To Kill a Diet – the Best Foods at Walt Disney World…

Posted by Scott Sevener on July 1, 2007 under My Time with the Mouse... - the column | Be the First to Comment

That’s right, folks – we’re talking about food this month!

Of course, how fitting is it that we talk about food on one of the few months where I can’t just turn around tomorrow and go indulge in some of my favorite delectable treats over at The World once I get all excited after listing my favorites here today! Call it a way to safely contemplate all of the delicious foods to be found in Mickey’s Kingdom, with a dash of diet security thrown in for good measure – you get the idea…

But I do have just one caveat before I dive right in, and it’s pretty much along the same lines as the rest of everything that I write here about Walt Disney World, but the more I think about it, the more I’ve decided that it applies specifically to food – I can really only write about what I’ve personally experienced thus far, and especially when it comes to food, that still leaves a whole heck of a lot of venues to be covered! While I can boast that I’ve done just about all of the theme park attractions that I can think of at this point, I haven’t even come close to scratching the surface of all the restaurants around Disney World, but that’s still not going to stop me from discussing some of my favorites here so far! Hence the “Part 1 of Many!” – we’ll get things going with some of my favs off the top, and then as I’m exposed to more and more, we can always revisit the topic again and again to add those new experiences to the mix and see how they rank.

If anything, food is certainly a medium to which that method of thinking should apply, right?!

So this time around, I want to break things out into a number of groups – first we’ll go through the different kinds of meals that I normally enjoy at Walt Disney World … in no particular order, we’ll also scatter in there some breakdowns of all the various parks and some favorite venues to hit up for a quick bite, and if there’s any room at the end, maybe I’ll even throw in my super-secret tips for rationalizing all of these wonderful menus when visiting Walt Disney World while “on a diet,” as I often have myself!

Table Service Dining
Out of all of our options, this is by far the most limited in terms of what I’ve experienced myself, but then again, with more sit-down restaurants than I can count (at least 30, by my quick guesstimate), I suppose I shouldn’t feel too bad about not having a meal at most just yet … that’s a whole lot of eating to be had! As of late, it always seems to be just a matter of timing with us, as to make Advance Dining Reservations is to commit ourselves to being at a certain place at a certain time and that’s just so cramping to our collective style! But by the end of the trip, one can only eat so many chicken fingers and mini-pizzas, and that’s where the resort’s table service dining options step in – to give us a taste of the extraordinary…

As of this month, I’ve honestly only eaten at three restaurants, but I’m happy to say that I had overwhelmingly positive experiences at each and every single one of them, so they’re certainly worth sharing here today!

‘Ohana @ Disney’s Polynesian Resort
If you like food, and large quantities of food at that, then you just can’t beat ‘Ohana for some of the best tropical servings this side of Hawaii! The restaurant hosts a nightly Hawaiian barbecue over a large, open-pit grill in the center of the room where all of the meats to be served are prepared. Portions as big as your stomach can handle of chicken, beef, pork, and shrimp are brought to your table fresh off the grill – still on the skewer – and all you have to do is tell your server when to stop with the food! The atmosphere, of course being at the Polynesian, goes without saying as just great, and always welcomes a nice walk on the beach afterwards to help work off some of those new pounds! The meal also features enough appetizers to make up the meal itself, and a caramel / pineapple dessert afterwards to help cleanse your palate leave you feeling pleasantly satisfied. Seriously – consider skipping lunch altogether if you can make it that long – you won’t know the meaning of the word hungry when you leave!

Teppanyaki Dining Room @ Japan in Epcot’s World Showcase
While I’m told that there are local teppanyaki joints (such as Benihana) that serve up just as good of a presentation, this was actually my first exposure to the art and thus maybe I just got spoiled by Disney (as usual!). I probably could’ve handled larger portions, however that’s just because I was feeling particularly piggish that evening! I would’ve literally paid money on the spot for some of the sauces that were brought out because I’ve never enjoyed eating plain, white rice as much as I did after applying whatever it was that they had in those dishes. Between all of the delicious smells and a nice, strawberry cocktail, dinner here was the perfect end to an otherwise very stressful day. Plus, it didn’t hurt that the food was great, and you’ll never catch your local teppanyaki place make a smoking Mickey Mouse out of chopped onions on the grill before your eyes…

Garden Grill @ Epcot’s The Land Pavilion
Yep – another Epcot location … can you tell that we tend to frequent this park the most?! Honestly, I was a little concerned about the Garden Grill because it was very much so a last-pick effort as we tried to get tickets for the Candlelight Processional Dinner Package last year and it was either this or risk not getting seats without having a reserved ticket for the show. But nonetheless, the food ended up being actually very, very good – almost a Thanksgiving dinner, served family-style, with just enough portions for the two of us. It didn’t seem like as much food as I’d come to expect from the others, but that was probably secretly a good thing because I didn’t leave the table feeling ready to take a nap, either! Everything from the turkey and biscuits to the salad with sweet potato shavings were just delicious, but my treat of the night was the fried catfish, to the point where I ended up ordering a second helping to pick at near the end! The meal ended with a bread pudding of sorts that escapes me now, but at the time I do remember enjoying that as well.

