Getting the most out of your Disney Park visit requires a fair bit of advance planning these days, especially if you’re there for a special occasion. While we’ve got a quick guide to the full Disney Lunar New Year celebration, the festival food deserves a full post of its own! Today we’re sharing the best Disney Lunar New Year food on the menu in 2023.
This year, Disneyland has expanded its Lunar New Year food options. There are Asian-inspired offerings at many restaurants, as well as two new Lunar New Year marketplace booths in Disney California Adventure. Each festival food kiosk serves two dishes and specialty cocktails, featuring Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean flavors.
If you follow our Bibbidi Bobbidi Chew Reviews over on Instagram, you’re probably already familiar with the fact that it’s rare for us to purchase drinks. We like to stick to water. With that in mind, we will only be sharing the best FOOD purchases during the Festival.
When can I purchase Disney Lunar New Year food?
The Lunar New Year celebration runs Friday, January 20, through Wednesday, February 15. Seasonal menu items and specialty marketplace booths are available in Disney California Adventure throughout the festival.
Most restaurants and festival booths operate from 10:30-11 a.m. until about 9 p.m. Check the Disneyland app for exact times.
Where can I purchase Disneyland Lunar New Year food?
The Lunar New Year celebration takes place in Disney California Adventure.
Several permanent restaurants located in Disney California Adventure Park offer Asian-fusion dishes, served as a part of the Disney Lunar New Year celebration including Lamplight Lounge, Lucky Fortune Cookery, Magic Key Terrace, Pacific Warf Café, Paradise Garden Grill, Sonoma Terrace, Goofy’s Churro Cart and small food carts throughout Disney California Adventure.
The most popular Disney Lunar New Year food can be found at marketplace kiosks. These booths feature Asian-inspired snacks and beverages. They open daily between 10:30 – 11:00 a.m. and remain open until 9 p.m. Items range in price from $6.50 to $14.99.
Even though January and February are considered “off-season” and attraction closures are the norm, Disney has mastered the art of the festival. The Lunar New Year celebration draws big crowds, largely focused on specialty foods and merchandise.
Due to the popularity of the festival, it’s not unusual for food kiosks to run out of food before the end of the day, particularly on the weekend. If there are specific items you’d like to try, purchase them early. On our most recent trip, booths were out of the most popular Disneyland Lunar New Year food items before noon.
Disney Lunar New Year Asian Beef Burrito
Hands down the best thing we ate this year was the Lunar New Year Asian Beef Burrito, purchased from Studio Catering in Hollywood Land.
Studio Catering is a bit off the beaten path, with plenty of seating. It’s a mobile order only location so be sure to check the app for available time slots (though we haven’t ever had to wait long for an order time slot here).
This big beefy burrito was so good, we hope it becomes a permanent menu item in the park. This burrito features Korean marinated beef, Kimchi fried rice, cabbage, toasted almonds and ramen, and a Gochujang aoli, for $11.49.
The burrito is filling and could serve as a full meal, or is a great item to share.
Disneyland Lunar New Year Almond Sugar Cookie Churro
Head on over to the churro cart near Goofy’s Sky School to pick up an Almond Sugar Cookie Churro.
The flavor of this Lunar New Year churro lives up to its name. It really does taste like an almond sugar cookie, albeit with slightly stronger almond flavoring.
We liked this churro. It was our favorite Lunar New Year treat (although many favor the Sweet Potato Macaron available at Bamboo Blessings).
Disneyland Lunar New Year Festival Marketplace Booths
There are six fun booths, featuring small tasting menus at the following booths:
- Bamboo Blessings – New in 2023
- Wrapped with Love – New in 2023
- Lucky 8 Lantern
- Prosperity Boa and Buns
- Red Dragon Spice Traders
- Longevity Noodle Co.
Disneyland Lunar New Year Foodie Guide: Bamboo Blessings
- Mickey Mouse-shaped Hot Dog Bun: Brioche style Mickey Mouse bun stuffed with hot dogs and finished with sesame seeds and scallions ($7.50).
The Mickey Mouse-shaped hot dog bun is a returning Disney Lunar New Year food dish. It is cute, but it’s a lot of sweet bread (brioche). Grab plenty of ketchup and mustard to cut through the dry, or leave this one to the kiddos. - Mickey-shaped Sweet Potato Macaron: Red macaron filled with purple sweet potato buttercream and filled with creme fraiche ($7).
This macaron is a festival favorite. Don’t let the sweet potato scare you away – you wouldn’t know that’s what you’re eating if you didn’t read the sign. Though slightly less sweet than a regular buttercream, it’s just as soft. The flaky cookie, coupled with the smooth buttercream frosting make this one a bit messy to eat.
Disneyland Lunar New Year Foodie Guide: Wrapped with Love
Wrapped with Love is a new booth in 2023. We were excited to try the new offerings available.
- Pork and Shrimp Wontons with black garlic sauce ($8.75).
