vegetables, garlic marinara Sauce and grated Romano...
Again, yum!! The pasta was fresh and very tasty, although it didn't really have any sauce on it, which I found a little odd. Lots of nice vegies though, which was good! I was craving some good healthy fruit and vegies by this stage, and this helped a teeny bit!
So far, we were really impressed with our meal at CRT. To be honest, I didn't have high expectations for the food. I'd read it's more about the experience than the food, and we'd had a great experience, but we'd also had great food so far! Would dessert live up to the rest of our meal?!
DH ordered the Seasonal No Sugar Added Sorbet with berries...
He really loved sorbet on this trip! It's definitely a nice light alternative for dessert, after such a big meal. He loved this sorbet too, and really enjoyed the mixed berries too. And it looks pretty too!
For my dessert, I went with the Chocolate Cream Cheese Buckle - a single layer of chocolate cake stuffed with cream cheese topped with Cremé Chantilly and finished with Cremé Anglaise Sauce...
I didn't really know what to expect with this dessert. It always looked like a plain old boring muffin to me!! But actually, it was great! Very moist and chocolatey, and the cream and sauces were nice, light accompaniments. The cream cheese in the middle didn't really have a stong cheese taste - it was just a nice change of texture really!
So overall, we really, really enjoyed our time at CRT!! As I said before, we didn't know what to expect, but we ended up loving our dinner there! We felt very special to be dining inside the castle, and had great experiences with Cinderella. And surprisingly, the food was excellent!
As you know, I'd been feeling very worried that day for Annie (our sick cat at home!), but do you know what? Our night at Cinderella's Royal Table helped to take some of those worries away! I'm sure it was a case of the Pixie Dust working it's magic.
We really did have a lovely, relaxing night! We gave Cinderella's Royal Table 4 smiley men out of 5!
Next up... Lunch at Grand Floridian Cafe!
TigerKat
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 29, 2006
Like others have said, I would have been sick too if my dog had gotten ill while we were away. Our pets are so much more than pets, they are family. I'm glad to hear she is doing well.
We're planning on trying Y&Y for lunch in October but I think we're going to stick with appetizers.
We're planning on trying Y&Y for lunch in October but I think we're going to stick with appetizers.
punkin413
feel the magic, dang it!
- Joined
- Jan 9, 2007
glad annie was okay! 
these pictures are SO SWEET!!!!!!!! i've never really had the urge to eat at CRT but that's just really cool. what a neat thing for those little girls!
We decided to go for a little explore, and found Cinderella sitting on the ground in the walkway of the castle, watching the fireworks!! Wow!! Two little girls were snuggled up next to her, and there were probably 4 or 5 other adults standing around watching the fireworks with her.
these pictures are SO SWEET!!!!!!!! i've never really had the urge to eat at CRT but that's just really cool. what a neat thing for those little girls!
- Joined
- Mar 30, 2007
What a spectacular view for Wishes with Cinderella. That's a moment you don't have the opportunity to catch very often. Glad you liked your meal at CRT. We are ones who never really had a great meal there...maybe we just catch them on the wrong night or something. 
Everything looked great.
Everything looked great.
trixiequilts
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 18, 2008
Okay.
You had told me about the Cinderella watching Wishes with the little girls thing earlier.
I should have been prepared.
But I still got tears in my eyes when I saw the pictures.
What a sap I am!
But seriously...millions of people have seen Wishes out the castle window...how many saw what you saw???
You had told me about the Cinderella watching Wishes with the little girls thing earlier.
I should have been prepared.
But I still got tears in my eyes when I saw the pictures.
What a sap I am!
But seriously...millions of people have seen Wishes out the castle window...how many saw what you saw???
SmallWorld71
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 10, 2007
The photos with Cinderella and the little girls are gorgeous; the 2nd one would make a great postcard.
We ate lunch at CRT in August and really enjoyed our food, too. Glad you had a good experience.
We ate lunch at CRT in August and really enjoyed our food, too. Glad you had a good experience.
mimi'sgirl
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2007
The pictures with Cinderella are simply beautiful. One of those magical moments. It brought tears to my eyes too.
tink too
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 27, 2005
Phew - I've just caught up again with all your dining adventures! 
I'm sure my DH would love Jiko - but I'm such a fussy eater, I'd be afraid that I wouldn't find anything to eat!
So glad to hear that Annie is on the road to recovery. DH is already worrying about leaving our two fur-babies behind - and we've still got another 4 weeks to wait before we're back in WDW! 
One thing I'm definately treating DH to this time around is a Dole Whip float. I can't believe how huge that thing is!
