Vegetarian, Vegan and Pescetarian Dining Reviews With Pictures

[Vegcentric]

Hi all!
I want to preface this review by stating that these reviews aren't exactly...ahem...new. My husband and I went on our Disney trip during the week of November 15th through the 21st, though I have been working on these reviews on and off ever since we got back, I just never got around to finishing them or posting anything. I wanted to post these before the end of the month before they became so dated they weren't of any use to anyone anymore, but I hope they are still helpful regardless.

Who We Are

I'm Dana, I'm 25 years old and living in Ontario, Canada with my husband of one and a half years. We never got a chance to go on a proper honeymoon due to immigration red tape, expenses and the adjustment period so we finally got to go in November. I'm currently a licensed esthetician, journalist and taking classes for holistic nutrition.

Not the most flattering picture ever...I have a very round face and it bothers me. Anyway...I'm very into eating healthy. In fact, food and health are two major passions of mine. I could talk for ages about wellness in general, having worked in a holistic spa for a few years in the past and I loved everything about it. I eventually got married to a Canadian though and moved north to be with him, so my career has been on the back burner a bit while I further my education and get settled in.

My husband, Phil, is 30 and works as an IT Tech Guy at a local company. He loves technology in general, specifically computers and video games. He isn't one for being fussy with food though he is very interested in eating healthy as well. He identifies himself as a pescetarian, someone who eats fish but no other meat. We eat vegan 98% of the time at home, though while at Disney World we ate mostly vegetarian due to complications and for convenience sake. My husband eats fish and shellfish...I only eat shellfish on the very rare occasion.
I really hate dairy and everything about it so if I can help it, I won't touch it. Our basic mindset is that if we can eat vegan, we will always eat the vegan meal. If it's not possible and there's only a vegetarian option available, we'll move onto that. Usually I can easily veganize something by omitting cheese or another ingredient, but sometimes omitting ingredients wasn't possible and my husband and I really dislike stressing ourselves out about food on trips, which is why these food reviews aren't 100% vegan.

Before leaving for our trip we called the Special Dietary Requests Hotline. When I called, I received an automated message requesting that I leave my name, phone number, e-mail and dietary request in detail. To simplify things, I simply stated that my husband and I were vegan. The very next day, I received an e-mail in my inbox stating "Regarding your inquiry for VEGAN." I was asked to fill out the dietary request form and e-mail or fax it back to the hotline, which I did promptly.

The number for this hotline 407-560-1355 and the e-mail is specialdiets@disneyworld.com.

This hotline proved to be more of a waste of time for me, since it didn't seem to work...not at all. It was disappointing that it didn't seem to work, though it didn't ruin our meals or our trip. It just meant that some of our requests were not met.

Where we dined

The restaurants that we visited were:

Portobello Yacht Club Restaurant (Downtown Disney)
Columbia Harbor House (Magic Kingdom)
California Grill (Magic Kingdom)
Sunshine Seasons (EPCOT)
Tangerine Cafe (EPCOT)
Tusker House (Animal Kingdom)
Boma: Flavors of Africa (Animal Kingdom)
Sci Fi Dine-In (Hollywood Studios)
'Ohana (Polynesian Resort)
Cinderella's Royal Table (Magic Kingdom)
Port Orleans French Quarter Food Court (For breakfasts and 1 dinner)

I hope these reviews prove to be fun to read as well as useful for you all. First review starts with Portobello!

 

[Vegcentric]

Day 1 - Portobello Yacht Club at Downtown Disney

Our first day at Disney World was very short, since we were traveling most of the day. We left our home in Ontario, went to the local airport to hop a ride to the Toronto airport and then headed on down to Orlando. Snacks were very few and far between, which isn't good since my husband has type 1 diabetes. Fortunately the Orlando airport has tons of food around.

After a quick snack we were on our way via the Magical Express to our resort, the Port Orleans French Quarter. I know this is a dining review but I wanted to point out how wonderful our stay at the French Quarter was. I stayed here in 2006 and it was...well, it was good but it just wasn't great. Still, I adored the atmosphere which made me pay a little extra to stay here again this time around, otherwise we were going to stay at the Pop Century (my sister loves this resort). Everything was very spot-on and wonderful, and the food court food wasn't terrible, though we only ate our breakfasts here (minus the veggie burgers we had at the end of the week, but more on that later).

After getting to our room, we decided that we were absolutely famished and had to have food in the very near future, but we weren't hungry enough to go down to our food court. Instead we opted to take our chances with the Downtown Disney fare and hopped on over there by taking the resort boat. The boat ride was very pleasant, though our stomachs were roaring and all we could think about was how slow the boat ride was. Everything is slower when you're hungry.
Even though we were really hungry by the time we got down there, we were still being picky. Ever hear that beggars can't be choosers? Yeah, that didn't apply to us. We were still being picky. We floundered between Rainforest Cafe ("But I have a migraine right now, and it's loud in there," I moaned) and the T-Rex Cafe ("There doesn't seem to be ANY vegetarian options on this menu!"). We finally settled on the Portobello Yacht Club. I hadn't heard a single thing about this restaurant, but we were starving and it seemed to have some things on the menu that we could eat.