The pork and shrimp wontons were a juicy bite that tasted good, but read a bit more like a dumpling than expected. These wontons are filled to the bring with pork and an unusually generous amount of shrimp, without tasting fishy. The black garlic sauce was really tasty. - Bok Choy + Mushroom Dumplings with a black garlic sauce ($8.75).
The mushroom dumplings were not available when we visited the Park. We’d take this as a sign that they’re out of this world, but other Lunar New Year guests told us that they weren’t as flavorful as expected.
Disneyland Lunar New Year Foodie Guide: Lucky 8 Lantern
- Quesabirria Eggroll with Guajillo pepper consommé filled with Oaxaca cheese, beef birria, and a side of guajillo pepper consommé ($9).
If you like Cocina Cucomonga’s QuesaBirria Tacos or Jolly Holiday’s QuesaBirria Sandwhich, you’re also going to like this Lunar New Year eggroll. The beef is well-seasoned and delicious, although our eggroll didn’t have quite as much cheese as expected, which left it a little on the dry side.
While we loved this offering, we didn’t love the price. These eggrolls aren’t super big and for $9, we’d expect two.
- Mandarin Mousse Cake: Layers of mandarin mousse with vanilla cake and clementine compote, finished with white chocolate crunch balls and a tangerine glaze ($6.25).
Hands down the prettiest Disney Lunar New Year food dish, the Mandarin Mousse Cake is also pretty good. The vanilla cake and mandarin mousse were a light, refreshing flavor. There was limited clementine compote in our little cake, which may be why it served as the perfect palate cleanser, but not the most flavorful dessert.
Disneyland Lunar New Year Foodie Guide: Prosperity Boa and Bun
- Pepperoni Pizza Bao Bun served with marinara ($9).
We had high expectations for this dish – we love the pizza eggrolls and cheeseburger bao in Walt Disney World. Unfortunately, this dish just didn’t live up to expectations. There wasn’t a lot of filling in the buns and the bottoms were quite soggy from sitting in the marinara sauce.
While we didn’t love the Pizza Bao, they’re definitely the hit of Disneyland’s Lunar New Year Festival. They’ve sold out several days and on the day we were tasting, were gone before noon.
- Char Siu BBQ Pork Bao with picked red onion and jalapeños ($9).
The Char Siu BBQ Pork Bao is a Festival favorite that’s been around for several years. The soft bao bun is filled with meat and veggies, taco style. The flavor is good, but be warned between the picked onions and jalapeños, this one has a bit of a kick to it.
Disneyland Lunar New Year Foodie Guide: Red Dragon Spice Traders
- Gochujang Elote: Corn on the cob rolled in gochujang aioli and cotjia cheese, drizzled with spicy gochujang sauce ($7.50).
Though we love Disneyland’s corn on the cob, we don’t love a lot of elote and didn’t get a chance to try this one.
- Red Spice Fried Chicken Bites: Fried chicken bites in a spicy red chili sauce ($8.75).
Hands down the spiciest dish at the Festival this year, the Red Spice Fried Chicken bites will definitely leave your lips burning. The top layer of chicken was nice and crispy, but as this dish sat the bottom layer got a little soggy.
Though the flavor of the chicken was good, it would have tasted better paired with some rice.
Disneyland Lunar New Year Foodie Guide: Longevity Noodle Co.
- Garlic Noodles: long noodles tossed in zesty garlic butter with parmesan ($7.50).
The garlic noodles are a Lunar New Year favorite that have been on the menu for several years. Basically spaghetti noodles with a little parm, garlic and butter, this dish is good, but nothing particularly special. This dish is a great one for pickier eaters, not interested in trying new things.
- Spicy Pork DanDan Noodles: pan fried noodles with ground pork and spicy tri-chile sauce ($8.50).
This is yet another dish making a return to the Festival. The pan fried spaghetti noodles, topped with ground pork and chili sauce are flavorful and more than a little spicy. If you’re ready for a bold bite, with some kick, this is a great dish.
What is the Disney Lunar New Year Sip and Savor Pass?
The Disney Lunar New Year Sip and Savor Pass is a commemorative lanyard featuring six coupon tabs redeemable for food and beverage offerings (excluding alcohol) at festival marketplace booths. They’re great if you’re traveling with a family or group and will be purchasing multiple snacks during your visit.
Sip and Savor passes are available at Seaside Souvenirs, Lunar New Year marketplace booths, Merchandise Pergola and special Sip and Savor carts. The passes are available for $45 ($42 for Magic Key Holders) and may be used through February 15, 2023.
We’ve done the math. To save money with the $45 pass, you will want to purchase six items over $7.50 ($7 for Magic Key Holders).
Sidenote: On slower days our favorite way to utilize the sip and savor pass is to visit the booth with the shortest line and order several foods at once. Once your food order is placed, keep your receipt, visiting individual booths throughout the day to collect your food (just don’t lose your receipt!). This service may not be available on busy days, check with a cast member.
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