Not too long ago we posted our guide to eating healthy at Walt Disney World theme park quick-service spots, and followed that up with a guide to healthy eating at the quick-service spots at Disney Springs.
We thought it was time to provide a similar round-up of where to eat healthy at the Disney World table-service restaurants!
A Few Tips
Trying to eat a healthy meal anywhere can be difficult, but when you’re on vacation at Disney World? It seems nearly impossible. Vacation is meant to be a time of no rules, and all of the tempting Disney World table-service restaurants are calling you!
But there are plenty of spots that feature light entrees with fish or chicken and other healthier options. If you follow some common sense rules, it’s not such a challenge to eat right!
First off, despite the fact that fried chicken is delicious, avoid fried foods and choose baked or grilled items, which are better for you overall. This also includes different sides that you can get with your meals. Instead of going for the french fries, most places will let you sub them out for a side salad or a fruit cup.
Another good tip I can give is to eat everything in moderation. Allow yourself a treat once a day, so you don’t feel deprived. You’re on vacation, after all! Have a dessert with one of your table-service meals that is both satisfying and healthy, or at least healthier than others. Some examples of this would be gluten- or sugar-free items or various fruits.
Restaurant Recommendations
Each area in the expanse of Disney World has fantastic table-service restaurant options for those who are health-conscious. I’m especially partial to the delicious seafood available! Who’d have ever thought that clean eating would be so easy on vacation, right?! Here are our suggestions for some of the best places to eat rather healthy:
MAGIC KINGDOM
- Healthy Choice breakfast: multigrain toast, egg white scramble, avocado, cotija cheese, and jalapeño
- Herb-salted pork tenderloin with corn purée, fava beans, and garlic pistou
Be Our Guest Dinner
HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS
Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater Restaurant
- Vegan tofu lettuce wraps with water chestnuts, shredded carrots, spicy cucumber, Szechuan sauce, and soba noodle salad
- Oven-roasted turkey sandwich served on a multigrain croissant with bacon, lettuce, marinated tomatoes, and cilantro-avocado aïoli
- Famous Cobb Salad (either starter or entree)
- Several other entrees, including Vegetarian Pho, Faroe Island Salmon, Bell & Evans Chicken Breast
EPCOT
- Various types of sushi, including California rolls, seared tuna rolls, and vegetable rolls
- Pan-roasted Scottish Salmon with fresh kale, red and green cabbage, brussels sprouts, carrots, and red lentils with an aromatic English Spring pea sauce
- Lemon Chicken Tagine, or Mogador Grouper Tagine,
- North Atlantic Salmon with mushrooms, hummus & olive harissa tomato concassee
- Chicken kebabs with olive salad, dried fruit, and sweet couscous
- Seared Mahi Mahi with Caribbean shrimp salsa and coconut and cilantro-lime sauce, topped on a bed of jasmine rice
- Grilled swordfish with lemon-herb vinaigrette, white beans, cipollini onions, and arugula
- For dessert: No sugar added Angel Food Cake with berries
Coral Reef - Lunch/Dinner
- Starters: Prosciutto and melon, various salads
- Branzino, simply grilled sea bass with spinach, potatoes, salmoriglio trapanese
- Petto di Pollo – pounded chicken, oven roasted vegetables, pesto sauce
- For dessert: Lemon sorbet
ANIMAL KINGDOM
- Starter: Lettuce cups with minced chicken breast, chopped vegetables, and Saigon hoison sauce
- Korean roasted cauliflower with white and red quinoa, brown rice, vegetables, and Korean BBQ seasoning
- Seared Miso Salmon miso glazed Atlantic salmon, coconut-ginger rice, baby bok choy and shiitake mushroom stir-fry
- Also daily Chef’s Fresh Catch, grilled, broiled or pan-seared
Yak and Yeti Restaurant
- Starter: Avocado and Tomato Salad
