October 11 marked the day that many new menu items arrived at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. We made a lunch stop for one of the new rice bowls at Harambe Market at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

Walt Disney World announced that several new menu items would start being sold at Disney’s Animal Kingdom on October 11. Thus, we decided to make a trip to Disney’s Animal Kingdom to check some of those out. Earlier in the day, we visited Kusafiri Coffee Shop & Bakery to try the two new breakfast options there. For lunch, Harambe Market looked like a good choice. Harambe Market, in the African area of Disney’s Animal Kingdom, has been selling versions of rice bowls for some time. Harambe Market has been adjusting its menu often since the reopening of the theme parks in 2020.

The new version of rice bowls focuses on shrimp and chicken. As we have said previously, we continue to find it odd that Walt Disney World wants to add a bowl style entrée quick service place when Satu’li Canteen, also in Animal Kingdom, serves some of the best quick-service-style bowl entrées around.

New Rice Bowls

Walt Disney World describes Harambe Market as an open-air quick-service location that’s filled with African-inspired fare. This week, this dining location added four rice bowls. They are:

• Chicken and Shrimp Rice Bowl– $14.99
• Chicken Rice Bowl– $13.29
• Shrimp Rice Bowl– $14.99
• Kid’s Version Rice Bowl– $8.99/$8,49

Each of these adult portion rice bowls comes with jollof rice with kachumbari tomato salad and tzatziki sauce. The kid’s version contains peri peri-marinated shrimp or chermoula-marinated chicken, white rice, and a side. The kid’s version also includes low-fat milk or bottled water.

We decided to purchase the chicken rice bowl (adult version) and the shrimp portion of the kid’s meal rice bowl. How did it go?

Harambe Market Chicken Rice Bowl- $12.99

The Chicken Rice Bowl looks very impressive. The combination of ingredients presents a good start since you eat with your eyes first. The menu description reads, “Chermoula-marinated Chicken on Jollof Rice with Kachumbari Tomato Salad and Tzatziki Sauce.”

The jollof rice makes this rice bowl unique. That style of rice based on its preparation enhances this bowl far more than just seasons white rice. The tomato salad brings freshness and color to the rice bowl. The Tzatziki sauce works well with the other components. Still, we would prefer a higher quality sauce or the ability to have it on the side instead of placed on the rice bowl to start with. Nevertheless, we enjoyed the sauce with this new menu item.

The chicken comes reasonably well prepared. it also contains just enough seasoning to pair with the other ingredients without overwhelming them. For a quick service rice bowl, it contained a reasonable portion size of chicken.

Though nothing contains overwhelming spice, we suspect that some picky eaters will not enjoy this rice bowl as much as we did. In fact, we heard guests around us grappling with either loving it or disliking it. This will not replace our beloved bowls at Satu’li Canteen. However, this one comes close to matching up with it.

In addition, this rice bowl contains some actual nutrition within it. Now, it comes with plenty of starch and fat. Still, a filling quick service theme park menu item with some nutrition deserves some praise. 

Harambe Market Kid’s Shrimp Rice Bowl- $8.99

In contrast, we have the kid’s version of the shrimp bowl. The kid’s version is a small bowl of rice with four pieces of shrimp. We doubt most kids would enjoy this. If ordering a kid’s meal here, we suggest the chicken version. This comes standard with fries and a small drink. You can choose a different side, but we went with whatever cast member said was the standard one since most guests will do that. For the record, the fries were below-average Disney fries.