For dinner, we decided to try Il Mulino for the first time. From what I've read on this site, Il Mulino is one of the most hyped restaurants in WDW. The hype isn't as overt as it is for places like Le Cellier (which, at this point in time, I'd say is more "polarizing" than purely hyped), Kona Cafe, or Citricos. Rather, when people ask "where is the best Italian food at WDW?", Il Mulino is almost always the top choice. It's not really in the limelight (primarily because it doesn't accept the
DDP), but it has very few detractors (I can only think of one person on this site who says they were let down at Il Mulino).
As a result, we went to Il Mulino with high expectations.
The first thing we received was eggplant caponata and some cacciatorini (salami). This is complementary for everyone at Il Mulino. The caponata had a pleasant garlicky taste, and I enjoyed the saltiness of the salami.
You also receive a bread basket at Il Mulino - this basket included focaccia, and it's always nice to receive something beyond the typical white bread or sourdough.
We decided to split five appetizers and a side instead of ordering an entree, since we thought the appetizers sounded more interesting. Our waitress offered to split up every dish table-side for us, which I thought was a nice, casual touch that was very fitting for a restaurant that calls itself a "trattoria" (but it means some of my pics don't show the dishes as they were originally presented - I couldn't take pics of all of them quickly enough).
Our first "wave" of food included all the cold appetizers. Here's the carpaccio di tonno - thinly shaved, center-cut tuna, served with arugula, extra virgin olive oil, and fresh lemon juice. This was one of my favorites of the night, as I really enjoyed the tuna with briny capers and lemon juice. I just wish there had been more of the capers and lemon, as the tuna and greens were kind of bland.
Next up is the insalata trattoria - seasonal greens with fennel, carrots, red onion and toasted pine nuts with a citrus vinaigrette (shown on the side). The greens, onions, and carrots felt very basic, but I enjoyed the crunchy pine nuts and fennel (I wish there had been more of these ingredients). The dressing tasted more like oil than citrus to me, so we didn't use much of it. For $11, this salad was pretty uninteresting.
Next up is the prosciutto and melone - aged prosciutto with seasonal melon. This is the first dish where the split-plate factor comes into effect - it originally had twice as much fruit on the plate (my mom had half of the fruit but none of the prosciutto). The prosciutto was salty, rich, and intense as expected - what I liked about this dish was that it came with a variety of fruits. I've seen prosciutto with cantaloupe quite often before, but it was nice to try it with some fresh berries (which added more of a tartness to the combination).
Here's the next wave of food (I wasn't able to capture any dish in its original presentation, but these dishes had a more basic, comfort-food presentation anyway). On the left is half of the gamberi con fagioli - sautéed jumbo shrimp over cannellini beans and pancetta. On the right is the polpette al forno - Italian meatballs with tomato basil sauce and parmesan cheese.
And here's the spinaci aglio e olio - spinach in garlic and olive oil.
Of this wave, my favorite dish was the shrimp - it was lightly breaded and very tasty with the pancetta and somewhat creamy cannellini beans. The meatballs were basic meatballs with a flavorful tomato sauce, but mine were just slightly dry on the inside. They were good, but not the best meatballs I've ever had, and $12 for 3 good (but not great) meatballs is a bit much (at least at Artist Point or Yachtsman, when we pay $10-15 for an appetizer, they usually serve us a creative or interesting plate of food). The spinach was basic, but it was my mom's favorite dish of the night (mainly because nothing really impressed her).
Between the first two waves of food, everything was fine, but no dish created a "wow" moment or seemed especially memorable. Perhaps dessert would change that - we decided to split the trio of sorbets - melon, pineapple, and pomegranate.
Of the three, I thought the melon was the best and most closely tasted like its respective fruit. The pineapple sorbet was also good, but the pomegranate sorbet tasted somewhat artificial to me.
My mom also enjoyed a cappuccino at the end of the meal. She was offered a complementary glass of limoncello, but she doesn't like to drink (and I'm not old enough) so she said no.
So that's our experience at Il Mulino. The food was fine - it all tasted good (except the pomegranate sorbet IMO), but nothing struck me as very creative or exciting. In fact, I felt like I could've made a lot of this food at home, which isn't a feeling I like to get at an upscale restaurant. I can honestly say I think the food at Tutto Gusto is more interesting and just as good (if not higher) in quality - the seafood salad was more exciting to me than anything I see on Il Mulino's menu.
This was our second time being slightly disappointed at a Swan/Dolphin restaurant (the other one we've been to is bluezoo, where we had oversalted chicken and an underwhelming fish entree). Of the two restaurants, I prefer bluezoo (where at least the appetizer and dessert courses were innovative). Like bluezoo, I'd be willing to give Il Mulino another chance eventually. That said, I can now say I firmly disagree with the people who rank the Swan & Dolphin restaurants above all the signatures on the DDP. For me, plenty of restaurants (Artist Point, Yachtsman, Flying Fish, Jiko, Citricos) rank higher than bluezoo, while even more restaurants (Hollywood Brown Derby, California Grill, Bistro de Paris, Tutto Gusto, etc) rank higher than Il Mulino.
I'm glad that you enjoy my writing style and photos. 
