Backlot Express at Hollywood Studios

I ate at Backlot Express at Hollywood Studios. I have distinct memories of eating here as a kid, way back in the MGM Studios days of the park. I remember tuna salad sandwiches on hot dog buns. I'm sure menus have changed and that hasn't been an option for a really long time. On this visit, I had  the Teriyaki Chicken Bowl. The menu describes it as Seasoned Jasmine Rice, Teriyaki Chicken, Yuzu-pickled Edamame, Carrots, Cucumber, and Onions drizzled with House-made Lemon-Tahini-Chipotle Vinaigrette and Sesame Seeds. It was pretty good. Proportion wise, I would have preferred a little more of the toppings to go with the rice, but otherwise everything was tasty.
 

Tangierine Cafe at Epcot

I ate at Tangierine Cafe at Epcot in the Morocco Pavilion. It's been several years since I've been here, and the menu has changed. I remember lots of pitas filled with various items, specifically falafel. On today's visit, I learned that now they have kababs. I tried the Grilled Chermoula Chicken Kebab with Carrot-Chickpea Salad and Garlic Aïoli. Pretty tasty, but the portion was very small. Seemed like a Epcot festival size menu item rather than something in a restaurant. Would have preferred a falafel pita.
 

Magic Kingdom Food (Casey's Corner and Sunshine Tree Terrace)

It's been a while since I've had food at the Magic Kingdom. Since the last post on this blog was about Disneyland, why not write about the similar castle park in Florida.

Casey's Corner:

I've lived in Orlando most of my life and have been to the Magic Kingdom countless times, but somehow I had never been to Casey's Corner on Main Street. I've heard the restaurant hyped up quite often, so on my last visit to Magic Kingdom I finally had lunch there. I ordered the Chipotle Barbecue All-Beef Foot-long Hot Dog. It was a hot dog topped with pulled pork, coleslaw, and barbeque sauce. Good for Disney serving more than plain hot dogs. Toppings always make them more interesting.  This was fine. Not anything great that I'd go back for again though. As I write this, I'm realizing that this had very similar ingredients to the Ronto Wrap at Galaxy's Edge. Slightly different forms of the ingredients, but it was essentially the same thing.

Sunshine Tree Terrace:

I had the I Lava You Float. Orange Dole Whip topped with strawberry Fanta, passionfruit syrup, and Pop Rocks. This was a good dessert.

Disneyland Food (Rancho del Zocalo & Ronto Roasters)

I ate at Califonia Adventure the day before. Today was all about the food during my first visit to Disneyland:

Rancho del Zocalo Restaurante:

Had lunch at a restaurant called Rancho del Zocalo. This Mexican themed quick service was located next to Big Thunder Mountain and had an outdoor seating courtyard that overlooked the ride.

 
I had the Trio of Street Tacos. Each taco was filled with either beef, chicken, or cauliflower served in Corn Tortillas with Tomatillo Sauce, garnished with Onions and Cilantro served with Mexican Rice and Refried Beans. The cauliflower taco was the best. All of them were surprisingly good when thinking of the equivalent restaurants at Magic Kingdom which are notoriously bad (I said it. Disney adults, leave your angry comments).

Ronto Roasters:

This was my first experience in Galaxy's Edge. I guess I was eating simulated ronto meat, cooked by a droid by a repurposed pod racer engine. I had the Ronto Wrap, which was roasted pork, pork sausage, peppercorn sauce, and coleslaw wrapped in pita bread. Theming of this place was awesome, but I don't think I'd go out of my way again to get a hot dog wrapped in a slice of pork with some messy coleslaw dripping everywhere. It was food...

Blue Milk from the Milk Stand exceeded all expectations. This was delicious. 

Blaze Pizza in Disney Springs

Blaze Pizza has been around for a while now in the Orlando area, but they never made it onto this blog. I've eaten at a few of the Blaze Pizza locations in Florida, but these pies are all from their location in Disney Springs. 

Of the pizza chains where you pick what you want on your pie as it's being made, Blaze seems to be the most consistent. The proportions of crust, cheese, sauce, and toppings always seems to be just about what I'd expect from a pizza at Blaze. That's some good corporate fast food consistency...

