Reviews You Can Use: Oct. 23 to 29 Table Service

[BriarRose0708]

Hello friends, Nikki here reporting less than 24 hours after leaving WDW. Hope to give you some useful food reviews so those traveling in the immediate future can get recent information. I will be doing three separate reviews- one for counter service, one for table service, and one for Food and Wine Fest. I was on the Dining Plan for this trip, and will include more thoughts on that later. I also tend to be fairly wordy so please feel free to skim!

The standards I use for evaluating dining are very basic: I'm not Lady Mary. I don't live at Downton Abbey. The staff at Disney are not there to wait on my every want and need. That's just not how I roll. So, what may be considered awful service to some could register as it's-not-that-bad to me. I'm certainly going to include the bad along with the good where it is warranted, yet I am happy to say there were very few instances of bad this trip!

So, on to the reviews of Table Service!

Liberty Tree Tavern I ate here twice, once for lunch and once for dinner. Very happy to report both meals were wonderful! Jared was with me for both, so if you're reading friend, feel free to chime in.
Lunch: Ordered the Colony Salad. I.Loved.This. I make a very similar salad at home (greens, craisins, apple, and cheddar) but this was outstanding. The dressing they used is only available at lunch (I asked for it on my salad at dinner & they couldn't do it) and I wish I could buy a bottle of it. Jared had the Freedom Pasta and said it was very good. For dessert we shared the Ooey Gooey Toffee Cake. Wow. I didn't know what all the fuss was about before, and now that I've tried it, it definitely lives up. If only they served it at dinner! This was a great lunch and will absolutely do it again.
Dinner The last time I had dinner here was 5 years ago at the 10th Anniversary meet. I don't remember liking the food that much but maybe I was too distracted by characters, lol. The food this time around was quite good! We got warm rolls with honey butter and salad, and then the meat feast began! Well, for Jared and I. Jared's girlfriend Talie (she DOES exist) chose the vegetarian option which is the quinoa burger with sweet potato fries from the lunch menu. She said it was very good (and I can vouch as I snagged some fries, lol). So, back to the meat! I had the steak and turkey but skipped the pork. The mac and cheese is still Stouffers, at least that's what it tasted like to me, and the mashed potatoes were your average mashed. My favorite was the stuffing, which is par for the course with me when it comes to Thanksgiving. It was different from what I remember last time, maybe it's cornbread based now. All I can remember is a mushy brown blob they called stuffing last time . I also had a large helping of root vegetables, my favorite kind. Dessert was the cranberry apple cake with ice cream. This wasn't bad but not great. I'll just take more Ooey Gooey if you please.

Overall, Liberty Tree Tavern is a good choice for lunch and a pretty good choice for dinner if you like the more-than-you-care-to-eat variety. The atmosphere is nice, it's laid back and dinner was much quieter now that there are no characters.

'Ohana I had been DYING to eat here ever since I had a dream about it last year, lol.We were a group of 9 or 10 and were seated in the corner by the window with a lovely view of the castle (friends, feel free to jump in with your thoughts too)! We had ordered drinks while waiting to be called, and I had a Tropical Macaw: Parrot Bay Coconut rum, Midori Melon liqueur, pineapple juice and cranberry juice. It was very pretty and VERY yummy. We munched on Welcome Bread and salad, both were great. I loved the salad dressing, another one I'll have to find the recipe for. Then it all really started to pick up. Dumplings, wings, noodles and broccoli oh my! It was really hard to keep up. Then, it seemed our servers appeared out of thin air with the meat. I tried the steak (too tough, it was disappointing), chicken (nice big chunks and juicy) and pork (a little dry but good with some sauce on it). Passed on the shrimp because I don't like peel-and-eat. Sadly I got full way too fast but found some room for another serving of noodles (so good!) and a small helping of dessert. I don't really care for bread pudding too much but this was very good and if I had more room in my belly I would have had seconds!

Overall, I know 'Ohana can be hit or miss, and I experienced mostly a hit this evening. Our servers were very nice and prompt with refills but I felt bad they kept reaching right across Sherri's plate to deliver my meat off the skewer. I was also surprised how loud it was in there, between the singer and kid activities and the cranky child at the table next to us. I can certainly see where some would not like it and it was starting to get to me after a while. The food was generally very good but there was so much of it! They brought out two of each tray because we were a large party but were running out of room on the table and there was so much left over. But I am so glad I tried it and will go back for sure. And thanks to everyone for joining me!

