Dining Review of Portobello at Downtown Disney

It's hard to believe that we have been home from Disney for a month already. Time has absolutely flown by. While we were at Disney I had told myself I would come home and write a review for each table service restaurant we ate at as soon as I could so that I would remember the specific details of the meal. Well, with my Grandmother passing away while we were at Disney World, then heading straight to Iowa for the funeral seven hours after returning home, it was a little crazy around here. So, today starts the first of ten reviews over the coming weeks, and I can only hope I remember the details I tried to focus on while we were there :)

Our first meal of the trip was at Portobello in Downtown Disney. We had reservations at 6:30 as we knew we would be driving all day long and were hoping for a nice, relaxing way to kick off our vacation. We had never eaten here, but it had always been high on my list as a new one I wanted to try. This was the first year it was available on the dining plan, so we happily booked this one 180 days before our trip and anxiously looked forward to it all summer long. I only wish the meal itself had lived up to the hype I had created inside my head!

It started off pretty promising. Since we started our trip a little earlier than we had planned, we arrived in Disney around 2:00 pm. Our room was ready at All Star Sports so we were able to get moved in and settled by 3:30. We decided to head on over to Downtown Disney and see if we could get an earlier seating. By the time we got there, it was about 4:30 and there were only a few guests in the restaurant. It was looking good to us. After explaining our situation to the hostess, she said that she could seat us then, and that she would be with us in a moment. We stood in the lobby with another family for what seemed like 10 minutes. I did not time it, but it definitely was a while. She finally came back and took both of our families to our tables. Once we were there we sat, and sat, and sat waiting for our server. Finally, our server arrived and took our drink orders. Then we waited a long time again for them to be brought to us. Finally we placed our order and sat back to enjoy the meal. A few minutes into our wait, they sat a very large family at the table to next to us. The table was so close that we literally had to get up and move our table over into the aisle as they were continually hitting my arm with every little move they made. The bad part was that the restaurant still wasn't that crowded at that time so they could have seated them anywhere in the restaurant. However, we fixed the problem and were ready for our meals.

While we were waiting they brought us a basket of bread. I am a huge bread eater so I was thrilled! However, I was quickly disappointed. One of the breads had a very odd taste to it, and the other was so hard I could barely cut it to spread butter on it. Next came our entrees. I had settled on the Chicken Farfalle (snow peas, asparagus, tomatoes, and parmigiano cream sauce) and my husband had the Ravioli Gigante (handcrafted ricotta and spinach filled pasta, tomato, basil, and toasted garlic). Truthfully, I can't remember what my daughter had, but I am guessing it was pizza as that was her main meal every day. My husband really enjoyed the taste of the ravioli, but the sauce was super thin. It was like a broth. This may be authentic Italian, but he just didn't like the consistency of it. However, he did enjoy the taste as did my daughter who kept stealing bites of it. I wish I could say the same about my Farfalle. I think it would have been really good if I had ordered it without the snow peas. I personally like snow peas, but apparently not on my pasta. The taste was so strong, that I could taste it in every bite I had, whether I actually ate a snow pea or not. It was very garden tasting (I know that is a weird description, but I don't know any other way to express this taste). I only ate about half the meal, and was really looking forward to dessert.

The dessert was not that great either. I actually had to look at the website to see the dessert options to remember what I ate. I had the Fragole con Saba e Caramello. Although it sounds really fancy, it was just berry sorbet with marinated strawberries. By berry sorbet they mean the strongest raspberry flavored sorbet you can imagine with super soggy overcooked strawberries. I guess it was a little too fancy for me. Just give me plain ice cream please :). My husband had the Chocolate Paradis, which was Rich chocolate layer cake, chocolate ganache and toffee crunch. He was actually pretty happy with his, though it wasn't the best cake he's ever had. He is a dessert person, but he probably wouldn't go back just for the dessert alone. My daughter loved her dessert. It was a create your own sundae. They brought her ice cream, chocolate sauce, mickey sprinkles, and whipped cream (all in separate bowls) and she was able to mix to her hearts content. She was in heaven.

