Our Experience at Centrico in Downtown Disney

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During the 2022 D23 Parks Panel presentation, one of the few exciting announcements was the next phase of Disney’s overhaul of Downtown Disney with a slew of new and exciting restaurants. One of those mentioned was a modern, upscale Mexican restaurant, later announced as Centrico, would be taking over the space formally occupied by Uva Bar.

After nearly two years of construction, Centrico, as part of a trio of new restaurants by the same chef, would open to Disneyland Resort guests in May 2024. Along side neighboring eateries Paseo and Tiendita, Centrico became an instant success for Michelin-Starred Chef Carlos Gaytan. Both locals and tourists alike raved about the fresh entrees and tasty cocktails.

Shortly after their grand opening, my wife and I had the opportunity to dine here. We were so excited to finally be able to try the food and to no surprise to either of us, we loved everything we ordered. The service was impeccable as well. Below, I’ll share our experience in greater detail, including photos and prices of the food and drinks we ordered. Let’s get into it.

Centrico Downtown Disney Reservations

When it initially opened, you couldn’t make a reservation. You just showed up to the stand-by queue and put your name down. Recently, though, Centrico has been added to the Advanced Dining Reservation page on Disneyland’s website. Meaning, you can make reservations for Centrico up to 60-days in advance.

Additionally, you can make a reservation through Centrico’s website if you prefer. It looks like they use the OpenTable software, which means you won’t have to provide a credit card guarantee like you would if you booked through Disney.

Reservations don’t appear to be too hard to come by. I’ve been looking for the last several days for last minute table availability and always found an open slot. Like most things at Disneyland, it all depends on season, time of day, etc. If for whatever reason you could not make a reservation (or simply forgot to), you can still utilize the stand-by option.

Centrico Menu and Photos of What We Ordered

Centrico’s menu consists of high quality ingredients, used to prepare some of the most authentic Mexican cuisine in Anaheim. Many dishes on the menu are inspired by Chef Carlos Gaytan’s childhood in Mexico and it shows. The menu may come off as intimidating but trust me, even the pickiest of eaters won’t have trouble choosing a dish.

We kicked off our meal with a couple of carefully crafted cocktails and an appetizer. The appetizer we chose was the Shrimp Aguachile ($22). It’s made with shrimp, charred tomatillo, aguachile, cucumber, red onion, avocado and corn tortilla strips. I’m not a fan of shrimp, but my wife thoroughly enjoyed it and it could easily be split between two people.

The two cocktails we ordered were the El Mariachi in Manhatten ($20 - pictured above) and the Carajillo Expresso Martini ($18 - pictured below). These were two of the smoothest whiskey-based cocktails I’ve ever tried. If you appreciate good whiskey, the cost is justifiable.

For her entree, my wife ordered the Cochinita Pibil Tacos ($22). It’s a three taco dish with fresh corn tortillas, guerrero-style pork shank, black bean puree, pickled red onion and fresh habanero salsa. The flavor of the pork shank was out of this world. It definitely didn’t need the onions or salsa, but they made excellent compliments.

I’m a sucker for quesabirria so when I saw it on the menu ($22), I had to try it. The dish came with two, rather large corn tortilla tacos with lamb birria, Oaxaca cheese, onion, cilantro, avocado mousse and a side of consomme for dipping.

It was far and away the best quesabirria I’ve ever had. Every other “quesabirria” I’ve had involved beef as the protein. I can now attest that it is much better with lamb. Additionally, the consomme was thick and incredibly flavorful.

To cap off our meal, we ordered the Guava Meringue ($13) dessert. It’s a classic Mexican meringue and guava sorbet encased in a fresh horchata-orange foam casing. The outer exterior of the dish is solid, needing only a few taps of a spoon to crack it open, exposing the delicious meringue and sorbet inside.

We didn’t try any other desserts so I don’t have anything to compare it to, but you can’t go wrong ordering this. All of the flavors worked flawlessly together. The only negative I have is I could’ve done without the edible floral sprinkled over it. For me, they didn’t add anything to it other than making it more photogenic.

All told, our experience was nothing less than top notch. It’s so exciting to have these upscale dining options in Downtown Disney now. With Centrico, Great Maple American Eatery and the newly opened Din Tai Fung, Disney has been on a roll lately implementing elevated dining experiences into the resort line up.

Needless to say, I highly recommend giving Centrico a chance. Yes, it’s on the high-end of the pricing spectrum but considering they use fresh ingredients, the fantastic service, and eating delicious food crafted by a Michelin-Starred Chef, I say it’s well worth the expense.