Posting pictures of food and meals online has become a bit of a cliche slam against social media. “I don’t want to know what people are eating,” whine the snobs. Yeah? Well, maybe I don’t want to see a zillion photos of your kids, or of your vacation, or your memes. There are only a few experiences that everyone shares with everyone else: eating, pooping, and dying. Of those three, I know which I’d rather see photos of. So, following on from last week’s blog about Eat Like Walt, this week and (probably) next, I’m going to talk about the foods we enjoyed on our recent trip to Disneyland.
This week, I’m going to focus on foods from quick service restaurants. After arriving and checking in at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel, we got lunch at Smokejumper’s Grill in Disney’s California Adventure. I was a big fan of this place, back when it was called Taste Pilot’s Grill. This was our first chance to try their new menu.
I ordered a spicy buffalo chicken sandwich, of course. It came served with “bear paw slaw,” house-made pickles, avocado-ranch and blue cheese sauce, with a side of waffle-cut fries. The chicken was moist and tasty, and the buffalo sauce was just spicy enough. There was also plenty of it, so the sandwich was pretty goopy.
My wife ordered the chili cheese fries, which came with buffalo black bean chili and Monterey Jack cheese. This is marketed as a side, but it's as big as an entree. We both thought the chili was really good. She’s not as big a fan of spicy foods as I am, and this was just right for her. We were surprised that the cheese was sliced, not shredded, but it melted just fine.
For dessert, we each got a S’more, and as you can see, this dessert puts the “more” in s’more. It was so sticky, I had to go wash my hands immediately after. It’s a good thing I didn’t brush against anyone on my way to the restroom, otherwise they would have gotten stuck to me.
For dinner that night, I had fried chicken at the Plaza Inn. I was so excited for that meal, I forgot to take a photo. However, I can tell you it’s still some of the best fried chicken I’ve ever had, accompanied by one of the worst biscuits. (I only took one bite of the biscuit and set it aside, it was so dry.)
The next day saw us having lunch at Carthay Circle (more about that next week). We had tickets to Disneyland After Dark that night, which ran from 8 til 1 am, so we took a break from the parks in the afternoon and decided to have dinner at the hotel.
We ordered the Pizza of the Month from White Water Snacks, the quick service restaurant in the hotel. We got a 14 inch short rib, mushroom, caramelized onion and winter squash pizza, which I brought up to the room. The price was about the same as our breakfast from the same restaurant, about which the less said the better. However, the pizza was really good! We couldn’t eat the whole thing; here is a photo of the two slices we had left.
The following evening, we had reservations at Napa Rose for dinner, so we decided to just get snacks for lunch. For me, “snack” meant a turkey leg, and for my wife, it meant a cream cheese-filled pretzel. Even though the turkey leg is a signature Disney Parks snack, this is only the second one I’ve ever had, and the first one I ate almost entirely by myself. (My wife had one bite.) I regret nothing!
One of our favorite restaurants for lunch is Rancho del Zocalo, but this trip saw us eating breakfast there for the first time. My wife and I both ordered their chilaquiles, which were fabulous. They were also huge, and saw us all the way through to lunch (which was Afternoon Tea at Steakhouse 55).
While we had eaten breakfast at Flo’s V8 Cafe in Cars Land in DCA, we had never eaten lunch or dinner there. So we decided that would be our choice for our final dinner on this trip. One of my favorite dishes at the old Taste Pilot’s Grill had been their ribs, which they took off the menu some time ago. Flo’s serves ribs with Coca-Cola sauce, so I decided to give them a try. They were really good! Nice and meaty, and cooked just right. The slaw was the kind I tend to like (more vinegar, less mayonnaise), and the mashed potatoes—hidden under the ribs—tasted like real potatoes, not some creamy stuff made from a mix. The ribs had plenty of sauce on them, so that was a bit messy, but they also gave me wet wipes.
My wife had the roast beef sandwich, and we didn’t take a photo of it. She really liked it, describing it as, “Like an Arby’s sandwich, but made with really good meat.”
For dessert, we each had Flo’s Signature Apple-Cheddar-Pie-O-Rama. To be honest, I had expected a slice of cheddar cheese rather than shredded cheese, so I wasn’t 100% sure at first we had received the right pies. Once we started eating them, though, you could really taste the cheese. The pies were nice and warm, and the crust was a lot softer than I was expecting, which is a good thing.
We had such a good dinner at Flo’s that we went back for breakfast the next day. (I had the chicken tamale, but I didn’t take a photo.)
For lunch on our last day, we found ourselves back at White Water Snacks, Their Hot Dog of the Month this month is mini corn dog nachos. I like nachos, and I like mini corn dogs, so I gave it a shot. Not only were they great, but they didn’t upset my delicate tummy before the drive home. Win-win!
In the past, we’ve eaten at a lot more table-service restaurants. This time, we decided to keep those reservations to a minimum, so we would be free to do whatever we wanted without working around a schedule. I’m glad we ended up eating at a lot more quick-service resterants this time around. The food was good at almost every place we went, and we were more relaxed about dining because there was less pressure and less expense.
Next week, I’m planning on talking about the table service restaurants we did go to. In the meantime, if you have favorite Disney Parks dining experiences you would like to share, please do so in the comments.
See you next week!
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