Walt Disney World fans can finally breathe a sigh of relief. For the last 25 days–a whopping 93% of 2026–the air has been heavy with anxiety and apprehension, as lovers of stereotypical theme park food have feared that Animal Kingdom would be without a bland and boring counter service restaurant for one full month of winter.
Just look at the comments (all 6 of them!) to our post sharing the news that Walt Disney World had set a reopening deadline for Harambe Market. You can just sense the dread looming large, as readers ask questions such as why does this website load slow? and what animals are coming to Tropical Americas? and is DINOSAUR being excavated with actual meteors?
You can all put down the pitchforks, as our long national nightmare is over. Walt Disney World has averted disaster, confirming that there will be no gap in basic food coverage between the extinction of Restaurantosaurus and reopening of Harambe Market. Here’s the latest, complete with the full new menu for the latter, new food photos, reopening date & soft reopening details, and more…
Before digging into the food, we have lore change alert!!! Here’s the old backstory for Harambe Market:
Constructed around an old colonial-era train depot and lorded over by an iconic water tower, this active marketplace showcases distinct personalities and menu—created using produce and raw goods delivered daily by the local locomotive.
Here, the citizens of Harambe welcome travelers from all around the world, encouraging Guests of every age to tantalize their senses by enjoying a Chicken and Shrimp Rice Bowl, a Chicken Caesar Salad, a Beef and Lamb Kofta Pita or a delicious Mango-Passion Fruit Cheesecake.
And the new backstory:
Bring the whole family to this open-air African plaza for classic staples—from burgers and wraps to a signature salad. Desserts, beer and soft drinks are also available.
Here, the citizens of Harambe welcome travelers from all around the world, encouraging Guests of every age to tantalize their senses by enjoying a classic Angus Burger, crispy Chicken Strips, a hearty Harissa Chicken Wrap or a refreshing salad of mixed greens, lentils, carrots and couscous.
Reading between the lines on the backstory, the only logical conclusion here is that the local locomotive was decommissioned due to low ridership (a common problem with rural train routes). Consequently, there’s no way to deliver produce and other fresh foods necessary for the old, ambitious menu.
Undiscouraged, the citizens of Harambe are keeping their marketplace open, and are making lemonade out of lemons (figuratively–nothing as exotic as lemonade on this menu) by serving the finest frozen foods. It’s really unfortunate; all of this could’ve been averted had elected officials in Harambe had the foresight to appoint a cat as stationmaster to boost tourism and improve financial viability. Perhaps in 2027?
Anyway, here’s the new menu…
Harambe Market Reopening Date
Harambe Market temporarily closed as of October 20th last year in order to allow work to update the location in order to serve new menu items. Based on construction permits filed around that time, Disney is updating kitchens and adding equipment necessary to serve standard theme park fare at Harambe Market.
With the previous calendar update, Harambe Market once again has operating hours (10:45 AM to 3:15 PM) as of March 1, 2026 and every date thereafter. That’s almost a full month after Restaurantosaurus closes. However, as we reported at the time, that March 1st date should be treated as a deadline. The intention was to reopen Harambe Market much earlier.
With the latest calendar update, Walt Disney World’s official website now indicates that Harambe Market officially reopens on February 5, 2026 with hours from 10:30 AM to 4:30 PM on that date and thereafter.
Again, you can fully expect Harambe Market to soft open by or before February 2, 2026.
The goal is to ensure the current Restaurantosaurus menu is served somewhere at Animal Kingdom and that dining capacity (or a portion of it) exists throughout construction. Basically, that there’s uninterrupted counter service ‘coverage’ and not a month-long gap. Disney is well aware that if there’s so much as single solitary day that guests are deprived of their 1/3 lb Angus Bacon Cheeseburger, the scene is going to resemble that one PTA and Daniel Day-Lewis film. And not the ‘drinking of milkshakes’ part–the ‘being blood’ part.
