Circle of Parks Podcast: Talking all things Walt Disney World
Because there's far too much to see and do. We're here to help guide you through. We are a married couple with two boys age 9 and 6 talking all things Disney World. This podcast will cover the tips and tricks we've learned along our journey, history of the parks and attractions, and most importantly why and how Disney makes us feel how we do while in the parks and that it's ok to feel that way.
Circle of Parks Podcast: Talking all things Walt Disney World
Episode #189: First Timer Must Eats in Animal Kingdom
Dive into the culinary treasures of Animal Kingdom as we explore the must-eat dining options for first-time visitors. From character dining at Tusker House to quick service delights like Flame Tree Barbecue, this episode highlights the delicious foods and unique dining experiences that make your visit unforgettable.
• Unique character dining experiences at Tusker House
• Themed ambiance and flavorful dishes at Yak and Yeti
• Explore quick service gems like Flame Tree Barbecue
• Customizable bowls and immersive atmosphere at Satuli Canteen
• Tasty snacks that elevate your park experience
• Importance of good food in creating lasting Disney memories
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Hello and welcome to Circular Parks podcast episode number 189. Today we are talking about first timers must eats in Animal Kingdom. There is far too much to see and do. We are here to help guide you through, but before we do that, we must talk Disney merch. We must talk Disney merch. This week Disney merch on DisneyStorecom. There is a new Disney character spirit jersey for adults priced at $79.99. And this spirit jersey, it's just really cute and all the detail is in the word Disney on the back. So you've got the puffy Disney D on the chest, inspired by Mickey Mouse, and then across the back in the puffy ink Disney. The lettering each one is different Mickey is the D, donald is the I, winnie the Pooh is the S and Pluto is the N, goofy's the E and Tigger's the Y. So it just really caught my attention. It's a cute design, all of those characters making up the letters. And again, it is priced at $79.99.
Speaker 2:And that is this week's Disney merch, thank you so much for joining us. Episode number 189. First-timer must-eat at Animal Kingdom. I want to make this show really short and sweet. Just eat all of it at Animal Kingdom. I want to make this show really short and sweet. Just eat all of it, it's all good.
Speaker 1:It is. There's a lot of good food here.
Speaker 2:A lot of good food and I'm going to say this is number two as far as food goes parks, wise, epcot, being number one, oh yeah. Animal Kingdom being number two. There's some good stuff here and you wouldn't think so, just it being Animal Kingdom, but the food game is on point here.
Speaker 1:It is, and definitely a variety.
Speaker 2:Wide variety of different spiced foods, tastes, textures, presentation. This place has everything.
Speaker 1:Yes, they truly, truly, truly do.
Speaker 2:It, really does again like animal kingdom. The imagineers just knocked it out of the park with the theming of the restaurants we're going to talk about. Not all of them made the list, though no there's a few that did not, and we're going to talk about why they did not because there's not that many restaurants in animal kingdom yeah, there's a lot more like snack carts and things like that.
Speaker 1:It's a snacky place.
Speaker 2:Yes. So if you're new here, thank you so much for joining us. I'm Zach, I'm Brittany and we do this show every single week and our goals, plural, are one to just break your week up, take you to Disney. We enjoy doing these shows every single week. It gives us a break from our normal work week. We hope it does the same for you, whether you're listening to us in the car, on your walk out, walking the dogs or working out, whatever. Thank you so much for listening. We really do appreciate it and we also want you to have a better Walt Disney vacation. Walt Disney World vacation.
Speaker 1:So if we can help in any way, if we can help.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. So that's what our goals are here. Let's just go to Disney for a bit. And to do that Animal Kingdom, we love you. The music helps set the tone here, right.
Speaker 1:Yes, it for sure does.
Speaker 2:So this is the music from Tree of Life. It's so just peaceful, relaxing. So go with this, as we're going to Animal Kingdom right now, but before we do that, I want to make one correction from last week's episode. Uh-oh, in the Mexico Pavilion we were talking about quick service restaurants.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:I made the mistake and you're going to see why I made the mistake here. Okay, I said La Hacienda De Sen, san Angel was a quick service restaurant. Yeah, but the pricing it is not, it is a sit-down restaurant. La Cantina de San Angel is the sit-down restaurant.
Speaker 1:Because when I was looking at those prices, that's why I was stuck on that for a minute last week.
Speaker 2:So I apologize. I do like to make corrections when I'm wrong, and I wanted to let you, the listener, know that La Hacienda Desen and Hell is a sit-down restaurant and La Quina La Cantina I'm sorry, desen and Hell is the quick service restaurant.
Speaker 1:There's just a few restaurants over there. There's a few in the Mexican Pavilion, so be aware some are sit-down, some are not, all right, so our first first timer must-eats in Animal Kingdom.
Speaker 2:We're going to start with sit-down restaurants and we recommend two.
