Dining at Tusker House

Tusker House, a table service restaurant, is located in Africa in Disney's Animal Kingdom and is the only character dining experience in the park. Tusker House serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner daily via buffet and hosts Donald's Safari Breakfast each morning. Traditional American breakfast favorites are on hand in the morning and the buffet has a more authentic African theme for the lunch and dinner menu. We have eaten breakfast at Tusker House.

Donald's Safari Breakfast begins with a family photo taken in front of an African marketplace themed background. I don't remember if the photo is included with your meal or it is extra, but it does come in a commemorative folder along with wallet size photos and can be added to your Photopass account. Click here to read more about Disney's Photopass service.

Update for 2014:  Tusker House Dining Photo is now taken with Donald and the Dining Photo along with digital access is included with Memory Maker, formerly Photopass+.

The characters rotate throughout the restaurant and come to your table. Goofy is ready for a safari in the photo above.

Daisy looks lovely in her safari gear. I'm sure this adventure gave her a reason to go shopping, which is her favorite pastime.

Here's the mouse himself ready to join the safari!

We were visiting during the husband's birthday and he received a birthday card and celebratory cupcake and candle at breakfast!

Of course, Donald is the host of the event. After all, the meal is called Donald's Safari Breakfast.

OK, here's our take on Tusker House and the breakfast: The restaurant is very large, which is a good thing in terms of sitting lots of guests, but it makes it a long way to the buffet. We were very far away. Our service was slow and lacking. We had to remind several times of items we needed. The food was OK. The restaurant was noisy as it should be during a character meal, and the wait was incredibly long. I was dismayed by the lack of Disney efficiency. We wasted quite a bit of "park time" waiting outside to get in and then waiting for our server, waiting in the buffet line, etc. The theming was very authentic, not that I have been to an African marketplace yet, but it seemed very authentic. Now, our experience may be unique or might have happened during an "off" day, but it made such an impression that we won't be back to Tusker House anytime soon. In terms of character dining, this can be a unique experience. While Donald can be found at Chef Mickey's, Daisy is not typically a part of other character meals. Click here to read about dining at Chef Mickey's.

Update:  This original post was written in June of 2010.  We ate breakfast at Tusker House again in July of 2013--see, I told you it would be a while before we returned.  We had much better service and enjoyed our location in the restaurant, food, and character interactions so much more that we are returning to Tusker House in July of 2014. 

Advanced Dining Reservations are recommended.