Kona Cafe I had to hit up my favorite breakfast spot this trip because I've missed it the past two times. I checked in and was seated immediately. It was just me and they put me in the farthest back corner at a four top. My server was Andrew and he was great! I've read feedback from solo diners that their servers ignored them or treated them poorly but that was not the case here. He even went out of his way to ask his manager if I could order the Kona Press pot on the dining plan (since it normally counts as two beverages) and it worked out great. I even got my breakfast before my coffee! I ordered Tonga Toast, which I hadn't had before, with sausage as the meat. I liked the toast a lot but prefer plain old french toast with butter. Lots of butter. Glad I tried it though! I drank the whole press pot myself and was highly caffeinated all day as a result

Overall, Kona is awesome for breakfast! Location can't be beat either, just enjoy your meal and the MK is a quick monorail ride away. I probably should have just booked one night at the Poly since I was at 'Ohana Thursday and then back at Kona Friday morning! Would have cut my travel time down significantly.

Les Chefs de France I shared this meal with Mikki (dlpmikki). We checked in about 10 minutes early and thought there'd be a bit of a wait but were seated pretty promptly along the window at the back left side of the dining room. Our server was Sebastian and he was, well, French. A little standoffish/grumpy but typical. We both ordered from the fixed price menu- onion soup and quiche lorraine with mixed green salad - and shared a bottle of pinot noir. The soup was very good and not too salty with lots of Gruyere on top. Very hot though. As we were eating we got to see the Little Chef himself, Remy! My quiche was a little too done on the top, must have been very close to the broiler, but it still tasted very good. For dessert I ordered Profiteroles. To die for! I prefer the custard filling instead of the ice cream they use at Chefs, but didn't care at all. The chocolate sauce is worth it. Mikki enjoyed her sorbet too that came in three flavors with fresh fruit. The bottle of pinot was very good too!

Overall, I loved this meal even if we did feel a little rushed. Sebastian had a tendency to hover. I enjoy French food a lot, especially the more rustic, country kind. Remy is a very nice addition at lunch here too and keeps the atmosphere light and playful. Will probably try to get a dinner reservation here on a future trip when my DBF and I go together. How romantic!

Raglan Road was a last minute change for me. I had originally planned to dine solo at Grand Floridian Cafe, but earlier in the day at Hollywood Studios Beth asked if I had dinner plans and invited me to join the moderator crew at RR later that night. Hmmm, solo at GFlo or get to spend more time with these awesome people? It was a no-brainer for me, and thanks again to Beth for the invite and Rita for the seat in her reservation. We were a very large party but were seated at two tables adjacent to the stage. The atmosphere is so fun and upbeat and I loved the music and dancing, of course. I ordered the League of Nations beer flight, which included Newcastle, a pale ale (can't remember the name but it's German), Blue Moon, and cider. All four were great and nice to sip on a variety during dinner. For my main I got the Lambo- braised lamb shank with mash, shiitake mushrooms, leeks, and baby carrots. This was soooo good, the meat was so tender it fell right off the bone. For dessert I didn't want anything heavy so I went with the raspberry pavlova, which was light and airy but very sweet, even with the raspberry sauce.

Overall, dinner at Raglan Road was super! It was loud, but pubs are supposed to be. The entertainment is worth it, and the company at this particular dinner couldn't have been better.

That wraps up my table service! I'll continue in the next post with some final thoughts on the dining plan.

[BrerGnat]

Great reviews.

And, you got my seat at Raglan. You're welcome.

[BriarRose0708]

Great reviews.

And, you got my seat at Raglan. You're welcome.

THANKS!!!!!!!

[SBETigg]

'Ohana was so fun! And now I know to add two seats to my reservation and call Christine and John if (when) I go back. We did have way too much food on the table, and it was a big table, so there was a lot of reaching. Manners had to be relaxed. But I guess when you're chowing down on sticky wings and big chunks of meat, table manners suffer a little anyway. Overall good meal, except I don't know what was up with the steak that night, very tough and low quality steak.

We had a special dietary request at our table, and our server was accommodating. Also, the servers were usually around and attentive. But none of us would have gotten drinks before the meal without Amy's demand for the bartender's attention, so cheers to Amy!

[Lindsey310]

Great reviews!

Looking forward to the other reviews

[January-2007]

Thanks so much for reporting!

[MississippiDisneyFreak]

Thanks for the reviews it all sounds great

[RedSoxFan]

Great reviews. We love Ragland Road and are eating there on our upcoming trip. We have only eaten dinner at Kona Cafe. Some day we will try breakfast.

[epceddie]

Thanks for the info about O'hana. We're having dinner there for the first time on Dec. 14 and my wife can't wait to see what it's like.

[faline]

Nikki, thanks for your thoughts on the various dining establishments. The best, of course, was Raglan Road. The food was good but the company was certainly the best!!