Flying Fish, Jiko & More Restaurants Reopening at Disney World!
Walt Disney World has announced the reopening of three restaurants in January and February 2022, plus the return of a popular meal services at two others! This post covers opening dates, Advance Dining Reservation timeframes, plus what else we can expect from WDW dining for the next few months.
Before we get started, let’s offer a brief recap of Walt Disney World’s restaurant reopening progress. Restaurants have continued to scale up operations, as Disney has turned a corner on its staffing shortage for most dining locations. This was thanks to the return of the College Program and a hiring blitz, which brought in a lot of fresh faces and allowed for Walt Disney World to increase capacity at those restaurants.
The vast majority have returned, to the point that the number of locations that are unavailable is fairly insignificant in the grand scheme of Walt Disney World. At this point, it’s mostly Signature Restaurants and character dining experiences that haven’t returned, and today brings good news about the former…
The bad news is that there are still a lot of unfilled key positions. Walt Disney World continues to hold job fairs, and is offering hiring bonuses and higher pay for certain roles. Of particular relevance, Walt Disney World has had ongoing and significant shortages for a number of culinary positions, including cooks, dishwashers, and more.
In an attempt to attract more employees, Walt Disney World has been offering hiring bonuses for those openings. The bonuses started small, and have incrementally increased. About a month ago, some of those hiring bonuses doubled to $3,000.
There are also a few positions offering $6,000 hiring bonuses in the form of an additional $3,000 lump sum payment for eligible new hires residing 50 miles or more outside the Walt Disney World Resort area. All of this suggests that Walt Disney World isn’t having success, and is still short-staffed for a number of key positions.
Our first hand experience in continuing to see a good chunk of tables go unfilled reinforces the reality that restaurants aren’t firing on all cylinders. Even at incredibly popular restaurants that just reopened–like Story Book Dining at Artist Point–we noticed a good portion of tables going empty. In short, dining capacity has improved thanks to the dropping of physical distancing and hiring initiatives, but still pretty far from 100%.
During Disney’s fourth quarter earnings call, the company’s CFO Christine McCarthy corroborated this. She noted that Walt Disney World and Disneyland are still operating under “capacity constraints,” which are only due to staffing at this point. This has been a regular topic here, and we’ve seen the same thing play out with “sold out” hotels due to the same woes.
Suffice to say, staffing continues to be an issue–and why this is only Walt Disney World’s second major dining update since before the World’s Most Magical Celebration kicked off, following the return of Storybook Dining at Artist Point and Boatwright’s Dining Hall in mid-December.
That explains why Advance Dining Reservation availability has been so limited, and the slow pace of scaling up the remaining locations that are still shuttered. It’s also why the Disney Dining Plan still isn’t back, and although we don’t have any direct updates on the return of the DDP, both today’s news and the recent price increases on hundreds of food items bode well for the Disney Dining Plan’s prospects.
We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves with any predictions on the Disney Dining Plan front as we’ve been overly optimistic (and wrong) several times already with that. (In our defense, Walt Disney World stated it would return “soon” last summer.) Nevertheless, we’re feeling much better about the status of the Disney Dining Plan than we were even a week ago.
On that note, let’s turn to the latest Walt Disney World restaurant reopening news for early 2022…
Flying Fish at Disney’s BoardWalk Inn will be the next Signature Restaurant to return at Walt Disney World when it reopens on January 27, 2022. Enjoy a taste of luxury with unrivaled flavors, sustainable seafood, and steak offerings.
Flying Fish is advertising a range a entrees that promise to deliver. The Seafood Pearl Pasta consists of all your favorites — shrimp, lobster, scallops, clams, and mussels. For another option from the sea, consider the Plancha-seared Scallops accompanied with savory grits, sweet corn, and Peppadew emulsion. How delicious!
After indulging in your dinner, there’s no better way to conclude a trip to Flying Fish than with a sweet finish. If you love chocolate, the Cocoa Breach accompanied with delicious vanilla custard is the treat for you.
Following that, an unheralded gem will return to Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa when The Turf Club Bar and Grill reopens on February 3, 2022. Start your evening at this special spot with a reputation for delicious American flavors in every dish on a high note right out of the gate with the New York Cider-braised Mussels appetizer flavored with garlic, chorizo, fennel, Fresno chili, and apple cider topped with a grilled baguette.
As you move on to the next course, the Grilled Pork Chop or Braised Lamb Tagliatelle both have a place in the winner’s circle of flavor. And don’t forget to top off your meal with one of the delightful desserts, like the New York Cheesecake.
Next up, Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge will reopen Jiko – The Cooking Place on February 17, 2022. Savor the tastes and flavors of African, Indian, and Mediterranean cuisine at this beloved Signature Restaurant.
Jiko promises a range of favorites, including the Seafood Tagine. Filled with prawns, scallops, squid, and Littleneck clams, this dish is a shellfish lover’s dream.
For a sweet finish, the returning Kilimanjaro dessert is not just gorgeous, but delicious too. It’s filled with decadent dark chocolate mousse, pistachio financier, pink peppercorn meringue, cacao nib crunch, and ras el hanout pineapples.
