This ranking is only for the restaurants in California Adventure Park. We have separate posts for Disneyland Quick Service Restaurants Ranked and Downtown Disney Quick Service Restaurants Ranked and Disneyland Breakfast Restaurants.
Most restaurants below don’t serve breakfast and we indicate when they do. Some place we rank low for Lunch and Dinner are better for Breakfast, so these rankings do not apply to Breakfast.
We’re focused on year-round menus. Many of the locations can have fantastic seasonal food that comes and goes. See our post Disneyland Seasonal Foodie Guide for more information on this topic. California Adventure Park has fantastic food festivals at different times throughout the year (Spring, Christmas, Lunar New Year, sometimes in Summer) and these are our favorite times to eat here.
Below are our rankings starting with the best at #1. These are out opinions based on our own experiences eating at California Adventure Park. Any of the menu items we mention below can disappear because menus do change.
Rank #1 – Lamplight Lounge Boardwalk Dining on Pixar Pier
- Offerings: Lounge appetizers with a flair, and an excellent cocktail menu
- Our Favorites: Nachos, Sliders, Wings
- Our Tips:
- Join walk up list on App – this place is popular and unlike all the other quick service locations, you usually have to join the wait list on the App to get in. You will get your own table assigned and have a server, but there are no reservations.
- Lamplight Lounge downstairs has a different menu and is Table-Service.
- Lobster Nachos is the most popular dish and you can ask for Chicken, Steak or veggies if you don’t want Lobster.
- They close earlier than other restaurants – about 1 to 1.5 hours before Park close (or maybe earlier). Check the App for hours.
- You can take a drink to go – they will put it in plastic for you to take or if you don’t finish your drink (including alcohol) then they will give to a to-go cup.
Rank #2 – Pym’s Test Kitchen in Avenger’s Campus
- Offerings: Themed Sandwiches, Salad, Pasta
- Our Favorites: Pepper Particle Pasta, Humongous Taco Salad, Choco-Smash Candy Bar, Reactor Melt, Quantum Pretzel, Choco Smash Candy Bar
- Our Tips:
- Many people enjoy the Not so Little Chicken Sandwich. It’s thin/pounded fried chicken, but we find it to be dry
- You can refill your fountain drink here which is one of two places where you can do this in California Adventure Park (the other is Boardwalk Pizza and Pasta).
- Open for Breakfast – see our post on Disneyland Breakfast Restaurants
Rank #3 – Aunt Cass Café in San Fransokyo Square
- Offerings: Entrees in a Bread Bowl, Noodle Salad, Sandwiches
- Our Favorites: Clam Chowder in a Bread Bowl, Turkey Pesto Club
- Our Tips:
- Seating can be a challenge in this food court area at peak times.
Rank #4 – Flo’s V8 Café in Cars Land
- Offerings: Diner food – Burgers, Fried Chicken, Salad, Club Sandwich
- Our Favorites: Club Sandwich, Cobb Salad
- Our Tips:
- The fried chicken plate is not the same as the divine Chicken at Plaza Inn at Disneyland. This Chicken lacks the seasoning of the Plaza Inn Chicken – it’s more bland.
- Burgers here are similar to other Disneyland Park Burgers and we’re not fans. For burgers, we go to Downtown Disney.
- We do love the back patio vibes here for seating where you can watch the Radiator Springs Racers ride.
Rank #5 – Cocina Cucamonga Mexican Grill in San Fransokyo Square
- Offerings: Mexican Food – Tacos
- Our Favorites: QuesaBirria Tacos
- Our Tips:
- Seating in this food court area can be a challenge at peak times.
- This menu is very limited to Tacos, but they are good
Rank #6 – Lucky Fortune Cookery in San Fransokyo Square
- Offerings: Asian Food
- Our Favorites: Beef Bulgogi Burrito, Crispy Chicken Sandwich
- Our Tips:
- This is not spicy food – it’s very tame for Asian food.
- Seating can be a challenge in this food court area at peak times.
Rank #7 – Boardwalk Pizza and Pasta in Paradise Gardens
- Offerings: Pizza and Pasta
- Our Favorites: Four-Cheese Roasted Garlic Chicken Pasta
- Our Tips:
- The pasta here is on par with the pasta at Alien Pizza Planet at Disneyland.
- The pizza here is not very good (like Alien Pizza Planet). If you want good pizza, then Napoli Pizzeria in Downtown Disney is great as is the Hearthstone Lounge or the GCH Grill and the Grand Californian Hotel.
- You can refill your fountain drink here which is one of two places where you can do this in California Adventure Park.
Rank #8 – Award Wieners in Hollywood Land
- Offerings: Hot dogs with creative toppings – menu varies
- Our Favorites: Hot dogs – pick the topping that interests you most
- Our Tips: Seating is around the corner in Hollywood Land. Maybe get a seasonal milk shake next door at Schmoozies. The buns makes these hot dogs better – they are unique, soft and tasty. The toppings are creative and plentiful.
Rank #9 – Smokejumper’s Grill at Grizzly Peak
- Offerings: Burgers, Chicken Sandwiches, Chicken Tenders, Salad
- Our Favorites: Spicy Chicken Sandwich, Salad (type of Salad changes)
- Our Tips:
- The salad options change, but we’ve mostly had good, hearty salads here.
- Their burgers are on the dry, bland side. We do enjoy the fries though. We go to Downtown Disney for Burgers.
- Open for Breakfast – see our post on Disneyland Breakfast Restaurants
- Very close to Clarabele’s Ice Cream or Trolley Treats for Dessert
Summary
These are our opinion and yours may be different, of course. We have not tried every menu item, so we only include our favorites based on what we’ve tried.
Don’t be discouraged from visiting a low ranking restaurant above – these are just our preferences and we find things we enjoy at all of these restaurants.
There are a number of snack locations at California Adventure Park that serve hot food and we don’t cover the snack locations in this post. This includes Cozy Cones, Angry Dog, Poultry Palace, Shawarma Palace, and Corn Dog Castle. These are covered in our post on Savory Snacks at Disneyland.
One tip that applies to every Quick Service Restaurant is ask for free water. They always keep some ready to go, but they don’t offer it unless you ask (in our experience).
Thanks for reading this and please check out our full website for lots more content. We at the Bippity Club wish you the very best and hope you enjoy awesome food at Disneyland!
