Tusker House

On my most recent trip to Disney World, before the scheduled agency events began I decided to take myself on a date to Tusker House in Animal Kingdom. Tusker House, located in the Africa section of Animal Kingdom near the Safari, is modeled after a Harambe themed marketplace, serving African spiced proteins and sides. It is a character meal where you get to see Donald Duck and some of his friends (Mickey, Daisy, Goofy) dressed for the Safari!

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This restaurant, like most character meals, had been closed since March 2020 due to Covid. It just recently reopened on June 20, 2021, and I’d never eaten at this popular character meal before, so I figured I should get myself over there.

This was my first experience at Tusker House, so I can’t compare it to pre covid, but I can say that I probably would’ve liked it better post covid anyway. Why? Because pre covid, Tusker house was a buffet meal. Don’t get me wrong, I heard great things about it, but I am definitely a food snob so as you can imagine I strongly prefer meals that are NOT buffets. However, I do recall a meal at Crystal Palace in Magic Kingdom pre covid that was a buffet, and I actually really enjoyed it, so maybe Disney is somewhat good at buffets? Whatever, not buffet is still preferable. (Ok I just went back and reread this post and realized that what I actually meant by “I really enjoyed it” was, to quote myself, “it wasn’t gross”, and I also wrote about the Cape May Cafe breakfast buffet from that same trip which I described as “powdered eggs and frozen sausage”, so maybe buffets are just actually not good anywhere. OKAY tangent over, back to my non buffet Tusker House experience.)

In the post covid era, many restaurants that were previously buffets at Disney World have switched over to family style meals, Tusker House included. So this means not only that the food is better because it’s not sitting in giant buffet tins but rather prepared fresh, it also means that on my date with myself I got to taste every single menu item. At all family style meals at Disney, every menu item is served to the entire table to share, and they do not size down the menu for a party of one (although they do size down the portions). I got the same exact food as the family of four next to me and the family of 8 across the room (just obviously less of it). This was SO fun (and maybe a little wasteful but I’m here for it). 

My meal started with a delicious bread plate with some amazing dipping sauces, and “African themed salads” which actually was just mostly lettuce with some citrus dressing. I barely touched the salad to preserve stomach space for the good stuff, but I held on to the bread sauces for the rest of the meal and all the meat that was on its way.

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Then they brought me my giant meat plate which had chicken, pork, and steak, and another smaller plate with a curry shrimp dish. Sides included rice, potatoes, an assortment of vegetables, and some deliciously creamy mac and cheese.

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The meal concluded with three beautiful desserts, of which I ate only one because I do not do non chocolate dessert, but I’m sure other people liked them all.

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You can find the menu online, but here’s the sign out front for a little bit more details on what I ate.

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Another change that Disney has made post covid is the style of the character interactions. Most of the character meals were closed for a while after Disney reopened last summer, and they have slowly begun reopening, but you can no longer get super close to or touch the characters. They still walk by every table and pause so you can get a picture of them or a picture with them in the background, but the character hug is now a thing of the past. They also put on some really fun dance shows though! Check out my stories @arden.etfamilytravel for some videos. It’s definitely still a great character experience.

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Overall, I highly recommend this restaurant. The food was good, the atmosphere was great, and the characters were fun for me, and adult eating lunch all by myself, so imagine how the kids in the restaurant felt!