Category Archives: Disney Dining Reviews

Disney Cocktails – La Cava del Tequila’s #LaCavaNegroni

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Well aware of Joseph’s distaste for tequila, I hesitated before asking him to try La Cava del Tequila’s limited edition #LaCavaNegroni.  He loves me enough to take one for the team, so to speak, but after that flatbread at Pizzafari, I thought I might be taking advantage of his good nature.  Limited time, though!  So I broached the subject and Joe was surprisingly game.  Off he went to Epcot’s Mexico Pavilion to give it a try…and they were sold out.  Tenacious is our boy, luckily, so the next time he had a chance to visit Epcot…success!

Disney Cocktails – La Cava del Tequila’s #LaCavaNegroni

“#LaCavaNegroni – Limited Edition (Batch No. 13) – 12 week aged negroni in Tequila Avion 44 Barrel.  For details search #LaCavaNegroni on Twitter and Instagram” – Menu, La Cava del Tequila

Let’s talk about what goes into a Negroni: Tequila, Campari, and Vermouth.  Aging in the Tequila Avion 44 barrel turns a few simple ingredients into a specialty cocktail that costs $17.  But how did it taste?

#LaCavaNegroni

-by Joseph Green

I absolutely loved it.  I didn’t think I would, but it was great!  It’s sweet and smoky.  Honestly, it tastes like the cannon fire and burning town smells on Pirates of the Caribbean.  It doesn’t burn, but has a little bit of a bite.  Big flavor.  Just enough to let you know it’s something special.  You can tell you’re having a well-crafted drink.  And it lingers just long enough to savor before you want another sip.

This drink sits on the center top shelf in La Cava, in a round-bottomed flask without a label.  And it’s well-noted by the staff when your order it.  It’s spicy in the best way…not hot, but peppery.  Pricey, yes, but even for this unenthusiastic tequila drinker, this cocktail was worth every penny.

Verdict:  If you’re thinking about giving #LaCaveNegroni a try, grab your $17 and get there soon, before it’s all gone.

 

 

 

Disney Dining – Animal Kingdom’s Pizzafari

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Our family has never eaten at Pizzafari in Animal Kingdom, so I added it to my list of places for Joseph to try while he’s slaving away living it up in the Disney College Program.  I’d read that there was a Shrimp Flatbread and a Cannoli Cake dessert on the menu.  Both of those sounded promising.  Very recently, Raymond, Megan, Joseph and I had shared a couple of the Buffalo Chicken flatbread at the Contempo Café in the Contemporary and we were really happy with the quality and flavor.

Joseph, as one would expect from my child, offered this very honest, fair and balanced review…

Disney Dining – Animal Kingdom’s Pizzafari

-By Joseph Green

It was what you should expect from quick service pizza.  It looks appetizing with the drizzled pesto, arugula and spinach, and the seasoned shrimp, but the cheese and bread ruined it for me.

On first impression, the veggie mix tasted fresh and crisp in contrast to the chewy, flavorless bread and “cheese”.  The pesto added a nice flavor along with the shrimp which surprisingly wasn’t rubbery.  But after a second of thinking, “hm.. this isn’t bad at all, I kind of like this.”, I found myself having to chew longer and longer and longer.  All of those individual flavors mixed together until they were no longer discernible, which I fully blame on the bread and cheese.  The shrimp flatbread just became unappetizing after that.  I got tired of having to chew for long periods of time and holding those flavors in my mouth until they were one greasy blob.  (The flatbread came with a side salad, but I’m not a fan, so I can’t tell you how it tasted.  I did take a picture of it for you.)

The Cannoli Cake I rather liked.  The cake itself was moist and dense and maintained a rich, chocolatey flavor that I didn’t find overpowering.  The mini chocolate chips inside the cake were a surprising texture that I didn’t expect, but enjoyed very much.  Now, maybe I’ve been watching too much of The Great British Baking Show lately, but I didn’t particularly enjoy the cannoli.  It looked wonderful and the taste was nice, but the texture of the cannoli was all wrong to me.  I suppose I should’ve expected that though.  I mean, they are sitting in a refrigerator for possibly quite some time, which renders the cannoli soft, flexible, and slightly stale.  I recommend the cake, but the cannoli was nothing special.The Verdict:  With so many other truly great choices for a quick meal in Animal Kingdom, pass on Pizzafari…unless you go for dessert.

