Terralina Crafted Italian

Another Disney restaurant review, a week after the last one?  Is our friendly neighborhood Saboscrivner kidding?  Is he out of ideas, or did he come out as a Disney adult?  None of the above are true.  But after taking my wife to the birthday dinner of her choosing, I returned to the “happiest place on Earth” (depends who you ask and what mood they’re in when you ask them, I guess) to catch up with former co-workers at Disney Springs.  Before my current job, which I love, I worked somewhere for 15 years, and it was a constant roller coaster ride.  I left in 2023, onward and upward toward a brighter, more promising future, and for this dinner, we were celebrating a former colleague who had recently done the same.

Our group met at Terralina Crafted Italian (https://www.terralinacrafteditalian.com/), and it was my first visit to this restaurant.  All the food I tried was quite good, but the company is what really made this meal special.  I hadn’t seen any of these people in almost two years and had never met my former colleague’s lovely wife or his sweet, quiet visiting mother-in-law.  Coming from the same workplace, we had all been through a lot and had a lot to discuss.

Not every restaurant brings bread for the table anymore, but Terralina Crafted dropped off baskets of fresh, warm, fluffy focaccia bread with a hint of rosemary.  They suggest you enjoy it with olive oil (in the bottle), salt, and pepper.  The bread was wonderful with the olive oil, but I wish there had been some sweet balsamic vinegar or syrupy, sticky balsamic glaze to go with it.  I put that stuff on anything and everything!

I was sitting next to my former colleague, who ordered a few apps to share with the table.  These were mozzarella-stuffed rice balls, the beautiful love children of mozzarella sticks and arancini (balls of creamy rice or risotto, covered in bread crumbs and deep-fried.  This version was the best of both worlds, and I truly enjoyed the bites I shared.  The tomato-basil dipping sauce added a nice hit of acid to balance the salt and fat, and the thick flakes of shaved parmesan cheese were a nice touch for the presentation.

I did not try these bruschetta, but the presentation was beautiful.  The bread slices were toasted or grilled and topped with diced tomato, basil pesto, arugula, shaved parmesan, and my beloved balsamic glaze (so they have it in the kitchen!).

Two people in my party ordered this  salad of spinach, beets, gorgonzola, and fennel, tossed in a honey balsamic vinaigrette.  I didn’t try theirs, but one of my friends thought they added a bit too much dressing.

I didn’t get photos of everyone’s food on the far side of the table, but my colleague sitting to my left ordered a wood-fired pizza with bacon, mushrooms, leeks, roasted garlic, and mozzarella.  It looked and smelled lovely, and he seemed to like it.

My friend, colleague, and former mentor and supervisor on my right, a vegetarian, ordered this margherita pizza, topped simply with fresh mozzarella, tomato slices, and fresh basil.  At the end of our meal, she had two slices left over and offered them to me, since she was staying overnight at one of the Disney hotels and doesn’t dig on leftovers.  As for me, most of my meals are comprised of leftovers, so I gladly and gratefully took her pizza and enjoyed the heck out of it the following day.  The toaster oven did a brilliant job crisping it back up,  and I have become a major proponent of fresh basil on pizza.

I had been thinking about getting one of those pizzas, but then I saw the Italian grinder, a sandwich with spicy capicola ham, pepperoni, fresh  mozzarella, tomato, roasted red pepper strips, arugula, basil pesto, and balsamic glaze.  Since an Italian sub is always my favorite meal, I no longer felt the need to look any further.  But I’m glad I asked our patient server if the grinder is served hot or cold, because I prefer sandwiches with Italian meats served cold, rather than hot, with the cured meats turned crispy and greasy.  He said the bread would have to be warm, but the sandwich ingredients could be cold, and that was perfect.  
What I didn’t expect was that the grinder would be served on a warm flatbread (pretty much like the pizzas, crispy and soft at the same time), rather than a sub or hoagie roll.  It was an interesting surprise that made the grinder a little messier to eat, but look at that gorgeous presentation!  Still, I did fine eating like an adult man in front of my colleagues without besmirching myself.  A popular local (non-Disney) restaurant, Pizza Bruno, used to make an Italian sandwich similar to this, which they called a piadina.  I loved that thing, but they stopped serving it.

The sandwiches at Terralina Crafted come with house-made truffle potato chips and garlic pickles, but I asked to substitute fries for $4, and I’m so glad I did.  Since mushrooms are my culinary Kryptonite, I avoid truffles and truffle oil too, in an abundance of caution.  The fries were the kind I really love — the lightly battered, crispy kind.  I wasn’t expecting that, but I devoured them.  The garlic pickles were incredible!  I don’t know if they make those in-house or buy them from somewhere, but they were some of the tastiest pickles I’ve ever had, sliced almost paper-thin but still crunchy.  I shared some with another friend, who said they tasted like pickles her mother used to make.  I love it when food brings on a nostalgic reaction, even if it isn’t mine!  I need to find out what their deal is.

So that was my first trip to Terralina Crafted Italian.  I might have never tried it, because Orlando has no shortage of Italian restaurants, most seem overpriced, and I have simple pleasures — Italian subs and hoagies, New York-style pizza by the slice, and I make terrific pasta dishes and the best lasagna at home.  But even though I admit that I’m usually underwhelmed by Disney restaurants, Terralina Crafted was a terrific choice, especially for a large group with different tastes.  I would happily return in the future.  And the best treat of all was seeing these great people again, for the first time in far too long.  We almost went to House of Blues for dinner, which would have been fine, but I’m so glad the evening worked out the way it did.

By the way, if you’re planning to go to Terralina Crafted Italian yourself, the Lime Garage at Disney Springs is the most convenient place to park.