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Showing posts with label Disneyland Food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Disneyland Food. Show all posts

Sunday, September 21, 2014

Trip Disappointment #2 - Disneyland Sneaks In A Food Price Increase



This is probably more of an inevitability than a disappointment but as reported by MiceChat a week or two ago, Disneyland has increased the price of most of its food items in the park. The increase ranges from a coupe of dimes to a couple of bucks. This doesn't effect anything with planning our trip. We will still go to the same places regardless of the prices being charged. We'll just pay the increased prices and complain about it amongst ourselves. A trip to Disneyland and complaining about the prices often go hand in hand.

Maybe we outsmarted them this time. Instead of the deluxe annual pass we usually get, we have invested in premium annual passes which comes with a greater discount on food purchases in the park Wait a minute....we paid how much for those premium annual passes? Somehow the price of the food increases isn't going to equal the increase we paid for the premium annual passes over the deluxe annual passes. Disney wins again. They always. do.


Saturday, September 6, 2014

New Orleans Style Dining At The French Market

Shrimp Salad Po'Boy - French Market - New Orleans Square - Disneyland

I have to admit that over the years since I've started writing this blog, I've spent very little time talking about New Orleans Square French Market which is an error on my part since the counter service cafeteria style eatery has become a personal favorite of mine. The French Market plays stepchild to the other two New Orleans Square full service dining facilities - the illustrious Blue Bayou and Cafe Orleans but food wise, the FM can certainly hold its own with one of the more unusual menus of any Disneyland restaurant.

I say all this as a note to self regarding our upcoming trip: Spend more time at the French Market. Enjoy what Disney passes off as New Orleans cuisine - it's actually quite good. Enjoy a good meal while listening to live jazz. Experience a little bit of the Big Easy right in the middle of the hustle and bustle of Disneyland.

The Shrimp Salad Po' Boy was one of my dining highlights from my last trip (not as good as the Harbour Galley's lobster roll but still a very satisfying sandwich). I've had the French Quarter chicken and enjoyed it very much. But there's still cajun style meatloaf and red beans and rice with sausage still on the menu and waiting for me to try.

Take a step out of the ordinary with the French Market. 





Saturday, August 16, 2014

The Single Best Thing To Eat In Disneyland

Baked Potato Soup - YUM!


At work I am forever asked for recommendations about what to eat or where to dine at Disneyland. There are some good choices available and unfortunately also some bad. After years of trial and error, I'm here to tell you that the single best food item you get put in your mouth at Disneyland is the Baked Potato Soup served by the Carnation Cafe.

This isn't a soup for the diet conscious. It is creamy, rich, and decadent. Artery clogging begins with the first bite and the sinful pleasure continues right to the bottom of the bowl.

Mrs. DisneylandTraveler and I are in the process of covering what Disneyland dinning spots we'd like to visit when we make our next trip in November. There's a lot of maybe's and probably's in our deliberations. One thing we are in compete agreement is a stop at the Carnation Cafe for a bowl of soup (and some undetermined entree). It's one of our Disneyland traditions.



PS..... a couple of near misses for the top spot of best Disneyland food items - the fried chicken served by the Plaza Inn, the previously mentioned Lobster Roll from the Harbour Galley, and of course no trip to Disneyland would be complete without a Dole pineapple whip (or float).

Friday, August 8, 2014

It Starts With The Harbour Galley Lobster Roll



Round up the usual suspects. That was the gist of the conversation I had with Mrs. DisneylandTraveler when we discussed where we might like to dine on on our upcoming trip to Disneyland. There's the Carnation Cafe, the Blue Bayou, Cafe Orleans, the Plaza Inn, Big Thunder BBQ all on the list of possible candidates for dining but these are the traditional choices.

For the untraditional, for me anyway, it starts with the lobster roll served up at the Harbour Galley along the shores of the Rivers of America. It's only  a little walkup place to eat with limited seating but their lobster roll is a one of a kind unique eat inside Disneyland. Now does it rank up there with the classic New England Lobster Rolls served on the east coast? No, it's not like that. It's more like a lobster salad on a roll but it still adds up to quite a tasty sandwich and a "must have" when I make my return trip in November.

Thursday, August 7, 2014

It Tastes Like Disneyland



A few weeks ago Mrs. DisneylandTraveler and I were wandering around Old Sacramento when we stopped by a candy shop to pick up some salt water taffy of assorted flavors. Later that night I opened a piece, popped it in my mouth, and immediately a thought jumped into my head - "This tastes like Disneyland!".

