During a weekend visit to the Magic Kingdom, Sarah Holodick continued taste testing hot dogs with a stop at The Lunching Pad. Our thanks for taking on this hot dog throw down! Take it away, Sarah!
After having an awesome experience at Casey’s Corner, Matt and I wanted to continue our hot dog throw down with the dogs at The Lunching Pad. We noticed last summer when the new dogs were introduced (I wish they had kept the Reuben Dog!), but we never made it over until now.
Since the Coney Island Dog seemed pretty basic, we decided on the Philly Cheese Steak Hot Dog and the Taco Hot Dog.
Hot Dog selection
The cheese steak dog is topped with beef, onions, peppers, mushrooms, and cheese sauce. The taco dog is served with ground beef, lettuce, salsa, and sour cream.
Philly Cheese Steak vs. Taco Dogs
When we received the dogs, we were a bit underwhelmed. We started with the cheese steak dog and were sorely disappointed. The steak was a little on the thick side, not shaved as one would anticipate with a cheese steak. I was able to forgive the steak as it didn’t taste bad, but we only received mushrooms. There was not a pepper nor onion in sight.
Matt loathes mushrooms, so I ate them and needless to say they were the bland, packed-in-water variety. (Do you see that big one on top? The camera kept focusing on it!) At least we got our plastic cheese quota filled for the day!
Philly Cheese Steak Dog
We then tackled the taco dog. While it was an improvement over the cheese steak dog, it wasn’t anything special. The taco meat was okay and went well with the dog, much like chili does. The lettuce was fresh, and both the sour cream and shredded cheese were as we expected.
But there was something that was unexpected: Cilantro! Love it or hate it, there were some fresh leaves on there. Personally, I don’t mind the stuff, and thought it was a nice addition. Unfortunately, the dog wasn’t going to be saved by it.
Taco Dog
Of the two dogs, the taco dog takes the win, but if I was to order a dog here again, I would choose the Coney Island Dog with its chili, onion, and mustard. Or better yet, walk back over to Casey’s Corner and get one there! We ranked the dogs as follows:
Fourth place goes to the Lunching Pad Philly Cheese Steak Hot Dog. Placing third is the Lunching Pad Taco Hot Dog. In second we have the Casey’s Corner Chicago-Style Dog. And our first place winner is the Casey’s Corner Barbecue Slaw Dog! Congrats! (To see reviews of the top two winners, click here!)
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That mushroom looks like a slug, haha. While I appreciate the variety that Disney is trying to acheive, it still rankles me a bit that their mis-guided “healthy initiative” forces them to but these not so healty toppings on something other than an all-beef hot dog. It’s akin to putting bacon on a veggie burger.
These look like they are a mess to eat! Are they?
@Pudge – That’s EXACTLY what I thought when I saw that mushroom hanging out on top!
@Bill – YES! We were also avoiding carbs, so we went the route of the knife and fork. About halfway through the second dog (taco dog), we’d had enough and just ate the toppings off of it.
Ahh! Cilantro is my worst enemy.
Wish they had veggie dogs, here (or anywhere in the parks). I would love a good ‘hot dog’ for vegetarians.
What’s simpler than doing a decent hot dog? Serving real regional hot dogs covered with
well prepared condiments would be such a great addition. Very disappointing.
Thanks for the heads up! 🙂
The Philly Cheese Steak hot dog at the Lunching Pad was the only bad food we had in our recent week at Disney World. The steak was way overcooked and couldn’t find mushrooms or onions.
I think they’ve improved the Philly Cheese Steak dog. My husband had one on our recent trip in June 2013 and raved about it. They’ve solved the mushroom problem, as I didn’t see anything that resembled a slug on it.