*This gluten free dining review took place in November 2019. It includes information about dairy free, fish/shellfish free, peanut free, hazelnut free, cabbage free, and chicken & turkey free options too.

Dinner at Liberty Tree Tavern

Liberty Tree Tavern, located in the Magic Kingdom, is a table service restaurant that serves Thanksgiving-style meals year-round. Recently, Brandon and I went to Liberty Tree Tavern just before Thanksgiving to celebrate the season with a holiday meal we didn't have to cook ourselves.

Atmosphere

Because Liberty Tree Tavern is located in Liberty Square, the restaurant's theme is based on a colonial inn. The restaurant serves both lunch and dinner, with lunch including a la carte options and dinner serving an all-you-care-to-enjoy Pilgrim's platter.

Liberty Tree Tavern Sign / Photo Taken by Gluten Free & Dairy Free at WDW

I absolutely love the charm of Liberty Tree Tavern. It's been a restaurant that my family has been going to since 2003, and it holds a lot of nostalgia for me. I especially love that the colonial theme has pretty much stayed the same since the first time I visited the restaurant.

Liberty Tree Tavern Lobby / Photo Taken by Gluten Free & Dairy Free at WDW

When you enter the restaurant, you'll notice a classical colonial scene, including a fireplace and lots of decor by the hearth.

Liberty Tree Tavern - Holiday Tree / Photo Taken by Gluten Free & Dairy Free at WDW

During the holiday season, they also have a lot of colonial themed holiday decor. I really loved this Christmas tree which featured lots of fruit and hand woven decorations.

Liberty Tree Tavern - Seating / Photo Taken by Gluten Free & Dairy Free at WDW

The restaurant's dining rooms are themed to represent important figures from American history. This includes:

Benjamin Franklin
Thomas Jefferson
John Paul Jones
Paul Revere
Betsy Ross
George Washington

Liberty Tree Tavern - Jefferson Room / Photo Taken by Gluten Free & Dairy Free at WDW

On this visit, we dined in the Thomas Jefferson room. On our previous visit, we dined in the Betsy Ross room, which I think might have been a bit better themed. But, the Jefferson room was quite charming. I especially loved the fireplace lined in toile designed tiles.

The seating area in the Jefferson room was fairly standard -- though we both felt the seating was a little close together. Still, you can see that the cozy room was filled with dark wooden decor, adding to the colonial theme.

The Food

Of course, the main reason we dine at Liberty Tree Tavern is the Thanksgiving-style food. Over the years, the menu has changed some, with different options being featured on the all-you-care-to-enjoy menu. The past several years has included allergy-friendly stuffing, mashed potatoes, and gravy -- definitely a big reason why we visit the restaurant!

Like most Disney owned restaurants, Liberty Tree Tavern offers an allergy-friendly menu. Guests with special dietary needs can also speak directly to a chef about options too. On this occasion, we looked at both the menu and talked to a chef directly too, as we had a lot of questions related to Brandon's special dietary needs.

Liberty Tree Tavern / Photo Taken by Gluten Free & Dairy Free at WDW

As we started our meal, the chef brought Brandon and I the Declaration Salad to share. This is served family style, and our version was gluten free, dairy free, fish/shellfish free, peanut free, cabbage free, hazelnut free, and chicken & turkey free.

The salad dressing was a honey shallot vinaigrette that was very mild but tasty. We both liked it a lot, though I thought it could have used just a bit more vinaigrette. You can, of course, always ask the chef and your server for additional vinaigrette if you need it.

Both Brandon and I were served our own platters, rather than sharing them. This is because we both have very different special dietary needs, and the chef wanted to ensure we both had a lot of options.

For my platter, I was served a Pilgrim's platter that included: roasted turkey breast, pot roast, oven roasted pork, mashed potatoes, herb rice stuffing, seasonal vegetables, and gluten free gravy. Everything on this platter was gluten free and dairy free.

