Here we go again! Dining review October 9-13

goofy78

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jun 25, 2011
Welcome to my pre-dining report! DH and I will be flying down on October 9. We are staying at the Swan. We stayed here last year for F&W since we did not have enough DVC points to stay at the BWV. We ended up loving the Swan although the extra five minutes added to the walk from Epcot displeased DH 😂 We ran in to the same situation this year with the DVC points, so we are back at the Swan. Not next year though 👍 Anyway, our 21 year old DS will be flying down late October 10. He is a senior in college and doesn’t have any classes on Fridays so he’ll be joining us for the long weekend. I honestly feel like it was just yesterday he moved in to his dorm. We are all leaving to come home October 14 super early in the morning.

I have reserved and canceled and rebooked and rescheduled and rearranged sooooo many reservations for this trip. There are so many places we want to return to and so many places we want to try for the first time. 19 days out I believe this is our final lineup. We are so excited to try the new places on our list. I hope to return with lots of good things to say!

F&W
https://www.disboards.com/threads/here-we-go-again-dining-review-october-9-13.3770656/post-61185787Victoria Falls Lounge
Jiko
https://www.disboards.com/threads/here-we-go-again-dining-review-october-9-13.3770656/post-61185965Boulangerie Patisserie les Halls x2
https://www.disboards.com/threads/here-we-go-again-dining-review-october-9-13.3770656/post-61186024Lunch Disney Springs
F&W
https://www.disboards.com/threads/here-we-go-again-dining-review-october-9-13.3770656/post-61186109Tutto Gusto
https://www.disboards.com/threads/here-we-go-again-dining-review-october-9-13.3770656/post-61187216Narccoossee's
https://www.disboards.com/threads/here-we-go-again-dining-review-october-9-13.3770656/post-61188080F&W
https://www.disboards.com/threads/here-we-go-again-dining-review-october-9-13.3770656/post-61191844Mexican Tequila Lunch
https://www.disboards.com/threads/here-we-go-again-dining-review-october-9-13.3770656/post-61195572La Cava and F&W
https://www.disboards.com/threads/here-we-go-again-dining-review-october-9-13.3770656/post-61209778Takumi-Tei
https://www.disboards.com/threads/here-we-go-again-dining-review-october-9-13.3770656/post-61210607Wild Africa Safari Trek
Nomad Lounge
https://www.disboards.com/threads/here-we-go-again-dining-review-october-9-13.3770656/post-61340241Chef Art Smith's
https://www.disboards.com/threads/here-we-go-again-dining-review-october-9-13.3770656/post-61340263Shula's
https://www.disboards.com/threads/here-we-go-again-dining-review-october-9-13.3770656/post-61460493Jaleo
Les Halles
https://www.disboards.com/threads/here-we-go-again-dining-review-october-9-13.3770656/post-61460511F&W
https://www.disboards.com/threads/here-we-go-again-dining-review-october-9-13.3770656/post-61460555Tutto Gusto
https://www.disboards.com/threads/here-we-go-again-dining-review-october-9-13.3770656/post-61563259Spice Road Table
https://www.disboards.com/threads/here-we-go-again-dining-review-october-9-13.3770656/post-61563279AbracadaBar
https://www.disboards.com/threads/here-we-go-again-dining-review-october-9-13.3770656/post-61563309Wine Bar George

I would love to fit in Grand Floridian Cafe for either breakfast or lunch. Also Via Napoli. I’m sure there will be more places added in. I’m hoping nothing changes too much from now until then but you never know!
 
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Hi everyone! Leaving tomorrow for our trip! I’ve added Narcoossee’s and Chef Art Smiths to our lineup. I hope we are able to fit everything in! Be back soon with reviews!
 


Your plans sound amazing! Many places I would love to try so following along. Have a wonderful trip!
 
Wouldn't miss this for the world. Hope you're having an amazing time!
 


Can't wait to hear about it!

Thanks for joining!

Your plans sound amazing! Many places I would love to try so following along. Have a wonderful trip!

Thanks! We wanted to try places we never have been to.

Wouldn't miss this for the world. Hope you're having an amazing time!

Thanks! We had an amazing time!

Following along!

Thanks for following!

Following!

Thanks for following!

We were there Oct10-14. Interested in your experience!

What a perfect time to be there! The weather was fantastic!

LLLOOVVEEE Narcoossees!!! steak/lobster and almond encrusted cheesecake!!

We enjoyed it! So glad we were able to try it.
 
