When we first arrived we decided that it would be best to valet park. We were on vacation and didn't want to spend our time looking for a good spot. The valet parking cost $20 not including tip. It was located right beside La Nouba Downtown Disney's Cirque du Soleil. I'm not sure if this is the permanent location of the valet parking or if it was due to the construction. More will be revealed, I will be back and give you updates. Also feel free to comment if or as changes happen.
After we parked we walked up the walkway past La Nouba and the first thing we saw was a restaurant called House of Blues. It smelled awesome, however, we did not check to see how long the wait was due to just arriving and wanting to look around.
There was also Disney Quest. An indoor theme park with a lot of virtual games and rides. We did not go in but plan to on a future trip. We have heard mixed reviews and would like to form our own opinions. Hopefully next time we will get in there. I do hear they have awesome deserts.... we shall see.
There were so many shops! It was quite the shoppers paradise. Everything from Disney to Harley... go figure. There was a bowling alley and a movie theater. All fun things none of which we wanted to do on this particular day.
We did stop in the Lego Store to get out of the crowds for a few minutes and let the kids play. There were some amazing, I guess we'll call them, sculptures. There were also quite a few spots for the kids to build things both inside and out.
After looking around we realized how hungry we were. So we started looking around for a place to eat. Fulton's Crab House had a wonderful looking seafood menu and was situated on a boat in a lake. The prices, however, were a little more than we were looking to pay that night. Notice the walls up in the picture below:
These walls were everywhere. Apparently they are renovating a lot of different areas and have big plans for the future of Downtown Disney. I'm excited to see it.
So we moved on to T-REX. It looked like a lot of fun to eat there and the prices were that of a everyday restaurant in our neighborhood. Unfortunately for us the wait was 120 minuets to be seated so we had to skip it but, I will be eating there one day! There was an awesome replica of dinosaur bones outside so I can only imagine how cool it looked inside.
We ended up eating at a lovely restaurant called Ragland Road. It is Irish themed with dancers doing the jig randomly throughout the night. They also have live "Irish" music of course. Prices were not as cheap as we had hoped but they were also not as expensive as Fulton's Crab House. It seemed like a happy medium.
They had indoor and outdoor seating available. I took many photos of the inside of the restaurant. None of them were useable. It was dark in an Irish Pub sorta way. It added to the theming nicely but I will need to invest in a real camera after this trip if I want pictures of places like that.
We only waited about 15 minutes to be seated even though we were told the wait was 30 minutes. We were seated in a back corner of the place by a back door. This was good because we have kids and wouldn't want them disturbing other guests but bad because we were farther away from the live entertainment than I would have liked. Even though we were in this corner we could still see and hear everything that was going on at the main stage.
Our waitress was there within 5 minutes of being seated. She took our drink orders and came back with our drinks and Irish Soda Bread. Also a plate with oil and a Guinness reduction. It was sweet. I liked the dip, however, the bread was to heavy for my liking. My daughter agreed and my husband just didn't like any of it.
Our food took about 20 minutes to arrive after being ordered. Our order consisted of:
Fish and Chips:
Ok this beer battered fish was delicious. It was warm and flaky and exactly what fish and chips should be!! Definitely a recommended item on the menu.
Ragland Risotto with Chicken:
This was a butternut squash risotto. It does not come with the chicken. That was an option I added at an additional price, shrimp was also available. I recommend not adding the chicken it was the worst part of the dish. While the flavor on the outside was good the chicken itself was dry and I did not eat it. The risotto was very good. It had a rich flavor with a creamy texture. It had shitake mushrooms and pieces of butternut squash throughout. An arugula salad came on the side along with a veggie shish kabob type thing that is not listed on the menu but good. All in all I don't know that I would order this again as a meal. As a smaller portion on the as a side dish would be perfect.
Children's Hamburger and Chips:
This was an as expected plain burger. Daughter only likes ketchup on her burger and the chips were thick like steak fries and unseasoned. She ate the whole thing so I know it was better than a fast food burger, which she does not enjoy. The tic tac toe was a decoration on the plate. It was cute , however, I'm pretty sure it's only purpose was to make the plate look full.
Desert:
It was my birthday the night we were there and in traditional Disney sit down restaurant style they offered me a complimentary desert. I accepted and to my surprise it was a wonderful unexpected display; it was so big I could not finish it. I'm not sure what it was called. It was a type of bread pudding and it was soooooo delicious! I would totally go here just for this.
Overall, I would say its a good restaurant, especially for such a commercialized area. Is it worth the price...maybe. For the meals we got and the final cost no. However, there were many other meals on the menu that seemed much more extravagant and Irish for the same price. We just weren't in the mood for those heavy things for our first night on vacation.
There is also a counter service right next door that we looked at first. A lot of the same menu items for half the price. This is where we really wanted to eat. There was seating available and since it is a counter service it's also a seat yourself thing and people were waiting outside table stalking. We knew our chances of getting a table within the hour were slim to none.
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