Opening Date & Full Menu for Country Bear Jamboree Restaurant
Disney has revealed the opening date and full menu for Hungry Bear Barbecue Jamboree the reimagined restaurant inspired by Country Bear Jamboree! Here’s a complete list of every entree, side, kids’ meal, dessert and drink, as well as photos of every dish. Plus, our prediction as to where Hungry Bear BBQ will rank among Disneyland fast food options. (Updated October 15, 2024.)
Let’s start with basic background. Hungry Bear Restaurant closed last month as part of the temporary closure of Critter Country that’s occurring due to the transformation of Splash Mountain into Tiana’s Bayou Adventure. This whole corner of the park is a mess of construction, and there’s also walls around nearby Haunted Mansion and a large swath of New Orleans Square extending to Tiana’s Palace Restaurant.
Disneyland has announced that Tiana’s Bayou Adventure will open on November 15, 2024 as part of a newly-reimagined Bayou Country. However, they also left the door open for the rest of the area to reopen earlier, which we strongly suspect will happen. If we had to bet, we’d guess that most of Bayou Country will reopen before mid-October for Fall Break at the latest, and perhaps by mid-to-late September.
October 15, 2024 Update: Disneyland has now confirmed the above. Just this week, the walls came down around Tiana’s Bayou Adventure and the rest of Bayou Country. This revealed two reimagined retail locations, Ray’s Berets and Louis’ Critter Club. Disneyland revealed that the second shop will open on November 13, two days before Tiana’s Bayou Adventure.
Disneyland also just announced that Hungry Bear Barbecue Jamboree will open on October 25, 2024!
While we were hoping Hungry Bear would reopen a bit earlier, in time for the height of Fall Break in mid-October, this is still pretty good timing. The reimagined restaurant will debut just a few days after Tiana’s Bayou Adventure Magic Key Annual Passholder Previews start.
Update 2: Disneyland has now released the full menus with prices:
The Country Bears are taking over Hungry Bear Restaurant and putting their own twist on it with the Hungry Bear Barbecue Jamboree. After touring from coast to coast performing their tunes, Henry, Wendell, Big Al, and the rest of the gang have put together some of the favorite regional barbecue dishes they discovered along the way, just for you. (Hungry Bear Barbecue Jamboree will not be a character dining location.)
You’ll want to try these bites, including the mouthwatering Smoked Barbecue Combo Platter with a selection of house-smoked meats, which will also be available on mobile order. For those music fans out there, you can feast upon these finger-lickin’ dishes as you enjoy some of the Country Bears’ greatest hits!
Here’s a first look at food photos and menu descriptions for Hungry Bear Barbecue Jamboree…
Entrées at Hungry Bear Barbecue Jamboree
- Smoked Barbecue Combo Platter: A selection of house-smoked meats, served with baked beans, house slaw, white bread, and pickles with a choice of two of the following: Pork Spareribs, Pulled Pork, Sausage Link, or Beef Brisket (New)
- Barbecue Pulled Pork Sandwich: Tangy BBQ sauce, house slaw, bread and butter, and pickles served with beer-battered fries (New)
- Smoked Beef Brisket Sandwich with tangy BBQ sauce, pickled red onions, and pickled jalapeños served with beer-battered fries (New)
- Smoked Angus Beef Burger and Pulled Pork with American cheese, golden aïoli, pickled red onions, bread and butter pickles, and crispy onions served with beer-battered fries (New)
- Corn Ribs Plate: Chile-lime aioli, parmesan, crispy onions, cilantro, and scallions with house slaw and beer-battered fries (Plant-based) (New)
- Loaded Fries topped with smoked pulled pork, queso sauce, pickled red onions, and pickled jalapeños, cilantro, and scallions (New)
- Classic Cheeseburger served with beer-battered fries
- Chicken Tenders Plate served with house slaw and beer-battered fries
Sides at Hungry Bear Barbecue Jamboree
- Beer-battered Fries (New)
- Baked Beans (New)
- House Slaw (New)
Kids’ Meals at Hungry Bear Barbecue Jamboree
All kids’ meals are served with Cuties Mandarin Orange and Applesauce and a choice of small DASANI Water or small Low-fat milk.
