prority seating for jiko?

[timbo59]

Hi there,
I've booked my family in for a few nights at Wild Kingdom lodge during early January and have set aside the first night for a special evening with my wife. The plan is to have an early dinner at Jiko around 6:00, then wonder over to Pleasure island for the rest of the evening.

Question is, does Jiko require reservations for that time of year and at such a relatively early part of the evening? It is low season after all, but I just want to be sure we do get a table, so if I have to pony up the ten dollars for priority seating I'll do it. I'd just hate to get there and find the restaurant half empty for the trouble!

Odd the little things you don't know. We've lived in Orlando for years and know the parks backwards via the obligatory annual passes we get each year. But being locals of course we've never had much to do with the resort side of things.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Tim

 

[tjmw2727]

I would just call and make the reservation - since you said you want it to be special why take a chance that it's booked or you will have a wait?

I haven't heard of a charge for a Jiko ADR but IMHO it would be worth a $10 deposit anyway. Unless its something new at Jiko as only a select few restaurants that require a CC'd deposit.

TJ

 

[Sandi]

Jiko is popular with locals as well as resort guests. So, I'm not sure that it being a slower time of the year gives you as much flexibility as you might think. We dined at Jiko in August (admittedly a busy time) and I made our ADR at the 180 day mark and was glad we did. I don't recall there being a credit card guaranty at Jiko as there is at California Grill and some other places.

It was wonderful. Make your reservation so you know you're set. Enjoy!

 

[tinkandpan]

I would make the ADR too. 6 might be early in your book, but there will be plenty of families clamoring for those early tables even in the softer seasons. There is no 10 dollar fee as far as I know for that ressie nor is there a credit card guaratee

 

[disnut8]

There's no fee for the reservation. If you want a special time with your wife, make the reservation. One less thing to worry about. The other poster wo said 6:00 is not that early is right. That's late for my in-laws. That's late for families who need to bathe their kids before putting them to bed. What's the worst thing that will happen? You go into the restaurant and some tables are empty. Much, much better than to be given a beeper and told it's an hour wait.

PS - Jiko is right next to Boma so you really don't want to have to wait for your seating time. It's kind of noisy. Jiko is quiet, though.

 

[pooh6890]

We were at AKL in November. It was a Sunday night and we called Jiko downstairs around 7:30 to see if we could come in at 8:00 for dinner. They told me they were totally booked. We decided to walk down anyway around 8:00. They were booked except in the lounge. We ate dinner there and it was wonderful. If you can't get a reservation for some reason, they do serve dinner in the lounge where people are waiting. We all had the filet/mac and cheese with red wine reduction.......very yummy!