French Fry Diary 740: Swiss Chalet

The Bride and I went up to Toronto this past winter to visit my friend Andy for his birthday party. I didn't get to really try that many fries up there, managed to dodge the dreaded poutine, and remembered the hard way what winter is really all about after several months in Florida. It's damned cold up there, and forget Florida, it makes New Jersey look like a hothouse in the winter.

Anyway, while chatting music and movies, and books and toys, Andy ordered dinner for us from a place native to Canada called ironically enough Swiss Chalet. Knowing what a French fry guy I am, he also got their fries for me.

It's the thought that counts, but I have to say I was not all that impressed with their natural cut fries, and of course that may be because they were delivered, which always cuts down on quality and freshness. I bet they might have been better hot. The chicken however was very good, and they also have ribs and other stuff, including poutine, and any place that has Toblerone for dessert can't be all bad.

Still, as I said, it's the company that counts, and although we were only in Toronto for less than twenty-four hours, we had a great time meeting and hanging out with friends and family, and helping one of my best friends celebrate his birthday. Next time, poutine, and better fries, promise.

French Fry Diary 712: North Bowl

Last month after the Writers Coffeehouse sponsored by the Philadelphia Liars Club (and if you're a writer in the area, and haven't been to this monthly event, shame on you) friend and fellow writer Amy Holiday invited The Bride and me, and the other writers from the SJWG who attended, out to dinner. Because of my predilection for potato-ey things, she picked a place known for its tater tots - North Bowl.

Yes, it's a bowling alley, but it's a cool retro bowling alley, and they have house made gourmet tater tots. It doesn't get better than that. Located in the gentrified Northern Liberties/Fishtown section of Philadelphia, it might be a little difficult to find, and parking is at a premium, but it was worth the trip. The décor is cool retro, you might not realize at first you're in a bowling alley, and of course, there's the tater tots.

To cover our bases for the review, we all ordered different types of these housemade gourmet tater tots. I kicked it old school with the original; while others got the garlic tots with garlic, herbs, and shaved Parmesan; and the crabby tots with old bay and cheese sauce. The tots appeared to be just standard tots, frozen and possibly deep fried, but they didn't taste that way - they were pretty good.

The Bride, and The Dark Crystal in from San Francisco (we miss you, girl!), went off the tater trail and got the cheeseburger mac and cheese, declaring it quite tasty as well. We were all too full to try the funnel cake fries for dessert, maybe next time. If nothing else, it's yet another reason to come back to the area.

The afternoon was a good time with friends, fried foods, and good conversation. I am really going to miss these folks.

French Fry Diary 613: Birthday Goodies

I have a pretty important landmark birthday coming up later this week, and I wanted to talk about freebies, specifically birthday freebies from fast food and chain restaurants. For the sake of the blog here, I'm on an awful lot of email lists for these restaurants so of course I'm on their birthday list as well. I should add that there's a substantial lack of the favorite fried food for free.

Denny's is the granddaddy of these bad boys with their free Grand Slam breakfast on your birthday. You get two eggs, two pancakes, two sausage links, two slices of bacon - but no breakfast potatoes or hash browns. Sad. IHoP goes one better with a free breakfast that might just include hash browns.

Friendly's will give you a three scoop sundae, Dairy Queen does a Blizzard, Chili's a brownie sundae, and Cold Stone Creamery, Baskin-Robbins, Rita's Water Ice, and Ben and Jerry's all have ice cream in a cone or cup. Also in the cold club are Smashburger and Zinburger with milkshakes, and P.F. Chang and Outback both get you free dessert.

Sonic, Charlie Brown's, Red Lobster, Famous Dave's, Moe's Southwest Grill, Qdoba, and Fuddruckers play it safe and mysterious by saying you're just get a free gift. Maybe it's a watch? Hmmm… all I wanted was fries… Don Pablo's goes right for the wallet with the lazy birthday tact of a gift card.

Red Robin rules with not just a free burger, but also a side of those bottomless fries. Houlihan's gets you a free entrée, Johnny Rockets a free burger, and my friends at Cool Dog Café are good for a free hot dog. Hmmm… I'm thinking Cool Dog for lunch maybe and then Red Robin for dinner…

French Fry Diary 600: Dairy Queen

Dairy Queen is one of the few big chains I haven't yet reviewed here at French Fry Diary, mainly because they have been so hard to find. The just ice cream versions of Dairy Queen are everywhere, but it's been darn hard to find one that serves hot food, a Brazier. There are a couple down in the southern South Jersey area, but you have to navigate the traffic hell that is Route 42 and the Black Horse Pike to get there, not an easy task.

