Carthay Circle Restaurant Review

Carthay Circle Restaurant in Disney California Adventure is Disneyland Resort’s top in-park dining experience. This review covers our experiences at both the bar & lounge and the table service restaurant located in Carthay Circle Theatre. Carthay Circle Restaurant’s menu consists of trendy modern cuisine with a diverse range of flavors and locally sourced ingredients. Many items on the menu are flavors of Southern California, but it’s not an overly “California” menu. Inside, it feels like an upscale old Hollywood place. Sort of like the Hollywood Tower Hotel, except without the lightning and stuff (although I did half expect to find Rod Serling inside).

Being an upscale restaurant inside a theme park is a tough balancing act–upscale dining requires a certain menu, level of service, and ambiance, whereas theme parks are bustling places often filled with sweaty tourists. Nailing the ambiance thus becomes a bit of a challenge, as the restaurant’s clientele is not typical of what you’d find in a comparable SoCal restaurant. In this sense, Carthay Circle Restaurant was a bit of a gamble for Disney. Napa Rose in Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel has proven quite popular, but it benefits from locals being able to visit without paying park admission.

By contrast, Carthay Circle Restaurant caters only to the theme park crowd, and has to compete with attractions for the attention of this crowd. Unlike other restaurants that have gone “extinct” at Disney California Adventure in the past, Carthay Circle Restaurant is located prominently in Disney California Adventure’s wienie, making it more difficult for Disney to just shutter. On top of that, much of the dedicated Annual Passholder base at Disneyland was a bit perturbed when Carthay Circle Theatre was announced as the home of a restaurant and two lounges rather than an actual attraction. In other words, Carthay Circle Restaurant has had a lot of pressure on it since even before it opened to really offer an incredible experience. (more…)

Carnation Cafe Review

Carnation Café is a table service restaurant located on Main Street in Disneyland. Disneyland’s Carnation Café serves American cuisine for breakfast, lunch, and dinner in an open-air seating area on Main Street. As part of a 2012 expansion of the Carnation Café, there is now indoor seating and a revised menu. Like many locations in Disneyland, Carnation Café has rich history. It is located in the same location where the Carnation Ice Cream Shoppe and the Flower Mart once stood. Advance reservations can be arranged for this restaurant by calling Disney Dining at (714) 781-DINE; reservations are recommended here due to the restaurant’s size, it’s popularity among Disneyland fans, and its prices. Reservations are more likely to be useful for breakfast than for lunch or dinner here, but you should make reservations for any meal here, if you know in advance that you want to eat here. We did not make reservations, and we were seated immediately, but your luck may not be as good as ours!

This review details the lunch menu at Carnation Café both prior to 2012 and after the 2012 refurbishment. You can view the current menu here. Carnation Café also serves breakfast, and we had heard a number of great things about the breakfast menu. Likewise, the lunch menu is very solid and the prices are very reasonable. Overall, Carnation Café is probably one of the best dining options at Disneyland Resort. For its price point, you absolutely cannot go wrong or do better. (more…)

Corn Dog Castle Review

Corn Dog Castle is a Disney California institution. Even during the dark days of Disney’s California Adventure 1.0, Corn Dog Castle was a beacon, demonstrating all that was right with the park. Legends still swirl that no less than 73.3% of first year Disney’s California Adventure visitors came solely to experience the delicious corn dogs, deemed by many to be a 21st century “fountain of youth.” Guests came on pilgrimages from around the world–one was rumored to have walked barefoot from Finland all the way to Corn Dog Castle–to bask in the youthful glow of Corn Dog Castle. One prominent swimmer even trained for the Olympics on a strict diet of Corn Dog Castle cuisine. Many described consuming one of their corn dogs as a spiritual experience.

Okay, so none of that is true. At least none of it is true to my knowledge. (I suppose there could be some folks out there who love Corn Dog Castle so much that they’d do those things.) But, this place is essentially just a corn dog stand and this review would be really short if I didn’t spice it up with some superfluous nonsense. In actuality, Corn Dog Castle does have its legion of fans, many of whom were quite frightened back when Corn Dog Castle went behind construction walls in 2009 as Disney’s California Adventure transitioned into Disney California Adventure. To the rejoicing of millions (or perhaps just thousands), it reopened in 2011. (more…)

Cozy Cone Motel Review

This Cozy Cone Motel review is actually not a review of a motel at all, but of a cluster of outdoor vending “cones.” So, if you opened this review hoping to learn about the latest hotel at Disneyland, you’re going to be disappointed. Although, I suppose you could take a nap at one of the picnic tables by the Cozy Cones. As far as food goes at the Cozy Cone Motel, the stands specialize in cone related foods and bad puns.

It’s not all bad at Cozy Cone Motel. Actually, depending upon how you view the Cozy Cone Motel, you might be pleasantly surprised..or very disappointed. As far as general theme goes, I think it’s fair to applaud Imagineering for its ambition on the Cozy Cone Motel. Instead of going the less authentic route of expanding the check-in/lobby/Sally’s office area to make a dedicated quick service restaurant with the individual cones serving as covered picnic table locations (or something), they decided to make things proportionately more accurate and have the lobby be smaller (and inaccessible to park guests) and have the cones more prominent. (more…)

Flo’s V8 Cafe Review

This Flo’s V8 Cafe review could easily summarize our opinion of this Cars Land restaurant at Disney California Adventure in three words: “Eat at Flo’s.” Flo’s V8 Cafe combines the best of Disney theming, quality comfort food, and incredible ambiance to become one of the top Disneyland Resort restaurants.

Starting with the theme, Flo’s V8 Cafe is modeled after a real restaurant on Route 66, Midpoint Cafe in Midpoint, Texas. Before you snort in derision that the real restaurant is in Texas and this is a California theme park, it’s fair to say that this restaurant could be found anywhere along Route 66, including California. More than anything, it looks like Flo’s V8 Cafe that caters to talking cars from a certain Pixar film, which is set in a fictional town an an area that’s most likely Arizona…which is also not California. Whatever. The cafe and the land work, and they work well.

Flo’s V8 Cafe is a mix of real-life 60s-era car culture and backstory from Cars having to do with the rise of racing in Radiator Springs. The neon will draw you toward the restaurant, where you’ll notice great details such as oil cans, gas pumps, cacti, and varying types of architecture depending upon what side of the restaurant you view. Once inside, the rest of the details will continue to mesmerize you. (more…)