MASSIVE REVIEW: We Tried Every NEW Food Booth at Disney’s Pixar Fest!

Pixar Fest is happening now at Disneyland Resort!

We covered everything there is to do at the festival including rare character experiences, new entertainment options, delicious specialty treats, and the fun merchandise, of course! Now, it’s time for the food booths and we are excited — keep reading to see our FULL reviews.

Although Pixar Fest kicked off at the end of April, the food booths at Disney California Adventure were scheduled to open on May 10th. So, of course, we had to go check it out! See our full review of each food booth below.

Portorosso Pasta — 3/5

The food item we grabbed here was the Portorosso Pesto Pasta for $8.25, made with ribbon pasta tossed in basil pesto with potatoes and green beans. The weird thing is that the green beans are freeze-dried, so they gave this pasta an odd texture. The pesto was bland, and the pasta was dry. Even the potato topping was a bit off — it was crunchy, like potato chips.

The good news is that we loved the Sea Monster Lemonade for $7.50. It’s made with lemonade, white grape juice, and peach syrup garnished with blue citrus mango jellies. It’s SO much fun with sweet and sour flavors. The jellies were also a great choice. We only got a hint of the peach flavor, though.

Finally, we tried the Silenzio Limoncello for $17. It’s made with Limoncello, amaretto and Aperol liqueurs, blood orange syrup, lemonade, and house-made oregano tea garnished with micro daisies. 

The strongest flavor here is the amaretto, but mixed with the oregano gave it floral notes. We really think this would have been better with more blood orange flavor.

Gusteau’s To-Go — 3/5

So, we need to talk about the menu at Gusteau’s To-Go. The Ratatouille Pizzetta for $8 is topped with mozzarella, eggplant, squash, zucchini, a drizzle of tomato sauce, and a wedge of French camembert. It’s really just a glorified Lunchables (it’s even served cold). Although the toppings tasted fresh, everything else about this was pretty meh. 

However, the Gusteau Macaron for $7.75 might be one of the best macarons we’ve ever had. It has  a crème brûlée mousse with caramel center, and has an image of Chef Gusteau on it.

The combination of flavors is so nice, and the center is nice and creamy.

The Le Critique Cognac Sidecar for $17 is a nice twist on the classic sidecar, but this one is made with apricot liqueur, house-made fig syrup, strawberry purée, and lemon juice topped with sparkling wine and garnished with a strawberry. The strawberry flavor really comes through, making this drink quite refreshing.

The Little French Daiquiri for $17, though, wasn’t much on flavor. Although it’s made with Rum, French wine aperitif, pear nectar, cherry plum syrup, and lime juice and garnished with a brûléed pear chip, we thought the taste was fairly bland. You do get some of the apple flavor, though.

The Elemental Table — 4/5

Elemental, one of Pixar’s newest movies, has a booth at the festival! First, we tried the savory option on the menu — the plant-based “Smoked Fire Wood” BBQ-spiced IMPOSSIBLE Chicken, which is made with hot mustard sauce, pickles, and charred onions. This dish brought the heat, but it wasn’t too overpowering. We want to warn anyone adverse to pickles about this one because the pickles and mustard together could be a lot for some people. We liked it, but keep that in mind based on your preferences.

Now it’s time for a sweet treat! Check out the Kol Nut Whoopie Cookie Pie made with cake cookies baked with cocoa powder filled with cream cheese frosting and topped with crushed cinnamon candies. Don’t be scared by the bright red appearance — this dessert was awesome! The frosting inside is super creamy and not too rich, which pairs well with the spongy cake cookies. The texture of the candies on top threw us off a little bit, but it all works somehow.

There are also two drinks at this booth — first up is the H2O-Rita. This is made with tequila, blue curaçao syrup, lychee nectar, yuja purée, and lime juice garnished with a rock candy stick. This one was a little odd, but the main flavor profiles here are fruit with a bit of floral. We immediately thought of bath products when tasting this so it wasn’t our favorite but it could be yours!

The real star of this booth is the Exothermic Margarita made with tequila, ancho chile liqueur, passion fruit nectar, lime & grapefruit juices, and agave nectar garnished with a rock candy stick. The balance between the passion fruit and hint of spice was perfection to us and we think this may be our favorite drink of the entire festival.

Both margaritas are $17.