Speaker 1:Yes, so the first one is Tusker House Restaurant and this one, zach, can go into detail about the theming in it, but it is done very well and it is character dining. You're going to see some of your favorite characters in their like safari outfits, and to me this one's not too overwhelming either.
Speaker 2:No, this is not an overwhelming character buffet. They're not in your face. They do kind of play some music and dance, but they're in the safari outfit and for me it's not that bad.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:I don't mind it. I do love the theming here. The theme here at tusker house is that you are in an outdoor market in harambe so you're going to see a lot of carts and a lot of bright tapestries and it's like you're in, it's like an in, like a market and so it's.
Speaker 2:It's very well themed. I love this place, I love the theming. We've been here for breakfast twice and for breakfast it's 49 per adult, 33 per child and it's your typical breakfast offerings with some more unique items. Britney, you do enjoy those more unique items. Can you talk about those?
Speaker 1:well, well, before we get to the super unique ones, besides, besides Mickey waffles, they have Simba waffles.
Speaker 2:They do have Simba waffles.
Speaker 1:And you know they have overnight oats. They have your bacon eggs. You know sausage, your breakfast potatoes, you know some other yogurt parfaits. You have your pastries. Now, some pastries are like zebra coffee cake and multigrain croissants and muffins and danishes and all that stuff and uh, but then they do have you know where they carve ham for you, there's some andouille sausage pieces and then they also have the boti, and so for breakfast it's almost more like a, a quiche in a way, but but with different flavor and spice to it.
Speaker 2:Every time I hear quiche, I remember the Robin Williams stand-up special and he was doing a bit about Martha Stewart being in jail. That's how long ago this was right? Oh my goodness, yeah, a long time ago. And he's making a bit of Martha Stewart when she's in jail going. You call this quiche? Oh, All right.
Speaker 1:I in jail going, you call this quiche.
Speaker 2:Oh, all right, I always. Yeah, you're old.
Speaker 1:I'm old.
Speaker 2:It was a great special though.
Speaker 1:Right, yes, I'm sure they don't appreciate that getting brought back up, though.
Speaker 2:It was a great special. Robin Williams at his finest.
Speaker 1:No, Robin Williams yes, but Martha, oh, come on.
Speaker 2:It was the late 90s, Anyways yes, but yes.
Speaker 1:So the breakfast has been great At some point. This is one I would like to go back to at lunch or dinner as well, because for lunch it's $64 per adult.
Speaker 2:What a more pricey $42 per child.
Speaker 1:They have breads and dips, salads. Some of their house specialties are spit-roasted tandoori chicken, beber, marinated pork, green curry, shrimp, dorawat and braised beef, tahini, and they have a lot of different vegetables, and even those are African spiced and curries, and then I believe they have a different type of baboti later in the day as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, tusker House great place. Highly recommend it. You do get the Animal Kingdom experience here. Yes, you do with the theming. The characters are in the safari outfits again Great. I recommend this not only as a character dining buffet but as a part of the Animal Kingdom experience.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, the theming, just all of it. And dinner is the same price as lunch as well. So just wanted to say that, and you know, for pickier eaters, they're going to have more of your traditional food items as well, correct?
Speaker 2:Yeah, all right, moving on to the next sit down restaurant and we're going to Yak and Yeti, which is in the Asia section of animal kingdom, and I love this restaurant, themed on point. Story is on point here we did. I think this was the first dining review we did an earlier, long long time ago.
Speaker 2:I bored myself when I was talking about it, so I'm going to give you the quick rundown of the backstory. Yes, there's a backstory to Yak and Yeti, the owners of Yak and Yeti. This started out as a restaurant to help travelers traveling through Amandapur. Yes, amandapur is a fictional town that is based in the Asia section of this, so you'll see a lot of references to Mondopur in the Asia section of Animal Kingdom. But it was started as a restaurant and then it became a hotel and this is what this is now. So it looks like you see sections that look like it's been added on and the construction of it kind of looks weird. That's why Okay.
Speaker 2:So the storyline is on point here. Details on point. It fits right in with the Asian themed here, and this is not a Disney owned restaurant. This is owned by the Landry's company, which also owns Rainforest Cafe, bubba Gump, all that. So if you are a Landry's member, you can use your benefits here as well. So, brittany, you love the menu here. I did not get the best item, and that is on me when we ate here, but why don't you talk a little bit more about the menu?
Speaker 1:I was trying to remember did we get the calamari?
Speaker 2:We did get the calamari.
