Disney Food Round-Up: January 24, 2010

Eat here

Welcome to a brand new week with a whole lot of Disney food news! Let’s recap of the news covered right here on the Disney Food Blog, just in case you missed it:

Pizzeria News: Suspected name and menus for the Epcot Italy Pizzeria
Epcot Construction Pics: Italy Pizzeria and Cantina de San Angel
Speculation: Disney’s Aulani restaurants and Saratoga Springs quick-service spot
Refurb and Re-opening: Disneyland Wine Country Trattoria and wine bar
Interview: D23 Expo and F&W Festival Official Artist, Tim Rogerson

Also, Disney food fans should check out the latest WDWToday Podcast — I got to sit in and talk about eating healthy in WDW!

WEEKLY ROUND-UP
Scott Joseph’s Orlando Restaurant Guide, restaurant critic extraordinaire, reviews San Angel Inn.

SamLand’s Disney Adventures visits the Tiki Room Lanai in Disneyland and shares his Dole Whip. Did you know the Tiki Room was envisioned by Walt as a dinner theater restaurant?

Daveland takes us to the Hollywood Brown Derby. (Amazing photos, yet again.)

Main Street Gazette takes us on Epcot’s World Showcase Wine Walk!

Duckman’s Blog shares a fantastic story about a custom cake at the Polynesian.

TouringPlans.com goes to Kouzzina! Opa!

AllEarsNet has an incredible report about a vegan meal at ‘Ohana. Chef TJ does it again!

All Things Cupcake spotted some great cupcakes at Disney World!

Only WDWorld shares a delicious look at Epcot’s Tangierine Cafe.

Orlando Sentinel’s Daily Disney shares a blast from the past with six recipes from Spoodles, and also asks Is Rainforest Cafe or T-Rex better for kids?

Speaking of Rainforest Cafe and T-Rex, WDW Central wonders if the entertainment justifies the expense.

Thanks again for all the great food posts! Looking forward to this week’s delicious Disney posts.

Disneyland Wine Bar Re-opens During Wine Country Trattoria Refurb

By AJ Leave a Comment

The OC Register is reporting that a long-closed wine bar in Disneyland has been reopened for a few months.

The bar is open while the Wine Country Trattoria restaurant is closed for refurbishments. Workers are expanding the seating area and kitchen, which is being renovated, said John McClintock, a Disneyland Resort spokesman.

The Trattoria will re-open in April or early May, and the renovations will provide more seating in the upper-level Vineyard Room area.

Robert Mondavi operated the Golden Vine Winery area during the first eight months of Disney’s California Adventure’s existence, but the wine maker pulled out of the restaurant and wine bars because of losses at the time.

Cheers!

Breakfast and a Good Read

By AJ 11 Comments

Jeff Kocan, who comments around here as JeffK, sent along this photo. I’m considering using it as a desktop screen. Or maybe I’ll make a calendar out of it.

Main Street Bakery Cinnamon Roll

To go along with this delicious breakfast, Jeff sent along a hilarious blog post titled “The Stars (?) From Disney’s All Star Music Resort.” As he says, it’s “poking a little gentle fun at the All-Star Music food court mural–my girlfriend and I laughed about that thing every morning during our December trip.”

It’s pretty funny, and it mentions Nigel Tufnel…and any mention of Nigel Tufnel within a Disney context worth a read, don’t you think?

Thanks, Jeff.

FriedDoughFunnelCakeElephantEar

By AJ 24 Comments

I’m honored to say that I got the chance to tape another WDWToday show yesterday (You can listen to it over on WDWToday.com)! The show is about healthy eating in Walt Disney World, but somehow we ended up talking about Funnel Cakes — and I quickly realized I’ve never mentioned Funnel Cakes here on the blog.

What’s a theme park food blog without a Funnel Cake post?!

Forgive me for the oversight, and let me appeal to you with a few photos.

Funnel Cake with Powdered Sugar

As you can see, funnel cakes are basically a bunch of sweet dough pushed through a funnel and fried into a funny shape in a whole bunch of oil. You can have them plain, covered in [Read more…]

Speculation: Disney’s Aulani Restaurants & New Saratoga Springs Quick-Service

By AJ 5 Comments

There are a few new, yet-to-be-named restaurants that we get to start speculating about. These include the two restaurants at Disney’s Aulani Resort and Spa in Hawai’i, and the new quick-service dining location scheduled to open with the upgraded Paddock Pool at Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort. All are set to open in 2011.