At the time, I didn't know what the flavor of the candy was - I just knew it was familiar and reminded me of being in Disneyland. Later it occurred to me the flavor was caramel corn. It's funny, you think of Disneyland in terms of sights and sounds and in some cases smells, but this time - I could taste the park and what a sweet taste it is.

Disneyland is one of the few places I eat caramel corn so its not surprising that little piece of salt water taffy made my think of walking along Main St. nibbling on the sweet treat but what struck me was just how strong and delightful the taste sensation was. It took me quite by surprise.

Sunday, March 2, 2014

Adventures In Fine Dining at the Carthay Circle Restaurant

Entering Carthay Circle main dining area
Entering the Carthay Circle Restaurant in Disney California Adventure is entering a world of decadent opulence set inside a theme park. It's an abrupt change of pace from the normal grind of having fun. I was going to make sure that at least once in my life, despite the high price tag for a meal, I was going to give the Carthay Circle a try. As for that price tag.... lunch for 4 sat right around that $200 mark. Was it worth it?

Yes and no. The place is beautiful. It's the first restaurant I've been in where the bathrooms were really bath rooms - no stalls!. The surroundings were ornate and filled with classic photos of Walt and his Hollywood friends from the late 30's. The service was first rate which from what I read was a bit of an issue when the restaurant first opened its' doors. But the staff was attentive, courteous, and friendly explaining both the menu and features of the restaurant itself. High marks indeed are given as far as a dining experience goes.

Downstairs lounge area of the Carthay Circle
As for the food, it was good but wasn't over the top great as far as the entrees were concerned. Better marks were given for the outstanding appetizers, soups, salads, and desserts than for the main meals. There's something to be said that when the best part of your $22 cheeseburger is the pickles, something has gone slightly amiss. 

That being said, there is a place for the Carthay Circle in your Disneyland adventure. If you really have something to celebrate by all means, go to the Carthay for a memorable experience. If your Disneyland trip budget allows for some overkill in in dining, then I'd go back to the Carthay Circle to offload some of that cash in a splashy way.

But all things being equal, I think I would probably take that same amount of money and spend it over at the Blue Bayou before going back to the Carthay Circle. It just seems more like the Disney thing to do

The $22 cheeseburger and fries. Great pickles!
.


Sunday, January 12, 2014

Disneyland's Harbour Galley Lobster Roll - YUM!



When you think about Disneyland dining, the Harbour Galley comes well down the list if it makes the list at all. The former server of McDonald's french fries in the park is tiny by walk-up dining facility standards with only about a half dozen or so tables surrounding it but the little place sits on a lovely spot overlooking the Rivers of America and possesses a certain amount of charm in its setting.

Disneyland has been tinkering with the menu at the Harbour Galley ever since they gave McDonalds the boot from their parks and last year, the little Harbour Galley introduced a lobster roll to the small menu. Now when many think of a lobster roll, they are thinking of what they serve up in New England with a toasted bun filled with chunks of freshly caught lobster and lightly tossed with a little mayonnaise and seasoning. These lobster rolls also run around $20 - $30 in many places.



Disneyland's offering isn't quite up to an authentic New England lobster roll, but at $13.99, it is quite good. Disneyland's version is essentially a couple of pieces of claw meat served over a lobster salad which is on a toasted bun. I had to eat mine with a knife and fork but that didn't matter because I enjoyed every bite of it. It's something I would definitely order again and the sandwich is far better than the overpriced offerings served at the Riverbelle Terrace which is just around the bend. The roll is served with home made potato chips which are also quite tasty.

Mrs.DisneylandTraveler wouldn't touch lobster if her life depended on it so to accomodate her, the Harbour Galley menu offered a barbequeued chicken baked potato (see picture below) which she enjoyed thoroughly. We both left the place quite happy and quite full. The Harbour Galley is now on our Disneyland dining must do list for our visits.


