We’ll continue what is one of my favorite ongoing series – Downtown Disney Drinking in Depth. So far we’ve been to House of Blues, Wolfgang Puck Cafe, Bongos Cuban Cafe and Laffers Cantina, and Paradiso 37. In this round, we’ll hit Portobello, Fulton’s, T-Rex, Raglan Road, the Marketplace Margarita Stand, Cap’n Jack’s, Rainforest Cafe, and then back to Fulton’s for dinner.
If you’re serious about your Downtown Disney drinking, there are two logical ways to start. The first is a nice steak and a glass of Chivas Regal at “home” – whether that’s Saratoga Springs Resort, a rental house, or your choice of park bench.
If that isn’t possible, House of Blues Happy Hour is your next best choice.
Both inside the restaurant and at the outside bar, you’ll find the best drink deals on Walt Disney World property. By far.
The House Cocktails are a Long Island Iced Tea, Margarita, or any house liquor with a mixer.
The domestics are on the left through Pabst and the imports are from Corona to Heineken. The Magic Hat #9, Samuel Adams Boston Lager, and Guinness aren’t included. Moving forward, these beers are going to be $5 – $7 everywhere else and we’re not going to run into a mixed drink for less than $8. After Happy Hour, the domestic beers bump up to $4.50 and the house cocktails are $6.50, so they’re still less expensive than the alternatives and the House of Blues is a fun place to hang out, whether you opt to sit inside or outside. The bartenders have been friendly and personable and overall, it’s my favorite place to grab a drink in Downtown Disney. A better look around can be found here.
After four House Cocktails and a Miller Lite to go (each), we continued on. Realizing we had a ways to go, we popped into Wolfgang Express to share a Pepperoni Flatbread Pizza.
While on the expensive side at $14.99, they’re not a bad value compared to the other options. The pizzas are baked fresh using high quality ingredients and unlike a lot of items, actually are big enough to share. On the Disney Dining Plan, this and the Marketplace Wolfgang Puck Express are the best bang for your buck resort wide. The Marketplace menu is more diverse, but if you’re in the mood for a pizza, sandwich, or salad, then the West Side Wolfgang is just fine.
After a brief pit stop, we’ll continue to The Hole in the Wall, the other bar that offers Happy Hour.
You’ll notice that Happy Hour here runs from 3pm to 7pm and the House of Blues Happy Hour is just 3pm to 5pm. The wise among us would hit House of Blues until 5pm, order a beer right before 5pm, close out, and mosey on over here.
For Draft Beers, Hole in the Wall typically stocks:
- Guinness
- George Killian’s Irish Red
- Magner’s Irish Cider
- Blue Moon Belgian White
- Warsteiner
- Miller Lite
- Yuengling
- Orlando Brewing Blonde Ale
- Harp Lager
- Smithwick’s
- Kilkenny Irish Beer
- Newcastle Brown Ale
- Orlando Brewing Organic Ale
- Samuel Adams Seasonal (Winter Lager this time of year)
- Samuel Adams Boston Lager
- Carlsberg
- Orange Blossom Pilsner
I think we have discussed most of these before.
The Orange Blossom Pilsner is a good choice for “someone that doesn’t like beer” because it’s sweet and tastes like honey and citrus. It’s also rare outside of Florida as far as I know.
I also like the Orlando Brewing beers because it’s highly unlikely that you’ll find them outside of the state. And possibly even the city.
The others are all fairly to extremely common. Despite their prevalence, Sam Adams does a nice job with the Boston Lager and I like the Winter Lager, so I’d be looking in that direction if something less familiar isn’t of interest.
I’ve been interested in the Bailey’s Iced Shake for years, but never sprung for one before today. This thing was delicious. Chocolatey, decadent, but still light, smooth, and easy to drink. And it didn’t suffer from the usual frozen drink problem where you’re left with dry ice at the bottom after you drink half the thing.