Speaker 1:Yeah, which the calamari was good. I think in the future, at least, ryan and I definitely will want to try the pork pot stickers. But they have, like firecracker shrimp lettuce cups, korean fried chicken, ahi tuna, nachos, crab ragoon dip, you know as shareables and appetizers, and they have some you know your soups and salads. But they have a lot of noodle bowls and other types of bowls. So they have lo mein chicken, lo mein combo, roasted vegetable bowl, vegetable lo mein shrimp, lo mein dragon roll bowl. That is spicy. Tuna, dynamite, crab, teriyaki, salmon, cucumbers, carrots, mango, tempura crunch over sushi rice. That sounds delicious. Then they also have special teas and I had one of them. I will get to in a minute. But they have salmon, they have coconut shrimp, they have duck.
Speaker 1:Now what I thoroughly, thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed was their chicken thika masala. So it's boneless chicken, marinated in yogurt, freshly ground herbs, cooked in a traditional masala sauce over jasmine rice and served with naan. And it was delicious. My mouth's watering thinking about it, like the flavor was so good. The chicken was marinated perfectly. It was really really good.
Speaker 1:Then they have things that they cook on the wok as well Korean beef, sweet and sour chicken, honey chicken, thai basil chicken. If that's still not your cup of tea, then they have things from the grill such as hibachi steak and shrimp, ribeye fajitas, the fresh catch, kobe beef burger, teriyaki chicken bowl, barbecue ribs and more. So you know there's something for everybody. Lots of different desserts to try. The kids menu is really big, actually for a kids menu in Disney Cheeseburger chicken fried rice, grilled chicken breast, teriyaki chicken breast, stir-fried noodles, mini corn dogs, mac and cheese or chicken tenders. Those are all your choices. Yeah, so, but I thought the decor and everything was delicious. I thought the food that I had. The decor was delicious. I mean decor and everything was delicious.
Speaker 2:I thought the food that I had. The decor was delicious I mean well, it was beautiful. It was beautiful.
Speaker 1:And the food was delicious and would I eat here again, personally, of course.
Speaker 2:So I had the hibachi steak and shrimp. It was $38.99. It was fine, it was okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I would not get that again. Get something like the chicken tikka masala.
Speaker 1:Right, it was fine, it was okay. Yeah, I would not get that again.
Speaker 2:Right, get something like the chicken tikka masala, right? Yes, I would get the sweet and sour chicken if we had gone, if we wouldn't. When we go again, when we go back and we had had this discussion yesterday Do we go eat here this month or do we not? And we made the decision of not.
Speaker 1:Not on the day that we're flying home, because I think I would devour that whole plate of what I just talked about chicken thick and masala and not feel so good on the plane after because I'd be too full, so we decided on something else.
Speaker 2:Yes, so because we've got a big breakfast that morning.
Speaker 1:Yes, so that's the other thing too. So this is a great restaurant.
Speaker 2:There's something for everybody, and stick with what they're good at here. Don't get a steak. I've had the burger at the quick service location here, which did not make the list. It's fine, but get something unique here. It's going to be a lot better.
Speaker 1:Great right.
Speaker 2:So I do recommend it, definitely. I want to go back. Alright, and that is it for the sit-down restaurants, and we left two out. One the most notable restaurant, tiffin's. We left out One the price is really high. There's some really expensive items there. Two, the type of food may not be for your entire family.
Speaker 1:It may not be.
Speaker 2:Now it has been revamped some since we went, so you know we may give it another try one day. And three, the theming here is on point, but it is not as in your face as, say, tusker House or Yak and Yeti. It's very subtle. It is to celebrate and discuss, not discuss. But it showcases the Imagineers' travels through the world that helped bring Animal Kingdom to life. So it's very subtle how they do it, but it's unique artwork and pieces of the cultures from the countries they went to. So it's a lot more subtle and the kids may not enjoy that as much. Right, and it is again expensive and it's a very unique menu.
Speaker 1:It is, and it's a little slower paced too. So if you have littles and you're like, okay, we need to get going, you know that might not be the place for you and we also left out Rainforest Cafe.
Speaker 2:Now I realize and understand you're traveling with smaller kids. It is a restaurant that they may recognize and it does fit in the theme with Animal Kingdom. It does, it does, I'm not going to hate on it, but if your little kids want to go to Rainforest Cafe, then go Right, it's for them too. Right, it's not just for you, it's for them. Everybody's going to have a good time. But you can do that if you live anywhere near a major city. They're going to have one of those there well, that's what I was kind of wondering is how many of them are elsewhere.
Speaker 1:You know like we have one 30 minutes away from us. You know, but I don't know about everyone else, so you know. You know what's right for your family, but the food, in our opinion, at rainforest cafe is not the best no, they're a much better option.
Speaker 2:So that's why they did not make those two restaurants. For those reasons, did not make this must eat list Right, alright, so now we're going to go to quick service and man, again Animal Kingdom, just with the food here. Quick service kills it, Just kills it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so let's get on with it, let's get on with it. Let's go Alright.
Speaker 2:so the first one we're going to talk about is flame tree barbecue it is located at discovery island area yes, and this is where you're going to get your barbecue right. When you walk into the right of it's a bugs uh, it's a bug's life tough to be a tough to be a bug?