Sunday, December 22, 2013

Fried Chicken At The Plaza Inn Restaurant

Beautiful Christmas Tree Inside The Plaza Inn Restaurant

I got to cross 3 things off my Disneyland Bucket List on this trip, 3 things I've always wanted to do but just hadn't gotten around to it yet. I got one bucket list item crossed off the night we got there. After a 4 hour detour because of the closing of the grapevine due to snow, we arrived at our hotel at 6:40 pm and hungry as all get out. By the time we got settled in and headed to the park it was closer to 8:00. We needed dinner and I pointed us straight to the Plaza Inn Restaurant dodging Candlelight Processionalers along the way.



I'd always heard how great the fried chicken dinner was at the Plaza Inn for years now but for various reasons, I never made it a priority to go in and try it. This time it was a priority and the chicken did not disappoint in the least. For Mrs. DisneylandTraveler and myself, this may have been the best fried chicken we have ever tasted including what they serve over at Knotts Berry Farm. It definitely beats KFC by a country mile. Tender and moist, crispy skinned and wonderfully seasoned, this chicken is simply the best. It was so good we made it back a second time to the Plaza Inn and contemplated a third visit during our stay. High praise indeed.



Just for comparison we also ordered the pot roast and this was quite good as well, extremely tender and richly flavored. You can't go wrong with either the pot roast or chicken but in the end, the chicken gets the winning vote. The Plaza Inn will be on our must do list from this point going forward in future trips and a great thing to cross off the Disneyland Bucket List. 

Monday, December 16, 2013

The Ups and Downs of the Jolly Holiday Bakery


When the lines at the new Disneyland Market House Starbucks are just ridiculously long, it's just a short walk away to the Jolly Holiday Bakery. The coffee beverages are not as good as what Starbucks serves up but these days, the wait is much shorter. And it's a bakery! Now, the bakery items are admittedly hit or miss in their taste and quality. Some are good (the brownie and Christmas sugar cookie for instance) but some have been a major disappointment.


Which brings us to the sad tale of one of Mrs. DisneylandTraveler's favorite seasonal treats - the pumpkin muffin and how it has gone from a favorite to a 30 minute rant on the pumpkin muffins loss of quality from when it was served in the old Main St. Bakery during the fall and winter months. Mrs. DLT hated the new version and new recipe for the what is now called a pumpkin - golden raisin muffin and hate may not be a strong enough word for what she thought was an abomination. The rich pumpkin spice flavor had been replaced with some kind of bland spiced cake mix flavor that had no character whatsoever. I took a couple of bites and agreed. It tasted like a cheap cake mix rather than a richly spiced muffin. Since I am not a pumpkin fan, the loss of quality didn't affect me like it affected her but rather, I had to listen to what started as a great Disney day and quickly turned into a rant because what was a hopeful treat turned into a major disappointment.

The pumpkin muffin

I had the quiche. You can't go wrong with a quiche from the Jolly Holiday Bakery. It is consistently good and really a can't miss food item in my Disneyland menu rotation. Besides the quiche, the JHB also serves up one of the best roast beef sandwiches around complete with caramelized onions and sinus opening horseradish sauce. Good stuff here.



The Jolly Holiday Bakery is a frequent stop on our trips to Disneyland. You just need to be prepared that among the jewels that are served up also comes some disappointments.

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

The Disneyland Traveler, Kurt Russell, and the Throngs of Others

Actor Kurt Russell prepares for the Candlelight Processional
(Yes.....he put on a tux for the performance)
So the Disneyland Traveler and Mrs.DisneylandTraveler are actually in Disneyland this week and where this is being written. Here are some story lines that will be covered in upcoming posts.


  • Was the Candlelight Processional with official Disney Legend actor Kurt Russell worth the 4 hour wait?
  • Dang it's cold here!
  • New food items on the menus and one very old one that I never tried - the Plaza Inn chicken - maybe the best fried chicken ever.
  • The ruination of one of Mrs. DLT's favorite Disneyland seasonal treats - a horrid pumpkin muffin.
  • A 10 minute Christmas fireworks show?
  • So far, heavy crowds, even on Monday.
  • Very little buzz in the resort about the World of Color Christmas show though we haven't seen it yet.


Still so much to do. Stay tuned. 


Monday, October 14, 2013

Where To Place A Restaurant In Disneyland and DCA

Beer and Pretzels from DCA's Bayside Brews
A Disney Parks Blog Photo
I must say I found it rather amusing that last Friday, Disney posted in their Parks Blog (link) an announcement that had the Limited Time Magic promotion celebrating an Ocktober Fest time over at DCA's Bayside Brews. The picture shown above of the beer and pretzels came from the blog posting. What does Bayside Brews usually provide to guests when it isn't October? Well, they serve beer and pretzels. I guess when you serve up special German brews and add Bavarian mustard to the pretzels and offer a bratwurst, you can call it a Limited Time Magic event. 

