Inside of Disneyland there is a secret restaurant known as Club 33. Here’s my story of the most expensive meal I’ve ever had.
What and where is Club 33?
Club 33 is secretive members-only five-star restaurant located in the land of New Orleans Square inside of Disneyland. Many people do not even know of it’s existence and there is not even a website for it. There is an unofficial website where many people, including myself, have been directed to before their visit. This website provides valuable information, such as the dress code, menu, and most importantly, how to get inside.
How do you get inside Club 33?
First of all, you have to know somebody who knows somebody to get inside Club 33. With a limited membership of 487, it’s doubtful that you have membership or that you know someone directly who has membership. For me personally, my aunt knew someone who had a membership. Because I was vacationing at Disneyland for my honeymoon, my aunt wanted to arrange access to Club 33 for me. She had her friend book my name for two people for lunch at Club 33 on October 27, 2010.
On that day, my husband and I had to go to Guest Relations, which is located by the California Adventure entrance, and “check in.” Checking in lets Club 33 know you will be attempting to enter the actual restaurant, and it also lets you receive two free passes to enter Disneyland itself. Once inside Disneyland, we made our way to the exit of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. This is where the “secret” entrance of Club 33 resides. Specifically, it’s right next to the restaurant that’s inside of the Pirates of the Caribbean known as the Blue Bayou. The green door with a large “33” attached to the right hand side is how you get in, but you can’t just simply knock to gain entrance. There is a gold speaker box on the left side of the door. Lifting the small door that is attached to it will reveal a button. After pushing the button, the hostess will ask your name. If all goes well, you’ll gain entrance like we did.
A five-star meal.
I must admit I was completely nervous when entering Club 33, because I knew of its secrecy and how most die-hard Disney fans never even get the chance to set foot inside of it. As our server led our way to our table, we walked past the seafood buffet. I was overwhelmed with all the choices and the fact that no one was at it. This is because the buffet was not the meal itself, but it was just a complimentary “appetizer” in addition to the meal. After we sat down, we were asked what we would like to drink. Luckily, we had a younger server who knew that we didn’t actually know what all took place inside Club 33. He explained to us how the meal worked and let us know that we could order any drink from the bar. This was unique because Club 33 is the only place inside of Disneyland that serves alcohol. With that in mind I ordered a Strawberry Daiquiri and my husband ordered a rum and Coke.
For our meals I ordered the apricot glazed chicken while my husband ordered the dish that included three different pastas. After we ordered our main meals, we then made our way to the buffet. It was amazing to see just how big the “appetizer” selection was. This would have easily been the main meal anywhere else. There was an endless supply of cracked and chilled seafood, cold cuts, fruit, salad, and soup. I carefully made my selection with foods I was familiar with. Club 33 is a French-themed restaurant, and there were many food items that I saw both on the menu and in the buffet that I was not familiar with.
After getting almost full on the food from the buffet, our main dishes arrived and were each served on 24-karat gold rimmed plates. The first bite into my apricot glazed chicken actually surprised me. I had gone with the chicken because, honestly, everything else on the menu just sounded too fancy for me. With the first bite I melted. It was the best tasting chicken I had ever had in my entire life. To this day I haven’t been able to experience just how good this taste was. I actually started to feel bad that I couldn’t finish the meal. I knew I still had to try something from their famous dessert buffet, so I held back from over-stuffing myself with this delicious chicken.
After eating as much chicken as I could, I put my fork down and made my way to the desert buffet. The waiters were on top of everything and cleared our table from dirty dishes right away. I was sad to see what was left of my apricot glazed chicken leave the table, but I knew that this was a once-in-a-lifetime experience and that I needed to try everything that I wanted to try. Some of the things that I picked out ended up having a different taste than what I was expecting. Most of the dessert items came with a heavy chocolate mousse that I wasn’t too fond of. Overall the desserts had good parts. If I didn’t like the entire dessert itself, it usually has some part that tasted good to me. I especially enjoyed the “S’mores Martini” they had. It was a dessert that consisted of fine chocolate, graham crackers, and marshmallows served into a martini glass. Very unique and very delicious.
The bill.
I knew going into this that the bill would be high. When we went, the meal was a set price for each person no matter what was ordered. In October of 2010 it cost us $85 each to eat at Club 33. Easily this is the most expensive meal, even to this day, that I have ever had. Keep in mind this was also considered to be Lunch with the Dinner menu costing even more. Before we were given our bill, we were asked if we would like to look at the souvenirs available only inside of Club 33. Of course we said yes, which ended up making our bill higher. I picked out a lovely charm bracelet that featured the Club 33 logo and my husband picked out a Mickey Mouse ears hat with the Club 33 logo embroidered on it. After selecting a few souvenirs and adding a tip our bill came out to be $284. It was the most money that I have ever paid for a meal in my entire life, but it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that I’ll never forget.
