My husband and I made a return visit to Napa Rose for dinner. We've been to the Sunday brunch in September of 2001 and had dinner there in March of 2001. We'd talked a lot about going back for dinner and just hadn't gotten around to it. This afternoon, we decided to make an impromptu visit, called around 4pm and got a 6:30 priority seating reservation.

We arrived right around 6:30 and were promptly shown to our table. (As a side note, we ended up one table over from where Catherine Hickland [Lindsey from "One Life to Live"] was having dinner with the actor who used to play Will Cooney Cortlandt on "All My Children", his very pregnant wife, and their DL resort escort, who we happened to be acquainted with. She was presumably in town for this weekend's Super Soap Weekend/One Life to Live event.) The restaurant was fairly busy, including a fair mixture of differently dressed customers. Since we had arrived at dinner straight from home, we had dressed up a little, as opposed to what we might normally wear while spending time at the resort. Some others were dressed up, others were in resort casual wear, and there was a family of four (parents and two youngish kids) another table over who seemed to have a great time at dinner. We were pleasantly surprised that our waiter was the same person we'd had on our previous dinner, who was someone we were familiar with from a different Disney restaurant.

After perusing the menu, we both decided to have the Vintner's Table set menu, which is a chef's tasting menu. It's a four course meal that basically allows the head chef to do different things. The menu changes on a weekly basis, on Thursday each week. I'm not sure if the price is always the same, but for this week's selection, the cost was $65, with an additional charge of $35 if the wine selections are added. Not being a wine person, I declined the wine and had iced tea instead. My husband is a wine person, so he elected to add that option.

Here's what the menu was for this week, with the accompanying wine underneath each item:

Harissa & Orange Grilled Jumbo Prawn with Minted English Pea Mousse and Vanilla Oil

Il Podere Dell'Olivos, "Primogenito" Riserva, Bien Nacido Vineyard, Santa Maria Valley 1998

Slowly Braised Duckling and Spanish Chorizo and Purple Potatoes with Toasted Pistachio-Picadillo Vinaigrette

La Famiglia di Robert Mondavi, Barbera, Napa Valley 1997

Spring Veal Scallopini stuffed with Aged Amsterdam Gouda, Hearts of Palm Salad and served with a Morel Mushroom Sauce

Summers, Charbono, Villa Adriana Vineyard, Napa Valley 1998

Banana Bavarian Parfait with Meyer Lemon Sauce and Fresh Banana Sorbet

Chateau Ste. Michelle, Late Harvest Semillion, Columbia Valley 1997

The meal started with an additional item compliments of the chef which consisted of salmon inside cucumber with caviar on top. The cucumber actually tasted very much like potato, so I'm not sure how it was prepared, but it was very good. The prawn was excellent, the purple potato was very good, and the veal was quite good as well. I'd never had veal before so was a little hesitant, but I liked it very much, at least prepared that way. The banana parfait was very good, but I liked the banana sorbet even better.

Overall, it was a very good meal and very filling given the four courses. My husband was also quite happy with the accompanying wines. The service was excellent, as it had been on our two previous visits to the restaurant, and the assistant manager also came over at one point to say hello and ask about our meal.

The standard menu for the restaurant changes every quarter (the current menu is for Spring 2002), and they're expecting a change within the next several weeks, so we're definitely planning on going back when the new menu is implemented. As I mentioned, the Vintner's Table menu changes weekly, and currently, the only way to find out what's being offered each week is to go by the restaurant, though presumably a phone call would probably work as well. We mentioned to our waiter and the assistant manager that it would be great if there was some kind of phone number to call with a recording for people to find out what the offerings were each week. While it's not something we would do all the time, we'd definitely plan on dinner there if there was something we particularly liked being offered on the Vintner's Table menu. We're also planning on going back to try some of the other items on the menu.

In addition to dining room seating and seating at the bar, there is also counter seating that faces the open kitchen. That sounds like an intriguing idea as well, being able to watch the chefs prepare the various items while enjoying dinner ourselves.

Priority seating reservations can be made by calling the Disney Dining Reservations line at (714) 781-DINE or, since Napa Rose makes their own reservations and calling the Disney Dining number would just result in being transferred, calling the restaurant directly at (714) 300-7170.

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