Disney World pt. 8 - Jiko, Animal Kingdom Lodge, and Babycakes

When I decided I wanted to eat at Jiko, it quickly became the thing I was most looking forward to on our trip.  An African Signature Disney restaurant with a separate vegan menu? Count me in! This trip we had two signature meals planned, so we decided we would pay out of pocket for this one, knowing that I would want to sample the appetizers, and tea instead of sticking to the rigorous "drink meal dessert" structure of the Disney Dining Plan.  In most cases, this assortment of 3 suffices, as I am lucky enough to be able to find places with vegan main courses, never mind appetizers.  Most places stock sorbet, vegan cookies and vegan ice cream for dessert, so I would much rather have that than some mediocre salad.

Anyways, we got dressed and headed to the Animal Kingdom Lodge.  To get to a resort, from another resort the general rule is that you'll have to two two forms of transportation.  There are a lot of exceptions to this rule (see - monorail resorts, port orleans etc.) but generally you have to go to a park, and then to the other resort.  This adds significant time to travel estimations, so we had to leave pretty early for our dinner.

When we got there, the restaurant was still relatively quiet.  Despite this, we were seated next to a party of four adults on a double date.  This was fine, they seat people in one section because of the servers and such, but these people were pretty loud, and being in a quiet restaurant next to the only people audibly talking made it a bit uncomfortable.  This, in no way is the fault of the restaurant, and I am sure that at my request we could have been moved away.  It was just an unfortunate thing that happened to dampen the meal as my dad and I are both practiced mumble-talkers.

Anyways, our server was an older man who obviously had an appreciation for good food service.  He was very professional, albeit not very personable.  The other glitch in this meal was that my dad is not an adventurous eater.  I never realized how much enjoyment in a meal comes from sharing food, trying new food and talking about the food with whoever you are eating with.  He was not nearly as enthused at the idea of trying a sampler of African dips and breads, and I felt a bit strange mowing down on an appetizer (meant to share) all by myself.

When the food came, I was kind of underwhelmed.  I got some kind of lentil cake with "bunny chow"which is a pastry stuffed with some veggie curry.  It all tasted.. fine, but I was not blown away by taste, creativity or presentation.  Both items were fried, and that make the whole thing feel a bit greasy, and heavy.  That being said, at a "regular" restaurant, were I to see this, and eat it, I would be happy, but with such great reviews, and with special attention to the vegan menu this did not knock it out of the park.

In lieu of dessert I got some African tea to go, as did my dad and we walked around the resort a bit to see the animals and to snap some photos.

After dinner we decided to head to Downtown Disney, because no parks were open late.  HUGE MISTAKE because obviously, if no parks are open - everyone was at downtown Disney.  My dad was being a headache grump and I wanted donuts and the whole things was miserable.  We were fish swimming upstream, but we made it out and back to pop century, with a half dozen donuts to wake up to the next day.