The host gave us our pager and directed us to a few chairs which were in complete disarray behind us. We didn't care. We sat down and were really surprised when our pager went off within a minute of us sitting down. We were expecting to wait quite a while, especially since the place was very busy. Upon entering the dining room, I could instantly feel my migraine give a loud whimper and a moan. The decibel levels in this place were crazy. I remember there being lots of tile and hard surfaces and I suppose the sound proofing in that place wasn't the best.
If you can't stand loud noises, well...I looked around the restaurant quite a bit and I couldn't see a spot in there that I would deem to be any quieter than the rest so you may wish to skip this place, at least at dinner time. Lunch may be a completely different story.
The decor was nice, though nothing outstanding. It reminded me of a Macaroni Grill. It was neither unpleasant to look at nor special. We were seated in a booth that was so close to our neighbors that I nearly elbowed one while eating throughout the meal. For some reason my husband and I couldn't hear our own conversation, but we could hear every single word our dining neighbors said. Go figure, right? They were complaining rather loudly about how the server was terrible and hadn't checked on them in ages, so I started to worry for a moment until he came by to greet us.
Unfortunately I can't remember his name, though I wish I did. He was extremely nice and friendly and very helpful. He immediately took our drink order and returned within a minute with our waters and teas, along with the massive roasted bulb of garlic. This was as big as my husband's fist. I was surprised by its size, and even more surprised when our server suggested we eat it like butter on top of our bread.

It was delicious. I know many of you probably roast your own garlic at home all the time but honestly this never even occurred to me to do this. It was velvety, rich and smooth - just like normal butter. I happen to LOVE garlic, so I thought this was great.

Our appetizer was the portobello mushroom. According to its description, it was wood-roasted and sprinkled with gorgonzola cheese. It was in a rosemary sauce and over top of polenta. Though I said previously that I hate dairy, sometimes I can't pass up on some cheese (this includes gorgonzola, bleu and goat cheese). I left most of the cheese to my husband to eat, but it did taste amazing with the mushroom. If anything in the veggie world tastes just like a steak, this dish would be it. As soon as I popped it into my mouth I instantly thought, "Oh, this tastes like steak. Interesting."
Normally I don't associate things tasting like meat with good things, but this mushroom was absolutely delicious and I would go back to this restaurant just to eat it. The only criticism I had for the appetizer was that it could have been a little hotter. Other than that, it was great...though filling. It would have been best if the polenta, though delicious, was left out of the dish completely because I couldn't eat much of my entree.

Another thing I did not mention earlier was that I have IBS, which is irritable bowel syndrome. It isn't pleasant, at all, and my doctor told me that I pretty much need to eat smaller portions. I tend to graze on food all day at home, so eating three meals a day on vacation was a bit tough for me, especially when you're paying for such an expensive meal (I didn't want to waste anything).

Our server was really attentive, visited our table often to ask us how we were doing and to refill our drinks. Our dining neighbors sat there, looking really bent out of shape and continued to complain that they weren't getting enough attention. I wasn't paying attention to their dining experience, though ignoring their loud complaining was pretty much impossible so I have no idea if they were truly being ignored (which would mean that perhaps service was inconsistent) or if they were just...complaining.

I apologize in advance for not having pictures of our main meals, but we were so hungry that we couldn't be bothered. My husband had the tiger prawns, and I had the black pasta without the shrimp and cheese. My husband scarfed down his tiger shrimp, which were huge and he got quite a few of them, which made me feel better about the price tag (I don't normally spend $30 on a meal but I wanted to spoil him). This dish was served with polenta too, which he happily ate. He ate everything on his plate (he's a pretty big guy and always finishes his meals, whether they are good or bad).

I asked him what his opinion the meal was, and he just shrugged and said it was good. He didn't rave about anything, and if he finds something particularly good he'll usually say so. So, the tiger shrimp were good but nothing too spectacular. My pasta dish without the shrimp and cheese was alright, but it tasted as though it was missing something and it was insanely expensive for basically being a bowl of pasta, tomatoes, asparagus and greens.
The tomatoes though...oh, the tomatoes! I put one in my mouth and it literally burst gently in my mouth and exploded with so much flavor that it made up for the blandness of the rest of the dish. It was a huge portion of food, and I hated wasting it but it was so filling. I wouldn't order this again, but maybe it's better and more satisfying with the shrimp and cheese.

We didn't have dessert. I normally don't have dessert because I don't have much of a sweet tooth (don't shoot me!) unless I'm having a really bad case of PMS (then I reach for a dark chocolate bar...or five). Mother nature was extremely cruel to my diabetic husband, giving him the biggest sweet tooth I have ever seen on a single person ever. Seriously...this man loves dessert. He doesn't order it when we eat out, though...not usually. He loves dessert but hates paying for it. We went during a Free Dining period and got a free Dining Plan, so expect to see more desserts popping up.

The verdict is that we liked Portobello. We loved our server, we liked our food but I don't think we'd go here for a second time. There are probably better places to eat at Downtown Disney but this wasn't bad at all. It got a B+ in our book.

 

[flamingglobessigmund]

Well, count me in!

My son(19) eats a vegan diet and we had some trouble meeting his requirements while in the World. I always enjoy learning what others like about the non-meat meals or how to make something more vegan, to help my son, during our next time at WDW.

I was directed, after we got back, to contact Brenda at Special Diets. I'm sorry to hear the hotline didn't work for you.

