This Disney California Adventure Restaurant Just Got Bumped Off Our Best Restaurants List

Disney California Adventure Park is home to so much of the best food at Disneyland. There is one restaurant that sadly has fallen off in recent years.

We just launched the latest version of our best Disneyland restaurants article. At Mickey Visit we visit Disneyland all the time and are constantly trying food across the resort to ensure that our list is up to date. This year the list had some big shifts as tons of new restaurants and menu changes debuted .

In the past year since we launched our comprehensive listing, we have circled back to our favorites to confirm their status. One of those favorites has dropped off quite a bit since the pandemic reopening.

Why Did This Disney California Adventure Restaurant Fall Off?

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Flo's V8 Cafe in Cars Land was a longtime favorite of ours for the overall vibe of the location. It sits at the end of the main drag headed into Cars Land and provides wonderful views of the Radiators Springs Racers ride cars shooting by. Sitting on the patio watching guests walk by is a great spot to take in the day.

When the restaurant first opened it offered up real diner-style comfort food options like Pork Loin with Coca-Cola sauce, Apple Cheddar Pie, New York Strip Loin, and other elevated diner offerings. At the time it was common for people to try and come up with recipes to recreate these Disneyland foods at home.

That all changed a couple of years after opening and the menu shifted to be more sandwiches and some limited plates. Since then, the restaurant has remained home to the best quick service dining space in Disney California Adventure, perhaps the entire resort for that matter, but the food has been mediocre.

Multiple of us have visited the restaurant in the last couple of months. I visited during Pixar Fest which just ended recently and another member of our team just ate here during Oogie Boogie Bash to try one of the new Disneyland Halloween food offerings.

Above is the current menu being offered.

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The burger that you see here is from Pixar Fest. The description was “Dinoco Blue Cheeseburger inspired by “Cars”: Angus beef & mushroom patty with blueberry compote, blue cheese crumbles, red onion, bacon, tomato, arugula, and lemon aioli”. They attempted an upscale burger but the patty was like a hockey puck. The bread was also quite chewy.

The standard burger also had a similar issue with the bun. The fries are fine, but nothing special. I literally ended up taking the patty off the bun and trying to eat it with a fork and knife but then finally gave up on that and didn't even finish it.

Here's a look at the chicken tenders that they offer throughout the year on and off.

Then, here's the special Halloween version of the tenders which are tossed in Manago-Habanero sauce.

They also have a cobb salad which tastes fine. Pretty simple offering and a fair price for a healthy meal option.

You can see the fried chicken plate here.

We didn't try the turkey club which is something I would be open to going back for. Generally though this menu is pretty limited and bare-bones without anything truly special. I will note that the prices here are pretty fair for what you get.

We would love to see a fuller menu come back there that lives up to all of the great meals that we've had at diner stops like this in the real world. There's the brand new BBQ restaurant coming to Disneyland Park. That menu would seem fitting to offer at Flo's V8 Cafe.

When we first created our restaurants ranking list we debated the inclusion of this option and then settled on adding it in to include a spot for picky eaters in the park on the list. Now though, there are just too many other better options across the resort even for those who want hamburgers. Picky eaters don't have to be relegated to mediocre food.

What we would do to enjoy this seating still is a little bit of food cross-pollination. One of our very smart team members came up with this. She has started to grab food from the nearby restaurant that we love (even though it weirdly is one of the lowest rated Disneyland restaurants on Yelp) and bring it over here.

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