Boma is the last African centric restaurant that we’ve made reservations for on this trip. It sits across from Jiko on the first floor of the Animal Kingdom Lodge. Around dinner time, this area was quite busy and seemed to have a lot of people. I didn’t have much expectations at all since it was just a buffet, but it was interesting to see how they laid the food outside and let people get what they want instead of being served.
When I first tried to make my reservations more than 60 days ago, this restaurant had no availability. Fortunately through my shameless Touring Blog subscription, it notified me there was a spot open just 2 days before my trip! I was excited about this reservation for 2 reasons: the price seemed very affordable, and I always enjoy a decent prime rib. This has to be good, especially for a new Disney resort restaurant, right?
This place in Galaxy Edge is close to the area where the Rise of the Resistance ride is located. We actually waited the full 2+ hours for the ride at around 10 AM, so coming out of it we were hungry. We walked all the way over to the 50s Diner, but our walk in time had passed. Fortunately, this place accepted mobile orders for lunch, and the availability window was pretty fast. By the time we walked from the diner to here, the food was already ready for all 5 of us.
Jiko recently reopened a few weeks ago, and we were fortunate to nab a reservation for 5. The unfortunate part was that it was real late at night at around 9 PM. Despite this inconvenience, we were very much looking forward to this dinner because we had heard great things about it prior to its closure. African cuisine is unfamiliar to my palette, so it was quite exciting to see how Disney would present it.
This is our first day of our 2022 Disney World trip and what a rush this day was. Our flight from NYC was delayed by 3 hours, and it was inevitable that we were going to miss our original booking for Sanaa. Fortunately when we arrived very late, the restaurant accommodated us into the lounge. We had reservations much later in the evening for Jiko, so we didn’t want to get too full. Sanaa is located in the Kidani village which is further down the road as you enter the Animal Kingdom Lodge area. There is a convenient shuttle that goes back and forth between the Kidani Village villas and the main Animal Kingdom Lodge.
In 2021, it was by pure coincidence that the week we were going to Disney World happened to also have this International Flower and Garden festival. There are a myriad of flower and grass decorations of some of your favorite Disney characters displayed. It was our first time ever going to a destination with a lot of variety of little tastings scattered throughout. In different sections of the park, Disney has set up little booths that have different themed items, each ranging from $5 to $10. We didn’t drink much, but we’re going to share some of the cool foods we ate.
In terms of unique restaurants in Disney Springs, there aren’t too many. I think this is one of them that was a little different than the normal suburbia / city type of restaurant. This is Spanish influenced and is one of Jose Andres’ restaurants. Having been to his other restaurants like The Bazaar (where molecular gastronomy was a focus) in LA, I had some expectations for this. The restaurant itself is actually very noisy and dances around the line of being trendy and hip. The decor has a lot of colors that pop with a festive vibe.
This is located in the central area of the Hollywood Studios theme park. Having dine in similar restaurants in Los Angeles, this definitely does bring back vibes from there. The restaurant decor has a ton of celebrity facial caricatures hanging on walls with an old 1910s to 1950s like decor. They placed us in our own booth, so they took care of social distancing. This restaurant is definitely not as upscale as some of the other restaurants we’ve been to, but it’s supposed to be regarded as the one to go to in this park.
Oga’s Cantina is a Star Wars themed bar in the Galaxy Edge section of the Hollywood Studios park. It was a little confusing in figuring out where it actually was because there’s no visible sign, so we had to double check the online map on how to get there. The availability for this is insane in that you need to make reservations for this months in advance, in fact it’s advised that when you are eligible to make reservations you should do this first. Due to COVID protocols, there was a lot of social distancing and space between guests and party, but the music and theme inside was still very cool. They played cheesy Star Wars cantina themed music, and even the bartenders would roleplay a little too. We ended up seating at the bar close to the kitchen.
Tiffins is one of those restaurants that to me seems rather unique in general. While most people go straight for the typical French or New American style, I think the African Asian themed ingredients presents quite an interesting take. The restaurant’s decor was actually quite nice and open. During the first week of March when we went, there weren’t many people, so it was nice to dine casually in tranquility.