Tiana's Palace is now open for business in Disneyland's New Orleans Square.
Disneyland has rethemed its former French Market restaurant to "The Princess and the Frog" by redecorating the building and debuting an all-new menu. I sampled some of the new dishes last month [Tiana's Palace ups the flavor of New Orleans at Disneyland], and at a press preview yesterday, Brian got to try some dishes on-site.
I hadn't had the chance to try the Muffuletta during the initial preview, but Brian gave it a solid review. He said that the rosemary really came through on the bread, giving a herby flavor with a light texture. The olive relish was a bit sweet. Overall, it's not the highlight of Tiana's new menu, but a good choice if you are looking for more of an Italian-style sandwich rather than the restaurant's Cajun-spiced options.
As for those, the gumbo was well seasoned with bold flavors, include deep flavor of the chicken. The red beans and rice also were well seasoned with great flavor, though not as spicy. Brian appreciated that Disney did not back off on the spices at Tiana's, as theme park restaurants too often seem to do in their effort to appease the widest possible crowd.
But Disney isn't leaving people with their mouths on fire here, either. The house-made pickles are sweet and tangy, offering a nice contrast to the heavy, savory flavors in the gumbo and other main dishes. Tiana's cornbread delivers a sweet note of balance, as well. It's almost cake-like in texture, and Brian recommends giving that cornbread a good dunk in the gumbo.
Moving on to the designated sweets at Tiana's, Brian said that the beignet tasted more like a filled hand pie than a classic, fluffy New Orleans beignet. (Below: The beignets are filled and glazed at order, with dessert first in the cafeteria-style serving line.)
Like I said in my initial sampling review, it's great if you love lemon creme, but might disappoint fans looking for that traditional beignet flavor and texture.
The New Orleans-style chicory cold brew tasted a bit like a coffee float, with its very sweet cream. Overall, though, Brian said it was pretty well balanced. If you like Starbucks' sweet cream cold brew, this is the drink for you.
Mobile order also is now available for Tiana's Palace, via the Disneyland app. If you get the chance to visit this week, we would love to hear your thoughts about Tiana's Palace in the comments.
For ticket deals, as well as our reader rankings and advice on visiting Disneyland and other top theme parks around the world, please visit our our Theme Park visitors guides. And for more theme park news, please sign up for Theme Park Insider's weekly newsletter.
That muffuletta serving is woefully small, almost a festival-sized portion. Based on the size of that slice, it looks like they're get somewhere between 8-10 servings out of the original sandwich, which doesn't even appear to be the typical diameter for a muffuletta (usually 10-12"). Starring Rolls at DHS served a proper muffuletta, which is a heaping quarter-wedge of a full-sized round. It doesn't matter how good those pickles are if you're only getting 4-5 bites of sandwich.
I get restaurants trying to pare back their portions (not only for controlling costs, but also for obesity's sake), but part of New Orleans cuisine is getting a healthy and filling portion of food. Laissez les bon temps rouler indeed, for the accountants that is.
This is a nice inclusion of a less popular IP at DL. Well done Disney!
This article has been archived and is no longer accepting comments.
And the countdown to when pizza and hot dogs show up on the menu begins! :P