Review: Disneyland’s Pixar food fest offers a kids meal experience at adult prices

The Pixar Fest food festival at Disney California Adventure will leave adult foodies in a search of a culinary adventure wondering if they’ve been forced to sit at the kids table and eat from a menu filled with Happy Meals and Lunchables.

Disney California Adventure rolled out the Pixar Fest marketplace booths on Friday, May 10 for a seasonal food festival set to run through Aug. 4.

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DCA’s six Pixar-themed festival marketplace booths draw culinary inspiration from the storylines, characters and locales in “Turning Red,” “Soul,” “Luca,” “Elemental,” “Inside Out” and “Ratatouille.”

I tried all 10 foods at the Pixar food fest booths and found many of the dishes fell below my expectations for Disneyland’s typically outstanding culinary efforts with a few unexpected surprises worthy of a taste if you make it out to Pixar Fest.

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The larger Pixar Fest umbrella event that kicked off in late April features the new Better Together parade and Club Pixar dance party at DCA and the returning “Together Forever” fireworks show at Disneyland.

Adding the festival marketplace booths a few weeks into Pixar Fest is an unusual move for DCA that has expanded its off-season food festival offerings in recent years. Disneyland and DCA eateries have been offering more than 100 Pixar-themed foods and drinks since Pixar Fest started on April 26.

ALSO SEE: ‘Together Forever’ fireworks return to Disneyland with new and familiar touches

Many of the dishes on the Pixar Fest festival menu looked and tasted like kids meal offerings. I don’t have a problem with a kids-centric food festival if you tell me that up front and price the food accordingly.

The first few hours of any DCA food festival is always filled with media, bloggers and influencers taste testing all the food. It wasn’t any different this time, except Disney didn’t hold a big press event to kick off the opening of the Pixar Fest marketplace booths.

ALSO SEE: Disneyland pays tribute to Tower of the Four Winds during Pixar Fest

There was one word floating around all the high-top tables near me: Lunchables.

Lunchables was certainly on theme for the entire Pixar Fest food festival — which seemed to be geared to the kids meal crowd. Although I can’t imagine that’s the core audience of any DCA food fest.

Stroller-pushing parents turn to the festival marketplace booths to offer something elevated above typical theme park food offerings, not to stoop to the Happy Meal depths their kids insist on indulging.

The top half of our Top 10 list is worth a try if you adjust your expectations a bit, but the bottom half drops off quickly and you should watch your step.

1) Smoked Firewood BBQ-spiced Impossible Chicken — Served with hot mustard sauce, pickles and charred onions — Elemental Table inspired by “Elemental” ($8.50)

You know it’s not a very good food festival if the fake chicken dish is at the top of the list.

I had extremely low expectations for the Impossible chicken, but the Mega McNuggets dish proved to be a total surprise with the best flavor of the day.

I’ve never been a fan of the faux nuggets served during past Disney food fests, but the Smoked Firewood BBQ dish was just the right way to use the plant based substitute.

The hot mustard and pickle sauce made the dish shine. The extra charred onions were the perfect accompaniment.

2) Red Panda Bao – Jumbo pork and vegetable stuffed bao with chile-garlic sauce – 4*Town Fav*4*ites inspired by “Turning Red” ($9)

I was worried the bao was going to be spicy — something I’m not very interested in. But that wasn’t the case — to my surprise and delight.

While the pork and veggie bao itself wasn’t spicy, there was plenty of firepower in the chile-garlic sauce served on the side — allowing me to choose my own adventure when it came to the heat.

There wasn’t a lot of flavor in the chili sauce, which had a subtle hint of garlic.

The traditional bao was fluffy and delicious with a splash of “Red Panda” storytelling splattered on the steamed dough bun.

3) Panda Apocalypse — Layers of chocolate chunk brownie and New York-style Cheesecake topped with orange and red cream cheese frosting — 4*Town Fav*4*ites inspired by “Turning Red” ($6.75)

Dig down deep and you will get all the flavors of this layered dessert in one bite. You’ll taste the cream cheese frosting first and the chocolate brownie last with the traditional cheesecake throughout.

The brownie is very fudgy and the cheesecake is silky smooth — but you will have to try both bites on their own to spot the individual tastes that get overwhelmed by the cream cheese. But not in a bad way. The flavors make for a perfect blend.

