We eat at the Dolphin (well, Todd English’s bluezoo) on a very regular basis… But we rarely eat at the Swan in recent years…
We’ve eaten at Il Mulino a couple of times with Lisa and Andy (back in the days before we blogged) and frankly, we were never very impressed; we learned recently that some of the managerial staff from bluezoo have moved to Il Mulino – so it’s back on the radar.
Even further back in the mists of time, we used to go to Kimono’s on our biannual visits to Walt Disney World… we haven’t been there in years and need to get back over there.
Anyway, this is about eating at The Garden Grove – as you’ve probably figured out, it’s in the Swan Resort. We were able to walk up to the reception desk on a recent weekday morning and get a table for two right immediately.
There are two options at breakfast… buffet and a la carte (if you know us at all, you know that we typically avoid buffets). There were some interesting options for me on the a la carte menu and Nick went and checked out the buffet… he decided to create his own breakfast from the a la carte menu…. The buffet options were limited in our opinion: homogenous french toast sticks, silver dollar pancakes, uninspired pastries, little variety; it’s a typical breakfast buffet aimed at non-adventurous eaters (as in I won’t even eat corned beef hash… oooo scary).
I saw Quiche on the Lite Breakfast list … that’s it for me – Nick had an omelet with potatoes and toast
Prices… My quiche was $12 and Nick’s omelette was $14… coffees are $3.50 each
Our server was Frans, he was thorough and attentive. It took a little while to get my carafe of decaf (because they were making fresh, no problem waiting then :)) and our table only had one napkin on it… all taken care of efficiently. Nick did comment that his coffee wasn’t very good (regular Starbucks supposedly), mine was okay but not great.
On to the food…
Toast accompaniments: positive = butter on the plate so it won’t be stone cold when the toast is delivered to the table… negative = why Smuckers brand? why not all Dickinson’s?
My quiche was described as “Spinach, Asparagus, Broccoli, Caramelized Onions, Swiss Cheese”… sounded good to me…
It was quite a bit larger than I expected – a really hearty portion in fact. It was very tasty, the crust was faintly buttery but not too rich, the filling was lightly seasoned with nutmeg and ground white pepper, and best of all… the vegetables retained their flavor and some texture (although I never did find anything that looked like a caramelized onion nor did I detect much, if any, onion flavor.
the surprise was that my quiche came with a fruit salad… pineapple, honeydew melon, cantaloup, strawberries, and blueberries
The fruit salad was a really great accompaniment and I really enjoyed it. The menu has information on it about “super foods” and how incorporating them into you diet helps to increase your “healthy life” (defined as the number of years that you’re healthy and vigorous… as opposed to increasing your LIFE).
wanted you to see all the green vegetables in the quiche
Nick described his omelette as “okay, it’s an egg white omelette, there’s only so much that can be done to, nothing wrong at all, but not very exciting” Both the potatoes (hash browns) and the toast were cold by the time they arrived at the table… and the toast was barely toasted (do you know what I mean, when they pass the bread through a toaster and it barely warms the bread and doesn’t add any crunch at all)… The multigrain bread was tasty (quinoa, flax seed, sunflower seeds, and oatmeal were all detectable), just a shame that it wasn’t toast.
Nick’s egg white omelette with spinach, tomato, ham, and swiss cheese and hash browns with something green
So would we go there again? It really depends on a few factors…
- Easy to get in there for breakfast on short notice (we stopped at Kouzzina’s before we walked over to the Swan and although nearly half the dining room was empty, we were told it would be AT LEAST a 30 minute wait before we could be seated – rant – we understand the profit reasons for not having a lot of staff sitting around waiting for nonexistent guests to show up and eat, I get it… but it sure as heck doesn’t seem very “Walt Disney Like” to NOT be able to accomodate walk-ups… just saying 🙂 – rant off)
- Like seeing healthy options on any menus
- Food was either really good or really poorly executed
- I don’t think Nick will be eager to get toast here and he might just order the fruit salad instead of the potatoes (which is a shame because the chef wanted to have hash browns and toast with the omelettes)