It’s a Jolly Holiday on Main Street! It’s open everyone, it’s open! We’ve been waiting patiently or maybe not so patiently for the new Jolly Holiday Bakery to open since it’s cute signs started enticing us months ago.

Yesterday, the Jolly Holiday Bakery, a counter service eatery, soft opened in Disneyland with a “Grand Opening” planned for Saturday, January 7th.  I am happy to announce that I was there yesterday morning on the very first day of service and everything was spit spot!

We’re covering both breakfast AND lunch at the bakery in this post, so stay tuned for dozens of mouth-watering photos of what’s available…like these!!

These are just teasers, though! Read through the rest of the post to see more yummy pics!

Atmosphere

When walking up to Jolly Holiday, I noticed that it was a completely full house with the line wrapping around out the door.  It was prime breakfast time and with this being the only eatery open on Main Street, it was the place to be.  Not to worry though, the line moves quick and once inside, it splits into two lines with multiple speedy cashiers ready to take care of business! There is plenty of outdoor seating & even with a long line, there were many available tables to choose from.

While in line, the decor is distractingly adorable, so that makes it go even quicker! My absolute favorite thing to see were the stained glass penguins on the windows which looked so pretty from both the outside and inside.

Upon entering the bakery, I immediately noticed the detail of the room. The ceilings, light fixtures, wallpaper boarders, trim, it’s all there and it’s all practically perfect in every way!

Since the line split in two,  there was twice as much decor too look at which means I had to inspect both lines and excuse myself in front of strangers waiting in line to take some photo.  Each line had a display case that held Mary Poppins themed decor.  The display cases also doubled as condiment centers, which I thought was clever.

So besides the cleverly disguised display/condiment centers, there were also some adorable pieces adorning the walls. My favorite were the silhouettes of Mary Poppins along with Jane and Michael Banks, initials and all. I wonder if one of the Main Street silhouette artists did them? They’re even in the same frames that the silhouette store sells!

Another adorable item adorning the wall of Jolly Holiday is this super cute painting that features sayings/song lyrics from Mary Poppins. I took the time to read each one and as I did my mind immediately had me watching the scene from which it was taken. AND a big thanks goes out to DFB reader JR, for tipping us off that this tree mural is an homage to a former mural that once graced the walls of the old Plaza Pavilion, more details can be found here.

And for the final art piece before you place your order… A beautiful mosaic on the floor.  This is such a fun well thought out addition to the restaurant as it depicts the chalk painting that Mary Poppins, Bert, Jane & Michael hopped into for the Jolly Holiday scene.  The mosaic is located on the ground in the center of the bakery just before you are directed to the register to place your order.  A very friendly Cast Member pointed this out to me!

Eats

The menu at Jolly Holiday features items that are all served after 10:30am.  However the cases are full of baked goods including substantial items like Ham & Cheese Quiche that can be ordered and eaten for breakfast at an earlier hour.

From the line, you can see the bakery cases that are filled to the brim with yummy treats.  Some old favorites that made their way down from the recently closed Blue Ribbon Bakery and some new that I’d never seen before.  Here’s a tour of the baked goodness.

After checking out everything in the cases my friend and I decided on a few early morning treats to try.  We purchased a Ham & Cheese Quiche, a Chocolate Mickey Tart, and a Strawberry Lemon Cupcake.  To drink we tried the Practically Perfect Punch and the Abuelita (Mexican Hot Chocolate). It was before 10:30, so we decided to taste test these items and then get back in line at around 11:00 for the lunch items! Awesome plan, right?

Let’s start with our drinks.  The “Practically Perfect Punch” was up first.  I was sold by the name before I even asked what was in it.  The menu out front says “Merry Cherry Lemonade” but inside there is no sign of it, it’s Practically Perfect Punch… Regardless the punch is awesome.  It’s pomegranite limeade that is a perfect blend of sweet and tart without being too sweet.  I really enjoyed it!

The Abuelita, which is a Mexican Hot Chocolate was also fantastic.  It’s basically a dark chocolate hot chocolate with a cinnamon flavor.  It’s topped with whipped cream and served up warm.  Really tasty!

A full line of coffee drinks are also available and served all day.

Now that we had some great beverages, it was time to dig into the food.  The Ham & Cheese Quiche was first.  It was served warm and had a great texture.  The cheese was melty, and the pieces of ham were flavorful.  The crust was also nice. Not too flaky, but not to hard, it was easy to cut through and had a nice buttery taste to it.

After out “entree” it was time for the first treat.  The Mickey Shaped Chocolate Tart. I’ve never seen these at the Disneyland Resort, so I’m going to assume they are new.  The tart has a Mickey shaped cookie type crust, it’s filled with a thick chocolate mousse and topped with a white chocolate Mickey face. So cute and tasty to boot.  The mousse was really smooth and not too rich.  Both my friend and I really enjoyed this one!

