So you’ve got a trip to Disneyland Paris coming up, and you’re excited for the rides, the shows, the characters… and the food! But what are you going to eat?! While Disneyland Paris offers a number of wonderful table service or buffet restaurants, not everyone has the time, or budget, to go to these. And when that’s the case, quick service dining is here to make sure you don’t go hungry during your trip!

In this blog we’re offering an introduction to quick-service dining at Disneyland Paris – what it is, where to get it, and some top tips to save you time and help you find the best food Disney has to offer!

So what is quick service dining?

Quick service, or counter service, is something you’ll often hear discussed in theme park circles. Unlike table service restaurants where you sit down and have a server bringing things to you; at quick service dining you go up to a counter, place your order and then collect your food at a counter. If this sounds familiar, it’s essentially the same experience as at any fast food restaurant! So if you’ve ever been to a McDonald’s or KFC, you’ll be familiar with the set up for Disney’s quick service dining.

Quick-service is there for those who don’t want to take the time out of their day to have a full sit-down meal. It’s also a more budget friendly option than table service – much as you’d expect fast food to be cheaper that a sit-down restaurant at home, so the food is cheaper at Disney. But do note that it’s cheaper – not necessarily cheap! You’re in a theme park after all, and will be paying a premium for what you get.

Where can I find quick service dining?

Quick-service restaurants can be found in both theme parks, and there are several options in Disney village too.

This being Disney, all the restaurants have a theme, and the food tends to fit the theme of the restaurant. So for Pizzeria Bella Notte, unsurprisingly you’ll find pizza and pasta. And at the Mexican themed Casa de Coco, you can find Mexican food such as burritos and nachos. The quick-service restaurants all tell a story, so be sure to pause and look at the details while you in there – in Restaurant Hakuna Matata there’s lots of African and Lion King inspired details, Stark Factory has some Avengers gear lining the shelves, and Colonel Haithi’s has an actual tree in the centre to continue the Jungle Book theming.

The restaurants in the village tend to be external chains – Five Guys offers burgers and fries, Earl of Sandwich offers toasted sandwiches and salads, and McDonald’s is, well, McDonald’s.

One place where you won’t find full quick-service restaurants though is the Disneyland Paris resorts – which might be a shock to those used to staying at Walt Disney World in Florida! Instead each resort offers at least a buffet and a bar. You can get some grab and go bits at the Starbucks at the resorts, but don’t rely on a quick, cheap meal in your resort of an evening.

Is it just burgers and fries?

People tend to think of stereotypes when it comes to theme park food – burgers, fries, hot dogs and the like. But while you can certainly find these in Disneyland Paris, they are by no means the only offering – or even the main one!

Here’s the main types of cuisine of the in park restaurants:

Disneyland Parc

• Market House Deli (Main Street USA) – Sandwiches (Mickey shaped!), toasted sandwiches and pastries
• Casey’s Corner (Main Street USA) – Hot dogs and fries
• Last Chance Café (Frontierland) – Chicken Nuggets, and steak fries (notes: this place is hardly ever open, and weirdly is listed on the app as serving Asian food!)
• Casa de Coco (Frontierland) – Burritos, nachos, empanadas and Mexican inspired treats
• Cowboy Cookout Barbecue – Barbecue chicken, ribs, sausage, pecan pie and other Tex-Mex foods
• Colonel Haithi’s Pizza Outpost (Adventureland) – Curries and pizza, and curry on pizza(!)
• Restaurant Hakuna Matata (Adventureland) – Pulled beef sandwich, Chakalaka and African inspired eats
• Au Chalet de la Marionnette (Fantasyland) – Bratwurst, roast chicken, strudel and German inspired treats
• Toad Hall restaurant (Fantasyland) – Fish and Chips
• Pizzeria Bella Notte (Fantasyland) – Pizza and pasta
• Café Hyperion (Discoveryland) – Burgers and fries (hey they had to be somewhere!)

Walt Disney Studios Park

• Stark Factory – Cafeteria style pasta, pizza, salad and Italian style eats
• Super-Diner – Shawarma and salad

(Restaurant en Coulisse served burgers and fries in the old Studio 1 – it’ll be interesting to see what eats the new restaurant brings in spring 2025!)

Things to note – the food in the quick-service restaurants tends to be pre-prepared, so for allergies you’ll need to talk to a cast member to get something specially made (they’re typically very accommodating). Also, the children’s menus tend to serve smaller portions of what’s on the main menus, so don’t expect mac and cheese and chicken nuggets on every menu!

So quick service means I’ll get served quickly, right?

In theory, yes. In practice… not exactly.

You know how you and your family tend to get hungry at set meal times? Well so does everyone else! This means that the queues at the quick service restaurants during peak meal times can be very long, and seating can be in short supply too. This isn’t helped by people hogging tables when not eating. Sometimes cast members will actually seat people once they have food in hand to help prevent this but it’s not universal!

