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| Welcome home! 50's Prime Time Cafe is just like mom's house... |
*This review is from July 2012Here we are again for another review of 50's Prime Time Cafe. I love this place; the atmosphere and the hijinks are always great. In fact, I look forward to visiting with Cousin Tom and the rest of the delightfully in-character crew at 50's PT. It doesn't hurt that the food here is pretty good too. Nice homey, old fashioned 50's - 60's food with a modern flare (no jello molds here!). While I have tried other items on the menu, the main reason I head to 50's PT is for the one and only gluten/dairy (and soy free, likely egg and nut free too) fried chicken, dairy free mashed potatoes, and the brownie sundaes! They also carry dairy free milkshakes here too, but I'm usually too full to add that to my order!For this trip, I had emailed Chef Williere Justin who used to work at 50's PT (and always made sure we had a great meal); however, I found out he had moved to Whispering Canyon Cafe (see my July 2012 review of WCC--it was excellent!), but the great thing is that he got in touch with Chef Brandon who is at 50's PT.Working with Chef Brandon, I was able to work out what I wanted. I made sure to request gravy this time, because I've only ever had it one time (and I had not requested it).When we arrived at the restaurant, we sat and enjoyed the retro vibe (although I must say vinyl/pleather chairs and really hot humid Florida weather do not mix!) and I noticed that a seating ticket came up and a chef came out and spent a lot of time with the hostess going over it. Hmmm....ten bucks says that has to do with me! Yep, I was right. The chef was waiting for me and said he'd let us settle in to the table and then he'd come over to go over the food.
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| Retro seating and decor |
Once seated, Chef Ivan came back out to speak with me. Wow, they were prepared! He had a stack, and I mean a stack of stapled correspondence from me to them. Too funny. He said that he was ready for me; he went over the ingredients with me, which was nice. He explained that this was the first time he was making it, and he wanted to make sure it turned out well. The chicken uses rice flour and the mashed potatoes (which are AMAZING) are made with extra virgin olive oil, garlic, salt, little bit of water, pepper. The greens were sauteed in evoo and also had bacon in them. Then the gravy he used rice flour to thicken it. This all sounded good to me. We also discussed the brownie for dessert, and he said that the brownie was still safe (they make it in-house) and they could do chocolate or vanilla tofutti. Naturally, I went with chocolate. The only odd part was that he asked me if M&Ms are ok. I had to remind them that they have dairy in it, which he said he forgot about. They said the sprinkles would be ok and that the popcorn doesn't have anything related to dairy or gluten in it. (For those who don't know, the traditional "Dad's brownie sundae" comes loaded with whipped cream, sprinkles, ice cream, M&M's, and a caramel corn of some sort.)The food came out pretty quickly. My mom and stedpad also had the non-allergy friend chicken meal, so there was a lot of fried chicken at our table. Yum! Mine came out on completely different dish-ware and also had a place marker that said "Allergy" on it. I've never seen any other WDW restaurant do this, and I really like it because it allows for less confusion (in the past I've been brought regular non-allergy friendly fried chicken b/c they weren't marked). It would be nice to see this in other restaurants in the future. It's also nice that they use different dishes because that is another way to distinguish a special diets meal.
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| Gluten Free/Dairy Free/Soy Free awesomeness--fried chicken, mashed potatoes, greens, and gravy! |
After they brought the food out, the chef did come back to check on me to see how it was. It was excellent. Although, I think it might have been a tad greasier than I've had in the past, it was still really good. Moist and tender and the fried chicken crust was amazing. The mashed potatoes here are something spectacular. Seriously! In my humble opinion, these are consistently the best mashed potatoes on property. So flavorful and rich. Whispering Canyon Cafe's are a close second. The ones at Liberty Tree Tavern are also good, but they don't have the depth of flavor that they do here. I need to find out exactly what they do to these potatoes to make them so darn good. My attempts with evoo haven't turned out quite as well. The greens were also good here. Anything that involves bacon is A-OK with me. I personally like them cooked down more, but that's me. I grew up on mushy greens and green beans, etc. Then we get to the gravy. Yum! I liked the gravy I got here the first time better, but this one reminded me of my mom's chicken gravy. It was almost identical. I had her taste it, and she even agreed. So, it was nice to have something taste so familiar. Double Yum!
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| Close-up of the chicken with potatoes and greens. That's a lot of chicken! |
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| Close-up of the chicken gravy. Yeah, I ate the whole thing... |
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| I didn't quite make it to the "Clean Plate" club...that was a lot of food! |
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| Sarah's awesome gluten free/dairy free brownie sundae. Delish! |
Then it was on to dessert. The chef prepared a great sundae (and another nice touch that the allergy market was on it. It was also in a different type of dish than the traditional sundae). I didn't really eat the popcorn (doesn't always settle well with me), but I scarfed the rest down. Somehow, it doesn't matter how full I am here, I can always make room for dessert. Well...that happens a lot at WDW!
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| Our Cousin Janice was singing "Happy Birthday" to my stepdad...she was a hoot! |
Overall, I had a really good experience at 50's Prime Time Cafe. Chef Ivan was very kind and very attentive to make sure that everything was done just right. Just remember whenever you go someplace to be mindful of ingredients and ask if you think the offering doesn't sound safe. (i.e. M&M's on a sundae here is a no go for dairy free folks).I can't wait to head back again...another solid 9 out of 10. Love the ambiance, the staff interaction, and of course the food!!! Definitely a continued must-do for me.
