Revisiting an Old Favorite
We had visited Expedition Cafe not too long ago and experienced a really low-scoring plate of Asian food. It was a little surprising because Expedition Cafe had been one of our favorite locations at SeaWorld. I knew the menu and food offerings have changed a lot since the quick service locations first opened, but it shouldn't have been as bad as it was.So I thought I'd give them another go... and this time, I would use my "better buffet dining" principle (even though Expedition Cafe isn't a buffet) — and it worked! The food was actually better.
My "better buffet dining" is simple — fresh food is better than food that's been sitting around. I've written many paragraphs about how to improve your experience at Disney buffets — but how do you apply that to a counter service location like Expedition Cafe?
The Layout of the Location
Let's back up for a second... Expedition Cafe is a counter service location at SeaWorld in the penguin area of the park (technically I think it's called the Antarctica area).
It's sooooo cold in the icy realm of the Antarctic pavilion at SeaWorld. Okay, okay... it was really foggy and like 95°F (35°)... but still, it looks really cold, right?
The theming here is better than pretty much any other area at SeaWorld. It really does look like there's glaciers everywhere, and Expedition Cafe is set up very much like a scientist's outpost.
Walking up to the Expedition Cafe from the north side of SeaWorld. At the end of the corridor, Expedition Cafe is on the left while South Pole Sips (in red) is on the right. South Pole Sips is a walk-up adult beverage kiosk.
The original concept had been that Expedition Cafe was going to offer global foods that represented the cultures of all the scientists that were researching at the facility. Over the year's that's pretty much been watered down to where it's more or less like a small food court at a mall — with American-Italian, American-Asian, and Chicken Tenders (wherever those come from) — and that's about it.
Once you get past any cue that's formed, the main part of the building opens up to show three food ordering and pickup stations — one counter for the pizza (Italian), one counter for some Asian combo platters, and one counter for the chicken tenders.
While it's certainly nice to have the place to yourself... lower attendance seems to mean that food is kept under heat lamps more -vs- being made fresh. Our suggestion, is to actually visit during peak dining times. It might be harder to find a seat, but you're more likely to get fresh, hot food.
There's digital menu boards over each window showing what they offer... so you can hang back in the middle of the room and see everything. Once you decide what you want, walk up to that counter, grab a plastic tray… and let the cast member know. They'll plate your food right there... and then you can head off to the right hand side to get your drink.
The beverage area is located just to the right of the main food preparation and pickup areas.
There's an exit door just to the right of the soda machines – and it's the only way out of the building. This is because the payment registers are just outside those doors. They'll tally everything up on your tray and you'll have to pay for the food and beverages you've selected before you can move on to the seating areas.
In late 2023 and early 2024, Expedition Cafe was closed for refurbishment. Now that it's open again, not much in the food pickup and order area has changed. (Photo taken summer 2024.)
Getting Better Food
So what's the trick to getting the best food possible here? It's in the "hanging back" step that I mentioned above. I have a "better buffet dining" principle that works really well at Disney buffets. Unlike most land-based buffets outside the park — the chafers (keep-warm trays on the buffet line) are constantly refreshed on a timed schedule. They don't wait until something is empty, there's too many people dining there for that to work. So at peak times, they just know that a new supply of those Vanilla Mashed Potatoes is needed every 12 minutes from between 5pm and 7pm — etc.Fresh food, is better food. So if you (for example) really want to try the Nut Crusted Salmon and there's only one piece left — don't all up there and take it — it's not the last one (unless you've made reservations at closing time) — I can pretty much guarantee that if you're at a Disney buffet, a whole new, fresh Nut Crusted Salmon is already being prepped and will be placed on the buffet line on the short side of five minutes. So just be patient and wait a couple minutes — you'll be rewarded with a hot, fresh, new portion of that Nut Crusted Salmon that will rival the very best of anything you could get at a normal a la carte table service restaurant. It's the key to eating better at Disney buffets… and it just costs a couple extra minutes.
So how does all of that work here at Expedition Cafe (because it's not a buffet)? When you hang back in the middle of the location — you can see pretty much everything. It's not a buffet — but it is an "open kitchen". So you can tell when a whole new batch of chicken tenders is ready to go. You can see all the pizza's back there. All the food for the Asian combo platters is individually made in a giant wok, and then transferred to chafers behind the counter.
The main food court area at Expedition Cafe is split up into different "regions".
When you walk up to the Asian window (for example) and say something like "I'd like the Asian combo with Teriyaki Chicken and Beef & Broccoli — you can see them make your plate right then and there.
The last time we ate here — the place had very, very few guests and I ordered the Teriyaki Chicken with Fried Rice. I could see there wasn't very much left behind the counter — but it didn't look like they were going to make any more. Since we were on the All-Day-Dining Plan, this meal would end up being just one of a couple places we visited that day... but you know what? The plate was practically inedible. Bad to the point of not even being able to finish all of it. The soy component of the Teriyaki glaze had been reduced so much in the giant keep-warm dish they have behind the counter — that it tasted like burnt saline and caramel. The fried rice was so dry and hard, you would have thought they forgot to cook it in the first place.
