Disney World has some of my very favorite restaurants ever. Table service (TS) restaurants are Disney's sit down restaurants where a waitperson will take your order and bring your meal. All of the restaurants in this category accept Advance Dining Reservations (ADRs). It's strongly recommended that you make ADR's, especially for popular restaurants and all character dining. If staying on property, ADRs can be made 60 days out plus all days of your trip. For a general overview of all dining, check out this post. This will be a short blog post because there are only 4 true TS restaurants plus one Lounge option.
The biggest problem is that there are so many restaurant choices and so little vacation time (and so little belly room). I'm going to give you some of my personal favorite locations in Animal Kingdom, and also ones to avoid. As always, Disney adds new restaurants, updates menus, and changes suppliers and vendors. These recommendations are from winter 2023. I'll try to update as restaurants make changes.
***Important notice***
When I talk about pricing, please note that "adults" means anyone age 10 and over. "Kid" pricing is anyone age 3-9. Anyone under 3 is free and not included in the pricing.
Animal Kingdom Recommendations
AK has a ton of wonderful dining options, but only four table service options. Again, much like in MK, we tend to eat quick service (QS) at AK. Honestly, we only are allowed to eat at one specific quick service restaurant (Satu'li Canteen) when The Kiddo is there because it's her very favorite restaurant at Disney. However, when I'm there solo, one of my favorite places to eat is Nomad Lounge. This restaurant is in-between QS and TS. It's classified as a lounge. This means you can not make an ADR, but you also can't just walk in and sit down (nor can you mobile order). On the day of, if you are inside of AK park, you can join a "walk-up list" either from the MDE app or at the host stand in front of the lounge. This lounge serves "small plates" only along with an amazing selection of specialty cocktails, wines, beers, and non-alcoholic mocktails. Nomad Lounge is connected to the signature fine dining restaurants Tiffins. You can get many of the same offerings at the lounge as you can at Tiffins. One thing that you can only get at Nomad Lounge (and not at Tiffins) is churros. These are not your everyday theme park churros. These are upscale churros with specialty dipping sauces. The flavors of the dipping sauces will change periodically. And yes, it is perfectly acceptable for a grown woman to sit down and order some churros while sitting all by herself.
While we are talking about Nomad Lounge, we should discuss Tiffins Restaurant. As mentioned above, this is a fine dining/ Disney Signature restaurant. It is located in the same building as Nomad Lounge. Being a fine dining experience, I do recommend this experience on, say, maybe a date night or on an adult only trip. The dishes are quite pricy with kid meals priced from $14-$19. Adult entrees start at $40 and only go up from there. This restaurant is beautifully themed, but the kiddos might find it a tad boring. I would not advise people to eat here every trip, but if you are looking for a date night splurge, this is a good option.
Another one of our favorite TS restaurants is Tusker House. Donald and friends come right to your table. Being a character meal, it is priced accordingly. Breakfast is $47 per adult and $30 per child. Lunch and dinner are $62 per adult and $40 per child. These prices can be justified because it is a buffet. My sister and I especially enjoy this restaurant because of the African and Moroccan inspired foods, and there are soooo many vegan options!!! Yes, they have your American basics like Mickey (and Simba) waffles with bacon and yogurt for breakfast, and lunch/dinner you will find mac and cheese with chicken legs and mashed potatoes. However, the real star, and the reason we eat here, is for the amazing specialty foods that aren't found in typical theme park restaurants. This buffet boast Naan bread, house made hummus, tazatiki sauce, roasted cauliflower salad, quinoa and chickpea salad, and mango chutney, along with a slew of meats such as Tandoori chicken, green curry shrimp, salmon filets, and za'tar braised beef. For all of the plant based eaters out there, Disney has you covered here. Many of the salads and dips are vegan. Main dishes include jollof rice with Beyond sausage, roasted root veggies, and cauliflower bunny chow. Even if you are a meat eater, I still encourage you to try all of the plant based options. They are all extremely flavorful and delicious. The Sister has been vegan for many years, and this is her very favorite restaurant in all of Disney. If you only splurge on one character dining experience on your entire trip, I 100% recommend Tusker House as your splurge meal.
While we haven't eaten at Yak &Yeti in a few years, it used to be a favorite of ours (remember how I said The Kiddo only wants to eat at Su'tuli Canteen). This TS restaurant has an Asian/Chinese inspired menu. I'll gladly admit that this is one of my least favorite type of food. My family does love Chinese food though. I do remember the egg rolls being wonderful and my family loved the calamari. I could only really find two plant based menu offering of vegetable Lo Mein and a Beyond burger. If everyone in your party is vegan, then probably skip this restaurant. If not, and your family likes Chinese foods, this will be a comfortable menu that they will be familiar with.
Animal Kingdom Skips
Rainforest Cafe. This is a generic chain restaurant that can be found at any tourist trap location across the country. The menu is uninspired and extremely expensive. The quality of food is not good. If your kids will only eat "kid food" like nuggies, burgers, and mac and cheese, then I highly encourage you to eat at one of the many amazing quick service locations throughout the park and save your money. Rainforest Cafe is also quite a loud restaurant and is not suitable for people with sensitivities to loud noises (yes, there are loud "thunderstorms" that happen ever 20 minutes or so.) There are also lots of animal sounds happening throughout your meal. If I could rate this restaurant less than a 0/10, I would give it a negative number. Heck, I'm writing this article, so I do in fact give it a -5/10.
Hopefully you now have a good understanding of all that Animal Kingdom has to offer for Table Service dining. Disney is constantly changing up their offerings, so make sure you check the website or app for current, up to date offerings during your travel time.
I hope this helps to give you a starting point when trying to plan your Walt Disney World Vacation. For help booking a room and park tickets check out Jillian with Destination Dreaming Travels. She's a FREE travel agent waiting to help you book your most magical vacation ever.
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