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Boma Restaurant, Animal Kingdom Lodge, Disney World, Florida.

04/12/2007 Score Card Comments 1 comment

Boma Restaurant located in Animal Kingdom Lodge, Disney World, Florida

Animal Kingdom located at Disney World, Florida, was the least favorite of mine of all the park themes. However, the Boma Restaurant at the Animal Kingdom Lodge was a wonderful treat for our family. It is touted as giving you the flavors of Africa. As you approach the lodge it appears huge, as are most of Disney hotels. This one is dark and almost mysterious. You walk in the front doors and enter almost a cathedral size lobby with a huge window at the far end. The ceiling opens upward multiple stories once you are a ways into the lobby. The floor space of this lobby is immense but cut up with areas of seating that are done as separate somewhat private areas like a posh library, some with screens to mark off and provide some amount of privacy. I thought this was really neat to allow family groups to get together when they wished to wait for family members to arrive, plan the day’s events or just hang out. Even though this was during spring break at many schools and the resort was full of people there were many of these checkerboard like family congregation areas still empty. This would be a fun place to take a book (and flashlight) and read a good magazine or book. It took me a while to walk around this lobby and take in the really unusual interior decor. Further back into the lobby from where you enter but to the right I found a cartoon artist offering pretty good cartoon like sketches for anyone wanting to pay. Just back and against the wall is a gentle ramp taking you down to the Boma Restaurant below. If you stay on the main floor you have opportunities to look down into the bar and restaurant areas. Keep in mind that this whole building is done in dark colors and dark woods. You almost want to carry a flashlight with you (just kidding). Our tour guide, Janice Edwards got us to this restaurant way ahead of our reservations so we went to the bar and ordered some drinks. From the bar you can see more of the restaurant but what was interesting was the bar itself had a series of TV sets along the back of the bar showing different TV stations, typically news. We sat at a table with nice chairs and it was quite relaxing. We finally were called to our table, which actually turned out to be a booth along the buffet line. Most other seating was at tables but booths were strung along the buffet line in a curved line. Looking overhead at the ceiling the room had a variety of ceiling lamps. One type appeared to be vertical dark cans that appeared to have beaded pipe cleaners protruding down from the light opening to act as light diffusers. These “pipe cleaners” were twisted into the light beam and the beads became illuminated. The ceiling had large painted, printed, fabric in various shades, many close to being triangle in shape but many did not come to a point but were cut off before the sides came together. The cloth appeared to be a duck like fabric. I asked one of the young persons who was standing by the reception area and appeared that she might be from Africa what the fabric was and she spelled this word out on my note pad “sisweswe”. Her printing was perfect so I am sure I got the word down correctly but when I did an Internet search, nothing came up.

Many of the booths at Walt Disney World are cushioned like long booth benches. On one side of the table would be the booth bench and chairs on the opposite side of the table. This was the case at this restaurant too. The women in our group sat on the cushioned long seat with their backs to the buffet line and my son and I sat in the opposing chairs, which was nice as I could see the cooks behind the buffet line working. Some restaurants like to put the cooks, the chef’s, out for the public to see working. Wolfgang Puck does this. Because the cooks need to move food quickly to the buffet line, this arrangement made a lot of sense. No need to plow through a door to get the food from kitchen to the line. It was really nice to see how extensive the kitchen was and how clean everything looked. I bet the cooks had to be told to keep everything pristine as the public could see everywhere into the kitchen. The kitchen extended back from the buffet line in an uneven fashion as the buffet line curved and this offered more or less room for the kitchen behind the line spaced from the back kitchen wall. This buffet line was only one line. To move more people too and from getting the food a number of Disney restaurant buffet lines are mirrored into two lines. Be aware that you might think the mirroring is exact. It is not. We found one or two items on one line and not another, so it is best to check both buffet lines if you do not want to make sure you do not miss any food item. If you are into sampling as much food as possible and don’t want to leave the restaurant in pain, I have a tip for you. Take small portions, I mean really small portions. Remember that you can go back as many times as you wish. The person who washes the dishes is going to hate you for doing this, going back and forth getting a new dish for small portions but remember, what matters is this, you are not doing the dishes. Here is a good example, at this restaurant; I was most presently surprised to find a whole selection of soups. I dished out only a half ladle into each bowl and when we got back to the table our group of people compared notes as to what we thought was the spice in this or that soup and which ones we ranked as better. I have another tip for you, grab some bread and in-between eating each food item, take a small taste of bread to render your palate back to normal if you wish to gain any unique and more complete appreciation of flavor from new dishes you sample. Another tip, take your time eating. Try to notice how each dish tastes at the beginning, when you first taste, and then compare the flavor out to the end. Some items will pop with flavor at the beginning while others do not or have a consistent flavor from start to finish. Some times the flavor changes a bit while you are still eating the dish. Some times I can almost chart the intensity and changes of flavors on paper. My point is, when you are dining at a good restaurant, where the dishes are well conceived and executed you are more likely to get a new appreciation if you take your time and notice the flavors and textures you are eating all along the continuum of time it takes you to have your dinner. The reason I am telling you all this is this is one restaurant where it is fun to do this wine tasting type of food eating. If you rush though your meal at this restaurant, you are missing out on a wonderful experience. The dishes here are very different and some are very, very good.

