Harambe Market is the large, outdoor quick service restaurant located in Africa at Animal Kingdom Theme Park. Menu changes aren’t a very common occurrence here, but there’s a continuous effort to appeal to the theme park masses. Harambe Market is overcrowded more often than not, but it is usually worth the battle for seating. While Satuli Canteen has become the preeminent counter service location for the park, one would be silly to rule out a visit to this outdoor market. You can see the full menu here.

Beef and Lamb Gyro – Thin-sliced Gyro Meats served open-faced on Naan topped with Cucumber and Tomato Salad and Tzatziki Sauce and served with Black-eyed Pea Salad – $10.99

This defies all expectations one might have of a gyro ordered in a theme park environment. Sometimes these dishes can be so overloaded with lettuce that you feel like you are just eating a salad, but this had just the right amount of toppings on flavorful beef and lamb. The dish was revised with different bread from the previous incarnation, a vast improvement. The naan was soft and fluffy, and held everything together quite well.

I would return to Harambe Market and have this again, it was that good.

Safari Cake – Coconut Cake with Pineapple-coconut Mousse and coated in Chocolate – $4.99

I love coconut in chocolate desserts. Mounds and Almond Joy are probably my favorite candy bars, so I was quite excited to try this. It consists of a cake topped with the mousse, then covered in a chocolate sauce.

This was very good, but I think it could have been better. I wasn’t a fan of the pineapple flavoring, which I felt detracted from what could be a really amazing dessert. Perhaps it has been made a little overcomplicated, trying to combine too many flavors. It’s still enjoyable, but I think I would rather have the Warm Malva Spice Cake that this replaced. That being said, this cold dessert is probably a better option for guests eating outside during the warmer months.

Topher Wallace