Disney Counter-Service Food..Am I the Only One?.......

[civileng68]

I know many are purists, as I am, but maybe this is because I go more regularly than many guests, but, I have something that really has hit me this week. Typically due to our proximity to the parks we come up monthly for just a few days. During that time we eat in and out of the parks (mostly counter-service). However, this week we're here for a bit over a week. Been here since Saturday and there's been something that's really hit me.

In recent months I've begun eating more healthy. Now I'm not going health nut, but Ive just really worked on reducing fried foods, working out more and trying to eat a bit of healthy food at every meal. With that said, I DO love to break down and have a nice burger or chicken tenders.

This week we ate alot of counter service so far and I must say, I'm exhausted with it. I feel like its redundant from location to location with minor exceptions. I find the best place is Cosmic Rays (for choices), but, my issue there is everything seems closed very early in the day! Just Wed night on a super busy night, nothing was open except for Cosmic Rays (in terms of sit -down counter-service) and even there, the chicken bay was closed.

I did end up getting a grilled chicken but the fries are terrible, the burgers LOOK terrible and my chicken sandwich felt as though it had zero effort put behind it. Im not blaming the staff, I'm sort of feeling its just an effort overall regarding counter service food. It doesnt seem as good as it used to be. It seems like A) its less food and B) the quality seems a bit changed. The fries, the fries. Disney, cmon, the fries are just terrible! Soggy, saggy, greasy.

Maybe its just me but I'm exhausted from it. I am finding myself eating before going to the parks and waiting until afterwards to hit up a place on the way back to the hotel. Not to mention, half the places seemed closed, and are redundant. I'd love to see DIFFERENT types of food. Columbia House is one of my faves, but yet again...........closed.

 

[GrumpyDad1974]

No your not the only one... there is some varation, but for those going with picky eaters not so much. We try and go during FD so it's not as bad when its free also if we are hungry but plan on leaving the park in an hour or two we will grab a snack to hold us over. There seems to be more of a selection at the hotel or we may go to DTD for EOS then go back to the hotel (we don't use park transportation unless we absolutely have to).

 

[glammadiva]

QS does leave something to be desired. I love Electric Umbrella at Epcot, I have never encountered lots of closed QS places. I am getting ready for trip 6 and 7 this year and will keep this in mind!

 

[leebee]

It's why we don't do the QSDP even though we stay at POP, even though it's free; there's too little nutrition or variation unless you are at Epcot, and hopping over there all the time is inconvenient at best, impossible if you don't have park hopper passes. The quick service is pretty decent at POP, but who wants to leave the parks all the time to go to the resorts for lunch? Burgers and fries, chicken and fries, BBQ and fries. My DSis' family does QSDP and her kids start to unravel after a couple of days... the only thing worse than counter service meals is KID'S counter service meals!!

 

[MatzoRella]

The public consciousness has changed rapidly with respect to nutrition, and the current quick-service options don't really fly anymore. Substituting an over-milled whole-wheat bun does not a healthful meal make. I don't envy Disney in having to revamp things while keeping their dishes palatable to the masses. We don't yet have an established model of healthful fast food, though there are many possibilities from which to draw.

 

[goofy4tink]

I'm pretty much the same. There are certain counter service spots that I like.....Electric Umbrella, Cosmic Rays, Columbia Harbor House. But, I do try to avoid cs as much as possible now.

 

[TLinden16]

I'm going to move this to our restaurant board.

 

[Schmeck]

What's the name of the CS at the Contemporary? It had a great, eclectic selection, was my husband's favorite CS on our last trip. It's close enough to MK to pop out for lunch and go back, IMO.

Sunshine Seasons (at the Land Pavilion) also has an eclectic, awesome menu.

 

[janabananas]

I am in complete agreement with you. I scoured the menus to try to find non chicken nugget, hamburger, fries, etc options. It is really difficult to find tasty & healthy food, at a cs place, especially if the good ones shut down early.

I found a really nice chicken salad at DHS Pizza Planet. That was light and refreshing, but the only option for kids was that pizza.

In EPCOT, we ate in Norway and had nice & light sandwiches. However, no kids meals.

Even my kids get sick of chicken nuggets/burgers/fries.

 

[MASKED MANIAC]

Your right and it never was that way before...it shouldn't be...as much as Disney makes imagine how much they would make if they sold a good hamburger....

 

[kwdw]

I concur - Disney is behind the times with regard to the variety of healthy, tasty quick-service options. US fast food restaurants have made good progress in this regard. Disney - just so-so. It's disappointing.

I also don't get why SO many places close early/open late (few breakfast options). We struggle to find food later in the evening - especially in the MK and quick-service breakfast options in the parks seems to be limited to pastries. I realize there is "work" to do to clean-up a restaurant each night after closing, but, hey, I paid big bucks for my park admission. They are losing food dollars that would be spent. But maybe they have done the analysis and those dollars don't offset the cost of keeping places open longer.

Sigh. Disney isn't perfect - but they do need to keep up with the times.

(Hello - free wi-fi anyone?)

 

[rachel09985]

I completely disagree! You can get soooo many healthy options for counter service at Disney World..hello World Showcase!??? I eat healthier counter service in Disney than I do at home. I never once eat anything fried at Disney and I do the DP the entire time.

 

[MellyMouse]

Maybe it depends on your definition of healthy eating? I felt like I ate really well on the QSDP on our last trip, but I guess someone looking for organic food would have had a harder time.

No lack of variety, either. We ate in Mexico and Morocco, Columbia Harbor House, Captain Cook's, Starring Rolls, Flame Tree, Mara and Earl of Sandwich. Not a single burger the whole trip, and french fries only once. I didn't feel overloaded on any type of food, other than all those desserts.

