Dinner at Sanaa: Skip the Bread, Try These Instead.

Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge is quickly becoming another top favorite of ours. From the amazing displays in the lobby, to the animals roaming around outside, to the amazing food, this resort seriously delivers. While many experience Animal Kingdom Lodge at it’s main location in Jambo House, there is another resort just off to the side: Kidani Village.

Kidani Village, a Disney Vacation Club resort, sits adjacent to Jambo House. In the shape of a giant backwards 3, Kidani Village also has roaming animals, a beautiful lobby, and one amazing restaurant that serves both breakfast and dinner: Sanaa. Please, join me for dinner as we explore their African and Indian inspired menu and enjoy some comfortable favorites as well as trying a few new things.

Toast? No that’s a beer.

How could we not start off dinner with a drink? This is the start of our much-needed vacation! Much to my surprise, the African beer wasn’t Tusker Lager, but instead an Anheuser-Busch American amber brewed just for Disney’s Animal Kingdom called Safari Amber. It was okay for what it was, but we were still disappointed it wasn’t from Africa. It’s not terrible, though. It would be good with barbecue. Like maybe Flame Tree Barbecue at Animal Kingdom, perhaps? (it’s served there, too)

For starters….

I know what you’re thinking: “you ordered the Bread Service, because everyone orders the Bread Service”. No I did not! First of all, that’s a lot for one person. Second of all, my table isn’t that big. But the reality is: that’s A LOT for one person. So I compromised with a soup and an appetizer. An appetizer I’m vaguely familiar with thanks to Spice Road Table at EPCOT.

Lamb Kefta! Basically lamb balls. Nope, bad word choice. Let me rephrase. Think meatballs made with lamb meat. Seasoned Ground Lamb, House-made Garlic Hummus, Crispy Spiced Chickpeas, Pear Chutney, Chile Oil, and Papadam.

In this particular dish, the lamb is a bit dense. Hearty, if you will. It’s not a big portion but it is meaty. The garlic hummus with chile oil was divine! Slice up your kefta and slide some of that hummus onto it: magnificent. The crispy chickpeas were exactly that, adding a welcome crunchy texture to the dish. Overall, a fantastic choice if you don’t want to do the signature Bread Service.

Soup with a surprise!

If you guessed tomato soup, you would be correct! But it’s not just any tomato soup, it’s a Fenugreek-scented Tomato Soup. What is fenugreek? Good question! It is an herb similar to clover. Can you really tell in this soup? Not really. It is a very tasty and comforting serving of tomato soup.
But wait! There’s more!

Hidden cheese! Waiting to be discovered by you and your wandering spoon! Seared paneer cheese, to be exact. The beauty of this paneer cheese is it’s ability to hold it’s shape under water, er, tomato. Hidden within this serving of soup were several small blocks of cheese that had a slightly firm, almost tofu-like texture. Hidden cheese is the best cheese, and we’re definitely a fan!

Now the fun begins!

We played it safe with Lamb Kefta and Tomato Soup, so now it’s time to venture into new-to-us territory. At least partially.

As a main course, we are going to be Potjie-Inspired, with one familiar dish and one dish we are about to take a chance on. Potjie means “pot”. More specifically: slow-braised, cooked over an open fire in a three-legged pot. Think outdoorsy. Think campfire on the savannah at the end of the day while the sun sets. You can almost smell the spices floating through the air mixing with the scents of grass and dirt around you.

For the Potjie-Inspired dinner, you will choose one item from two categories: one meat dish, and one vegetarian dish. Mine was served with jasmine rice, and for an additional cost you can also have a piece of naan bread. Naan bread is like an Indian equivalent to pita bread, if you will.

What do we have here?

I played it safe with the bowl on the left and chose Butter Chicken. I love butter chicken. I’ve had butter chicken several times, so I knew it would be good. My first venture into Indian cuisine was butter chicken.

