Steak dinner at Disney

The annual meeting of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives brought a group of us from Land O'Lakes to the Walt Disney World Yacht & Beach Club Resort. On the first night of the meeting, a group of us went to the Yachtsman Steakhouse at the resort.

So, cut me a little slack, it was a business dinner, as it happens, we all had exactly the same steak – an oak-fired rib eye. It was a perfectly adequate steak. Each of us had it cooked differently to our personal taste. No one complained that it wasn’t just the way they wanted it.

The only differences were the sides and accompaniments that we had with the meal. Two of us had a Caesar salad. Classically prepared, it was just fine. The other two had lobster bisque. They both said it was good.

We did order sautéed mushroom caps with the steak. One order was more than sufficient for all four of us. General consensus – they were fine, but nothing to rave about.

The steaks came with garlic mashed potatoes. Living on the edge, two of us changed the accompaniment. My boss had a baked potato. I had potato pancakes. I saw them as the accompaniment for another dish on the menu – lamb prepared two ways (boneless rack and braised). I almost ordered the lamb, but I decided the thing I really wanted were the potato pancakes. Alas, they were disappointing. Not crisp like we prepare potato latkes at our house.

We got two desserts. One was a crème brulee and the other was a trio of gelato with strawberry and vanilla pineapple sauce. The crème brulee was very good. The sundae reminded us of a banana split only without the banana.

Actually, the main reason why I’m writing this review is because of the wine. It was quite unusual and I liked it. We ordered a bottle of Tablas Creek Cote du Tablas. I always have trouble figuring out how to pick a wine from a list, especially if it’s a business dinner and I have to worry about how my colleagues will like the choice. To be honest, it just sounded intriguing, so I asked the server about it. She said it was a syrah based wine. I’m not very familiar with syrahs but I’ve been trying a few lately, so I decided to give it a try.

Ok, so I’ve learned from the winery’s web site that in fact, the Cote du Tablas is mostly a Grenache (43%) and only 18% syrah with a couple other grapes included in the blend. That correction notwithstanding, it was a very interesting wine. When I first tasted it, it actually was kind of harsh and biting. The note that I made for myself after dinner was that it was very peppery. But after it had been open for a few minutes, the flavor mellowed, and it was very good with the steaks.

By the way, some of the same guys ate at Shula’s steakhouse a couple of nights later. They said it was better than the Yachtsman.