Welcome home! 50’s Prime Time Cafe is just like mom’s house…

*This review is from July 2012

Here 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.

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.

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!

Close-up of the chicken with potatoes and greens. That’s a lot of chicken!

Close-up of the chicken gravy. Yeah, I ate the whole thing…

I didn’t quite make it to the “Clean Plate” club…that was a lot of food!

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!

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.

I love 50’s Prime Time. I love gluten free/dairy free fried chicken. I dream about it!!! So good. 50’s Prime Time has been one of those places that I have become very spoiled with such a wonderful meal. I always contact them ahead of time, so that they can make sure to make the gluten free/dairy free fried chicken and dairy free mashed potatoes (my favorite on property by the way!). Yum!

Sometimes, I get green beans and carrots and other times the collard greens with bacon (depends on my mood). I’ve only received gluten free gravy once…but I wish I could get it more often. That gravy was divine. Here’s an example of the standard allergy friendly fried chicken:

Gluten free/dairy free fried chicken with olive oil mashed potatoes and veggies

House made brownie with rice dream

It’s a lot of food! I usually have to give myself time for dessert, but I usually manage 🙂 They have a house made brownie (thank goodness, there is still a brownie that I can eat on property) with rice dream and sometimes syrup. Just depends on the chef and day (and how full I am).

I recently went (May 2012) with an ADR but no contact ahead of time regarding the allergies. I was just curious how they would handle things, especially since I was not really wanting fried chicken at the time. When the chef came out, he said that he could do several of the options including the blue plate special (which was some type of pork chops with an apple chutney of some type). I opted for the Boneless Pork Tenderloin. It normally comes with mashed potatoes (which I really really wanted), but they said they could do a brown rice. Boring, but I decided to try it. I also got green beans and carrots.

Boneless Pork Tenderloin with rice and veggies

When the entree arrived, it had a nice marker in it that noted allergy. That was the first time I’d seen that, and I appreciated that. That made it fairly clear that it was for me. I hadn’t asked for mushrooms, but they arrived on my plate (I think some variation of mushrooms were on the regular dish). I am not a big mushroom fan, so I gave these to my mom, who really liked them. The boneless pork tenderloins were good. Tender, flavorful, nothing fancy though. I like their veggies there. The brown rice had cranberries in it. Not bad, gave it a little bit of a zing. But, I still would have liked to have had the mashed potatoes. Oh well.

For dessert, I got the same house made brownie with rice dream and chocolate syrup; however, the server brought it too me with the m&m’s on them, which are not safe! eek!!! They were all around the dish, not really on the brownie or the ice cream, so I gambled and had my mom give me a clean spoon and gave her all of the offending areas. I didn’t get sick, so that was good. I think it was just a miscommunication and the server seemed a bit new.

Overall, I love 50’s Prime Time. Even when I didn’t give any notice, I still found the food to be pretty good. Next time though, I’m going to plan ahead and make sure to ask for mashed potatoes!

Also, don’t forget to have a good time while you’re there…..I love the 50’s PT hijinks. I was once there with a friend who was so full from the meal that he joked he couldn’t possibly eat anything for dessert except for water. Well, don’t say things too loudly…Our Cousin Tom (one of my favorite servers) brought out a big o’le bowl of water for his dessert. Too funny!

50’s PT always gets a solid 9 out of 10 from me. Love, love, love this place. Just make sure you contact them ahead of time (by contacting WDW Special Diets), and they will be able to accommodate you beautifully.

