Tag Archives: hollywood studios

Disney World

I recently took a trip to Disney with my wife and her family. There’s actually some pretty decent places to eat and good snacks to try if you know where to go. Below is a smattering of places and things we had along the way.

EPCOT

The first park we visited was Epcot. We hit a few rides in the futuristic area, and had some popcorn snacks:

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But Epcot is known for its “world walk,” which showcases 11 countries and features aspects of their culture and cuisine. This is what we were most excited to do.

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Mexico: We had a frozen avocado margarita at a tequila bar inside the pyramid that had tons of different tequilas, mezcals and sotols available. The drink didn’t taste much like avocado, but it was good nonetheless.

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Norway: Here, we sampled some desserts and a shot of flavored aquavit from one of the shops. The buildings here are really cool.

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The first dessert was a cinnamon roll-up sort of thing. Somewhat disappointing. The second was a troll horn, which was really good – similar to a cannoli but with a creamier filling. Only down side was that the filling didn’t go all the way down into the point of the horn.

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The shot was good! It had hints of anise and cinnamon to take off the strong alcohol bite.

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We also sampled a meatball that was covered in gravy and topped with cranberries. It was like a Thanksgiving Swedish meatball.

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China: By now we were thirsty, so we grabbed a mango and green tea slushy. This was really great. The green tea cuts the sweetness so you aren’t running on a sugar high all day.

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Germany: Germany offers good beer, tubed meat and pretzels. It is essentially a Bavarian Oktoberfest all year long here.

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We tried the bratworst, paprika chips and some interesting shots – a honey whiskey and a corn flavored liquor. Both very good. The brat was nice and browned on the outside, not simply boiled. It had a good snap to it, and the meat was both sweet and savory.

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The town here is full of cool stores for beer steins and mugs, as well as sweets like caramels.

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Japan: This pavilion has some cool offerings, and awesome architecture.

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We started with a shave ice, which was a bit too icy (not soft).

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While there was no ramen, they did have a ramen shirt:

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In one of the gift shops you could take a crack at finding pearls in oysters. We saw a few people score. But I wonder what they do with the oyster… I wanted to eat them.

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Italy: We recharged a bit here with some espresso. One thing they do here is offer gelato with a shot of espresso floating on top!

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We watched some crazy flag tossing show and took in the interesting sculpture and architecture.

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Morocco: I would have liked to spend more time here. The architecture was very realistic and looked like a movie set. The food smelled delicious, and the gift shops were filled with cool shit. We had dinner coming up, so none of us wanted to spoil our appetites. Next time, I guess.

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France: We had dinner reservations here, so we basically just walked around and took in some of the sights before eating at Monsieur Paul. Check the review if you want. Here is a photo dump of the other shit in the French pavilion:

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We didn’t eat, drink or snack at the USA spot, and we basically just walked through the UK and Canada because we were heading to a fireworks show after dinner. Here are some shots of those areas:

UK:

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Canada:

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HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS

Our next day was at Hollywood Studios, formerly MGM. There’s a lot to do at this park, given Disney’s recent acquisition of the Star Wars franchise.

So we ended up having a snack before our main late afternoon meal at the 50’s Prime Time Cafe theme restaurant. They have turkey legs all over the place, and tons of snack and candy joints lining the roads. I didn’t eat much of that junk. The mediocre bites we had along the way were an appetizer sampler and buffalo chicken bites at the Sci Fi Snack Bar, a place that’s set up like an old 1950’s drive-in movie theater. You sit in cars and face a movie screen that plays old B- and C- quality sci-fi movies. Fun!

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Our main meal was at 50’s Prime Time Cafe. This place is set up like the inside of a mid-century modern 1950’s or early 60’s home. Lots of round-screen tube television cabinets are playing clips of old shows from the era, and there are sea-foam green appliances and furniture, wood paneling, checkerboard floors, etc. I loved it.

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Plus the food was pretty fucking great too. Everything is home-style cooking, like stuff that your grandma would cook for you. I ordered a smoked gouda stuffed pork chop. It was absolutely awesome. Juicy inside, crispy outside, good stuffing. I demolished it.

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I also got to try the fried chicken. Same deal – crispy on the outside, juicy inside. A great thigh!