Speaker 1:I can't think. But it's going to be changing soon, but yeah anyway.
Speaker 2:uh, this is where you get your ribs, chicken and pulled pork, and it's themed extremely well. Now it's outside seating. Keep that in mind on those hot days.
Speaker 1:Yes, when it's hot. Now some of the seating is covered. It's covered, yes, but still it is going to be hot, but I think it's still a very pretty area to eat at.
Speaker 2:Beautiful We've talked about the story of it with the carvings in the pagodas that you sit underneath. Beautiful view of the lake there or the pond, the water area. Beautiful view of Everest across the way. Great, great quick service restaurant. It's a good use of your quick service dining credit. The prices here are a little bit pricier because it is barbecue, but you're getting a lot of it.
Speaker 1:You are.
Speaker 2:And it will fill you up.
Speaker 1:Right, and I mean you can get ribs, chicken and a pulled pork sampler for $18.99. And it's served along with baked beans and coleslaw. So if you're like, I don't know if I want ribs, I don't know if I want chicken, I don't know if I want pork, there you go. But they also, you know, do them separately or just a two meat combo kind of thing as well. But then you also have baked macaroni and cheese with pulled pork, smokehouse chicken salad, which that one is pulled chicken on top of mixed green salad tossed with smoked cheddar, diced greeny smith apples, dry cranberries, cornbread, croutons, crispy onions in barbecue ranch dressing, and then you can get a pulled pork sandwich, half chicken or just the rib dinner so we were talking about this yesterday when we go at the end of this month, two weeks.
Speaker 2:We're going in two weeks, can you believe it? Our next episode is go after. This will be a trip planning episode.
Speaker 2:Oh, yes, it will be, it will be yeah so we were talking about this when we land, we're just not gonna be a trip planning report, trip episode right now, but when we land, we're going straight to animal kingdom and this is the first place we're going yes, because we would have been up since very, very early that morning and we plan on eating a little lighter in the morning, that way we can enjoy eating.
Speaker 2:We're gonna go straight here, relax, eat. And we asked y'all on instagram. Y'all responded we're gonna do some live dining reviews on this trip. Quick service restaurants not to sit down, so that's gonna be me and and Brittany personal time. But the quick service we're going to do some live downing reviews on it, so we're going to do it here. I love the pulled pork sandwich here is good. Now, we're Tennesseans, born and raised Tennesseans. We're not transplants from California.
Speaker 1:No, we've been here all our lives.
Speaker 2:So we are particular about our pulled pork.
Speaker 1:Especially you.
Speaker 2:I am very particular and most places in Disney do not do a good job, except Flametree BBQ. I will eat it here every time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I mean, besides the entrees, if you are just kind of looking for a snack but still want to get a little taste of something like for a side, you can get French fries with pulled pork and cheese and you can get. Or you can get cornbread and you can get their baked mac and cheese or rice and beans and stuff. So I mean, you know, if you don't want to eat a whole meal because you want to try some other things that we're going to talk about here shortly, you know you can do that as well.
Speaker 2:All right, we're going to move on to Pandora and what I feel the best quick service restaurant in all of Walt Disney World. We're going to Satouli Canteen.
Speaker 1:I don't know if I agree with everything he said, but it is good.
Speaker 2:It is so amazing, brittany, you love the bowls here. Why don't you talk about the bowls?
Speaker 1:Right now I was staring at breakfast.
Speaker 2:Okay, talk about breakfast first. We haven't eaten breakfast here yet. We haven't.
Speaker 1:So that's why I was kind of looking through it. So for breakfast they have slow roasted pork, shoulder potato hash, so this is chorizo sausage and charred onion sauce in it and it's priced at $13.29. You have a frittata and beef, you have cinnamon French toast with blueberry cream cheese, passion fruit anglaise and sausage, and then you have tropical Pandorian forest fruits and then for kids you have cinnamon French toast or cereal with milk. So not a big variety on the breakfast, but they do serve breakfast here. Now lunch and dinner is what we have experienced. And the bowls are really good because they offer different options with meat and vegetables and rice and all of that stuff. But you can still customize it. So don't think like what's listed on the menu you have to get all that. You can customize it as much as you need to.
Speaker 2:Yes, and you can see where they make the meat at as you walk in the restaurant. They have a spitfire oven like a spitfire where they roast the meats with the chicken or the beef, and this is a very good use of your quick service dining credit as well, because it is a little bit pricier here.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:With $17 items, but you're getting your money's worth.
