News, Tutto Itali Reopens, Tutto Gusto Opens, Menus, Lasanga, Rossini, Chef’s Selection, Dessert, Wine

Edit: Tutto Italia accepts the Disney Dining Plan/Tables in Wonderland.  Tutto Gusto accepts Tables in Wonderland, but not the Disney Dining Plan.

A slew of news to get us started. Pricing and dates for Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party are official. My review of last year’s Party. Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party pricing and dates are also official. My review of last year’s Party. $74.50/adult (with tax) for Halloween night is pretty ugly. Otherwise, it looks like tickets went up about $2/person over last year’s prices, which is the customary increase.

Princess Merida began practicing Meet and Greets Tuesday in Epcot as pictured here.  She’s beautiful and looks to be a lot of fun.

A Legend of Jack Sparrow attraction is coming to Disney’s Hollywood Studios this fall. In addition, a new RFID version of “FASTPASS” began testing today (yesterday now). I’ll check it out in person later this week. It’s Tough To Be A Bug reopened at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Monday after a “branch” fell from the Tree of Life early last week. The Discovery Island trails remain closed and nets surround the area. Feels safe? The Magic Kingdom Express and Resort Monorails resumed normal service today (Tuesday) after closing between 11:30am and 6pm over the last few days.

But my priorities lie with the new Tutto Gusto Wine Cellar and the reopening of the Tutto Italia restaurant in the Italy Pavilion. Go figure.

Both locations are easy enough to find. Just head to the back of the Italy Pavilion and look to your left. Tutto Gusto’s main entrance is to the right of Tutto Italia, but there’s also an entrance from within Tutto Italia’s waiting area.

Via Napoli in the back of the Pavilion.

Thew newly reopened Wine Cellar. Very inviting?

And Italia, as pictured yesterday.

Tutto Italia’s menu:

Lunch:

Bigger: https://www.easywdw.com/reports3/tut1big.jpg.

Dinner:

Bigger: https://www.easywdw.com/reports3/tut2big.jpg.

Disney Food Blog has the Gluten Free menus here.  The Kids’ menu is the same for lunch and dinner as pictured on the dinner menu. One thing you’ll notice about the Kids’ Menu is that entrees are $10 and don’t include the appetizer or dessert, which would run you an additional $6 and $5 respectively.

Beer and cocktails:

After Dinner Drinks:

Kinda lousy pictures of the wine list:

Sorry. Let me know if you can’t make out something in particular (and actually care).

You’ll be treated to some complimentary goodies upon arrival:

The soft and hard breadsticks were really good. The oil seemed to lack a distinct flavor – pretty boring. The olives have seeds in them, so be aware of that before handing one to the kids. That didn’t seem like the smartest decision considering how many people will just bite down on them. The mushroom topped bruschetta doesn’t seem like an item that will appeal to a lot of people, but that may be on purpose. Serve something amazing and you’ll have to keep refilling the plate. We were never offered additional breadsticks, despite one plate being completely vacant, but I would imagine they would bring you another set (and may ordinarily offer).

The main dining room hasn’t changed much at all. The artwork around the restaurant, chairs, carpet, etc. is the same. The seating configuration is a bit different with more booths, but that’s about it.

The bathrooms are now located in the back of the restaurant around this corner.

The check-in/waiting area seemed to be the same, though I’m no expert on this restaurant. I’m sure I’ll be corrected three hundred times over if any of this is inaccurate. And of course, that’s welcomed (with a seven day ban from the website).

The main difference is the entrance/exit over to Tutto Gusto Wine Cellar next door. Hold your horses, child, we’ll get over there shortly.

This area seemed to look better than it did before, but it’s probably the same. The Italian women continue standing guard and will put you on the ground if need arises.

I don’t know if this looks neat or not. I found the “crop” button in Adobe Lightroom today, so the pictures might be slightly straighter than usual. But not completely because I can’t really tell the difference between straight and not straight, which is why the pictures aren’t straight in the first place! No jokes please!

I ordered the Rossini (left, $14), which is pictured next to to the Belinni (right, $12). Pricing on these seemed rough. They didn’t seem to be anything special and I would have preferred to put that money to work elsewhere.

The Caprese Sandwich ($15) ordered by my tablemate, Shelley. It’s really nice to see Tutto Italia offer a dedicated lunch menu. An item like this wouldn’t have been available before the refurbishment when Tutto offered just one (expensive) menu all day. This looked good and Shelley assured me it was. That’s certainly a healthy portion of mozzarella ssandwiched in between bread as fresh as it gets. A nice value for the price.

Served alongside some sort of crisps that were really good too.

My lasagna ($22). I didn’t really capture the size or wondrousness that this dish bestowed on me. It was really good. A ton of cheese. I hate this phrase so feel free to punch me. But it “melted in my mouth.” Yuck. But I mean it in a good way. I should have eaten half of it and taken a picture a la DISboards.com buffet reviews. Strongly recommended and a nice size portion. It’s $7 overpriced, but that’s not bad at all for an Epcot restaurant!

