The Garden Grill Restaurant has long been a favorite of many park goers. With its unique dining experience, slowly making its way around the scenes of Living with the Land, the setting alone makes the restaurant worth at least one visit. I manage dairy, peanut, and tree nut allergies and visited The Garden Grill during my latest trip to Epcot. I documented my allergy dining experience so you can decide whether or not to visit on your next trip!
The Ambiance
The Garden Grill slowly rotates allowing you to see different scenes from Living with the Land. Although you don’t see the greenhouse areas, you do get to see the different climate areas like the rainforest, farmhouse, desert, and prairie, and interesting murals in the restaurant. By the time you finish your meal, you will have made it around the entire loop. I visited with my mom who gets extreme motion sickness and even for her, the rotation was so slow it wasn’t even noticeable!
This spot is also a character dining location! You will get to meet Chip, Dale, Mickey and Pluto! Mickey will be in his farmers outfit which makes for a fun photo op! We visited around 5pm and did not feel rushed at all in our character interactions.
There are no bathrooms inside the restaurant, so you will have to use the bathrooms just outside on the second floor of the Land Pavilion!
The Food
The Garden Grill serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner. If you are using the dining plan, the Garden Grill currently only will cost you one sit down meal credit. If you are paying out of pocket though, lunch and dinner can run steep starting at $60 per adult. We were able to go when they were running an additional discount for annual passholders which helped to bring the cost down a bit.
A fun aspect is that Disney says many of the veggies you eat are grown in the Living with the Land greenhouses!
My Allergy Experience
When we arrived we let our server know that I had allergies, and she was super accommodating working with us to make sure that I could eat safely. The menu here wasn’t too complicated so we were quickly able to establish what I could and could not eat. Although there were only two of us, my mom got one skillet, and I got my own allergy friendly one all to myself.
Here is everything I ate that was dairy free, peanut free, and tree nut free!
To start, I had rolls with dairy free butter. Normally, you would receive cornbread. The rolls weren’t anything crazy to write home about, but I really appreciated having the option. In addition to this I had a garden salad.
Onto the main course! I was able to eat the backyard grilled steak, rotisserie-roasted turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans, and seasonal vegetables! I was unable to have the macaroni and cheese, but was really surprised that they had a dairy free mashed potatoes.
Time for seconds! I ordered a second helping of the grilled steak and mashed potatoes. I love that you can choose what you want more of, so no food goes wasted and uneaten. If chimichurri isn’t your thing you can get it on the side, or omitted entirely!
And last but definitely not least it is time for dessert! I had the strawberry shortcake with whipped cream. The allergy friendly version was like a deconstructed version of strawberry shortcake with strawberries, a crumb topping, and plenty of whipped cream. I really enjoyed this dessert, especially since so many restaurants do not have an allergy friendly dessert option that I can eat besides a packaged cookie or brownie!
For my family, the Garden Grill isn’t a restaurant we will return to every single trip, but we did enjoy our experience! The theming here is a bit minimal, so if you are looking for something more immersive it might not be the spot for you. However, if you like family style meals where your allergies are taken seriously this could be the perfect fit!