Very nice pictures of you and your husband. We stayed at POFQ in May 09. Nice to see the sun shinning on the place.

Can't wait to read more!

 

[Vegcentric]

Day 2 - Magic Kingdom and California Grill

Our first full day in Walt Disney World was spent at the Magic Kingdom. Though we had filled out our special diets form, this was only for the restaurants that we made advance reservations for and so this meant that we had to wing it on the places we didn't mark down on the form or make reservations for.

After doing Pirates of the Caribbean and walking around the park to take in all the sights, we were starting to get a little hungry. We wandered over to Frontier Land around 12 o'clock-ish after squeezing in a ride on It's a Small World and a tea cup ride.

We passed by the Columbia Harbor House, where we had heard good things about the Lighthouse Sandwich (broccoli slaw, hummus and tomato). There was a woman outside ringing the lunch bell (so cute!) and we were surprised by how adorable the interior of this quick-service restaurant was! There was vegetarian chili on the menu, which I do believe is vegan as long as you don't put the crackers in it.
I debated on getting the veggie chili, but in the end I stuck to our dining plan and got the Lighthouse Sandwich. This was served with a bag of chips and our choice of dessert (we both picked the apple dumpling-like thing). I really appreciated the fact that they give you Miss Vicki's chips, which are pretty good quality chips.

The sandwich itself was probably our favorite meal out of the entire trip (if you can even believe that). When I later asked my husband which meal he'd do again, he mentioned this sandwich so it made a pretty big impression with him as well. This sandwich is okay for vegetarians, but if you want it vegan you'll need to leave out the broccoli slaw since it contains dairy. I left it in because I wasn't in the mood to only eat a sandwich with hummus and tomato (I don't normally like the texture of tomatoes on their own). This sandwich is extremely filling, satisfying and even if you're an omnivore I highly recommend that you try this.
We maybe took two bites out of our desserts (it was too sugary for me) and I took maybe one sip of the soda and just called it a day by eating the entire sandwich (the small meal thing went out the window by this point since I worked up a serious appetite) and bag of chips.

We left the Magic Kingdom a little earlier than we would have liked to in order to get back to our resort to get ready for dinner at the California Grill.
We arrived at the Contemporary Hotel earlier than expected as well, and they weren't even seating anyone for dinner by this point. We checked in with the hostess, who was extremely polite and professional but had absolutely no clue that I had filled out a dietary request form. When I pointed it out to her, she stared at me a bit blankly (this is the expression I became accustomed to receiving on this trip whenever I mentioned the dietary request form) and then told me that our diets shouldn't be a problem. I was really looking forward to getting back into the habit of eating vegan, having slipped up with the previous meals.
When I was making the reservations online I came across in the fine print that it stated that most dietary requests could be met, including vegetarian, vegan and kosher. I figured we were safe, and I made a bit of a mistake by not calling ahead. This is one thing I would do differently on my next trip, which is calling the restaurant in advance and not just filling out the form and assuming everything will be okay.

After about a half hour of waiting around the resort, we were finally allowed to go up into the dining room. The man in the elevator boasted about the award-winning menu, and once inside the restaurant I nearly lost my breath. The dining room is very beautiful, even with the shades down. The hostess upstairs was definitely a Disney person - she never stopped smiling and she assured me that our dietary requests would be met and that we would be able to speak with a chef, absolutely no problem.
The dining room was very calm and serene. Once it got dark enough outside and the sun was disappearing, the shades went up automatically.

Since we were on our honeymoon, we were ecstatic by how romantic everything was until our server came to our table. Unfortunately, I don't remember his name either, but he seemed very rushed even though dinner had just started and never made any eye contact. He was polite, but not overly friendly. I noticed several times throughout the evening that the tables around us were making lots of small talk with their servers, who hung around their tables to talk about where they were from and what they were doing that week.
We saw our server three times. Once to get our drink orders, second to get our entree orders and at the very end to deliver the check. Any time someone filled our glass, it was someone else. He never delivered any of our food. When we told him about our dietary restrictions, he sighed and said, "Let me see if I can get a chef for you" after getting our drink order. About twenty minutes rolled by when the chef came to our table.
The chef did not seem pleased when I told him that we were vegan. He kind of grunted a bit and said, "Hm...vegan, huh? Okay. Well, on the menu there's not a whole lot to work with. Was there anything on the menu that you wanted us to veganize for you? Oh wait, no, nevermind...that ravioli has cheese in it. Okay, well we can probably just do a vegan unplugged for you."
I had heard about vegan/vegetarian unplugged, and since it was an award winning restaurant, I was eager to see the chefs flex their creative muscles. Of course I was also counting on the restaurant getting the request form in advance, and then I kind of felt horrible that I had put out the chefs with my request. I know it isn't realistic to expect a chef to just work off the menu for everybody. Still, I was expecting a better attitude.
After my husband and I agreed to have the vegan unplugged, the chef went back to work his magic and I received the $10 cocktail that I ordered, which was the sangria.

This wasn't very good. In fact, it tasted like spiked orange juice. I normally LOVE sangria and I hear wonderful things about the sangria over at Kouzinna, so maybe next time I'm in the mood for some I'll just get it over there instead. I was really disappointed with this, and kind of took that as a sign of things to come. Still, I hadn't lost all hope...and the view was very pretty, which made the experience still good in our minds.

