Husband's a VERY picky eater...looking for recommendations

[Cindie-rella]

Hi everyone, first post! I just need a little bit of advice.

My husband is an INCREDIBLY picky eater. This is the list of things he'll eat:

Bread and butter
Chicken
Steak
Burgers
Pizza
Fries/mashed potatoes
Chinese (just plain chicken and sauce)
Most desserts (especially brownies and ice cream)
Some fruits (strawberries, apples)
Some breakfast foods (waffles, bacon)

For the most part, he has to have these things completely plain - nothing but cheese on his burgers, very few sauces on his meat, etc etc.

Now, here's the catch - he really does appreciate quality. There's not much that makes him happier than REALLY GOOD examples of the things he does like. I know we'll be able to keep him happy at the quick service locations (that's what we stuck to last time we were in WDW), but I'd like to know which of the nicer restaurants we could try to find the BEST bread, the BEST chicken...know what I mean?

I'm a very adventurous eater myself and will try anything, so that's not a factor, but we are on a little bit of a budget (might be able to swing ONE signature, but that would be pushing it).

If anyone could help me out, I would really appreciate it! Thank you!

Are you sure we aren't married to the same guy ?! Sounds like my hubbys menu choices ! My DH usually eats off the kiddie station at the buffets...and I know for a fact this trip my DGD will be eating from the adult menu's (thank goodness she takes after me!) and eating more than him. He fills a plate about the size of a coffee saucer. Wish I could be satisfied with that !
I haven't read all the posts here, only yours, so I'm not sure anyone else suggested that you try www.allears.net You can find every menu at every park and every resort at WDW. I live on that site when I'm planning our WDW itinerary It's the only way I know where we should and shouldn't eat b/c of Mr. Pickey Good Luck !

 

[SA mom]

Check over the menus. They are posted at wdwinfo.com and the Dis folks are really good about keeping them updated.

You can always ask for dishes without sauce or cheese or whatever.

Even at a buffet, you can ask the server to bring out a plain piece of a dish.

Hoop De Doo will bring you a bucket full of whatever pieces of the chicken you like. My daughters got a whole bucket of legs for their 7th birthday. So, if you only like breast meat, they'll bring you that.

 

[Familyof4lovesDW]

Another pick eater here

Last trip best meal of the trip was Coral Reef! I loved that steak!

I would agree with garden grill as well. You can ask for sauce on the side and even ask for the meat to be cooked more/ or less I guess.

I also ordered a turkey wrap at cosmic rays once with cheese and bacon only and they said I had to wait a little but no problem.

I would look at the menus as others have mentioned and you can find what he will like and adapt as necessary

 

[2012DisneyWorldBride]

I would not try Le Cellier. We just went in December and while I enjoyed my meal and the cheese soup, my husband who is picky about certain vegetables and sauces, did not enjoy Le Cellier at all. He had to order things without sauces and certain things that made his meal not so great and very boring.

 

[vicky33006]

Your DH sounds very similar to me. I am very picky. For our trip my sister is coming with us, and she is even worse than me. DS (6) is the only one of us that will touch veggies. I have spent hours looking at menus since I'm the one planning this trip. I've tried to find a balance of food that we can eat, and a great experience for all of us. Here's what I came up with for our trip.

DHS
Mama Melrose- This one is tricky. We did it for the F! package, but I think there are some things I can eat, and my sister loves Italian
Sci-Fi
Pizza Planet

MK
Cosmic Ray's
Pecos Bill's

AK
Pizzafari, or possibly Yak and Yeti CS

EPCOT
Garden Grill
Haven't found a CS place here yet..

We are also eating at:
Chef Mickey's
HDDR
T-Rex

 

[kaitmarie]

My fiance is the same way. He found plenty of good food at WDW.

Bread and butter: Kona Cafe has great bread! I'm not sure what kind your husband likes but the Hawaiian sweet bread is great (or so I'm told. I can't eat gluten but my fiance could live off of good rolls!). I've heard that Le Cellier has great pretzel bread. The pretzels in Germany are a favorite too.

Pizza: Via Napoli! Again, I haven't tried it, but it looked and smelled wonderful! My fiance and mom loved it and cannot wait to return. You might also want to hit up Pizzafari and Pizza Planet, but I'm not sure if they're good.

Burgers: My fiance loves the one are Liberty Tree. Sci-Fi has burgers too. Yak and Yeti has a Kobe beef burger. I'd look into Planet Hollywood, Rainforest Cafe, and T-Rex too.

Steak: You have to check out Le Cellier. They have good mashed potatoes too.

Chicken: Does he like chicken fingers? They have them at most of the counter services and they were a huge hit.

Fries/Mashed Potatoes: You should be able to find these at a lot of restaurants. They should have them since they serve them as part of the kids meals. A lot of the buffets will have mashed potatoes.

Breakfast foods: I think most places have the same breakfast items. Find him some Mickey waffles! They have them on some buffets. You could also check out the Tonga Toast at the Polynesian if he'd be into that kind of thing.