- Pan-seared Alaskan Halibut – herb-roasted tomato, haricot vert, fingerling potato, saffron aioli, Kalamata marmalade
DISNEY SPRINGS AND DISNEY WORLD RESORT HOTELS
Fresh Mediterranean Market at the Dolphin Hotel
- The Healthy Homestyle breakfast: scrambled egg whites, spinach, red bell peppers, low fat cheddar cheese, turkey, roasted sweet potatoes and a side of either a whole grain English muffin or whole wheat bagel with avocado butter
- Thai chicken salad with Boston bibb lettuce, cucumber, papaya, pea tendrils, cashews, and a tamarind-ginger dressing
Fresh Mediterranean Market Breakfast
Todd English’s bluezoo at Dolphin Hotel
- A variety of seafood choices, but especially Bluezoo’s Simply Fish selection of the night
- Smoked honey-sesame salmon with green beans, forbidden rice, radish, turnip purée, and coriander vin blanc
- For dessert – a trio of seasonal sorbets
- A variety of fresh fish dishes, including oak-grilled salmon with cauliflower purée, beets, and sunflower seeds and swordfish with vegetable mélange and potato beurre blanc
- Â For dessert: Panna “carpa”, a no-sugar-added buttermilk panna cotta
The Wave at the Contemporary Resort
- Breakfast: Avocado toast with applewood-smoked bacon, poached eggs, and watercress salad; Omelet your way with choice of ham, bacon, mushroom, onion, tomato, cheese, or spinach with breakfast potatoes
- Dinner: Grilled pork tenderloin, tamari noodle bowl, sustainable fish of the day
- For dessert: No sugar added creme brulee with fruit; seasonal sorbet
The Wave Lunch/Dinner
California Grill at the Contemporary Resort
- Sushi!
- Also a wide variety of fish dishes, including sea bass, ahi tuna, and salmon
- Grilled pork tenderloin with a zinfandel glaze, crimini mushrooms, caponata-stuffed squash blossoms, and goat cheese polenta
- Because of the tapas-style small plates here you can control portions better; specialties include charred octopus and poached tuna
- Scallops with harissa vinaigrette, fava hummus, yogurt powder, olives, and roasted carrots
- Hanger steak with salsa verde, various peppers, potatoes, and greens
Sanaa at Animal Kingdom Lodge’s Kidani Village
- Tandoori chicken with traditional naan, rocket, pickled onion, tomato, and sambal mayonnaise
- Salad sampler with berbere black-eyed peas, jicama and citrus, Tunisian beet chermula
- Quinoa vegetable tabbouleh salad with black rice, herbs, paneer, citrus dressing, and papadum
- WIDE variety of seafood, including crab boil and shrimp boil
- Beef Skewers with hazelnut romesco and pickled onions
- Charred Octopus with smoked paprika oil, cannellini beans, and chourico
- So much seafood, like cedar-planked Norwegian salmon with lemon vinaigrette and coriander-seared ahi tuna with soy-lime vinaigrette
- Wedge salad
Wolfgang Puck Bar & Grill at Disney Springs
- Faroe Island salmon with fennel, yogurt, quinoa, and sun-dried tomatoes
- Pan-roasted half chicken with garlic-thyme jus, lemon, and potato purée
Wolfgang Puck Bar & Grill
Have you discovered other healthy table-service meals on your Disney trips that we left out? What are your favorites, and why? Let us know in the comments below!
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Rather than list the obvious, it would be more helpful to suggest healthy food finds at restaurants that obviously do not specialize in healthy eating. And not just salads.
Hi Jan, that’s what we tried to do — we suggested the Lemon Chicken Tagine, Mogador Grouper Tagine, or North Atlantic Salmon with mushrooms at Marrakesh; the halibut at Tiffins; the grilled pork tenderloin and tamari noodle bowl at The Wave; the Tandoori chicken at Sanaa; and the charred octopus at Paddlefish… Did you have something/somewhere else specifically in mind?
Debra, thanks for the reply. I was thinking of 50’s Prime Time; Mama Melrose’s; Tokyo Dining; Citricos; and Boma. It looks like we enjoy a different set of restaurants, and you didn’t claim that the article is comprehensive, so it’s a matter of taste.