The Newly Expanded Disneyland Resort Offers a Small World of Dining
This parade of restaurants and shops requires no admission fee. It’s a packed social gathering place where I am fascinated with a little window shopping while getting my bearings. Then we might stop for a cocktail, or one of the many wines by the glass, at Brennan’s or the Uva Bar. The new Grand Californian Hotel also shares a doorway with the pleasant shopping and dining complex and it is a beautiful lodging addition for Orange County.
One thing I wish to make clear: the restaurants in Downtown Disney all have vast menus. These are not fast-food joints with truncated food possibilities. And, they have not squandered on the wine availability either. Plenty of that by the glass in these establishments. While they keep with the casual spirit of relaxation, all of the restaurants nevertheless represent huge investments in d & #233;cor as well. There’s plenty to see and taste for hours on end.
There are several dining places that I did not include in the restaurant overviews here, but suffice it to say you will need to set aside plenty of time to do justice to the ones I have written about. Take my advice and allow the valet to park your car. It will save you searching for a decent parking place and the probable long walk to Downtown Disney. The valet is at the Downtown area and you just get out of your car and start having fun. The fee for valet parking is by the hour, but nominal.
Should you want to visit the new Mondavi Golden Vine Winery, you will have to be inside the California Adventure theme park. It is not accessible from Downtown Disney. The other restaurant getting some press that’s inside the new theme park is Wolfgang Puck’s Avalon Cove.
Catal Restaurant and Uva Bar
Downtown Disney, Anaheim
(714) 774-4442
Joachim and Christine Splichal continue to make their mark on OC with yet another very interesting concept. Besides Pinot Provence in Costa Mesa, Tangata at the Bowers Museum, many restaurants in Los Angeles and a scattering elsewhere, they have admitted to a fondness for OC.
You may not think of Downtown Disney as a very serious place to dine, but when it comes to excellent-tasting food, this kitchen is paying attention, all the while giving us casual and unique surroundings.
There are two distinct dining concepts here. The downstairs part of the restaurant is Uva, which means “grape” in Spanish. The intentional romantic look of the California wine country turned out well. Forty wines by the glass are offered and there’s a large tapas menu.
Catal is the upstairs full-service restaurant. Matching the flavors of the Mediterranean-inspired dishes are the vast views of the promenade. It’s a special perch overlooking the energy of the crowds.
I have tasted a lot of the appetizers and some of the entr & #233;es so far. From the Uva Bar, the croutons topped with duck confit, lentils and pickled shallots is a go. Spicy prawns on a skewer went nicely with my Sauvignon Blanc. The crispy crouton is also used as a bed for wonderful cured Spanish ham with fresh almonds sprinkled on top. And with a glass of Pinot Noir, I cannot help but suggest the zippy tuna tartare atop waffle-cut potato chips.
There are little specialties, 32 of them, from all around the globe. With utensils for help upstairs, take in the endive salad with Roquefort cheese and caramelized walnuts or the one with sliced lamb and romaine lettuce. Grilled salmon with oven-dried tomatoes benefits splendidly from the Moroccan preserved lemon slices. It’s one of the best preparations of salmon I have found. There’s also a nice lemon chicken pita bread sandwich and a grilled steak complete with a stack of garlicky French fries.
For dessert,don’t forget the glass of dessert wine at this juncture,it’s hard to top the baklava (crispy filo pastry laced with nuts and sided with candied pistachios and poached figs). But the warm apple tart gives it a pretty good chase.
Napa Rose
1600 Disneyland Drive
(inside the Grand Californian Hotel)
Anaheim
(714) 239-5605
This is the signature restaurant at the new Grand Californian Hotel. To say that no expense was spared in d & #233;cor or in getting the finest chef to head up the culinary team would be an understatement. Consequently, this place has impact.
Getting to it, you first enjoy the bungalow-style entryway of the hotel that opens into a grandiose lobby where there’s a massive stone fireplace whose hearth is surrounded with rocking chairs. I want to sink into those chairs and have a chat with someone every time.
A deliciously relaxing theme also unfolds in the dining room, albeit with a level of sophistication via the impeccably set tables, lush upholstery, subdued color scheme and monied accents. There are murals of the wine country adorning the walls and an open kitchen where chefs scurry about cooking for enthusiastic diners. It’s been playing to full houses since opening day in January.
Wondering where the name came from? It’s explained right at the top of the menu. For centuries in Europe, roses were planted at the end of a row of grapevines. This not only added great beauty, but it attracted the bees for pollination. It also warned of unfavorable weather or earth conditions. You still see roses planted along some of the vineyards today in our own wine country.
The hotel had a commitment from the start to hire a highly regarded chef. Then, in a grand coup, they managed to hire Andrew Sutton. He comes from a very prestigious background dotted with awards and national publicity garnered in his years at Auberge du Soleil in the Napa Valley. He is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America and has cooked for the elite of the world at the Auberge.
They filled out the rest of the staff with the best people they could find, and that included Michael Jordan (former manager of Pinot Provence) as the head of the restaurant team. It’s pretty impressive, folks.
