Tasty Expedition

Tiffins at Animal Kingdom wows with a fascinating theme and otherworldly takes on fish and lamb.

- Joseph Hayes

THE INCREASING (and long overdue) attention being paid to the Orlando culinary scene has put competitive pressure on the area’s theme parks to up their restaurant game. Visitors and locals, indoctrinated by celebrity chef television and the ever popular Epcot International Food & Wine Festival, are no longer satisfied with the odd giant turkey leg or 1950s-era buffet. They want truffles, Wagyu beef and organic greens as well as breakfast with Mickey.

So if E-ticket means epicurean for you, the new Tins restaurant at Disney’s Animal Kingdom will be an exciting and welcome ride.

The Tiffins backstory (and this one is genuine) tells of the world travels of legendary Disney Imagineer Joe Rohde, lead designer of Animal Kingdom and the much missed Adventurers Club at the equally lamented Pleasure Island. His discoveries flung him from Nepal to South America, and influences from those treks inform the space as well as the menu.