Decades ago, when I was just a wee one, back in the late 1960s, early 1970s, there was a Dairy Queen walking distance from where I live now in Cherry Hill. There's a strip mall there now. At that Dairy Queen I remember, a picky eater even then, raising a fuss because I didn't want those things on my hamburger bun. After trying them however, and until even today, I like sesame seed buns better than regular seedless buns. Oddly, they don't seem to have sesame seeds on most of their burgers at Dairy Queen now.

After braving the traffic hell one day and actually finding the Dairy Queen, I got down to the business of reviewing them. The burger was good, and nothing beats real ice cream as a dessert compared to other fast food places that have dessert as an afterthought. Dairy Queen does ice cream, and it shows. Best fast food dessert, hands down and thumbs up. Sundaes are awesome, as are the shakes, and if your taste turns toward smoothies, DQ also owns Orange Julius and you can get that here as well.

Now on to the main event, I got two small orders of French fries and onion rings each, and they came in small cardboard boxes reminiscent of White Castle containers. The French fries were thick shoestrings with a slight batter covering for extra crisp, soft and very hot inside, a little greasy but not enough to be worrisome. These fries are substantial, excellent for shake dipping. These fries are good, but wow, they pale in comparison to the onion rings.

Dairy Queen onion rings are heavenly, medium sized slices of onion, with bread crumb batter just enough to make them crispy. With a hot succulent delicious whole onion inside, they have a lightly baked quality, and that's even though I know they're deep-fried. They don't taste deep-fried. Seriously, these are superior onion rings, too good for a fast food chain. Highly recommended.

French Fry Diary 575: Raglan Road

Usually every trip to Walt Disney World for me includes a journey to Downtown Disney and Cookes of Dublin, which until recent years has had the best French fries, pardon me, Irish chips I have ever had. Lately though, they haven't been so great. Whether it's because of changes in the cooking process or just general laziness in prep, I don't know, but they ain't what they used to be.

As a change of pace, this trip, we decided to try the big fancy sit-down restaurant attached to Cookes of Dublin called Raglan Road this time. It's the same folks doing both places, but rather than a walk-up counter service, this was a nice sit-down place. We had planned on having a whole group of folks with us, friends and family, but one by one, people dropped out for various reasons. I was beginning to wonder if I should change my deodorant.

At first, as it was just myself, The Bride and her mom, we were thinking of just going to Cookes of Dublin as Raglan Road was so much more expensive, and Cookes was easier. Thinking of the folks who couldn't make it, we bit the bullet, and went to Raglan Road for a full meal and experience - and it was an experience. Absent friends and family don't know what they missed. No regrets.

The restaurant is pretty big, like most places in WDW, it's like a TARDIS, bigger on the inside than it looks outside - a large dining area and bar area, with one big stage and a center stage as well. We had heard there were shows, and bands, but we did not think, being so early (it was five-ish) we would see them. We were wrong.

I got my usual, a plain burger, as well as an order of the chips and an order of the onion rings which I had been told I should definitely try. The burger was very good, and came on a weird roll that had strips of ham? Or onion? Baked and threaded through it, very very tasty. As far as the food goes, it needs to be said. They may be next to each other, and they may be the same operation, same management etcetera - but Raglan Road is not Cookes of Dublin. Raglan Road is vastly superior.

As we were beginning to enjoy our meal, the entertainment began. It was as if Riverdance erupted around us, on the large stage in front of us, and a small center stage spot behind us. Propelled by the music of Creel, the tap group known as Our Darlin' Dancers put on an amazing show. So terrific, and later kids from audience were brought up on stage, shown moves, and danced along. Everyone had a great time especially the two little kids who were dancing next to our table.



Back to our meal, especially the French fries and the onion rings, the stuff you're here to read about. Both the rings and the fries (I mean chips) came in proper paper cones, although other tables had them dumped on to plates, which was also kinda cool. The onion rings were fine in the cone, but the fries were kinda wedged in there pretty tightly. The cheese was like a glue holding them together. Note the shape of the pile once we dumped them onto a plate ourselves.

