Festival of Holidays is back at California Adventure, offering entertainment, decorations, and 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 all of the items we’ve tried this year at California Adventure’s Festival of 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 6 ‘digital tabs’. Those tabs are good for any non-alcoholic item on the Festival of Holidays menus. Sip & Savors cost $52 or $49 for Magic Key Holders. 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 a few bucks.

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. There is plenty of other food offered throughout Disneyland Resort this time of year though. Specialty items in both parks are typically tasty, whether they’re connected to Festival of Holidays or not. You can see all of the food offered in 2026 in this post!

After a disappointing 2025 season, we’ve been impressed by the food in 2026. They have overhauled the menus, with only a few items returning, and there’s plenty of interesting things to try. Along with that, there seems to be a real emphasis on things that taste like the holidays. That’s a nice touch! Festival of Holidays is always a joy to walk around and it’s good to see the food take a step up to match it this year.

We’ve tried almost every item at the Festival Marketplaces and a decent amount from other restaurants. We’ll continue to add to our rankings over the next few days, with some more sweet treats to try. Let’s get to the rankings, starting from the worst and getting to first!

18. French Onion KRAFT Deluxe White Cheddar Mac & Cheese (Holiday Duets)

I knew this would be the last place finisher in our rankings from the very first bite. It’s kind of like love at first sight but opposite? The KRAFT Mac & Cheese was never going to be a hit for me and I’m sure others will like it more. I found the white cheddar version to be very bland and mushy. The French Onion of it all comes in with a glob of caramelized onions and garlic crouton crunch. To be honest, I didn’t really know if they were onions or meat while I was eating them. The flavor was below average and the texture was worse than that.

17. TWIX Bits Iced Chocolate (A Twist on Tradition)

For those that have wanted to just drink the caramel sauce instead of have it drizzled on an ice cream sundae, I’ve found the drink for you! TWIX Bits Iced Chocolate consists of Chocolate oat milk and caramel and cookie butter syrups topped with whipped cream, caramel drizzle, and TWIX Bits. The syrups in the drink are the only thing you can taste, which is great for a sip and then it becomes unbelievably sweet. I was hoping for more of a balance, like a TWIX bar. We didn’t particularly like this but if you want an instant sugar rush then it might be worth a try.

16. Café de Olla Cold Brew (Brews & Bites)

This cold brew consists of Joffrey’s Mexico Origin Coffee, whole and condensed milk, and house-made spiced piloncillo syrup topped with a chocolate dulce de leche sweet cream and garnished with a mini pan dulce. The highlight here was the mini pan dulce on top! That’s both good and bad news, as you get a nice pastry built in with the coffee. But a cold brew’s highlight probably shouldn’t be the non drink part. I found this to be overly sweet but with enough different spices to keep me interested. It is a large step up from the TWIX drink.

15. Holiday Brisket KRAFT Deluxe Original Cheddar Mac & Cheese (Holiday Duets)

The other mac & cheese option (you can order both with the “Duet”) was better than the French Onion option. This one was served with brisket, KRAFT BBQ Sauce, and dill pickle crispy onions. I prefer the Cheddar KRAFT to the White Cheddar. The dish was brightened up by the BBQ Sauce and the brisket was passable. I still wouldn’t recommend this but if you have a hankering for some mac & cheese then this is the better of the two options.

14. Hot Blueberry Cider (Rita’s Turbine Blenders)

If you’ve ever wanted to take a blueberry compote that you’d put on pancakes and just drink it then this is your chance! That turns out very predictably, being delicious for a few sips before turning into an instant sugar rush and crash all at once. Do you remember Pixy Stix? Do you remember how they are just flavored sugar that you poured straight down your throat? This is the liquid form. There is a non Sip & Savor version of this with bourbon and that would make way more sense with the sweet drink.

13. Merry Berry Holiday Punch (Holiday Duets)

Another sweet drink, the Merry Berry Holiday Punch consists of strawberry purée, orange juice, blackberry and winter citrus syrups, and sweet and sour topped with a cupcake sweet cream and garnished with rainbow candy clusters. They continue to go a little heavy on the syrups but this is essentially a nice strawberry juice with a cream on top. I’m not ashamed to admit that I also really enjoyed the candy clusters!

12. Loaded Pulled Pork Fries (Smokejumpers Grill)

We’re into dishes that I like now! The Loaded Pulled Pork Fries are the most substantial dish on Sip & Savor, offering lots of meat and fries. Served under the pulled pork are seasoned fries, cranberry BBQ sauce, and gochujang aïoli topped with pickled onions and chives. The mix of sauces was nice, giving a little bit of heat. I would have liked a little more cranberry flavor but the sauces did brighten up an otherwise heavy dish. I’m not rushing back to get these but was pleasantly surprised by them.

