Catal Restaurant - dinner - August 5, 2016

My husband and I and a couple of friends had a chance to visit Catal Restaurant in Downtown Disney in Anaheim for dinner.  People who know me know that Catal is one of my favorite restaurants anywhere.  My husband and I made our first visit to the restaurant in May of 2001, a few months after they opened, and we’ve been going regularly ever since.  We have introduced many friends to Catal, and many of these friends have become regulars as well, and they’ve introduced other friends to Catal.  Acquaintances and co-workers know that I’m a regular visitor to the Disneyland Resort, so I often get asked for restaurant recommendations, and Catal has been one of my most frequent places to recommend.

 

Because of recent personal circumstances, we hadn’t had a chance to visit since January of this year.  We normally go at least every 3 or 4 months, sometimes more often.  Because we visited often, we’d gotten to know a lot of the staff, and we’d enjoyed our visits to Catal for the amazing food, the friendly and terrific staff and the opportunity to spend time with friends.  In the time that we’ve been going, there have been many menu and personnel changes.  Over our last few visits, I started to notice changes in the menu that I wasn’t particularly pleased about.  I was hoping that in the time since our last visit, maybe the menu had been changed back to resemble more of the style that celebrated the Mediterranean cuisine that Catal is supposed to serve.  However, I’m sad to say that didn’t happen.

 

Many of the more interesting items that were customarily on the menu in Catal’s first 10 years have been taken off with each progressive menu adjustment, to be replaced by much more pedestrian offerings.  In the past, on our first visit after a seasonal menu change, I already knew that I had to go back 3 or 4 times to be able to try everything on the menu that I wanted to try, because so many things sounded interesting.  On our last visit in January and on this visit, though, I had a hard time deciding what to order, not because there were several things to choose from that I was interested in, but because there was nothing special on the menu that jumped out at me.  There were several flavors of paella, a couple different cuts of beef, a couple choices of fish, a chicken dish, a scallops dish and the normal salads that are staples of Catal’s menu.  Gone were the interesting entrees that included lamb or venison or duck.  They used to have an entree of baby back ribs with an amazing sweet and spicy sauce.  Gone.  They used to have a wonderful pasta dish with a terrific tomato-based sauce, and maybe one or two other pasta dishes with interesting presentations and sauces.   All gone.  There are actually no pasta entrees on the menu at all.  The only entree on the current menu that is particularly interesting is the suckling pig.  Otherwise, the beef and fish and chicken and scallops dishes are ordinary, and while they are indeed tasty entrees, they can be found on menus of most ordinary restaurants.  Catal was anything but an ordinary restaurant.  It first caught our attention not just because it was a new restaurant but because of the menu offerings.  If we were not already familiar with the restaurant, if we walked by and looked at the menu, there is nothing on the menu that would draw me to make a first visit.  If we were not already familiar with the restaurant and if we happened to have dined there, there is nothing on the menu that would compel me to return for a second visit.

 

One additional change that we noticed on this visit is that while Catal has always offered bread service with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, they seem to have discontinued that now.  Well, sort of.  After our appetizers had been brought out, I realized that we hadn’t gotten any bread, which is usually brought out when they bring water/drinks, often while we’re still reviewing our menus.  I asked about the bread and was told that they no longer automatically offer bread but will provide it if anyone asks.  So, they have bread available, but you have to know to ask for it.  Is it a secret?  Do you have to know the secret password to get bread?  If they had done away with the bread completely, I would have been unhappy, but at least then it’s the same for everyone.  But if you’re a first time visitor and don’t know to ask for it, then I guess no bread for you.

 

So, bread arrived, olive oil and balsamic vinegar in a dish arrived.  I took a slice of bread, tore off a piece, dipped it and ate it.  And something was wrong.  I couldn’t quite tell what it was at first.  I like the bread that Catal serves.  Especially on days when I’m particularly hungry, I have to make sure not to eat too much bread so as not to ruin my appetite for the actual meal.  I dipped another piece and ate it.  Yep, something was definitely wrong.  I asked my companions to try the olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  And without any further prompting from me, they came to the same conclusion I had come to - the olive oil tasted old.  It wasn’t spoiled but there was definitely something wrong with the flavor.  It seems that because they don’t offer bread and olive oil and balsamic vinegar to all patrons anymore, they don’t go through their stock as fast.  I don’t know when they stopped automatically serving it, but it was clear the olive oil had been sitting around, having its flavor changed in a bad way.  So, if you don’t know to ask for bread, you don’t get any.  If you do know to ask for bread, you get olive oil that has already started to turn.  This is really unacceptable for any restaurant, and it would have been unheard of at Catal even as recently as January of this year.