Speaker 1:And the 17, like, not all of them are. Some of them are $13 and stuff, but, like, one of the $17 bowls is a combination bowl, so you're getting smoked, chimichurri, braised beef and wood-grilled chicken, so you know, but you get to try both and it's really good. Now, one thing I don't like in the bowls is the boba balls. That's just me. I know a lot of people love them, though, but you know, you and you can change the base, you can change the vegetable slaw, the, the olive oils, all of that stuff, but I have, I thoroughly have enjoyed the bowls that I've tried and you can do all that on the mobile order.
Speaker 2:Yes, mobile order. Here you can do all the customization on the mobile ordering. It's very easy, very simple. I come here for two reasons. Oh, three reasons. There's three reasons I come here. Number one the cheeseburger steam pods. Number one these are steamed cheeseburger pods stuffed with ground beef, ketchup, mustard pickle and cheddar cheese, served with crunchy vegetable slaw and vegetable chips. Very delicious, very filling. These are so so, so, so good.
Speaker 1:And I will say real quick that I used to love them too, and I think I just need to try them again.
Speaker 2:Oh, you will.
Speaker 1:I think the last time I tried them what two, three years ago?
Speaker 2:Very doughy.
Speaker 1:That particular batch, I guess, was just more doughier and a little drier than it had been in the past. So I need to give them a try again, Because before I was like, oh yeah, let's get cheeseburger pods. And then now I'm kind of like, eh.
Speaker 2:Number two you can get Hawks Grog Ale here. This is a beer that is only brewed for Disney. You can only get it in Pandora. And number three the atmosphere.
Speaker 1:The atmosphere yes, get it in pandora.
Speaker 2:And number three, the atmosphere, the atmosphere, yes, the atmosphere is amazing. They have the amazing, they have the amazing james horner, uh music for pandora playing here. It is so relaxing, so peaceful. The atmosphere here. This is where we're ending our trip at. We are, yes, but we are going to do a live dining review here as well. Yeah, yeah. And Brittany's going to try the cheeseburger pods again.
Speaker 1:Yes, I think I will. Now you're probably wondering okay, well, all these bowls and stuff, what about for my picky kids?
Speaker 2:They have some cool stuff too.
Speaker 1:They do. So you can get the cheeseburger pods, but then they also have a cheese quesadilla or a telu all beef hot dog wrapped in dough, and you've tried that right.
Speaker 2:I have. It's a sweeter dough. It's not overly sweet. I thought it was great. It was very delicious and it's a handheld thing. You can eat it. Kids love it. Our boys liked it.
Speaker 1:I thought it was really good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if you know what Parker House dough is. I don't know what that is, but it was very delicious. It had just a bit of a sweet glaze on it. Very good.
Speaker 1:So you're going to love this place. Yeah, and then they have a lot of different drinks, beverages with alcohol or without, and everything as well. But, yes, the atmosphere is nice and can be relaxing.
Speaker 2:All right, so that's it for this. Quick service restaurants. We're going to go to snacks Now. This is a very snack friendly park Very much so. So the first place we're going to go to is Dino Bites Snack, which is next to Restaurant Astores, which did not make the list. It's your typical burgers and hot dogs Great theming inside. We've talked about it in the past restaurant, restaurant asaurus great theming but we didn't make the list because it's just your basic burgers and hot dogs and stuff yeah, and chicken tenders and chicken tenders, yeah but here, what you're going to want to get is their ice cream cookie sandwich for eight dollars and 29 cents vanilla ice cream served between freshly baked chocolate chip cookies.
Speaker 2:And it is massive and it is delicious.
Speaker 1:Yes, Now I know sometimes during certain holidays and stuff they change the cookies up a little bit or offer a separate cookie sandwich. But I have heard great things about these sandwiches.
Speaker 2:I'm not big on sweets so this is definitely shareable, but it is delicious. We're going to Harambe in Africa and we're going to go to. I'm not big on sweets, so this is definitely shareable, but it is delicious, all right, all right, we're going to Harambe in Africa and we're going to go to the Harambe Fruit Market. Yes, now you're going to get one thing, and one thing only, here For breakfast. It's that breakfast sandwich.
Speaker 1:Yes, I don't know what it is about it, but we have just thoroughly enjoyed, it's not?
Speaker 2:anything you can't get anywhere else but it just tastes so good here. It's just a sausage, egg and cheese biscuit. That's it, but it tastes so good.
Speaker 1:It does, and so it's kind of become a thing. If we're riding the safari in the morning, you know, then when we get off the safari, we go here, sit next to the little snack cart area, uh and, and eat one of those sandwiches I remember the first time we did this.
Speaker 2:We just bought like two that we could share. We didn't think anything of it, and now we all have to buy each other our own right like we have to buy four because everybody was like no, we want this. We like the boys are like I want more.
Speaker 1:Another bite, another bite, yeah so in the breakfast that is something like you're probably not going to expect to love, but we've enjoyed time and time again, but they're also known for later in the day they're grilled corn on the cob, with or without the african.
Speaker 2:Get the African spices.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because there's like tahini and stuff.
