What do you mean I can't eat here? An ongoing allergy dining review.

[Random Ninja]

Let me start by introducing myself. I'm a 27yo Florida girl who lives only 3 hours away from wdw and I visit at least once a month. Sometimes I meet up with people there, other times I'm on my own. I do have a wonderful list of food allergies/intolerances including dairy, gluten, mustard, artificial sweeteners, tapioca, seafood (anything that comes from the ocean except sea salt), and alcohol. The mustard and tapioca allergies are also airborne so I often have to wear a face mask when I'm anywhere near food. I'm going to be updating this review after each trip to share my allergy experiences; especially since we really don't have a lot of current reviews for allergies.

Starting out with Landscapes of Flavor at the new Art of Animation Resort on Nov. 3rd.I arrived right as they were changing over from breakfast to lunch and had to wait a little while. This normally doesn't bother me but the chef and I had a bit of a "language barrier" and he seemed to want to get rid of me pretty fast. I ended up with the Broccoli Beef again, had it back in September, as I already knew it was safe. Doubt I'll be heading back to LoF for a while as I haven't had good experiences with the chefs.


Next up was a trip to the Epcot Food and Wine Festival on Nov. 11. Most of the stalls were completely off limits to me for one allergy or another. I found out halfway through that there's about 4-5 main chefs each running several booths so when they call for a chef at the booth, ask what other booths they're running and if there is something at the other booths that's safe for your allergies. Here's what I was able to eat:

The beef skewer from Argentina. I couldn't have the sauce or potatoes so they gave me an extra skewer.

Lamb from Australia. I usually Australian lamb and this did not disappoint, wish it was a little bigger.

Beef "Sandwich" from Be Our Guest on Nov. 17th. The beef was good but I was disappointed with my options. They don't carry desert options besides the sugar free gluten free cupcake which was a no-no for me. I hope they start carrying more options soon. The place was amazing with the falling snow, dancing Beast and Belle and the West Wing is a do not miss.

Lunch on the 18th was the taco salad from Pecos Bills. The manager was very nice and had everything separated out for me. I already started mixing the lettuce and beef together before I took this picture. My only complaint is that there wasn't enough beef, I had chips left over.

(I tried to go to Tortuga Tavern for this meal but the manager was rude and didn't seem to want to be bothered by my allergies. She didn't even want to look at my list and snapped at me for "not knowing what I'm allergic to". I know what I'm allergic to but when it's noisy, I'd rather show you so there's no miscommunication then have to tell you over and over again.)

I know this isn't edible but I forgot to take a picture of my meal at Teppan Edo on Nov. 30th. This was my "birthday cake" from the restaurant. They also sang and gave me a chef's hat. I gave the hat to the only kid at our table while we were talking. As for the meal itself, I couldn't have any of the apps or deserts. All the seafood meals were off limits, duh, had to smile when they reminded me I couldn't order them . What really surprised me was I couldn't have the rice. The rice isn't plain; it has cassava (tapioca) and sweet potato and a few other things I can't remember. The manager brought out the ingredient book for me to check over the spices on the meat and I just happen to glance down at the rest of the listing and noticed the rice. Tapioca is an anaphylactic allergy for me so that could have been very bad.

 

[Random Ninja]

Forgot dinner on Nov. 30th. This was my favorite meal all weekend. Dinner at 'Ohanas, with a view of the Christmas Party fireworks through the trees. Chef Brandon was incredible. He double checked everything and came out several times with questions or to check ingredients.

Dinner started with a salad with oil and vinegar dressing and honey ginger chicken wings. If my whole meal had been just the wings, I' would have been happy. They were finger-licking good. Yes, that's my little Stitchy in the picture. He goes with me on every trip and managed to sneak into a dining picture. The little troublemaker will probably be showing up again.

It got better. These are ginger and brown sugar terriyaki (gluten-free) beef and chicken skewers. The sauce was also on the veggies and rice. I will go back to 'Ohanas just for this. I couldn't eat it all but it was soooo good. Again, I would have been happy with just this course. Can't say enough good things about this meal.

Tofutti Ice Cream with Hershey's Chocolate syrup and Enjoy Life Sugar Cookies. I've never met Chef T.J. but going by the pictures I've seen, Chef Brandon can give him some good competition. This was the perfect end to the evening.

