Jeanine Pipe, mom of Unofficial Guide Kid Felicity, shares with us her family’s experience dining at The Whispering Canyon Café at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge.
One of my most favorite places to visit in all of Walt Disney World is Wilderness Lodge, and it will come as little surprise to learn just how much we enjoyed our first visit to The Whispering Canyon Café.
I had heard a lot about this restaurant, specifically that prior to our visit (August 2019), the fun and games with the servers had been toned down. We were still keen to visit, and we were so glad that we did.
We had a lunchtime ADR around midday. The hostess didn’t seem particularly pleased to see us, like it was a chore for her to find us a seat (this thankfully is part of the act). We were quickly taken to a table and told Tom would be serving us. All I can say about Tom is that he was one of the best Cast Members we have ever had the pleasure to encounter (and I made sure to give him a Cast Compliment via Twitter too).
He threw the menus at us and seemed not that bothered to start with, but then quickly moved into standard awesome Disney server mode and explained all the things on the menu and how the Disney Dining Plan would work for us. I think he noticed that we were British and stereotypically may not be as outgoing with the fun and games, and he pitched it perfectly. Felicity had the Hidden Mickey scavenger hunt from the front desk and he noticed she was trying to find one by the fireplace. He took her over and showed her where to find it, which was really cool.
We had some more friendly and funny banter with Tom, and he was amazing at giving me some extra information about the vegan version of the famous skillet. My husband, Steve, ordered the All-You-Care-To-Enjoy Signature Skillet, and Felicity had the kid’s chicken nuggets. Of course, when the food came (fairly quickly, as it was not too busy) there was only one thing we could do—ask for ketchup!
Tom explained exactly which bits were which in my vegan skillet (the jackfruit was amazing!) and we were able to assist when another table requested ketchup!
As the skillet is all-you-care-to-eat, we were able to have more of anything we wanted. Steve had extra BBQ pulled pork and chicken, and I had more of everything at Tom’s insistence. Steve had made the delicious mistake of also ordering one of the bottomless milkshakes, so he was already pretty full at this point.
All of the food was simply phenomenal. We don’t tend to have cornbread in the UK, so this was a big plus for me. As I am actually a vegetarian and not vegan, I was able to polish off Steve’s cornbread too—yummy.
Tom kept up with the silliness; as he was clearing away the plates, he noticed Steve was wearing a Birthday badge. Well, this kicked things up to a whole new level. Tom went through an entire spiel involving singing “Happy Birthday” backwards and bringing Steve a cupcake…and then eating it himself! Oh, my goodness, I was crying with laughter. He had frosting all over his face—it really was very funny.
He then obviously brought an actual cupcake, which Felicity devoured, as Steve and I were far too full from our skillets. For dessert, we had apple pie, the chocolate cake, and Felicity had a cookie, all to go. We took the desserts back to the resort to be enjoyed later when we weren’t fit to burst.
We thoroughly loved the setting, the atmosphere, the food, and the amazing interaction. We left Tom a generous tip and carried our bellies out to sit in the wonderful rocking chairs in the lobby until we were able to move again. I would 100% recommend Whispering Canyon as a fantastic place to dine, with excellent food, top-notch service, and lots of fun.
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