Speaker 2:It's like tahini and some other. It's $5.29. It is so delicious. I can't wait to get this again when we go at the end of the month. Yeah, so delicious, love it.
Speaker 1:Yes, and you did say the price $5.29.
Speaker 2:$5.29,. Yes, all right, we're moving on Back to Pandora. We're going to Pongu Pongu, which is like the little bar area right there, right as you come out of Wind Traders gift shop After getting off of Flight of Passage, right next to Satooli Canteen and here they have a Navi sized pretzel. Never had it, but this is a unique item that I want us to try and record it when we go the Pongu Lump, the pineapple cream cheese spring roll for $3.79.
Speaker 1:Keep in mind we're doing two days in Animal Kingdom so if y'all are like, y'all are eating a whole lot in one day. It's going to be two separate days, Right out over two days.
Speaker 2:So I want us to try that. And they have specialty beverages here. You can get waters and cokes, but they have a Night Blossom, which is a non-alcoholic specialty beverage Layers of apple and dessert pear limeade topped with boba balls for $6.79. Here's what I come here for the Hawk's Grog Ale. It's a 20-ounce draft fruity hop with notes of apricot and peach. It's green in color, brewed only for this, and Satula Canteen $12.25. It is a must-get every time I go.
Speaker 1:Yes, and he does try to get it when he goes. I get it every time I go.
Speaker 2:But you can also get the Rum Blossom for $15.50. It's Bacardi rum with layers of apple, so it's basically the night blossom with rum. And then they have a Morara Margarita which you're smiling about. And then they have a Morara Margarita which you're smiling about. It's Salsa Comercial de Nejo, tequila Bowls, blue Curacao with Lime Juice topped with Boba Balls. You'll get it without the Boba Balls, but you're smiling over there.
Speaker 1:Well, because I love margaritas.
Speaker 2:For $15.50. All right, we've got a few more here.
Speaker 1:Yep Hang with us.
Speaker 2:We're going back to Discovery Island, Thunder and outside oh okay, storming, welcome to. Tennessee winters, where it will snow and storm in the same, not even the same week, the same day.
Speaker 1:Sometimes yes.
Speaker 2:Sometimes it's been nice and warm here, though.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but today's been weird as far as how warm and humid it was. I like it though.
Speaker 2:All right, we're going to the Smiling Crocodile, which is a food cart on the bridge from Discovery Island to Asia, and it's right before you get to the outpost where you meet Mickey and Minnie in their safari outfit.
Speaker 1:Yes, and we just recently, in the last year, tried it Our last couples trip. Yeah, yeah, yeah and wow. Like I heard good things about it, wasn't expecting it to be quite as flavorful as it was, but it was really good.
Speaker 2:Really good. So what do they have?
Speaker 1:So we had street tacos, but they also have barbacoa nachos, so barbacoa beef on tricolor, tortilla chips topped with queso cheese, lime crema and pico de gallo for $9.99. And then you can get street corn tacos two tacos with black beans, roasted corn, poblano peppers, red onion topped with pico de gallo, lime crema and catea cheese, served with a side of chips and salsa for $9.99. And then also we had, didn't we have the chicken street tacos.
Speaker 2:Yes, we did, it was delicious. We loved it. Now this cart, sorry, go ahead.
Speaker 1:Well, I was just going to say this is roasted chicken tossed in house-made sauce with lime crema, katia cheese, cabbage and pickled onions, served with a side of chips and salsa at $9.99, and it was really, really good really good.
Speaker 2:Now this cart has weird hours, like very short, I think, like from like 11 to 3 or 12 to 4 or something like that, right right so if you see it open and you're hungry, you might want to try it then go ahead and get a thing. It is very delicious and you can take it behind it where the seating area is for flame tree barbecue and enjoy it down there with the beautiful music and the view. I love it, yes, love it. I love it, I love it yes, all right.
Speaker 1:And if you just want like a little snack, though, like you can get just chip, salsa and queso for five dollars and nine, nine cents, yep all right, we're going to dino land.
Speaker 2:Well, no, we're going right. So, like, you can get just chip, salsa and queso for $5.99. Yep, all right, we're going to Dinoland. Well, no, we're going right. Before you get to Dinoland, yes, which is still open yes, this part is and we're going to go to Trilobites. It's on the right-hand side, as you're walking from Discovery Island to Dinoland, USA. And we're going here for one reason Well, usa. And we're going to here for one reason Well, you're maybe here for another reason.
Speaker 1:I'm going here for one reason, and one reason only.
Speaker 2:I'm getting the buffalo chicken chips.
Speaker 1:Yes, that is one thing.
Speaker 2:Housemade chips served with buffalo chicken, blue cheese dressing topped with tomato and celery relish for $10.49. Delicious.
Speaker 1:I love it.
Speaker 2:I love it. I love it.
