Tink Tested: Grand Floridian Cafe

Location: First floor, off of the rear of the main lobby of the Grand Floridian

Parking/Transportation Situation: General Resort Parking across the street, or Valet Parking available. Monorail service from The Magic Kingdom, The Contemporary, The Polynesian and The Transportation and Ticket Center. (If using Monorail Service, allow approximately 30 minutes transportation time, depending on where you're coming from.) Boat service from The Magic Kingdom or the Polynesian. (If using Boat Service, allow 30-45 minutes transportation time.) Bus service from The Studios, Animal Kingdom and Downtown Disney.(If using Disney Bus Transportation, allow 1-1.5 hours transportation time.)

Meals Served: B, L, D

Characters/Entertainment: None

Type of Cuisine: American, highlighting Floridian fare

Type of Menu: A la carte

Pricing/Dining Plan: $/ 1 Table Service Point Per Person
Full Menu: Grand Floridian Cafe Lunch Menu

Atmosphere: Bright, trellised cafe

Dress Code: Theme park casual

Guests Who Would Enjoy This The Most: Couples, those that enjoy a more classy, refined atmosphere, without the stuffiness or the formal attire.

Level of Difficulty of Getting a Reservation: Easy

Fun Stuff for Kids: Coloring pages only.
Rating of Appeal to Kid-Diners: Are we done yet???

Stand out dishes: Caramelized Onion Soup Gratinee, Café Sandwich, Surf and Turf Burger, Dessert Sampler
Best Use of Dining Plan Point: NY Strip, any dessert

Experience: I sort of went into this one challenging the restaurant to make me a convert. The hubs and I ate here once a few years back and did NOT had a positive experience. We happened to have a not-so-great server last time, (which can happened anywhere really), but also, the food was not ordered correctly. Overall, it had left me with a bad taste in my mouth about the Grand Café. So mentally, when I entered the restaurant, I said, "Bring it, Grand Café!" Could they change my mind?
     We booked the reservation for 2:30pm earlier that day, with no problem. Since The Grand is host to several stellar restaurants, The Café tends to get the least love, making it pretty easy to get into, especially at lunch. For today's meal, the four of us were joined by our friend, KC. She's a huge Disney fan, but has not has a chance to eat at a lot of the restaurants on property, since when she does eat on property, she always tends to return to her favorites. The hubs and I decided it was our mission to broaden her Disney Dining horizons, ("If we can dream it, then we can do it, yes we can, yes we can!!!"  Anyone? Any Horizons fans out there?).
     We got there just before 2pm, so we checked in very early, but were still sat within about ten minutes. The bright, airy café was fairly busy, with a couple of empty tables here and there. We were sat at a half booth-half table and were promptly greeted by a fabulous server. My eyes immediately went to the French Onion Soup, since it's the only soup I ever really crave. My husband has the same affection for it, so he ordered one, as well. As per the norm, the chef made his way to our table within ten minutes of being requested, to answer questions about what items we needed to avoid with K's egg allergy. The chef took extra care to review the ingredients of not only the entrée we selected for K, (pizza), but also of the other items we had ordered, so we knew what could be shared and what could not for when K starts screaming like a banshee, "Some! Some!" 
     We did notice that the location was a little on the loud side, and voices seemed to be bouncing off the ceiling and right back down at us, but that may have just been where we were sitting. Since we are FAR from quiet ourselves, it didn't really bother us, other than the fact that we had to ask the server to repeat herself several times. 

     Within ten minutes of ordering, the hubs and I got out onion soup delivered. It looked, and smelled, amazing! When D saw the bubbly, melted cheese, I knew we would be sharing. I gotta say, kids, this was some of the best French onion soup I have ever had. EVER. And I have had French onion soup in France. Real France. Not Epcot. It was not too salty, not too sweet and had a rich, flavorful punch to it. All of us agreed that it would be worth coming back here sometime for the soup alone! 
     Entrees were out about 15 minutes after we finished our soup. K was psyched to have "peeza", and it looked tasty, though a bit on the small side, even for a kid's meal. When I saw my plate, I freaked out. OMG.... they have STEAK FRIES!!!! I LOVE STEAK FRIES!!! (I know, very sophisticated palate that I have.) Maybe I was a bit over excited, but come on. Steak fries and like, the BEST fries known to man. My husband was equally excited. What can I say? We were made for each other. (And by "we", I mean myself and the fries. And my husband.) I got one of the cafe's signature dishes, The Surf and Turf Burger. The burger was topped with butter poached lobster, red onion marmalade, and arugula, all on a brioche bun. It is typically served with chips, but I had asked to substitute fries, which we have already established, I was VERY happy that I did. Because I wasn't sure about the onion marmalade, I asked for it to be served on the side. One taste, however, and I realized that it was a heavenly sweet onion spread and I added it to my burger. Over all, the burger was delicious! It was cooked perfectly and was full of flavor. I will confess, I was not as impressed with the lobster as I had hoped to be. As an original Bostonian, I am a crustacean snob. I'm used to high quality and I like it straight up steamed. Period. Though this seemed to be quality lobster meat, the butter-poached preparation made it a strange texture to me. I still gladly ate it on the burger, as overall, the sandwich was fantastic, but I don't think the lobster was the reason I loved the burger. For me, the onion marmalade was the true star here. Of course, my steak fries were amazeballs. When I managed to take a breath from gobbling up my lunch, I looked over at D. She was enjoying her kid's salmon and steak fries, and working super hard to avoid eye contact with the peas and carrots. I assured her that she only had to eat two bites of veggies in order to get dessert. She made her peace with the carrots and ate two bites right away, to secure dessert being in her future.
     The hubs was also enjoying a bit of food paradise. He had ordered the Café Sandwich, which was an open-faced hot ham, fresh roasted turkey, bacon, tomato and fried onion straw sandwich, which came with a gravy boat full of a cream Boursin cheese sauce. He was loving the sandwich, but even more so, he was loving dipping his amazing steak fries into that rich, melty cheese sauce. He let me try it too. Bliss.
     KC had chosen the Rustic Chicken Sandwich. It came with garlic aioli, balsamic onions, spinach and fennel salad and applewood smoked bacon. It looked delicious and she was loving it. I was pleased that we had not been steering her wrong by making her try a new place. She was seeing the light that is Disney Dining. Can I get an amen, Disney Dining fans?