Since I had seen other reviews where vegans and vegetarians had great luck at the California Grill (and not just on these boards) I figured it would be fine to make a reservation here. I really did feel tremendously guilty because the attitude that I received from the waiter and the chef unnerved me a little bit. Eating out at home is pretty hard to do, and I don't expect special treatment there. I wasn't expecting special treatment here either, but I was hoping for something really great since it was a signature restaurant.

A couple servers brought out our meals, and set them down in front of us but never told us what anything was. I apologize for the bad quality of the picture, and even poorer quality of the descriptions.

In the bottom right corner was the veggie sushi, which was pretty good and the only thing that I managed to finish on my plate. It was fresh and clean tasting, and I could have eaten several plates of the sushi. I have heard wonderful things about the sushi at the California Grill, and from the small example I was given, I would say that everyone was correct. In the bottom left is some sort of potato and mushroom mixture. The potatoes were lukewarm and mealy. I liked the mushrooms...but I always like mushrooms.

In the top right corner were some steamed veggies including carrots, green beans and baby zucchini. In the top left, some pieces of soft flat bread with a shredded onion mixture. With the exception of the sushi, nothing tasted very good. It was our first major disappointment of the vacation. The veggies were cooked properly but lacked any real flavor. To sum up the meal, I would say it was pretty uninspired.

I later noticed that there was a wedding reception going on in another room. I'm not sure if the staff would have been more accommodating if there hadn't been a wedding. I'm not sure if they have two different teams working or whatever, but the food was really disappointing for us. We had the mango sorbet. One of the servers said he was going to get us some fresh fruit for the sorbet, but we never got it. Just plain ol' sorbet for us. It was good, but it wasn't anything too terribly exciting. Still, as far as sorbets go, this was probably the best I've had!

We were really thrilled by the view and we took advantage of the rooftop observation deck. That was really cool, though we didn't wait around for Wishes. We were pretty beat and just wanted to go back to our room since our feet were bugging us (and I wasn't wearing comfy shoes for dinner). The girl working on the elevator on the way down was very enthusiastic and kept going on and on about how we should have ordered the ostrich because it's just "sooooo good, it's amazing, it's my favorite, nobody else seems to want to order it because it's ostrich!" We smiled and laughed because she was just so cute how intense she was, and I didn't feel like putting her out by telling her we didn't eat meat.

The California Grill is definitely romantic, and I'm sure that their regular menu items are absolutely fantastic but as a vegan I would call ahead. If you're vegetarian, they almost always have at least one option on the menu (like the ravioli). The view is definitely worth it, though since we had the experience once we won't be going back again. The cool attitudes from the chef and waiter really made us feel unwelcome, though I wouldn't say it was a 100% bad experience...just not one we'd do again.

 

[Vegcentric]

Well, count me in!

My son(19) eats a vegan diet and we had some trouble meeting his requirements while in the World. I always enjoy learning what others like about the non-meat meals or how to make something more vegan, to help my son, during our next time at WDW.

I was directed, after we got back, to contact Brenda at Special Diets. I'm sorry to hear the hotline didn't work for you.

Very nice pictures of you and your husband. We stayed at POFQ in May 09. Nice to see the sun shinning on the place.

Can't wait to read more!

Excellent, thanks for reading! I saw two other vegan reviews on these forums very recently and I was just amazed by how much luck they had with getting everything vegan. I just couldn't do it, even when I asked.

Thank you for the compliment! We will be saying at the POFQ again this October for the Food and Wine Festival and we really hope it's just as nice this time around as it was the last.

I heard from another vegan couple that the hot line worked to some varying degrees and on their tickets it was noted that they were vegan, though I never had a ticket with the word vegan on it. I guess it all depends on the individuals, but we struggled here and there. Next time around, I'm just going to call ahead and see if that gets us better results.

 

[Linda67]

Great reviews so far
I am looking forward to hearing more

 

[Vegcentric]

Great reviews so far
I am looking forward to hearing more

Thanks for reading, glad you're enjoying them!

 

[Vegcentric]

Day 3 - Sunshine Seasons and Tangerine Cafe at EPCOT

Epcot is probably my favorite of the four parks. This was my fourth or fifth time to Walt Disney World and I just never get sick of this park. It was my husband's first trip to Walt Disney World and he had no idea what anything was about. By the end of this trip though, he said that Epcot was definitely his favorite park.
Our first stop was the Living Seas...or rather, I remember it just being the Living Seas and haven't been to Disney since they added all the Nemo stuff. So now it was the Seas with Nemo and Friends. It was a really nice surprise and we both loved it, especially entering the Seas vias clam mobile.
After spending quite a bit of time in there we headed to my favorite area of the park - The Land.

We managed to sneak in a ride on Soarin' before the lines got too long (we already grabbed a fast pass for Test Track) and the minute we got off the ride we stepped onto Living With the Land. Living With the Land was closed for refurbishment the last time I was at Disney World, so I was really thrilled it was open this time around.
Since I'm in love with plants (along with holistic nutrition, I study botany...I'm a huge nerd) this was easily my favorite ride that we went on the entire trip. I loved seeing all the different fruits and vegetables and I heard that they actually made salads in the Garden Grill made from the veggies grown here.
The way the automated recording in the boat made it seem, it sounded as though they also served the fish they were farming here as well in the Garden Grill as well as in Sunshine Seasons but I have absolutely no idea if this is correct (does anyone know?). When at home my husband and I tend to gravitate towards the local and seasonal produce so I found Living With the Land to be really fascinating.

