Poulet rouge with hedgehog mushrooms & gnocchi from Victoria & Albert’s

Poulet rouge with hedgehog mushrooms & gnocchi from Victoria & Albert’s located in the Grand Floridian.

Soul soup & salad from Raglan Road located in Downtown Disney

Soul soup & salad from Raglan Road located in Downtown Disney.

Be Our Guest For Dinner

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

Before I begin my review, I just want to say, if visiting Walt Disney World, you absolutely MUST go to Be Our Guest. It is not about the food, it is about the experience. You ARE in the Ballroom from Beauty and the Beast. You ARE in the West Wing! You'll see your host, the Beast! It is absolutely beautiful inside and out, the theming is a 10 out of 10.
But...

...our experience was sadly not as magical as we would have hoped.
We arrived for our reservation a bit early, a good idea, as there always seems to be a line.

Advanced Dining Reservations at the 6 month mark are a very highly suggested at this very popular establishment. We tried to add another couple 5 months prior to our visit, and we were unable to!

The wait was only a few minutes, and we were escorted in. I'd seen the exterior on our previous trip in October of 2012, but my jaw dropped the moment we entered the castle. None of my photos even come close to doing it justice.

We were seated in the ballroom by the West Wing, which I had to check out. On a future trip, I will request to be seated here for a different experience.

Our host, Beast, makes several appearances throughout the evening.

Our server was very friendly, but, as we'd discover, very inattentive.
For dinner, my wife and friend Kandi had the Layered Ratatouille, oven-baked zucchini, eggplant, mushrooms, tomatoes and caramelized onions sliced and layered with quinoa, served with a bell pepper sauce  for $15.99, which they both described as excellent. My wife actually said it was like the scene in the Pixar film "Ratatouille", where the critic was brought back to his childhood after trying the dish prepared by the "Little Chef", Remy.

 

Our friend John had the Grilled Strip Steak, with garlic-herb butter and pommes frites, $29.99.

 He ordered it medium well. It came out charred on the outside, but cooked fine on the inside, and he said it was okay. I tried his fries and they were excellent.

 

I ordered the Thyme-scented Pork Rack Chop, with au gratin macaroni, seasonal vegetables and red wine au jus, $21.99.

The macaroni is a grown up mac and cheese, and it was very good, a little on the rich side. The pork chop was fine. The problem primarily being just 2 nights earlier, at the Hollywood Brown Derby, I'd had the world's BEST pork chop, as I've come to call it, and this was destined to not live up to that. 

After one bite, I realized I should have ordered something different.

 

As for the service, if we wanted anything, we had to locate and flag down our server. 

Then, there was the Grey Stuff, and dessert. 

I asked about the Grey Stuff, and we were told that it was only served for special occasions. As a friend pointed out, isn't the fact the we are at Walt Disney World a special enough occasion?! 

Luckily, our server took note that Kandi and John were wearing their Anniversary buttons, and brought us 2 dollops of the Grey Stuff...

... it's good, but not as delicious as the song would have us believe.

The desserts we ordered, however, were a let down.

 My wife had the Strawberry Cream Cheese Cupcake, vanilla sponge cake, strawberry mousse filling, and cream cheese icing, which sounds amazing, but was described as bland, all the flavor being on top.

John and I each had the Triple Chocolate Cupcake, chocolate sponge cake, chocolate mousse filling, and chocolate ganache. Again, this sounds much better than it actually was.

At $3.99 each,  at least they didn't break the bank. 

So, a mixed bag here. Lackluster service, good, not outstanding, food, but arguably the best themed restaurant in the World. 

We will certainly be back, and I will give a different entree and dessert a try, because where else can you get a photo op like this one of my wife and me dancing in Beast's Ballroom?!

  

This article was originally posted on the Tips From the Disney Divas and Devos Blog where Nick is a contributing writer as well as the Disney Musings Blog, which Nick co-writes with his wife, Barbie.

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Making a Dole Whip at Home!

The Homemade Dole Whip 
By: Barbie, co-writer of the Disney Musings Blog

A couple days ago, my husband Nick came home with a sack full of ingredients and proclaimed that we were going to make Dole Whips! I was highly dubious. After all, Dole Whips are such a Disney experience. Is it possible to recreate perfection?

Ingredients

1. 2 20 ounce cans Dole crushed pineapple with juice
2. 2 tablespoons lemon juice
3. 2 tablespoons lime juice
4. 1/3 cup sugar
5. 1 and 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream, whipped

Here are the directions:

Drain pineapple; reserving 2 tablespoons of the juice. Set aside in a small cup.

Place pineapple, lemon juice, lime juice, sugar and reserved pineapple juice in blender or food processor; cover and blend until smooth.

Pour into two 1-quart freezer zipped bags and store bags flat in freezer. Freeze 1-1/2 hours or until slushy. Whip your heavy whipping cream until stiff.

Stir pineapple slush gently into whipped cream until slightly blended, in large bowl. Return to freezer until completely frozen, about 1 hour. (thanks to Magical Recipes for the ingredients and directions)

So, is it everything we hoped it would be? Well, I personally would have only used 1 cup of heavy whipping cream or I wouldn't have drained the pineapple, because it didn't have the kick that a Disney Dole Whip has. But, it was delicious! The two of us couldn't possibly finish it all off in one sitting, so what did we do?

We filled up our Disney popsicle moulds with the rest so now we have 8 popsicles to enjoy later!

This article originally posted on the Disney Musings Blog, which Barbie co-writes with her husband, Nick.