Both Mexican and Italian cuisine are crowd-pleasers, and the Downtown Disney District has Naples Ristorante e Pizzeria and Tortilla Jo's to please those crowds. Tortilla Jo's has a few surprises, such as a handmade tortilla station, made-to-order guacamole, and live mariachi music Wednesday to Sunday afternoons and evenings in the Cantina. Other than that, they feature all the usual suspects you'd find in other Mexican restaurants. It's not that there's anything wrong with this restaurant; it's just that Anaheim is between 40% and 50% Mexican, ethnically speaking, and the town is full of good Mexican restaurants. Most don't feature mariachi music, but their prices are lower than at Downtown Disney.

And, if you DO want to dine with mariachi music, the Plaza Garabaldi restaurant is not far away and has a more authentic feeling. It's at 1490 S. Anaheim Blvd. in Anaheim. This restaurant has been around a long time and stays in business because the locals really enjoy it, not because captive out-of-towners parade past its door.

Also at Downtown Disney is Naples Ristorante, which features hand-tossed pizza cooked in wood-burning stoves. They also serve pastas, seafood, and salads, and for dessert, they feature homemade gelato. It's a good restaurant. It's just not very unusual. You undoubtedly have a fine Italian restaurant in your own home town, right? You don't need to come on vacation to eat Italian.

That's why I favor the other restaurants in Downtown Disney. It's more vacation-like to dine with a zillion TV's, or in a jungle, or in one of the restaurants here featuring hard-to-find Creole and Cajun cooking. Now, if you want an Italian dining experience that you can ONLY have in the greater LA area, let me mention the Benvenuto Cafe at 8512 Santa Monica Blvd. in West Hollywood. This restaurant doesn't have the best Italian food in town (in my opinion), but that's not why you'd go there. This is a historic building--this is where the musical group The Doors had its offices. They practiced here. They recorded the album "LA Woman" here. In fact, the dining floor you'll be sitting on is that VERY ROOM where it was recorded! Can't get much more "only in LA" than that!