We are back! 😭 Obviously I wish we were still there but I guess we had to come back to reality (and our other children). We had an amazing trip. The weather was fantastic and all of our food experiences were great. DH and I arrived around 4:00 pm and were able to check-in at the Swan. We dropped off our bags and headed over to Epcot for our favorite F&W snack and to also get in a day at Epcot to be able to get the Passholder coasters. We stopped in front of where I think has the best margaritas for our first official photo.
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We continued on to Epcot and while almost to our favorite food item booth, it started to drizzle. We quickly made a pit stop at the Wine and Dine booth since they have umbrellas and needed to take cover. We ordered the butternut squash ravioli.
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This picture is actually from the next time we got it when our son was with us. With the rain coming down I forgot to take a picture this time.

The rain was over quickly so we made our way to Flavors from Fire for the smoked corned beef served with crispy potatoes, cheese curds, pickled onions, and beer cheese fondue. AAHHH how we love these!
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So after getting exactly what we came for this first day, we headed back to the swan to get ready for our dinner at Jiko.
 
We got ready for dinner and hopped in a Lyft to AKL. We love this resort so much and Jiko is amazing every time. We skipped out on Victoria Falls Lounge since we knew we would be ordering a bottle of wine with dinner.
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Love this resort ❤

We were seated quickly and started off with our favorite wine. It is a nice, bold, very smooth red wine. Highly recommended.
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The Lion King menu was not being offered anymore. We were planning to try it if it was still being offered but no big deal. The menu has been trimmed down quite a bit. I know they did this when they offered the LK menu but it was still trimmed down. We started with an appetizer that we never got before, the North African Spiced Scallops- Herb Chermoula, Curried Feta Crumbles. They were delicious! The curried feta was so good. DH is not a huge fan of curry but he agreed that it was delicious. The scallops were cooked perfectly, melting in our mouths.
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We were brought the bread next. This was new since the last time we were here which was in May. I'm glad we don't decide to eat somewhere because of the bread service because this was just ok. Our waitress explained how this bread was made and from googling it I think it is "potbrood". Potbrood ("pot bread") is bread first made by the Boer settlers of what is now South Africa. Potbrood was traditionally baked in a cast-iron pot (also known as a Dutch oven) in a pit made in the ground and lined with hot coals. The bread and dipping oil was good but I have enjoyed their other breads more and I found this one to be too filling. We only had a small amount so we would not fill up before our entrees.
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DH and I both ordered the filet. I knew I wanted to try the bobotie mac and cheese so I ordered my meal how it was prepared on the menu- Crushed Potatoes, Petite Brussels Sprouts, Kalettes, Royal Trumpet Mushrooms, South African Wine Glace. DH subbed his side with the regular mac and cheese. The filets were perfect! The side of bobotie mac and cheese was huge. We shared it and actually brought some back to the hotel with us for DS to try when he arrived the next night.
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Four Cheeses, Wagyu, Almonds, Raisins, Cape Malay Curry
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None of Jiko's desserts ever really get our attention so we decided to split a dessert drink instead. The Zebratini- Captain Morgan Spiced Rum, Godiva White Chocolate Liqueur, Frangelico, Amarula, and a shot of Espresso in a Chocolate Zebra-striped Martini Glass. All I have to say is WOW! If you've never had one of these, do yourself a favor and get one. Preferably one for yourself.
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We had another fantastic meal at Jiko. It was the perfect start to our vacation. Jiko is a must do for us every trip. We headed out to wait for our Lyft and head back to the Swan.
 
On our first full day, we headed to Epcot in the morning. We had a FP for Soarin before F&W officially started but before we headed to Soarin we stopped at Boulangerie Patisserie les Halles for breakfast.
Tartine Aux Fromages, country bread, tomato sauce, swiss, parmesan & goat cheese, and champagne. 😊 We don't come here often. We've only come to get dessert items like macarons. This was our first real food experience. The bread was delicious. The goat cheese in the middle was fantastic. The champagne was for me and I added a drop of OJ for color. 😉
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Close up of the tartine
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We rode Soarin and headed to our first booth of the day.
 
