Celebrating My Brithday at Carthay Circle Restaurant

I’m a grown woman and I’m not ashamed to admit that I love Disneyland. I grew up in the shadow of the mouse and have been to the park more times than I can count. And still it gets me. Every. Single. Time. So this year when my birthday rolled around you can guess where I wanted to be.

Even though I’ve been there many times I’m always eager to learn more about the park. Recently, I was offered a review copy of The Unofficial Disneyland Guide 2015 I was happy to check it out. Because it’s the “unofficial” guide it’s got a well rounded view of the park and you learn about both the positive and negative aspects. You get insight into which restaurants to try out and which ones to avoid. There are guides on how to squeeze in all you want to see on one visit. There are tons of tips for parents and insight from past park goers and even Disney insiders.

I zoomed right to the Dining Guide because I wanted to have a special meal on my big day. I’d been anxious to try the Carthay Circle Restaurant and the guide confirmed it was the right choice. The restaurant had a 92% approval rating! It also recommended reservations which I happily made.

The Carthay Circle is a replica of the famous movie palace of the same name. Built in 1926 it was a gem in the Mid-Wilshire section of Los Angeles and hosted many film premiers.

One of those films happened to be a little picture called “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” Hmm, I wonder whatever became of it? While Los Angeles has saved many of it’s beautiful historic theatres, sadly, the Carthay was not one of them. It fell victim to the wrecking ball in 1969.

Luckily, as an homage to this important piece of Disney history the Carthay Circle has been lovingly recreated inside of Disney California Adventure.

But instead of a theatre, it now houses a very nice restaurant.

My guests and I ooed and ahhed as we entered the lovely space and had fun wandering around checking it out. That’s one thing you’ve gotta love about Disneyland. No matter how nice a place is they have no problem with you walking around and taking tons of pictures. Unfortunately, most of mine came out blurry. Guess I was a bit too excited.

And what about the food? Here’s a sampling of some of our dishes.

Pretty fancy, huh? And quite tasty too. Since it was my birthday I was treated to a special dessert.

What a treat! What a meal! What a birthday!