Review: Jiko...A Cooking Place | the disney food blog

Review: Jiko…A Cooking Place

Animal Kingdom Lodge
Disney World Restaurants

Well, my food-loving friends, it’s finally time to talk about one of my very favorite restaurants in all of Walt Disney World. My husband and I spent our first Valentine’s Day at Jiko, and we’ve returned time and time again to enjoy consistently delicious meals.

Now, a few of you might be concerned that you won’t find anything on the menu that suits your taste in a restaurant that touts “African” food, but fear not; there really is something for everyone here.

Atmosphere

Jiko is located on Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge’s ground floor and features floor to ceiling windows that look out onto a beautiful and peaceful water feature. But the windows are probably the least interesting thing about this restaurant’s design, which was developed by Jeffrey Beers.

Walking into the restaurant you’ll pass a bar area to your left and see the Cape Town Wine Room directly in front of you. (Yep, that’s it behind the glass walls of wine!) Jiko serves exclusively [Read more…]

Disney Food Post Round-Up: January 30, 2011

By AJ 2 Comments

Hello, hello, Disney food lovers! It’s the end of January, and that means two things: 1. You’ll be getting your January Disney Food Blog Newsletter tomorrow, and 2. We’re now only eight months away from the 2011 Epcot Food and Wine Festival! OK…I know I’m a little too excited about that one, but we just booked our hotel, so I’m enthusing.

All righty — here’s the latest Disney Food News!

Epcot’s Via Napoli has introduced a build-your-own pizza feature! Now you can create exactly the pie you want!
Disney has hired an executive chef for the newest Disney Vacation Club Resort, Aulani, in Ko Olina, Hawaii! Details here…
Don’t forget to read up on our food coverage of the Disney Dream cruise ship! More to come…

And now… on to the round-up!

Kevin Kidney combines the release of his new Chicken of the Sea Pirate Ship replica (which I now need) with an incredible post describing the history and design of the actual Chicken of the Sea in Disneyland. A great read.

Daily Mail eats around WDW! (I’m itching to correct the zillion things that are wrong about that photo caption, though…)

Southern Plate highlights the recipe for 1900 Park Fare’s Strawberry Soup.

Eating (and Drinking) Around WDW reminds us to always tell your server when it’s your birthday…

Main Street Gazette checks out the new burgers (veggie and decidedly non-veggie) at Liberty Inn in Epcot!

Cupcakes Take the Cake highlights some of our favorite Marvel characters, cupcake-style.

Disney Parks Blog checks in from the Dream!

Disney Dream Dining: Cruise Line Room Service

By AJ 16 Comments

It’s Disney Dream room service time!! (Oddly, no Mickey Bars on the menu… or Dole Whip…). The wonderful Ms. Sarah Holodick did some serious taste-testing on her Dream cruise — here are her reviews… (By the way — here’s the full Disney Dream Room Service Menu!)

I ordered an assortment of items from Room Service to try, and I was told it would arrive in about 35 minutes. It ended up arriving in about 15-20, which was great.

Salads and Appetizers

All Hands On Deck — A special selection of international cheeses served with [Read more…]

Disney Dream Dining: Serenity Bay Eats

By AJ 15 Comments

Over on Disney’s Castaway Cay — a private Bahamian island reserved for use only by Disney cruise guests — there’s a little adults-only section called Serenity Bay. You have to take two trams to get there, but boy is it worth it!

Serenity Bay

Castaway Air Bar

Here you can rent floats and tubes for a lazy day in the crystal-blue waters of the bay, find a hammock for a mid-morning nap, or treat yourself to some Disney Cruise Line specialty drinks at eats at two locations.

Castaway Air Bar

First up — the Castaway Air Bar — a ramshackle building next to the [Read more…]

Disney Food Trends: Desserts + Fire

By AJ 9 Comments

Crepe Suzette at Bistro de Paris

I’ve been noticing some interesting trends at Disney area restaurants lately! I mentioned the gourmet Mac & Cheese trend a while back, but here’s an interesting one that has to do with dessert — flames!

Yep, that’s what I said. Fire. Right there at your table.

