Carnation Cafe — Restaurant in Anaheim

They made MAGIC happen for our daughter! Here's the thing: there are a ton of places to eat at Disneyland. We brought our kids for just one day yesterday, so we did some research the night before about where to eat. We considered doing some of the "character dining" so that our daughter could have that experience, but we decided in the end to take a chance on this place because we figured the food would be cheaper and better. We were correct on both counts. But the real reason I'm writing a review here is this: Our young daughter had just realized as we arrived at the restaurant that she had lost two of her brand-new figures (Cinderella and Prince Charming). We had told her she could pick out one souvenir from her day at Disneyland and--after meeting Cinderella in the entrance to the park--she decided on a set of Cinderella figures. She was obsessed immediately and couldn't set them down. She brought her two favorite figures on It's a Small World and said she set them down on the seat of the boat because she wanted to clap at the end of the ride. And of course she forgot them there. So, as we arrived and were seated at Carnation Cafe, she was crying. Our waiter immediately asked her what was wrong and she explained that she'd lost her two favorite figures out of her new set. She was heartbroken. He seemed so genuinely interested and asked where she'd gotten them. I said it was just one of the shops nearby. [Sidenote: in the meantime, my husband was trying to be a hero and had told her he was going to go make a work call, but really he was running down the street to re-buy the figures]. A man (maybe a manager?) came by our table a minute later and was looking over my daughter's shoulder and I realized what they were planning (and thought this was more magical than just getting new ones from dad)...I quickly texted my husband and told him to abort his plan and not get the figures (he had actually just purchased them, so he returned them thinking from my text that maybe she'd been mistaken and found the ones that were missing). Anyway, sure enough--a few minutes after my husband returned to the table, the man showed up with a new package of figures and presented them to my daughter. She was stunned and didn't know what to think. She ended up thanking the waiter, who played dumb and told her he didn't tell anyone. So now she is convinced that the man who brought them to her is her "fairy godfather" and that there was "REAL MAGIC" involved. Anyway, I was so happy we didn't waste our money on the character dining...She will remember this "magical" act of kindness far longer than she'd have remembered meeting the characters. Thanks,...

What absolutely terrible service, especially from Kathy. Disneyland is really going downhill in terms of the staff they are hiring. However, our waiter, Max, was great so there was that redeeming factor.

So we made our reservations a month in advance for 230 last Thursday this restaurant. We are a group of 11, 4 little kids. They asked us to come in an hour early to let them know we were still planning on attending our 230 reservation, so while the rest of the family waited in line for a ride my mom and I headed to the restaurant.

At 130 we let the staff know that we were still intending on making our 230 reservation. They told us that our table would be ready soon and to wait close by. We informed them that we were only coming to let them know we'd be ready at 230, but we were not ready yet. They just said ok and continued on with what they were doing.

My mom and I walked around and then headed back to wait inside. At around 150 a young waiter came up to us and said they'd have to give our table away. My mom tried to explain to him that our reservations are at 230, and he promised us that once our group was here they would get a table ready before 230 so long as we checked in before that time.

Come 220 our family is now all together and we check in. They say they are working on the table so we all wait outside and look at the menu. At around 240 we check in again, and they tell us they are working on it. At around 250 the babies are getting restless so one of our group members goes to walk them around main street and tells us to let him know when the table is ready.

At 3pm Kathy comes out and asks us if our party is all here. My mom tells her yes, theres just one that was walking around and would be back once the table is ready. Kathy then goes, with an attitude, "well, your whole party needs to be here" and then promptly spins around to walk back inside. I chimed in an said "we've been here though" that's when she spins back around and yells "what did you just say" while aggressively walking toward us. I repeated myself and informed her that we had been waiting and that it was now 30 minutes past our reservation time. She said "oh well you weren't all here when you checked in so you lost your table" I told her that we only came early to let them know we'd be here for our reservation at 230. She snapped "well i don't know anything about that" and hurried away.

Once we were seated it was fine but the whole situation and aggressive interaction with Kathy left a bad taste...

If you want to grab some delicious bites at a restaurant in Disneyland, I would recommend Carnation Cafe! While some restaurants book out completely far in advance, this is one that is a bit easier to get into and will often times have last minute reservations available. Although they do take walk-up availability, I would always just suggest checking the Disneyland app in advance to book a time so you can guarantee a table at the time you're wanting. I will say that we were sat outside pretty far in the back and it seems that they only had maybe a small handful of servers working out there. This made service a bit slow, but we weren't in a rush so it wasn't really an issue for us.

As far as food goes, you can expect a more standard American menu and the prices are not as expensive for being one of their casual dining restaurants. As of a couple years ago, Carnation Cafe also joined the small number of Disneyland Park restaurants that offer alcoholic beverages, so that is an option to order as well if you plan to dine-in here.

We enjoyed the following:

Fried Pickles: I can't rave about these enough. I love a fried pickle and these were so crunchy and delicious. The breading on these was fried to perfection and the house sauce it came with was very flavorful and bright.

Spicy Chicken Sandwich: (not pictured) At the time we visited here, they had a spicy chicken sandwich on the menu that my husband split and devoured before we could even get a picture. It came on a brioche bun with a spicy chile sauce and pepper jack cheese. Absolutely delicious.

Spiked Pickle Lemonade: I CANNOT RECOMMEND THIS DRINK ENOUGH. I believe they were offering this as a seasonal special when we visited last, but if they offer it on the menu when you're there next and you enjoy pickles, RUN and grab this drink! It was both sweet and salty, and made for the most refreshing cocktail on a hot day.

If you don't have a super packed day trying to ride all the rides and have time to sit for a meal, Carnation Cafe is a...