Now, finally, the time for taking pictures had finally come (yes, wake up everybody
) with our long-awaited dinner at Yacht Club Restaurant at the Newport Bay Club.
This was only a short stroll away from our hotel along the lakeside promenade:
I loved the bright fall colours of the foliage back home in Germany, the leaves were still mostly all green.
Checking in at the podium I asked for a window seat (which immediately sent DH rolling his eyes he hates the many things I always do to delay his getting dinner
) and was told that this would mean about ten minutes' additional wait.
We used the time to have a bit of a look around the hotel, then returned and were promptly seated at a window table (a really small one, though I suspect they didn't manage to free a table in time so they just carried this one over and crammed it in the corner. Not a problem at all, though I really appreciated their doing everything to fulfill our wishes).
We started by ordering our drinks again, a one-litre bottle of San Pellegrino sparkling water, and a half-bottle of not fancy, but very pleasant St. Èmilion Bordeaux wine.
Next came the bread and butter:
Our first encounter with the "Disney butter" (since it is called D'Isigny) that I had seen here on the boards, and they even gave us one salted and one unsalted portion so both of us got their preference (we were served the same sort of butter again at other restaurants, but unfortunately never again the salted variety).
I ordered the three-course Regatta Menu at 35.00 euros, while DH did not see any desserts that took his fancy and so ordered his appetizer (9.50 EUR) and entrée (28.50 EUR) individually.
I couldn't really make up my mind on what to get for starters, so I ordered the appetizer sample (always a good choice for the indecisive):
"The Traveler's Plate", with house-made Foie Gras, salmon tartar and Chinese cabbage salad. (Please excuse the blurred photo!)
This was a very pleasant choice: The Foie Gras was rich, tasty and well set off by the rye bread and coarsely ground sea salt. (Actually far too big a portion of foie gras to finish alone, they could really have made this a bit smaller. I could not give any to DH either because he detests it, and from a moral standpoint he may well be right. I only eat it when I'm in France!
)
The cabbage salad was very refreshing, and the salmon tartar was my favourite of all of them very fresh and clean-tasting with the crunchy cucumber slices and peppercorns (and, if I am not mistaken, sesame seeds).
I am a bit confused by my own picture now since I cannot really identify the herb on top, but I do think that it was cilantro, which I love. (I may be mistaken though, it may have been wishful thinking as to my taste, pretty much every dish would benefit from a bit of cilantro on top
)
DH, ever so health-consciously, had opted for a salad:
"Mekong Salad" with cress, fried tofu, wakame, crunchy vegetable and mango chutney in a sesame vinaigrette.
I really dont know how I managed to mess up all my photos that evening, I am really sorry! Anyway, I didn't try any of his salad, but he said it was very good even though there was tofu in it
.
There was a nice little break after our appetizers where we could just comfortably sit, have conversation and sip our wine, which I really liked. From (at least non-signature) restaurants in WDW we are used to be a bit rushed, but here they spaced the courses very nicely.
Eventually, though, our main courses arrived, and mine was this:
Beef in teriyaki sauce with stir-fried wok vegetables and combava rice.
It was heaven on a plate! The best dish I had during this whole trip. The beef done medium just as requested -, was tender, juicy and wonderful , the teriyaki was nicely spicy and the veggies were plentiful and fried just as I love them: so hard as to seem almost raw. Couldn't go wrong with the rice either as it had some shredded cilantro on top
.
I had to look up the combava part, though, and found out that this is caffir lime and was the reason for the rice's very slightly lemony taste.
Meanwhile, DH was enjoying his main course, which he had to order separately since it was not available in any of the fixed-price menus:
Fillet of beet with Szechuan pepper, roast potatoes and green beans.
The perfect kind of meal to make my husband happy - he later said it was by far the best he had during the entire trip.
For him, it was also the end of the meal as he had only ordered the two courses I, on the other hand, having ordered the Regatta Menu, still had this little beauty to look forward to:
Honeyed pineapple and coconut Crème brulée.
It was very nice and it even had a face and an Elvis style hairdo!
All in all, we were more than happy with our meal: Nice setting, attentive server, wonderful food, good wine. Therefore, we heartily recommend the Yacht Club Restaurant!
Oh, and we also once again recommend the Shareholders Club card: saved us 14.09 here.
After our meal, we walked the few steps out to the lake and were able to enjoy this beautiful view:
Coming up next: Lunch at Walt's