This ranking is only for the restaurants in Downtown Disney and the three adjacent Disney Hotels that serve Lunch and Dinner. We have separate posts for Quick Service Restaurants in California Adventure Park Ranked and Quick Service Restaurants in Disneyland Park Ranked and Disneyland Breakfast Restaurants.
Below are our rankings starting with the best at #1. These are out opinions based on our own experiences eating at Disneyland. Any of the menu items we mention below can disappear because menus do change, and we have not tried every item on every menu at Disneyland.
Rank #1 – GCH Craftsman Grill at the Grand Californian Hotel
- Offerings: Burgers, Pizzas, Poke Bowl, Salads, and more
- Our Favorites: Baked Nachos, Seared Salmon Salad, Sticky Chicken Wings, Poke Bowl, Wagyu Gouda Burger, Pizzas (same food as GCH Craftsman Bar, but cheaper)
- Our Tips:
- The food here is on par with Table Service restaurants at the Grand Californian (GCH Craftsman Bar and Hearthstone Lounge), but it’s a little cheaper because it’s a quick service location but still the most expensive of all the quick service locations on this list
- They have the same menu as the GCH Craftsman Bar, except they don’t serve alcohol
- They have some outdoor seating on the side which we prefer over indoor, weather permitting
- There’s a lot of grab and go here as you enter – desserts, fruit, drinks, coffee and more.
- If you see no one there, the kitchen may still be busy because they serve the GCH Craftsman Bar also, so if the bar is busy then you may wait longer that you’d expect for your food orders
- They shift from breakfast to lunch menu and they stop serving breakfast at around 10:30ish
Rank #2 – Black Tap Craft Burgers and Shakes (Downtown Disney)
- Offerings: Burgers, Chicken Sandwiches, Wings, Salads, Crazy Shakes, Cocktails, Beer, Wine
- Our Favorites: Burgers, Crazy Shakes, Cheesy Fries
- Our Tips:
- There are many burger options and you can customize toppings.
- The Crazy Shakes have giant toppings and are super cute. Underneath it’s a normal, but if you don’t want all these toppings then they have classic shakes.
- The Crazy Shakes are so popular that they have their own to-go window on the side of the restaurant if you just want a Shake.
Rank #3 – Ballast Point Brewing Co. in Downtown Disney
This is in between Table Service and Quick Service – they don’t take reservations unless your party is 12+. We decided to rank it with Quick Service because it’s more of a walk up location, although a wait person does take your order so it’s not exactly Quick Service.
- Offerings: Burger, Chicken Sandwich, Poke Bowl, Tacos, Salads, Appetizers, lots of Beer choices and flights, and wine
- Our Favorites: Calamari appetizer, Burger, Chicken Sandwich
- Our Tips:
- If you have beer lovers, this is your place as there are so many beer options
- They have a big dining area on the 2nd floor and a decent-sized outdoor patio and we’ve had good experience with getting a walk in table
Rank #4 – Napolini Pizzeria in Downtown Disney
- Offerings: Pizza
- Our Favorites: Pizza (that’s all they have and it’s good)
- Our Tips:
- They have personal size pizzas and larger pizzas, but no pizza by the slice
- You can customize your pizza
Rank #5 – GG’s Chicken in Downtown Disney
- Offerings: Chicken Sandwiches, Salads
- Our Favorites: Original Fried Chicken Sandwich
- Our Tips:
- This menu is so small but we love these Fried Sandwiches and the seating upstairs is wonderful.
- You can sit upstairs at Vista and they will bring your food to you – and there’s a great patio upstairs and a great bar.
- It’s in the same space as Seoul Sister (see below) so your party can order from either of these restaurants and have your food delivered and eat upstairs together.
- There is a partially blocked view of fireworks from the Vista patio upstairs.
- You can ask for the sauce on the side if you get a sandwich with sauce – and we recommend you do that because we have seen others say there was too much sauce on their sandwich.
Rank #6 – Earl of Sandwich in Downtown Disney
- Hot Sandwiches, Salads, Wraps
- Our Favorites: Holiday Turkey Sandwich, The Original 1762 Sandwich
- Our Tips:
- This is well known as a budget friendly option in Downtown Disney.
- A permanent two-story location for them is being built near the Disneyland Hotel side of Downtown Disney, and in the meantime they have a temporary trailer location near the construction area and a separate temporary space near California Adventure Park that will be torn down to build a Portos restaurant.
- The location near California Adventure Park has expanded menu items like Pizza and a sit down breakfast and lunch menu, but we have not eaten there and it’s closing soon so we are not covering those expanded menu items.
Rank #7 – Tangaroa Terrace at the Disneyland Hotel
- Offerings: Food with tropical twist – Poke Bowl, Burger, Teriyaki Chicken, Appetizers, Salad
- Our Favorites: Tempura-battered Green Beans, Poke Bowl but without the Togarashi Aioli
- Our Tips:
- This is the same menu as Trader Sam’s next door (which is a lounge/Table-Service location) that often has long waits for walk-ups.
- For the Poke Bowl which we like, we did not enjoy the Aioli which blankets the fish so ask for that on the side and see if you really want it. We found it sweet and distracting from what was otherwise a very good dish.
- The Tempura-battered Green Beans are spectacular and they are one of our top foods at Disneyland and anytime we are near this location we have to stop by and get some. The dipping sauce is exceptional.
Seoul Sister – (Downtown Disney) Korean Bowls
It’s in the same space as Seoul Sister (see below) so your party can order from either of these restaurants and have your food delivered and eat upstairs together.
Tiendita
Blue Ribbon Corn Dog (Downtown Disney) – Corn Dogs, and Pickle Corn Dog
Small Bytes at the Pixar Place Hotel –
Summary
That’s 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.