In all our visits to WDW, he's never tried one and he loves anything pineapple! What have we been doing wrong all these years!
What a fantastic experience to have a private viewing of Wishes with Cinderella. Many little girls would be so jealous of you right now.
BTW - the mice are called Suzy and Perla. Perla is the one in purple.
I'm sure my DH would love Jiko - but I'm such a fussy eater, I'd be afraid that I wouldn't find anything to eat! So glad to hear that Annie is on the road to recovery.
DH is already worrying about leaving our two fur-babies behind - and we've still got another 4 weeks to wait before we're back in WDW! One thing I'm definately treating DH to this time around is a Dole Whip float. I can't believe how huge that thing is!
In all our visits to WDW, he's never tried one and he loves anything pineapple! What have we been doing wrong all these years! What a fantastic experience to have a private viewing of Wishes with Cinderella. Many little girls would be so jealous of you right now.
BTW - the mice are called Suzy and Perla. Perla is the one in purple.
Okay these must be the sweetest pictures of cinderella I have ever seen!! I can only wish for such a magical moment with my two girls. Thanks for the great review of CRT, I have also read lots of not so nice reviews of this resturant, but we are giving it a try in Oct for breakfast. You give us hope!!
AussieAngel
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 26, 2006
I'm glad to hear Annie's doing good. I'm sure she was glad to see you when you got home.
Thank you! I think she was pretty pleased to see us.
Like others have said, I would have been sick too if my dog had gotten ill while we were away. Our pets are so much more than pets, they are family. I'm glad to hear she is doing well.
We're planning on trying Y&Y for lunch in October but I think we're going to stick with appetizers.
Thank you for your nice comments about Annie! And I think sticking with appetizers at Yak & Yeti might be a good idea. I'd totally recommend the Lettuce Cups!!
How awesome to watch Wishes with Cindy! Those two little girls will never forget that night....
Definitely! It really was awesome!!
We really did have a great night at CRT! An unexpectedly great night, since I didn't really have high hopes for the food...!
glad annie was okay!
these pictures are SO SWEET!!!!!!!! i've never really had the urge to eat at CRT but that's just really cool. what a neat thing for those little girls!
I know, those little girls must have been so happy!! What a great experience!!
Sorry your meals at CRT haven't been that great! Maybe because we went in with pretty low expectations, we were pleasantly surprised!?
Tusker House sounds yummy! I'm glad you decided on that rather than Yak & Yeti!
Okay.
You had told me about the Cinderella watching Wishes with the little girls thing earlier.
I should have been prepared.
But I still got tears in my eyes when I saw the pictures.
What a sap I am!
But seriously...millions of people have seen Wishes out the castle window...how many saw what you saw???
Aww, sorry for not warning you Trixie!! It really was a lovely moment.
The photos with Cinderella and the little girls are gorgeous; the 2nd one would make a great postcard.
We ate lunch at CRT in August and really enjoyed our food, too. Glad you had a good experience.
I'm glad you enjoyed your lunch at CRT too! Thank you for your nice comments! Maybe I should go into postcard business! Hehee!!
Aww, I hope they were happy tears in your eyes!
Phew - I've just caught up again with all your dining adventures!
So glad to hear that Annie is on the road to recovery.
One thing I'm definately treating DH to this time around is a Dole Whip float. I can't believe how huge that thing is!
What a fantastic experience to have a private viewing of Wishes with Cinderella. Many little girls would be so jealous of you right now.
BTW - the mice are called Suzy and Perla. Perla is the one in purple.
I think you'd definitely find something you'd enjoy at Jiko! What about the filet steak with mac & cheese? Yum!! I understand about your DH worrying for your fur-babies! Aww! I'm sure they'll be okay! You definitely have to try a Dole Whip Float! They're awesome!!! And thank you for letting me know about Suzy and Perla!!
Thanks for your nice comments! I hope you have a lovely breakfast there in October!
Next review, coming right up!!
AussieAngel
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 26, 2006
So the next day was Day 9 of our Disney vacation! Wow! By this stage, we were officially, constantly full. Too much food!! Seriously! We were also pretty exhausted!! Luckily, we had a "day off" from the parks this day. Our plan was to sleep-in, head to lunch at Grand Floridian Cafe, relax at the Wilderness Lodge, then head to Epcot for dinner and Illuminations that night. a much-needed lazy day!
And that's exactly what we did! After a lovely big sleep-in, it was off to lunch at Grand Floridian Cafe!
I wasn't feeling great this day. I don't know if it was all the food gurgling around in my tummy, or if I wasn't drinking enough water, or if I'd caught a tiny version of the horrible bug going around Disney when we were there. My tummy felt squeamy and icky. I was looking forward to just something small for lunch at Grand Floridian Cafe...