Market Street Diner in Celebration, FL

It looks like the long time restaurant in downtown Celebration formerly known as Market Street Cafe has been rebranded to Market Street Diner. It's a subtle name change, but still a name change. It looks like the interior was renovated since the diner was known as cafe.

On my first time eating at the restaurant under the Market Street Diner name, I tried the Atlantic Fish Po' Boy. This was a huge filet of fried cod topped with lettuce, tomato, and tartar sauce, all served on a roll. The sandwich fillings overflowed off the bread, but still held together well. The fish was hot and crispy with a nice, flavorful batter. I had tater tots as my side.

The restaurant seems pretty consistent of how it was pre-name change. It's what you would expect from a diner type restaurant with food that seems slightly above average for this type of place.

Planet Hollywood Observatory in Disney Springs

This was my first visit to this restaurant since they renovated from regular Planet Hollywood to Planet Hollywood Observatory. When Downtown Disney rebranded themselves as Disney Springs, I guess a giant globe filled with movie props didn't fit into the story of a small town built around a spring water bottling plant that Disney came up with. Instead, the globe was painted grey and it is now an observatory to view stars. In doing so, they ripped out all of the movie props that made the old version of the restaurant interesting and replaced the majority of them with video screens projected on the walls. Guy Fieri was brought in to provide the restaurant's new menu, but celebrity chef fame doesn't do much when the menu ended up as boring as it was. Looking over the menu, very little spoke to me and everything was generic and overpriced.

I ended up ordering the Championship Pulled Pork Sandwich. This had pulled pork, barbecue sauce, coleslaw, pickles, and onion straws. I know I was sort of dissing Planet Hollywood's menu, but this sandwich was okay. The pork was tender, and they kept it interesting by adding more than just meat and sauce on the sandwich. Fries and a pickle were served on the side.

My pulled pork sandwich was good enough, but I don't think I'll be rushing back to the Planet Hollywood Observatory soon. I might as well go to an Applebee's for an equivalent generic chain restaurant menu for half the price...

Leaning Palms at Typhoon Lagoon

I visited Typhoon Lagoon at Disney recently. In terms of Orlando water parks, Typhoon Lagoon is the park that I've been to the least. I believe this was the second time I've been there and it has been years since my last visit. Being that it was so long, I was surprisingly pleased with the quality of the oldest water park in Orlando.

While there, I had dinner at a restaurant called Leaning Palms. The menu was typical water park food, mostly consisting of burgers, hot dogs, etc. I ordered the one thing which seemed unique.

The Mojo Chicken was shredded chicken, served with rice, black beans, and plantains. The chicken appeared plain, but was really flavorful. The black beans had sausage mixed in, and the rice and plantains were as expected. I was pleased with my meal.

Food inside of Disney theme parks has been disappointing to me on my more recent visits to the parks. I'm glad this Mojo Chicken changed the trend!

Sassagoula Floatworks & Food Factory in Disney's Port Orleans

I ventured over to Disney's Port Orleans hotel for dinner on a recent evening. After wandering around the property looking at the different food options, I ended up at Sassagoula Floatworks & Food Factory in the French Quarter section of the hotel. The restaurant was set up food court style, with several different counters serving various menu options.

I tried the Jambalaya. It was served in a large bowl topped with a square of cornbread. As far as taste goes, the jambalaya was good, but it also sort of lacked something. It consisted of chicken, sausage, and rice, and that was about it. I'm used to seeing a little more in jambalaya too. Usually there's vegetables in there as well. Celery, green peppers, and onions seem pretty standard in the dish, but there was no trace of them here.

Someone else ordered the Shrimp and Grits. Definitely the better option. The large portion consisted of a large serving of grits topped with a freshly made serving of shrimp, various vegetables, and sauce. Sundried tomatoes aren't normally in here, but they were added upon request. It was really tasty and definitely outshined the relatively boring jambalaya.

Beignets were also ordered for dessert. Doughnuts topped with powdered sugar are always good, and these were better than other theme park beignets I've come across which are basically square funnel cakes. These were light and fluffy and had the proper beignet consistency.

Although my jambalaya was a little subpar, everything else I tried at Sassagoula Floatworks was good. I'd go back!

