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| Yeehaw! This was quite a meal! |
**This dining experience took place July 2012.Howdy! Who's ready for a rootin' tootin' review of Whispering Canyon Cafe?! I know I'm sure ready to head back here for another meal. Yum! I haven't eaten here for dinner since 2003 (and that was pre-allergies), so I was looking forward to this meal. On top of that, I had been in contact with Chef Williere Justin, formerly of 50's Prime Time (and who many of you know has provided some really amazing experiences and darn good GF/DF fried chicken there) who is now at Whispering Canyon Cafe. I will say that there are a few chefs on WDW's property that I will follow from restaurant to restaurant because they are that good. Chef Williere might just possibly be my favorite of all chefs on WDW property. His dedication to providing safe and tasty dining experiences for guests is unparalleled. In fact, there was another guest there with allergies at the same time was so happy, our server said she must have hugged Chef Williere for 5 minutes! He's that good! So, I was very excited about this meal. We had been in contact prior to my visit, and I knew I was able to get GF/DF cornbread, and that there would be a chocolate cake made. Wahoo! Cornbread and chocolate cake sounded A-OK to me!Upon arrival, we were greeted almost immediately by Chef Williere who said he was ready for us. He just confirmed that we were having the lunch skillet (a slightly, and only slightly because it's huge, smaller version of the dinner skillet) with cornbread. He also said that he had the bakery make me a special cake. Yum! I was excited. We were also greeted by our server Jeffro, who Chef Williere said was just great. We were off to a good start!Now for those of you unfamiliar with Whispering Canyon Cafe, you should know that there are lots of fun hijinks that happen here. The chefs kid around a lot and tend to be "surly." Just ask for some extra ketchup some time. You'll see what I mean! :)We really didn't have much time at all to wait for food, which was good because we were hungry! Chef Williere brought out two huge pieces of GF/DF cornbread. Wow, it looked good!
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| GF/DF Cornbread! So good my family kept trying to eat it! |
The cornbread was extremely moist (which those of us who bake GF/DF know that can be sometimes difficult) and delicious. It was dense and almost cake-like. The taste was phenomenal. I gave my family some to sample (they had regular gluteny cornbread), and they loved it. In fact, later they asked for some more because they liked it so much.Next up was the coleslaw. This was not mayonnaise based, so it was nice and light. But, be warned it had a slight kick to it. So, if you don't like spicy food, just keep that in mind. Still, it was extremely good.
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| Coleslaw |
Up next, was the mammoth skillet that we were served. Mammoth is an understatement. Jeffro told us to make sure to make room, and he sure wasn't kidding! Wowie! Initially, I made the assumption that I would be brought a separate skillet; that usually happens at most restaurants, so I didn't dig in immediately. I asked our server, and he said, no the whole skillet was safe. Wow. That was pretty amazing because that never happens, not even at WDW. But, we could all share. I loved this. The skillet consisted of: BBQ pork ribs, chicken, and sausage, baked beans, garlic smashed potatoes, and corn on the cob. That's a lot of food.
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| A mighty skillet filled with GF/DF goodness! |
My first plate consisted of chicken, ribs, potatoes, and beans. OMG. So good. The chicken was very good and moist. It tasted like it had some rosemary in it. The beans were also very good, nice BBQ flavor. Then there were the ribs. Those were a surprise, because I'm always on the fence with ribs. I either love them or hate them. These were of the love kind. Very smoky and tasty. Then there were the potatoes. Those were to-die for. I ate about 3 servings of the potatoes...seriously.
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| Round one of my meal...there were several! |
So between the cornbread and the skillet, I was one full girl. But, we knew there was cake coming. Oh boy was there cake coming. I was talking to Jeffro, our server, at the time, but my stepdad and mom said that Chef Williere peeked out from the kitchen and gave the thumbs up signal to see if we were ready for dessert. Yep, we were! And what a surprise dessert it was! Chef said that he had the baker make a special chocolate cake. It was so amazing. The most artful and special looking GF/DF cake I've ever had on property (and the most tasty, I must say). It was also pretty huge! The cake consisted of chocolate cake, strawberry jam layered in the cake, and a strawberry jam layer on the top of the cake with white frosting and fresh strawberries. I'm still not sure how I packed all the food away or made space for the cake, but I did. It was so amazing. My family was raving about how good it was and how it did not at all taste like a "special diets" dessert.
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| Full view of the gorgeous cake. |
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| Close-up view of the cake top |
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| Cake serving. Yum! |
I am telling you, when I need a special occasions cake, I'm contacting their bakery again. They have officially blown any other WDW bakery out of the park. Divine! Luckily, we were able to take the cake home with us; otherwise we would not have been able to eat the whole thing (and admittedly, I ate some for breakfast the next day!).A word about special cake orders. These have varying costs, and you can arrange this ahead of time with the bakery or chefs at the various restaurants and hotels. Typically, desserts at restaurants are usually gf/df non-dairy ice cream, cookies, house-made brownies, and sorbets. So, this was a specially prepared cake. So, if you want something like this, you'll want to contact the restaurant ahead of time and consider that there will likely be an additional cost incurred. Restaurants are also now able to order cakes from Babycakes at Downtown Disney if you prefer.Overall, I can't say enough good things about this experience from the servers to Chef Williere and his amazing staff, my whole family was blown away by this meal.Definitely a 10 out of 10! Run don't walk to this restaurant and expect a really great meal. Hijinks definitely included :)
