Food: 3 starServer: 5 starHospitality: 1 starDined at the Carthay Circle Restaurant Lounge. Food was good but nothing special. Small, appetizer like, portions. Front of the house and managers were not too friendly but what saved the experience was our server Mimi who was terrific. Hustling and polite. Food came out timely and was warm (not hot) and fresh.Arrived at 6:15 for a 6:40 reservation and hat to wait until 650 to be seated - and there was no line and the restaurant seemed to not be too busy.We were greeted by a less than friendly check in and were later accosted by a manager at 1901 lounge next door for waiting in the wrong area.Additionally for what you get this place is kind of pricey and is really not meant for kids.I don’t recommend and will not be returning.Food: 3 starServer: 5 star (Mimi)Hospitality: 1 star
I have been sitting at my table for 40 minutes due to kitchen delays. Service is given to some guests but definitely not all equally. After 35 minutes of no waiter contact my family was given a plate of crackers (shown in photo). I am a little disappointed in the service Disney is providing post Covid. As a life long Disney fan I hope things go back to the quality level they are famous for. I would skip this restaurant as the food, drinks, and time needed are not worth missing theme park time.
Hostess staff just plain rude. Management incompetent. Not at all trained in the Disney World philosophy of making customers happy. Waiters were good. Problem is with Management and hostess attitudes towards patrons. Asked to eat in the main dinning room we would wait. They took our phone number never called it. For $450 four people you expect them to at least be polite. Take a walk through restaurant to look at the place then eat off property.
Beautifully appointed spot in the middle of chaos. Great service with a very friendly, helpful and knowledgeable service. Food was top class, portions generous, wine list full and reasonable, cocktails worth the spend. I would definitely give this charming, high end restaurant a try. Beware you need reservations 3 months in advance. Not cheap but worth the money. Enjoy
Honestly, I'm a huge Disney parks fan (and Disneyland Dream Key holder!), and it took me a long time to snag a reservation here. I was super excited when we scored dinner, as so many people have raved about this restaurant being one of the best on property. We ended up getting one of their last seatings of the night and we ate off their Winter Dinner menu. When we arrived, we had a short wait outside the restaurant, followed by being brought inside and directed to a lounge table for...another wait. We didn't wait too long and someone came and escorted us upstairs to the 2nd floor main dining room. Because of the later seating, we arrived to a main dining room that was about half full. Despite that, service was REALLY slow. Normally, I would have chalked that up to covid staffing issues and the time of day, but there were TONS of staff walking around, seemingly waiting for the kitchen to catch up. I ordered the ravioli and my bf got pork chop. We both also got 2 drinks each. (I ordered the Double Pear martini and it was really good!) Overall, we both enjoyed our food. I feel like the expectations for this restaurant should be lowered a bit. It was good! My entree was about $30 and I wish I had had a few more pieces of ravioli for that cost. Was it good? Yeah, it was better than getting quick service at other park locations. Was it worth it? I'm not so convinced.
Like most of Disneyland, which is made up of fake storefronts or make-believe lands, the Carthay Circle Restaurant is playing pretend at being a high end restaurant. The service was friendly and professional, but the food sadly fell short here. I think this would have been a great opportunity to have a top notch Californian Cuisine restaurant inside Disneyland. Instead it's just a pedestrian menu of safe fusion items. Even more disappointing was that they made a big deal to tell us when we sat down that the menu is seasonal... But we were there after the first day of Spring and they were still on their Winter menu, so it felt heavy for the warm Spring day we ate there. I was excited to eat here, and honestly it was one of the better meals at the Park, but it was still trying to pretend to be something it isn't.
Last year was so very good and service is always excellent! But, with this visit, sadly all protein choices were overcooked and dry. Pork chop was a large, beautiful cut apparently cooked to a foodsafe 170+ degrees, half of which was dry but edible and only saved by its wallow of a very nice pomegranate sauce. Duck was also overcooked and dry. Again, only saved by the sauce. We kept comparing to our own home cooking where tonight would have been preferred. Much too expensive to be this disappointing! ... (half hour later) There really is no excuse for such blatant destruction of good food. We probably will not risk the expense to eat here again. Quite sad, given the site and excellent service. ... (one month later) And, I'm still unhappy. I suppose we should have called forth the cook (chef?) for an explanation. But, as this was supposed to be an awesome family gather, taking a confrontational stance would have worsened the experience. The service was the very best! Ambience and history was lovely. Cooking choices were extremely unsatisfactory.
beautiful setting, great service, delicious food.
Kyle was our server and he was just amazing! The dining area upstairs was elegant and we loved everything they brought us to eat! Highly recommend and would go here again. Kyle has us anticipating the return of the full menu!
As a lifelong Disney fan, I was excited that my group and I were able to land a coveted reservation at Carthay Circle. Our expectations going in were manageable since we assumed that the quality of food would be mediocre and that the experience was more novelty. We were pleasantly surprised. Our cocktails were balanced and delicious. And, let's talk about the PERFECTLY cooked proteins. My group ordered each of the entrees, and the salmon, duck, and pork chop all came out perfect. The pacing of our service was disappointing and felt more pronounced given we were one of the last reservations of the evening and the dining room had started clearing out by the time we got our cocktails. Pricing did seem a bit high overall but felt aligned with what we would expect eating in a Disney park.