Blue Bayou Restaurant
Blue Bayou Restaurant is a table-service restaurant in New Orleans Square at Disneyland Park in the Disneyland Resort, California. Opened on March 18, 1967, on the same day as the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction beside which it sits, it is set inside that ride's show building, where diners eat in permanent twilight beside the waterway of the ride's opening bayou scene. It is generally regarded as Disneyland's first full-service, reservation-based restaurant, and it remains one of the park's best-known dining locations.
Setting
The restaurant is presented as the terrace of a Southern mansion overlooking a Louisiana bayou at night. Paper lanterns hang above the tables, fireflies appear to drift over the water, and boats carrying Pirates of the Caribbean riders pass slowly in front of the dining room shortly after leaving the attraction's loading area, known in the ride's story as Laffite's Landing. Because the scene is indoors, the evening atmosphere does not change with the time of day or the weather outside.
The entrance is on Royal Street in New Orleans Square, a short distance from the Pirates entrance and from Haunted Mansion. A version of the restaurant also operates at Tokyo Disneyland, where it opened with that park in 1983 inside its own Pirates of the Caribbean.
History
New Orleans Square was dedicated on July 24, 1966, the last major addition to Disneyland that Walt Disney personally dedicated. The restaurant planned for the land was finished months before the Pirates attraction was ready, but Disney held its opening back: in his view, boats drifting past on the bayou were part of the experience, and the room made little sense without them. Restaurant and ride therefore opened together on March 18, 1967, three months after Disney's death.
The Blue Bayou answered a recurring criticism of Disneyland's early years, that a park of its ambition offered little beyond counter-service food. Disney described the intention as a place where the food would be part of the show alongside the atmosphere. In its early years it was the park's most formal dining room, and for decades reservations could only be made in person at the restaurant on the day of the visit, which produced a morning rush into New Orleans Square at park opening. Advance reservations through Disney's later telephone and online systems eventually replaced that arrangement.
The restaurant has periodically closed alongside Pirates of the Caribbean for the attraction's refurbishments, since the two share a building and a scene, and it reopened after the resort's pandemic closure with a revised menu that for the first time included alcoholic drinks, previously unavailable at table-service restaurants inside Disneyland Park.
Cuisine
The menu draws on Cajun and Creole cooking associated with Louisiana, adapted over the years as chefs and tastes have changed. Dishes that have appeared across different eras include gumbo, jambalaya, blackened fish and roasted meats, along with a signature dessert in the form of a mint julep-style non-alcoholic drink service inherited from the land's early years.
The restaurant's most durable association is with the Monte Cristo sandwich — sliced turkey, ham and Swiss cheese in batter, fried, dusted with powdered sugar and served with fruit preserves. Adapted from the French croque-monsieur, the sandwich was served at the Blue Bayou from its early years and later also at the neighbouring Café Orleans, where it became that restaurant's best-known dish as well.