My friend Dom was dead on about the onion rings. They had the same wonderful batter as the Cookes of Dublin onion rings, with big thick and juicy onions, and a very crunchy exterior. To die for, these were fantastic. However the fries were a bit different from the fare at Cookes. These natural cuts were bigger than usual shoestrings, with good amounts of cheese, garlic, and something that always needs a careful measure - just the right amount of truffle oil. Near perfect fries. Raglan Road more than makes up for Cookes of Dublin's recent decline.

Since it was The Bride's birthday, we also got as a dessert the bread pudding that one of our absent friends had recommended. We didn't order it, it came on its own - that's just how Disney rolls. This was a luscious dessert, and the vanilla and caramel cream over it was sweet heaven. What a wonderful birthday gift. Thank you!

There was a lot of food, so we ended up taking some of it back to our happily microwave equipped hotel. The onion rings were a bit soggy the second time around, but based on my experience, I think these would have been awesome if baked when reheated, rather than nuked. I might say the same about the fries, but for the record, they were an inedible disaster in the nuke. Definitely bake leftovers.

Raglan Road is awesome, one of my favorite restaurants in WDW, and it gets my highest marks. Very highly recommended, and I would definitely come back. As a matter of fact, I look forward to it. Raglan Road rocks.

French Fry Diary 568: Steak 38

My friend and GAR! Podcast partner Ray and I had been talking about going to Steak 38 for quite some time but somehow plans have never worked out. If you know Ray, you know why. His work and play schedule is a maze of madness that would make even minotaurs crumble from the pressure. Anyway, with a coupon that expired that night, Ray finally made time to go to Steak 38. Yeah, coupon. Priorities, baby.

The coupon was a godsend as Steak 38 is a classy restaurant, classy equaling expensive. Classy as in I might get The Look when I ask The Question. You know what The Question is, right? "Do you have French fries?" Well, they'd better, even though they're not on the online menu. After all, they are a steakhouse, classy or not.

I was worried when I realized I had to make reservations earlier in the day just to go to this place. Burger King it was not. Steak 38 is run by two life long friends who met while waiter-ing at Chubby's in Collingswood and whose fathers worked together at the legendary Latin Casino. These two know restaurants, and are very serious when it comes to Steak 38.

However, classy aside, it is near a reputed bad area. Once inside the restaurant however you would never know. Inside is very, very nice, and the service was professional and attentive. Like on the Disney Cruise, we had two people waiting on us, and serving our every need.

Our orders were brought to us on a cart. I got the chopped sirloin, which was huge and covered with onions. It was perfectly cooked. Perfect. It came with lightly frizzled onions, very tasty, and a twice-baked potato. They were both very good. I would have liked more frizzled onions and less of the sautéed kind, but still both were terrific.

No one blinked or flinched when I asked for French fries, test passed, no Look after The Question. The fries came as a side and were regular natural cuts. A little bigger than regular regular cuts, they were very good while hot, and still good while warm. All in all this was a great meal for potato products and side orders.

The crowning achievement for the meal was dessert, which Ray insisted on, and I'm glad he did. He ordered the Bananas Foster for two, which made it kinda seem like a date. And I think the folks at Steak 38 already assumed we were a couple. He ain't The Bride, but Ray's still a good date, heh. The cool part is that our waitress made the dessert at our table. Awesomeness. Food on fire is always a plus, and it was delicious.

All things considered, this was a pleasant dinner well worth the price. I would definitely come to Steak 38 again, highly recommended.

French Fry Diary 562: Rustler Steakhouse

From 1968 to about 1985, Gino's had an upscale restaurant partner called the Rustler Steakhouse. It's a thing of the past now, but where they had a Gino's, somewhere pretty close by there'd be a Rustler Steakhouse. That was the case in the 1970s during my childhood, the local Gino's by the Lindenwold Speedline had a Rustler about a hundred feet away.

I remember going, twice. I confess, I didn't really grow up in a normal family. We hardly ever went out to eat, ever. When I was eight or nine, I spent a few weeks of the summer with my cousins, and got a taste of a semi-non-dysfunctional home. One night they went out to dinner at the Rustler Steakhouse, and they took me with.

Rustler was very similar to other steakhouse restaurants of the day like Bonanza, Sizzler, Ponderosa, and even the fondly remembered York. Classier than a fast food place, it was run cafeteria style, you ordered your entree then picked up your side items and then your steak was brought out to your table.



I don't recall what kind of fries they had, but I know they had killer baked potatoes. I especially remember the chocolate pudding for dessert. Anyway, once I was home, I must have raved about the Rustler Steakhouse so much that my parents took me. I remember my dad hating it so much we never went back.



