Dining in Disney World’s Pandora: A Satu’li Canteen Review

Satu’li Canteen is a quick-service restaurant located within Pandora: The World of Avatar at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. The restaurant opened in the summer of 2017 and has been serving up unique Pandora-approved offerings ever since. It’s a great spot for a meal, particularly due to its prime location, interesting menu and massive dining space. Today’s post shares a short review of Satu’li Canteen.

Location

Pandora: The World of Avatar at Disney’s Animal Kingdom is amazing. Really. It’s the perfect place to slow down during a busy day at the park and enjoy the exquisite scenery. Satu’li Canteen’s location, right in the heart of Pandora, provides another opportunity to linger in this incredible new land.

You can find Satu’li Canteen on the north side of Pandora close to the gift shop, the Pongu Pongu drink stop and a giant abandoned utility suit like the ones featured in Avatar. At select times throughout the day you can also catch scientists roaming the space and chatting with guests near the restaurant entrance in an updated version of the 10-foot tall utility suit.  How many fast food restaurants offer that kind of welcome?

If you happen to be headed to Pandora from other areas of Animal Kingdom, Satu’li Canteen is also fairly close to the walkways leading from Africa and Discovery Island. You can even order your food in advance in the My Disney Experience app, to reduce your wait time upon arrival.

Menu

If the great location is a reason to give Satu’li Canteen a try, the restaurant’s interesting menu is a reason to keep coming back. I love the range of options, the fresh flavors and the beautiful, theme-appropriate presentation of the entrées. Although many of the restaurants at Disney World seek to match their menus with the theme of the land in which the restaurant resides, Satu’li Canteen goes above and beyond. You really feel like you’re in Pandora. Even the serving bowls look weathered and handmade to suit their surroundings.

Speaking of bowls, the vast majority of lunch and dinner entrées at Satu’li Canteen are served in them. Each bowl is made to order and consists of your choice of base, protein and dressing. You can choose beans and rice, potato hash, noodles or a salad for your base and then top it with beef, chicken, shrimp or tofu. Dressing options include chimichurri, black bean vinaigrette or creamy herb. The bowls are topped with slaw, various side salads and tasty little boba balls. In other words, it’s not your typical theme park fare. There are even separate menus for guests seeking to avoid gluten, soy, egg, dairy, peanut/tree nuts and/or shellfish.

Overall, the food is fresh and plentiful. Some guests could easily share.

There are more than forty different possible bowl combinations at Satu’li Canteen. I view this wide variety as a major plus, but I understand the extra ordering time and non-traditional offerings could be off-putting to some.

If you want more familiar fare, you can find them in disguise on the kids’ menu. Satu’li skips the traditional buns and offers cheeseburgers and hotdogs wrapped in soft dough. They are little works of art and thematically perfect. My pickiest eater enjoyed the cheeseburger “pod” shown above. The colorful “root vegetable chips” are crunchy and delicious too.

Satu’li Canteen also offers two beautifully crafted desserts, but we’re usually too full from our entrées to try them. You can also choose from a variety of drinks, including the standard fountain favorites and ten or so alcoholic options.

Dining Space

Once you’ve located the restaurant and picked up your selections, you can relax in Satu’li Canteen’s massive dining space. The restaurant is designed to look like an abandoned mess hall from the previous human inhabitants of Pandora. Today it is supposedly operated by the fictitious ACE, a company interested in preserving and studying the mysteries of the land. This back story is a little complicated but relevant, because it explains the restaurant’s décor.

The indoor dining space of Satu’li Canteen features high ceilings, large windows and an interesting blend of rustic and organic touches. I love the lighting, the artwork and the tall stone privacy walls. Even the table tops look like they’re crafted from native plants.

The restaurant also offers outdoor seating options. A large arching roof provides cover for most of the tables. There are also individual umbrella tables nearby for those that want more space. We’ve eaten here at peak lunch times (11-1PM) and never had a problem finding somewhere to sit. Disney associates clean the tables and take your trays, which keeps the place moving and clean.

Closing Thoughts

Overall, I’m a fan of Satu’li Canteen and highly recommend it if you’re planning a meal at Animal Kingdom. There are two other issues I think I should mention though, just in case they influence your decision.

The first involves the menu, which I stated before may be a little too unique for some guests’ tastes. If you’d rather have traditional theme park fare, try Flametree Barbecue (great barbecue) or Restaurantosaurus (decent burgers) instead.

The second issue relates to cost (surprise! Disney World!). The prices at Satu’li Canteen have already increased once (twice?) since the restaurant opened last year. Most entrées cost $13-15. Kid meals run $7-8. If you add another $4-10 each for beverages or dessert, you could easily hit $60+ for a party of four. These prices make Satu’li Canteen an excellent use of a meal credit, if you’re on a Disney Dining Plan. If you’re not, you could easily split an entrée to trim cost.

Splitting entrées also leaves room for sweet snacks in Africa later. (Dole Whip!)

Now that I’ve got Dole Whip on my mind, I’ll wrap it up. Satu’li Canteen is definitely one of my picks for the best quick-service restaurants at Disney World. If you want to see the rest of my recommendations, you can find them here.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

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