clanmcculloch
03-14-2012, 01:04 PM
My family has a lot of special needs that make dining interesting to say the least. We've got lots of allergies between the group of us plus DH is a type 2 diabetic (who cheats frequently) and DD14 has Asperger Syndrome which is a high functioning form of autism. Here's our lists of allergies.
DD14: gluten, milk, eggs, citrus (citric acid is ok), yeast, msg, peanuts (minor - cross contamination not a concern)
DD11: milk, hazelnuts, brazil nuts, citrus (citric acid is ok), peanuts (minor - cross contamination not a concern), sesame, blueberry, cranberry, raw carrots, raw fruit skins besides grapes, lima beans, hops, soy products other than Tofutti and Follow Your Heart (soy’s not the problem but we haven’t identified what ingredient in Silk and other soy products cause Oral Allergy Syndrome)
Me: gluten, milk, peanuts (minor - cross contamination not a concern)
On 02/27/12 we ate lunch at Biergarten in the Germany pavillion in Epcot. We like early ADRs so that there's little to no wait since DD14 can only cope with so much of a wait and this was RD day for us so this was definitely a must as she's generally getting tired and hungry by this point meaning much more likely to have a meltdown. They open at 12:00 and we had a 12:15 ADR. Like last time, our wait was maybe 3 minutes max. What a great start.
We're seated with another family with a special needs child. I can't imagine they would have known ahead of time about that since while I did note our allergies I didn't make any notes about DD14's autism and while the other family may have made a note about needing their DS to stay in a wheelchair he didn't have any allergies (he was clearly special needs). We did chat a lot with the other family later in the meal but for the first part we really didn't much. They were good table mates.
A chef came out pretty quickly to speak with us. He did know we were coming since he asked if we were the family with 3 allergies though he didn't actually do any planning for us. I think he just read a list before the restaurant opened. I handed him my handy dandy allergy card that I print out to give to chefs and he asked if we would mind waiting a few minutes for him to get his head chef since our list was pretty complicated. I never mind waiting for somebody who knows his stuff. A few minutes later, the original chef returned with the head chef who was the same guy we met last time we were there. He asked us to join us at the buffet so he could go over everything there item by item to see what was safe. Like last time, there was a lot. Yes, even with our extensive lists, there was a lot that was safe without even needing alterations. Excellent! I'll try to remember just what we had (stupid lost camera; I had pictures so I wouldn't have to remember). A few of the salads may not have been safe for each kid but they weren't overly interested in them anyway.
German potato salad
German meat loaf (it's a hot loaf that's like balogna)
apple sauce (there were a couple styles but only one was safe; unfortunately not the high cinnamon one)
pork roast
roast chicken pieces
a variety of sliced deli style meats including pepperoni sticks
some kind of hot dog/sausage salad
a variety of sausages and hot dogs
a variety of different salads (I can't remember them any more but there were some yummy ones)
saurkaut
roasted potatoes
salmon (the chef had to custom bake me a piece since the sauce wasn't safe)
whole fruit (I remember the chefs trying to convince DD11 that they really wanted to cut up and peel an apple for her since she said she wasn't in the mood for one after I had earlier told them that this was the only way she can eat fruits with skins such as apples and pear; it was funny at the time but you probably had to be there)
some kind of dark coloured soup (I wish I could remember what it was because it was tasty though only I could eat it because it had citrus juice in it)
the only dessert any of us could eat was some kind of berry mixture (DD11 couldn't eat it because of blueberries but DD14 could). It was tasty over Tofutti ice cream.
DD11 could eat the pretzel bread; the chef brought out Earth Balance margarine for her
the chef brought Udi's dinner rolls with Earth Balance margarine to the table for me and DD11
I mentioned to the chefs just how much DD14 loves that German potato salad so the head chef said he'd get the other chef to bring us the recipe. He did. I really need to make it for her. This is a kid who never eats potato salad so that says a lot.
The younger chef did bring out a variety of treats for dessert. For DD11 he made an ice cream sandwich using Divvies cookies (the only place at WDW I know of where they still have these) with a side scoop for good measure plus an extra pack as well. For me and DD14 he brought out a dish of Tofutti for each of us. As I said, I dumped the berries over it and that turned out to be delicious. He also brought out OMG... It's Gluten Free cookies for me and DD11 and Enjoy Life chocolate bars for DD14 (we can all eat them but I made sure DD11 left them for DD14).
The only thing food-wise I'm not so thrilled with here is that the head chef seems to insist that it's safe to get food from the buffet. Granted, it does seem as though all the unsafe foods are kind of clustered together so it's doubtful there'd be any sharing of utensils of spilling of things going across the top of others getting to our plates so I don't push the issue at this one restaurant. That's the only thing I'd change.
It never really got too loud in the restaurant which is always a concern there. The music started up as we were getting our desserts so perfect timing. DD14 it seems was so happy with her food (food does affect her mood BIG time) and everything moved along in such a timely manner that she wanted to get up and dance. Now I'm feeling more sad about losing my camera because I have video of us doing the chicken dance making each other dizzy going as fast as we possibly could. We had no idea what we were doing for the other dances but we sure had fun moving to the music. This is a kid who freaks out over being touched by strangers and we were dancing wildly among a whole bunch of strangers. Even when I got too dizzy, I wasn't about to leave the dance floor when she was having so much fun. DH was trying to convince DD11 to join us but she's in a phase where she doesn't want to embarass herself in front of strangers (though she loves to perform but she'll only do that when she can prepare something of quality) so she stayed at the table and laughed and filmed us. DH laughed too but didn't even pretend he might join us since he was laughing in more of a mocking way as we were really making fools of ourselves. That's part of the fun IMO. They don't know what they're missing. DD14 and I had a blast.
