The Fairest Trip Report of All: Food Reviews

Hi guys! Tragically, here is the final regular installment of our trip report, highlighting our time in the Disneyland Resort. Hope you enjoy! To read all the posts in this report, click here. 

JENN: And now we come to our final moment of nostalgia: food review from our Disneyland trip.

Let’s start in Downtown Disney with La Brea Bakery, where we got grilled vegetable sandwiches. As a vegetable expert, what were your thoughts? I know you felt there wasn’t enough ketchup.

MOON: Hmm. Vegetable sandwiches are always so uniform. I feel the approach to a vegetarian sandwich is “just take the meat off and put some peppers on it, maybe a mushroom.” However, I did appreciate there was no cheese on mine.

JENN: California tends to be good about providing vegan options. And I liked that they gave us vinegar and oil to go with the bread basket. Very continental.

Were the french fries to your liking? You tend to have strong feelings regarding french fries.

MOON: Ehhh. They rate mediocre on my french fry scale.

JENN: Burn!

One perk: when we were at La Brea, I tweeted that fact. Of course. Because Disney trips require excessive live documentation, clearly. In this case it worked out for us beautifully, because Nicole informed me that they honor a Disney Visa discount. According to the waiter, they only apply this discount unless you specifically ask, so fellow Disney Visa holders: do your research! (Or take Nicole with you everywhere.)

Next up, we have the Earl of Sandwich, where you got tomato soup and we SPLIT! a spicy tuna wrap. I thought it was good but not remotely spicy. I did appreciate that the tuna, while not dry, was neither over-mayonnaised. And the black olives were a nice addition. Still: NOT SPICY.

MOON: Yes, I agree. There wasn’t even a hint at spicy. The tomato soup was pretty good, but I always feel okay with tomato soup. 🙂

JENN: Did it make you feel any better? (Moon was sick the day before the race.)

MOON: It made me feel warmer!

JENN: I also ran over to grab a bread pudding from Ralph Brennan’s Jazz Kitchen Express, because I am a bread pudding FIEND.

I don’t think Moon tried any so I’ll take this one: good. It came with a nice vanilla bean sauce. But it wasn’t quite gooey enough for my taste and the flavor was primarily just sugar, nothing more subtle. I feel like bread pudding is one of those things that you just can’t beat when it’s homemade.

Now for our post-half-marathon lunch at Jolly Holiday Bakery at the end of Main Street in Disneyland. We both got the same thing: the Jolly Holiday Combo, tomato soup with a grilled cheese sandwich cut into strips for dipping.

MOON: MORE TOMATO SOUP! 😀

JENN: And how was that tomato soup, connoisseur?

MOON: Also pretttty good.

JENN: I enjoyed the combo very much. But. There was something not quite right about the grilled cheese sandwich. Initially I thought it wasn’t quite enough cheese, but after further analysis I came to the conclusion that the bread, while buttery and delicious, was just a leeeettle too thick. Kind of undermines the cheese factor. And the cheese factor is key.

MOON: I’ve only ever had one grilled cheese sandwich I truly liked, so I feel my opinion on this matter doesn’t offer much.

JENN: Ha, where was that?

MOON: Austin, TX! They would put pears on your sandwich. Mine had a fried egg.

JENN: Nice. Jolly Holiday has promise but much to learn.

Next: the famous peanut butter sandwich! I got this from the candy store on Main Street after reading about it in the Disney Food Blog. Basically, it’s a graham cracker slathered with peanut butter and covered in milk chocolate. So: an open faced sandwich.

It was delicious, because peanut butter is delicious and chocolate is delicious and peanut butter + chocolate = delicious, but I can’t help but feel that what I ate was, essentially, a very large and expensive buckeye. The graham cracker didn’t really enter into the taste equation; I think it was only there for support.

Moon tried a bite – any thoughts?

MOON: Hmm, I thought it tasted like chocolate? What we can all take away from this blog: Jenn knows her food. Moon tastes Jenn’s food and generally feels okay about it.

JENN: “Jenn knows her Disney. Moon tastes Jenn’s Disney and generally feels okay about it.” Yep, still works. 😉

MOON: Hahaha, interchangeable nouns!

JENN: Okay, let’s move on to Uva Bar at Downtown Disney, where, in Moon’s own words, she ate her weight in guacamole.

MOON: The menu was limited for vegetarians! I opted for the guacamole. The plate arrived with a MOUND of guacamole.

