This review reflects our experience in May of 2015.
Germany may be one of the most popular pavilions in Epcot’s World Showcase, mostly because of the beer and pretzels. In the German pavilion there are a few shops, beer carts and food. Most importantly in the Germany pavilion is the local Biertgarten. Biergartens in Germany are very popular and are full of music, friends and food.
Biergarten used to be one of my favorite places to eat with my family prior to becoming vegan. The last few years have not felt right without the entertainment inside Biergarten so we decided on our trip in May 2015 to give it a try as vegans. We booked our reservation for lunch as it is about $10 cheaper than the dinner prices. Our reservation was for right when it opened so unfortunately we were unable to see the live entertainment as they don’t start until after 1pm.
Upon our arrival we told our hostess of our vegan diet and she marked our ticket for the server. Since Biergarten is a German restaurant, you get seated German style, AKA with strangers if you don’t have a party of 8 to fill the table. Once we were seated with our table-mates the server told us he would let a chef know to show us the buffet.
A few minutes later the chef came out, we told him we were vegan and he said that we were pretty limited on the buffet. As he walked us through what we could and could not eat we felt that there was plenty for us to eat!
There is a salad bar that offers lettuce and a few toppings as well as some dressings. Next to the standard salad was a selection of other salads. Here we could eat tomato salad, green bean salad, beet salad and cabbage. The tomato salad may have been one of the best things I’ve eaten in Disney World. It was definitely vinegar based which made it tangy and we think had mustard seeds in it. The green bean salad was pretty good, the beans had been blanched and had a nice crunch to them.
Next he said we could eat the fresh pickles and breads. There was a basket that featured small rolls and pretzels.
Continuing down the buffet line he said we were okay to eat the potatoes. The potatoes were pretty good but not anything special. They were pretty much the standard potato wedges you find at buffets throughout the Disney parks.
Next in line was the cooked green beans. I enjoyed these more than the green bean salad since they were cooked.
When the chef said we wouldn’t be able to eat much we were expecting to just have a lettuce salad and some beer. But he just kept leading us down the line and we were more and more impressed with our selections as he went. He told us we could eat the rice with peas. It was just a basic white rice with peas so this was a nice addition to the vegetables we could eat.
Finally we hit the end of the buffet and the last two items we could eat. Here we found sautéed vegetables and a red cabbage dish. The red cabbage dish was delicious.
We were incredibly impressed with the selection of food we could eat here. The food was absolutely delicious. This was a unique experience as a vegan because there is a ton of meat on the buffet. But almost all of the “side dishes” on the buffet were vegan as is. The one thing I wish we could have gotten was a vegan dessert after watching the rest of our table return with dessert plates piled high.
Prost!
Would we go back?
Absolutely. Although next time we’ll plan accordingly to see the live music and so I can make Corey do the chicken dance.
Price
$$$ (Prices vary from lunch to dinner so be sure to check dining times)
Corey & Melissa
I ate there in February and was told that the red cabbage had honey in it. It’s a pretty typical ingredient in red cabbage so I wouldn’t be surprised.