A BRAND new Disney restaurant has opened up and it’ll have you feeling like you’ve left the Happiest Place on Earth and entered…New Orleans!

Tiana’s Palace restaurant has officially opened in Disneyland Park! The Quick Service restaurant is themed to The Princess and the Frog (of course) and features all kinds of eats, drinks, and decor inspired by the film and the city it is based in (New Orleans). This spot is no joke. It TRULY tries to pluck you from your day in Disneyland and transport you all the way to New Orleans, and it’s really successful in doing that for a few different reasons!

Details, Details, and More Details

First up are the details in terms of the decor! You’ll really want to look up, down, and alllllll around when eating at Tiana’s Palace to see how the New Orleans vibe has been incorporated into this place.

First, it’s an interesting full-circle moment for this restaurant. Way back in the day, Walt Disney and his art directors traveled to New Orleans to get photos of the details there in order to make Disneyland’s New Orleans Square feel authentic.

Ultimately, the French Market Restaurant was opened in New Orleans Square. Tiana’s Palace in the Princess and the Frog film was actually inspired by the French Market Restaurant. And now the real-life Tiana’s Palace has replaced the French Market Restaurant — so it is actually replacing the very New Orleans-inspired spot that inspired it.

When you’re inside the restaurant, be sure to look for jazz instruments (with jazz being a big focus in New Orleans)…

…along with pans that are used to steam oysters, mixing tools Tiana would have used to make beignets, and more taken from observations of the Disney team’s visits back to New Orleans (including influences from black and white tiled checkered floors).

You might also find some King Cakes in a display — a Mardi Gras tradition in New Orleans.

There’s even a cookbook in the space about “La Cuisine Creole.” As Visit New Orleans points out, “Creole food is cosmopolitan food, created in New Orleans with European, African and Native American roots.”

All of these little touches help to really make you feel like you’ve been transported OUT of Anaheim and onto the streets of New Orleans.

Live Entertainment

If you’ve ever been to New Orleans, you’ve probably heard DOZENS of musicians playing tunes all throughout the city. That feeling gets captured with Tiana’s Palace as well because live entertainment is sometimes available in this space with musicians and more.

So listen closely to the music around you, close your eyes, and just picture yourself in Louisiana.

BEIGNETS

Alright folks, now we’re getting to the TASTY stuff. One of the signature items that folks know to get when visiting New Orleans is a beignet and Tiana’s Palace serves them up in a unique fashion!

The beignets here are house-filled ones. The one currently available was modeled after a lemon icebox pie and has a lemon icebox pie filling and is topped with a lemon glaze. These are GREAT — the glaze makes them taste like a classic glazed donut and they have a delicious combination of tartness and sweetness.

Lindell Skinner (a senior manager at Disneyland) shared, “Beignets are a staple in New Orleans, but another [traditional dessert] in New Orleans is the lemon ice box pie; you really have to go into the neighborhoods to find them. We’re paying homage to them by creating a filling that is a part of this beignet.”

But before you even dive into the treat, visit the “action station” inside the restaurant where you can watch the chefs fill the beignets. YUUUM. And there could be more beignet variations on the way. The Disney team previously indicated that this is just one version and there may be “other opportunities to showcase other flavors” in the future.

We have a feeling that Tiana would be proud!

Don’t worry though, Mickey beignets aren’t disappearing from Disneyland!

Ingredients

One of the things Disney really did to bring a sense of New Orleans to this restaurant is carefully select the ingredients that go into the food here. Chef John State (culinary director of food and beverage at Disneyland Resort) and Lindell Skinner (a senior manager at Disneyland) worked on developing the menu here; Skinner was actually born and raised in New Orleans.

Chef State shared, “We made every effort, through research and our team’s collective years of global culinary experience, to represent the flavors of New Orleans through dishes that we imagined Tiana would serve, sourcing local ingredients from the area where possible.”

Disney worked diligently to add authenticity to the food. Specifically, they’ve shared, “the andouille sausage, Carolina gold rice, and bread are supplied from New Orleans, while the Joffrey’s Coffee Chicory Cold Brew uses cane syrup from Louisiana. Plus, two New Orleans-area hot sauces, Tabasco® and Crystal®, are used at Tiana’s Palace.”

Though that might sound like something small, sourcing some ingredients from the very place that inspires this restaurant (rather than trying to recreate them) really helps to transport you out of the theme park and into the real city.