I am a huge fan of Thanksgiving-style food, so I always love the Pilgrim's platter at Liberty Tree Tavern. My only slight complaint this year was the gluten free stuffing. I have been a pretty big fan of it in year's past. But, this year, I found the texture to be really gummy. The flavor was still good, but the texture was just a bit off. They also used different bread it seemed, and the stuffing was much chunkier than it had been before too. I'm not saying I wouldn't eat it again, but it definitely wasn't my favorite version of this stuffing. Everything else was fantastic as usual.

Liberty Tree Tavern - GF Mac & Cheese — Liberty Tree Tavern / Photo Taken by Gluten Free & Dairy Free at WDW

I had heard from blog readers that if you ask at Liberty Tree Tavern that you can get gluten free mac & cheese. I did ask our chef about this, and he brought me a plate of Amy's GF mac & cheese.

I wouldn't say this was anything to write home about, but it was nice that they offer this to gluten free guests. (Note that this version does contain dairy, and I do not believe they offer the gluten free & dairy free version of Amy's at this time.)

For Brandon's Pilgrim's Platter, they brought out a similar but slightly different version. Because he cannot have chicken & turkey, he couldn't have the roasted turkey, herb stuffing, or gravy. Generally, Brandon isn't a stuffing or gravy fan, so he was pretty OK with those omissions. His platter was fish/shellfish free, cabbage free, peanut free, hazelnut free, and chicken & turkey free.

Both Brandon and I really enjoyed our platters, and we both said we thought the pot roast was the best part of the meal. You'll also notice from the photos that Brandon's meal has two allergy picks on the platter. The chef made sure to mark my food with one pick and Brandon's with two so that he could ensure neither of our food got switched in any way. That was a nice touch and definitely something I hadn't seen before.

Liberty Tree Tavern - Mac & Cheese — Liberty Tree Tavern / Photo Taken by Gluten Free & Dairy Free at WDW

Brandon was also served mac & cheese, but he got the regular gluten-filled version. Like mine, he said his wasn't anything to write home about. We both liked having it as an option but it wasn't the best part of the meal by any means.

As you can see by this photo Brandon took of me, we were served a ridiculous amount of food. It definitely lived up to the Pilgrim's platter name. And, if you're still hungry after round one, you can actually order more of anything you like. We both opted to have small second helpings of our favorites like the pot roast and mashed potatoes.

Liberty Tree Tavern - GF Brownie — Liberty Tree Tavern / Photo Taken by Gluten Free & Dairy Free at WDW

For dessert, the chef brought me a gluten free brownie. This was the Sweet Street brand, which is one of the newer brands now served at Disney. Unfortunately, it does contain dairy.

Dessert really isn't the reason I come to Liberty Tree Tavern, and I'm usually way too full by the time we get to dessert. On this trip, I did eat a bit of this but only a few bites. The chef did bring me a side cup of raspberry sorbet too, which was gluten free and dairy free.

One of the things that we noticed on the allergy-friendly menu was that the dessert options listed the gluten free brownie and Oooey Gooey Toffee Cake as safe for peanut allergies. I knew that the Sweet Street brand GF brownie had a peanut cross-contamination warning, and as we confirmed with the chef neither of the dessert options were safe for peanut allergies -- despite being listed safe on the allergy-friendly menu. Because of this Brandon was served pre-packaged Enjoy Life Foods Cookies and raspberry sorbet.

If you have any type of nut allergy, I would highly recommend double-checking with a chef, as we were both pretty sure before talking to him that neither dessert was an option. Unfortunately, allergy-friendly menus aren't always accurate and can sometimes have misinformation, especially if the restaurant makes a product change.

Overall

While the dessert component wasn't great, the rest of the meal we had at Liberty Tree Tavern was. We both really enjoyed getting a Thanksgiving-style meal that was perfectly customized for both of our special dietary needs. And, I'm always really excited when I get to eat a restaurant that serves gluten free stuffing, mashed potatoes, and gravy! It's definitely become a yearly tradition to eat at Liberty Tree Tavern during the holiday season, but it's a great option year-round too.

Have you been to Liberty Tree Tavern? What did you enjoy when you dined there?

Liberty Tree Tavern Dinner Review

Dinner at Liberty Tree Tavern

Atmosphere

The Food

Overall

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