Disney Springs Quick Service Food Crawl

Episode Overview

Join travel advisors Ryan and Julie as they take you on an epic Disney Springs quick service food crawl! Discover the best no-reservation dining options at Walt Disney World's premier shopping and dining district. From Spanish tapas to Asian street food, this episode is your guide to maximizing your Disney Springs dining experience.

What You'll Learn

• Best Disney Springs Quick Service Restaurants - Five must-try spots that don't require reservations
• Disney World Dining Tips - How to enjoy celebrity chef cuisine without breaking the budget
• Disney Springs Food Guide - Insider recommendations from experienced travel professionals
• Walt Disney World Quick Service - Perfect options for families and groups

Restaurants Featured

1. Pepe by José Andrés

• Cuisine: Spanish tapas and sandwiches
• Must-Try: Feta with Jamón, Manchego & tomato, Chicken Croquetas, Churros
• Location: Near World of M&Ms and Cirque du Soleil

2. Salt & Straw Ice Cream

• Specialty: Artisanal ice cream with unique flavors
• Popular Flavors: Panther Coffee Resche, Guava & Cheese Donut, Olive Oil
• Pro Tip: Try unlimited samples before ordering

3. Morimoto Asia Street Food

• Cuisine: Pan-Asian by Iron Chef Morimoto
• Standout Dish: Spare ribs (also available at full-service restaurant)
• Style: Glass case display for easy ordering

4. Jock Lindsey's Hangar Bar

• Theme: Indiana Jones-inspired bar and eatery
• Signature Item: Cargo Loaded Pretzel (charcuterie-style appetizer)
• Atmosphere: Indoor/outdoor seating with waterfront views

5. Eet by Maneet Chauhan

• Cuisine: Modern Indian street food
• Featured Items: Chicken Tikka Masala Flatbread, Samosas
• Location: Near Disney's Days of Christmas shop

Expert Travel Tips

• Perfect for Disney World veterans seeking new experiences
• Great alternative when table service reservations are unavailable
• Ideal for groups wanting flexible, no-commitment dining
• Budget-friendly way to experience celebrity chef cuisine

Keywords: Disney Springs restaurants, Disney World quick service, Walt Disney World dining, Disney Springs food guide, no reservation Disney dining, Disney food crawl, travel advisors, Disney Springs tips

Transcript

ryan_2_08-29-2025_140524: 0:00

Hello and welcome to all Things Travel. for those of you who have visited Walt Disney World, You know, Disney Springs offers an embarrassment of riches when it comes to dining. Earlier this year, Julie and I took an afternoon to explore some of the best quick service options, and today we're hungry to share it with you. See what I did there?

j_1_08-29-2025_140524: 0:20

Oh my. You're such a dad. Listen in with travel advisors and destination experts, Ryan and Julie. He is your travel professor teaching you everything you need to know to have a magical vacation. And I am a Disney loving Maryland mom of three and a specialist in family travel. Whether we're discussing incredible destinations, top vacation tips, or sharing personal stories, it's always all things travel.

ryan_2_08-29-2025_140524: 0:49

So Julie, in January, we were down at Walt Disney World together for some training and we always kind of pre-game, right? What? What's our strategy for eating and where are we gonna meet up and do these certain things? Disney Springs started in the conversation and we realized there were a lot of quick service options that we had tried separately. we got this idea of doing a quick service food crawl through Disney Springs, and I think we found some winners.

j_1_08-29-2025_140524: 1:17

Yeah. And I never really get to try quick service restaurants at Disney

ryan_2_08-29-2025_140524: 1:22

you,

j_1_08-29-2025_140524: 1:23

because that's not really the move

ryan_2_08-29-2025_140524: 1:24

yeah.

j_1_08-29-2025_140524: 1:25

Like I don't go to Disney Springs often with them'cause I don't like. The travel time to get there and get back I wanna try all these places so that I can recommend them to clients.

ryan_2_08-29-2025_140524: 1:35

I will say, when I first started going with young kids, Disney Springs was not part of the equation. But now with teenagers, it is often, a hotspot for dining reservations, obviously for shopping. it's always a part of the trip and so yeah, there's some really, really good restaurants and some really, really good options for quick service if you're not able to snag those reservations. But before we talk about everything that we tried. If you did not listen to last week's episode, Julie and I gave you a little behind the scenes look into the life of a travel advisor. All right, Julie. So we went to several different places. The first place we stopped was Pepe. And Pepe is the quick service attachment with Jeo. So if you know where the world of m and Ms. The m and m store, or if you know where the Cirque de Soleil theater is. In fact, when I was at Disney last time and went to the Cirque de sole show, we had dinner here at Pepe.

