Worst & Best Disney California Adventure Festival of Holidays Foods 2024 RANKED

The Disney Festival of Holidays has kicked off this year in Disney California Adventure, bringing a variety of special offerings including some exciting new entertainment and festive foods marketplaces.

We had the opportunity to try a variety of Disney Festival of Holidays foods and will share photos and opinions below. If you are planning on visiting during the holiday celebration, see our full Disneyland Festival of Holidays guide for a list of all of the foods and a FREE pdf printable.

Here is our take on the foods ranked from best to worst! We also noted where we had differing opinions on some of these foods in our ratings below.

2024 Festival of Holidays Food Review

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We had the opportunity to try several of the Disney Festival of Holidays foods this year with Sip and Savor Passes during a media event hosted by Disney. You can access our free printable with all of the Disney Festival of Holidays foods below!

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We tried a wide variety of sweet and savory foods, and we have all of our rankings below rating the foods on a scale of 1 to 10. We will list all of these out below!

At a Twist on Tradition, we tried the new Turkey Galantine Croissant Muffin Slider with herb mayo and cranberry marmalade. This was a really unique, standout dish! It has a nice flaky exterior and the combination of flavors is really harmonious. The cranberry marmalade is tangy but not too sweet. The dish tastes like a perfectly balanced bite of what you'd find on a Thanksgiving dinner plate! My only criticism is that the turkey was a little bit salty.

We took quite a few pictures before digging in, so it's worth noting that these comments still apply even though it was a bit cold by the time we tried it. We would rate this a 9/10!

From Merry Mashups, we tried the M&M’S Peanut Butter Fudge Cake, which is a chocolate fudge cake filled with peanut praline and M&M’S Peanut Butter Minis, glazed with salted peanut butter, and topped with vanilla Chantilly crème.

This was one of our favorites we tried! From the outside, the cake looks a little bit dry, but the taste is a completely different experience. The middle is very moist and the peanut butter flavor is really rich and prominent.

It's a nice combination of different textures! Gavin commented that this might be near the top of the list as one of the best desserts he's had at Disneyland. We would rate this an 8.5/10. Definitely don't judge it by how it looks!

Here is a look at the inside of the cake:

At Favorite Things, we tried the Braised Pork Belly Adobo with garlic rice. This was really good! The rice had a really heavenly garlic flavor which contrasted with the more acidic flavor of the pork belly.

This was interesting to eat with a lot of different textures in the dish. We had this at the end of the night after trying a lot of other foods and it was still a clear standout! We would rate this a 7.5/10.

At Winter Sliderland, we had the Beef Brisket Slider with smoked onions and horseradish ketchup on a pretzel roll. This is a returning favorite from years past. The slider has a ton of meat, so even though it's small, it's quite filling and you get a lot of value.

This is a must-try dish packed with flavor! For the sake of ranking this on the overall list, we would say it's a 7/10.

A new item this year is the Cookie Dough Yule Log from Grandma’s Recipes filled with chocolate chip cookie dough and white chocolate mousse, covered with chocolate buttercream.

This was really delicious! The center was creamy and there was a nice balance of different textures in the dessert. The Mickey chocolate and holiday sprinkles were a nice decorative touch. We would rate this one a 7/10.

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From Holiday Duets, we had a returning item, the Savory Kugel Mac & Cheese with herb breadcrumbs, sour cream, and chives. This was one of my favorite items from last year. This year, I felt that it tasted a little bit different and the sour cream flavor came through a bit stronger. It's a really creamy dish and the breadcrumbs add a nice texture.

I personally always really love the mac and cheese dishes from the festival booths and the Savory Kugel Mac & Cheese is one of my favorites I've tried. I would rate this a 6.5/10 but with a caveat…

Gavin brings up a good point, which is that if you're eating this at the beginning of the festival, it will be a totally different experience than if you're eating it after sampling many other foods, as it's very heavy and filling.

Last year, I had this as the first dish of the festival, and this year having it after trying many other foods, I hesitated on my ranking. I think that if you're going to the festival with the intention of eating just one or two dishes and not sharing, this is a great choice, and it would definitely change my ranking to be much higher.

From Holiday Duets, we also tried the new Chorizo Queso Fundido Mac & Cheese with tortilla crunch. The mac and cheese on its own was more of a traditional flavor, and the chorizo added a nice pop of flavor. There were a lot of textures to enjoy here and the tortilla crunch was a nice addition.

I would rate this at a 5.5/10. It was pretty good, but the chorizo was a little too salty for my taste. We found ourselves eating around the chorizo a bit, which kind of defeated the purpose. As we discussed before, both of the macs are quite heavy choices, so you'll want to keep this in mind if you're planning on trying several foods.

Note that you can also get The Holiday Duet, which is a half portion of each mac & cheese.

Another item we tried from Grandma's Recipes was the Barbacoa Tamal de Res with Oaxaca cheese, tomatillo salsa and crema. This is a returning item that was also available at the festival last year.

I personally wasn't a huge fan of it last year and felt it was pretty good but didn't stand out among the other dishes. I would rate it at a 5.5/10. However, I am personally not a big fan of tamales, so this may just be a matter of personal taste—if you enjoy tamales, then definitely try this one! Gavin disagreed with me on this one and thought it was well prepared and would have rated it higher.

At a Twist on Tradition, we tried the new Barbecue Pulled Pork Cornbread Bake with creamy slaw. This was not one of our favorites. The cornbread was pretty dry, though the pork was flavorful.

However, given the shortcomings of the cornbread, it was hard to really enjoy this dish and it fell really flat compared to everything else we tried. We would rate this a 3/10.

The Al Pastor Pork & Pineapple Slider on corn brioche was a new item from Winter Sliderland. Upon first trying this, we were confused about what was in it given how similar the textures were.

The texture of the pork doesn't really stand out, and the bun is too tough. This one was pretty missable and tasted like diced tomatoes in a sandwich. If you're interested in a slider, definitely go for the turkey muffin slider or the beef brisket slider instead. We would rate this a 2/10.

Last up, we also tried the Glacier Margarita which is blanco tequila, blue curaçao, coconut syrup, lime and white cranberry juice, and rosemary syrup garnished with champagne bubble candies on a skewer. The champagne bubble candies were a bit of a skip, they didn't taste much like champagne and were a bit chewy. The drink itself was fantastic if you are looking for a lighter and sweet margarita. I sometimes find the frozen ones at Rita's Turbine Blenders to be a bit too heavy and filling, this was a perfect alternative to that. I'd rate this drink a 9/10.

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