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Their PB&J ice cream shake is incredible too. Not too heavy on the PB so that you get instantly full either, as the base is vanilla.

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My wife had a great pork osso buco. While I liked my dish better, her dish was fall-apart tender and beautifully plated.

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She also had a crazy soda concoction drink with a glowing ice cube, and they sang Happy Birthday to her and gave her a cupcake for dessert.

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Check out the mixed plate, with chicken, meatloaf and mashed potatoes. Not bad!

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That night, we had some special desserts and snacks as we watched a fucking AWESOME Star Wars themed fireworks show. We came away with some funky Chewbacca steins, too.

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The next day we relaxed. We took the day off to rest and regroup our aching feet, and that night we had a nice steak meal at the Yachtsman Steakhouse, which is located at the new(ish) Disney Yacht Club resort.

The following day we went to Universal Studios, which is Disney’s arch nemesis in Orlando. You can check out my commentary on that park’s eats and drinks HERE.

MAGIC KINGDOM

Our final Disney park visit was Magic Kingdom. This is where I finally broke down and grabbed a turkey leg. It was absolutely awesome. It was smoky, crisp on the outside and moist on the inside. It tasted like a good ham.

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We picked the meat clean off the bone!!!

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Nearby at Gaston’s, they used to sling a pork shank! I wanted so badly to walk around the park with a pig leg in my hand, but they no longer sell them. Instead we tried this slushy that was apple and cinnamon flavored, called LeFou’s Brew. Really delicious:

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Dole Whip is also a must at Disney. It’s a soft serve pineapple ice cream thing, the same stuff we had in Hawaii. My wife got a “float” version, which has pineapple juice at the bottom of the cup.

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Later on, we had a buffet dinner at Crystal Palace.

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For $42 it is all-you-can-eat, and they even have some decent meat carving stations with roasted sirloin and turkey. The star, for me, was the achiote pork. I found a big chunk that was super moist in the middle. Yum.

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They also had some good dessert here, in particular the small cube cakes. Key lime pie, cheesecake with Oreo crust, and a berry pie that had the same consistency as the key lime pie but with sweeter fruit and berry flavors. All great. Even the basic sugar cookie was pretty good. The ice cream, on the other hand, was too icy for soft serve.

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Despite the pretty good desserts, I think the best part of this meal was that achiote pork, as I mentioned above. Either that, or getting a love-attack by Tigger!

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We took pics with all four Pooh characters as they wandered around the restaurant: Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore and Tigger. I won’t bore you with those. I will say that the people who wear the costumes must be very patient to deal with screaming kids every day.

All-in this was a pretty great food trip. We also had some good stuff (and bad) at Universal as well on the same trip, so check that out too.

50’s Prime Time Cafe

This place at Disney’s Hollywood Studios is set up like the inside of a mid-century modern 1950’s or early 60’s home. Lots of round-screen tube television cabinets are playing clips of old shows from the era, and there are sea-foam green appliances and furniture, wood paneling, checkerboard floors, etc. I loved it.

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Plus the food was pretty fucking great too. Everything is home-style cooking, like stuff that your grandma would cook for you. I ordered a smoked gouda stuffed pork chop. It was absolutely awesome. Juice inside, crispy outside, good stuffing. I demolished it.

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I also got to try the fried chicken. Same deal – crispy on the outside, juicy inside. A great thigh!

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Their PB&J ice cream shake is incredible too. Not too heavy on the PB so that you get instantly full either, as the base is vanilla.

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My wife had a great pork osso buco. While I liked my dish better, her’s was fall-apart tender and beautifully plated.

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She also had a crazy soda concoction drink with a glowing ice cube, and they sang Happy Birthday to her and gave her a cupcake for dessert.

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Check out the mixed plate, with chicken, meatloaf and mashed potatoes. Not bad!

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Yachtsman Steakhouse

Yachtsman Steakhouse overall score: 85

My wife and I went to Disney with her family for a short vacation. While there, we hit this steak joint.

Flavor: 8
We tried nearly every cut of steak, so I was able to get a good feel for the quality of the beef as well as the skill of the chef. This place can definitely hang with NYC’s greats. I wasn’t expecting much after my last experience at a Florida steakhouse, but my wife really did her research on the dining options for this trip.

