We are days away from the official opening of three new restaurants at Downtown Disney in Anaheim, California. Disneyland has been working on improving Downtown Disney and bringing higher quality dining into the space along with well-loved favorites like Earl the Sandwich and Porto's Bakery.
Disneyland is a happening place these days. We have been delivering tons of coverage from the parks this week with the launch of Pixar Fest which includes a brand new parade, returning fireworks with new enhancements, and a fun scavenger hunt of themed Pizza Planet trucks hidden all over the theme parks.
We just tried the new Downtown Disney restaurant which is opening next week with a menu inspired from traditional Mexican flavors and modern dishes. This is the restaurant that replaced the previous Catal Restaurant & Uva Bar. Keep reading for our full review of this new experience and opening date news!
Céntrico Opening Date
The new Céntrico restaurant in Downtown Disney offers the outdoor Céntrico courtyard bar and restaurant, an upstairs dining room called Paseo, and its own quick-service option called Tiendita.
All of the menus at this restaurant are created by Michelin-starred Chef Carlos Gaytán that invites guests to take a “multi-sensory journey to the heart of his homeland of Huitzuco, Mexico.” You can view the menu for Céntrico below:
And the menu for Paseo below:
Patina, the restaurant group behind the new location, has announced that the restaurants will be opening on May 2nd, 2024. Earlier this week we stumbled upon the soft opening of Céntrico, the outdoor restaurant that replaced Uva Bar in Downtown Disney.
We Tried New Downtown Disney Restaurant
Immediately the space stood out to us as bigger than it's predecessor. It appears that they widened the seating area by reducing the size of the planters.
In the middle is a modern, brightly lit, bar that was already bustling even though it was later into the night. It has a similar feeling as the outdoor bar area at Naples Ristorante e Bar which is just a couple of spots away. This makes sense as the same management company controls both locations.
In another stroke of luck we ended up in the prime-time table. We were seated at at table on the edge of the restaurant with bench seating around a fire pit. It was a perfect spot on this slightly chillier Anaheim, California night.
I loved getting to have this relaxed spot to people-watch as guests left Disneyland after the fireworks. The spot is nicely protected from the crowds with a great view.
We started with the chips and guacamole. The chips weren't my favorite, but the fact that they are homemade had me enjoying them more. The guacamole was a different story. It was awesome.
We ordered a number of different entrees to share including a couple of different quesadillas and tacos. All of the dishes were super good. The tortillas were clearly homemade. Yum! The dishes also came with homemade guacamole.
The fish tacos in particular stood out to me as a fantastic dish. The breading wasn't too heavy the fish was a perfect texture. There was also a great creamy sauce. This is my top recommendation on the couple of dishes that we tried.
The only part of the experience that will likely need to be improved was the table situation around the fire pit. There were only two small side tables and the ledge along the fire wasn't big enough for the plates. They need to either add more tables or plate dishes on smaller plates for those at these tables.
This restaurant brings a more modern take on Mexican food than Tortilla Jo's which closed recently and will become a new restaurant concept. Many of the same team from Tortilla Jo's came over to this location so I will be interested to learn more about how they were able to break out of that shell and deliver this very different culinary experience.
Generally, we are really excited to keep trying more at this new restaurant along with the others in Downtown Disney. I heard that the burger is a must-try and the tlayuda which is a kind of nacho pizza.
Stay tuned as we bring more coverage of these three new restaurants with our coverage of the opening next week.
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Interesting how few vegetarian options there are. Except for a very few items, you might have to cobble together a meal from the sides, something I’ve had to do quite often.
There were more consistent vegetarian options at Paris Disneyland, which I didn’t expect when I visited in October.