Taste of Disney

May 2015 Trip Review

Today our brunch destination was…

We arrived about a half hour early for our 1:30 reservation but we only had a 5 minute or so wait to be seated. I had asked to be seated in the main dining area where the entertainment performs on the stages. My request was granted and we were seated at a high top table with a great view of the show…

FYI: Raglan Road has live entertainment starting at 4:00 p.m. each day, but they also perform on Saturdays and Sundays from 12:00 – 3:00 p.m.

We enjoyed the Irish band and dancers as we looked over the menu. Since this was Saturday, we were given their special brunch menu (which is available from 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. on both Saturdays and Sundays now). This included some breakfast options…

And also some lunch appetizers and entrees…

We were given a complimentary sampling size of their Suave Smoothie to sip on while we looked over the menu…

This was a house-made seasonal fruit smoothie with honey yogurt and vanilla. We all really enjoyed this.

Then the girls and I ordered an adult beverage. Allison went with The Cure, Emily the Ginger Mojito, and a Bailey’s Shake for me…

The Cure – Kettle One Vodka, homemade San Lorenzo tomato, horseradish, celery and balsamic bloody Mary mix with a salted bacon rim. – $14.50
Ginger Mojito – Captain Morgan white rum, lime, sour and ginger beer with freshly muddled mint. – $12.50
Bailey’s Shake – Frozen mix of ice cream, Baileys Irish Cream, and coffee liqueur – $10.50

The reviews on the drinks were for the most part not great. Allison said her Bloody Mary-like drink was watery and full of seeds, I guess from the fresh tomato. She gave it a 3. Also receiving a 3 from Emily was her mojito, due to its lack of flavor. However, as for my Bailey’s Shake, it was delicious and received a score of 5.

Before I move on to our appetizer and entrees, I have to mention the Irish Soda Bread…

…and the deliciously sweet Guinness Reduction for dipping.

I love this! Thankfully, the kids made me share so I only had one slice. Otherwise I probably could have eaten the whole basket of bread and been too full for anything more, which would have been a terrible shame given how good my entree was.

But before the entrees comes the appetizer, which after many visits to Raglan Road we finally tried the…

Dalkey Duo – Battered cocktail sausages served with a Dalkey mustard dipping sauce

The sausages themselves were just okay but when dipped in the mustard sauce they were very tasty…

Three out of the four of us rated the Dalkey Duo a 4, but my son didn’t really like the sausages either with or without the mustard and gave them only a 2.

He also was not too thrilled with his entree choice of…

Fish & Chips – Our famous beer battered fish & chips served with our fresh tartar sauce

We usually all enjoy the fish and chips at Raglan Road, but for some reason this time they only received an okay rating of 3 from him.

And sadly the trend continued with the girls rating their entree choices a 3 as well. Emily said her Boxty sandwich was pretty bland…

Three Times a Boxty – Sliced Gammon topped with Dubliner cheddar sandwiched between two pan seared boxty potato cakes with a fried egg on top.

She was hungry for mashed potatoes so also ordered this side…

I forgot to have her rate this so their taste will have to remain a mystery.

As for Allison, her main complaint regarding her Eggs Benedict was that the poached eggs were overcooked…

Eggs Benedict – Two soft poached eggs on a toasted English muffin with pancetta smothered in hollandaise sauce and served with roasties

Allison loves Eggs Benedict but sadly was disappointed by Raglan Road’s version of one of her favorite breakfast dishes.

So like with our drinks, I was again the winner in the Entree category with my choice of the..

Full Irish – Full Irish breakfast with sausage, black and white pudding, bacon, roasted tomato, mushrooms and fried eggs with roasties

And another view of my breakfast…

I had never tasted either of the “puddings” before. In case you too are unfamiliar with these sausages, the black one is a sausage made from blood, pork meat and fat, oatmeal, and bread or potato fillers, while the white is pretty much the same as the black only minus the blood. While I enjoyed both of these, as well as the Irish bacon, my favorite meat on this platter was the Irish sausage. Irish sausages (aka bangers) are larger and thicker than the usual American sausage link. Typically they are filled with ground pork, seasonings, egg, and chopped bread crumbs. I really liked the seasoning of this sausage and would now like to try Bangers & Mash sometime. At Raglan Road this dish is called Banger & Booz because the banger contains Guinness beer. Although I’m not a fan of Guinness, I do like the Guinness reduction that is served with the Irish soda bread so who knows??? I might just like some booze in my banger.

Getting back to my Full Irish breakfast platter, the fried eggs and grilled tomato were both good but nothing unusual. And that just leaves the roasties (or small roasted potatoes) and the mushrooms. The potatoes were slightly crunchy and nicely seasoned so were quite tasty. However, my absolute favorite item on this platter were the mushrooms. These were delicious and secretly I was happy that none of my kids like mushrooms so I was able to eat them all myself without feeling guilty about not sharing. Overall my Full Irish breakfast platter received a very solid 4 rating, actually very close to a 5. So I’m going to call this one a 4+.

Despite my coaxing, the kids said they were too full to share the wonderful Ger’s Bread & Butter Pudding. I had pretty much drank my dessert with the Baileys shake so knew I would not be able to eat more than a bite or two of the bread pudding. Consequently, I had to admit defeat and request the check. But speaking of the check, happily Raglan Road accepts Tables in Wonderland so I did get a 20% discount on our entire bill…which paid for about two of our expensive drinks.

So overall I was very happy with my meal at Raglan Road, but the kids weren’t quite as enthused.

NOTE: I’ve decided to incorporate into my dining report the Disney dining reviews (and food photos) sent to me by my nephew and his wife. They recently returned from their very first trip to Disney World. Because they were celebrating their 5th anniversary and they are foodies, they decided to splurge and purchase the DeLuxe Dining Plan for their 5 night/6 day trip. Therefore they dined at 11 different full-service restaurants, most of which my family did not visit during our trip. So the next review that I will be posting is from their dining experience at another Downtown Disney restaurant…one that I have never been to.

Want to know what I did next on this trip or just want to share a comment on this review? Click here to go to this trip’s blog post!