Teriyaki Chicken from Expedition Cafe.
I've experienced this enough times, at multiple SeaWorld counter service locations — to say definitively — the freshness of whatever is being served, no matter where you go, has a lot to do with how good (or even edible) the food at SeaWorld is. To reframe that in a slightly more pessimistic tone — they're just letting food that's past it's prime, sit around under heat lamps and warming trays for too long and still serving it to guests — probably for budgetary reasons.
There's tons of people that go to SeaWorld that will never read anything on Mealtrip — so my little hack isn't going to change the world — but if you want to increase your chances of getting good food at SeaWorld — find a way to get food that's just been prepared. The process is a little different at each location, but here at Expedition Cafe — it's "go when it's busy" (they'll be making more food, more often), and "hang back" and only order what you see is fresh and plentiful in those keep-warm chafers just behind the counters. Naturally, that won't work for orders where everyone wants something different — but it works great when ordering from just one of those food-court style counters.
Seating at Expedition Cafe
There's basically four seating areas at Expedition Cafe – two are outdoor, one is outdoors but in a metal shed structure, and the final area is indoors, in full air-conditioning.
The indoor seating area at Expedition Cafe is quite large and air-conditioned.
We've sat in the air-conditioned section on previous visits, and while nice… it can get a little crowded in there. Since it was dusk and not super hot out anymore, we opted to sit in the open-air metal shed structure.
One of the seating areas at Expedition Cafe is covered, but open-air.
There is insulation in the ceiling, so it doesn't get as hot in there as you would think — plus there seemed to be a pretty decent breeze every once in a while.
At dusk, both of the outdoor seating options seem quite pleasant as well. Just remember though, once the sun goes fully down — the outdoor areas don't have much light at all — where as both the indoor seating and metal shed structure both have always-on artificial lighting.
The Asian Signature Combo - Pick 2
Served with Beef and Broccoli, Teriyaki Chicken, and including Fried Rice
Price at Time of Review : $19.49
Item Score : 7/10
I mentioned our problems with the food (above) the last time we were here, so there's no point in rehashing that. In short, the food was bad — but now I think I know why. On a previous visit, everything from behind the Asian counter was running out — they barely had two or three portions left in the large keep warm trays behind the counter. The food had been sitting there for too long, was dried out, the soy glaze had caramelized and reduced to the point of being burnt, and the whole mess had no business being served to people.This time, I looked behind all the counters before stepping up and ordering anything. It seemed like the Asian counter had just gotten a refresh — because all the keep-warm chafers behind the counter were full of piping hot, steaming, fresh food.
Without knowing I was going to order Asian before I walked into Expedition Cafe, I stepped up to the counter and ordered a Pick 2 Combo of Asian food... specifically the Beef & Broccoli and the Teriyaki Chicken. (All of the Asian combo plates are also served with Fried Rice… and there's not really any other option so I hope you like Fried Rice.)
Visually speaking, the Beef and Broccoli had the darkest color, followed by the Teriyaki Chicken and then the light colored fried rice.
This is the Asian Signature Combo Pick 2 from Expedition Cafe in SeaWorld. It combines Teriyaki Chicken, Beef & Broccoli, and Fried Rice.
That fried rice was good this time, not hard and dried out like last time, and there were actually small bits of finely diced carrots and peas in the mix. It was light and fluffy but still retained enough moisture to hold together when compressed. It had a pleasant savory taste, while not being too strong. I couldn't tell you much about the sauce it was fried with, for example (soy, oyster, hoisin, etc ) — but that's okay in context. This fried rice is intended to be a neutral bite between the chicken and beef that's also on the plate. It's lightly yellowed and fried with some kind of sauce, and you could taste one of those peas when you got one. There's no egg (scrambled or otherwise) in the fired rice — but honestly, I wasn't expecting there to be.
The lighter of the two main proteins was the Teriyaki Chicken. There's not much to report on here… it is a very basic versions of Teriyaki Chicken. The Teriyaki isn't a glaze so much as it is a "sauce" that the chicken is wokked in. There's a slight glisten to the final product that's plated, but it's not really what I would call a glaze.
There seems to be three equal portions of food in the Pick 2 from Expedition Cafe. Pictured here in the center and bottom of the plate is the Teriyaki Chicken.
This was the main item we got last time, and it had been sitting around so long, it was much darker in color and the Teriyaki was so far reduced it was more like a marinade — so saturated with burnt soy, 5x saline flavor that the dish was not edible. This time — you could visually see the difference. It was much lighter in color and you could taste the chicken. That lightly sweet, tangy and salty Teriyaki sauce was on the outside of the chicken and had not fully soaked in — so you got a nice savory combination of flavors in each bite.