There’s more news to share about two other locations that have already reopened at Disney’s Yacht & Beach Club Resorts. Beginning next month, Cape May Café and Ale & Compass Restaurant will be bringing back some of their beloved offerings.
Over at Cape May Café, embrace the New England vibes as you once again feast upon an all-you-care-to-enjoy, buffet breakfast with tasty items like pull-apart bread with vanilla sauce, beef hash, and an omelet station beginning February 15, 2022.
At dinner time, the buffets keep coming with options like cornbread, seasonal harvest salad, seafood boil, and a daily carving station, just to name a few. You can also choose to upgrade your meal with snow crab legs or even a whole lobster, both purchased by the pound.
While we enjoyed the modified family style meal at Cape May Cafe more than the buffet, we realize that’s an unpopular opinion among Walt Disney World fans. As such, we’re pleased to hear this news, and look forward to giving the buffet another chance. Here’s hoping the beloved Oreo Bon Bons remain on the menu!
Next door at Disney’s Yacht Club Resort, the Ale & Compass Restaurant is back with some returning breakfast options and exciting, new lunch offerings beginning on January 31, 2022.
At Ale & Compass Restaurant, you’ll be able to enhance your breakfast with a buffet filled with dazzling additions to your entrée, including pastries, fresh fruit, yogurt parfaits, overnight oats, and house-made cheddar biscuits with country gravy.
Advance Dining Reservations will open for all of the aforementioned returning restaurants and meal services beginning bright and early on January 20, 2022.
Several readers have asked what “early” means, and we don’t have a good answer. The timing for new ADRs to be released is inconsistent. Sometimes it’s right at 6 am, sometimes it’s an hour earlier, other times it’s later. (It’s never midnight.)
With all of these restaurants dropping ADRs on the same morning, don’t be surprised if there are system issues on January 20. That happens on high-demand days, and that morning qualifies. So pack your patience and be prepared to sit at your computer or on your phone hitting refresh for an hour or two. (On the plus side, none of these ADRs should go as quickly as Storybook Dining at Artist Point–that was gone fast!)
Ultimately, this is some very good news for Signature Restaurant fans and guests staying in the Crescent Lake–or anyone willing to walk over from Epcot or Hollywood Studios…or take the Skyliner from those resorts. It’s also good news for those looking for more normalcy, the return of the Disney Dining Plan, or easier to score Advance Dining Reservations. In other words, this is good news for basically every Walt Disney World fan, it’s just a question of whether it’s directly or indirectly beneficial.
At this point, very few “valued” restaurants remain closed at Walt Disney World. Now, if we could only get reopening dates for Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue, Victoria & Albert’s, Spirit of Aloha, Takumi Tei, and Monsieur Paul–we’d be all set!
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
Excited for the reopening of Jiko – The Cooking Place, Flying Fish Restaurant, Turf Club Bar & Grill, or the returning meal services at Cape May Cafe or Ale & Compass Restaurant? What do you think of this news of restaurants reopening at Walt Disney World? Any restaurant reopening announcements that you’re still anxiously awaiting? Hoping for more ‘restored normalcy’ announcements in the near future? Does this have you optimistic or pessimistic for more dining to reopen at Walt Disney World? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
Hi hi, love these updates! It would be super helpful to include whether or not they have outdoor seating as you update. 🙂
Holly, we book dining reservations for six and show up with seven. We do it all the time. Or you can make two reservations, (one under one name, a second under another) and when you show up, ask to be seated next to each other. Chances are good that they’ll seat you at one table. I also don’t fill in the names on dining reservations. That way you can use another adult (with a credit card) for your second reservation.
If you want to do it on the up and up, call Disney Dining (407-939-3463). They may be able to help. Or maybe someone on this site has experience with this situation and they can help. Good luck.
As an avid Disney fan I am very frustrated with the advanced dining reservations. I am taking my grandkids in March for the first time for them and wanted to be magical but don’t believe it will be. There is no way you can book a reservation for seven people at this point. If you go under my Disney it won’t let you split the reservation either so the only option is to wait on hold over two hours we’re still no success. I understand the times we’re living in but to spend the money to go to Disney not get the dining experience you want or ride the rides you want, what’s the point in going. I am going to be sending a letter to Mr. Chapek about my feelings which I’m sure he won’t care about but it will make me feel better. Any suggestions? Love your blog!
I have a mother daughter trip planned for the end of March including all parks. Last year was our first trip and I fumbled through reservations. We did however manage to have dinner at the Beasts Castle. I would love suggestions for my 9 yr old daughter! Thanks!
Tom, regarding the price of sashimi. We went to Xina, an excellent restaurant in our town in NJ, on Saturday. I ordered the Sashimi Salad, which was tuna, salmon, yellow tail, white tuna on baby greens with yuzu vinegrette. It was served on a larger than normal dinner plate and had so much sashimi I couldn’t finish it. It certainly would have been enough for two people. The price was $15. It would have been double that or more at Disney.
I think Disney lost many excellent chefs during the pandemic and that’s why the food is not up to par. Insult to injury, prices have increased, portion size decreased. Guests who don’t want to cancel their trips are being held prisoners to Disney food price increases and feel they have no other choice except to pay.