I hvae no ideass if there any was alcohol in it, but tastde grate! Just kidding. I don’t have any idea how much alcohol was in it, if much of any. Bailey’s doesn’t exactly pack a punch in the first place. But that said, this thing really was delicious and there was quite a bit of it. Protip: Ask for it to go because the cup is larger than what you get in a regular glass. At $9.50 ($11.50 normally), it is expensive, but we’re going to be paying this per drink from here on out. The $4.75 is with the $2 off for happy hour, but it does make the drinks more reasonable, so keep that in mind if you’re at Downtown Disney between 3pm and 7pm. There’s no reason to be anywhere else between 5pm and 7pm.
Portobello is located just a minute or two away down past Raglan Road and Cooke’s of Dublin. We tried to get into Raglan, but it was jam packed full of people. We’ll return.
Downtown Disney can be surprisingly busy in the evening. So busy, that you could be looking at 30 to 60+ minute waits at most restaurants if you don’t have a reservation. Portobello’s bar is a nice choice if you’re sticking your nose up at the 60 minute wait at Fulton’s.
Now that the restaurant accepts the Disney Dining Plan, it’s quite a bit busier than it was before.
But it should still be one of the easiest restaurants to get into without a reservation. This isn’t indicative of the quality of the service or food. I think it’s simply because the building is unassuming and the restaurant’s name isn’t familiar. People joke about Olive Garden replacing Tony’s Town Square inside Magic Kingdom now that Starbucks is ruining the sanctity of Main Street, but an Olive Garden here would do so much business. It’d have to be six stories and have dedicated parking.
Anyway, Portobello probably won’t be winning any awards on atmosphere, but it’s a tastefully decorated restaurant and I’ve enjoyed my meals there. This is the Black Linguine with Florida Rock Shrimp with tomatoes, garlic, and asparagus which was only $15.95 at lunch at the time.
Enough reminiscing. Back to this evening. My favorite part about Portobello, and one of the best deals resort wide, is the three meatball sliders for $5 at the bar. Or if you just want one, they’re $2 a pop. Here, we have Beef + Veal, Spicy Pork, and Chicken.
Each is easily three or four bites and for five dollars you either have 3/4 of a meal or a nice, sharable snack.
None of the signature beverages sounded particularly appealing. Does whiskey not exist in Italy? Would it kill you to put bourbon in something? And apparently no draft beers, though I like the Olde Pelican E.P.A as pictured above as well as the Red Ale, both from Orlando Brewing. The Moretti La Rossa, a 7.2% Dopplebock, is otherwise your best option.
Despite a lackluster menu, service was better here than anywhere else we visited. It probably helped that there were only six people at the bar, but it’s worth pointing out that this was the only place that poured us glasses of water as we sat down. To the right is the Gusto Estate – Torched Cherry, Peach Schnapps, and Apple Pucker. It didn’t taste particularly boozy since it was well balanced with the schnapps and pucker, but the cherry flavor was still pretty overwhelming. There’s even a cherry sitting in the bottom. Since it’s all alcohol, it does pack a punch though.
You may remember my roommate, Inappropriate Sara, from the last installment of Downtown Drinking in Depth and she joins us again for this run. I have no idea what this drink is. I’m guessing the Venetian Spritz. If you want to look like you know what you’re doing, Aperol and Orangecello are two good items to have in your bar.
I’d stop here for an Orlando Brewing beer and the Meatball Sliders, but the drink menu didn’t do a whole lot for me. Since they stock a full bar, I’m guessing they could whip something up to your specifications if you wanted to go that route. It just may or may not come out being $50. Wines were also priced incredibly high. The bartender confided in us that the markup was 300 to 600%.
Otherwise, Portobello is a pretty inexpensive restaurant all things considered. You can get out of here for $10 – $25 a person without much trouble, though I’m not sure I’d visit specifically for the drinks unless I was interested in sitting at the bar for a beer and the sliders. That really is a good deal.