j_1_08-29-2025_140524: 2:40

so Jeo is associated with Chef Jose Andreas and his team, which you may have heard of him. He's a really popular chef. he's won some Michelin Stars, things like that at restaurants. Um, so kind of a

ryan_2_08-29-2025_140524: 2:53

I love how you just downplay, eh, it's some Michelin stars or whatever.

j_1_08-29-2025_140524: 2:56

Yeah. So things like that, but JEO is supposed to be a great restaurant,

ryan_2_08-29-2025_140524: 3:00

And it is a great restaurant.

j_1_08-29-2025_140524: 3:01

it is a great restaurant. We opted to try the quick service and oh my gosh, blown away.

ryan_2_08-29-2025_140524: 3:06

And you had never had Spanish food before. And I have,'cause I've been to Spain. Um, and so you were, I wouldn't say apprehensive, you just didn't know what you were getting into.

j_1_08-29-2025_140524: 3:16

Yeah, for sure. For sure. And

ryan_2_08-29-2025_140524: 3:18

I,

j_1_08-29-2025_140524: 3:19

was kind of, let's try a little bit of everything on the menu.

ryan_2_08-29-2025_140524: 3:21

yeah.

j_1_08-29-2025_140524: 3:22

maybe you can describe some of

ryan_2_08-29-2025_140524: 3:23

Yeah, absolutely.

j_1_08-29-2025_140524: 3:25

mean

ryan_2_08-29-2025_140524: 3:26

Absolutely, and I think we went a little bit overboard on this first stop because we were hungry we had the FTA with Haman, manchego and tomato. So that was a sandwich. And so he split that up between us. Um, mango's the cheese. Haman is the Spanish ham and it's rubbed with tomatoes. It almost has kind of a fresh tomato sauce. On it. We had the chicken croquetas, which are little fried, appetizers. We have the patatas bravas, which are potato wedges with like a spicy aioli and a tomato sauce. And then we finished that with a ccho. And a ccho is a. Fabulous pastry that I first had when I was in Barcelona, and it is just so good. I remember I went back and looked at the videos and we're gonna be sharing the videos on our Facebook page with this show. And this was your favorite spot I think.

j_1_08-29-2025_140524: 4:19

And so initially you might think it was my favorite because it was the first spot and we were pretty hungry. It was our travel day into Disney. But man, this food was phenomenal I really like Italian food. And this almost reminded me of Italian food that had

ryan_2_08-29-2025_140524: 4:32

it really is similar.

j_1_08-29-2025_140524: 4:34

yeah, the underlying flavor of like the olive oil, things like that, that was just so delicious.

ryan_2_08-29-2025_140524: 4:40

So next we wanted something a little sweet. So we went to Salt and straw salt. And straw is an ice cream spot that is, is a franchise, but particularly with Disney. It's both at Disney Springs and Downtown Disney at Disneyland. And what we love about this spot is

j_1_08-29-2025_140524: 4:56

is

ryan_2_08-29-2025_140524: 4:56

they are known for letting you try as many samples as you want. they have very interesting. Choices. for instance, we tried, olive oil ice cream. strawberry balsamic vinegar. Turkey cranberry stuffing. And then we also tried the guava and cheese donut, and that's actually one of my favorites. the Guava and Cheese Donut. But I remember you tried that specifically. We both landed on the same ice cream, which I thought was hilarious. because there's so many to choose from. We had the Panther Coffee, Resche ice cream. had you been to Salt and Straw before?

j_1_08-29-2025_140524: 5:33

No, because I didn't think the kids would like it.

ryan_2_08-29-2025_140524: 5:37

There are some very different flavors, but I will say there are some really good standard flavors too. So don't be intimidated by, olive oil and balsamic vinegar everything is really, really good.

j_1_08-29-2025_140524: 5:52

do you remember what happened? while we were eating our ice cream or after

ryan_2_08-29-2025_140524: 5:56

I,

j_1_08-29-2025_140524: 5:56

we

ryan_2_08-29-2025_140524: 5:57

I don't remember.

j_1_08-29-2025_140524: 5:58

So we did I get a cone and you

ryan_2_08-29-2025_140524: 6:01

I do remember now. I do remember we were moving on to the next place I had gotten a cup. you know,'cause when it comes to, to, when it comes to trying food, I have a lot of self restraint.

j_1_08-29-2025_140524: 6:13

I,

ryan_2_08-29-2025_140524: 6:13

and so I.

j_1_08-29-2025_140524: 6:14

waffle cones.

