Indian Restaurant coming at WDW? About This Page:

[TiggerTails]

Lesley, very cool thanks for sharing

[Dave Marx]

Cool! Dieter Hannig was there? He's like the Joe Rhode of WDW dining! He probably deserves more credit for dining excellence at WDW than anyone else. Among other things, he also gets credit for his strong support of vegetarian food options and having WDW's chefs trained to handle that and other special dietary needs so well.

What you were served does sound more like an African take on Indian flavors than actual Indian food. You see a similar influences at Boma and, to a lesser extent, Jiko. Africa has had many Indian residents - partly due to old British Empire connections. (Mahatma Gandhi lived and worked in South Africa for many years before returning to India.)

[mcc0313]

Those samples sounded so delicious...if that was any indication to how the menu will be I am sure the new restaurant will be a great treat...

[lauriep]

Oh, boy! I'm looking forward to this one! Thanks for the sneak peak, Lesley.

[tinker_me_happy]

Does anyone know an opening date? "Sometime" in 2009 leaves a lot of wiggle room!

[WDWfan]

The new villas are supposed to open in April of 2009 and I assume the restaurant will open at the same time. Right now they are ahead of schedule, but this is a large project and we still have another hurricane season to go through so I doubt if Disney will make an official announcement until the construction is farther along.

[luvdduck]

This is exciting news!!!

Thanks for the info Lesley!!

[ilovedisney247]

Originally Posted by WDWfan

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The second guest was Dieter Hannia (I think that is how his name was spelled). He was the VP of Food and Beverage New Concepts. He talked about the food at the restaurant (named Sanaa - the Art of Africa cooking w/ Indian Flavors). It will emphasize Fresh, Seasonal foods with spices for flavor - not heat. There will be not freezer or can openers in the kitchen and no salt and pepper shakers on the tables. He emphasized the use of fresh tropical fruits and many vegetables.

This is a little frightening for me. I work in the food industry, I live with a chef. On more than one occasion we've run into a chef who had a really good idea, but didn't add enough salt and/or pepper to bring out his/her flavors. Or forbid, you've got a diabetic cook in the kitchen who has forgotten to take their meds and CANT taste the salt or pepper!