As soon as we ordered our dessert, we said that we were also ready for our check. We had been there a long time, and were ready to head to Disney Quest for some fun before collapsing in our hotel. However, even after taking our time eating our dessert, we were still waiting on our check. My husband finally had to go looking for someone to get our server so that we could get our check and go. I don't know if our server had too many tables, or was just forgetful, but we had to ask multiple times for refills and various items throughout our meal. Slow would be an understatement to describe our meal.

So, would I go back? Maybe. The food wasn't the greatest, and the service was far from good, but maybe they were having an off night. I definitely would not pay out of pocket for this meal. Our bill came to over $80 for the three of us, and that was just entree, colas, and dessert for each of us. Nothing special. If I had the dining plan (for free) again, and needed one more meal to fill the week I might would try it again in a few years. It is definitely at the bottom of my list though. With so many wonderful restaurants at Disney World, I would definitely choose several others over Portobello!

Quick Service Disney Dining Plan...a new persepective

Well, until a few months ago, I always said I would probably never purchase the quick service dining plan. I could not see the "value" in it. I mean realistically, at every meal we are not going to be able to get our money's worth out of the plan. Our family would not order dessert at every meal, and usually we can get by sharing some meals among the three of us. So, based on this information, when I look at old receipts from past trips, I can't see how we would spend $35 per adult and $12 for my child in food every single day. Seriously, $82 a day for food when I can get a whole weeks worth of groceries for that at home? It can't be worth the value.

Well, after our trip to Disneyland, we discovered a whole new definition and appreciation for the word value when it comes to Disney dining. Our new interpretation for the word is based on convenience and the ability to plan ahead for all dining expenses. The three of us ate several counter service meals at Disneyland. Each meal we usually shared two adult meals between the three of us, and in some cases one adult and one child meal. This also meant a free cup of ice water for my daughter, and a shared large drink (with no ice) between my husband and myself. No matter how hard we tried, we couldn't feed three of us for less than $30 a meal. Ouch. It was painful to pull out that wallet every time and spend that much for either two burgers or two slices of pizza. Plus we were having to agree on a common meal for everyone so someone was always compromising something on the meal choice. Plus, a little while later, one of us would be hungry for a snack. Those were all around an extra $3.00 each. So add those to the other two meals and we spent a minimum of $66 a day on food (not counting our breakfast).


After a few meals, I was desperately wishing we were back in Disney World on past trips where I could just simply swipe a card and the food was "magically" mine. At least it felt magical since I had long ago paid for that meal and I didn't have to worry about how much that meal was. I also didn't have to think, ok, if I choose to add an order of french fries, does that mean I can't get that one last souvenir I want?


When we are on the Dining plan, I know exactly how much all of our meals are going to cost ahead of time and that is one less thing I have to worry about on our magical escape from reality. I have already budgeted that fixed amount and paid for it before I even left the house. So, since my room has already been paid for, along with all of my food, all I have to worry about is expenses for my treasures, and gas to get back home. I will take that mentality any day. The truth is, when I go to Disney, I 100% escape from reality. I get away from it all. This is one more reason I choose the Dining plan. I can eat wherever I feel like at that moment, and not have to worry about how much it is going to cost me. I can walk up, order whatever, and maybe even treat myself to a tasty dessert every now and then. Goodness knows I will walk it off before the day is over!

So, in closing, I have already added the quick service plan to our upcoming October trip. Don't get me wrong, I am hoping against hope that Disney will continue their trend of offering free dining in the fall and we will keep our trend alive and get free dining for the sixth year in a row. However, if they don't give it to me free, I will still happily pay for the plan. With two counter service meals a day, two snacks a day, and a free refillable mug for each of us at our hotel, I think we will get our "value" out of it. It may not be monetary value, but we will definitely value the fact that we can pre-budget our trip and enjoy any food we want, whenever we want it, on our trip.