ryan_2_08-29-2025_140524: 6:15

I love waffle cones too. So Julia had gotten a waffle cone, which obviously is a lot more ice cream. And so we're walking to the other place and I look over and she just throws it in the trash, and I'm like, first of all, that's like$15 worth of ice cream and two, it's like really, really good quality ice cream. we don't have like this huge podcasting budget here.

j_1_08-29-2025_140524: 6:37

and you're

ryan_2_08-29-2025_140524: 6:38

I.

j_1_08-29-2025_140524: 6:38

you just really wanted the cone and you just threw it away. I was full of ice cream. I was

ryan_2_08-29-2025_140524: 6:44

Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Well, that didn't stop us. we kept going.

j_1_08-29-2025_140524: 6:51

the next place we went to was Morimoto Asia Street Food, It's right outside of and connected to the table service restaurant Morimoto Asia, which is like a Pan-Asian cuisine restaurant. led by Iron Chef Morimoto, who has

ryan_2_08-29-2025_140524: 7:08

Yep.

j_1_08-29-2025_140524: 7:08

some awards. That's a very well known chef. here we got spare ribs and the chicken gee pie with spicy seasoning. And the cool thing about this quick service is it's kind of like a glass case and you can walk up and you can see a lot of the

ryan_2_08-29-2025_140524: 7:22

Yeah.

j_1_08-29-2025_140524: 7:22

be ordering. that was really nice. remember we really loved the spare ribs,

ryan_2_08-29-2025_140524: 7:29

I dream about these spare ribs. Like seriously after having them at the sit down restaurant and then knowing that they're there at the quick service, these are amazing.

j_1_08-29-2025_140524: 7:41

And I remember I really wanted to try the spare ribs because they're at the sit down restaurant the amount of times that I have made a reservation for dinner at Maori Moto Asia and ended up canceling it because we're like, I don't really feel like going over to Disney Springs. Like we always wanna go there. And it just never fits into the plan. so they were really delicious.

ryan_2_08-29-2025_140524: 8:02

Unfortunately, I remember that we did not care as much for the chicken gee pie, and this was basically kind of like a breaded chicken dish and it wasn't bad. It just,

j_1_08-29-2025_140524: 8:12

It just

ryan_2_08-29-2025_140524: 8:13

when you have it with the spare ribs, the spare ribs are so good that it didn't live up to an additional thing to try, I guess.

j_1_08-29-2025_140524: 8:21

yeah, that's a good way to put it, Julie.

ryan_2_08-29-2025_140524: 8:24

So Julie, we have two more places, that we stopped and, tried in our afternoon. But first I wanna talk about where in the world is Wonder and Beyond Travel. this week it's my turn to share and I wanted to talk about some of my. Clients who next month are going on an amazing trip to Ireland. And specifically what makes this trip amazing, Julie, is they're not going with a group. They have a private driver. So it's a group of four adults and they are flying into Dublin and they spend two days, Kind of seeing Dublin doing the, you know, kind of doing the, the sights and sounds. There some major things like the Guinness Storehouse, which is the number one tourist attraction in Ireland then they meet their private driver and start driving all around. Southern Ireland. they are going to the house of Waterford, crystal K castle. They're sightseeing in Kinsale with a Jaunting car ride, which is like a horse and carriage, ride. They're going to the Ring of Care, doing the Dingle Peninsula. They're going on a ferry and seeing the cliffs of mower. They are staying at. All sorts of places, whether it's castles, small BMBs, This is a 10 day trip. to experience Ireland. this is a returning client group for me. He just said, we want to see what Ireland has to offer. And we were able to take that and. Develop something that was particular to them. when I talk to CIE, which is the company that we love to work with, that I developed this with, they're like, we can do whatever they want. You just give us a list and we're gonna put it together the best way. It makes sense.

j_1_08-29-2025_140524: 10:18

That sounds amazing, and I love the customization that we can provide there.

ryan_2_08-29-2025_140524: 10:22

Yeah. And you know, so with a private driver, you've got not only your transportation, but your travel guide there with you you can say, Hey, today we feel like a pub lunch. And they'll say, okay, we're gonna take you to a pub lunch. they'll say, here are a couple places to try Hey, we want to make sure to stop at this little town. Does everybody need a coffee break? you can really do it how you want to do it.

j_1_08-29-2025_140524: 10:42

Yeah. That's so great. I love that.

ryan_2_08-29-2025_140524: 10:44

We love celebrating where our clients are headed and it inspires curiosity we can't wait to hear about their trip. And you know what? Maybe your trip will be next. After we went to Morimoto Street Food. we met up with some friends at Jock Lindsay's. Jock Lindsay's is a great spot. They have both indoor and outdoor seating, we had some drinks. And I said, while we're here with our food crawl, Julie, we need to try one of my favorite Disney Springs items, the cargo loaded pretzel. This is a giant, Bavarian pretzel It's almost like a charcuterie board and pretzel put together because there's cheese, pickles, meats, dipping sauces, and really it's great for the table or it's great for me, um, you know, to just pick at it and have a really, really good snack along with your drinks.