Soup reviews in order of being scored by our party:
Mulligatawny soup rocks, utterly fantastic. It had a rich flavor and a bit sweet.
Mushroom soup was our second pick. It was simply outstanding. It was a tad bit salty, good mushroom flavor and nicely robust.
Potato bacon was our third pick. This soup was very creamy, nice bacon flavor, perfect blend of potato and bacon, not over stated.
Palaver stew had a strong pepper like flavor coming from, partly curry and paprika. It was slightly pasty.
Seafood gumbo was our last pick. It did have a strong flavor but a bit odd and at times we detected a pasty texture.

Bread: They offered Mealie bread, a corn bread from South Africa, but we decided not to review it, as it was not remarkable in any way for us.

Main dish reviews:
Bobotie was down right interesting, different, fun to try.
Pepper pot pork loin was very good, had a mild sauce, meat a bit dry under the sauce.
Crusted prime rib was really moist, red in color, definitely not over cooked and had a very mild flavor. We have had prime rib now at a number of buffet lines and this was the best. The chef cutting the prime rib did start a new piece of meat and that was beneficial for me as it came to me moist, did not dry out under the heat lamps. The crust flavor was mild. (Note: Claim Jumper, found in California trumps this crust flavor by a mile.)

Desert reviews:
Banana bread pudding with chocolate rum sauce was very good. The pudding flavor overwhelms the rum sauce nicely.
Chocolate mousse truffle was good.
Zebra Dome seemed to be typical American fare, a small pastry, quite safe and good.
M’Hencha, nutty, very nutty
Melk Tart had the consistency of angle cake. Janice Edwards told me it had a cinnamon flavor, because by the time I had this, all the other dishes blew my taste buds away.
Meringue Tart, tasted sour, a bit odd flavor but as I sat back and reflected on the taste it grew on me.

My son had a birthday button clipped to his shirt and the waiter spotted it and took special care of him and giving him a special desert. The waiter’s attention was a low-key affair, perfect for a teen-age boy.

Review conclusion: This restaurant is one of the top places to eat at Disney World, Florida in our opinion. We love to try new dishes and this place gave us that opportunity but even better, the dishes were very, very good. I especially recommend that you sample all of the soups; a real treat and the deserts were right up there for being wonderful. And let us not forget the setting. This restaurant has some class for being a buffet style restaurant.

Hollywood and Vine at Disney World, Florida.

04/11/2007 Score Card Comments 0 Comment

Hollywood and Vine Restaurant (Buffet) located in Disney World, Florida (4-11-07).

We had reservations for ten. We had to wait a bit. Long seating was offered on a raised patio that ran along the front of the building. We ate around 4:30 PM; a bit early so there were lots of seats outside for our group. With a large party, mostly children, the time quickly passed until we were called to our tables. The decor is 50â€™s era inside and out. A lot of the seating is cushioned booth like benches on one side of the table and metal chairs on the opposite side of the table while tables in the center of some spaces used all metal chairs around the table. Typically with the Disney restaurants, there are two buffet lines. Also there is typically no provision for menu meals. You eat what is on the buffet line. The offerings are a lot more extensive than reading our reviews. I am putting on weight during this trip and I will not sample every dish for you, just what I think appears the most interesting and thus allures me.