Here’s a few tips to help avoid long waits and a hangry family:

• Eat at off peak times – If you can avoid the peak food times of 12pm-2pm and 5pm-7pm. We found eating earlier and then snacking can be a good way to avoid the masses!
• Use mobile order – For many quick service restaurants you can place your order on the Disneyland Paris app, and then go up to a dedicated counter to collect it. (More on that in the next section!)
• Use your Priority Pass if you qualify – for those with the Priority Pass for the differently-abled, by showing this to a cast member you’ll be directed to a much shorter line to order and pick up your food.
• Don’t table hog – In the time it takes your family to queue up and collect food, another family with food in hand can eat and leave. If you block up tables when not eating you can cause massive bottle necks. I know it’s tempting to park the family while one person queues up, but by doing so you’re just making the flow of the restaurant more difficult and causing delays for everyone!
• Plan what you want to eat in advance – the menus for the quick-service restaurants are posted outside the restaurant, on menus overhead, on the Disneyland Paris app, and cast members will often hand out physical menus when you join the queue. Despite this, a lot of the long queues are caused by people reaching the tills and having no idea what to order! If you plan in advance then you’ll get through the line more quickly.
• Don’t moan at the cast members – Sometimes queues are long, or move slowly, or their might be a bit of delay picking up food while something cooks. If this is the case please don’t moan at the cast members! They’re doing their best to keep things moving, but they can’t work miracles.

Wait, you can order on your phone?

Mostly, yes! You can order quick service meals on your phone, pay for them in the app, and the go to a dedicated desk to pick them up at the restaurant. We’ve found that it can be much quicker than waiting in lines to order at the restaurant itself.

To reach the mobile order bit on the app, select the Food icon at the bottom, and then scroll pass the table service restaurants to where it says ‘Click and Collect’ – from there you’ll be able to scroll to find the restaurant you want, or click ‘see all’ to bring up the entire list.

Once on the restaurant of your choice, click ‘Order now’ under the restaurant’s name. There’ll be an instruction screen, and then you be on a screen where you need to select a time to pick your food up from the restaurant. (Normally this will be in the next quarter of an hour or so, but slots may be further out on busier days). This will then take you to an online menu, where you can browse and add items to your basket. Once you’ve selected everything you want, click the basket, check out, and then enter your payment details to pay.

Once you’ve placed your order you’ll get a confirmation email. In this email will be a button you need to press once you’re at the restaurant, this will get them preparing the order. Then just walk up to the mobile order counter and collect!

We’ve found mobile order a great time saver that can help you avoid some really long lines. Here’s some top tips to get the most out of the system:

• Not everywhere is on mobile order – notable exceptions include Colonel Haithi’s Pizza Outpost, Toad Hall Restaurant, and Stark Factory. Restaurants that accept mobile order are marked with a special logo on the map on the Disneyland Paris app. But it is more of them than not!
• Dining plan guests can’t use mobile order – If you’re planning to use a dining plan to pay for your food, then you won’t be able to use the app I’m afraid (side note, you’ll be better off using your credits on table service restaurants anyway to get your money’s worth!)
• You can’t ask for adjustments for food on mobile order – so if you have allergies, or really want an ingredient taken off a food item, you’ll need to queue up and speak to a cast member I’m afraid
• Order slots can fill up – So if you know you want to eat at a peak time, or it’s a very busy day order as soon as you can and pick your slot in advance!
• A mobile order doesn’t guarantee a seat in a restaurant – so at peak times you may still find yourself waiting for a table!

So is the food any good?

This is probably the key question, and my answer is mostly…ish.

Like any fast-food, the quick service food at Disney tends to be cooked in big batches in advance. And it’s fast food, so it’s not going to be the height of haute cuisine! So don’t expect the most amazing meals you’ve ever had.

Having said that, for the most part we think the quick-service food at Disneyland Paris is pretty decent. We can only think of one actively bad meal we’ve had there, and that’s at a restaurant that’s long gone now (presumably to everyone’s relief!).

To increase your chances of a better meal, going earlier in the day means you’re more likely to find fresher dishes, although as the food is cooked in batches you might catch a fresh batch later on! Going to a restaurant close to closing is most likely to get you something that’s been sat under a heat lamp for a bit. (Chicken dishes such as those as Au Chalet de Marionnette and Cowboy Cookout seem to be most prone to drying out).

While picky eaters will probably want to stick to the standard burgers, pizzas and hot dogs; we’ve actually found the food at the less standard ‘fast-food’ spots to be better. We particularly enjoy the burritos and empanadas at Casa de Coco, the barbecue at Cowboy Cookout, and the African inspired eats at Restaurant Hakuna Matata. And the pizza at Stark Factory tends to be better than the Mickey-shaped pizzas at Colonel Haithi’s and Bella Notte (although they’re also not Mickey shaped so that’s a downside!). A lot of places also service up a decent Croque Monsieur, or ham and cheese toastie! And as a Brit I can say the fish and chips at Toad Hall can be surprisingly tasty (although probably not a patch on your local chippy).

Overall, our advice when it comes to quick-service dining? Be willing to branch out, try something new, and see what takes your fancy. You can also take your own food into the parks if you’re worried about the options – but we think everyone will find something they can enjoy!