Staring at all those fruits and vegetables really made us hungry and we both decided that once we were off the boat, it was time to eat. Today we were only eating at counter service restaurants, and I had heard very good things about Sunshine Seasons and how they have lots of vegetarian and vegan food.

The cafeteria itself is very large, loud and extremely busy during regular feeding hours - completely normal and expected. No surprises here! We managed to find some Silk soy milk, the kind we drink at home (the chocolate soy milk is delicious and I recommend people try it at least once) and I wandered over to the refrigerated section. My husband snagged a pasta salad and I found a black bean salad.

This black bean salad was the best black bean salad I have ever had, and I am not even exaggerating here. I studied the ingredients list very, very carefully so that I could recreated it once I got back home (which I did just the other day and it came out pretty delicious!). The black beans salad, while I do not have a picture of it (I'm sorry!) was very pretty to look at and was bursting with flavor.
I could have eaten a few little bowls of the salad, and wish I had made that my meal. I stood in line for the noodle station with my husband, and we both ordered the tofu noodle bowl. We eat tofu often at home, and we are both really picky about the texture. Far too often do we go out to a restaurant and we order the tofu dish, only to be served a plate of mush. We use extra-firm tofu at home. We absolutely hate silken...in fact, that stuff is pretty much only useful for pies, creams and tofu scramble. Eating it on its own is not going to give you a very good idea of what tofu is supposed to taste like.

I was pleased that it came with a generous serving of veggies as well as noodles, though I was surprised by the addition of broth. I wasn't even paying attention when the woman scooped the broth into the bowl (I really wish I had been). When I tasted the broth, it me me a little nervous because I think it was chicken stock. It could have just been my paranoia, but they put this broth on all of the noodle dishes and the tofu noodle bowl didn't specifically say it was the vegetarian option. (Does anyone know for certain of what kind of broth this is?)
I was going to get up and ask when a few of our dining neighbors next to us plowed into our table and blocked the exit. When I said excuse me, they didn't even acknowledge that I was there. My stomach was killing me, so I sat back down and just ate my noodles the way they were.

My husband and I actually ran into quite a bit of bad luck on this trip, but we still had a really great time. They gave a generous amount of tofu cubes on the noodle bowl, and as you can see they were pretty big. If I ordered this next time I'm going to make sure that they don't get hit with the broth. I wasn't in the mood for soup anyway. My husband said his pasta salad was excellent and would definitely get it again, though he admitted he liked my black bean salad better.
The tofu cubes themselves were okay, but not great. They were a little shriveled and kinda dry. If I was really in the mood for noodles and was sticking to quick service in Epcot I might order this meal again, but it's not likely. There are other things on the menu for vegans and vegetarians to eat, and even more options if you eat fish.

We're both very laid back when it comes to our food (when we eat out, we have calling attention to ourselves and just order off the menu; California Grill was the exception to this rule), though we absolutely will not eat any meat outside of shellfish. We probably ate things that were cooked in chicken stock (which we would never do at home), but I'm going to point out the food that we ate that was questionable so that vegans and vegetarians know what to totally avoid or ask questions about.

My husband and I had a great time going around the world, but all that walking without any snacking really throws his blood sugar for a loop. For some odd reason I can almost always tell when he's a little off and in need of some rest and a snack. Before leaving for vacation I was really worried that all the activity was going to be a bit too much for him, but there were snacks literally everywhere so it turned out to be just fine.

Not pictured, but definitely note-worthy: We made it all the way over to Japan when my husband decided he just had to sit down and have a snack. I'm really glad he chose Japan, because there is a little station in Japan called Kaki Gori, which is flavored shaved ice. They are similar to snow cones, but a million times better.

He had tangerine flavored, and I had melon. When it's hot out (and man, it was really hot that day) and you're doing a lot of walking, these things really hit the spot without filling you up before dinner. Two adorable ducks came over to say hello while we were eating.

They were really cute until they started to make very vocal demands for food. There were several pairs of ducks wandering around Epcot, demanding food from people and sometimes snagging a french fry or two for their efforts. Once my husband decided that he was okay to continue, we continued walking and checking out the remaining countries.

We passed the Tangerine Cafe in Morocco, which I had heard about on these forums from other vegetarians/vegans and decided that we were going to have our dinner there, but not before we checked out Canada. We were about to turn around to head back to Morocco for dinner when I saw this:

I decided that I had to take a picture, it was just too cute.

We headed back to Tangerine Cafe, which had indoor and outdoor seating. We both ordered the vegetarian platter, which came with hummus, lentil salad, olives, couscous, tabouleh salad, greens, bread and falafel.

The NON-vegan items include the lentil salad (it contains a little dairy), the bread and possibly the falafel. I had heard from others that the falafel was vegan, and some other people said it wasn't. If you don't want to take your chances, I heard that Tangerine Cafe will give you another serving of something else on the plate to replace whatever it is you didn't want, excluding the falafel. They won't give you more of that, unfortunately.

My husband is in love with falafel and could eat it every single day.

