Thursday, July 23, 2020

Primo Piatto - Disney's Riviera Resort

On our recent trip to Disney World, we stayed at Disney's Riviera Resort for six nights before moving to Disney's BoardWalk Villas for the second week of our vacation.


It was pretty late by the time our flight landed, so we decided to dine at our resort instead of visiting Disney Springs. While we were driving to Disney World, I mobile ordered dinner for my family from Primo Piatto, a quick service restaurant at Disney's Riviera Resort. Allergy-friendly options were not listed in the My Disney Experience app, so I asked to speak to a chef when we arrived at the restaurant.


Because of the pandemic, Disney wants all guests to mobile order, and cast members are stationed at the door of every quick service restaurant making sure orders are ready before guests enter the restaurant.


I was always able to enter quick service restaurants and speak to a manager or chef when I said I needed to place a special diets order. I did mobile order though, whenever possible, to save myself time. When I mobile order, I always double check that my food is gluten free when it is delivered by a manager. Allergy sticks and different color trays are used by most quick service restaurants.


Chef Ariel offered me several gluten free options, like salads, sandwiches, and I think she mentioned pizza too, but as soon as she said she could make gluten free chicken strips, I knew that was what I wanted to order, and I asked her if they could be served with Primo Piatto's Romano and herb fries. Chicken strips are on the kids menu, but I ordered an adult portion.


Most Disney restaurants serve gluten free chicken tenders, so I was shocked when Chef Ariel brought out my food, and I saw the chicken nuggets I love from Columbia Harbour House and Pinocchio Village Haus at the Magic Kingdom. My husband said they were just as good as the gluten-filled chicken strips my daughters ordered. My nieces tried them later in the trip at Pinocchio Village Haus, and said they liked them better than the gluten-filled chicken nuggets they ordered. The breading is so perfectly crunchy, and it tastes great too.


My Parmesan fries were just as amazing as my nuggets, so this was pretty much the perfect first Disney meal of our summer 2020 trip. There is no where around where I live in California that I can get a meal like this, and I don't make fried food at home, so it was a real treat. I could have shared my chicken nuggets and fries with one or both of my daughters, because there was so much food, and I do not like to eat a lot that late at night.


Primo Piatto has three flavors of gelato that do not contain gluten. They are made by Muse Gelato, a local company that supplies many Disney restaurants.


Our first night at the resort, I tried the toasted honey almond, which was my favorite.


The cherry vanilla swirl was good too. My daughters tried the vanilla chocolate chunk, which they thought was a little bit icy.


When we ate at 9:30, we were the only customers dining in the restaurant, but several people came in to pick up take-out while we were there.


The tables were spaced out well to promote social distancing.


We absolutely loved our stay at Disney's Riviera Resort, and it might be our new favorite resort at Disney World.


I love riding the Disney Skyliner, which has a station at Riviera. It allows for easy access to Epcot and Hollywood Studios.


The walkway to the Skyliner features these incredible mosaic murals from Tangled and Peter Pan.


We really loved all the artwork around the resort and in the rooms, and everything was so fresh and new, because Riviera just opened in December.


Disney's BoardWalk Villas have long been one of our favorite Disney Vacation Club resorts, but after moving to BoardWalk, we all wanted to go back to Riviera.


We had a one bedroom villa at both resorts, a splurge for my 50th birthday trip. This allowed us to easily eat breakfast in our villa, and we had more space, and could do laundry in our room. We got a great deal on the one bedroom at Riviera, which we booked through my friend Heather Wilkinson with Middle of the Magic Travel, who also eats gluten free. We used our DVC points to stay at BoardWalk, which is one of our home resorts. We got used to our room at BoardWalk after a few days, and had a great stay there, but the rooms are bigger, and much nicer at Riviera.


We especially loved the pull-down convertible sofa bed at Riviera, which is so much easier to deal with than traditional sofa beds.


There is also a single pull-down bed under the television, so a one bedroom sleeps five people.


When our new house in Orlando is finished being built, we plan on ordering several art pieces on display at Rivera at the Art on Demand kiosk in the gift shop. You can customize the size and frame of each piece.


We also had dinner at Topolino's Terrace, the signature dining restaurant located on the top floor of Disney's Riviera Resort. I will be posting about our meal there tomorrow.


You can read my friend Sarah's review of Primo Piatto on her website Gluten Free & Dairy Free at WDW.

You can read more about Primo Piatto, and view their menu and hours on Disney's website. The restaurant is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I know they do have gluten free breakfast options, but we only had breakfast at a restaurant once on our two week trip to Disney World, because there is only so much food we can eat in one day, and we prefer to dine out for lunch and dinner.

What are your favorite gluten free options at Primo Piatto?

4 comments:

  1. Thank you for doing these reviews. Are you moving back to Orlando?

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    1. You're welcome! I just saw your comment today. We are back in Orlando permanently.

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  2. I just wanted to say thank you so much for these reviews! I have celiac and am visiting Disney in November and am pouring over your site and it has been so helpful in my planning!

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    1. You're welcome! I just saw your comment. Hope you had a great trip!

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