Because we were willing to switch hotels we got free dinner passes. We had three choices of restaurants to choose and boy were we excited when we saw what one of our choices was. There was a steakhouse that Heather was contemplating a while ago all of us eating at on this trip. But when we heard what the prices were we all quickly vetoed that idea as too expensive. Wouldn't you know that the restaurant, Steakhouse 55, was on our list of restaurants we could choose from. Included in the free meal was tax and gratuity so we really had to pay nothing at all. We made our reservations for 7:30 that night and very eagerly and really hungry we waited in the lobby to eat.
I absolutely love this picture of Walt Disney and Shirley Temple that was hanging on the wall by our table. I think it is so cute of her and I love how comfortable and casual Walt looks. I liked it so much I was contemplating just taking it with me. Surely nobody would have noticed..right? I chose the right and left it where it was but I had to take a picture so i could remember it.
here is a copy of our menu. We were not too sure what our free meal entailed so we had to clarify with our posh waiter named Steve. He let us know that we could have anything on the menu. "Anything"? I asked. "Anything" he replied. "You could have all of it if you wanted"."Nice"!
First to come was the most delicious, hot, sourdough bread.For the appetizer course most everything was some type of seafood. Not any of us are fans of seafood and so we got the "Boiled portebello mushroom, Humboldt fog cheese, port wine reduction". We were not too sure about it so Steve brought us two.
When he first put it on our table I wondered why they brought us escargot. It looked really nasty but we tried it and surprise, surprise, it tasted nasty too. Ha! Not to our taste at all. Oh well moving on.Next was the salad and I ordered "spring greens with candied pecans and raspberry vinaigrette." I was a little worried about it considering how bad the mushrooms were but it was DELICIOUS! Oh it tasted so good. I finished the entire plate and would have been happy ending our meal there it was so good. The thing with this meal was how much time we had in between each course. We had time to eat and talk and laugh and with the space between courses we had time to digest food so we were not feeling full and bloated by the end of the meal. It was perfect.
Then came our Entrees. Of course with a free meal we did not have to worry about prices and so you can bet that we ordered the most expensive entree we could. All of us ordered the 10 oz fillet Mignon. Plus whatever sides we wanted. I ordered the mac and cheese but when they brought our food there was a mix up and he brought smashed potatoes instead. They quickly fixed the problem by leaving the potatoes and also bringing me the mac and cheese. i am so glad they did because that mac and cheese was nasty smelling and nasty tasting. Yuck. the smashed potatoes though were really tasty.
Can you believe that hunk of meat cost $35! Just for the steak! It was one yummy tasting hunk of meat so it was worth it. Well worth it to be free, at this point I don't care how good something tastes I do not think I am ready to pay that much money for one piece of meat. Oh man but was it good!
We were having such a good time at this dinner. It was fun to just laugh and talk and laugh some more. I had the case of the giggles right when Steve came up to take our order and it was kinda embarrassing but so hard to stop. You know when you just cannot stop laughing. I was a little afraid that he thought I was laughing at him but maybe he just thought I had too much to drink. No alcohol here though just some good times with some good company!Now it was time for dessert!
Mom and Heather ordered Free-form Seasonal Tart and the rest of us ordered the Vanilla Bean Creme Brulee. I had never had one before and so I was kinda excited to try it out. After Steve took our order he said "so that will be three Brulees and two tarts". Ashleigh was the first to snicker and then the rest of us followed suit. Two tarts! He called Mom and Heather two tarts. Hahaha! Steve looked surprised for a minute and then realizing the way he said it and how it sounded he laughed a little too.
When the desserts came they had the tray behind me and so I didn't see anything until it was set on the table. Mom and Heather got their tarts first and I was looking at their plates thinking how pretty it looked when my plate was set down in front of me.
I seriously was speechless. My hands went up to my cheeks, my jaw dropped and I could not make a sound. It was the prettiest plate of food that has ever been put in front of my face. The candy ribbon holding the cookies, the flavored drops of "confetti" the raspberries on the brulee. I was dying. All I could think to say was "compliments to the chef!" and I truly meant it. I was amazed, we all were!
So happy! It was really delicious too!
You know thinking back I wonder how many people thought we were so strange taking pictures and being all giddy. But I am way OK with how we acted. I don't ever want to be so jaded that things like this don't impress me. I want to have excitement and be excited about things.Another cool thing about our meal was after it was over we just got up and left. No worrying about the bill, who is going to pay what, how much do we do for gratuity, we just left. I felt so rich and important at that point. If that is how the rich do it then yeah I could get used to that!
After our three hour meal..really, we took some pictures in front of Walt's picture. One of the waiters told us an interesting tidbit about Walt and his pictures. Walt was a very heavy smoker and was always photographed with a cigarette in his hand. Of course this is not too kosher in this time so in all of the pictures the cigarette is taken out. Interesting isn't it?
See his hand on the table in the picture? It used to have a cigarette in it.
Here I am thanking Walt for the fine dinner we just ate. He is so generous!
See the right hand of Walt? Yeah used to have a cigarette in it. Such fun, knowledgeable tidbits!We had such a good time this night. I don't remember the last time I laughed so hard, we all really enjoyed ourselves!
Best Dinner EVER!!!