Before we went to Disneyland Paris, I did a lot of research to find out what, if any, vegan options were available at the different restaurants. I had visited Annette’s Diner when I visited Disney back when I was seven years old (so long ago it was still called ‘EuroDisney’). I can remember the novelty of seeing waitresses on roller skates. So when I found out they had a vegan option, I was keen to go back.
We actually got some takeout chips from Annette’s one night after leaving the park. We just wanted to grab something quick to eat on the way back to the hotel, so we bought a few portions of chips to share. It was early on in the evening, maybe only around 5 pm, and Laurie saw a waiter skating around on roller skates.
The day we went for dinner, however, there were no rollerskates to be found. The restaurant was crazy busy so it’s not surprising there wasn’t much room for roller skates, but I was a little disappointed because I think Ebony would have loved seeing the skaters. We ate at the restaurant on Thursday night when we were killing time before the fireworks. It was probably 8ish by the time we sat down at the table. There was a big queue at the door. You can’t book a seat in advance so you have to wait in line until a table becomes available. After around a 20-minute wait, we were seated at a booth.
Annette’s Diner is based in the Disney Village, just a few minutes walk from the park entrances. I really liked the decor in the restaurant. It is decorated like a classic 50s diner, so it’s exactly what you would expect, lots of colour pops and light-up neon signs. The restaurant has a fun feel to it, even when there aren’t waiters skating down the aisles. The menu is, obviously, filled with diner food and milkshakes. I really wish they’d had vegan milkshakes or cola floats on the menu because that would have been perfect.
The menu isn’t great for vegans, nowhere in Disneyland seems to have much to offer us fussy-eaters, but there are two vegetarian burgers and one of them can easily be made vegan by simply serving it without the mozzarella, coleslaw and pesto. Our waiter knew what vegan was and was able to advise us on what to order. The vegan option is called The Veggie Burger and appears in the classics section of the menu. In truth, it’s not much of a ‘burger’, but it was really nice. It cost €16.99 and came with a generous portion of fries. The burger itself was more of a pile of food than a burger, that doesn’t make it sound great but it honestly was really tasty. It consisted of breaded tofu, portobello mushroom, courgette, aubergine, cherry tomatoes, avocado, peppers and rocket.
We went at peak time so the service was a little sporadic. There seemed to be a big wait to order, but then the food came really quickly once our order was in. I always find eating out with a toddler to be hard work, so I was glad we weren’t waiting around for too long. We ordered two burgers and two extra portions of chips thinking they would probably be pretty stingy with the servings, but in fact, we ended up with way too much food. The kids shared a portion of chips and helped themselves to bits of our burgers, but we’d had more than enough to eat between us by the end of the meal.
If we went again, we would probably try to go at a quieter time, perhaps slightly earlier or later, because it felt pretty manic in there while we were eating. The food was nice though there weren’t many options for vegans. There were a couple of things on the menu that sounded potentially vegan (hash brown sticks and onion rings) but we were told contained dairy which seemed a shame. It would be amazing if they added a vegan dessert or milkshake to the menu and I live in hope that they will do that. But, failing that, there is a gelato stand right outside the diner that serves gelato ice-cream and has two vegan sorbet options each day (so tasty) so we still managed to get pudding after our meal.
