Laura's Disney Lines

The Vineyard Room is the "fine dining" table service restaurant at Disney's California Adventure. It's located on the second floor of the Golden Vine Winery and is an open-air/patio restaurant - most of the tables are under a roofed area, but there are no walls. (There's also an uncovered patio area.) There are views of the park from most of the tables, either looking out towards Paradise Pier and the Pacific Wharf or "a bug's land" with the Tower of Terror in the background.

The restaurant was not really that busy - we arrived about 10 minutes before our 5:50 Priority Seating Time (which I'd just made that morning!) and very few tables were occupied. The restaurant wasn't full at any time during our leisurely dinner, though about 75% of the tables were occupied by the time we left.

In addition to the regular menu items, the restaurant offers a three-course prix-fixe menu - on past menus this has looked pretty intriguing, but the current offerings of Watermelon Soup and and Filet Mignon just didn't sound that appetizing to me.

Our server started us off with some excellent (and very chewy!) sourdough bread, with olive oil and balsamic vinegar to dip it in. I would've preferred warm bread, but this was still pretty good. They have a very nice wine list, with a fairly large selection of wines available by the glass - I recognized many of the labels as wineries that have appeared at the Food and Wine Weekends the past two years. We both ordered a glass of the Miner Rosato Sangiovese. It was served chilled, and was quite refreshing on a warm summer evening. A member of the wait staff brought us an appetizer "compliments of the chef" - this was goat cheese and candied nuts and some minced herbs atop a thin slice of toasted bread. It was very good - we'd have been happy to have the chef serve us appetizers all evening! :-)

We saw Executive Chef Gloria Tae at one of the Food and Wine Weekend cooking demonstrations several months ago. Interesting background - she actually did not attend a cooking school, but started working in an entry-level position at the Vineyard Room back when Robert Mondavi ran it when DCA first opened. She stayed after Mondavi pulled out and has worked her way up to her current position. She seems to be very creative in the ingredients she combines together, and everything has a lot of flavor.

For our appetizers, I ordered the Smoked Chicken Flatbread, and Lee ordered the Soup of the Day - mushroom soup. The flatbread was absolutely incredible - smoked chicken with small dices of spinach and pieces of braised radicchio, with ricotta and fontina cheese, all atop an excellent crispy crust. We both really enjoyed it. Lee's mushroom soup was in a light broth rather than a creamy soup - it looked like the mushrooms had been sauteed in the broth and then lightly pureed - there were still small pieces of mushroom in it. He said it was very good - I tried it, but I'm not a mushroom fan, and it tasted like mushrooms. (There's no picture of it because, to be honest, it doesn't look very appetizing in a photo - looks like a bowl of mud!)

Lee ordered the Rib-eye Steak, which was served pan-roasted with sweet corn gratin, balsamic onions and haricot verts in a cabernet reduction. While not quite as tender as the tamarind beef filet that California Grill used to serve, he said it was really good. I had the Roasted Vegetable Fondue. This was a plate of nicely roasted vegetables (potatoes, carrots, red and white onions, asparagus, eggplant, green and yellow squash and red peppers) that came with a white cheddar fondue, which was served in a toasted brioche box. There was also a bit of apricot mostardo sauce drizzled on the plate. It was really good - the veggies were so nicely prepared that they didn't really need to be dipped in the fondue, but tasted very good with the cheese, and once most of the cheese was gone, the brioche box itself was excellent - Lee helped with that.

For dessert I had the Chocolate Variations. This was a sampler of three different desserts - orange milk chocolate creme brulee, guanaja chocolate turtle ice cream, and manjari chocolate hazelnut torte with cherry coulis. That wasn't quite what I received, though - the creme brulee was milk chocolate and hazelnut, while the torte was chocolate and orange. I detest chocolate and orange together, so I knew I wouldn't like that part, but the creme brulee and ice cream were good. (My chocolate creme brulee is better, though - I use the recipe from Fulton's Crab House which I found on AllEars - it's HERE, though I use dark chocolate and not milk chocolate, and bake it at 325 for about 30 minutes. It's really easy!)

Lee had the Apple Blueberry Crostata - roasted Granny Smith apples and blueberries, Drambuie caramel sauce and vanilla bean gelato. He enjoyed it, but said the berry crumble I made recently was better. :-) The pastry had an interesting texture - not quite as crisp/flaky as puff pastry, but crisper than pie crust.

It was an excellent dinner, leisurely paced - we were there for about an hour and a half. Our server was just ok - he didn't ask us if we wanted more wine, nor offer us coffee or after-dinner drinks with our dessert. The rest of the wait staff was pretty good, and kept our water glasses filled, though one of them was in a bit of a hurry to remove Lee's dinner plate when he still hadn't quite finished eating!

Two thumbs up from us - we'd definitely eat there again.

The menu is available HERE.

Bon appetit!

Hook's Pointe is a "casual" table service restaurant at the Disneyland Hotel - as you can tell from the name it has a slight "Peter Pan" theme to it - there's a map of Never Land painted on the ceiling and some of the tables have views of the Never Land Pool area. It specializes in mesquite grilled meat and seafood.

On a recent Friday evening we had a 6:40 Priority Seating time - we arrived on-time and were seated immediately. Even though the restaurant wasn't crowded (and at no time during our meal were all tables occupied, or even close) we were seated at a table not with a view of the pool, but a lovely(?) view of the Croc's Bits and Bites snack bar next door. Our server Roberta quickly arrived to introduce herself and take drink orders - they have an amazing variety of cocktails (or "foofy drinks", as we call them). It had been a hot day and I wanted something crisp and refreshing and she recommended the Pomegranate Splash - which had pomegranate juice, cranberry juice, grenadine and several other things - and it was excellent.

