If you are looking for huge portions, comfort food with a twist and gourmet doughnuts that you need to eat with a knife and fork, Great Maple may be a great option for your family on your next Disneyland trip. This table-service eatery is one of the newest hotel restaurants at the newly renovated Pixar Place Hotel. Now that we are hopping further into hotel dining, let's break down everything you need to know about Great Maple's menu, seating and more.
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Overview of Great Maple at Disneyland
Location
Great Maple Modern American Eatery actually has four locations in SoCal: Anaheim, Newport Beach, Pasadena and San Diego. Today, we are talking about the Anaheim location: the Great Maple at Disneyland. It’s located on the ground floor of the Pixar Place Hotel, just off of the lobby. It’s open to hotel guests, theme park goers and the public. You’ll see hints of Pixar art sprinkled subtly throughout the restaurant. And we're pretty sure that if you stand in just the right spot, the round lighting fixtures around the bar can form a hidden Mickey.
Great Maple also runs the other food locations found in the Pixar Place Hotel. Right next door is The Sketch Pad, a quick-service location open only for breakfast. Up near the pool and play decks, you'll find Small Bytes — which serves salads, wraps, cheese plates and drinks.
The address is 1717 Disneyland Drive, Anaheim CA, 92802. This location used to be known as the Paradise Pier Hotel.
Parking
If you aren’t staying on-site and have a car, you can park in the parking garage behind the hotel. Don't froget to get your parking ticket validated! You get three hours of free parking with validation. That means, if you have time after eating, you can walk over to Downtown Disney or explore the hotels before you leave.
Reservations
Snagging a table at Great Maple through the Disneyland app or site is one of the easier, no-stress advance dining reservations to get. You can also attempt to walk in on a less busy day, but seating is not guaranteed.
When you arrive, you may let them know if you have a preference for where you are seated. During one of our visits, we ate inside where we enjoyed a view of the bar televisions. Guests can also enjoy some TV viewing outside on the nice patio. These screens usually show sporting events on big game nights.
Great Maple Seating
You’ll find a variety of seating at Great Maple, from comfy high-backed booths to large tables for larger groups. Plus, you can choose inside or outside dining — which can make for two very different magical experiences. Large garage-style glass doors open to the patio, which offers a little glimpse of the theme park. In the patio seating area, there are tables with fire pits and patio heaters.
The restaurant has a two-sided bar right in the middle. You do not need a reservation to take a seat at the bar. Two televisions on each side and barstools with backs make it a comfy spot to catch the game. If you are dining with the family, but want to see the television screens, request a table across from one of the bars, which might have the game on.
If it's a nice day or night, request a seat on the patio. The restaurant has several comfortable outdoor booths and some seats around the fire pits. The patio is also covered up on sunny days, so there's no need to worry about that SoCal sunshine beating down on you in the summer. Glass windows separate you from the street and sidewalk at this restaurant.
Don't worry about being disturbed by traffic on Disneyland Drive. You won't even notice it with the glass barriers and music playing. The restaurant mainly boasts views of palm trees and parts of Disney California Adventure.
Great Maple Menu
You can peruse the menu in advance online or through the Disneyland app. There is also a paper menu at the table. It’s divided up into sections, with beverages on the back. Items with a maple leaf symbol next to them indicate that the dish is a Great Maple signature item.
Shares
Some of these are starters or items to share. Some of them are sides that may or may not come with other dishes, so decide what you want to eat for a main course before ordering from this category. (You know, in case your desired item comes with your meal. Win-win!)
Mains
Steak, pasta, shrimp, chicken and fish ... it's all here. Special call-out to the Soda Pop Baby Back Ribs. We've heard they are really tasty!
Sandwiches & Burgers
These dishes come with fries or a green salad. You can upgrade to parmesan truffle fries or a Caesar's salad.
We liked the Hot Honey Fried Chicken Sandwich so much that we ordered it on two different visits. This sandwich is so huge that we had to take one of the two (!) pieces of chicken off to be able to bite into it. But there are other great options such as the Ribeye Melt, Steakhouse Burger and Great Maple BLT. If you do not eat meat, go for the VBLAT or Falafel Wrap.
Salads
You have a variety of salads to choose from. We only had the Caesar salad as a side upgrade, and we enjoyed it.
Brunch Favorites
This is what we are talking about!
There are some innovative brunch options such as Ribeye Hash and pancake pops. (Think three corndogs but with pancake batter and maple syrup, salted caramel and whipped cream for dipping.) We tried the "Traditional" Biscuit Benedict, but there is also a Cajun Shrimp Benedict. Full Modern American breakfasts, Fried Chicken and Doughnuts, Smoked Bacon Scrambles and Chilaquiles are also available. It's so hard to choose! We also tried the French Toast Logs. They are huge and come with the option of maple bacon syrup. They were tasty but keep in mind it's a lot of bread. (Especially if you plan to get doughnuts for dessert. Ah, priorities!)
Sweets
These doughnuts are not the finger foods in a pink box you might think of when you hear the word doughnuts. They are large, dense, dripping with glazed topping and come in orders of three. But keep in mind that you can order single doughnuts. One is large enough to share, though! And after you’ve eaten a large meal here, you’re only going to have enough room in your frog belly for a portion of a big doughnut.
Our favorite sweets are the beignets. They come out piping hot in a paper bag, and the lemon curd for dipping is so tasty. But they only come in a batch of five, so make sure you have enough people to enjoy them. If not, take them with you to finish later.
Drinks
The drink menu is on the back of the main menu. Get a single drink or cocktails to share. Enjoy a selection of boozy brunch drinks (such as mimosas and peach bellinis), nonalcoholic drinks (such as lavender lemonade) and coffee drinks. The menu also lists wine, beer and signature cocktail options.
Things to Know About Great Maple
Here are a few things to know:
- The portions are huge! Plates can be easily shared with a friend or family member.
- While we celebrate the filling portions and variety of food, keep in mind that the food has more complex flavors. Picky eaters who prefer less complex food may not have a lot of their favorites here. (For tadpoles, we recommend character dining, which has plenty of kid-friendly options.)
- Pixar Place Hotel is located between Disneyland Hotel and Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa. So if you are staying at a nearby hotel and want to try it, it's a short walk from your hotel.
- If you are a Magic Key holder, you can save up to 10 percent on your meal.
- With four large screens, it's one of our recommended spots to catch the game at Disneyland, especially if you are staying at Pixar Place Hotel.
If you are looking to visit Disneyland, you may be looking at hotels. You can get a great rate for both on-site Disneyland Resort hotels and off-site hotels through Undercover Tourist. Plus, Undercover Tourist has the best prices on multiday tickets for Disneyland.
Related: Best Disneyland Table-Service Restaurants
Related: All of the Magical Reasons to Stay at a Disneyland Resort Hotel
Hoppy planning!
