Monday, April 11, 2016

Fairytale Dining Dinner at Cinderella's Royal Table - Magic Kingdom

Last night, we had dinner at Cinderella's Royal Table, a signature dining restaurant located inside Cinderella Castle in the Magic Kingdom.


Cinderella's Royal table is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and a meal there should be on everyone's Disney bucket list.  Since moving to Orlando eight years ago, we have had dinner there on two previous occasions, and enjoyed our meals.


Last night was our first time being seated at a window table with a view of Fantasyland.


Cinderella's Royal Table has allergy-friendly menus that list options for people with gluten/wheat, milk, egg, soy, fish/shellfish, and peanut/tree nut allergies.




Even with the allergy-friendly menus, speaking to a chef or manager is always an option at Disney-owned and operated restaurants.  Our server Fernando was very knowledgeable about the menu, so I felt no need to speak to a chef.


For an appetizer, I chose the Castle Salad with mixed greens, apples, cucumbers, and candied walnuts topped with shaved Romano with a hint of herb vinaigrette.  This salad had so much potential, but was a disappointment for several reasons.  I thought it was pretty tasteless, so I asked for more dressing, but it was mostly oil, without much vinegar.  The candied walnuts did not taste sweet, and I had a hard time finding any apple in my salad.  I had to add salt and pepper to it several times, because it lacked seasoning.


Fernando brought me two Deanna's allergen free dinner rolls, which are free of gluten, dairy, egg, soy, corn, nuts, and shellfish.  These rolls, which used to be called GNI rolls, when heated well, are much better than the Udi's and Ener-G rolls offered at some Disney restaurants.  Yesterday, one of my rolls was heated perfectly, but the other one was not heated well, so it was dry.


My husband loved his appetizer, the pan-seared scallop with Cabernet risotto, port wine reduction, and basil oil.  This dish is listed as safe for gluten/wheat allergies on the allergy-friendly dinner menu.


Both my husband and I enjoyed the steak and shrimp with grilled beef tenderloin and roasted shrimp served with crushed fingerling potato confit and a seasonal vegetable.  This entree is not listed as safe for people with gluten/wheat allergies on the allergy-friendly menu because of the beef glaze, which they left off my meal.  My steak and shrimp were seasoned well, but my beef tenderloin was very rare for my taste, though still good.  I am not a huge carrot fan, but the roasted carrots were pretty tasty, and I loved the piquillo pepper, which had a nice spicy kick.


The highlight of our meal was definitely dessert.  We all chose The Clock Strikes Twelve, which is a flourless chocolate cake with berry compote and anglaise sauce.  I loved that the plate was decorated like a clock, and everything was edible.  We all asked for a side of vanilla ice cream, a necessity for me when enjoying flourless chocolate cake.


I have eaten many flourless chocolate cakes at Disney World, and this one was by far the best.  It was topped with such a generous amount of berry compote, I had enough berries to eat with every bite.  Based on texture and taste, both my husband and I thought the cake was made with almond flour.  It was nicely cooked around the edges, with an incredibly moist center, and the chocolate was not overpowering in its richness, like many flourless chocolate cakes.


When we entered Cinderella Castle, we stood in line to have our picture taken with Cinderella, and Snow White, Ariel, Jasmine and Aurora visited our table, which my daughters were unhappy about, because years ago, they decided that they are too old to have their picture taken with Disney characters.  On previous visits, Cinderella's Fairy Godmother and some of the mice from the movie made an appearance at dinner, which I much preferred.


We also used to receive pictures with Cinderella to take home with us, but this time, they showed up on our Disney PhotoPass, and we would have to pay to download them, which was a bit of a disappointment.


Advance dining reservations for Cinderella's Royal Table can be very hard to come by, so I suggest making them as close to 180 days in advance as you can.  We were able to use our Tables in Wonderland card to save 20%, but Cinderella's Royal Table does have some black-out dates, and it is still pricey, costing us about $250 for four people now that we have to pay adult pricing for our daughters.  Overall, we enjoyed our meals, and the experience of dining in Cinderella Castle.

You can read more about Cinderella's Royal Table, view their menus and hours, and make advance dining reservations on Disney's website here.

What are your favorite gluten free options at Cinderella's Royal Table?

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