11. Cookie Butter & Jelly Cheesecake Tart (Merry Mashups)

If you couldn’t tell, the trend with almost all festival desserts and drinks is that they end up too sweet for me. The Cookie Butter & Jelly Cheesecake Tart was no exception, as the Cookie Butter really overpowered things. When there were bites with the strawberry jelly though, this was far more balanced and delicious. The texture here was excellent and the hints of cheesecake were good, although a little weak.

10. Southern Holiday Brisket Taco (Studio Catering Co. & Hollywood Lounge)

This was the smallest portion of the Sip & Savor items which would be disappointing for those that are only trying to order a couple of things. The taco includes Chipotle BBQ brisket, corn salsa, cotija, crema, and lime wedge. We thought all of the ingredients worked well and the meat mixed with corn salsa was a tasty combination. This is the spiciest item we tried, which worked for me but Melissa was less sure. Some give and take with this dish but the flavors were there.

9. Chilaquiles Carnitas Torta (Paradise Garden Grill)

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.

8. Braised Pork Belly Adobo (Favorite Things)

This dish was simple but tasty, with a chunk of pork belly sitting on garlic rice. This item doesn’t reach the heights of other dishes but it’s dependable. The pork belly was tender and not overcooked, although that can depend on how long it has to sit under the warmer at the festival. Garlic rice adds a little more flavor but the meat is the star of the show.

7. Shrimp & Grits (A Twist on Tradition)

There’s one downside to this dish and that’s the shrimp. They’re pretty average. But, the other components made up for that easily, with creamy grits and some andouille sausage mixed in. There was a good overall flavor and we liked the ambition for being a festival dish.

6. Chicken Pot Pie Wings (A Twist on Tradition)

I didn’t know I wanted wings to taste like chicken pot pie until I tried these! These wings are served under gravy with cooked peas and carrots mixed in. The wings themselves are coated in a heavy breading and were cooked well. I was happy with the gravy and how well this idea came together. It’s not going to blow anyone away but is more inventive than they’ve been recently.

5. Holiday Mickey Ice Cream Bar (Clarabelle’s Hand Scooped Ice Cream)

What you see is what you get here. Thankfully, what you see is adorable and looks delicious! This is a Mickey Ice Cream Bar dipped in white chocolate and topped with crushed peppermint candy. It’s simple but absolutely delightful, specifically the peppermint side. If you like Mickey Ice Cream Bars and like peppermint then you will love this!

4. Santa Milk & Cookies Hot Cocoa (Favorite Things)

This drink consists of Cookies and cream mix, white chocolate mix, and milk topped with whipped cream. I wouldn’t be mad if all Hot Cocoa tasted this way! The Cookies & Cream was the primary flavor and who doesn’t want a hot Oreo drink in their life? On the surprisingly chilly California Adventure evenings, this is one of our favorite drinks to get.

3. Chorizo Queso Fundido (Brews & Bites)

Everything about this was delicious. Disney makes surprisingly good tortilla chips, good enough that I crave them! The queso had just enough heat behind it and was a perfect way to warm up on a cool evening. The standout here is the vegetarian Chorizo though, as it had more flavor than any other non-meat meat I’ve found. That really elevated the dish and gave it more depth.

2. Turkey Tamale (Grandma’s Recipes)

Yes, you can find better tamales throughout all of Southern California but the Turkey Tamale is one of the biggest surprises of the festival. It’s a bit of fusion that DCA’s festivals used to attempt but have scaled back in recent years. The tamale is served with gravy roasted mirepoix and cranberry relish. With a filling that tastes like stuffing, this is a very Thanksgiving forward dish but I like it better than Thanksgiving dinner!

1. Reimagined Beef Wellington (Merry Mashups)

Our favorite dish of the festival is the Reimagined Beef Wellington. Maybe Disney was inspired since Gordon Ramsay at The Carnaby opened in Downtown Disney earlier this year. While it’s called “reimagined”, deconstructed would also be fitting as the dish consists of mashed potatoes, beef jus, crispy prosciutto, mushroom duxelles cream sauce, and puff pastry. One caveat is that if you aren’t a fan of mushrooms then you probably won’t like this as much as we did. That said, all of the flavors come together here beautifully to make for a hearty, delectable dish. We’ll be coming back for this one!

What are you excited to try at California Adventure this holiday season? Let us know in the comments, along with any questions you have! Planning a trip to Disneyland Resort? Check out our Disneyland Trip Planning Guide to help you out. This site will have you covered for discount tickets. If you enjoy what you are reading here on Wandering in Disney please share this post with your friends and 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!