Here is the food review:

Baked chicken thighs pinot noir had an enticing name but a flavor that fell far short. I was hoping for a spectacular sauce but it was so lame to almost be non-existent.
Garlic mashed potatoes were ok, nothing special here.
Sun dried tomato polenta, a triangle shaped food item with a good flavor.
Creamed corn spoon bread was outstanding, almost a desert quality in its apparent sweetness. I highly recommend that you try this.
Herbed crusted salmon, I thought was fantastic. The sauce really enhanced the fish flavor I thought but JE did not care for it.
Prime rib was moist good color but no flavor.
Bean cassoulet was good.
Meatball in BBQ sauce was good but what can you say about meatballs. Well, ok, the meat had a good texture, and seemed to have a good flavor but it was the sauce that made this dish.

The desert review:

Mascarpone snicker cheesecake, I found to be mild but wonderfully enjoyable if eaten slowly. This is a small tart size desert.
Chocolate mousse was very good, maybe perfect. It had a good balance between chocolate cradle crust, a sort of hard chocolate, and a creamy soft mixture for the mousse filling that had a more muted flavor; nice contrast.
Three-berry cobbler, spoon out of a large dish, had a great berry flavor that popped out when you first taste it but that quickly dissipates. The berry flavor still lingers through out and then one picks up the fact that it tastes sweet. It was almost like reviewing wine.

There were more deserts but we did not sample them.

Conclusions: This place was noisy, to the point that one had to lean forward toward the person talking. It was acceptable in total but not outstanding in any way except for the deserts. It is rather nice that Disney does offer some different selections at each buffet. I think the plus for this buffet are the deserts.

Disney World – Old Key West

04/11/2007 Score Card Comments 0 Comment

Old Key West, Disney World, Florida (April 6 through to the 14th, 2007)
2 bedrooms

Our family, of four, got a chance to go to Disney World near Orlando Florida as part of a time-share with the help of a family member. This person, Janice Edwards, met us for this visit and acted as our tour guide. I should call her Tinkerbelle Tours because the first day she wore a jeans jacket with Tinkerbelleâ€™s image in color on back and she acted as our guide throughout the vacation. She has been going to Disney World for years and has a number of time-shares in this resort. She has a darn good reason, a stressful job, that makes this resort a counter, a solution, to the dredge she has to face during her work day. The apartment we stayed in is a dedicated two bedrooms, which means, second bedroom is a bedroom. It cannot be converted to a one-bedroom studio. The, per day, cost during the season we attended was, $745 a day! We stayed during spring vacation, which is expensive, and I would not go to this location again at this time of the year, as the crowds were very large. But, the apartment we got to stay in for 9 days saved the experience for me. This brings to mind the viewpoint that there are a number of factors for setting a value for a resort. One value is the room. Another value is the entertainment. Another value is the eating establishments. I think one should evaluate each major factor separately.

I will next describe the apartment we stayed in.

First impressions of the apartment:
Damned impressive! Damned impressive for a lot of reasons.

Trying to describe this apartment is a challenge because lists donâ€™t give the gestalt, the total, experience. Put succinctly, the apartment worked for us and was enjoyable.

The apartment was spacious, very interesting interior at the component level, very good well functional lay out (clever layout), filled with natural light, and located in a pleasing environment.

Now let me describe what one finds when one enters into this apartment if you are interested. Keep in mind that every room is large in size including the hallways. The bathrooms and kitchen areas were ceramic tiled and all other areas were carpeted. Also over each sleeping area is a ceiling fan. There is no sense of crowding the user which, in my case, is more relaxing. Typically a hotel room has large beds but narrow walk areas around the bed as the cost cutting factor. This apartment has fire sprinkler system

Now lets take a walking tour. The front door entry opens up into a hallway with a closet to one side. My son used it as he was going to sleep in the fold out sofa bed in the living room. This hallway then has a hallway to the right which leads to the laundry room first and the master bedroom last.