The intriguing food is gorgeously presented. A lunch appetizer of fire-roasted mussels in saffron essence? Why not? There’s pancetta wrapped shrimp with black lentil cassoulet and a redolent wood-roasted squash soup. Appetizers at dinner include a tart containing coastal mushrooms and braised Sonoma rabbit and the plate of truffled ravioli with crispy duck is influential. There are also a trio of appetizer platters for sharing with the likes of foie gras, caviar, truffled quail eggs, lemon grass chicken which you cook on a hot beach stone, tiny glazed spare ribs, garlic-seared shrimp, lobster and crab.
Roasted leg of lamb sandwich and Pacific sole with grape and pistachio butter are starry versions of common ingredients. Making similar impressions in the entr & #233;e section are free-range veal osso buco, prime rib of pork and Sierra golden trout with a ragout of artichoke, leeks and Delta crayfish.
Face it. This is not your mother’s cooking. But it’s pretty awesome! When they present the desserts, your jaw will drop again.
Naples
Downtown Disney, Anaheim
(714) 776-6200
Just across the broad walkway from Catal is this Italian-themed restaurant, also owned by Joachim and Christine Splichal’s company, Patina Group. Executive chef Corrado Gianotti has fashioned a menu of southern Italian specialties, from Mount Vesuvius to the Amalfi Coast. The inspiration here comes from Patina’s partner, Restaurant Associates in New York. They operate several Naples-themed restaurants on the East Coast.
The restaurant is colorful and somewhat whimsical. Outside, guests are greeted by a harlequinesque figure of Italian folklore, mosaic tile floors replete with fiber optic lighting and “Mount Vesuvius” bellowing smoke.
Interiors begin with a two-story wood-burning pizza oven. You do know that the Neapolitans are famed for their thin-crusted pizzas? One part of the restaurant has a 15-foot mahogany wine vault. Another is a more casual area adjacent to a lovely patio. Board a hand-crafted iron elevator and you ascend to the marble and wood room with curvy walls and vibrantly upholstered booths.
So you already know that it’s imperative to have one of the pizzas. You’d best order the salmon appetizer cured with Limoncello (the wonderful lemon liqueur of Italy), too.
To start a meal with the zucchini and onion tart with mixed greens is yet another good idea. There’s a flashy chicken ragout on crispy polenta, too. The plate of deep-fried (totally non-greasy) mixed seafood and shellfish makes you rethink traditional fish and chips. The risotto comes dappled with broccoli rabe and plenty of shrimp. The rigatoni (fat tubes of pasta) with Italian sausage and tomatoes is totally southern, while the potato dumplings (gnocchi) with chicken and rosemary is now found throughout Italy and on good Italian menus here.
Absorb the colors of the world and eat hearty. Shop in some of the boutiques first so you’ll have a big appetite. I tell you, Gina Lolobridgida would love this place.
Ralph Brennan’s Jazz Kitchen
Downtown Disney, Anaheim
(714) 776-5200
Two of the greatest charms of New Orleans,N’Awlins to those who wish to sound like natives,are the food and the jazz. I recall my excitement when I first heard, almost two years ago, that Ralph Brennan was doing a restaurant here that would incorporate both. I had the privilege of spending a little of my youth in New Orleans and still count it among my favorite places in the world, and I happen to know Ralph Brennan. He has torn himself away from his restaurants and his city to give us only the second Brennan restaurant in a far away location (the other is in Las Vegas).
Ralph has a most admirable track record. He’s past president of the National Restaurant Association and his Mr. B’s Bistro, which sits in the French Quarter, has been given the Ivy Award and been included in the National Restaurant Hall of Fame by Nation’s Restaurant News, the undisputed “bible” of the restaurant industry. He sits on enough boards to take up a whole page discussing that alone. In addition to Mr. B’s Bistro, he owns BACCO and Red Fish Grill. In fact, eight Brennan cousins run nine restaurants in the city.
The Anaheim restaurant blends the charms, hospitality and ambiance of historic and contemporary New Orleans. Wouldn’t you know, there’s an indoor courtyard with an impressive fountain, just like you’d find down South. There’s the casual Creole Caf & #233;, Flambeaux’s (the jazz club with the hand-beaded piano), Carnival Club full-service dining room and the Jazz Balcony. Throughout are creative signage and Mardi Gras murals.
The chef is also direct from New Orleans. Mark Goscienski has cheffed for several years at the famed Windsor Court Hotel. Here he carries on the Brennan tradition of serving the finest Louisiana ingredients and celebrated flavors to the guests.
The melting pot of Creole cooking includes French, Spanish, African, Caribbean, Italian and American Indian influences. It incorporates the rich bounty from the rivers and bayous of south Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico, ingredients that are imported to this kitchen directly from these same Louisiana waters. Plan to dine sumptuously on gumbo ya-ya, turtle soup, andouille sausage, jambalaya, molasses roasted duck, peppered pork Po-Boy, crawfish pie and beignets and bread pudding for dessert.
The motto of New Orleans is Laissez Les Bon Temps Rouler (let the good times roll), and they are certainly doing a good job of that here.
