Via Napoli Review

Well, it has been four months in the making, but I am finally posting my review of Via Napoli. Let me start by saying I was very excited about the opening of this restaurant. Our family loves all things Italian, with pizza being our absolute favorite meal. So that being said, you can imagine how thrilled I was that this restaurant was going to be opening mere weeks before our trip. So, I spent months in the spring and summer checking for updates on this restaurant and counting down the days until I could make our reservations. When the big day came, I woke up early and called to make our reservation. Luckily I was able to get the time and day I wanted so I was thrilled. The only thing left to do was wait for the big day to come.

That day finally came and I was very excited and very much looking forward to our dinner that night. Ironically, that day my brother and sister-in-law ate there for lunch as a walk in without knowing that we were eating there that night for dinner. When we ran into them they went on and on about how good their lunch was and how stuffed they were. To say the least, they were very impressed with Via Napoli. That just added to my excitement. I was looking forward to it even more now that I had actually talked to someone who had eaten there. This was going to be a good meal.

So we checked into the restaurant at our scheduled time and had to wait about 10 minutes for our table. This was fine though as it gave us time to soak in the beautiful details of the new restaurant. It was a very bright, friendly, and welcoming atmosphere. The decor was very nice, and had a lot of touches that I can imagine were good representations Italy. If you haven't seen pictures of the brick ovens they use, I have to say that they are pretty cool. So far, I was impressed.

So we were seated and given a menu by our friendly server. I decided pretty quickly on the chicken parmigiana. I was disappointed that it didn't come with a salad, but decided to go with it nonetheless. My husband wanted a pizza with pepperoni and sausage, but there wasn't one on the menu (I can't remember which one he settled on now). My seven year old decided on a pepperoni pizza as well. So, we placed our orders and proceeded to soak up the fun atmosphere. After a few minutes the server brought the pizzas. When we asked about mine, we were told that they bring the food as it is ready, and not all at once (apparently this is the way they do it in Italy). So, I sat there and watched the two of them start their meals. My husband thought the pizza was pretty good (though we both admitted that the pizza we had eaten that day for lunch at Wolfgang Puck Express was actually better). The pizzas are cooked in the brick ovens which makes the crust pretty tasty....though our daughter would disagree. She did not like it at all. She had not had this type of pizza before and thought it tasted burnt. Once she saw the brown spots on the bottom of the crust, there was no convincing her otherwise. She only had a few bites.

Luckily my dinner finally showed up and she was able to share it with me. I liked the chicken portion pretty well. It was very moist and the sauce was very good. However, the noodles came as a fried lump. It was not at all what I was expecting and I did not like the texture of it. My daughter thought they were pretty cool and ate most of them for me. I think this was the first meal that I was actually looking forward to seeing the dessert menu since I actually had a little room left to eat it!

So, the dessert menu is delivered. I anxiously look at it hoping for something extra yummy and chocolaty...

No such luck. I didn't see anything that I just had to have. However, I finally settled on the Tiramisu and my husband went with the Zeppole di Catarina ( fried ricotta cheese with whipping cream and chocolate sauce). I think my daughter had a cookie, but don't hold me to that :) When the desserts came I was very intrigued with the presentation of my husbands dessert, and it actually looked quite tasty despite how disgusting I thought it sounded! So, was dessert better than the entrees? Yes, and no. My daughter did not like her dessert, and mine was very mushy. I am a texture person and couldn't get past the sliminess to enjoy the taste. Surprisingly, my husband's meal was the big hit. Those fritters were actually really good, and a lot of fun to dip in the chocolate and whipping cream. So, we all shared his!

In summary, the meal was good. It wasn't Disney great and if I was paying out of pocket, I definitely would not go back. However, if we were on the dining plan and couldn't get into one of our favorite restaurants I would give it another shot.

Top five sit down choices of a six year old Princess

Now, as promised, here are the top choices of my Princess for restaurants in the World. While my choices were based heavily on the food itself, these are based mostly on the fun factor. My daughter also is a creature of habit, so we often have to eat at the same restaurants over and over again.

