Festival of the Holidays at California Adventure is one of the best festivals in any Disney Park. There’s wonderful decor, entertainment and, of course, food! Running until January 6th, this festival includes several marketplaces (food booths, if you want the less fancy term) as well as items added to restaurant’s menus. In this post, we’ll rank every item we’ve tried at DCA’s Festival of the Holidays!

Like all California Adventure festivals, this edition features a Sip & Savor Pass. For those unfamiliar, guests purchase a plastic pass and lanyard that comes with 8 ‘digital tabs’. Those tabs are good for any non-alcoholic item on the Festival of the Holidays menus. Sip & Savors cost $63, with a $5 discount for Magic Key Holders. You can also get a 4 tab option for $32. This isn’t some remarkable value but if you’re planning to eat around the festival for a few days, then it will probably save you some money.

We’ll stick to reviewing and ranking those items that are on Sip & Savor and will add more as we try them over the festival season. I did have a Beer Flight from the Brews & Bites Marketplace that I thought had a diverse and interesting selection. Like usual it was a bit overpriced but the portions weren’t super small at least. In fact, this year’s festival seems to be offering bigger portions in general, both on the beer flights and food. If you have questions about the Sip & Savor Pass, let me know in the comments. Let’s get to the rankings!

20. Hearty Loaded Fries (Smokejumpers Grill)

Look, I’m an American so I do like bad chicken strips on top of fries and then soaking all of that in gravy. But I was also well aware that the food wasn’t good while eating it. Did I finish it while knowing that I was going to be eating way too much food the rest of the day? Of course I did! Did I immediately regret it? Absolutely! Anyway, this includes crinkle-cut fries smothered with sausage country gravy and topped with fried chicken, shredded cheese, and green onions and it’s just not good.

19. Beef Brisket Slider (Winter Sliderland)

This slider is served with smoked onions and horseradish ketchup on a pretzel roll. I just didn’t think that was a great pairing. The horseradish ketchup mixed with what tasted like a French dip sandwich didn’t work for me. All of the individual components were okay but as a whole I didn’t enjoy the sandwich.

18. Holiday Confetti Cake with Häagen-Dazs Peppermint Bark Ice Cream (Clarabelle’s Hand Scooped Ice Cream)

There is a decent sized jump from last place to second to last place, as I thought this was decent. The Peppermint Bark Ice Cream was very overpowering though and most in my group didn’t like the dish. If you combine all of the elements then the sum is better than the parts, as the cake was not anything more than average either.

17. Chorizo Queso Fundido Mac & Cheese (Holiday Duets)

I actually enjoy this plant based Chorizo Queso and didn’t dislike this festival offering as a whole. I should get off my chest that I’m not the biggest mac & cheese fan to begin with so it may be a blind spot in the rankings. This is topped with tortilla crunch, to give it a little more texture. If you’re a big macaroni fan then this might be worth checking out but I don’t think it will wow you.

16. Al Pastor Pork & Pineapple Slider (Winter Sliderland)

The biggest disappointment of the festival to me is this Al Pastor Slider. Al Pastor and pineapple is a winning combo, put it on bread and that’s even better! Unfortunately, the sauce that the Al Pastor marinated in leaned heavy on the barbecue side of things and it just didn’t work well for me. On top of that, the Corn Brioche was a little dry. It lands above the Chorizo Mac because this has all the makings of a good dish and there’s a decent chance we just got a bad one.

15. Sticky Toffee Pudding Macaron (Favorite Things)

The cutest offering at this year’s festival consists of a Mickey-shaped chocolate macaron filled with vanilla buttercream, date cake, and salted toffee sauce. I especially liked the latter two ingredients. Sadly, the buttercream overpowered all of it and made it more of just a sweet taste than anything else. That said, your mileage may vary here. It’s pretty good and fun to look at!

14. Savory Kugel Mac & Cheese (Holiday Duets)

The other Mac & Cheese option at the festival is served with herb breadcrumbs, sour cream, and chives. I was pleasantly surprised by this, as it looks like something I would just not enjoy. While leaning a little too rich for my taste, this ended up being pretty tasty at least for the first few bites. After that, the taste was a little one note and overpowering. This booth does offer both Mac & Cheeses (a half portion of each) in one dish, and I’d recommend going that route!

13. Chilaquiles Carnitas Torta (Paradise Garden Grill)

Like the Al Pastor Slider, I really wanted to like this torta more than I did. The ingredients are red chilaquiles, refried beans, avocado spread, queso fresco, pickled onions, and a fried egg. The avocado spread and queso fresco are a great pairing. Paradise Garden Grill offers a couple of Sip & Savor portions of their regularly sized menu items. In this case, the full sized torta looked much better as the fried egg was far more noticeable. This was good but not the standout it could be.

12. Holiday Mash Bowl (Merry Mashups)

This is the good, or at least much better, version of the loaded fries. This bowl includes chicken, cheddar mashed potatoes, and turkey gravy with cranberry stuffing crunch. The chicken is similar to popcorn chicken and was tasty enough. The real winner here was the cranberry stuffing crunch that gave the hearty a bowl a little zest. This won’t blow anyone away but it’s a really solid option.

