Join us as we review the food at Pride Lands: Feast of the Lion King. This Lion King-themed dining experience exclusive to the Disney Destiny features African savanna-inspired details from the food and décor to the live musical performances.
Pride Lands: Feast of the Lion King
Take your place in the circle of life when you dine at Pride Lands: Feast of The Lion King. This first-of-its-kind musical dining experience celebrates Simba’s courageous journey to fulfill his destiny as King of the Pride Lands. While relishing deliciously themed cuisine, enjoy a musical retelling of The Lion King by a pride of singers and musicians as they perform the iconic songs from the Disney animated movie that defined a generation.
WDWNT’s Tom and Eric guide us through the entire menu at this dining experience. At the very end of this review, you can watch our YouTube video with more thoughts.
Bread Service
The meal starts off with a bread service. The Mosbolletjies Bread is paired with a Mint-Coriander-Cumin Yogurt Dip. We though the bread was very soft, nice, and buttery. The dip reminded Tom of Sanaa at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge. It is sweet with a dill finish and has a nice kick to it.
Rating out of 7 Dead Mufasas: 6
Appetizers
Curried Apricot Chicken Sosaties
The first appetizer we tried includes Grilled Chicken Skewers, Tri-color Quinoa Pilaf, and Red Chermoula. Eric says this is not a bad start, and although he is not a Quinoa guy it is still average. Tom says it is chewy, but he loves sauce’s tomato flavor.
Rating out of 7 Dead Mufasas: 3 (Tom) and 4 (Eric)
Kiara’s Black-Eyed Pea Hummus
This is served with Matbucha, Carrot-Green Mango Atchar, and Toasted Tiger Bread. The hummus is the main star, despite the fact that it is really cold and hard. Otherwise, the appetizer is mostly flavorless. They likened it to a tiny piece of Texas Toast or a crouton because of hard the bread was. Plus, it does not complement anything else on the plate. However, the Matbucha is spicy which they appreciated.
Rating out of 7 Dead Mufasas: 2
Peri-Peri Shrimp
The next appetizer is Sauteed Chili-Garlic Shrimp, Creamy Boerenkaas Pap, Toasted Corn, and Peri-Peri Sauce. Eric did not like this; he thought it was flavorless. Tom gave a disgusted face because there was almost no flavor. Perhaps the only saving grace of this appetizer is that the shrimp did not have a fishy flavor.
Rating out of 7 Dead Mufasas: 2
Sweet Potato, Lentil, and Coconut Soup
This soup comes with Pumpernickel Croutons. It is very grainy and gritty. In our opinion, there is little seasoning and little flavor. In fact, Eric added a little pepper and salt to help boost the flavor profile
Rating out of 7 Dead Mufasas: 2
Pubaa’s Cocktail Ya Matunda (Vegan)
This “salad” has Passion Fruit, William Pear, Pineapple, Cantaloupe, Coconut, Guave, and Coriander-Chili Bears Lime Dressing. This is a nice and fresh option, and we feel it opens up palette for the rest of the meal.
Rating out of 7 Dead Mufasas: 5
Green Papaya Salad (Vegan)
The final appetizer we reviewed features Long Beans, Red Chili, Roasted Peanuts, Grape Tomatoes, and Palm Sugar-Lime Dressing. We preferred this vegan appetizer over the other because it is an actual salad. It is very savory with all the complementing flavor profiles, which we appreciated.
Rating out of 7 Dead Mufasas: 6
Entrées
Ras el Hanout Spiced Tomato-braised Lamb Shank
Moving on to entrées, the lamb shank entrée comes with Cracked Toasted Bulgur Wheat, Mint, Spinach, Summer Squash, and Pomegranate Arils. The lamb was slightly overcooked, which made it difficult to chew. Overall, the entre is serviceable but not terrible.
Rating out of 7 Dead Mufasas: 4
Cape Malay Shrimp Curry
This dish has Garam masala, Turmeric, Cumin-coconut curry sauce, Aromatic basmati rice, Cucumber sambal, and Butter roti. We thought the naan paired well with the shrimp and rice. It had a more aggressive flavor, and the spice kicked it up a notch compared to other dishes. Overall, this was one of our favorites.
Rating out of 7 Dead Mufasas: 6
Sarabi’s Roasted Beef Tenderloin Salad
Along with the Beef Tenderloin, there is Grilled Halloumi Cheese, Lemon-marinated Artichoke Hearts, Carmelized Grape Tomatoes, Spice Garbanzo Beans, Cucumber, Baby Spinach, Escarole, Oakleaf, Green Onion, Lemon-Garlic Vinaigrette. We though the steak was overcooked; it was gray and chewy. It is still edible, but we were not impressed.
Rating out of 7 Dead Mufasas: 4
Baked Mushroom and Lentil “Bobotie”
Masala Lentils, Forest Mushrooms, Souffle Topping, Fragrant Turmeric-Raisin Rice, and Roasted Red Pepper Samba is featured with this entrée.
