On the last day of our trip, we decided to have a nice dinner together as a family. Two years ago, Tim and I ate a wonderful and romantic dinner together at Narcoossee’s at the Grand Floridian Resort and Spa. We enjoyed our time there so immensely that we wanted to return this year, but take our whole family with us to enjoy the delicious cuisine.

Wow. Let me say, things have changed.

Now you know Tim and I are Disney fans to the max and rarely have anything negative to say about anything having to do with a Walt Disney World vacation, but this year, we had a few experiences that we wouldn’t deem completely praise-worthy. Our dinner at Narcoossee’s was one of them.

Let me start by telling you about our previous experience at Narcoossee’s.

Tim and I made reservations there to celebrate our second wedding anniversary in 2009. We were seated quickly and had a friendly, competent waiter. Tim got the surf and turf with roasted potatoes and broccoli, while I had the filet with potatoes gratin and green beans.

It. Was. Delicious. Amazing. Everything was cooked to perfection and tasted wonderful. That sauce on the top of my steak was divine, and I could have eaten a whole plate of those potatoes gratin by themselves.

For dessert Tim got the strawberry shortcake and I got the key lime creme brulee. They were also delicious, but it was the presentation that impressed us. We also shared a french press of their coffee, which was also exquisite. We love coffee.

Two years ago, our meal was not only tasty and impressive, it was delivered at a perfect pace. Not too quickly, so we had plenty of time to talk and relax and soak up the experience, but not so slow that you were starving and left wondering if they had to go slaughter the cow you were about you enjoy.

This year, our experience was completely different. We expected some difference because we were going with a larger party and we had our 15-month-old son with us. Of course we were not expecting some relaxing, romantic dinner. But we were expecting the food to be amazing.

We had to wait a few minutes on our table, which was not a big deal to us. We went out on the porch over looking Seven Seas Lagoon, took a few pictures of us on the porch, in front of the restaurant, standing next to a live lobster, that kind of thing. Once we were seated, our waitress was friendly and promptly took our drink order. That was probably the only prompt thing about the whole meal, though.

We ordered our food and we waited…

…and waited…

…they brought bread, which was good, but I remember being better…

…and we waited…

…finished the bread, asked for more…

…and waited.

You get the point.

Then our food finally came. I was already slightly disappointed because the menu had changed. The filet no longer came with that divine sauce on top, and worse, there were no potatoes gratin anywhere on the menu! Instead I ordered green beans and some sort of cheese pasta on the side. I don’t remember what it was called, and the menu on AllEars.net is not the menu we ordered from, so I can’t go back to look at what it was exactly.

This was the plate that was presented to me.

Yeah, those are carrots. I don’t really know how that happened, because green beans came with the meal on the menu…I didn’t ask for any substitution.

I didn’t return them, however, because we ordered a kid’s chicken finger meal for Jack that came with steamed carrots and my carrots were steamed much better than his. The carrots they served our one-year-old were practically raw. He would have choked on those, so I just gave him mine and I munched on his.

The pasta was dry. Like, super dry. The crusty crumble on top made it very unappetizing to eat. The flavor was okay, I guess, but it gave you what we like to call in the south “cotton-mouth”. Drink refills all around, please!

The steak was okay. Not any better than what I’d order at our local Outback, though. Tim got the surf and turf again. He said that his lobster was tough, his medium steak cooked more to a medium-well, and overall he enjoyed his dinner much better the first time around.

By the time it came time to order dessert we were exhausted. You try entertaining a toddler at a table for an hour and a half! At that point, we had all taken turns walking him out on the porch while we waited on our food, had exhausted the coloring page menu and crayons, and were now letting him play with the fake candles in the center piece. I know there are plenty of moms out there who know exactly what this is like.

We did, indeed, have an equally absurd wait for dessert. However, dessert tasted great, which was nice. We also ordered another french press.

Tim’s gelato sampler.

My chocolate mousse.

My dad’s cheesecake.

My mom’s creme brulee.

Hannah and Madison got the Nemo cupcake off of the kid’s menu.

The coffee was delicious, as well. So I guess if you are planning on going to Narcoossee’s for just dessert and coffee, you won’t be disappointed…unless of course you have to wait an hour to get it.

Am I sounding too harsh? I don’t want to sound like a Debbie Downer, I just want to give an honest Elrod opinion.

To sum up, if you had asked us two years ago what we thought of Narcoossee’s we would have scored it a whopping

This year, however, we would rate it a much lower

The food was above average, when it comes to what is served on Disney property, but it was not as great as we remembered. The service was slow, but we’ll give the benefit of the doubt and say it was just an off night. The dessert was yummy and well presented, and the coffee was one of the best cups you can get on property.

Thanks for reading along, and thanks for sticking with me after a week-long hiatus. I went through a little funk last week, but I am back and will meet you back here tomorrow with another [Almost] Wordless Wednesday!