New Here! -- Veg friendly! -- Updated 4/7 with Animal Kingdom Snacks

[AndiMarie]

ETA: Hi, everyone! We just got back from a wonderful week in Florida! I did change around some of my ADRs a little, here is where we ended up at:

March 1st: Arrival day
late lunch Sanaa (so full we skipped dinner)

2nd: Animal Kingdom day
Breakfast - Rainforest Cafe
Lunch - Tusker House
Dinner - Whispering Canyon Cafe

3rd: Magic Kingdom Day 1
Breakfast - Cape May
Lunch - Crystal Palace
Dinner - Tony's Town Square

4th: Epcot Day
Breakfast- 'Ohana
Lunch - Teppan Edo
Dinner - Garden Grill

5th: Hollywood Studios Day
Breakfast - Kona
Lunch - Sci-Fi Dine In
Dinner - Shutters at Caribbean Beach Resort

6th: Magic Kingdom Day 2
Breakfast- 1900 Park Fare
Lunch - Liberty Tree Tavern
Dinner - Narcoosee's

7th: Departure Day
Breakfast- Boma

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Our trip is planned for early March and we will be driving down from Michigan to Caribbean Beach Resort! This trip will be me (Andrea), my mom (Grandma), and my 3 kids, dd9, ds8 (turning 9 on the trip!), and ds7. Last year daddy came along but he is not a Disney fan and has elected to stay home this time

Here are a couple of pics from last year (4/14) dinner at Garden Grove @Swan

We loved dinner at Garden Grove! The dh had prime rib and it was perfect and the chef made a vegetarian fresh pasta dish that was outstanding! I had no idea at the time that there were other foodies that share Disney food pics online! I would have taken so many more photos had I know that

Not many food photos from last year but here is one other of my little sweeties with their apples from Candy Cauldron, yum!

Last year was our first trip as a family to WDW, I used to go as a child often and absolutely LOVED it, even did a cruise back in the day! My husband had only went once when he was an older child (13 maybe?) and never really got into the Disney magic, unfortunately!

I am a total foodie and even have a chocolate chip Mickey & Minnie waffle recipe on my cooking blog http://nummykitchen.blogspot.com/2009/05/chocolate-chip-mickey-and-minnie-mouse.html

Anyway, back to the trip! I am a total planner but I can also go with the flow (read the most easy going person ever), when we went down last year I had a few ideas of restaurants to try but we did not make any ADRs (didn't even know what that meant til we were down there) and we were very surprised and frustrated when most of the restaurants we tried to eat at were booked solid! We did manage a few good ones (San Angel Inn, T-Rex (2 hour wait!!), Yak & Yeti (yum!!), Tusker House Breakfast) and some yummy CS (Pinocchio Village Haus, Norway Bakery, Pecos Bills). We are on DxDP and value meal times and chilling at a restaurant. It was very hard when that didn't happen last year! But I attribute that to that being my first adult trip down and not really knowing how busy it has become and how hard it is to find a place to eat, now I know better!!

Here are our ADRs for this trip:

Day 1 arrival
D - Shutters (hoping for a relaxing meal close to our resort after driving all day)

Day 2 Animal Kingdom (kind of bummed to skip Y&Y as it was delicious last year, was hoping to do dinner at Y&Y, B at Tusker House and L at RC but this was the only way I could get into TH was a very late lunch!)
B- Rainforest Cafe AK (kids have never been to a RC and requested this last time but they were booked)
L- Tusker House (we did breakfast here last year and it was a blast!)
D- Whispering Canyon Cafe (not too sure on this one but I think it will be fun for the kids)

Day 3 Magic Kingdom
B - Cape May (1st time for all!)
L - Crystal Palace (1st time for all!, tried to get prepark breakkie but too late!)
D - Tony's (my mom and I ate here when I was a kid so it is special to me, it will be my kids 1st time, kind of nervous because I'm reading some negative reviews, but it's so nostalgic for me)

Day 4 Epcot -- This is my older son's 9th birthday
B - Ohana Family Breakfast (1st time for all!)
L - Teppan Edo (birthday boy's pick)
D - Garden Grill (special memories of eating here as a kid with my mom, my kids 1st time plus I thought it would be a cool character dinner for ds's birthday)

