There’s a pretty familiar formula most people think of when you bring up food at Walt Disney World. Casual visitors likely picture hamburgers, pretzels, turkey legs, and Mickey Ice Cream Bars. More seasoned guests might think of popular classics like Dole Whip Floats, Be Our Guest’s Grey Stuff, or maybe the School Bread at Epcot’s Kringla (yeah, most of us IMMEDIATELY think dessert). Beyond these familiar favorites, we may picture family style Italian food, decadent breakfast buffets, or even popular steakhouse choices at Disney’s signature restaurants.
While the dining scene at Walt Disney World has definitely experienced a few hits to the consistent quality they used to be famous for, that isn’t to say that there aren’t still some real gems to be found amidst the food scene at The Most Magical Place on Earth. Diners who dare to break tradition and be a little adventurous can find some true culinary treasures—some of which are so good, they’ll completely change your perspective on what “theme park food” can mean. The best part is you won’t have to shell out $200 a person at Victoria and Albert’s just to enjoy them!
Curious? Here are eight of our favorite standout dishes that will rock your paradigm for what Disney dining can offer…
1. Gobi Manchurian and Crispy Sadza – Tiffin’s, Disney’s Animal Kingdom
Crispy Sadza with Chakalaka
Image: Jett Farrell-Vega (@mykingomforamouse Instagram)
I have to make a terrible admission—for someone who loves South Asian food and vegetables, especially plant-based dishes, I absolutely hate cauliflower. It just tastes like pure feet to me, and the texture is usually spongy nastiness. At most Disney dining locations, I have to request it completely be left out of dishes because the taste is usually so strong to me.
The Gobi Manchurian at Tiffin’s in Disney’s Animal Kingdom turned my perspective on the humble cauliflower upside down. This unassuming appetizer might be one of the best vegetarian dishes on property. Tiffin’s is themed after the adventures of Disney Imagineers, and the Gobi Manchurian is a highlight on the restaurant’s wonderfully eclectic menu. With a flavor profile that combines pleasant sweetness with zesty notes of spice, the flavor is absolutely to die for with a texture almost similar to hot wings. The wait staff are usually quick to recommend this dish for good reason.
Another must-try item at Tiffin’s is the Crispy Sadza– an African corn cake entree paired with roasted vegetables and chakalaka spicy tomato relish with an option to add Berkshire pork belly. For adventurous diners, the Crispy Sadza is a treat on every front, from the pleasing texture of the sadza cake to the rich flavors of the vegetables. Across the board, Tiffin’s has definitely won a place as one of the strongest contenders in Disney table service dining.
2. Berbere Style Beef Tenderloin Tips –Africa, Epcot International Food and Wine Festival
Image: Jett Farrell-Vega
It’s hard to ignore Epcot’s International Food and Wine Festival when it comes to food that will rock your world. The Food and Wine fest is a literal playground for foodies, with ever-changing samplings of dishes and wines from around the world. Every year, there are a few standouts items that really go above and beyond, and consistently, the Africa pavilion seems to always have one or two of these.
The Berbere-Style Beef Tenderloin Tips are a perfect example of this. Interestingly enough, it is often the less-visually appealing foods at the Food and Wine fest that often taste the best. At first glance, it literally looks like a plate of stew you’d get out of a Progresso can, but don’t be fooled. The flavors in this ultra-tender beef dish are phenomenal and wonderfully spicy. A spread of pap—a grain dish similar to grits or polenta—acts as a perfect counterpoint to the spicy beef.
For the 2019 festival, the Berbere-Style Beef evolved into the oh-so-wordy Kenyan Coffee Barbecue Beef Tenderloin with Sweet Potato and Corn Mealie Pap and Kachumbari Slaw. While the name might have changed, it appears that African beef tenderloin will continue to reign supreme as a winning dish at the Food and Wine Festival for years to come.
3. Tagliatelle Campagnole – Tutto Italia, Epcot
Image: Jett Farrell-Vega (@mykingdomforamouse Instagram)
Almost every major theme park in the Orlando—including three out of Disney’s four parks—includes some sort of Italian restaurant. It’s become par for the course as a safe option for families. Usually what we picture is something kid-friendly like Tony’s Town Square Restaurant or Mama Melrose’s Ristorante Italiano, where families enjoy large servings of spaghetti and meatballs or fettuccine alfredo.
Epcot’s Tutto Italia is in a league of its own among Disney’s Italian restaurants—indeed, it’s one of the most consistently excellent restaurants in World Showcase. There is so much to love on Tutto Italia’s menu, but one dish that continues to stand out to us is their Tagliatelle Campagnole. Tagliatelle is a flat, ribbon-like pasta similar to fettuccine, only more delicate. The pasta is coated with a to-die-for arugula and spinach pesto, topped with creamy burrata and a tomato garnish.
Everything about the Tagliatelle Campagnole screams “fresh”— a literal taste of heaven at Walt Disney World if you’ve been eating nothing but heavy foods all day. If you like pesto done right and prefer an alternative to traditionally heavy pasta dishes, you cannot go wrong with this marvelous entrée.
4. Liquid Nitro Chocolate-Almond Truffle – Epcot International Food and Wine Festival
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and the Liquid Nitro Chocolate-Almond Truffle is not a beautiful dessert by any respect. Indeed, it might be the ugliest-yet-most-delicious-dessert on Disney property.