If you are really, really, really hungry...you may want to order more food after this, because it isn't very filling. I fill up extremely easily though and couldn't even finish what was on my plate. Everything tasted good, especially the tabouleh salad. The falafel was pretty good too. Not the best I've had...I still think the best falafel I've had was at Maoz but this was certainly better than the Casbah boxed brand that I buy at our local grocery store.

The platter also comes with baklava for dessert, also good:

I really liked this place, and would definitely eat here again. It's a great spot for vegetarians and vegans, especially since they'll swap out the stuff on the platter that you don't want with something you do. I loved the way everything looked inside, especially the color of the wall paint:

It was warm and inviting and the cast members working there were pretty nice, too.

Both Sunshine Seasons and Tangerine Cafe are easily veganizable, and have vegan items already on the menu. I remember seeing some vegetable sushi at Seasons as well, and it looked pretty good. I remember I was tempted to grab that instead of the black bean salad, which I am so glad I did NOT do.

We actually skipped Illuminations and headed back to our hotel early to see if we could sneak into the hot tub...no dice, but we still managed to have a really peaceful evening after walking around the world! We can't wait to go back to Epcot in October for the Food and Wine Festival.

Our next day was Animal Kingdom, which I will review later.

 

[NHMom4]

Thanks for doing this. It is great. My husband is a Meat-atairan, the rest of us could live without and my mom is a vegetarian. We love The World and this is very helpful.

 

[Vegcentric]

Thanks for doing this. It is great. My husband is a Meat-atairan, the rest of us could live without and my mom is a vegetarian. We love The World and this is very helpful.

Really glad that the reviews are helpful to you!

 

[disney_princess_85]

Great reviews so far. I'm a vegetarian so they are quite useful to me!

 

[Vegcentric]

Great reviews so far. I'm a vegetarian so they are quite useful to me!

Glad to help!

 

[flamingglobessigmund]

This place was on my list to try, but we never made it up there. Now I've developed a plan of attack to get there so my son can try the vegetarian platter.

He did get the vegetarian platter at Sunshine Seasons and really enjoyed it. The server asked him how long he had been a vegetarian, and he told her, "since I was 8, so 10 years."

I am loving your pictures and descriptions.

 

[Vegcentric]

This place was on my list to try, but we never made it up there. Now I've developed a plan of attack to get there so my son can try the vegetarian platter.

He did get the vegetarian platter at Sunshine Seasons and really enjoyed it. The server asked him how long he had been a vegetarian, and he told her, "since I was 8, so 10 years."

I am loving your pictures and descriptions.

10 years is very impressive! My husband and I have been been pescetarian for 2 years now, but we eat shellfish maybe once every two months, if that. He eats more of it than me. I was planning on staying vegan as a New Year's resolution, though vacation is probably going to throw a wrench in those plans.

One week out of the rest of the year isn't too bad, though.

The vegetarian platter is definitely worth it, I would just check on the falafel, since it wasn't confirmed/denied that it was vegan.

 

[rkrose1]

Thanks for the great info.

 

[MelanieC]

joining in - vegetarian here

 

[Vegcentric]

Day 4 - Animal Kingdom, aka the really good day of food!

If there was ever a day where my husband and I felt as though we'd need a tow truck in order to make it back to our hotel at the end of the day, this would be it. We woke up very early and headed down to the Port Orleans French Quarter food court like we did every morning.

That reminds me, I haven't mentioned anything about the food there yet, have I? Well, there's not a whole lot to mention about it other than that it's a quick service cafeteria! They have the usual suspects such as burgers and chicken tenders, but I do recall seeing some other interesting food choices for vegetarians and omnivores alike.
For one thing, there was some sort of noodle dish on the menu for vegetarians. I'm not sure how it was since we never ate there for lunch. Every morning we had Mickey waffles with fruit. The waffles were fine. Nothing special about them. They were always fluffy, never overcooked though they were not especially filling. I would have appreciated a bit more fruit on my plate. A very small handful of sad looking strawberries didn't really cut for me, and by the time we got to the parks I was pretty hungry.

I learned from my mistake though and started getting a piece of fruit and a couple of Silk soy milk cartons to tide me over a little longer. I heard from a vegan friend of mine that she has been able to actually get the Mickey waffles veganized, though I didn't know about this until after I got back. Apparently at her resort (I believe she stayed at the Coronado Springs Resort) she asked if she could get some vegan Mickey waffles and the chef actually made them for her!
This could definitely be hit or miss, of course. If they say yes, I'd consider it pretty lucky. Otherwise, the fruit and some of the cereals may be the only thing there (I didn't look too hard around the cafeteria). Something I definitely remember from my omnivorous days were some biscuits with gravy at the POFQ.
I remember that they were pretty good, but I made the mistake of eating them every single day that week (no one should do this) with the meat gravy, and I wound up on the toilet a little more than I would have liked. I know that's gross, but I just thought I'd share.

After finishing up our breakfast we headed out the door and waited for the bus to take us to the Animal Kingdom park!

When we got there, my husband took a few pictures of the Christmas tree that was out front:

In this picture you can see all the animal decorations, which we thought was pretty neat.

