The final talley is in! The winner in the Daveland Disneyland Favorite Restaurant poll is "Bring Back The Tahitian Terrace" with 102 votes (32%). Coming in at a very close second is The Blue Bayou, with 99 votes (31%). The Tahitian Terrace has been gone for almost 18 years now, but it still has a fairly healthy fan base. Located where the Aladdin's Oasis in Adventureland currently stands, it was an outdoor restaurant with live entertainment.
Here’s an excerpt from Vacationland Magazine, Summer 1967:
One of the Park’s most popular restaurants for several years — the tropical Tahitian Terrace is located in Adventureland. Here, Oriental and Cantonese foods are served in the lavish setting of the South Sea Islands. Highlight of an evening meal at the Tahitian Terrace is an authentic Polynesian show by the Royal Tahitian dancers featuring the hula, the flaming sword dance and South Sea Island music and songs.
Welcome! Your Tahitian Terrace hostess will adorn you with a colorful plastic lei:
I am sure that this restaurant/live show combo was not a hit with the number-crunchers. Can't you hear it now? "We can get them in and out much faster if we cut the show!" I don't know about the numbers, but it sure looks like a lot of fun to me!
At least choice #2 is still available for guests to enjoy. Once again, Vacationland Magazine provides a great description for us:
On the banks of New Orleans Square’s Blue Bayou, the starting point of Disneyland’s new Pirates of the Caribbean adventure, is perhaps the most unusual of all the Park’s — if not the world’s — restaurants, the Blue Bayou Terrace. Here, visitors enjoy gourmet prepared delicacies as they dine in the evening — all day long! Crickets chirp, fireflies float among the cypress and clouds drift past an ever-present summer moon.
Oh those Monte Cristos...a pure slice of heaven.
See more vintage and current Disneyland photos at my main website.
WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! I never got to go to the TT. I'll bet it was awesome. Cool post - I was wondering when the voting would end, LOL.
ReplyDeleteThe Monte Cristo looks delicious, but scary.
ReplyDeleteWhat's the sauce that's next to it?
I can't say whether the Terrace was a hit with the number crunchers, but considering that they replaced it with another Dinner & Show complex in "Aladdin's Oasis" it seems unlikely that the Food/Show was it's downfall. That said I'm sorry I never got to experience the Tahitian Terrace and similarly hope that they bring it back, with or without entertainment. Does anyone know if the Plaza Pavilion/TT kitchen has been removed? I assume that would be a big impediment to bringing it back.
ReplyDeleteDavid - I believe they currently serve a berry jam with the Cristo; that photo is from around the 50th, and it looks more like a maple syrup.
ReplyDeleteMatt - The kitchen was recently renovated at the Pavillion.
What I liked about the TT and still like about the BB is the feeling of being in an wonderful world (island/bayou)inside an wonderful world (Disneyland). It's the same feeling when I came out of the Tiki Room environment - oh my gosh...I'm still in Disneyland!!
ReplyDelete