Lunch and Dinner • Dole Whip Wishes and Castle Dreams

GLUTEN FREE LUNCH AND DINNER REVIEWS

SKIPPER CANTEEN (T)–Magic Kingdom

I ate here in April of 2018.

The Good: Lots of choices for Gluten free.

The Bad: For an appetizer I had the Shiriki Noodle Salad. It’s supposed to come mixed with a sweet chili sauce, mushrooms, edamame beans, green mango, and cucumber. But mine had one, that’s a SINGLE, edamame bean on it, and barely any sauce. It was very bland. We even asked for extra sauce on the side to try and help it, but unfortunately, it still didn’t taste very good.

For my entrée, I had the “A lot of steak” Salad. It was a romaine based salad with steak, red onions, pumpkin seeds, and pickled jalapeños with a chimichurri dressing. My steak was okay, though not the best cooked (I am a med rare meat lover!), but my brother-in-law’s was so tough he couldn’t even bite through it. Also there was some odd flavor in mine. I’m not sure if it was the combo of the pumpkin seeds and chimichurri vinaigrette, but I had a hard time finishing it.

And that’s a good heads up to anyone looking to eat here: the menu is a bit eclectic. Some of the options include: Seafood Stew—shrimp, fish, mussels, and octopus in a coconut sauce, and Whole Fried Fish—which is exactly that!

I definitely wish I would have tried something else on the menu, such as Falls Family Falafel, or the gluten-free crispy fried chicken. I also wish I would have tried the gluten-free dessert—Quicksand!

Hopefully, there will be a next time so I can!

LIBERTY TREE TAVERN (T)–Magic Kingdom

I ate here in October 2018.

The Good: I find it’s always nice to include at least one table service meal on my long days at the parks, especially at Magic Kingdom, because it is nice to have a break, and be able to sit down inside in air conditioning. Here, I had an appetizer of crab, spinach, and artichoke dip with warm GF rolls. This was SO delicious. It said on the menu it was a dip for two, but I ended up eating almost all of it by myself because I couldn’t stop! For my main meal, I ordered the pot roast with mashed potatoes and green beans. This was a MASSIVE portion. I couldn’t believe how much meat they gave me. And it was so good. It was juicy, fall-apart, perfectly roasted beef. The mashed potatoes were very good as well. The green beans were too crunchy for my liking, but with all the yummy food I had, I wasn’t too concerned. I was so bummed with how full I was that I didn’t get to try the allergy-friendly brownie a la mode.

The Bad: Nothing, I can’t wait to eat here again!

CORAL REEF (T)– Epcot

I ate here in the beginning of June 2016.

The Good: A nice GF lunch and dinner menu with a good variety of options to choose from. I had the Port Wine-braised 10 oz. Beef Short Rib. It came with the most delicious polenta I’ve ever had, as well as yummy pearl onions and baby carrots. All of it was really good. The ambiance is also great here, with the large aquarium windows.

The Bad: It’s a little pricey. Make sure if you are on the dining plan to get reservations here!

YAK AND YETI (T)– Animal Kingdom

This was also from the same trip of June 2016.

The Bad: So yes, I’m starting with the bad here. I’m going to be completely honest. This was one of the worst Disney dining experiences I’ve ever had. The Chef came out to talk to us, but didn’t even give us a list of options, or offer us a GF menu. We asked him about a few items we had heard they offered, but he said no to all of them. He then literally gave us two to pick from. TWO. I went with steak and vegetables, but for some reason he said I couldn’t have butter on the vegetables. My friend chose Chicken Tikka Masala.

The steak on the menu said it came with fried onion straws. I assumed those weren’t GF and therefore my steak wouldn’t have any. A food runner who was not our server, nor the Chef who spoke to us, brought out my plate. It had the steak WITH the fried onion straws. I paused, but thinking that maybe Disney would have GF onion straws, after all, I spoke with the Chef and he knew to make sure my meal was completely GF, I almost took a bite.

But I trusted my gut and waited for our server to come back to our table to check on us. He confirmed that the onion straws were indeed NOT GF. He took it back, and apologized saying that the food runner wasn’t supposed to bring it out, the Chef was. After waiting a while bit longer, the Chef finally came out with my new steak. He didn’t apologize about the mistake. He didn’t even smile. I was starving at this point and scarfed the slab of meat. But the vegetables were so disgusting being dry and bland. My friend also had a bad experience with her Tikka Masala. Our server came back and we expressed our concerns with the meal.

We were on the Dining Plan and they didn’t even have a dessert to offer us because they were all out. Fortunately, our server was an excellent cast member and gave us back our dining credits. We still left him a generous tip for how he handled the situation. Unfortunately, this was such a negative experience, I don’t think I’m up for trying it ever again!

