This is a safe restaurant to me. I've never had a bad meal here, and it has perfect seating for Illuminations. To me, that is a win/win situation. This time though, I was pleasantly surprised by the improvements to the meals. After a long day of walking around Epcot and doing things we normally couldn't have done with our little boys present (i.e. taking our time and looking through every shop and pavilion), we made our way to our dining reservation. We were greeted and happily seated along the lagoon. We were asked if we were in a hurry to eat, or wished to take our time and enjoy Illuminations from our seat. After stating what should be the obvious for everyone, we were left with our menus. Our server was a sweet young lady from northern Scotland who treated us as if we were the dearest of people. She made her recommendations and even answered our questions, if whether or not this was typical of what she ate when at home. She told us which items were what her family would fix and delighted us with what she thought of American cuisine. After this discourse we decided to go the full Monty and start with appetizers. My husband ordered the roasted sea scallops, while I decided to try the Scotch egg. Now the last time we had eaten here, my husband had ordered the Scotch egg and had raved about it. I knew I had to give it a try. Little did we know that they had changed the way they prepared it. Before it was a hardboiled egg wrapped in bacon. Now it was something new.
The Scotch egg is still a hardboiled egg, but it is now wrapped in sausage and breadcrumbs and fried. It is then served sliced with mustard and soft strips of toast.
When our appetizers arrived, I couldn't take pictures fast enough to show what they looked like before we dove into them. In fact, I was unable to get the scallops properly pictured since my husband began to eat and voice his pleasure over them. He said the tomato chutney and spinach pesto gave it such flavor. (I have to take his word for it. I'm deathly allergic to all shellfish.)
I dove into my Scotch egg. It was heavenly. The sausage was mild and enjoyable with the mustard giving it just a kick of spiciness. The toast had just a hint of crispness and did not have any strong flavor to detract from the egg. I did not want to finish it, for fear I wouldn't have enough room for my meal, so Chuck was more than happy to finish it for me.
For our meals, we couldn't decide on what to order, so we decided to order two different things and share. I had already tried their fish and chips, so Chuck decided to give it a try. His favorite meal is no longer available, which was their bangers and mash. He decided to stay true to British form and have the fish. I wanted fish, but I was also in the mood for a steak. So I ordered their New York strip steak. I know, I know. How British of me to order a New York strip steak? Feel free to make fun of me in the below comments. Our dinners arrived and we once again immediately dove into them before I could adequately snap pictures of them. Sorry for the half-eaten portion pictures, but we were hungry and it was so good.
Chuck found that his fish came perfect. The fish was flaky and the breading was crispy. He loved it and wondered why I had never told him to order this. My steak arrived with two crispy onion rings, green beans and a grilled tomato on top. I ordered my steak to be grilled medium. It was just a tad bit closer to medium rare. This was fine with me since I like my steak both medium and medium rare. A good steak, in my opinion, is one in which you do not need to ask for any steak sauce. This steak required nothing except my knife and fork. It was tender and delicious. We began to eat what was in front of us and before we knew it, we had forgotten that we had planned to share. Good thing we are both only children and understood our reasoning for not sharing.
Here again, I didn't want to fill up, because I was bound and determined to try a dessert. I ate quite a bit, but still left some steak on my plate. Chuck reasoned it out and sacrificed his space for dessert to eat the rest of my steak. His noble sacrifice should be recorded for the ages. I knew there was only one dessert that I wanted to try, especially since I wouldn't have to share. The Sticky Toffee Pudding. I had never had it nor have I ever had an English pudding before. We will blame my lack of experience of this being that I'm from Tennessee. Not too many chances to try a pudding in this state unless it has the word Jell-o in front of it. When I ordered it, our waitress stated that it was her favorite and was hoping that would be what I picked.
After teasing my poor full husband of not being able to get any pictures of anything before we took bites, I stuck my spoon into the moist cake and took the first bite before we could snap a picture. I hate to say it, but I would do it again. It was that delectable. The cake was moist with the melted caramel. The vanilla cream all along the bottom of the bowel helped increase the sweetness of the caramel. It was the perfect end to the perfect meal. We had Illuminations starting right when dessert came. What better timing could we ask for?
Tweet
Thanks for sharing, Amanda!
Maybe I just don't like English food.....hmmm
Also, the first time we ate here, we were supposed to have reservations to view Illuminations (this was nearly 10 years ago before they had specific sections and reservations for the show), and not only did the server try to rush us off our table before the show started (we sat down 45 minutes before showtime), but we weren't even on the perimeter of the interior dining room, and had a pretty crummy view of the lagoon.
This article has been archived and is no longer accepting comments.