Though the same could not be said for the water...we both opted for "regular" water instead of Pellegrino or some other fancy expensive bottled stuff - but it really tasted odd. Which is odd in and of itself, since water isn't supposed to have any flavor! It tasted a bit salty to us, though our server assured us that it was filtered.

Our server brought us a basket of warm sourdough bread - it was delicious! Crisp and crusty on the outside but soft and chewy inside with that yummy sourdough bite to it. I had to be careful not to fill up too much on the bread!

For our appetizers we split the Inland Salad - fresh greens with blue cheese, apples and candied walnuts and a delicious apple cider vinaigrette - and Hook's Crab Spread - a crab, spinach and artichoke dip served with pita bread. I'm not a big fan of crab and didn't really care for the latter, since it had a lot of crab, and I would've preferred more spinach and artichokes!

I selected the River Boat Pork Chop for an entree - Kansas City pork chop grilled with a sweet balsamic sauce, braised cabbage and garlic smashed potatoes. I thought the pork chop was a bit dry and tough to cut, but the sauce was tasty, as were the mashed potatoes.

Lee ordered the Fish of the Day - Mahi-mahi that was grilled with Cajun spice and served with a couple of jumbo shrimp, mashed potatoes, fresh vegetables and a caper sauce. It was very good - the mahi was very nicely cooked and not dry or fishy-tasting (I often find that mahi tastes fishy to me).

For dessert I ordered the Year of a Million Dreams Chocolate Cake - this was a chocolate cake with five different layers of cake and filling. It looked delicious but it was strangely tasteless - I could barely discern any chocolate flavor at all in the cake or the fillings. It was pretty disappointing.

Lee ordered the Fresh Baked Chocolate Chip Cookie - our server warned us this needed about 10 minutes to prepare since the cookie was baked to order. It's definitely worth the wait, though. Although square like a brownie the "cookie" was crunchy on the outside and still warm and gooey inside just like a fresh cookie should be. Yummy. It was served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce, with a cookie wafer "sail". And it was quite large - it would easily have been enough for both of us.

Overall I have to say that we were both underwhelmed with dinner - the food was fine, and the service was very good (much better than the Vineyard Room a couple weeks before), but there was nothing very special about the experience - it wasn't really any different than eating at an Applebee's (except for the price!). Actually my favorite thing about the restaurant was something they had for the kids - kids' meals came with a straw that had a light-up figure on it, with their choice of Tink (green) or Hook (red) - I wanted one of those!

There was nothing wrong with the meal, but it's not a place we'll return to anytime soon.

The menu is available HERE.

Bon appetit!

Laura

I made a quick weekend trip to Disneyland and actually spent the night up there for a change - mainly because I was doing the Segway tour which started at 7:15 a.m., and would have meant getting up *really* early if I left from San Diego!

I met my friend Patty at my hotel on Saturday (Best Western Park Place Inn - more on that in a later blog), and she surprised me with a Disneyland birthday button! My birthday was the day before - I've never had a birthday button before. And it was fun - CMs at the turnstiles and in the park said "Happy Birthday, Laura!", and so did several guests, and I got singled out for some special attention by the Laughing Stock Company, and the Mariachi Divas over at DCA sang "Las Mañanitas" (the Mexican birthday song) to me and two other birthday people who were watching.

There were banners up at the parks (mostly where you saw them on your way out) advertising this year's Disney's HalloweenTime, which starts on September 21 - a week earlier this year. It was very festive last year, with great decorations! I hope to visit this weekend.

Now that summer is over the park is a lot quieter (even on Saturday it wasn't horribly busy, and it was a beautiful day - sunny and shorts weather, but a lot cooler than it had been in the last month!), and the Nemo line is down to something semi-reasonable - 45-60 minutes most of the time.

I don't think I've mentioned this before - the "yellow submarine" monorail that they premiered at the Finding Nemo grand opening is still decorated and has been in use ever since the opening (though they removed the conning tower!) - it's really cute - we saw it zooming around a number of times.

The construction of Toy Story Mania at DCA is beginning to take a more visible shape - as Patty pointed out to me the facade is taking on more of a Victorian look than the seaside amusement park look of the rest of the area. There's rumors that there are lots of changes coming to DCA (especially Paradise Pier) in the next few years, so maybe this is the start of it?

I saw the Remember fireworks at Disneyland that night from a spot near the castle where I could actually see the projections on the castle for a change. There's some really cool stuff - stars during the Main Street portion, flying spooks and hitchhiking ghosts during the Haunted Mansion section, skull and crossbones for Pirates, a moving duck target during the Frontierland Shooting Gallery bit (that's my favorite - it just quacks me up), crazy swirls for Toontown, "water ripples" for the Submarine Voyage, and a "light speed" pattern for Star Tours. I like that show more each time I see it.

The next morning Patty and I did the Segway tour - but you can read all about that HERE. It was a lot of fun - I liked it even more than the Epcot Segway tour, I think.

While waiting for the tour to start I *finally* got a decent picture of the new cloud-patterned "CALIFORNIA" letters in front of the park - just in time for them to change to the Halloween candy corn, I'm sure!

After the tour I wandered around the Disneyland Hotel taking pictures - and eventually found the Disney Vacation Club (DVC) sales office and models that are way on the far side of the Dreams (aka Bonita) Tower. I asked about the Grand Californian DVC, and they said they had no news on that...but it was finally announced earlier today. The press release is HERE.