And while we’re not here to discuss this today, the character greetings at the Garden Grill were a fun touch, even for a couple of fully-grown adults that would’ve been just as content enjoying our meals in peace! You can catch my full story on what went down there over in my article for the restaurant in Walt Disney World Through My Eyes…

Counter-Service Restaurants
But let’s face it, 9 times out of 10 when you’re eating a meal at Disney World, you’re not so much sitting down for a full-course meal as you are temporarily interrupting your touring schedule in order to stock up on the necessary nutrients that your body physically needs to keep moving forward! That said, of course, I don’t think that it’s entirely necessary to sacrifice quality for the speed that you crave and honestly, I’d probably still prefer most counter-service meals to any fast food that I’d find outside of The World anyways. Some are better than others, but when push comes to shove, these are typically at the top of my list of favorites…

Magic Kingdom : Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Café
This indoor eatery has a total of three separate counters – one offering rotisserie chicken & ribs, another hotdogs and hamburgers, and the third more “specialty sandwiches” like BBQ pork and a turkey wrap. I like this location not only because of the variety and its proximity to the Tomorrowland attractions, but honestly, where else can you eat lunch while being serenaded by a singing alien?!

Bonus Note: As this restaurant is so close, we’ve found that the timing is often just about perfect to pick up a Fast Pass for Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin before we eat – by the time we’re through, it’s usually time to get our game on!

Epcot : Sunshine Seasons (The Land Pavilion)
Hands down our most frequented counter-service restaurant in our most frequented park, Sunshine Seasons is an easy choice because they’ve got some of the best selection you’ll find anywhere in Walt Disney World. Their offerings actually best compare to those found at some of the better resort food courts, with separate stations for sandwiches, carved meats, Asian cuisine, and so forth. Also, I’m proud to say that I’ve sampled just about every single item found at their dessert station, and you really can’t go wrong with whatever your tastebuds point you towards!

Bonus Note: The same rule listed above for Cosmic Ray’s can also be used here with Soarin’, however the lines are usually much longer and you might still find yourself with time to kill before your flight leaves. Still, it only takes two seconds to check out the queue lines before leaving the pavilion and you never know, you could get lucky!

Disney-MGM Studios : Backlot Express
Not a whole lot of thought really went into this choice for me, but I like their hotdogs and that’s usually good enough when we’re visiting the Studios for an afternoon. Not much to say, except that it’s a larger than normal hotdog.

Second Choice: Some condemn pizza around The World altogether, but I actually enjoy most of the mini-pizzas to be found, thus making the Toy Story Pizza Planet a second choice when I don’t feel like a hotdog. Now if only the restaurant itself wasn’t always so darned loud…

Animal Kingdom : Flame Tree Barbecue
I’m a sucker for good BBQ pulled pork, so this is an obvious one for lunch during pretty much any trip to the Animal Kingdom! I was a little disappointed to see that they’re backing off on the food here, as I believe you used to get both baked beans and a half-piece of corn on the cob with your meal, but it’s still good pork and that’s really all that matters. Also, you have to be careful because many times have I gotten my meal to find that they’re either out of or in the process of refilling their barbeque sauce dispenser … they’ve got barbeque packets at some of the condiment stations, but they’re not the same thing! It’s worth holding off for the official Flame Tree Barbecue Sauce, though, so I still recommend sticking to your guns and waiting it out…

Downtown Disney : Wolfgang Puck Express
I know – not a theme park – but I’ve spent enough time here as well to be able to identify a good eatery when I taste one and if you can’t get a table at the full-service restaurant, for either capacity or financial reasons, then the Express location found at the back of the Downtown Disney Marketplace (by the Christmas store) can easily be the next best thing. And because it isn’t run by Disney, you’ve got a much more diverse menu than the chicken strips and burgers that you’ve become accustomed to – everything from gourmet pizzas to pasta dishes, and one of my personal favorites – a BBQ Chicken Quesadilla that’s to die for! Seating can be a bit cramped at this joint, but the food itself is superb.

Snacks & Desserts
Who can visit Disney World without having a snack or two, especially when you’re taste buds are assaulted with anything they can imagine shaped like Mickey Mouse around every corner?! Sweets are certainly one of my major vices and I have to be careful when I’m here because it’s very easy to go in with the mindset, “I can’t get it anywhere else, so I should really have some while I’m here!” But I try to limit myself to a snack or two a day and with decently balanced meals, it ends up working out just fine anyways…

So given a belly that won’t grow to epic proportions if I were to indulge, what treats can’t I make a trip to Walt Disney World without? Where to start, where to start…

Magic Kingdom – Main Street Confectionary
While there are also candy stores at the Studios and Downtown Disney, the Main Street Confectionary stole my heart early and there was many a trip that I couldn’t leave without filling up on my share of the shop’s famous fudge! They’ve got all sorts of pre-wrapped candies, too, but turn your attention to the display case at the back of the store and you’ll find the real gems – chocolate-covered truffles in the shapes of Mickeys, peanut-butter cups that put Reese’s to shame, and of course, more flavors of fudge than you could’ve ever dreamt up yourself! If they happen to have either maple or caramel, you have to get a slice or three…

Epcot – Sunshine Seasons (The Land Pavilion)
Like I mentioned earlier, this place not only has a great meal selection, but also a fairly decent dessert selection to boot – everything from chocolate to fruit to assorted cheesecakes. It’s not a rule or anything, but you pretty much have to pick something out if you find yourself eating dinner here after a long day!