The laundry room has a full separate washer and dryer, as well as a ironing board and iron. We found soap for one load in the room when we arrived. Janice Edwards told me that that same box would cost about $3 so she brought fabric softener and more soap to save money. She packed for 5 days for a 10-day vacation because she knew the laundry room was offered. When we used the washer we discovered that the water level would not go as high as we expected and thus we overloaded the washer as a result.

The hallway was so long that I had to put a night-light into a wall outlet to allow my son to find easily his way into our bathroom. (The first night he was locked out of both bathrooms). A door that can be locked opens up to the master bedroom with a bed that was queen or king size and a passageway into the Jacuzzi room, which also held a large closet and sink with mirror.

This Jacuzzi room had a window over the Jacuzzi, which opens up, into the bedroom with French shutters. My wife thinks this offers more natural light to enter this room, which is far away from the bedroom windows.

I think this is a cute portal for a friend to pass a beer or wine to you while your cooking inside the tub. Beyond the Jacuzzi room is the main bathroom that holds a very large shower and beside it is a very large sink and mirror with hair dryer.

We think this area should have a hair dryer, which we will explain later. The shower is large enough for two or three. Donâ€™t get any pervert ideas. A frosted window is over the sink mirror and at night this acts as a night light for anyone making a trip into that room because outdoor lights shone through with a light glow. Storage is provided under the sink in the form of one drawer and three doors opening up to open storage.

Getting back to describing the master bedroom, this room offers a TV in a cabinet where it is obscured from view when the doors are closed. Below the TV are three large drawers for clothes. Beside the TV cabinet is a chest for storage of large items and perfect to place luggage upon. The standard side tables are located on each side of the bed with table lamps, one telephone and clock. A chair with a matching ottoman was to the outside of the table closest to the wall with windows. A floor light is close to this chair. The windows had drapes that could be pulled shut and blinds that could regulate how much light passed.

The door from this room to the patio had adjustable blinds too help regulate how much light could pass and offered privacy. The door had two locks.

Going back to the main hallway leading from the front door, as one walks further down the hall the second bedroom door opens from the left side. This bedroom is spacious but a bit inferior (but darn impressive) as to what is provided in the master bedroom.

Two beds both double are against one wall with a single night stand in-between. The lights for both beds are mounted on the wall over each bed. The nightstand holds a telephone and clock. In front of one bed is a closet and in front of the second bed is a small round table with two chairs. Adjoining this bedroom is a makeup area with sink and mirror.

Opposite the sink and mirror is a second, even larger closet. Further in this space is the door to the bathroom. This door has, for all practical purposes, a full-length mirror. We regret that this area does not have a hair dryer. We will find one inside the bathroom but we contend that the first person out of the shower could dry their hair in the makeup area while the second person is showering, not a big deal, just a matter of practicality.

Inside the bathroom one finds a frosted window that allows some outside light to come in even at night due to outside building lights. This might act like a night-light to aid a person making safe entry in and out of the room at night for some rooms but not ours as there are no building lights nearby. The normal commode, sink, mirror and shower but this shower is a tub combination. Under the sink is a lot of storage, drawers and doors. Getting back in the bedroom area, we were most surprised to find the room ringed with AC outlets. We counted at least five outlets.

The kitchen shares space with the living and dining area so this is the community space. Seating in this community space, I counted to be 10 or 11 seats that work out to be close to the following.
â€¢ Two sofas 2 & 3 seats.
â€¢ Two chairs with foot stools.
â€¢ Dining table with 4 chairs.

In the kitchen area there is a dishwasher, garbage disposal, refrigerator, microwave, stove coffee maker, blender, and oven. Full compliment of dishes, glass ware, cooking pots, pans, silverware, cooking utensils, paper towels, dish washer soap, and more. We lacked nothing for our meal cooking. The kitchen counter space was quite adequate. There was an island for the kitchen but where it faced the couches, inside there was a large TV set and DVD player with doors so it would go out of sight at will. A floor lamp, coffee table with table lamp fitted into the room.

The living area has two sofas. One can be made into a double bed. This area is full of windows with blinds.

