Disney Food Trends: Gourmet Mac and Cheese

Even Chef Mickey is in on the trend...

I’ve been noticing a few food trends while traipsing through Disney parks, and I think they’re important to mention — especially since they seem to be popping up on every menu re-vamp out there.

First, we gotta take a gander at good old macaroni and cheese. When I asked Disney World’s Sanaa Chef Bob Getchell about the gourmet mac and cheese trend that seems to be taking over Disney restaurants, he mentioned that chefs like to make food they themselves love; many have fond memories of mac and cheese while they were growing up, and they want to create new and improved contemporary recipes for the dish. Here are a few of our favorite versions on and around Disney property:

Yachtsman Steakhouse
Yacht Club Resort’s Yachtsman Steakhouse gets a nod due to a relatively new mac and cheese dish I found on the menu in October. Their truffle mac and cheese uses huge orecchiette noodles and Reypenaer cheese with a touch of truffle oil and a topping of crunchy onions. It’s served in a cast iron baking dish that lends a rustic look — very fun! The best part — it tastes amazing. Rich, tangy, creamy sauce nestles into those pasta pieces and serves as the perfect accompaniment to the meal. This is sold as a side dish only, so be sure to look for it at the bottom of the menu.

Yachtsman Steakhouse Mac and Cheese Side Dish

Le Cellier
Not to be outdone, Epcot’s Le Cellier Steakhouse has also introduced some mac and cheese on the menu. Served in a cast iron skillet, elbow macaroni is [Read more…]

Victoria and Albert’s Time Lapse Video

By AJ 10 Comments

Erin Foster, Disney Food Blog’s Disney Food for Families columnist and Disney World Moms Panelist, put together this v. cool time lapse video of her dinner at Victoria and Albert’s last week! She set the camera to take one photo every 2 ~~minutes~~ seconds. Check it out!

Don’t worry — we’ll have more pics of the dinner soon (in fact, we have 2 V&A posts coming up soon)! Just wanted to give you a “taste!”

Disney Food Post Round-Up: January 2, 2010

By AJ 1 Comment

Via Napoli Pizza Window

Happy New Year! The first Disney Food Post Round-Up of 2011 is here! But first — two important bits of news:

The 2010 DFB Choice Award Winners have been announced! Thanks to all who participated!
The Via Napoli pizza take-out window is open in Epcot — but will it stay open? Here’s our guest review!

And now, on to the round-up!

WDW for Grownups has a piece about late night eating in Disney World.

Laughing Place reviews Tokyo Disneyland’s Club 33.

Main Street Gazette, in one of my favorite posts ever, reminds us of Disney’s former partnership with McDonald’s with a series of photos of old Happy Meal Epcot World Showcase toys!

Yesterland looks at Chicken of the Sea Pirate Ship and Restaurant in Disneyland.

Everything WDW has updated info on using adult and child counter service credits from the Disney Dining Plan.

Cooking With Mickey shows us how to make Chef Mickey’s Breakfast Pizza!

“Be the Champagne” at Pink on the Disney Dream!

By AJ 8 Comments

Happy New Year! To celebrate, let’s toast with a little champagne… Don’t worry — it’s not real champagne — I’m talking about Pink, a new lounge on the Disney Dream Cruise Ship!

Partially Furnished Pink on the Disney Dream Cruise Ship

The best part? The place was created to remind you of champagne — the ultimate consumable luxury! With back-lit glass bubbles on the walls and champagne colored fabrics, the theme seems [Read more…]

Guest Review: Via Napoli Pizza Window

By AJ 13 Comments

Cody Smith is back with an awesome review of the Via Napoli Pizza Window! (Yep — he went TODAY — when it’s CROWDED!) Huge thanks to you, Cody! (Cody’s a Cast Member at the moment, but you can also find him over at GDPinvestigation).

Via Napoli Pizza Window

Originally excited for the newly-tested pizza window at Via Napoli, I was expecting a great success like I found the restaurant was. So I quickly headed over to the Italy pavilion at Epcot to see what this pizza window offered.

Getting into the Italy pavilion, you can see the line, which was fairly long, but moved rather quickly. The window is to the left of the entrance and check-in area; the ordering [Read more…]

2010 DFB Choice Award Winners

By AJ 21 Comments

Around here, we believe there’s no better restaurant recommendation than the one we get from another Disney fan. So, in our quest to provide the very best information about Disney restaurants, we’ve created the DFB Choice Awards!

Over 500 readers sent in their nominations, and thousands have voted for the top nominees to create this list of [Read more…]

Disney Food for Families: Coping With Fears

By Erin 16 Comments

Kids can be caught off guard by some of the themed elements at Disney restaurants. Erin Foster’s next Disney Food for Families column describes what restaurants might pose a problem and how to cope.

Wooly Mammoth

When my daughter Louisa was four years old, she was already a veteran of several Disney trips. These trips included at least a dozen character meals, dinner at the raucous Whispering Canyon Cafe, and even the foot-stomping Hoop Dee Doo Revue.

She handled all these experiences with kiddie aplomb, so it never occurred to me that we would ever have any problems at Disney restaurants. I was shocked when we got to the Animal Kingdom’s Rainforest Cafe and mid-appetizer, Louisa had a full-on, quivering-lip meltdown.

As it turns out, we had been seated directly next to the life-sized, chest-thumping, screeching, audio-animatronic gorilla. In her preschooler mind’s eye, that gorilla was inches away and effectively alive. She was terrified. My husband ended up getting his meal and hers packed to go; they left the rest of the family and went back to finish eating in the hotel room.

I later learned that, of course, she had company in experiencing sensory overload at the Rainforest Cafe and that there are several other WDW restaurants that have the potential to unsettle [Read more…]

Guest Review: Disney World’s Paradiso 37

By AJ 19 Comments

Guest reviewer Bill Iadonisi is back with another great review! This time, Bill takes us to a relatively new Downtown Disney eatery — Paradiso 37. Take it away, Bill!

Hello again Disney food lovers. Before I begin I must offer an apology. I had promised to first review all of the Disney counter-service restaurants for the Food Blog. But as you can see, I had to deviate a bit from my plans for this review. Circumstances brought me to Downtown Disney, and we decided on Paradiso 37 for dinner, hence this review! But I will be [Read more…]

Tables in Wonderland January Event

By AJ 7 Comments

A new Tables in Wonderland event at The Wave has been announced for January 20th. This is for Tables in Wonderland Members and guests only.

Click for Larger Size

Tables in Wonderland Presents:
The Wave… of American Flavors Discovery Dinner
Date: Thursday, January 20, 2011
Time: 6:30 p.m. Reception; 7 p.m. Dinner
Location: The Wave… of American Flavors at Disney’s Contemporary Resort. Please meet at restaurant’s main podium
Dress: Casual Evening Attire
Price: $92 per person, includes tax and gratuity

For reservations, e-mail [email protected] with the following information: your interest to book, your name, daytime phone number, home address, and the number of people in your party. You will be notified on a “first-come, first-served” basis. Your credit card will be taken over the phone once your reservation is confirmed. The event is limited to 50 Guests.

Guest Review: Spirit of Aloha Luau Dinner Show

By AJ 18 Comments

Thanks to Jo at Magical Kingdoms for putting together this review of the Spirit of Aloha Dinner Show at Disney World’s Polynesian Resort!

Having experienced the Spirit of Aloha Dinner Show at Disney’s Polynesian Resort on our honeymoon trip a few years back, when we got the free Disney dining plan for our October/November trip, we knew that we had to revisit. The dinner show takes 2 table service credits, so we skipped a TS dinner one day, which really wasn’t a [Read more…]

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