Click here to get a FIRST LOOK inside Tiana’s Palace

The FOOD

And now we get to the best part — and probably the part that will really make you feel like you’re in New Orleans — the actual FOOD served here. Again, the Disney team worked diligently to try and bring some authentic New Orleans flavors to Disneyland.

They traveled to New Orleans to learn more about the culture and cuisine and came back with a menu that reflected the unique blend of flavors found in that city. In fact, during one visit Disney’s culinary team made to New Orleans, they visited 18 restaurants in two and a half days. One restaurant they visited was the Dooky Chase restaurant, Michele Gendreau (Director of Food & Beverage Experience Integration Disneyland Resort) said, “We met with the Chases, and we also met with the film’s production team to talk about: ‘What is this going to be—and how does that come to life in food?‘”

We’ve already talked about the beignets and how that’s reflective of New Orleans, but what about the more savory options?

Well, you’ll find 2 versions of gumbo on the menu here. According to Eater, “The Creole or seafood gumbo of New Orleans is one of the best-known, and best-documented, types of gumbo. However, the earliest references to gumbo in general date to the early 1800s.”

One version you’ll find at Tiana’s Palace is the 7 Greens Gumbo. Chef Leah Chase of New Orleans has a famous greens-filled gumbo recipe that inspired this one. Chef Chase’s version is typically served the Thursday before Easter, making it extra special. The version served at Tiana’s Palace can be plant-based (with White Beans, Okra, Yams, Sweet Potatoes, and Heirloom Rice) or can feature those same ingredients along with Chicken and Andouille Sausage.

When we tried the 7 Greens Gumbo, we thought it was really good — a total comfort food with fresh and crunchy vegetables, and lots of seasoning without being too spicy.

Other menu items available include a Cajun Spice Half Chicken, a Muffuletta Sandwich (a famous sandwich invited in New Orleans per Visit New Orleans — plus New Orleans culture and cuisine are made up of a diverse blend of different cultural influences, and this sandwich represents the influence of Italian flavors), and a Beef Po-Boy (po-boys are another staple New Orleans meal). One more entrée is the Gulf Shrimp and Grits (the shrimp are grilled and tossed in a creole sauce).

For sides, you can choose between buttermilk cornbread, baked macaroni and cheese, red beans & rice (a staple of New Orleans!), coleslaw, cheesy grits, and plant-based heirloom rice.

The attention to the ingredients and dishes goes all the way down to the drinks. One drink option here is the Chicory Coffee Cold Brew, developed in partnership with Joffrey’s Coffee. Chicory coffee is one of the things you’ll find sold in New Orleans. Chicory was designed to extend coffee when coffee was scarce and it was reportedly made popular by the famous Cafe du Monde, so this serves as an homage to that. But this version is a bit unique as it has a sweet topping made with cane syrup (which is sourced from Louisana!).

It goes beyond the flavors though. Disney has also tried to capture the essence of New Orleans when it comes to food presentation. When it comes to the Baked Macaroni and Cheese (available as a side or kids meal option), Skinner shared “If you grew up in New Orleans, your baked macaroni and cheese was cut into squares. So, it was important to us that the Baked Macaroni and Cheese for Tiana’s Palace is cut into squares.”

Disney also worked with PULSE — People United to Lead, Serve, and Excel (an organization dedicated to enhancing the experience of Cast Members and guests of African and Caribbean descent) — when working on the restaurant. According to Skinner, “PULSE actually came in to work with the chefs, and with the team, to give their feedback.”

Is every dish here a perfect recreation of what you’d find in the real New Orleans? Of course not. Truthfully, the only way to really experience the full flavor of New Orleans is to go there yourself. And we have a feeling that there are some dishes (either shared above or otherwise available at the restaurant) that New Orleans natives might not quite consider to be 100% authentic. Maybe there’s an ingredient or two or a method of preparation used that isn’t quite what you’d get in the city.

But despite that, many of the dishes do capture some authentic New Orleans flavors. The chefs have really worked diligently to source ingredients from Louisiana to make them as true to the real thing as possible, and you can tell that there really was a high level of care and attention put into this menu and this restaurant as a whole.

We hope these touches make YOU feel like you’ve really been transported into Tiana’s world. When you visit Tiana’s Palace, be sure to drop us a comment and let us know your thoughts.

In the meantime, click here to see our FULL REVIEW of the restaurant!

What do you think about Tiana’s Palace? Tell us in the comments!

The post Wait, Are We Still in Disneyland? 5 Ways Tiana’s Palace Restaurant INSTANTLY Transported Us To New Orleans! first appeared on the disney food blog.