 

When I walked towards Catal for dinner, I noticed that the upstairs rotunda had its shades drawn and the lights were turned off.  We often sat in the rotunda for dinner, so I thought it was odd.  Was there something wrong with the restaurant?  When I asked about it, I was told that the rotunda is now no longer open if the restaurant itself isn’t busy enough.  OK.  So, the most visible part of the restaurant, the part of the restaurant that can be seen up and down Downtown Disney, no matter if you’re coming from the Disneyland side or the Downtown Disney parking side, the part of the restaurant that draws your eye to pay attention to it because it’s lit and people are in it enjoying a good meal, making you curious about what it is, making you want to investigate either for a meal that night or for a return trip in the future - is dark and closed.  It now gives the impression that whatever used to be there is now closed, so no need to pay any attention to it anymore.  It seems like a terrible business decision to project that kind of image.  It sure seems from the architecture of that rotunda that it’s designed to catch your attention, but now, it looks like an abandoned section of a building.

 

The meal itself was fine.  I had the scallops and enjoyed it, but it wasn’t something that I raved about to my friends, posting pictures on social media and making my friends envious of what I was having and having them express the desire to come to the restaurant to enjoy the dish at a later time, something that’s happened multiple times in the past as the result of a dinner at Catal.  Our party still had a nice evening.  Among the staff, we saw some familiar faces and many new faces, but everyone was still friendly and helpful.  That hasn’t changed.  Based on the menu offerings, it seems Catal is now a place they hope you’ll choose to eat at if you’re already at Downtown Disney and deciding among the various restaurants there.  Catal used to be a destination spot, a place you specifically planned to visit because of the amazing items on the menu, because of the multiple amazing items on the menu.  Catal was a place that you talked to your friends about, that you made plans to visit with friends who hadn’t been there before but wanted to experience this great place you keep raving about.  Catal had a terrific balance on its menus, with some really interesting items you don’t find on every restaurant menu but with enough “safe” items that anyone could eat there, and then people who were more comfortable with dishes they were familiar with could try the entree that someone else might have ordered that they’d never tried before.  “That steak looks great, but would you like to try a piece of my lamb?”  “That fish looks terrific but would you like to try a piece of my duck?”  “That spaghettini looks terrific.  May I have a taste?  Oh, I want to come back next time and order that.”  Dining at Catal was an experience all around, not *just* a meal.  I’m hoping that whomever is in charge now will come to realize that and with some menu tweaks and some operational changes, it can be that way again, and I can again recommend Catal as a dining destination.

 

 

To get an idea of what dinner at Catal used to be like, here's a review I wrote in June 2008 and here's a review I wrote in October 2006 and here's what the menu was in Summer 2008.

If you want to see links to other Catal reviews I've written and examples of other old Catal menus, please click here.

Uva Bar and Cafe - grand re-opening June 6, 2012

The downstairs cafe attached to Catal Restaurant, known as the Uva Bar, has been closed for a little while as they re-designed the outdoor seating section and re-vamped the menu.  The Uva Bar was set to re-open to the public on Thursday, June 7, 2012, but there was a grand re-opening party on Wednesday, June 6, 2012, which we were lucky to have been invited to.  The servers came around with samples of many of the items on the menu as well as off the new drink menu.  There was also a band who provided lovely music during the event.

The outdoor seating now has very short shrubbery, and the space has been expanded a bit as well, allowing for more tables and a more open-air feel.

The decor has been changed quite a bit, with vibrant colors and funky designs and some interesting tables as well.

It's a surfboard table!

The new look of the bar.  The TVs have been removed, and there were no chairs out during the event.

But of course, the most important things were the food and drinks!

Uva mule - vodka, fresh house-made ginger syrup, lime juice, soda water and mint.

I love ginger, so when I heard there was ginger in this drink, I knew I had to try it.  But even I wasn't prepared for exactly how ginger-y it was.  It's not just ginger-flavored like you'd get in a liquer, but there's actual crushed/shredded/squished ginger in the drink.  And the ginger definitely gives the drink a distinctive bite.  I very much enjoyed this drink.

Returning to the menu is the lamb burger, and slider versions were available for sampling.  Very nicely done, and very tasty.

Lamb slider - house ground lamb, piquillo peppers, feta, arugula, lemon dill aioli, pickled red onion on brioche bun.

Also making a return to the menu are the tuna tartare tacos.  Tuna sashimi in a tiny taco shell - what's not to love?

Tuna tartare tacos - crispy taco with fresh ahi tuna, crushed avocado, shaved radish, soy vinaigrette and micro cilantro.

Bacalao can also be found on the menu at Catal Restaurant upstairs.

