The Big Fat Greek Dinner

The first day of our Disney trip started out with a lot of driving. And music, and bathroom breaks, and sleeping.

And for the record - only the passenger was sleeping. I think. I seem to have forgotten a couple of hours of the trip.

I had been planning this trip FOR.EV.ER and was really looking forward to it - so the fact that Kev was able to go last minute really blew my skirt up. And in addition to Kev going - we were rooming with the newlyweds Dave and Laura ( all the way down from Syracuse) AND spending an ENTIRE day at the Food and Wine Festival.

This was my third visit to the F & W Festival. And this time I was finally ready to take on the challenge. For my first visit, I was too overwhelmed and didn't eat a thing from it. ( Weird - I know) My second visit, we got there kind of late and I ate as much as I could before they closed. But this time, I had a list. I had a plan. And it started at 10 am and lasted until 10pm. All food all the time.

Does any thing get better than that?

But this post is NOT about the F&W. ( Believe me - I have a long detailed post about that) And this post is NOT about the super fun Halloween party that we attended ( again... totally deserves a separate post). It is just about the first day. The low key "let's chill out, get caught up, and enjoy a great meal" day.

And that is just what we did.

We met up at the Disney All Star Sports Hotel. Bethany, Laura, Dave, Kev and myself just hung out in the room for a little bit - telling tall tales, laughing, and fighting over how we were going to sleep. ( Rooming with newlyweds can potentially be a nuisance)

Then we hopped on a bus and headed over to our dinner reservations....

Now, we strategically chose the reservations based on a couple of things..

1. It is a fairly new restaurant that none of us had eaten at yet. ( which is rare as we are all fanatics)
2. It is owned by Cat Cora - star of Iron Chef.
3. It is located at one of our favorite spots - The Boardwalk.
4. It is GREEK food.
5. Does it get much better than that?


I had researched the menu about 71 times. I had already chosen exactly what I wanted to eat - but was worried about the portion sizes. Which is weird for me, I know. But my issue was this: I had been eating much lighter meals for the past month and we were spending the ENTIRE next day eating at the festival.

Always the perfect dining companion, Kev agreed to share a couple of things with me. Luckily we have very similar tastes in food so it works out well.

We started off with some amazing fresh bread and butter. Sangria and a margarita.

Then came our main course - in small appetizer size bites. Perfect.

It was so absolutely delicious that I forgot to take a picture and was eating away when Kev reminded me. We ordered the spanokopita and the lamb sliders. Now I have had spanokopita before. But this stuff was incredible. Flaky and flavorful. Yum! But then I tried a bite of the lamb slider. And I could hear little songbirds singing in my ears. I am officially in love. Never having had a lamb burger before, I didn't know what to expect. But it was spicy, tender, and perfect in every bite.

As a side we shared some sweet potato fries..... ( my eyes just rolled back in my head just thinking about them)

And then came dessert. Again, something completely new to us. I even used to work in a Greek restaurant and NEVER had this dessert. Baklava. It just never looked appealing to me.

But I could seriously eat this dish a thousand times over and be content and happy for the rest of my life. I can't even explain how delish it was. Except for that I will. It was nutty, and honeyly, and flaky, and flawless. And the pistachio gelato was the PERFECT side for this delight.

For goodness sakes alive!! IT.WAS.SO.GOOD!!

The entire meal was out of this world. Definitely exceeded my expectations. And the company was pretty amazing as well.

We tried to hang out on The Boardwalk for a little bit. But ended up heading back to the hotel to get rested up for THE BIG DAY.

We had some stomach stretching to do.

And just wait until you see every thing that our stomachs had to stretch for...