BlueZoo
We had dinner reservations for 8pm our first night in WDW at BlueZoo. We arrived a few minutes early to check in. There was a short wait, the restaurant was very busy, but not more than 5 minutes or so. We were seated at a gorgeous round booth towards the back looking out over the restaurant. I just love the whole vibe of this place, its exciting & sexy. Our booth comes equipped with pillows of which I chose the lumbar pillow. It made for an uber-comfortable seat. One thing I did notice this trip were a few tables with children, where on my other visits, I didnt see any.
Our waiter this first evening was Anthony. He promptly brings us the Fiji water service we requested & offers to go over the menu with us. He checks back by occasionally to see when we are ready to order. We chose to eat Tapas-style that night & let Anthony know we would be doing so. We ordered most of the appetizer menu & two sides. We told Anthony to stage them any way he saw fit, just not to bring them all at once, telling him we were in his hands for the night. He came thru beautifully, staging our meal perfectly. Shortly after we ordered, the glorious BlueZoo bread basket arrived. The fennel butter was cold & hard & the Lavosh was slightly stale, but regardless of those two issues, we enjoy the varied flavors of the BlueZoo basket.
For our first round of Tapas, Anthony brought us out the Tempura Haricots Verts with Truffle Aioli, Littleneck Clams Flatbread and the Yellowfin Tuna Tartare. We have had the Clams flatbread before & knew we would love that. The surprise was how delicious the Haricots Verts were! I can see popping into the bar for an order of those & a cocktail after a long day at the Parks. The real winner of this course and the whole evening tho was the Tuna Tartare. OMG! Incredible. The tuna was tossed with sesame oil & some kind of hot pepper or maybe wasabi powder? that gave it a bit of zing. This was served over a little salad of cucumber noodles on a bed of crispy fried rock shrimp tossed in a sticky orange glaze. The whole salad was composed in a timbale made from a thinly shaved cucumber slice. The marriage of flavors & textures in this dish was orgasmically delicious. I have dreamed of this dish nightly since. In fact, yesterday, I ordered the Olives Table cookbook just for this recipe.
For Round Two of our evening, Anthony brought us out the Hearts of Romaine salad to let us catch our breath before round three. The plate was beautifully composed, as are all the plates at BlueZoo. The romaine quarters were dressed in a delightlful ceaser-like emulsion dressing, although I would have used a bit less dressing. I dont like my greens dressed very heavily at all, but Gary thought they were perfect.
After taking our time digesting with our salad, Anthony brought us our finale round of appetizers. In this round, we had the Garlic Roasted Shrimp, the Teppan-Seared Sea Scallops with Beef Short ribs & the Shake & Bake Fries. Gary declared the Sea Scallops his pick for this round, while I chose the Shrimp as my favorite as I am not a scallop lover. I did try a bite of scallop & it was very good as far as scallops go. The outside was beautifully caramelized, but the scallop wasnt the slightest over-cooked or tough. The shrimp was roasted perfectly as well. The last trip I made to the Zoo in April this year, the shrimp was a bit over-seasoned & over-cooked. This time, however, it was back to the perfection that we experienced on our first trip to the Zoo which made us fall in love with it.
The one dish that neither of us cared for at all was the Shake & Bake fries. Im not a fry lover on the best of days, so I wasnt particularly looking forward to them anyways. But, even so, they were very dry & floury. We declared that dish a mistake we would not repeat. But, you never know until you try, right?
After filling ourselves up on appetizers, we had no room left for desserts. If I had to score our dinner experience for that night, Id give it a 9, dampened only by the slightly stale lavosh, the too hard fennel butter and the dry fries. Everything else was perfect. So much so, that we wound up coming back again during our short 5 night trip.
X2
Since we started out our epicurean indulgence tour at BlueZoo, we deemed it only fitting to end there as well. For our last nights dinner, we traded in our reservation at Flying Fish for one more taste of BlueZoo.
We arrived promptly for our 7:45 reservation & were seated within moments despite how busy the restaurant was. Again, we were seated in a round booth strewn with pillows overlooking the dining room. Our server for tonight was Jimmy. He was great, but he wasnt as good as Anthony.
First came our bread basket, which was missing the Lavosh. When I asked about it, they said they had run out & were waiting for more. This time our butter was perfectly room temperature & spreadable. I only had a bit of the focaccia tho, since I knew I was going to need every bit of stomach space.
For starters, we ordered the Tuna Tartare again. I just had to have it. We also ordered the Hearts of Romaine again, telling Jimmy wed be splitting both. Unfortunately, Jimmy brought the both out together. We should have requested the Tartare & then the salad, our bad. We just moved the salad off to the side & staged it ourselves. While we were enjoying our first course, Anthony stopped by to say hello, even tho he was swamped. We thought that was very nice of him to remember us & to take time to drop by.