 

[Random Ninja]

Started way behind today after not getting to sleep until 2am. I was at Epcot until 12:30 riding Mission Space. Had to run to get to my Pirates League appointment and ended up being half an hour late. They said it was no big deal and I waited around til my turn. I had a great cm who made me into a beautiful mermaid. It really set the mood for lunch at CRT.

Skipped the appetizers since I couldn't have any of them and didn't really want another plain salad. Discovered at 'Ohanas that I don't like oil and vinegar on my salad. Instead I got roasted fingerling potaotes, beef tenderloin, and broccoli. The beef wasn't even on the menu but the chef mentioned he had some and it was a great choice. This was an awesome meal. Plus I had some great interaction with Snow White who asked if Ariel and I were going to race later and Ariel herself wanted to know where she could get a Santa hat for Sebastian. (My shirt had a picture of a crab wearing a Santa hat.

They only had Rice Dream ice cream at CRT, which has tapioca so off-limits. I got a fruit bowl instead. The little candle was a cute add in for my birthday trip. My birthday was 11/29 so my crossover Nov/Dec trip was for my birthday. I think I forgot to add that in before. The girls at the table next to me waved their wands and sang happy birthday with the chef. It was really sweet.

Dinner at Crystal Palace. Stitchy managed to sneak into another picture. At least he behaved himself and didn't get into a fight with Piglet this time. Although that's probably because Piglet avoided us, skipped over the table and everything. Guess he must remember us.

This meal is roasted turkey, peas and corn, and more broccoli. There seems to be a trend with the broccoli. I really shouldn't complain since it's my favorite veggie but it is kinda odd that I get broccoli more then I get anything else. I also had a plate of pineapple, cantaloupe, and honeydew. No picture since it's common fruit anyway.

I feel kind bad for this one. The server brought it out to me without checking with the chef. I know there aren't any cupcakes I can eat outside of the special orders I do at Babycakes. She meant well but I fear the disappointment had I been a child and given something only to be told I can't eat it. Stitchy was more then happy to have it. Between him and Tigger, I'm surprised we didn't have cupcake everywhere. They brought out a bowl of plain vanilla Tofutti for me.

 

[petbren]

The server brought it out to me without checking with the chef. I know there aren't any cupcakes I can eat outside of the special orders I do at Babycakes. .

We will be staying one night at BWV before our crusie in March.
I had heard you could get some Babycakes items at Yacht Club. Do you know if that's true?
This is our first trip with me being GF and I am starting to freak a bit
We are doing Beaches and Cream for dinner that night, and would like to take some Babycakes stuff with me if it is handy as we won't have time to head to DD.

 

[davebon23]

Thanks for the report! Hope you let us know if you have any more reviews to share.

 

[amandaC]

We will be staying one night at BWV before our crusie in March.
I had heard you could get some Babycakes items at Yacht Club. Do you know if that's true?
This is our first trip with me being GF and I am starting to freak a bit
We are doing Beaches and Cream for dinner that night, and would like to take some Babycakes stuff with me if it is handy as we won't have time to head to DD.

I'm not sure about Yacht Club, but I remember seeing a small selection of Babycakes at the Boardwalk Bakery last month.

 

[petbren]

I'm not sure about Yacht Club, but I remember seeing a small selection of Babycakes at the Boardwalk Bakery last month.

Thanks for the update.
Our cruise was back in March
I did find Babycakes at Yacht Club.
Good to know Boardwalk Bakery also has them as we will by staying there for 3 nights after our 5 night stay at AKV March 2014

By the way, I found many, many food options on the cruise.
I started a trip report, but alas, never finished it.......maybe one day.
Check it out on the cruise line boards if you like.
Encourage me, maybe I'll finish it

 

[GadgetTheInventor]

Thanks for the great review with pictures!

As someone who also has uncommon allergies (Rosaceae family: strawberry, apple, raspberry, almond, hazelnut, rose, peach, etc.) and some in the top 8, I find reviews like yours helpful in planning my future visits.

 

[Random Ninja]

It's been a while since I've updated this so I'm going to have some catching up to do.

This was today's lunch: a gluten/soy free stir fry from the temporary Captain Cooks location under the Kona Cafe. It's chicken, veggies, pineapple, garlic, and canola oil. It was so good. My only complaint is tht I couldn't finish it!