Vegan/Vegetarian Restaurant/Dining Help Thread

[MamaPotts]

I will say, on the Disney Cruise before hand I was SPOILED, each night I had wonderful vegan options-just AMAZING.

I would love to hear about the vegan options you found on DCL. Which ship/itinerary did you sail? Please share!

 

[mindy5648]

I am a vegetarian and go to Disney every year. I love going to 'Ohanas. the chef always makes something wonderful with rice and tofu or tempora! I look forward to it every time. I was wondering if any of you know if the veggie burgers are cooked on the same grill or not? I find that when I go to restaurants no one thinks about the veggie burgers being cooked on the same grill as the regular burgers. Having all of the animal fat cooked right into the veggie burger. I shiver just thinking about it. My favorite thing ever was when BK came out with their veggie whopper lolol. REALLY?!?!

 

[DaymanX]

I am a vegetarian and go to Disney every year. I love going to 'Ohanas. the chef always makes something wonderful with rice and tofu or tempora! I look forward to it every time. I was wondering if any of you know if the veggie burgers are cooked on the same grill or not? I find that when I go to restaurants no one thinks about the veggie burgers being cooked on the same grill as the regular burgers. Having all of the animal fat cooked right into the veggie burger. I shiver just thinking about it. My favorite thing ever was when BK came out with their veggie whopper lolol. REALLY?!?!

I don't know if there's a uniform policy, but my guess would be that Disney takes it seriously enough to separate things (if anything for Hindus or people of Jewish faith).

There was some talk of dedicated fryers (or lack thereof) earlier in this thread, I think.

I know that if you mention an allergy though they will lock things down on whatever they make you, so as not to contaminate your food.

 

[PirateKate]

Hi everyone! I was at Animal Kingdom on Saturday and we found some very tasty vegetarian food at a kiosk by Flights of Wonder. We ordered edamame, summer rolls, fruit salad, and Asian noodle salad. Everything was really good, especially the fruit salad, which was served in a half pineapple bowl and included some interesting fruits, such as lychee and mango. We sat at a table overlooking the Tree of Life and it was a very satisfying lunch. Next time we're there I'll try to get some pictures.

 

[Enter User Name]

Do you know if they accepted the dining plan?

 

[PirateKate]

I know that the edamame had a snack credit symbol, so that makes me think that they would take the dining plan, but I don't really know for sure. We paid out of pocket.

 

[MamaPotts]

AJ from the DisneyFoodBlog had an article about the offerings at the Bradley Falls kiosk. PirateKate, thanks for reporting. So glad to hear that they still have them. I just hope they have them come February!

 

[Teresa Pitman]

I am just back from another Disney visit with my family. We did not eat a lot of meals in the park (budget constraints with our big group) but did have some excellent vegan meals at Sanaa and Tusker House. (We ate most of our non-park meals at Sweet Tomatoes - great build-your-own salads plus usually at least one vegan soup option, plus baked white and sweet tomatoes. We were happy.)

We also did our lunch in Epcot at the Terra booth (Food and Wine festival) which offered Trick'n Chick'n Curry, Colorado Chili and a Chocolate Cake with Passion Fruit Sorbet. All EXCELLENT! I really hope Disney will offer another vegan booth in the future!

I also wanted to mention that this is Vegan Month of Food (Vegan MOFO) among the vegan bloggers, and my daughter is posting recipes every weekday (even though she is currently traveling through London, Paris and Switzerland). She's invented an imaginary Vegan B&B and posting foods she'd serve for breakfast, snacks, etc. Check it out! www.veganculinarycrusade.com.

TP

 

[nansmama]

Just got back from a quick 4 day trip. We ate at Columbia Harbor House for the first time, and the hummus sandwich is a very decent option. Also had the vegetable platter at Tangierine Cafe (still good!) and the "chicken" curry from the vegan food booth at Food and Wine festival. The curry was really good! If I hadn't already had lunch, I just would have ordered two of those for my meal. I wish they had it somewhere all the time. We went over to Beach Club and had ate lunch at Beaches and Cream. I got the vegetable sandwich (can't remember what the actual name is) and I recommend it for vegetarians (it has feta in it, so not for vegans).

 

[t_daniels]

Hi everyone! I was at Animal Kingdom on Saturday and we found some very tasty vegetarian food at a kiosk by Flights of Wonder. We ordered edamame, summer rolls, fruit salad, and Asian noodle salad. Everything was really good, especially the fruit salad, which was served in a half pineapple bowl and included some interesting fruits, such as lychee and mango. We sat at a table overlooking the Tree of Life and it was a very satisfying lunch. Next time we're there I'll try to get some pictures.

AJ from the DisneyFoodBlog had an article about the offerings at the Bradley Falls kiosk. PirateKate, thanks for reporting. So glad to hear that they still have them. I just hope they have them come February!

Have to try this! Maybe for one of the days we don't have a lunch planned.

 

[msbatchelor5]

Chef TJ IS still at 1900 Park Fare. Was able to experience him the second weekend in Sept!

Tusker House is the same ole same ole.
Chef Mike did make my family and I unbuttered steamed corn and green beans (a WHOLE huge bowl of it), Samosas in a desperate fryer, and tofutti with a vegan cookie on it for dessert. There's a lot of couscous that's vegan already.
Only issue was it was like pulling teeth to get the waitress to ask him to come out. She "knew all the answers" and instructed me to eat something with butter on it (which I instantly recognized once I'd taken a bite).

