My Disneyland dining reviews, with pictures

[Stacerita]

The Monte Cristo was soooo good. I had it two weeks ago. I wish that I had gotten the beingnets though. Those looked yummy.

 

[wendylady36]

I wish that I had gotten the beingnets though. Those looked yummy.

You're seriously making me feel bad!!!!!

 

[Stacerita]

You're seriously making me feel bad!!!!!

Oh am I?

j/k I couldn't have eaten them that night if I wanted too. We were meeting up with my father and the kids to celebrate my father's birthday. So I knew I was already going to eat dessert somewhere else.

 

[avalon451]

I think I'm going to copy the parts of my trip report about where we ate, so if you already read my TR, this will look familiar. I took quite a bit of food porn on this trip!

(Last day, Thursday, Oct. 16th) ....Then we went over to Blue Bayou for our lunch. We had PS’s for the first seating at 11:30. Per DISboards recommendations, I got us there at 11:15. There was already a crowd jostling around, trying to plead their way in for a table without PS’s. It was nice to walk up, give our name and our waterside table request, and be invited inside, “Come on in, Gail, we’ll seat you in a just a couple of minutes.” The waiting room area was already standing room only, so I was surprised when we were the first ones called! We were lead to a fabulous table right at the railing, overlooking a boat on our side, and the guy on the porch on the other side. We did get a little tired of the “plink plink” of the banjo by the end of our meal, like a newbie musician trying to pick out “Oh Susannah,” but the atmosphere was indisputably cool. Our waiter, Lonnie, was very prompt and courteous. Because we were first seated, and we decided very quickly what we wanted, everything happened smoothly and fast. Our drinks, rolls, Liz’s salad and my gumbo appeared very quickly.

That gumbo was GOoooooOOD!

Liz liked her wedge salad, too:

Lonnie took our picture:

And then we took pictures of each other:

Liz was enchanted. It was such a different experience, again, from the last time. Back then, she was feeling rotten. She shared a plate with her sister and hardly touched it. We were seated far back in the room, with several noisy families around us. DD6 spent the whole time whining that she didn’t like it in there, it was too “dark and creepy.” Now we were truly enjoying our experience and the bayou ambiance!

Liz was just tickled to watch all the PotC riders float by. A few of them waved at us, and before you know it, she was waving at EVERY SINGLE BOAT. She’d take a bite, wait till they got in range, and then wave with a cheerful smile. She started predicting which boatloads looked like wavers, and which looked like “non-wavers.” She saluted some, waved especially at little kids (who usually enthusiastically waved back) and even got a few people to call out things like “What’s for lunch?” and “How is the food?” Since we were just before the big drop, a couple of times she called, “Say your prayers!” Till, finally, I hushed her (the tables were starting to get crowded around us), and told her she didn’t have to wave at EVERY boat, for pete’s sake. She grinned and said unrepentantly, “Sorry, Mom,” but when another boatload came by a few minutes later that waved at us first, and I waved back, she said, “Hey! How come you get to wave and I don’t?” So then she went back to waving at every boat, again.

I had Tesoro Island Chicken. It was good. Not fabulous, but good.

Liz had the beef ribs. She hesitated, because she’d had ribs the night before at Napa, but these were really tasty, too, so she was glad she ordered them. If I’d known how good they were, I’d have had them, too.

I told her to save room because I wanted to get the cookie boat. So we didn’t finish everything on our plates. The potatoes were ok but not wonderful, although I did scarf all the white asparagus, yum! So we had a little room left for….

Mmm, this was yummy. The cookie part tasted warm and melty, like it was fresh from the oven. Again, we couldn’t finish it, but that was ok—it was all about tasting it and enjoying it, not stuffing ourselves.