 

Disney Dining – Disney Springs’ Blaze Pizza

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Disney Dining – Disney Springs’ Blaze Pizza Review

  • By Joseph Green

Thinking I’d hit Blaze Pizza during a post-lunch lull, which would give me a chance to get in and out quickly, I visited around 3:00 pm.  I was surprised to find the place hopping!  It was packed. While it takes just a few minutes to actually cook your pizza, I waited about 20-25 minutes to get my order from start to finish.  While I’m not as big a fan of pizza as I am of a good burger, I was more than happy to give this Disney Springs pizzeria a try on Mom’s dime.

I especially loved the fact that I could choose any and all toppings I wanted.  As you may be aware, when I’m not in the Disney College Program, I’m an otherwise typical “starving college student”.  I know how to get the most for my money with these deals.  Packed onto a 12” pizza, my choice of toppings made for a tasty, filling meal.  I suppose a couple of people could split one of these pies, but I wasn’t sharing.  And admittedly, I didn’t want to compromise on what went on my pizza…can’t imagine where I get this trait.

I was STARVING, but that’s not unusual

Toppings?  Yes, please. I had spicy red sauce, goat cheese and mozzarella, Italian sausage, jalapenos, banana peppers, basil and Sriracha. The crust was thin, but soft.  It wasn’t crunchy and I liked that.  The pizza tasted amazing, but I can’t tell you if that was because it was Blaze and they have good ingredients, or if it’s because I built the pizza.  I mean, it’s exciting because, yeah, I loved it and I’d definitely go back, but at the same time, it’s not very surprising that I enjoyed it because I’m the one who made it.  I put everything I like on it.  To really give an opinion on a Blaze original pizza, I’d have to try one.  In regard to the general taste of the pizza (that I made), I thought it was very good.  Compared to other pizzas at Walt Disney World, it was great.

I can’t believe I only have about four weeks left before I head home.  I’m going to try to squeeze in a few more reviews, so if you have any requests, please leave a comment.  Thanks for reading…Joe

Magic Kingdom – Tater Tots, Fried Twinkies & Pirates

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The new menu items at The Friar’s Nook in Magic Kingdom were on my wish list for Joseph’s dining reviews.  Lucky guy, he possesses both the metabolism and intestinal fortitude to try food items I would not.  The other day he had a chance to pop over to Magic Kingdom and grab a snack before checking out the newest version of Pirates of the Caribbean.  Here’s what he had to say about all of it. (Good job on the pics this time, Joseph!)

Magic Kingdom – Tater Tots, Fried Twinkies & Pirates – According to Joe

By Joseph Green

I knew The Friar’s Nook was in Fantasyland, but having never eaten there, it took me a minute to locate the restaurant.  Like many of Disney’s quick service snack shacks, the menu is small.  My choices were limited to tots, tots, tots, hotdog and tots, and the fried Twinkie.  I zeroed in on the Loaded Fiesta Tots (currently $9.49) and the Twinkie with chocolate sauce (currently $4.99).  There’s an assortment of sauces offered which also includes vanilla, strawberry, and caramel.

The Fiesta Tots were surprisingly good.  They’re topped with chili, cheese sauce, pico de gallo, and jalapenos.  Like those fries in the Refreshment Port’s poutine, the tots were hot, fresh and crispy.  The chili wasn’t greasy, but with the cheese sauce, might have been too heavy without the pico de gallo and peppers, which added just the right amount of freshness to this snack.  It didn’t hurt that the appearance of this tot concoction was really appetizing.  For what it’s worth – this tasted like something I could get at Taco Bell (I like Taco Bell).

Now, let’s talk about that Twinkie.  It looked harmless enough covered with powdered sugar and the chosen chocolate topping.  Unfortunately, frying a Twinkie causes it to lose much of its Twinkie-ness.  I’m not sure how to describe the texture, but it was denser than the non-fried version and less spongy.  The cream filling was gone completely.  It was a sweet, battered, fried dessert…if that’s your thing, you might like it.  Think funnel cake in log form.

A few words about Pirates.  I went to see the new Redhead and was blindsided by the changes that came before that part of the ride.  The mermaid skeleton is gone and the beach looks barren and unadorned, not to mention less menacing.  I liked it the other way better – menacing set the right tone and added just the right creepy feeling at this point in the ride.  The Auction scene looks great!  I was expecting the dialogue to be at least as funny as the old version and for me, it fell a bit short.  This was a missed opportunity to make the change more acceptable to those who didn’t want it.  I think it could have been a lot better or at least more clever.

Watch for my Blaze Pizza review coming soon and thanks for reading…Joe