Day 5 - DHS
B - Kona (1st time for all, keep hearing about this one, almost would rather have it for dinner as kids love sushi but the tonga toast sounds great too and I did not want to swap out a dinner, unless it is WCC, but I keep reading the ambiance is better for kids at WCC dinner instead of breakfast)
L - Sci-Fi Dine In (another one I remember from childhood, 1st time for kids)
D - Mama Melrose (sounds fun, kind of a toss up for dinner here or Brown Derby but think the kids would enjoy this one more...plus it sounds like it may get the ax soon and I'd love to try it once)

Day 6 - MK
B - 1900 Park Fare (1st time for all!)
L - Liberty Tree Tavern (loved this one as a kid and can't wait to take my kids here!)
D - Chef Mickey's (for the kids, I tried to get a breakkie here but was too late, I remember breakkie here as a child)

Day 7 - Check-out
B- Boma (would rather try this for dinner but all of our dinners are booked plus I hear the breakfast is good and we've never seen the AKL and I was hoping to view some animals with the kids before we eat), then start driving home! I did have this one picked for dinner on AK day but then I thought it would be too much African buffet for one day having TK for lunch.

So that's the plan as of now! Made most of my ADRs about a month ago when we decided to go for sure and have switched around a few but I think I'll try to stick with this from here on out...

I am a life-long vegetarian but grandma and kids love meat LOL! I never had a problem dining at Disney as a vegetarian even as a kid so I'm not too concerned, except for maybe WCC where my only option is the Quinoa patties which do sound good, I just would prefer more than one choice. I was really hoping to try Kona for dinner which I hear has great vegetarian options plus the sushi for kids. Would a Kona dinner be a worthwhile swap for a WCC breakfast or just stick with the WCC dinner (that way grandma can get her ribs LOL!) and I think the kids will love the wild evening antics plus milkshakes...

Thanks for reading!
Andrea

 

[mombrontrent]

Sounds like you have a fantastic trip planned! Can't wait to see all the pics and here your reviews. I love seeing reviews from vegetarians. I am vegan so the options are usually very slim but I am not picky, if its vegan I'll eat it. My daughters are vegetarian but I rarely see reviews for vegetarian kids meals. They don't really like mac and cheese, cheese pizza and grilled cheese which usually are the only vegetarian options for kids so they usually end up getting an app or sharing an adult entree. Anyways have a fun trip!

 

[vettegirl]

Sounds like a delicious lineup!!

 

[AndiMarie]

Thanks, mombrontrent and vettegirl!! We just got back and I am excited to share!

 

[AndiMarie]

March 1st Arrival Day -- late lunch at Sanaa (1st time there!) that ended up being dinner as well since we were so full!

We drove down from Michigan and around 10:00am decided to see if there were any openings at Sanaa for a late lunch since I really wanted to try Sanaa and I thought the best time would be in the daylight so my kids could enjoy the possible animal view. There was one opening at 2:35 on the website and we snagged it! I was so excited because I had previously cancelled our Sanaa reservation because I thought we wouldn't make it on time!

We had an amazing window seat! After sitting there I think we would *only* sit at a window seat for future Sanaa meals since it was such an amazing experience for the kids. Before we were seated the host said even if we did not get a window seat the kids could go look out the windows but I would have had a hard time letting that happen since I feel it would infringe on other diners.

Before we got there I had explained to the kids the theme of Sanaa and that we may or may not see animals and it depended on how the animals were feeling that day and to not be disappointed if we did not see any because you never know what an animal will do. We saw EVERY animal! The waiter was even surprised the animals were so active and mentioned to us that he though we'd seen everything except the giraffe and not 10 seconds later TWO giraffes some into view and eat from the trees. It was magical. I got a ton of photos of my kids watching the animals and my daughter was just beaming as she interacted with a bird right outside our window. She is a total bird lover.



We ordered the Naan Sampler and the Samosas for appetizers and they were both amazing! The samosas were perfectly spicy ( I love spicy!) to me but grandma thought they had too much heat. Kids did not want to try any. There were only two but they were quite large!





Kids did try the Naan bread and liked it but did not want any sauces. I enjoyed trying all of the sauces but my favorite was the green coconut one, so different and delicious! We had the three kinds of naan, original, spicy, and ginger something. The flavors were very subtle and even the spicy naan had barely any heat and my kids ate it.

For our main meals I got the Sanaa Vegetarian Sampler with Seasonal Vegetable Wat and Chickpea Wat (this one was waiter recommended) and the Five-Grain Pilaf. This was a delicious lunch and tasted quite similar to my favorite Indian restaurant, the Pilaf was especially delicious and is not something I've seen at Indiana restaurants locally, which is always a plus for me since I love to try new to me flavors.