When Marriott bought Gino's in the 1980s, they didn't do the same for Rustler, and they slowly faded away. Anyone else out there remember the Rustler?

French Fry Diary 550: Little Shanty 2014

No more Smashburger for New Year's Day, not since discovering Little Shanty in Warren NJ. Now we have a new tradition. I love this place. We arrived just after they opened at noon, and I was surprised and pleased to find them quite busy.

Our mission this time out was to try the homemade chips. I'm glad I brought my appetite because we ordered big - burgers, fries, a shake, sea salt and vinegar chips for The Bride and BBQ chips for me. We were both pretty psyched for the chips.

You know that sound a vinyl record used to make when you pulled the needle off of it suddenly? Yeah, that screeching brake sound. Just a moment after I typed that last part into my iPhone, we were informed by our server that they 'didn't have any chips made right now.' As substitute we got the fabulous onion rings and a side salad. I can't say I wasn't disappointed, but hey, what could I do?

The burgers were awesome, as were Grandma's Fries, natural cut shoestrings with deep fried onions. That combination is something else. These are formidable fries, among the best. And the onion rings, specifically Angus & Patty's Almost Famous Onion Rings, are also among the best.

Jonathan the owner came out, it was nice to put a face to the name. He was busy doing prep when we came in. He apologized about the chips, having had a couple employees call out. It was New Year's Day after all. Very nice man, we talked a bit about Pomme Frites in NYC and the demise of Olga's Diner down near me.

He even gave us dessert on the house, including the luscious and decadent deep fried Twinkie (they also have Oreos and Milky Way candy bars), that alone is worth the trip. The batter they use is perfect for this kind of dessert, rivaling similar treats at Cookes of Dublin and the British Chip Shop. Good stuff.

We didn't finish our lunch and had to take some home with us. A pleasure to walk out with Little Shanty bags of food for later (the burger and rings were still pretty awesome reheated at home). We will have to come here more often. Jonathan, good to finally meet you and thank you so much for taking care of us. Everyone else, you have to check this place out. Excellent food, excellent service, highly recommended.

You can find Little Shanty at their website, on Facebook, and on Twitter.

French Fry Diary 537: Celebration Night at Enchanted Garden

After a night suffering from a thankfully 24-hour bug, and a special thank you to the newlywed couple who helped me out, especially the man who escorted me to the medical center, I was back on track aboard the Disney Fantasy. The kindness of strangers is a wonderful thing, and these two gentlemen were very caring and thoughtful. The next morning I awoke, fever broken, and voracious, diving right for those great roasted potatoes up at Cabanas. I was back.

Our final night on board was a good one, and not just because I was feeling better. First I was feeling good enough to eat. As an appetizer I tried the Grilled Potato with Goat Cheese Napoleon. Wow. The potato part was very good, but I'm not sure why they called that other stuff cheese. Nope, Tiggers do not like goat cheese.

Now all week I had been using the new app for my iPhone that only works on the boat called 'Disney Fantasy Navigator.' It was basically an electronic version of the daily schedule given out everyday on the boat. In the dinner menus for everyday I kept reading about this Golden Chicken Strips with Barbeque Sauce served with Steak Fries. As it turns out this was a kiddie offering, but by the end of seeing it all week, I wanted it, and ordered it. Sadly, they were out of steak fries. I guess the good fries go first.

For dessert, The Bride was sung to for her birthday, and we were both sung to for our anniversary. Combine that with a luscious dessert called Chocolate Decadence, as well as baked Alaska, and this was a very good night.

And remember, French Fry Diary is now on Facebook, come on over and join the fun and the discussion!

French Fry Diary 501: The Melting Pot

Ray and his lovely wife have been trying to get The Bride and me to go to The Melting Pot for almost a decade now. After dragging Ray to Zinburger the night before, we all made impromptu plans to hit The Melting Pot in Philadelphia that night.

For those of you not in the know, The Melting Pot is a fancy chain restaurant that, similar to Benihana, is known more for the experience than anything else. It's a fondue restaurant where essentially you cook your own dinner, bookended of course by dipping food in cheese first, then later for dessert, chocolate. It's awesome.

There's a hot plate on your table and a pot into which your waitress puts various dips. The first course was a variety of bread you could dip in hot cheese. Mmmm. Then came salad. I'm sure some of you must have heard of this - raw green leafy vegetables in a bowl - very exotic, but no dipping. Dessert as I said was chocolate, as in various fruits, marshmallows, and even Rice Krispies treat to dip into it.