This night, Gary knew he was having the Cantonese Lobster with a Sticky Soy Glaze served with a sticky rice block & baby bok choy.. He is mad for it. I, personally, like my lobster boiled & buttered, New England style. Hence we were on our own for entrees. I chose the Flame Grilled Filet, which was served with a Balsamic Veal Jus reduction, horseradish fingerling potatoes and a bundle of butter seared haricots verts. Once again, Gary was wowed by his Lobster. I did have a few bites & the lobster was melt in your mouth tender cooked to absolute perfection. That very fine line between undercooked & overcooked. Kudos to the Chefs for being able to gage that point in a deep fryer. My Filet was also done to perfection. The outside seared a deep chestnut, with the inside butter soft & delightfully ruby red. The potatoes were sliced long-ways, pan-seared & placed on top of a bit of potato mash laced with horseradish. The haricots verts were drenched in clarified butter, crisp & fresh. When we were about halfway thru our meal, the runner came with a plate of Lavosh, hot from the oven. He had been the one I asked about its absence & was kind enough to remember and bring us some when it was available. One more example of the level of service we continue to get at BZ while some places in WDW seem to be struggling to attain that quality these days.
When we were about midway thru our meal, Illuminations started at Epcot. We had a perfect view of the fireworks rising above Atlantic Dance in the distance. I never realized you could see them from there. It was a grand surprise.
Once again, we were too full for dessert. We were hoping a stroll around Crescent Lake would help us digest enough to go back for the 5D dessert sampler, but it wasnt to be. We asked Jimmy if we could take the Lavosh since his runner had been so kind as to bring it to us & we were too full to enjoy it. Jimmy surprised us by filling a bag with even more of it for us to take. This came in very handy on our Nightmare Flight form Hell the next day.
BlueZoo keeps its firm footing as our favorite restaurant in WDW. I had had some slight disappointments with my meal there with Lisa back in April. I was glad to confirm that as an off night, not a downward slide. With the wonderful dining experiences we are having at the Swan/Dolphin, I am looking forward to the addition of Il Mulino even more. Great Resort with Great dining. I could spend a weekend there, never leave the resort & be in Heaven.
We had dinner reservations for 8pm our first night in WDW at BlueZoo. We arrived a few minutes early to check in. There was a short wait, the restaurant was very busy, but not more than 5 minutes or so. We were seated at a gorgeous round booth towards the back looking out over the restaurant. I just love the whole vibe of this place, its exciting & sexy. Our booth comes equipped with pillows of which I chose the lumbar pillow. It made for an uber-comfortable seat. One thing I did notice this trip were a few tables with children, where on my other visits, I didnt see any.
Our waiter this first evening was Anthony. He promptly brings us the Fiji water service we requested & offers to go over the menu with us. He checks back by occasionally to see when we are ready to order. We chose to eat Tapas-style that night & let Anthony know we would be doing so. We ordered most of the appetizer menu & two sides. We told Anthony to stage them any way he saw fit, just not to bring them all at once, telling him we were in his hands for the night. He came thru beautifully, staging our meal perfectly. Shortly after we ordered, the glorious BlueZoo bread basket arrived. The fennel butter was cold & hard & the Lavosh was slightly stale, but regardless of those two issues, we enjoy the varied flavors of the BlueZoo basket.
For our first round of Tapas, Anthony brought us out the Tempura Haricots Verts with Truffle Aioli, Littleneck Clams Flatbread and the Yellowfin Tuna Tartare. We have had the Clams flatbread before & knew we would love that. The surprise was how delicious the Haricots Verts were! I can see popping into the bar for an order of those & a cocktail after a long day at the Parks. The real winner of this course and the whole evening tho was the Tuna Tartare. OMG! Incredible. The tuna was tossed with sesame oil & some kind of hot pepper or maybe wasabi powder? that gave it a bit of zing. This was served over a little salad of cucumber noodles on a bed of crispy fried rock shrimp tossed in a sticky orange glaze. The whole salad was composed in a timbale made from a thinly shaved cucumber slice. The marriage of flavors & textures in this dish was orgasmically delicious. I have dreamed of this dish nightly since. In fact, yesterday, I ordered the Olives Table cookbook just for this recipe.
For Round Two of our evening, Anthony brought us out the Hearts of Romaine salad to let us catch our breath before round three. The plate was beautifully composed, as are all the plates at BlueZoo. The romaine quarters were dressed in a delightlful ceaser-like emulsion dressing, although I would have used a bit less dressing. I dont like my greens dressed very heavily at all, but Gary thought they were perfect.
