While Disney’s Animal Kingdom is filled with incredible shows, rides, and attractions it’s also home to some really great eats!

Most people don’t realize that there are so many different options to choose from when deciding where to eat inside the park. The food is just as diverse as the attractions and lands here. We’re here to talk to you about a popular quick-service restaurant that hardly ever seems to disappoint and keeps us coming back for more!

Disney’s Animal Kingdom is known for some of the best places to eat in all of Disney World! While this park is home to some of our favorites like Nomad Lounge and Yak and Yeti there are also a few solid choices to choose from when you’re looking for a heartier quick meal.

It had been quite a while since our last trip out to Flame Tree Barbecue, so we decided to stop by for a bite to eat recently, and we’re sure glad we did. Here’s a look at our full experience!

Atmosphere

You’ll find Flame Tree Barbecue nestled in the heart of Discovery Island near the entrance to Dinoland U.S.A. and Isle of Java.

It’s a fairly popular spot that’s easy to miss if it weren’t for the lines of people that you’ll find gathered when the restaurant opens for the day.

The restaurant itself is mostly just the kitchen with serving windows, and the seating for the restaurant can be found adjacent to where you’ll pick up your food. There are smaller…

… and larger tables…

… that you’ll find under the covered outdoor seating…

… along with self-serve utensils and napkin stands.

You’ll want to watch your food closely, though, because this is Animal Kingdom and the birds have been known to grab at your unattended food (and we definitely don’t want to encourage them by offering them table food either)!

Menu

The menu you’ll find here is very heavily going to consist of carnivorous options that typically pair well with barbecue sauce. You’ll find a few souvenir specialties…

… alcoholic beverages…

… several types of meat-eater entrees…

… plant-based options and sides…

… kid’s meal choices…

… a dessert choice…

… and an extensive array of beverage options to choose from.

And a few more!

Flame Tree Barbecue also offers allergy-friendly menu options for several common allergens, but we’d recommend ordering your food with a Cast Member which will allow you an opportunity to speak to the chef and tailor your specific needs for your meal.

Drink

To kick off our dining experience we decided to order the Bubbling Pink Lagoon with our meal. It’s made of Minute Maid Premium Strawberry Lemonade, Sprite, and Kiwi flavor and cost us $5.99.

You can definitely taste the Sprite soda in this one AND the strawberry flavoring from the lemonade. However, the Sprite’s sweetness cuts down the stronger tart bite of the lemonade. The kiwi flavor was heavy and stayed towards the bottom, and we really had to stir it to mix it in with the rest of the flavors. After we did this, it was more detectable, but still wasn’t as strong as the lemonade and lemon-lime flavored soda mix.

Eats

Ok, so we may have been a tad bit hungry as we look back at everything we ordered, so let’s break them down one by one!

After we had a few initial sips of our drink, it was time to start feasting! Let’s talk about the French Fries with Pulled Pork and Cheese before we move on further. We grabbed this one for $8.49 and it’s pretty straightforward in how it’s made — french fries topped with pulled pork and cheese sauce that’s also drizzled with barbecue sauce.

It may not seem like it at first glance but this dish could stand alone as a meal itself! It’s so cheesy and tangy thanks to the barbeque sauce and the melted cheese that coats the top of the fries in our beloved melted cheese sauce (A.K.A. plastic cheese as we know it best). All of the gooey goodness is sitting on top of lightly salted Disney World french fries which are served warm to the touch, and we can’t think of anything else that could make them better.

We also decided to try out the seasonal meal offering from the Celebrate Soulfully lineup, so we ordered the Creole Smoked Sausage Sandwich. This meal cost us $12.79 and is made of creole smoked sausage on a roll with pickled relish…

… and stewed black-eyed peas.

The side of stewed black-eyed peas had a nice, creole-style low heat to them. Their consistency when you picked up a bite mimicked refried beans quite a bit, but they were delicious.

As for the sandwich, this was a smoked sausage topped with veggies in a hot dog-style roll.

The pickled veggies added a vinegary bite and crunch to this sandwich. Overall, it was an interesting flavor combination, but the meal’s name was a bit misleading if you were expecting something served on a bun closer to a hamburger bun.

Next, it was time to tackle the biggest part of our meal for the evening — the Ribs, Chicken, and Pulled Pork Sampler. This meal cost us $18.99 on its own…

… but we opted to add on an additional side of cornbread for an extra $2. 

