Lunch at Animal Kingdom Lodge's Sanaa

If you’re looking for a filling and delicious meal with an Indian and African flair, look no further than Sanaa. Located on the first floor, just below the lobby at Animal Kingdom Lodge’s Kidani Village, Sanaa offers great food and views of the savanna and the animals that roam there. If you’re lucky and get a table near a window you’re in for a treat!

Sanaa is Swahili for art, and the restaurant celebrates both visual and culinary arts!

On our most recent trip we had a table not far from the window and were able to see quite a few animals while we dined. It was a lot of fun.

The atmosphere is great, but the real reason we were here was the food! We started off by ordering the Indian-Style Bread Service for everyone at the table to share. At many restaurants the meal starts with complementary bread, but here at Sanaa this Indian Bread Service costs extra, but it is TOTALLY worth it! *It is not included on the Disney Dining Plan, you will have to pay the extra cost for it, but if you like bread, do it!

The bread service includes five breads and nine tipping sauces. The breads – Paneer Paratha, Onion Kulcha, Spiced Naan, Traditional Naan, and Garlic-Ginger Naan – were all amazing! My personal favorite was the Paneer Paratha. The sauces – Cucumber Raita, Tamarind Chutney, Mango Chutney, Tomato-Date Jam, Roasted Red Pepper Hummus, Red Chile Sambal, Garlic Pickle, Spicy Jalapeno-Lime Pickle, and Coriander Chutney – are all delicious as well! They come arranged on a serving platter from mild to spicy. The Cucumber, Raita, Tomato-Date Jam, and Red Chile Sambal were my favorites. The sauces pair perfectly with the breads, but they are also the perfect accompaniment for your meal as well.

Following the amazing bread we enjoyed meals that were massive! The good news is that you can take your left overs with you – and we did! We also got our desserts to go so that we could enjoy them when we weren’t stuffed.

For his entrée Christian enjoyed the Kid’s Pizza. Pizza with stringy, melty cheese – yum! Kid’s meals comes with your choice of two sides – however, if your little one wants dessert you’ll need to stick with just one side because a dessert counts as a side. Christian was a bit under the weather on this particular day, so we opted for rice and requested a salad. Although a side salad is not on the menu they were happy to bring him some lettuce and ranch.

Remember how we said we were stuffed after our meal? That’s because we both ordered the Potjie Inspired. This includes one from the Journey (or in our case, two each) and one from the Harvest. What does that mean? The Journey is either meat of seafood dishes, and the Journey is all vegetable dishes. It also comes with a side of Basmati rice.

 I ordered the Seafood Curry, Butter Chicken, and Paneer Tikka. Howard ordered the Butter Chicken, Braised Beef, Chickpea Wit. If you’re never had butter chicken it is delicious. Tender chicken in a buttery, yogurt and tomato sauce that pairs perfectly with the side of rice. The seafood curry, chunks of shrimp and scallops in a creamy, spiced curry sauce, was delicious on its own and with the rice as well. The braised beef was tender and full of flavor. I’m sure you’re wondering what Paneer Tikka is, right? Paneer is a type of cheese and in this dish it is served grilled and served in a tomato sauce. It is seriously delicious. The Chickpea Wit is chickpeas and veggies in a tomato based sauce – and while I’m not a big chickpea fan, it was actually really good.

We got our desserts to go so that we could enjoy them later, and enjoy them we did! We ordered the Caramel N’dizi – a delicious combination of banana financier, sweet caramelized milk chocolate cremeux, hazelnut crunch, banana-white choolate Chantilly cream and ginger raspberries. If you like bananas, chocolate, or caramel, or all of the above you need to order this dish. It’s creamy, and has a nice crunch from the hazelnut, and it is overall, just really delicious.

We also ordered the Kenyan Coffee Petit Entremet. Layers of Keyan coffee-chocolate mousse, espresso financier, vanilla cremeux, caramel, and Kenyan coffee crumble. If you’re a coffee fan this is the dish for you! It was creamy, but had the needed texture difference from the coffee crumble. This was another seriously delicious dish.

We really enjoyed everything our experience, and especially the food at Sanna and we can’t wait to go back again!

Have you dined at Sanna? Do you have a favorite dish?!

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