The Daily Poutine at Disney Springs in Orlando, FL

The Daily Poutine is one of the newish restaurants which opened in the new section of Disney Springs. They are fast food with some nearby outdoor seating. I was a big fan of trying the different versions of poutine when I was in Quebec last year, so I was excited to try some Floridian theme park poutine.

I am not a poutine expert, but I wonder how many of the menu items here would be considered true poutine by connoisseurs of the food? When does a variation of the dish become something else? Looking at something like the restaurant's Latin Poutine where potato fries are replaced with yucca and there isn't gravy or cheese curds, would this still be considered poutine?

I have visited The Daily Poutine twice. The first time I was with someone who had never tried poutine, so we split the Classic. This consisted of french fries, beef gravy, and cheddar cheese curds. It didn't live up to some of the poutines I sampled while in Quebec, but I suppose was good enough for a theme park version of the dish. I've heard that the way to tell if you're having high quality poutine is if the cheese curds make a squeaky noise as you bite into them. The cheese curds here did not squeak...

The second time I dined at The Daily Poutine was when I was intrigued by their All-Day Breakfast Poutine. I'm not sure if this is a daily special or a temporary menu item, but it was advertised on signs sitting on the counter. It was described as fried potato puffs, sausage gravy, and cheddar curds topped with a fried egg. Again, this was veering away from what I think of poutine with tater tots instead of fries and white sausage gravy instead of brown gravy. Regardless, this breakfast poutine was actually really tasty. The gravy had a lot more flavor compared to what I normally think of when it comes to white gravy. I've been liking foods topped with fried eggs lately, so that topping made me like the poutine more.

The Disney version of poutine didn't quite make me feel like I was eating true French-Canadian junk food, but the food was decent enough. Definitely better than normal french fries topped with ketchup...

D-Luxe Burger in Disney Springs

D-Luxe Burger is one of the restaurants which recently opened in the new Town Center section of Disney Springs. The restaurant's theming was seemed to be modeled off a Florida cattle ranch, located alongside the new spring that has suddenly started to bubble up in what used to be a Downtown Disney parking lot.

The menu reminded me of a Shake Shack or a BurgerFi in both format and choices. I ordered the El Diablo Burger. The menu described this as a chorizo-and-signature blend patty, fried banana peppers, pepper jack cheese, lettuce, tomato, and chipotle mayonnaise. A small box of fries was also ordered.

The chorizo did add a bit more flavor that isn't generally found in a plain beef burger. The meat itself didn't provide much spice, nor did the fried peppers, but the chipotle mayonnaise did have a nice kick. The main issue I had was with the burgers being served vertically. Gravity pulled all of the sauce down. This resulted in a sandwich where the top end was dry and bland. The bottom end had plenty of the tasty sauce, but was also really soggy with all the sauce pooling downwards.

Overall, the burger at D-Luxe was good enough. I wouldn't call myself a burger expert (I don't understand the gourmet burger trend that seems to be going on right now), but the burger here had more taste than just plain, bland ground beef and ketchup, so that's a good thing. They would have been better if the burgers were served flat though...

Dragon Court Super Buffet in Lake Buena Vista, FL

Dragon Court Super Buffet is a Chinese buffet located right off Disney property. I've assumed it catered towards tourists, meaning overpriced bad food. Dragon Court has been around for as long as I can remember, but I recently ended up eating there at lunch for the first time. I was pleasantly surprised.

They had some items not typically found on other Chinese buffets in the area and the majority of the food was pretty tasty. On my first trip to the buffet, I tried the curry chicken, fried rice, Chinese eggplant, beans, lo mein, tempura vegetables, pork dumplings, and a crab rangoon. The stand out dishes were the eggplant and curry chicken.

Second plate had a few more items. There was some baby bok choy, chow mei fun, boneless spareribs, chicken and broccoli, and some sort of spicy pork. 

I did enjoy the food that I ate on my first visit to Dragon Court Super Buffet. Hopefully their quality stays consistent.

Wolfgang Puck Express in Downtown Disney, Lake Buena Vista, FL

I recently braved the massive construction at Downtown Disney as it is transformed into Disney Springs and ate dinner at Wolfgang Puck Express. This is one of two Wolfgang Puck restaurants in Downtown Disney. This particular restaurant is located in the Marketplace section of Downtown Disney and is the lower priced of the two. Wolfgang Puck Express is a quick service restaurant and they seem to specialize in pizzas, pastas, and sandwiches. According to their menu, the ingredients used are organic and locally sourced.