 

[t_daniels]

Chef TJ IS still at 1900 Park Fare. Was able to experience him the second weekend in Sept!

Tusker House is the same ole same ole.
Chef Mike did make my family and I unbuttered steamed corn and green beans (a WHOLE huge bowl of it), Samosas in a desperate fryer, and tofutti with a vegan cookie on it for dessert. There's a lot of couscous that's vegan already.
Only issue was it was like pulling teeth to get the waitress to ask him to come out. She "knew all the answers" and instructed me to eat something with butter on it (which I instantly recognized once I'd taken a bite).

Amazing. DH.and I are going to 1900 for a character meal.


Sorry about the luck at tusker.

 

[DaymanX]

Awesome that Chef TJ is still at 1900! Any other recommendations from this past trip?

I'm curious how Boma is for vegans lately.

Any vegan experiences for people at The Wave or Crystal Palace?

 

[VeganCupcake]

Any vegan experiences for people at The Wave

I was just about to ask the same thing, also the Tusker House is still good for vegans at lunch right? Details people, details!

 

[VeganCupcake]

OK, ate at The Wave last night the curry veggie stew on the menu is vegan on its own but the chef made me the "catch of the day" with edamame stew replacing the fish with tofu and it was awesome. I was also offered toffuti or rice dream for dessert but I declined. Tusker house got there at 11:15 they still had breakfast food out but were setting up lunch. I was told the Tandoori tofu was fried in the same oil as the corn dogs so they made me seared tofu with spinach basil olives tomatoes ( it was awesome) and the chef made me vegan Mickey waffles as well since there was still breakfast food out. I had rice also with hummus and veggies and a few other things it was great!

 

[vdub322]

Thank you for all this wonderful information!!! DH and I have gone 90% veg in the last year, since our last trip. We are so excited about trying some of these great options on our next trip!

 

[DaymanX]

Arrived today for an almost two-week trip, and I brought the netbook so I can update while I am here.

Tonight, we tried The Wave at the Contemporary. Server was very knowledgeable about vegan options--she said the vegetable curry was vegan as is, and they could do the edamame stew or make me a custom tofu dish with vegetables and rice.

I opted for the curry and had them add tofu, and started with the Autumn salad (hold the bleu cheese).



The salad was very tasty, but the portion was tiny. The curry had a huge portion, and was very flavorful. However, I could tell they made it fresh, and I think it actually would have benefited from being slow-cooked. It tasted good, but lacked any sort of "wow" factor. I did like that everything came out with a little "allergy" stick in it, which means they took care in preparing it vegan.

All in all, on my 1 to 10 scale (1 being steamed vegetables, 10 being Chef TJ), I give my meal at The Wave a solid 6. It was good, but not the best thing I've ever had.

However, I really appreciated that their menu options were vegan without any hassle or even the need to talk to the chef.

 

[nancy drew]

Can anyone advise me on vegan and gluten free dining at Ohana? We have never been, and I'd love to try it for dinner, but our reservation would be later at night and I don't want to keep us out late if it is going to be disappointing.

 

[DaymanX]

Today we ate lunch at Tusker House at Animal Kingdom. This felt like the find of the trip last year, because I hadn't heard it really discussed much and was pleasantly surprised to find many vegan options. While Boma disappointed last year, but rocked in 2010, Tusker House picked up a lot of the slack in the vegan buffet department.

This year I am happy to report that the food was still very good, with a dozen or so vegan options (including all-you-can-eat samosa and a great tofu dish). The chef was very nice and assured me that the samosas *are* vegan, but did mention that the tofu and most other fried things were fried in communal fryers.

They didn't mention that last year, but even though I've been a vegan for a decade, I can accept that (the same way I accept that some things i've been served were probably cooked on a grill that had meat on it at some point, etc).

However, my big gripe with Tusker House is that now that it's a character meal, the place was packed. Even with a dining reservation, we had to wait 20 minutes, and there were ten times the kids that were there last year to see Donald, Mickey, Goofy, etc. They also do that annoying thing where they try to get you to take a photo with Donald when you enter to sell to you later, but that was easier to skip here than it is at say 1900 Park Fare.

So on a vegan scale of 1 to 10, I still give Tusker House a solid 8 and recommend it if you want to gorge yourself on vegan food with no fuss, except for asking the chef to give you a quick walk around the spread and tell you what is safe.

 

[DaymanX]

After seeing The Pointer Sisters at Eat to the Beat, we had a quick snack tonight at the Terra Booth at EPCOT's Food & Wine Festival.

We got the Chili Colorado with House made Chips & Cashew Cheese, which has Gardein beefless tips in it. It is a relatively small "taster" portion, but you can use a snack credit for it.

The chili tasted good, but it wasn't very chili-like (in the traditional sense). The cashew cheese was a sauce drizzled over it, and the chips were kettle-style potato chips (for some reason I'd assumed they would be corn chips).

It was tasty and I'm glad Epcot is doing this. There wasn't much of a line though, which makes me wonder how it's doing. They also really weren't promoting the vegan aspect on the booth signage, which probably is a net positive in attracting omnivore customers, although it's a shame that a lot of vegans probably don't know it exists.

I'm going to go back and try the curry and the cake, but I give the chili a 7. I definitely could see eating a few portions of this as a satisfying meal.