"I'M GOING TO DISNEY WORLD"

Just got back from a couple nights in Disney World, where I haven't been for 20 years, and am glad to report I haven't grown up and am still basically a 12 year old, except of course for my taste in food(although even at 12 I liked raw oysters and caviar). Of course everything has been upgraded and modernized and the parks and rides are wonderful, including the Animal Kingdom, their latest theme park which was not open when I had been there.

Fortunately, the food has also been upgraded and many of the restaurants look like they would've been part of EPCOT back then in a restaurant of tomorrow exhibit. All of the luxury resorts have an upscale restaurant with prices to match. I tried 2 of these but a few of the others looked most intriguing. Expect apps to be in the $8-$15 range and entrees $25 and way up.
My first night was Todd English's BlueZoo, in the Dolphin Hotel. Loved the look of the place, which was high tech, and the food was even better. I started with a flatbread with clams, which was very tasty and continued with the soft shell crabonara. I generally wouldn't order soft shells out of season but the server was raving about the dish so I couldn't pass it up and was glad I didn't. The crab was deep fried and the pasta was English's version of carbonara, with many chunks of crispy pancetta and pea puree. The pasta alone was to die for. Unfortuately, it was pretty rich and I had no room for dessert.

My next evening was California Grill, in the Contemporary Hotel on the the 15th floor. Another beautiful restaurant but the view over the Magic Kingdom during the fireworks was awesome. Started with hearts of romaine with green goddess dressing and sourdough croutons. Nice salad. Continued with the grilled pork tenderloin, zinfandel glaze, and goat cheese polenta. I asked for the pork medium rare, which often gets a frown on the servers' face, but this arrived wonderfully pink with a nice char on the outside. This was a great dish. I ended with a decadent dessert that included crispy bananas, banana ice cream, warm caramel, and some other ingredients that made this a can't miss dish.

Food in the parks themselves are pretty basic. McDonald's is a big sponsor so there's lots of fries and burgers. However, there was a kiosk in all the parks selling smoked turkey legs, which looked more like dinosaur legs. They were very respectable though, with a nice smokey flavor and moist meat. The other restaurants in the parks looked more kiddie oriented and I suspect the food was similar to what I experienced years ago-blah. Then again, maybe that's been upgraded also. I just wasn't interested in taking the plunge.

Here's my short report from a couple of years ago (and a general Orlando thread around it), I agree with you, some good restaurants in the hotels (though my meal at Bluezoo didn't impress me as much as yours did you; nice room though). As you say, in the parks most of it's fast food but more and more you can find decent food for grownups if you make the effort-- particularly in a newer park like Animal Kingdom.

I've made this point before on various food fora, but I REALLY like the Norwregian buffet at Epcot. Perhaps, it's declined since my last visit (ca. 1996), but I tend to doubt it. It's all the kinda stuff that cannot be too messed up in a buffet/Disney setting: 10 kindsa heerring, cold cuts and cheeses, salads. By Norwegian law (I believe ), one must take four stabs at the buffet, going from heering to hot dishes (wisely filling up by the meatballs). God, I wish they'd open one up in Chicago.

Vital Information

I've made this point before on various food fora, but I REALLY like the Norwegian buffet at Epcot.

As soon as I saw the Disney World thread, fond memories of the Norwegian buffet popped into my head. The ride was fun too.

The wife and I just got back from a trip to Disney World. There were plenty of highs and lows foodwise. Generally I found that almost all of the food was scientifically developed to appeal to the dead center of the bell curve (in a Cheesecake Factory/Grand Lux Cafe sort of way). There were a few standout items, and one restaurant that was quite good in it's own right (not just as a Disney restaurant). The highlights below are adapted from a series of posts on Twitter that I wrote while on the trip:

Highlights:
House pickled vegetables at Portobello (Downtown Disney). Portobello is a pretty standard Italian restaurant that's a bit on the bland side and certainly not striving to be an Anteprima or Riccardo. I had linguine with white clam sauce, and while I give them all the credit in the world for serving properly cooked pasta and whole clams in the shell, the sauce was pretty bland. We started with an antipasto platter that included some pickled beets, carrots, and cauliflower. These vegetables were fantastic, and one of the managers told me that their chef is obsessed with pickling and is always working on something new. If you wind up at Portobello, get whatever is pickled that night.

