Before the days of Celebration BBQ, the restaurant formerly known as Big Thunder Ranch BBQ offered some of the best tasting food in Disneyland. It was time for our Culinary Quest to head there to try some of the new vittles in the offerings. Changes have been made to the menu and entertainment since Celebration Roundup & BBQ first opened last year. Read on to find out about our experience.
Originally, Woody and Jessie were part of the fun making it a pseudo character meal. Now the entertainment is provided by Miss Chris and Tex, who perform country and western tunes and encourage the patrons to join in. In addition to performing on stage, Miss Chris also interacts with the guests and is especially great with children.
As you enter the location, be warned, pardner. There are no prices listed anywhere. Of course, I can help you out right now. Lunch for adults is $19.99 and $9.99 for kids. Tax and gratuity are not included. For this price you get treated to an all-you-can-eat family style meal. You can have as much as you want, but you’ll need to ask your server for it. Lunch includes BBQ chicken and ribs, coleslaw, baked beans, and cornbread. Dinner is an extra $5.00 for adults, with kids remaining the same price as lunch. Dinner has the same offerings as lunch but includes smoked sausage and corn-on-the-cob. A variety of individual desserts as well as family style desserts are available costing $5.99 and $8.99. These can be ordered at both lunch and dinner. Drinks, which include free refills, cost $2.99.
Now that all of that necessary information is out of the way, what did we think? We really like Celebration BBQ. Everything was fresh and tasted good. The ribs and chicken featured a chili powder rub. However, you can ask for BBQ sauce, which we did. The sauce is sweet balancing out the rub’s flavor. The combination of the sauce and the rub is a good way to offer diners their choice of BBQ styles. The coleslaw is vinegar based and was tangy and crisp. We loved the baked beans and cornbread equally.
Some people have commented that the price of Celebration BBQ is too high. Again, we know that food at Disneyland is expensive, but I think the value at lunch is pretty decent. First of all, it is all-you-can-eat. Compare that price to the buffets at the Disneyland resort. In addition you get an entertaining and enjoyable show on top of the food too.
One thing to remember is that even though the tables have awnings, it can still get pretty sunny and hot there in the daytime. Of course, annual passholders get their usual discount. Now this is one Disneyland restaurant that seems to elicit a lot of strong and divided opinions. Some think it is great while others can’t stand it. Personally, as I do these reviews I think about them within the context of all Disneyland dining. Overall Disneyland dining is overpriced and nothing special. Taking that into consideration, we really enjoyed our meal. Of course, if this was in Orlando, I would definitely have a different take on it. It’s all relative. As it is, we will be revisiting Celebration Roundup and BBQ in the future.
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