Having spent the day in Epic, it’s really obvious the plan was to open Celestial in the evenings City Walk style. The gates on the portals make it easy to close off lands (for the night or for corporate buyouts), but the capacity of the restaurants and bars in Celestial is really designed for huge numbers already, and that’s even before Blue Dragon and the big Mexitalian restaurant come on line. I really have to believe they’ll open Celestial Park at night, even if it’s just for the resort guests. Gotta fill those tables!
We probably should have a dedicated food of EU thread since there’s so much to try. We ended up eating two meals yesterday, and both were excellent. The quick serve restaurants are all encouraging using the app and scanning table numbers for food delivery like in a few of the North Campus venues.
We ate our first meal at Oak and Star. The restaurant and the Plastered Owl Bar are absolutely gorgeous inside. Beautiful arts & crafts style meets deco details throughout. Huge fireplace front and center when you walk in, with a second hearth in the dining room to the left.
We both ordered the two meat platters, which each came with choice of side and honey cornbread. Portions seemed small at first, but it turned out they were exactly right— not too much, nothing wasted, felt full in the end. I got the brisket and pulled pork with the burnt ends baked beans, Brian got the brisket and the smoked sausage with the mac and cheese, and also ordered a side of the slaw so we could try that. Meats come unsauced with four varieties of sauce on each table to add to taste. The 14 hour brisket absolutely melts in your mouth, and is legit some of the best I’ve ever had. Pulled pork and sausage were both excellent as well. Sides were small but really delicious and the entire meal was great. Comparable to Four Rivers in (regular) price, so I think this will be a real winner.
While waiting for Monsters to reopen we decided to check out Das Stakehaus and tried the red velvet coffin cake dessert which was good. The atmosphere of Das Stakehaus is great.
For our final meal we went to Pizza Moon. I absolutely love the whimsical theme elements inside. Really beautifully done. We split a Nanarossa which was more than enough for two people. The pizza was excellent, although there were some hiccups with service. We ordered through the app and put in the table number, and when our pie came it was beautiful. We asked for plates and the server brought them but we didn’t have napkins or utensils— those come from the cashier, so if you’re mobile ordering currently you have to go up and get them yourself. I’m sure this will be remedied quickly and easily, and is the point of these previews to figure out issues. We also ordered the Meyer lemon olive oil Moon Phase cake which was quite tasty, but was delivered with one spoon. I’m sure most people share desserts, so once again it required going and asking for a second spoon. The cake was really good— perfect balance of sweet and tart, and the presentation was beautiful. The limoncello sauce was quite boozy tasting (I loved it, Brian not so much) and the fresh blackberries and raspberry crunch were so good.
All in all, great food experiences and I look forward to trying more next week!