Everything I ate the last time we went to Disneyland

My family recently spent a couple of days at the Disneyland Resort. We stayed at the Grand Californian and park hopped for two days. Usually when our family of five is at Disneyland we tend to eat at the same places over and over or gravitate to the places we know, and we definitely prioritize hitting our favorite rides over having nice dining experiences. I went into this trip hoping to try at least a few new things and I was somewhat successful although I definitely ate too much junk on the run and should have reconsidered our table service dining reservation.

Here is everything I ate at Downtown Disney, Disneyland, California Adventure and The Grand Californian on our recent trip to the Disneyland Resort.

Our First Night:
After we all arrived (our college age daughter drove in separately) and checked in to our room at the Grand Californian, we headed out to Downtown Disney for dinner. In the past our tradition was to have our first night dinner at the Rainforest Cafe. Then that closed and our first night dinner tradition switched to Tortilla Jo’s. Which has now closed. With no traditional spot and no particular allegiance to anything (even the Jazz Cafe express has become a Beignet only spot) we decided to eat at Black Tap Craft Burgers & Shakes because we were hungry and somewhat grumpy and everyone will eat a cheeseburger.

Except for me - I had the Cheetos Chopped Salad and it was surprisingly good. I recommend it if you are looking for something not fried but fun.

Cheetos Chopped Salad 7/10 and Hot Fried Pickles (spicy!) 6/10

Day 1 in the parks:

Thinking I was being a super smart planning ahead overachiever I ordered coffee from room service at the Grand Californian by hanging the little order form on the door before we bed. This was a mistake. I will never understand why high end hotels do not use filtered water for their brewed coffee. I’ve run into this over and over again. Anyway, the coffee was not good. They did include a little bowl of Cutie’s on the tray and those were delicious when I ate them later.

Room Service Coffee at the Grand Californian -176/10 Cuties Mandarin Oranges 10/10

After we ran around riding as many rides as we could during our early entry we stopped for breakfast in Star Wars Land. Low key the Morning Wrap at Ronto’s Roasters is one of the best things I’ve ever eaten inside the Disneyland Park. It’s a sausage ( I wish I could find out where they get these sausages) cheese and eggs in a pita wrap with what they are calling a peppercorn sauce, but it’s not really peppery.

Morning Wrap at Ronto’s Roasters 12/10

Failed to take photos of almost everything I ate. This is the WDW Ronto Wrap, it’s similar to the morning wrap.

At this point I was desperate for real coffee. I split off with one of my kids for an Iced Coffee at the Jolly Holiday Bakery Cafe. This was another mistake.

Iced Coffee at the Jolly Holiday Bakery Cafe 1/10

Everyone else in our group had gone into Docking Bay 7 Food and Cargo to try the “coffee with the cocoa puffs on top.” This was, in fact, delicious. It’s described as a “Cold Brew Coffee topped with Sweet Cream Cheese and Chocolate Puffs.” It is not a real coffee but it’s a fun treat.

Cold Brew Black Caf at Docking Bay 7 Food and Cargo 8.5/10

We park hopped in the afternoon and grabbed a refreshing lil drink at the Pixar Fest Marketplaces.

SPARK-ler (Cotton Candy & Blue Curaçao Syrups, Mango Purèe and Pineapple & Lime Juices, garnished with a Glow Cube) at Spark 6/10

We have always liked eating in the Pacific Wharf area in California Adventure becuase there was something for everyone in our family and you could get an ice cream sundae at Ghirardelli. It has been transformed into San Fransokyo Square since we were last there in 2021 but sometimes change is good and definitely so in this case as the food options available are some of the best at the resort. And you can still get a sundae at Ghirardelli.

This is the best thing I ate during our trip. I am still thinking about it weeks later. Beef Birria Ramen at Lucky Fortune Cookery in California Adventure 24/10

This cocktail was a pretty basic vodka drink but solid and refreshing. Strawberry Lychee Cocktail at Lucky Fortune Cookery in California Adventure 6/10

San Fransokyo-style Street Corn at Cocina Cucamonga Mexican Grill. This was EXCELLENT. 10/10

Then we hopped again (I took 34,195 steps that day).

Dole Whip at Tiki Juice Bar never misses 8/10

For dinner we stopped in at Bengal Barbecue in Adventureland.