Bacalao - salt cod fritters, malt vinegar aioli, sprout salad and lemon vinaigrette.

Shishito peppers have also previously been available on Catal Restaurant's menu.

Shishito peppers with sea salt and lemon garlic emulsion.

One of the new items to the menu, and a particular favorite of mine, is the octopus salad.  The sauce does have a bit of a bite to it, which I loved.  And the octopus was nicely cooked, not too rubbery like it can be if not cooked properly.

Octopus a la plancha - "banh mi" salad, charred scallion crema, Ho Chi Minh vinaigrette.

Another of the delicious new dishes is the corn arepas.

Corn arepas - seared corn cakes topped with pulled pork, mojo sauce, cilantro and shaved red onion.

The Uva Bar has previously had flatbread, but this is a new flavor.

Market tomato flatbread - fresh mozzarella, Calabrian chilies, chorizo picante, oregano and extra virgin olive oil.

Another of the new dishes I really liked was the shrimp cocktail.

Shrimp coctel - laughing bird shrimp, spicy tomato sauce, jalapeno, cucumber, lime and cilantro.

There are some new desserts on the menu as well, including ice cream sandwiches and milkshakes.

Orange 50/50 milkshake.

Mocha milkshakes.

Ice cream sandwiches, which were quickly melting.

We had noticed that there were many new glassware designs in use as well, so we ended up getting some drinks in the new glasses.  The darker one on the right is a blackberry gimlet, the middle one is a raspberry gimlet, and I can't remember what the one on the left is, except I believe it was also raspberry based.

There was an abundance of glassware and drinks around.

Here's the new menu for the Uva Bar.

(Click on the picture for a larger, more readable version of the menu.)

We had a lovely time, enjoying all of the delicious food and tasty drinks and just spending time with friends and catching up with some of the Uva Bar employees.  As it got later in the evening, the lights in the bar came up, so here are some pictures of the bar and seating areas.

The top portion above the bar changes colors.

Bar chairs have been added to the bar area.

Purse hooks have been added under the bar.

A closer look at a purse hook.

Round seating is now available at the Uva Bar.

Regular chairs are available as well.

What does it look like under the cushion?

Close-up of the design on the planters.

All of the things we tried were delicious, and we're looking forward to returning to the Uva Bar.  The only difficulty will be deciding what to order!


P.S.  Thanks to Matt M., who took many of the pictures you see above.

New Year's Eve 2009

For the past couple of New Year's Eve, the husband and I have spent the afternoon and evening at the Disneyland Resort. Usually, we don't spend much time there between Christmas and New Year's, partly because it's so busy there during that time. This year, though, because of various people I was spending time with, I was at the resort on five separate days from December 26, 2009 through January 3, 2010, sometimes going into Disneyland or DCA and sometimes only going to Downtown Disney.

On New Year's Eve, we headed down mid-afternoon, and when we arrived at close to 4pm, there was quite a bit of a line to get into the parking structure. The signs indicated that single-day tickets into Disneyland, park-hopper tickets, and AP blockout day passes were no longer being sold, but single-day tickets for DCA were still available. They even had a flyer that they handed out to guests at the parking lot toll booth.







We were sent to the Mickey level of parking, but there were no cast members (CMs) monitoring the rows or seemingly, the floor at all. Cones were just set up to send cars down a row, with no indication of how far to drive or where available spaces might be. The rows were only single-parked at that point (the rows are made to accommodate two cars per row, one parked in front of the other), so there was still plenty of parking available, if you knew how to find it. Our familiarity with the structure made it fairly easy for us to find a good space, but I'm not sure that non-regulars faired as well.

When we entered Disneyland, we got schedules to see what the evening entertainment would be. There had been some confusion about the regular midnight fireworks, but the schedule indeed indicated that the Fantasy in the Sky fireworks were at midnight, but we were surprised to see that there was a third showing of Fantasmic scheduled at 12:05am. The fireworks were only going to be 5 minutes long? That seemed shorter than we'd remembered for New Year's Eve.

As we walked through Town Square, I recognized someone and stopped to say hello and to share a laugh at something they'd shared previously.

The husband and I didn't really have anything specifically in mind to do, so we just walked the parade route from Main Street to Small World mall just to have a look, and the route was mostly full, with very congested streets. Some were undoubtedly waiting for the next parade, but some had already camped out spaces for the evening festivities.

As we walked through Fantasyland, the husband commented that he wanted to ride Dumbo at 1am. It had been years since we'd been able to do that. It was a tradition that started on the Usenet newsgroup alt.disney.disneyland that when the park was open past 1am (which happened more frequently back then), we'd get a group of people together to ride Dumbo at 1am. Dumbo has notoriously long lines all during the day, usually because of the small children who wanted to go on Dumbo, so it was an opportunity to go on the ride without the usual long wait since presumably, the kids would be gone by then. There were times when we had 20-30 people on the ride at once, taking up every single Dumbo vehicle. We even did a party-line call once so that we could call a friend who wasn't able to be there on that particular night.

