Oh, the Grand Floridian, so lovely. I love walking around this resort. The gardens are so beautifully landscaped, the lobby is just grand! And the Cafe offers the same. With the white linen topped tables, you feel like you are fine dining, but in a more relaxed atmosphere. We end every trip to Disney with a lunch here. We start our last day at the Magic Kingdom and then catch the monorail for a relaxing lunch at the Cafe. The service here is always top-notch. The chefs are so helpful, and excited to help my son eat something safe. He always chooses some type of fish. This last trip, it was Mahi Mahi. He ate it so quick, I didn’t have time to snap a picture of it. But the highlight of the meal was his fries. They were the best fries I have ever had. I have to admit that I ate half his fries, but I just couldn’t help myself.
The waitress even brought my son an unopened small jar of special ketchup, just to make sure that there was no cross contamination with the large bottles they refill nightly. That was a wonderful touch and just goes to show you that they think of everything!
I also went for the Mahi Mahi, but over a bed of Mushroom Risotto. I believe I ate my body weight in risotto this past trip. It was so good. My husband went for the Shrimp Pasta. It was very good too (I had to taste it).
For dessert, the chef brought out some safe fruit sorbet for my son. I hate to admit it, but I was a little leery about him eating it. I had never seen a milk free sorbet. Thankfully, my son was too full to try it, so my husband and I ate it. It was very creamy, but who knows if there was milk in it or not. I just had to go with my gut. As for my dessert, my husband and I split the Dessert Sampler. What a treat that is!
After lunch, we strolled around the property, and my son and I danced to the orchestra playing in the lobby. Then, back for our last few rides in the Magic Kingdom. This is another restaurant we will keep on the list.
As for advice on how to dine safely with food allergies, here are a few tips when planning and taking you vacation. We made Advanced Dining Reservations (ADRs) 180 days in advance, noting on the reservations that we had food allergies. We also contacted the Special Diets dept at Disney World through email. We filled out all the forms and faxed back with the ADRs listed and the food allergies in detail. Once we arrived at the restaurant, we made sure the Hostess had a note we had food allergies and which ones they were. When we were seated, we mentioned the food allergies to our server who went to get the chef. The chef went over what he could have and let Kevin, our son, decided what he wanted to eat. If we had questions on any product, they would bring us out the ingredient label. Also….the chef should be the one delivering the food allergy safe food, so there is no cross contamination or mix up. The chef also came out periodically to check on us to make sure everything was ok.
