River Belle Terrace Allergy-Friendly Dinner: Fantasmic Dining Package
River Belle Terrace is one of the smaller, more intimate dining locations at Disneyland. The restaurant, though, does have a small problem with it being very noisy when full. This also happens to be one of the few locations to feature a Fantasmic Dining Package. Just make sure to note, while the website will say that it includes a cushion for Fantasmic, only the Blue Bayou dining package provides one, but you will get a fantastic seat for the show regardless. Our River Belle Terrace allergy-friendly dinner also focused on foods safe for gluten-free, paleo, and keto diets.
There are two different Fantasmic menus below – we each received a different one. Unfortunately, as much as I wanted to try the Maleficent Dragon dessert, they gave the menu to me by mistake as they were not yet serving that dessert.
We are also providing the kids’ menu of the Fantasmic package.
Because there are no River Belle Terrace allergy-friendly menus for the Fantasmic dining package, we asked for the regular allergy-friendly menus to compare and see what we could order before speaking with a chef. Of course, we always ask for a chef before ordering as they can often customize items not on the regular allergy menus.
The dining package includes a starter, entrée, and dessert as well as a beverage. For the starter, the dishes are limited between the Corn Chowder, which is not allergy-friendly and the Strawberry-Pistachio Salad. The salad, which is a blend of arugula and spinach, topped with pistachios and strawberries, sprinkled with Manchego cheese, and topped with a balsamic-pistachio vinaigrette that contains heavy cream.
They can leave off the cheese and the dressing for both a keto and paleo option to the salad.
If so, they can bring extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar as an alternative dressing option.
The salad itself is fantastic; it has just the right amount of dressing without it being excessive. The combination of the taste of the cheese, the sweetness of the dressing, and the crunch of the pistachios combine to create a fantastic dish even for someone who does not usually like salads. It also helps that it is a very beautiful dish to look at with the multitude of colors. You will notice three versions of our salads – the keto and the paleo versions (with and without cheese), as well as one with the dairy-based dressing. The salads are missing one of the main features – the strawberries. We try to avoid non-organic strawberries due to their high pesticide risk. What you see in the photos are radish slices.
For our River Belle Terrace allergy-friendly dinner entrées we tried both the Pork Spareribs and the Catch of the Day. The ribs are a fantastic dish that contains no gluten, eggs, peanuts or tree nuts, shellfish or fish, or soy. The plate consists of three large ribs that are tender and juicy. They are usually topped with a sauce, but I opted for it on the side which was my preference since the seasoning used on the ribs is more than enough flavor for them. Omitting the sauce also cuts down on the sugar content. Instead of getting the signature baked beans that contain brown sugar, I opted for the mixed vegetables. The vegetables consisted of a nice combination of leeks, romanesco (broccoli), and mushrooms which were well seasoned and delicious. Because I am only gluten-free and not personally on a paleo diet, I did try the mashed potatoes. While the portion looks small, it is actually a fairly large portion that I could not even finish.
Our other River Belle Terrace allergy-friendly dinner entrée was the Catch of the Day. On this day, they were serving Arctic Char which is not normally gluten-friendly as it is dusted with flour. Of course, we ordered it without the flour, and the chef said it would be seasoned only with salt and pepper. When the dish came out, it had not been made with salt or pepper, and was extremely bland. We had also asked for olive oil and herbs to be used for the vegetables, and that was not the case. Also, the vegetables were not cooked enough so they were still relatively raw and flavorless. This healthy paleo and keto dish was not enjoyable – although it could have been had it been prepared with the care we typically experience at Walt Disney World restaurants.
As to the other entrée options, the Citrus Herb-crusted Cornish Game Hens do contain dairy. Although they are safe for all other allergies, to make this dish dairy free would take an hour. The Beef Short Ribs, on the other hand, are off-limits for all top 8 allergens, as well as paleo and keto diets. The BBQ Tofu is another item not on the allergy-friendly menu.
Unfortunately, after looking over the River Belle Terrace allergy-friendly dinner menu for dessert options, both of the desserts are not allergy-friendly at all. We were offered the option of Strawberry sorbet, which contained sugar, so even that would not work for the paleo or keto diet. For that reason, I went ahead and ordered both desserts for myself. Yes, Lori took a bite of each (for review purposes – LOL). We omitted the cookie crumbles from the Maple-Bacon Pudding to make it gluten-friendly. While they normally have the Maleficent Dragon dessert, right now they have the Hitchhiking Ghost Blue Velvet Cake.
The Maple-Bacon Pudding is a salted maple pudding topped with Chantilly cream, salted shortbread cookie crumble, and bacon-paprika seed brittle, and two half slices of candied bacon. It is a pretty good dish that happens to be a tad bit too sweet for my liking. Of course, since it tasted like butterscotch, Lori’s favorite, she had a few more bites than she planned.
The other dessert, the Hitchhiking Ghost Blue Velvet Cake, is a blue velvet cake topped with blueberry puree, rice croquette brittle, vanilla blueberry crisp, and a chocolate cake topper and white chocolate ghost. It’s a nice homage to the iconic ride and a fantastic dessert. The cake is perfect and full of rich flavors of chocolate and blueberry which paired very nicely together. I just wish it could have been made as an allergy-friendly option.
Overall, our River Belle Terrace allergy-friendly dinner failed to step up to the full level of allergy-friendly options available, yet still manages to provide a decent array of options for what it can. While they are getting better, it would be nice to see more allergy-friendly dessert options appear on the menus in the future.