Guest Review: Disney World's Pollo Campero | the disney food blog

Guest Review: Disney World’s Pollo Campero

Thanks to Leigh Caldwell for putting together this great review of Pollo Campero, Disney World’s newest quick service restaurant, which opened in Downtown Disney this weekend. Leigh writes about Walt Disney World and theme parks in general on her site, ThemeParkMom.com, and for AOL’s travel blog, Gadling.com.

My daughter and I made a visit to the Festival of the Masters at Downtown Disney this weekend, and we had to stop in to try the new Pollo Campero restaurant for lunch.

Pollo Campero is a counter service restaurant, which shares space with two other eateries – Fresh A-Peel and Babycakes NYC. It’s part of a chain of chicken restaurants that serve up Latin flavors.

The new restaurants opened Nov. 12 at Downtown Disney, in the building formerly occupied by McDonald’s, in between T-Rex Cafe and the Lego store.

Atmosphere
At Pollo Campero and Fresh A-Peel guests order at the counter, get their food and proceed to a central bank of cash registers to pay, much like the Sunshine Seasons set-up. There was a long line when [Read more…]

Guest Review: Robert Irvine Demo at Epcot Food & Wine Festival

By AJ 9 Comments

The amazing Ms. Sarah Holodick is back to share some insights and pics of her recent encounters with two of TV’s most famous foodies — Robert Irvine, from Food Network’s Dinner: Impossible, and Andrew Zimmern, from Travel Channel’s Bizarre Foods! Don’tcha just wish you coulda been there? You can find the review of Andrew Zimmern’s demo here. Below is Sarah’s review of Robert Irvine’s demo!

Robert Irvine Demo: Sunday, October 24th, 2010

On Sunday, October 24th, Matt and I headed back over to the Festival Center to see Robert Irvine’s Culinary Demonstration. Let’s just say it’s not quite what I anticipated!

It started out much like Andrew Zimmern’s demo on the previous day, with a representative from Purple Wine Co. telling us about the Avalon Cabernet that had been paired with the dish we would be served.

Talking Wine

Robert then came in and took a look at everything around him.

Robert's Intro

And told us that he stole the hat from Gale Gand, who shortly after [Read more…]

Holiday Drinks at Disney’s Hollywood Studios

By AJ 10 Comments

Thanks to @RadioCarla and @StudiosCentral for sending pics of these festive favorites, now available at Disney’s Hollywood Studios!

They’re being served at High Octane Refreshments, and a cart is being brought in to sell them in the evenings by Sci-Fi Dine-In.

Disney's Hollywood Studios Holiday Drinks

Disney Food Post Round-Up: November 14, 2010

By AJ 1 Comment

Holiday and Winter Cookies

In Disney Food news this week:

The holidays have arrived in the Disney Parks
Vegan cupcakes arrive in Disney World’s Downtown Disney
Good coffee arrives outside the Epcot gates
24-Hour Restaurant Battle arrives in Orlando
New Restaurants are set to arrive in Disney California Adventure

Plus, sadly, today is the final day to enjoy the Epcot Food & Wine Festival of 2010. It’s been a great ride; be sure to check out all of our coverage here and let us know how we can do better next year! Have a drink for me! I’ll see you September 30, 2011!!

And now, on to the Round-Up!

Outside the Berm has a blast from the past: a 1942 menu from Walt Disney’s Studio Restaurant. One Monte Cristo sandwich fried in butter, please! (Thanks to George Taylor for the heads up!)

DF ’82 shows us around some of the dining establishments in Disneyland Resort Paris’ Hotel Cheyenne!

Pasture Prime Family Farm shows what the Epcot Food and Wine Festival looks like from the perspective of the food — their Mangalitsa Pork was the star of a demo done by bluezoo Chef Chris Windus!

Samland’s Disney Adventures has pics of some of my favorite Disneyland treats, along with the Halloween “Oogie Boogie” Roastie-Toastie at the Haunted Mansion popcorn cart!

etckt showcases a few more incredible photographs from his lunch around the World at the Epcot Food and Wine Festival.

Main Street Gazette has an incredible (and thorough) collection of photographs of the Italy travel posters that hang in the back of the new Via Napoli. Definitely worth a look!

Disney Everyday has the details on the Wine & Dine Walk at the Children’s Miracle Network Classic this weekend.

Everything Walt Disney World looks at Annual Passholder dining discounts vs. Tables in Wonderland discounts.

Babycakes Vegan Cupcakes Now Available in Orlando’s Downtown Disney

By AJ 11 Comments

This Fall Disneyland gets a cupcake stand, and so does Disney World!

Along with Pollo Campero and Fresh Apeel, Babycakes NYC Bakery opened up in the Downtown Disney Marketplace this week!

