If you read one article about Disney Dining, make it this one.

Any one who follows Mrs Banks on Facebook knows that time has just disappeared with Christmas and birthdays and travel to Sydney and dining reservations. I am now enjoying my summer holiday and have the chance to sit and relax to prepare these posts for a couple of weeks - in between bouts of chopping things with my new chainsaw!! Oh - how The Ken Man knows me so well......  

OK .. On with the show! Here's a post I started writing about 2 weeks ago: 


It's all fuss and excitement and crazy internets clicking here tonight!

If you want to secure your favourite table service Disney dining reservation you have to book 6 months in advance - and that day is almost here past for me!!  (ha ha ha - that shows how long it takes me to write a post)

guess what I'm doing tomorrow evening?? (source: pscalculator )

Only 4 more sleeps until (now after) Christmas Day - but I feel like it's already arrived as I go crazy with the dining reservations!

We have some underlying rules to follow with our dining arrangements, including:

• We want to try lots of different things
  
• We can't eat everything (dang!) SO a la carte dining more often to give more control over the amount of food purchased and consumed.
• We are happy to split large dishes, and taste each other's meals - also happy to hoard if it's too good to share!
• Limit buffet attendance. (Usually poor food items and some of us have limited intake.)
• Enjoy meals with others.
• No cheap and nasty park food - hot dogs, burgers and dreaded Disney fries (oh, I shiver just thinking about Pecos Bills - ewwwwww - and where they ask you not to spit. Well not in front of women and children.)

Please don't make me go here (source:Disney food blog)

• Let your friend wear stretchy pants

By getting online the moment bookings opened I was able to get everything I wanted - some of which are very coveted bookings! Here are some highlights from our bookings so far:  (the links will allow you to see the current menus)

• Breakfasts - Staying in Boardwalk Villas gives easy access to fabulous breakfasts including Greek style Kouzzina (21st); Captain's Grill (22nd) and Kona Cafe (26th) (the home of REAL coffee in WDW). We are also visiting Safari Donald at Tusker House (24th) for Harambe style.

Kona Cafe's Tonga Toast. My precious ....

• Good fun themery lunch at 50's Prime Time Cafe (23rd) where you eat your veges and keep your elbows off the table.  Biergarten (21st) where it's Oktoberfest every day! Liberty Tree Tavern (22nd) where it is 4th July everyday!

 

No, Please, your quiet enjoyment of the meal will be thanks enough for these coveted bookings:

• Le Cellier - the Canadian Steakhouse (21st). This small underground wine cellar serves it's signature dishes: cheddar cheese soup and Filet mignon on truffled mushroom risotto. Oh sigh.

 

•  Chef's Table at Victoria and Albert's Restaurant - this classic is rated one of the USA's 15 most iconic restaurants, and with scores like 29/30 is one of Zagat's most highly rated. 

Now the category: "Everyone is arriving in Orlando now. Let's all go out together for a meal"

• The Crabby Shack! Fulton's Crab House will be hosting at least 10 of us on the 25th. Will you join in for more than you can eat seafood?

lobster tails, crabs, prawns, clams, oysters - served on platters, in towers, in buckets!

• On the afternoon of the 26th, we shall be raising our pinkies and ensconced at the Grand Floridian Resort's Garden View Tea Room for Afternoon Tea. It's all cucumber sandwiches with the crusts cut off and scones with jam and cream.

(source: wdwinfo - read their full review including menu)

And now here's a booking that will be a highlight of your trip - the all new California Grill! (26th)

Closed for 8 months in 2013 to undergo a complete overhaul, I am so excited to see this new look and new menu. One thing that hasn't changed - location. It is still on the roof of the Contemporary Resort and every meal offers premier viewing of the Magic Kingdom fireworks show!

Our last evening in WDW will finish on a high note! (source: DisneyFoodBlog - read their full review)

Who cares about pictures of the restaurant or what's on the menu. Because FIREWORKS!

UPDATE: I have now secured a 2nd California Grill dinner booking for Sunday 29 June - when everyone will be in Orlando.

If you would like to come meet everyone and join in, please contact me ASAP before seating books out! As is the case with Zontians, the more the merrier!

Are you a foodie? What type of cuisine do you want to enjoy in Orlando?

Munching my way to paradise - at Victoria and Albert's Restaurant

Everyone at some point can enjoy a great meal - right?

Even people who just see food as a calorific experience or at the other extreme - gourmands who chase down extreme meals - even these people can occasionally spot an exceptional experience (surely?)

And so I donned my Mr Creasote attitude and the infinity expanding dress and went to enjoy my highlight meal at Victoria and Albert's restaurant at the Grand Floridian Resort.  My highlight meal - at the Chef's Table!! Solo ..........(said in singsong voice)

yep - I booked that baby - one sitting per night - and it was all MINE!

and, really, that attitude was pretty much the one I maintained throughout 11 courses.

OK - so one arrives at the delightfully elegant restaurant entrance, and am pretty swiftly escorted out the back - although I may tempt the situation at times, I was not escorted ALL THE WAY out through the rear exit. Down to a little area at the back of a pretty small kitchen is where they have the little guest table.