Meaning the current calendar is still inaccurate, and Harambe Market will soft open by February 2, 2026. It may not post hours or be fully operational, but anyone having an urgent need for the most basic food–that somehow cannot be satisfied by Pizzafari–should be covered by Harambe Market once Restaurantosaurus goes extinct.
Here are stock photos of the new food via Walt Disney World, followed by our commentary:
Our Commentary
This news is your daily reminder that the internet isn’t real life. Many online Walt Disney World fans, at least the vocal ones, outwardly express a strong aversion to the crowd-pleasing restaurants in the parks. Places like Cosmic Ray’s, Pinocchio Village Haus, Restaurantosaurus, etc.
To the extent that anyone has cared about this Harambe Market news, it’s basically been “will the old/good menu return and be served in addition to the staples imported from Restaurantosaurus?” To the extent that fans are mourning the loss of Restaurantosaurus, it’s the eclectic environment, not the food.
In reality, Restaurantosaurus is exponentially more popular (as measured by volume) than Harambe Market was. Online fans may recoil at these crowd-pleasing, high-capacity counter service restaurants, but average guests love them. Or at least, are voting with their wallets and eating at them.
As a person of the internet who lives and breathes this stuff, but still doesn’t fully comprehend why so many average guests opt for these stereotypical counter service restaurants, I find this disconnect fascinating.
To be sure, I do get it to some extent, as convenience and children are obviously big factors. But it nevertheless surprises me how objectively unpopular counter service restaurants are beloved online, whereas it’s pretty much radio silence for the big ones. (PizzeRizzo was the lone exception; the rare counter service restaurant with bad food that was beloved by fans, but also less popular with the park-going public due largely to its location.)
Are fans saying one thing, but doing/eating another? Is it just that no one wants to admit to favoring the stereotypical restaurants? I really wonder, because we normally receive no shortage of ‘unpopular opinion’ type comments. (To each their own, but I’d be more reluctant to admit I didn’t like Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, or Rise of the Resistance. Theme parks are what we’re here for, so poor taste in attractions is worse than average tastes in foods!)
I would also add that it doesn’t have to be this way! Crowd-pleasing comfort food and intriguing menus can coexist. We have the technology! Connections Eatery and Regal Eagle in EPCOT are both good examples.
While neither have as ambitious of menus as they did upon first debuting, they’re both still ‘good enough’ and can appease picky eaters and those wanting more interesting food. Pecos Bill is seemingly another good example, although I’m not positive the new (good) menu is as “popular” as the old (awful) menu.
Even Restaurantosaurus managed to thread the needle at one point, and the short-lived Restaurantosaurus Burgers & Sundaes was legitimately good. Pizzafari had something similar. It’s unfortunate that Walt Disney World has decided that guests wanting crowd-pleasing food don’t have functioning taste buds.
I don’t believe that’s true, and to the contrary, having boring and bland menus at the spots serving theme park staples is doing them a disservice. At minimum, there’s room for an interesting ‘flagship’ burger or two, unique dipping sauces, and another entree or two a bit outside the ordinary. But this is probably a topic best served separately, as opposed to buried deep in a post very few people will read.
Kusafiri’s Future
Kusafiri Coffee Shop & Bakery in Africa has been open for lunch since Harambe Market closed for refurbishment. During the closure, the bakery has been serving more substantial dishes, such as the Harambe Chicken Rice Bowl, Harissa Chicken Wrap, and plant-based Picadillo Rice Bowl.
As far out as the calendar goes, Kusafiri continues to have daily operating hours from 8:00 AM through 5:00 PM. Our hope is that this is accurate, and that the solution for the next ~2 years is an expanded menu of ambitious dishes at Kusafiri, with Harambe Market becoming the crowd-pleasing spot.
That’s the best case scenario, and probably the most likely one, at this point. Kusafiri has sneakily become one of the better dining spots in Animal Kingdom, and it retaining bona fide counter service restaurant status would be a good thing.