Every year, the Epcot International Food and Wine Festival brings back signature dishes that proved to be guest favorites in previous year. The Liquid Nitro Chocolate-Almond Truffle with Warm Whiskey Caramel has been a consistent part of the festival menu since 2015, and it seems likely this total winner is not going anywhere soon.
An infusion of liquid nitrogen gives this mousse-like dessert a surprising texture, like something between merengue and ice cream. The chocolate is wonderfully rich but not overpowering, giving the dessert a distinct subtlety compared to Disney’s usual punch-you-in-the-mouth sweeties. The whiskey component is usually undetectable, but the caramel and almonds add a very nice counterpoint to the chocolate. If you happen to be visiting Walt Disney World during the Food and Wine festival, this is a definite #TAKEMYMONEY dessert champion!
5. Egyptian Kushari – Jiko: The Cooking Place, Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge
Image: Disney
If you haven’t noticed, a good amount of the items on this list bear some relation to African food. Disney has admittedly done extremely well with their ventures to introduce African flavors to guests through locations like Tusker House, Boma, Tiffin’s, and of course, Jiko: The Cooking Place.
Similar to Tiffin’s, we could pull almost any item off the menu at Jiko and put it on this list. They are undoubtedly one of the most excellent restaurants on property, and your dining experience there will be wholly unique compared even to other African and South Asian offerings at Walt Disney World. A perfect example of this is actually a dish that isn’t even a main course (unless you order off the vegan or vegetarian menu)—the Egyptian Kushari.
This ancient grains and pasta dish is positively bursting with flavors from a zesty blend of chakalaka, olives, roasted vegetables like summer squash and peppers, and rich spices. It bears some similarities to Moroccan couscous dishes, but the Kushari is leagues above anything you would get at Restaurant Marrakesh or Spice Road Table. You just want to go on eating it forever. It is delicious all by itself as a vegetarian entrée, but paired with one of Jiko’s eclectic entrees, you have a double winner. There’s really nothing on the menu at Jiko that we wouldn’t recommend, but this unassuming side remains one of the best things we ever ate at Walt Disney World.
6. Potato-Wrapped Red Snapper (and basically anything on the menu)– Flying Fish, Disney’s Boardwalk
Image: Disney
No exploration of spectacular food at Walt Disney World is complete without a mention of the Boardwalk’s Flying Fish—formerly the Flying Fish Café. This oft-overlooked culinary gem has remained a culinary standout since its opening for its innovative takes on seafood, steakhouse favorites, and New American cuisine. The restaurant has historically maintained a menu that regularly changes to match seasonal and sustainable ingredients, so you never can fully guess what you’ll get until you visit. They’re able to do this because every menu at the Flying Fish brims with world-class culinary delights.
One favorite from the restaurant’s old menu was a potato-wrapped red snapper with creamy leeks. In every way, it was the picture of perfection. The potato wrapping added a wonderful texture to the perfectly fresh snapper, with the addition of a red wine reduction to add a zip of extra flavor. Creamy leeks paired marvelously to create a guest favorite that remained one of the restaurant’s most popular dishes for years.
With the Flying Fish’s recent transformation, the potato-wrapped snapper is no longer a regular item on the menu, but don’t fret. Any visit to the Flying Fish is guaranteed to treat you to a refreshing culinary experience you would never expect to find within walking distance of a theme park.
7. Charcuterie Plate – Nomad Lounge, Disney’s Animal Kingdom
Image: Disney
It’s astonishingly easy to miss the happy place which is Animal Kingdom’s Nomad Lounge. Tucked next to Tiffin’s, one could easily assume the lounge is simply a bar for guests waiting to sit in the restaurant. While Nomad Lounge does offer a quality menu of alcoholic beverages, where they really shine is in their other eclectic offerings, from press pot coffee to chili-strawberry and vanilla-crema churros.
One of the most highly-praised items on the menu is their charcuterie plate. This is by no means your local wine bar’s meat and cheese plate. The plate’s smoked and cured meats vary seasonally according to the choice of the chef, but a few of the delicacies that have been featured before include Ethiopian-coffee smoked pork terrine, wagyu bologna, and duck pastrami. Disney experts and foodies consistently rave that it’s one of their favorite quick bites at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. This is definitely one for adventurous souls, but those who have tried it can’t go on enough about it!
8. Tonga Toast – Kona Café, Disney’s Polynesian Resort
Image: Disney
While the majority of our explorations of standout Disney dishes have focused on savory foods (even the Liquid Nitro Almond Truffle isn’t overpoweringly sweet), there is one super-sugary longtime-favorite that definitely deserves a place on this list.
The Polynesian Resort’s famous Tonga Toast.
At first description, Tonga Toast sounds like something a culinary mad scientist (or a kid) came up with: super-thick French Toast stuffed with bananas, coated with cinnamon-sugar, and deep fried with a dollop of strawberry compote. It should be an inedible sugar bomb, a complete mushy mess fit only for a state fair.
It’s not. Kona Café’s Tonga Toast tastes absolutely divine, standing leagues above any of the other breakfast offerings in the Most Magical Place on Earth. Instead of exploding into mush, Tonga Toast balances perfect notes of sweetness from the sugar and bananas with the crispy fried exterior. The soft interior of the French toast balances things out into a dessert-for-breakfast masterpiece. Many people go so far as to say it’s the best thing they ever ate at Walt Disney World. On your next visit, stop by Kona Café (or Captain Cook’s) and try some with a hot French Press of Kona coffee. You will definitely gain some pounds, but you’ll do it with a smile on your face!
What are some dishes you’ve tried at Walt Disney World that completely changed your view of theme park food?