Downtown Disney - Goofy’s Candy Co.
Now like the Main Street Confectionary, this Downtown Disney venue offers many of the same pre-wrapped and handmade treats that you’ll find at the store in the Magic Kingdom, but additionally what sets Goofy’s store apart is the custom candy counter where you’ve got the opportunity to pretty much design your own sugar-induced coma! You start with either an apple (on a stick, a la caramel apple), a giant Oreo cookie, a couple of pretzel sticks, and I believe there are some other options as well, and from there you pretty much have free reign of all the toppings you can imagine – cover your treat in milk chocolate, white chocolate, caramel, sprinkles, bits of M&Ms, butterfingers, and all sorts of other candies – you’re either 7 years old or you have an amazing stomach if you can eat the whole thing and not feel sick afterwards! But it’s a good kind of sick…

Downtown Disney – Wetzel’s Pretzels
Also, an honorable mention for Wetzel’s Pretzels, as I recently snacked on one of their pretzels while waiting for some ladies to finish shopping and I swear, I’ve never had a better giant pretzel in my life! This was the first pretzel to actually stay soft the entire time I was eating it – it never went all hard and nasty, like those other ones you might find in the mall or at the movie theater. Definitely worth a taste, that is if you’re into pretzels!

…pretty much everywhere…
And of course, other treats that I’ve come to enjoy that can be found pretty much everywhere include those giant chocolate chip cookies (can’t make a trip without one!), the carrot cake found in most resort food court’s freezer sections, and also those Toll House ice cream cookie sandwiches from any of the ice cream vendors. Oddly enough, nothing really shaped like Mickey, but what’s a guy to do?

Enjoying the Eating Without Killing Your Diet
Ok, so I said that I’d do my best to fit this part in and even though we’re still running a bit long, I’m going to go ahead and include it anyways because I still truly believe that it works for me – just don’t go crazy. It sounds simple, but follow me for just a quick moment…

You’re at a new place, surrounded by all sorts of wonderful looking food, and of course, your first instinct – much like the attractions themselves – is that you’ve got to try everything because you’re on vacation! Well unfortunately, that just can’t apply when it comes to eating because not only will you soon turn into a blimp, you’re also going to put a damper on the rest of the trip when you find yourself more sluggish after eating all of these huge meals. And that’s not to say don’t eat at all, but just do so in moderation – so many of the meals that will be placed before you when you eat at Disney World are considerably larger portions than you’d normally eat at home … or at least larger than what you should be eating at home, so don’t feel like you have to eat the whole thing every single time. Some folks can handle sharing meals and save a little money along the way, but even if you’d prefer your own choices, chances are you’ve got too much food in front of you – especially if you’re still looking to snag a little something for dessert afterwards, too!

Fortunately when you’re at Walt Disney World, you do have a couple of things going for you – 1) there’s plenty of walking to be done! We typically put on a minimum of 5 or 6 miles when spending a day at a theme park, and it’s not all that uncommon to be upwards of 10 miles, especially if you’re either starting early or touring into the wee hours of the night! The extra exercise, coupled with the sheer heat of the Florida sun, makes for plenty of calorie burning along the way, and as such, I’ve even seen trips where I’ve miraculously lost weight when I’m really careful about what I eat while I’m there! Either way, extra calories burned gives you a little more wiggle room when reaching for that piece of double-chocolate cake or third cocktail, so that’s certainly something to think about.

One last note, and I know that it doesn’t apply to everyone, but you might have noticed that I didn’t include breakfast in my meal options listed above … because frankly, we usually don’t get up early enough to have breakfast while we’re on vacation! And not that Disney doesn’t have some great options for arguably the most important meal of the day, either, but a skipped meal is a skipped meal and in the great calorie count of the day, that also gives us a little more wiggle room when it comes time to order lunch when we finally do get up and around. If you do find yourself eating breakfast either because of your own early-rising fault or simply because the kids really, really, really want to get going, following my earlier note of just eating light will make the calories a little easier to count for that meal. There’s nothing worse than starting out your 2000 calorie day with a breakfast that ranks in at over a thousand calories by itself…

Finale
So there you have it ladies and gentlemen, Scott’s favorite foods from around the park … so far, anyways … and with any luck, maybe my preferences will help turn you on to a whole new world of delicious dining during your trip to Walt Disney World. And I hope you’re all happy, because now I’m really hungry for a BBQ pork sandwich and a giant chocolate chip cookie, and there’s nothing I can do about it for another month! Oh well – the seasonal blackout dates will be behind us soon enough, and in the meantime, if you’ve got a particular favorite that didn’t make my own list, feel free to send me an e-mail – I’m always happy to check out new food when I’m visiting the parks!

Happy eating…