Even desserts, though--I know people complain that on the QSDP you get sick of those little chocolate cakes. I didn't have a single one the whole trip. I was sick of sugar in general, but dessert was different at every meal. Maybe I just planned really well?

I don't know. Planning before the trip, I was a little worried I'd be tired of counter service by the end of the week. After the trip, I can't imagine paying the inflated Disney prices for table service. (As a disclaimer, we did have one sit down meal at the Hoop De Doo, but that was more of an attraction than just a meal.)

 

[civileng68]

I guess what im also saying is, even the quality of theor standard fare has dropped. I remember the "old" chicken tenders. Now its more or less, over-breaded nuggets (less chicken, more breading). The burgers? Those things are disgusting. The fries are disgusting.

Rachel, you are right in that you CAN eat healthy but its hard in MK, and most CS closes early (didnt get my fish and chips at Harbour House . But as others have said, while i may find a great place at WS, finding healthy food for my child in the same place is tough. While we may eat bad on vacation, we try to be reaponsible for our child's choices for overhaul health but even for overall ebergy to get through the day.

 

[toxa]

.

 

[troynkasey]

There is some redundantcy if you ask me. A whole lot of chicken nuggets, cheeseburger/hamburger, hot dogs, uncrustables for the kids, pizza, etc. Now I have noticed the burgers and hot dogs have variety at different locations. I compare it to the difference between a Burger King and Applebeas with the difference between counter service and table service. You get a bit better selection and better quality of food.

As far as healthy options, you do have healthy options. They are somewhat limited, but there are options. All these descriptions were taking right from allears.net...

DHS-Backlot Express: Southwest Salad with Chicken - mixed greens, crisp corn tortilla, black bean relish, avocado, and cilantro vinaigrette
DHS-Studio Catering Co.: Chicken Caesar Wrap & Grilled Vegetable Sandwich
DHS-Catalina Eddies: Caesar Salad with Chicken
AK-Pizzafari: Caesar Salad with Chicken
Epcot-Liberty Inn: Iceberg Wedge Salad & Grilled Chicken Flatbread (this can have a side of grapes instead of fries too)
MK-Pecos Bill: Vegetable Burger with apple slices, Caesar Salad with Chicken, & Chicken Wrap

Obviously there are probably more options and locations. These were just a few I located. Some I remember having or seeing. I also remember Cosmic Rays having a Turkey Bacon wrap that was phenominal, but it wasn't listed on the menu at Allears.

 

[everythingALICE]

I really wish they would bring more of the options from the World Showcase (and even Sunshine Seasons) into the other parks. There's so much variety in comparison to the other parks.

 

[librarygeek]

There are a lot of good options but if they're closed it doesn't do any good. We were lucky that we didn't have to worry about that since everything seemed to be open, more or less! So I didn't get that impression at all, I was impressed with the non-burger and chicken finger options. I would think that as long as almost all CS places are open it's fairly easy to get decent CS food - MK is probably the hardest.

For others who are asking, we did around 1 CS meal a day and never ate burgers or chicken fingers. Here's where we went:

Earl of Sandwich - DTD
Columbia Harbour House - MK
Sunshine Seasons - Epcot
Norway - Epcot
Pizza Planet - HS (okay, so this is kind of greasy unhealthy food - but you can get a salad!)
ABC Commissary - HS (had a good salad here)
Yak and Yeti Local Foods - AK
Riverside Mill Food Court - Port Orleans Riverside

Edited to Add: This was just DH and me, no kids so I don't know about kids' options but have heard they aren't all that great.

 

[Bonniec]

We've got passes too and I mostly agree. Some healthy places I can think of....


1. Columbia Harbor House at MK has a really nice salmon, cous cous, and broccoli plate. Plus if you sit upstairs, it's super quiet and relaxed. It's located in Liberty Square.

2. Sunshine Seasons at Epcot is nice. I was there last weekend and got the rotisserie chicken. It was okay...chicken a bit dry. The yellow rice with it was wonderful! But I saw other plates (after I got mine) that looked amazing. Think I'll have to try the pork chop and mashed potato (though dunno how healthy that is ) They also had a lot of salads and stuff. Pretty cool place....I just think I could have picked better.

3. Main Street Bakery in MK has these really nice sandwiches for around $6. Fairly healthy if you don't put mayo on it. Mien had so much turkey on it, I shared it with my son.

I'd like to hear more healthy options too. I was thinking about hitting up DTD and trying Earl of Sandwiches


DFB has an article on eating healthy





ETA: Has anyone tried the veggie burger at Pecos? That sounds interesting to me. Is it any good?

 

[karrit2000]

Each park has it's good & bad but to me MK & DHS are the most lacking in decent variety. The sandwiches at Starring Rolls in DHS are wonderful but they have very limited operating hours. I tried the Chicken Ceaear wrap at Studio Catering once and after about three bites I'd had enough. It was the slimiest most disgusting thing I've ever tried to eat at WDW. I have to totally agree with you about the Fries. They have never been cooked enough for my tastes in all the years I've been going. And don't get me started on the "healthy" Chicken Nuggets they replaced the old Chicken Tenders with. The only chicken I get now is if it's grilled but that's hard to find. AK has a nice variety to choose from but I usually only go to that park once a trip. I don't understand how they can consider forcing a 1/3 lb. Angus Burger on us to be a healthier option. I for one do not normally eat a burger that large. 1/4 lb. is way more than enough for me. And those wheat rolls are awful. You used to be able to get a nice Cheese & Fruit platter option from the grab & go at most of the hotel food courts but they got rid of that too.