Gluten Free Dining at Disney World and Table Service Dining Review

Thanks for coming back for part two of my dining report from my family’s most recent trip to Disney World (in May of 2022). If you are interested in our experiences at the quick service/fast food restaurants, be sure to read this post. In addition to reviews of our quick service meals, I explain a bit about our eating style while traveling in that post.

Now onto the fun of remembering our awesome table service meals at Disney World.

First up was Kona Cafe at Disney’s Polynesian Resort

This was our big anniversary dinner. We had spent the day at Typhoon Lagoon, checked into our hotel, got all spiffied up in our finest tropical wear and then surprised my husband with dinner at the Poly. It’s been his favorite hotel since he was a child. We’ve never stayed there, but he loves the idea of it so I knew I wanted to plan a dinner there as a surprise. Someday, we’ll get to stay there, I hope!

I’d say Kona Cafe is their mid-tier restaurant. It’s not fast food, but it is a lobby restaurant so it’s loud and not a fancy atmosphere.

We had a great server and the food was delicious, but our dinner was a pretty big disaster. Their grill went out in the middle of our meal and so we ended up not being able to enjoy the entrees we preferred and our dinner took well over three hours. This was really no fault of the staff and they couldn’t have been nicer, but it was super long and late. I believe it was 10 PM before we received our entrees and our reservation was for 7:00.

Dinner started with the delicious Bloomfield Farms rolls. We ordered the sticky wings for an appetizer and they were by far the best thing we ate. We should have ordered more.

For our entrees, my daughter and I both ended up with sushi. She had a California roll and I had a rainbow roll. The sushi was ok, but not the best I’ve ever had.

My husband had a short rib and honestly I can’t remember what my son ended up with. He kept ordering and then they would come out and say, “Sorry, we can’t make that.” It was weird and frustrating.

Skipper Canteen

A few days later, we enjoyed a special dinner at Skipper Canteen at the Magic Kingdom. This restaurant is near to and themed to the Jungle Cruise attraction. The wait staff and the entire restaurant is full of bad puns and jokes related to this ride. It was a total hoot and the food was delicious as well. If you have very picky eaters (who also need to be gluten free), then this might not be the best choice because the food is a little adventurous for a theme park restaurant, but we loved everything we tried and would highly recommend it if you’re willing to have something besides a burger or pizza.

We started with the special appetizer of Brazilian cheese bread with a cilantro cream sauce and chimichurri. I don’t really understand what those sauces were, but this was amazing! My kids only liked the cheese bread, but my husband and I scooped up every bit of those sauces. The combination was just so, so good!

For my entree, I chose the “Tastes like chicken – because it is.” This was a crispy fried chicken (with bone), stir fry vegetables, rice and some sort of sweet Asian-inspired sauce. We were eating an early dinner and we must have had a big lunch too because none of us was super hungry. My kids ordered this same dish and we shared the two orders between the three of us. It was very good, but didn’t have as much flavor as I was expecting.

Now this was delicious! My husband always seems to order the better dish. This was some sort of fish, sea bass I believe, listed as “not Piranha” on the menu. It was served with a bunch of vegetables in a lemongrass-ginger broth. Super flavorful and delish!

For dessert we had Lime ‘Panna Cotta’ served with Mango-Lime Sorbet and Fresh Fruit. What looks like just the bottom of the bowl is actually the lime panna cotta. This was flavorful and light and just the right size to share.

Trattoria al Forno

Next up with dinner at Trattoria al Forno at Disney’s Boardwalk resort, which is one of the resorts just over the International Gateway at Epcot. We enjoyed our Epcot day, dashed over the bridge for a yummy Italian feast, watched it pour down rain while we ate, then came out of the restaurant to a cooler evening and spent the last couple hours the park was open walking off our dinner.

We started with the rolls with butter, olive oil and kalamata tapenade you saw above. Then we had the super duper delicious calamari. We should have had at least two orders of the calamari. But we didn’t. Guess we’ll just have to go back.

Four our entrees, my husband and I shared the chicken parmesan. Something funny happened with this and I can’t remember exactly what. The kitchen somehow messed up splitting it for us and so they ended up giving us two whole portions, which was way too much. Splitting one would have been totally fine.

My daughter wanted spaghetti and meatballs, which was not on the gluten free menu, but it was no problem for them to make that for her. Again, it was an enormous portion and sadly, much of this went to waste. This is definitely a good place to share entrees and save on the stomach space and total bill.

My son, who has become quite the adventurous eater, ordered the grilled swordfish, which came with Pancetta, Bell Peppers, Zucchini, Cipollini Onion, and Cannellini Beans. This was amazingly good. That sauce at the bottom had so much flavor. He ate every bite of the fish and most of the veggies/bean mixture.

For dessert we had the chocolate hazelnut panna cotta. I didn’t really know what panna cotta was – I would have called this mousse. Even though we were thoroughly stuffed, we practically licked the bowl clean. My son is allergic to hazelnuts and my daughter didn’t want to try this so my husband and I gladly ate it all! Over all, this is a meal I would do again in a heartbeat!

Le Cellier

Our last table service meal was a late lunch at Le Cellier at Epoct’s Canada Pavilion. Sadly, I was very sick with covid by this point in our trip and I had to miss this meal. I simply see this as another reason to go back to Disney again soon(ish).

