Vegetarians.....help

[ShellyMouse]

what are your top restaurant choices for vegetarians options??

thanks!

 

[ShellyMouse]

any vegetarians out there today??

 

[Joyful Pixiedust]

Yes, Hi!

I actually eat a mostly vegan diet, so i can help you.

For counter service, there are many options for veggie wraps, veggie burgers and veggie flatbreads. Specific locations I have had them from include Cosmic Rays at MK, The Electric Umbrella at Epcot, the Artist Palette at SSR.

Last week, at Electric Umbrella, the veggie burger was no longer on the posted menu, but I asked, and they made one for me. It just took an extra 5 minutes.

Also, at Morocco in the WS, there is an awesome veggie platter with hummus, falafel, tabouleh and a couple other salad items on the plate.

Recent table service experiences included Sanaa at AKL/Kidani Village, which is the best WDW meal I've had yet, and my meat-eating husband was delighted, too. Close ties for second place include the Yak & Yeti in AK, Hollywood Brown Derby in DHS, Tokyo Dining at Epcot, and of course, California Grill. RFC also has veggie options... there are many others.

My favorite options offsite include the food bar at Whole Foods Market and Crispers.

I have been very pleased at the vegan/vegetarian choices I have in WDW compared to dining out in the rest of the world in general.

Have a great time!

PS - I will elaborate in what I ate in the above TS restaurants in a separate post.

 

[HunnyJar]

Vegetarian here!

During our last visit these were the restaurants I loved the most.. Some might be a little surprising!

Boma - great selection for vegetarians! If you can ask for one the of chefs to show you around the buffet and point out what you can and cannot eat. Love this buffet, it has never let me down.

'Ohana - Yep! The huge meaty meal restaurant is actually very vegetarian friendly. I had a huge and tasty dinner. Whoever was cooking the tofu that night (not Chef TJ - it was his day off) knew what he/she was doing! Great dish with lots of flavor.

Liberty Tree Tavern - Awesome lunch. I have always loved this restaurant, but was a little hesitant to come back after they took the characters away, but decided to try it for lunch and was very pleasantly surprised.

Biergarten - I had an amazing experience here. One of the chefs (I feel horrible, because I cannot remember his name for the life of me) walked me around the buffet and pointed out what I could eat. He made sure to mention if something was cooked with chicken/beef/fish stock. And made me a wonderful mushroom sauce with crispy fried onions to go with the spatzel since their normal sauce on the buffet isn't vegetarian. He also made me some stewed tomatoes that tasted just like my mom's! It was such a lovely and wonderful gesture and I appreciated his extra kindness.

I will also mention that we went back to 'Ohana for breakfast and it was wonderful. We just had the meat served on a different plate and made sure the potatoes were 100% vegetarian. I cannot express how much I loved this breakfast and I am REALLY not a breakfast person.

As for CS meals.. These were the ones I really liked..

Flame Tree BBQ - Great fruit plate. It is also served with honey yogurt, but I was unsure if there was rennet in it - so my son ate it for me. It was really very refreshing and definitely large enough for me to share.

Sunshine Seasons - First meal I tried here during our trip was the tofu noodle bowl. AWESOME! Loved it! Very, very tasty and I was incredibly happy with it. Again, someone knew how to cook the tofu. Very crunchy and flavorful. I'm super picky about tofu. Either it needs to be super crispy and light or serve it to me hiyayakko style (minus the bonito flakes) with fresh ginger. Anyway! We went back to Sunshine Seasons later in the trip and I tried the grilled vegetable sandwich and just didn't really care for it at all..

I hope this helps and feel free to ask me anything you want. Have a great trip!

 

[Joyful Pixiedust]

Sanaa actually has separate printed menus for vegetarian and vegan guests. My meal there was incredible. I had:

Salad Sampler: my 3 choices were
Watermelon, Radish & mint
Chickpeas with Cucumber & Tomato
Roasted Potato, corn & spinach

They were awesome!! The watermelon was the big surprise - who'd think of watermelon & radish? There was some sort of pickled melon rind in it, and I LOVED it. The other 2 were delicious as well.

Instead of an entree (there are a couple for veg*ns), I ordered a side of stir-fried green beans and a side of 5-grain pilaf. I ended up dumping the beans over the pilaf as the seasonings on the beans were wonderful and I was not bold enough to lick my plate! LOL The beans were spicy with a slight bite - not very hot for a person who loves spicy hot foods, but if you usually prefer a mild flavor, they are a bit spicy. The 5-grain pilaf was excellent, just the flavor of the grains, no other seasonings. Without the juice from the beans, I would have seasoned them a tiny bit with salt & pepper.

