Before I forget, EOS our cost was $22.86 and at Vivoli
Gelateria $10.65 but we used 2 snack credits.
12/17 at 5:30pm dinner at Jiko.
As you have seen, we did not arrive at Jiko on time,
in fact we didn’t arrive until almost 5:55pm.
We checked in and we were seated immediately at a table for 2 by a
window with a large Christmas wreath above us, it was the perfect spot. We had views of outside, of the 2 big ovens
where food is prepared and the overall restaurant. (I found out later that
Chrissy from the In-Room Dining at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, who had helped me
in planning the cake, had checked in to make sure that everything was ready and
that we would encounter no problems). Dawn,
our server made sure to come and check on us often and made some great
recommendations. I excused myself to use
the washroom but stopped at the front desk and asked if everything was ok and
could they let Chrissy know we were here as she had wanted to come down to
partake in it. When I came back, we were just being brought 2 very warm rose
water moist towels to clean off our hands, a wonderful experience and helped to
set the mood for the evening, especially after all we had been thru.
NOTE: We are
not foodies or experts and do not know the lingo, however, we both love food
and look for places that we can enjoy both the atmosphere and food. If we find someplace that we like, we will
return. I guess you could call us more of the average diner. I have much more dining experience then
Andrea as I have lived in several places east of the Mississippi and have
enjoyed meals in some very fine dining establishments. Our goal was to try many
different dining locations, several of them signature and would try new things
but also to compare the steaks, which you will notice as our dining reports progress.
We ordered the drinks, apps and main course all at the
same time but will break them down for each.
For the Appetizers, we could pick from the Appetizers and from The
Cooking Place for our apps. I selected
the Grilled Wild Boar Tenderloin with Mealie Pap, Chakalaka, Truffle Oil and
Micro Cilantro. Andrea selected the Taste of Africa with African-inspired Dips,
Papadum, sesame Fatir, House-made lax Seed Naan and had goat butter. While waiting for our apps, we were brought
our drinks, mine Sprite, hers Coke with grenadine along with an Ethiopian beer
bread with a salted butter. If you like
a hearty whole grain bread, you will like it, we both enjoyed it. Our apps were presented and Dawn explained
the differences in the dips and breads, along with ways to enjoy it. The
Grilled Wild Boar was everything we had read about and more, with it being so
tender and flavorful. She loved the boar but the rest she wasn’t big on, I
enjoyed it all, a very different combination but good. The Taste of Africa, well that is not big on
our list to try again, but we are sure that others will truly enjoy it, just
not us. We didn’t like the dips and most of the breads were not to our liking,
however, we don’t regret trying it.
We also were brought a taste sampling of fried pork belly in a mustard sauce, it is very small pieces. This was ok, a bit dry but had good flavor.
On to the entrees and with all the choices, I remember
one thing I ate here from back in 2008, and had talked so much about it, there
was only one choice for us: The 10-oz Oak-grilled Filet Mignon and it had to be
over the mac and cheese. The menu says it comes with Pumpkin Pap”Isidudu”,
Brussels Sprouts, Caramelized Onions, South African Red Wine Sauce. Dawn explained that the mac & cheese was
different from before as the chef that had created it was no longer there and
they were using a different 4 cheese blend and different noodles. That was ok, and we both ordered the steaks to
be medium. (We have found that when
ordering steak anywhere to always ask what is their medium, from there we know
if we should order it medium or medium rare.)
When the main course arrived, I could see the difference in the mac
& cheese, in that the noodles were much smaller and it didn’t look as
creamy. (you will see a difference in this when we came back for our last evening
meal of our trip). Our filets were
cooked to perfection, so tender and flavorful. The mac & cheese was still
very good but just not the same. The demi-glaze and sauce just add so much to
the overall dish. When I tell you that
this steak set the bar on which all other steaks would be compared to, it is
what we compared any filet to and all other steaks and sauces for them. I could cut mine with my fork, and I don’t
mean having to saw back and forth a lot and apply a lot of pressure but almost
like cutting a hamburger with a fork. That tender. I would go as far as to say
that this filet is heaven on a plate.
So far in our meal, Andrea knows nothing of the plans,
we have been here for about 1 ½ hours. Dawn came over and brought the dessert
menu. We looked over the menu and decided: Her – The Kilimanjaro which is
Tanzanian Chocolate Mousse, Pistachio Financier, Pink Peppercorn, Meringue,
Cacao Nib Crunch, Ras el Hanout Pineapples. I ordered the Crown Jewel Sweet
Potato Cheesecake which is Purple Sweet Potato Cheesecake, Gingerbread Sable,
Spiced White Chocolate Cream, Sweet Apple Chutney. Dawn took the order but also managed to take
my camera so they could get pictures of the Proposal cake and of the proposal.
I excused myself to use the washroom and checked with the manager that
everything was ready and she assured me that it was. I then acted like I used
the washroom and came back. Andrea then said she needed to use the washroom and
she got up and left, Dawn came over and said is everything ready to go, I told
her as soon as Andrea gets back we are good to go. She left and I then texted
Andrea’s mom and asked her if she could text me a message letting Andrea know
that it is okay for me to ask her to marry me even though her mom wasn’t there.
