During our three days at Disneyland for the Star Wars Half Marathon Weekend, we tried a few different dining options. We (gasp!) did not have any meals at our usual pre-race favorite, Boardwalk Pizza and Pasta!
Friday evening we were tired after a long week at work, driving in traffic to Anaheim, visiting the Expo, and checking into our hotel. So we wanted something fairly easy, and went to Earl of Sandwich in Downtown Disney. It was about 6:00, and we were surprised that the line wasn’t very long.
They have some new items on the “Get the Skinny” menu, which are under 400 calories. There’s a BBQ Chicken Flatbread, Quinoa Chicken Salad, and Turkey Wrap. They looked interesting but I opted for one of my favorites: The Holiday Turkey, with turkey, cranberry sauce, dressing, and gravy. Yum.
I also had a cup of the Chicken Noodle soup. It was good, but it was a small serving – they didn’t fill the cup very full.
Lee had The Original 1762 – roast beef with horseradish sauce.
Lee also picked up a container of Brownie Bites. These were surprisingly good! Moist and chewy and very chocolaty and satisfying. We really enjoyed these – we still had a couple left on Monday, and even then they were still very good!
On Saturday morning after the 10K and Kids Races we went into Disneyland – I wanted to try the breakfast menu at the Galactic Grill, which has Star Wars-inspired menu items.
I tried the Bantha Blue Milk Bread. This was essentially French toast, served with bacon and fresh fruit. It was pretty good.
Lee went with the Darth Tamale. A blue corn tamale with scrambled eggs, chorizo, red chili sauce and tomatillo salsa. I had a bite and found that the chili sauce was pretty spicy. I couldn’t have eaten this but Lee really enjoyed it, enough that he recommended it to several other people. Though with the caution that it was for people who like spicy food.
That afternoon we had something from Lucky Fortune Cookery. I like the idea of rice bowls and veggies with choice of meat and sauce, but they use peppers in the veggie mix, which makes it inedible for me. But on the kid’s menu there’s a chicken and brown rice offering, served with oranges and carrots – but no peppers. So I tried that. It was a good-sized serving and I liked it. The oranges were on top of the chicken, and the carrots were in a bag. There was a mild teriyaki type of sauce on the chicken. I’d get that again.
Lee ordered the beef bowl with teriyaki sauce. He liked it.
That evening a group of us went to Naples in Downtown Disney for dinner. We had a reservation for 5:30. As you might expect, it was a popular choice on the night before a race, and there was a long line to check in. Some in our party knew from previous experience that it was for walk-ups, and that those with reservations checked in at the podium inside. Once our fearless leader did that, we were soon seated at an outside table.
It was coolish evening, but there were gas heaters around us, so that was fine – until they ran out of propane. And then apparently there were no additional gas canisters to be had, so it got a little chilly by the time we left.
Unlike our experience at Italian restaurants at Walt Disney World, Naples had a couple of “runner’s specials” in addition to their regular menu. These included salad as well as pasta choices. We didn’t go for any of those, though.
Our server (Amazing Amanda!) brought us fresh bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Must…Not…Fill…Up…On…Bread….(But it’s sooo good!)
As an entree I ordered Agnolotti – housemade cheese ravioli with fresh tomato and basil sauce. I requested marinara rather than basil sauce – I love pesto, but it can be too garlicky the night before a race. It was very good.
Lee tried the Lasagna, a traditional eight layer lasagna with Bolognese meat sauce, béchamel and Parmesan cheese. He enjoyed it.
Some of our dining companions ordered the Spaghetti and Meatballs.
The restaurant was quite busy, but we didn’t feel rushed to finish, and had a very nice meal. Naples is not my favorite restaurant but this was a very nice experience.
Sunday morning after the half marathon and a hot shower we met friends at the UVA Bar for breakfast. Lee and I had never had breakfast here before, but our friend Eddie really likes it – and he had already gotten a table for all of us. It’s outdoor seating, but there was a heat lamp nearby (that had plenty of propane 😉 ) and we were warm enough. It was fun to people-watch and see all of the runners coming by in their medals and costumes. We saw several people we knew.
We started with celebratory mimosas, and then ordered breakfast. 🙂 I went with “2 Organic Eggs”, served with potatoes and choice of toast. Thankfully there were no peppers in the eggs! Nothing fancy, but it was nicely prepared.
Lee went with the Breakfast Burrito with scrambled eggs, potatoes, applewood smoked bacon, mild red chile sauce, and aged cheddar. This looked very good, and he liked it.
Eddie tried the Buttermilk Pancakes, and enjoyed those.
Phill ordered the Steel Cut Oats, which was served with honey, raisins, and almonds. I didn’t get a picture of that – oatmeal is just not very photogenic. 🙂
We enjoyed the food and ambiance and especially the company – definitely a place we’ll consider returning to for breakfast on a future Disneyland trip.
We didn’t really have lunch – we had an afternoon snack at Ghirardelli. 🙂 I had my new favorite Nob Hill Chill, though it wasn’t quite as thick this time as I like it.
Lee had the Sea Salt Caramel Sundae.
For dinner, we joined several friends at Ralph Brennan’s Jazz Kitchen. Lee and I have eaten here several times before and have always enjoyed the food, and there’s a lot of variety on the menu. Our friends told us later that it was the best meal they had on their visit – and they’d eaten at several other Disney table service restaurants.
We had an early reservation, and were seated in the corner of the big room upstairs. That was nice and out of the way. It was quiet when we arrived, but it got a lot noisier as the place filled up. Oh well…we enjoyed it while we could.