JENN: Was it at least delicious? I remember it arrived with slices of radish sticking out of it.

MOON: Yes, it was quite delicious! If you remember (which I know you do), I ate nearly all of it. Radishes included.

JENN: Excellent!

I got the tuna “tacos,” called “tacos” because they were really more fried tortillas, I guess, rather than any more formal Latin wrapping? I don’t know. The tuna was raw, so naturally they were unaccountably tasty. The avocado accompaniment helped a great deal. I rather wish the shell had been soft, but that’s a personal preference.

Sadly in the value/hunger area, you only got three quite small tacos, so I also ordered a machengo cheese salad, which was great – nuts and fruit and wonderful hard cheese. I would recommend this if you’re looking to add some roughage to your diet.

Next up we have Paradise Garden Grill at Disney’s California Adventure. I got a Greek salad here. I felt more nutritionally secure because I was eating greens and greens are good for you therefore health, but… my GOD was it salty. That’s all I remember about it: salt. That briny, olive-y, feta-y salt, which means it was GREEK salt, but still.

How was your kebab? You got tofu with… what kind of sauce again?

MOON:  Ha, I have no idea. I remember asking the attendant which she preferred and I went with her choice.

It was okay. Just grilled veggies with a square or two of tofu. Unremarkable, but healthy nonetheless.

JENN: I think you got chimichurri sauce… you seemed lukewarm about it at best. How were the sides?

MOON: Vinegary. I think I had a cucumber salad and some rice.

JENN: Sounds about right. Worth eating?

MOON: Sure, but I would probably pick a different venue next time.

JENN: Speaking of: let’s move on to Lucky Fortune Cookery, home of Asian Food!

MOON: SIIIIIGH.

JENN: Now, in fairness, they do offer Thai coconut curry sauce. So that’s, like, at LEAST two countries represented. And I had that sauce, with the tofu and veggies and rice, and it was very tasty. Mind you, I’m sure Thailand proper could do better, but for a reasonably healthy, filling theme park meal I was not displeased.

MOON: Under that distinction, I would agree. Nothing was fried and there were vegetables. I was happy enough.

JENN: How was the teriyaki sauce?

MOON: Tangy. Not so much teriyaki sauce, but it was all right!

JENN: The tofu was a good, silky texture. Overall I would eat there again.

MOON: Same. Definitely beat out the weird shrimp salad that will never be spoken about again.

JENN: For our penultimate review, my greatest disappointment: the Starbucks cupcake from the Fiddler, Fifer, and Practical Cafe on Buena Vista Street.

It LOOKED reasonably epic. The only reasonably-epic-looking cupcake in all of Disneyland.
The top was chocolate-coated chocolate mousse, and once you hit the cake portion it was filled with whipped cream and raspberries. By all accounts lovely, but… WHERE IS THE FROSTING??? No frosting, no epic. The end.

MOON: Pssst. It’s really not about the cupcake. Can you tell?

JENN: The cake portion is merely a means of conveyance. Frosting is priority. This is true. Oh well. At least WDW has me covered where frosting-y cupcakes are consider. Disneyland needs to step it up.

And finally: the Rainforest Cafe in Downtown Disney. We went here because it was convenient to the movie theater, but actually had a nice time. I had a perfectly good though unremarkable Cobb salad that came with some surprisingly great focaccia.

MOON: I really loved our bartender. She’s a person you want to ask to come with after.

JENN: Indeed! She gave me a vodka soda that was almost all vodka. Keep that in mind if you like that sort of thing.

MOON: I can’t remember what I ate, but it was in a wrap with no cheese. Maybe mushrooms. I approved!

JENN: Haha, I think it was a hummus wrap?

MOON: Most certainly not. I haaaate hummus!

JENN: Oh, right. Then I forget. But I swear there was a wrap involved. Anyway. Any final thoughts on Disneyland food offerings? Besides the fact that they seem weirdly expensive, even by Disney standards?

MOON: Nope!

JENN: Well. There you have it, folks. The food of Disneyland. Well, not really. I didn’t eat any beignets. OR a Monte Cristo. There’s work still to do. We’ll just have to go back!

This concludes our Disneyland trip report, although we will at some point in the future hit you with the obligatory WDW vs. DLR post. It’s a rite of passage. Stay tuned!

Don’t forget, you can follow FRoA on Twitter @fairestrunofall and on Instagram @fairestrunofall. If you have any questions or thoughts, leave a comment or email fairestrunofall@gmail.com. See ya real soon!