Desserts: The Ghirardelli store in Downtown Disney, Beaches N Cream, and Casey's in Magic Kingdom for ice cream. Sci-Fi and 50's for milkshakes. Most restaurants have great desserts.

Most restaurants would be more than happy to help him find something he's like. Chef's will come out and talk to you. Want plain grilled chicken or something without sauce? They'll do it.

Does he like fried fish? Rose and Crown pub has the best! My picky eater cannot recommend them enough!

 

[KrazeeK120]

Your DH and I must be long lost siblings! His eating habits sound close to mine (although I won't touch red meat with a 10 foot pole).

Here are some places I like:

Buffets - Crystal Palace, Chef Mickey's, Cape May Cafe, and (surprisingly) Biergarten. The first 3 have traditional American food, and Biergarten has some "non-strange" choices - bread & butter, baked chicken, potatoes & cheese, etc.

I really like 'Ohana. He could eat the meat plain but the peanut sauce is really good. If he'll eat any kind of fish, Rose & Crown has pretty standard breaded fish filets.

For quick service, just about any place should have a burger or pizza or something he'll eat. I do like tuna salad, and Columbia Harbour house has a good one. I like Pizzafari at Animal Kingdom - it's nothing to write home about, but it's perfectly acceptable pizza. Sunshine Seasons is a good option in Epcot as it has A LOT of choices.

There's a good website - allears.net - that has menus for all of the restaurants in WDW. You might want to check it out and have your DH pick some places where the food looks good to him. That way you don't have to take a guess once you're actually at the park.

 

[anelson81993]

Hi everyone, first post! I just need a little bit of advice.

My husband is an INCREDIBLY picky eater. This is the list of things he'll eat:

Bread and butter
Chicken
Steak
Burgers
Pizza
Fries/mashed potatoes
Chinese (just plain chicken and sauce)
Most desserts (especially brownies and ice cream)
Some fruits (strawberries, apples)
Some breakfast foods (waffles, bacon)

For the most part, he has to have these things completely plain - nothing but cheese on his burgers, very few sauces on his meat, etc etc.

Now, here's the catch - he really does appreciate quality. There's not much that makes him happier than REALLY GOOD examples of the things he does like. I know we'll be able to keep him happy at the quick service locations (that's what we stuck to last time we were in WDW), but I'd like to know which of the nicer restaurants we could try to find the BEST bread, the BEST chicken...know what I mean?

I'm a very adventurous eater myself and will try anything, so that's not a factor, but we are on a little bit of a budget (might be able to swing ONE signature, but that would be pushing it).

If anyone could help me out, I would really appreciate it! Thank you!

Your list sounds exactly like my dad's eating habits. Well, except for the chicken--he's almost universally a red meat guy, with a little bacon thrown in.

'Ohana is good for the picky meat-eater. Their meats are relatively plain, with optional sauces for dipping, and they'll give you all the steak/chicken you want. My picky dad loves their chicken wings (if your husband likes Chinese food, provided it's chicken and sauce, he might like their chicken wings), and the dumplings, too. The bread there is great, but rather sweet.
Cape May is nice for the combination of picky and not, especially if he'll eat seafood. You should be able to find plenty for both of you there. And the cornbread is fabulous!
For burgers, it doesn't get any better than Beaches and Cream (in the opinion of my burger-adoring, I-could-eat-burgers-every-day dad). I like their burgers especially because they're always very nice about customizing--I don't eat cheese on burgers, my siblings don't like anything but meat and cheese, etc.--but they always make our burgers exactly the way we like them.
A lot of others have suggested Via Napoli for pizza, but I would disagree. This isn't the pizza you find in your average neighborhood pizza joint. My family (including my picky dad) ate there in November, and agreed that the pizza wasn't very good (crust was too thin for their tastes, and cooked unevenly due to the oven used). If your husband is used to chain pizza places (think Domino's, Pizza Hut, Papa John's, etc.), I don't think he'll like Via Napoli very much. Plus, their bread service isn't very good, and the wait staff is not consistent about providing bread service. As far as pizza goes, I'd probably stick to counter service.
Some of the best bread my dad has eaten in WDW was at Tutto Italia. It was so good, my dad called me from the restaurant on his last trip to tell me about the bread. He's a big bread eater, and is still talking about that bread. You didn't mention in your list whether or not your husband eats pasta, but Tutto Italia's pasta is (according to my parents), very good. My dad only likes what he calls "shape pasta"--i.e. penne, farfalle, mostaccoli, etc. He only rarely eats spaghetti, linguine, angel hair, fetticuine noodles. And he's insanely picky about how they're cooked--he likes his pasta a very certain way, and he loved the pasta he had at Tutto Italia.
I agree with those suggesting '50s Prime Time. I love their fried chicken, and if your husband won't eat greens, you can replace it with another veggie (I usually get corn). I also agree that buffets are a good idea, just so you both can have what you want. As far as breakfast goes, buffets are a good option here too since he's picky. I know my dad prefers buffets, where he can load up on biscuits and potatoes and bacon, instead of ordering from a menu and ending up with a lot of things he doesn't want.
And remember, you can always ask for things plain. If there's a place you really want to try, and it has one of the base foods your husband will eat (steak, chicken, etc.), it can almost always be customized to fit his needs.

