Best Halloween Foods & Desserts at Disneyland

Disneyland has dozens of special holiday desserts, savory snacks, and pumpkin everything for Halloween 2019. In the name of research, we tried a ton of these to scientifically determine which are the best. It took a lot of eating around the park, but we’re sharing our favorites—from beignets to cheesecake to ice cream—in this post.

While we joke about this being “research,” it’s truly one of the things we love most about Disneyland Resort. The frequent seasonal menu updates and special items give us an excuse to visit restaurants and snack stands we normally skip, and being completionists, we feel compelled to try anything new on Disneyland’s menus–especially at Halloween and Christmas.

Of course, snacking is just one small component of the fall season at Disneyland. From the new Oogie Boogie Bash – A Disney Halloween Party to Haunted Mansion Holiday, there’s a ton to see and do this time of year in the parks. Make sure to read our Ultimate Guide to Halloween Time at Disneyland to get the most out of this awesome season in the parks!

Since everyone knows that every nutritious meal is dessert-heavy, Disneyland has a lot of treats and not many savory entrees available for Halloween Time this year. The entrees that are available are almost entirely at table service restaurants, and we didn’t even bother messing with those.

The good news is that there are a lot of solid entrees across the Esplanade at Disney California Adventure (we’ll have another food guide for DCA soon!), so you can bounce between the two parks if you want a “balanced” Halloween Food Crawl at Disneyland. Or, you can just go wild eating a bunch of Halloween desserts!

Here’s a look at the official 2019 Food Guide to Halloween Time at Disneyland, which you can find near park maps at the turnstiles, or at select restaurants:

We’ll start at Jolly Holiday Bakery, which is essentially a pop-up “Spirit Halloween Snacks Store” for decadent desserts during the fall. There are more Halloween desserts here than anywhere else at Disneyland, and it’s also home to some of the best snacks.

If you want a one-stop shop for all of your snacking needs, Jolly Holiday Bakery is it. One afternoon, we did exactly that, enjoying several snacks and entrees while seated outside in the shade, enjoying a variety of live entertainment perform Halloween and Haunted Mansion medleys. It was a quintessential fall Disneyland experience.

My favorite fall dessert at Jolly Holiday Bakery is the Sweet Potato Hand Pie, which is topped with orange white chocolate glaze and toasted mini marshmallows.

The crust is soft and approaches a near-gooey consistency, the sweet potato filling is a mix of decadent and earthy, the orange chocolate glaze ups the sweetness, and the marshmallows provide an interesting texture. It’s hard to articulate why this dessert is so good, but it’s the perfect marriage of a campfire treat and quasi-pumpkin dish. It’s heavenly, and my #1 pick of everything we ate.

Next up at Jolly Holiday is the Layered Pumpkin Cheesecake, which is different from the normal pumpkin cheesecake served over at Disney California Adventure.

This is delicious, with a number of layers (as the name suggests) offering up different textures and tastes. The pumpkin pie flavor is pronounced, with the only disappointment being that it’s not a bit denser. Nevertheless, this is one of Sarah’s top picks for Halloween desserts at Disneyland.

Continuing at Jolly Holiday Bakery, we have the lone entree on this list: the Toasted Salsa Roja Chicken Sandwich Combo. This consists of salsa roja shredded chicken on rustic bread with pepper jack and cotija cheeses served with tortilla soup.

I really hope this finds its way onto the permanent menu, as it’s fantastic. The tender chicken melds exquisitely with the cheeses, for a melt-in-your-mouth taste with a very mild kick. The bread provides a nice counterweight and crunch to this, and the tortilla soup is great on its own (how I’d recommend enjoying it) or for dipping the sandwich. This is addictively good.

Moving deeper into Disneyland, we arrive at Frontierland’s Rancho del Zocalo. This restaurant serves up a variety of seasonal desserts, highlighted by the Pan Dulce Ice Cream Sandwich. This consists of colorful Mexican sweet bread with dulce de leche ice cream, cajeta, and churro streusel.

It’s as unbelievable as it looks. By themselves, the sweet bread and ice cream are each tasty, but they pair perfectly, and are only further enhanced by the caramel notes of the cajeta and texture of the churro streusel. This is simply fantastic, and is a must-order. (Honorable mention here to the Frozen Abuelita Horchata; it’s good, but not quite good enough to make the list.)

Heading into New Orleans Square, the fritters at Royal Street Veranda are another of our returning favorites.

This year, they’re pimento cheese fritters with ghost pepper ranch dressing. A nice, rich and cheesy dessert with a mild kick. We personally prefer the pumpkin variety of previous years, but the rare savory option is a nice change of pace.

Pumpkin Spice Mickey Beignets are available at the Mint Julep Bar. Thanks to the popularity of them and the Mint Juleps, you might expect to wait in a long line for them. We recommend grabbing some early in the day after a ride on Haunted Mansion Holiday, or using Mobile Order.

They come served in a bag with a liberal amount of powdered sugar. The beignets come in 3 and 6-packs, and are freshly made when ordered. They are like airy bites of pumpkin goodness, and definitely highly recommended. Even if you don’t think you’ll want 6, you probably should order that many…just to be safe.

Sticking with New Orleans Square, we come to French Market.

Here there are a handful of Halloween options, a couple of which are holdovers from the Haunted Mansion 50th Anniversary celebration. As with French Market in general, the prices on the desserts here have crept up over the last few years to downright perplexing highs.

We really liked the Wedding Cake with buttercream frosting, cherries, cream cheese filling, and a splatter of cherry sauce.

Unfortunately, we hesitate to recommend it due to the absurd price ($8). Same deal with the Hitchhiking Ghost Blue Velvet Cake. If money is no issue, both are quite good and highly recommended.

Finally, we have the Chocolate-Coffee Yule Log at Plaza Inn. I’ve sang the praises of these yule logs countless times on the blog, so I don’t need to bore you with the details here.

With that said, I’m not sure how I feel about this. For years, the Yule Log has signaled the arrival of Christmas at Disneyland, doing this version in November followed by the Chocolate Mint Yule Log in December. Now, it’s this version for Septemeber-October and the Chocolate Mint version for November-December. It’s still delicious and you should absolutely order it if Halloween is your only visit to Disneyland. Personally, this will always be a Christmas-time snack, and with so many other exceptional options around Disneyland, I’m fine saving this treat until the holidays!

If you’re preparing for a Disneyland trip, check out our other planning posts, including how to save money on Disneyland tickets, our Disney packing tips, tips for booking a hotel (off-site or on-site), where to dine, and a number of other things, check out our comprehensive Disneyland Vacation Planning Guide!

Your Thoughts

Which Halloween Time at Disneyland snacks do you enjoy? Which ones here look the best to you? Any questions about what else we recommend this year for the fall season at Disneyland? Hearing from you is half the fun, so if you have additional Halloween tips or questions, please share them in the comments!