Saturday, July 27, 2013

A Feast with Character at Epcot's Garden Grill

By: Nick, co-writer of the Disney Musings Blog

How many of you know that there is actually more to The Land Pavilion located in Epcot's Future World than Soarin'?


Well, there is! Honest!
On our trip this past January, we ate at the Garden Grill which is located in the Land.


If you've only been to the Land in the morning, you may not even know this is a functioning restaurant, as it is only open for dinner, when it hosts Chip and Dale's Harvest Feast.

The characters:

Farmer Mickey, here with our friends Kandi and John. As far as I know, this is the only place in Disney World where you can get Mickey in this outfit.


Pluto is seen here with my wife Barbie.

 Chip and me.


Dale, with our check. There is a great story to go along with this picture.


Our bill came just as Dale walked up. Dale grabbed our check, and tried to give it to Mickey to pay. Mickey passed! 
Then he tried to give it to a family at a neighboring table, but they, of course, also declined! 
He then proceeded to attempt to throw it over the side of the restaurant, but our server stopped him! Oh well. 
It was hilarious. 
The characters spent plenty of time at each table, and this was easily the best character interaction we've had in a long while.

Throughout the evening, the restaurant itself rotates very slowly, so you can see different scenes of the "Living With the Land" boat ride below.

The menu:
Basket of Warm Breads with Maple Butter
Harvest-inspired Farmer's Salad
Char-grilled Filet of Beef with Red Wine Butter
Roasted All Natural Turkey Breast with Lemon Caper Sauce
Sustainable Fish of the Day with Roasted Tomato and Pepper Compote
Garden Fresh Vegetables
Buttermilk Smashed Potatoes
Artisan Bread Pudding
Fresh Baked Harvest Fruit Cobbler with Vanilla Bean Whipped Cream
Non- alcoholic soft drinks are included.
 

The food was very good. My favorite being the Beef. Our fish this evening was Talapia.

A couple things of note.
If you want the meat cooked a bit more, like our friend John, they are happy to bring you more cooked however you'd like it.
Our friend Kandi doesn't eat pork, and the stuffing that comes with the Turkey has bacon. Our server brought out a plate of stuffing minus the bacon.
And when we wanted more of anything, there it was. We were stuffed.
And then dessert came! We didn't get the Artisan Bread Pudding, not sure why, but the fruit cobbler was more than enough!
This was a great meal, and a lot of fun, so I highly recommend it.

Portions of this article were originally posted on the Disney Musings Blog which Nick co-writes with his wife, Barbie, and on the Tips From the Disney Divas and Devos Blog, where Nick is a contributing writer.

Friday, July 26, 2013

Braised Pork, Be Our Guest

Thank you Miss Disney for the pic

    - Slow cooked pork with vegetables and bacon with mashed potatoes and Green beans Jardiniere. 

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Photographing Your Food While at Disney Parks

By: Nick Maglio

I'm going through every photo from our Disney vacations, and I see a lot, I mean A LOT, of pictures of food.
If you are reading this blog, I know I'm not the only person who loves photos of Disney Food!
I used to write Trip Reports for the DVC fan sites I belong to, and now write restaurant reviews for the Disney Musings Blog, as well as the Tips From the Disney Divas and Devos Blog, and photos are integral to these articles.
But I also take these photos because it helps me remember a good, great, or even bad, meal.

All these examples are from early October, 2009.

We take photos of where we are eating.

 Sanaa, Animal Kingdom Lodge Kidani Village

 Wolfgang Puck Express, Downtown Disney

We take photos of what we are eating.

 
 Wolfgang Puck Express

 Beaches and Cream, Yacht and Beach Club

Pictures of food being made.

Beaches and Cream

 Pictures of waiting for the food.

Beaches and Cream

The food being eaten.

  Beaches and Cream

A photo of food theft! Blatant food theft!

Wolfgang Puck Express

Before photos...

Beaches and Cream

...and after photos.

For more on the Banana Split at Beaches and Cream, please check out this post.

Epcot's International Food and Wine Festival at Walt Disney World is our favorite time to take pictures of food. We pose it as attractively as possible.



So, remember, Mom said don't play with your food, but she didn't say anything about photographing it!

Portions of this article were originally posted on the Disney Musings Blog which Nick co-writes with his wife Barbie.