New Eats

We ate at a few new places this trip. We had breakfast at the Kona Cafe in the Polynesian Resort. It was good enough to make our favorites list, meaning we would definitely go back. I had one of their specialities, the Tonga Toast. It's like nothing I have ever had before. It is a homemade loaf of sourdough bread baked with a banana in the middle and then rolled in cinnamon and sugar. It's served with fresh strawberry compote to be eaten like a dip or syrup. It's huge and could probably be shared, but somehow after the last bite, I still wanted more. To me, it was just a perfect combination of flavors. Jonathan had the Big Kahuna breakfast, which is all the breakfast basics. And I mean all. Eggs, sausage, bacon, ham, their speciality macadamia pancakes, french toast, potatoes. He couldn't finish it all. That almost never happens. We split a French press of their pure Kona coffee. Good coffee, but I've had better.


We grabbed lunch at Pecoes Bill's in the Magic Kingdom. It's pretty much a hamburger joint. It was tasty and better than Cosmic Ray's in our opinion. I also got Jonathan to try a Dole Whip, which is a pineapple soft serve ice cream dessert. I generally don't eat soft serve ice cream but I love the pineapple/vanilla swirl Dole Whips. He agreed.

At Epcot, we ate school bread from the Norwegian cafe. It was recommended by the Michauds. Absolutely delicious and just another reason to eat at the cafe every trip. I got Jonathan to try my food at the Tangierine Cafe in the Morocco Pavilion, one of my favorite places to grab a meal. He loved it. I was actually so proud of him for not turning his nose up at my lentil salad because once he tried it, he wanted to eat all of it.

We went out to Downtown Disney for dinner one evening and ate at Wolfgang Puck Express. Jonathan had a brick oven pizza that was very good. I got the bacon-wrapped meatloaf with mashed potatoes and we split a side of macaroni and cheese, one of their specialities. I am torn about this place. Jonathan's pizza was tasty with very fresh ingredients. My meal was good but really could have been so much better. To me, it seemed like they took what could have been a fantastic entree and dumbed it down. The meat was good quality but didn't have much seasoning. It was not baked wrapped in bacon but just had bacon on top of it and they put barbeque sauce on it. Yuck! The four-cheese macaroni and cheese was very disappointing. I am a cheese lover and love strong cheeses. Apparently to make their macaroni, they used the four mildest cheeses they could find. Oh, and it's penne not macaroni. I would go back but I will stick to the pizzas. Another word of advice, there are two locations in Downtown Disney. The one right beside the fancier Wolfgang Puck Cafe was so packed we couldn't even get in the door. The second location is much bigger and much less crowded.

For dessert, we stopped at the Ghiradelli cafe in Downtown Disney. That place smells like how imagine heaven might smell. We wanted some hot chocolate. After wading through an enormous crowd of chocolate-hungry lunatics, I got a hold of a menu and made it to a cashier. Now, I make hot chocolate at home all the time and not from a powder. I use real semi-sweet chocolate with my secret spices and I make it thick and rich. I don't usually like hot chocolate from restaurants because it is always a little thin and weak for my tastes. So, I ordered their Decadent Drinking Chocolate thinking it would be the closest to how I like my hot chocolate. It claims to be melted Ghiradelli chocolate squares and milk, but it must contain a miniscule amount of milk. It was thick like lava and it was an 10 oz. cup! I thought the first 2-3 sips were wonderful but that's all the more I could drink. It would be the perfect espresso shot-sized treat but I can't imagine how anyone could drink the whole cup without lapsing into a sugar coma. The really funny part is at the time I was thinking I would never get this again because I wasted so much of it, but I have found myself craving a sip of it ever since. Once I get down there again and catch a whiff of the Ghiradelli cafe, I'm sure I'll cave in and buy it again.