We also ordered the bread service for 2, with pappadum and paratha. One was cripsy like a toasted pita, but much thinner and nicely seasoned. The other was soft and hot, and delicious - unlike anything I can compare to. We had a choice of 3 sauces, and I chose red pepper hummus, Red Chile Sambal (3 alarm hot!) and Garlic Pickle (medium hot). All were delicious, and I made sure to clean out the bowl with the hummus with my soft bread!

I am salivating just writing this. I wish we had gone back the next evening, but we went to Nine Dragons, and while everything was OK, it was not spectacular, not as good as my favorite local Asian restaurant.

For any non-vegetarians curious about Sanaa, my husband got a game hen with cherry glaze and turnips, and he was in heaven. He started with a mustard-seed crusted scallops in coconut cream sauce appetizer that had 3 large scallops, and he had to resist licking his plate, too!

His dessert was a sampler and fantastic for him, and I had a fresh mango sorbet with raspberries, blackberries and strawberries - scrumptious!!

 

[ShellyMouse]

thank you both for your replies!! my 23 yo niece is a vegetarian, and will be going with us to disney. as i plan for meals i want to make sure she will have options, and is well taken care of. she loves to try new things, and by the sounds of it, she will have plenty of options.
i ate at boma a few years ago and LOVED!! it. we are going there for sure, she is excited about it too.

thanks again, i am going to print your replies so we remember come ADR time!

 

[ShellyMouse]

forgot to say.....we will be on dining plan.....HOPEFULLY FREE DDP!!...

hope all these restaurants are on it, will check it out and see.

thanks again!

 

[aprilisis]

I like California Grill the best, but Jiko (at AKL) actually has a separate vegetarian menu. All you have to do is ask for it. Columbia Harbor House in MK has vegetarian chili & I love the veggie burgers at Cosmic Rays. Boma (at AKL) is great, too. Animal Kingdom (surprisingly) doesn’t offer too much vegetarian food- besides fruit at some of the carts & pizza from pizzafari. There is a little cart on the way from Africa to Asia, however, that has the best vegetarian egg rolls. DHS is sort of veggie friendly. Rosie’s (over by ToT & RnRC) has veggie burgers, Brown Derby has a tofu/noodle dish, 50’s Prime Time has had the same roasted pepper stuffed with whole grains forever, Mama Melrose has flatbread & pasta, and Sci-Fi has a tofu sandwich. Epcot has too many dining options to mention, but Sunshine Seasons always has something I can eat. I would say you wouldn’t find much to eat a Biergarten- I tried that a few years ago & there was almost nothing I could eat. I am a picky vegetarian, though…I hate mushrooms, tofu, and eggplant, which is mostly what they offer us.

 

[tigerdragon]

I'm no longer a vegetarian, but I was on my first two trips and my favorite meal during those trips was at 50's Primetime Cafe. I didn't like the vegetarian dish that they were serving, I think it was some sort of stuffed pepper, and asked if they could do something else. So they prepared a vegetarian meal of different sides, some that weren't on the menu. It was all delicious!

I would suggest that if your niece doesn't see something on the menu that she likes or could eat to ask if there is something else they could do for her. I don't know if every place will do that, but it doesn't hurt to ask.

 

[HunnyJar]

I'm no longer a vegetarian, but I was on my first two trips and my favorite meal during those trips was at 50's Primetime Cafe. I didn't like the vegetarian dish that they were serving, I think it was some sort of stuffed pepper, and asked if they could do something else. So they prepared a vegetarian meal of different sides, some that weren't on the menu. It was all delicious!

I would suggest that if your niece doesn't see something on the menu that she likes or could eat to ask if there is something else they could do for her. I don't know if every place will do that, but it doesn't hurt to ask.

I totally agree with this. The restaurants are generally really good about working with you if they can. I have asked them about alternative vegetarian options in the past and have always been very pleased with the way they are able to help.

 

[WDWBW09]

My wife is a vegetarian but I'm the planner. I do all of the research ahead of time so she can have the best vacation possible. My wife loves the Lighthouse Sandwich at the Columbia Harbor House.

She loves the Columbia Harbor House - period - always a stop when we are at MK. She's never had the vegetarian chilli but discussing with her now she said she may have to try it when we go back in August.

The Flying Fish Cafe at the Boardwalk accomidated her by making a Pasta dish. The signatures are always more flexible with food offerings. Planet Hollywood she had Vegie Fajitas. Hope this gave you a few idea's...

Goodluck with your plans!

 

[danyella522]

Jiko was our favorite, like someone mentioned, they had a separate vegan menu

 

[ShellyMouse]

thank you all very much!

do you mention this when making ADRs, or when you get to restaurant?

 

[HunnyJar]

thank you all very much!

do you mention this when making ADRs, or when you get to restaurant?

I always do both. I mention it when we make the ADR's and then once again once our server greets our table.

