Do Kid's Menus change frequently?

[Jetta8300]

This will be our first trip in November with our son who just turned 4. I thought I'd never say this before I had a kid, but I have one of those pesky "picky eaters". He's not too bad, he'll eat a lot of the usual "kid stuff"... pizza, chicken nuggets, hamburgers, meatballs, PBJ, most fruits etc. But he's lactose intolerant (so no mac and cheese, or grilled cheese) and will not eat a lot of the items on the Mickey Check Meals (grilled fish? Grilled chicken?, steak? No way).

My husband and I are really adventurous eaters and are surprised at some of the restaurants we love don't have many options that our son would eat on the menus online. I've planned our ADR's with restaurants that have some good options for him but I'm noticing the menu's on disney's website are not the same as some really recent reviews and menu pictures. Do the kids menus change on a frequent basis? I hope not. Thanks!

 

[Lisa F]

This will be our first trip in November with our son who just turned 4. I thought I'd never say this before I had a kid, but I have one of those pesky "picky eaters". He's not too bad, he'll eat a lot of the usual "kid stuff"... pizza, chicken nuggets, hamburgers, meatballs, PBJ, most fruits etc. But he's lactose intolerant (so no mac and cheese, or grilled cheese) and will not eat a lot of the items on the Mickey Check Meals (grilled fish? Grilled chicken?, steak? No way).

My husband and I are really adventurous eaters and are surprised at some of the restaurants we love don't have many options that our son would eat on the menus online. I've planned our ADR's with restaurants that have some good options for him but I'm noticing the menu's on disney's website are not the same as some really recent reviews and menu pictures. Do the kids menus change on a frequent basis? I hope not. Thanks!

I, too, was the perfect parent before I actually had a son, lol.

in my experience the kid menus don't really change that often... but of course that doesn't help if something changes right before you go. But I haven't noticed kid menus really changing even when adult menus change. For example, they took the steak off the adult menu at coral reef but the kid menus till has the jr. steak... to me if something was going to go that would be it. My guess is that they have no real motivation to freshen up kid menus as often as adult menus and it does help with adults planning.... less picky kids are free to order from the adult menu if it appeals more or share with a parent.

 

[Jetta8300]

Thanks for the input! I did plan some meals with burgers on the menu for adults, such as liberty tree tavern lunch, and places like Via Napoli with pizza for adults that he would eat. But some of our favorites have no options for him (see ya next time Chefs de France, Skipper Canteen, Be Our Guest, Coral Reef, etc.)

And I did need to book more "chain restaurant" type places that have more choices for kids, like T-Rex. But It's very surprising some of the menus and the lack of traditional kid items, and the very limited menus for kids in general. Disney loves mac and cheese as the one more traditional item on the kid's menus, which doesn't help my lactose intolerant little one. Hopefully the kiddie menus won't change too much!

 

[Lisa F]

Thanks for the input! I did plan some meals with burgers on the menu for adults, such as liberty tree tavern lunch, and places like Via Napoli with pizza for adults that he would eat. But some of our favorites have no options for him (see ya next time Chefs de France, Skipper Canteen, Be Our Guest, Coral Reef, etc.)

And I did need to book more "chain restaurant" type places that have more choices for kids, like T-Rex. But It's very surprising some of the menus and the lack of traditional kid items, and the very limited menus for kids in general. Disney loves mac and cheese as the one more traditional item on the kid's menus, which doesn't help my lactose intolerant little one. Hopefully the kiddie menus won't change too much!

just curious how he can eat pizza if he's lactose intolerant. do you have it made without?

be our guest has a turkey meatloaf that my son tolerated though it wasn't his favorite (he was with his dad at the time and the kids menu at lunch is pretty limited... i would have gotten him a turkey sandwich from the adult menu as he'd be all over that). It's kind of meatloaf and burger like. it's on the mickey check but they will swap sides on the mickey check if you want - so you could get it with fries instead of whatever grain blah blah and steamed blah blah (my kid wont' touch any of that but at some point in his life he flipped from not wanting to eat anything grilled to wanting to eat EVERYTHING grilled... especially steak but also chicken if it's not a weird texture like thigh).

If you are doing any QS the most surprising and best for our situation is Tangierine Cafe believe it or not. GREAT adult menu for adventurous eaters but hamburger and nuggets for the kids. Almost no other WS restaurant has that!

