Some Allergy Dining Hand-Holding/Opinions

[CarrieR]

Finally got ADRs done for our trip next week, and I just wanted to make sure I haven't scheduled any allergy no-nos. I'm normally so laid back about dining, but I our travel party of three includes myself (vegetarian with a couple of mild but odd allergies) and two severely multiple-food-allergic friends. (Between the three of us, we have restrictions on pretty much everything, except dairy, wheat and potatoes, lol.) We've eaten at some of these before, but the ones with the asterix are the new ones, which I am particularly unsure about.

We're eating at:
**Chef Mickey's
Sci-Fi
50's Prime Time
Le Cellier
**Grand Floridian Cafe
**Liberty Tree Tavern
'Ohana
Plaza

If you've had a particularly poor/dangerous situation at one of those restaurants, can you let me know? Also, if you've had problems at any CS, I would be interested in knowing that as well. I feel really responsible for keeping this duo safe, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks so much!

(I started a thread asking for suggestions on this a few months ago, so if I need to merge the two, let me know and I'll be happy to do it. )

 

[Fuhnuh]

I can't help you much with your list, but our daughter has allergies to dairy, egg, tree nuts, and peanuts. When we are deciding whether to eat at a DW restaurant we check the menu and see whether there are food components that she could have. We have never been to a DW restaurant where we couldn't find something for her to eat with the help of the Chef. That being said she is 11 and has very simple tastes. If you haven't already, you might check allergy free mouse online as they have a lot of reviews of the restaurants and some other allergy/ingredient information. I have found that most, but not all, of the DW servers/chefs have a good handle on our daughter's specific allergies. If anything seems amiss, we clear up our concerns with the chef before ordering. I hope you and your friends have a fun and safe trip.

 

[CarrieR]

Thanks!

We've looked at the menus and made our choices largely based on those. The problem is that we have such a broad and varied range of allergies that there is literally nothing that we can all eat... well, maybe mashed potatoes, it dawned on me last week.

I just know there have been several poor experiences stated with specific restaurants lately (Raglan Rd comes to mind, which had been on our list of 'want to trys,' as well as Chefs de France,) and I wanted to make sure I hadn't overlooked any of those. We tried to dine out in the "real world" a few weeks ago, and one friend sent her dish back -- twice -- and ended up going home hungry. Not a big deal, she just ate when she got home, but it is MUCH harder at Disney where we are at the mercy of their chefs all week. Thankfully we are not terribly fussy eaters, and as long as the chefs can offer safe food, we can handle if it might not be to our tastes. LOL.

We did allergy dining in May & July, and the chefs were awesome. But that was before the one friend's allergies were as severe as they are now, and without the second friend, whose allergies are extremely severe. So since I am the one in charge of dining reservations, etc, I am just making sure I dot my is and cross my ts to put the odds of a safe and enjoyable trip as much in our favor as possible.

I will definitely check out that website, thanks!

Carrie

 

[Owl's Friend]

We just ate at Chef Mickey's and Liberty tavern last week. Even with multiple food allergies we ate great. No reactions at all.

 

[JudithM]

My husband has seafood allergies and was treated very well at each sit down restaurant we visited this week. At each WDW restaurant, the head chef came out and discussed what he could eat and what he should not eat. Each chef also stated that they would personally oversee the cooking of his meal. Excellent guest service !

 

[kkandaj]

Our experience was two years ago this October, but we had wonderful service at Chef Mickey's, Crystal Palace, 1900 PF, and the Plaza Restaurant. DS has life threatening food allergies to soy, milk, egg, peanuts and tree nuts. We avoid all restaurant food for him, except at WDW.

I will say, Chef Mickey's food from the buffet was very boring and bland for us, but DS had his FIRST EVER restaurant meal there and his baked chicken, steamed broccoli and grapes were the best tasting part of our meal.

The chef at the Crystal Palace took me around the buffet to show me what DS could eat, which was barely anything. I wouldn't let him eat off a buffet anyway because of x-contam, so he made a meal for him and brought it to the table. He was THE ONLY chef that ever tried to have DS to eat off the buffet. The rest of the chef's graciously made his meals themselves and brought them straight to our table.

DS is not contact reactive but is anaphylactic to ingestion within 2-3 minutes, so is considered "extremely allergic." No matter what, make sure those epi's are updated and with you!

Good luck! I can't wait for DS to eat a meal in a restaurant again when we go back to WDW in May.

 

[kkandaj]

One more quick tip...I printed out little cards (about business size) with the allergies listed and handed them to the chef during our discussions. This way they could take it back with them, so they wouldn't forget. 3 of the 4 chefs thanked me for this.

 

[CarrieR]

Thanks, all! Since no one has reported to run screaming from anywhere, it sounds like we're in pretty good shape.

KK, I had read that tip, too -- it's on the agenda, as long as they fix the printer in the business center! Otherwise I guess I'll be handwriting cards on the airplane, lol. Especially with three special dietary needs in one party, I think that will make everyone's life easier.

 

[clanmcculloch]

I've eaten at almost all of these and would recommend any of them. The only one we haven't tried is GFC but that because we just haven't gotten around to it yet. There are only so many restaurants a non-local can try within a few years. We'll get there eventually I'm sure. Of the others, LeCellier is the one that I would say had the least options for us. My 13yo is a huge steak and mushroom lover so she was in heaven over the filet with a whole lot of sauteed mushrooms. DD11 on the other hand really didn't have many options. Desserts were also quite limitted. Of all of the restaurants we've eaten at, this was probably the one with the least allergy safe options and alternatives. The chefs have been great and DD13 insists that it's her favourite restaurant at WDW (besides room service at Poly that is; clearly I've created a child with extremely expensive tastes).

The places you listed as having negative reviews lately are not Disney owned. That's significant. The chefs working at restaurants not owned by Disney do not go through the same extensive allergy training as the Disney chefs and the kitchens are not necessarily set up with dedicated allergy areas which the Disney restaurants have and the restaurants do not necessarily have the specialty low allergen ingredients on hand like the Disney restaurants are stocked with. You've booked at all Disney owned restaurants.

 

[DisneyNoob13]

I had Le Cellier in January and outside of missing out on the famous pretzel breadsticks, my meal (GF) was one of the best of my trip.

 

[DCDisney]

I have eaten at all your ADRs except Plaza because not fun to get a breadless sandwich and they don't have safe breads for my nut and soy allergies. The only one of them where I had a really bad experience was GFC. They seemed to pre-prep the food much more there than other restaurants and cook things together. So for example I'm allergic to carrots and they had already pre-steamed all the veggies that day in 1 steamer so I couldn't have any veggie or even plain salad greens. I know they had them in the building they just wouldn't make the effort. Same for dessert they had nothing safe and wouldn't even bother to get me a prepackaged allergy safe cookie or brownie (we were on the ddp). For my meal I just wanted a steak but the adult NY strip was premarinated so they gave me the crummy kids sirloin (didn't even ask if I would prefer something else) and the only side they could do was fries. Mashed potatoes were premade and couldn't be adjusted. Only good thing was that they caught that the potatoes had a small amount of beans in them which usually is missed. So they are up on safety just didn't seem to care about my enjoyment of the meal.