To one side of this room is the dining area with a large round table and four chairs. Behind the table against the wall is another counter area which appears that one can easily convert into a bar. There is lots of storage below the counter. We used this counter as a battery charging area for iPods, cell phones computers, and ham radio. One outlet is above this counter but I bring an AC strip for multiple chargers. Beside this table are two full-length windows with blinds. Between the dining area and the sofas is a door to the same patio mentioned when describing the master bedroom.

The wood porch deck has a round table with four chairs and appreciable deck space. Our deck overlooked a very close pond with a vertical spray fountain, a geyser type device, quite pleasing image.

Criticisms
Not very many as this apartment is close to being perfect. Here is our list:
â€¢ Not enough hangers.
â€¢ Not enough towels.
â€¢ We mentioned the location of the hair dryer, but that is a pale criticism.

Restaurant review process.

04/11/2007 Score Card Comments 0 Comment

Reviewer’s background:
I have never run, worked or owned an eating establishment. I have never taken any classes or read any books that would qualify me in any way to review eating places. I just like good food and want consistent results when I return to a restaurant. I have looked at other web sites for restaurant recommendations and have been disappointed. Most sites have some vested interest; it seems, whether true or not.
This web site, I promise to you that I will be honest to the point of being brutal. In this document I will share with you my review tactics. Let us share knowledge of the good, bad and in-between dining experiences, in an effort to move up the bar of your next eating experience. Please add your comments so you donâ€™t only hear from me. I want to hear from you!

As I get older, I am less willing to let a slight pass. I will call the owner or manager over if any significant part of my meal experience is unsatisfactory. I believe it is my responsibility to that establishment to let them know if there is any deficiency. Most owners and managers want that feedback. If they do not, there is something wrong. It is not much of a stretch to share my perceptions with you. You can either agree or obviously disagree. I will in any case try to refrain from mentioning any bad or unsatisfactory restaurants. My thrust is to help the good restaurants become better and reward those restaurants that are getting the formula right. I believe that the dining experience is the compilation of quite a few factors, some obviously, more important than others. I do not just rate the food only but I also take in quite a long list of other factors into consideration. No restaurant can get a real high score without excellent prepared, presented and tasting food along with those other factors. It should be mentioned that I do have, on my recommended list, restaurants that have the formula almost complete. But, I am a bit disappointed in the food in some way. However, when I am left with a feeling that I had a good meal I will give the restaurant a good grade. That might sound impossible but you should realize that I value many things when dining. It is the sum total of the dining experiences not just the food.

Focus
Our family loves to dine out but our finances are such that we cannot afford to frequent the more costly establishments. My wife and I do not like fast food places, which our children seem to love. There is a constant battle as to where we will eat and because mom and dad think they are in control, and our votes outweigh our children, we prevail most but not all of the time. You will therefore see some fast food establishments included here and as such I hope you do not think this belittles our interest in good food. It probably means that we found a jewel in the pile of stones. â€¨ Now remember, we do add the recommendations of Mark, the lawyer, who dines at more expensive restaurants. We have yet to test out his selections to see if we agree.

Taste:
This is where you and I will or might not agree. Your tastes are going to be different than mine. I do not like hot-spiced food. I do like food where I can taste interesting flavors and chew interesting textures and smell interesting smells. You might like Cajon. I do not. You might like bland. I do not. I prefer a chef taking a chance than rather playing it safe. I pick the signature dishes every time. I tend to choose items that are only offered today and not every day. I want to be wowed if that is possible. I will avoid hamburgers, hotdogs, and pizzas. I leave my children to give you recommendations on those typical American dishes.

Other factors:
Because we have rather young children, we must choose restaurants that are child friendly. When our children were small this meant that the restaurant had to be loud to muffle the loud carryings on of our children. Now that they are older we have included the more sedate, refined places.

