Sanaa Lounge

This is our first day of our 2022 Disney World trip and what a rush this day was. Our flight from NYC was delayed by 3 hours, and it was inevitable that we were going to miss our original booking for Sanaa. Fortunately when we arrived very late, the restaurant accommodated us into the lounge. We had reservations much later in the evening for Jiko, so we didn’t want to get too full. Sanaa is located in the Kidani village which is further down the road as you enter the Animal Kingdom Lodge area. There is a convenient shuttle that goes back and forth between the Kidani Village villas and the main Animal Kingdom Lodge.

Ambiance

The decor of everything in the Animal Kingdom Lodge looks pretty similar in that it has very distinct African themes. The lounge here was tucked away to the left as you are about to walk into the main Sanaa dining area. The lounge area is quite small, but the service was quite fast.

Food

The Magical Star Cocktail (left - $15) came with x-fusion organic mango and passion fruit liqueur, Parrot Bay coconut rum, pineapple juice, and a souvenir multicolored glow cube. The mix of this was not my favorite, but my partner did enjoy it partly due to their thirst.

The grapefruit spritzer (right - non alcoholic $5.49) came with ruby red grapefruit and lime juices topped with soda water. The mix of this was refreshing but definitely had some clashing going on. The ruby red grapefruit juice didn’t quite blend with the lime juice as well as I thought it would.

The Indian style bread service came with 5 breads: traditional naan, garlic ginger naan, spiced naan, onion kulcha, and paneer paratha. These were all very delightful. Our least favorite was the one that had the least puff but was texturally the most different from the rest. It was the one that resembled a Chinese onion pancake. The rest were very fluffy and puffy and were great vessels for the sauces.

The Indian style bread service also came with nine sauces (starting clockwise top left): red chile, spicy jalapeño-lime pickle, coriander chutney, garlic pickle, roasted red pepper hummus, tomato-date jam, tamarind chutney, mango chutney, and cucumber raita. They served the sauces in order of heat and spiciness counter-clockwise starting from the bottom row left (cucumber raita).

The top row (going left to right):

• “red sauce” (guessing red chile) - had instant heat to it, but it didn’t linger. It had strong peppery flavors to it, but it was definitely more tame than other Indian restaurants I’ve been to in NYC.
• spicy jalapeño-lime pickle - had a nice zing to it if you’re into pickled flavors. It reminded me of the pickled banchans served in Korean BBQ.
• coriander chutney - is probably similar to a finely ground but less wet “salsa verde”. It had strong hints of coriander, and heat level was very moderate.
• garlic pickle - was pretty delicious with those whole chunks of garlic. The garlic wasn’t as raw as I thought it would be and paired well with some of those typical Indian flavors. This had even less heat than the coriander chutney.

The bottom row (going left to right):

• cucumber raita - was very similar to Greek tzatziki.
• mango chutney - bits and pieces of mango, so it’s not really my thing. The mangos were of course sweet and juicy.
• tamarind chutney - was more “wet” than the other chutneys and had a subtle vinegary taste to it. Was not my favorite, but pretty decent.
• tomato-date jam - this was also sweet as well, so I didn’t care too much for it.
• roasted red pepper hummus - not the best hummus in the world, but pretty decent.

Final Verdict

We came here specifically for the bread service, and it really did not disappoint. I wouldn’t go out of your way for this if you have access to a wide variety of Indian restaurants, but if convenient, this is definitely a must get if you’re looking for something pretty cool and tasty.

Yelp Jabs

We got the bread service, a ‘must do’ by everyone who goes here apparently, and was highly disappointed. Generic tiny cups of sauces for some sub-par Naan bread. The food itself was good, but, again, sub par Indian food

This Yelper lives in New Jersey which has a very prominent Indian community. I think most that visit these Disney World restaurants do not have these conveniences, so I would definitely take this Yelper’s review with a grain of salt. The bread service is pretty delicious for what it is. Also, it’s called an appetizer for a reason.

The restaurant says it’s African. Except, it’s almost entirely Indian food… A lot of the dips tasted exactly the same… It was also reeeaaaally sweet.

The restaurant actually says it’s African Indian. The funny thing is Africans love Indian food, so their food is a slight derivative of Indian cooking with less bold flavors. This Yelper probably has no taste buds, except maybe a generic sweet tooth, especially if they thought many of the dips tasted the same.