Yak and Yeti Restaurant is a Walt Disney World table service restaurant located in the Asia section of Disney’s Animal Kingdom and we’ve been asked by many listeners for a Yak and Yeti review… so we did just that. Yak and Yeti offers a variety of American/Asian/Chinese Seafood inspired food, is 1 table service credit on the Disney Dining Plan, and is moderately priced from $15.00 to $34.99 per adult. Lunch is offered from 11:00AM to 3:55PM, then it switches over to dinner from 4:00PM to 9:00PM. Reservations are recommended.
I have to say, I was excited when not only were we going to be at Disney’s Animal Kingdom but when we decided to book a reservation and write a Yak and Yeti review. It came highly recommended, and, as we have been to the bar here before, we’ve had a small taste of what they have to offer but we obviously wanted to check out more.
The theming of Yak and Yeti restaurant is one of the best that Disney parks has to offer as it’s styled like a quaint little village home at the base of Expedition Everest that has been transformed into a restaurant. It is decorated with a collection of Southeast Asian artifacts and serves an eclectic array of food options. This of course, is not to be confused with the Yak & Yeti Local Food Cafe, which is located adjacent to Yak & Yeti Restaurant and is a quick service location that offers food for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks.
Our Yak and Yeti Restaurant Review
We decided to have our Yak and Yeti review during on our Walt Disney World trip and was looking forward to trying it on our Animal Kingdom day. We got a lunch reservation for around 1:00PM on a Friday. We made it to our reservation at like 12:59PM, and there were a lot of people already inside waiting. I could see people coming up who didn’t have a reservation and they were being told it would be about an hour wait for a table. Hearing that, we were expecting a delay of 15 to 20 minutes.
So, I decided to walk over to the bar to get a couple of drinks. The bar itself was very small with maybe six to eight seats, and offered both food along with drinks. We got a glass of wine and a 22 oz beer for like $9.00 or $10.00, which is probably one of the best priced beers on property. The bartender was friendly and I was served rather quickly.
Atmosphere
The decor of Yak and Yeti is one of the Disney parks best as it really did feel like it was somebody’s house where they just had a bunch of cool Southeast Asian artifacts – like if a museum and somebody’s house in Asia had a baby. Just very cool and interesting stuff to look at, and it made the time go very quickly. When our table was ready, they came to get us and I realized I had forgotten to request a table upstairs, which is what several people had told us to do.
But it didn’t really matter because we ended up getting seated up there anyway. We were actually asked if we wanted to take the stairs or the elevator – we took the stairs. The downstairs area was pretty busy, but upstairs it was much more secluded and quiet, and the tables were a little more spread out. It took a while for our waitress to come to our table, but we weren’t in a hurry so it didn’t really matter. The atmosphere was very relaxing and enjoyable.
Menu
You want to hear about the food now, right? It’s probably one of the most extensive menus I’ve seen at Animal Kingdom and even Walt Disney World as a whole. There’s a ton of options, plus there’s also a kids menu.
Small Plates
The small plates on the menu include the usual like pork pot stickers, pork egg rolls, and firecracker shrimp. When we sat at the bar one visit, we got the wok-fried green beans for $10.79. They’re battered green beans with a sweet Thai chili dipping sauce and it was excellent! Very lightly fried tempura batter on the green beans and a nice big plateful – I would highly recommend that dish for sure as it’s one of the best Disney World small plate options.
Shareables (dishes meant for two people)
The shareables here include Ahi Tuna Nachos, Korean Fried Chicken, a Dim Sum Basket, and Lettuce Cups. We ended up ordering the nachos, which when I told people on social media that we were going to Yak & Yeti and what do you recommend, about 95 percent of the people who commented highly recommended this dish. For $17.79 you get Sushi grade Ahi, Asian slaw, crispy fried wontons, wasabi aioli, and a sweet soy glaze. The tuna tasted like they had just caught it that morning, it was so fresh and good. The size of this dish was roughly the size of a baby – it was big.
We could have split this and been satisfied with our meal. I’m not saying we would have walked out of there saying “Oh my, I’m so full, I’m never going to eat again!” But definitely satisfied. Also, this is a cold nacho dish, and since this is Ahi tuna – it’s not even seared, it’s just straight up cubed, raw tuna with nice crispy fried wontons on top.
The wasabi aioli had a nice kick to it – a little spicy but not bad, and it was so perfectly balanced with the Asian slaw and the sweet soy – it was just perfect. And we knew we were going to split an entree, so we didn’t want to fill up on the nachos. We ended up cleaning the plate. Honestly, I think $17.79 is a steal and I cannot recommend these nachos enough.
Soup & Salad
Soups and salads include a wonton soup, a house salad, an Asian wedge salad which you can also add cilantro-lime grilled chicken or cilantro-lime seared shrimp to, and a seared tuna salad.
