Gluten Free in Orlando, Florida - Part 5: Restaurants Outside the Parks and Wholefoods

So, I'll admit we did most of our Florida gluten free eating inside the parks, but we still had a few evening meals in restaurants on I-Drive and  the surrounding area.

Bahama Breeze

This was definitely my favourite restaurant chain, just because I love Caribbean food and really liked the vibe, we ate at the one on I-Drive twice (near the Wonderworks building), both times we had to wait around 30mins (they operate a pager system). They were really friendly and knowledgeable about gluten and offered us lots of choices. Both times I had the grilled chicken with cilantro crema, mashed potatoes topped with toasted corn. Totally gluten free and really tasty. Seb had grilled chicken breast and fries (dedicated fryer) both times. You can see their menus HERE but unfortunately they do not mark them gluten free.

Outback

Brilliant for coeliacs! They even have a dedicate gluten free menu, I think this is probably my top choice for a gluten free friendly restaurant outside of Disney. Both times we had their ribs with a jacket potato, I think they are probably the nicest ribs I've ever had. Top marks, the only downside is we had a long wait, even at 9pm.

Pollo Tropical

We grabbed a quick lunch here on the way back to Sanford airport. It's a quick fast food type place but with really good food. We totally over-ordered, just beware the portions are huge! You can check out the gluten free/containing items on their website - we had lots of grilled chicken, corn, slaw, rice and mashed potatoes.  

Wholefoods

Oh my goodness I am totally in love with this HUGE natural supermarket in Turkey Lake Road. We only discovered it a week into our holiday but I wish we'd found them sooner. It is literally gluten free heaven. I've never seen so many gluten free products under one roof - they stock anything you can imagine, we bought gluten free pizzas, gluten free waffles, gluten free doughnuts (yes doughnuts!), gluten free blueberry muffins, gluten free breakfast cereals, gluten free brownies, gluten free cookies, gluten free bread and more and the fresh salad/ready cooked food section looked glorious. Oh how I wish there were stores like this in the UK (I know there are a handful in the UK, but nothing like the size of this one and all too far away sadly). I would seriously consider moving to Florida JUST for Wholefoods, it's that good. If you are a coeliac off to Orlando you MUST, MUST, MUST go here as soon as possible to stock up on gluten free goodies, you know when you go to a normal supermarket and spot something gorgeous, choc full of gluten and you wish that you didn't have coeliac disease? well that doesn't happen at Wholefoods, you feel normal and their gluten free food is *really* good. Have I sold it to you yet? LOL.

Gluten Free in Orlando, Florida - Part 2: Walt Disney World & Epcot

Disney does it again! Following our amazing first day at Disney's Animal Kingdom we headed off to explore the gluten free culinary delights of Walt Disney World and Epcot. Again we had booked all of our table service meals well ahead of time, which I really recommend doing as the best restaurants get booked up really quickly!

Walt Disney World
In total we spent 3 days at WDW and we ate a LOT of gluten free food there! Here's a quick round up:

Cinderella's Royal Table - WDW
It was my daughter's fifth birthday whilst we were in Orlando. What better place to spend her birthday lunchtime than in Cinderella's castle. We had taken her to Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique earlier that morning and bought her a Rapunzel makeover as a birthday present and most other girls were head to toe in pricess outfits too! We booked this as soon as we could, 180 days before our stay, at the same time as booking I had also purchased the HRH package, which was about £50 and included a really big Disney Princess balloon at the table, a birthday card - signed by all of the princesses, a little tiara and a chocolate birthday cake - gluten free of course! The cake looked brilliant and it was wonderful we could all eat it, but whilst the frosting tasted good the inside was actually really dry.  I think it would have been nice if it had been served warm with cream or ice cream though, to be honest it didn't really matter though - it was just lovely to be able to have a big chocolate birthday cake that we could all share!

The food here wasn't that good if I'm honest - the experience was amazing, but I was expecting better food, gluten free or not, though I know it's not known for its good food! I had a salad to start followed by a vegetarian cassoulet, which was OK but not something I'd like to eat again, I finished with chocolate mousse - which was actually really lovely. Seb had cheese and grapes to start and then gluten free chicken nuggets, mashed potato and corn, finishing with ice cream for desert.

The Crystal Palace - WDW
Again this was a bit of a disappointment, mainly because of the price we paid. The restaurant was very crowded, we had to wait 45 minutes outside despite having ADRs and inside was chaotic and dirty. We also had poor service. Still, it's another character restaurant so you go more for the experience than the food. The chef came and took Seb and I on a tour of the food we could eat - which was a good selection of the buffet and we were given a warmed gluten free roll and butter too. Desert here was a pre-packed chocolate brownie. It was OK, but not worth the money.

Peco Bill's  - WDW
A large, quick service restaurant. The server was knowledge about gluten free food and a supervisor was called to take our order, we both had cheeseburgers and fries (with a bun!). Simple, quick and easy - the bun was pretty good for gluten free too.

Pinocchio Village Haus 
Another counter service restaurant. Our server was once again clued up about gluten free food and after a quick chat with a supervisor we had ordered two gluten free cheese pizzas, my only complaint was that they were pretty small - so I had a side salad with mine.

Blizzard Beach Waterpark

Avalunch - Disney's Blizzard Beach
We had a great day at Disney's Blizzard Beach waterpark, I was a bit worried about finding gluten free food here, but really needn't have worried at all - it was great! We had lunch at Avalunch. Seb had chicken nuggets and fries and I had Cheeseburger and fries, all really well cooked and very tasty. We had the pre-packaged brownie for desert. We did mean to try a turkey leg in the afternoon but it was just too hot to eat anymore!




Epcot

Biergarten
We had a really great, if somewhat unusual! lunch at Epcot's Biergarten. The entertainment was brilliant and it was lovely to be inside in the cool out of the heat. The food here is buffet style and we could eat lots of it - especially the sausages! (german style) - Seb had a plate piled full of sausages and potatoes and I experienced a little more with a huge variety of salads, vegetables and meat. Desert was disappointing though - more pre-packed brownies and chocolate chip cookies, or fruit salad. Actually reading this back it doesn't sound bad at all, I guess we were just getting spoilt!

The Electric Umbrella
Another quick counter service restaurant - the staple gluten free offerings at Disney resorts are gluten free cheeseburgers, gluten free mac'n'cheese (Amys), gluten free chicken nuggets (they call them chicken tenders) and a small gluten free cheese pizza.  We both had the chicken tenders and fries here, they really don't taste gluten free!

Part 3: Discovery  Cove and Seaworld: http://glutenfreechild.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/gluten-free-in-orlando-florida-part-3.html