Guest Review: The Pinocchio Village Haus

Let’s welcome back guest reviewer Bill Iadonisi with another insightful and delicious Disney World restaurant review! Bill travels to the Magic Kingdom’s The Pinocchio Village Haus this week, so let’s tag along. Take it away, Bill!

Learn About:Pinocchio Village Haus

Magic Kingdom
Disney World Restaurants

Hello again Food Blog readers! We are back on track reviewing Disney’s amazing array of Counter-service restaurants. This week we mosey over to the Magic Kingdom again, Fantasyland to be exact, and explore another of my favorite watering holes, The Pinocchio Village Haus.

This eatery, like everything else in Disney, is richly themed and has a very interesting back story. So before I begin to explore the cuisine, I would like to acquaint all with this interesting story:

Atmosphere and Story
As all fans know, Pinocchio is the tale of a puppet that comes to life and becomes a real boy when he proves himself truthful, brave and able to tell right from wrong. This story is set in Italy. In fact the name “Pinocchio” in Italian means “Pine Eyes.”

Pinocchio's Village Haus

But the Pinocchio Village Haus has more of a German motif than Italian; even the word “Haus” is German. Why? You can blame Disney chief Illustrator Gustaf Tenggren, who after being hired by Disney in 1936 was given the task of imparting an “Old World” look to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

This influence rolled over into the film Pinocchio, where Old World German architecture won out over [Read more…]

St. Patrick’s Day Events and Menus in Disney World and Disneyland

By Kim LaPaglia 4 Comments

We certainly don’t need a reason to celebrate (with beer!) while visiting a Disney park, however we’re really excited about the extra Irish-inspired fun that Disney is dishing up for St. Patrick’s Day. Below, we detail events and special menu items throughout Disney World and Disneyland!

Raglan Road, WDW Downtown Disney
Raglan Road opens their doors at 11:00AM on St. Paddy’s Day for a full day of festivities! The fun begins at Noon with musicians, dancers and face painting. While savoring the traditional Shepherd’s Pie, look for the house band, Creel! In the evening, toast your Irish friends and watch eLevation as they perform your favorite U2 songs. There is a $10 cover charge.

Raglan Road

Earlier in the week, Raglan Road is celebrating with a few more events! This Sunday, attend their first ever traditional Irish Ceili (pronounced kay-lee) and join in the Irish dancing! As Lorraine from Raglan Road says, “We’re pushing the furniture back and letting everyone join in!” Sounds like fun! Click the image for [Read more…]

Disney Food for Families: A Parent’s Dilemma — Multi-Line Quick Service

By Erin 33 Comments

Disney Food for Families columnist Erin Foster ponders how to avoid lost kids and cold food at the multi-line quick service locations like Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Cafe and Sunshine Seasons.

While I am obviously a fan of Disney dining in general, there is one particular aspect of eating at Walt Disney World that, as a parent, I find maddening: the multi-line quick service restaurant.

For those of you new to eating at WDW, some of the quick service (otherwise known as counter service) restaurants are set up with one order/payment line for all types of food items served there. The out-of-Disney-World analogy to this would be McDonald’s or similar fast food restaurants where you walk up to the cashier and tell him you want a burger, your husband wants chicken, and your daughter wants a salad. You pay and they give you all your food on one tray. Makes sense, right?

Epcot's Electric Umbrella. Single-line quick service. Many foods, one place to order.

However, many quick service restaurants on Disney property do not follow this model. Instead of one place to order all the items sold at that location, there are multiple lines. One line to order burgers, one line to order chicken, one line to order salads, and so on. The out-of-Disney-World analogy to this is the mall food court.

Multi-line, food-court-style, quick service restaurant.

So, Here’s the Problem

The multi-line quick service restaurant became my personal pet peeve way back in 1998, during our first trip to WDW with our oldest daughter, who was not quite two years old at the time. We were staying at [Read more…]

Dining in Disneyland: Mother’s Day Royal Buffet Reservations Now Open

By Heather 1 Comment

Disneyland Hotel

Want to give mom the royal treatment this year? Reserve your family a spot at Disneyland’s Mother’s Day Royal Buffet!