Over to Fulton’s, which is just a few steps away from Portobello on the water.
As the boat would appear in the movie “300…” at Christmas.
The bar is on the small side and looks inward, so you won’t have a view of the water.
Tables over here are seated diners. Earlier in the day and during days when it stays brighter out longer, outdoor bar/restaurant seating is also available outside to the left.
As expected, prices are extremely high. For example, a glass of Beringer White Zinfandel is $8. Total wine would sell you a bottle for $3.97. The Sonoma Cutrer, which is a very good bottle of chardonnay, is $13 a glass or around $20 a bottle in stores. While we’re on the subject, this is a very nice white wine if you’re in the market for one. That’s the 1.5L bottle too. A regular bottle runs around $9. You can ask for the regular wine menu, which offers wines by the bottle.
Sara fell back on old habits and ordered a glass of wine – the Mohua Sauvignon Blanc out of New Zealand – a $9 glass that would run around $15/bottle if you could find it.
An $11 Tiki Punch – Captain Morgan Spiced Rum, Myers Dark Rum, Amaretto, Passion Fruit Puree, and Fresh Pineapple Juice. This was freshly concocted and quite refreshing. It seems like the recipes are a bit more complicated than next door Portobello and sizing is also larger.
I would guess the Shipyard Pumpkinhead would be on its way out, but it was still available by the bottle last week. I like Pumpkinhead more than some. I’m usually not a big flavored beer person, but there’s something about pumpkin and cinnamon in October and November.
And you have a lot of options these days. I like the Dogfish Head and Terrapin more than the Shipyard should you ever run into them. Dogfish’s Punkin comes in at 7% and Terrapin’s is 6.1%, compared to the 5.1% in Shipyard. Anyway, the Pumpkinhead would be a little more interesting than your run of the mill macro and the flavor definitely fits the season.
If you want to look for quality “local” breweries, you don’t have to look any further than Cigar City Brewing down in Tampa. Like Terrapin, almost everything they brew is amazing, including this Jai Alai, which you may have trouble finding back home. This is an incredibly hoppy 7.5% IPA, which means it’s not for everyone. But if you like hoppy bitterness and like your IPAs, this one is world class. And at the same price as a Blue Moon or Heineken, it’s also a bargain.
Bell’s Oberon is Bell’s Brewery’s summer seasonal selection everywhere other than Florida and Arizona, where it’s available all year. This is a 5.8% American Pale Wheat Ale that tastes strongly of wheat. If you’ve sampled it this will make sense – it tastes like a meadow. Because it’s more of a warm weather beer, it might not be the best choice in November. There’s no lingering bitterness, which is one of its best attributes as far as a nice summer ale are concerned. A 6-pack in stores would run around $10, so this is one of the smarter choices compared to what you’d pay in stores also. Highly recommended, particularly from April – October when temperatures are higher.
Overall, I’m not sure I would stop at Portobello or Fulton’s unless I was looking for a $6 beer. While it’s undoubtedly fun to sit on a boat, you aren’t really going to get that feeling staring inside at the bar area. And the drinks are pretty expensive.
We’ll rewind back to September 9th for a meal at T-Rex that I have neglected to tell you about.
T-Rex is one of the most popular restaurants in Downtown Disney. There’s virtually always a line out the door just to check in.
And the restaurant is jam packed.
The bar area was surprisingly void of people around 5pm on a Saturday. It’ll be full in an hour.
But as a couple of adults, I’m not sure why you would want to put yourself through this kind of torture.
The restaurant is horrendously loud.
And often dark.
But also very cool, particularly for the the target demographic, which I would think would be 5 – 12 year old boys.
I was personally terrified.
