Review: Peacock Alley and Oscar's at Waldorf Astoria Orlando

Review: Peacock Alley and Oscar’s at Waldorf Astoria Orlando

I have got some gorgeous pics to share with you today (if I do say so myself)! Let’s head over to the beautiful new Waldorf Astoria Orlando resort (home of the Bull and Bear Steakhouse and my close encounter with very hot hot sauce, which I still have to tell you about!) smack dab in the middle of Walt Disney World property… Today, we’re not having steak. Nope — instead, we’re having small plates. LOTS of small plates! And dessert! Four of ’em! If you ask me, this is one of the best ways to eat: many different kinds of food all at once. 😉

Oscar's and Peacock Alley Menus

When we were at the Waldorf, our friends treated us to a selection from the menus of two dining locations: Oscar’s and Peacock Alley (you can see details and menus here). Oscar’s serves breakfast and lunch on the ground floor of the Waldorf (right by the pool if you’re interested in al fresco dining), and Peacock Alley is a beautiful lounge just off the lobby. (Trivia: the original Peacock Alley in New York’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel was named such for the [Read more…]

Dining in Disneyland: Valentine’s Day Treats

By Heather 3 Comments

We’re back with more Dining in Disneyland fun! It’s February and Disneyland is ready — a variety of fun Valentine’s Day treats can be found throughout the Anaheim Resort. We found these tasty treats at both the Candy Palace on Main Street and at Marceline’s in Downtown Disney.

Mickey & Minnie Cupcakes

More treats after the jump… [Read more…]

Disney Food for Families: 10 Tips for Dining with Teens at Walt Disney World

By Erin 11 Comments

A new post in our Disney Food for Families Column by Erin Foster:

In the early days of my family’s Disney travel, we routinely went to at least one character meal every day, sometimes two. On my twins’ sixth birthday, we even ate at three character meals in one day. My waistline is still trying to recover!

Bonding at the Food & Wine Festival

But now that my girls are older, the character meals hold somewhat less appeal for them. My daughter Charlie, now 14, even went through a phase where she was (Yikes!) “too cool” for characters. My challenge has become, “How do you keep the magic of Disney Dining alive without relying on the classic character meal?” In other words: How do you make Disney Dining fun for teens?

Idea #1: Make the vacation about the food.
I have been to Walt Disney World twice with just Charlie during the Epcot Food & Wine Festival. We spent a couple of days working our way around the World Showcase booths, trying to sample at least one or two things from each represented country. This sparked some interesting discussions about food taste, texture, and preparation styles. We had bonding moments over our mutual favorite: the beef with chimichurri sauce from Argentina stand. More please. And we shared [Read more…]

Review: Jiko…A Cooking Place

By AJ 27 Comments

Learn About:Jiko -- The Cooking Place

Animal Kingdom Lodge
Disney World Restaurants

Well, my food-loving friends, it’s finally time to talk about one of my very favorite restaurants in all of Walt Disney World. My husband and I spent our first Valentine’s Day at Jiko, and we’ve returned time and time again to enjoy consistently delicious meals.

Now, a few of you might be concerned that you won’t find anything on the menu that suits your taste in a restaurant that touts “African” food, but fear not; there really is something for everyone here.

Atmosphere

Jiko is located on Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge’s ground floor and features floor to ceiling windows that look out onto a beautiful and peaceful water feature. But the windows are probably the least interesting thing about this restaurant’s design, which was developed by Jeffrey Beers.

Walking into the restaurant you’ll pass a bar area to your left and see the Cape Town Wine Room directly in front of you. (Yep, that’s it behind the glass walls of wine!) Jiko serves exclusively [Read more…]

Disney Food Post Round-Up: January 30, 2011

By AJ 2 Comments

Hello, hello, Disney food lovers! It’s the end of January, and that means two things: 1. You’ll be getting your January Disney Food Blog Newsletter tomorrow, and 2. We’re now only eight months away from the 2011 Epcot Food and Wine Festival! OK…I know I’m a little too excited about that one, but we just booked our hotel, so I’m enthusing.

All righty — here’s the latest Disney Food News!

Epcot’s Via Napoli has introduced a build-your-own pizza feature! Now you can create exactly the pie you want!
Disney has hired an executive chef for the newest Disney Vacation Club Resort, Aulani, in Ko Olina, Hawaii! Details here…
Don’t forget to read up on our food coverage of the Disney Dream cruise ship! More to come…

And now… on to the round-up!