Grandma got the Grilled Lamb Kefta which was served in burger form...she enjoyed it!



My oldest two, DD9 and DS8 got the Cheese Pizza on Naan crust, my daughter loved it and my son thought the sauce was too spicy





My youngest, DS7 got the kids burger and liked it...



We got our desserts to go, all I remember is that I had the banana cheesecake with pistachio brittle and it was yummy!

I would definitely recommend Sanaa if you are an Indian food fan (like me!) and will try to make it a usual on our Disney trips. Even if you are not an Indian food fan I would at least try it once for the ambiance.

Thanks for reading along

 

[hogwartsdropout]

Great review! Love your photos. I've never been to Sanaa but definitely booking it for our next trip as I love Indian food

 

[wellesleyprincess]

Yay for at least partially veggie reviews! I'm also the only vegetarian in my typical travelling group.

Looking forward to trying Sanaa. We're actually going there one night during our Universal trip.

 

[mombrontrent]

How funny you posted this update tonight! I just booked Sanaa for our upcoming trip a coupe hours ago and was trying to find pics of the kids naan pizza and burger meals!

All the food looks amazing, glad to hear you enjoyed it. Being vegan most restaurants don't have a lot of choices for me but here there is so many things I want to try (I love Indian food as well and can handle some heat). Thanks for the timely review, I can't wait to try it.

 

[vettegirl]

Sanaa is one of my favorite restaurants on the planet. The Naan with all the sauces is just incredible. It has even been featured on the Food Network! The samosas look great as did your entrees.

 

[DLFan123]

Glad to see a veggie report! Love Sanaa. Looking forward to reading the rest.

 

[dixonsontour]

Great start

 

[AllyinWonderland]

It looks like you have an awesome line up! I really want to try Sanaa, especially the naan with various accompaniments, but we are typically not fans of the Middle Eastern and African style food served at AKL.

I am impressed that you drove down all the way from Michigan. I am also from Michigan and we always fly; we have discussed driving for our trip this fall though.

 

[dvc at last !]

Love your plan and your TR. We went to Sanaa for the first time last month while at WDW. We had lunch.
Daughter is vegetarian and son vegan and there were great meal options. We loved it !
Plan to eat there again.

 

[prudence64]

Hi. We are vegetarians and Sanaa was definitely our best meal at disney.

 

[Pfau]

Looks delicious! Your kids are darling.

 

[TeresaNJ]

My husband & I ate at Sanaa twice on our last trip. We love it! Great start to your report! You're kids are adorable!

 

[AndiMarie]

Great review! Love your photos. I've never been to Sanaa but definitely booking it for our next trip as I love Indian food

Thanks, yes, you will love Sanaa I bet! Also the Tusker House lunch buffet had some nice Indian choices!

Yay for at least partially veggie reviews! I'm also the only vegetarian in my typical travelling group.

Looking forward to trying Sanaa. We're actually going there one night during our Universal trip.

Have fun! We are thinking of doing Universal on our next trip down, it will be the kids first time and I haven't been in 20 years! Sanaa is a great out of park dining option!

How funny you posted this update tonight! I just booked Sanaa for our upcoming trip a coupe hours ago and was trying to find pics of the kids naan pizza and burger meals!

All the food looks amazing, glad to hear you enjoyed it. Being vegan most restaurants don't have a lot of choices for me but here there is so many things I want to try (I love Indian food as well and can handle some heat). Thanks for the timely review, I can't wait to try it.

That is too funny! After we got back my oldest son said he wish he would have tried more unique foods and that next time he would not be getting chicken fingers or burgers during the whole trip. I was happily surprised to hear that since I love to try new things but I don't want to force the kids to and usually let them order whatever they want, so I liked to hear that from him in his own words. The food was amazing and I think I remember there being asterisks on the meals that could be prepared vegan at Sanaa, which I did not notice on a lot of other menus so that would be helpful I'm sure!

Sanaa is one of my favorite restaurants on the planet. The Naan with all the sauces is just incredible. It has even been featured on the Food Network! The samosas look great as did your entrees.

After our experience Sanaa is going on my list of favorite restaurants also! You just can't beat the ambiance and the delicious food! How neat that it was featured on Food Network, I will have to see if I can find that and watch it with my kiddos, I'm sure they will get a kick out of it

Glad to see a veggie report! Love Sanaa. Looking forward to reading the rest.