We were surprised by how quickly we were able to get through all of the attractions (minus Expedition Everest - we can't do roller coasters, they make us sick; I know, I know, we're no fun). We had a lunch reservation for the Tusker House at 1:40. This was the first time I've ever eaten anything at the Animal Kingdom park, and I was pretty convinced up until recently that there wasn't anything worth eating here.

I was very mistaken.

Because I made a reservation for 1:40, my husband and I were given two tickets to see Finding Nemo: The Musical in the special seating area. If you haven't seen Finding Nemo: The Musical yet, you should! It was a lot of fun, especially at the end of the day when our feet were tired. It gave us plenty of time to rest and recoup.

At first, we weren't sure where the entrance to the Tusker House was. We saw the podium, but we didn't see an entrance. We approached the man at the podium and he escorted us all the way behind the restaurant, where we had to check in with the hostess. It was a little odd, but it was fine and it was a lot quieter back there.

When I checked in I almost didn't feel like telling them about the dietary request sheet that I had filled out. After debating over whether or not I should, I just decided to ask our server what my husband and I could eat. Now, I have heard several other reviewers say that if you're vegan, the server will take you around the buffet and show you what was safe to eat and what wasn't.

No such luck, here. He was really busy and said, "Oh yeah, there's tons you can eat here! We have a whole section!" He was really friendly, and made a bit of small talk with us but he wasn't exactly quick with clearing away plates. I noticed he was really busy though, so I cut him some slack. It might be different at calmer hours of the day as far as buffet escorts go, but as I learned from the California Grill experience, I wasn't expecting anything magical to happen. I was really just happy there was a ton of food we could eat.

The buffet room is set up like an outdoor market; it's beautiful and really immerses you in the setting. I also loved how large the room was. Even though it was very busy, there wasn't too much clutter going on with everyone flying around trying to get to the food. Most buffets I've been to can turn into absolute chaos, but this wasn't the case here.
In the above picture (which is my husband's), he has some tabouleh salad, an oatmeal raisin cookie (definitely not vegan), some cornbread (not sure if this is vegan or not, I'd ask), dried fruit sambal and mango chutney (both vegan). I think some hummus crept in there somewhere behind the cookie.

We both highly recommend eating all of the dips and chutneys. They have tons of delicious pits chips and breads to use as a vehicle for the dips. I almost made my entire meal out of the dips and chutneys, they were so delicious! The dried fruit sambal was a little bit difficult to get onto my chips and so I ate it with a fork instead, but it was still very good and very sweet.
I was expecting the mango chutney to be a little bit sweeter, and instead it was a little bit more acidic tasting as well as runny. I had better tabouleh salad at Tangerine Cafe, but there was nothing wrong with it. I love tabouleh because it is so crisp and fresh tasting.

In this picture (I'm sorry it's so blurry!) there is more dried fruit sambal, some dried fruit bread of some sort, pita bread and hummus. Oh, and the cornbread. Since I cannot even remember eating the cornbread, it must not have been anything note-worthy. The hummus was a bit runnier in consistency than I am used to, but the flavor was quite good.

In this picture we have some spiced tandoori tofu, endive, apple and walnut salad with bleu cheese dressing, tunisian couscous and curried basmati rice.
I had heard many, many negative things about the tofu here and I just want to say...

It was pretty much as gross as everyone said it was. For some reason though I ate three platefuls of it (I was famished). The zucchini that was in with the tofu was horribly overcooked. It was mushy, and mushy zucchini is not appetizing zucchini. The tofu was shriveled up and dry. The tofu that was in my noodle bowl at Sunshine Seasons was much better than this tofu, and that isn't saying much. Someone really needs to rework this recipe, because it's not working.

The couscous was extremely flavorful. The acidic taste from the tomatoes mixed in with the couscous was delicious and I would definitely eat this again. The endive and apple salad was extremely tart and bitter and I wouldn't eat this again. It probably would have worked out a bit better if the apples were sweet instead of being just as tart as the endive.

The rice was good, but nothing over the top fantastic about it. Still, it was very filling and really hit the spot for an active day. We each had several vegetables samosas (not pictures) despite my hatred of most things fried (I like tempura but that is about it). Fortunately though, the samosas were light, crisp and didn't leave me feeling nauseous after eating a couple of them. I recommend eating them with the mango chutney...they're really fantastic that way. The batter they are fried in isn't as heavy as say, some onion rings (more on that later) but I still wouldn't consume these babies in excess, they seemed to retain quite a bit of oil.

I heard from a few people that the samosas were cooked in the same pans as the meat (I'm not sure if this was confirmed or not), so if this bothers you, you can probably mention it to your server and they might make some up for you on the side. The green beans are also cooked in butter (I believe), so that's another deceptive veggie dish that may appear vegan, but really isn't.

Also consumed by not pictures: Orzo pasta (delicious!), jollaf rice (really, really good...better than the curried basmati), pearl couscous laced with sweet basil essence (absolutely flavorless), and a few other things that I didn't really care for and didn't feel like even mentioning. Overrall, the Tusker House is a really great spot for vegetarians or for those just wanting to get away from fried chicken, burgers and ribs.

My husband and I felt like we were about forty pounds heavier by the time we went to leave, and our server was absolutely shocked that we were done eating so quickly!
"What, you're done? REALLY? Already?!"

Hahaha. I guess we really were ravenous. I think we'll be back next trip, since I still have those chutneys and veggies on my mind. I really hope they rethink that whole tandoori tofu thing, though. Yech.