Flambeing is certainly nothing new, but to have it as a prevalent show at so many restaurants in the Disney area is pretty interesting. Here are some of the spots where we’ve seen it recently…

Bistro de Paris, Epcot
In the France pavilion of Disney World’s Epcot, Bistro de Paris offers high-end dining in a beautiful second-floor dining room. The view of [Read more…]

Disney Dream Dining: Animator’s Palate Review

By AJ 30 Comments

Let me say first — Animator’s Palate was one of my favorite Disney restaurants ever. Hands down.

This place was pure F-U-N! From the decor and themeing to the interaction with Crush the turtle from Finding Nemo, I had a blast — laughing throughout the evening and truly enjoying the meal. I can’t wait to tell you about it…

Atmosphere
Those of you who have cruised on the Disney Wonder and Disney Magic cruise ships will remember that Animator’s Palate slowly transforms throughout the evening from black and white to color. However, on the Dream and the Fantasy, there’s a slightly different model in [Read more…]

Review: New Downtown Disney Orlando AMC Theater Concession Stand

By Erin 21 Comments

Disney Food for Families columnist Erin Foster reports on the brand new concession stand in Orlando’s Downtown Disney AMC theaters!

Finding ourselves at Downtown Disney with time on our hands, my daughters and I decided to take in a film at the AMC theater there. I must confess that our secondary reason for this decision was the desire to see a film. The primary reason we decided to go there was to check out the AMC’s new concession situation.

Downtown Disney Orlando (c) Disney

I had read about the new snack set-up here on the Food Blog and we had a sneak peek at the incredible Coke Freestyle machine during a quick visit to the (gasp) Universal Studios counter service restaurant Richter’s Burgers, so we were excited to dive in.

Concession Stand Overhaul
The revamped food service concept at the AMC is different from anything I had previously encountered at a movie theater. Here you do not walk up to a counter, place your order, and have a clerk hand you items. Instead, [Read more…]

Build Your Own Pizza Added to Disney World’s Via Napoli Menu

By AJ 23 Comments

Well, it’s finally happened. After all of our complaining, we at-long-last have the option to add/subtract toppings from our pizzas at Via Napoli in Walt Disney World’s Epcot! (Can you believe you couldn’t add toppings of your choosing before?!)

Via Napoli New Menu Close-Up -- click for larger image

Learn About:Via Napoli

Epcot Restaurants
Disney World Restaurants

You can see the change in the menu above. The Margherita pizza has been moved off of the list of standard pizzas and given its own standing on the left side of the menu. It retains the 16/28/39 cost structure, but extra toppings are $2 each.

The other pizzas have been moved to the right hand side of the menu with [Read more…]

Disney Dream Dining: A Taste of Remy

By AJ 13 Comments

I was one of the lucky few on the Disney Dream Christening Cruise to have the opportunity to attend a tasting at Remy, the brand new adults-only restaurant on the ship — and boy was I excited!!! This restaurant is even more gorgeous than it was in the concept art!

To add a bit of Disney magic, the restaurant was inspired by the animated film Ratatouille (you’ll find numerous nods to the characters and food in the film throughout the restaurant and its menu), and the menu has been developed by superstar chefs from both sides of the pond. Chef Scott Hunnel from Walt Disney World’s Victoria & Albert’s collaborated with Chef Arnaud Lallement from L’Assiette Champenoise, a Michelin two-star restaurant located just outside Reims, France, to create a five-star menu, which Chef Patrick Albert, the on-site Executive Chef at Remy, will deliver to guests every evening.

Remy Main Dining Room

Remy Story -- click for larger image

Atmosphere

Decorated in an Art Nouveau style with a palette of greens, yellows, and rich red accents, Remy’s dining room is lush. Dark woods and plush carpeting are the background for [Read more…]

Disney Hires Patrick Callarec as Aulani Executive Chef

By AJ 2 Comments

Ama Ama Beachside Restaurant Concept Art

Aulani, Disney’s new Hawaiian resort, will open in late 2011 in Ko Olina, Oahu, with Chef Patrick Callarec at the helm of Aulani’s dining establishments.

Honolulu Magazine is reporting that the chef — trained in France and a veteran of the Four Seasons and Ritz-Carlton hotels — has worked [Read more…]

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