- Pork Spareribs (New)
- Toasted Cheese Sandwich (Disney Check Meal) (New)
- Hamburger (Disney Check Meal)
- Chicken Tenders
Desserts at Hungry Bear Barbecue Jamboree
- Banana Pudding: Bananas, whipped cream, crushed wafer cookies, dulce de leche, and toffee (New)
- Funnel Cake Fries dusted with powdered sugar. For an additional charge, add some extra sweetness to your funnel cake fries with Banana Caramel Dipping Sauce! (New)
Drinks at Hungry Bear Barbecue Jamboree
- Sparkling Strawberry-Pickle Lemonade: Simply Lemonade, Minute Maid Strawberry Smoothie, flavors of lime, Sprite, pickle juice and a pickle spear (Non-alcoholic) (New)
- Strawberry Shortcake Lemonade: Simply Lemonade, Minute Maid Strawberry Smoothie, sweet cream topping, shortbread crumbles, and strawberry dust (Non-alcoholic) (New)
- Lemonade-Iced Tea: Simply Lemonade and Gold Peak Unsweetened Iced Tea garnished with a lemon wheel (Non-alcoholic) (New)
Souvenirs at Hungry Bear Barbecue Jamboree
- Hungry Bear Mason Jar with choice of beverage at time of purchase (Additional charge for specialty lemonades)
This is probably the biggest “miss” of the Hungry Bear Barbecue Jamboree menu for me. Even back before it was a Country Bear restaurant, Hungry Bear sold novelty CBJ moonshine jugs. I figured they’d have a few items like that for the reopening. (Silver lining–it saves me some money buying stuff I do not need!)
The new menu at Hungry Bear Barbecue Jamboree will be better than what it replaced at Hungry Bear Restaurant. There’s literally no doubt about that whatsoever, and I’m 100% confident in that assertion without taste-testing a single dish.
Admittedly, this is in part because it can’t get much worse. Aside from the occasional worthwhile seasonal funnel cake, Hungry Bear has served a basic and limited menu for years. It’s basically one step above Galactic Grill at this point–making it the second-worst restaurant at Disneyland.
It’s also in part because Disneyland has been going all-out with new menus around the parks. Almost every single restaurant that’s been reimagined or refreshed at Disneyland in the last several years has been a marked improvement, and the menus have largely held up over time. Tiana’s Palace, in particular, is a big upgrade over French Market’s last menu. While I don’t expect that caliber from a BBQ joint, a few worthwhile items would be a huge win, especially given the stellar setting.
In looking at the menu for Hungry Bear Barbecue Jamboree, I’m really optimistic. It’s possible that the stock photos are, ahem, aspirational and the real dishes won’t look anything like that. The portions of meat will be smaller, fattier, dryer, etceteria-er. I’m cautiously optimistic that won’t be the case.
Barbecue is something Disney does pretty well in counter service settings–Regal Eagle Smokehouse is probably an illustrative example. Although it’s not the pinnacle of BBQ, it’s really good for what it is, and miles above the old Hungry Bear menu. This new menu looks comparable to that, with a few unique twists for Disneyland.
In particular, the Corn Ribs, Smoked Barbecue Combo Platter, and Smoked Beef Brisket Sandwich all look fantastic. While I doubt Hungry Bear Barbecue Jamboree can dethrone Tiana’s Palace as the #1 counter service restaurant at Disneyland, I think top 5 is all but guaranteed. Going from second-worst to maybe second-best is a huge turnaround! Now restore Flo’s V8 Cafe to its former glory, Disneyland!
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Thoughts on the menu at Hungry Bear Barbecue Jamboree? Excited for any of the entrees or better fries? What do you think about Disneyland getting a Country Bear Jamboree-themed restaurant? Are you excited for Hungry Bear Barbecue Jamboree? Thoughts on the likelihood of Hungry Bear Barbecue Jamboree coming to Walt Disney World? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
As someone whose immediate and extended family has to eat gluten and dairy free, I see this new menu as a loss. There are fewer and fewer places where we can eat at Disneyland. Beer battered fries mean that no one in our family could eat them. (Beer usually is not gluten free. ) Tiana’s Restaurant is an example of removing a restaurant with more options and replacing it with less. Also, due to these dietary restrictions, we often have two burger meals a day. Couldn’t they have done something more creative like include a salad option?
When I saw that the BBQ platter only has 2 of the 4 options, I was surprised. But actually I think this is good from a not-wasting-food point of view. It would be great if they also had an option to choose 2 of 4 sides (my family would far rather have fries than baked beans, for example).
The corn ribs look amazing, but how can it be plant-based if it’s got parmesan on it? Was this an error?
This looks fantastic. Too bad it won’t be open yet when we get there next week. I love the setting of the Hungry Bear, but finding something on the menu worth ordering was nearly impossible. This should be a huge improvement.
I wish they’d retheme Pecos Bill’s in WDW to this! Sometimes I just want BBQ in MK. If people want Mexican/tacos, they can get it in Mexico at Epcot. I can’t wait to try this place when we go to DL.
I just want a burger that’s better than McDonalds…
Do you think the fantasmic dining packages will revert back to hungry bear when it opens? Considering I already have a rancho del zocalo package for late september, I would think they’d need at least a 60 day warning for that.
Probably not.
What I could see happening is dining packages being added (at some point) for Hungry Bear, having both available simultaneously, and then dropping Rancho down the road. Just a guess, though.