Finding breakfast at Disney World can be one of the hardest meals to find. When you’re focused on running into the parks to catch that first ride and meet those cool characters, you might forget that starting with breakfast will make the rest of the day smoother.

We headed down to Tusker House Restaurant in Africa at Animal Kingdom to see if it was worth the time and money, and if you should add it to your park day. Come with us for a full review as we dine with our favorite Disney characters.

Atmosphere

Tusker House is a character dining buffet in Animal Kingdom. During your meal, Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, and other friends will visit your table and say “Jambo,” which means “hello” in Swahili. They’re dressed in their safari outfits to get you in the Animal Kingdom mood before you head on your own safari, visiting all the animals.

There are five main rooms and large tables, which are great for bringing the whole family. While you might be in a go-go-go mood in the theme park, we love taking a slower morning in Animal Kingdom and eating at Tusker House, where we can meet multiple characters before heading to busier areas in the parks.

You’ll want to make an advanced dining reservation to ensure Tusker House can accommodate your whole party at the time you prefer. Breakfast will cost $49 per adult and $35 per child.

Now that we’re here, let’s chat about what’s on the menu.

Menu

Tusker House offers dishes filled with African flavors and plenty of familiar dishes that the whole family will recognize. They serve breakfast from 7:30 to 10:30 AM, lunch from 11 to 3:30 PM, and dinner from 3:35 to 6:00 PM.

They have made-to-order omelets and scrambled eggs, along with potatoes, and plenty of breakfast meat, including bacon, pork sausage, turkey sausage, and rotisserie ham. They even have Mickey and Simba waffles! For African-inspired dishes, try shakshuka, bobotie, and South African French toast bulkas. There are even some pastries like a mango-apricot jam cake, chai-spiced croissant, and guava Danish.

We love their different type of juices, but they also offer specialty cocktails, wine, and beer.

We’re getting hungry, so let’s eat!

Eats

Because this is a buffet, we filled our plates with our favorites! We were obsessed with the Caramel Banana Sauce, which we poured over our waffles. While the waffles were well-cooked, the Banana Caramel Sauce was the hero. It had a heavy banana flavor and was lighter on the caramel, and we were obsessed, to say the least.

The omelet stand was busy with their made-to-order dishes; some days they even have specials! The day before we came, there were biscuits and gravy, which sounded delicious.

Drinks

We never pass up an opportunity for a great Disney juice! One of our favorites is the POG juice, which stands for passion fruit, orange, and guava juice.

Nosh or Not

You should add Tusker House to your must-do list if…

• You love character dining and love Mickey and the gang
• You want to try different breakfast offerings while still having classic dishes available
• You are looking for a longer breakfast at Animal Kingdom

You might want to skip Tusker House if…

• You don’t like to be interrupted during breakfast to meet characters
• You want a fast meal, so get going on your Animal Kingdom day
• You prefer more specialty breakfast dishes and not buffet dishes

Overall

We’ve been to Tusker House before and are always planning our next visit. We love how easy it is to meet characters while getting breakfast for the day. While there are dishes for more adventurous eaters, there are plenty of classic American dishes as well.

We will keep reviewing restaurant after restaurant so you can learn everything you need for the best Disney World trip ever. Keep following Disney Food Blog for all the latest Disney news and more.

REVIEW: WE ATE LUNCH AT TUSKER HOUSE IN ANIMAL KINGDOM

Have you ever eaten at Tusker House? Tell us about your experience in the comments!