It has been many years since I went to Tusker House at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Prior to living in Orlando this was a staple for our trips, but once we moved here we stopped going. This character buffet has always been a great variety for vegans, plus meeting some of your favorite characters in their safari wardrobe is always fun.
Tusker House restaurant is located in the Africa section of this park, between Kilimanjaro Safaris and the Festival of the Lion King. They offer a character meal for all three meal times and you can see your friends Mickey, Donald, Daisy, and Goofy. This is a buffet meal, so be sure to arrive hungry!
We went for lunch, which offers the same food for dinner. There was a wide variety of options on the buffet, from salads, to curry, to dessert. So let’s do a quick little tour of all the vegan options on the buffet!
Starting off with your classic bread station, unfortunately at the time of our visit none of the breads were vegan, but if they do ever have vegan bread we have three spreads to choose from; an Apricot-Raisin Blatjang, Coriander Chutney, and Tomato Chili Blatjang. Between this station and the next there was a big bowl of grapes to enjoy.
Next up is a build your own salad bar. You can load it up carrots, tomatoes, cucumber, chickpeas, and onion. For dressings we had the choice of a Coconut-Curry Vinaigrette or oil and vinegar. I went with the curry and it was a nice light flavor. If I wasn’t planning on eating so much I would have made a big salad with that as it was very tasty with the chickpeas.
After the build your own salad bar you will find mixed salads. This included a Couscous Salad and a Lentil Salad. Both of these were good, the lentils were a little underdone, but I didn’t mind the texture that they had because of that. The flavor of the couscous was citrusy and enjoyable.
At the kids station we found Broccoli and Corn that had the plant-based label so they are not cooked in butter.
There was a bar after this with four vegan options. It started with a South African-spiced Cauliflower Curry which had a great flavor and slow heat to it. It reminded me of the inside of a samosa. There was cauliflower, potato, zucchini, and chickpeas in it. I really enjoyed this.
There was also Spiced Broccoli which was a bit over done and had raisins in it. They were good though, despite the texture of the broccoli.
The star on this bar was the North African Pilau. This had a nice smoky tomato flavor to it and pigeon peas. It was so good I would have eaten just this as a meal. It was like a mix of a Spanish rice and jambalaya. I definitely recommend this one!
Last on the bar, but was not labeled as plant-based, was the Carrot Ginger Soup. We did confirm with a chef that it was vegan, however there is granola that you are supposed to put on it that is not. I wasn’t a fan of this soup, it was very thin and had a really strong flavor that reminded me of Christmas.
There was another bar before you get to all the meat that had warm Couscous. This tasted very similar to the salad. I would just opt for one or the other.
The most important part of the meal is dessert. We had two on the buffet options and one off the buffet brought to us by our server. On the buffet there was a fruit salad and a Plant-based Chocolate Mousse. The mousse was SO GOOD. It tasted like fudge, but was super light. I would have eaten so many of these if I could. They were also super tiny, like maybe an inch in diameter.
Off the buffet our server brought us Partake Cookies, which have replaced Enjoy Life in the parks. We were given chocolate chip and snickerdoodle. These were fine, I preferred the snickerdoodle, but I would be fine not eating these.
This was such a great meal and I am so glad Tusker House still has some great vegan options. I am sad to see some old favorites gone (RIP potatoes, samosas and collards), but the options that were on the buffet were delicious.
If you’re looking for a character meal and want to eat some food full of beans, grains, and other tasty things, be sure to add this to your must try list!
Price $$$$
Review from July 2024.