There were several specialty cocktails on the menu. This is The Blue Marquise, in honor of Disneyland’s 60th anniversary. The color apparently came from 44th North Huckleberry Vodka. It was very pretty and quite tasty.
Lee and I shared an appetizer: Boudin Balls. Slow roasted cochon pork, dirty rice, Creole mustard aioli with Tabasco pepper jelly. They were deep-fried, and they were really, really good.
Another couple shared the Louisiana Crab Cake – with fire roasted corn cucumber salsa and Creole mustard drizzle. They liked it.
Since I knew I wanted dessert, I didn’t order an entree, and instead ordered soup and salad. The soup of the day was tomato and artichoke, and it was excellent.
I ordered the house French Quarter salad – mixed greens, candied pecans, cherry tomatoes and cider vinaigrette. Not too exciting, but it was a nice salad.
Lee ordered the classic BBQ Shrimp and Grits with barbecue sauce and andouille-parmesan grits. Very good.
Other entrees:
Blackened Chicken Mac & Cheese – Applewood smoked bacon, caramelized onions, oven roasted tomatoes, baby arugula and rosemary garlic ciabatta bread.
Grilled Medallions of Beef – Filet mignon, crawfish mashed potatoes, bacon & pecan-crusted green beans and a zinfandel reduction.
Gumbo Ya-Ya – Chicken, andouille sausage, dark roux, Creole seasoning and rice.
Southern Fried Chicken – highly recommended by our server, and a winner. With smoked gouda mac & cheese, bacon braised turnip greens, lemon-pepper gravy.
As I mentioned, I didn’t order an entree because I knew what I wanted for dessert: Double Chocolate Bread Pudding. It takes about 25 minutes to prepare and should be pre-ordered – the servers should ask about it in plenty of time so that you don’t end up waiting for it. It’s served with dark chocolate and white chocolate sauce – use one or the other or both. This is a dessert for two (or more) people to share…Lee and I only got through about 2/3 of ours. Really good.
This was a wonderful meal with great company, and we really enjoyed it.
Ralph Brennan’s Jazz Kitchen Dinner Menu
Monday morning a group of us did early entry at DCA. After two rides on Radiator Springs Racers (for our first ride we were in the first group of cars for the day!) and a wrist and arm workout on Toy Story Midway Mania, we went in search of breakfast.
Pacific Wharf Cafe is no longer serving breakfast, and neither is Cozy Cone #3. 🙁 That left Fiddler, Fifer and Practical Cafe (Starbucks) and Flo’s V8 Cafe as our only options. So we went to Flo’s. I decided I wanted some Churro Bites from Cozy Cone #1, but when I got there was very disappointed to find that they no longer serve Churro Bites – just regular churros. Not what I wanted.
I don’t like the scrambled eggs at Flo’s – they are baked or steamed or something and have a weird texture. I had the fruit plate, which came with yogurt and a mini oat bran muffin.
Lee had the American Breakfast, with the aforementioned weird eggs, potatoes, bacon and a biscuit. That’s another thing I don’t like about Flo’s – the potatoes have peppers in them.
Kim had the Kids Waffles – this came with turkey bacon and fruit. It’s a pretty decent-sized breakfast, I think!
Someone else had the Chicken Tamale, topped with scrambled eggs and salsa verde. This is pretty good, except that I think the tamale has too much masa and not enough filling. It’s very attractive, though.
By lunch time almost all of our playmates had departed for the airport, but there were still four of us left, so Dave and Holly and Lee and I all went to Trader Sam’s. We were just in time to get a table inside as another party was leaving. It’s noisier in there, but more fun. The one bartender was really into all of the special drink effects, and that made it a lot more entertaining.
I had a Passionate Python, with a couple different types of rum, passion fruit juice, and other tropical juices.
Lee went with the Piranha Pool – Strawberry vodka blended with pineapple juice, cream of coconut, strawberry puree, and blue Curacao. This is a good one.
I think Holly has not yet forgiven me for suggesting the Murky Mojito to her. 🙂 Rum, fresh lime juice, mint and agave nectar topped with Angostura Bitters – she said it was really strong.
We had food, too. I tried the Shrimp Tacos, which were new to me. They were quite good.
Lee and Dave both had the Kalua Pork Flatbread, which I did not photograph, but you can see the corner of it in the Piranha Pool photo above.
Holly had part of Dave’s flatbread, but also ordered the Panko-Crusted Chinese Long Beans, which she shared with the rest of us – those are so good.
That was our final meal for this particular trip. It was fun to have some new experiences this time, and especially to share a number of meals with good friends.
Hi, Laura! Congrats on your Star Wars runs! Great costumes! I really enjoy reading all your blogs about your Disney adventures, runs, and food! Will you be doing the upcoming Glass Slipper Challenge? I’ll be down at WDW for it. It’s nice they are changing the princess each year – too bad they aren’t changing the challenge name too! I’m looking forward to some nice park time, sun and runs down there. While our winter hasn’t been all that bad for Chicago, I’ve been running in cold, grey, cloudy, damp and windy weather a bit too much. It will be nice to run in shorts in FL! Maybe one of these days we’ll bump into each other at a runDisney event! Thanks for all your great blogs! Happy Running!
Laura replies: Thanks, Lisa! Yes, I’ll be running Glass Slipper Challenge, also! If you see me, please come over and say hi.
I’m with you – I wish they would change the GSC Challenge a bit – I love Cinderella, but there are lots of other princesses with “challenges” also! 🙂 Oh well, at least they are changing the featured Princess every year, and changing up the themes for the 10K and 5K.
Enjoy the sunny and warm Florida weather, and have fun in the races!