Tiffins
Tiffins is a signature table-service restaurant on Discovery Island at Disney's Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. Opened on May 27, 2016, it is the park's flagship restaurant, celebrating the world travels of the Imagineers and animal researchers who created Disney's Animal Kingdom: its three dining rooms function as galleries of the sketches, photographs, carvings and artefacts produced and collected on those research trips. Its name comes from the Anglo-Indian word for a light midday meal, and for the stacked metal lunch boxes carried by travellers in South Asia. The Nomad Lounge, the park's principal cocktail lounge, is attached to it.
History
Tiffins arrived as part of the largest expansion in Animal Kingdom's history, the programme that turned the park into a full-day and night-time destination ahead of Pandora – The World of Avatar, which opened in 2017. The restaurant stands near the path from Discovery Island to Pandora, beside Pizzafari, and opened on May 27, 2016, the same day as the park's new night-time offerings — the after-dark Kilimanjaro Safaris, the Tree of Life Awakenings projections and the interim night-time show The Jungle Book: Alive with Magic, which preceded Rivers of Light.[1][2] Reservations opened on May 21, 2016, and from May 28 the restaurant offered dining packages for the night-time show, a pattern it continued for Rivers of Light.[1]
Disney presented the 252-seat restaurant explicitly as a celebration of travel: "Tiffin" was explained in the opening announcement as the Indian word for a lunchbox used by travellers, and also a mid-day meal, and the menus were designed to take diners to the places that had inspired the park itself.[3] It gave Animal Kingdom a true signature restaurant — two credits on the Disney Dining Plan — to stand alongside its long-established buffet and character locations.
Setting
The restaurant is laid out as three galleries. The Trek Gallery represents South and Southeast Asia, the travels through Bali and the Himalayas that produced Anandapur and Expedition Everest. The Safari Gallery represents eastern and southern Africa, the research behind Harambe and Kilimanjaro Safaris. The Grand Gallery, the largest room, reflects the folk art influences from indigenous artists around the world that run through the whole park.[4] Reviews from its opening period consistently describe the effect as dining inside a museum of the park's own creation: original sketches by Imagineers including Joe Rohde, expedition photographs, prayer flags, wood carvings and display cases of field artefacts line the walls.[5][6]
Details tie the room to the park around it. The Grand Gallery's illuminated animal figures echo the lanterns of Rivers of Light, carved totem poles salvaged from the former Camp Minnie-Mickey were installed in the restaurant, and collections of genuine metal tiffin carriers greet guests at the entrance.[5] The adjoining Nomad Lounge, entered through the same building, extends the travel theme with banners recording travellers' answers to questions about their journeys, and serves small plates and cocktails on a terrace overlooking Discovery River.
Cuisine
The menu is globally inspired rather than tied to a single region, built from the same map as the galleries: African, Asian and South American influences predominate, with European techniques underneath. Opening menus featured dishes such as grilled octopus, spiced lamb, whole-fried sustainable fish and wagyu striploin, and the kitchen has kept a reputation for the most adventurous cooking in the park, including game meats, house-made breads and desserts built around travel themes.[6] Lunch and dinner are both served, lunch historically the quieter and slightly simpler service. The restaurant's combination of serious food and documentary theming has made it a favourite of repeat visitors, and its servers are briefed on the artwork, effectively doubling as gallery guides.
See also
- Disney's Animal Kingdom
- Pandora – The World of Avatar
- Yak & Yeti Restaurant
- Nomad Lounge
- Tusker House Restaurant