Review: Trader Sam’s Is Closed in Disneyland. Go Here Instead

Disneyland Resort’s theme parks have been closed for OVER a year! The parks are set to reopen in just over a month. But, today, we’re back exploring all of Disney California Adventure Park through the “A Touch of Disney” ticketed event.

Golden Dreams Booth

While rides won’t be available during this ticketed event, there are character interactions, a fun soundtrack, and…FOOOOOOD! A Touch of Disney includes several different food booths, including one called “Golden Dreams” which features some favorites from AROUND Disneyland Resort! Will this booth make all of our dreams come true? There’s only one way to find out!

Menu

Golden Dreams is one of the booths regularly spotted at the California Adventure Food and Wine Festivals, although the menu looks a bit different from the last time we visited!

Menu

Returning this year is the Strawberry-Rose Lemonade, and it is joined by two dishes that weren’t at this booth last year. But, you may have had the other two dishes in OTHER spots around Disneyland Resort. We’ll explain in a minute!

Food

At the top of our list from this booth was the Sweet and Spicy Chicken Wings. These aren’t your everyday chicken wings though folks. These wings come to A Touch of Disney directly from…Trader Sam’s Enchanted Tiki Bar at the Disneyland Hotel (which is currently closed).

WAAANGGS!

That’s right: you can order a plate of Trader Sam’s wings in California Adventure! We’re thrilled that Disney decided to throw in a food item from this fan-favorite “tropical hideaway” at A Touch of Disney. The wings themselves are served with a Togarashi Aioli to add an extra punch of flavor!

WAANGS and Dip!

The wings were GREAT! Wings have long been a tasty treat at Trader Sam’s. All we need to truly make this complete is a Shrunken Zombie Head or a Shipwreck to wash it all down! You can grab these wings for $7.50.

The other food item available at Golden Dreams is the Carbonara Mac ‘n’ Cheese with Nueske’s Bacon! We’ve had this item in the past at the Garlic Kissed booth at the Disney California Adventure Food and Wine Festival. But, now it’s made its way to the Golden Dreams booth.

Mac & CHEEESE

The mac & cheese is made with white cheddar cheese sauce, and topped with Nueske’s bacon, parmesan, and red pepper Panko crumbs. This appears to be essentially the same as how the dish was made last year.

Last year, this was a STAR dish for us at the festival. We felt like the mix of LEGIT pieces of bacon with super flavorful crumbs on top made this one big plate of WOW.

Yum!

Last year, they seemed to go a bit heavier on the crumbs, but that could just be a minor change. Either way, we felt like this dish was great once again. This cheesy treat is available for $8.

Drinks

Aside from those 2 food items, Golden Dreams has one specialty drink, and it’s non-alcoholic. The entire family can sip the beautiful Strawberry-Rose Lemonade. This is a returning drink, which we spotted last year at the Golden Dreams booth at the California Adventure Food and Wine Festival. But, the ingredients seem a bit different this year. Last year, the drink was described as having strawberry, rose, pure amber honey, and fresh lemon juice. This year, it’s got strawberry puree, rose syrup, and fresh lemon juice.

So Pretty!

Last year, this one was VERY flavor-forward. We almost would have preferred to have it a little less concentrated and actually slightly more watered down last year. But, if you’re a BIG fan of floral flavors, you’ll probably love this! Overall, we thought the drink was great this year, but just be sure you’re a fan of floral flavors before you go ALL in! You can pick up this drink for $5.50.

Overall

Overall, thought the options at this booth were great!

Which Would You Like to Try?

If you’re looking for a floral drink, some delicious mac and cheese, or wings to give a small taste of Trader Sam’s — then you might want to stop at this booth during A Touch of Disney! We’ll continue to make our way all around the event and let you know what we think of the other food options here. Stay tuned for more reviews!

Click here to read about all of the dining locations open for A Touch of Disney!

Heather Sievers is DisneyFoodBlog’s Dining in Disneyland columnist! Check out more of her adventures at @DininginDisney on Instagram! 

If you could include one classic Disneyland dish in A Touch of Disney, what would it be? Let us know in the comments!

Disclosure: In nearly all circumstances, Disney Food Blog writers and photographers pay full price for their own travel, hotel, food, beverage, and event tickets. We do this because it’s important to us as journalists to ensure not only that we give you unbiased opinions, but also that you can trust us to do so since we’re paying our own way. On rare occasions, when we are invited by a company to attend a preview as media, and when we choose to accept that invitation, we will always make you, our readers, aware of that situation. Today, we were invited by Disney World to attend their media preview of A Touch of Disney. Note that when we attend events as media we are 1) Not required to review that event/food on any of our channels, and 2) Not required to review that event/food favorably. You can always count on DFB to give you a 100% unbiased and honest review of any event that we attend, food that we eat, or beverage that we drink. You can see more in our Disclosure Policy. Thank you for reading. — AJ

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