I’ve learned that winging it is a bad idea with my family, so I’m trying to narrow down which restaurants we’d like to eat at for our upcoming trip, even though we don’t need reservations. Part of our family can’t eat gluten, so QS is often tricky for us.
First – we’re planning on a day of resort hopping, ending in the Epcot area. Is there any QS in that area worth eating WITHOUT a park ticket? Sadly, the Beaches and Cream walkup window is only ice cream, if the menus posted online are accurate.
Second, Third, and Fourth – we have two dinners in Epcot and one (or maybe two) in Disney Springs. I’d like to find:
–tacos
–some sort of asian food, which can be hard to find gluten free
–and barbecue, which is probably the easiest, we’ll hit either Regal Eagle or Polite Pig (and probably Flametree on a separate day).
For me, part of the Disney magic is having allergy menus everywhere and staff who know how to feed us without making us sick. But not if it’s cardboard pizza or gross hamburger buns.
QS that we enjoyed: Satu’li Canteen in AK, Wolfgang Puck Express in DS, Kringla in Norway in Epcot, L’Artisan des Glaces in France in Epcot if you want fantastic ice cream. In HS, we liked Ronto Roasters and Woody’s Lunch Box. We have enjoyed The Mara at AKL. Sassagoula Floatworks and Food Factory was pretty good at POFQ.
We did not care for the 2 QS places that we tried in MK even they get good reviews.
This may not answer your question exactly, but it is what I know.
Our family are fairly adventurous eaters and I’ve not researched gluten free at all, but here are our favorite QS from our Jan trip…
Epcot
Yorkshire County Fish Shop/UK
Katsura Grill/Japan
*Les Halles Boulangerie & Patisserie/France
Tangierine Cafe/Morocco
HS
Docking Bay 7 (DH liked it so much we went twice)
Ronto Roosters
MK
*Gaston’s Tavern
Liberty Square Market (turkey legs)
*Mostly pastries and the like
We stayed at BC so looked pretty hard at the QS reviews/menus around there, but none really appealed to us. I think you are correct about only getting ice cream at B&C walk up. I’d either go with a TS in that area or adjust my schedule to go elsewhere if possible.
Check out options at Dolphin. Picabu has some pretty good food and the Fountain has pretty good food (I’ve been there but not B&C but have heard they are quite similar). The little lounge by the pool is pretty yummy too, but limited menu.
QS can be unreliable for allergies or special diets. If it is a serious gluten allergy (as opposed to a preference to avoid it) I’d email or call and see if you can get a list where there are always gluten free options. You don’t want to wait in line only to find out they don’t have anything and mobile ordering is tricky with allergies. We had this problem when trying to find plant-based child options on our trip in January. QS was terrible. Most had no child options and the ones that did it was an uncrustable. We ended up using adult credits from our dining plan for him, which left a mess at the end of the trip.
How frustrating! We didn’t eat much QS on our last trip, aside from snacks, and what we did was truly terrible. I’m hoping to reign in the budget without eating cardboard pizza and the world’s worst burgers. Emailing them is a good idea.
^ Can’t go wrong here. Not familiar with their gluten free options, though.
There is a walk-up Frontera taco stand at DS too. Same unknown on the gluten free and we haven’t tried it yet because we always end up at WPE. But I’ve like the Frontera food I’ve had elsewhere.
I’m GFDF and have find quick serve to be quite unpredictable. If you’re on Facebook, I recommend the Food Allergy Adventurers Club group. Everyone is super knowledgeable and helpful. Disney Food Allergy Group | Facebook
There’s nothing worthwhile on the boardwalk proper, the sandwich place next to ample hills creamery (the name is escaping me) has cruddy gf bread. I don’t know how the in-hotel QS’s are at beach or yacht.
Tacos: the Epcot Mexico pavilion quick serve is really really good. We go there nearly every trip. Pecos Bill in MK is great also.
Asian: morimoto, for sure. They have GF soy to use. Also Teppan Edo is a fun choice as well. Oh! and Yak & Yeti ( sit down or QS) in AK. They were super accommodating when I was there last. I was at the QS and the chef was out and overheard me talking to the cashier. He went into the TS restaurant kitchen to make me a special dish.
BBQ: I usually do flame tree. Regal eagle wasn’t open when I went last time.
Disney is very accommodating for their allergy guests. I’ve never been glutened there.
BC Marketplace is basically a combination gift shop and convenience store with nice-ish deli. Definitely not a destination. We stayed there and just used it to refill our mugs and occasionally grab a bag of chips or whatever. Didn’t attempt an actual meal there. We heard the grill by the pool, Hurricane Hanna’s, had slightly better options but still not noteworthy.
If you’d consider a lounge, I had flagged the lounge at Ale and Compass as a possibility if we didn’t have time to duck into Epcot for a meal but never needed it.
I have no experience with gluten free, but some QS restaurants I can think of that we like and that have dishes that seem to lend themselves to being possible to have gluten free: We really like the QS restaurant in Morocco at EPCOT, Tangereine Cafe. It’s Mediterranean cuisine. Also at EPCOT we usually end up eating in the cafeteria style QS in the Land pavilion, Sunshine Seasons Cafe which is not gourmet, but has lots of variety. At HW Studios, we really liked the Docking Bay 7 in Galaxy’s Edge. I had some kind of quinoa salad. At AK, the Satu’li Canteen in Pandora has bowls where you choose the base, sauce, etc. Hope that helps!
I didn’t make it up. It’s a very common term in the allergy community. Also known as ingesting gluten without knowledge causing an adverse allergic reaction.
Us too! And that was in the non-dining plan stage of our trip. The first time we went DH said “I can’t believe we’re paying this much for slop” but then when we needed lunch the next day it was the place he chose. Which reminds me, I don’t think I finished my trip report, and I need to finish putting together our trip photo album and get it printed.
At MK the only QS all four of us liked was Be Our Guest, for both breakfast and lunch.