But maybe there is something else. It isn't written about a lot but every once in awhile out in the Disney blog world you hear that DCA's newest dining facilities, Boardwalk Pizza and Pasta & The Paradise Garden Grill, on the far side of Paradise Paradise don't pull in the people that Disney had hoped even though the food served up at these places is really pretty decent. Meanwhile the neighboring Bayside Brews seems to have a line that is much shorter than the Karl Strauss beer truck located in the more centrally located Pacific Wharf dining area (often 10 or 15 people deep).

Bayside Brews - usually never a long wait

Here is the reason lack of diners summed up in a simple question. "You mean we have to way over there to get something to eat?" Very few people just pass by the Paradise Pier dining establishments. Being in the far corner of the park you have to be over there for a reason, If the mostly amusement park rides of Paradise Pier do not appeal to you, then you have no reason to be in that area,

Over at Disneyland, the same can be said for the Hungry Bear Restaurant. Now Hungry Bear can pack them in at lunch time due to the close proximity of the popular Splash Mountain but much of the day, the place can be pretty quiet (and a very nice place to take a break). On really slow days in the winter months, the place may not even open at all. Compare that with a place like the Tomorrowland Terrace which serves up some of the worst food in the park but because of its centralized location, usually has people searching for tables. Being off the beaten path is also why a place like Toon Town probably doesn't have a real dining facility at all (hot dogs and slices of really bad pizza don't count).

If you want a dining facility to be really popular try keep it close proximity to foot traffic where people just pass by getting from one place to the next. It doesn't hurt to serve good food although this doesn't appear to be a requirement in all cases.

Entrance to the Boardwalk Pizza and Pasta & Paradise Garden Grill

Saturday, September 28, 2013

Starbucks Opens In Disneyland: Superman Dressed as Clark Kent

The "old" Main St. Market House - A Disney Photo
The new Disneyland Starbucks location, now housed in the beloved Market House structure on Main St. USA, opened this past week. Yes, a lot of the old time charm has been sucked right out of the place but give Disney Imagineers credit, they tried to keep as much of the old time, turn of the feel of the place in the sleek new facility as they possibly could. Basically, they skinned a modern Starbucks. Starbucks is an immensely popular mass market coffee house of the modern age. Disneyland has taken the Starbucks superman and put it in mild mannered Clark Kent's clothes. Even the die hard Disneyland traditionalists can't be too displeased with the effort. And if they are, they will get over it. 

Yes, the pot belly stove and checkerboard are still in there. And is something that the old Market House never had - indoor seating.


Market House - Starbucks - Disney Concept Art

Monday, September 23, 2013

Disneyland's Signature Transition From Summer to Fall

The Disneyland Pumpkin Muffin - A MiceChat Dateline Disneyland Photo


In rained here in Northern California like a son of a gun this past Saturday, the 21st, the last official day of summer. When I woke up Sunday morning and stepped outside with the dog (reassuring her that the nasty rainstorm really went away and it was OK for her to go potty again), the air was crisp, cool, and fresh. Maybe the shorts I was wearing should be exchanged for a pair of sweatpants. Yep, that morning was the first day of autumn, or as most people call it - Fall. That's a strange name for a season but looking at the big tree in the front yard, in a couple of weeks, the word 'Fall' will make perfect sense. That's my seasonal passage, for October and November around here, its all about picking up falling leaves.

There is a Disneyland summer-fall seasonal transition as well. You could say summer ends when all the ride and attraction refurbishments spring into full speed, or the park hours get severely cut, or pumpkins and the color orange appears almost everywhere, or Jack Skellington takes over the Haunted Mansion. No.....that's not it. For Mrs. DisneylandTraveler, Disneyland changes seasons with the appearance of her beloved pumpkin muffin. She says Disneyland makes the best pumpkin muffin anywhere. I'm not going to argue. I don't even like pumpkin (to be more specific, I don't like pumpkin spices) and I have to admit Disneyland's pumpkin muffin is pretty darn good, especially with a hot cup of coffee on a cool autumn morning. MiceChat published the above photo this morning. For us here at the Disneyland Traveler Blog, fall - autumn, whatever you want to call it, has officially arrived. The pumpkin muffin is back on bakery shelves.