Other news bits...

Ariel's Grotto at DCA will be starting a daily character breakfast on September 21, which runs through January 6. Breakfast will be served from 8:30 to 11:30 - $25.99 for adults and $13.99 for kids. Since the park doesn't open until 10:00, Cast Members will direct guests to the restaurant either from the main entrance or the Grand Californian entrance. Priority seating arrangements can be made up to 60 days in advance by calling Disneyland Dining: 714-781-DINE (3463).

And there's a new tour for the Halloween season - Disney's Happiest Haunts tour runs daily September 21-October 31. It starts at 6:00 at night and visits three attractions - Tower of Terror, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, and Haunted Mansion Holiday. From what one of the guides told us, each tour guide gets to assume the persona of a character of their choice - like a pirate, or a miner or a psychotic actress. The tour includes creepy stories, and it's not for young children or those who might be easily frightened. Lee and I are signed up for the tour on September 28, so we'll know more after that. In the meantime, what we know about the tour is HERE.

It was a short trip but a lot of fun!

When I was at the Disneyland Resort last weekend, I noticed that a number of shops and restaurants are featuring special treats for the fall season. Some of them are rather cute and clever, so I thought I'd share.

The Blue Ribbon Bakery at Disneyland and Baker's Field Bakery at California Adventure are both featuring these cute Mickey pumpkin muffins and cookies.

I found the Mickey pumpkin cheesecake at Plaza Inn and the Pacific Wharf Cafe.

These candy corn cookies (candy-coated, of course!) and pumpkin sugar cookies were at the candy counter in Greetings From California.

The French Market, the restaurant located closest to Haunted Mansion Holiday, offers several creative desserts with the attraction's theme - like Jack (Skellington)-in-the-box chocolate cake.

And several different desserts served in Zero's food bowl - from a selection of fresh fruit to a piece of blueberry or strawberry cheesecake decorated with your favorite trio of hitchhiking ghosts!

They almost look too good to eat! (Notice I said "almost..." :-) )

Last year Cafe Orleans at Disneyland was remodeled, and reopened last summer as a table service restaurant instead of the buffeteria it had been before. We ate breakfast there a few months ago and dinner recently, so I thought I'd post a review of the two dining experiences.

For breakfast we were there on a Saturday at about 8:15 just after the park had opened, and there were only about two other tables occupied the whole time we were there! There is seating inside and outside - we sat outside, in a table up against the wrought-iron fence, where we had a view of the people passing by.

You can view the breakfast menu HERE. We both tried the Three Cheese "Monte Cristo" French Toast - "hearty egg bread filled with Brie, Swiss and mozzarella cheeses, then grilled and finished with a berry compote and applewood-smoked bacon." I would not order it again - it was just too much cheese, which cooled off and congealed into a sort of disgusting rubbery layer rather quickly. The "toast" part was fairly thin slices of bread - I was expecting something thicker. The berry compote was good - once we finally got it - it didn't come on our plates and I had to ask our server for it.

Considering how un-busy they were the service was not very good, and they seemed rather slow and disorganized.

I wish we'd tried the Mickey-shaped beignets - I've heard those are pretty good. And what's not to like about fried dough with lots of sugar? :-)

I'm happy to report that our dinner experience was a lot more positive. We walked up to the restaurant at about 5:10 on a Friday evening and were seated in less than 10 minutes even though I hadn't made Priority Seating in advance. Had we arrived 30-40 minutes later I don't think that would've worked nearly as well, though. We were again seated outside, which was fine with us, though as it started to cool off I had to put on a light jacket. It took a little while for our server to get to us, but once she did she was prompt with taking our drink and food orders.

We decided to try a selection of things off the menu. (You can see the menu HERE.) I ordered the French Onion Soup, which was served in a nice personal-sized tureen. It was good - not the best french onion soup I've ever had, but tasty.

Lee got a cup of the New Orleans Gumbo - "a rich, flavorful stew with chicken, andouille sausage and tasso ham, served with Cajun-style 'dirty rice'." He really enjoyed it, but it was a little too spicy for me.

We also tried the Pommes Frites - "Traditional French-fried potatoes tossed with Parmesan cheese, garlic and parsley, served with a Cajun spice remoulade." These were REALLY good - evilly good. Nicely crisp but not greasy, with just the right amount of seasonings. Lee didn't care for the remoulade sauce served with them, but I liked it.

I ordered La Salade de Maison as an entree (even though it's on the "Starter" menu). It's your basic salad with baby greens, topped with cherry tomatoes, crumbled goat cheese (I love goat cheese!) and caramelized pecans. It's served with raspberry vinaigrette which I asked for on the side, and I'm VERY glad that I did, because it was way too sweet. Had they poured it on for me, I'm afraid it would've been so sweet as to make the salad inedible.

Lee decided to try the "Crescent City" Salmon Salad - "Fresh spinach and mixed baby greens, tossed with carmelized pecans, red grapes, navel orange segments, roasted sweet corn, and orange-cilantro vinaigrette - crowned with sauteed and pan-seared Atlantic Salmon." He doesn't care for cilantro so he requested the raspberry vinaigrette instead, which he said went pretty well with the salad and salmon - though he also used it sparingly.