Noodles & Bowls
They have Lo Mein, which you can either have plain, or you can add chicken, shrimp, vegetables or a combination. They have a pork belly Ramen, which I want to try next time we go there because, well, pork belly is awesome. On the last bar visit we had, we ordered the lobster garlic noodles for $31.99. It’s lobster, shrimp, scallops, baby spinach, red peppers, and shiitake mushrooms tossed in a zesty garlic stir-fry sauce. It’s expensive, but it is also huge and it was a fabulous, amazing dish. Even at $32.00 I would still highly recommend this, and it is shareable as well.
If you want to make a meal without having a full entree, between the tuna nachos for $17.79 and the lobster garlic noodles for $31.99, that’s about $50.00 plus tax and tip. So for two people you’re probably looking at $30 per person for a lot of food, and really, really good food at that. That is not a bad price at all, especially for Walt Disney World food.
Specialties
Yak & Yeti offers Miso salmon, Bhaktapur duck, coconut shrimp, Asian seared tuna, and what we ended up getting, chicken Tikka Masala for $24.99. It’s boneless chicken breast marinated in yogurt and freshly ground herbs cooked in a traditional Masala sauce, with Jasmine rice and garlic Naan bread. This is an Indian dish and at first didn’t really like it, but once you got through the first bite or two, we really ended up liking it. I love food that is served with bread that you are supposed to use to sop up the sauce and the flavors.
The chicken Tikka Masals consists of a bunch of very thin, grilled Naan bread, with , nice big chucks of very tender chicken that has just the right amount of spice. It was well balanced with the fact that was marinated in a perfect combination of yogurt and herbs. The Jasmine rice was in balance with this well rounded offering. And what I love to do is take a triangle piece of the Naan bread, scoop up the chicken and sauce and eat it with your hands.
If you like Indian food, I would recommend this. I don’t think I would get this again the next time we go simply because there are so many other amazing sounding dishes on this menu I want to try everything. What we did have was very good, all the flavors were great.
If someone were to say “I love chicken Tikka Masala!” then I would tell them to go to Yak & Yeti. If someone told me they were going to Yak & Yeti and what should I get, I would tell them to get the lobster garlic noodles, hands down.
Wok
The Wok section of the menu has honey chicken, sweet and sour chicken, and Korean beef. Then there’s a Grilled section which includes Korean BBQ ribs (which I would also love to try next time), a Kobe beef burger, a Chef’s fresh catch of the day, a teriyaki chicken, and a soy herb glazed rib eye, which also sounds really, really good. The sweet and sour chicken is a solid choice here that most people will enjoy and is a great value when it comes to Disney World food.
Sides
Yak & Yeti also has a wide array sides that you can purchase in addition to what is included with your meal. They have options like house fried rice, chicken fried rice, steamed Jasmine or brown rice, sauteed baby bok choy, garlic noodles, and coconut shrimp. Their fried rice is incredible. They serve a smaller portion at the Yak & Yeti Local Food Café, which is a great walk around snack. But that’s another article.
Kids Menu
No Walt Disney World food review would be complete without talking about the kid’s menu. The Kids Entrees included cheeseburger, stir-fry noodles, chicken fried rice, mini corn dogs, grilled chicken breast, mac & cheese, teriyaki chicken breast, and chicken tenders. Sides included carrot sticks, applesauce, fresh fruit, corn, Go-Gurt®, steamed veggies, white rice or brown rice. the kids got the teriyaki chicken for $9.79, and it comes with two sides and either milk or apple juice.
The kids received two pretty good sized chicken medallions, they both ordered white rice, and more white rice. So, for $9.79, it was actually a good size kids portion, and you get two sides with it, so not a bad value. They did not get dessert, but the kids’ desserts included chocolate pudding or a chocolate chip ice cream sandwich.
Dessert
So what’s the best part of doing a Yak and Yeti review? Trying the dessert! They’ve got fried wontons, New York cheesecake, mango sorbet, chocolate pudding cake, mango pie, and pineapple upside down cake. What we got was the fried wontons, which are skewers of fresh pineapple and cream cheese wontons, with vanilla ice cream and a honey-vanilla drizzle for $10.99. The cream cheese wontons were sweet and they were so good. The pineapple was warm and the ice cream was vanilla bean, which is so much better than regular vanilla ice cream. I just loved this dessert – I thought it was outstanding.
Overall Thoughts
To sum up our Yak and Yeti review, we love this place! We thought the food and atmosphere were fantastic, and the kids really enjoyed it. This is the kind of place where I would try every last item on this menu. Disney’s Animal Kingdom does not offer many table service restaurants, but the ones they do have, hit the mark, including Yak & Yeti. I now know why this restaurant comes highly recommended, it was fantastic. We really look forward to visiting again and trying out different menu items.
If you liked this Animal Kingdom Yak and Yeti review, and want to hear about more Walt Disney World food, check out some of our other articles like our Be Our Guest Breakfast Review.
