Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
SUMMARY AND COMMENTS
The
pommes frites
are worth the price of admission. If you
don't eat anything else in the park your entire visit, try these. We like to hit Café Orléans
for a midafternoon break, kick our feet up for a soda or sweet tea, and pick through a
plate of the fries while we people-watch. The small menu makes ordering easy, provided
you bring a big appetite and aren't afraid of a little cholesterol and trans fat. The Monte
Cristo sandwiches are as good as Blue Bayou's and a few bucks cheaper. Kids will love
the three-cheese version: Swiss, mozzarella, and double-cream Brie between thick slices
of deep-fried egg-battered bread. The gumbo is passable, if a little bland, while the salads,
including a blackened-chicken Caesar and the Crescent City salad (a mix of baby spin-
ach, field greens, caramelized pecans, roasted corn, grapes, orange slices, and pan-seared
salmon in an orange-cilantro vinaigrette), are very good. For something different, try the
crêpes—paper-thin pancakes stuffed with a variety of fillings, including chicken gumbo
or seafood. A Dixieland jazz band periodically provides lively entertainment.
Carnation Café
Disneyland Park; 714-781-
DINE
Reservations
Recommended.
When to go
Breakfast or late lunch.
Entrée range
$6-$15.
Service
.
Friendliness
.
Dress
Casual.
Disabled access
Yes.
Hours
Daily, 8
a.m.-park closing.
SETTING AND ATMOSPHERE
A Main Street staple since the park opened in 1955, the
Carnation Café serves up an American menu heavy with traditional favor-
ites—hamburgers and meat loaf, pancakes and Mickey-shaped waffles, and fried chick-
en—in a parlor circa 1890. For those in the know, Oscar Martinez, Disneyland's longest-
tenured employee (55 years at the park), is the café's ambassador. The café was expanded
in 2012, adding indoor seating and revamping the menu.
HOUSE SPECIALTIES
Theloadedbakedpotatosoup(ahot,creamyconcoctionwithCheddar
cheese, chives, and large chunks of baked potato) is a favorite. New specialties include
huevos rancheros at breakfast and a green chile cheeseburger (topped with Manchego
cheese, roasted poblanos, and a fried egg) for lunch. Oscar recommends the catch of the
day, pan-seared with edamame succotash.
OTHER RECOMMENDATIONS
For starters, try the deep-fried dill pickle spears, dipped in
a rémoulade-style sauce. The updated menu features a beef-and-pork meat loaf, smoked
turkey sandwich on a pretzel roll, and warm spinach salad topped with grilled chicken and
shiitake mushrooms.
SUMMARY AND COMMENTS
The Carnation Café is still a place where the adults can find a
decent plate, the kids can choose from their favorites, and it's easy on the wallet. Because
of its location along Main Street, close to bathrooms and across from the locker facility, it
gets busy—expect to see waiting lines stretching down the street. Service is friendly and
unusuallypatient;someone'sbriefedtheseyoungcastmembersonhowanhour'swaitand
