December 2012 GF/Vegetarian Dining Review

yodadaisystorm

Earning My Ears
Joined
Apr 4, 2011
Messages
12
Hi everyone,

I don't post here too often, but I find it helpful when others post dining reviews so I thought I would contribute.

I was diagnosed with Celiac disease a few years ago so I can't eat any food containing gluten. I am also a vegetarian by choice (was even vegan at point), so that's an extra challenge. Plus, I am casein intolerant so I'm not supposed to eat a lot of dairy. I am rather stubborn with this one. I love dairy so I find it hard to live without. However, the consequences of too much dairy are mild compared to if I eat gluten, so I choose my battles.

Enough about me.

This trip was DH, DD and myself. We stayed at AKL and had the Deluxe DDP.

Here we go!

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 19

LUNCH: MARA

This was a good experience at the time, but I would come to regret it later.

I talked to the chef and she said I could have the falafel and she would put it on GF buns from Boma. She also made me French fries in a dedicated fryer.
Like I said, at the time it was good, but I didn’t feel very good for the rest of the day. I barely ate dinner at all because my stomach was cramping so bad.
I later found out a couple of days later when we ate at the Mara again, that the chef was wrong – the falafel is made with bread crumbs. That second chef could not believe that the first chef who served me this dish would not know. Anyway, he made my experience the second time much better but I’ll get to that in the review below.

Thinking back on it, the first chef who served me gluten seemed really put out by it and was not in a rush to make it easy for me. In fact, when I asked her what I could have, she stared at me blankly. I was actually the one who suggested the falafel and asked if it was GF/vegetarian. She said it was.
The only other complaint I have about this place is that by the time I got my food, it was much later than the rest of my family and I had to wait for the fries so long that I was already done with the rest of my meal.

DINNER: RAGLAN ROAD

Heritage Tomato Salad - Heirloom tomato and rocket salad, with shallots, parmesan crisps and balsamic reduction $12

Raglan Risotto - Risotto with shiitake mushrooms, garden peas, shaved parmesan, and rocket lettuce. $15

I opted to add a side of GF onion rings just because there are so few places I can eat them. I can’t remember the last time I had onion rings unless I made them myself. I loved them, but only managed a couple. I’ve gotten so used to not eating fried food, that it was really rich for me.

SKIPPED DESSERT

Raglan Road was good. We had a great seat right by the live music and dancers so that made the meal even better.

As I mentioned in the review above, I wasn’t really that hungry because my stomach was still cramping from lunch. I did still enjoy what I had.

I especially loved how creamy the risotto was, but it was very rich and I barely managed half.

I skipped dessert because I wasn’t feeling well still. I wound up ordering the Dunbrody’s Kiss to bring back to the room for my daughter since she went to Simba’s Cubhouse that night. She did eat it later in the week and loved it.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 20

BREAKFAST: 1900 PARK FARE

This was your basic breakfast buffet. The chef came and talked to me and walked me through the buffet. He offered to make me GF mickey waffles and I definitely accepted. That’s one thing that I like the GF version better than the regular mickey waffles that I used to be able to eat a few years ago, before my Celiac diagnosis.

Anyway, from the buffet I had a veggie and cheese omelet from the station that was good, if not a little overcooked. I also was able to have the strawberry soup (VERY rich) and hash brown casserole. I wonder if their hash brown casserole has changed because I remember it being better last year. It was fine though. I could also have fruit and yogurt, but I didn’t feel like it.

LUNCH: TONY’S TOWN SQUARE

Tomato and Mozzarella Salad - Tomatoes, fresh Mozzarella, Basil, and a Balsamic Dressing $7.49

Multigrain Pasta Primavera - Seasonal Vegetables tossed in Garlic and Olive Oil with Balsamic Glaze and Feta $15.99

Spumoni - layers of ice cream with pistachio nuts and cherries $4.99

This was a good meal. The chef took forever to come out though and my daughter was getting in that meltdown mode we all dread as parents. She was tired and hungry so it made for kind of a long meal.

Anyway, the tomato and mozzarella salad did not have to be modified from the menu and was good as is.

The pasta primavera was served as is, with the exception of using GF pasta. It was good, but after such a big breakfast, I barely made a dent in it and wound up picking out most of the veggies and just eating those.

The spumoni for dessert was a nice change. The only difference between mine and the menu version is that they didn’t serve mine with cookies, like they did for my husband. This was really good, but at this point, I’d been eating so much dairy that it was starting to make me feel sick.

Overall, we’ll be back to Tony’s at some point I’m sure. If it weren’t for a kid who was being grumpy, it would have been a really nice meal. Thankfully, this was the only meal like that for the whole vacation.