Saturday, September 21, 2013

Around Disneyland - September 12, 13 - Pictures - Part 1

A view of the closed TMRR from Tarzan's Treehouse
Well, in an act of kindness that fueled my sense of Disneyland longing my friend and co-worker passed on to me a CD of some of the photos he took on his trip to the resort a little over a week ago. He took some really good pictures and if truth be told, takes better pictures than me. Heck, Mrs. DisneylandTraveler takes pictures for better than me. I've got this tremor in my hands since I was about a teenager that's a hereditary thing. 70% of the pictures I take are discard-able due to my hands and the camera shaking. The other 30% are passable. One of these days, Mrs DLT is going to let me have a camera that will compensate for my hands.

Pictures from around Main Street:  Where are the people? This was Thursday. The people would show up in droves the next day on Friday the 13th, the first official day of the Halloween season.





A quiet walk up Main St.  A rare occurrence these days.

Due to the lack of people on Thursday, all rides open were almost walk ons
with no more than a 15 minute wait. Most were only 5.

Pictures from Club 33:  My friend and his wife have connections due to a couple they are close friends with and really are Club 33 members. By profession, their friends, both the husband and the wife are anesthesiologists. 

Menu cover. Leather bound. Pretty fancy for a menu that has 5 or 6 items.



The Club 33 halibut. The price? Try around 80 bucks.
Lamb Chops
Club 33 check in. Elevator to the dining room is off to the right there.
One of the dining rooms.

Another dining room

Care for a dessert?

Maybe the last photo I will have of the lovely Court of Angels before
Club 33 takes this sport over for its new entrance.







Sunday, September 15, 2013

New On The Disneyland Menu

Paella from Catal - Downtown Disney
Before we head over to Disneyland, let's take a stop at Catal in Downtown Disney. My friend and his wife had dinner here the other night. While I have heard others rave about how good the food is at Catal's. my friend and his wife "get around" so to speak, and have eaten ate great restaurants everywhere from the Napa Valley to New York City. When he says a restaurant is great, you can pretty much book on it. While his wife ordered an excellent pasta dish my friend went with the Spanish inspired paella. He said the dish was unbelievably good though a bit on the pricey side. I see visions of that paella in my sleep based on that picture (above) he sent to me. Paella - I'm coming for you...and I'm not even a big fan of rice dishes.

Back over in Disneyland, my friend went over to the Harbour Galley and tried the new lobster roll. The verdict is in and its all positive. The roll itself was buttery and good as was the lobster salad - the lobster claws that topped the roll, well, he said they were to die for. High praise indeed. Served with homemade potato chips, this sounds like and outstanding "go-to" for lunch. Lobster roll - I'm coming for you too.


Saturday, August 31, 2013

Disneyland Logic:: "Don't Worry, You'll Walk It Off"

The "Duke": Test Menu Item - A MousePlanet.com Photograph
Two menu items appeared at Disneyland this past week almost guaranteed to send a cardiologist into a side to side head shake at best, or bring a tear to his eye at the worst. Man, I'd love to give them a try.

First up (and the real bad one), Disneyland is "testing" something called "The Duke" at Frontierland's Golden Horseshoe while they are experimenting with new things to do in that classic landmark venue (STOP IT! BILLY HILL AND THE HILLBILLIES SHOULD BE IT"S ONLY PURPOSE). Anyway, I digress, "The Duke" is a hot link polish sausage battered up and fried like a corn dog then smothered in nacho cheese sauce, jalapeno, onion, and bacon bits. It is served with a side of fries also smothered in the sauce. MousePlanet published the photo above this past week. What can you say? For someone like me this looks incredibly good and enticing. It is also probably the worst thing someone like me should eat if he wants to add some years on to a decreasing lifespan. Maybe I could split it with Mrs. DisneylandTraveler but I think if this thing packs any kind of heat level at all, she probably wouldn't be game. I know how to justify eating the calorie laden, artery clogging, heart attack inducing beast. Here's where the logic comes in. "In the course of a Disneyland day, I'll just walk it off." You do burn off some calories walking but the saturated fat clogging your arteries is a different matter altogether.