There were three of us who ate here on this particular visit. We each ordered a different pizza and traded slices to compare. I ordered the Fennel Sausage Pizza. This consisted of crumbled sausage, pesto, roasted sweet peppers, and mozzarella. The pie was tasty, although the crust seemed to get very soggy underneath wherever the sausage was. The slices seemed to loose some of their structural integrity because of this.

Barbecued Chicken Pizza was another pie that was tried at our table. This was topped with chicken, grilled red onions, cilantro, roasted tomatoes, and barbeque sauce. I can't exactly pinpoint what it is, but variations of barbecue pizzas don't do much for me. This wasn't necessarily a bad pie, but I wouldn't order it on my own. Perhaps it the unexpected (even when it is expected) barbecue sauce rather than a more standard tomato sauce that catches me off guard.

Finally, I also tried the Four Cheese Pesto Pizza. This one was my personal favorite of the three pies. The four cheeses were mozzarella, goat cheese, parmesan, and fontina. It was topped with pesto, fresh tomatoes, and sun-dried tomatoes. Goat cheese should be put on pizza more often because it is delicious!

Overall, I enjoyed the pizza at Wolfgang Puck Express. I know there's a celebrity chef name attached to the restaurant, but this is still essentially food in a theme park's outdoor shopping mall. With that in mind, Wolfgang Puck Express sets a pretty high bar when it comes to pizza catering to the theme park demographic. The prices are relatively affordable as well. I'd return.

Run & Run Chinese Restaurant in Lake Buena Vista, FL

I had lunch at a Chinese take out restaurant called Run & Run in a shopping center off Palm Parkway in Lake Buena Vista. Run & Run was located in a strip mall that definitely catered to tourists filled with gift shops and overpriced restaurants. Because of this, I was a little apprehensive to see the prices here, but the really weren't bad. Run & Run was equivalent to most other Chinese take outs not located on the edge of Walt Disney World.

I ordered the Kung Pao Shrimp lunch special. This consisted of the main dish, fried rice, and a canned soda. The shrimp were good sized in a sauce that was spicier than what many other Chinese restaurants serve in an equivalent dish. This was mixed with mushrooms, green peppers, carrots, baby corn, and peanuts. The shrimp was a little mushroom heavy for my liking, but was otherwise tasty. The fried rice was a bit plain, being basically rice mixed with scrambled egg. Not much else was going on in there. Overall, Run & Run was a pretty standard Chinese take out. Not the best I've had, but not the worst either. I might stop back here at some point if I'm looking for Chinese food near Disney in the future...

Captain Cook's Snack Company in Disney's Polynesian Resort

I visited with some relatives at the Polynesian Resort at Disney. While there, I decided to get a quick lunch from the hotel's main snack bar called Captain Cook's Snack Company. This quick-service restaurant mostly served sandwiches, salads, and flatbread pizzas alongside convenience store type items.

I ordered the Hawaiian Flatbread and a Dole Whip. The flatbread consisted of a rectangular pizza topped with tomato sauce, cheese, pineapple, ham, and red onions. The flatbread was good sized, slightly larger than I was expecting it to be with the corners hanging off the plate. It was tasty enough, especially since it was from a hotel snack bar. The pineapple didn't make everything else soggy on the pizza which is always a good thing on a Hawaiian pizza. My biggest complaint here was with the rectangular crust not being utilized. The corners of the flatbread were completely free of sauce, cheese, or any other toppings. Otherwise this was a good flatbread.

As for the Dole Whip, I don't quite understand those things. It's nothing more than pineapple flavored soft-serve ice cream. I've seen far too many Disney-centric food websites rave about the amazing qualities of Dole Whips. It's tasty ice cream, but nothing worth seeking out. If you do have a burning desire to seek out a Dole Whip though, at least get it inside the Magic Kingdom where you can get the Dole Whip Floats...

Siro: Urban Italian Kitchen in Lake Buena Vista, FL

Siro: Urban Italian Kitchen is a new restaurant that recently opened in the Orlando World Center Marriott. Siro uses fresh farm-to-fork ingredients, many of which come from local sources in the Central Florida area. Just before they opened to the public, I was invited to try Siro during their media preview dinner. I was excited to try some new Italian food!