Your entree, and this is where it connects to FFD, potato people, is a variety of raw meats that you choose from the menu. You basically fork the meat (I got steaks) and place it in the hot pot for a while where it marinates/boils/deep fries. The stuff comes in various flavored and if you like well done, it could take a while. Next time I think I'll get the chicken FYI.

Anyway, dinner also comes with an assortment of vegetables. There're carrots, celery, and what's that under the broccoli? Yep, raw red potato wedges! Ray had kidded me beforehand that there were no French fries, but there were, kinda. The potato, like the steak, took a while to cook, but well worth it when done.

All kidding aside, I loved my experience at The Melting Pot and highly recommend it to all. It was a terrific fun night out with friends and a unique dining experience. And they even had potato product!

Random Tater Pic of the Day #74

Potato Chip Peanut Fudge

My friend Marni hipped me to this recipe recently. It comes from the Candy section of About.com.

Potato Chip Peanut Fudge, recipe by Elizabeth LaBau.

Potato Chips are the not-so-secret ingredient in this sweet and salty fudge. Although the peanut butter is the flavor that really shines, the chips add a nice subtle saltiness and crunch that’s irreplaceable.

Ingredients: 3 cups granulated sugar, 1/2 cup (1 stick, or 4 oz) butter, 1.5 cups sweetened condensed milk, 1.5 cups chunky peanut butter, not natural-style, 1 cup chopped salted peanuts, 2 cups coarsely crushed potato chips, and 1 tsp vanilla extract. 

Preparation:

1. Prepare a 9x9 pan by lining it with aluminum foil and spraying the foil with nonstick cooking spray.

2. Place the sugar, butter, and condensed milk in a medium-large saucepan over medium heat and stir until the butter and sugar melts.

3. Continue to stir occasionally as the mixture comes to a boil. Insert a candy thermometer, and cook until the mixture reaches 240 degrees, or soft-ball stage. This will take about 8 minutes, if you are not using a candy thermometer.

4. Once the mixture reaches the proper temperature, remove it from the heat and quickly stir in the peanut butter, peanuts, potato chips, and vanilla. Stir until the fudge is well-mixed and all the ingredients are incorporated, but work quickly so that it does not begin to set.

5. Pour the fudge into the prepared pan and smooth into an even layer. Allow the fudge to set until firm, about 2 hours at room temperature or 45 minutes in the refrigerator.

6. Once set, remove the fudge from the pan using the foil as handles, and cut into small one-inch pieces with a sharp knife. Serve Potato Chip Fudge at room temperature, and store remaining fudge in an airtight container at room temperature for up to one week.

Check out the full recipe here.

French Fry Diary 375: Mixto

A night out was planned with The Bride and some of her friends (and also my friends, as they were all her friends first in high school before I met her, I call them her friends). Usually we only get together at particular events in which one or most are involved in the event, there's not much downtime to just talk. This was the idea behind this get-together, just relax and chat.

Marc and Judi were there, as well as another friend who had chosen the restaurant in the city - Mixto. Now I had heard of Mixto, but living out in the suburbs I don't get into the city as much as I'd like, I had never been. Mixto is a lovely two-story restaurant in downtown Philly that brings a wonderful Latin, Cuban and Caribbean flavor to its fare. I loved the décor, but the wait, even on a Saturday night was horrendous. Good thing the food, and especially the company, was great.

I ordered the Whisky Rib Eye, which was delicious by the way, but then I asked The Question, because I did not see the favorite fried food on the menu. You know what The Question is, right? "Do you have French Fries?" They did, and they brought them with my steak.

The Mixto fries were regular cuts, likely frozen but it didn't matter because they were done well. They had a different kind of batter covering. It was apparently designed to come off, to flake off during deep-frying. This created those tasty cracklings like you find leftover in the box at Long John Silver's, but in this case, they were attached to the fries. This was surprisingly good.

We had a wonderful night out with friends, were joined by others later on, and we had dessert at More Than Ice Cream. I didn't get to try the fries there as it was dessert, remember? Next time. A terrific night all around, I can't wait to do it again. And the next time we go to Mixto, I want to try the mofongo.

French Fries for Dessert

We've seen dessert fries before here at French Fry Diary, but these sweet potato fries are just a little bit different. Hmmm... Elvis might like these...

