The Best Place to Eat at Disneyland

On a recent trip to Disneyland, my family and I discovered one of the best and less known dining choices in the park. The Big Thunder Ranch Barbecue features an all you can eat, family style barbecue meal for lunch or dinner that is absolutely delicious! For Disneyland, the price is reasonable considering the food and amount of it, and the service, atmosphere, and lack of a crowd make this a truly enjoyable family dining experience.

The Food:

The Big Thunder Ranch Barbecue serves up an all you can eat, family style assortment of good ol’ traditional barbecue foods.

For lunch, your table is brought buckets full of BBQ Ribs, BBQ Chicken, Cornbread, Coleslaw and BBQ Beans. The kids also get wedges of Watermelon, and their drinks in souvenir sipper cups.

At dinner, you get buckets full of BBQ Ribs, BBQ Chicken, Cornbread, Coleslaw, BBQ Beans and Corn on the cob. Watermelon and souvenir sipper cups again for the kids. Drink options include all your standard sodas and Iced Tea, as well as Lemonade and Sarsaparilla (old fashioned root beer).

The BBQ meats are delicious! Tender, fall off the bone ribs smothered in a zesty BBQ sauce are the big hit here. But the chicken is flavorful and juicy, so a must have as well. Your sides like the cornbread and beans are as you’d expect them to be, and the coleslaw was a unique blend of sweet and tangy with some spiciness snuck in there. Of course, the best part is, when you finish it all off, you just ask for more and they keep it coming!

Atmosphere:

It’s a cozy, outdoor picnic style setting under the shade of some tall trees. The cast members are dressed up old west style, and put on a little accent for ya’. There’s also a little stage where I hear that Woody and Jessie from Toy Story perform sometimes. A roaming old west balladeer may come by your table, singing songs and cracking jokes. It’s very quiet though, mainly because the crowd is so light. You’d think that no one in Disneyland knew of this place, and that’s likely true. They say its priority seating, but doubt you’ll need to worry about it. Windfall to us, right? Another often overlooked tip, is the restrooms in the back are probably the cleanest, and emptiest in the whole park.

Price:

For lunch, the prices are $20 per adult and $10 for children plus tax and tip. Drinks are $3 each. For dinner, it’s a bit more, but more is served. Now considering that anywhere you eat at Disneyland, you can expect to pay out the nose, this is a great deal considering the all you can eat nature of it. Any of the other seated restaurants will easily run you the same and more. Even the walk up and cafeteria style places can easily be $50 for a family of four to eat what, pizza or burgers? Our bill at The Big Thunder Ranch Barbecue was $68 before tip for our family of four, and we stuffed ourselves good!

Disneyland’s Big Thunder Ranch Barbecue is a great place to take the family to eat while visiting the park. You can’t beat delicious, all you can eat, family style barbecue at a reasonable (for Disneyland) price!

Tagged as: All you can eat, Dining, Disneyland