Last Saturday, I had dinner with my family at the Captain's Grille, a table service restaurant at Disney's Yacht Club Resort.
We have eaten breakfast and lunch at the Captain's Grille, but this was our first time dining there for dinner.
The Captain's Grille serves American Eastern Seaboard fare, and the theming of the restaurant is that of an old-fashioned New England yacht club. They recently adopted an allergy-friendly menu that lists options for people with gluten/wheat, milk, egg, soy, peanut/tree nut, and fish/shellfish allergies.
Our server did not offer, but I did ask to speak to a chef, which is always a good idea at table service restaurants, because there are often more gluten free options than listed on the menu. If you are having trouble seeing the pictures of the menus, I typed out all the gluten free options for dinner at the Captain's Grille in a previous post, which you can view here.
My meal started with gluten free bread. We were only brought one plate of butter with coarse salt on top, so I quickly took some for myself before my family of gluten-eaters had a chance to dig in. Our server warned me that the gluten free bread might take a while, but it came out quickly, probably because it was not heated. It tasted pretty fresh, and I enjoyed it, but I would have preferred it warm, and with my own plate of butter, which is what I am usually served at Disney restaurants.
For my entree, I chose the Cabernet-braised short rib with corn risotto, pan jus reduction, and corn cream. There was nothing not to love about this dish. My short rib was incredibly tender, and it was well paired with the corn risotto and pan jus reduction. The corn cream, which is pureed corn and heavy cream, was delicious as well.
There are two gluten free desserts listed on the allergy-friendly menu, but the angel food cake was not an option for me because I avoid sugar substitutes. The chef told me that they also had OMG...It's Gluten Free Fudge Brownies and gluten free cookies, which are not on the menu, but I ended up ordering the house-made chocolate gelato. I asked the chef if an order of gelato had all three flavors (chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla) or just one, and I was told it came with one flavor. Considering the huge portion size, which was three scoops, I would have preferred one scoop of each flavor, which I am pretty sure I saw delivered to another table. My advice - if you want all three flavors, ask for a scoop of each.
My gelato was good, and had a rich chocolaty flavor, but it tasted more like ice cream than gelato, because it was not as smooth and creamy as gelato should be.
Overall, we all enjoyed our food at the Captain's Grille, but were not impressed by the service we received Saturday night for a variety of reasons, including how long it took them to seat us when we had reservations at 5:00 when the restaurant opened, my cold bread without my own butter, very slow service, and being overcharged for our daughters' meals, which was rectified, though not totally to my satisfaction.
October 20, 2015 Update
Last Friday, my daughters and I had dinner at the Captain's Grille with Erica from Celiac and the Beast. My girls and I shared the cabernet-braised short rib with corn risotto, pan jus reduction, and corn cream, and the New York strip with roasted potatoes, roasted mushrooms, oven-cured tomatoes, and cabernet reduction. My daughters loved the short rib, which was just as delicious as it was on our last visit. The steak is usually served with creme fraiche whipped potatoes, but we asked for the brown butter potatoes that are served with the pan-seared chicken entree. Our steak was seasoned well, and cooked to the requested temperature of medium rare. I enjoyed eating every bite with some of the roasted mushrooms it was served with. Overall, we were happy with both of our gluten free entrees, and the Udi's bread we were served to start our meal. We ended up passing up dessert at the Captain's Grill in favor of ice cream from the To Go counter at Beaches & Cream Soda Shop.
You can read more about the Captain's Grille, view their menus, and make advance dining reservations on Disney's website here.
What are your favorite gluten free dishes at the Captain's Grille?
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