For dessert we split the Chocolate Crepe. Our server told us it would take about 15 minutes for that to be prepared, and she checked back with us a couple of times to assure us that it would be coming soon. (I think it took closer to 20 minutes.) The crepe was apparently cooked and filled and THEN baked - it was certainly very hot when it came out and the filling burned my tongue on my first bite. It was filled with a chocolate and raspberry filling - I don't much care for fruit with my chocolate, but this had only a slight raspberry flavor, so it was quite good. We both enjoyed it.

It was a very nice meal and the service was ok (better than I was expecting, given what I'd heard), though a little uneven. We had a little bit too much of a wait before our appetizers came out, but then our entrees were served to us before we had finished eating our appetizers. And although they came around to refill Lee's iced tea glass several times, no one ever refilled my water glass. I'd heard stories of how a meal can be incredibly slow, but we had appetizers, entrees, and dessert and were paid and out of there just over an hour after we were seated.

I think we'll go back - for one thing we want to try the Mickey-shaped Beignets! :-) And I'm curious about the Creole Ratatouille - it looks intriguing.

Bon appetit!

What's holiday time without some special treats? The bakers and confectioners at Disneyland have certainly done their best to satisfy the sweet tooth in all of us! There's special cookies at the bakeries, candies at the confectioneries, specialty hot beverages, and most of the restaurants have a special holiday dessert. There's even special hot foods like tamales.

There's no way we could try everything on our recent visit, but we scoped out most of the offerings, and in the interests of research we tried several different things.

At the two bakeries we found star-shaped rice crispy treats, ($3.29) gingerbread men ($2.99), frosted snowman shortbread cookies ($2.99), and holiday brownies ($3.29). The rice crispie treats were also available at a number of counter service restaurants. Lee likes rice crispy treats, so we had to try one of those. It was pretty much what you would expect from a rice crispy treat that's decorated with red and green sugar crystals. :-)

I like gingerbread (the gingerbread men with chocolate mouse ears that you can find in various places around Walt Disney World at this time of year are one of my favorite treats), so I bought one of the gingerbread men to taste. The gingerbread had a pretty good spicy kick to it...at first I didn't really care for it, but it grew on me. It has just a bit of sugar glaze around the edge, so it's not real sweet.

The holiday brownie was quite a large piece (about 2" x 4") of brownie, with stripes of white icing, chocolate chunks, and decorated with red and green sprinkles. It was nice and moist, but not as chocolatey as we expected. Still really good, though.

The confectionary places, like the candy shop on Main Street, and the candy counters inside Greetings From California and Pooh corner, had sugar cookies shaped like trees or snowmen which were covered in white chocolate and other edible decorations ($2.99), and caramel apples covered with red and green stripes, or apples covered in white chocolate with a marshmallow on top, and dressed as snowmen ($9.00). At Pooh Corner they also had white chocolate-covered snowmen marshmallows on a stick ($4.25). Those were really cute, and we tried one of those. A little too sweet for those of us who are not white chocolate fans, but it sure looks good.

At Santa's Reindeer Roundup you can buy a cookie kit ($6.00) which includes a big sugar cookie that you can decorated with the included icing and sprinkles.

Rancho del Zocalo has a Holiday Tres Leches cake - though it looked like regular Tres Leches cake with red and green frosting stripes. :-) And there were holiday brownie funnel cakes ($5.49) at Hungry Bear, Farmer's Market, and the Stagedoor Cafe. I'm sure the other restaurants had special desserts, too (French Market usually has some very clever things), but we didn't visit any of those.

Both Blue Ribbon Bakery and Baker's Field Bakery had some special holiday drinks - Pumpkin Spice Latte, Peppermint Mocha, Hot Spiced Caramel Apple Cider, Eggnog Latte and Eggnog. We tried the spiced cider - I think it would have been better if it was just spiced cider without the caramel flavor, which I thought gave it a weird taste.

There's a cart on small world way at Matterhorn Way that has beef tamales for the holidays, and of course all of the popcorn carts have special holiday buckets.

So are you hungry now? :-)

I'm not sure when this blog entry will be published, but I wanted to take this opportunity to say:
May your holidays be merry and bright - and -
May your 2008 be full of love and laughter.

Laura

I made a quick commando-type trip to Disneyland/DCA on Friday - my objective was to take photos of as many menus as I could since I haven't updated them for AllEars in a while. (And if anyone out there is interested in helping with that in the future, please let me know!) I'm used to sticker shock when it comes to food prices at Disneyland, but I'd just like to say that I find the breakfast menu at Storyteller's Cafe to be ridiculously overpriced. $17.59 for a Mickey waffle????

But back to my day...I took my GPS runner's watch with me, since I was interested in seeing how far I walked - I hit all three hotels, Downtown Disney, and both parks, and covered 6.95 miles in 3 hours and 24 minutes. It was all the pictures that slowed me down! :-)

It was a beautiful, beautiful day - sunny and clear and in the mid-60s. Which isn't warm by southern California standards, but I'm sure most of the rest of the country would be really happy with those kind of temperatures in mid-January! (And no, this picture is not upside-down!)

Despite the awesome weather the parks were quite uncrowded - the only attraction that had much of a line was (what else?) Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage - 55 minutes at 11:00 in the morning.

This is the final weekend for "it's a small world holiday" before the attraction goes into a lengthy rehab - it'snot scheduled to re-open until November. So I guess there's no reason to remove the holiday decorations inside - it'll be holiday time again when it reopens. :-)

Construction on Toy Story Mania at DCA continues - they are working on the walkways in front of the attraction now so you can't walk all the way around Paradise Bay - if you're at California Screamin' and want to ride the Sun Wheel you have to walk all the way around the Bay. No official opening date for the attraction has been announced - still listed as "Coming in 2008".

