Roaring Forks -- Lunch/Dinner -- Quick Service -- Wilderness Lodge
*This dining experience took place in September 2013.
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| Wilderness Lodge Lobby--One of my favorite resorts! |
Anytime you visit the Wilderness Lodge, you're bound to experience the joys of this resort and really feel like you're transported to a turn-of-the-century national park lodge at the Grand Canyon. Every dining experience gives you that feeling from Whispering Canyon Cafe with its family style meals to the grandeur of Artist Point and its Arts & Crafts movement inspiration. Roaring Forks is the quick service location at the resort, and you will feel like you're saddling up for a day of exploring after you fuel here for a meal. Each time I've been I've been pleasantly surprised by the special diets offerings.On this particular occasion, we stopped by to grab a late lunch/early dinner. It was actually quite bustling in the restaurant which was surprising at 2:30 p.m. We'd spent the day in the Magic Kingdom, so it was a nice place to take a break and rest from it the busy day. I love that going to the lodge makes you feel completely removed from the theme parks. In fact, I spent my 30th birthday week here and it's one of my favorite places to relax!
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| Self portrait while relaxing in the big chairs in the lobby |
Roaring Forks is located near the pool area of the resort (if you see Artist Point keep going down the long corridor and turn left). It's a bit of a tiny quick service location with a small ordering and dining area. It gets really busy in the mornings!
I will say that the menu isn't super big for this location, so we didn't have a ton to choose from overall, but there were a few good choices. I am a big fan of the Wilderness Salad which comes with grilled chicken, walnuts (plain, not candied), diced apples, and an apple vinaigrette. It also has cheese and croutons but can be easily made GF/DF without them. So, I knew I wanted to get the salad. We also decided to try the Grilled Pacific Northwest Chicken Sandwich which sounded intriguing. It's grilled chicken, Canadian bacon, wilderness sauce (which I assumed was not safe) and cheese (omitted for me) and fries.When I got up to the ordering station, I asked for a manager who came out and spoke with me. He said both of these options would be good and the salad was very easy. He then asked what kind of bun I wanted. I was surprised and delighted to hear that they carry both Udi's AND GNI buns! See that's what I'm talking about--carry both; this is a win-win for guests and the kitchen! I prefer the Udi's since I can have egg, so I asked for an Udi's bun. It was nice to know though that they would ask my preference and carry both. Love that! The manager said he'd have to check the Wilderness Sauce ingredients. While I waited, I looked around and checked out some of the great authentic decor.
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| Part of the Ordering Area |
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| And the other part--very small! |
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| Who's ready to go exploring? |
I will say that this manager was very conscientious. He had the cast member assisting him make my salad in a completely separate area with clean dishes, utensils and gloves (it was open so I watched). They opened everything fresh and not at the salad station. The manager prepared my sandwich in the back as well. He came out and showed me the ingredients for the Wilderness Sauce (which is a concoction of mayo, cranberry sauce, mustard, etc.) which looked say to me based on the ingredients. It did say that it contained egg and soy.Then it was off to the dining room to dig in. The family split the meals because we'd eaten at Columbia Harbour House earlier for the allergy friendly chicken tenders! First up was the salad. This was the big hit. My mom said she loved this and would get it again. I also really enjoy this salad. It's fresh, crisp, tasty and great on a hot day. And huge! You get a ton of food.
Then it was onto the chicken sandwich. I'm gonna say this was OK but a little weird. I liked the chicken. I liked the Canadian bacon and I liked the Udi's bun. But the Wilderness Sauce?! That just seemed weird for the dish. Maybe the cheese would have given it more of a complete dish vibe. We had the sauce on the side--it was good to dip fries in! lol I'm not sure the chicken sandwich would be my top choice but it wasn't terrible either. I'd get the salad over the sandwich hands down.
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| Wilderness Sauce |
Overall, I'd give this location a 7 out of 10. Not quite as many options as I would like but what they did have was nice. They were also very accommodating. The manager even came out to our table in the dining room to make sure it was all OK and that I liked the food. I really appreciated that, and it's nice to see that he was so diligent and wanted to make sure I was satisfied and comfortable with the food. Definitely someplace I'd go back to, especially if I were staying at the lodge!
Roaring Forks -- Counter Service -- Wilderness Lodge
Tucked in the back of the Wilderness Lodge, is Roaring Forks, a cozy counter service. I only ate here once, but I could see that the options weren't as plentiful as value and moderate resort CS offer; however, I did find the quality to still be high. After arriving our first day, we went down to Roaring Forks for lunch. The offerings include salads, deli sandwiches, and items from the grill (such as hamburgers, chicken sandwiches, etc.). Upon arrival, I asked the Cast Member behind the salad area about allergy assistance (i.e. can I see a manager?), another Cast Member, who was clearly more experienced, came up and said she would be able to assist me. She then began giving me options of items that would be good. She suggested a Chicken, Apple, and Walnut salad. It had iceberg and romaine lettuce, with candied walnuts, diced apples, grilled chicken and an apple type vinaigrette. She said she would omit the cheese (maybe blue cheese came with it? I can't recall) and no croutons. She also used clean gloves and a fresh bowl. She gave me extra chicken as well. I tend to avoid a lot of salads because of Crohn's disease, which makes it harder to digest the fresh veggies. However, it did sound tasty and the CM put plenty of protein in it to help. Boy, I'm glad I got this one. It was delicious! I also did not get sick from the lettuce or the vinaigrette.
A very tasty salad!