After Mickey, we tried out the Strawberry Lemon Cupcake.  It was moist lemon cake topped with whipped cream frosting, pink chocolate shavings, and sweet strawberries.  I was worried this one was going to be too sweet, but it really wasn’t.  I also thought it would taste artificial, but again, I was wrong.  It was a light fruity flavor and was quite delightful.   I love to see new cupcake flavors, especially the fruity flavors!

SO, now that it’s after 10:30am, it’s time to get back into line for some lunch eats.  All of Jolly Holiday’s foods are pre-made, not made to order.  They are prepared in the kitchen and then placed in the display cases and are warmed up as you order them.  There is a cute vintage looking stove that appears to house the “soups” of the day, but I didn’t actually see them being served from the stove.

After 10:30, the display cases are re-arranged to display the lunch items.  I did like the fact that you could view your food options prior to ordering them.  There was even a dessert added that wasn’t there earlier in the morning, seasonal fruit pies, which happened to be apple!  Other items in the cases included the following.

With all of these delicious looking items, it was really hard to choose.  We narrowed it down to the Jolly Holiday Combo, the Angus Roast Beef Salad, the Waldorf Chicken Sandwich, and a dessert that wasn’t in the case earlier, a Mini Apple Pie!  The presentation of the food is very cute, all dishes are served on a tray with a “newspaper” lining that appears to be a vintage newspaper from January 17th.  I was curious to see if this date was significant in Disney (particularly Mary Poppins) history so I checked out This Day in Disney History to find that there are several Disney events that took place that day.  I have no idea if this date was chosen on purpose, it would sure be fun to know.

After trying to interpret the newspaper with no avail, we dug into the Jolly Holiday Combo, a Toasted Cheese Sandwich with Tomato Basil Soup.  It looked delicious and sounded delicious & these are two of my favorite foods, so I was very excited.  Unfortunately, this one was a bit of a let down.  The cheese in our sandwich wasn’t melty at all, in fact it was kind of hard and plastic-like.  I did LOVE the idea of it served in three “finger” type pieces for dipping, but I wouldn’t order this again unless I was promised melty cheese.  The soup was also just OK to me.  It was a bit bland and almost to creamy. Not enough tomato flavor for my taste.  I was really sad when trying this one but not to worry, things were about to turn around completely!

Next up was the Angus Beef Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing; Iceberg Lettuce with Red and Yellow Tomatoes and Pickled Onions.  It was fabulous.  The beef was cooked just right and the ingredients in the salad were fresh.  We really enjoyed the pickled onions, what an interesting ingredient and really really tasty. The salad is served with a breadstick that was also nice.  Soft and fresh; it accompanied the salad perfectly.

Last “meal” up was the Waldorf Chicken Sandwich.  My absolute favorite item of the day.  I am a huge chicken salad sandwich fan and this one was fantastic.  Apples, Walnuts, Celery and Dried Cranberries (aka Craisins) served up on a fresh Brioche Roll, I was in heaven.  It was sweet in flavor with tons of white meat chicken chunks in the mix.  The bread was very soft and not at all flaky like a croissant can be, what a nice change to add the Brioche roll.  The sandwich comes with a nice piece of butter lettuce and what appear to be homemade chips (I didn’t confirm) that were served warm, crisp and salty.

After stuffing ourselves with all of this deliciousness, we had to make room for the grand finale, the seasonal fruit pie, which was a mini apple pie, lattice crust and all.  The minute I saw this in the case, I knew I had to try it because it reminded me of the awesome mini blueberry pie over at Hungry Bear!  I’m glad we chose this one, because it was just as good if not better than the blueberry one.  Served warm, the layers upon layers of apples and cinnamon were literally one of the tastiest treats I have had at Disneyland.  Like an old fashioned pie you’d picture winning a bake off.  Really that good.  The only thing that could make it better would be a mini scoop of vanilla ice cream, but Chef Oscar told us there was no ice cream on the premises!

As we were finishing up our meal, Chef Oscar walked up to us to say hello and chat.  It was great to see him (even though I had just seen him less than a week ago at Carnation Cafe) at his new “temporary” location.  You could tell he was excited about the new digs, he walked around smiling and greeting every single person at every single table.  He really is the ultimate Disney Food Ambassador.

AND for one last fun tip check out the exit sign on your way out.  See that cute penguin? If you stand in just the right position, he’s climbing the Matterhorn.

Overall

Overall, I am really excited about the Jolly Holiday Bakery, besides my non-melty cheese on the toasted cheese sandwich, everything was excellent.  I am very excited to go back to try the other items on the menu and also sample some of the desserts that I’ve never had.  The details and design of the restaurant were refreshing and fun.  But it’s not like I’m biased or anything… 😉

Heather Sievers is the Disney Food Blog’s Dining in Disneyland columnist. See more of her columns here!

Have you been by to check out the Jolly Holiday Bakery’s soft opening yet? Do you plan to eat there soon? Let us know in the comments below what you’re ordering!