To sum this up, what a great experience. With our TiW card, it really is VERY reasonably priced for lunch, especially considering that it is not only all you can eat but also includes entertainment. We'll definitely be back.
DD14: gluten, milk, eggs, citrus (citric acid is ok), yeast, msg, peanuts (minor - cross contamination not a concern)
DD11: milk, hazelnuts, brazil nuts, citrus (citric acid is ok), peanuts (minor - cross contamination not a concern), sesame, blueberry, cranberry, raw carrots, raw fruit skins besides grapes, lima beans, hops, soy products other than Tofutti and Follow Your Heart (soy’s not the problem but we haven’t identified what ingredient in Silk and other soy products cause Oral Allergy Syndrome)
Me: gluten, milk, peanuts (minor - cross contamination not a concern)
On 02/27/12 we ate lunch at Biergarten in the Germany pavillion in Epcot. We like early ADRs so that there's little to no wait since DD14 can only cope with so much of a wait and this was RD day for us so this was definitely a must as she's generally getting tired and hungry by this point meaning much more likely to have a meltdown. They open at 12:00 and we had a 12:15 ADR. Like last time, our wait was maybe 3 minutes max. What a great start.
We're seated with another family with a special needs child. I can't imagine they would have known ahead of time about that since while I did note our allergies I didn't make any notes about DD14's autism and while the other family may have made a note about needing their DS to stay in a wheelchair he didn't have any allergies (he was clearly special needs). We did chat a lot with the other family later in the meal but for the first part we really didn't much. They were good table mates.
A chef came out pretty quickly to speak with us. He did know we were coming since he asked if we were the family with 3 allergies though he didn't actually do any planning for us. I think he just read a list before the restaurant opened. I handed him my handy dandy allergy card that I print out to give to chefs and he asked if we would mind waiting a few minutes for him to get his head chef since our list was pretty complicated. I never mind waiting for somebody who knows his stuff. A few minutes later, the original chef returned with the head chef who was the same guy we met last time we were there. He asked us to join us at the buffet so he could go over everything there item by item to see what was safe. Like last time, there was a lot. Yes, even with our extensive lists, there was a lot that was safe without even needing alterations. Excellent! I'll try to remember just what we had (stupid lost camera; I had pictures so I wouldn't have to remember). A few of the salads may not have been safe for each kid but they weren't overly interested in them anyway.
German potato salad
German meat loaf (it's a hot loaf that's like balogna)
apple sauce (there were a couple styles but only one was safe; unfortunately not the high cinnamon one)
pork roast
roast chicken pieces
a variety of sliced deli style meats including pepperoni sticks
some kind of hot dog/sausage salad
a variety of sausages and hot dogs
a variety of different salads (I can't remember them any more but there were some yummy ones)
saurkaut
roasted potatoes
salmon (the chef had to custom bake me a piece since the sauce wasn't safe)
whole fruit (I remember the chefs trying to convince DD11 that they really wanted to cut up and peel an apple for her since she said she wasn't in the mood for one after I had earlier told them that this was the only way she can eat fruits with skins such as apples and pear; it was funny at the time but you probably had to be there)
some kind of dark coloured soup (I wish I could remember what it was because it was tasty though only I could eat it because it had citrus juice in it)
the only dessert any of us could eat was some kind of berry mixture (DD11 couldn't eat it because of blueberries but DD14 could). It was tasty over Tofutti ice cream.
DD11 could eat the pretzel bread; the chef brought out Earth Balance margarine for her
the chef brought Udi's dinner rolls with Earth Balance margarine to the table for me and DD11
I mentioned to the chefs just how much DD14 loves that German potato salad so the head chef said he'd get the other chef to bring us the recipe. He did. I really need to make it for her. This is a kid who never eats potato salad so that says a lot.
The younger chef did bring out a variety of treats for dessert. For DD11 he made an ice cream sandwich using Divvies cookies (the only place at WDW I know of where they still have these) with a side scoop for good measure plus an extra pack as well. For me and DD14 he brought out a dish of Tofutti for each of us. As I said, I dumped the berries over it and that turned out to be delicious. He also brought out OMG... It's Gluten Free cookies for me and DD11 and Enjoy Life chocolate bars for DD14 (we can all eat them but I made sure DD11 left them for DD14).
The only thing food-wise I'm not so thrilled with here is that the head chef seems to insist that it's safe to get food from the buffet. Granted, it does seem as though all the unsafe foods are kind of clustered together so it's doubtful there'd be any sharing of utensils of spilling of things going across the top of others getting to our plates so I don't push the issue at this one restaurant. That's the only thing I'd change.
It never really got too loud in the restaurant which is always a concern there. The music started up as we were getting our desserts so perfect timing. DD14 it seems was so happy with her food (food does affect her mood BIG time) and everything moved along in such a timely manner that she wanted to get up and dance. Now I'm feeling more sad about losing my camera because I have video of us doing the chicken dance making each other dizzy going as fast as we possibly could. We had no idea what we were doing for the other dances but we sure had fun moving to the music. This is a kid who freaks out over being touched by strangers and we were dancing wildly among a whole bunch of strangers. Even when I got too dizzy, I wasn't about to leave the dance floor when she was having so much fun. DH was trying to convince DD11 to join us but she's in a phase where she doesn't want to embarass herself in front of strangers (though she loves to perform but she'll only do that when she can prepare something of quality) so she stayed at the table and laughed and filmed us. DH laughed too but didn't even pretend he might join us since he was laughing in more of a mocking way as we were really making fools of ourselves. That's part of the fun IMO. They don't know what they're missing. DD14 and I had a blast.
To sum this up, what a great experience. With our TiW card, it really is VERY reasonably priced for lunch, especially considering that it is not only all you can eat but also includes entertainment. We'll definitely be back.