Since several of you have asked about a blog on dining at Disneyland Paris…here it is.

Overall we were disappointed in the food at Disneyland Paris. Most of the restaurants offered the same theme park food that you would find here! There wasn’t a lot of variety, and in fact ALL of the quick service places in the Studios were burger places.

One issue at Disneyland Paris was that a lot of restaurants (particularly quick service restaurants) were closed because it was the off-season. I don’t know that the Mexican place in Frontierland or the pizza place in Fantasyland would have been any good, but at least they would have offered a little more variety – something other than burgers.

Of the restaurants that were open, the majority of them seemed to be expensive buffets, and that was a lot more food than we wanted. Table service restaurants didn’t have much availability (plus the meals were 40 Euros and up).

Even kiosks offering a quick snack like popcorn were hard to find. Or hard to find one that was open.

Our first meal at Disneyland Paris was a late lunch at the Market House Deli on Main Street. It features sandwiches, salads, flatbread, and pastries. Cafeteria style – you grab a tray, go through the line and take what you want, order your beverage, and pay. I hadn’t had a salad in days and really wanted a salad, so I got a three-cheese salad. Not exciting, but it was good, and what I wanted. (Sorry, no photo.) Lee ordered the Croque Monsieur – a toasted ham and cheese sandwich. Ahh…but not all toasted ham and cheese sandwiches are created equal! This was the best one we’d ever had. It had ham, cheese, and bechamel inside, and then the outside was covered in yummy crispy toasted cheese. It was SO good – the best thing we had at Disneyland Paris. We liked it so much we came back and had it two more times during our trip – once for lunch and once for an early dinner.

That evening, by the time we started looking for a dinner spot we couldn’t find anything that was open (that wasn’t a buffet), so we went to Downtown Disney and went to Annette’s Diner. At that point we kind of wanted a nice sincere burger and fries.

Lee had the Classic Cheeseburger. He said it was good, but not exceptional. 17 euros. He ordered a chocolate milkshake also. Tasted good, but there was not 10 euros worth of milkshake in that glass!

I had the Fish Burger, which had pieces of nice crisp panko-crusted cod, and came with French fries and cole slaw. The fish was quite good. At 20 euros it was quite pricey – and that didn’t include a beverage! Still, I enjoyed it.

For breakfasts…Our race package included continental breakfast (served in one of the hotel restaurants) every morning. Croissants, pastries, fruit, yogurt, deli meat and cheese, and cereal. It think there were hard-boiled eggs, also. It’s a good thing that we had that, otherwise it would have been difficult to find something for breakfast. There was no quick-service dining at our hotel and there weren’t many breakfast options available in Downtown Disney or the parks. The choice seemed to be full character breakfast or pastries from Starbucks – and it always had a long line.

There was an Earl of Sandwich in Downtown Disney, and we ate lunch there on our second day. It was quite close to the race expo and very popular – lots of Americans in there as well as people working the Expo. I didn’t take any photos, but the menu was pretty much the same as at the U.S. restaurants. Just higher prices. 🙂

That evening we had dinner at King Ludwig’s Castle in Downtown Disney. I wasn’t expecting much, but it turned out to be one of the better meals that we had. I don’t remember now how much we spent, but it was cheaper than Annette’s Diner the night before!

The decor inside was interesting – certainly fit the theme.

Lee was happy because he could get a nice dark German beer. I had a glass of Riesling.

We both ordered a two course meal. Both of us had the Caprese Salad as a starter. It was served in a very different way, but it tasted good. Strange to have small tomatoes rather than slices of tomato, though. And rather than pieces of basil it came with pesto.

My entree was a Roasted Pork Shank served on a bed of sauerkraut. The pork was very good – tender and almost fell off the bone. The sauerkraut was fine – there was just an awful lot of it!

Lee ordered the Spaetzle, which was a vegetarian dish, and had cheese in it. It was tasty, but VERY filling.

For lunch the next day we went to Bistrot Chez Remy in the Walt Disney Studios park. We really wanted to try it and had made a reservation the day before.

The waiting area.

It’s a large restaurant, with lots of interesting decor. Even though they weren’t accepting walk-ups, there were a number of empty tables and it did not seem to be overly busy. Which made it a much more pleasant dining experience for us.

The menu offered two different set menus. With each you could order either a two or three course meal. Each menu had it own appetizer, with choices for entree and dessert. The Linguini (two course) and Gusteau (three course) menu was more gourmet (and more expensive) than theRemy (two course) and Emile (three course) menu. The Linguini and Remy options included starter and main course only, while the Gusteau and Emile options included starter, main course, dessert, and beverage. With Menu Gusteau there was an optional wine pairing for an additional 15 euros.