Last year Disneyland started offering a greater selection of healthier snack options in the parks, and there have been more fruit stands popping up around the parks. Toon Up Treats in Toontown now serves only fruit, drinks, and snacks, and there's a fairly new fruit/snack stand in Tomorrowland at the base of the Observatron. Traditional fruit stands like the Main Street Fruit Cart and the fruit cart in Critter Country have expanded their offerings.

In addition to the old standbys like fresh whole fruit ($1.75) and large dill pickles ($2.50) there's also boxes of grapes ($2.50), sliced apples with caramel sauce ($3.75), mixed fruit ($4.00) and even mango slices ($3.75). There's also pineapple spears ($2.50), organic fruit leather ($1.25) and slices of watermelon ($2.50).

Non-fruit choices include carrots with ranch dip ($2.75), veggie box with ranch dip ($4.00), trail mix ($4.00), and a bag of apple chips ($2.75). Bottles of Simply Orange and Simply Limeade ($4.50) are available, as well as Dasani water ($2.75) and PowerAde Option ($2.75).

Not all of those items are available at each location, but the Main Street Fruit Cart has an especially nice selection, as does Tropical Imports in Adventureland (where in addition to fruit they also carry a fine inventory of rubber snakes). Over in DCA the Fruit Stand at the edge of "a bug's land" has the best selection of healthy snacks, and also offers several types of Boudin sourdough bread - baguette, round loaf (both $5.50), and one in the shape of Mickey's head ($7.50).

Toon Up Treats Menu
Main Street Fruit Cart Menu

I recently had the opportunity to speak with Jim Ames, the producer of Disney's California Food and Wine Festival, about this year's upcoming Festival.

This is the Festival's third year, and it keeps getting a little bigger (and I think a little better) every year. The major change this year is that the Festival will be held daily from April 11 - May 5, rather than just on weekends like it was the first two years. Hence a new name this year - Disney's California Food and Wine Festival.

The Festival will be expanding from the Pacific Wharf and Golden Vine Winery areas into the Bountiful Farm area as well. Among other things, this expansion allows for larger areas for the demonstration kitchens - Jim said they were turning guests away at almost every demonstration last year, and the expansion will allow them to accommodate more guests.

Expanded Festival food offerings will be available - in addition to the Festival Marketplace at the Lucky Fortune Cookery (which will have 9-10 tapas-style items on the menu, plus beer and wine), other counter service restaurants in the park will be serving up special Festival menu items. These items will be in keeping with the existing menu and price point at each location. For example, Award Wieners will be offering a hot dog with peppers and onions and a beer sauce. Other participating restaurants include Corn Dog Castle, Pizza Oom Mow Mow, Cocina Cucamonga, Pacific Wharf Cafe, and Farmer's Market.

Other restaurants around the Disneyland Resort will be offering a special prix-fixe Vintner's Menu during the Festival. These multi-course menus will be available from Napa Rose, Steakhouse 55, the Vineyard Room, Ralph Brennan's Jazz Kitchen, and Catal.

Also new this year will be the Sparkling Bar, located on the Upper Terrace of the Golden Vine Winery (in previous years the site of one of the demonstration kitchens). At this location champagne and sparkling wines will be available by the glass and various wine country tapas will also be for sale.

The Taste event will be returning on the final Saturday evening (May 3) of the Festival. This year tickets will be available to the general public, and not just to Annual Passholders. In response to guest comments, Jim told me there will be more sit-down tables available this year, but they feel they can do that without making the event feel cramped and overcrowded. That was one of my favorite parts about last year's Taste event - it was easy to move around the room to the various food and wine stations, but we could still always find a table (even if it was a standing table) where we could set our plates and glasses down and eat.

Other "ticketed" events returning this year are the Winemaker Dinners, the Napa Rose Cooking School, the Festival Wine Receptions (which this year include special viewing of the Electrical Parade), and the Taste Wine Like an Expert classes.

Registration for the ticketed events begins on February 15. To register, visit http://www.disneyland.com/foodandwine. The web site should go-live by February 10, if not before.

More information on the Festival and its events is available on AllEars' Disney's California Food and Wine Festival page, where we'll be adding more information on the schedule, menus, events and prices as it becomes available, and once the Festival starts we'll have event reviews and guest comments.

I've walked by this restaurant hundreds of times (since it is between Disneyland's tram stop and the park entrance), but until recently I'd never eaten there. I can tell you that I'll be eating there a lot more often in the future!

We had lunch there on a cool winter day - La Brea Bakery Cafe has both indoor and outdoor seating, and we sat outdoors, but right next to one of those propane heaters, so it was very comfortable.

For the most part, La Brea Bakery Cafe's menu consists of soup, salads, and sandwiches, both hot and cold. I LOVE a good sandwich on nice fresh crusty bread, and I was not disappointed. Lee and I actually both had trouble deciding what to order - there were a lot of things that looked appealing. I had the Fresh Mozzarella sandwich - mozzarella cheese, semi-sun-dried tomatoes, fresh basil and pesto, served on a demi-baguette. It was really tasty. I was not expecting the sandwich to be grilled and warm, but it was, and that worked very well.

Lee had the Turkey Bacon Panini - oven roasted turkey, bacon, and provolone cheese on sourdough bread. That was also excellent - he shared a bite with me.

Both sandwiches were served with a mixed baby greens salad in a light balsamic vinaigrette, and that was also very good. (We could have chosen French fries, also.)

