Ballast Point Brewery is a restaurant inside of Disneyland Resort’s Downtown Disney. Including a bar, indoor seating and a rooftop patio, Ballast Point brings a relaxed Southern California atmosphere to the entertainment district. The restaurant does offer a 10% Magic Key discount on all non-alcohol options. In this post, we’ll review Ballast Point’s atmosphere, cuisine and value.

Ballast Point has been a mainstay in Southern California’s brewing landscape since opening back in 1996. Starting in San Diego, home brewers worked together to build the company up. As of 2025, there are 5 different Ballast Point tasting rooms – 2 in San Diego and 1 each in Long Beach, Anaheim and San Francisco. Locations differ in environment but tend to lean more on the casual side, with big, open rooms and outside dining.

That’s the case with the Downtown Disney location which is nestled in with a number of restaurants like Centrico, Paseo, Black Tap and Tiendita. Ballast Point is on the second story, above Black Tap, with an entrance on the ground level. After climbing the stairs (or taking the elevator) guests will be met with a large bar and lounge seating in front. If your party is adults only, this is the easiest spot to find a table. Ballast Point doesn’t take reservations and will seat guests as they come. This makes the restaurant a fairly easy spot to snag a table at lunch but increasingly difficult as the day goes along.

The bar seating is pretty nice, feeling open and spread out enough. We preferred the seating alongside the bar that offered a nice view of Downtown Disney below. In terms of places to go watch a game at Downtown Disney, this bar area is among the best.

The rest of the indoor seating is all ages but doesn’t have a very high capacity. I’d estimate (roughly) that there are 20 to 25 tables up there. As far as atmosphere, it continues the more industrial setting of the bar with a mostly open ceiling and the concrete floor. On one hand, this feels like the restaurant is sticking to the brewery roots. There’s enough touches of character, with different textures and the large fish mural (seen above), to make this an interesting and casual place. On the other hand, I definitely prefer the look of Ballast Point’s competition more. Paseo, Centrico and Din Tai Fung all include a more detailed environment.

Undoubtedly, Ballast Point’s strongest area is the rooftop patio. This area is also all ages, outside of the small bar on one side. There’s a few umbrellas and overhead coverings to add some shade. Mix that in with the rope lights overhead and this ends up having a lovely backyard barbecue feel to it. One downside is that it could get hot in the middle of the afternoon but in the evening this is one of the best outdoor dining spots in the whole resort.

As a whole, Ballast Point has a fine atmosphere. It’s never trying to be anything other than a brewery. That fits the outdoor patio perfectly but has the inside feeling overly industrial for my tastes. There is enough character, between the wall art and light fixtures, to keep this from feeling stale or minimalistic but it’s not a top tier atmosphere.

Moving to the food, here’s a look at the menu. Being a brewery, offerings are more finger food friendly with a touch of Californian inspiration. I should say that I enjoyed a beer here. There’s an extensive list, as you’d expect, and I liked the IPA that I ordered. Palates vary of course, but I thought the drinks were tasty.

Melissa and I opted to share a few different things for this meal. Above is the House Salad. Don’t judge us for being boring! This salad was fresh, including a Spring mix, Cucumber, Carrots and Heirloom Tomatoes. As far as having vegetables at Disneyland goes, this is an enjoyable way to do it. I’m not going to sit here and rave about rabbit food but I will say that we both liked this and would get it again.

Now that we’ve got the embarrassing veggies out of the way, this is the Sourdough Pretzel served with BP Cheese Sauce & Fathom Beer Mustard. Both of us were perfectly whelmed by this. The taste was good, with just a hint of sourdough in the buttery pretzel. Both sauces were needed but not memorable, I preferred the zip of the mustard while Melissa liked the Cheese Sauce. The downside here is that the pretzel didn’t taste super fresh and became a little hard a couple of minutes after it arrived at the table. At $15, it was a decent appetizer but I’d rather try something different next time.

We also split the Ballast Point Burger. This consisted of a 1/2lb patty, Shredded Lettuce, Tomato, BP Special Sauce, American Cheese on a Toasted Brioche Bun & a Pickle Spear. The burger was easily the best thing we had at Ballast Point. I wouldn’t put it as the best burger in the resort but it probably makes the top 5. The patty was the highlight, being on the thicker side and cooked perfectly. We both liked the special sauce, which tasted like a fry sauce. I’d say this was on par, if not a touch better, than the Black Tap burgers below Ballast Point. The prices are about the same too, as this was $23.

All of this made for a fine meal but not one of the better options at Disneyland Resort. It’s a perfectly fine spot for a burger and beer, especially if you want to watch a game or sit out on the patio. I think Ballast Point has a leg up on Splitsville or Black Tap, all of which are comparable and priced the same. But there are much better options throughout Disneyland Resort to try, including just in Downtown Disney.

Overall Rating – 7/10

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