When we go to Disney, we love to stay at the Coronado Springs Resort. I’ve heard that a lot of people don’t like it here because it is too big, but that is why we like it. Walking around this beautiful resort, you feel like you are the only one here. And finding your way into the Pepper Market, even better.

Pepper Market is actually a counter service, but you eat like at a table service. Other comments I have heard about this place is that it is too confusing. I don’t think so, and we dine with a severely food allergic child, we KNOW confusing! When you first walk up, a hostess seats you at a table and gives you some food cards. That’s when our waiter showed up to get our drink orders. This is when we told him about our son’s food allergies and he promptly went back to get the chef. Yes, I said chef, not manager, but chef.

Thankfully, the last several years dining here, Chef Cliff has remained. He is a wonderful chef, and very knowledgeable about food allergies. And the presentation of our son’s meal was better than most of the table service restaurants. Kevin selected the Grilled Mahi Mahi with grilled yellow squash and zucchini, and for dessert a cup of milk free ice cream, the same meal he had the previous year.

My husband and I took turns getting our food. This is how the food card works: you take your food card up to one of the many stations where you want something (there are multiple stations serving Italian pastas, pizzas, Mexican dishes, even grilled steak!). You pick out what you want, the attendant stamps what you ordered and you wait on them to freshly prepare your food right in front of you. You then take your food back to your table, and that’s it. The only difference in this counter service with others, besides the amount of food and choices you have, is that you have a waiter, so you must leave a tip. So be sure to have some cash on you, because we were told they couldn’t put the tip on our Key to the World card.  Once you are finished with your meal, you take your cards up to the cashier and she will ring you up.

But back to the food. My husband always chooses something in the Mexican cuisine. I wanted pasta. I picked Chicken Fettuccini with Broccoli. It was so much food. I was able to box it up, put it in the fridge back in our room and eat on it the next day! It was enough for 2 people, but it was so good. Of course, I would have rather had my son’s meal. Too bad they don’t offer this at one of the stations. Chef Cliff told me that it is a real treat to cook for food allergy guests because he can cook “outside the box”. He does such a great job at it too! Even if someday we move up to staying in a Deluxe, we will continue to come back to Pepper Market. Hopefully, Chef Cliff will be there too.

This is one of our favorite places to eat, and it’s only a counter service. Chef Cliff is wonderful. Both visits, he went out of his way to make our son the best meal I have ever seen. We had so many people walk by our table, wondering where they could get that meal. This will be a go to place from now on.

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Coronado Springs Resort is a beautiful resort. Walking around this vast area, you feel like you are in Mexico. You have the Cabana area, where it feels like the Mexican Riviera. Then there is the Casitas, with all the fountains, so relaxing. Finally there are the Ranchos, a desert area with lots of cacti. By this time, you are really in the mood for some Mexican cuisine.

We had never eaten at Maya Grill, but when my son saw they had tacos on the menu, he wanted to try it. We ate there the night we were leaving (I try to extend our last day as long as I can). The restaurant is so nice inside, including a musician playing the guitar as we ate. We sat next to a beautiful fountain, it was truly relaxing.

The chef came out to our table and what he could prepare our son that was safe. Kevin choose steak tacos, with no cheese or sour cream, of course. I was concerned about the Spanish rice, but my son tried it and said it was great. This was a great restaurant, we were just so tired and ready to hit the road. We probably didn’t give it as much time as we should have, but we will try it again. Just not on the last day of our trip. Plus, if you are staying in Coronado, it’s nice to have such a great restaurant with different flavors on site.

As for advice on how to dine safely with food allergies, here are a few tips when planning and taking you vacation. We made Advanced Dining Reservations (ADRs) 180 days in advance, noting on the reservations that we had food allergies. We also contacted the Special Diets department at Disney World through email. We filled out all the forms and faxed back with the ADRs listed and the food allergies in detail. Once we arrived at the restaurant, we made sure the Hostess had a note we had food allergies and which ones they were. When we were seated, we mentioned the food allergies to our server who went to get the chef. The chef went over what he could have and let Kevin, our son, decided what he wanted to eat. If we had questions on any product, they would bring us out the ingredient label. Also….the chef should be the one delivering the food allergy safe food, so that there is no cross contamination or mix up. The chef also came out periodically to check on us to make sure everything was ok.

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