Anyhoo, we made it to the Grand Floridian Resort. Wow, beautiful!! That lobby really is amazing! We found the Grand Floridian Cafe and checked in, which for some reason proved to be a bit of a problem at the front desk. I don't know if they couldn't understand our Australian accent or if they didn't have our reservation, but for whatever reason, it took a long time to check in! They finally got us sorted and we were shown to our table.
I'd always fancied the menu at the Grand Floridian Cafe from the AllEars website, and so had DH. I'd only read a few reviews about it on the DIS boards though, so I didn't really know what to expect.
Wow, the Grand Floridian Cafe is big!! And empty!! There were probably 6 other tables being occupied in there. Definitely a nice quiet place for lunch! It was very pretty, with lots of white decorations and lovely views of the Grand Floridian gardens.
We met our server who was nice, but she kind of seemed in a world of her own. She seemed to be walking around in a bit of a daze most of the time. Hehee.
So, appetizers!! I ordered the Shrimp Trio - Citrus Poached, Warm Tomato Basil, and creamy Champagne Scampi...
This was really good! My favourite was definitely the creamy scampi shrimp, on the right. In fact, I could have had a whole plate of just this dish! There were two shrimp sitting on a tiny little toasted bread, smothered with a creamy sauce. Yum! The others were also good, but not as yummy as the scampi.
DH decided he was in the mood for soup, so he went with the Tomato-Basil Soup...
Check out how thick that soup is!! It was really more like a dip! DH really liked it though, and ate it all up, then licked the bowl clean. Hehee, okay, he didn't really lick the bowl. But he did eat it all!
For my entree, I chose the Rustic Chicken Sandwich - Herb-marinated Chicken Breast with Cold Smoked Vine Ripe Tomatoes, Cheddar, Pesto Mayonnaise, and Arugula Salad served on warm Ciabatta Bread, with home-made potato chips...
I was really looking forward to trying this sandwich. It sounded great!! And it looked great too!! But... it tasted funny. I know that's not a good explanation, but it really did just taste funny. Like maybe the chicken was not quite right, or past it's used by date. In fact, it smelt funny too. Like a really smokey, icky chicken smell.
It may have just been because I wasn't feeling great, and my nose and tummy was a bit sensitive to yucky smells. But I took about 3 bites of the chicken sandwich, and I was done. Oh dear!! I asked DH to have a little taste too, and he agreed that it had an odd taste to it. So from then on, I just stuck to the home-made potato chips, which were AWESOME!! Very crunchy and ultra-tasty!! Much nicer for my queasy tummy.
I'm always a bit paranoid about chicken, so I was worried that I'd be sick later. But phew, I wasn't!! Which leads me to believe that there was nothing wrong with the chicken - it was probably meant to just have a smokey flavour. Still, it wasn't nice.
Anyway, DH had the Roast Beef Sandwich - Balsamic Onions, Pesto Mayonnaise, Arugula Salad, and Tomatoes served on Focaccia with home-made chips...
He enjoyed this a lot more than I enjoyed mine!! The sandwich was huge, with lots and lots of beef! I don't think he ate it all, but he certainly liked it. I ate most of his potato chips too. They really were delicious!!
So now onto dessert. A few weeks prior to leaving, I'd called the Grand Floridian Bakery to order a Cinderella Slipper Dessert as dessert for this meal. Just as a fun special treat! I'd seen photos of it and thought it looked beautiful!! But when I ordered it, the person I spoke to struggled to speak English. She didn't even seem to understand what I was actually ordering. I gave my credit card details as requested, which she had to confirm about 18 times because she kept getting the numbers mixed up. Hehee. Needless to say, I really didn't think they would have our order there ready for us. I thought it had just gotten lost in translation somewhere along the line!
I asked our server anyway, and she said she'd check out the back to see if there was anything there for us. She didn't sound very hopeful.
But... woohooo!!! She came back with this!!
Yayyyy!! Miraculously, it was there waiting for us!! I was amazed!! And it was so pretty! Lots of other servers were popping over to our table for a closer look.
And most importantly, it was delicious!! We felt a bit bad to eat it, because it was so pretty! DH ate the little chocolate mousse boat, and I ate the white chocolate slipper, which was filled with whipped cream. Yum!!! The raspberries were great too, as was the decorative raspberry sauce. A big thumbs up for the Cinderella Slipper!!
So since we paid OOP for this, we still had the dessert on our dining plan left! Oh my goodness. I'd forgotten all about that!! We really didn't need anything else, but we decided to be little piggies and order the Sampler Dessert Plate for Two anyway!!