We ended up walking by the Big Thunder BBQ, and the place was absolutely packed. There were a couple of empty tables and a couple others being cleared, but there were a lot of people waiting to be seated.

As we walked by the Big Thunder Ranch, where the petting zoo was closed and they were setting up for hat and horn distribution starting at 7pm, there was already a line formed, and it was only about 5:30 at that point.

We headed over to New Orleans Square and the jewelry shop to have a chat with the people who worked there. While there, I saw a gorgeous bracelet of blue sapphires and diamonds, which they graciously allowed me to try on. It was just stunning, and it was fun to wear it, but it was definitely out of my price range. I didn't win the lottery, so I had to ask them to take it off. I'm sure it will find a good home fairly quickly, if it hasn't already.

We then made our way back to Main Street and headed over to DCA. I then realized that in all the time we'd spent New Year's Eve at the resort, we'd never actually gone into DCA, so I was interested to see how that was all set up. As we exited Disneyland, though, there were signs advising people that hand stamps were required for everyone. Normally, annual passholders don't need a hand stamp for re-entry, but on very busy days, days when they think access to the park might be restricted because of capacity, they do require hand stamps as a way to monitor re-entry if necessary. The Disneyland hand stamp that day was Minnie.

We wandered around a bit, and at about 6:45pm, we heard horns being blown and saw people wearing the complimentary hats given out by Disney for New Year's Eve. They must have started distribution early at DCA. We ended up walking around, including right past the several CMs who were giving out the hats and horns, and it was *very loud* in some areas, with multitudes of people blowing horns.

We met up with the friend with whom we were having dinner, and then we accidentally ran into another friend who had already had dinner but agreed to join us just for the company, and we headed for Catal. Yeah, big surprise, huh?

I was surprised, however, to discover that a sweet wine that I like called Magicale was on Catal's menu. We knew that it was an exclusive import by Disney from Italy, but we didn't know that restaurants on property that weren't actually owned by Disney had the wine as well. Magicale had already had a part in my life the previous two days, and as it turned out as the evening unfolded, it was to be three consecutive days of Magicale for me. Not that I'm objecting, mind you.

There was a prix fixe menu for the night, and for my entree, I had venison, which I love and don't get often because very few restaurants serve it. It was delicious.

We had a lovely dinner as usual and had a good time with our server and the other staff that we knew at the restaurant. As it got later, we finished up so that we could go back into Disneyland before the fireworks.

As we walked towards the bagcheck area, we noticed that the walkway had been roped off on both sides, and they had created areas where people could stand and watch the fireworks. None of us remembered this happening before. There were areas inside the esplanade between the two parks that were roped off for fireworks viewing as well.

One of our friends decided to go back to her hotel instead, so we bid her farewell and headed into Disneyland with our other friend. At about 11:30pm, there wasn't any problem with getting back into the park, and as an annual passholder, they never checked for my hand stamp, so there must not have been a capacity issue. Main Street was packed, and we headed to our usual spot of Small World mall, though we had to detour our way there because of crowd control measures. The area right in front of Small World was roped off, which is what they normally do when it's a bit windy, and they don't want shell fragments from the fireworks to fall on guests, but we didn't feel any wind, so we were surprised at the closure. We went to the raised upper section and were just about behind the stage that had been set up with a DJ and emcee and Disney characters entertaining the people amassed on the street, waiting for midnight.

Our friend who was with us that night took a picture of the crowd from where we were standing. Yes, the street area was packed. It was a little less packed where we stood, though it continued to fill as midnight approached.

There were about 15 minutes until midnight, so we enjoyed the music that the DJ was playing. At midnight, the fireworks went off, and they were fun to watch. And yes indeed, the fireworks lasted 5 minutes - but the last minute or two probably had the same amount of shells as you'd see in about 5 or 10 minutes of a regular show. They were spectacular. And deafening at the finale.

There were seemingly too many people using their celphones to call or text greetings at midnight because we all experienced difficulty with our cel service at midnight and for some time afterward.

We stayed around Fantasyland and finally got in line for Dumbo just before 1am. All three of us sat separately. I picked a pink Dumbo, and the husband sat in the Dumbo in front of me, and our friend sat in the Dumbo behind me. I got my phone ready to call a friend once we'd taken flight. He was the one that we used to call from Dumbo back in the day, the one who we had tried to call with the party line, and I had texted him earlier in the day that we were going to be riding Dumbo, and he had said that I should call him like I used to. We chatted for a few minutes, and as I hung up with him, my ride was over. That was a lot shorter ride than I recalled, but it was still fun.

