Vegan dining review from my week at WDW

[crisi]

And yet they have done it regularly at Disney for many years. And they do at several of the restaurants here in the Twin Cities as well. We've had the chef come out at two of the last three nice meals we had, once to accept our compliments when my husband was gushing to the waiter over his meal, once to congratulate my eight year old daughter for eating snails and offer her a dessert with his compliments.

You may believe its bunk, but I assure you its happened to many people over the years.

 

[TofuForBrains]

Fellow food-lovers,
One of the reasons that I, as a vegan, have been pleasantly surprised by my recent visits, and have purposely and repeatedly chosen WDW as a vacation destination, is that they do (as an organization, anyway) take special needs of their diners seriously. I probably can't say it better than sixxmum and others have done, but the company wants to keep people on company property and they want to make sure that they accommodate special diets so that no one will have to go spend their money elsewhere. This may not be true at all restaurants nationwide or worldwide, but it is "company policy" at WDW to accommodate everyone. Many of the restaurants have begun printing on their menus that they will do their best to accommodate special dining requests and urge people to ask their servers to get the chef. Most restaurants stock rice and/or soy milk, gluten-free bread or cookies, and other options so that they are prepared for most possibilities.

The fact is, vegan meal prep isn't actually all that difficult. An adequate vegan meal, although a lackluster one, is pasta with marinara and salad, or plain rice and beans. That's typically what you see at most steakhouses as the solo veggie item on the menu. It takes very little imagination or effort. In fact, it's pretty easy to make vegan versions of most dishes (or other dishes that just happen to be vegan but are on the regular menu)--but sometimes a given restaurant will default to an unnecessary animal-based ingredient (e.g., butter in the couscous) which means that they have to do just a teensy bit more preparation to make it vegan/allergen-free/etcetera. With advance warning, this should be pretty simple.

I never go into a restaurant expecting a chef to prepare something special or unusual for me, but I do go in with the expectation that if I have let them know in advance about a special need, they will accommodate it, and that if they cannot accommodate it, they must let ME know in advance so that I can make alternate plans. At the very least, they need to be able to provide accurate information about ingredients so that I can make my own decisions. Any well-managed restaurant will have staff who are conversant about the ingredients and food prep methods because so many people have allergies and other dietary restrictions. In many restaurants, that is the chef or sous-chef. It doesn't take too much time to have a brief chat with the people you are feeding! Most have seemed genuinely happy to do so.

This side discussion is detracting from the fact that at most places on Disney-property, managed by Disney, they strive to be accommodating and want EVERYONE to have a "magical" time. Hence the pumpkin risottos and the coconut-crusted tofu and the noodle bowls and...well, I'm already getting hungry for my next trip!

 

[TofuForBrains]

P.S. I am slowly upping my postcount so that I can respond to sixxmum's PM request ...Sixxmum, I can tell you that your female contact is one of the people I was in touch with, and she is the one who sent me all of the allergen-related information in a bunch of word documents! The person in charge of dining at AK lodge was also super-helpful.

 

[TofuForBrains]

I just wrote to my contact at EPCOT who oversees customer service for food & beverages at the Park, and in doing so I found her original e-mail to me. An excerpt from what she said:

"Thank you for your call. I have sent a couple of attachments that should help you with your planning. Please speak to a chef upon arrival to a table service restaurant or a manager at a quick service restaurant. They will be happy to help you."

She and others have also told me that it is fine to bring food into the parks if you have an allergy or other dietary restriction.

 

[Laura]

But, in Disney, where you are somewhat captive to the restaurants available (and we only eat 1 meal a day in the park for that reason), it's hard to just decide to go to the "vegan friendly" restaurant when there aren't any in some parks.

And that's a good point. Disney wants everyone to eat all meals on property, so they want to cater to people with more unusual diets--be they due to allergies or personal choice. The management encourages guests to talk to chefs, whether the chefs want to or not.


Booyakasha, it really is something that is pretty common to WDW, it isn't bunk. I've read many dining reports where guests spoke to chefs about their diets. Sometimes the chefs were harried and impatient but other times they're happy to be doing something different. Unlike at many fine dining establishments across the country, most of WDW's TS restaurant menus don't change frequenly. Guests like to come back often and have their favorite dish again and again.

 

[Booyakasha]

And yet they have done it regularly at Disney for many years. And they do at several of the restaurants here in the Twin Cities as well. We've had the chef come out at two of the last three nice meals we had, once to accept our compliments when my husband was gushing to the waiter over his meal, once to congratulate my eight year old daughter for eating snails and offer her a dessert with his compliments.

You may believe its bunk, but I assure you its happened to many people over the years.

Crisi,

I agree with you Chefs do come out and talk to patrons not saying they don't. However, to assume that the chef is going to come out every time you sit down at a restaurant is, well a bit crazy. I think it also depends on the type of Restaurant, Disney does a really good job of sending someone out of the kitchen to talk to people. Interestingly enough the people that usually come to the front of the house are usually not the ones cooking the meal. The people that actually cook the meals the Sous or Cooks are not usually allowed to the front. If you get a chance to tour a kitchen and really want to make someones day ask "who cooked the (fill in your entree here)" adressing your comments to the line. Hopefully, someone will speak up and you can compliment them. The cooks rarely hear when someone likes the food that they cook but they always hear if some one does not. (from the waitstaff or Chef) The only guage they can really use is by looking at how much food is eaten when the plates come back to be cleaned. Every line chef I know absolutely loves being complimented by a customer but it rarely happens.

B.

 

[TofuForBrains]

An update on Marrakesh:

I e-mailed my EPCOT contact and was surprised to receive a phone call from someone in the business office at Marrakesh. He was horrified when my e-mail was passed along to him, wants to speak with me further, and is actually going to talk to the chef! Three cheers for customer service. Sometimes it really is worth it to give feedback to a company.

For my upcoming February trip, I will be dining at Spoodles and Boma again, trying the short veggie menu at San Angel Inn (hoping that at least the salad is vegan), taking a chance on Tusker House for a lunch, and dodging Farmer Mickey at Garden Grille .

I'm wondering if anyone has had success anywhere else in the World Showcase, as I have one more vegan dinner to plan.

 

[ImprovGal]

and dodging Farmer Mickey at Garden Grille .

Ah, the challenge is not in dodging Farmer Mickey.
The challenge is dodging the Garden Grille Gatecrashers who try to get a pic with Farmer Mickey when he's by the restaurant entrance.

Glad to hear about the response to your Marrakesh feedback!