Lighting is so weird in the restaurant that these pictures are going to look bad. Just pretend they’re Instagram or something. So the whole beer in a margarita thing had sounded disgusting to me for some time. My guess is whoever “invented it” probably recklessly knocked over a beer into their margarita, didn’t notice, and said to themselves, “Wow, esto no es tan malo.” Anyway, this is a “Coronarita,” which is a “chilling blend of our frozen Mastodon Margarita combined with a bottle of Coronita – $12.99.” The full menu with pricing is available here. The whole beer/margarita thing is surprisingly good in my opinion. You may not want to test the waters with a $13 drink here, but your local Mexican restaurant probably offers much larger drinks for less money. If you’re in the Orlando area, Garibaldi near the Florida Mall serves fantastic Mexican food and a “Bulldog Margarita” which is $10 and about four times as big.
Chanon and Patsy (probably not their real names) had invited me out to dinner, so we have a wider variety of pictures. This is another drink of some kind. I’m interested in the Cotton-tinis that are topped with actual cotton candy.
I opted for the Fossil Fish and Chips – $19.99. People complain about pricing, but it isn’t that much worse than other Disney restaurants and the portions are as huge as the menu is diverse. The fish wasn’t anything spectacular. Chanon made fun of the fact that I compare all fried fish to Yorkshire County Fish. So I’ll do just that. It was similar, but I still prefer Yorkshire!
The Colosso Nachos for two – $15.99 probably would have been enough food to feed the three of us. They are indeed colosso and seemed to have a lot of cheese and other toppings to cover the chips.
Chanon ordered what I thought were Mahi Mahi Tacos. She may have to interject with what they are and how good they were! But if memory serves, I seem to remember a “decent” rating. That’s about what you can expect from T-Rex. The food is going to be pretty good and the portions are going to be large. You’re here for the horrific ambiance.
It’s certainly a lot of food.
But the restaurant is really aimed at the kids. Here’s the Kids’ Menu. Both Chanon and Patsy (really, those names sound unlikely) both had reading certificates good for a 99-cent Kids Meal because the kids had done their reading. The restaurant honored them, so each of the Kids meals were just 99 cents. So if your child’s school participates, you may want to consider that.
And the Corn Dog Nuggets.
Odd looking. The $4.99 souvenir “Discovery Blast” aimed at the kiddos.
And they have T-Rex napkins! For shame Disney! For shame!
If I was going to describe T-Rex in two sentences, they would be: Eating at T-Rex is like riding DINOSAUR nonstop during a Marilyn Manson concert. In hell.
If you have kids that are into dinosaurs and the prehistoric, then this might be a good choice. But it’s so loud. So loud. Food and service were decent – I don’t think that’s going to be a big detraction in most cases. This isn’t world class cuisine by any stretch of the imagination, but the menu is diverse and the portions are large. Adults could even get away with sharing the appetizer sampler if it came down to it. I suppose you could pop into the bar for a drink and to stare at the aquarium for a while if you wanted, but I’d probably skip it. Pricing and pour quality aren’t the best. And it’s really loud.
Coming up we’ll stop in at the Sangria Bar. Over to the Marketplace Margarita Stand. An unfortunate run-in at Cap’n Jack’s. Drinks at Rainforest Cafe. And dinner at Fulton’s.
“Eating at T-Rex is like riding DINOSAUR nonstop during a Marilyn Manson concert. In hell.”
I laughed long and hard enough to trigger an asthma attack. Hope you’re satisfied.
You would have had to carry me out of the first stop of your drinking tour, I have respect for Sara she seemed to be able to keep up with you. It looks as though towards the end she slowed down with the glass of wine. It ended a little abruptly, is that when the taxi was called? Loved your tour and Sara is a good sport for helping you with your blogging duties. I wish we could see a picture of her or maybe a comment on life with Josh.
I just realized there is more to this drinking tour, I did not see the last sentence, your poor liver.
Baileys icecream is very easy to make and very good.
Am both jealous and amazed at your boozing abilities.
Love this one. My kids begged to eat at T-Rex on our last trip. So we’ll having lunch there in a few short months. Better get Marilyn Manson’s latest album so I can at least sing along.
