French Fry Diary 695: Landscape of Flavors, Dinner

After being beaten into near immobility after a half-day at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, I was done for the day. Many hours later I emerged from my self-imposed exile and crawled to Landscape of Flavors for dinner, hoping it would be better than breakfast there.

I went traditional, mostly because burgers I had seen earlier looked really good. The burger was fresh, hot, and juicy, and I was surprised by getting more bacon as a topping than I had as a side the previous morning. Hallelujah, the bacon shortage must be over!

Most surprising however was the whole wheat bun that I usually don't care for, it was fresh, soft, and delicious.

Accompanying the burger were deep-fried natural cut shoestrings, hot and crunchy outside, hot and soft inside. For what they were, these darn good fries. They were even good when they cooled off.

Having stayed at Art of Animation twice, I have not been a fan of Landscape of Flavors, but this meal may have changed my mind.

French Fry Diary 670: Landscape of Flavors, Breakfast 2015

As we headed to Landscape of Flavors that first breakfast at the Art of Animation resort on our most recent WDW stay, I was not looking forward to it. Honestly I was thinking of sneaking across the bridge to Pop Century for the better breakfast. Landscape of Flavors hasn’t been kind to me in the past, especially with breakfast, and I am sooo staying away from those tandoori potatoes.

As I was looking for some sort of potato-ey thing for breakfast I spied these big baked red potatoes. Despite the accompanying image, they looked so good, but wow, what a disappointment. They also looked (and look) seasoned but they were quite bland, seriously needing butter, salt, or even cheese… and if I'm asking for cheese on my potatoes, you know I'm desperate.

The great bacon boycott of WDW continues, as I was provided with two whole slices of bacon. Two whole slices of bacon!!! There is apparently some terrible bacon shortage that Villa Italian Kitchen at the Philadelphia Airport is blissfully unaware of. Two slices per customers is ridiculous!

For breakfast, I also had two pieces of semi-warm challah French toast from under a heat lamp and just enough syrup for one regular slice. Let me be clear, if you're not an egg guy, either in omelet or sandwich form, you are going to be screwed by breakfast at Landscape of Flavors.

French Fry Diary 578: Landscape of Flavors, Lunch

Breakfast at Landscape of Flavors may have been a disaster, but lunch was another story altogether. While waiting for our bags and bus, etc., I had time to kill in the common areas of the Art of Animation resort, including Landscape of Flavors, and at lunch, well, one gets hungry.

I got a really good pulled pork sandwich, which I enjoyed, and I'm not a fan. The sandwich came with these fabulous homemade potato chips. Some were seasoned lightly with a smokey barbecue, and they were excellent both hot and later when cold. Great crunch and thickness.

These chips win the resort, for me at least. I would come back for these in a second. Thumbs up.

French Fry Diary 538: Landscape of Flavors, Breakfast

This place was a bit of a shock, made more so because we were at Disney. I really hope this is an anomaly. From the moment the day before, when I had FourSquared from Landscape of Flavors, I had a few folks email me and Tweet me that I had to try breakfast there, especially the breakfast potatoes and/or the tandoori potatoes.

Indeed, I have only heard good things about this food court since it, and its hotel, Art of Animation, opened. The more remarkable tales tell of folks coming all the way across the bridge behind it from Pop Century for the food. I admit my curiosity was piqued, because I like Pop Century.

The customer service was abysmal. Skipped lines, forced to buy items not wanted, and just a total crap attitude. No one was going to get a 'What Would Walt Do? pin here, that was for sure. So it must be the food, right? Once breakfast was gotten back to the table, I'm really not so sure.

I was planning to get the tandoori potatoes but quite frankly, that did not look all that appetizing. Maybe I missed out on a serious potato delight, but really I just didn't want to even try them. I opted for the regular breakfast potatoes instead, along with some barely warm, dry, overseasoned Challah French toast. What a waste of Challah bread.

The potatoes were of the shredded variety, not the usual tasty diced throughout most of Disney, and over at Pop Century. These shredded potatoes are then baked a la kugel, sliced up and served in squares.

Sounds good, right? Not really. For the most part it's a soggy mess, with occasional a pepper speck or two for flavor. The only good part is the top skin which took most of the heat baking. What good is a breakfast potato dish without a little crisp to it? These needed crisp, they needed seasoning, and after a few moments it was like eating cold mush. Suddenly the tandoori potatoes didn't seem like a bad choice.

This was by far one of the worst breakfasts I've had at Disney. Maybe they deserve a second chance, but it will take quite a bit to get me to come back. Just say no to Landscape of Flavors.