Orlando Road Trip: Animal Kingdom

Gluten. Free. Churros.

They are as delicious as they sound. Paired with vanilla and strawberry dipping sauces, they're heavenly.

This one dessert could have easily made our visits to the Animal Kingdom, this month, a celiac-friendly success. We found them at Nomad Lounge, near the entrance to the new Pandora land.

Gluten Free churros served with vanilla and strawberry dipping sauces.

Sitting on the comfortable patio, we ordered off the small plates menu, and boy were they small. In addition to churros, which were five half-sticks with the sauces for $9, my party had the charcuterie board (meats and cheeses) and the new brisket poutine, as well as drinks.


The charcuterie board typically comes with bruschetta-type bread, which can be eliminated or placed on a separate plate for non-gluten-free dining companions.What we ate was tasty, but very skimpy. At $17, the board was downright stingy in the amount of food it offered. One of the items was a single piece of thick-cut bologna. It was intended to be an appetizer for six people, but ended up providing just a few small bites of food for half the group. The price isn't worth the value, and the taste wasn't impressive enough to compensate.

The brisket poutine was fabulous. It typically comes with a pan sauce that is not gluten-free. However, we ordered two plates and had one without the sauce to keep it celiac-safe. The steak fries topped with Kobe-beef brisket and house-made mozzerella was really good. However, like the charcuterie board, it's over-priced at $12 an order. We expected a larger portion for what we were paying, but were disappointed in the size that barely lends itself to sharing.

Elsewhere in Animal Kingdom, we ate lunch at Flame Tree BBQ on Discovery Island, which offers an allergy-friendly menu with multiple gluten-free options. I ordered a pulled pork sandwich on a gluten-free bun, which was accompanied by baked beans and coleslaw. Everything was good, and the food prices are more reasonable than Nomad Lounge.

On our previous visit, in 2013, Animal Kingdom offered an allergy-friendly kiosk on Discovery Island, and we were excited by it. However, we knew going into this month's trip that it was closed. Still, I was disappointed to see although that kiosk is just sitting there, empty. Perhaps allergy-friendly sales weren't high enough to support it, and that's understandable, but it's sad though to think Disney would rather leave the kiosk vacant rather than continue to offer snacks to a small, under-served market.

That being said, we had no trouble overall finding gluten-free foods throughout the park on this trip. And that, in itself, made us happy.