The only problem with it, was that Lonnie got slammed by the hostesses with like 4 tables in a row, so he kind of disappeared on us for around 20 minutes. The couple of times I did see him, I couldn’t catch his eye. I flagged down a hostess and asked her to pass on our dessert order, and still didn’t see him for awhile… when I saw her again, she said, “Oh, Lonnie hasn’t been by yet?” and looked worried. A couple minutes later he dashed up to our table and apologized, and told us our dessert was already ordered and on the way. So that was fine. I made sure to ask for the bill and get it ready to go while we ate dessert, so we didn’t have to spend more time waiting for that. We didn’t really mind, though. We had such a nice table. So that was a great experience for our last Disneyland meal.

 

[avalon451]

(Monday, Oct. 13th, first full day in the parks)

...Next we stopped by the Hunny Pot to look at all the goodies. Oh, MY. I got an apple pie caramel apple, and Liz had a huge chunk of cookies and cream fudge. Warning: more food porn:

Apple Pie caramel apple, which they kindly cut up for us:

It was quite good, but I wouldn’t say it was fabulous. The caramel was very very chewy, and tended to peel away from the apple when you bit it.

Liz enjoying her fudge:

We had PS’s for Ralph Brennan’s Jazz kitchen for 6 p.m. So we showered and freshened up, and headed over there about 5:30. Ralph Brennan’s looked very inviting in the dusk, with the wrought iron balconies, and the waiters just starting to set the outside tables. We were surprised to go to the podium and look around the apparently deserted restaurant, and be told that our table wasn’t quite ready. Hmmm? I don’t see anybody, inside or outside! A few minutes later, they led us upstairs, and into the PACKED inside dining room. I really couldn’t understand it. It was a lovely evening, perfect for sitting out on the verandah or the inside courtyard, and yet they were only seating in the stuffy inside dining room, decorated very formally, with heavy curtains at the windows, tables so close together you could hardly move… seemed stupid to me. Why in the world couldn’t they spread out their servers’ sections a bit more, or at least give you a choice for inside or outside dining? Oh, well. The service was pretty good, and the food was excellent.

Liz had the beef tournados:

Which were cooked to perfection, and she loved them.

I had the lobster ravioli, also delicious:

Liz was a little anxious at first. Although Al and I have always enjoyed fine dining and are comfortable in relatively formal restaurants, as a family we tend to do a lot more of the Red Robin type thing. But she behaved beautifully and eventually relaxed and enjoyed herself. I wanted to give her a little taste of adventurous dining, so I ordered the Bananas Foster for two. When she understood that our waiter was going to flambé bananas for us tableside, Liz was pretty amazed. Our waiter had just finished with a couple of big tables, and had the leisure to take his time and chat with us as he caramelized the bananas with rum. He told us he enjoys doing it when he’s not rushed, and he hadn’t had a chance to make it for awhile, so he was enjoying doing the dessert for us. The bananas flamed up impressively and were served with a flourish over vanilla bean ice cream. It was truly delicious, and Liz thought it was the coolest!

Full and happy, we wandered over to the monorail and got on within 5 minutes.

 

[avalon451]

(Tuesday, Oct. 14th)

(not much in the way of food review; more a review of the experience!) ...Then, it was time for our character breakfast at the Plaza Inn.

You may remember my posting about this. I really wanted to try a character breakfast, but with a cool 13 y.o.? I posted, “Eye-rolling adolescent + character breakfast = bad idea?” I got a lot of positive feedback from people saying that their teenagers had warmed right up to it. So I went ahead and booked PS’s. Liz was sort of like “Ooooooh-kay, whatever.” But once we got in there and got our food, she was much more enthusiastic, because she really loved the big breakfast. When we first sat down, Minnie was over by in the room next to our table, and Liz was cowering a bit in embarrassment. Minnie might have seen that, because she didn’t stop at our table, and that was fine with Liz. However, pretty soon Captain Hook came sauntering by. He just looked at Liz’s bowed head as she was pretending to be busy with her scrambled eggs, raised his hook, and slowly dragged it over the top of her Jack Skellington bandana. Well, that did it. She was laughing and giggling, and she posed willingly with him:

We saw lots of characters, but Liz wanted to scarf her delicious breakfast and go ride more rides, so we didn’t linger, and only 3 actually stopped at our table. That was fine with Liz, she said she actually enjoyed it better that way—some characters, but not too much. Winnie the Pooh waved at us but didn’t stop. Our favorite, though, was Fairy Godmother. She walked right over, plopped herself down opposite Liz and said, “You’ve got Jack Skellington all over your head, dear!” She went on for awhile about how Jack wanted to change Christmas, and wasn’t that frightful, and then asked her name. “Liz… would that be short for Elisabeth? Oh, and what’s your middle name, dear? Ann? Oh, lovely, and do you only hear that when you are in trouble, dear?” And she raised her perfect little English accent so the entire restaurant turns to look, and she shrieks, “ELISABETH ANN! GET OFF THE PHONE!”……”ELISABETH ANN! PICK UP YOUR ROOM!” By this time Liz was practically in stitches! It was so funny. And thus we got one more of those amazing smiles she’s capable of , but so rarely see:

So we toodled on out of there, full of Mickey waffles, eggs, sausage, and chocolate croissants (yum) and decided to hit DCA and fulfill Liz’s side of the horrible rides bargain: California Screamin’...


(In CA, just before closing at 6 p.m.)...I was getting kind of hungry, although Liz was not, so when I saw Corn Dog Castle, I thought immediately of Hound 109, and went to get one. Ok, YUM!

The thing about these are, they are not only really big, so that they are hard to hold cause they’re so top-heavy. They are also really really yummy. I noticed right away that the corn bread coating tastes much more like a really good corn muffin, not just like some thin gritty coating on a hot dog like most corn dogs are. And I like corn dogs. This was by far the tastiest I’ve ever had!

(back in DL, just before closing time)

...I thought she must be hungry by now. It was 7:45, the park was closing in 15 minutes. We were right by the French Market, so I remembered my DISboards recommendations and asked her if clam chowder sounded good. She said that sounded really good all of a sudden. So we went into the deserted restaurant and got clam chowder in a bread bowl, with salad on the side, and we couldn’t resist a slice of brownie-bottom chocolate dreams cake. We took it outside and found a table right next to the railing. The place was mostly deserted. There were a couple of big families in the middle, lingering over their meal while their toddlers chased each other around the tables. It was dark, but the lamps overhead were dim and glowing. The air was still warm and fragrant, and we sat there and shared the food while watching the reflected lights off the Rivers of America. Liz was suddenly ravenous and found everything delicious.

It was a very good end to a very good day.

 

[avalon451]

(The only dining experience from Wednesday, Oct. 15th and no pictures-- sorry!-- because I didn't have the nerve to take pics in Napa Rose. But we enjoyed it so much I copied our experience here, including the background to Liz's face paint she wore into the restaurant)...

...When we had been on the pier the day before, Liz was watching the face painting and thinking she’d like to do that. Not butterflies or fairies, mind you. Maybe a dragon or something. So we walked over there, and there was no wait. Looking at the pictures, she immediately picked out the half-face design in red and black that looked like a tribal/aboriginal design. Sissy, she’s not. What the heck, I can’t deny her, so onto the stool she went, and on went the face paint. She was inordinately pleased. It really looked pretty cool, and was a bit of a show-stopper. Lots of kids staring and saying, “Mom, I want that!”

Then it was getting a little late, and I was thinking about starting back to the hotel for our break. Our big special meal was this evening, at Napa Rose, chef’s counter. When I mentioned the break, Liz seemed kind of disappointed to lose some of her face display time in the parks. I wanted to do GRR before we left, but she said, “Aw, no, Mom, my face will get wet and it will ruin my makeup!” So we ditched that idea. She said, “But even if we go back, I can’t nap, because my face will smear on the pillow.”

I said, “You do remember we’re going to Napa Rose tonight? Did you want to wear your face paint into the restaurant?”

She gasped in horror and was all like, “Oh, no, no way, I can’t do that, it’s too fancy, but why did I get this done now—I just got it done and I’ll have to wash it off!” I told her I thought she could get away with it just fine, but she was too worried about looking nice for the nicest restaurant she’d ever been to.