The reason for this, is her mom was in on the whole thing and had told Andrea
many times that David isn’t allowed to propose unless she is there. This was to throw Andrea off and to make her
think that I couldn’t propose to her at WDW.
Her mom texted the message but instead of texting it to me, she texted
it to Andrea’s phone. Her mom sent me a text that said “oh Sh*t, wrong phone”. I looked and saw Andrea returning from the
washroom, she sat down and picked up her phone and started to open it, when I
put my hand over it and very softly said, “let’s not worry about the phones
right now, just enjoy the rest of the evening.” With that, I moved her phone over next to me
but away from her. Out of the corner of
my eye, I could see Dawn coming with other people, I kept looking at Andrea the
whole time to see her reaction. The cake was presented in front of her and it
took a minute for her to read it and for it to sink in. I then showed her the text from her mom and
held out the ring. She shook her head yes and said yes. After I slid the ring on her finger and we
kissed, she asked me how was I able to do this and to get her mom to keep the
secret. I smiled and said “that everyone here at Jiko was involved along with
Chrissy and her mom, well I guess she can keep a secret.” Then I told her that the cake was even more
then I had planned or pictured and that this was why we had to get here to Jiko
tonight. Dawn came over and asked if we
wanted the desserts we ordered or the cake, Andrea pointed at the cake and
said, the cake. Dawn took the cake and had our desserts boxed up, then brought
us each a slice of the cake along with the cake. It was incredible. A white
cake with strawberry mousse, whipped cream for the icing, and a savannah theme,
with icing ribbon and different pieces of chocolate, mmmmmmm.
After we finished our pieces of cake, Chrissy
came down with the manager and she had a big smile and was so glad that
everything had went perfectly. She did apologize by letting us know that she
was the only one in her office today and she had to have the supervisor cover
for her so she could at least come down and say hi. We then had our cake boxed up but asked for
them to slice a few slices so we could enjoy them when we got back to our
resort room as we had nothing to cut it with and Dawn said she would take care
of it.
We did something toward the end of the meal, we
presented Dawn, the manager and also Chrissy with a special thank you card that
we made up, as you can see pictures of it, along with making notes on a comment
card that we kept to submit to Disney.
We can’t really comment on the desserts we ordered as
it would be unfair since we didn’t eat them until later and it would not do
them justice to talk about them here but we can tell you that they were not
bad.
I
am sure that everyone would love to know what this costs, well here we go.
Dinner
with tax was $183.16 (which was a total of 4 TS credits) and then with the cake
it came to $257.71 The cake was quoted at $100 plus tax and ended up being only
$70 plus tax for a total of $74.55. Our
total tip for this was $48.40, which brought our grand total to $306.11 and
well worth every penny.
We then used the App for LYFT and had to cancel and
reorder a few times. With what we could tell, it was that they were not coming
to the Jambo house but to Kidani Village.
This was the only damper on the night.
When we got back to the POP, we went up to our room,
and when we opened it saw what I would only describe as an Engagement
Celebration package. I had known that there would be some Celebration pins in
our room, but what was there, well as I was later told, Mickey and Minnie had
delivered was truly a WOW experience. As
you can see in the pictures, there were 3 balloons attached to a small stuffed Dumbo,
a picture frame, a signed picture from Mickey and Minnie that congratulated us,
2 trading pins – I’ll be your Mickey and I’ll be your Minnie and 2 other pins,
these you cannot not get anymore, they were 2 Just Engaged pins. Amazing.
I went down to the food court and filled up our
refillable cups, then came back and when I went to get the slices of the cake
out, well due to our carrying it and moving about, those had fallen apart,
still tasted wonderful. We had planned
on keeping the proposal scroll, which looked like it was maybe a white
chocolate and gum paste, but it was very soft and flexible and was melting. I tried
it and well that was the only thing that didn’t taste good on the cake. We kept
the Chocolate mask. I then remembered I
had seen Levi at the front desk and since we both knew we wouldn’t eat the rest
of the cake, with all the dining we had planned, I took it down and asked Levi
if he liked cake, he said he did and I offered him the half of the cake that
was left. He said “you don’t have to do this” and I said “there was no way we
were going to be able to eat it and if he didn’t take it, it would be thrown in
the trash. Just please take it and you and the others working here can enjoy
it.” He thanked me and took it and said “Myself and all the night shift will
enjoy it.” I then returned to the room and got ready for bed. This had been one
long interesting day but neither of us would change any of it as it truly was
the start of the most magical, wonderful and amazing vacation either of us has
ever been on. This ends the first day
Tomorrow, 12/18 – we are in MK and doing the Mickeys Very Merry Christmas
Party. Breakfast at CRT for 7:00am, BOG for lunch at 1:25pm, along with some
snacks and PVH. We will continue with this and the pictures. Hope you all are enjoying our report.
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