Sleepydog's Dining Reviews w/Pics--FINAL THOUGHTS!

Sweet chicken? Hell no! That's crazy because we went twice last year and the chicken was never sweet. I wonder if it's prepared differently when ordered with the donuts??? We loved just about everything we tried on both visits but I totally agree with you on the mashed potatoes and gravy...not our style either.
 
Sweet chicken? Hell no! That's crazy because we went twice last year and the chicken was never sweet. I wonder if it's prepared differently when ordered with the donuts??? We loved just about everything we tried on both visits but I totally agree with you on the mashed potatoes and gravy...not our style either.
Weird. I assumed they prepped all their chicken the same, but as you can see in the pic, it has sugar on top! Yikes! You might be correct, though. As for the taters, they were just too heavy for us with both the bacon and gravy. Thanks for checking in!
 
throughly enjoying your reviews.
Thank you for the kind comments, KnK! Sometimes I get behind (that nagging work thing), but I do enjoy eating and living to tell about it. ;) Oh, and drinking. . .
 


He stopped and showed us one of those quasi-booth tables (1/2 booth, 1/2 chair--a Chooth table!). . .right next to the server station and entrance to the kitchen.

This is giving me flashbacks to Homecoming when they sat us in front of the dishwashing room lol. I swear, Scott and I can walk into a completely empty restaurant and they will try to seat us near the bathroom.

The lobster corn dogs were superb, I have to say. It's one of their dishes they consider to signature and for due cause.

Lobster corndogs?!?!? What kind of culinary wizard came up with these??? I mean, I love a corndog with processed meat inside them. I think I might die over lobster ones!

Luv and I started with appetizers. I had the Watermelon and Barrel Aged Feta salad. I'm fond of watermelon salads, and this one didn't disappoint.
Tiffins2.jpg

GORGEOUS

Reds, to me, are a stronger suit for Oregon, and I highly recommend the Sineann Pinot Noir. Very silky.

You mentioned that you were into Oregon pinot noirs! I'll have to give them a shot. I've been enjoying King Estate pinot gris lately. I usually find pinot noirs to be pretty thin. Is there a specific winery I should look for?

I love your reviews with @luvvwl! You guys are too cute with how you met and the whole AP connection. How special! So glad they always make it special for you. It's always nice to hear that you can still get service above and beyond at WDW :)
 
I love the reviews and hearing from Luv's perspective too. Sorry y'all didn't care for homecoming. I agree with an above poster that I've never had sweet chicken there except on their biscuits where the chicken comes sauced in hot honey. And it's good! I believe the potato gravy there is a cream gravy - very southern and not supposed to brown. Kinda like the sausage gravy that is usually served as biscuits n gravy. I laughed at the observation that it's like an upscale Cracker Barrel! So true. I like the upscale roadside chain vibe better than Art's Atlanta restaurant decor though... it looks like a TJ Maxx in there.
 
Quote from some woman: "Plus, I am not so old as someone-who-shall-remain-nameless that I am intolerant to change!"
Hey! Don't think I didn't see this, little Miss-You-Know-Who-You-Are-and-So-Do-I. Further, I am not intolerant to change. . .I'm not a fan of change strictly for profit, in the name of making something better when it only arguably does, and mostly when it affects me directly. . .like messing with my wildernessyness. Just sayin'.

wildernessyness? Really? (insert rolling eyes here)

HOMECOMIN'
I realize that Luv and I are one of the few, apparently, who didn't fall in love with this place. She had actually been once before and had reported she was "unimpressed." I, however, must see (or taste) things on my own, so I insisted (okay, asked politely) we go to Homecomin'. My wife merely raised a brow (and smirked a little), and said, "Are you sure?" Yep. So, we went. Turned out to be the updated version of Father Knows Best (okay, so I recall this solely in reruns).

see above old comment

Now, I'm certain these are popular, and for two of the six, I could see why they get rave reviews--tart and creamy at the same time with just a hint of bacon on the finish. However, eating these were like eating Padron peppers--you weren't quite sure which egg would be good and which would be bland. Oddly, as implied, four of the six were just so-so. Yolks are fine without a lot of fussing if they're poached and covering a marvelous chunk of ham, salmon, or English muffin. Once hard-boiled, they need work to overcome the dullness of the dry yolk. In the case of the Floundering Four, the mustard and/or vinegar element was downplayed to the point of oblivion making them merely filling and not terribly tasty. Obviously, the yolk filling was supplied from two different batches. So, I only give these a B-.

