Non-Disney Restaurants on WDW Property

[dizcrazee]

Is there a list somewhere of non-disney-owned/operated restaurants that are on WDW property? I'd like to avoid those - I only trust the mouse to safely feed my severely allergic dd.

 

[mechurchlady]

I know Yak and YEti, Rainforest Cafe and T Rex are out of Landry's.


San Angel and Coronado Springs are out of Springs Food
http://www.springsfood.com/www/home/about_us.html

 

[clanmcculloch]

Chefs de France and the Morocco restaurants at Epcot are not Disney owned. Rainforest Cafe and the new T-Rex restaurant are also not Disney owned.

 

[dizcrazee]

Thanks for your responses. How about Flying Fish? Anybody know?

 

[Nalla]

Flying Fish is Disney owned and operated (according to the hub, which is the site for CMs).
Also, Yak and Yeti was great about my sister's allergies.

 

[mechurchlady]

http://www.glutenenvy.com/2007/09/01/gluten-free-marrakesh-epcot/
San Angel, Yak and Yeti, Coronado Springs, and Marrekesh are on the allergy most unsafe places to eat at. Rainforest varies on location and is also one to be careful with as well as T Rex but those two have not had the bad reports like the first four that I list.

In the course of requesting food at the quick service restaurant next door to the Marrakesh which is also serviced by the same staff I spoke with the available chef upon the restaurants opening. He recommended food that was binded with gluten because he didn’t know what was in it. There are meats at this restaurant that have gluten added to them and the chef didn’t know it. Thank goodness for the quick minded counter staff that said I couldn’t have it. If I was taking names the counter person would have gotten a bonus and I’m not sure what I’d end up doing with the chef.

Last year we got the same menu with everything but the fish scribbled off of it. We walked out last year.

 

[dizcrazee]

Thanks so much everyone - this is very helpful. I really want to try Flying Fish, but I thought it might be non-disney.

 

[Selket]

We attend a conference held every other year at Coronado Springs and had great success with the Pepper Market. Not sure if this means that Disney doesn't run it or if it is the sit-down place only.

 

[Chuck S]

Pepper Market is not Disney operated.

We've had good luck at Chefs du France, even though it isn't actually Disney operated, but I'm sure that depends upon what the individual allergy happens to be.

Tutto Italia is also not Disney operated.

I agree, I think the Landry's operated restaurants are the worst to deal with allergies.

 

[clanmcculloch]

We've had good luck at Chefs du France, even though it isn't actually Disney operated, but I'm sure that depends upon what the individual allergy happens to be.

Consider yourself lucky. Our worst experience was at Chefs du France. While they did take care to ensure that my daughter's food was safe for her to eat, the only thing she could eat was a bunless burger with a very plain and boring salad with no dressing and she couldn't have any dessert. Her allergies include gluten, milk, yeast, citrus and MSG. Every other restaurant that we ate at anywhere at WDW had plenty of options for her. The chef also made us feel like we were a major inconvenience and that he was quite put out by us. Every other chef anywhere at WDW has always made us feel like they enjoy trying to figure out foods that she'll enjoy, and they always succeed.

 

[Chuck S]

Consider yourself lucky. Our worst experience was at Chefs du France. While they did take care to ensure that my daughter's food was safe for her to eat, the only thing she could eat was a bunless burger with a very plain and boring salad with no dressing and she couldn't have any dessert. Her allergies include gluten, milk, yeast, citrus and MSG. Every other restaurant that we ate at anywhere at WDW had plenty of options for her. The chef also made us feel like we were a major inconvenience and that he was quite put out by us. Every other chef anywhere at WDW has always made us feel like they enjoy trying to figure out foods that she'll enjoy, and they always succeed.

As I said, I'm sure it depends upon the allergy. Our allegies are to seasoning, including coriander, savory, capsicum (the stuff that makes peppers HOT) and cilantro. Everything at the Landry restaurants seems to be pre-breaded or pre-packaged. The manager at RFC didn't seem interested, or able to deal with those allergies at all. We had no problems at RFC prior to it being purchased by Landry.

 

[Selket]

I think whether the experience is good or bad depends 99.9% on the chef you get to help you out. You might go the next night or next year and have a completely different experience.

I thought Chef Mickey's was terrible - but it was the chef. I had a Chef at 1900 Park Faire insist the choc. chips in the cookies were safe when I am sure they are "may contains." I've had a chef at Biergarten tell me all the desserts but one were safe when the next time a different chef said all were off limits (and I don't think it was because they were prepared in house one time and not the next).

I think there are some restaurants on property that are consistently bad. If they are bad with the common allergies (like peanut, milk) then they are likely to be even worse with a complex allergy.

Our Chefs de France experience was fine but it was the only restaurant where the Chef didn't come out and let the server handle it.

 

[mechurchlady]

Each person is different thus one person may have rave reviews while another has the worst service. The point is to warn people to be prepared for bad service, unsafe for allergens, and sites that do not do allergies well.

I would say Spring Foods and Landry's are high risk. Chefs de France is medium to high risk and Marrekesh is not worth visiting as their history is very bad. Never heard of the Italian place but then again I am dealing with a throbbing nose again, sigh.

 

[WheeledTraveler]

I've had luck with both Pepper Market and Maya Cafe at Coronado Springs with a friend with severe food allergies (to eggs, milk, most nuts, seafood, and a couple other things that I don't remember) so even if they aren't Disney owned, they were at least at the time (this was fall 2006) good about allergies. We were at Disney for a sports competition and due to health and energy really were only able to eat at CSR (where we were staying) or at the Sports Complex (although I think there we did a lot of having people go to McDonald's to get her food since we at least knew what was safe there and we didn't really have time for a sit down meal).

 

[dizcrazee]

Another one I've wondered about is Cap'n Jack's in DTD. Are they Disney-owned? Has anyone had any experience eating there with FA?

 

[Chuck S]

Capt. Jack's is Disney owned, as far as I know. I've eaten there twice, but not for a few years. It was good, I enjoyed what I had. It gets mixed reviews on the Restaurant board. It will be a place you either like, or don't like...there's really no in between.

 

[dizcrazee]

Thanks, Chuck S. We have our few places that we feel comfortable with, but I'd like to expand our horizons when we go next time. Being able to eat safely in WDW restaurants is one of the main reasons we keep going back. We don't eat out at home due to a couple of scary restaurant experiences in the past. Thank goodness that WDW has such great policies regarding FA!