4*Town Fav*4*ites — 3.5/5

Let’s head over to 4*Town Fav*4*ites. This booth is inspired by everyone’s favorite boy band from Turning Red. We are trying some very red items here, so let’s see how they taste. The Red Panda Bao is a jumbo pork and vegetable stuffed bao served with chile-garlic sauce, and it costs $9. The pork filling was flavorful and tender. The vegetables were well seasoned and added wonderful earthy notes to the bao. However, we have a warning about the chile-garlic sauce. It packs a lot of spice! There is a lot of great garlic flavor, but it is very spicy. 

The Panda Apocalypse costs $6.75. This treat features layers of chocolate chunk brownie and New York-style Cheesecake topped with orange and red cream cheese frosting. We thought the cheesecake and brownie were delicious, but there was too much frosting. We could barely taste the cheesecake amongst the cream cheese frosting and the brownie was hidden on the bottom. The cheesecake was light, but just hard to taste. The brownie was rich and chocolatey, but we wish there was more. 

Finally, the Nobody Like U Cooler costs $7.50 and tastes like drinking candy. It is non-alcoholic with Joffrey’s Raspberry Rose Tea, white cranberry juice, lime juice, orange juice, and cherry syrup. The drink is garnished with an orange wedge gummy candy. We mostly tasted the orange juice amongst the large amount of sweetness. While it can help cool you down, be prepared for a very sugar-forward drink.

The Spark — 3/5

This booth is inspired by the movie Soul, but there’s a very interesting combination of flavors here with the Supper Club Chicken & Potato Waffles, available for $8 with peach cobbler sauce and cinnamon-herb crumble. The chicken wasn’t anything special –- it was more like chicken nuggets than anything. However, the potato waffles were cooked perfectly – we needed more of them! The crumble adds a nice crunchy element, but we didn’t get a lot of the peach flavor coming through. It’s certainly an interesting take on chicken and waffles.

However, we have no problem recommending the Half-Note Jazz Cake for $7.25, which is a traditional red velvet cake made to look like piano keys. The cake was incredibly moist, while the icing was beautifully sweet – and was just the right amount. We’ll be getting this again before Pixar Fest is over.

For drinks, we started with The Great Beyond for $18.50. It’s made with gin, maraschino liqueur, violet & blue curaçao syrups, lemon juice, and pear nectar, topped with butterfly pea flower tea, and garnished with a white orchid. We really think it’s overpriced, although we thought it had a nice refreshing tea-forward flavor. We didn’t taste the alcohol at all, although there is a bitter aftertaste. 

Then, we tried the SPARK-ler for $13.50, made with cotton candy and blue curaçao syrups, mango purée, and pineapple and lime juices, garnished with a glow cube. Yes, it’s also a bit pricey, but you’re paying extra for that glow cube. We thought it was a weird combo of flavors that didn’t work together, but at the same time, we can see kids liking it. For us, it was just way too much.

You’ll also find a variety of beer and a few beer flights at this booth if you’d like to try those out.

The flight comes with four drinks.

Hanger Management — 3/5

If you’re hangry, you’ll want to visit Hanger Management, but we have a warning about one of the dishes there. First, though, we had the Joyful Yellow Comforting Mac & Cheese for $8.50. It’s covered with happiness, a.k.a. cheese puffs. This was a good, standard mac and cheese, and the cheese puffs are so much fun. Kids will love this.

However, we were also brave and ordered the Angry Red Hot Mac & Cheese for $8.50. Anger’s version incorporates spicy cheese crunch into the dish. And we mean SPICY. This one gave us heartburn. It’s HOT to the point that it overwhelms your taste buds.

However, if you’d like to try both (which we recommend if you’re wanting to get the red Mac & Cheese), you can get the Mood Swing for $9. It’s a half portion each of the Joyful Yellow Comforting Mac & Cheese and the Angry Red Hot Mac & Cheese. 

The Mood Stabilizer Mule for $17 is the new drink here. Bourbon, watermelon liqueur, candied orange & watermelon syrups, and orange & lime juices make up this cocktail, and it’s topped with ginger beer and garnished with watermelon candies. We barely tasted the watermelon. It was very heavy with the ginger flavor – which doesn’t pair great with the Angry Red Hot Mac & Cheese. At this point, our taste buds were just numb.

Pixar Fest runs through August 4th, so head over to Disneyland Resort until then to check out everything it has to offer. Disneyland also recently announced a ticket and hotel deal — learn all about that here.

Stay tuned to AllEars for more Disney updates!

EVERYTHING You Need to Know About Disney’s NEW Festival — Pixar Fest!

Are you heading to Disneyland Resort for Pixar Fest? Let us know in the comments!

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