think you're being a wee bit generous here

GRADE: C+ Highlights: my drink, views Lows: Food, overall ambiance

see above generous comment
 


I love your reviews with @luvvwl! You guys are too cute with how you met and the whole AP connection. How special! So glad they always make it special for you. It's always nice to hear that you can still get service above and beyond at WDW :)

I love the reviews and hearing from Luv's perspective too. Sorry y'all didn't care for homecoming. I agree with an above poster that I've never had sweet chicken there except on their biscuits where the chicken comes sauced in hot honey. And it's good! I believe the potato gravy there is a cream gravy - very southern and not supposed to brown. Kinda like the sausage gravy that is usually served as biscuits n gravy. I laughed at the observation that it's like an upscale Cracker Barrel! So true. I like the upscale roadside chain vibe better than Art's Atlanta restaurant decor though... it looks like a TJ Maxx in there.

Someone has to be the voice of reason! :D
 
This is giving me flashbacks to Homecoming when they sat us in front of the dishwashing room lol. I swear, Scott and I can walk into a completely empty restaurant and they will try to seat us near the bathroom.
I know!! Same with us! In that particular instance at Paddlefish, there were a few people in the first room, virtually no one in the second room, and yet they tried to seat us all the way around at the table right next to the work station/kitchen. The episode that was the proverbial straw for us was three years ago at Disneyland when we were seated right beside the main server work/pickup station at Carthay Circle. Good food, awful experience. Never again.

Lobster corndogs?!?!? What kind of culinary wizard came up with these??? I mean, I love a corndog with processed meat inside them. I think I might die over lobster ones!
Despite the rest of the meal being substandard, those lobster corndogs were undeniably excellent. The batter has a tendency to not stick as well as one might like, but that's a minor criticism. If you love corndogs, and frankly everyone should, then you will fall in love with these. Still, I can't recommend Paddlefish overall.

You mentioned that you were into Oregon pinot noirs! I'll have to give them a shot. I've been enjoying King Estate pinot gris lately. I usually find pinot noirs to be pretty thin. Is there a specific winery I should look for?
As you say, Pinot Noirs can be notoriously whiny and thin, and that's why they're generally considered one of the more fickle varietals. The Sineann winery out of the Willamette Valley is quite good, as well A to Z Wineworks, and R. Stuart & Co. All of them are Oregon wineries. As a general rule, if it's red and comes from Oregon, I'm willing to take a chance on it. :drinking1

I love your reviews! You guys are too cute with how you met and the whole AP connection. How special! So glad they always make it special for you. It's always nice to hear that you can still get service above and beyond at WDW :)
Thanks for your kind words, but actually Luv is the cute one; I'm just ruggedly goofy. Disney started our connection (she took a hankering to a long ago trip report of mine). We first met during a light rain on the now defunct beach at WL :sad: and the rest, as they say, well, let's just say it was love at first sight. . .well, I had to be convinced. :duck:

Yes, our experience at AP is almost always superb. Again, thanks for following along. I'll be back soon with more comments and pics.
 
I love the reviews and hearing from Luv's perspective too. Sorry y'all didn't care for homecoming. I agree with an above poster that I've never had sweet chicken there except on their biscuits where the chicken comes sauced in hot honey. And it's good! I believe the potato gravy there is a cream gravy - very southern and not supposed to brown. Kinda like the sausage gravy that is usually served as biscuits n gravy. I laughed at the observation that it's like an upscale Cracker Barrel! So true. I like the upscale roadside chain vibe better than Art's Atlanta restaurant decor though... it looks like a TJ Maxx in there.
Thanks for following along, and Luv's commentary is often more to the point. Sometimes, I tend to meander, pausing for asides, detaili--SQUIRREL! Yep, I'm sure the gravy is a closer cousin to biscuits and gravy gravy than to actual fried chicken gravy. Some of my roots are in Louisiana where roux is the color of mahogany, so I'll admit the color o' gravy at Homecoming is a bit off putting. ;)
wildernessyness? Really? (insert rolling eyes here)
Hey, I'm worsdsmithing. . .


see above old comment
Wha-a-a-t?? I can't hear you with my feeble ears.



think you're being a wee bit generous here
Anything less than a C+, and we might not make it out of here alive.
Someone has to be the voice of reason! :D
You're kidding, right? Oh, you're right, babe. Love ya!
 