The second main protein on the plate is the Beef and Broccoli. The Broccoli was actually a little hard to find, but there was one in there so technically speaking — it is Beef and "Broccoli" singular.
Here's a closer look at the Beef & Broccoli from Expedition Cafe. It's part of the Asian Signature Combo... Pick 1 or Pick 2 plates.
Honestly, I can't complain about it because it just meant there was more room for the beef — and that beef had a great flavor. The beef bits were moist, savory, not excessively fatty and it had been wokked together with small bits of diced onion and/or garlic in dark brown sauce mix This was easily on-par with any franchise fast-food style beef and broccoli dish from a place like Panda Express or Pei Wei — which is high praise for SeaWorld counter service food. Naturally if you were hoping for large chuncks of fresh, crunchy broccoli — you'd be out of luck with this one.
All in all — the fresh Asian Signature Combo - Pick 2 was a hefty dish… probably not quite worthy of the $19.40 price tag — but that's not out of line for what's being charged at SeaWorld counter service locations these days. As I mentioned above, I'd put this whole plate on-par with any food court or stand-alone, fast food style Asian food you'd find outside of the parks.
However — I still think it's going to be up to you — to figure out which things are fresh and plentiful behind the counter before you order. At the very same time that I picked up this Asian Combo Plate — I don't think there were but three or four chicken tenders left over in the chicken tender keep-warm tray. There's no doubt in my mind… that I picked out the right item, at the right time. If you pick the wrong item at the wrong time… you'll probably end up with something that's past it's prime, and possibly even inedible.
The SeaWorld Chocolate Chip Cookie
Price at Time of Review : $6.99
Item Score : 8/10
You might think a chocolate chip cookie is an unusual dessert to pair with Asian food — but it tasted much better than a fortune cookie.
The Chocolate Chip Cookie is one of the items you'll find on the menu at most counter service locations at SeaWorld.
Actually, there was a purpose to choosing the large, plate-sized cookie — and that was to taste how it compared to SeaWorld's previous cookie offering. Before this — SeaWorld was offering a series of four smaller chocolate chip cookies in a paper soup cup. While the combined volume of four 2 inch cookies -vs- one 6.5 inch cookie is probably little less — I'm happy to report that it's still a good cookie.
I do wish the "cookie" part of the cookie had a slightly more vanilla flavor, the chocolate chips they're using still taste like chocolate. Many places have switched to a more wax-like, low butter fat, low cocoa butter version to save on costs — but these were still like the semi-sweet chocolate chips you might find in a cookie if you were to bake them at home.
While it's not served "warm" per-say — it did have a nice freshly baked quality and didn't taste like it had picked up any plastic or refrigeration flavors. The light cookie was not intended to be a "soft" cookie — but it wasn't brittle hard either. You could pinch off a bite-sized piece with your fingers.
The large Chocolate Chip Cookie from Expedition Cafe fills the seven inch plate! You'll find the cookie at most SeaWorld counter service locations on the Desserts section of the menu.
Is it worth the $6.99 menu board price? No. But I think at that price point — it's intended to be an option for park guests participating in the "All-Day Dining Deal" program. If you listed a price of $4.99 on the cookie and guests get "one dessert or side" every time they visit a restaurant — everyone would get the $8.99 Cheesecake all day long, every time, even if they didn't like cheesecake. So — it's my theory that they've listed the Chocolate Chip Cookie at $6.99 just to bring it in-line with the other dessert options.
Closing Thoughts
Way back in 2015 when we first reviewed Expedition Cafe, it was pretty awesome. The original concept for the location was still in full swing and food was on a totally different level than what it is today. The watering down of menu selection and food quality is something that's happening everywhere though — even with price increases, nothing quite seems like it was 10 years ago.With that being said — it would be a little unfair for me to compare today's Expedition Cafe with the one I experienced all those years ago. I can only look back fondly at the photos and sigh. What I can say — is that this more recent experience, was way better than the one I had a year ago here.
My previous experience at Expedition Cafe netted a "32" on our scoring system — drawn down mostly by the poor food quality. This time — the food was hot, fresh, and easily on-par with anything you might get at a mall food court style eatery. Value-wise... well the more I think about it, the pricing here is probably about same as you'd pay at a mall food court style eatery (those tend to be a little more expensive than a stand-alone locations like Panda Experess).
So yeah — if you're willing to wait a bit, and make sure what you want has just been made fresh — I'd put Expedition Cafe back on my short list of "places I'd recommend" at SeaWorld... right up there with Dockside Pizza (again, you've got to do your homework at Dockside, but there's a couple of hacks to make sure you're getting fresh pizza). If you're in the mood for a hybrid grill cheese though — nothing beats the Sesame Street Food Trucks (not kidding). The "Hawaiian" is one of those "must try" items at SeaWorld.