Speaker 1:It is really good and I mean, you can make a meal out of it. Honestly, yes or you can share, you know.
Speaker 2:Oh, I see they have churros. Don't get the churros.
Speaker 1:No, I wouldn't get the churros here we're going to talk about where to get churros here shortly. But they also have a couple of Dole Whip floats. Ah, there you go wild berry and dull whip orange float. So it's dull whip orange swirled into Fanta orange with wild berry syrup and topped with a white chocolate character medallion for $6.79. Now the buffalo chicken chips, by the way, is $10.49.
Speaker 2:Worth every penny.
Speaker 1:And then they also have a Zazu dull whip lime and coconut float Dull whip lime swirled into Sprite with coconut and blue how do you say that word? Curacao, thank you Syrup topped with a white chocolate medallion as well, for $6.79. So I might sample some of your buffalo chicken chips and then get one of these Dull Whip Floats.
Speaker 2:Side note. So Curacao is spelled C-U-R-A-C-A-O. So I used to be a bartender way, way, way back in the day.
Speaker 1:For a very short time.
Speaker 2:Very short time, how I was told to say that is think about Curacao, which Sal is a pig, right? Okay, curacao. Yes, so it's Curacao. Okay, there you go. All right, you learn something every time, right.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:All right, now the next place. The next place, I think may be becoming our favorite place to hang out, not just in Animal Kingdom.
Speaker 1:But in Disney World, but in. Walt Disney World period yes, that's why I'm like the next place. Where are we?
Speaker 2:going If in the world period yes, that's something like the next, where are we going? If you're a long time listener, you know exactly where we're going.
Speaker 1:We're going to Nomad Lounge. This is right over there, discovery Island. It's a bar lounge area. Now you have to walk up, put your name on the list.
Speaker 2:Or do it on the app.
Speaker 1:Or do it on the app, and we've been lucky, we haven't really had to wait like extreme times once we put our name on there. No, you know, sometimes it's been oh, turn around, come right back. Other times it's been like an hour, but anyway they have. You know, we'll dive into a little more details here, but they're known for small plates and cocktails and just relaxing yes, relaxing. They have outside seating with like like almost like patio couches, kind of thing.
Speaker 2:And like mosquito netting Right Type stuff.
Speaker 1:And like flowy curtains and stuff, but then you can also sit inside as well. There's some high top table seating as well as like more comfortable seating but similar to the outdoor, and it is just really, really relaxing. The theming Zach, of course, will go into that, but the small place I mean. There's a variety to choose from. You know I'm not going to read the details of all the items, but I will say they have a tuna bowl, they have chicken wings, pork belly, chicken satay, they have Korean barbecue, mushroom bao buns, Tiffin's bread service and Cuban Frita sliders, as well as churros. This is where you want to get churros in Walt Disney World. Don't get it anywhere else. You will be disappointed. The churros here at Nomad Lounge amazing, amazing.
Speaker 2:I'm going to say something controversial and you can come at me if you want to.
Speaker 1:You know who you are.
Speaker 2:Anybody Better than Disneyland churros.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:I said it, I'm making the statement, I've said it a million times.
Speaker 1:We're saying it now Yep.
Speaker 2:Better than Disneyland churros.
Speaker 1:Yes, these are so good. Now, it does come with sauce.
Speaker 2:It's up to you if Don't need sauce, you don't really need the sauce.
Speaker 1:I'm the type of person when I'm sitting in a relaxed environment and there's some type of dip of sorts, I just like to dip things, but you really don't have to have the sauce. These churros are delicious and you get what is it? Five, six in there, Something like that.
Speaker 2:I ate them so fast. I don't count.
Speaker 1:For $10. We usually get a couple different.
Speaker 2:We have to make a couple of orders of these. Yes, especially when the boys are with us.
Speaker 1:Oh, when the boys are with us it's like three or four orders of it, but it's so good, so good. Some of the items I mentioned as well the meats and stuff are really good and tender as well.
Speaker 2:So sorry, nomad Lounge is the lounge for Tiffin's. Yes, I remember our first trip we ate at nomad I'm sorry, tiffins and we walked past the lounge. I'm like I want to go there right. I had no idea what it was. I just thought, oh, it's just the bar area no no, it is so much more than just the bar area yeah this theming here is on point again.
Speaker 2:Like tiffins, it is to celebrate the travels of the imagineers as they did their research for the animal kingdom park. That's what it's celebrating, and you all can also buy a little travels of the Imagineers as they did their research for the Animal Kingdom Park. That's what it's celebrating. And you can also buy a little tag and write what travel means to you and they hang it up in the bar area of no Man's Lounge and we did that last year.
Speaker 1:We have. We've done it twice, I think we have more than once. We got a couple of tags.
Speaker 2:We got to go look for them we do need to.
