We actually had three meals in the Pepper Market, during our three night stay. On our first full day, we ate breakfast there. It turns out that they have a buffet for lunch and dinner, which was new to me.
In reality, that is an affordable Disney buffet.
At breakfast, there were multiple stations set up, allowing you to get pretty much whatever struck your fancy. My only complaint being that they limited you to one beverage. You could have refills, but you weren't allowed to have an orange juice and a chocolate milk.*** She did let me change drinks though, as I didn't care for the one I got. She gets points for that.
I tried corned beef and hash! I didn't like it. :(
The food was pretty standard for breakfast. The offerings were more varied than I expected, but nothing came across as spectacular. Even though I don't care for skins on my potatoes, they were acceptable on the breakfast potatoes. They had a really good flavor.
As you can see, I didn't care for the sausage
patty. Note to self - Pac-Man sausage is blah.
I don't believe I finished the pastry item either. It wasn't nearly as flavorful as I expected, but it was pretty. I took a second trip up, to see what I had missed.
More breakfast noms!
The biggest complaint about breakfast was that sometimes items may have sat too long. I picked up some of the kielbasa, but it was the pieces that had been leftover in the pan. They were a bit off. The fresh fruit was good, and the ham was passable. Somehow, Disney has convinced the average visitor that biscuits made from rocks are okay. Even covered in gravy, I couldn't eat my biscuit.**** Perhaps the real surprise of the meal was that weird round thing in the upper right hand corner. It's was some sort of Mexican banana bread pudding. I don't usually care for bread pudding, but it was really good.
Like breakfast, lunch is also a buffet. Once again, this is a recent change. In our case, we didn't have the best lunch experience, but it was really our own fault. Most lunches have seatings that are scheduled for two or sometimes a bit later. At least, that is what I've learned booking meals at Disney. Because of that, we expected the lunch buffet to run until three. Unfortunately, it ended at two. Showing up at ten til, that didn't give us a whole lot of time. The attendants told us that they keep the food out until a quarter after, so we figured that was time enough.***** It turns out that a couple other tables felt the same way.
As you can see, it was pretty empty. I have heard that
it is relatively empty regardless of what time
you show up for lunch.
In an effort to try everything and to be less of a burden on the staff, we ran up, scoped the place out, and piled food onto a few plates. We figured we were only taking that one trip up, so we made the best of it. It was a pretty good plan, but it was disappointing when you found something you really liked and couldn't get more.
That's my dad's pretty hand. It was a bit of a shock.
The lunch buffet offered up some standard fare, but it also had all sorts of Mexican inspired dishes. Like the Tusker House buffet at Animal Kingdom, there is a blending between normal, Americanized fare and more worldly options. Someone sick of the generic buffets would enjoy this change of pace.
Are those the same taters from breakfast?
Once again, the food itself was pretty solid. Nothing was horrible, with a few dishes being just plain amazing. It may sound weird, but the corn with the peppers in it was my favorite. It made me so sad that I couldn't get more. The quesadilla was also really good, probably because it is the type of food that can sit around and not get gross. The mashed potatoes were also really good.
Most of the other Mexican inspired dishes were not great, but I think that's because they sat while I ate the other stuff. Fresh, I imagine they would be quite good. As the sauces on them cooled, they became a bit unpleasant.
Desserts!
Always on the ball, my mom gathered up some dessert for us. The one with sprinkles seemed to be some type of red velvet cake.****** The cakes were moist, but I really just wanted to eat all the icing off of the German chocolate cake. I believe my mom claimed that piece of chocolate sticking up off of it, as well as the piece on the red velvet cake. They were reportedly good.
Bird totem pole thing.
For dinner, the Pepper Market returns to its old self, offering dishes for a set price. It wasn't overly busy when we were there, which was both good and bad. It wasn't noisy and crowded, but it wasn't always easy to order your food.
They give you instructions.
There are multiple stations, each one having its own theme. Aside from the obligatory dessert section, you have real meal stations. You can choose from sandwiches, grilled and roasted items, Italian, or Mexican dishes. When you choose what you desire, you tell the castmember at that station, at which point they stamp the reverse side of your instructions. This is used late to pay.
I can haz cheezeburger.
It probably took at least five minutes before someone showed up to take my order. As the place was quiet at the time, I understand that they were multi-tasking and probably just didn't see me there. At the time, I was kind of annoyed though. Luckily, the guy was so nice that I didn't mind by the time I had my food. When I ordered a side of zucchini and squash, he just gave it to me. Since I hadn't complained, it was a nice gesture.
It's so pretty!
Squash, zucchini, and peppers.
Like the buffets, the offerings were quite varied. Probably because it wasn't sitting around, the food was better than the offerings at the buffet. My fries were meh, but they were just sitting in a pan, under a heat lamp. The burger was prepped when I ordered it. The patty was already cooked,and they just tossed it back on the grill. It worked though. The veggies were great though. I wanted to go order more, but I was afraid he would just think I wanted another freebie.
This picture does not properly showcase the sandwich,
mainly because there were a lot of chips.
I believe both of my parents ordered the Philly cheese-steak also made when you ordered them. Instead of generic brand chips, those are Ruffles. If there had been Helluvagood dip, we would have been set. I don't recall them saying anything negative about the sandwiches. There was also an order of nachos, which everyone picked at.
There are those sub-par fries...mocking me!
In general, the service at the Pepper Market was hit and miss. When their only responsibility to the table is to provide drinks, I get a little annoyed when mine goes empty. I know I'm a heavy drinker, which is why I order a water and a Sprite or lemonade. I do what I can to help, but one of our servers,while very nice, let my drinks sit empty quite a bit. He flat our forgot to bring me a refill after telling me he would go get one. At least he was a nice guy, but maybe a 10% upcharge is a little much for empty glasses.
The elusive table, seen here in the wild.
I can't wait to stay at Coronado Springs again, and I really want to eat at the Pepper Market again. I love this buffet because it did't cost an arm and a leg. There are no characters, which is a nice break, and the food was pretty good. Even if I weren't staying at Coronado Springs, I might make a special trip just to have lunch there.
*I use the term cheap loosely. Nothing is really cheap at Disney, but it gets a whole lot more expensive.
**For those not in the know, there are basically three resort categories at Disney: value, moderate, and deluxe. They are ranked from least expensive to most. We tend to stay in the moderates because the deluxes are too rich for my blood.
***By the way, don't get the chocolate milk. It doesn't show up at Disney as chocolate milk. She just added syrup to white milk! Unacceptable!
****My dad, always the genius show-off, showed me how to open the biscuit using the fancy tongs. I didn't use his trick, so my biscuit was torn in half savagely.
*****I feel bad about it, but we specifically went back to the resort to eat. We wanted to try the lunch buffet, so I apologize to those that had to possibly stay a bit late and wait on us. Having worked as a waitress, we rarely go into a place if it closes in less than an hour. You can consider this my one lapse in judgement.
******Figuring out if it was actually prompted some time with Google, while we looked up the defining characteristics of red velvet cake
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