 

[SanFranciscan]

I was a vegetarian until January. I am now a "flexitarian" for health reasons. I still go for the vegetarian option if I can get it in a low-carbohydrate form. Your niece might go ahead and look at the menu for non-vegetarians to see if there is anything that she likes and then ask if she could substitute something else for the meat portion. That might work out well.

 

[everythingALICE]

I find that it is helpful to note that there is a vegetarian on your ADR or, as I have done, call the Disney Dietary Line a few days before your visit (I forget the number offhand, but if you call Disney Dining they can direct you). Sometimes you need to remind your server, but this gives the chef a "heads up" if something special may need to be prepared (such as at Ohana), or if at a buffet, they are often willing to come out to address which items are or aren't vegetarian.

Animal Kingdom does have veggie options if you look for them - Restaurantosaurus (CS) has a veggie burger, along with a toppings bar (like Cosmic Rays), Pizzafari (CS) has pizza (as well as breakfast options in the morning), and Tusker House (TS) is a buffet which has loads of options for vegetarians.

Crystal Palace (TS) in the MK has a surprising amount of veggie options (I'm not sure if the menu ever rotates, but when I was there about a year and a half ago there were plenty of options). I will second the Lighthouse Sandwich at Columbia Harbour House (CS) - It's super delicious and a great change from the standard options. I really like Akershus (TS) in Epcot and 50's Prime Time (TS) in DHS had a pretty good stuffed pepper...in addition to FANTASTIC milkshakes.

Most places have at least one vegetarian option on the menu but, as others have said, many places are accommodating to make alternative dishes with ingredients already on hand.

 

[skeleton_pirate]

Although virtually every restauarant has a veggie option, most only have one. So, I'd definitely check ahead of time that you actually like that dish. For me, eating tofu and veggie burgers for every meal is just not an option. Definitely check out the menus beforehand- if the stuffed pepper at 50s or the tofu at Brown Derby doesn't do it for you, move along. Those are the only two restaurants I've heard of issues for vegetarians and vegans who want something other than the option on the menu. Although some might say that WDW has a lot of veggie options, I would beg to differ in a lot of cases. For example, AK. The only veggie QS options are a fruit plate or a cheese pizza. I'm in Afghanistan and I have more veggie options when going out than they do at WDW restaurants.

Some of my faves are Jiko (probably the best veggie meal I've had anywhere with the best service) Columbia Harbor House's Lighthouse sandwich, and the veggie platter at Tangerine cafe. Some restaurants (like San Angel, Jiko, and Sanaa) have separate veggie menus.

There are some places I used to love going to but don't anymore because although they have veggie options, I still remember how delicious the meat options were (the bobotie at Boma and the sausages at Biergarten come to mind) so I skip those because they're all things that you can make with veggie options and I spend a lot of time whining.

So, in sum, check the menus, when you make reservations, tell them you're veggie, call a couple of weeks before you leave to fill out a dietary form, and tell them at check in that you are vegetarian. It's a lot of work sometimes, but so amazingly worth it to get that secret curry dish they have at Jiko!

Enjoy!

 

[TillyMarigold]

I honestly would say that, unless your niece is a really picky eater, you should book restaurants where you like the type of food they serve and the theming. Just about every restaurant has exactly one vegetarian option and most will accommodate you if you don't like it. Obviously some types of cuisine are more vegetarian-friendly than others (like Indian--Sanaa--and African--Jiko, Boma, Tusker House, Marrakesh) but it's much easier to find vegetarian options on Disney menus than it is at restaurants out here.

BTW the "secret" vegetarian curry at Jiko is just the regular shrimp curry made with tofu instead of shrimp (and it is excellent, I'm not saying it's not, just that it's not some magical dish that only vegetarians ever get to have). My husband loved their regular vegetarian entree also, it is a seared maize cake served over roasted vegetables including hot peppers (it used to be hot peppers stuffed with the maize).

 

[frogfuzz]

just a couple of additions to already posted

I do love the Lighthouse sandwich at Columbia Harbor house, but the vegetarian chili is also very good.

Pop century has the best vegtagle lo mein I have ever had.

I like Tonys Town square for lunch, they have a lot I like there but dinner not as good

I am one who will find something on the menu and not make a big deal out of it, but at Hollywood an vine buffet once, just was not appealing and I was not paying that much for just salad, they were extremely nice when I asked and made be a huge past plate

Wofgang pucks is our favorite also, lots of good stuff there

 

[amyren]

Veggie head here and I'm so glad I found this thread
I am planning a trip for Sept and was a little worried about meal options. We had good vegetarian dining experiences during our November trip but I kinda want to branch out and try different places. I'm expecially glad to hear that Ohana has a veggie option. We went there back in our meat eating days and really enjoyed it.