After Finding Nemo: The Musical and seeing the Jingle Jammin' Parade (I think that's what it was), it was time to head back to our resort. We wound up almost late for our dinner reservations because the bus from our resort took us straight to Kidani Village. We didn't even realize we were in Kidani Village until I went downstairs and saw Sanaa. I was like, "wait...Sanaa is in Kidani Village, not the Animal Kingdom Lodge!" I'm so glad that I read websites like this one before I head off on my vacations!

It was no problem, though. We just took the road all the way over to the Animal Kingdom Lodge and checked in for our reservations at Boma. We sat around for maybe 30 seconds before we were seated (we always had such good luck with being seated right away). Our server, who was a teeny, tiny Asian woman took care of us that evening. She was absolutely brilliant and I envied her endurance. She was insanely busy, but we never had plates on our table that we didn't want and our waters were always topped off.

She was fantastic, and I wish I could remember her name. I remember sitting there thinking that if I was in her position I would have passed out despite being 25. She was running around the room, so incredibly focused and not missing a single table.

I've eaten at Boma before, but never as a vegetarian. I had heard a rumor that some of the rice dishes and pasta dishes were cooked in chicken stock, but since I could never get a confirmation on this, I ate them all anyway.
It isn't terribly loud in Boma, but it isn't exactly quiet, either. It's dark and really beautiful. I recommend heading over to the Animal Kingdom Lodge just to look around.

Unlike Tusker House, the buffet area was pretty much straight and narrow and very crowded at dinner time. In 2005 I made a dinner reservation for 4:30 (I left Animal Kingdom early) and it was dead. I got a lot of special attention from those working there and could get to the food without any hassle or problems. Everything was really relaxed and the food was still hot and delicious.
If you can eat that early, then I suggest going early to avoid the chaos in the dining room. It was absolutely chaotic and I thought I was going to spill my plates and was amazed when I didn't. Don't let the crowds stop you from going here, though. This place never seems to disappoint me!

This was my husband's plate. My husband said that the macaroni was "just okay." On this plate is a bunch of couscous (we ate a lot of couscous that day!) and rice dishes. The only thing that sticks out in my mind is the lentil salad. I have no idea really what was in it, but I do recall a little bit of feta cheese (I think it was either feta or goat cheese) and cherry tomatoes. The lentils were covered in something that almost tasted like barbecue sauce. Whatever it was, it was the best thing I ate at Boma.

You'll find lots of pita bread and dips here like the Tusker House, but you'll find some more interesting food at Boma, such as the carrot and ginger soup and fufu. The falafel at Boma was better than the falafel at Tangerine cafe and had a yogurt sauce to go along with it. My husband ate a little seafood this evening...

It was a seafood soup with shrimp, fish and other shellfish along with pearl couscous. This was his favorite out of the entire meal. He also really liked the mac and cheese, since he never eats any at home. He said that this was much, much better than Kraft mac and cheese and had a very good consistency to it.

In the background you can sort of see my plate, where I had a plate full of green beans and tofu. Again, the tofu was shriveled and not at all appetizing and I did not go back for seconds.

There was a delicious orange, carrot and radish salad. I really enjoy eating clean, fresh flavors and this really hit the spot. The watermelon rind salad was also very good but very different, and I can understand why many people may not like it. It's a bit bitter and has a very strong ginger flavor to it. None of the desserts here are vegan and I ate one zebra dome. Unfortunately this wasn't the right dessert for me to choose because I later found out that it contains gelatin (d'oh!). It wasn't anything really special, though I realize those little things are very popular. I just thought it tasted a little overly sugary sweet.

By the end of the night my husband and I were busting at the sides, we were so incredibly full. Boma and Tusker House are probably two of the best places a vegetarian can eat because you will not leave hungry. I'm very interested in trying out Sanaa next time, but I will definitely be returning to Boma.

If you're worried that some of the rice and couscous is cooked in chicken stock, I would ask your server if you eat here. I didn't get around to asking (I'm so bad, I honestly just like to relax on vacation!), but someone would probably show you what was and wasn't safe to eat if you have strict dietary restrictions.

Our next day was spent at Hollywood Studios, where we ate a bit of so-so and disappointing food. More on that later.

 

[disney_princess_85]

Great reviews of Tusker House and Boma, very detailed. We visited Boma on our last trip and I was expecting to love it but unfortunately I didn't. I enjoyed the soups and the different types of houmous (or "hummus" as you guys say!), but I found everything else a little sweet-tasting for my liking. I want to try Sanaa too, I hope I manage to get an ADR!

 

[Linda67]

Thanks for the reviews of Tusker House and Boma

We have a breakfast ADR at TH and an early dinner ADR at Boma which we are very excited about

 

[Vegcentric]

Great reviews of Tusker House and Boma, very detailed. We visited Boma on our last trip and I was expecting to love it but unfortunately I didn't. I enjoyed the soups and the different types of houmous (or "hummus" as you guys say!), but I found everything else a little sweet-tasting for my liking. I want to try Sanaa too, I hope I manage to get an ADR!

Thanks!
I've noticed that Boma is one of those restaurants you either love or hate. I haven't heard of anything saying that it was "just okay." Hopefully Sanaa is more appealing to you. I hope we can snag an ADR for it.