Eating all natural (no artificial ingredients) at DL

[cchavez]

Is this possible? We were able to do so at WDW over a year ago. We at at mostly CS and had 3 table service meals where they did accommodate my sons allergies. Any advice. WDW was soo easy....they faxed me info and I had a contact person...Awhile back I contacted DL and nobody called me back. Going to try again tomorrow.

 

[Disney Dreams]

Welcome to DIS!

I don't know exactly what "all natural" means so I don't want to advise you wrong. Call Disneyland. Tell them you have someone in your family with extremely specific food needs and want to speak with someone prior to your trip. They will assist you accordingly.

- Dreams

 

[brergnat]

It can be done, if you want to live off of fruit, veggies, milk and fresh bread. You can certainly ask for any of your meals to be prepared differently--plain grilled or broiled meats and fish, no sauces, no prepared carb dishes (ask for fresh veggies instead), etc.

I think what you have to avoid most of all is anything with a sauce, soups, breakfast bread items, yogurts, and desserts.

As far as I know, DL's dietary needs dept. is not nearly as good as WDW's. You'll sort of have to be your own advocate, and speak to the chef at the restaurants, or ask for ingredient lists if you are unsure.

If you happen to have a vehicle, you can go to a local Souplantation. EVERYTHING there is made fresh, with no canned or processed items in the kitchen. They claim to not use artificial ANYTHING in the foods that they prepare onsite. The dessert station, though, is excused from this claim.

 

[cchavez]

Sorry I was not clear. No artificial colors, flavors or preservatives. When we went to WDW...DS had a ton of bun free burgers, lays regular potato chips and apples slices, bananas. They also made him gluten free waffes (he is not gf but they were all natural) w/ real maples syrup and scrambled eggs in real butter. We also had a real cheese pizza made for us at another restaurant at WDW. Breads are tricky since they may be made w/ all natural ingreds but the pan sprays might contain preservatives like tbhq or bht. WDW also had french meadow gf brownies that are all natural, walkers mickey cookies that are all natural and I think they also served hagan daz ice cream which many flavors are all natural. Finally, WDW had gf chicken tenders at CS restaurants that were all natural....do any of these products sound familiar at DL??? What brand of hot dogs does DL use?



BTW, Souplantation sounds great but my son is a picky eater too....he like ckn nuggets/tenders, burgers, hot dogs...kid food. There is a decent variety in his diet but he is not into soups or salads....thanks for the suggestions.

 

[disneychrista]

Have you checked out the diseyland menu's at allears.net? If not this is my suggestion...you can get an idea of what is available where.

And a word to the WDW wise, Disneyland is not as adaptive as WDW, in special orders. So while you might have been able to get things made to order at WDW, most places just don't have the ability at DL.

 

[cchavez]

yes, I have checked out the menus but since they don't list ingredients I cannot be sure if they are safe.....

 

[kikiq]

I would call Disneyland again. The chefs are just as willing to work with you as the WDW chefs are. There are several DISers with special dietary needs that go to Disneyland. Hopefully they will see your post.

Personally I know that we've had special requests at Storyteller's Cafe in the Grand Californian as we have gluten free and lactose intolerant people in our group.

 

[disneyfan4ever54]

Sorry I was not clear. No artificial colors, flavors or preservatives. When we went to WDW...DS had a ton of bun free burgers, lays regular potato chips and apples slices, bananas. They also made him gluten free waffes (he is not gf but they were all natural) w/ real maples syrup and scrambled eggs in real butter. We also had a real cheese pizza made for us at another restaurant at WDW. Breads are tricky since they may be made w/ all natural ingreds but the pan sprays might contain preservatives like tbhq or bht. WDW also had french meadow gf brownies that are all natural, walkers mickey cookies that are all natural and I think they also served hagan daz ice cream which many flavors are all natural. Finally, WDW had gf chicken tenders at CS restaurants that were all natural....do any of these products sound familiar at DL??? What brand of hot dogs does DL use?


BTW, Souplantation sounds great but my son is a picky eater too....he like ckn nuggets/tenders, burgers, hot dogs...kid food. There is a decent variety in his diet but he is not into soups or salads....thanks for the suggestions.