This is a sweet and tasty dessert you will want to share with someone if you don’t want to end up in a sugar coma. But it still might be worth it to tackle this treat on your own. The Panda Apocalypse was that good.

The white chocolate 4*Town star on top was the ultimate final bite.

4) Gusteau Macaron — Creme brulee mousse with caramel center — Gusteau’s To-Go inspired by “Ratatouille” ($7.75)

I’m not much of a macaron fan, but I really loved this one.

The creme brulee was subtle, creamy and sweet but not overwhelming.

The caramel surprise in the center was much sweeter — like a Werther’s Original candy you get at grandma’s house.

I wish I had not taken the last bite. The caramel taste stuck with me and got sweeter every step I took.

My recommendation: Offer the caramel center to someone you love who has a sweet tooth. And save your taste buds for the next marketplace food booth.

5) Half Note Jazz Cake — Traditional red velvet cake – The Spark inspired by “Soul” ($7.25)

The glaze holding the cake together made the rectangular slice look a little strange in the daylight — like a reddish-purple sponge wrapped in an alien cocoon.

That glaze is essential to keeping the moisture in the cake that had a hint of coconut and an almost chocolatey flavor.

The piano key edible paper topping added a nice thematic touch to an otherwise ordinary — but delicious — red velvet cake.

6) Supper Club Chicken & Potato Waffles — Served with peach cobbler sauce and cinnamon-herb crumble — The Spark inspired by “Soul” ($8)

I had high hopes for this one. The description sounded promising, but the “Soul” food staple didn’t deliver.

The tangy peach cobbler sauce was the best part of the dish. But the sauce made everything else soggy.

The fried chicken nibbles and mini waffles were both chewy rather than crispy.

7) Mood Swing — Half portions of the Joyful and Angry mac & cheeses — Hanger Management iInspired by “Inside Out” ($9)

Mac & cheese is a Disney food festival tradition — and something I look forward to with each new festival.

But you can skip the mac and cheese at the Pixar food fest — unless you want Kraft Mac & Cheetos. This felt like it was right off the kids menu at Burger King. I’ve come to expect better from Disney chefs.

The Joyful version was flat and one dimensional. The Angry version was just flat out spicy.

At least mixed together the Angry version added some complexity to the Joyful version and the cheesiness helped dull the spiciness to an enjoyable level.

8) Kol Nut Whoopie Cookie Pie — Cake cookies baked with cocoa powder filled with cream cheese frosting and topped with crushed cinnamon candies — Elemental Table inspired by “Elemental” ($7)

This should have been an easy layup for the Disney bakery team, but somehow it clanked off the rim and missed.

The Kol Nut was certainly fun to look at, but far less interesting to eat. It might be good for the Gram, but it won’t win any taste tests.

The whoopie pie was dry and bland. The cream cheese frosting got lost in the denseness of the cake. I didn’t get a cinnamon taste in any bite.

9) Ratatouille Pizzetta — Topped with mozzarella, eggplant, squash, zucchini, tomato sauce drizzle and a wedge of French camembert — Gusteau’s To-Go inspired by “Ratatouille” ($8)

I had high expectations for this one and it fell almost all the way to the bottom of the list.

I was disappointed before I even took my first bite. The pizzetta was doused rather than drizzled in sugary pizza sauce. The crust was tough when I went to cut my first micro slice. It was hard not to imagine a grade schooler building the tiny pizza from a play-with-your-food Lunchables kit.

The ratatouille part of the pizzetta — which I was most looking forward to — got lost in the middle.

The best part was the camembert cheese wedge on top that was creamy and a little melted.

10) Portorosso Pesto Pasta — Ribbon pasta tossed in basil pesto with potatoes and green beans — Portorosso Pasta inspired by “Luca” ($8.25)

Imagine you’ve shown up late for a catered party and all that’s left are a few spaghetti noodles sitting in the bottom of a chafing dish. You’re so late even the bunsen burner has gone out.

That’s Portorosso Pesto Pasta in a nutshell. Room temperature spaghetti noodles with a pesto sauce.

The somewhat soggy dried green beans were like eating packing foam. The crispy potatoes added a little bit of crunch, but not enough to save this safe and disappointing dish.

This pesto pasta won’t draw many complaints from undiscerning kids, but their foodie parents will want to give it a pass.