After our waffle fry failure we decided to give the newest option in MK a try. Skipper Canteen!
Located in Adventureland across from the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse, this new addition to MK was something we were pretty excited to try this trip. While I love the food in WDW, don't get me wrong, so many of their options are 'safe' and sometimes boring. This seemed like something different and I was pumped to see the Jungle Cruise theming within the restaurant. When we were there in March they were only accepting same day ADRs, so we figured we would have a good shot at a walk up and we were absolutely right. We were seated immediately. I quickly bonded with every single server in the place over my Parkbound button I was wearing that day with a killer Mean Girls reference. Seriously, like every server came to our table to see the button. It was awesome.
Our server Kelly was AWESOME! They hit you with some Jungle Cruise tour guide-like humor and she was on point with that. She was quick, friendly and had great suggestions with the menu. And speaking of the menu.
We started off with drinks. The Exotic Coca Cola selections caught our eye.
She recommended them and did an awesome job of describing these unique international soda offerings. She also said that if we didn't like what we got we could swap for a regular Coke product or that we could even swap from one of the exotic offerings to the other for our refills as well. Sounds like a win! I went with the Guarana Kuat from Brazil which she described as being like cream soda and she said was highly caffeinated. I needed a turbo boost, so I went with that option.
It was exactly as described and was pretty tasty!
Rob had the Fanta Melon Frosty from Thailand.
I had a sip and loved it. I switched to that drink for my refill. It was my favorite of the two. Same for Rob.
Our meal started with their bread service.
The bread was delicious. Very warm and fresh. It came with a sweet honey dipping oil. I normally love a sweet with a savory like this, but I didn't care for the dipping mixture. It was so sickeningly sweet. Rob doesn't like sweet with savory so he didn't love it either. It would have been better with some type of lightly flavored butter.
For our appetizer we split S.E.A Shu Mai, a blend of pork, shrimp, mung beans and spices wrapped in gyoza skin then steamed.
These were delicious! And super filling. I was so glad Rob agreed to split these.
For our entrees Rob went with the Rice Noodle Bowl. Pho broth served with choice of chicken, duck breast, or tofu, served with jalapenos and mix of fresh herbs. He chose the duck.
You can't tell from the picture but there was a ton of duck in there. He really enjoyed this entree quite a bit.
I went with the Trader Sam's Head-on Shrimp. Sustainable local farm raised shrimp tossed in chili-garlic sauce and served with Chinese broccoli and five-grain rice.
This was absolutely delicious! The chili-garlic sauce was slightly sweet with a hint of spice and had so much flavor. I could have eaten a whole bowl of those shrimp. I really loved the rice too. Even after I was full I couldn't stop picking at it. I wasn't crazy about the broccoli, but I wasn't complaining. Everything else about the dish was great.
Even though we were full we decided to split dessert. We easily agreed on the Kungaloosh! (The exclamation point is included in the name, so how could we not.) An African-inspired Chocolate Cake with caramelized bananas served with cashew-caramel ice cream topped with coffee dust.
Yum!!!! This was so, so, so good. We both regretted not getting our own.
I loved it here! I wish I had taken pictures of the inside of the restaurant because it was really neat. This was a total success for us and it was great to eat something so unique within the park. I hear they are making changes to the menu, which makes me sad but doesn't surprise me. We actually witnessed 3 or 4 different families come all the way in, be seated, look at the menu and leave. And made a fuss about leaving while complaining about the menu and the prices. I felt bad for the servers. This must be a common occurrence. But we definitely loved it and would return, depending on the menu changes. Hopefully they just add a burger or something to keep the masses happy, but leave the unique options on to please others like myself. We shall see.
After lunch we walked over to Tomorrowland. Buzz had a huge line, so Peoplemover it is. We needed to relax after our big meal.
Then we went back over to Fantasyland to use our final FP of the day to ride Peter Pan a second time.
The crowds were picking up big time, so we were out of the park by 1pm. 9 rides, lunch and a snack in MK within 3 hours isn't bad. We'll take it. Mark MK as a success on this day.