12 Disneyland Festival of Holidays foods ranked from best to worst

The Disney Festival of Holidays runs from Nov. 10 through Jan. 7 at Disney California Adventure.

Disneyland foodies brought their appetites for the kick-off of Disney’s annual Festival of Holidays food fest inspired by cultural traditions tied to Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Diwali, Navidad and Three Kings Day.

The Disney Festival of Holidays began Friday, Nov. 10 and runs through Jan. 7 at Disney California Adventure.

The 2023 Festival of Holidays returns with eight festival marketplace booths offering small plates highlighting winter holiday eats and drinks. DCA eateries and food stands as well as Downtown Disney restaurants will also serve festival fare.

Sip and Savor passes ($61 for general visitors, $56 for Magic Keyholders) are back again this year that allow visitors to purchase a prepaid card with eight tabs good for individual items at food and beverage stands throughout the event.

Here’s a rundown of our 12 favorite bites from the Disney Festival of Holidays marketplace booths ranked from best to worst.

1) Mad Santa Macaron

Favorite Things marketplace booth$7.50

OMG. Disney does sugar better than anybody. And the Mad Santa Macaron at this year’s Festival of Holidays food fest is a sterling example of that sugary excellency.

My expectations were high for this one and somehow the Disney pastry chefs managed to exceed them.

The Mad Santa Macaron is a chocolate lover’s dream come true with a peanut butter mousse surprise in the middle.

The sensible and courteous thing to do would be to share this hockey puck-sized dessert. But tell your friends and loved ones to go get their own macaron filled with chocolate ganache goodness. You and they will both thank me.

2) Braised Pork Belly Adobo

Favorite Things marketplace booth$8.50

The Braised Pork Belly Adobo had the best flavors I tasted at the Festival of Holiday food fest. And I wasn’t alone in my assessment. The Favorite Things marketplace booth serving the Pork Belly Adobo — along with the Mad Santa Macaron — had the longest line of the food festival.

I’d order the adobo again and recommend it to anybody heading out to the festival. It was the best cut of meat I ate all day.

My favorite thing about the dish was finding little bits of garlic inside the garlic rise. The chicharrones added a surprising crunch every few bites.

3) Savory Kugel Mac & Cheese

A Twist on Tradition marketplace booth$8.50

What I love about a food festival is trying new takes on old standbys. The Kugel Mac & Cheese fits that bill at this year’s Festival of Holidays.

If you like mac and cheese — like I do — and exploring new twists on classic favorites — like I do — then you will love the Kugel Mac and Cheese. A kugel is a traditional Jewish baked casserole — and the perfect platform for mac and cheese exploration.

The Kugel Mac and Cheese was creamy, light and delicate — and the best of the three mac and cheese dishes on the menu at this year’s festival marketplace booths.

I was still picking the herb breadcrumbs out of my teeth as I prepared to move onto the next dish — even though I couldn’t stop thinking about the last one.

4) Impossible Chorizo Queso Fundido

Brews & Bites marketplace booth$7.50

The cheesy fundido was one of the best things I tried at the Festival of Holidays food booths. It was easy to share, not super filling and one of those dishes you just can’t stop eating.

I found myself using the crumbs of the house-made tortilla chips to scrape the last of the fundido out of the bottom of the bowl — a true sign of a good dish.

Dropping the “shredded chorizo” into the cheese dip turned out to be an excellent way to hide the Impossible meat. You think about the fakeness less when it’s slathered in cheese.

5) Esquites Carnitas Mac & Cheese

Holiday Duets marketplace booth$9

There’s lots of carnitas piled on top of this dish if that’s what you’re craving. This was the most satisfying of the three mac and cheese dishes at the festival booths.

The carnitas was juicy, delicious and plentiful. The dried pepper salsa macha gave the dish a bite that will surprise you.

As you’ll see in the next dish on the list, mac and cheese made up a quarter of the 12 food menu items at the festival booths.

Is it time for Disney to throw a cheese-centric food fest? I’d be first in line.

6) Southern Mac & Cheese

Merry Mashups marketplace booth$9

This is your standard issue mac and cheese with elbow noodles that you simply can’t stop eating.