Smashed potatoes at the Hoop Dee Doo Review. We had to go as the Hoop Dee Doo was an integral part of my childhood. The food (slightly meat jello-y ribs, salty fried chicken...all served in buckets) is the very definition of mediocre. The potatoes though were actually really good, due in large part to the massive amount of butter that was in them. Did I mention that the food is served in buckets? America...f*!k yeah!

Grilled wild boar at Jiko (Animal Kingdom Lodge) - Jiko is a high-end African restaurant, and is a pretty fantastic place (not just for a Disney restaurant). Flavors are bold (stuff was actually spicy!) and service was friendly and knowledgeable about both food and wine. Jiko boasts a huge South African wine list so the help was definitely appreciated. The wild boar appetizer that I had was probably the best thing I ate all week. The boar was served in little hunks and grilled rare, served in a nice spicy mixture of vegetables and with a little white truffle oil. The boar itself was tender as could be and had a wonderful flavor. A really delicious and interesting dish.

Yellowfin Tuna Three Ways at California Grill (Contemporary Hotel) - I liked California Grill. It's not unique. It's Disney's version of contemporary American with Asian influences, but the food is (for the most part) well executed. The Yellowfin Tuna Three Ways comes from the sushi section of the menu. The three ways were poke, tartare, and tataki. In each case the tuna was fresh, and the extra ingredients in the tartare and poke were flavorful and well balanced with the tuna. A good appetizer for a couple of people to share.

Skirt Steak at Yak & Yeti (Animal Kingdom) - Yak & Yeti is the sit down restaurant in the "Asia" part of Animal Kingdom. While the pork buns that are part of the dim sum platter were quite good, the skirt steak that I had as part of my main course was excellent. Cooked exactly to my requested medium rare and improved by a light marinade, this steak was a real highlight of the trip. The steak was served alongside some so-so shrimp tempura and crisp (but fairly bland) stir-fried vegetables.

The real lowlight of the trip foodwise was a duck a l'orange I had on our last night at Chefs de France in Epcot. The breast was overdone (nice and gray), the confit leg was a soggy mess, polenta had some sort of hard cheese-like substance stuck to the top, and the green beans were mushy. $32 for a dish you could easily find served at 32,000 feet. I would hope that the actual French people they had working in this restaurant were embarrassed to be serving this dish.

While I don't think anybody goes to Disney World for the food, there are certainly decent eats to be had (although it certainly helps to keep expectations extremely low). They claim that they grow a lot of the lettuce and tomato that they serve as part of The Land exhibit, so you can even eat local!

Hopefully this proves helpful for those planning trips in the future.

jesteinf wrote:Highlights: . . .
Grilled wild boar at Jiko (Animal Kingdom Lodge) - Jiko is a high-end African restaurant, and is a pretty fantastic place (not just for a Disney restaurant). Flavors are bold (stuff was actually spicy!) and service was friendly and knowledgeable about both food and wine. Jiko boasts a huge South African wine list so the help was definitely appreciated. The wild boar appetizer that I had was probably the best thing I ate all week. The boar was served in little hunks and grilled rare, served in a nice spicy mixture of vegetables and with a little white truffle oil. The boar itself was tender as could be and had a wonderful flavor. A really delicious and interesting dish.

When I visited Disney just less than two years ago, I really wanted to try Jiko - the menu sounded so interesting. But a little voice inside me kept screaming DISNEY DISNEY DISNEY . . . and I was sure that if I dined there, I would be dropping big money on poorly executed food. I'm glad to hear your positive review of the place. I'll have to give it a try on my next visit. Sadly, I instead dropped pretty big money at Bice (at the Portofino Bay hotel) and it was absolutely awful.

in the camp ground they have mickeys backyard bbq
not bad & they have music

When we were there a few years ago we enjoyed the Canadian restaurant in Epcot very much. We had a more-than-decent breakfast buffet at Portobello, too.