I know I've been slacking lately, and for that I apologize. But, enough small talk. . .

This particular picture has nothing to do with food, but it's worth noting that you can still get a henna tattoo at Animal Kingdom for a relatively inexpensive price. I want to say this one was $25. Oh, and that's only the beginning of the tattoo--it wound up about three times that length. FWIW, that's Luv's leg not mine. . .it's a little blurry so, no, you're not imagining it or not had enough coffee yet. . .

Bice1.jpg


Back to food. We love ourselves some Italian--we always make our own sauces at home, from simple, summer-light fresh tomato with basil ones all the way to takes-a-couple-of-days to make Bolognese (with a recipe given to us from our most favorite Italian spot--OMBRA Cucina Rustica in HHI--but that's another story). To date, our favorite go-to at the World has been Il Mulino, though we do love the Tutto Gusto Wine Cellar, as well. We've had good experiences at other spots not named Mama or Tony yet have found Il Mulino to fit our taste buds and needs the best

Until now.

I introduce to you Exhibit A: Bice (pronounced Bee-chay--we shamefacedly found out the place did not rhyme with rice. Oops). LOML had been reading about it and wanting to try it for some time; however, given that you have to drive or be driven there and that it's part of the Dark Side and it would be an expensive fail if it didn't turn out to be good, we hesitated over the years. Since we'd just been to Il Mulino on the last trip, we finally decided to give Bice a try (for the record, it's named after Beatrice "Bice" Ruggeri who started a trattoria in Milan in 1926). Oh, my, are we thrilled we did.

It was a stormy day, as most of those days in July were, and we made the 15-20 minute drive to the Portofino Bay Hotel without incident. Just as we arrived, however, the heavens let loose. We valet parked Walt (yep, we name our vehicles after Disney icons or characters) and had to snake our way through the hotel to get to Bice. People who geo-cache have nothing on us--down a long hallway, bear left, take the next stairs down to a level where about halfway you pivoted right, down more stairs, up more stairs, put one foot in and take the other one out--you get the picture. When we did arrive, the exterior of the restaurant didn't shout elegance or upscale. In fact, to me, it seemed almost a little underwhelming. Once in the restaurant proper, though, it was lovely--high ceilings, tablecloths, tables by the window, and a certain luxurious feel to the place. We were seated in a nearly empty restaurant (it got busier later) and right by a window that overlooked the "port." Hopefully, my lovely wife will have more pictures--I failed to take many.

Our service the entire night was exceptional, and our particular server was patient with our questions about the menu, substitutions (well, not for me), and the wine (yep, that's me). The menu was quite extensive, so it was difficult to narrow down our choices. I think Luv went with two small plates of two different pastas--I'm sure she'll chime in if not. I opted for one of my all-time favorite dishes, the veal shank ossobuco which in Bice's version is served with a saffron risotto. Sounded right up my alley. To go with our meal, we ordered a bottle of Ripasso. If you're not familiar with this wine, you should be. It's one of my top 2 or 3 affordable wines and tastes like I imagine the country side of Italy to be.

Back to the food. We gnoshed on some bread with olive oil while waiting on our meals--the breads were good, not great but the oil was marvelously herbaceous and floral. Loved it. There was also a hummus and a balsamic vinegar for dipping, as well. The hummus was ho-hum while the balsamic had that sweet tartness that contrasted well with the oil. . .but the oil was the star.

When my ossobuco arrived, I was stunned. It looked like a portion from The Flintstones cartoons.
Bice3.jpg

The picture doesn't do it justice due to the closeup nature, but it was a big honkin' piece of meat, covered in that braising liquid and a deep, velvety tomato sauce. As you can see, it was fork tender (appropriately so) and simply the best I've had since Orso Ristorante in Anchorage, AK, some decade and a half ago. The risotto was a smart pairing with this meal as the pungency of that spice helped offset the richness of the meat and sauce. (In the back, you can see the dipping sauces for the bread.)