The main plate is made of St. Louis Ribs with marinated slow-smoked chicken and smoked pulled pork served with the restaurant’s signature baked beans and coleslaw. Yep, this is going to be a lot to handle so let’s break this one down starting with the side of cornbread.

This might just be an add-on to the entree but boy does Flame Tree Barbecue nail it with this tiny but mighty snack! It’s quite possibly our favorite add-on side ever! The cornbread itself is soft, stays moist just enough to crumble easily without getting soggy or goopy, and even has a few spices mixed into its sweet flavor. If you’re a fan of a Tex-Mex flavored sweet cornbread that’s got a low spice to it, you’ll definitely want to add this one to your meal.

For the main plate, the chicken is well-cooked and tender.

The skin has a nice dry rub to it that has a hint of spice.

The barbeque sauce comes in packets on the side, making it easy to add to your liking over the meats but we have to admit this is where we felt like the ribs were on the dry side.

Of course, their flavor improved when you added the barbecue sauce, but it needed a lot of help from the sauce that we didn’t think it should have needed. This half rack of ribs was very thin and really didn’t impress us with its overall presentation.

We found it tough to cut through the meat on the ribs, and that was sad because we’ve had them before and they were much more tender. The pulled pork was piled up by itself on the plate…

and was juicy and pulled right apart from itself (it’s the same pulled pork you’ll find on the fries in the previous entree).

The cole slaw that’s served as an added side to the dish is pretty standard slaw…

… but the dressing was a bit runnier than we would prefer.

And the signature baked beans have a spicy but sweet kick to them. There are a few peppers mixed into the beans with bites of pork, but they all work together to enhance the overall flavor.

The cup that’s given to you as a side for the beans is super small and as a side note, you can’t trade out the cole slaw side for more baked beans (we tried).

This plate is a lot of food — we often recommend sharing it! But keep in mind that the sides are small, so if you’re a big beans and slaw person, you may not want to share. We couldn’t have a full meal without a dessert, so we also picked up the Flamingo Cupcake for a sweet treat. This cupcake cost us $6.29 and is gorgeous!

It’s made of a guava-filled, strawberry-flavored cupcake with buttercream icing, crispy pearls, and sugar decoration in the shape of a flamingo’s profile and wing. This treat was almost too pretty to eat, and we hated cutting into it! The icing was very thick, but the strawberry cupcake was super soft underneath (although we did have to tear open the cover paper to get to it).

The guava filling on the inside was delicious and fruity but it fell out of the center of the moist cake easily. The crisp pearls were pretty and added a crunchy texture to the treat, but didn’t offer much more in terms of taste as was the case with the sugar detailing of the Flamingo bird.

Overall

Overall Flame Tree Barbecue still reigns as one of our top meal options around Disney’s Animal Kingdom although we feel like the rib meat really could use some improvements to impress us once again.

Our favorite parts of the meal really had to do with the topped french fries that could double as a hearty snack or stand-alone entree and the bouncy cornbread that kept us coming back for more.

Nosh or Not?

You should stop by Flame Tree Barbecue if…

• You’re a BIG meat eater! Ok, we think everyone should try this restaurant out at least once BUT just know the majority of their menu items here will have something to do with meats.
• You’re REALLY into barbecue. It’s literally in the name so we would expect no less.
• You’re looking for a different type of Disney World park food. This is a popular restaurant choice for this very reason. If you’re looking to switch things up from your regular burgers, hot dogs, and fries we’re confident this is a solid choice for you.
• You’re using the Disney Dining Plan. The meals here are eligible for quick-service credits, and they are big and can be a good value on the plan.

We think you’d probably like to dine somewhere else if…

• You don’t eat meat or meat grosses you out. While you may not be ordering it for your meal, it’s unavoidable here with other people’s meals so we’d recommend you steer clear.
• You’re totally fine with your same ole, same ole. We get it, change isn’t for everyone but if you’re not looking to switch up the flavors during your trip and don’t mind the standard park meal of burgers and fries this may not appeal to you.
• You’ve GOT to get some AC! All of the seating for this restaurant is outdoors. While you might get the occasional breeze coming through, you’ll still be exposed to the outside temperature, weather conditions, and possible roaming wildlife (like the birds, squirrels, etc).

Check out a few more of our reviews! We’ve eaten EVERYWHERE you could think of around Disney World! And check back in with us for more soon!

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Is Flame Tree Barbeque one of your favorite restaurants at Disney’s Animal Kingdom? Tell us what you love to grab from here in the comments below!