11. Cookie Dough Yule Log (Grandma’s Recipes)

All of the Festival of the Holidays desserts end up being a little too sweet for me, including this one. That said, I thought the cake portion of this was delicious. The white chocolate mousse inside of the Yule Log was also great. I didn’t care for the cookie dough here, as the texture was too stringy. Overall, this was a good dessert held back by one ingredient.

10. Barbacoa Tamal de Res (Grandma’s Recipes)

A festival returner, I liked this Tamal more this year than I did last year. The barbacoa inside of the tamal was more noticeable this year and the bites with plenty of the filling present were some of the best I had at the whole festival. The Oaxaca cheese, tomatillo salsa and crema on the outside of the Tamal made for a spicy but satisfying addition.

9. Chicken Chicharrón (Brews & Bites)

Another somewhat spicy option, the Chicharrón was served with basmati rice, herb chutney and masala drizzle. I thought the chicken itself was a little dry but not bad. The rest of the ingredients are what makes it work though as the herb chutney and masala drizzle gave a creamy heat that I loved.

8. Al Pastor Taco (Paradise Garden Grill)

The taco is served with Pineapple-achiote-marinated pork with avocado spread and tomatillo salsa. It’s an excellent taco, with the marinated pork very juicy. This is one of the spicier dishes at the festival but would rank even higher if not for this being a significantly worse value than most Sip & Savor options. Still, this is one of the tastier options at the festival.

7. Korean Fried Chicken Slider (Studio Catering Co.)

Narrowly beating out the Al Pastor Taco for the spiciest item at the festival, this slider was packed with flavor. Consisting of Korean fried chicken topped with gochujang sauce, kimchi coleslaw, and pickled onions served on sweet Hawaiian bread. The chicken itself was surprisingly good and the sauces added a real punch. As a whole, the slider had a lighter, fruity taste along with the spice and chicken.

6. Cookies and Cream Hazelnut Hot Cocoa (Winter Sliderland)

This is Melissa’s favorite thing at Festival of the Holidays and that’s a big reason why I have it in the top five. That’s not to say I don’t like the drink, it’s really good hot cocoa. The cookies and cream taste is evident and that always makes things better! I don’t think it’s as interesting as some other options but there’s no doubting the deliciousness.

5. Pan Con Pollo (Sonoma Terrace)

This sandwich consists of braised chicken, spiced tomato sauce, mayonnaise, and mustard dressing in a French bread roll served with pickled vegetable slaw. The whole thing reminded me a bit of a Mexican take on a Banh Mi. Between the different sauces on the sandwich, there was a good amount of flavor albeit not overpowering. The braised chicken was my favorite part of the sandwich and all of the ingredients worked well together.

4. Pumpkin Spice Bread Pudding (Aunt Cass Cafe)

We’ve reached my favorite dessert of the festival! This Bread Pudding is served with a graham cracker crust topped with pumpkin cheesecake filling, whipped cream, graham cracker crumble, and an espresso brown sugar sauce. There’s a lot going on here but it’s significantly more complex than other desserts we’ve tried. I think the dish benefits from being made in a counter-service restaurant, as the whipped cream was fresh and delicious and the bread pudding was moist. If you’re more of a dessert fiend than me, consider moving this up to number 1!

3. Barbecue Pulled Pork Cornbread Bake (A Twist on Tradition)

One of the more creative dishes at the festival, this Cornbread Bake has pulled pork under a delicious top of the cornbread muffin. It’s a warming dish, that really fits the idea of the holiday. This is paired with creamy slaw which, to my surprise, was not the usual Disney cole slaw. I thought this was a unique dish that felt Christmassy in it’s presentation!

2. Turkey Galantine Croissant Muffin Slider (A Twist on Tradition)

The top 3 are a little bit of a toss up for me but I ended up going with this simple but delicious offering at number 2. If you’re like me, not many foods are as nostalgic as a turkey sandwich after Thanksgiving. This dresses that idea up a bit, served with herb mayo and cranberry marmalade. Both of those pair nicely with the thinly sliced turkey and delicious croissant muffin. It’s comfort with a nice surprise!

1. Fried Arroz Con Leche (Cocina Cucamonga Mexican Grill)

The most creative dish at the festival finishes first for us. This is a rice ball deep fried and rolled in cinnamon sugar served with a dulce de leche whip and a dulce de leche drizzle. When it comes to food at festivals, I want something that I wouldn’t normally have and something that’s delicious. This dessert checks both of those boxes as the dulce de leche whip and drizzle are delicious and the fried rice ball pairs well with them. If you want to have something unique then this would be our pick!

What are you favorite items at California Adventure’s Festival of the Holidays? Let us know, along with any questions you might have, in the comments below. Planning a trip to Disneyland? Check out our Planning Guide here. This site has you covered for Disneyland discount tickets! If you enjoy what you are reading here on Wandering in Disney please share this post with your friends, as well as like our social media pages. You can also subscribe to the blog via WordPress or email. All of those links are on the right side of this page. Thank you for reading, we really appreciate it!