Sanaa opened yesterday...

[amsafko]

To those who've been there...is there a good chance of actually seeing animals while there and do they take requests to be seated by the windows. We have 3 little ones that would love it. Thanks.

 

[BriarRosie]

I know from my experience staying at AKL, I didn't see animals out during the middle of the day. I usually saw animals only in the morning or evening. Most people are at the parks during the day, so they don't usually have a lot of animals out on the savannahs. Or perhaps my savannah was being rotated out at the time I noticed no animals.

Perhaps with the restaurant being open for all meals, they might keep animals in rotation at that savannah near the restaurant. I'd be curious to find out if that's the case.

 

[Lil_Me]

I ate here on Saturday and absolutely loved it! I've got lots of photos including animal shots so once I've uploaded them I'll add them into here.

 

[perla75]

I ate here on Saturday and absolutely loved it! I've got lots of photos including animal shots so once I've uploaded them I'll add them into here.

Yes, please!I'm excited to see these!!

 

[peggyjean123]

Hi Lil I would love to see pictures, I am so excited to try out this restaurant in June. was it easy to get to? we will be in animal kingdom the day we eat there, any suggestions about the best way to get there?

 

[Lil_Me]

Right here we go!

We found the restaurant quite easily, just head to the back of the lobby and down the stairs. You're greeted by this -

We had a 5:15 ressie and requested a window seat which was listened to. We sat down about 5 mins after we arrived. The restaurant is in a circle type layout with the focal point being the windows at one end, which are shaped as per the photo below

A word of advice is that the tables next to the windows seat 4, and bigger groups get booths some of which look out the windows but past the other tables.

I'll do the food pics first followed by the animals

We had the bread starter, top to bottom - Naan, Paneer Paratha and Roti.

The Naan was lovely, the Paneer Paratha tasted a little like a wrap so wasn't a real "wow" bread and we found the Roti to be very very oily and we actually left a lot of it. I don't like dips, but Rob had the mint and onion raita, cucumber raita and the mago-lime pickle. He said the raitas were nice, and the pickle had a little more of a kick to it, but was pleasant.

Next was the main. We both decided on the slow-cooked in gravy dish. It isn't very clear on the All-ears menu but you get to choose 2 of the dishes and one rice. We both had the beef short ribs and the basmati rice and I chose the chicken and Rob had the shrimp.

Really nicely presented and it tasted fantastic! Spicy, but the good spicy. The beef is amazing, not hot at all just really tasty. The chicken was a little more hot spicy like a red curry, the shrimp was a slightly spicier green thai curry.

Rob had the sampler desert -

Which he shared with me. The chocolate cake was nice, and the no sugar added mango pudding was light and a bit like a mousse. The cardemom-butter cake is a little odd, spongy and nice. I just had a little bowl of ice-cream.

Our server was very knowledgeable about the entire menu, even down to the intricacies of how they cook the beef short ribs including spices they use. It's obvious that they have all tried the full menu which is good.

So down to the animals and I was impressed.

and heres a hidden mickey in the table for good measure

So overall the food was very nice, the service was fantastic and the view of the animals was just amazing. As a full package I would definitely recommend going here, and we'll be going back again next time we head to Disney. Our favourite dinner out of the whole 2 weeks and we certainly ate well during that time!

 

[Lil_Me]

Hi Lil I would love to see pictures, I am so excited to try out this restaurant in June. was it easy to get to? we will be in animal kingdom the day we eat there, any suggestions about the best way to get there?

Hi Peggy, from the Animal Kingdom get the bus to the Animal Kingdom Lodge. It's a 5 minute drive and stops at Kidani Village first before going to Jambo House. This confused A LOT of people who jumped off the bus at Kidani then got back on once they realised they were in the wrong place.

Enjoy it

 

[floridascgirl]

Thanks for the thorough review. We are considering making reservations for our upcoming stay at AKL in December. My DH is a huge fan of Indian cooking, so he is definitely intrigued. We both loved our first visit to Boma in February. We were originally planning on returning to Boma or maybe trying Jiko, but now I think we are leaning to Sanaa. The only possible snafu is that our DH11 is not the most adventurous eater. Boma worked great b/c there was such a variety and he was able to find items that he liked. I'm not so sure about Sanaa and unfortunately he is too old to order off the childrens' menu. I would hate to pay that much $ for nice food and have it go to waste. :

 

[PatriciaH]

We went on 5/1 with friends and loved it! One of my new favorites and all of the art in the new DVC resort is beautiful. We had the breads and the choose two ribs/shrimp with Basmati rice. Awesome. Looks small at first but very filling. No dessert-too stuffed. Giraffes, zebras and Ankole were out. The wine list is great and DH and I had the red wine (pared with the ribs) flight. The Tusker beer is also good.

 

[mef78]

Someone sent me this link to more photos:

http://www.stitchkingdom.com/2009/05/03/sanaa-review-and-photo-tour/

This is such a well-done review. I was going to post the link, but I'm glad you beat me to it!

I'm so excited to try Sanaa over Memorial day!

 

[Vivianne]

We dined on 5/2 Saturday. Originally, we had a 7:50 reservation but called on the same day and got 5:15. They have restaurant opening entertainment (singing and drum playing) by the servers.

We had a great view of the animals and thoroughly enjoyed our meal. The beef was excellent and we ordered a bottle of Chakalaka (South African Wine) which we enjoyed. We'll definitely go again on our next trip.