Paradiso 37 Brings Street Food to Downtown Disney

Disney is full of numbers. There are 101 Dalmations, Club 33, D23 and now at Downtown Disney, Paradiso 37. Since the closing of the Pleasure Island clubs last year, many wonder what will be the fate of the Downtown Disney area. The Marketplace has a great draw thanks to the incredible shopping options it offers Disney fanatics, but on the other side of the center is the void created by the closing of the Pleasure Island dance clubs.

Raglan Road, a delicious Irish restaurant, is the one of the quieter area’s saving graces, but now with Paradiso 37, it’s obvious the west side of Downtown Disney is slowly coming back to life. Located opposite the Harley Davidson store, Paradiso 37 offers the best street food inspired cuisine from all of the American continents; North, South and Central. In keeping with the numbers theme, they feature an incredible tequila bar with 37 varieties of tequila from across the globe. For the margarita lovers, the restaurant boasts ten different varieties, with the mango margarita as their signature drink.

The food selections are inspired by 37 different countries in the Americas. The menu has a wide range of options from American macaroni and cheese to El Salvadorian pupusas, so you’re sure to enjoy your own culinary journey in the restaurant’s airy atmosphere. We love to start off our meal with the Queso Fundido, a delicious pot of the chef’s special melted cheeses flavored with cilantro and chiles. Have your cheese with either warm flour tortillas or crispy tortilla chips. For your main course, a great choice for a big appetite is the Paradiso 37 Surf and Turf. Enjoy grilled BBQ shrimp and Argentinean skirt steak served with corn on the cob and street style potato pancakes. Last but not least, a great dessert to try is the Paradiso 37 sundae. Beautifully presented in a fresh coconut shell, this sundae brings vanilla, chocolate and strawberry ice creams with chocolate dipped bananas. This sinful sundae is topped with chocolate sauce, sprinkles, whipped cream and the quintessential cherry. Lunch and Dinner menus are available from the restaurant as well as a large alcohol menu.

The interior is fun and colorful with a great patio seating option that lets you look out at the rest of Downtown Disney and its shimmering lake. Everything is presented with its own flair, from the bubble glasses you get with your water to the colorful furniture and tequila bottle chandeliers overhead. It’s a great place to settle down after a long day of shopping at the Downtown Disney Marketplace and enjoy the various live entertainment Paradiso 37 plans to have every night. This is a great start to reviving the wonderful entertainment, dining and shopping complex that is Downtown Disney.

Celebrity Chef Cat Cora Will Open New Disney Restaurant

Even though Spoodles within Disney’s BoardWalk Inn a beloved favorite among Disney guests, it’s time to bid the restaurant goodbye – and then wave hello to a new, even better restaurant that will be taking its place. Disney has announced that celebrity chef Cat Cora will be partnering with Walt Disney World to open a new family dining restaurant at the BoardWalk resort. Kouzzina by Cat Cora will feature a menu of Mediterranean-style cuisine and is the most highly anticipated restaurant to come to Disney for quite some time.

“I am pleased to welcome Cat Cora and her engaging new concept for Kouzzina to the Walt Disney World Resort,” said Jay Rasulo, chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts. “This collaboration between Cat and Disney represents a significant step in our ongoing commitment to offer unique culinary experiences and choices for our guests."

Paying homage to the chef’s Greek roots, Kouzzina will showcase Mediterranean cuisine while staying true to Chef Cora’s philosophy of simple yet sensational meals. A Mississippi native born to a family of Greek restaurateurs, Cora grew up immersed in two different and flavorful cultures and has taken from that unique background her know-how around the kitchen. Appropriately, Kouzzina (pronounced “koo-zee-nah”) is Greek for “kitchen.”

Cora said that the new restaurant will feature “time-honored recipes passed down from my ancestors, as well as my favorite Greek and Mediterranean dishes that my family loves.”

The first and only female Iron Chef on Food Network’s hit show Iron Chef America, Cora is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in New York and the Executive Chef for Bon Appétit magazine. This won’t be Cora’s first venture with Disney, either; she’s been a featured chef at the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival and at Disney’s California Food & Wine Festival at Disneyland Resort. Cora also began working with Disney in 2008 by creating a Disney Video on Demand series to showcase ways to help families develop more healthy eating habits.

“I’m extremely excited about this latest extension of my relationship with Disney,” Cora added. “Together, we’re going to develop a truly amazing contemporary Mediterranean restaurant.”
Kouzzina will be one of a just a few celebrity chef-helmed restaurants at Walt Disney World, joining Todd English’s bluezoo at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort, and the Wolfgang Puck Café in Downtown Disney. And though the opening is still a long way off (Fall 2009), Disney diners are already eagerly awaiting this new addition to Disney’s BoardWalk. In the meantime, be sure to check out Spoodles while it’s still open, and while you’re at it, take a walk over to Epcot, which is conveniently close by. As always, you can save extra on Walt Disney World tickets by getting them here at DWTickets.com.