It was a little smoky and very creamy with just a tiny hint of heat from the andouille sausage and spiced panko crunch. What I like to call Disney spice — just enough heat to make you take notice without offending the most conservative taste buds.

The Southern Mac & Cheese typified the menu at this year’s Festival of the Holidays marketplace booths – a familiar and reliable mix of good old fashion, down home comfort food.

7) Pumpkin Layered Cheesecake

Making Spirits Bright marketplace booth$6.50

I’m not a pumpkin fan — so I wasn’t looking forward to this one.

Low expectations usually work in my favor — and they did once again this time around.

There’s just the right amount of gooey pumpkin cake here on top of the New York-style cheesecake.

The spiced chantilly and graham cracker add just the right combination of cream and crunch to complete this delightfully dreamy dessert.

8) Barbacoa Tamal de Res

Grandma’s Recipes marketplace booth$9

If you’re not at the food festival to try something new, then you should get the barbacoa tamale.

While barbacoa is the “it” meat preparation of the moment, this tamale tastes exactly what you would expect a tamale to taste like. The tomatillo salsa adds a little tang to every bite and the Oaxaca cheese and crema completes the classic presentation.

The Barbacoa Tamal de Res is certainly one of the best values at the festival — stuffed with more meat than most tamales.

Don’t expect any twists, mash-ups or surprises here. This is just a tasty tamale that will fill you up and remind you of grandma’s house during the holidays. And there’s nothing wrong with that — and nothing to complain about and nothing to write home about either.

9) Beef Brisket Slider

Winter Sliderland marketplace booth$9

I had high expectations for the Beef Brisket Slider, but it let me down big time. The meat looked and tasted more like roast beef than barbecued brisket — more chewy than beefy.

Ketchup — or in this case horseradish ketchup — is not my jam. Especially when I’m looking for that barbecue sweetness to go with the brisket. All the ketchup did was make the whole sandwich sloppy and the meat slimy.

I appreciate the Disney chefs throwing in a twist to the traditional Beef Brisket Slider, but this one just did not work for me.

The pretzel bun was outstanding, but you never want to be looking for the bread to save a sandwich when everything else is a disappointment.

10) Togarashi Karaage Chicken Slider

Winter Sliderland marketplace booth$9

The tangy furikake mayo slaw was the star of the show with this slider when the fried chicken tender should have been front and center.

The Hawaiian roll was a great way to slop up the excess slaw that toppled from the slider as I ate. But I came for the chicken and left unimpressed.

But this is what I enjoy about a food fest. Even when the thing you’re sure you’re going to love lets you down, you still go away happy because there are plenty of other bites on the menu to satisfy and surprise you.

11) Impossible Chicken Curry Bites

Making Spirits Bright marketplace booth$7.50

I love curry on just about anything and these nuggets had a hint of curry flavor with a little bit of heat I could feel on my lips. The drizzled lemon raita and coriander chutney helped cool things down a little bit.

But I couldn’t get past the fact that I was basically eating Chicken McNuggets at twice the cost of McDonald’s.

The flavors were fun and tasty, but the fake chicken nuggets looked a little too flat and uniform to be mistaken for real chicken tenders.

Faking it is a big part of the Impossible food pitch. The fake out is supposed to be so convincing that you don’t even think about the fact that it’s not real chicken. The more I thought about the “chickeness” of the nuggets, the less I liked the consistency of the fake meat.

This would be a great way for a first timer to try curry, but I wouldn’t recommend it to any families looking to satisfy finicky kids with some chicken nuggets. There’s enough curry flavor here to make them turn up their noses and push the tray away.

12) Chocolate Tart

Holiday Duets marketplace booth$7.50

Talk about complete and utter disappointment. I was expecting this tart to be at the top of my list when I walked into the festival. Instead it ended up at the very bottom.

Chocolate mousse and caramel plus Twix candy bar pieces? What could possibly go wrong?

I love chocolate. The only thing better is double or triple chocolate. But somehow this was just an unsatisfying end to an otherwise enjoyable festival feast.

I pretty much got a mouthful of chocolate mousse with a bit of dry and crumbly crust and was underwhelmed. The Twix pieces were nowhere to be found. It was just not what I wanted with everything else on the menu.

Maybe I was full. Maybe my taste buds were spent. But this Chocolate Tart just didn’t do it for me.