I went with the Emile menu option, for 40 euros. My starter was a mixed green salad with grated beetroot and chives, and a sesame and soy dressing. Which for some reason I didn’t photograph.

Lee went all in and opted for Menu Gusteau with the wine pairing. That was 60 euros plus the additional 15 for the wine. His first course was duck foie gras with violet fig jam, toasted walnut bread, and salad. I didn’t photograph that, either.

My entree was Roasted Cod, ratatouille, crushed potatoes and a beurre blanc sauce. The fish, sauce, and potatoes were very good. The ratatouille was ok.

Lee had the Fillet of Beef with Premium ratatouille, confit potatoes and mustard jus.

And this was the Premium ratatouille. Very nice to look at, but he also thought it was just ok.

For dessert I had the (big surprise here) Chocolate Mousse. It was very good.

Lee ordered the Apple Tart which he quite enjoyed. It came with a glass of Cuvee Disneyland Paris champagne.

It was expensive, but it was a very nice meal.

That night we looked for dining locations around Disneyland Paris, but a lot of places were closed. We finally ended up at The Cowboy Cookout in Frontierland. I was surprised this place was open, because it was at the back of Frontierland, and there was nothing else open back there except the train station. All the other attractions were closed as part of the big Thunder Mountain/Frontierland refurbishment.

This is a BBQ place – they had BBQ chicken, ribs, sausage, and burgers. It was quite large inside, though we ate outside, since it was a very pleasant evening. Not very many people in there.

I had the half BBQ chicken. I did the meal option for 13 euros, which came with choice of salad or potatoes, choice of brownie or yogurt for dessert, and choice of beverage. It was a lot of food. The chicken was very tasty, and the salad, even though it was pre-packaged, was nice and fresh.

Lee had the Premium Angus Burger meal for 15 euros. The burger came with cheese, tomato, lettuce, and onion rings. There was choice of salad or potatoes, choice of fruit cup or ice cream bar for dessert, and choice of beverage. Lee said the burger was excellent – better than the one we’d had at Annette’s the first night.

On Saturday morning we finished the 5K early enough that we had time to shower and still go make the continental breakfast at Sequoia Lodge – yogurt, fruit, pastries.

We met friends in Disneyland afterwards and stopped for a quick snack at the bakery on Main Street. They had some chocolate doughnuts that looked good, so I tried one of those. And it was pretty good.

For lunch we went to the Deli again, where most of us enjoyed the Croque Monsieur. That was really a good ham and cheese sandwich! For later I picked up a Nutella muffin. It wasn’t terrible sweet except for the Nutella filling. I liked it.

With a half marathon the next morning we wanted to find something pasta-like for dinner that night, but there really weren’t very many options. Colonel Hathi’s Pizza Outpost in Adventureland was the only place we could find that had pasta.

Lee and I ordered the Rigatoni meal, which came with either marinara or bolognese, choice of salad or garlic bread, and choice of beverage for 12 euros. It was ok – not great, but not bad. I thought it was a reasonable-sized serving of pasta. I had the marinara. The sauce was fine but didn’t have a lot of flavor.

On Sunday by the time we finished the half marathon and showered it was too late for breakfast at the hotel. Though before we left the room I finished the rest of my Nutella muffin from the day before. We looked a the line at Starbuck’s in Downtown Disney but it was too long. We went into the Studios and pretty quickly determined that the only options were the Restaurant des Stars buffet (expensive) or the Restaurant en Coulisse burger place just inside the entrance. We were pretty hungry by then so just went to the burger place.

I ordered the Fish Burger with choice of fries or salad, and beverage for 12 euros. It wasn’t as good as the fish sandwich I’d had at Annette’s Diner, but it was decent, and I was hungry.

Lee ordered the Angus Cheeseburger. For 15 euros it came with choice of fries or salad, choice of fruit or ice cream bar, and beverage. It wasn’t nearly as good as the burger he’d had at the BBQ place. But again, it was decent, and he was hungry.

We were back in Disneyland that evening (our final night in France) and had a couple of Croque Monsieur sandwiches at the Deli again. It was easily the best thing we had at the parks.

As I mentioned at the beginning, overall we weren’t very impressed with the food offerings at Disneyland Paris. Some of that impression is due to the limited options we had with so many dining places being closed. But a lot of the places we did try were just ok. It was France, and we really expected the food to be a cut above what is available in the United States.

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