Pizzafari is a large restaurant with several themed rooms and outdoor eating areas immediately outside some of the rooms. These themed rooms include: the Home Room, Nocturnal Room, Upside Down Room, Camouflage Room, Four Seasons Room, and the Bug Room.
The rooms are very spacious, bright and colorful with large murals on the walls consisting of fun animal theming. During the day it is a quick service restaurant open for lunch from 10:30 AM to 4:15 PM.
As of the writing of this post, Pizzafari is currently open for lunch but Pizzafari Family-Style Dining is temporarily
unavailable during the phased reopening of the Walt Disney World Resort.
The family-style dining is sort of a cross between a quick service and table service meal. When you arrive you will check in at the back of the main ordering area. Tell them your name and time (if you have a reservation – they also do allow walk-ups). You will receive a card with a table number and then you’ll proceed to the register to pay. Here they will take your drink orders and give you your appetizers: a Caesar Salad and/or a Caprese Salad. For entrees, you get a customized pizza (with choice of one of four toppings) along with any two of the following dishes: baked ziti, creamy pesto with chicken, meatballs with marinara, and garlic knots. You also receive mini cannolis for dessert.
I am a huge fan of caprese salad and the large serving of fresh mozzarella and tomatoes hit the spot. The pizza was huge and more than enough for two people to share. It wasn’t the best pizza I’ve ever had (I’m from New York LOL) or the best pizza you’ll find at Disney, but for a quick service restaurant, I thought it was really good. As were the meatballs and baked ziti. Everything tasted fresh and there wasn’t a piece of food left visible at the end of the meal. Full disclosure, I’m not much of a sweets person but my wife sure is! She was more than happy to enjoy the five mini cannolis that were on the desert menu.
For two people, I feel the family-style dining at Pizzafari ended up being a great value. The price isn’t much more than you would pay for a standard quick service meal. For a little more than $20 each, we got a ton of food but avoided the standard waiting in line and the trouble of playing the run around to find a table game. The food wasn’t out of this world, but it was some good old comfort food that hit the spot for us. So if you plan on eating here, definitely come hungry and expect to perhaps go back to the room with some leftovers.
Advance reservations are highly recommended for the family-style dining meal because it is only offered for a few hours each evening. Pizzafari does accept the Disney Dining Plan when it’s available, and will count as 1 Quick Service meal. You will need a park ticket in order to dine here. The restaurant is gluten, egg, soy, milk, peanut and fish allergy friendly.
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