We Tried the New Upscale Mexican Restaurant at Disneyland. Is it Right For You?

Disneyland continues to evolve its dining scene as new restaurants are added. In addition to the exciting new restaurants inside the theme parks, there are also big additions coming to Downtown Disney.

One of the first new sections of Downtown Disney to reopen was the triple complex of Mexican restaurants from notable chef Carlos Gaytan. We immediately tried Centrico, the more relaxed sit-down restaurant and now we're back to try Paseo, the fancier Mexican restaurant located upstairs in Downtown Disney in the old Catal restaurant location.

At Mickey Visit, we are constantly at Disneyland trying all of the latest offerings to bring you what you need to know before your next trip.

Paseo Disneyland Restaurant Review

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The Paseo restaurant is an upscale Mexican restaurant that leans into fancier Mexico City-style cooking and brings to center authentic spices and flavors. Rather than tacos or quesadillas, which you'll find downstairs at the more relaxed Centrico location, you'll find much more upscale appetizers and entrees here.

Appetizers like steak tartar, roasted beet salad, and a cold bar with fresh oysters and entrees including lamb barbacoa and yucatan fish make this stick out as a different type of Mexican restaurant than you may be used to. I specifically wanted to call this out at the top because for those who are landing on this review looking for a replacement for Tortilla Jo's, a family-style Mexican restaurant that closed in Downtown Disney, this restaurant isn't for you.

Paseo approaches Mexican food as a high-end dining concept that brings the unique flavors of the culture to life with the highest-end approach.

Interestingly Paseo was just acknowledged by Yelp as one of the top 100 best new places to eat in the entire country I believe. The restaurant was rated number 9. I heard that just as I was sitting down to eat here. It raised my expectations for the meal. Unfortunately it didn't completely deliver. More on that below.

The service at the restaurant was good. We were constantly attended to by wait staff that knew the menu well and was ready to help us get situated.

Food From Dinner at Paseo

Here's the complete menu from Paseo for you to take a look at from our December dinner. Note the prices for the various options.

First up started with guacamole and chips. These were both great. I love the chips which are the same that they serve downstairs and at the Tiendita quick service location. This might be the best thing I ate at the restaurant.

Next the Pulpo Enamorado which is octopus served with tuna and pickled vegetables. The octopus was good but the side of tuna and vegetables was a very weird consistency that was pretty unappetizing.

Next the Beet Salad which comes in this deconstructed style on the plate. All of this was very good and tasted quite fresh. A very fun take on this dish that I enjoy frequently at a variety of restaurants.

For entrees, one of us had the Roasted Rainbow Trout. It comes wrapped in a corn husk that it was baked in. The fish was good though it was salty.

Here you can see it with the corn husk pulled back from the fish.

Next the Mama's Cochinita Pibil which is shown as one of the signature dishes on the menu. It's a massive piece of pork that's been marinated with pepper and homemade pineapple vinegar. It comes with tortillas.

Finally the Lamb Barbacoa which was our favorite entree we enjoyed. The lamb was perfectly complimented by the marinade and the sides that it was served with.

Finally we ended with a seasonal snowman dessert as seen below. It was very cute with a bed of yogurt streusel, rosemary ice cream, and tangerine mousse. Very good.

I love that they did a seasonal dessert and look forward to seeing the desserts they do here in the future. They should have put some little Mickey Mouse ears on top of it in chocolate to really make this something very special.

They've done other popular seasonal desserts already this year. I heard that the pumpkin dessert in the fall was also great.

Final Thoughts on Paseo at Downtown Disney

I love Mexican food and the associated flavors and also enjoy fine dining. Eating fresh food is one of my favorite things and something that I look for in the nicest restaurants at Disneyland. It's one reason that I love this particular secret restaurant and eat there so often during my visits to the parks.

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The fresh ingredients were clearly present at Paseo, but something about how the dishes all came together didn't quite click for me. Based on what I typically enjoy, the meal should have been a 10/10 but there was something off. Some of the dishes were a bit too salty and the flavors mixed in a way that I didn't love.

The quality of the food is clear here, but the final tastes just didn't work for me. I've heard similar sentiments from other readers who have eaten here. And, for the price you can opt for nicer restaurants both in Downtown Disney or the parks themselves. Personally, I'll be sticking with Centrico downstairs which was a great experience that delivered in every way with the food and atmosphere.

We were hosted for this dining experience but reviews are our own. I always share my honest opinion on the meal as is clear above.

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