Thank you! I understand and had googled tons of "restaurant name + vegetarian options" before our trip!

Great start

Thanks!!

It looks like you have an awesome line up! I really want to try Sanaa, especially the naan with various accompaniments, but we are typically not fans of the Middle Eastern and African style food served at AKL.

I am impressed that you drove down all the way from Michigan. I am also from Michigan and we always fly; we have discussed driving for our trip this fall though.

I would say give it a go once and see if there is anything that piques your interest on the menu, at least you'll know for sure! I personally loved the Middle Eastern/African food influences at the AK areas places we tried but grandma is not a fan of that food style and she also enjoyed her meals.

This is our second year driving down from Michigan in a row. When I was a kid we used to go down every year and rotate flying and driving every other year. After this year when I actually drove and was not a passenger, I think I will opt to fly down our next trip south. After you factor in meals and hotels if you are not driving straight through (which I think is fine for a couple but hard when you have little ones) our airline fees would probably have cost 600-800 more than the 1000 we factored in for driving and it might be worth it. Haven't factored in car rental though...and don't think I'd like spending all that time waiting on Disney transport unless we were on a monorail hotel. I would try driving once and see how it works for your family, it might be a blast if you guys can get on board and hype it up as a road trip

Love your plan and your TR. We went to Sanaa for the first time last month while at WDW. We had lunch.
Daughter is vegetarian and son vegan and there were great meal options. We loved it !
Plan to eat there again.

Thank you! I don't think a vegetarian could leave Sanaa and not be impressed unless they did not like Indian or were uber picky! It was a great place and we place to eat there again too!

Hi. We are vegetarians and Sanaa was definitely our best meal at disney.

It was one of our best meals too

Looks delicious! Your kids are darling.

Thank you, they are my little sunshines!!!

 

[AndiMarie]

My husband & I ate at Sanaa twice on our last trip. We love it! Great start to your report! You're kids are adorable!

Aww twice in one trip?!? I am jealous! So many yummy menu options! Thank you for the compliment on my little sweeties.

 

[AndiMarie]

Our first park day was Animal Kingdom day, if I would have been able to get my ADRs done the way I wanted, I would have liked to snag a Tusker House earliest possible breakfast, a lunch at Yak & Yeti, and do Rainforest Cafe for dinner for the kids, but the only opening Tusker House had was a 3:10pm lunch, blah! Much too late! We tried to arrive early and hopefully get seated early but they were booked and we did not get seated until our ADR time. But... we are talking about breakfast now so I will try to get on track

This day actually started off great at RFC although we had opening (8:30 ADRs) and were like the 3rd people at the podium to check in, and there before they officially opened, after check-in they took like 10 families ahead of us?!? that hadn't even come to the podium yet. Kind of annoying but whatever. The kids didn't care and were happy to look at all the fish and I was fine with it although I was starting to get worried because it was eating into our precious park time.

Here are the kiddos waiting to be seated and enjoying being able to watch the scuba diver cleaning the giant aquariums. I don't know if this only happens at opening or not, but it was pretty cool to see!



My boys both got the Tonga Toast (not to be confused with the Kona Tonga Toast!) RFC version was standard french toast with bananas and strawberries. Both boys liked it, even my picky Theodore who said it was "good like mommy's French toast" Awww mommy melt moment.



My daughter got Cha-Cha's Wild Waffle which featured an adorable Cha Cha the frog. She said it was delicious. Grandma also got the adult version of Cha-Cha's waffle which was essentially the same thing.



I got the Cranberry Waffle, I love cranberries and was expecting it to just have dried ones sprinkled on top with some cranberry syrup but in addition to that it had a bunch baked in as well. It was yummy although a bit chewy but I would order it again for sure. This is the only picture I have of it and have now learned to double check photos that are taken by 9 year olds for the blurry factor before moving along. LOL.



The kids got a smoothie and I got a frozen coffee concoction, Rio's Mocha Java Freeze, which was delicious and a great start to a hot day! Sorry no drink pics!

All in all a great breakfast, I would do it again but be ready for it to eat into your park day. Animal Kingdom also had Extra Magic hours that day opening early so maybe that is why it was such a busy breakfast? Anyway, even though I've been to different Rainforest Cafes, the kids LOVED the theme of the restaurant and really had an amazing time there, we were seated right under the shooting star night sky and they loved the thunder storm when the animals go crazy. While it isn't a completely unique Disney Dining experience, it is a lot of fun for the kids!

 

[dvc at last !]

Your family is beautiful !