We walked around to go on other rides, but even at that hour, many of the lines were still quite busy. We skipped both Big Thunder Railroad and the Indy ride because their wait times were still over 30 minutes long. Haunted Mansion Holiday had a fairly short line, so we went on that instead. We had thought we might meet up with another friend who had come down late in the evening, but we seemed to miss each other on the phone, and we got tired, so at about 1:50am, we decided to head home.

A lot of people shudder at the thought of spending New Year's Eve at Disneyland. Yes, it's crowded, and yes, there are lines for everything. But if you know what to expect and know how to navigate it, it's a lot of fun. The energy of the crowd at Small World mall was great, and everyone was having a good time, even though they were packed in together, and the fireworks are unrivaled.

Whatever you were doing, I hope you had an enjoyable evening, and may 2010 bring lots of good things for you.

I leave you with Google's logo for the new year.

where everybody knows your name

A couple of weeks ago, the husband and I had dinner at Catal Restaurant, which is not an uncommon occurrence, but we were celebrating a special occasion, so we were having a rare dinner there without any of our friends.

Our favorite server was there, and a couple of the managers and other servers we know were also there, so each of them came by at various times to say hello and chat, which was nice.

As usual, we had a lovely and yummy dinner. (The light levels were low, so my pictures kinda suck, but be assured that everything tasted much better than the pictures would lead you to believe.)

I started with a sashimi appetizer. Mmmm, cold dead fish.






For my entree, I had been craving short ribs, which I knew were on the current menu. But I'd also been craving their mac and cheese, which is on their kids menu. And it had been a long time since I'd had short ribs on the mac and cheese. Our server luckily obliged by putting in the special order request for me. Yep, more yumminess.






One odd thing had occurred during the course of dinner. One of the managers had come by to say hi, and she greeted us with "Happy Anniversary". How did she know that, we asked her? She said one of the servers had told her. We didn't know how the servers would know since we hadn't told them, and while our dining alone was rare, it certainly wasn't unheard of and was not necessarily an indication of a special occasion. We questioned both our server (who wouldn't tell us how he knew) and another server we knew who also came by to give us her good wishes, but we got nowhere with answers on how they knew, and we were baffled.

Finally, the husband figured it out. I had posted something on my Facebook page that morning, but no one at Catal is on my friends list, but the husband also remembered that I'd posted something on this blog that morning. We figured out that one of the servers we knew (who'd come by to give us her good wishes) must have seen my blog entry and saw that we had a reservation that night and put two and two together. I know that a couple of them know about the blog and website, but I'd only told this particular server about the blog because of a TV show I'd recommended to her. I was surprised that she'd come back after that to look at it at all.

We were then very happily surprised when a complimentary dessert was brought out to us.






I'd had two of the three items previously. The item on the left is the peanut butter and chocolate bar, which is really yummy. The item in the middle is the pear tart, which I didn't care for that much as it was too sweet for my taste. But the item on the right was the pumpkin cheesecake, which was incredible. It was a good blend of cheesecake and pumpkin, but more pumpkin than a lot of other places, and it was very moist. Most of the time, pumpkin cheesecake tends to be more cheesecake with a hint of pumpkin and tends to be very dense. That was definitely not the case here. It was more like pumpkin cheesecake mousse. Heavenly.


I had brought some recent-acquired special things for taste-testing, so that was fun too, as we got the servers, the managers, the General Manager and even our busboy involved. Yes, I know, it's like listening to a broken record, but it was another fantastic dinner at Catal.

Thanks, Suki, for telling them about our anniversary. And I see you out there reading this! ;) See you soon!

Catal Restaurant - Wine Thursdays - review

In conjunction with Disney's California Food and Wine Festival, Catal Restaurant in Downtown Disney in Anaheim has been holding Wine Thursdays over the course of four consecutive weeks. Here's the information from their website.


Click on the picture for a larger version that's easier to read.


My one complaint about the website listing is that there is no mention of what wineries are being featured each week. For some people, that might not matter, but for others, I think it could help people decide which week they might want to go because they could find out more information about a winery ahead of time.


Catal Restaurant had been regularly holding wine dinners - a particular winery would bring a couple of their wines and the evening's menu would be paired with the wines - but the last one scheduled was in March of last year. We had been fans of the wine dinners because it gave the husband an opportunity to discover new wines, and though I'm not that much of a wine person, I just really enjoyed the special and amazing dishes that always were a part of the wine dinners.