Chieftain Chicken Skewer 2/10, Pork Belly Skewer 10/10 and a Safari Skewer (Bacon-wrapped Asparagus) 9/10, some of my daughter’s macaroni salad 5/10

Day 2 in the parks:

I wasn’t messing around on Day 2. Our first stop during the half an hour of early entry was at Radiator Springs Racers where we got super lucky and they opened up the ride early. Then I insisted that we go get an actual cup of coffee so we headed to Fiddler, Fifer & Practical AKA the California Adventure Starbucks. This is one of the better, more efficient Starbucks I have visited in my life, although one of the cashiers gave me a hard time about asking for ice water from the Starbucks water dispenser rather than one of the pre-filled Disneyland cups of water that she tried to hand me.

Grande Americano with one sugar and splash of half & half 10/10 and a black coffee 10/10

Double Smoked Bacon Sandwich can’t go wrong 7/10

And! A few bites of the Chipotle Chicken Melt from the seasonal menu which was fire 8/10

When we hopped over to Disneyland. Mom and Dad had drinks at Oga’s Cantina while our underage kids had fried chicken at Docking Bay 7 Food and Cargo. I did have them order dessert for me.

The Jedi Mind Trick at Oga’s Cantina - this was really good, I love a tiki style drink that doesn’t have rum in the ingredients 9/10

Vintian Mineral Mousse at Docking Bay 7 Food and Cargo - this has two flavors of mousse on one plate, half was 8/10 the other half was 2/10

Mom and dad left the kids and went to find a Corn Dog. Ended up at the Stage Door Cafe, perfect dog 9/10

Then I ordered another Dole Whip at the Tiki Juice Bar, this time the seasonal Pineapple Coconut Float, which is topped with a turtle gummy. Full disclosure, I was too full drinks and corn dogs to have another Dole Whip at this point but everyone in my family wanted to try the Pineapple Coconut flavor so I ordered one, and we all tried it. This was a mistake. Too sweet and just unneccessary. A Dole Whip is perfect in itself, we do not need to add anything to it.

Seasonal Coconut Float Dole Whip at the Tiki Juice Bar 2/10

Then we hopped (only 22,272 steps on this day) and a couple of my kids wanted a churro so I got a churro even though I really did not need to put any food in my body at that point and we were going in to watch Turtle Talk with Crush and they wouldn’t let us take the churros in so this was a mistake.

Churro at Willie’s Churros 6/10 solid churro

Every time I try to plan a nice dinner inside one of the parks at the Disneyland Resort, it is a mistake. This trip was no exception. In general we’ve found that table service dining inside the parks is over priced and not particularly good. I made a reservation at Wine Country Trattoria because it looks so pretty from the outside and I didn’t want to pay for Carthay Circle. My first mistake in this series of mistakes was that Wine Country Trattoria is in the area of California Adventure known as the Performance Corridor. My second mistake was making the reservation for the exact same time that the Better Together: A Pixar Pals Celebration! parade drives through the Performance Corridor. When everyone in our family was finally able to cross the road and we were seated inside, I wished we had gone back to San Fransokyo for ramen. While the outdoor seating is beautiful, the inside of Wine Country Trattoria feels like a cafeteria and it is incredibly loud. There weren’t that many people inside but the acoustics made the noise almost unbearable. We had a very nice waiter and the service we received from him was excellent. The food was just ok. The best thing on our table was the rib eye steak one of my kids ordered. My husband felt that his chicken parmesan wasn’t cooked all the way through. Not a great way to end our time in the parks, unfortunately.

Pull-Apart Cheese Bread 5/10 and Spaghetti Aglio Olio 3/10 at Wine Country Trattoria in California Adventure

Last Day at the Resort:

We decided to have a quick breakfast in the hotel so we headed to the GCH Craftsman Grill. This was my first time eating here. We’ve done the buffet at Storyteller’s Cafe in the past and that was excellent but unfortunately that excellence does not extend to the GCH Craftsman Grill. It also wasn’t quick. Despite the fact that there were only a few people eating in the restaurant while we were there, our food took a really long time to come to the table. I will say, this is a good place to stop in if you want a quick, prepackaged snack or coffee. They have a ton of bottled drinks, iced coffee dispenser, fountain drinks, packaged snacks and fun Disney treats. But our breakfast was just ok.

American Breakfast at GCH Craftsman Grill at the Grand Californian 3/10

As with every trip I take to Disneyland, I regret the food we didn’t get to try and some of the food we did try. Docking Bay 7 and Lucky Fortune Cookery are new favorites. Bengal Barbecue and the Tiki Juice Bar remain classics. And we’ve learned our lesson and will probably spring for the Storyteller’s Cafe the next time we’re at The Grand Californian.