Look how pretty it was!! How could we not order it!?! We really only had little tastes of everything, but it was lots of fun and so colourful!
On the plate, there were four of their mini-desserts. The New York-style Lemon Cheesecake...
This was probably our favourite. It was great! The perfect mix of cheesecake with a hint of lemon. Yum! And again, so pretty!!
There was Tiramisu...
... which we only had a little taste of, because it tasted of very strong coffee, and we don't like coffee!
There was also the Chocolate-Hazelnut Mousse Cake...
DH really loved this one! He loves anything chocolate and also loves hazelnut, so how could he not!?! I had a little taste and it was very chocolatey and good!!
And lastly, was the Key Lime Pie...
This was nice too, but was very sweet! After so many other desserts, it was probably a bit too sweet for my tastes!!
We just loved our amazingly pretty desserts!!
So overall, our lunch at the Grand Floridian Cafe was quite good! Everything was great, apart from my Chicken Sandwich. Service was so-so, but for a quiet, lazy lunch, it didn't really matter that much! We enjoyed our time there, and especially loved the desserts!
We gave Grand Floridian Cafe 3 smiley men out of 5!
Next up... Dinner at Chefs de France!
And that's exactly what we did! After a lovely big sleep-in, it was off to lunch at Grand Floridian Cafe!
I wasn't feeling great this day. I don't know if it was all the food gurgling around in my tummy, or if I wasn't drinking enough water, or if I'd caught a tiny version of the horrible bug going around Disney when we were there. My tummy felt squeamy and icky. I was looking forward to just something small for lunch at Grand Floridian Cafe...
Anyhoo, we made it to the Grand Floridian Resort. Wow, beautiful!! That lobby really is amazing! We found the Grand Floridian Cafe and checked in, which for some reason proved to be a bit of a problem at the front desk. I don't know if they couldn't understand our Australian accent or if they didn't have our reservation, but for whatever reason, it took a long time to check in! They finally got us sorted and we were shown to our table.
I'd always fancied the menu at the Grand Floridian Cafe from the AllEars website, and so had DH. I'd only read a few reviews about it on the DIS boards though, so I didn't really know what to expect.
Wow, the Grand Floridian Cafe is big!! And empty!! There were probably 6 other tables being occupied in there. Definitely a nice quiet place for lunch! It was very pretty, with lots of white decorations and lovely views of the Grand Floridian gardens.
We met our server who was nice, but she kind of seemed in a world of her own. She seemed to be walking around in a bit of a daze most of the time. Hehee.
So, appetizers!! I ordered the Shrimp Trio - Citrus Poached, Warm Tomato Basil, and creamy Champagne Scampi...
This was really good! My favourite was definitely the creamy scampi shrimp, on the right. In fact, I could have had a whole plate of just this dish! There were two shrimp sitting on a tiny little toasted bread, smothered with a creamy sauce. Yum! The others were also good, but not as yummy as the scampi.
DH decided he was in the mood for soup, so he went with the Tomato-Basil Soup...
Check out how thick that soup is!! It was really more like a dip! DH really liked it though, and ate it all up, then licked the bowl clean. Hehee, okay, he didn't really lick the bowl. But he did eat it all!
For my entree, I chose the Rustic Chicken Sandwich - Herb-marinated Chicken Breast with Cold Smoked Vine Ripe Tomatoes, Cheddar, Pesto Mayonnaise, and Arugula Salad served on warm Ciabatta Bread, with home-made potato chips...
I was really looking forward to trying this sandwich. It sounded great!! And it looked great too!! But... it tasted funny. I know that's not a good explanation, but it really did just taste funny. Like maybe the chicken was not quite right, or past it's used by date. In fact, it smelt funny too. Like a really smokey, icky chicken smell.
It may have just been because I wasn't feeling great, and my nose and tummy was a bit sensitive to yucky smells. But I took about 3 bites of the chicken sandwich, and I was done. Oh dear!! I asked DH to have a little taste too, and he agreed that it had an odd taste to it. So from then on, I just stuck to the home-made potato chips, which were AWESOME!! Very crunchy and ultra-tasty!! Much nicer for my queasy tummy.
I'm always a bit paranoid about chicken, so I was worried that I'd be sick later. But phew, I wasn't!! Which leads me to believe that there was nothing wrong with the chicken - it was probably meant to just have a smokey flavour. Still, it wasn't nice.
Anyway, DH had the Roast Beef Sandwich - Balsamic Onions, Pesto Mayonnaise, Arugula Salad, and Tomatoes served on Focaccia with home-made chips...