The husband and I and a friend decided to attend tonight's Wine Thursday, which featured Benovia Winery. The wine selections themselves weren't particularly to my liking, but I had a good time nonetheless.

We arrived at about 6pm (the event ran from 5:30pm to 7:30pm and cost $30 per person), and the event was being held in the last balcony at the far end of the restaurant. There was a table set up with the various wines, and we were offered a taste of the first one on the list. There were four wines available, two varieties of chardonnay, a pinot noir (though I have no idea which of the listed pinot noirs they were serving) and a zinfandel. We each had a glass of the first chardonnay, and then there were runners who would come by with trays of little hors d'oeuvres. There were four different varieties:

1. deep fried risotto balls - Those were pretty tasty and had peas inside as well.

2. sliced seared scallop with chopped shallots on top - I love scallops, so I really liked this one. I think it was my favorite of the bunch. The earlier versions we got had a little bit of liquid at the bottom of the Chinese soup spoon that these were served in. I loved the taste of the liquid.

3. sliced pork shoulder on a sliced and toasted piece of baquette - Some of the baquette pieces were quite thick and ended up being a bit too much bread to go with the meat, but all in all, it was still pretty tasty.

4. slice of New York steak with a cut heirloom cherry tomato and arugula flower - These were served on forks, which was cool, because they usually only serve stuff in spoons. The meat had a nice flavor to it, and the tomato was a nice complement.


There was also a table set to one side which had Catal's regular dinner bread, crackers, three kinds of cheese (including the manchego cheese that is a part of their signature compressed salad), candied walnuts, and dried apricots and prunes.


There were some tables set up at the back of the balcony which were already occupied, so we stood for a little while before we ended up finding room at a table. When we were done with one wine (whether we finished our glass or didn't want any more of it), we could go back up to the table and get a pour of a different wine.

I'm not generally a red wine person, so I didn't even bother trying the zin or the pinot noir. The information sheet had listed a rose pinot noir, which I thought might actually be something I would try, but it turned out they hadn't brought that and had brought the zin instead. I'm not usually a fan of chardonnay, but the first one (Russian River Chardonnay) wasn't bad. I had a taste of the second one (La Pommeraie Vineyard Chardonnay), though I'm still unclear as to the difference between the two, but I didn't like it, so I just stuck with the first chardonnay.

The husband seemed to like the first chardonnay (though he's not a chardonnay person either), and he liked the pinot noir ok, but he really liked the zin.

The friend was also not a chardonnay fan but liked the first one, and she liked the zin ok, but she really liked the pinot noir.

As we sat and chatted, the runners would come by with the various hors d'oeuvres, so we were able to have a couple of each over the course of our time there, until we finally started to turn them down. People would also come over to check on whether we needed refills of the wines and to make sure that we had an opportunity to try all of them if we wanted to. We also had tastes of the cheeses and other items from the table to the side.

There was a representative from the winery there, and he was walking around mingling with people, so we had a chance to talk to him for a bit. Catal's Executive Chef, Nick Weber, also came out for a bit, so we had a chance to talk to him for a little while as well.

Overall, we had a good time at the event, and it was nice to be able to snack on the hors d'oeuvres and try the various wines.

The last Wine Thursday is being held next week, June 4.

start of a new year

I had a lovely New Year's Eve. I ended up being at work later than I'd wanted and there were still a ton of stuff I didn't have the time to do which are now sitting on my desk waiting for me on Monday as I try to furiously finish them before being asked by numerous people where the projects are!

But I finally left work sometime around 2:30pm, grabbed some lunch to eat on the drive and headed down to the Disneyland Resort. Traffic was bad but not at a standstill, so I pulled into the Mickey and Friends parking structure at about 4pm and was very surprised that there was virtually no line of cars to get in. Only about half the lanes were open, and I only had to wait about a minute behind the car in front of me. But I did notice on the electronic sign that Disneyland was indicated as being sold out. I parked the car, got my stuff together for the cooler evening I expected later, and got irritated at the kid in the car parked next to me who thought it was ok to knock on my car because he was bored though I don't know if he even paid attention to the fact that I was still there because he seemed startled or surprised when I asked him to stop knocking on my car.

I got on the tram and as I rode to the tram stop, the cast member (CM) at the back of the tram announced that sale of tickets to Disneyland was temporarily suspended, and that included single-day tickets, park-hoppers, annual passports and annual passport blockout day tickets.

After I got off the tram, I headed to the AMC Theatres to meet the husband. He had already gone through the turnstiles to get his handstamp (if Disneyland gets too full, they will limit who enters into the park, and having a handstamp to show you've already been in might allow you re-entry even if they've stopped letting new people in), so I left him to watch my stuff and just took my AP to go through the entrance at the monorail station. I had my AP scanned and did an immediate u-turn to exit and get a handstamp.

