Jiko – The Cooking Place at Disney World has a reputation for being one of the best signature dining restaurants on property, but is it the right fit for you? We recently dined here and are sharing our review. So, if you’re wondering if it’s actually worth the hype, you’re in the right place. Let’s get to it!

About Jiko – The Cooking Place Disney World

Located on the first floor of Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge – Jambo House, Jiko is tucked away to the right side, across from Boma – Flavors of Africa. Unlike Boma, though, Jiko is located a little beyond the beaten path through the Cape Town Lounge and Wine Bar (which is a great spot to grab a drink before your table is ready!).

Jiko is known for its South African cuisine and has one of the most extensive South African wine lists in the United States. So, if you’re a wine connoisseur, make your reservation now. You won’t regret it!

Open for dinner daily, this restaurant is relatively easy to secure a dining reservation at, but don’t let its easy accessibility sway you! Jiko is considered more of a hidden gem among Disney World’s signature restaurants, and those who have dined here swear it’s worth the extra trek to get to Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge.

Overview & Pricing

• Meals Offered: Dinner
• Price: $$$ ($35 to $59.99 per person)
• Type of Meal: Fine/Signature Dining, à la Carte
• Cuisine: African
• Dress Code: Signature Dining – Clothing should be clean, neat, and in good condition. No swimwear.
• Disney Dining Plan: 2 Credits
• Passholder Discounts: 10% off food and non-alcoholic beverages

Atmosphere & Theming

The main feature inside Jiko – The Cooking Place is its open kitchen aesthetic, featuring two wood-burning ovens. There are even a few bar stools available for guests to dine at right at the kitchen counter if you’d like.

The lighting and decor in the restaurant make it feel like you’re sitting in the middle of an African sunset, with dark wood accents and red and burnt orange undertones. Floor-to-ceiling windows line one wall of the restaurant, offering views of an outside water feature and the pathway to the safari that guests can explore and enjoy before or after their dinner.

Since Jiko is a fine/signature restaurant, there is a dress code in place. Per Disney’s website:

“Guests are expected to dress accordingly in attire that respects the restaurant’s sophisticated and upscale aesthetic. Clothing should be clean, neat and in good condition. Please no swimwear.”

While cast members are aware that guests often come straight from the parks in their park clothes, you shouldn’t be surprised to see guests in more upscale attire as well.

Getting to Jiko – The Cooking Place

Getting to Jiko at Disney World is perhaps the most challenging part of dining here. If you’re utilizing Disney transportation, you’ll need to catch a bus to Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge from any of the four Disney World theme parks or Disney Springs.

Driving your own car makes getting here a bit easier, as you can park at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge for free up to two hours before your dining reservation.

Rideshare options (like Disney’s Minnie Vans, Uber, and Lyft) are also available.

Jiko – The Cooking Place Menu

Jiko offers one of the most unique menus within Walt Disney World. Staying true to its African and Indian inspirations, the menu features a diverse selection of meat, seafood, and vegetarian specialties. Guests have the opportunity to try specialty offerings as well, including venison, wild boar, and lamb. Plant-based stews are also available, along with vegetarian appetizers such as carrot soup and dumplings.

Many dishes are cooked directly in the open flame wood-fired ovens, right in the center of the restaurant!

Kids’ offerings include more “safe” and familiar dishes such as mac and cheese and cheese pizza. Though you can also find a selection of adventurous dishes on the menu for kids, such as market-fresh fish or steak kebabs.

So, what is the food actually like? We recently dined here — here’s our full review of Jiko at Disney World!

Eats at Jiko Disney World

Appetizers

To start our meal, our server brought the complimentary bread service as soon as we sat down. They call the bread service here giraffe bread because the loaf is scored to resemble a giraffe’s skin (pretty cool!). The giraffe bread is crunchy on the outside, but surprisingly soft on the inside, and paired with an easily spreadable butter, topped with black sea salt. All in all, this bread service was delightful!