1. Chef Mickey's at the Contemporary Resort. This was of course one of my choices as well, but she loves it for some different reasons. She loves to go to the kids section (a buffet that is a little lower for kids to reach themselves) and load her plate with mickey shaped ravioli, chicken nuggets, and macaroni and cheese. She likes some of the big people food as well, but there is not the fun factor of having it at your own level. When dinner is over she heads to the sundae bar and fills a bowl with ice cream which she proceeds to cover with m&m's and other candy. Then she goes to the dessert table and gets the yummy oreos dipped in chocolate with mickey mouse ears on top. Oh yeah, in the middle of all her serving herself she gets to meet some of her favorite characters and swing her napkin in the air when they do the birthday celebrations. For all of these reasons, and many many more this will be one of those restaurants we have to go to every time for many visits to come.

2. Tony's Town Square at Magic Kingdom. Many people probably don't even realize that this restaurant exists (I myself walked by it for years before I knew it was there). It is an Italian restaurant that is decorated in motif from the movie Lady and the Tramp. There are pictures all over the walls, a fountain in the middle of the restaurant of the two stars, and the bathrooms have a picture of either Lady or the Tramp instead of being labeled as men or women. For some reason I cannot fathom, my child LOVES this place. I don't know if it is the decorations or the fact that every time we eat there we all have to recreate the famous spaghetti scene from the movie. She takes turns "slurping" a spaghetti noodle with both me and her Daddy. It is too cute and something she randomly started making us do on our first visit there. It is now one of our "must dos" for our trips. The food isn't bad, but I definitely would not classify it as the best Italian I have ever had. I always get the chicken parmesean and she always gets plain noodles with a meatball on the side. It is always one of the highlights of our trip.

3. 1900 Park Fare at the Grand Floridian Resort. This is another fun buffet with really good food. The potatoes and prime rib are especially yummy, as well as a strawberry soup that I highly recommend. This of course is not why my daughter likes this one. She loves the characters that are there for dinner. It it Cinderella, Prince Charming, Lady Tremaine, Drizella, and Anastasia. When Cinderella makes her grand entrance it is announced and Prince Charming comes from wherever he is and waltzes with her. Then they go back to visiting all the tables and signing autographs. The step sisters and step mother are what make this dinner so much fun though. They are always cutting up and bickering or complaining about Cinderella. I dare someone to try to get Lady Tremaine to smile. We always try, but she is very much in character. Also, watch out, she may get on to you for making a mess or saving food for later (my husband had a crumb on his lip and she asked him if he was saving it for later and told him to be careful). It is a blast. I strongly suggest that if you do this dinner, make a reservation for as early as possible. We had a 6:30 reservation and waited well over an hour. Luckily my daughter was entranced by the grand piano player in the lobby of the hotel and made a friend to keep her company while we waited. Eat as early as you can!!!

4. Akershus Princess Dining in Epcot. This will never be my first choice for a meal, nor will it rank anywhere near the top. However, we will be eating there again this year for dinner simply because it is only one of two places on property where you can eat with several princesses at one time. The only other option is the Castle at Magic Kingdom and it is a hard meal to score, and costs two dining plan entitlements. Therefore, I will take one for the team and make one of those parent sacrifices so that my daughter can meet her favorite princesses. I tell myself that one day very soon she will be too old for the princesses and we will again get to have more say in the dinner choices. It's not that the food is horrible, it is just that it is food from Norway and not part of my normal palette. Breakfast is traditional American fare, and lunch and dinner are authentic Norway fare. We are not big breakfast people, so we go for dinner and enjoy the picture package that is now included in the price of your meal. When you first enter you get your picture taken with one princess (one 5x7 and four 4x6) then three to four more princesses visit you at your table during dinner. That experience is fun and the smile on my daughter's face as she meets her favorite people makes the dinner worth every penny.

5. Garden Grill at Epcot. Ok, so this one isn't really on my daughter's list. The true last choice would probably be the Castle or Whispering Canyon, but I have already written about those in my post. So, I tried to think of another character meal that she might choose if she had the choice. The last time my daughter ate here she was almost two, and this year when we eat there she will be turning seven so I don't think she really remembers this one. It is one of the most relaxing character meals on Disney property and the food is super yummy. It is located in the Land pavilion and is on a platform that rotates very very slowly during your meal which adds a little fun to the meal (though it turns so slowly you wouldn't even know you were rotating if you didn't happen to notice the scenery had changed from a few minutes ago). The salad is especially yummy as it is made from veggies grown fresh in the land every day at Epcot. The restaurant is relatively quiet for a character meal and a great place to unwind after a full day of walking around the biggest park on Disney property. The characters were Chip, Dale, Mickey and Pluto the last time we were there. I am very much looking forward to visiting this restaurant this year and truly hope it is one that my daughter will easily had to her list,