Not a revolving restaurant with fireworks

I have no idea what dishes they produce from this little tiny area - it was obviously not the only  preparation area. There seemed to be working on appetizers / entrees / main course - savory meaty things. There was a distinct lack of dessert.

Sitting there slowly getting tipsy on the provided glass of Piper Hiedieck Cuvee champagne, Head Chef Scott Hunnel was suddenly present - joining me with a glass of champagne - and welcoming me to the restaurant.

so ... it was kinda like this ...except less beautiful people and more Mr Creasote (source: doctored by me, original by wdwcompany)

Chef Hunnel reiterated my booking requests - no chicken or offal, more seafood and game! and then the dishes began to arrive.

In my desire to simply serve you I have made this little mini film of all the dishes! See how I care for you?


Oh WOW - did you catch all that? Here are some little fun facts:

• The "fog" in the lamb dish is made with appley juice - so the room smells all appley!
• The miniature herbs and vegetables come from a specialist gardener in Ohio, Chef's Garden. They grow everything to precise order - so 21 day old carrots or 14 day leeks as small as your finger. And they are harvested by miniature bunnies.

(source: cheezburger.com)

• You can pay extra to add special ingredients including caviar and Australian wagyu beef
• You can pay extra and get completely smashed with a matching glass of wine for every course! yes 11 glasses of wine for dinner .... your cordon bleu would quickly become "cor, I'm bleurgghhhh"
• They customise every dinner, so no two meals are the same, and you can have dishes different to what is served in the main dining room.
• The seating lasts about 4 hours. You can take a break - or possibly even go watch the Magic Kingdom fireworks.
• Every dish was served by a different person - I met all the main players in the restaurant.
• The Chef's Table can accommodate up to 10 guests
• If I had a man with me, his take away gift would have been a small loaf of orange bread stuff

The whole time I am munching away, these guys are working

Chef Hunnel like to run what he calls a "quiet kitchen" - so sorry - there are no Gordan Ramsay-ish outbursts. I suppose it works for him. He does have an awful lot of awards and is considered Orlando's No.1 restaurant by a number of outlets and check out the reviews on Tripadvisor

So this meal went both to my head and my waistline. I was a giggling food expert about 3 dishes in - admiring the technical expertise, how the beauty and flavour of best quality ingredients was highlighted in every dish, and pleasantly surprised at how new blends of flavours came together so well - or old favourite flavours were masterfully replicated.

Preparing the meat portions on a large baking tray on the top burners. Up top is a tray of prepped golden chanterelle mushrooms

I simply can't say anything bad about this meal - they delivered all my favourite ingredients, prepared perfectly, there was plenty of theatre, talking to all of the people was like having a chat with your best friend - they are just so delightfully friendly!

Whilst a lot of money in absolute terms, my proposition is that this meal is actually excellent value - the meal cost me USD $300 - that covered everything - including tax, gratuity, world class 11 courses, an upgraded Dover Sole dish (not in video), 2 glasses of wine, tea, the take home chocolates and rose, and all the pleasure of private entertainment!

I am definitely doing this again in June - bookings open 180 days in advance of my hotel room arrival date - so I will be on the phone seeking a seating!

Of course - YOU ARE INVITED TOO!

Save up your pennies now, join up with the Mrs. Banks Facebook Group and you will have first notice to join the group when I book.

I give this meal, 3 Mr Creasotes - cause it really was an extraordinary amount of food

and 6 spoon fulls of sugar - for absolute delightfulness!

What dining experiences are you joyfully anticipating for our trip to Orlando?

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.

Foraging

I've never met a Zontian who doesn't enjoy a good meal, and probably a glass of fruity red, perhaps a margarita or two.  Oh and cheese - pretty keen on cheese. So you'll be thrilled to discover that there are over 170 eateries in Walt Disney World, and also, NONE of them are this:

I confess - this is literally right at the border. Hey, don't judge! It's the only place you'll get FREE WI-FI!!
But there's really no need for McDonalds at WDW because they already have a creepy clown scaring the kiddies.

Designed by Stephen King?

Let's go back the restaurants inside the World. There is everything from the lowliest popcorn cart through to the most amazing, award winning restaurants. So there it is - my secret is out - I really only go for the food. Days and days of non-stop dining in fabulously themed restaurants. I become the human equivalent of a combine harvester, except I'm harvesting the golden wheaty goodness of Mickey Waffles.

pass the maple syrup

During my last festival of the expanding waistline, I indulged in:

Teppanyaki at Teppan Edo, with their way cool Onion Volcano

Steamed whole Maine lobster at Narcoossees

With their fabulous Glowtini

Yum .. Duck Spring Rolls - oh and my infinitely expanding dress

And ate lobster eggs benedict with Alice and the Mad Hatter at the Grand Floridian Resort

Fresh strawberry soup

 ... and on it goes. Great humungous piles of never ending yummy food.

And guess what? Next trip - FREE DINING!

yep - all of it FREE - Every lobster, steak, dessert, salad, ice cream, bread roll, fish, vegetable and mickey waffle.

Did I tell you there are no calories in Disney food?