Held in the Disneyland Hotel’s Grand Ballroom (check out what it looks like here), this amazing event takes place on Sunday May 8th between the hours of 10:00am and 3:00pm, with the last reservation being accepted at 2:45pm.

Dine in a beautifully decorated ballroom accompanied by all of your favorite Disney Princesses and live music. Reservations can be made up to 60 days in advance, which means today’s the day to call and get your family’s spot. Reservations fill up fast, so if you’re interested, contact Disney Dining at 714.781.DINE (3463).

Pricing is $20.99 for children ages 3-9 and $71.99 for ages 10 & up. Annual Passholders get [Read more…]

Best Disney Sandwiches

By AJ 28 Comments

We asked over on the Disney Food Blog Facebook Page for folks to tell us about their favorite sandwiches in a Disney park or resort. We didn’t specify anything — just that it had to be a “sandwich” of some kind. Here’s what we heard back!

Monte Cristo

The biggest shout-outs went to Columbia Harbour House in Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, Blue Bayou/Cafe Orleans in Disneyland Resort, and not surprisingly, Earl of Sandwich in Disney World’s Disney Springs.

[Read more…]

Analysis of Le Cellier’s New Dinner Menu (What Should I Order?)

By AJ 40 Comments

The time has come. As we reported last August, Le Cellier is now a 2-credit, signature dining location for dinner.

And we finally have the menu! Now we can find out what we’re eating when we spend 2 Disney Dining Plan credits at Epcot’s Le Cellier Steakhouse at dinner time (lunch is still 1 credit)!

The veggie entree sounds great. But what are pea tendrils? I’ve posted the full menu at the bottom of this post, but first, let’s analyze what’s different…

Menu Analysis: What’s New and What’s Staying?

Appetizers

have almost completely changed out. Remaining are the cheddar cheese soup (now priced at $9 versus the previous $6.99) and the Spicy Chicken and Chipotle Sausage with roasted corn polenta and sweet onion jam (now called “artisan” spicy chicken and chipotle sausage with roasted corn polenta and sweet onion jam, and priced at $12 instead of $9.99…that’s one pricey “artisan”).

Cheddar Cheese Soup

The steakhouse caesar salad is still around, but this time it costs $9 instead of $6.99, and it has pretzel croutons versus the sourdough croutons it sported in the past.

I’m LOVING the addition of the artisinal cheese plate, of course. And there’s honeycomb, which means I’m happy as a clam.

Entrees: The basics have stayed the same. The New York Strip is still there, but now costs $42 instead of $34.99; the salmon is now Pacific King Salmon instead of [Read more…]

Disney Food Post Round-Up: March 6, 2011

By AJ 4 Comments

Wow. It’s been an amazing week here at the Disney Food Blog. We are so grateful to hear your excitement over our upcoming E-book, The DFB Guide to Walt Disney World Dining and can’t wait to give you even more details soon!

This week in Disney Food news:

Free Dining pin codes have started popping up in emails…
We outlined foodie events at the 2011 Epcot Flower and Garden Festival.
Congrats go out to Walt Disney Parks and Resorts for being recognized for their commitment to special diets, including food allergies.

Now, on to the round-up!

Walt Disney World For Grownups tantalizes our taste buds with a review of Tutto Italia.

Cake Wrecks shows us princess-inspired cakes. Love the carriage!

Sweet Tooth shows us how to make Mickey cupcakes. Tell the kids about your next trip by serving these sweet desserts!

Main Street Gazette heads to one of my favorite restaurants — Chefs de France. YUM! Also, check out the Roundtable this week (I’m in it!)

A GreatFull Day features paintings by Lorelay Bove, a Disney artist who’s worked on Disney Fine Art features as well as Princess and the Frog. Here, a couple of her items feature food!

Touring Plans wonders if the 2011 WDW Disney Dining Plan is still a good deal.

Eating (and Drinking) Around WDW celebrates National Margarita Day in Walt Disney World.

Studios Central‘s Darkroom theme this week was “restaurant!” Check out the pics 🙂

Disney Parks Blog encourages guests to put on milk moustaches with a PB&J milkshake!