The evening started with a tour of Siro's huge kitchen where Chef Anthony Burdo was introduced.

Back in Siro's dining room, we started to try a selection of the foods offered in the restaurant. I'm separating the food pictures below as they are described on Siro's menu.

Boards 

Siro had three different menu items called Boards. These included meat, cheese, pork roast almonds, and olives.  

The Americano: La Quercia prosciutto, tartufo, and capicola:

The Toscana: Finocchio, Pecorino Toscano, and Bresaola.

Pizza

Siro Sausage and Peppers: Topped with hot and sweet peppers. The sausage had nice flavor and the hot peppers caught me a little off guard because they were actually spicy. Spicy toppings on pizza is good.

Green, Eggs & Ham: Arugula, prosciutto, and sunny side up egg. The egg was from a local farm and there were greens on the pizza. Green eggs. Get it?

Antipasti

Ripe Tomatoes: Heirloom tomatoes, ricotta salata, basil, and mint. I love being served tomatoes that are other colors than the standard red.

Golden Beets: Served with pistachio and soft goat cheese. Beets are good. Yellow beets are better (for the same reason that colorful tomatoes are better)!

Eggplant Caponata: Eggplant, greens, and whipped ricotta served on bakehouse bread.

Arborio Fritters: Robiola, black garlic, and arrabiata sauce. Arborio is apparently a type of short grained rice. It must be obvious that I've never cooked risotto because I did not know this prior to this dinner. Nor did I know that black garlic was a thing. This dish was very educational for me...

 Crisp Baby Artichokes: With a yogurt mint dip.

Salads

Big Green Bowl: Local lettuces and greens, soft herbs, simple vinaigrette.

Meats

Burdo's Famous Veal Meatballs: In a pomodoro sauce.

Pork Belly: With pink lady apples. It seems like everyone loves pork belly. Perhaps I'm weird, but this part of the pig doesn't do it for me. This was one of the tastiest pork belly dishes that I've been served, but I still don't think I'd order it again. I think it's the consistency of thick cut pork belly more than anything that I don't care for. I'm guess I'm not a pork belly person...

 

Seafood

Tuna 2 Ways: Ahi over tomato. The tuna itself was shaved in very thin slices, but I didn't like the sauce. It was a bit too much like mayonnaise. Take a really nice, high quality tuna and put it with a sauce that is sort of like mayonnaise and our brains may play tricks on us giving flashes of tuna salad...

Daily Roast: This was a whole roasted market fish. I believe the fish of the night was snapper. The fish was nice and flaky.

Plates

The Burger: OWC bakehouse bun and handcut fries.

Braised Pork Shank: Served over white beans. Another pork dish from a more enjoyable part of the pig in my opinion. The meat was tender enough to easily fall off the bone.

Veal Saltimbocca: With garlic rapini.

Pasta

Cheese Tortellini: Butternut squash and sage brown butter. As simple as it was, this was one of my favorite dishes of the night. The large, cheese filled dumplings were topped with cubed squash and basil leaves.

Cocktails

I tried two drinks at Siro, both of which were non-alcoholic from the Refreshers section of the menu.

The Understudy: Fresh lemon, basil, simple syrup, and Fever Tree tonic water. This was like a lemonade that was a bit heavier with the tart lemon flavor as opposed to the sweeter flavors that are normally more prevalent in lemonades. I liked it!

Italian Soda: Blood orange, simple syrup, and club soda. This reminded me of a carbonated orange juice. Again, it wasn't overly sweet with a strong orange flavor.

Dessert

Cake Pops: These had a very intense, rich chocolate flavor. Almost bordering on the chocolate intensity of fudge.

Cannolis & Zeppole: Two classic Italian desserts. Everyone seems to love the custard filled cannolis and the sugar coated doughnuts that are zeppole.

And that concludes the food pictures from Siro: Urban Italian Kitchen. It is always refreshing when an Italian restaurant gets creative and does more than the stereotypical dishes like spaghetti & meatballs and lasagna. Siro definitely moved away from the boring Italian standards, which was a very good thing!