Oh boy, do I love 50’s Prime Time. I adore the gluten free/dairy free fried chicken and the greens. It’s soooo tasty. I’ve been in contact with Chef Williere on the last trip and this one as well. I had arranged to have the chicken ready and they wanted to know if I wanted a special dessert (um, brownie sundae from the last time was A-OK by me). Chef Williere was also on duty, so he said he would try to catch up w/me. When we got there, I was greeted by Chef Albert, who looked at me like I was crazy and he had no idea about me arranging this ahead of time. (It takes a while to make the chicken, so if you get a hold of them ahead of time, you can have it ready pretty close to when you would get regular entrees). However, when I mentioned Chef Williere, he went to get him. Chef Williere apologized that they basically forgot it. But that he would take care of making sure Chef Albert got it done for us (we were not on his side of the restaurant). He also said he had sorbet for me for dessert (I really wanted chocolate, but it ended up being ok, b/c we had so much food). He asked if we were going to order appetizers and we said no. He said that the chicken would be a wait, so he said he would bring us appetizers on the house. This was so nice of him. He gave my mom and stepdad onion rings and crab cakes and the seafood salad for me. The seafood salad had a citrus vinagrette and it was fabulous. Very fresh tasting and lots of seafood. One of my favorite things on the trip.

Very delicious seafood salad appetizer.

Again, Chef Williere couldn’t have been nicer about things. After eating my appetizer I ran to the restroom and when I came back, the waitstaff had brought out fried chicken, but it did NOT look like what I got the previous time and had gravy all over it. Ummmm, I don’t think that is mine! I asked the waitress about it, and sure enough they brought me a regular dinner. Chef Albert came out with mine not too long after. Good thing, I checked!! Holy cow! That would have been bad for everyone! My entree was the fried chicken, dairy free mashed potatoes, and greens. Unfortunately, he didn’t give me gravy this time, which was a bummer. The greens were also not cooked very well. But the potatoes and chicken were excellent, so it worked out ok. I was very full after that meal and the appetizer. I unfortunately forgot to take a picture of the entree, but if you check out my other blog post about 50’s PT, you will see a tempting picture!

For dessert, they brought me out the strawberry sorbet, and that was pretty good. Next time, I will go for a sundae though!

A refreshing dessert after piggin out on fried chicken!

Overall, despite a few hiccups, it was still a great meal, and I wouldn’t hesitate to go there again. Perhaps next time, I’ll check in a few days before the meal to make sure they have the chicken order on hand b/c I could definitely tell a big difference from that. Overall a 8 out of 10 on this trip, but a 9 out of 10 in general for being a great allergy friendly place!

Just want to shout out to the Disboards and a fellow Disboards member who put a post out there recently about making sure you contact 50’s Prime Time ahead of time about the gluten free fried chicken and dairy free mashed potatoes, as it takes 30-40 minutes to make! Pheww! Good thing I followed up on this! I had already emailed Chef Williere about it, but double checked today. Here’s what I wrote:

Just wanted to confirm that as long as I have my allergy form turned in and I have emailed you, that I don’t need to call the day of the reservation to confirm that I want the gluten free fried chicken and no dairy mashed potatoes. I assume it takes a little longer to make.

And here’s what I got back:

Hi Sarah,

Precisely! I have your allergy form in my office . we will plan ahead so your party will not have to wait to enjoy the park.

We will see you soon!

I feel better now! Thanks again to the Disboards–what would I do without you guys?! And remember folks, if you want something specific always ask ahead of time! 🙂

Can’t wait for that fried chicken!!!!

For my October trip, I have a reservation at 50’s Prime Time because I’ve heard such amazing reviews of the gluten free fried chicken. The pics from different reviews are mouth-watering! So, I was hoping that the GF fried chicken would also be dairy free. I emailed special diets who got me in contact with Chef Williere Justin at 50’s PT. Well, the good news came in. Both GF/CF chicken AND mashed potatoes! And I can get dairy free “milk”shakes. Here’s the responses I got:

We will be able to accommodate your Special Dietary Request. Our Gluten Free Fried Chicken does not have any dairy and we will also prepare fresh Mashed Potatoes with olive oil, salt and pepper. Yes we can make dairy free milkshakes. We carry Tofuti and Rice Dream ice cream, both are non dairy. The Tofuti has two flavors vanilla and Chocolate. We also carry soy and rice milk.

Great news all around! I can’t wait to eat my first fried chicken in a year and 1/2 since going GF/CF! Can’t wait to share my pictures and review of this place!