We then went in to see a movie (review to come in a future post), and then afterward, we had to go back to the parking structure to get something the husband forgot. We decided to walk there and were surprised at the fog having come in. We also noticed that they had blocked off the Downtown Disney (DTD) parking lot and instead of their normal rates, they were charging a $15 flat rate, which you could get back if you got your ticket validated by a participating tenant of DTD. We still noticed that the parking structure wasn't very full, and there were very few people at the stop waiting for a tram. We figured there must be a lot of people staying at local hotels if Disneyland was already so full.

As we were waiting for the tram for the ride back, the heavy fog made for a very eerie atmosphere - instead of it being about 6:30pm, it felt more like it was after midnight. We browsed a couple of the DTD stores before heading to meet some friends for dinner.

One of our friends had suggested earlier in the week that we have New Year's Eve dinner at Catal Restaurant, one of our favorite restaurants, so we had agreed. (We had actually spent last New Year's Eve having dinner at Catal as well.) We were the first to arrive, and we were happy to see that our favorite server (who we hadn't seen in a while but who we knew was expected to work that night) was there, so it was nice to spend some time chatting with him and catching up, as well as talking to some of the other restaurant staff that we know. We waited for our table, and shortly after we were seated, our friend and another friend arrived. We had a very nice leisurely meal. The restaurant that night was serving a prix fixe menu.





I had yellow tail sashimi as a starter (which was great) and then artic char as an entree, which was delicious, very moist and smooth. For dessert, I had a ginger cake which was quite tasty. Food, conversation and the company was good and fun and crazy as usual. We also had a really good view from our table, and with the fog now permeating DTD, it occured to me that John Carpenter would probably feel quite comfortable there.

We finished with dinner just after 11pm and decided to see if we could get into the park. We headed to the monorail station, and our friends who hadn't been in the park yet had no trouble getting in, and they never checked the handstamp for me or the husband. After we got off the monorail, we made our way to our normal spot in front of Small World. They had one of their entertainment stages set up there, so as our friends went to ride Small World, we enjoyed the music, and it was pretty funny to watch some of the Disney characters (like Chip, Dale and Goofy) participating in the physical gestures to the song "YMCA".

If was a bit windy and very, very foggy, so we weren't sure they'd even be doing the traditional midnight fireworks. Our friends finished with their ride just before midnight, and after the countdown, they did run the entire "Fantasy in the Sky" fireworks - but because it was so foggy, we could see almost nothing of the fireworks. For the first couple shells, you could see a few stray bits of light, but after that, you could really just hear the booms of the shells going off (they are usually pretty loud from that location), and occasionally, the entire sky would light up a random color from a large exploding firework. We laughed and cheered every time that happened. After the fireworks ended, the DJ proclaimed them to be the sound effects fireworks, which was exactly correct.

We stayed around for a bit and then headed over to the Rivers of America. There was supposed to be a third Fantasmic show that night that started at 12:05am, and we were curious as to what that looked like in the fog. On the way there, we met up with another friend who came with us. As we came down Big Thunder trail, we didn't hear any of the Fantasmic soundtrack which we normally would have, and when we got closer, we noticed all the lights were on, which meant there was no show. I ended up asking one of the CMs in the Fantasmic jacket costume if the show had been cancelled because of the fog, and he confirmed that it was. He said the second show of the night (at 10:30pm) had been really hard to see because of the fog. He joked that they could have just left the water screens turned off since the projectors were working fine just on the fog itself.

We then decided to take a ride on Haunted Mansion Holiday, which had a very short line. The two friends we had dinner with decided to call it a night, so we bid them farewell and then headed back to Fantasyland. Many years ago, when we spent every New Year's Eve at Disneyland and they were always open late, a fairly large group of us used to ride Dumbo at 1am. It's been so long since the park has been open at that time, so I decided I wanted to get the Dumbo ride in. It was a lot of fun, even though my face was very cold after the ride ended. During the ride, I texted a friend in Sacramento, and I was surprised but pleased when I got a response from him, since I didn't think he'd still be up at that time. We then took a ride on Storybook, and then we called it a night, heading out of the park at about 1:45am with the park about to close in 15 minutes anyway.

We decided to walk back to the parking structure, which made for a bit of a spooky walk because of the still-prevalent fog, but since the husband and friend were with me, I wasn't as spooked as I might have been. The setting was definitely very reminiscent of a horror movie.

As we were heading to our cars, one of the friends who had left earlier called to tell us about a traffic problem on our route home, so we took an alternate route instead, so we were thankful for the warning.