After taking our time digesting with our salad, Anthony brought us our finale round of appetizers. In this round, we had the Garlic Roasted Shrimp, the Teppan-Seared Sea Scallops with Beef Short ribs & the Shake & Bake Fries. Gary declared the Sea Scallops his pick for this round, while I chose the Shrimp as my favorite as I am not a scallop lover. I did try a bite of scallop & it was very good as far as scallops go. The outside was beautifully caramelized, but the scallop wasnt the slightest over-cooked or tough. The shrimp was roasted perfectly as well. The last trip I made to the Zoo in April this year, the shrimp was a bit over-seasoned & over-cooked. This time, however, it was back to the perfection that we experienced on our first trip to the Zoo which made us fall in love with it.
The one dish that neither of us cared for at all was the Shake & Bake fries. Im not a fry lover on the best of days, so I wasnt particularly looking forward to them anyways. But, even so, they were very dry & floury. We declared that dish a mistake we would not repeat. But, you never know until you try, right?
After filling ourselves up on appetizers, we had no room left for desserts. If I had to score our dinner experience for that night, Id give it a 9, dampened only by the slightly stale lavosh, the too hard fennel butter and the dry fries. Everything else was perfect. So much so, that we wound up coming back again during our short 5 night trip.
X2
Since we started out our epicurean indulgence tour at BlueZoo, we deemed it only fitting to end there as well. For our last nights dinner, we traded in our reservation at Flying Fish for one more taste of BlueZoo.
We arrived promptly for our 7:45 reservation & were seated within moments despite how busy the restaurant was. Again, we were seated in a round booth strewn with pillows overlooking the dining room. Our server for tonight was Jimmy. He was great, but he wasnt as good as Anthony.
First came our bread basket, which was missing the Lavosh. When I asked about it, they said they had run out & were waiting for more. This time our butter was perfectly room temperature & spreadable. I only had a bit of the focaccia tho, since I knew I was going to need every bit of stomach space.
For starters, we ordered the Tuna Tartare again. I just had to have it. We also ordered the Hearts of Romaine again, telling Jimmy wed be splitting both. Unfortunately, Jimmy brought the both out together. We should have requested the Tartare & then the salad, our bad. We just moved the salad off to the side & staged it ourselves. While we were enjoying our first course, Anthony stopped by to say hello, even tho he was swamped. We thought that was very nice of him to remember us & to take time to drop by.
This night, Gary knew he was having the Cantonese Lobster with a Sticky Soy Glaze served with a sticky rice block & baby bok choy.. He is mad for it. I, personally, like my lobster boiled & buttered, New England style. Hence we were on our own for entrees. I chose the Flame Grilled Filet, which was served with a Balsamic Veal Jus reduction, horseradish fingerling potatoes and a bundle of butter seared haricots verts. Once again, Gary was wowed by his Lobster. I did have a few bites & the lobster was melt in your mouth tender cooked to absolute perfection. That very fine line between undercooked & overcooked. Kudos to the Chefs for being able to gage that point in a deep fryer. My Filet was also done to perfection. The outside seared a deep chestnut, with the inside butter soft & delightfully ruby red. The potatoes were sliced long-ways, pan-seared & placed on top of a bit of potato mash laced with horseradish. The haricots verts were drenched in clarified butter, crisp & fresh. When we were about halfway thru our meal, the runner came with a plate of Lavosh, hot from the oven. He had been the one I asked about its absence & was kind enough to remember and bring us some when it was available. One more example of the level of service we continue to get at BZ while some places in WDW seem to be struggling to attain that quality these days.
When we were about midway thru our meal, Illuminations started at Epcot. We had a perfect view of the fireworks rising above Atlantic Dance in the distance. I never realized you could see them from there. It was a grand surprise.
Once again, we were too full for dessert. We were hoping a stroll around Crescent Lake would help us digest enough to go back for the 5D dessert sampler, but it wasnt to be. We asked Jimmy if we could take the Lavosh since his runner had been so kind as to bring it to us & we were too full to enjoy it. Jimmy surprised us by filling a bag with even more of it for us to take. This came in very handy on our Nightmare Flight form Hell the next day.
BlueZoo keeps its firm footing as our favorite restaurant in WDW. I had had some slight disappointments with my meal there with Lisa back in April. I was glad to confirm that as an off night, not a downward slide. With the wonderful dining experiences we are having at the Swan/Dolphin, I am looking forward to the addition of Il Mulino even more. Great Resort with Great dining. I could spend a weekend there, never leave the resort & be in Heaven.
I could actually taste the food while reading your review 
I am really craving tuna tartare now and it's not even 9:00 am!