Top Five Restaurant Choices

I thought I would share my top five favorite sit down restaurants. When I first thought of this post I thought this would be a quick and easy list. Then I started really thinking about how to rank my faves and realized I didn't know where to start with the ranking. My main reason for this roadblock is due to the fact that there are only a few restaurants at Disney World that I just don't like. Another problem is that we have eaten at several many times each, but each time is a totally different experience. It is truly dependent on the servers we get each time on how much "fun" we have. So, taking all of this into account, I am going to do my best to choose my top five. Hopefully this will offer some helpful tips if you are trying to decide where you want to eat while visiting the World.

My top five favorites are:

1. Cinderella's Royal Table. There are a lot of people who would question this choice (my husband included). Yes, it is very expensive and it takes two meal ticket credits if you are on the dining plan. Yes, it is very Fru Fru and the selection is limited. Yes, you wait in a cramped lobby to have your picture taken with Cinderella before finally being taken upstairs to your table. BUT, there is nothing more magical than eating in Cinderella's Castle. Just stepping in and having them give you your "Royal Invitation" is an amazing feeling that I could never begin to explain. Also, you do get the portrait package included in your dinner which includes a picture of the castle, and one 5x7 and four 4x6 prints of you with one of the biggest Princesses known, the wonderful Cinderella herself. Plus, all three meals now include visits in the dining room from other Princesses. So all that being said, yes it is worth getting up at the crack of dawn 180 days out from your vacation to try to score this meal (in my opinion anyway).

2. Chef Mickey's. I don't know who loves this one more, me or my daughter. This buffet has wonderful food, including a kid's buffet and ice cream sundae bar that allows me to walk away from here stuffed every single time. Plus after dinner you can go upstairs and hop on the monorail and ride it around the loop to let your dinner wear off before hitting more rides in the park. The best part of the meal is meeting the characters. While they won't guarantee which characters you will see, I have always seen Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald and Pluto. We even saw Daisy Duck one time as well. They are all wearing chef's gear so it makes for special pics you can't get in the parks. Plus they all come to your table, so you don't have to stand in line for hours at the park to get their autographs and pictures. More time on the rides is always good in my book.

3. Whispering Canyon Cafe. This is a very loud restaurant, but most people can't help themselves from being part of the noise factor. The food choices are yummy and with the all you care to eat skillet, I dare anyone to try to walk away hungry. The BBQ ribs and chicken are delicious and the milkshakes that you can get as your drink makes it easy to put this one on my list. Plus, there are lots of activities for the kids all during dinner that keep me laughing the whole time. If you go, just make sure you ask for ketchup. After all, everything tastes better with ketchup, right?

4. Le Cellier. I have never ever had steak like this. I am not exaggerating when I say that the steak literally melted in my mouth. Supposedly the cheddar cheese soup here is amazing as well, though we did not try it. We were too busy devouring the pretzel bread that came before the steaks. I also recommend the mouse dessert here as well. It is too cute and very very tasty. The only downfall with this choice is that it is very hard to score a reservation here. In fact the one time we ate here we got lucky as a walk up for lunch right when they opened. I had tried calling many times, including the crack of dawn on the first day I could 180 days out and they never had an opening. I do know friends who have gotten them, but usually it is when they tried to schedule the meal for a day late in their trips.

5. Teppan Edo. This is by far one of my most enjoyable meals I have had at Disney World. We ate here for the first time last year, and now I wish we hadn't waited so long to try it. This is a hibachi type restaurant where the chef cooks the meal on the grill in front of you. I was nervous about sitting at a table with strangers, but it was a lot of fun. We had a sweet retired couple next to us and they were really fun to talk to. The chef was funny and entertaining and the three of us all loved it. Oh yeah, the food was good as well! At the end of our meal, they sang Happy Birthday to my daughter and brought her a tall paper chef hat that my husband enjoyed wearing around Epcot (much to our mine and my daughter's embarrassment). This will definitely be a place we return to often in the future.

Now these are my top five. Stay tuned for a list of my daughter's top five!