Trail’s End Restaurant has reopened at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Campground and is no longer a buffet. This restaurant is most known by vegans due to Chef TJ who would create elaborate multi-course meals for vegans and those with allergies. He has since left this restaurant and is now at Cape May Cafe. When Chef TJ moved restaurants they did keep up the accommodation for vegans and it is now actually on the menu.
We decided to first give dinner a try here. Trail’s End Restaurant is located up near the Settlement of this resort, and is closest to the boat launch that has access to Magic Kingdom. If you are coming here from another resort or during a park day I usually recommend doing the Magic Kingdom boat transfer.
With the buffet gone due to COVID they are now serving family style, which is always all you care to enjoy. If there is something you like you can always ask for more. Currently the pricing is $29.99 per adult and $17.99 per child.
The plant-based meal starts with an Oven Fresh Bread Basket and pimento spread. The menu read that there should be a strawberry spread too, but we did not receive that. The basket was full of little cornbread muffins and gluten free rolls.
This is the first time I have ever not minded having gluten free rolls as for starters they were warm, and they also went very well with the pimento spread. Whatever was in this spread was absolutely delicious. It had a light cheese like flavor and went very well with the roll. The spread was cold, which was a little weird for the warm roll, but as a whole we loved it.
The cornbread was good, but needed something (like the strawberry spread?). They were very sweet and moist. We must have gotten two batches because some of them were yellow and others were white.
Along with our bread basket came our Chopped Salad. The salad was a mixed green based one with cornbread croutons, onion, tomatoes, and cucumbers. There was no mention of dressing on the menu, but we suspected the dressing was an Italian. We didn’t eat too much of the salad as we knew we were in for a large meal. The cornbread croutons seemed more like stale cornbread than a crunchy crouton.
Next up came the main course, the Smokehouse Skillet. The skillet is supposed to be Beyond Sausages, BBQ Jackfruit, Vegan Chick’n, Green Beans, Corn on the Cob, and Fingerling Potatoes. Ours was that with the exception of the chick’n, we were give fishless fillets instead. All three of us (child included) were given our own skillets like this.
The Beyond Sausage had a fake sear on it and wasn’t cooked very well. They were very mushy and had no real texture. They were also on what seemed to just be tomato sauce which we found odd.
The Vegan Fish was very good, cooked similarly to Rose & Crown’s with a nice crisp to it. The tartar sauce that came with this was spicy. I have never encountered spicy tartar sauce before, so that was quite the surprise. We used minimal tartar sauce on our fillets after that initial try.
The BBQ Jackfruit was some of the best bbq jackfruit I have ever had. The jackfruit was cooked well and was mostly still in big chunks making it easier to eat. I don’t love just eating bbq jackfruit on its own (aka no bread), but I didn’t mind it with this. The sauce was very thick with the jackfruit and it had a very nice low heat to it.
The Fingerling Potatoes were very greasy. I would have personally liked them to be cooked a bit more, but overall they were good with their seasoning. I didn’t eat too many of these though due to the oil.
The Green Beans were my favorite vegetables on this. They were cooked very well, more on the mushy than crunchy side, and had a ton of garlic with them. I would have eaten a full bowl of these they were that good!
The Corn on the Cob was cooked fine but it was really missing the opportunity for some vegan butter. I didn’t eat much of this as it was just plain corn.
Dessert here was a Covered Wagon Sundae which included vegan ice cream, vegan and gluten free cookies, chocolate sauce, a vegan whipped cream, and hiding at the bottom of the plastic cowboy hat was what seemed to be a shortcake.
This dessert was incredible. A true sundae for a vegan with all the fixin’s! We were so full by the time we got this we couldn’t truly enjoy it, but if I could get this somewhere again I absolutely would.
I did also ask about the breakfast dessert they offer because it has been one of my favorites for years. I was able to get a jar of the Lemon Blueberry Trifle which is absolutely decadent and delicious. This comes with layers of a lemon cream, whipped cream, and fresh blueberries. If you come for breakfast (or ask for it at dinner!) definitely leave room for this creamy dessert.
When it comes down to it we really did enjoy this meal, but it felt like it was just a reincarnation of the All-You-Care-To-Enjoy Skillet from Whispering Canyon Cafe. If you want that same style meal but don’t like your food touching this is a great alternative, plus you get dessert and no one yells at you for ketchup.
I don’t think we’ll be running back to this location for dinner. I am happy that this restaurant finally reopened, but I wouldn’t go back for this full meal. If we had the option to do a la cart here I would be more inclined to return.
Price $$
Review from July 2021.
Ooo that looks delicious 🙂 I’m sorry it was a bit greasy. It does make me want to mix all the foods together, having them separated that way. 😀 It’s always a shame when you’re too full for dessert. Perhaps you should go back again and just have dessert? 🙂
I would pay the money for that dessert alone 😂😂
Hahaha, excellent! 😀