     We didn't speak much during lunch. We were all too wrapped up in our meals. That's always a good sign. Once we finished, we decided that for the sake of you, dear Tinkers, we would try and shove some dessert down. D got the kid's worms and dirt pudding dessert, which she pretty much only ate the gummy worms from, since she was full. The chef brought some pineapple sorbet and gummy worms for K, so he was giddy.

     As for KC, myself and the hubs, we shared the dessert sampler, which consisted of small portions of four tempting desserts: Wild Strawberry Cheesecake, Fresh Berry Tart, Chocolate Timbale and Mocha Pot de Creme, (plus a solid milk chocolate Mickey). Per K's demand, we quickly got a knife and beheaded the confectionery mouse, so that my toddler could gnaw on his head. KC had the cheesecake and she enjoyed it very much. The berry tart was a light almond cake. It had a nice flavor and was topped with blueberries and raspberries. The Chocolate Timbale was basically a chocolate mousses cake and it was good, though not the best I have had at Disney. The Pot de Creme, on the other hand....heavenly! Rich, silky cream with just the right amount of coffee flavor. So good, in fact, that I refused to share, and The Hubs ordered himself one. Interestingly enough, here at the Grand Cafe, several of the desserts are served in the "mini" portion only. I kind of liked it though, because as someone who almost NEVER turns down dessert, it'd be nice to have a  taste of something without always filling myself silly. Hear that, Disney restaurants??? I would like all locations to offer mini desserts, please. Hop to it! (At some point, they'll realize that I have good ideas, I swear.) 
     We wrapped up lunch, paid the bill, and bid farewell to the Grand Cafe. We were all very pleased with our lunches, and were feeling like a dose of magic could do us some good, so we hopped a monorail and went into the Magic Kingdom for a couple of hours. We watched the Festival of Fantasy Parade in direct sun, with no sunscreen, and not really dressed in what we would normally do wearing into a park. We didn't have K's stroller, so I carried all 30 pounds of him. By the time Mickey and Minnie rolled on by in their hot air balloon at the end of the parade, I thought I was gonna pass out. "Popping in to the parks" was so much easier when we were younger, and kid-less. Sure, it's even more fun now, but we learned our lesson. We can't go in without a stroller, appropriate shoes and clothing, a backpack full of diapers, wipes, medications, toys and snacks, a plan, plenty of rest.....uh. I'll just stick to the restaurants. (Well, ok, not really.)

Tink's Tots Try It Out: According to D (6 yo girl) Hey, D. What did you think about the Grand Floridian Cafe?   "It was fantastic. Wait, which place was that?"   The one where KD came with us.   "Oh, yeah. Fantastic."   Care to elaborate?   "Well, I liked the rode on the table. The was pretty and looked nice. And I had salmon, so that was good."   Yes, you have quite the sophisticated palate.   (scowling) "What's sa-fiss-i-cated?"  Don't worry, it's not a bad thing. It means you like to try different things, the way most grown ups do.   (holding up her pinkies and dancing around) "Oh, yes, I'm fahn-cy!"   Get outta here, kid. We gotta get you into drama class.   (scowling again) "What does THAT mean?"   Oh, man. The teenage years are gonna be ROUGH. 

Tink's Tots Try It Out: According to K (2 yo boy)  K, did you like the place we ate at with the chocolate Mickey?  "Yeah"   What did you like the most about it?   "Fies"   You liked the fries the most? I kinda did too, but I thought the rest of my food was good too.   "I like Mickey. Chop head Mickey an I eat."   Yes, we chopped Mickey's head off for you to eat.   "Ba-bye, Mickey." (Pretends to chomp on and swallow Mickey Mouse.)   I'm starting to think I should be concerned about you. (just smiles.)

Will we be back: Heck yeah! Even if it's just for the onion soup alone! I want to check out breakfast some time, but we will be back for lunch again for sure.