The Lobster Roll From The Harbor Galley
A Disney Parks Blog Photo

Here's the second menu item the peaked my interest this past week and is served at The Harbor Galley, a walk up counter service dining facility on the banks of Rivers of America in New Orleans Square. Disneyland has introduced  a lobster roll ( ! ? ). A good lobster roll back in their native New England tends to run about $20 and up. I can't see the Disneyland quite making it up to that price point so I have a tendency to believe, despite what's shown in the picture, you're going to get a lot of mayanoise and "filler" and lobster - not so much. Again, lobster is a healthy protein alternative, the addition of mayonaise is just the opposite. Oh well, let's start walking again.

I got my friend Mike on the case. He's on his way to Disneyland in 2 weeks. The lobster roll is filed away in his list of things to eat.

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

The Latest Disneyland "Snack" Food - The Pork Shank

Disneyland's Pork Shank "snack"
A Disney Parks Blog photo

They've been available in Disney World for the better part of 6 months now and came with Magic Kingdom's new Fantasyland expansion. From most of the accounts I have read, these things are pretty darn good. So now coming to Disneyland - The Pork Shank - the pig counterpart to the infamous turkey leg, which is available at Edelweiss Snacks (on the fringe of Fantasyland near the Matterhorn boarding area).  The Pork Shanks are also available for the summer in Frontierland at the Festival Arena Jamboree area according to the announcement in Disney Parks Blog.
 
Coming in at 22 oz. and $9.99, these juicy, salt-laden, artery cloggers should be a real hit but probably should be split with as many people as you can round up to keep your doctor happy. Your stomach may appreciate it to. Chowing down one of these and going for a ride on Space Mountain or Indiana Jones probably wouldn't be advised.

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Rethinking My Approach to Disneyland Dining

The Cream Cheese and Jalapeno Mickey Pretzel - a winner for a snack

Mrs. DisneylandTraveler's dad has been in the hospital for the last few days being treated for an infection that caused him to stop eating and lose most of what strength he has left. But it's being treated and he will recover for him to join us here back home. He loves going out to eat, especially breakfast, when he isn't fighting off infections. And indeed, with Mrs. DLT and I spending a lot of time at the hospital the last few days, we've been eating out a lot too. We've been eating out so much that I'm kind of getting sick of it actually. Mrs. DLT's father's favorite spot for breakfast that he enjoys thoroughly is right down the street - and it's dreadful. Mrs. DLT herself, not being the adventurous dining type, likes to play it safe, going to restaurants and mostly eating the things she knows she will like or at least should like. God forbid that anything like a mushroom, olive, artichoke heart, or pickle touch her plate. She'll run out of the place screaming.

How about a deep fried dill pickle from the Carnation Cafe?
It tastes just like it sounds.
And slowly, I've found myself falling into a dining rut as well when it comes to going out to eat. While I may be far more adventurous than Mrs. DLT when it comes to dining, and since we seem to go to the same restaurants over and over, I find myself ordering the same things I have enjoyed from that particular restaurant that I have had in the past. I guess you could call it going to the "old stand-by". Somehow, while I may consider myself an adventurous diner, I've actually grown quite conservative. So I've been thinking to myself the the last couple of days, if I'm going out to eat, I really need to stretch my palette and try new things (something Mrs. DLT usually does not do though she surprised me at the Olive Garden the other night by ordering grilled chicken breasts with peaches)

Baked Potato Soup from the Carnation Cafe - an "old stand-by"
I would have to describe our dining experiences on our last trip to Disneyland as a mixed bag and a little weird. Indeed, I really had opportunities to stretch my dining wings so and did so but I also left some dining opportunities on the table so to speak and I am a little disappointed in myself for that. It started on the night we got there. It was early evening on a Saturday and since our deluxe AP's have Saturday as a blackout day, we couldn't go into the park. But instead of going to Downtown Disney like we should have done, we walked up Harbor Blvd. and ate dinner (which turned out to be actually breakfast) at the IHOP (International House of Pancakes for those who don't know). IHOP is usually fine. I ate one yesterday. In fact, I at the exact same thing for breakfast yesterday that I had for dinner at Disneyland a little over a month ago. Can you see why I would be kicking myself? I missed an opportunity. What about Naples, Catal, Ralph Brennan's, or even somewhere we haven't been like the Earl of Sandwich? Blew it on my first day.

