We got a peek at the Art of Animation food court this weekend! It’s lovely, and I can’t wait to actually eat there!
Art Of Animation Entrance
Atmosphere
The food court is broken into several seating areas or “dining rooms” representing sections of the resort — Lion King, Cars, Finding Nemo, and Little Mermaid.
Each dining room has concept art drawings and themes from the films decorating the walls and ceiling.
Lion King Dining Room
And each dining area has a light fixture themed to the film as well. In the Lion King room, you’ll see a giant tree growing around the light fixture.
Light in Lion King Dining Area
Seating in the Cars Land Dining Room
In the Cars Land dining room, you’ll see the bright blue sky of Carburetor County above you…punctuated by tire tracks in the clouds, of course!
Light in Cars Land Dining Area
The light fixture in the Little Mermaid dining room depicts both of Ariel’s Worlds — above water and below water! You’ll see her underwater Treasure Trove on the bottom, and the waves and rocks of the above-water world at the top!
Little Mermaid Dining Area
The check-out is very similar to Pop Century’s and other value resort food courts.
Check Out
Eats
Here’s what we got to see was on the menu! When I was there, the Smoothies and Desserts section was to my immediate left. (Editor’s Note: For guests on special diets, BabyCakes NYC is selling treats at this food court.)
I LOVE the addition of the mini cupcakes here! So fun!
Smoothies - click image for larger version
Desserts - click image for larger version
Burgers look great — who’s gonna try that pastrami cheeseburger with me?!?
Burgers - click image for larger version
Burgers - click image for larger version
The Pizza pod menu is pretty standard for Disney food courts, but the cheesy pesto bread is new!
Pizza Area - click image for larger version
The make-your-own salad on the Kids’ Picks menu is pretty cool!
Menu - click image for larger version
And while they only had one side of this pod menu working, I really like seeing the Mongolian Grilled meats and stir fry options. Very cool!
Menu - click image for larger version
For those who love Mello Yello — here ya go!
Coke Machine
I can’t wait to dine here on my next visit to Disney World! I’ll also have a walk-through video coming up soon!
What are your top menu picks from Art of Animation Resort?
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I can not *wait* to visit this resort!!! Those mini cupcakes… YUM! Looking forward to the video, too!
Impressive. The surf and surf burger is calling my name. Two surprises: snacks items are now classified as an item that is $4.99 in value, and the self serve beverage dispensers do not have the RFID technology.
On my next trip I’m specifically renting a car so I can take a side trip to this resort and have dinner with friends! I’m so excited! Leave it to Disney to get people excited about a value resort right? I love the addition of the “different” menu items like the mongolian beef.. but did you see those sides?!? pickled veggies? spinach and paneer cheese?!? acorn squash?!? I love that there are such unique items here!
With it’s design and menu, this “value” resort is going to make folks at the moderately priced resorts jealous. I hope the menu sells and then trickles up.
Its about time that Disney discovered a whole wonderful world of vegetables beyond the humble carrot stick. Looking forward to some new and healthy options at a food court! That way I can save some calories for desert : )
So happy to see some healthy ad vegetarian items, I’m going to make a point to eat here!
Amazing place definitively going to stop there during my next trip.
BUT where is the Cherry Coke on that Soda Fountain. I went back to Disney after 25 years, back in February and I spent a week at Port Orleans Riverside. I was trilled that my favorite Drink was available in the Soda Fountain. This stuff is not available in Canada I have to cross the border to enjoy it.
Mongolian Grilled Fish? Fancy! That and some mini cupcakes and i think I’d be a happy woman. I like the interesting choices on the children’s menu too. My will love the salad and the chicken burger. Oh, and the Surf and Surf Burger? Sounds decadent but divine!!!
I think you mean Radiator Springs, not Carburator Springs. My son is an avid Cars fan. 🙂
The surf and surf bread, the cheesy pesto bread, Mongolian grilled fish, and all the desserts! I’m also still looking forward to the full Indian section as well, and can’t wait to see the complete menu for that.
Amanda — Thanks! Yep; the resort is pretty fantastic!
Pudge — Great observations; thank you for sharing those!
Marci — No kidding! I was thinking the same thing on the side items!
Alan — Ooh, great concept. Maybe Disney is trying out something new here that might invade other menus.
Val — Ha ha! Good point; and I can’t wait to hear what you think about the food court.
Jasmine — Wonderful! Let us know what you think.
Claude — Sadly, Cherry Coke has been harder to find lately in Disney drink areas. You CAN still get it at Earl of Sandwich in Downtown Disney, too, I believe.
Jaia — Exactly! Doesn’t it sound great? I think there will be a lot more folks headed to the food court here for extra meals.
