From Disneyland, we hopped over to California Adventure and explored the park. My mom hadn't seen it before, so she had a lot to take in! After grabbing World of Color fastpasses (which ended up being for the Yellow Section), we strolled through Hollywood Land and Buena Vista Street. My mom particularly loved the Five & Dive jazz ensemble.
This pic is from Hollywood Land (with Carthay Circle Theatre in the distance on the left):
With all these shots of Carthay, I'm sure you know where this is going.
Carthay Circle Theatre is the centerpiece of Buena Vista Street (and a new icon for the park), so it only seemed right that we stop by and try some food there. However, we didn't have a reservation for the upstairs dining room, and we didn't feel like having a full meal anyway. The downstairs lounge seemed like a great alternative.
But that didn't stop me from asking if I could go upstairs to take pictures.
Wow - the upstairs restaurant is gorgeous, full of historical details and radiating an opulent aura reminiscent of Hollywood's Golden Age. Soothing jazz versions of classic Disney songs can be heard in the background - everything blew me away. I didn't explore too much (since people were still enjoying their lunch), but I particularly loved the Snow White ceiling mural in the main dining room.
Disney has heavily publicized that the original Carthay Circle Theatre is where
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs premiered in 1937. This mural is a great nod to that special night. It doesn't include any characters (a great artistic choice, IMO), but the mural perfectly references Snow White through its pastel color scheme and lush forest landscape.
Here's a pic of the menu cover - I forgot to take an inside pic, but the
AllEars menu still appears to be accurate.
We decided to split a small plate and a dessert - we were especially excited to try the Duck Confit Sliders with Apricot Conserve, Watercress, Crisp Onions, and Taleggio Cheese.
What the menu
forgot to mention is that these beauties are served on pretzel bread - what an awesome surprise!
These things packed a ton of flavor - they might have been the best bites of the entire trip. The duck confit itself was perfectly tender, with the fruity apricot conserve, crispy onions, and melty taleggio adding a bold and interesting contrast of flavors and textures. Splitting these was a bad idea!
For dessert, we went with the Trio of Cake Pops: Double Dark Chocolate Chunk, Pineapple-Macadamia Nut Upside Down Cake, and Raspberry-White Chocolate Cheesecake.
I had the pineapple upside down cake one (in the center) and loved it - it's probably my favorite cake pop I've ever tried, with flavor profiles that were right up my alley. My mom had the double dark chocolate pop (on the left) and also loved it, but since cake pops are such a sugar overdose, she didn't even want to try the last one.
The raspberry-white chocolate cheesecake one was also good, with a graham cracker 'crust' on the inside. But it was a bit too sweet for me to finish (partially because the pineapple-macadamia nut upside down cake was still calling my name).
Our experience at Carthay Circle Lounge was phenomenal, and I'd love to try more of their dishes eventually. Plus, the lounge is a great place to relax before heading back into the park. We subsequently checked out Cars Land and listened to the great playlist of oldies at Flo's. Then we explored Paradise Pier and went on the Little Mermaid dark ride (which my mom loved), and we even got on Soarin' (the wait was
much shorter than I've ever seen at Epcot). Overall, it was another successful visit to DCA, and soon enough we exited the park and headed to another unique spot on my list.
I definitely think Rancho del Zocalo is worth a try, but keep in mind that I've never had the pleasure of enjoying West Coast Mexican food. Rancho is great for quick service, but I'm sure your homemade stuff would be better!
I'm sure you have seen this but Jack Spence for allears wrote a great comparison blog of the two parks. 
(I'm going to update my TR with our Walk in Walt's Footsteps Tour from yesterday.) 
And while Space at MK does hold a special place in my heart (love the Starport sign from the recent refurb, star tunnel, and the one-seat-per-row thing better), Disneyland's Space does better overall for me. 
