Carnation Cafe - Disneyland

I won’t deny that the lure of the Mickey Mouse pancake and/or waffle is great. When you’re at Disneyland during breakfast hours, these items are programmed into your cerebral cortex. I don’t know if it’s because of the artificial vanilla scent the candy shops pump into the air, or the fact that I know they exist, but I am not immune to their pull. Every time I’ve gotten to the park early enough, I’m at the Carnation Café ordering some Mickey waffles.

But the breakfast item I should’ve been ordering all along at Carnation are the Huevos Rancheros**. These, I discovered, are the greatest things to eat at Disneyland first thing in the morning. Disney has hit it out of the Park (get it?) with this one...like, towards Santa Ana. In it poached eggs are smothered in a fire-roasted salsa with bits of corn and avocado, the whole thing served over a puddle of creamy black beans and lashed together with melted cheese. Beneath it and stuck upright in the middle are freshly fried corn tortilla disks that, if you eat it a certain way, makes it taste like a breakfast tostada.

It’s filling, of course, but not heavy. You leave feeling energized either by the carbs, the wholesomeness, or the fact that you just found something even better than any Mickey-shaped foodstuffs.

Carnation Cafe
Disneyland Resort
Anaheim, CA 92802
(714) 781-3463

THIS WEEK ON OC WEEKLY:
El Amerikano - Fullerton

**UPDATE: As of Memorial Day 2014, Carnation Cafe stopped serving the Huevos Rancheros. If anyone knows where this dish has now migrated to in the Magic Kingdom, drop me a line.