Saturday, October 11, 2014

Yak & Yeti Restaurant - Animal Kingdom

Today, we had lunch at Yak & Yeti Restaurant at Disney's Animal Kingdom.  This was not our first time dining at Yak & Yeti, but it had been a couple of years, so I was excited to try it again.


Yak & Yeti is a Landry's restaurant, just like Rainforest Cafe, T-Rex and Bubba Gump.  


Yak & Yeti serves Pan-Asian cuisine, in a Nepalese-style restaurant, that is full of original artifacts, according to our server Autumn.  


I loved the little green room we got to sit in upstairs.  It was light and bright compared to other parts of the restaurant, and we had a nice view of the Animal Kingdom.


When I informed our server that I had celiac, she said she would get a chef for me to speak to.  I don't remember there being a lot of gluten free options the last time we dined at Yak & Yeti, but that was definitely not the case today.  Chef Gonzalo had plenty of gluten free appetizers, entrees, and desserts for me to chose from.  


I ended up ordering a new dish on the menu, the chicken tikka masala.  I love Evol's chicken tikka masala, so I was excited to try this dish in a restaurant for the first time.  The ladies at the table next to us were super impressed with the presentation of my meal, and so was I.  


Portion-wise, my meal was huge!  The tikka masala was super flavorful, slightly sweet, with a nice spicy kick.  The dish is usually served with jasmine rice and naan, but Chef Gonzalo gave me the option of having a side of vegetables or more rice instead of the naan.  I am glad I chose the vegetables, because they were perfectly cooked, and sauteed in a wonderfully tasty sauce.  


My daughters ordered the lettuce cups for two with minced chicken breast, chopped vegetables, Saigon Hoison sauce, and crisp lettuce cups.  This appetizer, along with the ahi tuna, can be made gluten free.  Chef Gonzalo told me that the following dishes were naturally gluten free or could be modified to make them gluten free: Lo Mein Noodles (sub rice for the noodles), seared miso salmon, Malaysian seafood curry, sweet & sour chicken (not fried), maple tamarind chicken, and the Kobe beef burger with a gluten free bun.  For dessert, I could choose from a sorbet trio, flourless chocolate cake, or gluten free cheesecake.  My father-in-law had the sweet & sour chicken with grilled chicken, and said it was really good.  


When Chef Gonzalo told me that the gluten free dessert options were the same desserts served at Rainforest Cafe, my daughters were really excited, because they loved the flourless chocolate cake we got to sample there on our last visit.  My girls ended up splitting an order of the flourless chocolate cake with raspberry sauce, and loved every bite.  According to my twins, it was better than the gluten-filled chocolate cake ordered by my husband and Nina, our international student.  


I ordered the gluten free cheesecake with raspberry and mango sauce, served with fresh mango and strawberries.  I love the oat crust on the cheesecake, and the sauces and fresh fruit are the perfect accompaniment to this dessert.  My husband and father-in-law both enjoyed it as well.


After dining at Yak & Yeti, we headed over to one of my favorite attractions at Disney World, Expedition Everest, where I proceeded to take some selfies while we waited for the ride to reopen. 


Everybody enjoyed their meals at Yak & Yeti, and my husband and Nina were already talking about dining there again, before we even left the restaurant.  My only complaint is that I thought it was a little price, mainly because we couldn't use our Tables in Wonderland discount, and our annual pass could only be used to get a 10% discount on up to three entrees.  Our desserts and appetizers were not discounted at all.

The service and food were great.  Our server Autumn and Chef Gonzalo were super patient with all of my questions, and Chef Gonzalo even hand-delivered my food to the table.

You can view Yak & Yeti's menu, and make advance dining reservations on Disney's website here.

What are your favorite gluten free dishes at Yak & Yeti?







2 comments:

  1. Thank you for your posts! I just made a reservation at Yak and Yeti and can't wait to try it. I always get extremely stressed about traveling and your posts have made me feel like I don't need to stress about options at Disney because they will be able to accommodate me. Thanks for what you do!

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