As an ardent Disneyland lover, I had to pay a visit to Disneyland Park and Walt Disney Studios in Paris while studying abroad in Europe. I reserved an entire day to explore both parks, and since the Disneyland and California Adventures in Anaheim is home to infamously delicious snacks like the turkey leg, lobster nachos and Dole Whip, I expected nothing less from the Disney Parks in Paris.

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I arrived an hour after the park opened and expected to find lots of cute, trendy brunch places to eat at, but almost nothing was open yet. The only place actually serving food was a small, counter-service bakery filled with French pastries and sweets. I got the chocolate-filled mini beignets. Although I was in the mood for a savory breakfast, these beignets were exceptional. The dough was fluffy and light, and the chocolate center was just the right amount of sweet. It was like one step up from the regular Mickey beignets back at home.

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My friend and I walked around the entire Disneyland Park looking for somewhere to eat lunch because a lot of the menu options were pricey, and we felt like we could do better than opting for quick-service pizza and pasta. We eventually settled on a barbeque spot, and we each got one order of barbeque chicken wings and shared fries. The wings were flavorful, but it was a bit too much, as the sauce was slathered across the wings and it was hard to finish my meal without gulping down water in between bites. While the wings may have been too salty, the fries were the complete opposite. It’s common to eat unsalted fries in France, so I didn’t expect much flavor, but these fries were almost tasteless. However, a quick fix would have just been to dip the fries in the sauce.

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One thing I’d like to point out about the snacks at Disneyland is that there aren’t many options. I’m used to seeing an abundance of fun, character-themed snacks and beverages at Disneyland in California, but most of the stands only sold the same assortment of ice cream and bottled beverages. After walking around for a while, we found a crepe stand in Adventureland and shared a Nutella crepe. I appreciated that it was made fresh right in front of us and was placed in a cute little Disneyland-branded crepe holder. The crepe was thin and sweet, and its warm temperature made the Nutella melt a little — which made it even better. It was the perfect snack to grab in between rides.

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We headed over to Walt Disney Studios, and I was pleasantly surprised to see a greater variety of food options than in Disneyland. They had a food event that was reminiscent of California Adventures’ Food and Wine Festival, called Le Rendez-vous Gourmand. There were different stands across Walt Disney Studios and each stand represented a different European nation or region in France. We tried the mini churros from the stand representing Spain; they came in a paper cone and were dusted with powdered sugar. I often find that the Disneyland churros back at home are too sweet and fried, so these ones were amazing. They were only lightly fried and the subtle sweetness of the powdered sugar gave them a refreshing flavor. It was a great snack to share, and these churros definitely beat Anaheim’s.

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For dinner, we wanted to eat at the Bistrot Chez Rémy restaurant themed after the Ratatouille movie, but it was completely full for dinner. Instead, we got savory crepes from the stand represented by Bretagne, France. The crepe had mushrooms, ham and cheese, but the crepe batter itself was different than the crepe we had before, and it wasn’t really for me. It was almost gray in color, which was offsetting. The filling kept falling out of the crepe itself which made it really hard to eat, and the flavors of the entire dish itself were just lackluster. 

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Although I ended my trip to Disneyland Paris on a disappointing note, I still really enjoyed some of the other snacks I tried. Overall, if I hadn’t visited during the Le Rendez-vous Gourmand food event, I would have been really disappointed in the snack options at both parks. My final verdict is that Disneyland Paris really knows how to perfect sweets and pastries, but its savory food is nowhere near as good as the Disney Parks back home.

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Winnie Lam
Winnie Lam serves as the 2020-2021 On The Menu Editor. She has an unhealthy obsession with Trader Joe's and she loves all things matcha.