Super-brief allergen dining report (incl. BoG)

[CarrieR]

Just got back from a few days at the World. We did not follow our typical touring plans, since we were there to run but we did hit a few TS restaurants.

Allergies this trip: N, latex with cross-reaction to kiwi, banana, avocado, chestnut/tree nuts and some tropical fruits & C (me,) vegetarian with no mushroom or mango. We also traveled with A, gluten-free (cross contamination ok.) I did not eat many meals with A, though, I think just LC.

We had lunch at Liberty Tree; our meals there are fine as prepared so it was a very 'easy' allergy lunch. Still love that quinoa burger . I cannot even remember the chef's name; we pretty much said, 'This is what we want, it's been fine before, has the recipe changed?' No compliments, no complaints.

That night, we did dinner at AoA. We are generally residents of Pop while at WDW and I am so, so excited to have AoA as an option. That food court looks very veg-friendly. They had carrot ginger soup, which I did not eat, but was vegetarian. So nice!

The next day, we did dinner at Be Our Guest. Can't say enough good things. Our server, Kimberly, was a doll, and Chef Chappy was awesome. We have eaten at a good dozen restaurants, and there is a short list of chefs that are above and beyond - Chef Chappy increased the short list from two to three. He was totally competent and articulate, and explained how he was going to make sure there was no latex x-contam on the dishes, pots, etc etc. Kimberly was actually able to suggest some options to me for dinner before he even came out (since the vegetarian dish contains mushrooms) and suggested piecing some sides together into a meal. The French Onion soup is vegetarian, which made my night! I had the pasta au gratin (amazing) and a side of asparagus - also amazing, and I don't even like asparagus that much!! So if any of my fellow highly allergenic folk are debating BoG, I give it my blessing, lol.

We ate on Sunday at LC. This was our meal with A, and our server, bless her heart, did not know what to do with us. We had a bit of confusion regarding soup but it was as much my fault as anyone's for not being explicit enough. Be aware, gluten-free folk, that the baked mac 'n' cheese cannot be made gluten, even if they switch out the noodles, as there is flour used in the roux.

Both BoG and LC ended up being two-hour meals. I think they have instituted some new latex-allergy protocols: good for thoroughness but highly time-consuming. We are going to make an effort to notify those restaurants in advance in the future. I don't mind waiting the time, and am happy to be patient with the restaurants (which we make clear to the server,) but we were traveling with others who got caught in it as well. However... all's well that ends well, and we were safely fed delicious food, which was the most important part.

Incidentally, A mentioned to us that she was told at the Pop food court (I think by the chef, if I recall correctly,) that it was the best restaurant for those with allergies, as it's the best-equipped for making truly allergen-friendly food. Interesting. It's where we generally stay, so I wasn't aware that other resort quick services were less accomodating. Guess the chef made her a magnificent, above-and-beyond salad -- she was thrilled!

The rest of our meals were at the Pop food court, I think... or 3AM bagel & PB breakfasts from my suitcase before runs, lol. We did a few other snacks, and I'd be happy to answer any other questions if anyone is curious on updates from the world!

ETA: FWIW, it did appear that the forms were getting through to the restaurant (LC was aware we were coming) but not necessarily getting read everywhere (BoG was not.) Last year, I stopped sending them, since I felt I was just wasting my time... we had to explain everything again when we arrived. Things may have gotten better in that regard.

 

[clanmcculloch]

Thanks for sharing! It's always nice to read recent experiences.

I would agree with the chef at Pop. It's not so much that other resorts aren't as accomodating. It's more that Pop has such a wider variety of ingredients to work with that they can do so much more. Chefs at every resort we've stayed at have been great but chefs at Pop really just have more to work with.

Our meals at LC are always a good 2 hours. Well, actually, most meals are for us but LC is particularly slow. They actually gave us an anywhere FP because they felt bad about how long it took. We never even thought anything bad about the wait since it was due to the chef trying really hard to make fried shrimp for DD12 (the chef never got it so that he was happy with it but DD12 LOVED it).

I really want to try BOG for dinner but that'll have to wait for a future trip. I'm not about to scour the dining site to try and I've got my ADRs set at this point. The allergy reviews do sound really good.

I think it's getting better again as far as chefs receiving the forms. For a while it was REALLY bad and I know that one trip the only reason several chefs got my form was that I emailed it to a chef with whom we've become friends and she sent it to several of the chefs on our behalf (the chefs at the resort where she worked at the time; we had several ADRs at that resort). The rest of the chefs hadn't been notified. The trip after that was just as bad but after that trip I sent in a scathing complaint about the Special Diets department (there were so many things they did wrong; if they just ignored me I could have handled that but they were down right horrible and I almost cancelled that trip because of them) and since then it seems that chefs do almost always get my form. For my upcoming trip, the email I got in response to my general request for their lists asked that I send my form in no more than 30 days before my trip so that they can notify the chefs. I'll see what happens when I get it sent. I've got another week before I'm at that point.