They have hamburger at chef's de france on the kid's menu too. Skipper Canteen has a chicken tenders.. they are like sweet and sour chicken type though but my son will eat those and they share a kitchen with LTT so they brought him fries as a side instead of veggies (he had the mac and cheese)... he LOVED the volcano dessert there too.

Coral Reef has whole wheat elbow pasta with marinara and turkey meatballs. IME my kid can't tell if it's turkey or whole wheat post cooking. My kid would not eat tomato sauce but maybe yours does. Don't discount the mickey check meals, sometimes there is pasta and meatballs on there.

 

[Jetta8300]

just curious how he can eat pizza if he's lactose intolerant. do you have it made without?

be our guest has a turkey meatloaf that my son tolerated though it wasn't his favorite (he was with his dad at the time and the kids menu at lunch is pretty limited... i would have gotten him a turkey sandwich from the adult menu as he'd be all over that). It's kind of meatloaf and burger like. it's on the mickey check but they will swap sides on the mickey check if you want - so you could get it with fries instead of whatever grain blah blah and steamed blah blah (my kid wont' touch any of that but at some point in his life he flipped from not wanting to eat anything grilled to wanting to eat EVERYTHING grilled... especially steak but also chicken if it's not a weird texture like thigh).

If you are doing any QS the most surprising and best for our situation is Tangierine Cafe believe it or not. GREAT adult menu for adventurous eaters but hamburger and nuggets for the kids. Almost no other WS restaurant has that!

They have hamburger at chef's de france on the kid's menu too. Skipper Canteen has a chicken tenders.. they are like sweet and sour chicken type though but my son will eat those and they share a kitchen with LTT so they brought him fries as a side instead of veggies (he had the mac and cheese)... he LOVED the volcano dessert there too.

Coral Reef has whole wheat elbow pasta with marinara and turkey meatballs. IME my kid can't tell if it's turkey or whole wheat post cooking. My kid would not eat tomato sauce but maybe yours does. Don't discount the mickey check meals, sometimes there is pasta and meatballs on there.

Thanks again, I didn't notice the "ground beef steak" at chefs de France actually sounds like a burger. That may be a good choice for us then! He can pick most of the cheese off pizza and eat the bread and sauce. He loves it actually. Spaghetti is actually his least favorite food at restaurants even though he loves it at home, and that's the only item for him at coral reef so we decided to skip that one. I will for sure check out Tangerine Cafe! I also thought about trying a few other places and taking in an uncrustable if he absolutely will not touch his food (terrible parenting i know but it's vacation... haha! )

 

[Lisa F]

Thanks again, I didn't notice the "ground beef steak" at chefs de France actually sounds like a burger. That may be a good choice for us then! He can pick most of the cheese off pizza and eat the bread and sauce. He loves it actually. Spaghetti is actually his least favorite food at restaurants even though he loves it at home, and that's the only item for him at coral reef so we decided to skip that one. I will for sure check out Tangerine Cafe! I also thought about trying a few other places and taking in an uncrustable if he absolutely will not touch his food (terrible parenting i know but it's vacation...)

absolutely not terrible parenting. he's 4. if the worst parenting moment you have at disney is giving him an uncrustable because he doesn't like some strange food you're doing great, lol.

he might love the bread service at sanaa.. no sauce but the bread is off the hook. What I did for my son was swap out the more exotic stuff for extra naan. he was in heaven. but they have naan pizza there. Probably the best crust after via napoli on property!

 

[Kae]

At 4 my ds claimed chefs de France had the best burger on the planet.

Kae

 

[TheRustyScupper]

in my experience the kid menus don't really change that often

Not often at all - in fact, seldom, and some are never.

 

[Dis703]

IME yes, the children's menus do change. Perhaps not frequently, but we have gone on trips where we pre-planned what and where we can eat based on available items for my children (who have limited diets due to food allergies) only to find the one item we hoped to order was no longer on the menu. We have also have returned 1 year later to find the menu items they had last time had changed or been replaced by something else and when I was looking at the menus online pre-trip they had not been changed.

That said, they don't suddenly change chicken fingers to a quinoa salad or anything so extreme. So if you find a place that has basic kid's menu options they'll likely still have similar basic "kid friendly" food options even if the menu changes a little.

 

[PrincessDuck]

Have you looked at the allergy menus for the places that you want to go? There might be other options on those that he is able to eat. If you identify it as such, then the chef will come out and might make something up that he is able to eat.

Here is a great Facebook group that might be helpful to you in finding stuff for him to eat. My daughter and I try to avoid gluten and it is helpful to see what can be done.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/disneychefsrockfoodallergies/