Anna — I DO! Exactly. I switched it to Carburetor County. 😉
Carolyn — Me, too. I was sad to see they didn’t have the TV screen in when I was there.
I am so excited!! I will be heading down in October.. and originally I was going to stay at Coronado Springs.. but something made me change my mind and now I will be staying here.. so excited! I can’t wait to see some of the tandoori options pop up in a month or so! It’s nice to see a refreshing change from the normal burger/pizza combo. Although, don’t get me wrong.. a pastrami burger and pesto cheese bread is hard to pass up!
Can’t wait! Staying there for two nights in August before we head to AKL. 🙂
Thanks for the photo of the beverage station. Do you know if they will be using the paper cups with the chips for limiting refills? We experienced this at another value resort in October.
Can I also say how much I love the lighting and themed dining areas? Though aside from the light, it doesn’t look like the Little Mermaid area is very themed. The Lion King room looks very nice though, I’m sure I’ll be eating breakfast there most mornings.
Looks like a great selection…looking fwd to visiting and checking out the smoothies and desserts!! Just one question…whats with all the seats with no tables in the dining area???
I can’t to walk over there in November from Pop. I’m going to try to talk my friends in having breakfast there one morning. And, if they don’t want to, I’ll go myself.
There is so much that looks good. I’d like to try: strawberry banana smoothie, make your own salads and parfaits, Tandoori shrimp platter, Mongolian grilled fish, and the Mickey fruit tart. I’m not usually that adventurous, but I’m eating healthier now and I’m really excited about staying here and the menu they have. Don’t worry, I still have a long list of the gourmet cupcakes (that I found out about on your blog! LOL) that I want to try and take home with me.
Oh, I forgot about the cheesy pesto bread with marinara sauce. That looks delicious and you can get it for a snack credit!!
What! No Beverly in the Soda Fountains?
I can’t wait to try it all, too! Impressive desserts, too…;)
Looks great 🙂 You can even get the smoothies with a snack credit! We’re having a resort day during our next visit, last time it was to visit Grand Fl…this time Art 🙂
Kind of sad to see that the prices have gone up over 10% with the Kids Meals jumping 27% ($5.49 to $6.99) since December 2011.
Looks so good! Will they still have chicken nuggets on the menu? The kids eat them for just about every meal and would hate to not have them be happy.
No Cherry Coke??
I can’t wait to try some of the new dishes that Chef Dan Parsons has created for our dining pleasure!
I think, after much deliberation, this just helped tip the balance in favor of changing our plans from Port Orleans Riverside over to Art of Animation. Thanks, AJ! (And thanks for showing the Kids’ Picks, too!)
I ate lunch here on Sunday and while the resort/food court are beautiful the service/product was lacking a bit. So much of the food is ‘create your own’ I fear the lines and wait times will be an issue when the resort is fully open.
We decided to try the burgers and when we got in line 1 person was just ahead of us.
It took ~ 15 minutes from the time we got in line until our burgers were ready. We each ordered cheese and 3 different toppings. Both burgers were made incorrectly despite the cashier repeating our order back to us. The buns were cold also but at least they seemed to be different than the ones used at Pop Century. Price seemed high ($10.29) for a single burger and some fries but the fresh toppings were a nice change from Pop Century.
I am sure much of the above was the staff still getting used to things and hopefully speed will improve over time.
A couple other interesting observations:
Food trays are much larger than at Pop and slippery! Very easy for the metal burger baskets to slide off so be careful! 🙂
As the plates and silverware are real we actually saw lines build up a bit at the garbage cans while people separated everything into the correct bins. Sadly we saw more than 1 person just dump everything into the trash.
Overall I feel Disney hit a homerun on the look and feel and if they can handle the capacity and quality issues this will be a VERY popular food court!
This looks SO good!! Does anybody know what hours it is open?
THis sounds so fantastic We are booking with our daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren
The food looks and sounds fabulos. Will see U in the late fall. My how Disney World has changed for the better.
We just spent 10 wonderful days at the Art of Animation.. Cars resort… The food court is amazing, we ate most meals there, the selection is great and we loved the “make it yourself” stations… I probably had a salad daily, I was addicted to the mandarin salad dressing and loved customizing a salad with just the items I wanted…everything we ate there was tasty and well made:) I hope Disney adds this concept to their other food courts!
Surf and Surf burger is the best thing on that menu. I live close by and go for lunch often for that burger. It is amazing!!!!
Love the food, had an allergy issue and Chef Dan came to the rescue.
He not only took care of the allergy but he brought the food to my table at no charge.
Thanks for everything.