This is the single best restaurant in all of Disneyland

The dining room is open and airy: Two sides are interior walls, but two are fully open to the patio outside and the bay beyond. No matter where you sit in the restaurant, you have gorgeous views of the water, the Incredicoaster, Mickey’s Fun Wheel and some of the midway rides like the Golden Zephyr. You might be sitting down to a meal, but you can still enjoy all the action of the park. 

Inside the restaurant, it’s much clearer how Lamplight fits into Pixar Pier. The “lamplight” in question is Luxo Jr., the desk lamp that’s the mascot of Pixar Animation Studios; it appears before the opening credits in all of Pixar’s films. Every wall of the space is covered in Pixar art, toys and props. Over one table are French movie posters from “Inside Out.” Above another rest props from “Up,” including a real “Paradise Falls” jar partly filled with coins, Carl and Ellie’s mailbox, and Russell’s Junior Wilderness Explorer badges. An alcove is completely lined with illuminated Pixar balls (also called Luxo balls), and the table in that space has a glass top because its interior is completely filled with model cars from the “Cars” movies.

What I love about Lamplight is that it’s the best of both kinds of Disney dining experience: It’s a cool, shady break from a hot park day, offering a welcome break to refuel and recharge, but its location is so perfectly situated in the park that you never truly feel like you’ve left it. This is especially true at the bar, which takes up about half of the dining room and is a natural break between the interior tables and the outdoor patio dining area. 

When I go, I always ask to sit at the bar. I take my seat, order a cocktail and some lunch, and just absorb everything around me. On the Incredicoaster, car after car speeds off at 55 mph, launching up into the tunnel and then spinning on twists, turns and loops. Mickey’s Fun Wheel goes around and around, the cars swinging in midair (which I will never ride because I am more scared of that than any other ride in Disneyland). People are walking around, eating ice cream, taking pictures, and I still feel like I’m part of the action. 

The atmosphere is my favorite part of Lamplight Lounge, but the food is great, too. The menu offers appetizers like the restaurant's famous lobster nachos with chipotle crema; an al pastor pork chop with Oaxaca cheese polenta, pineapple relish and charred onion; and kung pao bao with crispy pork belly, red peppers and toasted peanuts. 

On weekends, brunch has chilaquiles with house-made tortilla chips, three-chile red sauce, two kinds of cheese, eggs, avocado and cilantro-serrano sour cream, as well as French toast made with cinnamon-brown sugar challah, macerated berries and almond brittle.

I go back over and over for the Salmon PLT — a twist on a BLT with a piece of grilled salmon, crispy pancetta and lemon-bacon aioli — and the plant-based Impossible burger topped with pastrami-spiced grilled pineapple and housemade pickles. The miniature donuts, the only dessert on the menu, come out warm and dipped in chocolate, with sauces on the side. They aren't as good as they sound. They're better.

The cocktails, both spiked and zero-proof, are also excellent. The 2319 mocktail, a reference to “Monsters, Inc.,” is a frozen drink that comes in a scream/laugh canister. The Scream Canister cocktail counterpart has rum, coconut, pineapple, orange and Angostura bitters. There’s also a not-so-secret “secret menu” of the drinks that had been served at Ariel’s Grotto, the restaurant in that space that closed in 2018 for the Pixar Pier renovation. It features beverages such as the Sea Witch, the Black Pearl and Neverland Tea. 

If you can’t snag a reservation on the Disneyland app, your best bet is to try adding yourself to the walk-up waitlist. Lamplight opens a walk-up list through the app, but you can also try your luck at going to the restaurant and asking a cast member. Sometimes they’re taking walk-ins on a one-by-one basis. The last time I went, I got to the restaurant at about 11:20 a.m., 10 minutes ahead of opening time. About 20 people were all doing the same thing. At 11:30 a.m., when they opened the doors, the cast members started taking names for the walk-up list with the caveat that not everyone was guaranteed a spot. I asked for a seat at the bar — I really can’t overstate how gorgeous the view is from there — and got in after about 10 minutes of waiting.

Lamplight’s upstairs area is called Boardwalk Dining, a lounge that serves small plates and drinks. Getting into that is much easier — it’s first-come, first-serve — and you just have to wait in a usually short line to get in. The real-life hack with Boardwalk Dining is that it has a walk-up spot at the bar where you can get drinks to go and walk around the pier with them.

Lamplight itself is difficult to get into, but an even more elusive spot is inside. The restaurant has a secret dining room with original Pixar animation sketches. To dine in “The Office,” as it’s called, there’s an entire strategy.