Dejected now, and loath to leave and wash her face off, even though it was getting late and we were tired, we wandered over to Redwood Challenge Trail, which I’d always wanted to see. But she wasn’t into it now, so we didn’t go far inside. I talked her into Soarin’ again, and she was still pretty glum.

Well, time for super mom to fix things. It was our second-to-last day, we were capable of going till our legs gave out, so why rest? I told her, “Ok, come on, let’s just go back over to DL and do more stuff. We’ll only go back to the hotel in enough time to change for dinner.” She seemed ok with that. So we headed back over to DL...

(4:30 p.m.)...Now it was time to head back to HoJo and get out our nicer clothes for our special dinner. I told Liz, “I really think you ought to keep your face paint on. It will look great, and they are used to all kinds of little kids and face paint and whatever, there. C’mon, it’s Disneyland! You can have a nice dinner in face paint if you want to!” Eventually she was convinced.

I was wearing sandals with heels, and I know better (thanks, Bumbershoot!) than to walk from HoJo through DTD in “cute shoes.” Besides, we’d been going straight through since 8:30 a.m., and our legs and feet were really feeling it. So, we called down to the front desk and they called us a cab. It cost about $10 with the tip to hop over to the front entrance of the GCH. Well worth it.

Ok, so you're asking, “You’re taking a 13 year old to the most expensive restaurant in the resort? How does she get any worth out of the fact that every server is a master sommelier, when she doesn’t drink?” The story with Napa Rose is this. When we went last time, DH Al and I planned to go downstairs and enjoy a romantic dinner for two while the three daughters stayed in our room upstairs with a pizza and a video, and our built-in babysitter, Liz. (who has taking a babysitting course with first aid/CPR, and was experienced by this time). However, Liz was sick, so we canceled and ordered room service instead. Well, I still wanted to experience it. I knew that Liz would enjoy the atmosphere, and that it would add one more special time for us to remember this trip by. When she heard we were sitting at the chef’s counter, she was excited: “It’ll be like our own personal Iron Chef!” Well, I was right—it went really, really well. She loved it, and the staff were SO nice to her. The head chef came over and introduced himself, shook our hands, and told her all about who did what in the kitchen, and he told her all about the ingredients in what she was eating. She was fascinated. It was so interesting to watch how well they synchronized in their work, like an intricate dance.

Everybody commented positively on her face painting, till she was practically glowing. The host, the waiter, a couple of other random waiters, and two different chefs all commented on how cool she looked. When she told them she had been nervous to keep in on, they assured her that it was great and they loved to see stuff like that.

This was the one place I didn’t have the nerve to get out my camera and take food porn. Oh, boy, was it GOOD! I had a lovely glass of Syrah to go along with my heirloom beet salad, and crispy duck, which was perfectly grilled and presented. Liz had mushroom bisque (called a “cappuccino” and served in a large coffee cup and saucer!) to start and then the beef short ribs. She was simply amazed and said it was the best thing she’d ever tasted.

So that was definitely one of the highlights of our trip.

 

[Lights_Out]

Great pictures!
So fun!!

 

[kaoden39]

Great report. I am so glad you were able to do the do over trip for her. And her smile with the Fairy Godmother was incredible. She has a lovely smile.

 

[kayabercho]

Our first Disney food...but not in Disneyland ... in Hollywood. Eaten at 10 am in the morning. Oy...I love ice cream but not that early!!



sweeeeet

 

[mommaU4]

We decided to get some dinner at French Market. I've never eaten there before so I can't comment on how their food used to be before the menu change, but now.....it was soooo good!
They had the band playing and Queenie singing while we were there too, which was nice.

I got the Four-Cheese Pasta & Vegetable Gratin - A creamy blend of Cheddar, Smoked Gouda, Provolone and Asiago surrounding tender pasta and smooth, subtle bites of Shiitake Mushroom and Cauliflower Florets topped with Seasonal Breadcrumbs. Oven-baked to a golden finish. With Seasonal Vegetables and Cheddar Corn Bread.

