So, I'll start this off by stating I've never really done a fine dining style experience. My husband and I eventually want to try Victoria and Albert's (in the Grand Floridian in Disney World). We'd like to go for our anniversary, which will be about 8 months post-RNY surgery. Their meal style is a whole bunch of courses (6-8). Each individual dish is pretty small. Does anyone have any experience with eating at this type of restaurant post-surgery? Is it out of the question given the smaller tummy or do you think we can still have a good time? Should I perhaps wait an additional year and we can try for our next anniversary?

Note: This is assuming it is reopened by the time our anniversary rolls around. It's currently closed due to COVID. I assume it'll reopen at some point.

you'll be able to eat a lot more than you can now by then, but not 6-8 courses. I wonder if they'll let you take things home? If so, you should be good to go. If I order more than an appetizer, I usually end up taking half my food home.

I go to fine dining restaurants often & I only order an entree (your starter). I also study the menu before I go so I know what I can order in advance.

I’ve avoided degustation menus since my surgery almost 26 months ago because it’s just too much food. Even though each course tends to be between an appetiser & entree (your starter) in size the amount of food adds up quickly. Plus the plates tend to come out quickly pushing you to eat too fast. Since COVID a lot of restaurants in Australia only offer set menus which does restrict where I can dine unfortunately - I’m not paying $100+ for 2 or 3 courses when I can only eat one.

Look for a restaurant offering an a la carte menu for your anniversary - don’t delay your celebration.

Additionally, the dishes may be prepared with a lot of fats and butter, or something else that may cause the dreaded dumping! You don't want that to happen in the middle of a 7-8 course meal. That being said, if you can limit yourself to 1 -2 bites of each course, and perhaps share the rest with your hubby, you could go and enjoy the experience. I've been out to eat plenty of times, and as long as I don't push it, I have a great time! Now that one time, when I thought I could have nachos by the pool followed by far more sushi than I should have....I had to leave the table and spend about 20 minutes in the bathroom with the "foamies" and then head home to go to bed. Not fun.

btw - re: waiting a year to do it: I've over six years out, and I still couldn't do 6-8 courses. I could do maybe two of them. So it'd have to be a place where I could have a bunch of those courses boxed up to take home (or like someone else said - you could have a bit or two of each course and share the rest with your husband). WLS really limits how much you can eat in one sitting. Although you'll get well beyond the volume you can eat the first few weeks post-surgery, you'll probably never going to get to the point where you can pack away what you can pre-surgery - at least in one sitting (and this isn't a bad thing, of course!!)

Edited July 6, 20215 yr by catwoman7

I've done the type of fine dining that serves 6 to 12 pre-defined courses. I've found there are two strategies:

1) If most everything is appealing, which for me is rare anyhow, I just eat a byte or two of each course. Courses in this situation aren't much anyhow;

2) If several of the courses are simply not appealing, I eat a byte or four of each course in which I am interested.

Since about 6 months post-op I've had enough experience to have a good feeling for both how much of what I can and should eat, with occasional surprises. So I can usually anticipate how much fine dining or rough dining I can accomplish.

Just remember when you get back that vacations and special occasions are the rare exceptions.

Good luck and enjoy.

Tek

Thank you guys for all the input. It sounds like my eating capacity at 8 months won't be much different from a year an 8 months if I'm interpreting everyone correctly, so we'll give it a try, assuming they allow leftovers to be taken back to our resort. I think they do, but I will definitely call ahead and ask before going. It's not something we want to do regularly by any means, but we did want to do it once just to have the full experience. It was something we were interested in before the surgery, I've just not had the confidence to go. Funny how that works! We will also still be celebrating our anniversary either way, so no worries there. We actually use vacation time at work to schedule a week off around our anniversary yearly, so plenty of stuff to do that isn't food related as well