We Always Come Back to This Disneyland Restaurant With Beautiful Outdoor Patio and Wonderful Food

Disneyland is filled with some great table-service dining options, but a few stand out above the rest to top our Mickey Visit best Disneyland restaurants. Today, we wanted to talk about one of our top-ranked restaurants, which stands out due to its quality menu options and charming outdoor patio.

This has always been my personal favorite restaurant at the Disneyland Resort. It's hard to beat its amazing atmosphere, in the heart of one of the most nostalgic areas of the park! This beloved restaurant also has some iconic menu items that are some of the best foods you'll find at Disneyland, like the famous Monte Cristo sandwich and Mint Julep. Keep reading for a detailed look at the food here and why this restaurant is worth your time on your next trip!

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Disneyland Cafe Orleans Review

In the middle of New Orleans Square at Disneyland Park, you'll find Cafe Orleans, which is a historic table-service restaurant themed as a French Quarter-inspired sidewalk café. This Disneyland restaurant offers a menu of Cajun and Creole cuisine, including plant-based options.

The highlight of this restaurant is the charming outdoor patio, with views of the action on the Rivers of America! It's hard to beat this amazing ambiance right in the heart of New Orleans Square. Check out the view of Tom Sawyer Island and the Mark Twain from our recent experience!

There is usually a decent amount of reservation availability for this restaurant, but it will book up during busier times of the year at Disneyland. We always recommend planning ahead and securing a dining reservation before your trip.

Typically, there is about a 5-10 minute wait between when you check in at the restaurant and when you're seated. In the past, we have found that they are almost always able to accommodate us when we have shown up slightly early to our reservation.

The menu has a nice variety, and there is something that everyone will enjoy. You can't go wrong with the iconic Monte Cristo on the menu, but there is also a selection of other elegant entrées available, as well as a create-your-own-entrée option for kids. There are also consistent options on the menu for vegetarians dining here. Cafe Orleans is also one of the few locations at Disneyland Park that offers alcoholic beverages, including wines by the glass, signature cocktails, and beer.

We will share a detailed look at all of the current dishes on the menu from our recent experience dining here!

First up, we have the Battered & Fried Monte Cristo Sandwich, an iconic staple on the menu. This contains sliced turkey, ham and swiss with seasonal preserves, and a choice of Pommes Frites or Petite Salad. The Monte Cristo is undoubtedly one of the best Disneyland foods at the resort. It's easy to see why this is a fan-favorite dish when you taste the perfect combination of sweet and savory flavors.

You can also order this as a vegetarian Battered & Fried Triple Cheese Monte Cristo Sandwich, which contains brie, Swiss, and mozzarella instead of the ham and turkey.

Another iconic item on the menu is the non-alcoholic Mint Julep, which is a refreshing beverage that goes well with all of the dishes here.

The Braised Beef Short Rib is served with mashed potatoes and seasonal vegetables with bacon and mushroom demi-glace. This is a great dish! The short rib is very tender, and the mashed potatoes have a really nice buttery flavor. The sauce ties everything together well.

The Cajun Butter Roasted Chicken entrée features seasonal vegetables and mashed potatoes with Cajun garlic butter.

The Blackened Shrimp Alfredo Pasta contains wilted spinach, lemon-roasted garlic Alfredo sauce, and Grana Padano. If you're a vegetarian, this option minus the shrimp could be a good choice. Cafe Orleans often rotates its plant-based offerings, and the featured plant-based option on the menu right now is a Smoked Tomato Risotto.

Cafe Orleans usually has an interesting salad option on the menu. Below, you can see the Melon Arugula Salad, which includes organic cucumber, melon, toasted seeds, watercress, basil, and Meyer lemon vinaigrette, with chicken added. Adding protein to an appetizer salad here is a great way to design a healthy meal at Disneyland.

The Chicken Gumbo (with tasso ham, andouille sausage, peppers, tomatoes, and steamed rice) is another dish on the “small bites” section of the menu that you can make into an entrée. It normally comes as a cup, but they have made it into a bowl as an entrée-sized portion when we have asked in the past.

For dessert, here is a look at the Crème Brûlée Tart, which is a vanilla bean crème brûlée in a tart shell. The great part about this treat is that it's plant-based, making it a great treat if you are dining vegan at Disneyland.

There are also some rotating seasonal offerings at Cafe Orleans. For example, when we visited, a seasonal dessert was the Celebrate Soulfully Red Velvet Cake with cream cheese frosting and candied walnuts. Cafe Orleans will typically have seasonal offerings for big celebrations like Halloween at Disneyland and Christmas at Disneyland, as well as the after-hours Disneyland After Dark parties.

At the restaurant, kids ages 9 and under have a create-your-own-meal option, where they select one entrée and two sides. You can see the kids' menu below.

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Cafe Orleans also offers a dining package for the popular nighttime spectacular Fantasmic!. The package includes a 3-course lunch or dinner and access to a separate reserved viewing location for your choice of one of the two Fantasmic! performances that evening. The dining package here replaced the former Blue Bayou Restaurant dining package for the best, centered viewing of the show. You can see all of the details in our separate Disneyland dining packages article here.

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