Disney Fantasy: Enchanted Garden

The fountain is the centerpiece of this beautiful restaurant.

 Located on board both the Disney Dream and the Disney Fantasy you'll find Enchanted Garden restaurant, one of the three restaurants featured in rotational dining that guests will experience during the course of their cruise. For those that may not know, rotational dining is Disney Cruise Line's  way of ensuring guests get to try each of the main restaurants. When you board, you are given your "Key to the World" card which will have your dining schedule printed on the bottom. Every night, you experience a different main dining room (on the Fantasy, this includes Enchanted Garden, Royal Court and Animator's Palate), but unlike other cruise lines, aboard a Disney ship, your table mates and your servers rotate with you. This ensures you see a familiar face every night and that your servers quickly learn your preferences.

The flower light fixtures change color....

and bloom during your meal. Don't forget to look up!

Enchanted Garden is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner each day, and serves a varied menu featuring flavors from around the world. Yet it is not the food, but like so much with Disney, the theming that will find most enjoyable. Inspired by the gardens of Versailles, Enchanted Garden features painted frescoes, hanging vegetation, custom glass flower light fixtures, and the centerpiece of the restaurant, a 7 foot tall fountain featuring a cherub Mickey Mouse. If you aren't drawn in by all the details everywhere, the sky overhead changes during your meal, turning from  the bright blue sky of daylight into a reddish orange sunset, and finally, a twinkling, starry night. If you're engrossed in conversation, you may even be a little taken by the transformation - I was surprised to see that even the light fixtures "bloom" and change color as the meal progressed.

The frescoes on the walls are so vivid.

We ate dinner here the first night of our preview cruise. One of the nice things about a cruise is that you can try foods you may never have before, and order anything you want off the menu. So, if you want to try  the soup, salad, appetizer, and entree, you can have all of them! There's no need to pick and choose. You can even order multiple appetizers or multiple entrees, for example. 
 

Romaine wedge, Romano dressing.

 The menu was quite varied, featuring appetizers such as Ahi tuna served on an avocado tower with crisp noodles and a wasabi dressing, and North Atlantic lobster ravioli, served with garlic in a light tomato cream sauce. I skipped the appetizers, which I still regret, because one of the other agents sitting at the table did in fact try the ravioli and said it was quite delicious (it looked it, too). Instead, I skipped ahead to the salads, and went with the "safe" choice of a romaine wedge (way to take my own advice), which was exactly as described - a crisp romaine wedge served with a creamy and flavorful Romano dressing and crunchy croutons. Other soup and salad choices available that evening included a baby spinach salad tossed with pears and pine nuts and  Gorgonzola crumbles, and a curried carrot and apple soup, garnished with a yogurt drizzle and carrot curls. 

Fresh Ahi tuna served on an avocado tower.

Craving meat for dinner, I was happy to see one of my choices was a roasted pork tenderloin seasoned with sea salt. Honestly, however, it left me a little disappointed. Though the meat was nicely cooked, tender and seasoned, it just fell flat and rather ordinary.  Even the presentation was lacking, consisting of a slab of meat on a plate. The menu description said it was served with citrus flavored polenta cakes and oven roasted carrots, parsnips and caramelized Granny Smith apples. I didn't taste any type of citrus flavor, however, so I'm not sure what happened there.  In my opinion, the best looking dish that evening, and what I would order if you see it on the menu, is the pan seared sea bass with saffron and fennel risotto with a sweet chili glaze. This looked very fresh, and the person at our table who ate it actually even said they weren't the type to eat fish, and thoroughly enjoyed it. 

See how good this sea bass looks? This is what I SHOULD have ordered.

If dinner let me down though, dessert picked me back up. Of course there are numerous choices, and though I was tempted to say "bring me one of everything", I decided on the Sacher chocolate torte, a fluffy, creamy, and rich dessert served with apricot sauce, which provided just the right amount of tartness and bite to prevent the torte from being too sweet on the taste buds. I debated licking the plate, but our efficient servers took the plate away before I could decide.

Layers of chocolate and whipped cream. Nice.

Overall, I really liked the Enchanted Garden. The theming is incredible and really makes you feel you're eating someplace special, and the extensive and varied menu means there's something for everyone to enjoy.