Here's another shot with the dipping sauces and Luv's dishes in the background--obviously, one of them was a ravioli though I can't remember the filling. The other may have been a Bolognese? In between, you'll notice the lovely hue of the Ripasso. It was a great match for my ossobucco, and as I recall, actually worked wonders with the ravioli, too.
Bice2.jpg



You might be wondering for what purpose the small fork is in the middle of the ossobuco? Luv was curious at first, but I knew right away. If you guessed it's for the bone marrow, you'd be absolutely correct. While my wife isn't a fan, I am, and it was so rich, fatty, and almost smoky in nature. Melt in your mouth greatness.
Bice4.jpg



I couldn't finish the entire portion given how large it was, so it wound up in a take away bag and provided a tasty, late evening snack a couple of days later. It's hard to imagine that I will order anything else when we return, and we will return! From the service, to the food, to the wine list, to the ambiance, Bice is a hard restaurant to top. I know on these boards, people ask about the dress code quite a bit, so I will suggest that if you do go to Bice, dress nicely. You don't have to dress up per se, though we did see a couple of men with ties and one long evening gown (not on a man); however, the vibe of this spot is opulence. That being said, we also saw a couple who were in more casual resort wear but even that was nice shorts, Izod-style shirt, an actual blouse-y shirt (not a t-shirt), and the like. However, far and away, most we saw dining there that evening obviously wanted to feel as though it was a special experience. It certainly was for us. Though Luv will likely add her thoughts and a few pics, I am ready to rate this place anyway.
GRADE: A Highlights: Food, service, wine list, ambiance Lows: Finding it
 
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Bice sounds like an amazing experience, possibly one that could entice me to leave the Disney bubble!
 
Bice!
We used to have fun there after a Broadway show in NYC. They had a restaurant in the west 50's (maybe 54th or 55th?). Closed down about 5 years ago and I'd be glad to give them a twirl in Orlando:smooth:.
 
Bice sounds like an amazing experience, possibly one that could entice me to leave the Disney bubble!
That was my hesitation originally--why leave the bubble? But, the menu looked good and we'd done Il Mulino just two months earlier. So, we strayed and are so happy that we did. It was a top flight meal and experience. I just had Luv send me her pics, so I'll update with more in a day or two.

Bice!
We used to have fun there after a Broadway show in NYC. They had a restaurant in the west 50's (maybe 54th or 55th?). Closed down about 5 years ago and I'd be glad to give them a twirl in Orlando:smooth:.
I see where they have a number of them scattered about. I think you should give them a chance. Perhaps it will stir fond memories for you!
 
LOVE Bice!! We stayed at Portofino Bay the first time we went to the dark side and loved everything about it. In fact we've enjoyed most of the restaurants we've tried over there.:lovestruc
 
LOVE Bice!! We stayed at Portofino Bay the first time we went to the dark side and loved everything about it. In fact we've enjoyed most of the restaurants we've tried over there.:lovestruc
Thanks for chiming in! We've not stayed at PB--though we may at some point--but like the vibe there, despite the spelunking we had to do just to find Bice. To be totally honest, we've not tried any place over there but Bice; however, we'd be hard pressed to try any other spot after our topnotch experience there. Already looking forward to going back.
 
That was my hesitation originally--why leave the bubble? But, the menu looked good and we'd done Il Mulino just two months earlier. So, we strayed and are so happy that we did. It was a top flight meal and experience. I just had Luv send me her pics, so I'll update with more in a day or two.

I see where they have a number of them scattered about. I think you should give them a chance. Perhaps it will stir fond memories for you!

AHEM!!! SOMEONE has been TRYING to get us there since 2011. Just sayin'
 
AHEM!!! SOMEONE has been TRYING to get us there since 2011. Just sayin'
Really? I hadn't heard.

More Pictures from Bice

First, a message from our local henna tattoo artist at AK. As you can see, the final image was quite elaborate and for just $25. Not a bad bargain by Disney standards.
Tattoo.jpg

Now, back to our regularly scheduled entertainment. . .

The sign
Bice11.jpg



The interior
Bice8.jpg



The view from our seat after the storm clouds passed
Bice9.jpg



The bread service with oil and dips
Bice7.jpg



The velvety, supple wine
Bice5.jpg



The ravioli (short rib stuffed with Marsala cream sauce) and Bolognese
Bice12.jpg




Bice6.jpg



Tiramisu della BiCE--it was pillowy, not too overcome with bitter coffee, chocolate, or alcohol--decadent
Bice10.jpg



It was a delightful meal all the way around, and there's no doubt we'll be back next time we're in the area.
 
Oh my gosh I am drooling! And not over loml's leg :laughing: we will have to try Bice next time we are over at UO. We stayed at Portofino and really love the Universal dining options outside the parks. Great review and photos!!
 

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