The Crystal Palace

Looking back over my blog I realized I have not written up one of my favorite places to eat and the Magic Kingdom: The Crystal Palace.  This restaurant features a character meal with Winnie the Pooh (this is the only character meal where Winnie the Pooh and friends is found), Tigger, Eeyore and Piglet. They meet and greet you as you enjoy your meal. This buffet restaurant is bright, light filled and spacious in a Victorian setting.  

I have taken my family to the Crystal Palace many times.  Sometimes we are seated and the characters all make their rounds and the timing is perfect.  Once we ate there and at the end of our meal we had only seen one character.  We decided to not get upset but instead hung around a bit, I ordered a coffee with Splenda and fat free milk and we just waited for them to come by.  I was wearing my “Grumpy Cat” t-shirt at that time and Tigger got a huge kick out of Grumpy Cat.  He thought it was the funniest cat he had ever seen.  Regardless, the characters interact with you on a relaxed, casual basis.  If you have ever waited 30+ minutes to meet a character and get your photo taken and an autograph, then the Crystal Palace is quite a good deal.  

You generally need reservations to eat at the Crystal Palace.  If not, be prepared to wait.  You will be issued a beeper when you check in and you have to wait in the front porch area.  Sometimes you can catch a glimpse of a parade or show in front of the castle while you wait.  Try to find a seat and just relax.  There is a restroom around the side of the restaurant to the left. 

By the way, in my opinion the absolute WORST place to eat in all of Disney is around the corner as well: Casey’s Corner.  In my opinion it’s just high fat content hot dogs, corn dogs, nachos, etc.  Sometimes I walk through this restaurant when trying to leave the park if there is a parade or fireworks going on.  The smell is overwhelming, and there is usually a spilled tray of food littering the floor.  The sight of people stuffing their faces with French fries and gigantic hot dogs is too much for my stomach to handle.  I generally try to hold my breath when walking through this area.  I use this area as a learning opportunity for my children- “See those people pigging out on French fries and hot dogs? Look at how much they weigh. Do you think that is a good choice to put in your body?”  Since the seating is outside, the next time you walk through see if you notice a correlation.  

My personal preference is to spend a little more and eat something that is both tasty and good for you.  At Wellspring we call this, “Loveable foods that love you back.”  Let’s see what lovable foods that love you back can be found at the Crystal Palace.  Here is the menu below:

Gourmet cuisine offered in Victorian elegance that offers a variety of selections to tempt every taste including: multigrain nut bread and white rolls, PB & J, Mixed field greens with choice of dressing (ranch, zinfandel, & madarin orange sesame vinaigrette), Tropical slaw, Mediterranean pasta salad, Moroccan couscous salad, Romaine blue cheese salad, Peel & eat shrimp, Prime Rib, Shrimp, black bean & mango salad, Edamame, Papaya frisee salad, Roasted garlic mashed potatoes, Broccoli, Medley of veggies, Braised kale with bacon & onion, Slow roasted pork, Cheese pizza, Vegetable pasta, Wild mushroom & chicken pasta, Cinnamon & lemon basmati rice, Thai curry mussels, Fruit & vegetable tofu curry, Atlantic salmon, Rotisserie chicken, Herb roasted turkey, and New England clam chowder. Dessert selection includes: Red Velvet cheesecake, Double chocolate brownie, Peanut butter cake, Tres leches, Apple cobbler, Banana bread pudding, Carrot cake, Assorted cookies, and Coconut flan. Guests ages 10 and up. Winnie the Pooh and friends invite you to indulge yourself in our bountiful buffet. The room comes alive with the sights and smells of the day's offerings being prepared in our live on stage kitchen. $36 to $59.99 per person  

Right off the bat we see multiple salads available.  You have to try the Moroccan couscous salad- it’s really good!  My general strategy at Disney Buffets is to do this:

1.       Start with a plate of the highest density / lowest calorie ratio foods.  A good example of this is a fruit plate.  Soups can also be good, but really it’s a crap shoot with soup when the calorie and fat content is not posted.  I believe you are generally okay with vegetable soup, but with the New England clam chowder I would advise against it.  It is likely high calorie for a soup, but until Disney starts posting calorie counts you really don’t know.  This is why fruit is good to start with.  I am pretty sure nothing is added to whole or cut up fruit offered.  

2.       For a second round at the buffet, kick it up a notch to some of the yummier foods you want to try.  After my fruit plate I may try a small portion of each salad offered (except for the high fat content Caesar salad).  The problem is that you really don’t know what the calorie and fat content is for the salads offered, but you can certainly give an educated guess.  Another strategy I employ is to make a bed of lettuce that I put the other salads on for a topping.  Generally the salads at Disney are so tasty you don’t need to add any dressing at all. 

3.       Finally, I will eat a very small portion of meat.  If you are a vegetarian, you are on the right track.  I have yet to give up meat so I will generally get something like a small portion of the rotisserie chicken.  I will get a small piece of the white meat without the skin.  You can do the same with the pork and cut away any obvious fat.  Also the peal and eat shrimp is an excellent meat option that is low on fat.  The salmon is a high fat content fish, so as far as fish options go it’s not ideal, but it’s certainly better than the prime rib. 

4.       While it is tempting, you need to just skip the dessert.  

5.       A final tip for eating here is to be careful about the vegetables such as the broccoli and potatoes.  They are obviously cooked in an excess of butter or oil.  It’s not the same as eating steamed broccoli at home for example.  Usually I just skip the vegetables at the Crystal Palace and focus on fruit and certain salads.

As a final word and legal disclaimer: I would also just like to state that anything written up in the blog is simply my opinion about food preferences at Disney.  It’s really all just a best guess at the time it was written.  Nothing written up here should be taken as a fact.  Menus change, and maybe in the future Disney will start publishing calorie and fat content.  Until that time comes all I can do is give an educated guess about the best places and foods to eat.  While I am not paid by Disney, my intent here is to encourage eating at the Disney restaurants, although at times that might involve steering readers to one restaurant over another such as I have in this post.  I am not advocating brining in your own food over eating in the parks, although Disney allows that at the time this write up.