Everything Pop! -- Quick Service -- Lunch/Dinner -- Pop Century

*This dining experience took place in July 2013.

Entrance to the gift shop and food court

Groovy! Pop Century Resort is all about the retro vibe. From the 1950's all the way to the 80's there is something nostalgic for everyone in your family! Pop Century holds a special place in my heart as one of the resorts I spent vacation with my brother at. We used to take brother and sister trips back in the day and it's a nice reminder of the fun times we had! The last time we stayed there was back in 2005 when Pop Century was new! It was great to head back here and check out the great food court. One of the things that I've consistently heard about Pop Century is its ability to accommodate special diets and on this occasion, they proved to do just that.

View of the food court. It was pretty quite at 1 p.m.

When I arrived at the restaurant, I took a stroll around to see what they offered. They have a lot of sandwiches, burgers, and fries, as well as a custom pasta bar. They also have a lot of comfort food type dishes. I was craving a sandwich and I saw one that stuck out to me that sounded like a Cuban sandwich (you know I'm a fan from my breakfast Cuban at Old Key West). When the chef came out, he asked me what I wanted and I wasn't sure really, even though I was leaning towards the pork sandwich. The chef said he could pretty much make me whatever I wanted or was in the mood for. I was debating between a tuna salad sandwich (boring, I know) and the roasted pork. I ended up choosing the roasted pork sandwich and french fries. The pork sandwich typically comes on a sub roll with cheese and pickles. The chef said he'd remove the cheese and use the Udi's buns (which turned out to be Udi's bread). Fine by me. I wish I would have asked for more options, but I was really hungry after a blog meetup over at Babycakes (I was too busy gabbing to eat much there--though their donuts are fantastic!)While I was waiting with a pager, I saw the chef come out and bring a lady an allergy meal which was a plain grilled chicken sandwich on an Udi's bun with fries. Good to know you can get the chicken sandwich too.Once my meal came out, I discovered that the Udi's bun was now replaced with Udi's bread. Fine by me, though I think it would have been tastier with the bun. I think they used the bread b/c it gave you more room to add the meat in it.

Roasted Pork Sandwich Modified

One thing I will say is that this portion was huge! The sandwich, which I thought just had roasted pork on it, actually had a lot of different kinds of pork. This can be a good thing and bad thing depending on your opinion but was def. worth the price. (*Note: If you have Tables in Wonderland, you can get 20% off at this restaurant!) It contained roasted pork tenderloin, sliced deli ham and pulled pork (without the BBQ sauce). Holy smokes! It was topped with a spicy brown mustard. I admit, this was entirely too much pork for me. The roasted pork was excellent and I would have preferred the entire sandwich be made of this. The deli ham was also good. The pulled pork was just too greasy and fatty for me. I pulled most of it off the sandwich and skipped eating it. I will say, some pickles would have been a good touch to the sandwich. The french fries weren't anything unusual--the standard Disney french fry.

Here's a view of the layers without the bun. As you can see, very generous portion.

After my meal, I wandered about to see what special diets offerings they had pre-packaged in the food court. They didn't have what I consider to be a huge amount of options out in the front, but my guess is you can ask for some additional products in the back. Pretty much everything in the photo is gluten free, but most contain dairy. I believe they also had the OMG It's Gluten Free and Dairy Free Chocolate Chip Cookie here as well.

Slightly limited offerings

Overall, I was pleased with my meal, though I wish I would have asked for more options. I do know though, as I mentioned, that Everything Pop! is a terrific place for special diets and there are some great chefs there. I hear tons of first-hand reports from other guests who just rave about their level of special diets accommodation.I'd give this a 7 out of 10 for this particular experience but am looking forward to checking back in again and seeing what else they have to offer.Have you been to Pop Century with a special diet? What have you ordered there? Any good recommendations for guests planning to dine there?