Speaker 1:I'm sure there's thousands. Now, one thing I will say yeah. One thing I will say is um, if you're a lightweight like me, though their drinks are a bit on the stronger side. They're great, they are great, but they are on the stronger side. So there's now. Don't get me wrong. I have enjoyed the the beverages, but there are a couple that I'm like I'm not gonna get that one again because it hit me hard, but they are really, really good.
Speaker 2:I love if you're a bourbon guy, bourbon person, I'm a bourbon guy. Get the Tempting Tigress. It's Russell's Reserve 10-year bourbon, st Elizabeth Allspice Dram, tamarind syrup and lime juice. This can be a bit sweet and it's $17.50. You tell them to damp down on the sweetness? Perfect, this is a perfect, unique, old-fashioned type of drink. A couple of these go right, everest. You'll thank me later, but we're going to chill here and then go do Flight of Passage our first day.
Speaker 2:Yes, I believe so, and they also have very unique wines that you can't get anywhere else in the world that are made in South Africa and other places in Africa as well that you won't find anywhere else. And then here's where you're going to get the Kungaloos Spiced Excursion Ale as well. You can get this at Skipper Canteen in the Magic Kingdom. You can also get it here. And then they have a few other unique beers that you can't get anywhere else, so try any. I remember I wanted what's that one? I don't see it on the uh menu here anymore. There was one that was brewed somewhere in africa, yeah, and they couldn't nowhere had it because they couldn't import it, but it was still on the menu.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't see it on here anymore, so they can't get any more than I guess so I don't think they have it no right.
Speaker 2:So oh no, it was a tiger eye, tiger eye, gold l still on the menu. I don't know if maybe they have it now, maybe maybe. Okay, but that's gonna do it for this. What so good it is.
Speaker 1:Yes, nomad lounge is so good, all of these places we talked about in animal kingdom, so good, very flavorful. Again, the, the food here is all about the flavor, you know. And in representing, like, not all of them, but the ones that are in certain countries and stuff representing those countries, yes, all right.
Speaker 2:So the would you rathers? And I will apologize on the second would you rather? I was at Nolan's soccer practice and was kind of half between paying attention and let's talk to other parents and half doing the would you rather? So it's kind of redundant. Okay, it's all right. It's okay, all right. So the first one was would you rather eat at Satouli Canteen or Flame Tree Barbecue? Brittany, who do you think the winner was here? Well, first let me ask you would you rather?
Speaker 1:I know it's so hard because-.
Speaker 2:That's a tough one. That's why I did it.
Speaker 1:I like the environment of both, like where you can eat and enjoy, and they have unique items. It comes down to? Do you just want barbecue, or do you want for me, like a bowl? You know, right, the one that we've eaten at the most and that I'm more familiar with, though I guess probably Satouli Canteen.
Speaker 2:Satouli Canteen all day, all day, every day.
Speaker 1:Did anyone vote for Flametree? Yes?
Speaker 2:Okay, but Satouli Canteen was the winner. Yeah, most people would rather Satouli Canteen. Okay, because it's more, it is more unique. You can't get these, the food there anywhere else, like you can get barbecue anywhere else, right, right. So that's what I think, why I think tuli was the winner and the next one I put would you rather eat cheeseburger pods or puffy pizza at pizza fari?
Speaker 2:oh, cheeseburger pods all day yeah, nobody voted for pizza fari, yeah, and I know what I just said a little while ago about the last time I had the cheeseburger pods.
Speaker 1:It was kind of like eh, but Pizzafari pizza is disgusting, it's not good. I am not a picky eater at all and I love all different types of pizza, but I did not like that one.
Speaker 2:No, it is not good, so I'm looking at. Yeah, all right. So thank you everybody for joining us. Hope you enjoyed this episode. Us Hope you enjoyed this episode. As you can tell, animal Kingdom is our favorite park by far, not just because of the attractions and the storytelling, the food, everything about it just makes it so amazing.
Speaker 1:Yes, and we love animals and just the environment and everything.
Speaker 2:So the next episode you'll see we'll be trip planning for our trip at the end of this month, for our Couples Only trip. Cannot wait, it's here now.
Speaker 1:It is is I'm. I am excited, it's just. You know, hardly even the boys still sometimes as a mom and everything. But I am excited and once we're there I'm all about it what boys, hey.
Speaker 2:so thank you so much. If you enjoy the podcast and you want to support us, we really appreciate it. The best thing to do is to share the show with your friends. Go leave us a five-star rating. You go to Apple Podcasts. It really helps us. We really do appreciate it. If you want to contact us, you can email us circleofparks at gmailcom. Our website is wwwcircleofparkscom and we're on Facebook, instagram and X all at Circle of Parks. Thank you so much for listening. I hope you enjoyed this. If you agree or disagree, let us know. We really enjoy hearing from y'all and we will talk to you next week.
Speaker 1:Talk to you soon. Bye.