Overall philosophy:
It is my idea that eating in a fine dining establishment is more enjoyable when a number of factors are put together to enhance the overall experience. The taste and quality of the food is very important but many other factors should also be present to make for a good dining experience. Some of the factors that we consider are listed here in no particular order of importance:

Service – A very important element of a good meal is having a good waiter or waitress, buss boy, manager, cooks, cashier, etc. I want a server that is knowledgeable about the food. If I ask for the signature dish recommendation and I get a reply like “well everything on our menu is good”, I know I have a dunce on my hands and will mark the restaurant down for poor service. I love a server who has tried the selections and has a firm opinion to share with us. I want my food placed before me in an appropriate interval, which I understand will vary according to menu selection. But I want everyone at my table served as close to the same time as possible. This usually reflects on the cooks. The server is probably the single most important person in a restaurant for the simple reason that it is that person only that attends to my needs. I want knowledge, efficiency, accuracy, and good communications skills. I want to feel that the server is working for me not the restaurant, however incorrect that actually is. I think the best servers hold that attitude and get the best tips.

Cleanliness – A very important but basic foundation for receiving good food is pristine utensils. In fact every object on the table from saltshaker to the bread plate must be a joy to view. You will refuse to use any utensil that has any stuck food on it won’t you? Some restaurants even take great care to not contaminate food items such as The Claim Jumper chain of restaurants.

Location – It is just plain simple that some restaurants must attract clients when they are located far from large local populations of people. Likewise, I sometimes fee that some restaurants slack off in doing their best because there location is so convenient. If I think that a restaurant in a high traffic location is not doing its best, I will subtract points.

Adequate parking – It can be down right frustrating to arrive at a restaurant and find no parking spaces available. Some restaurants offer valet parking to offset a location that does not have adequate parking. Our family never uses valet parking. If a restaurant cannot offer adequate parking I will detract from the overall score.

Security – I will not make any recommendation of a restaurant that I feel or know is unsafe due to its location or any other factor that comes in the category of safety. I do not accept any responsibility for not being aware of any problem with a restaurant being in a bad location as I am not a police officer working in that or any city.

Food presentation – When the plate of food is placed in front of you it should look spectacular. Well maybe not spectacular but if I look surprised at what I see and it tastes as good as it looks then the marks are added for that establishment. Food presentation is very, very important!

Prices – The price of a meal should hold good value. When you get a skimpy meal and the price is high and the service slow and the food quality average, well, we mark that establishment very low.

Decor – The good meal experience is the bringing together of many factors. I do not hold decor in great value but I fully appreciate good surrounding and I know that the surrounding work for or against a terrific meal. Some decors can make up for slow service but only to a small extent.

Table or Booth layout – Have you ever been to a restaurant where the servers brush your chair constantly because the tables are spaced to close to one another or the serving aisle? We mark restaurants down for this but conversely give restaurant higher marks if there is good space between tables.

Table setting – I really appreciate having a knife fork and spoon as well as a cloth napkin, water glass and condiments if appropriate for the meal. Some restaurants cut costs by not offering these basics. I do not like my meal getting cold while trying to flag down a waiter for a missing utensil. There is absolutely no excuse for not having a proper setup before each person sitting at the table.

Furniture – My big gripe are the sharp edged tables. You should not put your elbows on a table but you may rest your arm against the edge of the table. If that edge is sharp the restaurant has failed to offer a comfortable setting. I want a chair or booth to be comfortable. The table should not tip. I am annoyed no end if the table is not firm. I will get on my hands and knees to wedge the menu under the short leg if need be and will score the restaurant low. I like a lot of room around me. I like long booths. I very much dislike the booth bench that slides.

Handicapped accessibility – No one in our family is handicapped but in my line of work I have become more aware and thus interested in looking at the layout of restaurants that work for or against the individual who has some form of handicap. If a wheelchair cannot gain access to a restaurant, it will be noted for this violation. If a restaurant has any problem for easy access, I will comment about it. I welcome any handicapped individual to e-mail me with remarks about good and not so good eating establishments. Also indicate in the last paragraph of your e-mail a way I can get in touch with you to confirm the information and if I can include your comments.

Walking distance – This is especially a problem with restaurants located in large malls and theme parks. The elderly do not want to walk any fraction of a mile for their meal. Some customers suffer from some medical problem that makes a long hike a chore.

