Kayla in Disney [eats]

Obviously the main attraction when you go to Disney is… well the attractions! Going on every ride and seeing every spectacular show was the main focus of my trip to Disney World with the boy… however I was pretty impressed with many of our eats at Disney.

During our 6 days in Disney I wanted to stay away from dairy as much as possible. I’ve become a bit lenient at home about being dairy-free and my belly has been paying the price. I didn’t want my stomach aches to ruin the Disney fun… and definitely didn’t want to feel sick while riding roller coasters. My best bet was to eat dairy-free all week.

One of the most impressive things about dining at Disney was how seriously they take allergies and dietary restrictions. Any time I asked about dairy the waiter immediately offered to send out a chef so I could discuss my dietary concerns. Obviously being lactose intolerant is less serious than having a full blown food allergy but I was still beyond impressed with the fact that each restaurant went the extra mile to make sure my food fit my dietary restrictions.

I ended up eating breakfast at the hotel every morning– either toast or a bagel with peanut butter that I brought from home + a luna bar and starbucks instant ice coffee with a splash of soy milk.The rest of our meals were eaten at the parks or downtown disney.

Here’s some of our favorites from the trip.

Epcot

After landing in Florida and checking into our hotel Jeremy and I headed over to Epcot so we could eat at one of the restaurants in the international pavilion. We decided on San Angel Inn in the Mexico section

The Mexico section in Epcot has a beautiful indoor area that includes a ride, a store and a restaurant with candlelit meals.

First was the tostadas de tinga with the cheese and sour cream on the side.

and for my meal I had the chicken mole poblano

Both were absolutely delicious and rivaled Mexican food I have had elsewhere.

 

We spent our last evening in Epcot as well and decided to hit up the French restaurant Chefs de France. I was a bit concerned about what there was going to be for me eat since french food doesn’t exactly scream dairy-free and red meat free

The restaurant made me reminiscent for the 2 days I spent in Paris when I was 18. I love that all the staff in the international section are actually from the countries they are working in.

I started off with a simple green salad. After spending the week eating very few veggies the salad was just what I needed

 

The baguettes were warm and incredible. It took a lot of restraint to not order a second one.

 

I decided to order the vegetarian lasagna. Luckily the cheese was all melted together and on the top so I was easily able to pick it off and enjoy the rest of the lasagna which had pasta, zucchini, tomatoes and eggplant.

 

I loved the lasagna and polished off the whole thing. Definitely one of my favorite meals of the week.

Magic Kingdom

We ended up only eating lunches in Magic Kingdom because all the sit down restaurants were PACKED. Apparently you have to book 6 months in advanced to get a seat in the new Beauty and the Beast restaurant “Be Our Guest” YIKES!

The foodie highlight of the Magic Kingdom was getting dairy-free ice cream at the parlor on Main Street. They had both tofutti and rice dream options. Once again Disney went the extra mile and had someone come out to ask me about my allergies and handed me the cup to ensure I was given the correct ice cream. Vanilla tofutti ice cream hit the spot at the end of a hot hot day in the Magic Kingdom.

Hollywood Studios

A week before vacation I got us a dinner reservation at the popular Sci-Fi diner… and by dinner reservation I mean a 4:25pm reservation. The Sci-Fi diner (which my brother used to refer to as the Skee-Fi Diner) has a special place in my heart from my childhood trips to Disney. This place can be packed though so be sure to make a reservation.

 

The food isn’t anything special… just fancy diner food, but what makes it special is the old-school movies playing while you sit in cars.

 

I ordered the veggie burger and a dairy-free vanilla milk shake. Once again the chef was sent out to ask me about allergies and was more than happy to make me a tofutti milk shake. I can’t even tell you the last time I had a milkshake! Dreams really do come true in Disney!

We went back to Hollywood Studios on out last day before our flying home and ended up at the 50’s Prime Time Cafe for lunch.

The food wasn’t my favorite, I’m not really the meatloaf, chicken pot-pie, fried chicken type, but I loved the decor and TVs all over the place playing old sit-coms and Mickey Mouse Club episodes.

The highlight of the meal was definite s’mores for dessert

 

A cute touch was giving us a view master to see the dessert menu

Animal Kingdom

Animal Kingdom had the most impressive food options for someone in my situation– dairy free and doesn’t eat red meat. Walking around the park I was impressed to see a food cart that was entirely vegetarian.

For lunch the boy and I decided to get food from Yak and Yeti which had chinese food. We shared a chicken fried rice and I got the honey chicken.

 

Both dishes were great, but I especially enjoyed the fried rice. I wish we would have spent more time in Animal Kingdom so I could have tried more restaurants.

Downtown Disney

After failing to find a restaurant that wasn’t packed in the Magic Kingdom one night, the boy and I ended up starving and in search of dinner in Downtown Disney. We shamelessly ended up at the Rainforest Cafe knowing the food would be mediocre but the experience would be fun.

We were both pleasantly surprised and LOVED our dinners (it was also 10:30 by the time we ate dinner…. so that might have helped)

 

I ordered the grilled chicken with barbeque sauce and lemon rice on the side. Once again a chef was sent out to me and made sure my meal was dairy free. The boy also loved his meal- a trio of steak, ribs and shrimp. After such a great experience at the Rainforest Cafe we kept joking every night that we should just go back there for dinner because it was that good. Hey, just because a restaurant has a thunderstorm every 23 minutes doesn’t mean their food isn’t delicious.

 

I am happy to say that being dairy-free in Disney ended up being easier than I expected. The boy and I were super impressed with how each and every restaurant went and got the chef when I asked about dairy in a dish.

I am also happy to say that finding soy milk in Disney was easy breezy, there was actually soy milk in the refrigerated in the hotel food court. It was also available at a number of locations in the park.

What’s your favorite place to eat in Disney World?