Tiana's Palace is terrible, wow.
I had the BBQ chicken, macaroni and cheese, corn bread, and the filled beignet. But first, I want to talk about the building itself. The facade is fine, but the Tiana's Palace sign is kinda a bit too high to really take it in. Inside, it's a bit underwhelming. There's some cute details like petals and frogs for the lighting, but the rest of it was pretty bare. The line to get to the food was confusing as to how they'd structure it this way, especially for a place they know will be brand new with plenty of people to see it -- I don't even know how to describe it without you seeing it for yourself, I just know it definitely needs to be reorganized and reimagined to make sense. The line itself was super long, stretching to Haunted Mansion, but luckily overall it only took maybe 20-30 minutes. Atmospherically, there's not much going on either -- I think there was some very low music playing inside but none outside -- I walked by multiple times throughout the day and it seemed like a bore. Other than the shade they put you under, which has been there for decades, there's nothing nice about this cramped spot.
On to the food, let's start with the mac and cheese. The most salty food I've ever tasted in a theme park. I wanted to spit it out. At first I thought it was just spices, but soon realized no -- it's just salt overwhelming my mouth. I couldn't even understand how something this bad could be served. Forgetting that, the overall texture and cheesiness is fine. But for BAKED mac and cheese, there's no crunch or cripsy parts. It didn't look all that baked to me. And even if it was, the salt level is a deal breaker -- and I am someone who LOVES salt, especially on stuff like popcorn or potatoes, I just POUR it on like there's no tomorrow. For me to say it's too salty, you know there's a problem, and the people I were with couldn't even eat more than a few bites.
Next, the filled beignet. What a downer. Just a cold pastry with barely any filling and wet on top. Beignets are traditionally soft and warm, comforting. This was...slimy. I'd say fill it or put the glaze, but not both. And either way, at least make them warm. No powdered sugar either. Just sad.
The corn bread but was okay. There was a bit of moistness on the inside that made it redeemable. However, like the beignet, served absolutely cold. They have heat lamps in here and they were all off.
The BBQ chicken was the best part, which is luckily the main dish, but also I am huge a sides person because I like variety. Anyway, the BBQ element was pretty decent and the chicken was super tender, juicy, and succulent. I prefer my skin to be more toasty but here it was a bit soggy, but it wasn't a huge deal breaker. At least it was served warm, which I can't say for the other half of the meal. Another good part, is it is essentially 3-4 pieces of chicken, which you could easily share with someone.
Overall, I'd never eat here again. It's just unacceptable for Disney to close a place and reopen it somehow worse than it was before, especially in this day and age and even more worse, in preparation for the new ride coming.
Also want to note, I don't think I'm ever coming again during a day Oogie Boogie is happening. Mother of God was it crowded. Secuirty line at Mickey and Friends was backed all the way up to where the dog sniffer was -- took about an hour and a half to get in the park including parking. And with little offerings they have for HalloweenTime, it simply is just not worth it. Even in Disneyland once Oogie Boogie started, crowds didn't really let up. DCA was unbearable, but Disneyland still had just a bit more people than usual for my liking. Even the single rider for Matterhorn took me about 30 minutes. I came, did 3 rides, checked out Tiana's, and left -- and I felt like I was there for a good amount of time from 1:30pm-8:30pm. I really don't get why people swarm here for Halloween, it really is nothing special and it's literally the same every year especially when they GET RID OF stuff like Ghost Galaxy. Also don't get why a hard ticket event to meet some villains is so popular either, but oh well. Literally, I think just never again, forget it.