He enjoyed this a lot more than I enjoyed mine!! The sandwich was huge, with lots and lots of beef! I don't think he ate it all, but he certainly liked it. I ate most of his potato chips too. They really were delicious!!
So now onto dessert. A few weeks prior to leaving, I'd called the Grand Floridian Bakery to order a Cinderella Slipper Dessert as dessert for this meal. Just as a fun special treat! I'd seen photos of it and thought it looked beautiful!! But when I ordered it, the person I spoke to struggled to speak English. She didn't even seem to understand what I was actually ordering. I gave my credit card details as requested, which she had to confirm about 18 times because she kept getting the numbers mixed up. Hehee. Needless to say, I really didn't think they would have our order there ready for us. I thought it had just gotten lost in translation somewhere along the line!
I asked our server anyway, and she said she'd check out the back to see if there was anything there for us. She didn't sound very hopeful.
But... woohooo!!! She came back with this!!
Yayyyy!! Miraculously, it was there waiting for us!! I was amazed!! And it was so pretty! Lots of other servers were popping over to our table for a closer look.
And most importantly, it was delicious!! We felt a bit bad to eat it, because it was so pretty! DH ate the little chocolate mousse boat, and I ate the white chocolate slipper, which was filled with whipped cream. Yum!!! The raspberries were great too, as was the decorative raspberry sauce. A big thumbs up for the Cinderella Slipper!!
So since we paid OOP for this, we still had the dessert on our dining plan left! Oh my goodness. I'd forgotten all about that!! We really didn't need anything else, but we decided to be little piggies and order the Sampler Dessert Plate for Two anyway!!
Look how pretty it was!! How could we not order it!?! We really only had little tastes of everything, but it was lots of fun and so colourful!
On the plate, there were four of their mini-desserts. The New York-style Lemon Cheesecake...
This was probably our favourite. It was great! The perfect mix of cheesecake with a hint of lemon. Yum! And again, so pretty!!
There was Tiramisu...
... which we only had a little taste of, because it tasted of very strong coffee, and we don't like coffee!
There was also the Chocolate-Hazelnut Mousse Cake...
DH really loved this one! He loves anything chocolate and also loves hazelnut, so how could he not!?! I had a little taste and it was very chocolatey and good!!
And lastly, was the Key Lime Pie...
This was nice too, but was very sweet! After so many other desserts, it was probably a bit too sweet for my tastes!!
We just loved our amazingly pretty desserts!!
So overall, our lunch at the Grand Floridian Cafe was quite good! Everything was great, apart from my Chicken Sandwich. Service was so-so, but for a quiet, lazy lunch, it didn't really matter that much! We enjoyed our time there, and especially loved the desserts!
We gave Grand Floridian Cafe 3 smiley men out of 5!
Next up... Dinner at Chefs de France!
- Joined
- Mar 30, 2007
The desserts at GF Cafe look totally delicious! I love how they did the sampler. The cheesecake kinda looks like the zebra domes at Boma, only white. The last time we went to GF Cafe we did everything but the dessert, now I see that was a mistake. I'm glad they didn't foul up your slipper dessert either, that looks so good!
java
<font color=darkorchid>I am embracing the Turkey B
- Joined
- Jan 18, 2005
The last time and actually the only time we went to the Grand Floridian Cafe, my meal went more like yours.
We wanted it to be good. The service was great. The food looked fantastic. But it was just off. Tasting just strange- off or something kind of bland. And that was for everyone's meals not just mine. They all needed salt and more.
So unfortunatly, that one came off the list of our restaurants. Too bad though because they were all trying very hard.
Those desserts look amazing.
We wanted it to be good. The service was great. The food looked fantastic. But it was just off. Tasting just strange- off or something kind of bland. And that was for everyone's meals not just mine. They all needed salt and more.
So unfortunatly, that one came off the list of our restaurants. Too bad though because they were all trying very hard.
Those desserts look amazing.
wdwfanatic316
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 29, 2008
Thanks for the great update! Sorry you didn't like your sandwich, 
but I'm really they had your Royal Slipper desert!
If you don't mind me asking, how much was it? I've seen it on t.v. several times, and it looks so neat! I'd love to try it sometime!
but I'm really they had your Royal Slipper desert! If you don't mind me asking, how much was it? I've seen it on t.v. several times, and it looks so neat! I'd love to try it sometime!
punkin413
feel the magic, dang it!
- Joined
- Jan 9, 2007
i had something too when we were there in december and i heard it was going around. i never got sick - just felt very icky!
this looks so good!!!!
and so do these!!! i will have to add GFC to my list of restaurants to try. it sounds wonderful (aside from your chicken)!
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