Aulani Restaurants
According to several articles posted about Disney’s new Aulani Resort and Spa in Ko Olina, Oahu, Hawai’i, the resort will have two restaurants. I haven’t found any [Read more…]

Epcot Italy Pizzeria: Naples 45 Menu

By AJ 21 Comments

New York's Naples 45

WDWNewsToday is reporting that the Epcot pizzeria currently under construction will be another Patina Restaurant Group “Naples 45 Ristorante e Pizzeria.” (See Construction Pics here.)

This is a chain restaurant with its original location in New York City (on 45th St., which is where the name “Naples 45” was born), and another location in Disneyland’s Downtown Disney.

Both the Disneyland and New York City locations are table-service, and the menu includes a wide variety of appetizers, soups and salads, fish and meat dishes, and pizzas. No word on whether the Disney World location will be table-service, counter-service, or both.

Here are the New York restaurant’s menus — no idea if they’ll be the same, but I bet they’ll translate at least some of these dishes to the WDW location:
Naples 45 Breakfast Menu (note — the World Showcase location means breakfast might not be served in the Disney World Naples 45)
Naples 45 Lunch Menu
Naples 45 Dinner Menu
Naples 45 Dessert Menu

New Cantina de San Angel Construction Pics: Mid-January 2010

By AJ 4 Comments

Construction is fully underway at Cantina de San Angel for its transformation into a brand new 400-seat, waterside restaurant that includes both table service and quick-service options. The restaurant, located across from the pyramid in Epcot’s Mexico pavilion, will go from 3,500 square feet to 12,000 square feet.

The Cantina is bundled up tightly and there’s very little to see, says Erin Foster, who was recently in Disney World and snapped some photos.

Fingers are crossed that the Cantina will be ready for action by the time the 2010 Epcot Food and Wine Festival rolls around!

Pictures are below: [Read more…]

Sci-Fi Dine-In

By AJ 19 Comments

I wanted to give you more construction pics for today, but DH said you’d prefer some food porn, so here we go! We’re headed to Disney’s Hollywood Studios and the Sci-Fi Dine-In! Sci-Fi Dine-in in Disney’s Hollywood Studios is a quintessential Disney experience. It’s imagineering and restauranteur-ing at its collaborative best: drive-in movies and good eats mixed together on a big ol’ sound stage in the middle of a theme park! The next time you bring someone new to Disney World and want to knock their socks off with something they’ve never seen before, book a reservation here. Atmosphere You’ll enter through what looks like a movie theater entrance, but find yourself here, in a soundstage-esque reservation area. The floors are concrete and you’re surrounded by [Read more…]

Pop Century’s Everything Pop Food Court

By AJ 28 Comments

There’s a brand new resort fan site for those of us who love Disney’s Pop Century Resort: PopCenturySite.com! We’re using a few of those photos today for a little review of one of my favorite food courts in Disney World: Everything Pop! But these photos aren’t even close to the end of the stash — check out the site’s image galleries for hundreds more photos, including dining pics with detailed menus.

Atmosphere
Pop Century’s Everything Pop food court is definitely worth a visit, even if you aren’t staying there — no kidding. The food is good, the decor is fun, and they have those groovy sit-down video game things. You know what I’m talking about, right? Here. These ones [Read more…]

New Epcot Italy Pizzeria Construction Pics: Mid-January 2010

By AJ Leave a Comment

As you know, the creators of Italy’s Tutto Italia, Patina Restaurant Group, are in the process of adding a pizzeria to the World Showcase pavilion. (See the proposed name and potential sample menus here.)

To date, thoughts are that the pizzeria might be an extension of Tutto, as there doesn’t seem to be much of an “entrance” to the pizzeria. Here are thoughts from Erin Foster, who was recently in WDW and sent back some photos:

The construction in Italy is very out in the open. The workers have full view of the guests and vice versa. I wonder why there is no giant privacy screen like usual. There are no signs indicating to guests what the construction will be. Also no immediately apparent means of accessing the construction from the park. Perhaps this will be through the lobby of Tutto Italia?

Possibly, the stone wall around the construction will be taken down once construction is completed; it all remains to be seen! The area set aside for the construction is much bigger than the original Italy restaurant, however, so I, for one, and hoping there’s a ride involved in the construction as well…

View From Front of Pavilion

[Read more…]

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