Tusker House Restaurant at Animal Kingdom

Tusker House Restaurant at Animal Kingdom

Animal Kingdom has a variety of restaurants available to families. While the quick service at Satu’li Canteen is by far one of our favorite meals in the park, the Disney character dining at Tusker House tends to be the headliner. The chance to see Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, and Goofy, is important. And getting the Fab 5 in one place proves difficult in other areas of Walt Disney World.  Which makes Tusker House a good option if you’re aiming for character time without the line waits. But, just like any Disney Character Dining experience, you are often paying for the characters and not necessarily the food quality or atmosphere. And at about $55 dollars a plate there are things to consider if you’re dining here. Here is our take on what Tusker House Offers and if it’s a good option for your next Walt Disney World Vacation.

Where is Tusker House at Animal Kingdom

Where is Tusker House at Animal Kingdom?

Tucked behind the buildings of Africa, Tusker House is the right, once you enter into Africa. A check-in station under a covered dining space sets in front of the path that leads you to Tusker House. This restaurant offers a large dining hall area with draped fabrics across the ceiling and several adjacent rooms for additional dining areas. Themed to the adventurer with spaces decorated with African elements, little decorations around the restaurant make for an interesting atmosphere but are minimal in nature.

Tusker House Restaurant

Tusker House Atmosphere

Like most Disney Character Dining Experiences Tusker House is boisterous. The dining experience includes a few courses with each character coming around to the dining areas to be seen and photographed. Distanced character experiences are still in place, so closer character interactions for personal photos or autographs are not available.

Overall the atmosphere is what one would expect from a family restaurant catered to families with children. And offers the opportunity to see the characters in their safari gear without the line waits.

Tusker House Bread Service

Tusker House Salad

Tusker House Menu

For Dinner, Disney’s Tusker House has an African-inspired menu that includes a variety of meats, vegetables, and rice. Currently served family-style, the food here is good. While potentially not worth the large price tag, there was plenty of foods to be had as an all-you-care-to-enjoy meal. Check out the Tusker House Menu for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. 

Starters included the house-made bread and African-inspired salad. The house-made bread was similar to the Bread Service served at Sanaa, more like flatbreads. And included dipping sauces like hummus, coriander, and chutneys. You can also grab something similar at Nomad Lounge. Entrées included Moroccan-spiced beef, green curry shrimp, spit-roasted herb chicken, and Berber-marinated Pork. Sides here included green beans with carrots and corn, roasted potatoes, jasmine rice, and mac and cheese.

Tusker House Mac and Cheese

Tusker House Family Style Meats

Tusker House Plant-Based Dining Option

The plant-based entrée offered is an Impossible Durban Curry served alongside the same sides, minus the mac and cheese. This curry was quite good, and even if you’re not an Impossible foods fan, the texture and flavors were enough to make it a decent dinner to have alongside the rice, green beans, and potatoes. 

Tusker House Plant Based Dining at Disney

Tusker House Desserts

Desserts at Tusker House are split into regular and plant-based. This dessert is a trio of sweets including a cupcake, brownie, and cheesecake. The plant-based dessert was a chocolate mousse, and hands-down the best dessert at the table. 

Tusker House Desserts Disney

Tusker House Plant Based Mousse

Tusker House Disney Characters at Dinner Character Dining

Disney Characters at Dinner Character Dining

Tusker House Characters

As we’ve said, one of the main appeals at Tusker House is that you get to see the Fab 5 Disney Characters.  Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald, and Daisy are dressed for their next safari at Tusker House. And since these characters in these outfits rarely appear elsewhere together this is a major draw for those seeking out Disney character meet and greets at Animal Kingdom.

Mickey at Tusker House

Goofy at Animal Kingdom Tusker House

Daisy Duck at Tusker House

Tusker House Characters at Walt Disney World

Donald duck at Tusker House

Tusker House Cost

The cost of Dining at Tusker House for dinner is $36 for children and $55 for adults. As a meal, we felt this was expensive. We do however base this almost solely on the food quality. Having had meals that cost much less, and taste better at Topolino Terrace, Crystal Palace, and Trattoria al Forno, this restaurant would only be worth it as an opportunity to see the characters. We’d welcome a non-character option at Tusker House that costs less sans characters. Especially since the food was quite good and we’d love to try it again, just not at these prices. And the atmosphere was not as rushed as our experience at Chef Mickey’s, courses came out quickly and for this price tag, we would have liked it to be less rushed. 

Is Tusker House Restaurant Worth it?

Overall, we enjoyed the food enough to recommend Tusker House at last once. From a Disney budget standpoint, we’d say it’s more expensive than it needs to be and really isn’t worth the cost. But if you’re visiting Animal Kingdom with the hopes of seeing characters this may be your best chance. What did you think of Tusker House? 

Tusker House at Walt Disney World's Animal Kingdom Menu, Characters and Review. #polkadotpixies

Co-Founder and Director at Polka Dot Pixie Co LLC | Website | + posts

Rochelle Mariah is a writer, designer and photographer with an MLIS in Information Science and a B.S. in Arch and Design. Determined to make Planning a DIY Disney Vacation easier she makes lots of lists and drinks lots of coffee. When not designing apparel at Polka Dot Pixie Shop, she's watching old movies and planning the holidays. She has been traveling to Disney destinations since 2010.


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