The Good: The wait staff.

FLAME TREE BARBECUE (Q)–Animal Kingdom

I ate here in October 2018.

The Good: I think I had about six choices to choose from here. I used the mobile ordering on the Walt Disney App, and it was awesome! All of the allergy choices are at the bottom. Just make sure you pay attention to what your specific allergies are, so you don’t accidentally pick something not in your category! I chose the Ribs, Chicken, and Pulled Pork sampler with beans and fruit, and a watermelon salad. When I got to the window, I had already hit the here-start-preparing-my-order button on my walk over, they called my name and a Chef came to talk to me about my meal and make sure gluten was my only allergy.

I have to say, Flame Tree does gluten free lunch and dinner right! The chicken was amazing! It was smoked and juicy. The ribs were pretty good, and I didn’t care for the pulled pork at all. I’m from Nashville so I’m pretty spoiled by great barbecue. The watermelon salad was very refreshing. It was arugula salad with feta and vinaigrette with chunks of watermelon lining the edge.

The seating area is outside under a massive pavilion, and it was super shady. It was really humid the day we went, but it wasn’t too bad to eat here! There are birds all around that will try to eat your food, so just a heads up if you have young children who are scared to have wildlife that up close and personal.

The Bad: Nothing in my opinion. I would eat here again in a heartbeat!

SATU’LI CANTEEN (Q)–Animal Kingdom

I ate here in October 2018.

The Good: I was a little weary of eating here, since for allergies you can only do the pick-your-own bowls, and I just wasn’t sure what would taste good together. I ended up getting the red and sweet potato hash with charred green onion vinaigrette, and chili-spiced crispy tofu. I thought the red and sweet potato hash was AMAZING. It was so delicious. I probably could have done with out the vinaigrette, and the tofu was a little bland. But overall it was yummy! I also tried the Night Blossom drink which was super sweet and sour!

The Bad: Nothing! Will definitely eat here again, and try a different combo.

RIVERSIDE MILL (Q)– Port Orleans Riverside Resort

I stayed at Port Orleans October 6-9^th 2018.

The Good: The Riverside Mill is cafeteria style eating. There’s several restaurant hubs inside, with many different styles of food. Pizza, sandwiches, salads, even a Thanksgiving-type meal. It was incredibly busy when we first stopped in, and I wasn’t sure which stations would be the best for gluten free lunch and dinner, so I went with the salad one. It was pretty good. You could pick the type of salad mix you wanted—mixed greens, or romaine, and you could get chicken or roast beef on it. I chose chicken, mixed greens, cucumbers, and feta, with a vinaigrette, as you choose your own toppings. Then the server mixes it all up and puts the chicken on top. It was a big salad, and it was pretty good, but I wish I would have tried another station and seen if they had something more satisfying.

The Bad: The toppings for the salad were very limited as well as the dressings. I asked about the chicken being GF, which the server went and asked if it was, but no Chef came and talked to me. It would have been nice to know what other station I could try, but as someone with Celiac Disease, a pizza or sandwich station doesn’t sound safe at all! If I stay here again, I will definitely do a better job of checking out all of the gluten free lunch and dinner options.

SASSAGOULA FLOATWORKS (Q)– Port Orleans French Quarter Resort

I ate here on my last night at Port Orleans.

The Good: This place is awesome, and I liked it a thousand times better than the experience I had at Riverside Mill. First it wasn’t nearly as crowded (I suspect since French Quarter is the smallest resort OP). Next when I went to the counter and asked if I could get a GF cheeseburger they sent a Chef over immediately. He was so nice. He said absolutely, and got to work on it. Next, I wanted to check out the GF beignets, since I was dying to try them. It was fall when we were visiting and they had Pumpkin Spice GF beignets! The Chef came over again, and said next time I can just order everything from him at one station, and I thought that was nice. The beignets were insane! So so yummy. Like a rectangular fried donut dusted in powdered sugar, pumpkin spice fairy dust. My burger wasn’t anything spectacular but it hit the spot for how hungry I was.

The Bad: Again, nothing! I hope to stay at French Quarter soon, and eat here several times.

SKIPPER CANTEEN (T)–Magic Kingdom

LIBERTY TREE TAVERN (T)–Magic Kingdom

CORAL REEF (T)– Epcot

YAK AND YETI (T)– Animal Kingdom

FLAME TREE BARBECUE (Q)–Animal Kingdom

SATU’LI CANTEEN (Q)–Animal Kingdom

RIVERSIDE MILL (Q)– Port Orleans Riverside Resort

SASSAGOULA FLOATWORKS (Q)– Port Orleans French Quarter Resort

Other Disney Content