Bread – Quite a few restaurants offer bread at the table before the real meal begins. When you have children, this bread is very important. In fact, my daughter, I swear, is a vegetarian and bread and cereal is her favorite food. It seems that the more unique and better tasting bread influences our children’s opinion of a restaurant. For mom and dad, good tasting bread is very much appreciated.

Restrooms – I was astonished to see that both my children got such a delight to view the restrooms at a certain age. If a large restaurant only has one stall for the women they will get a low score. If the restroom is not clean, mentioned previously, a low mark. If this room is difficult in any way for handicapped, well, a low mark. If the men’s room only has one stall and the restaurant is otherwise a very good establishment, they will get a low mark because any person in a wheel chair will take longer to maneuver and thus might cause some resentment which is vastly unfair.

Hot and cold food – If the food arrives cold and it is expected be hot then a way low score. And likewise if the item is to be cold but arrives warm – you guessed it, a low score. Some restaurants have heat lamps to keep the food hot until the server arrives to pick the order up. If I can view those heat lamps and my meal is sitting under those lamps for any unreasonable time, very low mark.

Hot and cold room – Have you ever sat down at a restaurant to feel that you are in a meat locker? I have had to call the server or manager over too many times to complain that the room is either too hot or cold. There is one restaurant that has its air ducts set to blow on the tables at the far end of the room where in summer it can be bone cold. I will detract points for an establishment that consistently fails to set its climate control to a comfortable temperature.

Drinks – What you are drinking is a part of the overall meal. I dislike having to look around the restaurant to find someone to refill my coffee or ice tea. I tend to lower my tip from 20% to doubling the tax if I have to be unconvinced. Likewise, I want the wine presented appropriately.

Consistency – Have you ever gone to a restaurant more than once to receive two completely different dining experiences? Well I have and way too often. I do not like it one bit. I expect a restaurant to offer the same or better experience each time I attend. It is true that a sever might have an off day. The cook might have a sick child at home and cannot fully concentrate on his work. The buss boy is new or has been given a new assignment of tables. I think I can ferret out some of this, as I tend to chat with the server out of genuine interest in all that is going on. If there is no good reason for one meal being off then I fault the management and will give the establishment a low score.

Over the top – What I mean here is when something or someone working in the restaurant does something out of the ordinary, something unexpectedly nice for you to enjoy. In other words, it does not cost you anything for this. You did not expect this pleasantry. This might be entertainment, a test of a dish or beverage or the server shares an interesting story. I walked into one restaurant the Riverside Brewery that we had been going for some time to find a magician going from table to table doing slight of hand trick. My children just loved the meal because of the magician coming to our table. I have been offered beers and wines to test. One night we entered a restaurant that we frequent occasionally. We did not expect a guitarist that night that was really good. I cannot remember what I had to eat that night, just that this guy could really strum a guitar.

Closing remarks â€¨I frankly find it very difficult to put number value on any component listed above. It is much easier and in some respects more realistic to have a meal and take the whole experience in when arriving at a score points. I arbitrarily score the restaurant because some factors just show themselves at one establishment as being more important while other factors just do not come to mind. There is an overall impression one receives during and after a meal and this is what one carries in ones mind and days after. This is what I am attempting to recreate for you, the sum impression.

Crystal Palace Restaurant

04/08/2007 Score Card Comments 0 Comment

This is a review of the Crystal Palace Restaurant located in the Magic Kingdom, Disney World, Florida.

By the third day Crystal Palace became my favorite spot to eat. It is located in the Magic Kingdom and not too far from the front entrance. The reasons I give this place high marks is the following:

We were seated right away – no wait. We did have reservations but here they seem to know what a reservation is (unlike most other resort restaurants).
The tables were spaced so no one brushed the back of my seat even though my back faced the aisle. This was probably required as Disney characters work the tables and there is some silly parade of characters and gullible children following.
Our server, matronly women, the age of my grandmother, gave us wonderful service. She must have hosted untold number of guests but she had the delivery of a favored aunt and gave excellent service.
The ambiance was more in tune to adult appreciation, in our opinion, a plantation look.
Lastly but very importantly, the food was a hit. This is a buffet, all you can eat restaurant and boy did I lay it on. I actually had a bellyache when I left and had to walk it off. Here is a list of some of the items we tasted and rankings:

