This Disappointing Disney Restaurant With A Controversial Past Is Now One Of The Park's Lowest-Rated

Visitors to Disneyland in Anaheim, California, have a lot of food options to choose from: 137 options across all sections of Disneyland Resort, in fact. And right there in Frontierland, adjacent to Adventureland and near New Orleans square, sits River Belle Terrace. Keeping in theme with its vaguely 19th-century environment — which contains Tom Sawyer Island, the Mark Twain Riverboat, and Big Thunder Mountain — River Belle Terrace focuses on classic-minded, Southern-ish food. Their array of choices includes buttermilk fried chicken, Cajun shrimp and grits, and red velvet cake. But, it's considered a disappointment amongst park goers. Plus, it's got something of a sticky history related to its connection to pre-Civil War United States.

In a ranked list of 85 of Disneyland's restaurants on Tripadvisor, River Belle Terrace came in 51st at the time of writing. Ratings on Google (3.8), Tripadvisor (3.7) and Yelp (3.2) are also less than stellar. Anecdotal reports from regular park goers who write food reviews on their personal blogs often note that the food quality is subpar and talk up its location more than its cuisine. But, not even it's excellent, prominent position in the middle of a bunch of big attractions can sway people in its favor. And that's without taking its past into account, which doesn't seem to be widely known.

That past is apparent in River Belle Terrace's original name: Aunt Jemima's Pancake House, featuring a character with implicit ties to slavery and America's antebellum south. Thankfully, framing the restaurant in this history is a thing of the past, and nowhere apparent in its façade, décor, menu, or anywhere else. But, they do still have pancakes.

Launched in 1955, Aunt Jemima's Pancake House was antebellum-themed, i.e., pre-Civil War (1861 to 1865). Disney hired an actor to play Aunt Jemima to greet and interact with guests, and that character — Aunt Jemima — would have to have been an enslaved person. This was never stated explicitly anywhere, but was an implicit part of the substance and storyline of the restaurant, which opened nine years before President Lyndon B. Johnson's Civil Right Acts ended segregation in 1964. 

Even before 1964, however, Disney had made moves to keep up with the times. The restaurant's façade got an overhaul in 1962 to skew Louisianan and fit better with the times. In 1970, the restaurant changed to Magnolia Tree Terrace, and then just one year later in 1971 to River Belle Terrace. Nowadays, it's a semi-pricey and unpopular Disneyland restaurant. It does stand out for its dinner-and-a-show package that includes outdoor seating for fireworks and Fantasmic!, a fantastical, light-filled riverboat show. The dinner deal includes a three-course meal and costs $89, while the restaurant's typical brunch and dinner options run from $15 to $35 per person.

If you've got your heart set on experiencing River Belle Terrace's nicely designed interior and comfort food, go for it. But today, the nearby and far more popular Tiana's Palace is a better representation of Southern food — and the character actor who will greet you is Tiana, an African-American chef and entrepreneur, and she owns the place. Alternatively, you could shell out for The Fifth, a 5,000-square-foot rooftop bar where you can watch Disneyland fireworks from up high. Or, skip Disney altogether and head to the smaller, cheaper, less crowded Knott's Berry Farm about 10 minutes away. Anaheim is an iconic SoCal city with family-friendly attractions beyond just Disneyland.