Tuesday 7 August 2012

Gluten Free in Orlando, Florida - Part 2: Walt Disney World & Epcot

Disney does it again! Following our amazing first day at Disney's Animal Kingdom we headed off to explore the gluten free culinary delights of Walt Disney World and Epcot. Again we had booked all of our table service meals well ahead of time, which I really recommend doing as the best restaurants get booked up really quickly!

Walt Disney World
In total we spent 3 days at WDW and we ate a LOT of gluten free food there! Here's a quick round up:

Cinderella's Royal Table - WDW
It was my daughter's fifth birthday whilst we were in Orlando. What better place to spend her birthday lunchtime than in Cinderella's castle. We had taken her to Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique earlier that morning and bought her a Rapunzel makeover as a birthday present and most other girls were head to toe in pricess outfits too! We booked this as soon as we could, 180 days before our stay, at the same time as booking I had also purchased the HRH package, which was about £50 and included a really big Disney Princess balloon at the table, a birthday card - signed by all of the princesses, a little tiara and a chocolate birthday cake - gluten free of course! The cake looked brilliant and it was wonderful we could all eat it, but whilst the frosting tasted good the inside was actually really dry.  I think it would have been nice if it had been served warm with cream or ice cream though, to be honest it didn't really matter though - it was just lovely to be able to have a big chocolate birthday cake that we could all share!

The food here wasn't that good if I'm honest - the experience was amazing, but I was expecting better food, gluten free or not, though I know it's not known for its good food! I had a salad to start followed by a vegetarian cassoulet, which was OK but not something I'd like to eat again, I finished with chocolate mousse - which was actually really lovely. Seb had cheese and grapes to start and then gluten free chicken nuggets, mashed potato and corn, finishing with ice cream for desert.



The Crystal Palace - WDW
Again this was a bit of a disappointment, mainly because of the price we paid. The restaurant was very crowded, we had to wait 45 minutes outside despite having ADRs and inside was chaotic and dirty. We also had poor service. Still, it's another character restaurant so you go more for the experience than the food. The chef came and took Seb and I on a tour of the food we could eat - which was a good selection of the buffet and we were given a warmed gluten free roll and butter too. Desert here was a pre-packed chocolate brownie. It was OK, but not worth the money.

Peco Bill's  - WDW
A large, quick service restaurant. The server was knowledge about gluten free food and a supervisor was called to take our order, we both had cheeseburgers and fries (with a bun!). Simple, quick and easy - the bun was pretty good for gluten free too.

Pinocchio Village Haus 
Another counter service restaurant. Our server was once again clued up about gluten free food and after a quick chat with a supervisor we had ordered two gluten free cheese pizzas, my only complaint was that they were pretty small - so I had a side salad with mine.



Blizzard Beach Waterpark

Avalunch - Disney's Blizzard Beach
We had a great day at Disney's Blizzard Beach waterpark, I was a bit worried about finding gluten free food here, but really needn't have worried at all - it was great! We had lunch at Avalunch. Seb had chicken nuggets and fries and I had Cheeseburger and fries, all really well cooked and very tasty. We had the pre-packaged brownie for desert. We did mean to try a turkey leg in the afternoon but it was just too hot to eat anymore!




Epcot

Biergarten
We had a really great, if somewhat unusual! lunch at Epcot's Biergarten. The entertainment was brilliant and it was lovely to be inside in the cool out of the heat. The food here is buffet style and we could eat lots of it - especially the sausages! (german style) - Seb had a plate piled full of sausages and potatoes and I experienced a little more with a huge variety of salads, vegetables and meat. Desert was disappointing though - more pre-packed brownies and chocolate chip cookies, or fruit salad. Actually reading this back it doesn't sound bad at all, I guess we were just getting spoilt!



The Electric Umbrella
Another quick counter service restaurant - the staple gluten free offerings at Disney resorts are gluten free cheeseburgers, gluten free mac'n'cheese (Amys), gluten free chicken nuggets (they call them chicken tenders) and a small gluten free cheese pizza.  We both had the chicken tenders and fries here, they really don't taste gluten free!

Part 3: Discovery  Cove and Seaworld: http://glutenfreechild.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/gluten-free-in-orlando-florida-part-3.html

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