Catal for B-day dinner, or other?

[Stinasmom]

For those of you who have been lately, can you offer up any opinions of the quality of food at Catal at Downtown Disney?
The reviews at trip advisor are mixed.
This is for my birthday dinner.
We will have the kids with us so we decided against Napa Rose.
DH will just be joining us from a business trip so won't have a park ticket for that day, so we are looking at outside the parks (hotels, DTD, or relatively nearby as we will have a car.)

DH is a picky, gourmet eater... not the Olive Garden type, OK, I concur on the Olive Garden thing!

Thanks for any reviews of Catal or other suggestions for a similar nice but with well behaved kids experience!

 

[DevilDuckie]

We were unimpressed. We found the food to be totally uninspired and bland.

We enjoy the Vineyard Room in DCA, but do check the menu before you go. It is pricey and I'm not sure they do children's meals. It is, in our experience, the nicest publicly available restaurant in Disney. It is in the parks though, which rules it out for your current situation- just wanted to throw it out there for other trips.

For a more relaxed and lower priced option we like Storytellers and Ralph Brennan's. Granville's and Hook's Pointe are quite nice and not so intimate and quiet as Napa Rose.

 

[Brady's Mom]

Have you tried yelp.com to check out the reviews for restaurants in the area? You can put in the city and what type of food you are looking for. It is also really nice because they will give you a price range and a link to the menu. My DH is a big fan of this site and we have eaten at some really great restaurants that were reviewed by locals. It is more of a "foodie" website, although I have noticed that a lot of DLR restaurants are reviewed there and Bengal Barbecue gets really high reviews.

 

[Stinasmom]

Thanks for the quick responses!
I think I will change our ADR from Catal to Hook's Point.
Anyone else out there eaten at Hook's Point recently?

Does anyone know if there is a charge for parking at The Disneyland Hotel if you are dining there? Isn't parking at DTD free?
We might just walk, but just checking...

thanks!

 

[honeymom]

If you want Napa Rose, don't avoid it because of the kids. My husband and I had put our kids into GCH kids club because we wanted a romantic meal there and didn't think it would be a good place for kids. We wound up at a nice romantic table surrounded on all sides by families with kids, many of them quite young.

 

[Quest4fun]

Catal is miserable. You can get the subpar meal at Denny's for about 75% less.

When choosing Disneyland as a destination for a romantic meal be sure to consider the fact that it is a family themed park. You will be eating near children.

There are plenty of fantastic restaurants in the area that are not child friendly. Zagats has a pretty good list of these. If you have a food preference and a price range you can PM me. I work with many of the restaurants in and around Orange County and have patronized all of them. There are a lot winners and a few losers. I know where families go and more importantly where they don't go.

 

[EmEyeSeeKayEeWhy]

Yeah...Hook's Pointe has great steak!! Yum. But personally we tend to like Catal for breakfast only. We eat out on their balcony and enjoy the music playing on the speakers in Downtown Disney. But there typically aren't many people in there in the morning and it's a nice way to start the day.

 

[techno]

Personally, I think the food at the Uva Bar is better than Catal.

Heck, La Brea has better dinner food than Catal IMHO.

 

[DVC Mater]

I haven't found any place on Disney property that has better foood then Napa Rose. I would not avoid them because of the kid aspect. We took our DS (2) there yesterday for valentine's day and they were very accomadating. And the food was awesome

 

[Dobie]

Catal is overpriced and the food is bad!

I like the prime rib buffet at Storytellers for a splurge.