j_1_08-29-2025_140524: 11:40

Yeah, I remember we were sitting at another quick service and we were gonna get food there, but we'd had so much food by this time and you talked about this pretzel, and we were like, let's pivot and

ryan_2_08-29-2025_140524: 11:52

Yeah.

j_1_08-29-2025_140524: 11:53

Jacquelyn's, let's point this out, is actually a character from Indiana Jones, the

ryan_2_08-29-2025_140524: 11:59

Yes.

j_1_08-29-2025_140524: 12:00

But in the first movie, in the beginning of the movie, Indiana Jones is trying to escape on a small plane and Jacque Lindsay is the pilot of that plane and he only says his name like. A couple times. Right.

ryan_2_08-29-2025_140524: 12:13

Yep.

j_1_08-29-2025_140524: 12:13

But so there are callbacks throughout the bar and, theming throughout the bar to Indiana Jones, which I think is really, really cute because it's so subtle. I really love it. And it's on the water. It's a great place to go. The last place we went to is called Eat and it's EET.

ryan_2_08-29-2025_140524: 12:33

This is a restaurant inspired by Chef Monit. Shahan, an award-winning chef focusing on Indian Fair. you had never been here before.

j_1_08-29-2025_140524: 12:42

Before.

ryan_2_08-29-2025_140524: 12:43

I had been here a couple times, Julie, and this again is Indian Quick Service, kind of street food, reimagined Indian food. the first thing we had here was Chicken Tiki masala flatbread, which is almost like a pizza, And we also had an order of samosas. What did we think about eat?

j_1_08-29-2025_140524: 13:02

I really like Indian food. And the chef that you mentioned, she is on the Food Network frequently, so if you watch the Food Network, you would definitely recognize her. I really like her on the Food Network, so I was excited to go here. It's tucked back a little bit. It's on

ryan_2_08-29-2025_140524: 13:17

Yes.

j_1_08-29-2025_140524: 13:18

by the Christmas tree shop

ryan_2_08-29-2025_140524: 13:19

Yep. Yep.

j_1_08-29-2025_140524: 13:20

of Disney, and it's kind of tucked the Christmas tree shop. So if you're not. Looking for it. You might walk right past it, but it is really worth a visit. By this time we were pretty fool, and I remember us sitting there and being like, we have to try this food, and

ryan_2_08-29-2025_140524: 13:39

Yeah.

j_1_08-29-2025_140524: 13:40

good, but I cannot eat anymore.

ryan_2_08-29-2025_140524: 13:43

Agreed. be careful what you wish for, right? The idea of wandering around Disney Springs all afternoon, trying different food. I thought this was really fun. And, you know, for folks that are looking for new Disney things to do, maybe they go often or they're going with a group that, you know, wants maybe some non-par time. This was a fun thing to do. You could certainly do a quick service crawl or a drink crawl at Disney Springs and even a dessert crawl. we only got, ice cream here, but there are lots of options for great desserts, cupcakes and ice cream and cookies and, candy So you could do a lot of nutritional damage, at Disney Springs.

j_1_08-29-2025_140524: 14:27

Well, if you remember when we first made the list of places that we wanted to go to, there was probably like six or seven more places that we wanted to put on our list. But as we got closer to. The trip, we were like, we really need to pair this down.

ryan_2_08-29-2025_140524: 14:43

Part two, maybe part two.

j_1_08-29-2025_140524: 14:44

Yeah, maybe that's right. A part two next time. Because there was a lot of things that we still wanted to go to, to try. And again, this is another thing that helps me be able to say, and for you to be able to tell your clients, Hey, this is a great place to go, to put on our list of dining recommendations, and none of these need a reservation

ryan_2_08-29-2025_140524: 15:02

Yeah, that's the key right there. And just to remind folks, we're gonna put some videos up the week this episode comes out, so you can actually see where we are and what we're trying.

j_1_08-29-2025_140524: 15:13

The world is full of wonder and your next great adventure is waiting at Wonder and Beyond Travel. We work with you to create a one of a kind journey, taking the stress off your plate so you can focus on the joy of exploring and the memories that will stay with you forever. If you're ready to start planning or just want to dream a little bigger, head over to Wonder and beyond travel.com. We'd love to help you get started.

ryan_2_08-29-2025_140524: 15:39

We look forward to talking to you next week on all Things Travel, when we discuss a very special type of travel, heritage, travel with our friends at Kensington Tours,