We also decided to order the Braai’d Wild Boar Tenderloin as a starter for $19. It comes served with creamy pap, tomato chakalaka, and is then topped with an herb-smoked oil. This appetizer was fantastic. Our server told us that many people who eat here actually order two of these dishes in place of an entree, and now we know why!

The creamy pap is a South African take on a dish that resembles something like grits or polenta. It was seasoned perfectly and paired well with the boar. And, speaking of the main attraction of the dish, the wild boar was cooked to a perfect medium-rare, and it was so tender!

Entrees

For our entrées, we decided on the Oak-Grilled Bone Marrow-Crusted Filet Mignon for $62 and the Moroccan-Spiced Lamb Shank for $51.

The filet mignon was served with four cheese mac and cheese, broccolini, and topped with a chocolate-red wine demi-glace. The filet was cooked to medium-rare and was incredibly tender. The oak flavor from the wood-fired oven came through and was a nice touch, though I didn’t taste much of the bone marrow crust. The macaroni and cheese was creamy, with corkscrew pasta, and very good. And the broccolini was standard, but the chocolate-red wine demi-glace was what really made the dish stand out.

Additionally, my lamb shank was perfection. It was paired with carrots, lemon potatoes, peas, and a minted lamb glaze. The meat fell off the bone and was a hearty portion. If you like lemon, you’ll love these potatoes. They are heavy on the lemon, so if that isn’t your thing, you may want to skip these. Again, similar to the broccolini, the vegetables in this dish were standard and nothing spectacular on their own, but the demi-glace that they sat in really made them stand out.

Off the kids’ menu, my son ordered the cheese pizza for $10.50. This came with two sides, which he chose mac and cheese and then Pumbaa’s dessert grub for dessert. He enjoyed both the pizza and mac and cheese, and we adults even got to try some, too! This was the same mac and cheese that was paired with the filet entree, and the pizza was cooked in the wood-fired oven. If the meal has the approval of my four-year-old, it has my approval as well!

Dessert

Even though we were stuffed by the end of our meal, we just couldn’t say no to dessert! We asked our server what the most popular dessert on the menu was, and he quickly said it was the Potjie Pot. This is a dessert consisting of chocolate custard, lemon-olive oil cake, whipped caramel, and topped with cocoa crunch. And, wow, was this good! However, the portion was a bit small for the $16 price tag.

Would I order it again? Probably not for the price point, but I would absolutely recommend it to someone who is interested in dessert here.

Pumbaa’s Grub off the kid’s menu was chocolate pudding topped with crushed Oreos, chocolate candy bugs, and gummy worms. What wasn’t to like? And frankly, his dessert was bigger than ours to share.

Overall Jiko Disney World Review

Overall, we thoroughly enjoyed our dinner at Jiko Disney World and would definitely return for a special occasion. I would also highly recommend it to anyone visiting Walt Disney World and wanting something better than your standard theme park fare, especially those staying at Animal Kingdom Lodge.

However, is Jiko for everyone? No, probably not. The Jiko experience is built to give guests flavors they may not experience anywhere else, and if you aren’t an adventurous or non-picky eater, the options are very limited. Yes, there is a basic filet or New York strip on the menu, but that’s really it for pickier eaters. Even so, the flavor combinations and cooking techniques are in a league of their own.

One thing I appreciated about Jiko is the separation of the adult and kids’ menus. Having classic kids’ options like pizza and mac and cheese (and for a reasonable price, considering it’s a signature restaurant) gives adults the opportunity to expand their dining options without having to worry about their kids going hungry because there was nothing they liked on the menu.

Eat at Jiko – The Cooking Place if…

• You are staying at Animal Kingdom Lodge
• You are an adventurous eater
• You want a signature restaurant that kids will also enjoy

Skip Jiko – The Cooking Place if…

• You are a picky eater
• You are dining on a budget
• You don’t want to have to travel far for a dining reservation

Comments

Have you ever dined at Jiko Disney World? Let us know in the comments if you’d make the trip to Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge to try out this signature restaurant!