Food Porn: Victoria & Alberts at the Grand Floridian

Victoria & Alberts is the premier restaurant at WDW.  Under the guidance of Scott Hunnel, this restaurant has been awarded the AAA 5 Diamond (the highest rating) for 11 years in a row. It is the only restaurant in Central Florida with this rating.  The meal is a combination a la carte / 6 course desgustation. The whole experience can take a long time. There is a lot to live up to.

And the same goes for this post.

Much like the dining experience, this is the Mr Creasote of posts.

If you've only got 30 seconds go read a review on the Disboards, where they have heaps of reviews. If you are willing to go a journey as long as eating the meal, join me after the jump for the full rounds of the restaurant.



V&A have a dress policy so I had to frock up, and after having a highly structured, over committed touring day I was running late for my reservation.  Still - it's my holiday, and I was feeling relaxed, so I decided to wander over from the Poly to the Grand Floridian so I could enjoy the grounds of the Poly and Seven Seas Lagoon foreshore.

The Poly grounds are all what a corporate landscape type would call "tropical" with sweeping curves, palm trees and gas fueled tiki torches. It is all so precisely perfect and wonderfully maintained that one is transported to a more relaxed and peaceful atmosphere.

I would imagine that when we are in Orlando in 2014 for conference, given that conference will be in peak volcano heat time of the year (unless, Lynn McKenzie, you move the dates to a time more tolerable) then the Poly would be a shady, cool, lush sort of place for hanging out.

The grounds of all the deluxe hotels are full of Disney acceptable small woodland creatures. I half expected Snow White to pop out with a robin from behind a tree. And the critters seem to be just so perfectly placed

Duckies

sort of perfectly placed. I wonder how often that pool is cleaned

Bunnies:

Much to The Ken Man's enjoyment, it took me a while to work out why Taronga Zoo has a mouse house in the petting area. I wonder how all the lions and tigers at Disney's Animal Kingdom park are kept so well fed.

and birdies

 

So I am wandering along, enjoying my holiday, when V&A ring me! "Where are you? You're late!" Arrghh - kill joys! I am all the way in Florida and suddenly channelling the spirit of Woody Allen's nagging mother.

Finally, the Grand Floridian is in view

and only one last distraction

squirrel!

The Grand Floridian Hotel Foyer (source: disneyvacationsaustralia.com)

I arrive and am seated, and find myself in a plush circular room with all the silver and the suits and the linen. The tables are spaced quite apart so there is no overhearing conversations or looking at what other's have. It's very hushed and seriously elegant. They even brought over a little leather padded stool for my bag and camera. For someone who is spending 2 weeks releasing the inner 12 year old, suddenly I have to find a more sophistocated persona.

source: DisneyFoodBlog.com

Everyone is presented a personalised menu, in a presentation folder.

Click on menu to embiggen and read

 and let the gormandising begin....

First up the amuse-bouche.

Clockwise from top left: seared tuna, mushroom cappucino, mussels in buttery garlicy sauce, and a lobster thingy.

These were all one mouthful each and truly delightful. The perfected exquisite flavours were captured and intensified.

Then my drink for the evening for the evening - a bellini

This was up there with the better bellinis I have enjoyed. It was fruity and yet still the yeasty, mushroomy character of champagne was still lingering in the background. However, I have to admit I do prefer Bill Grainger's Bellini recipe, which whilst tedious to make as it requires poaching and pureeing white peaches and mixing with specific varieties of Italian sparkling dessert wines, has a more distinctive peachy flavour, more sugar, and frankly - I am not sophistocated enough to enjoy the "brut" of champagne.

On with the dining - next up Cold smoked and seared bison carpaccio with truffle vinaigrette

with a basket made of wafer thin baked bread slices (very crispy) with micro greens salad

This dish was a stand-out! The buffalo was sliced wafer thinly and just fell apart on touching, and melted instantly in the mouth. The gamey buffulo flavour remained. The vinaigrette was a sweet, sticky dollop of goodness - with the truffley flavour almost but not lost in the strength of the vinegar. This complemented the salad beautifully.. Such a careful, delicate dish with technical excellece.

Then came diver scallop with braised fennel and blood orange gastrique

gastrique = caramalised sugar, vinegar and fruit, cooked down to make a sauce for meat dishes

What a delight was this dish. The lightness of the citrus flavours beautifully matched the gentle flavour of the scallop, and didn't not dominate the scallop. The scallop was cooked medium rare, with that carmelised, toasty top and bottom and almost rare in the middle. It was not rubbey, but still meaty and maintained it's bright, salty, sea water, brineyness flavours. One feature that occured a couple of times in the meal are the flavoured dusting powders - this one a salty orange - however I didn't pick up any additional flavouring from it. Maybe I am just not trained enough or my palate is too jaded from my spoilt lifestyle! That small white circular thing on top of the scallop is a roasted/baked onion. Whilst very subtle in flavour, I still ignored it, not really bothered about onions when there was a scallop to enjoy. Top marks for another technically complex dish, and care taken to pick the right pairing of flavours in balance to enhance the attriubtes of the scallop.