Even though it was chilly we ordered iced tea as a beverage - our server brought us two glasses and a carafe so we could refill it ourselves, which I thought was very nice. It was passion fruit iced tea, and I really loved it - it was unsweetened but had an excellent flavor - it would be especially refreshing on a hot day.

The only thing I was disappointed in was the soup selection - I was looking forward to having a cup of hot soup to warm me up a bit, but the only soup available that day was cream of asaparagus. Ick.

Service was very good - our server arrived at our table promptly, returned quickly with our drinks and some bread (and the ciabatta bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar was also excellent), and got our orders submitted and served in good time. I'm sure it helped that the restaurant wasn't overly busy, but he still took good care of us. .

We declined dessert since we were headed into the parks, but the warm brownie with ice cream and hot caramel sauce was tempting - I'll have to get that next time. And there WILL be a next time - La Brea Bakery Cafe gets two thumbs up from us.

La Brea Bakery Cafe Menu

In our quest to eat at all of the Disneyland Resort restaurants (all in the interests of research, you know!) Lee and I had dinner at Ralph Brennan's Jazz Kitchen in Downtown Disney last month.

We arrived at 5:30 for our 5:30 Priority Seating. The restaurant was almost completely empty, and the hostess directed us upstairs (there is seating both upstairs and downstairs - it's a big restaurant!). It was a chilly evening, and we were given the choice of sitting inside or out - we chose outside next to a propane heater. Though we didn't have a table right on the wrought-iron railing overlooking Downtown Disney, we could still look out towards House of Blues and Tortilla Jo's.

Our server arrived quickly with the menus, and brought water while we were deciding on wines. Lee had a glass of the Rock Rabit Syrah, while I tried the Columbia Riesling, which was quite good.

For appetizers we split the Soups 1-1-1, which was small servings of three different soups - the Creole Onion Soup, Gumbo Ya-Ya, and the Soup of the Day, which was a Roasted Pepper soup. Surprisingly that was my favorite of the three - it had a really nice flavor and just a bit of a kick, but not too much. We also had the Paneed Eggplant, Spinach, & Goat Cheese Napoleon - Pan-fried parmesan, herb breaded eggplant, layered with spinach and goat cheese, finished with a Gulf shrimp New Orleans bordelaise sauce. It sounds really different, and I thought it was very good. There were actually several things on the appetizer menu that looked good - maybe sometime we'll come back and just order appetizers! (Sorry that there are no pictures of the appetizers - we were so hungry that I forgot to take pictures before we dug into them!)

I ordered the Blue Crabmeat Topped Blackened Salmon as an entree. Blackened salmon topped with blue crabmeat, served with garlic roasted fingerling potatoes, fresh watercress and a green onion herb vinaigrette. The salmon was disappointing - I expected something a bit more "kicky", but the only spice I could taste was chili powder. And once I got about 1/3 of the way into it I discovered it wasn't cooked all the way through. (For some reason that seems to be a problem for me when I order salmon - half the time it isn't cooked through, and I am NOT into sashimi!) Unfortunately our server didn't check back with us until I'd eaten around the edges and had all that I wanted anyway, so by that time there was no use sending it back. The potatoes were good, though...

Lee had the Creole Filet Mignon - a grilled 8 oz filet mignon, dusted with Creole seasonings, served with bacon buttermilk mashed potatoes, fried oyster mushrooms, wilted spinach and Creole mustard bourbon cream sauce. He likes his meat cooked medium well, so he asked to have it butterflied, which was no problem. He really enjoyed his dinner - the steak was nicely cooked and flavorful.

For dessert we knew that Lee was going to want the Double Chocolate Bread Pudding, which requires a 25-minute preparation time, so had told our server about that when our entrees were delivered. It arrived 5 minutes or so after our entrees were cleared. It's a "rich, dark semi-sweet chocolate bread pudding served with white and dark chocolate ganache." Lee really enjoyed it - the chocolate sauce was dark and rich, though the white chocolate didn't have a lot of flavor.

The dessert menu had a lot of interesting-looking choices and I ordered the Fresh Fruit Cobbler, which was supposed to be apple and blueberry. As I started eating it I discovered there were no blueberries - just apples. Had I known that I would've ordered something else. As cobblers go it was just so-so - I wouldn't order it again. I mentioned to our server that the kitchen had deceived him about the blueberries. Given what had already happened with my salmon he was even more apologetic. When our bill came I saw that he had not charged us for the salmon, which was nice.

The "signature" dessert there is the Bananas Foster, which is prepared at your table. We didn't order it, but the table next to us did, so we were able to see the whole production, which towards the end involves both flame and sparks.

By the time we finished our meal and left the restaurant (about 7:00) the place was PACKED - *and* there was a line of people standing outside waiting to get in - all of the Downtown Disney restaurants were busy on that Friday night, and there were 45 minute waits at most places. So I'd advise either eating early or making sure you have a Priority Seating time - and preferably both.

So Ralph Brennan's Jazz Kitchen...would I eat there again? Well...maybe. But I'd probably order just appetizers (since they had several that sounded good) and dessert. Lee was really happy with his meal, though.

All Ears Picture This! blogger Lisa Berton and I recently had dinner at the PCH Grill at the Paradise Pier Hotel - it was a first time for both of us.

We arrived at the restaurant at the same time as a large group of cheerleaders...uh oh. But the restaurant actually handled them very well - they were in their own part of the restaurant and were not terribly loud or distracting. The main difficulty is that they took ALL the menus, and we had to wait until some of them were done with them (about 10 minutes) before our server was able to bring us a couple of menus. Our server made sure that our meal orders got into the kitchen before theirs did, though. :-) But even so, the kitchen did a good job of getting the group's meals prepared and served in a reasonable amount of time.

