Our party of 11 was seated at a couple of tables that had been adjoined.
Philip (at the head of the table); Me, Vicki, Emily, and Brenda (on the left side); Emme, Patty, Beth and Paula (on the right side). Linda and Hunter (missing from the photo)
Joining us for first time at this dinner were Patty and her daughter, Emme. When we first were seated at the table I remember thinking that if I were a 3 (almost 4) year old (like Emme), how sooo un-fun this meal would be. Dinner with 9 complete strangers…all adults. 
But that was before I knew that we had a “kid at heart” among us.
Before our appetizer course had arrived, Philip (Linda’s husband) had Emme grinning from ear to ear…that beautiful smile that I had seen in her photos. It was a wonderful thing to witness…Bravo Philip, well done!!! 
We first placed our drink orders and it took forever to get them delivered.
Thanks to Paula & Hunter’s discovery of this “gem” of a holiday cocktail during their pre-dinner visit to the Crew’s Cup Lounge, both Vicki and I had a…
Santa’s Little Helper, which consisted of Bailey’s, Butterscotch Schnapps, and Goldschlager (a cinnamon schnapps liqueur)
I’m pretty sure that after one sip of this drink, Santa would say, “Heck with the milk and cookies, bring on the cocktails!!” 
(And btw, this was the first of three that I had during this trip.) 
Beth and Patty both ordered martinis. Beth ordered a Hendrick’s gin and Patty a dirty vodka martini.
“The ambiguous Martini”
Beth tried her martini and realized it had olive juice in it. Patty tasted hers and was pretty sure that she had Beth’s, however her’s also tasted like it was a little dirty (maybe from the olives). She was going to send it back but it was taking our server forever to get us situated so she happily enjoyed her martini…gin or vodka, at this point….it didn’t matter.
While we were reviewing the menu, bread service began…
The pull-apart onion rolls at Yachtsman are absolutely delicious! Trust me, they are as delicious as they look in these wonderful photos by Patty…
I skipped ordering an appetizer, as I was quite satisfied with just having an onion roll. However, several of our group did start with an appetizer course. Linda had this cheese plate…
Cheese Plate
Linda said, “When this was first delivered to me, there was no explanation as to which cheese was which so I caught the attention of our server and asked it he could get me one of the information cards that I’ve usually received when ordering cheese plates. He quickly headed off and picked one up for me. So big fail here, I didn’t keep hold of the little card that details which cheese was which! Anyway, one thing I do remember was that the dish wasn’t plated up correctly, the wrong accompaniment was lined up next to the wrong cheese so I was happy that I had the menu card so that I could try the right combination. Everything was great, but my favorite was the blue cheese.”
Brenda started with Shrimp Cocktail with fennel, chervil, Meyer lemon gel, house cocktail sauce and 4 little pieces of shrimp (sorry no photo).
Brenda said, “YSH has changed the presentation of the shrimp cocktail since our August trip. This version is a little more dramatic although I miss the shrimp being served on a bed of crushed ice. I’m not a fan of the lemon gel but it is easy to avoid those droplets entirely. The other minor change is that the cocktail sauce is smeared on the plate. I’m a dipper so the smear wasn’t entirely to my liking but if I’d known I would have asked for a side of cocktail sauce as well. In any event, it was tasty and I didn’t have trouble finishing off every last morsel of shrimp, even the little pieces that were cut off the side in order to make the shrimp stand up.
Beth, Vicki, and Emily all ordered…
Linda also ordered a modified version of this salad as her entree…
She said, “This dish normally comes served with serrano ham but I asked for this to be left off which wasn’t a problem according to our server. I liked the idea of the leaves coming from The Land at Epcot, if anyone doesn’t believe this to be true, please don’t shatter my illusions! It was a lovely, light and flavorsome dish. The dressing was perfect and was lightly applied which I much prefer. I hate it is salads are drowned in dressing.”
Charcuterie Board – suckling pig, country sausage, cured meats, and accoutrements
And some close up shots (courtesy of Patty) of the various components of the charcuterie board…
Country style sausage
Patty said, “This was my second favorite of the bunch. it was paired with a really delicious blackberry sauce that paired perfectly with the sausage. Total match made in heaven!”
Calabrese
“This had a bit of a kick due to the cayenne pepper. It was also very good.”
Pepperoni
Patty said, “I am not a pepperoni fan and I could feel my sodium level going through the roof with a bite of this. It had a really nice depth of flavor and I would have devoured the entire thing if I were a pepperoni fan. It was really well made, however.”
Chicken pate
Patty said, “I love any type of pate. the pate was paired with a hazelnut powder which i thought was pretty neat. the pate was so very pretty and was very flavorful. There was no “gamey” taste to the pate at all. Two thumbs up from me.”
Duck pastrami
“The duck pastrami was absolutely delightful. Even though it was served room temperature, the fat didn’t become jelly nor was it hard. It literally melted in your mouth (fat is flavor, right?). The mustard was paired nicely with the pastrami. I wish iIsaved an onion roll so I could have made a duck pastrami slider. It would have been divine together.”
Patty also ordered this…
Truffle Mac & Cheese – Orecchiette Pasta and Reypenaer Cheese $12.00
Patty said, “The YSH version of macaroni & cheese was sinfully good. The cheese was so creamy and didn’t become a hardened mess after it cooled. It was a HUGE portion and I tried to pawn if off to my fellow diners but everyone was so full. It does say “truffle” mac & cheese but there was such small amounts of truffle in there. I couldn’t tell if it was cracked black pepper or actual super tiny shavings or gratings of truffle. (I love truffles, btw). The dish was beautifully presented and worth the $12.00. I don’t say that about a lot of Disney food.”
As for her daughter, Emme, she had…
Pasta tossed with butter – $8.00
Patty said, “BRAVO YSH for finally presenting a butter pasta dish that looks and tastes good. YSH has been the only place so far where it looks like the chefs actually cared as to what they were preparing for a child. The butter was actually melted on the pasta and they put some fresh parmesean cheese on top. The worst offender for butter pasta is Be Our Guest. Their pasta is atrocious and disgusting!
but i digress….
Emme didn’t want macaroni & cheese so I asked if they could put some butter on her pasta and toss some cheese into it. Needless to say, I was ecstatic that her pasta was edible and the fact that she actually devoured the entire thing. It blows my mind that most Disney restaurants mess up the most simplest of dishes or they just don’t care. So was the pasta worth the $8.00? Absolutely not, but I was happy that Emme ate.”
And that just leaves Paula and Hunter, who shared the Ribeye which came with Bone Marrow and Brioche. The entree was split in the kitchen before it was brought to the table.
Here is the plate presented to Paula…
