palo – disney fantasy {orlando travel & food photographer}

while i’m almost completely overwhelmed with editing and separating all of the photos from our cruise (there’s wedding photos, day-to-day photos around the ship, and of course a ton of food photos), i thought it would be a good idea to start with a short blog post with photos that were easy to cull from the rest – our meal the first night on our trip, at palo.

if you don’t know, palo is one of the two adults only restaurants on the disney fantasy, and serves updated northern italian food in an intimate setting. since we were cruising with 21 other people(!), we thought a quiet, romantic dinner alone would be a good, relaxing start to our trip, and we couldn’t have been more right. we had the first reservation of the evening, and were greeted by the entire staff of the restaurant waiting for us. the restaurant is beautiful, with the venetian glass chandelier (rumored to be based on spaghetti and meatballs) at the entrance & warm tones throughout the restaurant – plus every table has a perfect view of the ocean thanks to floor-to-ceiling windows along the entire restaurant.

our server, luca, was fantastic, and i’d strongly recommend him to anyone sailing on the fantasy – he took a wonderful dinner and made it a fantastic start to our cruise, and went above & beyond to make sure we got to try everything we wanted. plus, he was italian, so he said that when we got home, we could just look up photos of the monuments in italy and then we would have had the full experience of a trip to italy! 🙂

i’m not going to go too in depth with descriptions of the food, but i will list what each item is in case anyone is wondering. enjoy the photos, and don’t get too hungry!

cold antipasti

appetizer trio {portobello mushroom polenta, marinated grilled shrimp, fritto di calamari}

tuna carpaccio & appetizer trio

pappardelle con aragosta

beef tenderloin “palo” with barolo red wine sauce & rack of lamb

palo’s signature chocolate souffle

amaretto and cannoli dessert & tiramisu

we finished the meal with coffee & then a complimentary after dinner shot to aid in digestion – i believe it was a combination of lemon sorbet, calvados apple brandy, and something else i can’t remember…whatever it was, it was delicious, and perfectly complimented the gorgeous sunset as seen from the deck outside of restaurant. this turned out to be the most beautiful sunset we saw on the trip, even though the dinner started during rain & grey skies, and it was the perfect end to our first dinner on the ship.

there will be plenty more posts about our cruise, and jessica & curtis’s wedding, coming soon! for now, if you’d like to know more about the food served at palo, you can see a full menu here, and more information on disney cruise line’s website here.

destination travel & food photographer – e. gilbert photography

other posts you might enjoy:
– vermont {food & restaurant photography}
– 3 frames: the ravenous pig {orlando food photography}
– sorcerers of the magic kingdom {orlando travel photography}