This dish was slightly spicy but as with Indian spices, it doesn’t linger like American spicy does. The sauce is a half-way between creamy and buttery. It’s not thick, but it’s not thin. It can be served over rice, or you can also eat it with naan in bite-size bread pieces. Butter Chicken is a very good choice if you want to try something new, or return to a favorite if you haven’t had butter chicken in awhile.

To the right is where things get interesting. The bowl on the right is Chickpea Wat. I’ve never had chickpea wat. In fact, weeks leading up to dinner, I had to Google all of the plant-based menu items in this category because I definitely did not know what they were. Chickpea Wat is an Ethiopian stew made with chickpeas and tomatoes, dolled up with some spices and slowly simmered. Yes, in a three-legged pot over an open flame, how’d you know?

The chickpeas retained their firm, yet chewy texture, and the dish overall was both spicy yet sweet at the same time. Let me be honest with you guys: it was incredible! I absolutely loved it. Chickpea Wat was one of those dishes that I wasn’t sure if I’d like it, so I took a chance, and was blown away by how good it was.

Wat is a traditional Ethiopian dish, so again imagine yourself eating a bowl of this out on the African savannah at sunset. I closed my eyes at dinner and I could picture it myself. Absolutely breathtaking.

The fun isn’t over yet!

Hold on, there, adventurers, we’re not done yet. We still have dessert! There’s more territory to explore in dessert-land.

I asked my server what people order most frequently. He told me the Giraffe Tower Mousse and the Wilde-best Wildebeast. That’s a bummer because I wanted to try the other two desserts. I was torn between the other two. One is a cake, one is an ice cream. Well you can’t have cake without ice cream! (or can you?) So I opted for both!

This. Is the Black Sesame Sundae. This also happens to be black sesame ice cream. Unusual, for sure, but think of it as a variation of vanilla ice cream. It’s nothing adventerous, so it’s very safe for something differet. However, it’s what comes in this sundae is what really packs a punch.

As you can see, there’s a roasted spiced pineapple, that was delicious. Those red things that look like Nerds candy are raspberry crisps and let me tell you: those packed a flavor punch! They were so strong with flavor that I was amazed how something so tiny could hold that much flavor. This sundae as a whole was delicious and highly recommended!

This on the other hand….

This creation is the Ankole Cake. Spiced chocolate cake, baobab curd (what?), meringue horns, STARR African rum macerated citrus. Um, those were grapefruit. And boy were they ripe.

The spiced chocolate cake is to offset the slight tartness of the baobab curd, which took some getting used to. It had a pudding texture and a taste “some aren’t a fan of” according to my server. It definitely different and not something we will be rushing back for any time soon.

And dear reader, if you don’t like the flavor of grapefruit, avoid this citrus. African rum could not save the taste of these. But we at Disney Rover believe winners never quit, so we powered through it like a champ, regretting every bite.

If you haven’t guessed by now: don’t order this. Order the ice cream, for sure! Then try one of the remaining two desserts we didn’t try. Unless you like grapefruit (we know at least one of our readers who does), then order this.

Alright, wrap it up.

Sanaa has been on my radar for quite a while now. Many people have raved about the bread service at Sanaa, but haven’t really mentioned anything else, so that’s why we were eager to check it out! My goodness, are we glad we did! Dinner was fantastic, and our service was fantastic.

Even better: we saw zebras! Sanaa faces the savannah between Kidani Village and Jambo House, with large windows looking out. Luckily we were seated by a window and were surprised to see animals about this late in the evening.

Dinner, however, was a little pricey. It was worth it, don’t get us wrong, but pricey. Sanaa is also open for breakfast, which we were unable to get a reservation for (we tried numerous times).

The only drawback to Sanaa is it’s location. If you’re already staying at Kidani Village, Sanaa is very easy to get to. If you’re staying next door at Jambo House, there is a courtesy shuttle that will take you to the Kidani Village lobby. For anyone not staying at Animal Kingdom Lodge, it’s a bit of a complicated trek to get out here, especially via Disney bus. Driving direct would be easier but we understand not everyone has a car on vacation. So basically: if you’re at Kidani Village or Jambo House, definitely come check out Sanaa!

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