Kevin Kidney combines the release of his new Chicken of the Sea Pirate Ship replica (which I now need) with an incredible post describing the history and design of the actual Chicken of the Sea in Disneyland. A great read.

Daily Mail eats around WDW! (I’m itching to correct the zillion things that are wrong about that photo caption, though…)

Southern Plate highlights the recipe for 1900 Park Fare’s Strawberry Soup.

Eating (and Drinking) Around WDW reminds us to always tell your server when it’s your birthday…

Main Street Gazette checks out the new burgers (veggie and decidedly non-veggie) at Liberty Inn in Epcot!

Cupcakes Take the Cake highlights some of our favorite Marvel characters, cupcake-style.

Disney Parks Blog checks in from the Dream!

Disney Dream Dining: Cruise Line Room Service

By AJ 16 Comments

It’s Disney Dream room service time!! (Oddly, no Mickey Bars on the menu… or Dole Whip…). The wonderful Ms. Sarah Holodick did some serious taste-testing on her Dream cruise — here are her reviews… (By the way — here’s the full Disney Dream Room Service Menu!)

I ordered an assortment of items from Room Service to try, and I was told it would arrive in about 35 minutes. It ended up arriving in about 15-20, which was great.

Salads and Appetizers

All Hands On Deck — A special selection of international cheeses served with [Read more…]

Disney Dream Dining: Serenity Bay Eats

By AJ 15 Comments

Over on Disney’s Castaway Cay — a private Bahamian island reserved for use only by Disney cruise guests — there’s a little adults-only section called Serenity Bay. You have to take two trams to get there, but boy is it worth it!

Serenity Bay

Castaway Air Bar

Here you can rent floats and tubes for a lazy day in the crystal-blue waters of the bay, find a hammock for a mid-morning nap, or treat yourself to some Disney Cruise Line specialty drinks at eats at two locations.

Castaway Air Bar

First up — the Castaway Air Bar — a ramshackle building next to the [Read more…]

Disney Food Trends: Desserts + Fire

By AJ 9 Comments

Crepe Suzette at Bistro de Paris

I’ve been noticing some interesting trends at Disney area restaurants lately! I mentioned the gourmet Mac & Cheese trend a while back, but here’s an interesting one that has to do with dessert — flames!

Yep, that’s what I said. Fire. Right there at your table.

Flambeing is certainly nothing new, but to have it as a prevalent show at so many restaurants in the Disney area is pretty interesting. Here are some of the spots where we’ve seen it recently…

Bistro de Paris, Epcot
In the France pavilion of Disney World’s Epcot, Bistro de Paris offers high-end dining in a beautiful second-floor dining room. The view of [Read more…]

Disney Dream Dining: Animator’s Palate Review

By AJ 30 Comments

Let me say first — Animator’s Palate was one of my favorite Disney restaurants ever. Hands down.

This place was pure F-U-N! From the decor and themeing to the interaction with Crush the turtle from Finding Nemo, I had a blast — laughing throughout the evening and truly enjoying the meal. I can’t wait to tell you about it…

Atmosphere
Those of you who have cruised on the Disney Wonder and Disney Magic cruise ships will remember that Animator’s Palate slowly transforms throughout the evening from black and white to color. However, on the Dream and the Fantasy, there’s a slightly different model in [Read more…]

Review: New Downtown Disney Orlando AMC Theater Concession Stand

By Erin 21 Comments

Disney Food for Families columnist Erin Foster reports on the brand new concession stand in Orlando’s Downtown Disney AMC theaters!

Finding ourselves at Downtown Disney with time on our hands, my daughters and I decided to take in a film at the AMC theater there. I must confess that our secondary reason for this decision was the desire to see a film. The primary reason we decided to go there was to check out the AMC’s new concession situation.

Downtown Disney Orlando (c) Disney

I had read about the new snack set-up here on the Food Blog and we had a sneak peek at the incredible Coke Freestyle machine during a quick visit to the (gasp) Universal Studios counter service restaurant Richter’s Burgers, so we were excited to dive in.

Concession Stand Overhaul
The revamped food service concept at the AMC is different from anything I had previously encountered at a movie theater. Here you do not walk up to a counter, place your order, and have a clerk hand you items. Instead, [Read more…]

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