– Broccoli soup’s very good.
– Muscles had an interesting spiced sauce. Start of with two if you are not sure and go back for more later. I love different dishes.
– Mahi Mahi flavor was a bit weird but palatable.
– Salmon was very good.
– Garlic mashed potatoes were a big hit, very tasty almost rich flavor. This dish must be a park recipe as we have found the exact same dish at Chef Mickey. At Chef Mickey, they tasted a tad bit better.
– Pork was tender but slightly off flavor.
– Pasta dish with ham, bacon, mushrooms and Asiago cheese sauce (from memory, could be in error) had a terrific flavor but one could imagine it was a coronary event in the making, quite rich.
– The cheese selection was a shock. What restaurant offers slices of good or wonderful cheese? Well this place does, quite unusual especially for a theme park located in red neck territory.
– Key lime pie was another shocking experience. It was tart to the point of my declaring the chef brave. If I could talk directly to the chef, I would say thank you.
– The tiramisu was shockingly good.
– Strawberry cheesecake looked quite odd. Red cheesecake? Well it tasted just as advertised. Flavor was good.

The down side:
Restrooms were inadequate. More stalls are needed for mens and womens room. There is a sitting room just outside but that is no excuse.
The Disney characters ears are quite hard. If one hugs you and they do a lot of hugging and a character turns their head, pow, you get to know personally how hard the ears are.

Notes:
I was told by Tinkerbelle Tours (I hope this was a razz by her.) that the Disney characters tend to give special attention to fathers that looked curmudgeonly which might explain why I got a lot of attention.
When the Disney character parade started the children in the room are encouraged to dance behind in a large circle. I looked over at our children’s table of 6 children ranging in age from 6 to 17 and none of the children got sucked in. The hens at our table are telling the children by vocal and hand gestures to get involved. I am sitting at the hen table, I am the token male and I made the mistake of saying well the children are smart. They didn’t get sucked into the corporate contrived event. Boy, dirty looks speared me by the hens. It occurred to me that we put expectations on our children as to what being a child is expected to be. I think one should allow a child be themselves and only encourage when we are convinced that the outcome would be beneficial to the CHILD.

Revised April 7, 2018 (found that the ‘ punctuation was changed).

Earl of Sandwich, Downtown Disney, Marketplace, Disney World

04/07/2007 Score Card Comments 0 Comment

Earl of Sandwich, located in Disney World, Florida, Downtown Disney, Marketplace section.
Date: Saturday, April 7, 2007.

Some times it is just nice to go out and get some fast food, bring it home, open a bottle of wine and just kick back and enjoy the evening. Our tour guide, Janice Edwards, took us to the Earl of Sandwich, a fast food establishment, offering just what the name suggests. The prices are extremely reasonable and the food is fairly good. We took out selections back to our apartment and reheated the items that needed to be warmed up. Here is our review of the food selections we tasted:

Tomato soup, we highly recommend, real smooth and wonderful, slightly rich tomato flavor.
Tuna melt was perfect with Swiss cheese. I can’t believe I am reviewing a tuna melt sandwich, but it was really good!
The Original had in it roast beef, creamy horseradish sauce, and cheddar cheese. It was pretty good but everyone agreed it needed more horseradish.
The Cannonballs consisted of meatballs, marinara, mozzarella and Parmesan cheese was good but the cheese could barely be tasted. Most of these sandwiches are hot and we only sampled just a few of a very large selection.

We went back to this restaurant two more times, once for breakfast and again for sandwiches. For breakfast we found the sandwiches not as good as at McDonald. The coffee was really disappointing here. The Trails End coffee was worth the trip. We have heard reports that a review magazine stated that McDonald’s coffee is very good.

This establishment gets our recommendation for taking selected food back to your resort apartment.
This establishment gets our recommendation for pretty good fast food value because the prices are reasonable.
For breakfast, average ranking. Below average if you are a coffee lover.

Note: We found the coffee at this resort disappointing. Janice Edwards made better coffee back at our apartment. This place needs a Starbucks.

Original restaurant review is not updated from 4/7/07: Post was checked and updated for viewing: April 7, 2018.