 

[LockShockBarrel]

Going back and thinking, I'll try to list the places I had the best "fill in the blank".

Bread and butter- Kona Cafe and Garden Grill. Kona's is fluffy and sweet, and Garden Grill had a few different kinds of roll with maple butter. Runner's up would be Flying Fish and Artist Point, but they seem to change what they offer more often (that's a mouthful) so I wouldn't count on them as much.

Chicken- Sunshine Seasons and Wolfgang Puck Express. Sunshine has it rotesserie and I don't remember what seasoning they use but I didn't find them offputting and it's a large portion. Wolfgang Puck Express has chicken finger-esque things that were good and again, it was a large portion.

Steak- Artist Point for their buffalo steaks (it's a weakness for me, I love it) and Narcoossee. I've also had steak at 50's Prime Time and Coral Reef. The thing to remember here is the signatures are always going to have better product because hey, they're signatures. The ones I've had at the other places I mentioned have tasted ok, but the cut is just of lesser quality. I end up having to dig through the piece of meat until it looks like an autopsy to get to the portions I like (no fat or anything chewy)

Burgers- I tend to enjoy the counter service burgers honestly. If I'm going to a sit down, the ones I go to either don't have a burger or I'd just prefer something else to a burger there. The one I had at Paradiso 37 was ok, but a little too plain even for me. It just needed to be salted and peppered before the cooked it, and it would have made a big difference.

Pizza- This is something I don't eat often in the world because Buffalo is known for a certain type of pizza and other stuff to me is just weird. I've had it at Pop from the food court and from their delivery thingie. It's ok, pretty cheesy and the sauce is sweet. I've also had it from Wolfgang Puck Express. I asked for the Four Cheese without the pesto, but they told me the pesto acts as the sauce but the could make the margherita with the 4 cheeses for me. That was fine. I only eat cheese on my pizza (unless it's from Pizza Hut, then I get pineapple on it ) This had goat cheese on it, which I'm ok with but it wasn't mixed into the other cheeses, it was just dollops of it which was a big strong. It's a thin crust wood fired type of pizza but what I didn't like was that the outside was super crispy but all the toppings made the inside really soggy. It was hard to eat without a knife and fork.

Fries/mashed potatoes- I LOVE the fries from the CS in UK at Epcot. They're large thick steak fries and they're crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. I also really like the ones from Casey's Corner as they're a nice "normal" fry. I used to love the horseradish mashed from Coral Reef but they don't seem to be there anymore. I have to say I was sorely disappointed in most of the potato products I ate this past trip....

 

[pookie10]

Hi everyone, first post! I just need a little bit of advice.

My husband is an INCREDIBLY picky eater. This is the list of things he'll eat:

Bread and butter
Chicken
Steak
Burgers
Pizza
Fries/mashed potatoes
Chinese (just plain chicken and sauce)
Most desserts (especially brownies and ice cream)
Some fruits (strawberries, apples)
Some breakfast foods (waffles, bacon)

For the most part, he has to have these things completely plain - nothing but cheese on his burgers, very few sauces on his meat, etc etc.

Now, here's the catch - he really does appreciate quality. There's not much that makes him happier than REALLY GOOD examples of the things he does like. I know we'll be able to keep him happy at the quick service locations (that's what we stuck to last time we were in WDW), but I'd like to know which of the nicer restaurants we could try to find the BEST bread, the BEST chicken...know what I mean?

I'm a very adventurous eater myself and will try anything, so that's not a factor, but we are on a little bit of a budget (might be able to swing ONE signature, but that would be pushing it).

If anyone could help me out, I would really appreciate it! Thank you!

I am not kidding in the least bit that your husband is EXACTLY like mine...
However, mine wont eat chicken.
We went to sea world/san diego zoo a couple years back and he completely ruined it with his pickiness...i chose places to eat that had things he liked and he still didnt hardly eat, but i felt bad if the place we went to didnt serve a burger or pizza.

This time i said screw it....we are disney first timers, and have 4 adrs I KNOW they wont have much if anything he likes, but they are character meals....and they are for the kids....so if he doesnt eat....so be it....he can order off the kids menu if it happens to have pizza or wait till we get to the hotel and get one there....this trip is for our 11 and 5 year old to really enjoy themselves, and they LOVE resturants.......we always get fast food at home, never eat at resturants so they are really excited.

 

[pookie10]

I know he is going to HATE cinderellas royal table, and our two breakfast buffets, he doesnt eat breakfast...but im like eh...oh well!! I am very picky too...i REALLY LOVE sandwiches but everything else im just very picky about..but ill make do just order everything plain