Pop Century
Everything Pop
This is the main food option at Pop Century and the only one I used (there is also a pool bar and pizza delivery). The food court is open from 6am-midnight although most of the stations selling hot food have shorter operating hours.
Since I mainly ate in the parks or had leftovers in my room, the main thing I did at Everything Pop was fill up my refillable mug, which there were plenty of options for - Coke soft drinks, Powerade, light lemonade, iced tea, coffee, hot tea (hot water + tea bags), cocoa. There is liquid creamer available from a dispenser as well as in packets, and I think there may have been powdered creamer available too. I usually used the dispenser so I could put in as much as I liked. Overall the coffee was bearable, although I would have preferred real milk.
For breakfast some mornings I bought bread. This was available in the bakery part of the Grab and Go section - I noted that there was a much better selection here in the morning than in the evening. 2 slices of bread cost 85 cents with tax and there was free "butter" spread, jam and honey near the refillable drink stations as well as toasters to use. I think you could also buy peanut butter from the Grab and Go fridges, so you could have made a peanut butter sandwich for a reasonable price.
One night my brother and I shared a chicken nuggets and fries meal as a late night snack. He got a bottle of coke as the drink (I used my refillable mug) and I had a Mickey ice-cream bar for my dessert (there was a freezer with a reasonable selection of ice creams but I can never go past the Mickey bar).
I used a snack credit for a Tie Dye Cheesecake. This looks cool but tastes just like a regular cheesecake, although I think the base is red velvet. Yummy and decent value for a snack credit.
At the end of our stay we still had a snack credit left over so I got a packet of carrots and celery with ranch dressing. It was a nice variation on the vegetables that were generally available (which seemed to be mostly broccoli and green beans) although ranch wouldn't have been my first choice as a dip (cream cheese would have been awesome).
Art of Animation
Landscape of Flavors
This is the foodcourt at Art of Animation. The main difference from Pop Century is that you get real plates and cutlery here (you can ask for the food in a to-go box if you want to take it back to your room). In addition, while Everything Pop offered mainly American fast-food style food (burgers, pizza, etc.), Landscape of Flavors offered a more interesting range of food.
While I was staying here I wasn't on the dining plan so I wasn't eating as many leftovers and had a little bit more flexibility with what I ordered. One time for breakfast I had a kid's breakfast platter. This was offered at a couple of different stations and I think there may have been some difference in exactly what was included in the platter depending on which station you went to. I had chicken sausage, scrambled eggs, hash browns and apple slices. For my drink I got a little carton of milk which I took back to the room and used for coffees for the next few days. Overall it wasn't a huge meal but it kept me going for a few hours.
For a slightly larger breakfast I had the adult size French toast with fruit topping and sausage. The French toast itself was nice although not as eggy as I would have liked, and the sausage was good. The fruit topping was strawberries and orange and wasn't a very big amount - next time I would probably just go with the sausage and buy a piece of fruit on the side.
The third breakfast I had here was the create your own yoghurt parfait. The "create your own" doesn't mean you actually make it yourself; there is a cast member who adds in the toppings you select. I had a range of fruit, including several types of berries, watermelon and kiwifruit. It was really nice - all of the fruit was good quality. My only complaint was that there were no signs labelling the toppings (most of the fruit was obvious but there was a section that seemed to have granola, etc. that I just skipped because I wasn't sure what any of it was).
I also had lunch here on my final day and had the Mongolian beef stir-fry which was actually one of my favourite meals at Disney World. The stir-fry itself had plenty of both beef and vegetables (it wasn't onion-heavy like Chinese takeaways often are). It came with a choice of basmati or multigrain rice (I had the multigrain which I really enjoyed), a choice of vegetable side (I had spinach and paneer; the other options were cauliflower and tomato, pumpkin or potato) and naan bread. Overall it was very tasty and filling.
While I was staying at Pop Century I walked over to Art of Animation and used a quick service credit here for dinner. I had the create your own pasta, which allowed you to choose a pasta, a meat, a sauce and as many veggies as you wanted, then the pasta was made fresh for you. I chose bowtie pasta, chicken, alfredo sauce and a bunch of different veggies. Once your pasta is made you are also offered parmesan cheese on top and garlic bread on the side. The portion size was big - I managed to eat it all but it probably could have done 2 people. I got a Mickey fruit tart for my dessert and a can of iced cappuccino for my drink, both of which I took back to my room and saved for breakfast.
Apart from meals I had a hot cappuccino which was tiny even by Australian standards and a Mickey ice-cream bar (unlike Everything Pop, there is no ice-cream freezer here, but a CM was able to get one from the back for me).
Animal Kingdom Lodge
Culinary Tour
Animal Kingdom Lodge holds a free tour of two of its restaurants, Boma and Jiko, every day at 3:45pm. You don't need to be staying at the hotel to take part in the tour and you don't need to make any kind of booking - just show up at the Boma podium at 3:45. There were around 15 people on my tour and it lasted almost an hour. Our guides showed us around the two restaurants and pointed out the significance of several details in the decor. In Boma we were able to see the dishes that were being put out on the buffet and tried two dishes - a prawn curry (similar to butter chicken) and Zebra Domes (yummy desserts - they had extras so I volunteered to have a second). At Jiko we tried the bread service and were given copies of the menu as souvenirs. There certainly wasn't enough food to make a whole meal, but it was still free food, and I found the tour itself very interesting. Definitely worthwhile.
Grand Floridian
Garden View Tea Room
This area off the lobby at the Grand Floridian offers High Tea. There are several different packages available; we went for the most basic option, the Bedfordshire Tea. The first course was served on a dinner plate and included a range of finger sandwiches (with mostly fairly traditional fillings), an onion tart, lavosh, grapes, and two different kinds of cheese. The second and third courses were served on a tiered stand. The second course was a jam tart and a scone served with cream, jam and lemon curd. I had the lemon curd but found it didn't have a very strong taste (it seemed more like a lemon butter). For the third course we had a choice of pastries, strawberries and cream or trifle but we all chose the pastries. We each received a couple of pastries including one shaped like a swan and a chocolate covered strawberry. There was a wide range of teas to choose from; I went for the Mad Hatter's Tea Party which is one of their signature blends and was quite nice. The pot included enough tea for about 4 cups. All of the food was very nice and there was plenty of it - we had a 2pm reservation and it kept us going until a late dinner at 8pm. I'd definitely do this again with a group of adults - I think young kids would probably get a bit bored.
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