2009 started with time spent at Disneyland having fun with good friends. May the rest of the year be just as delightful.

mac and cheese

I don't think I've yet mentioned my obsession with mac and cheese on this blog yet. I also haven't had mac and cheese for real in some time.

You know who has really good mac and cheese? Catal Restaurant's kids menu.





And you know what's even better than Catal's mac and cheese? Catal's mac and cheese with short ribs and braising sauce on it that you special order.





I'm a fan of Kraft macaroni and cheese, and I like experimenting with different things to put in it.

I happened across the Tillamook cheese website which was advertising their 2008 Tillamook Macaroni and Cheese Recipe Contest.

This picture from the website caught my attention.




I normally like just regular mac and cheese to the baked variety (though I have friends who prefer baked mac and cheese), but this looks so good!


Hmmm, time to make mac and cheese again sometime soon.

Catal Restaurant - restaurant review

Catal Restaurant is one of my very favorite restaurants. It's located in Downtown Disney in Anaheim, adjacent to the Disney parks, and we've been going regularly since the restaurant opened in 2001. We've seen multiple General Managers come and go (though, thankfully, the current one has been there for a while, and he's quite good, so we hope he stays for a long, long time), and we've seen executive chefs and other staff come and go as well. As a matter of fact, Catal's very first executive chef was Bret Thompson, who now owns and runs MILK, another place we like very much.

It had been a little while since my last visit, and I was wanting to try out more items on the new menu that debuted in mid-May. Our favorite server wasn't working that night, and one of the other servers we know and like was working a private party, so we ended up with someone we didn't know, which is a rarity there. As we perused the menu, I noticed that there had been some changes to the menu since my last visit, notably the absence of the grilled artichoke appetizer I'd had last time and the addition of a few different dishes.

I decided to start with the seared Dungeness crab cake with Andalusian gazpacho, avocado and cilantro leaves. The husband chose to start with the tataki of togarashi crusted tuna with daikon sprouts, cucumber and miso bruleed sushi rice, and our friend started with the compressed salad of Manchego cheese, arugula, red apples, dates, walnuts and pistachio vinaigrette, which happens to be a favorite with us and many of our friends.

I first tried gazpacho several years ago, and with my love of tomatoes generally, gazpacho immediately became a favorite of mine. This dish had the crab cake in the middle and a good portion of the soup around it, a little more creamy as opposed to more watery like normal. All around, it was very delicious.

It took a little longer than normal for our entrees to come out, and we figured it was because they had five private parties in the restaurant that evening.


My entree was the boneless braised short ribs with seared yellow corn polenta, piperade of peppers and horseradish cream.




I am a fan of both short ribs and polenta, so the combination of the two was not something I could pass up, even given the many other good things on the menu. The short ribs were delicious as usual - moist and tender and very flavorful. The polenta cake was also good as well, good flavor and texture.


The husband had ordered the slow roasted Colorado lamb rack persillade, sweet corn flan, sugar snap peas and shemiji mushrooms, which he really enjoyed.




Our friend ordered the rotisserie roasted half chicken with sweet garlic jus and garlic French fries, which he seemed to enjoy. I've never actually had it myself, but it looks really good, and I've heard that it's quite good, so I'm going to have to try it sometime.





For dessert, I had the peach soup with vanilla-cinnamon scented brioche beignets and frozen yogurt sorbet.




I love peaches, and this was just a delicious dessert. The soup at the bottom was very tasty and flavorful, and then you had the added flavor of the peach slices. The beignets were also very tasty and crunchy, and the sorbet gave a nice mix to the other flavors. Definitely a dessert I'd recommend and especially wonderful on a warm day.


The husband had the warm chocolate-cherry bread pudding with port wine ganache and peppered creme fraiche sorbet.




He said it was almost more like a souffle because it wasn't completely solid inside. He was quite happy with his dessert.


Our friend ordered the trio of sorbets. Catal always offers a trio of gelatos or sorbets with flavors that change nightly.


As usual, the food was terrific, and there are a number of other things on the menu that I'd like to try. Other than the kitchen being slightly slower than normal, service was otherwise good. Our server was pleasant and attentive. We were sorry we didn't get a chance to say hello to a few other people, but it was a very busy evening in the restaurant.

The menu on the Catal page of the Patina Group website is generally behind a season or two or twelve, so here's the current menu.

Parking is available at the Downtown Disney parking lot. You can park for 3 hours for free, and Catal can provide a validation that gives you an extra 2 hours for free. Reservations aren't required but recommended because they can get busy. Reservations can be made by calling the restaurant directly or through OpenTable.com.


Catal Restaurant
1580 Disneyland Drive
Anaheim, CA 92803
(714) 774-4442