La Brea Bakery - Express and Cafe Review

The Diva Family had two opportunities to have breakfast while we were at the resort. We had considered having breakfast at a couple of different places, but due to the nature of our stay, we ended up having breakfast at La Brea Bakery both days.

There are two sides to La Brea, the Express, which is a quick counter service and then you sit out under  umbrella covered tables, and enjoy what you choose from the counter.

Here is Sister Diva enjoying her panini toasted bagel and cream cheese.  

Daddy Diva doesn't look all that happy, but he liked his Cinnamon Roll (pictured below) 

and he ate the other half of Sister Diva's bagel.

These are the cinnamon rolls.  You can get them with or without frosting. 

Daddy Diva got the frosting, of course!

Aunt Diva and I shared tastes of several pastries with Momma Diva.  

We tried the cream cheese danish which was good.  Slightly sweet but not too sweet.

We also tried both of these.  The raspberry streusel bars were terrific!  

Really tasty!  The coffee cake pictured in front was a little dense and a little dry.

These orange danishes were the very BEST pastries of the bunch!  

Slightly orangey and sweet and the crunchy almonds added a nice touch.  This was the winner!

These were some of the other offerings available like breakfast sandwiches and salads.

The other side of the bakery is the La Brea Cafe.  On this side you are seated and served by wait staff.  On this particular morning, we met with Sister Diva's friends Kevin and Kate.  Kevin works at Disneyland in a myriad of roles, from emcee of many Disneyland Resort events, to the Laughingstock Company and DCA's Miner 49ers (a group we miss terribly!) Just for the fun of it, I'll post a picture at the end of this blog post of him in his current role. You won't recognize him. But enough about that, back to the review!

Sister Diva ordered the Veggie Omelet served with country-style potatoes, organic mixed greens
and choice of toasted La Brea Bread for $12.95.  She said it was very good, especially the potatoes. The omelet was good too, but there were too many onions for her taste.  It was fine after she set them aside.

I got the Croissant Sandwich - La Brea Bakery Butter Croissant with eggs any style, melted Gruyere cheese served with applewood smoked bacon. $13.50

Seeing as my beloved Carnation Cafe no longer serves their Croissant Breakfast Sandwich, I decided to try the one at the La Brea. This is how it came.  Seriously.  I ask you, is that appetizing? I had to totally assemble the sandwich just so I could eat it. Then somehow I missed the fact that on the menu, someone thought it was a good idea to serve organic greens with breakfast.  Sister Diva didn't mind it, but I thought it was a horrible idea. Fruit.  Fruit goes with breakfast and especially a croissant sandwich, not greens.  I only ate half of the sandwich and I found it a disappointment.  Please, oh please Carnation Cafe, bring back the Croissant Sandwich breakfast and show La Brea how to do it right!

Mr. Diva, Daddy Diva and Aunt Diva all got the Classic Breakfast - Two eggs any style with your 

choice of applewood smoked bacon or apple cinnamon sausage. $12.95

Mr. Diva liked his breakfast with bacon, but also would have preferred fruit.   Daddy Diva and Aunt Diva got the sausage and they liked it a lot.  Daddy Diva doesn't eat greens or the fruit, so it didn't matter what they put on his plate.

Everyone else in our party got the fruit plate for $5.95.  It was light and refreshing and they all enjoyed it.

As for the ambiance, we liked sitting outside, even in late July.  There were ceiling fans to keep the air circulating on the covered patio.  The faux woven chairs and vine covered half wall that you see behind us gave it a bit of a tropical feel.  Even though we were right on the Downtown Disney walkway between World of Disney, the tram drop off, and the security entrances, it wasn't noisy at all. And our server was terrific.

The Diva Family gives the La Brea Bakery a good rating.  Not great, but good.  If you need a quick bite before you head into the park, the Express side is perfect.  If you want to meet some friends for breakfast who can't go into the parks, this is a nice place to dine without being interrupted by characters.

And now, back to our friend Kevin.  Remember how nice and respectable he looked?  Here he is in his role as Tweedle Dum for the Mad Tea Party in DCA.

The hair is one thing, but seriously, look at those shoes.

And here he is with Sister Diva - She is cracking up laughing on the outside, but on the inside, I think I sense a bit of, I don't know, characterphobia setting in from our childhood!