The Spaghetti ($19). I didn’t manage to grab a bite of this one, but the two people that ordered it were impressed. Scarlett even mentioned that she didn’t think she could say that a $19 plate of spaghetti would be worthwhile, but changed her mind when it arrived. That’s saying something too.

All of the food was great. Service was extremely attentive. Actually, Tutto always seems to be overstaffed. There are some kind of weird cast members just standing around the restaurant eyeballing people. We were seated in the back, away from the VIP media types, and there was an Italian server standing right beside us for nearly the entire meal. It’s kind of weird having someone in eavesdropping distance for the entire meal.

Another look back at the dining room. They did a good job reconfiguring it. The tables in the middle now seem more private.

I thoroughly enjoyed my meal at Tutto Italia. More so than I was expecting. The only major complaint was that the server brought out the salad and caprese sandwich about ten minutes before the hot food, citing the fact that there were two kitchens and the sandwich/salad were ready first. Since both were cold, they probably could have sat while the other items were ready. We’ll give them a pass since it’s the first day. I’m planning to return in a couple of weeks with George and should have a better idea of the food and service quality then.

Now over to the brand spankin’ new Tutto Gusto Wine Cellar. It’s an attractive, albeit small, space. The main bar sits up front here with tables of varying size and shape strewn throughout. We’ve got some two-person hightops in the main room here with the bar ahead and a sample of the food in a case to the right. The wine refrigerators are off to the right and the entrance from Tutto Italia is located to the left.

Beer on tap. They don’t serve bottles, so this is it. The Birra Moretti La Rossa is my favorite of the bunch, though the Blue Point Toasted Lager is also on point.  Such is the name. The others range from fairly generic to as generic as possible.

The menu:

And there’s actually one more dessert not listed outside:

Blurry cocktails. Should look familiar from Tutto Italia. You can order anything from Tutto Italia in Tutto Gusto:

Food from the case:

Wine in the fridge:

The wine menu has over 200 wines, so they probably have something to satisfy your palette. A sommelier is on hand to field questions and offer advice. Most wine is available by the glass or bottle.

I ordered the Chef’s Selection ($21):

That’s a big hunk of the fior di latte (“mozzarella” made from cow’s milk), even though it may not appear to be so. It cut into five large hunks. This was a nice, shareable platter. There’s plenty for two to gnosh on while sampling a glass (or three) of wine. Everything was great – high quality choices. It’s obvious that a lot of care went into choosing which items they wanted to serve. Looking back at the menu, the selection of three choices for $14 looks to be the most economical. That comes out to $4.67 per item, as opposed to the $8/each or $5.25/item I ended up paying.  I had this along with a $7 glass of Pinot Noir that I couldn’t tell you the name of.  Wine pricing seemed reasonable.  It was a nice size pour.

The Torta di Nocciole Cortemilia ($8). This garnered rave reviews as well.  I had a bite and it was indeed delicious.

Tutto Gusto isn’t without its detractions.  Over to the left, you can see the brightness that is the outside.  These doors automatically swing open multiple times every minute, resulting in an annoying beam of light permeating through the area.  You might be thinking (correctly?), “Josh, that’s ridiculous, you’re reaching for problems here.”  But I can assure you that the ambiance is absolutely perfect with the doors shut.  When they open and the light comes pouring in, a lot of that is lost.  It’s certainly not a deal breaker, but ask to be seated to the far right or left side so this isn’t as much of an issue.

It was too warm.  This is something that’s easily fixed and they may not have temperatures properly configured for opening day.  There’s obviously a big difference between an empty space and a space with 75 bodies in it.  On the other hand, they have a fireplace and it’s 90 degrees outside.

It is a bit on the cramped side with little room between tables.  That shouldn’t be a big deal though.  It does add to the overall ambiance.  Just be aware that this isn’t going to be an entirely intimate experience.  Like all theme park “bars,” kids are also welcome.  I would guess this place will fill up even more around peak meal times as people head in while they wait for their table.  I’ll check in periodically to see how things are running.

It is a nicely themed area, though you can see the light coming in from the entrance again.

The chandeliers in particular are fun and beautiful.

Another example.

Made out of wine bottles, this one is particularly neat.

One more look on the way out.

Overall, Italia and Gusto impressed.  The lunch menu at Italia, in particular, is great.  I’m looking forward to returning, something that wasn’t necessarily possible with the $35 entrees before the refurbishment.  Tutto Gusto is going to be a favorite for many.  Disney and Patina Group have another winner.  My only problem was the warm temperature.  Hopefully it isn’t a means to keep people from lingering and increase throughput.  Other than that, this is a great place to get off your feet, have a reasonably priced snack, and a glass of Italian wine from what I would imagine is one of the largest selections in the United States.  I left impressed and excited to return.