Onwards to duck breast, duck sausage and confit with strawberry- rhubarb puree

farking reduckable

 The portion size of this one was pretty small - as a duck lover I could of eaten more however I suspect it was a good idea to keep it small considering still only 3 dishes into the overall meal. Presented left to right is the pan fried breast, a piece of sausage and then the confit. The confit had been shredded into a rillet style presentation and wrapped in something I cannot remember. In the front is the fruity puree, and at the rear is an intense ducky jus/gravy/saucey thing. Once again technical precision in cooking - this is 4 different dishes on one plate. However I found the intense ducky jus too intense when mixed with the duck meat. I so enjoyed the fruity puree with the gamey meat. Oh how I loved this dish - how it spoke to my protein cum sugar addiction.

One of the other options in this course was a pumpkin soup. Why would anyone choose the pumpkin soup instead of that duck? In fact why would such a restaurant even offer pumpkin soup. I know - someone out there LOVES pumpkin soup.

I've been waiting to give him a good exercising

Pumpkin soup would have to be the highest gross margin dish in existance, which means every half-solvent cafe offers it. With Disney reporting a 30% increase in gross profit in the parks and a $125/hd entry price at V&A I doubt they need this dish to turn a dollar. Why dilute your caviar, truffle, bison, scallop, abalone, quail, stilton menu with, of all things, cheap boring pumpkin. If they are attempting to accommodate the low-protein types - besides having a separate vegetarian menu - why insult those people with a dish so incredibly unimaginative.

Suddenly the butler turns up with the next course:  Kurobuta pork tenderloin and belly with verjus-bacon vinaigrette.

ummmm .... pork me tonight

Now this was a great dish but I have reservations. The flavours in this dish were very strong - porky / bacony. Even those little bits of popcorn where salty and porky. So I found it a bit overpowering. See that pork loin at the front? That was great! tender, delicate, meaty, gentle But underneath was a dark, fleshy, salty, intense cut of meat - presumably the belly - which I found too heavy. And the dish came with ath creamy bacony sauce and more of that dusting powder - salty bacon flavour.

I am willing to accept that the choice of the dish was a mismatch with my other choices. Perhaps the lesson is to be willing to ask for advice about meal balance. So technically cooked to perfection ....

E.C.U. pork loin and belly

.... but OTT for me. I did not lick clean this plate.

I moved on in hope - to CHEESE! Oh how I love cheese - Sottocenere al Tartufo (truffled cows milk), Gouda Reypenaer, Southern Belle Chevre and Colston Bassett stilton

Oh wonderful cheese!  Whilst I am so so happy with a stilton and those pears or honey; the winner for me was the chevre - which somehow, despite being autumn in the US, had the fresh grassy smoothness of a spring time cheese. Oh and the others were good too. Hmmmm...... chevre.....

Finally we get to dessert: Meyer lemon and blood orange purse with blackberry violet sherbet

with spun/pulled sugar ribbons

The "purse" is made out of white chocolate and inside is like a layered trifle - a bit of sponge, fruity custarding layer etc That sherbet was incredibly intensive and tingly. Very refreshing. I was so glad of this choice to finish the meal. Deeply flavourful and strong acid from the fruity and citrus flavours to cut through any heaviness of the earlier dishes. And bright enticing presentation. YAY!

So just when I am sitting there thinking "I made it" the offer for a closing beverage is made. I choose a herbal tea - osmanthus oolong - and look at that wonderful colour.

The whole meal was a bit rushed - it normally tales 2.5 - 3 hours. (I did it in under 2 cause I was late and had an appointment afterwards) On leaving all women are given a long stemmed red rose and if you take a bloke with you, a small dessert bread. For $125 / hd for the food alone (add beverages and gratuity), yes it is expensive and yet probably the right market price.  I have paid a lot more for deep disappointment.

The service was swift, friendly and professional, the atmosphere makes one feel you are in a special place having a special event - so it is both complementary to the cooking and complimentary for the guests. A bit like bringing out the wedgwood for the visitors!

A wonderful event to do as part of a holiday and esp. so if you enjoy the range of flavours and the technical skill delivered in the meal. The inclusion of this meal in the Platnium Plan was one of my main reasons for buying the plan and I will eat there every night if I buy that Plan again.

Not enough spoons in existance to give V&A

And despite 6 + courses pretty hard to explode as it paced, high quality, well cooked and small portions (unless you filled up on that pumpkin soup)