This bakery, featuring gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, soy-free, vegan, agave-sweetened, and kosher products (among others) is an ideal place to finish off a meal and a great place to cater to special diets. Check out the menu from the shop’s NYC location to get an idea of what they’ll be offering.

Thanks to @PlazaandMainSt for this pic from the new bakery: a chocolate cupcake top: $2

Chocolate Cupcake Top

Guest Review: New Dishes at Epcot Food & Wine Festival

By AJ 4 Comments

Thanks to Disney Food Blog reader Galloping Gourmand for relaying his reviews of a few brand new dishes featured in this year’s Epcot Food and Wine Festival! You can find his reviews of several seafood dishes here!Heirloom Tomatoes with Oregon Blue Cheese, Red Onions, and Basil

Found at this year’s United States Booth, there is not a lot I can say about this dish — I am practically predestined to like it. Nothing brings me more joy than shopping my local farmer’s market for some heirloom tomatoes. I love to mix and match them in a good gazpacho, put them in a sauce, use a few different ones in a salad. This was a [Read more…]

My Photo Shoot With Tigger

By AJ 2 Comments

One thing I love about Disneyland character meals is that they always have such a variety of characters present! In WDW, you often have a set cast of characters who are all associated with one another in some way — the fab five, the 100 Acre Wood characters, princesses, etc… . But in Disneyland, many of the character meals are haphazard in a fantastic way! Captain Hook is hob-nobbing with the Fairy Godmother; Minnie’s hanging out with Rabbit; Baloo is leading a dance party with Aladdin — it’s so much fun!

Also, because Disneyland table-service restaurants aren’t quite as packed as Disney World’s (you can get a reservation for most of them a week ahead of time) you can often spend a good amount of time with the characters themselves!

For example, at a recent visit to the Minnie and Friends Breakfast at the Plaza Inn in Disneyland, Tigger and I had plenty of time to get to hang out and goof off!

Plaza Inn -- Disneyland

First, I got to watch him dance with a new friend…

Then he showed off [Read more…]

Guest Review: 15 Beers for 15 Years Kiosk at Epcot Food & Wine Festival

By AJ 9 Comments

Please welcome Charles Bockway of CraftBeerRestaurant.com as he uses years of expertise in brew to review some of this year’s beer selections from the Epcot Food & Wine Festival.

15 Beers for 15 Years Booth

15 Beers and the winner is…
Because I’m sort of a beer geek and craft beer advocate, I’m visiting the Epcot International Food and Wine Festival to take a close look at the beer landscape. I found the 15 Beers for 15 Years kiosk in World Showcase to be a nice addition at this year’s festival. That’s one beer for each of the festival’s 15-year history. Sounded like it might be fun to select the best beer of the 15.

Overall Beer Menu -- click for larger version

Criteria and Round 1
To get started, I devised a selection criteria: [Read more…]

The Beaches and Cream “Kitchen Sink Kit”

By AJ 26 Comments

Update: Beaches and Cream is no longer serving the Kitchen Sink sundae unassembled.

Many Disney food fans know about the Beaches and Cream “Kitchen Sink Sundae” — a monstrous dessert filled with multiple scoops of ice cream, Oreo cookies, candy bars, cake, bananas, cherries, brownies, all of the toppings in the house, and an entire can of whipped cream — at Disney’s Beach Club Resort.

Kitchen Sink Sundae at Beaches and Cream

It’s clearly meant to be shared by multiple eaters, and while the Sink is served with dishes for each individual guest, a major complaint about the dessert is [Read more…]

Guest Review: Andrew Zimmern Demo at Epcot Food & Wine Festival

By AJ 5 Comments

The amazing Ms. Sarah Holodick is back to share some insights and pics of her recent encounters with two of TV’s most famous foodies — Robert Irvine and Andrew Zimmern! Don’tcha just wish you coulda been there? Stay tuned for the review of Robert Irvine’s demo. Below is the review of Andrew Zimmern’s demo.

Andrew Zimmern Demo: Saturday, October 23, 2010

On Saturday, October 23rd, Matt and I had the opportunity to see Andrew Zimmern’s Culinary Demonstration at the Festival Center of the Epcot Food and Wine Festival. We had seen him at last year’s demonstration and book signing, and he did not disappoint! He is a sincerely personable individual, and his stories are not only entertaining — you truly learn from him. It’s entertaining to watch him cook (as opposed to eating grubs and durian)!

Andrew Zimmern

What stood out to me not only last year, but this year as well, was the slight fear among guests that he would prepare bugs or the like for us. Andrew has literally been typecast as “the guy who eats all that weird stuff on TV.” While this is true of what he often does on his show, he does in fact realize that most Americans probably [Read more…]

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