I would absolutely order this again.

Ruben got the Plantation Citrus Chicken - A French Market specialty! Succulently Roasted Chicken Breast, seasoned with Citrus and Cajun spices. With "Market" Smashed Potatoes, Seasonal Vegetables and Cheddar Corn Bread.
This was also really good, I sampled some, lol and he liked it too.

The kids all had the citrus chicken and rice. They liked it well enough, but it was nothing spectacular.

And of course, no meal is complete at Disney without dessert. Especially when it's Jack! It's hard to make out in the pic, but the whip cream was shaped like Zero. LOL
This was cheesecake with raspberries on top. It was nice and creamy. Yum.

 

[Eeyore76]

Aww!!! I love the Jack dessert!!!!

 

[disneyfan4ever54]

I have a question about the "fruit cup" that is listed as part of the kid's meals at a lot of locations. Can anyone tell me what kind of fruit cup it is? I was wondering if it was a pre-packaged one like the Dole Fruit Naturals or one that was fresh. My DS has food allergies and the pre-packaged ones have food preservatives on them which he can't have. Thanks!

 

[mommaU4]

I have a question about the "fruit cup" that is listed as part of the kid's meals at a lot of locations. Can anyone tell me what kind of fruit cup it is? I was wondering if it was a pre-packaged one like the Dole Fruit Naturals or one that was fresh. My DS has food allergies and the pre-packaged ones have food preservatives on them which he can't have. Thanks!

Hmmm, I hope someone can help you. All the kids meals we ordered all came with fresh fruit.

 

[disneyfan4ever54]

Hmmm, I hope someone can help you. All the kids meals we ordered all came with fresh fruit.

Thanks! Your food pics look wonderful! I was thinking of eating there at some point and now I really want to go. I'll look up some restaurants where they have the fruit cup on the menu and ask specifically about there. I can't remember which places have them at the moment.

 

[BillyFan]

I know that at Rancho delZ the fruit cups with kids meals have been the pre-packaged type.

 

[disneyfan4ever54]

I know that at Rancho delZ the fruit cups with kids meals have been the pre-packaged type.

Thank you! That's exactly what I was looking for. I looked at my menus and that's where I needed the info for.

 

[prettyprincessbelle]

I would absolutely order this again.

Holy moly. I drool at cheesy ooey gooey goodness. I must order this. It looks amazing.

 

[travelmel]

I got the Four-Cheese Pasta & Vegetable Gratin - A creamy blend of Cheddar, Smoked Gouda, Provolone and Asiago surrounding tender pasta and smooth, subtle bites of Shiitake Mushroom and Cauliflower Florets topped with Seasonal Breadcrumbs. Oven-baked to a golden finish. With Seasonal Vegetables and Cheddar Corn Bread.

I would absolutely order this again.

[/IMG]

Cheesy corn bread, too! Yum... everything on that plate looks good

 

[Shakthi]

thanks to those whose kept me excited about my trip. Now that im back from our sept 1-6th trip i can contribute...we also did goofy's kitchen. I loved the characters but i liked the food selection better at Lilo's breakfast...Enjoy
First up Yamabuki-This place was soooo good. The kids bento box was soo cute my DS loved it. If i can take his picture out i'll post it..will visit again
Salad

Dragon roll

Mojito

After some confusion about the location we finally got there. It was actually my fault because I forgot to write down the location. We walked around for a while and got tired, hungry and thirsty. I kept thinking about all the nice pictures on the post and got more hungry and thirsty. Unfortunately, we only reached the restaurant at around 2:10 pm. On our way in we were told by this grumpy lady that they close at 2:00 and were only "finishing up with some last costumers". Then, she escorted us out the door. I was very sad because I really felt like trying their food. Maybe next time, if I can convince my DH to go past the grumpy lady's atittude. But BEWARE they are only open until 2:00 for lunch.