First, I chickened out. If you read this blog you know that I'm a picky eater. I thought I was ready to sink my teeth into the very delicious-looking Chicago dog, but I backed out. Instead, I ordered "just a plain hot dog, please".
I actually love hot dogs. Always have. For years, I used to really love getting hot dogs from Casey's Corner at Disney's Magic Kingdom. I remember tasty, extra-long hot dogs on soft white buns. Unfortunately, today's dogs are not at all like I remembered. The buns are great - IF you are having one of the very heavy specialty dogs. The buns are a little overwhelming if you're having a plain hot dog. My bun was hard to the touch and dry.
As I've complained about other entrees (like the Port Orleans muffaletta sandwich or the food at Pizzafari) the meat to bread ratio was way off for me. I just don't like that much bread. The picture doesn't show it accurately, but there's a lot of bread there. I realize, however, these buns were not meant to be served with plain dogs.
Now... on to the Chicago dog. Unfortunately, this was a "swing and a miss" (to keep with the baseball theming of this Disney restaurant). The toppings were tasty enough, but we had a temperature problem. The hot dog was cold. Like it just came out of the refrigerator cold. When my husband first tried to return the hot dog, he was told that the the toppings cool down the dog. After much "back and forth", the server finally touched the dog and realized it, in fact, was ice cold.
My husband returned to the table with a tray that had a plain dog and all of the toppings (pickles, Chicago relish, tomatoes, and pickled peppers) in separate cups. It's not how he wanted it (he wanted a properly heated and fully-assembled hot dog). Apparently, this is what "complainers" get. Disappointingly, the ala carte toppings assortment he received did not include the poppy seeds. Apparently, real Chicago dogs come on poppy seed buns. At Casey's Corner, they simply sprinkle the dog with poppy sees.
We would do it again? Not likely. We'll probably just stick to the corn dog nuggets at Casey's Corner. And, we'll only dine there when it is cool outside...
For practical purposes, the only seating for Casey's Corner is outdoors in the blazing sun. It was dinner time, and it was still close to 90 degrees outside. We were uncomfortably hot (and we're fairly acclimated to the Florida heat). The seating is also surrounded by birds looking for a handout. I'm an animal lover. I want to feed the birds, too. But... I know it is not good for them and that it causes aggressive behavior. Please don't feed the birds!
Speaking of birds, check out this little bird inside the food court at Disney's Contemporary resort:
Like I said, I'm an animal lover, but this concerned me. I was very surprised when we grabbed lunch at the Contemporary earlier in the day and had birds flying over our table and picking up crumbs from the carpeted floor INDOORS.
I can deal with that... but I was a little put off by the fact that these birds drank from the soda dispenser drip pans (click the photo to enlarge). Seriously, that is not healthy for the bird or humans. This particular bird is on the rail picking up drips just outside of the pans. Apparently, he preferred high fructose corn syrup droppings to the melting ice in the drip pans.
My question is... where is the poop falling? Fortunately, we did not have the displeasure of finding out!