Down the Street from Disney: Anaheim’s Local Food Corner

For someone on the lookout for the quirky, unique flavor of places you visit, Anaheim’s resort district can seem like a sea of corporate giants. However, if you look closely, you can find local goodness. In fact, there’s one scrappy strip mall with 5 restaurants that aren’t part of national chains.

The Anaheim Resort Centre is on the northeast corner of Harbor Boulevard and Katella Avenue – walking distance from Disneyland and the Anaheim Convention Center. But this is not where you go to meet Disney princesses. These are unfancy, pay-at-the-counter type places for late-night takeout or quick pre-theme park or -convention meals.

Since I couldn’t find enough information before our trip to include this corner in my Anaheim food post, I did some research while I was in town. Menus were acquired, employees were chatted with, tacos were consumed – all so that next time you’re in the neighborhood, you’ll know your options.

Working your way from Katella Avenue north (right to left if you were facing the front of the building), here are the 5 local restaurants:

1. California Pizza Place (menu) – Not to be confused with the far-reaching California Pizza Kitchen, this narrow dining room with walls crammed with retro paraphernalia is the one and only location of California Pizza Place. You can grab a slice at lunch, pancakes in the morning, or call for delivery.

*2. Tanor Mediterranean Grill (menu) – Recently opened Mediterranean/Persian food with shawarma meat spinning and skewers of meat grilled to order. As I was looking over the menu, they handed me a sample of chicken shawarma. It was insanely good. I got it on a wrap, which was fine, but masked the chicken’s awesomeness a bit. Next time, I’d get the chicken straight up with a side of their delicious saffron rice and maybe some quinoa tabouleh. (I’ve never seen quinoa in tabouleh before, but it probably makes it gluten free.)

3. Star Burger (menu) – The menu includes an interesting fusion of burgers, kimchi, and bulkogi (Korean-style grilled beef). The person I spoke to when I stopped by and when I called had limited English. You should be fine ordering straight off the menu, but it might be tricky if you have special requests or questions.

*4. Alertos Mexican Food – This is a family-owned taqueria with five Southern California locations. We split a burrito and a pile of their mini tacos. Our favorites were pastor and pollo asado. Those definitely beat out the (much pricier) food truck tacos I’d had the day before.

5. Panda Kitchen (menu) – Their menu offers the typical playlist of American Chinese food standards. You can call ahead to pick up your order or dine in. There’s lots of seating, but they didn’t want me to take photos.

Besides the 5 independent restaurants above, the Anaheim Resort Centre is home to a Subway, liquor store**, souvenirs and sunglass shop. There’s lots of free parking, which is also rare in the area.

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*We ate at Alertos and Tanor. Both were delicious. I can’t vouch for the other restaurants.

**By the way, isn’t the land of family vacations and overpriced hotel mini bars the perfect location for a liquor store? You can even buy postcards along with your booze for an analog version of a drunk dial. What would that be called? A lush letter? Pissed post? Sloshed snail mail?