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.
Ambiance
The restaurant is located at the bottom floor of the main Animal Kingdom Lodge area and is directly across from Boma. Upon entering the restaurant venue, the decor was very spacious with a sparse crowd. It seemed that it’s not operating at full capacity yet. There was an open kitchen and a counter area where my cousin had mentioned they used to have a tasting menu.
The service was pretty good and attentive. Our waters were always filled, and the pace of all the dishes came out perfect. I guess it helped that the ratio of wait staff to patrons was a good ratio.
Food
The complimentary warm bread came with butter and was very good. The bottom flat bread in the picture reminded me of the Chinese sesame flatbread (shaobing).
The jungle punch (left - $14) came with house made vanilla/pineapple vodka infusion, ancho reyes liqueur, and pineapple juice. We didn’t get a chance to taste this unfortunately.
The virgin sunriser (right - $5.50). I don’t remember what this came with, but it was a mix of different juices and was non-alcoholic. The alcoholic version of this comes with Parrot Bay rum, banana liqueur, orange juice, pineapple juice, and cranberry juice. This virgin variant was decent and not memorable.
The duck confit and honey-raisin flatbread ($16) came with preserved duck, rocket, toasted chickpeas, mozzarella, plump raisins, harissa and spiced honey. The flatbread was surprisingly good because all the salty and sweet flavors blended very well together. Texturally it was crispy in the right places with the right chew in other places.
The braised wild boar tenderloin ($19) came with creamy pap, chakalaka tomatoes, and herb-smoked oil. The boar was perfectly cooked medium rare. The pap reminded me a little bit of polenta, but it definitely had some light seasoning to it to give it a nice flavor. The chakalaka tomatoes was basically a light salsa with subtle flavors. Combined with all of this, this dish was delightful.
The sustainable fish ($48) came with tile fish, succotash, green papaya radish, citrus butter, and charred tomato oil. The tile fish came as a very thick filet with a firm but flaky texture. It wasn’t fatty and was dense in mass. The citrus butter was a nice compliment to the meaty fish along with the freshness of the vegetables and garnishes.
The botswanan seswaa short rib ($50) came with slow-cooked beef short rib, hominy, sea peas, mushrooms, and carrots. The sauce was rich with a little sweetness and savory, and the short rib was fork tender.
The Mozambique peri peri prawns ($21) came with 3 pieces, lemon-garlic butter, and bird’s eye peppers. The entire prawn was charred and grilled nicely such that it was entirely edible. One of the prawn’s head was fishy unfortunately, but two out of three were good.
The berry jelly came at the end as a delicious capper for the night. It wasn’t tart nor overly sweet, but pretty tasty with that gummy texture.
Final Verdict
If you’re around the Animal Kingdom area, Jiko is an excellent restaurant to check out. The flavor profiles are very mild compared to many of the other Disney World resort restaurants. Between Tiffins and Jiko, it’s difficult to decide which one is better. Regardless, this is one Disney World restaurant that I can recommend with certainty.
Yelp Jabs
In addition prices have gone up from January from 2-4 dollars on some items even with inflation this is steep in two months.
Prices have gone up everywhere in Disney World, so this should not be surprising.
I am giving them a 1 star because I show up at 740 with my wife and kids. They tell me it’s a 40 min wait so I say ok no problem…. little did I know that 6 tables were empty in the back of the restaurant. We ask is it ok to sit in the bar while we wait so we can order the kids food they are very hungry. They say no. How do you make us and several others wait when there was literally 6 empty tables. FYI when we finally finished eating all 6 tables still not in use.
The reason for this is because they don’t have enough staff to deal with a full room and they are trying to do crowd control. If they had those tables occupied, the diners would be complaining that service was too slow.