New Downtown Disney T-Rex Café is Dino-Mite

Downtown Disney, known to visitors from all over for its amazing restaurants and shops, now has a new reason to attract visitors, especially families. The T-Rex Cafe, which opened on October 14th, is more than just a restaurant; it is a complete attraction, with retail, dining, and fun activities for adults and kids alike.

T-Rex, which is owned by Rainforest Cafe owners Landry Restaurants, creates an interactive prehistoric environment, with décor centered on water, fire, and ice. The restaurant has been designed to make visitors say, “Wow,” with an exact life-size replica of a 140-foot long Argentinosaurus outside and a 5,000 gallon shark tank and robotic octopus on the inside. Kids will love the large animatronic dinosaurs ensconced in the walls along with real fossils, and the cascading waterfalls and bubbling geysers make it a nice setting for adults, too. The Geo-Tech and Ice Cave rooms are also particularly neat, with their flaming walls and glowing, color-changing ceilings.

Kids will be able to have fun before or after dinner with the restaurant’s many activities. In the fun and educational Paleo Zone, little ones can learn on interactive screens and play in multiple exploration areas. They can excavate in the "dirt" in the Discovery Dig area, or explore the mine and pan for precious stones, minerals, or fossils in Discovery Creek. T-Rex is a great place for children to act out their curious natures and have fun exploring and learning. And if nothing else, it’s also a great way to get them to burn off the sugar from dessert.

And though it might be easy to forget, T-Rex is, after all, a restaurant. So how is the food, you ask? T-Rex offers a surprisingly wide selection of American fare, including appetizers, soups, salads, pizzas, pastas, burgers, sandwiches, meat entrees, and dessert. Think T.G.I. Fridays, but with catchy dinosaur-themed names. The restaurant actually has a wood-burning pizza oven in its “Kitchen of Fire,” and guests have the option of designing their own custom pizza. The Mammoth Mushroom Raviolis are also quite nice, cooked in a lobster cream sauce with Roma tomatoes and fresh spinach. The most creative options on the menu, though, are the seafood and sandwiches, with unique offerings like the Tarragon Chicken Salad sandwich, which includes a Rotisserie chicken pulled and tossed with tarragon, celery, onions, toasted almonds, and mayo on a toasted hoagie roll. And herbivores need not worry – there are some vegetarian options available. There is also a separate menu for children.

T-Rex also features a wide array of souvenirs, apparel, toys, and other dinosaur-related merchandise. Children will especially enjoy building their own stuffed dinosaur friend with the first-ever Build-A-Dino, by the makers of the Build-A-Bear Workshop. It’s not all fun and games just for children, however. T-Rex features a full-service “Shark Bar.”

The 600-seat restaurant has been widely anticipated since its construction began in October 2007. With Walt Disney World’s recent closure of six Pleasure Island nightclubs and their family-oriented replacements nearly two years away, T-Rex is fulfilling a need for dining space in Pleasure Island.

So be sure to stop by T-Rex and have your own prehistoric adventure. And while you’re there, don’t forget to actually eat!

2008 at Walt Disney World

Its a brand new year, and there is a lot going on at the Walt Disney World Resort. The entire property seems to be bustling with change, and the folks at DWTickets.com want to make sure you are in on every update and new opening around The World. Always check our blog to find out the latest news, and always let us be your one-stop ticket shop for all of your Orlando vacation needs. We are the best discount ticket store you will find anywhere, and we offer cheap theme park tickets for Walt Disney World, SeaWorld, Universal and all of the best Orlando area attractions.

In 2008, the Walt Disney World Resort will do some growing with the Jostens Center at Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex. This latest expansion – scheduled to open this summer - will add 220 acres to the Sports Complex, which is touted as the “leading multi-sports venue for amateur and professional sports in the nation.” The brand new facility adds 45,000 square feet of competition space and will enable Disney to double the number of indoor sporting events they can host.

Landry’s Restaurants recently opened the Yak & Yeti Restaurant in Disney’s Animal Kingdom, and Downtown Disney will see their newest addition later on this year with the opening of “T-Rex: A Prehistoric Family Adventure, A Place to Eat, Shop, Explore and Discover.” This new dining, shopping and learning extravaganza is scheduled to open this fall.

At Epcot, the Tutto Italia Ristorante (Everything Italy) opened their temporary location a couple months ago in the Italy Pavilion. In the coming year, this dining establishment – which replaces L'Originale Alfred di Roma Ristorante will go through an expansion and plans a grand opening in the fall.

China’s Nine Dragons restaurant will be closing in the near future and reopening this fall with a new and innovative dining experience. The new sit-down dining room will include five cooking stations where guests can interact and communicate with the chefs from China.

All over the Walt Disney World Resort, updates and innovations are under way – both in the theme parks and at the other attractions across the property. To enjoy the latest and greatest entertainment opportunities at the Walt Disney World theme parks, you can always find your cheap Disney tickets right here at DWTickets.com! Once you get your tickets, let the DWTickets.com blog guide you to an amazing vacation.