DINNER: BOMA

This was the night that we originally had scheduled at another table service (can’t for the life of me remember which though) but we were all tired from being at Magic Kingdom all day, so we opted to stay at the resort to just relax and recharge.

The chef at Boma was nice, and brought me GF rolls and some sort of GF crackers for the hummus. That was more than I expected so it was a nice surprise.

I will say (and this didn’t bother me at all) that my DH and I were laughing about the GF rolls because he literally took them out of the freezer and put them on a plate. They were frozen hockey pucks! LOL. I didn’t say anything. It was fine.

I was pleasantly surprised at how much I could eat on the buffet. The only thing is that there was no dessert option. He offered to bring me some plain vanilla ice cream, but I declined since it was nothing special.
From the buffet, I had:

Kool Slaai, edamame succotash, salads, hummus (though only two of them are GF), warm quinoa and kidney bean salad, mushroom soup (so good!), peanut soup, mashed potatoes, etc.

It was quite a lot of food. I took two trips up to the buffet and was positively stuffed.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 21

BREAKFAST: AKERSHUS

For once, Akershus wasn’t a total nightmare for us. We’ve done this one before with our DD for several years now and it’s always so chaotic and crowded. I noticed that their check in system seems a lot better now and the ropes to wait in line seem to help.

It also helped that our reservation was at 8:20 though it was a mess getting there. We should have just driven since we had our car, but DD wanted to take the bus. I wound up carrying her while speed-walking through Epcot trying to get there in time. We arrived at Epcot at 8:20 and we were told that you lose your reservation after 15 minutes past your ADR time.
Let me tell you, speed walking through Epcot when it’s 40 degrees outside while carrying a 52 pound child, made me pretty annoyed when we first got there.

Anyway, that’s a lot more than you probably wanted to know. Onto the food!
They serve a hot breakfast plate for the table to share and they also have a cold buffet with breakfast items such as: bagels and lox, pastries, croissants, yogurt, fruit, granola, etc.

On the hot plate are scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon and the best hash brown casserole EVER. I ate a serving and a half of that stuff!
The chef did come out to talk to me and walked me through the buffet. I could already have the eggs and hash brown casserole, so he brought me my own plate with no meat. From the cold buffet, I had strawberry yogurt with dried fruit and walnuts.

So, while there are not many options for those who are GF and vegetarian, I certainly was able to get enough to eat and it’s worth it for the princess interaction with DD.

LUNCH: MARA

This meal was one of my favorites all week. This was when I found out that the falafel was NOT GF even though the other chef said it was and served it to me.

Anyway, this guy was awesome and I had him again as the chef the next morning at Boma. He went above and beyond to make sure that I was pleased.
I wound up with
French fries (they gave me a TON) and a vegetable flatbread. He mentioned that he had a GF pizza crust that he could use and it sounded good, so I went with it.

To be honest, I didn’t have high expectations. I’ve had many GF pizza crust and they range everywhere from edible to absolutely disgusting and crumble in your hand (Uno’s, I’m looking at YOU.)

So when he served me this gourmet looking veggie flatbread, I was blown away by how good it was. The flatbread to me was awesome and I didn’t feel like I was sacrificing anything. I know he mentioned to me that you can buy it online but I forgot what the name of it was. I might email to ask him.

DINNER: CALIFORNIA GRILL

I went into this meal having been to California Grill once before, and it was well before I didn’t eat GF and vegetarian. I didn’t really know what to expect, because at face value, there’s nothing on the menu that appeared to me as something I could eat.

We had Ron as a server and he was AWESOME. Seriously, we adored this guy. He paced the meal perfectly – our ADR was at 7pm and the fireworks were at 9:30pm. We never felt rushed, but it didn’t lag either. Oh, and we had a window table as well with perfect view of the fireworks. And DD was at Neverland Club. Life was good.

I pretty much resigned myself to enjoy the experience more than the food because of the limitations, but I should have known better. It was the best meal.

I started with the California Grill's Cheese Board (frequently changes) all 5 for $20. They did have to remove the blue cheese due to gluten concerns and the toasts that normally come with it, but I didn’t miss them at all. They gave me one extra of the other cheeses and extra accompaniments to make up for the lack of toast. This was a great start to the meal and the cheeses were divine. My stomach hurt so bad later after eating all that dairy, but it was worth it. LOL.

For my main course, there wasn’t anything on the menu I could eat. But Ron assured me that the chefs would take care of me and they DID.

They made me a sampling of the following:

Goat Cheese Polenta, Roasted Mushrooms, Zinfandel Glaze, and Sage – BEST. EVER.

A salad with cucumbers, vinaigrette, fennel and bitter greens – Eh, this was good but I don’t like fennel so I left the most of this dish.