Answers to Your Questions About “The DFB Guide to Walt Disney World Dining” e-Book

By AJ 10 Comments

I was thrilled by the great response to the announcement that The DFB Guide to Walt Disney World Dining e-Book is coming soon! There were lots of great ideas and suggestions, and we’re working overtime to make sure we can incorporate as many of them as possible into the e-Book!

As promised in Wednesday’s post, I’d like to take a moment to answer your questions and give a bit more information about about the upcoming guide:

How will The DFB Guide to Walt Disney World Dining e-Book be different from what I read in the Disney Food Blog every day?

As we like to say, a blog is never “finished.” The Disney Food Blog has been designed to cover an impressive amount of resource and reference information as well as Disney dining news and photo-filled reviews of every Disney restaurant. It will continue to grow daily, offering expansive information about everything that has to do with Disney dining.

But when you’re planning a Walt Disney World visit and need expert advice and insider tips, you don’t always want to read dining news and information about the other Disney parks around the world. We wrote The DFB Guide to Walt Disney World Dining e-Book as an organized manual that covers everything you need to know about planning your dining and maximizing your experience when you’re in Walt Disney World. The book focuses on start-to-finish planning and execution as well as plenty of little details for how to make your WDW dining experience as stress-free as possible and full of incredible memories.

I’m planning my first trip to Walt Disney World. Will this e-Book help?

Absolutely. The e-Book includes a 5-step guide for planning your dining in Walt Disney World, which will have you squared away in no time. Our goal with this section of the e-Book is to make your dining arrangements easy and stress-free!

I’ve been to Walt Disney World a lot. Why should I buy this?

There’s advice included in the e-Book that we haven’t seen published anywhere else. Plus, we’ve included sample dining itineraries, in-depth information about special events — like the Epcot International Food and Wine Festival — from a food-lover’s perspective, and hard-won details and advice for how to create even more memorable dining experiences in Walt Disney World. I’ve learned a lot while writing it, and I thought I knew everything there was to know! I’m sure that even Disney World veterans will find plenty inside to get their money’s worth.

Will you cover information about Walt Disney World dining with special diets, details about bars and lounges, dining with kids in WDW, and other in-depth topics?

The e-Book has extensive information on all of these topics and more! We even include [Read more…]

2011 Disney World Free Dining Pin Code Offers for Summer Dates Being Received

By AJ 24 Comments

UPDATE 4-28-2011: Disney World Free Dining in August and September has been announced for Disney Visa cardholders. The General Public will be allowed to book this deal on May 2nd, 2011.

UPDATE: Just heard from a reader on the facebook page that codes are also being distributed for Fall dates.

Thanks to Erin Foster for the update that select guests (who have given DisneyWorld.com their email address for special offers) are receiving the chance to book free dining for arrivals most nights from 4/23–8/13/11 via email with a special one-time-use pin code.

Deluxe and Villa resort packages are being offered with the Standard Disney Dining Plan for free; Value and Moderate resort packages are being offered the Quick-Service Disney Dining Plan for free.

Guests must book by 4/30/11, and must use the pin code included in the email. Hopefully this will develop into a general public offer. We’ll keep you updated.

Dining in Disneyland: How They Make World of Color Caramel Apples

By Heather 12 Comments

Dining in Disneyland columnist, Heather Sievers, walks us through what goes into making one of those beautiful World of Color caramel apples in Disneyland! Oh, and she samples one on our behalf as well 😉

If you read my posts regularly, you know I am a sucker for Marceline’s in Downtown Disney. That giant candy kitchen window is my favorite thing to check when I go to the parks. You never know what they will be making. I’ve seen everything from cupcakes to chocolate dipped strawberries, and just about every type of Disney caramel apple they make. Yet, I had never seen them making the World of Color apples until just this past week. And, until I did, I had no idea what an art form making one of these little beauties was.

Perhaps the Most Beautiful Treat on Earth!

The first thing I noticed was that there is a “full-time” marshmallow cutter. Disneyland uses large, Kraft Jet Puffed Marshmallows for the ears on all of their [Read more…]

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