Tiffins review

Tiffins restaurant is located in Disney’s Animal Kingdom, it is a fairly new signature dining location that opened in May 2016.

Sam has wanted to eat here since discovering its opening. On our 2016 trip to WDW, we dined in Animal Kingdom Lodge’s Jiko. As one of Sam’s favourite locations on property, Jiko homes an African inspired  menu and the largest collections of South African wines in the US. Tiffins would be right up his street. When we dined in Jiko, I was not a big fan, the flavours were things I have not experienced before and I did not enjoy. So I was struggling to find items on the Tiffins menu I thought I would like.

We arrived very early for our reservations, it was a hot day in Animal Kingdom. We checked in at the desk and looked around the restaurant and Nomad Lounge (Tiffins bar) before being taken to our table. I enjoyed the casual feel of the each room, it was a very expensive place to eat but not over the top with trying to feel or look expensive. The interior was very fitting with the African/Animal Kingdom theme.

Our server who looked after us, was amazing, so attentive, he kept topping up our water and explained all our food choices to us. One of the items from our starter we enjoyed so much he brought us more and didn’t even charge us.

The menu.

For starters, Sam had the octopus and we shared the bread service. The octopus looks great on the plate, but I could just not try it. Sam only tried octopus for the first time on this trip and he really enjoyed it the first time so ordered it again here. The bread service was delicious, the breads, were clearly freshly cut, there were 3 sauces that accompanied the breads, 2 were just ok, a tomato chutney and a blended eggplant dip, but there was a really, really good tasting one, apricot chutney it was amazing, this is what the server bought us more of, along with the honey bread.

For mains, I had the chicken with a side of $21 mac and cheese (I love mac and cheese), Sam had the surf and turf. I was extremely surprised because I thoroughly enjoyed my meal, I ate it all, the flavours were incredible. I am sorry to say it was actually a dining reservation I was not excited about. The chicken was the best cooked chicken I have ever eaten in my life, fact, and I even ate brussel sprouts. The mac and cheese was so cheesy and had chunks of lobster in, whats not to like? Sam’s surf and turf looked really good, he always has his beef medium/rare. It didn’t last to long on his plate. This was one of his favourite meals on this trip.

The dessert menu was probably a bit ‘out there’ for me. So I just had a fresh herbal tea and Sam picked the chocolate ganache. Again when it came out it was so well presented, and Sam really enjoyed the banana-ey nuttiness…. VOM.

We took our meal slowly and actually relaxed, while we were here. We came out 2 hours later and could hardly walk because we were so full. The 10 minute walk to the bus seemed like it took an hour.

All in all I would certainly recommend this location due to the atmosphere, it was quiet, calm, along with great food with amazing flavour and I had a good time. While the bill came to over $250 with the tip included. It was well and truly worth every cent. Any apprehensions I had about the menu and the African flavours were unnecessary.

Have you had the chance to eat at Tiffins? What are your thoughts? Would you eat here on a future trip? Let me know in the comments.