Longer term, this would also open the door for the new hacienda in Tropical Americas serving more adventurous cuisine. I would be shocked if the former Restaurantosaurus reverts to being boring and basic when Tropical Americas opens.
Usually, new lands and restaurants come with exciting and marketable menus. We’d expect that to hold true with the Tropical Americas hacienda, and a location that rivals Satu’li Canteen and Flame Tree BBQ as the best counter service restaurant in Animal Kingdom…and by extension, all of Walt Disney World!
Dinoland Closing Date Reminder
As noted above, Restaurantosaurus will be extinct as of February 2, 2026. But it’s not just that quick-service restaurant, it’s the entirety of Dinoland USA, or rather, what little is left of it.
Most notably, this means the land’s marquee attraction–and one of the few rides at Animal Kingdom. Walt Disney World announced last fall that the closure date for DINOSAUR is February 2, 2026. Meaning the last day to experience the attraction before extinction is February 1, 2026. (Ditto Restaurantosaurus, the gift shop and everything else.)
The other remaining wild card is the meet & greets. Walt Disney World previously revealed that the current character lineup for Donald’s Dino Bash, including Donald and Daisy Ducks as well as Chip & Dale, will be relocated to other areas of Animal Kingdom.
No official details as to locations, but it’s safe to say they won’t be part of Donald’s Dino-Bash wherever the characters land. Our best guess is that the characters will be dispersed across multiple out of the way locations. It’d be nice if they had unique costumes that fit Animal Kingdom, but we wouldn’t hold our breath on that. Stay tuned for more.
Tropical Americas Land Background
There are also multiple sub-lands or areas within Tropical Americas, which is why/how Walt Disney World is staggering the closure of the existing DinoLand USA over the course of a year-plus. It’s also why/how they might stagger the opening of Tropical Americas along a similarly lengthy timeline.
The first area of Tropical Americas is Pueblo Esperanza, the hub in heart of the rainforest. The Pueblo Esperanza community will feature a large hacienda, which will be one of the largest quick-service restaurants at Walt Disney World Resort (this is a reimagining of Restaurantosaurus).
Pueblo Esperanza will also offer a critter carousel as an attraction. This subsection of Tropical Americas will replace the Boneyard, TriceraTops Spin, Restaurantosaurus, Dino-Bite Snacks, and Trilo-Bites.
After leaving the Pueblo Esperanza, guests can venture deeper into the rainforest to find not one but two signature attractions. To the left is the Encanto magical Madrigal Casita dark ride, which is likely to be a family-friendly Omnimover–perhaps like an Encanto-ized version of Mystic Manor.
The Encanto attraction will replace all of Chester & Hester’s Dino-Rama, including all of its carnival games, that big roadside dinosaur, Chester & Hester’s Dinosaur Treasures, Donald’s Dino-Bash, and TriceraTop Spin (again–it straddles the Pueblo Esperanza and Encanto areas).
This is the area of Tropical Americas construction where walls have been up since January. We’re expecting the Encanto attraction to go vertical any day now. It’s very close!
Finally, there’s the new Indiana Jones Adventure attraction, which will replace DINOSAUR.
This reimagined ride will be a new twist on IJA that will be different from the existing versions of the attraction at Disneyland in California and Tokyo DisneySea. Both of those are quite different from one another, and this will be the third non-cloned version of the attraction. Obviously, they all bear similarities–but also all tell unique and distinct stories.
In this new adventure, Indiana Jones has discovered a perfectly preserved Maya temple, and that can only mean one thing: it’s time to explore it. He’s heard rumors about a mythical creature deep within the temple — and he’s got to see it for himself. So, he brings us along on the adventure.
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
Thoughts on all of the reopening of Harambe Market and other dining changes at Disney’s Animal Kingdom? What’s your ideal scenario with the menus here, at Kusafiri and the upcoming Tropical Americas hacienda? Do you agree or disagree with our assessments? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
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