First, the rib eye, which I didn’t order but I tried a good amount. It was perfectly cooked and remained tender and juicy, with a great crust on the outside as well as a creamy blue cheese butter. This was probably a nine, and it came with a beautiful, big serving of bone marrow!

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My wife and I tried the porterhouse for two. This was an eight. It was cooked nicely but just fell a slight bit short on seasoning. Otherwise, top notch. Both sides were tender and juicy, with just a few areas where things got over cooked along the edges.

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My brother in law had a chimichurri strip steak, which was ordered medium well (he’s not a good steak orderer), yet it still retained flavor and some juiciness despite the ruination. Eight.

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My other brother in law had the filet, which was big and juicy. Also an eight.

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Choice of Cuts & Quality Available: 9
They have a lot of options here, and several variants within – like aged and prime. Take a look at the menu. All that’s missing, really, is an aged bone in rib eye. Arguably the most important cut, but I only took a point.

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With a few tweaks in preparation, and some longer aging times, this place could be incredible. They even have an aging room on the premises, visible to diners, where they age the beef and hang the charcuterie:

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Portion Size & Plating: 9
Portions here are large; plating is nice without being overly elegant. High marks on the charcuterie board, porterhouse and pork belly with clams plating in particular.

Price: 8
The prices here are pretty steep for Florida, but then again you are at a Disney resort, so a mark-up is expected. On the other hand, the food is well worth the money here. This is comparable to a NYC steakhouse, both in quality and price.

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Bar: 10
This joint has a full separate-but-attached bar called the Crew’s Cup that adjoins the restaurant. It’s a great looking country club kind of place, and the drinks are pretty good and cheap as well ($8.25 for a Beefeater martini is very fair in my eyes, being used to NYC).

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Specials and Other Meats: 7
There were no specials read to us, and the menu is pretty bare when it comes to other meats aside from beef: only chicken. I don’t mind much though, because I don’t go to a steakhouse to eat any other protein but beef, and the showing of beef here is pretty excellent; it even includes prime rib and bison (which I still consider to be beef, in a weird way).

My mother in law tried this vegeterian pasta dish, which was beautifully plated:

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Apps, Sides & Desserts: 8
The first appetizer that we tried was a charcuterie board. Here’s what was on it:

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I’m always a bit underwhelmed by the amount of stuff on charcuterie boards at restaurants these days, but I get that this stuff is expensive and difficult to make. Anyway, this was all very good:

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We also tried this pork belly and clams appetizer, which was incredible, although a bit salty.

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The hunk of pork belly in the center was generous, and perfectly braised yet crispy on the outside. The fried lotus root was an elegant touch, and the broth was great to soak up with bread.

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The sides here were great. Our porterhouse came with beef fat roasted potatoes and a trio of sides: caramelized onions, sautéed mushrooms and creamed spinach. I enjoyed them all. The creamed spinach was more creamy than I usually like, but it wasn’t overpowering. The beef fat potatoes were incredible – the beefy marrow flavor really took me by surprise. They were just a bit greasy, unfortunately.

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The last side we tried was the truffle mac and cheese. This was made with orecchiette pasta and some fried onions. It was really delicious, and probably one of the better truffle macs that I’ve had.

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Unfortunately we had to skip dessert. Too full!

Seafood Selection: 7
There’s red snapper and scallops on the menu here in the entree section. Other than that there’s just the usual shellfish apps. I was a bit surprised not to see any lobster on the menu.

Service: 10
This place is over the top and excellent. As you might expect, this kind of thing happens all over Disney. The people who work here are amazing, and they really, sincerely want you to enjoy your time there. Our waiter, Ricardo, was fantastic.

I guess I should mention the bread here. It comes with a really nice soft and salty butter, as well as a head of roasted garlic for spreading!!! You can choose onion pull-apart bread, or baguette style bread – or both.

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Ambiance: 9
The building and all surrounding areas are amazing at this part of the resort. When you enter the yacht club area, you’re greeted with an amazing, huge old fashioned globe in the entryway.

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The Yachtsman Steakhouse itself (which is within the club near some other restaurants) attempts to hit the mark with the country club / yacht club look. It ALMOST nails it, but not quite. Something was missing, and I can’t put my finger on it.

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