Recently we had friends in town and I was able to crash their trip and join them for dinner somewhere I have never eaten before. Akershus is located in the Norway pavilion in Epcot and features character dining. This restaurant offers vegan options for both breakfast and lunch/dinner. We went for dinner for our first experience here.
Akershus is located right next to Frozen Ever After in Epcot and was surprisingly much smaller than I expected it to be. It had two sides for dining and both shared a small buffet for appetizers. You check in outside then once you are called into the restaurant you get a photo with Princess Belle.
After that you wait for a table and then are seated. Once seated our server came by to take our drink orders (they had given us a menu before we were seated). I noted being vegan with him and he told me the Raspeballer – Scandinavian Potato Dumplings were vegan as is (and clearly marked as such on the allergy menu). Soon after he took our orders and said we could head to the buffet for our appetizers, aka Taste of Norway.
On the allergy menu it had all the buffet listed so I didn’t need a chef to show me what I could or couldn’t have. Most of the vegan options on the buffet were various salads, from cucumber salad to beans. I loaded up my plate and head back to the table just in time to meet some more princesses.
All of the meals here are with princesses. We met Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Ariel while dining. They were all very friendly and came one after another very quickly. This was actually super convenient for eating and not feeling like you can get pulled away from your plate at any minute.
After meeting all of the princesses I got to finally dig into the Taste of Norway. I really loved the bean salad and the potato salad here. Both are vinegar based and reminded me of food from Biergarten. The beets were fine, I wasn’t expecting much from that since it was just beets and onion. The cucumber salad was okay, they were a bit crunchier then I was expecting. I wasn’t able to confirm if any of the dressings not on the menu were vegan so I didn’t get a green salad.
Our meals arrived and my Raspebeller looked pretty good. Under all the greens was mushrooms, peas, zucchini and more.
Now this entree was interesting. When I think of Norwegian food I don’t necessarily think coconut curry. But that is was the potato dumplings are covered in.
The dumplings were really good, the curry was really good, however together I did not love them. The dumplings were a great texture and you get a ton of food. The mushrooms were a strong flavor, which I wouldn’t have minded if without the curry. I honestly think I would have enjoyed this meal a lot more without the curry sauce because the coconut flavor was very strong.
On the kids allergy section of the menu it showed they had Rice ice cream and Soy ice cream for dessert. I asked about getting some vanilla soy ice cream and they said they would double check. Our server returned with some Raspberry Sorbet for me and said this was all they had.
The sorbet was really good, I had a huge portion of it too. It was very creamy and sweet. I don’t know why the menu would state they have two vegan ice creams, but I was happy with something to eat.
As a whole this meal is hard to judge, I didn’t love the entree but enjoyed the Taste of Norway buffet. I wouldn’t be heading back here for lunch or dinner anytime soon. You’re basically paying a lot (over $60 per person when I was there) to knock a handful of princesses off your list. I know they are accommodating for breakfast and will do a vegan tofu scramble and vegetables. I would be more willing to go here again for that than dinner.
Price $$$$
Review from May 2019.
