Breakfast (and the new menu!) at Kouzzina

BradyBzLyn...Mo · December 6, 2011

From the Disney Food blog...

Review: Breakfast (and the new menu!) at Kouzzina
Dec 5th, 2011 by AJ.
Since it opened, Kouzzina, by Cat Cora, has long been one of our favorite breakfast stops. We’ve reviewed it once before, but now there are brand new menu items to chat about!
And this is a two-part post! We’ll:
1. Chat about the new menu items, and
2. Welcome back guest author Melissa Sorrells Galley with her full review of a recent Kouzzina breakfast! She’s got a few menu updates in her review as well!
New Kouzzina Breakfast Menu Items
On my recent visit to Kouzzina, I noticed a couple of fun new menu items that I had to try! First up, the French Toast Baklava! This super-sweet breakfast extravaganza includes Grilled Fig and Anise country bread with honey, walnuts, and cinnamon along with Bacon or Chicken Sausage for $11.99.
We were extremely glad that we also ordered the new savory dish on the menu, because we really needed some salty to cut through the sweet in this dish. That said, this breakfast was phenomenal. By the way, it also includes an apple-y syrup! Talk about dessert for breakfast!
Baklava French Toast
Chicken Sausage
The second new item we ordered was the Breakfast Skillet with eggs, Pequillo peppers, Nueske’s bacon, onions, Greek cheese, and Sweet potato hash topped with arugula for $13.99. This was a wonderful dish and a great spin on your classic hearty breakfast. While the skillet isn’t “all you care to eat” like at Whispering Canyon Cafe, it’s definitely worth an order!
Breakfast Skillet
Now, check out the guest review below for even more updates to the Kouzzina menu!
Guest Review — Kouzzina Breakfast
Once again, thanks to Melissa Sorrells Galley for this great review of her breakfast at Kouzzina…
I love breakfast. It’s my favorite meal of the day. Pancakes, oatmeal, egg sandwiches or toast: you pretty much can’t go wrong. I love breakfast so much that my husband and I even got married in the morning so we could have a breakfast reception. (Breakfast potatoes and quiche for the win, I always say.)
When we’re on vacation, we revel in long, relaxing breakfasts together because we are so rarely able to enjoy them at home. And when you’re in Disney World, there’s really no better place to enjoy a nice, slow breakfast than Kouzzina.
Atmosphere
During a recent trip, we stayed at Boardwalk Villas and were giddy with delight over the quick walk from our beautiful studio to the check-in desk of this Greek-inspired eatery.
Walking from Boardwalk Villas toward our favorite breakfast spot on property.
A bright spot on an overcast day.
Colorful display in the lobby showcases Coronation Wines as well as Chef Cora’s cookbooks
We were a couple of minutes late and were immediately taken to our table. The dining room recently went through some cosmetic changes, but is still dark and open. The wood floorboards are thick and rustic, which is also how I’d describe the tables scattered throughout the dining room. The high-backed wooden dining chairs are of several different styles, creating a homey, country-kitchen feeling.
The restaurant is typically pretty dim, lit by yellow-hanging chandeliers and light fixtures of varying shapes and sizes. On this cloudy morning, muted sunlight also streamed through floor-to-ceiling windows on the Boardwalk-facing wall.
My husband, I think, got the best seat in the house: facing the open kitchen.
Sitting near the open show kitchen is like getting breakfast and a show!
From my side of the table, I had a view of a wall of back-lit wine bottles and olive oil containers.
Between the kitchen, the open floor plan, high ceilings and wood floors, it can get a little noisy, even when the dining room is half empty as it was this morning.
Overall, the restaurant feels simultaneously rustic and upscale, with a decidedly cozy feeling.
Eats
The menu has changed slightly since our last visit in December 2010.
Our waiter informed us that the kitchen has changed the breakfast potatoes. Originally they were roasted white potato pieces, but now it’s more of a potato hash, with sweet potatoes, onions and peppers. This didn’t impact our meal, as neither of us ordered a dish served with breakfast potatoes, but we were so glad he told us about it up front. So be warned: the menu still says breakfast potatoes, but they’re not what you’d expect if you’ve visited before.
We also noticed a few changes on the menu itself. In the Great Beginnings section of the menu, the basket of breakfast pastries ($7.49) has been replaced by warm phyllo filled with semolina custard and cinnamon sugar ($7.49). The fresh fruit plate ($7.99) has been replaced by a seasonal fruit bowl ($8.99).
On the entrees list, vegetable flatbread ($11.99), ham and cheese omelet ($12.49), French toast ($10.49) and blueberry-orange granola pancakes ($10.49) are all gone. In their place are a salmon plate with capers, pickled onions, feta cream cheese, tomatoes and pita bread ($11.99); a breakfast skillet with eggs, pequillo peppers, bacon, onions, potatoes, Greek cheese and arugula ($13.99); French toast baklava with grilled fig and anise country bread, honey, walnuts and cinnamon ($11.99); and semolina pancakes with cherry-maple glaze ($10.99).
Kouzzina breakfast menu - click image for larger version
After chatting with the waiter, we immediately ordered a press pot of coffee. If you, like me, hate the generic Disney coffee served most places, then you’re going to love this!
The coffee is extremely dark, full-bodied and almost thick. Poured into a coffee cup, it has a little bit of foam on top, and a layer of rich, dark grounds settle to the bottom. And it’s absolutely delicious. At $6.29, the pot holds just about four cups of coffee. It’s listed on the menu as ‘for two.’
This is a SERIOUS pot of coffee!
The press pot is served with real cream.
We took a while to consider the changes on the menu. In the end, my husband ordered the Stacked Kouzzina Breakfast, which is his favorite menu item here. After seriously considering the baklava-inspired French toast, I selected the Classic Golden Waffle ($10.49), which is topped with whipped mascarpone, honey, and pecans, and served with chicken sausage (or bacon). (Don’t worry, baklava … I’ll be back for you. And soon!)
This was one of the best meals I’ve ever had. The waffle was perfectly cooked. It had a nice fluffy center and slight chew on the outside. The mascarpone was thick and sweet with honey while the pecans added a great crunch. The chicken sausage served alongside was perfection! It had a great sausage flavor without being too fatty, which can be a problem for me.
Classic Golden Waffle
I ate every last bite!
My husband Rob had the Stacked Kouzzina Breakfast ($11.99), which is poached eggs, olive toast, artichoke spread and sweet potato hash with chicken sausage (or bacon). The eggs yolks were bright orange and ran beautifully around the plate, and Rob was more than happy to let them soak into the hash and scoop them up on his chicken sausage.
His one complaint is that the olive toast tastes quite strongly of olive, even when slathered with the artichoke spread. He doesn’t mind it (as evidenced by the fact that he keeps ordering it), but he says you may want to consider requesting an alternative toast or pita bread if you don’t love olives. Otherwise, he reports that the flavors were a well balanced mix of salty and savory.
Stacked Kouzzina Breakfast
Beautiful poached egg yolks
I should mention that our server was excellent. He was extremely knowledgeable about the menu and exceedingly patient with our ponderous ordering. By the end of the meal, the three of us were joking about drinking around the World Showcase together.
Overall
We love it here. Kouzzina doesn’t draw big crowds, but the food is really, really good: adventurous and comforting at the same time. The servers are extremely personable, and more importantly, they’re knowledgeable.
Kouzzina is a great way to start the day, no matter what your day has in store. But if you’re staying at any of the Epcot-area resorts or are planning to spend the morning at Epcot or Hollywood Studios, this cozy, low-key breakfast service will start your day off right.