Since I didn’t get to enjoy this meal personally, I can only relay what my family shared with me. They started with the signature poutine (French fries with cheese curds and gravy). Apparently, the kids weren’t big fans, but my husband enjoyed this.

Chris had the New York Strip with actually gluten free onion strings on top. I would have loved that! I’m not sure what the side is there, but it looks like a potato gratin. He said it was amazing.

The kids both had the filet mignon, which was served with asparagus and mushroom risotto. I would have loved that too. Sigh.

There are some side dishes served a la carte and the mashed potatoes pictured below are one of them. According to my son, these were the best mashed potatoes ever. The potatoes were topped with very thick cut and crispy bacon and very crispy potato skins.

And for dessert, they had the maple creme brûlée.

One of the negative comments I often hear about table service dining at Disney World is that it takes a very long time. Based on my experience, they have streamlined these meals a bit. Our sit down meals on this trip definitely took less time than on our previous trips (aside from the weird night at Kona Cafe). Even still, with young children, I would limit these table service meals to character dining and leave the more adult meals to adults only if you can manage that.

Because we were traveling in May and it was so darn hot, we really enjoyed sitting in the air conditioning for an hour or more. We had two early dinners (5:00 reservations), one late lunch (1:30) and one very late dinner (to be fair, that late dinner was on purpose because we were at the water park all that day). I highly recommend trying for dining reservations on a similar schedule. Both the late lunch and early dinner give you time to walk off a heavy meal.

As for the allergy-friendliness of our food, I can only say that nothing made us sick, the food was all delicious, we felt very well cared for, not made to feel like a bother for needing allergy-friendly food and really thought the value was outstanding. On future Disney trips, I will absolutely repeat some of these meals without hesitation.

If you have younger children and are looking for good table service recommendations, here are my top picks:

Crystal Palace in the Magic Kingdom for breakfast is a great meal. This is a bit tricky to schedule properly, but ideally, you want an early breakfast so that you finish your meal before the park actually opens and you can make it onto some of the more popular rides before the park gets busy. We loved being in the park before opening to get pictures without any other people in them. The food here is outstanding as well and you can easily eat enough to stay full through to dinner time. This is a character meal with Pooh and Friends and they were all very interactive and lovely. In fact, I tried to book this meal again because my teenage daughter loves Pooh, but we couldn’t get a reservation.

We also really enjoyed the Royal Akerhaus Banquet Hall in the Norway Pavilion at Epcot. I remember booking that one for an 11:00 AM reservation so that we could get breakfast food (more kid friendly), but it really served as lunch for us. This was a princess character meal and totally worth the cost. The food was good too and a little different than your standard breakfast fare. I also remember that about halfway through our meal, they switched out the buffet to the lunch menu so we got to try both. We did eat there years ago when we were not gluten free so I can’t speak to the allergy-friendly food. Crystal Palace is also a buffet and so I assume they do the same thing at Royal Akerhaus – a chef will walk you through the buffet and tell you what you can have. He/she will bring un-cross-contaminated food from the back if you wish or you can eat it from the buffet if you are comfortable with that.

My husband and I ate at the 50s Prime Time Cafe at Hollywood Studios when we got engaged all those many years ago and that was a fantastic experience – really fun and great food. I’ve heard really good things about their gluten free offerings so definitely check that out if the theming and comfort food appeals to you. The trick here, or so I’ve heard, is that their fried chicken is amazing, but you have to order it ahead. Just stop by the hostess stand a few hours before your reservation and tell them you want the gluten free fried chicken and they’ll be prepared for you.

A couple additional recommendations that are great for a date night:

California Grill at the top of the Contemporary is a very special dining experience though I would say this one is best for adults only. To me, this restaurant has a cool club-type vibe with interesting and inventive food. I’m sure they do an excellent job of accommodating children, but I also think that you might enjoy dinner more if you’re not worried about keeping your kids happy. One of the special things about this restaurant is that they have a huge outdoor area where you can go to watch the fireworks over Cinderella’s castle. As with the Crystal Palace breakfast, timing is important if you want to see the fireworks. When you are able to make reservations, just tell the agent that you want to be able to see the fireworks at some point during dinner and they will guide you on the timing.

One last recommendation for an outstanding date night splurge is the Yachtsman Steakhouse at Disney’s Yacht Club Resort. We had the best steak of our lives at this restaurant! This is another one of the resorts just over the International Gateway from Epcot so it makes a fun escape from the park for a while. It’s also going to be a rich and filling meal so being able to walk around Epcot for a couple hours after dinner will be good for your digestive system!

And that ends the dining report from my latest Disney trip. I am not a fan of Disney’s politics, but I stand by the fact that it makes a really fun, family-friendly vacation. We’ve taken the kids from when they were really little through to teenage and it’s been a great vacation each time. The first couple times we went, we were eating everything, but we’ve been two or three times now with dietary restrictions and Disney has always handled that really well. The food is good and safe and they don’t charge extra for it. All wonderful treats for a family that is used to paying so much more for gluten free food and having limited choices. The ease of dealing with our dietary needs is one of the reasons Disney makes a great vacation for us. We’ve really never experienced anything like this anywhere else.

Do you have a Disney trip coming up soon or are you in early planning stages? I hope this dining information is helpful. There’s actually much more I could share so if you have specific questions, please ask in the comments. Also, if you have dining recommendations, please share those as well so we can learn from your experiences.

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