Napa Rose
Napa Rose is a fine-dining restaurant in Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. It opened in 2001 with the hotel, as part of the expansion that turned Disneyland into a multi-park resort, and it specialises in California cooking built around a Napa Valley wine theme. It has long been regarded as the resort's leading restaurant open to the general public, and it has received repeated recognition from Wine Spectator, Zagat and Southern California restaurant writers' organisations.
History
Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa opened on January 2, 2001, a month before Disney California Adventure, as the flagship hotel of the expanded resort. For its signature restaurant, Disney recruited outside fine dining rather than promoting from its theme-park kitchens. Chef Andrew Sutton was hired from Auberge du Soleil in Napa Valley; his earlier career included the Mansion on Turtle Creek in Dallas. Michael Jordan, a master sommelier from the Patina Restaurant Group, was brought in as general manager and sommelier to build the wine programme. The aim, stated at the time, was to give the resort's food and wine operation credibility with diners who did not consider themselves theme-park guests.
The approach worked quickly: in its early years the restaurant was ranked among the leading restaurants in California, and Sutton's role grew with it. He later oversaw the opening of Carthay Circle Restaurant in 2012 and other signature dining at the resort, eventually becoming culinary director for its signature restaurants while remaining the defining chef of Napa Rose; in later years the kitchen's day-to-day leadership passed to executive chef Clint Chin, who had previously led the kitchens of Club 33 and 21 Royal.
The restaurant closed in April 2025 for an extensive refurbishment of its dining room, kitchen presentation and menus, and reopened in February 2026, shortly before the twenty-fifth anniversary of its opening.
Design
The dining room follows the hotel's Arts and Crafts architecture, which draws on the California craftsman tradition, while the restaurant's own interior design is influenced by the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, the Scottish designer whose stylised rose motif gives the restaurant both its decorative theme and part of its name — Napa for the wine country, Rose for Mackintosh's emblem. An open exhibition kitchen forms the centre of the room, and a Chef's Counter allows a small number of diners to sit at the kitchen itself for a menu directed by the chefs.
Food and wine
Sutton described the cooking as wine country cuisine: seasonal California produce, grilled meats and seafood, pasta and risotto, and dishes designed to pair with the cellar rather than dominate it. Menus change with the seasons and have included a multi-course tasting format with wine pairings alongside à la carte service.
The wine programme Jordan established was unusually deep for a hotel restaurant, approaching a thousand bottles with a strong emphasis on California producers, including allocated Napa Valley wines that were difficult to obtain elsewhere. He also instituted formal wine education for the staff, preparing servers and cooks for introductory sommelier examinations, a practice that shaped the restaurant's service culture. Jordan left in 2009; the programme he built has been maintained by his successors.