Earlier, we brought you the news that Hungry Bear Restaurant in Disneyland introduced an all-new menu. Today, as promised, we’re back with a review!

Cherry Coca Cola Funnel Cake

With so many great new eats and treats coming to Disneyland this holiday season, it can be challenging to choose! We’re here to help with some recommendations on what you should pick and what you can skip of the new menu items at Hungry Bear Restaurant.

Hungry Bear Menu

The menu at Hungry Bear now offers a variety of sandwiches and burgers, a salad, and several desserts.

Honey-Spiced Chicken Sandwich

First up: the Honey-Spiced Chicken Sandwich. This one features crispy chicken, lettuce, and sweet and spicy spread. Available sides include fries, house slaw, or onion rings.

While the sandwich was definitely spicy (in addition to the spread, it seemed to have some kind of spicy rub or dust on it), ours was dry, overcooked, and stale. Womp womp. I can see how this could be good — the flavors were there — but it felt like it’d be sitting around WAY too long in the kitchen. So I’d be nervous to try it again!

The next new dish we tried was Messy Melvin’s Vegan Specialty Burger. It’s a vegan patty topped with stewed vegetables served with fries or house slaw.

Messy Melvin’s Vegan Specialty Burger

OK, I’ll be honest. NOTHING about this seemed appetizing from the description. But after taking a few tentative bites we were really surprised!

Messy Melvin’s Vegan Specialty Burger

The bun, unfortunately, was super stale and detracted significantly from the sandwich; but once we ditched the bun and started eating with a fork and knife, the great flavors of the burger and topping came through. Vegans and vegetarians should high tail it over to Hungry Bear for this one!

On to the brand new Cherry Cola funnel cake! This one wasn’t on the menu on our visit, so you may have to ask about it.

Cherry Coca Cola Funnel Cake

So this sounds like it should be delicious, right? Or at least interesting? Well for both of us taste-testing this it was a hard pass. A definite NO after even the first bite. The flavor was strange and very artificial tasting, and this was our least favorite item from Hungry Bear Restaurant. We recommend ordering the tried and true Churro Funnel Cake instead!

Churro Bites Sign

Speaking of Churros…this was the main reason we’d come to Hungry Bear! We couldn’t leave without trying the Churro Bites with Eggnog Gelato and Caramel Sauce.

Again, the Eggnog flavor here was super pronounced, but not overwhelmingly so. The gelato’s creaminess cut the eggnog spices enough that the flavor was complementary rather than cutting. The churro bites were tender and soft on the inside and pleasantly crispy on the outside — a welcome change from the sometimes overdone churros in the park.

But it was the caramel sauce that brought everything together here. It was a thick, rich caramel as opposed to a watery drizzle. The flavor and texture strengthened dish into an established and cohesive dessert rather than just a pile of churro bites with ice cream on the side. It’s hard to explain, but just know that it’s highly recommended! ;-D

Churro Bites

So, Hungry Bear overall was kind of a flop — with the spicy chicken sandwich and cherry cola funnel cake earning a giant thumbs down from us. But the churro bites were strong contenders and the new vegan burger is a clear winner for folks with that particular diet!

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What’s your favorite item from the new Hungry Bear menu? Let us know in the comments!