Lisa has some dietary restrictions, and told the woman at the podium that she needed to talk to a chef. No problem - she quickly brought out a chef and our server, and they came up with a meal for Lisa.

The restaurant is casual with a beachy theme (which goes both with the theme of the hotel and the Lilo and Stitch character breakfast that is hosted at the restaurant), but the menu is more classic diner/comfort fare, with selections like patty melts, hamburgers, and a BLT, though they also serve pizzas and steak. On the kid's menu is a "build-your-own pizza" - a pizza crust, tomato sauce, cheese and pepperoni are brought on a Mickey head-shaped platter, and the child gets to sprinkle as much or as little as they like on the crust, then return it to the kitchen where it's baked in the wood-fired pizza oven. These seemed to be very popular. :-)

I ordered the Grilled Chicken Breast Sandwich - topped with roasted chiles, lettuce, tomato, guacamole and jack cheese. It was a large chicken breast, nicely grilled and not dry, with a generous serving of guacamole on top. The roasted (mild) green chiles were very flavorful. I really enjoyed it - I couldn't eat all of the bun, but the rest of it disappeared. And I have to say that the french fries served with it were maybe the best fries I've ever had - they were peel-on, but were thin-cut and crisp and not at all greasy.

Lisa ordered the Grilled New York steak, which normally comes with green beans, but since she'd just had a big plate of green beans at Goofy's Kitchen the night before she asked if they could give her mixed vegetables instead, and the chef said sure - how about broccoli, squash and carrots? Lisa said great. So when her dinner arrived, guess what...the plate contained a generous serving of green beans. The best-laid plans...our server apologized, but Lisa stuck with the green beans. She enjoyed the steak, though!

We had a very nice meal - nothing fancy at all, but it was very tasty and satisfying. We passed on dessert, but they offer sundaes and banana splits, and a "molten apple pie". If you have a large group (or are really hungry!) you can try The Whole PCH Grill & Kitchen Sink - which is 10 scoops of ice cream and "then tell us what you don't want on it." Wow.

The menu for the PCH Grill is available HERE

If you've dined there, please share your review on AllEars' Rate and Review section HERE

Ever since the Napa Rose restaurant opened at the Grand Californian in 2001 I think most of us have heard how wonderful it is. Hard to believe, but up until a few weeks ago Lee and I had never tried it - it was one of those things we always planned to do. Since it's only open for dinner, and we so rarely stay up there so that we have the opportunity to dress up a bit for dinner (you'll want to wear something a little nicer than park attire!), we'd just never gotten around to doing it.

You'll definitely want to make Priority Seating in advance to dine at Napa Rose - we had a 7:45 time, and were seated within a few minutes, but walk-ins were told they had nothing available for the rest of the evening.

The restaurant has a very open, but comfortable, feel to it, and it's actually relatively quiet. The furnishings and decorations combine the classic Craftsman style with a very modern-looking bar and kitchen area

Our server was Steven, and he was really excellent. He was knowledgeable and helpful and not at all stuffy or snooty - always ready with wine recommendations that took into consideration what we told him about our likes and dislikes. He was quite generous with the wine, too...but I'm getting ahead of myself. :-)

The Napa Rose menu changes several times a year, but the four-course Vintner's Table tasting menu changes weekly, depending on what the freshest ingredients are for that particular week. We opted to order off of the regular menu, which you can find HERE if you're playing along from home.

For our first course, we decided to share the California Endive and Forelli Pear Salad. As you can see below it was quite beautifully presented, and included the largest dried cranberries I've ever seen, as well as candied walnuts and blue cheese, with a cider vinaigrette. To "pear" with the salad and the appetizer plate we selected, Steven recommended the Forstmeister Geltz Zillikin 2004 Reisling. (A German wine, in case you couldn't tell! :-) ) That was really excellent - just a little sweet and very refreshing. Steven decided there wasn't enough left in the bottle for another glass and left the bottle for us to finish - I think he underestimated a bit because we each got another half glass out of it. :-)

Steven also brought us a basket of bread - four different kinds! There was a ciabatta-style bread, a classic sourdough, an olive bread and a crispy flatbread. And Vermont butter to go with it, which really WAS different than normal butter. It was all delicious...I had to really restrain myself to keep from filling up on the bread. Sigh.

Our next appetizer was really interesting - The Sizzling Beach Rock. It was served in a Japanese-style Bento box. In the center was some white gravel, with a fist-sized black beach rock in the middle. A hot beach rock, as it turned out - one of the shrimp was sizzling on it when it was served. All of the food was already cooked, but Steven told us we could put the individual pieces on the rock if we wanted to brown it a little more. There were two garlic-seared shrimp served over a delicious black bean "soup", two soy-glazed spare ribs served over udon noodles, and, our favorite, two lemon grass chicken skewers served over kimchee. (They called it kimchee, but I think the only relation it has to kimchee is that both are made of cabbage. This was more like a cole slaw with vinegar dressing.)

After all that we still hadn't gotten to the entrees yet! I had the Cashew Crusted "Tai Snapper" with a large tempura-fried shrimp served over fried Himalayan red rice with pineapple and tangierine-coconut vinaigrette. Oh my...the fish was so moist, with a nice delicate flavor. It was two good-sized pieces also. Steven recommended the Laura Aschero Pigato 2005. And how could I turn down a wine named "Laura?" :-) It was fine, and paired nicely with the fish, but I enjoyed the riesling a lot more.

