This review reflects our experience in November of 2014.
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to eat in a lodge in Africa? Disney’s Tusker House in the Animal Kingdom is pretty close to the real thing. Tusker House is a character buffet that offers indian and african inspired dishes. We love going here because this buffet has the most vegan options in Disney Parks.
When you get to Tusker House make sure to remind the hostess of your dietary needs. There is a seating area in the back that looks out onto the new location for Festival of Lion King that truly makes you feel like you are in Africa or you can wait up front and enjoy a drink before your meal. Tusker House offers breakfast, lunch and dinner, we often go for lunch. Recently they added the character experience to dinner. Now all three meal times include Mickey, Daisy, Goofy and Donald.
When you are seated a chef will come to your table to walk you through the buffet. Each chef we have experienced here has been very knowledgeable about what a vegan diet is and what we can and cannot eat on the buffet. These items sometimes change so it is important to do this each trip. Since there are no vegan desserts on the buffet they will offer to bring you your own vegan dessert when you are ready.
Now let’s start our virtual buffet tour. Get your towel ready because you may drool at some of these options.
First stop, the bread station. The vegan options here are pita bread and some sort of corn bread. The “corn bread” was pretty dry and not something I would go back for, it also had pieces of corn throughout it. The pita is always soft and great with hummus.
Speaking of hummus, the next stop has hummus! Not only is the hummus vegan here but so is the tabouleh and mango chutney. We could probably eat a plate just full of the hummus and tabouleh and be happy.
Next there is the salad bar. The salad bar includes lettuce, green pepper, cucumber, tomato, kalamata olives and two vegan dressings. When we were there in November 2014 there was a curry dressing that was absolutely delicious, hopefully they kept it.
At the end of the cold bar section there is a pearl couscous dish and chickpea salad. The couscous dish has raisins and is a light sweet side.
Now we’ve made it to the hot food. Here you can find fried plantains, rice with raisins and tofu with zucchini. The plantains are usually pretty good, sometimes they’re a little too oily. The tofu is one of our favorite things on this buffet. It has a bit of a kick to it and is nice to have some added protein as tofu is pretty hard to find in Disney World.
Continuing down the hot bar side you will find mixed vegetables with chickpeas.
Now we’ll continue into the kids bar area and find sautéed green beans. These beans are cooked in oil so they are safe for vegans and those with dairy allergies. They’re also pretty delicious!
Tucked away in an awkward corner next to the meat carving station is our very favorite item on this whole buffet, vegetable samosas! These crispy potato and pea filled treats are great for kids and adults. There is a mango chutney that pairs with this perfectly. Additionally you can find these samosas at the Mr. Kamal’s cart in Asia.
The last stop of our buffet tour is the crispy potatoes. These are perfectly crispy and seasoned every time. These are found at the very end of the buffet on the other side of the meat carving station.
Now that you’ve finished the buffet your plate probably looks like this.
These were the vegan items when we visited in November 2014. When we were done filling up at the buffet we told our server we were ready for dessert.
Our dessert plate featured three different kinds of Enjoy Life cookies, strawberries and blueberries. They used to give you ice cream but when we asked we were told they no longer carried it there. But these cookies were great and what I didn’t finish I wrapped up and put in my bag, shh!
While you’re busy stuffing your face with all the delicious foods on the buffet Mickey and friends will greet you at your table. This is a great way to meet the characters without waiting in line forever. Not only do you get to meet the characters they also do a dance parade every hour for the little kids.
Tusker House has been one of my favorite restaurants even before I went vegan. This is one the most vegetable heavy buffets on Disney property. If you haven’t been here yet, you should definitely make an Advanced Dining Reservation for your next trip. If you’re there when it isn’t too busy you can usually make a same day reservation on the My Disney Experience app. If you plan to go for dinner, try to make your reservation close to closing time so when you leave the park you feel like it’s all yours. It’s a great experience for you and your family.
We hope you enjoyed our virtual buffet tour!
Would we go back?
Every trip, we even went twice in November 2014. You will not leave here hungry!
Price?
$$$
Corey & Melissa
We are checking out our friend in the Lion King show – so Tusker house is the logical choice for dinner afterwards… my only concern is that I read some iffy Trip Advisor reviews saying that the Buffet is pretty empty with not-so-great refills. Have you ever experienced that there? Being vegans, I get freaked out that we am going to starve. We have the choice to also eat in Hollywood Studios that night but nothing there is as appealing as this menu. This review is inspiring btw… and made me so hungry just reading it.
We have always had great meals there and will always leave very full. You’ll have a great meal here 🙂