In our opinion, this dish should serve as the baseline flavor for this restaurant as it is one of the better entrée on the menu. It has more flavor and spice than other dishes. The tomato is rich, and the soufflé is creamy. It is a pretty small portion, so you may want to order two.
Rating out of 7 Dead Mufasas: 7 (Tom) and 6 (Eric)
Vegetable Tagine (Vegan)
This vegan option includes Low Cooked Zucchini, Carrot, Garbanzo Beans, Eggplant, Potato, Olives, Dried Cherries, Fragrant Tomato Broth, Pine Nut-Pomegranate, Couscous, Roasted Lemon-Mint “Yogurt.” It started out very sweet, and then finished with a lot of kick. We thought it was a very pleasant and healthy option. The only downside is it comes in separate dishes, so it’s a little bit of effort to get it mixed together. We recommend not ordering this dish if you cannot handle some spice.
Rating out of 7 Dead Mufasas: 5 or 6
Dessert
Zebra Sundae
This Cookies ‘n Cream Ice Cream, Chocolate Wafer Cookies, Chocolate Fudge Sauce, and Whipped Cream dessert is a standard sundae, as there is nothing groundbreaking or different about it.
Rating out of 7 Dead Mufasas: 5
Warm Chocolate Malva Pudding
This dessert consists of Decadent Chocolate Pudding, Apricot Jam, Warm Buttery Cream Sauce, Vanilla Ice Cream. There is also some kind of nut wafer of some kind on top. Eric thinks it’s plain, and Tom remarks that is kind of chewy. It is essentially a chocolate cake.
Rating out of 7 Dead Mufasas: 3
Creamsicle Cheesecake
The cheesecake dessert has Vanilla Cheesecake, Orange Mousse, Orange Segment Glaze, and Chocolate Sauce. This is more delicate and softer than a regular cheesecake. It has a tart, orange creamsicle flavor profile.
Rating out of 7 Dead Mufasas: 6
Passion Fruit Layer Cake
Included is a Vanilla Butter Cake, Passion Fruit Cremieux, White Chocolate Ganache, Passion Fruit Glaze, and Strawberry Hisbiscus Sauce. The cake is a little dry, in our opinion. It is the weakest of desserts with a very tart flavor.
Rating out of 7 Dead Mufasas: 1
Milk Tart
The milk tart has Sweet Short Bread Crust, Cinnamon Spiced Custard, and Roasted Pineapple Compote. The thick and sturdy crust makes this dessert very dry. We also thought this was a very familiar dessert, but we can’t pinpoint where we have had it before. The condensed milk is the prominent flavor, but the pineapple complements the dish really well. This is a very heavy option.
Rating out of 7 Dead Mufasas: 4
Coffee Creme Dome (No Sugar Added)
This sugar-free option has Lady Fingers, Kahlua Espresso, and Mascarpone Cheese. It tastes just like we did a shot of espresso. Eric is not a fan of this dessert (and is also not a fan of Tom’s puns). Additionally, it has an after taste that does not go away.
Rating out of 7 Dead Mufasas: 2
Drinks
Hakuna Colada
The piña colada drink features Amarula, Manssas Whisky, Coconut, and Vanilla Ice Cream. This is a wonderful and fantastic drink, with the pineapple giving it an airy and sweet profile. The ice cream makes this drink creamy. In our opinion, it is the best take on a piña colada we have ever had. We only wish it came with a straw!
Rating out of 7 Dead Mufasas: 7
Laughing Hyena
The Laughing Hyena comes with Sango Agave, Lime, Agave Nectar Cassis, and Fever Tree Ginger Beer. This is essentially an African Mule. It is syrupy but not overly so, so overall, we thought this was pretty good.
Rating out of 7 Dead Mufasas: 5 (Tom) and 6 (Eric)
Can You Feel the Rum Tonight
This drink has Starr 7 Years Rum, Amarula, Lime Mango, and Cinnamon. It needs stirred before drank because the top layer is just cinnamon. Plus, this was not strong at all and tasted like POG juice with cinnamon. We think if you’re going to have a drink name like this one, you should be able to taste the alcohol.
Rating out of 7 Dead Mufasas: 4
African Sangria
Vusa, Campari, Starr Rum, Fanta, Sprite Cassis, and Bitters are the ingredients to this drink. It needs stirred as well to mix all of the components together properly. In our opinion, it tastes like Fanta and Sprite but nothing else. We could not even tell if there was alcohol in this.
Rating out of 7 Dead Mufasas: 4
Final Thoughts
The show and overall experience were fun. However, the food was a little bizarre for the theme. There were a couple of solid dishes, but both Tom and Eric expected more flavors.
They were very hard on this menu because they have both had really good theme park African cuisine at places like Sanaa and Jiko – The Cooking Place.
Watch our video review below for more thoughts:
Would you eat at Pride Lands: Feast of the Lion King? Let us know in the comments and on social media.
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