Back to the sashimi – it would have cost more to buy the ingredients in my grocery store than to order it at the restaurant. The price of fish, beef and lamb is insane. Cherrystone clams were $12.99/lb. at the store. I’ve never seen them priced by the pound, only by the dozen. Most of the weight in clams is the shell. It’s crazy.
Thanks for keeping us informed Tom. Always a pleasure to read your blogs.
“Back to the sashimi — it would have cost more to buy the ingredients in my grocery store than to order it at the restaurant.”
Funny that you mention this, because I’ve noticed the same. It now costs more to shop at my favorite Japanese grocery store than order sushi or sashimi at a local family-owned restaurant–and it used to be about half the price to buy from the grocery store. They’ve also cut back on their evening sales (everything used to get marked down after 6 pm) and made other changes.
Great news to see these restaurants opening. When some restaurants reopened last year, and the menus dramatically changed or were dumbed down, I was very disappointed and vocal about it. Fast forward to date and I’ve learned to just be happy some of these fav dining spots are returning. While the gutting of the Cape May buffet dinner still really smarts – we lost more than the crab legs with the loss of all of the other grill as well as cold salad offerings – I can choose not to eat there. Right now, I’d probably prefer many of the upscale counter service meals like Satuli Canteen anyway to the new Cape May family style model. Easier on the budget. More open restaurants means more choice and that works for me. Agree this is also a positive step toward the dining plan which is a positive step toward the possibility of even limited free dining for the fall. All good. All progress.
Unfortunately, some people took terrible advantage of the crab leg offering.
Inflation or not, It is simply unrealistic for Disney to still offer them “unlimited” because a small segment of selfish pigs will abuse it.
Cape May Cafe is very content to lose the patronage of those individuals.
YAY! TURF CLUB is back! Now I don’t have to bother you complaining that it isn’t open yet. Too bad it was still closed when we went twice to Saratoga over the holidays, but hey, it’s back!
Once again, great resource for us newbies.
Still waiting for Hoop Dee Doo. My dad is 93 and it is his FAVORITE at Disney. We really want to take him soon.
Kelly, have you looked at crab prices recently? They are ridiculously high (double what they were a couple of years ago). Any restaurant offering all-you-can-eat crab right now is going to need to raise their prices to insanely high levels. This isn’t Disney being cheap.
That’s what I was going to say, but when I looked at the USDA’s CPI for food (https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-price-outlook/), it claims that prices on fish & seafood have “only” increased 8% YoY.
Personally, I find that very difficult to believe. While we don’t buy crab, all of the seafood we do purchase is about double what it was last year at this time. Sashimi prices are through the roof.
Chef Mickey needs their buffet back and the Princesses arriving in Disney World need Akershus back open.
Seems like it’s only a matter of time with Chef Mickey’s. Maybe they’re waiting to make all of the changes–buffet and normal character interactions–in one fell swoop.
Tom-any guesses on when or if they will expand ADR past 60 days?
I have no clue whatsoever. I’ll ask around on that–it wouldn’t surprise me if that’s a permanent change in response to guest feedback.
The owner is a restaurant group that also owns Chefs de France. I think something doesn’t add up.
Is Garden Grill breakfast open yet??
Not yet. It doesn’t help that Epcot isn’t open for breakfast (well, most of it) these days.
I just found out yesterday that Monsieur Paul is closed permanently. I was told eventually a new restaurant will replace but owner gave up and went back to France
I can’t find it now, but back around the time the parks reopened (maybe shortly before), one of group’s executives said they didn’t know if Chefs de France or Monsieur Paul would ever reopen. The statement was quickly retracted, but stuff like that has a way of taking on a life of its own as a “rumor.”
My guess is both Monsieur Paul and Takumi Tei won’t reopen until immigration returns to normal, and the international programs and cultural representative programs resume. I don’t think they can conceivably staff those locations without them.
EDIT: Here’s the source of the quote, which has already been scrubbed from the article: https://www.scottjosephorlando.com/news/5322-vrignon-executive-chef-at-epcot-s-france-pavilion-retiring
One of our favorites is Afternoon Tea at the Grand Floridian – not probably a high volume location – but does anyone have guess as to when that will be back?
I agree with everything you say…it’s a shame.
DDP might be back soon(ish), but I’m cringing when I think of the inevitable price increase. Given the across the board bump they just gave to pretty much every food in the park, I wonder how much a per person adjustment they’re going to do with DDP. I’m guessing it’ll be more than $5-6, which is approximately what it would take to cover the increases for 1 TS entree, 1 QS meal, and 2 snacks. I know it’s hard to come out ahead with the dining plan anyway, but there’s gotta be a point where it gets unreasonable. Will Disney try to use relief at the return of a popular offering to push to that point now?
We loved Cape May, but simply won’t go back there without the all you care to eat crab legs. Still so disappointed that they took this away and skyrocketed the price to add them in by the pound. This used to be the main reason to go there. Out of all of the recent price grabs, this is one of them that bothers me the most. Truly sad.