My DS also needs to avoid food coloring and food preservatives, so I totally understand your situation. He is a vegetarian, so I can't help you out with the meat options, but I can let you know what we were able to find at DLR which he was able to eat. As far as breakfast foods, we were able to get gluten-free pancakes with real butter and real maple syrup at Storyteller's cafe. (They use Bob's red mill brand for the pancakes). I actually brought our own maple syrup from home, just in case we ate somewhere else and we needed it there. I'm not sure the other character breakfasts have the real maple syrup, but they do have it at Storyteller's. Where are you staying? We were able to pick up some small butter pats at the little store at Hojo's before we left for our meals, just in case they only had margarine at the restaurant. We read labels everywhere we went, as far as things that were in packages, and then we spoke to the chefs at table service restaraunts. I couldn't find any desserts that were "safe".....no "all natural" ones in DLR that I am aware of except for fruits like watermelon, etc., and the trail mix that they have at the little stand in Adventureland. My DS loved it! There is also a Hagan Daz in DTD, so you might want to check there. Before our trip, I checked out gluten free info. for dining at DLR and I found a ton of good information. I''ll see if I can find some of it for you. As far as checking into everything ahead of time, unfortunatley, there is not one person or place that can tell you where you can go to get the specific foods that your DS needs. As someone mentioned above, check out the menus on allears.net to see what he might be able to eat as far as things that you know are "safe", and if you decide to eat at a table service restaraunt, call DLR dining and ask for the head chef at the restaraunt. The head chef at Storyteller's called me to discuss what my DS needed, and then we arrived he sent one of his sous chefs out to talk to us about it. You'll have to do this at each table service restaraunt to make sure your ds gets what he needs. We didn't really use any counter service places, but I was told that they have lists of ingredients there that you can look at. What really helps us out is to have groceries delivered from Vons (safeway). We always get a room with a fridge/microwave at Hojo's and prepare a lot of things there for our DS. Vons has a good selection of organic foods so that was great. Please feel free to send me a PM if I can be of more help.

Edited: I wanted to add that they use kinnikinnick buns for hotdogs and hamburgers at some of the DLR restaurants. I'll add some more info. as I think of it.

 

[bumbershoot]

You have to call Disney Dining, get through to the chef in charge of allergies, leave a brief and to the point message stating what information you need, along with name and phone number. Once you do that, they should call you back in a day or two.


As long as you're going places where they actually MAKE the food, you should be OK. There's a gluten free list available at City Hall. They don't send it out ahead of time b/c things can change.

We have to avoid colors, corn syrup, corn syrup solids, and HFCS. Good bye most of the packaged food!!! Including Dole Whips and most of their ice creams. So we go to the Haagen Dasz place in DTD; they have an ingredient list right behind the counter. As I'm sure you know, the simpler = the better with them!

We bring in most snack foods. DS has powdered sugar on his waffles and pancakes b/c the syrup they have at DLR isn't maple syrup at all. It's *possible* that the syrup at Storytellers is real, but DS is so used to powdered sugar (which, if it were an allover corn problem he coudln't use, b/c they use cornstarch to make powdered sugar more easily pourable if that makes sense) that he didn't care.

Counter service places also have binders with ingredient lists in them. I highly recommend going at NON "rush hour" eating times unless you're comfy with stepping aside to read the ingredients while others hurry to get their food.

They do allow you to bring in your own food, so we bring in, say, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with safe bread, PB, and J. Uncrustables are filled with nonsense so DS can't have them. DS has also gotten used to mustard on things like fries b/c of mainstream ketchup's ingredients.


Anyway, I'm not telling you things for YOUR situation, but what WE do to work around things.


We haven't had a problem yet. I've even gotten a platter of veggie sausages from Storyteller's (I only wanted 3 patties, he brought a platter, yikes!), that's how accomodating they *can* be.

Have fun!

 

[disneyfan4ever54]

It's *possible* that the syrup at Storytellers is real

They definitely have 100% real Vermont maple syrup available at Storyteller's. (It's even listed on one of the breakfast meals on the menu on Allears.net). The syrup that they have on the tables isn't the real thing though, so you do have to ask for it.