This segment comes from "United Tastes of America," which airs on Food Network and Cooking Channel. Here host and food fanatic Jeffrey Saad checks out Peanut Buttercup Fries from the Fresh Fries food truck of Los Angeles.



Mmmm... enjoy!

French Fry Diary 326: The Aborted Applebee's Attempt

Let's be clear up front. Applebee's neither cares nor has any pride in their French fries. They are not included in their online menu as a side or an appetizer. You have to hunt them down to even see a picture of them on said menu. I guess if you're ordering online, fries just aren't an option.

It's been a long looong time since I've been to Applebee's. This is due to their always consistent customer service, which was bad. The last time I went to Applebee's was for my birthday about six years ago, and even then it had been a while before then we had gone. For my birthday I wanted a certain volcano fudge cake they had so we went, and from the way they seated us, to the food, to the wait time, to the getting orders just outright wrong, they assured us that their customer service was, as I said, consistent.

My memory insists that I have rarely had a good meal at Applebee's. I do remember once getting some really good onion rings, with Panko bread crumbs and shredded cheese mixed in, but I also recall the service that night being Applebee's standard. The fries as I recall are non-impressive salt and pepper natural cuts, nothing to write home about, and as I said before, Applebee's obviously doesn't think so either.

Further and much closer inspection of the online menu revealed that Applebee's also has crispy red potatoes, garlic mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, crispy onion strings, and fried onions, although I could not find these items alone, much like the fries. Now you're probably asking why wouldn't I just order those items a la carte, right? Well, those of you asking that question have obviously never experienced the fine, fine customer service at Applebee's. Good luck with that.

All that said, my buddy Ray came down for a buddy movie night. We were going to see the Hindu special effects spectacular Ra. One, and the only real restaurant near the theatre is Applebee's. At first I was hesitant, but seeing as Ray had just gotten back on to Weight Watchers, and Applebee's has a special WW menu, we went for it.

When we got there, it was packed, because it was a Friday night, of course. There was a thirty-minute wait. We weighed our options. Go someplace else, or wait a half hour for crappy service? Applebee's aborted this night, maybe another time. We'll try again.

French Fry Diary 271: Enchanted Garden, Final Night

For our final night's dinner on the Disney Dream, we returned to the Enchanted Garden. As with any Disney Cruise, and I suppose any good cruise, the final night is bittersweet. And with an excellent waitstaff that has handled us for the entire trip - Goncalo, Charlie and Fitz - it was sad to see them go. Well, actually we're the ones going, but you know what I mean.

I got the aged angus beef tenderloin that came with something called a William potato, and I also ordered steak fries cuz I'm just like that, ya know. The steak was the best I have had in some time, almost perfect. The fries were the steak fries I had had throughout the cruise and were even better with the au jus from the steak.

The William potato was a breaded pear-shaped animal that was soft and hot inside like mashed potatoes. It also had a sweet kick to it, very delicious. Further questioning of Goncalo revealed that it is shaped mashed potatoes, covered with spiced breadcrumbs and deep-fried. It's fantastic, and highly recommended if you see it on a menu.

The evening was topped off by the Flags of All Nations dance (you have to see it to believe it) and a wonderful baked Alaska for dessert. I'm going to miss the Disney Dream.

French Fry Diary 270: Animator's Palate, Pirate Night

Dinner on day four was Pirate Night on the Disney Dream, and we were once again at Animator's Palate. Pirate Night is also fireworks night on the top deck, as well as dress-up night. By dress-up, I don't mean those annoying formal nights that most cruises have, I mean dress-up like a pirate. Yeah, Disney, as always, means fun. Even our two servers, Goncalo and Charlie, got into the act.

The special effects of the restaurant were different tonight in that instead of interactive Crush the turtle it was simpler, subtler and in my opinion, better. We were treated to pirate images from Disney movies, rides, animation designs, and history. Visuals from films like Peter Pan, Treasure Island, Treasure Planet and of course the Johnny Depp Pirates of the Caribbean movies flashed across the multiple screens of the walls. I liked it a lot.

For starters at dinner, I had my favorite appetizer, a coconut banana treat, and my favorite rolls were also on the table, so we were off to a great beginning for the meal. Again, like I said, if you mention you like something, the waitstaff, who are with you the entire stay, make sure you are taken care of. The rolls rocked.

For dinner, I ordered some very spicy citrus chicken with the usual steak fries. The chicken was tender and succulent, and the fries, with the lemony sauce were terrific. This was truly one of the best meals on board so far, in flavor, company and entertainment.