Counter Service Restaurants

Table Service Restaurants

Food Carts

Bars or Lounges

Because touring the Animal Kingdom takes less than a day, crowds are heaviest from 9:30 a.m. until about 3:30 p.m. Expect a mob at lunch and thinner crowds at dinner. We recommend you tour early after a good breakfast, then eat a very late lunch or graze on vendor food. If you tour later in the day, eat lunch before you arrive, then enjoy dinner in or out of the theme park.

Unofficial Tip

Although grilled meats are available, don't expect a broad choice of exotic dishes in the Animal Kingdom.

The Animal Kingdom mostly offers counter service fast food. Most Animal Kingdom eateries serve up traditional Disney theme-park fare: hot dogs, hamburgers, deli sandwiches, and the like. Even so, we found Animal Kingdom fast food to be a cut above the average Disney fare. Flame Tree Barbecue in Discovery Island is our pick of the litter, both in terms of food quality and atmosphere. For a quiet refuge away from the crowds, you can't beat Flame Tree Barbecue's waterfront dining pavilions.

Two full-service restaurants are at the park. One is the Rainforest Cafe, with entrances both inside and outside the theme park (you don't have to purchase theme-park admission, in other words, to eat at the restaurant). Unlike the Rainforest Café at the Downtown Disney Marketplace, the Animal Kingdom branch accepts advance reservations. The other full-service restaurant is the Yak and Yeti, which serves Pan-Asian cuisine in a two-story Nepalese inn. Of the two, we like the pricier Yak and Yeti.

Lands