Sanaa Restaurant - Animal Kingdom - Orlando / Florida Guide
Florida Guide > Dining
One of the newest restaurants to be opened by Disney is the Sanaa Restaurant which opened at Animal Kingdom Lodge in May 2009. Disney describes this restaurant as “African cooking with Indian spices. ” Sanaa is pronounced “Sah-NAH, ” and is the Swahili word for “artwork. ” Here they can seat 150 and aim to be a family orientated restaurant.
You will find Sanaa on the lowest floor of Kidani Village’s main building. It is a table service restaurant serving Lunch from 11:30am to 3:00pm and Dinner from 5:00pm to 9:00pm.
The main difference between Sanaa and any of the other Animal Kingdom dining venues are the animals. The restaurant overlooks a huge savannah and zebras, giraffes, wildebeests and ostriches can be seen grazing outside the many 9 foot floor to ceiling windows.
The interior is equally impressive with very elegant décor rather like the Boma Restaurant.
The menu is divided into 8 sections which are;
Indian-style Bread Service,
Appetizers,
Salad Sampler,
Soups,
From the Tandoori Ovens,
“Slow Cooked in Gravy-Simple and Well Seasoned”,
African Cooking with Indian Flavors
Sides.
Friends of ours recently had lunch there and they started with the bread service. They chose the Naan, Paratha and the Paneer Paratha, the server having recommended the Paneer Paratha as being the best. It apparently had a layer of cheese and spices on the inside that gave it a creamy kick. To accompany their breads they had Coriander Chutney, Cucumber Raita and Mango Chutney much like we would have at home.
They then decided to accompany their appetizers with a salad sampler. For the sampler they had a choice of three and they had chick peas, carrot and orange and roasted potato and they said they were all very good. For appetizers they chose samosas, pulled duck, and cauliflower. Although the first two were ok they loved the roasted cauliflower over tomato sauce.
For entrée they decided to have a “combo” dish which they shared. I suspect the bread had already made them feel somewhat full! This was made up of tandoori chicken in red curry sauce and beef short ribs. They again really enjoyed these dishes which were served with rice. The Chicken in red curry was shredded white meat chicken in a mild red sauce and was very mild which suited my friend’s wife perfectly.
After their lunch, they were given a dessert menu although they do not usually have a dessert when they eat at Indian restaurants in the UK. However on the server’s recommendation my friend decided to try the Chai Cream which the server described as being “like crème brulee without the brulee” He said it was more like a milky pudding and did not really enjoy it.
They finished their meal with a glass of ' chakalaka' each which was a spicy red wine.
My friends said they would return again and maybe try Dinner next time. I know we will definitely visit Sanaa when we next go over to our villa.
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