Corn and edamame succotash – I really can’t put this dish into words. It was SO fresh, served warm but none of the “bite” of the veggies was compromised. It had a rich butter sauce…OMG. My DH loved this as well.

A sweet and sour dish of swiss chards and rainbow cauliflower – this was light and had a great bite.

I have to tell this side story: so when we were waiting to order dessert, I said to DH that if he comes over here and offers me nothing but fruit salad, I will punch him. Joking of course, I don’t condone violence. I just didn’t want to end this fantastic meal with fruit. I wanted to be blown away again. So our server Ron comes back and FIRST THING he said was that I could have fruit for dessert…to which DH and I thought was hilarious. We let Ron in on the joke and he laughed as well.

BUT – there was one last surprise for me – I had the Caramel Corn Crème Brulee, served with salted caramel ice cream. WOW. Seriously. This was so good. One, because I could actually have a real dessert, which is a thrill. But it was really good and I loved salted sweets so this was perfect. I wish I could have finished it, but I only managed about half my entrée and half my dessert. Sad face.

So overall, this experience was really great and I wouldn’t hesitate to do it again. I recommend Ron as a server as well – I just can’t say enough good things about him.

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 22

BREAKFAST: BOMA

This was our last day on vacation and I think we were all really burned out and tired by this point. It was also still freezing outside, which didn’t help. You can definitely tell we are native Floridians – we HATE the cold, LOL.
We were also trying to rush a bit because it was 9:30 and check out of AKL is at 11am so we needed to get our bags out of the room.

I talked to the same chef who helped me at the Mara the day before at lunch and he walked me through the buffet. Obviously, I steered clear of the meats, pastries, breads, etc.

I wound up eating: GF mickey waffles, goat cheese and chive scrambled eggs, roasted potatoes, grilled asparagus and a yummy yogurt covered tropical fruit salad. All were good.

When the chef brought out my GF mickey waffles, he also brought me a to-go bag of GF brownies and chocolate chip cookies to enjoy later…and boy did I! They were both delicious when I ate them at home a few days later. He brought me out a GF blueberry muffin as well. It was VERY kind of him to go through all that trouble. I will say, the muffin was the nastiest thing EVER, LOL. It very much looked like and had the consistency of Styrofoam. But he tried, and that was much appreciated.

LUNCH: RAINFOREST CAFÉ

DH and I decided to eat here for lunch before we left Orlando because we never do – they don’t have much in the way of GF or vegetarian meals. But, seeing as how I was still full from breakfast and we had three remaining dining credits to use, we went because we knew DD would love it. And she did.

Now, I can’t say this was the brightest idea. Even when I didn’t avoid gluten, it was mediocre food at best. However, the really dumb move on my part was not asking for a chef.

My excuse is that I was so tired at that point, just wanted to get home, didn’t care about the food, tired of waiting for chefs, etc. Doesn’t matter. I should have asked.

I assumed their tortilla chips were corn tortilla chips and that they were GF. Not so. I paid for it later. True story. In fact, I felt so sick afterwards that after a good portion of time in the restroom (sorry, TMI), I felt asleep at Disney Quest while DH and DD had a good time. I just put my head on a table in the dining area and slept there for an hour. I am the lightest sleeper ever, so DH was shocked that I fell asleep. I just felt that bad.

Anyway, on with the review. So we know what the appetizer was, but my entrée was the Portobello Mushroom Sandwich - Grilled portabello mushroom topped with roasted red peppers, Monterey Jack cheese, and our zesty Safari sauce. Served on a toasted bun with tomato, lettuce, and onion $13.99.
Of course, I ordered it without the bun and got potato chips on the side. I think I took three bites. Not very good and nothing that I felt like eating.
For dessert, I had the: Sorbet Sampler - Mango and raspberry sorbet topped with raspberry sauce and mango puree and served with a chocolate covered wafer $6.99

I ordered it without the cookie. I will say, I like this a lot but mango is never my first choice in terms of sorbet flavors. It was refreshing, but again, I managed a few bites before I really started feeling the effects of eating the aforementioned chips.


So...that's all folks! Thanks for reading and hopefully these will help someone out.

Jenn:hippie:
 
Very helpful! I'm traveling with my DD9 who was recently diagnosed with Celiac. Some of the restaurants you mentioned were on our list to try this time. :thumbsup2
 
Thanks for the reviews! I have celiac too, and this will be my 2nd trip gluten free so I always appreciate seeing what others ordered.

I do believe that at Rainforest Cafe, the chips are corn but they don't use a dedicated fryer, which makes them not GF. I've been to the restaurant a couple times here in Illinois and while it's frustrating that they don't have a GF menu, each time the waiters were very good about checking with the chef to make sure what I wanted was GF and modifying things if need be.
 












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