Quick service restaurants and food allergies

[CJK]

Hello! I was wondering if anyone has some advice or info on how to proceed with quick service restaurants when someone in your family has food allergies. Some friends are going to Disney soon and are only planning on eating at quick service restaurants. One of their kids has severe food allergies (nuts and dairy). They are going to bring snacks with them, but they will likely want to eat a meal at a few quick service restaurants. I know there's an email address you can contact for table service meal reservations, but what about quick service restaurants? I've told them to ask to speak to a manager when ordering their food, but any other advice? Oh, and I also read that each of the 4 major theme parks has a special designated restaurant for accommodating allergies (i.e.Cosmic Rays in MK). Any additional info or advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[clanmcculloch]

Your friend can get lots of recommendations over on the disABILITIES! board. There are a bunch of dining reports and Q&As about dining with food allergies.

What you posted as having advised them is the basic summary though.

In each park, here's my recommendations of where to eat meals.
MK: Cosmic Ray's & Columbia Harbour House
Epcot: Sunshine Seasons, American pavillion, Mexico pavillion
DHS: eat TS (you can get the allergy chicken tenders at most CS so really anywhere is fine if that's what they want but CS for everybody else really stinks at DHS)
AK: Flame Tree BBQ

In addition, the turkey legs are milk and peanut free.

Resort CS locations (other than CSR) can provide the most variety of allergy foods.

Here are some snack suggestions for them.

• Dairy free ice cream (Tofutti and Rice Dream) is available at the ice cream parlours in the parks.
• The popcorn and pretzels sold at the various carts are milk and peanut free.
• At the frozen carts around the parks, the frozen pineapple and strawberry bars are safe as are the tri-coloured popsicles.
• At resorts, there is always an allergy area of snack foods in the food court.
• Most CS locations carry at least one or two of the allergy dessert items such as cookies.
• The Disney brand of potato chips are clearly marked for allergens. The regular and BBQ I know are peanut and milk free.
• Don't forget about fruit as a safe option.
• I'm a big fan of the giant pickles for a snack.
• The Goofy bagged candies are clearly marked for allergens. Many of them are safe.
• Sunshine Seasons at Epcot has a large allergy snack area.
• Frozen cokes are a great warm weather safe snack.

If they have any specific questions I can try to answer though they'll get a lot more answers over on the disABILITIES! board.

 

[VP037388]

All the counter service restaurants have a binder with ingredient lists of all the food they serve. We were there in the fall and my oldest son has milk/egg allergies. We simply waited in line, immediately told the person taking our order that son had a food allergy and we needed to see the Manager. You hold your place in line and they will bring you the book. We generally knew what he wanted (like a hamburger) and would only need to check ingredients for the bun or salad, etc. They are very accomodating. If it is something pre-packaged, they actually have the label from the box in their book so there are no questions.
Our son loved this. He usually feels like an outsider because we do have to bring him food and snacks. Being able to eat "normal" at Disney was HUGE for him. He never had any issues and his allergies are life threatening.
The restuarant list from the poster above it great. We ate at all of them (except Columbia Harbor House) and took the "binder approach" every time. We did eat other CS meals without issue too.
Additionally, if you eat TS, the chefs will come out and speak with you directly and make a meal separately if needed. This includes the restaruants in DD, not just on Disney property.

 

[CJK]

Thank you, thank you, thank you! This is wonderful info!

 

[AEPaul]

Please consider checking AllergyEats Disney World (www.allergyeats.com/disney)for help in finding out which establishments - whether quick serve, sit-down, or other - are more allergy-friendly than others. While Disney is clearly the gold standard in serving our communitsy, not every restaurant is run by Disney itself. The EPCOT country restaurants are mostly independent, and some of their AllergyEats ratings - derived from the experiences of other food-allergic diners like all of us - are atrocious. Some even worse than a standard Applebee's! AllergyEats Disney World should help you gain more comfort with where you decide to eat in the parks, in the hotels, and in the surrounding community.

Good luck. Happy eating. And please share your own experiences with our community at AllergyEats Disney World when you return.

 

[CJK]

GREAT website, thanks!