Patsy and I thought we traumatized you and you blocked T Rex from your memory. I doubt I will be going back given my son wore noise cancelling headphones most of dinner. And yes, those are fish tacos.
Amazing post! Can’t wait for the next installment. I am a fan of pumpkin beers too…my new favorite is Southern Tier’s Pumking. http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/3818/38394 It’s absolutely delicious and has the coolest tap handle in the history of ever: https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/2493_10151164011619266_1546514976_n.jpg
I always forget about the sliders at Portobello!! Thanks for reminding me, it will be a must try for next trip.
While you’re on the Downtown Disney review, I would like to hear your review of Earl of Sandwich. It’s highly rated on Trip Advisor. For counter service, this seems like a nice alternative to the the parks’ burgers and chicken fingers.
“Bell’s Oberon is Bell’s Brewery’s summer seasonal selection everywhere other than Florida and Arizona, where it’s available all year.”
You can usually get it in Michigan from late March (starting on “Oberon Day”) all the way into winter—there is still plenty of availability in my local store. I should think about getting some more, as today will be a leaf raking day, and a good yardwork beer seems appropriate.
PS: Oberon Day 2013 has been set. March 25th.
My kids are probably too loud for the T-Rex restaurant, which they dismiss as “loud and annoying.” But my younger two girls love the build-a-dino thingie in the store. Well, technically they got sabre-tooth cats, because the family filidae is the only one that trumps giant carnivore lizards.
That plate in the first picture is the kind the college students around here always have. We ended up with a set (which is to say, one plate and one cup) the same end-of-school year the kids scored multiple razor scooters, innumerable knick knacks, and a vinyl-covered couch. Oh, and a massively pregnant cat (everything but most of the now-grown kittens are long gone now).
I think I like Josh’s cup better though.
Too OLD. Although they admittedly can get pretty loud, what I meant to say is that my kids are probably too old for the T-Rex restaurant. Argh!
We need more of ” Inappropriate Sara”…
Despite my pleading to finish this series earlier, I’m happy that you finally got around to it. I still wish I would have had the opportunity to meet Inappropriate Sara. Now I can add Portobella sliders to my bucket list.
What the heck was that boat before it was Fulton’s? I can’t for the life of me remember, but I’m almost positive it was something else a million years ago…
I think the boat was a Crab House before or some combination of crab in the name.
I agree, the Bailey’s shake was wonderful. I am an extreme lightweight and had absolutely no effects from downing the entire thing in about 10 minutes.
I think the boat was even a character meal at some point.
I ate on the boat in 1998. I remember it as being divided into a couple of areas of restaurant, each with it’s own name, but I could be wrong.
@bnoble All of the stores around Kalamazoo appear to be out of Oberon. Even the Bell’s Eccentric Cafe was out of it the last time we went. Well, I think they were out, I don’t have a very clear memory…
And they have T-Rex napkins! For shame Disney! For shame!
Hahahaha
Josh, if you like the Coronarita, try this the next time you need a frozen drink to entertain the ladies in your life.
Combine equal parts Tequila, Frozen Limeade and Bud Light style beer in a pitcher, Gently stir until frozen limeade mixes in. Pour over ice in blender. Blend until smooth and enjoy.
I can verify that Patsy and Chanon are indeed real people with possibly not-so-real names, because I’ve met them in real life after being real friends in not-so-real life for a really long time.
And the summation of T-Rex in 2 sentences nearly gave me an asthma attack as well.
Mystery drink is a Prehistoric Sunset. And it was DELICIOUS.
(& I have met Sarah in real life, after knowing her for three years in not-real life, when I sat down next to her on a go kart thing-a-ma-bob to go ride a fictitious train.)
I think she is incredibly jealous I had dinner with you.
Cheers!
@Bunny, Before Fulton’s, it was called The Empress Lilly.