Chicken Tomales for me and Mrs. DLT from Concina Cucamonga in DCA
An "old stand-by" that proved to be a major disappointment.
Over the years, Mrs. DLT and I have had a lot of bad food inside the Disneyland Resort Parks. We've taken notes and learned lessons. Prior to our last visit, we pretty much had our dining routine down to a science and could go several days without a dining disappointment. But there was something of a collision on our last trip. Disney, to their credit, is constantly tinkering with menu offerings giving new and more adventurous choices. And since it had been almost 2 years since our last visit, there were also new places to try. We made to Flo's V8 Cafe, Boardwalk Pizza and Pasta, the Fiddler, Fifer, and Practical Cafe, the Jolly Holiday Bakery, and the revamped Carnation Cafe and had mixed results but at least these were the new places we made it to.

The 5 Cheese Ravioli from Boardwalk Pizza & Pasta - a winner in my book

I guess here is my source of dining frustration - you know that trip to IHOP when we arrived? Well, we actually went to IHOP for another breakfast later on in the week. Another missed park dining opportunity not mention the Anaheim IHOP is expensive compared to the one in your neighborhood. Mrs. DLT wanted to go up to Disney Character Warehouse in Fullerton (a wasted trip) so on the way back we stopped at Mimi's Cafe, another chain restaurant that we have locally. Not only another missed opportunity to try something new in the park but what I ordered in trying to be more adventurous was absolutely horrible. Here's another one - we went twice to the Fiddler, Fifer, & Practical Cafe but really, especially during the morning hours, the FF&P Cafe is not that much different than your local Starbucks only much, much larger (which is fine but there are a half dozen Starbucks within a mile of where I live). Starbucks serves wonderful beverages and very good breakfast offerings but we didn't need to go back a second time. Here's the real kicker. Twice we went to see Billy Hill and Hillbillies and both times it was around lunch time - we ended up actually eating in the Golden Horseshoe which seems to deep fry everything but the ice cream. You might as well put a sign on my back that says "Kick Me". Oh... wait a minute. We were in ToonTown waiting for our Roger Rabbit fast pass return time window to open. Again, it was around lunch time.... lunch time in ToonTown either means horrid pizza or a plain hot dog. We opted for the hot dog, a simple, plain hot dog with mustard. OK.... now you can Kick Me.


Bacon, caramelized onion, and arugala flat bread pizza from Village Haus
Very good but very rich. Probably something that should be split with someone else.
So there are at least a half dozen missed opportunities to be adventurous and try something new with Disneyland dining which now I find myself losing sleep over (a stretch of the truth but only by a little bit). I took Mrs. DLT and my sister over to look at the menu at the Carthay Circle Restaurant  praying there would be something that would catch their eye and both shook heads lamenting that their was nothing on the menu they would even order other than the cheeseburger but at $22, something they thought they could do without. But what about the duck wings and braised short rib raviolis??? Basically, with the Carthay, I was out voted. I wanted to try new menu items at Cafe Orleans and French Market, but we never made it. I have never had the fried chicken from the Plaza Inn (which is on my bucket list) but never made it there either. Never made it to the Blue Bayou, Wine Country Trattoria, or Big Thunder Barbecue, all of which we enjoyed on past trips. I wanted to try the skewers from the Paradise Garden Grill but never made it back over there either. Naples in Downtown Disney has made some the best pizza I ever ate - nope - didn't make  it nor did we make it the new Earl of Sandwich.

Turkey Dinner for Flo's V8. It was alright but did I have eat this twice? 
When (if?) I make it back to Disneyland, I'm going to make a concerted effort to change my approach to dining. First thing, ditch the chain restaurants simply because they are convenient. Second, stay away from typical park food - you can get hot dogs and fish and chips anywhere. Third, if there is a restaurant I really want to go to but others balk - I'm going to hold my breath until I turn blue (or conveniently say I forgot something back at the hotel and need to get it but go to the restaurant instead - I have absolutely no issue dining alone). It's probably OK for snacks but fourth - never eat meals at the same place more than once a trip. Fifth, try to make agreements ahead of time that these are the restaurants were are going to. All menus are posted on the web. Make reservations if you have to. Me and Mrs. DLT are normally pretty good at this but going with my sister and her husband created different agendas from time to time. Sixth, be bolder with dining choices - you only live once.

You could make a meal out of Trader Sam's appetizer offerings.
Why didn't we?