A few years ago when Downtown Disney was being reimagined into Disney Springs I remember reading an article about one of the restaurants that was going to be opening soon. It had a whole interview with the chef who was opening it and he had stated how the next big trend was going to be veganism. This interview made me really excited about his restaurant that was going to be opening when Disney Springs officially opened. Unfortunately that restaurant opened and there wasn’t a single vegan option on the menu.
Since then, Chef Art Smith’s Homecomin’ Kitchen opened and still doesn’t have a single vegan option on their menu. We knew they had some off menu vegan options, but out of frustration and prices at this restaurant, we held off on going here. That was, until recently. We decided it was time to finally try this Disney Springs restaurant, and made our way into Homecomin’.
This restaurant is located in the center of Disney Springs and has tons of indoor and outdoor seating. The menu is southern and includes a ton of fried chicken options. We ended up doing a walk up for lunch here, which was about a 30 minute wait.
We told our server we were vegan and she told us which sides were vegan. I asked her if they still carried Gardein tenders and she told me they did. We ended up ordering the Fried Chicken Sandwich with Gardein tenders and no aioli, the Harvest Salad with a swap for Gardein tenders and no cheese, hushpuppies, or dressing, and then the Kitchen Plate which is a choice of three sides, we got all the vegan sides which were the Collards & Kale, Sweet Potatoes, and Green Beans.
We decided to also try the Moonshine because everyone raves of their drinks. The drinks were absolutely delicious. We tried the Strawberry Lemonade, Sweet Tea Shine, and the Moonshine Margarita. All of them were great and we ended up leaving with a refillable cup to come back and get drinks again at a discounted price. If anything, the drinks were worth the visit.
We started with the modified Fried Chicken Sandwich, which was $18. For the Fried Chick’n Sandwich we asked for mustard and agave syrup to make our own sauce for this sandwich since we were omitting the aioli. Without a sauce this sandwich was incredibly bland, well with it too. All I could taste was the bread.
The sandwich came with about 5 tenders on it, but Gardein tenders aren’t super full of flavor so everything was kind of a mushy single note. It was topped with a sad leaf of iceberg lettuce, tomato, and bread and butter pickles. Even with all the toppings, sauce we made, and tenders, I couldn’t taste anything but the bun and the textures all became one.
The sandwich also came with their house-made barbecue chips. These chips didn’t taste like anything other than a fryer. We could see seasoning on them, but couldn’t taste it at all. As a whole this dish was lacking and not anything I would get again.
The Harvest Salad was very basic. When dining this was $18. The toppings included cherry tomatoes, red pepper, and corn. The dressing they have contains honey, so the only option for us is oil and vinegar. This restaurant has been open for years, and they don’t have a single vegan dressing, which I am honestly shocked by.
The tenders with oil and vinegar and the toppings were very underwhelming. The tomatoes on it were great and incredibly fresh. But overall this salad was very sad. This was another option that was lacking textures. If they had an actual vegan dressing I would get this if we dine here again as the vegetables were very fresh and crispy. After dining and now looking at the menu, I see I should have gotten avocado on this salad, though I don’t think it would have added much.
The real winner of this meal was the Kitchen Plate, which was $19. With this option you can choose any three sides, and fortunately three of them are vegan. The star on this was the Collards & Kale.
They were cooked very well, had a nice smokey flavor and a slight sweetness to them. I would just eat a bowl of this on its own any day. If you’re a fan of dark leafy greens, I recommend trying this.
The other one we enjoyed on here was the Green Beans. They had carmelized onions on it too which were very good. Corey said he would prefer them to be a little less cooked than they were, but I loved their mushiness. These are a great side option.
The one we didn’t care for was the Sweet Potatoes. To our credit, we both thought we heard our server say they were fries, but they were not. The sweet potatoes were like a classic Thanksgiving side and seemed to be in some sort of brown sugar liquid. They were too sweet for me, so I stuck to the green sides.
When we were done with our meal we spoke with a manager briefly. He mentioned they would be changing the menu soon for summer, but doesn’t know if they’ll have an actual vegan option on the menu. I said that they really need a vegan salad dressing here, so hopefully at least that happens!
We were pretty unimpressed with our meal here, which is why we’ve avoided going for years. The drinks were great, and we’ll be stopping by the bar here for moonshine again, but I don’t think we’ll be heading here to eat unless they make a significant change. It is nice to know they can accommodate vegans, but we are definitely an afterthought here.
Price $$$
Review from June 2021
