On July 13, Gordon Ramsay dropped a surprise on Disneyland fans: His new restaurant, Gordon Ramsay at the Carnaby, finally opened for business. Suddenly, without fanfare or any major announcement, one of the world’s most recognizable chefs had put his stamp on the Happiest Place on Earth.
Within 15 minutes of the restaurant releasing reservations on OpenTable, Gordon Ramsay at the Carnaby sold out through the end of September. “We just want to build everything slowly,” Robert Earl, the founder of Gordon Ramsay at the Carnaby and the Earl of Sandwich, told SFGATE. With a name like Ramsay and years of anticipation leading up to the opening, that’s an especially strong consideration.
The Carnaby and the Earl of Sandwich share a building, and both of them have just opened in their permanent location in Downtown Disney near Din Tai Fung. Earl said that while the early wave of attention has been good, they’ll continue to find their footing over the next several months: “As soon as we are comfortable, we will expand.”
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Gordon Ramsay at the Carnaby, a British-themed restaurant, quietly opened in Downtown Disney in Anaheim, Calif., on July 13, 2026.
Christian Thompson/Disneyland Resort
The work searching for a reservation may be daunting for eager early diners, but it will be worth the effort of checking in on availability as it opens. Gordon Ramsay at the Carnaby just might be the celebrity chef’s best restaurant on the West Coast.
The restaurant takes the signature dishes familiar to diners at Ramsay’s other restaurants — everything from the ultra-fine dining Gordon Ramsay Steak to his eponymous fish and chips shop — and combines them into a menu that’s somehow both ambitious and accessible. Yes, there’s the $73 beef Wellington that everyone watching “Hell’s Kitchen” has seen prepared so frequently. There’s even a prime rib cart where your $68 cut is carved tableside. But there’s also a Carnaby wagyu burger with thick-cut bacon and truffle aioli for $25, as well as bangers and mash for $29.
But great food from Gordon Ramsay is a given. What makes the Carnaby so special is the environment, a collaboration between Earl — the creative force behind Planet Hollywood as well as Earl of Sandwich — and Walt Disney Imagineering. The super-popular sandwich shop was preparing to move into its new building, which would have a second floor. How they’d use it was still unclear at the time.
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FILE: Gordon Ramsay at the Carnaby, a British-themed restaurant in Downtown Disney in Anaheim, Calif.
Christian Thompson/Disneyland Resort
“There was a particular Anglophile in the group [at Walt Disney Imagineering],” Earl said. “We just started going on about the music and the messaging.” The Carnaby evokes the vibrant Carnaby Street in London, which was the epicenter of the “swinging London” cultural movement in the 1960s. The soundtrack of the place includes the Who and the Rolling Stones, of course, but also Shirley Bassey, Manfred Mann, and Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel.
“It was the greatest period in England,” Earl said. “From Twiggy to Mary Quant, the designer, to ‘The Avengers’ TV show to the Beatles, it was all happening.”
That Ramsay came aboard for the restaurant was something of a fortunate accident. He and Earl had been working together on opening a Gordon Ramsay Burger in the forthcoming Planet Hollywood hotel in Cambodia.
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“[Ramsay] happened to call me and say, ‘If you have anything else that you’d like to do together …’ And I said, ‘Well, I’m opening a gastropub, and I’m just about to start planning the menu,” Earl said. “He said, ‘Leave it to me. I’d love to do it.’”
Sticky toffee pudding at Gordon Ramsay at the Carnaby in Anaheim, Calif.
Christian Thompson/Disneyland Resort
Ramsay’s initial iteration included the blend of fine dining dishes and more casual ones that currently make up the menu. “He gave me his first suggestions, and I didn’t change a thing,” Earl added. “Beef Wellington, prime rib, fish and chips, sticky toffee pudding — all my personal favorites. And I said [to Ramsay], ‘I’ll leave the food to you.’”
Even on the restaurant’s soft opening night (when I luckily snagged a rare reservation), the food and service were excellent. I had a $38 short-rib cottage pie that I’m still thinking about days later. But I’ve eaten at many of Ramsay’s Las Vegas restaurants, such as Ramsay’s Kitchen and Hell’s Kitchen, and experienced that same level of culinary prowess.
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The Carnaby is a different experience — and that difference is the environment, which blends Disney’s level of theming with a really fun concept to create an energetic, irreverent vibe. My friends were singing along to “Macarthur Park” while we waited for our cocktails, and when mine arrived, my peach and basil old-fashioned was topped with a little ball of cotton candy to mix in or eat separately as I pleased. Our outdoor table was under a glittering rainbow sign that said “Carnaby Tavern.” And on the way out, I stopped to admire the artwork, which included Beatles concert posters and screen-used props from the classic “Avengers” show.
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“His food is so good that it doesn’t have to be in a serious environment,” Earl said.
The obvious question is whether the restaurateur will expand to Disney Springs at Walt Disney World in Florida. “It’s way too early,” Earl said. “We need to perfect this, get everything running smoothly.”
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“But,” he added, “it’s certainly an experience that already the first diners have all said, ‘Are you doing more?’”
Gordon Ramsay at the Carnaby shares a building with the Earl of Sandwich in Downtown Disney in Anaheim, Calif.
Christian Thompson/Disneyland Resort
