I’ve put off posting about the restaurant Pizza Oom Mow Mow at Disneyland’s California Adventure theme park for awhile now. These pictures are actually from last January.

I remember eating here when it first opened, oh, like ten years ago (!). I had no real desire to return, though, until I noticed this surfer dude tiki column at the entrance…

…and his tiki wahine counterpart. They were very cartoony and of course “Disney-fied,” but I thought they were kind of cute. (Especially since I’ve been subjected to far worse.)

The pizzas and pastas—the same served up elsewhere in the park—were pretty bland. I’d much rather go for one of those crazy delicious corn dogs or a po’ boy from Ralph Brennan’s Jazz Kitchen.

The name was inspired by the doo-wop song “Papa Oom Mow Mow” that was covered by the Beach Boys, to go with the 1960s surf shack vibe they had going on here. (You might recognize the tune better as Family Guy favorite “Surfin’ Bird.”) I really dug all the chunky swag lamps hanging about.

Now this pizza-munching tiki hanging out over the registers reminded me of those weird tikis lurking at the Boutiki at Disney’s Polynesian Resort. Funny how Disney can get it so right and so wrong.

They had some either neat design elements, too, like surf movie posters on the wall and these vintage California postcards. So when we came around this place this place in October, I was shocked to find this:

The restaurant was completely gutted, but that surfin’ tiki was still standing. By December, he was gone. (I wonder if somebody “adopted” him?) Pizza Oom Mow Mow was a casualty of the extensive re-branding they’ve done at the park recently. The space is being turned into Boardwalk Pizza and Pasta, opening this spring.