although the dining area was about 70% empty so I figured maybe they were just understaffed
That seemed to be a common theme when we were there this time! The crowds were insane and it seemed they could barely keep up. Skipper Canteen had pretty bad waits when we went for dinner and there were lots of empty tables in one section, but they hadn't put on a server for it. I know people want time off over the holidays, but I also feel like they were trying not to keep too big a staff anyway. When we were at Boma, our server told us they'd been super busy and flat out but everyone was working like crazy because they didn't want to put more staff on because they expected it to get slower again in January and they'd have too many people on staff then. She said they usually put 300 people through in a day or so, and these days they were doing more like 1000...
however we've learned on vacation that even things you think are obviously gluten free sometimes aren't, so it never hurts to tell them.
So true! Gluten hides in the strangest places!
He also got a fancy tomato:
We didn't eat it though, just took a picture.
Bahaha! It's pretty though!
He also got some press pot coffee which he loves. But he prefers to press the pot himself, and when the waitress did it for him this was his face...
Oh. My. Gosh. How dare she!!? I don't even like Terry's chocolate oranges, but it just made me think of how incredibly unsatisfying it would be if someone gave you a Terry's chocolate orange, but they smacked it first to separate it and you didn't get to do it yourself...
She really hovered while I was writing the tip too, I know she was trying to see it so I took my time. But needless to say it wasn't the largest tip I've ever given. I rarely tip under 20% (with Uber and in restaurants) unless the service is pretty bad, but let's just say she got a bit less than that.
Um...uncomfortable.
It sounds like your whole experience at Ale and Compass was just kinda lousy and frustrating, especially the service! Uggh! I'm surprised and disappointed to hear that! We're about the same with our tipping, but I definitely wouldn't have given quite so much for this service either...lame.
She also seemed to be extremely fluent in English so I did not have to use my fancy French speaking skills on her.
(After all I took french in school for several years and remember like 3 words of it).
What a shame! I'm sure you would have blown her away!!
I studied french in school in an immersion class for years since we're technically a bilingual country in Canada. I've lost SO much of it, but it's still typically good enough that I'm able to use it when we travel in the US where fewer people speak french fluently...maybe I should try ordering something in French next time we go to Epcot...obviously in the France pavilion and not in, like Japan or something though...
This was exactly what I needed after being out in the cold. It was so warm, and so delicious.
I don't have a lot of experience with french onion soup aside from Be Our Guest where I prefer the cheese to the soup. But this was way better! I actually wanted to eat the soup along with the cheese.
Mmmmm amazing!! Pre-allergies I remember being so impressed by this soup! Good to know it's better here than BOG, because I'd always heard it was very similar, and I got Nathan to try it at BOG, and he thought it was just okay, and I'd been so disappointed... Now I know he just needs to try the better soup at Chef's!!
The only issue was to make this GF he had to skip the sauce. He thought maybe there was an alternative sauce (the waitress didn't make it super clear what they needed to modify on this dish, just that they could), but his chicken, broccoli, and potatoes arrived plain aside from butter on the potatoes. Overall he thought his meal was far too plain, and didn't have much flavor.
This is so disappointing! I found I had a similar issue at Chef's de France. They had to remove a sauce for me as well, for a steak, and so they
did bring me out something else...dijon mustard. I figured it would be like a dijon-based sauce or something. No. Just plain mustard. And I'm not a huge mustard fan anyway. So it stayed very decidedly on the side. Otherwise the food there was fine, and Nathan really liked his normal dish he ordered, but the allergy options seemed limited and super plain. I thought it might just be because I have multiple dietary restrictions, so it's interesting to hear Josh had the same issue when he's just gluten free...
When we got there the restaurant was packed full of people waiting, but when we showed our Landry's card they said: "I hope you don't mind the wait but there's one party in front of you with a Landry's card".
No problem!
We were called in about 10 mins, with an ADR we still probably would've had to wait 20+ mins past our time to get in judging by the crowds.
Nice!! We had an ADR and a Landry's card and we only waited a couple of minutes when the place was packed. I love flashing that card!!
He loves this! He loved it last time which is why he asked to come back. Being GF means not having a lot of Asian food options, (at least not where we live) that are guaranteed to be safe so he can't really grab some takeout sweet and sour chicken like he used too. This is something he liked a lot before he found out about his allergy. So he loves coming here, getting to eat a dish he used to love, and knowing the food will be safe to eat.
That's a really good point! I miss the convenience of take-out...so hard to eat Asian cuisine! A lot of asian food could be made GF very easily, but it's usually not, whether it's breaded, or has regular soy sauce, etc., as you and Josh would know. So sad!
Seriously, AK and AKL have some of the BEST dining on property.
Truth!! Nom!