Our first booth of the day was Coastal Eats. We had the baked shrimp and scallop scampi dip and the pacifico true striped bass tostada. We both got the shorts brewing co mule beer. The scampi dip was delicious. Neither of us thought the tostada was that good. It was very plain tasting. The fish was cooked nicely but it did not have any seasoning. We were both taken back when we tried the beer at first. We weren't crazy about it. It had a strange flavor to it. Then I realized it said mule beer and what we were tasting was the ginger. After realizing what the flavor was I didn't mind it as much. DH was not a fan but we drank them anyway, we just wouldn't get it again.
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The next booth was The Chocolate Studio. We got the dark chocolate raspberry tart and the twinings pumpkin spice chai tea frozen cocktail with caramel vodka. The tart was good, nothing spectacular but the frozen chai tea was super spectacular! I might have enjoyed this slightly more than the guiness and baileys shake. 🤔
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We next visited Hawaii. We got the kalua pork slider and a maui brewing company bikini blonde lager for DH. The slider was very good and DH enjoyed his beer.
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I ventured over to Shimmering Sips to get a glass of dom Perignon brut. I enjoyed this very much. Nice and dry.
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Next was Canada. We order the filet which was cooked nicely but had the same problem as the striped bass tostada. No seasoning (salt) which is very unusual in Disney.
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Because we hadn't had enough to eat or drink yet, we headed into Rose and Crown Pub. We ordered a Golden and a Half and Half. We also ordered fish and chips. The fish and chips were delicious. We hung out for a bit and ordered another Golden and a half pint Golden Fox before heading out.
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We were going to head back to the hotel but I remembered we really wanted to try Tutto Gusto so we walked past France to head over to Italy. I made a stop at the France booth and grabbed a kir a la grenade- sparkling wine with monin pomegranate syrup. Please excuse the selfie. 🤣
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Your food and wine day sounds like what DH & I will be doing next week. Tutto Gusto is on my list to try as well!

I am on the fence about Jiko.... I want to try it but I am always not sure....
 
We arrived at Tutto Gusto and were seated right away. We loved the atmosphere here. We are going to Italy in June for the first time and sitting in here got us even more excited. We ordered Prosciutto di Parma, Insalata di Mare - shrimp, squid, octopus, lemon, extra virgin olive oil, and Mozzarella. I ordered Italy's Best wine flight and DH ordered a Peroni. We also ordered dessert which was a chocolate cake. Everything was amazing! The seafood salad was our favorite. The prosciutto was melt in your mouth delicious. By this time we had plenty to drink so we actually don't remember too much about the dessert.
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We should have left here and headed back to the hotel but while we were walking out of Italy, I saw some people with limoncello shots so I suggested we each get one. DH tried to take a picture of us and dropped his phone which caused the shots to spill a little on me 😆 I don't know what kind of smile that is. We finally realized it was time to take a break and head back to the resort.
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We did stop at Boardwalk Joes for a margarita and a jalapeno pretzel. We FINALLY made it back to the swan and had some much needed rest!
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Your food and wine day sounds like what DH & I will be doing next week. Tutto Gusto is on my list to try as well!

I am on the fence about Jiko.... I want to try it but I am always not sure....

Definitely try both! If you have any questions about Jiko, let me know. It is such a fantastic restaurant. The atmosphere, service, and food are top notch. We are not picky eaters at all so that might be a factor but one of our daughters is a SUPER picky eater and even she loves it!
 
We took a Lyft over to The Grand Floridian for our dinner at Narccoossee's. We really want to stay at GF someday but it's so hard to give up the Boardwalk location. Especially because we travel during F&G and F&W. It was such a beautiful night. I will have to say we were still feeling the wrath from our day drinking so we were not up for drinking at dinner. Also, during our dinner, my 95 year old grandmother kept calling me. She called me non stop! She knew my mother was helping out with my girls at home and probably thought I was with my mother even though I kept telling her I was in Florida. On top of that, our DS's flight got delayed. Once, then twice, then he was informed that the plane was broken and they were trying to find another plane. I got nervous the flight would be canceled so I had him cancel his flight and I rebooked him with a different airline. Well, that flight ended up getting delayed too and instead of landing at 9:00 pm as he was originally supposed to he landed at 1:00 am. But he made it safely and that is all that matters. So we were a little preoccupied during our dinner.
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We split an appetizer of the lobster bisque. It was very good.
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I ordered the Wild Key West Shrimp and Campanella Pasta, savoy spinach, oven-roasted tomatoes, basil pistou, comte cheese, and chardonnay-garlic cream. This was delicious.
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DH ordered the Pan-seared Georges Bank Day Boat ScallopsParisian-style Gnocchi, Pancetta, Spring Peas, and Mushrooms finished with Preserved Meyer Lemons and Truffle Cream and really enjoyed it.
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We split the Almond-crusted Cheesecake, with Lambert Cherry Sauce which was fantastic! We both agreed that we enjoyed Narccoossee's but that our dinner wasn't able to be enjoyed properly with the distractions and not feeling 100% with all our day drinking. We will have to give it another try.
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