Can you guess which was our favorite TS meal? 7 meals with a Gluten Free 5 year old.

[mince]

Dining Plan in chronological order: Garden Grill, O'hanas, Tusker lunch, Chefs de France, Whispering Canyon Cafe, Mama Melrose or Cape May Cafe?

Me, DW, DS9 and DS5 with gluten allergy.

Six years ago my wife and I along with our oldest (almost 4 at the time) did the dining plan with free dining and were so pleased. How would this trip compare?

 

[crazyfordisney2000]

I will guess garden Grill, because I love Chip and Dale!

Can't wait to read you reviews!

 

[mince]

I will guess garden Grill, because I love Chip and Dale!

Can't wait to read you reviews!

I really thought Garden Grill would be a great meal. That's one of the reasons I booked it as our first TS. Prior to the meal we were recruited by a CM to see Turtle Talk with Crush. He assured me that the show was starting in five minutes and that we would have no problem getting to the land by 7:00 for our ADR. Well it took a lot longer the show let out at about 7:05 so we had to hustle and wade through the Soarin' comers and goers. Once there we of course were given a pager and waited another 15 minutes or so. Not a big deal at all. First impressions while we waited was that the place looked like a diner needing renovation. Certainly that would change once seated right? I had such great things about the GG and especially for those suffering from allergies. Well we were finally seated in the upper ring which I now know is not as desirable as the lower ring. After getting seated the place still looked like a beat up diner from the 90s. The view of the land revolving was nice, but the rest of the restaurant is pretty damn ugly.

We informed the waiter of DS5's gluten issue and he let us know that a chef would be out to talk with us. In less than five minutes, the chef came out and explained what DS could eat. We were very happy that they had dinner rolls for him. In a couple of minutes our bread and his bread came out. This sadly was the best part of the meal. The salad quickly followed which also was pretty good, keeping my expectations peaked. But the main course was pretty weak. I knew what we were getting but I just expected it to taste good. We were brought very small portions. The beef was tough with no flavor. The turkey was dry with no flavor. DW thought the Talapia was passable. I'm not a huge fish eater so I have to take her word for it. DS5 didn't like the chicken drum so I asked for more turkey for me and DS5. I took over 10 minutes and when it came out it wasn't really sliced. It was just an uninviting chunk. DS9 was fine with his meal and mostly ate bread, salad and the Mac and Cheese. He's a huge raw vegetable eater. Finally, the dessert cobbler was very average. DS5 was given some ice cream which he appreciated.

The character interaction was excellent so GG does get a few points there. Chip and Dale made it over a couple of times. And Mickey spent a few minutes at the table. I didn't take any food pics, but I will post some character pics later today.

Overall GG was a huge disappointment. We give the chef a big thumbs up for trying to accommodate and a plus for the characters. But other than that, we definitely will not be returning. Overall grade C-. Let the flogging begin as I know so many love this place. We really wanted to as I stated earlier. The food quality just wasn't there especially for the price.

 

[CrabbyPatty]

I'm going to guess that Ohana had a pretty good GF meal for your DS. I ate there GF in 2010 and had an amazing plate for chicken wings plus rice instead of noodles and lots and lots of meat.

I'm looking forward to hearing your GF review of Tusker House as well. I've had GF breakfast there, and they did a good job (I got GF Mickey Waffles plus I could eat most of the stuff already on the buffet).

 

[mince]

I'm going to guess that Ohana had a pretty good GF meal for your DS. I ate there GF in 2010 and had an amazing plate for chicken wings plus rice instead of noodles and lots and lots of meat.

I'm looking forward to hearing your GF review of Tusker House as well. I've had GF breakfast there, and they did a good job (I got GF Mickey Waffles plus I could eat most of the stuff already on the buffet).

A prefect set up since Ohana was next up. Let me preface that I was very disappointed that we missed Ohana in 2006 so I made sure to wake up early in February to get an ADR for August 5th at a desirable time. Sure enough we got 7:05. Too good to be true? We were staying at BLT on rented points so Poly restaurants were super convenient. We arrived around 6:30 since I wanted to explore the Poly. We love Hawaii and loved the Poly theme. Although some things looked as if they could be updated. I checked in at 6:50 and we were seated on time. Within 3 minutes salad was put on our table. ONLY ONE PROBLEM. No one came to get our beverage orders. Not even a round of water for everyone. I already felt kinda rushed? So there we were with food and no drinks? Finally I snagged a neighboring waiter who said he was assisting cousin somebody or other. He said he would get us some waters and took DWs wine order. After about 10 minutes a chef came out to speak to us about DS5s GF meal. I had done a decent amount of research and knew what he would tell us. DS5 isn't a huge eater and I knew there would be plenty for him. I did request some steamed rice which never came. None of us loved the coconut bread. Out came the wings which were excellent. Then the dumplings. The dumplings were not warm. I am used to either steamed or fried dumplings. These are grilled I guess. They were very dry and like just about everything at Ohana lacked a flavorful punch. I ended up drowning everything with the peanut sauce so all the meats pretty much tasted the same. The steak and chicken were dry. The shrimp and pork loin were pretty moist and juicy and get good marks. By now DS5 was bouncing around doing the limbo which was great timing because if not he would have just been bouncing around.

The bread pudding was great and a nice treat from normal desserts. We had requested chocolate ice cream for DS5. The chef said he would get some from Kona for us. Unfortunately, when his dessert arrived it was vanilla. He's not a vanilla fan and didn't have any. Then as were were getting up, the chocolate ice cream arrived and he had a few spoons.

We were so damn full you had to roll us out of there. We decided to burn some of it off by walking to the Floridian. We got a little lost and ended up behind the Luau. But we found our way eventually.

Overall I'll give Ohana a B. If it weren't so over hyped our expectations may have been lower. The chef did try to accommodate us but fell a little short. Service was very mediocre. Although I expected this to be our favorite meal going in, it wasn't.

 

[mince]

BTW DS5's shirt was wet from a water balloon a CM had given my kids.