Lee ordered the Colorado Lamb Double Chop, which came with sweet potato raviolis. Underneath the lamb chop there were pieces of braised lamb shoulder and kale, in a Petit Syrah jus. The lamb was excellent, but I thought the sweet potato raviolis were even better - they would make a nice entree all by themselves! Steven had two wine recommendations, and eventually he and Lee decided on the Andrew Murray 2006 Syrah, and Lee enjoyed that. Towards the end of the dinner he also brought Lee about a half glass of the other wine and he was able to compare the two side-by-side.

Steven suggested a side for Lee, and recommended, of all things, the Brussels Sprouts. Lee said he didn't like them, but Steven told him that the Napa Rose Chef doesn't like them either, but has come up with this way of doing them which makes them really good. They are shredded like hashed browns and sauteed with garlic, olive oil, parmesan cheese and chili flakes. They actually were pretty good, but they still tasted "green". Lee enjoyed them, but it was a very large serving, and with all of the other food he couldn't eat very much of them.

Unfortunately when it came time for dessert I was too full, which was very disappointing since there were two chocolate desserts I was interested in trying - the signature Scharffen Berger Chocolate Velvet Pate, and the Valrhona Chocolate Truffle Cake. Sigh. But Steven came to my rescue - he brought me a small Napa Rose box containing four different truffles that I could eat later. And I enjoyed them after I got home.

Lee managed to find room for the Warm California Strawberry-Coconut Crisp. He really enjoyed the strawberry-coconut flavor combination.

It was really an incredible dinner and a wonderful experience - we had a really good time. Dinner was a relaxed affair - we were there for over two hours. While it wasn't something I'd want to do for every meal it would be a great way to celebrate some kind of occasion. We'll definitely return!

(I started this review at the end of May...I guess it's time to finally finish it, huh?)

Lee and I had lunch at Blue Bayou in May - the first time we'd been there in probably 9-10 years! We had a good-sized group - Deb Wills and LindaMac, Beci and Chris from Mouse Fan Travel, and Panama Canal cruisers and first-time Disneyland visitors George and Ann. Between us we managed to try most of the menu items, I think, except for dessert.

We were in the first seating of the day, and even with our large group we scored a Bayou-side table, where we could watch the "fireflies" as the boats from Pirates of the Caribbean attraction floated by. It's really hard to touch Blue Bayou where sheer ambiance is concerned! But one disadvantage of that - it's DARK in there. The only lights we had were these little flickering candles on the table - and that was not sufficient light to read the menu. Fortunately George had a little pocket flashlight, otherwise, who knows what we might have ended up ordering! :-) That also meant we could hardly see what we were eating - guess that means they can save time and money on presentation of the food since you can't see it anyway...

Beci and I indulged our inner child and ordered the Pirate's Punch - Minute Maid Light Raspberry Lemonade served in a souvenir "pirate" cup, which includes lighted clip-on figurine: Tinker Bell or Captain Hook. I chose Captain Hook, and Beci opted for Tinker Bell. In the dark restaurant you can see them really well!

Our entrees came with choice of wedge salad or gumbo, and most also included choice of two sides. I had the wedge salad, which was quite good - a wedge of iceberg lettuce with goat cheese, a slice of tomato and some rather spicy sausage. As you can see it was sort of one of those "deconstructed" salads, though - some assembly required, or you could eat the individual parts. You can see a couple of french rolls in the picture, and those were really good - warm and crusty. The gumbo was another option, and while I didn't try it, I heard favorable comments from some of my fellow diners.

My entree was the Molasses-Brined Bayou Pork Chop - 10 oz. chop, pan-seared and topped with sauteed Granny Smith apple wedges. Choice of two sides: Blue Bayou potatoes, seasonal vegetables or sauteed spinach. I ordered it with the potatoes and vegetables. The chop was a little bit dry, unfortunately, though the brining and apples gave it a nice flavor.

Lee ordered the Buccaneer's Beef Short Ribs - slow-roasted, then finished in a Zinfandel demi glaze. He chose the seasonal vegetables and sauteed spinach (ewww!) for sides. I think he enjoyed his selection very much - more than I liked mine.

Others in our group ordered the Royal Street Seafood Jambalaya - A robust combination of king crab, jumbo gulf shrimp, mahi mahi, tasso ham, andouille sausage and chicken, tossed with Cajun-style "dirty rice" and also the Tesora Island Chicken - Blackened, roasted and finished to perfection in pan au jus. I think someone chose the Cajun-Spiced Salmon - Blackened, with citrus crawfish beurre blanc as well, but I don't remember now. I don't think any of us had room for dessert, though - between the soup/salad, the bread, the entree and two sides, that was quite a bit of food. If I had to do it again I would probably order just the salad, a side of potatoes, and the rolls, and save room for dessert!

We had decent service - certainly not exceptional, though. The pacing was fine - I hear that sometimes it's very slow, but maybe we lucked out because we were in the first seating of the day.

It was a nice meal (and good company!), and I have to say that the food is a lot better than it used to be. But it was SO expensive - $36/person for lunch NOT including dessert!!! (And that included a 15% AP discount.) For that kind of money I'd rather eat at the Vineyard Room at DCA - or we could *both* eat at the Trattoria.

I know a lot of people really love this restaurant, but it just doesn't do much for me - I think it's too expensive for what you get.

Blue Bayou Dinner Menu
Blue Bayou Lunch Menu
Blue Bayou Kid's Menu

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