We didnt have lunch this day as I figured the buffet would see us through too our 4:20 reservation at Brown Derby. We spent a few hours by the quiet pool at the Beach Club, then headed to Hollywood Studios around 2:30.
DHS was very quiet, there were still fastpasses left for TSM with a return of 6:50! Nothing else had much of a wait, we tried the new star tours and muppet show before stopping at the Writers stop for a double espresso and a peanut butter cookie. The coffee was good, and the cookie was lovely. crunchy on the outside, soft in the middle, plenty of peanut butter and chocolate chunks.
We made it to Brown Derby around 10 minutes early for our 4:20 reservation. We were seated within a couple of minutes, at a two top on the upper level close to the restaurant entrance. Our server greeted us quickly, and validated our fantastic package ticket.
We ordered diet cokes to drink, and decided to split a margarita flight. This consisted of 3 mini margaritas, one mango, one pomegranate, and one classic. These were good, and I loved the cute presentation. I preferred the pomegranate, and DH the mango so we drank those, then split the classic, I thought they were good value at $11.
For my appetiser I chose the brie, midnight moon and prosciutto cake. When this arrived it was very different to what I was expecting, I thought it would be crab cake style, but obviously cheese and proscuitto. Instead it was slices of savoury cake, with a similar texture to a muffin, but with strong flavours of cheese and proscuitto. It was really good, crispy crust, crumbly centre, it was a big portion served with slices of proscuitto and midnight moon. My only criticism was it was quite a dry dish, and could have done with some sauce.
DH chose the Cremini Mushroom Chèvre Tortelloni with Tomato-Fennel Sauce and Shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano. This was one large piece of ravioli, filled with chopped mushrooms. The pasta was cooked al dente, but had split during cooking, meaning water had got inside and watered down the filling slightly. The sauce was tasty, but only luke warm, the pasta itself was piping hot.
For my entree I chose the Duck two ways. The Duck confit was served on spinach corn amaranth and was absolutely delicious, flavourful and well cooked. The seared breast was served on sweet potato mash (very good) and asparagus, the middle pieces were cooked to a perfect pink, but the end slices were a little overdone for me.
DH chose the Corriander Dusted Grouper, served on cauliflower risotto with purple cauliflower. This wasnt a winning dish for DH. The fish was perfectly cooked and worked well with the corriander. The risotto rice was well cooked, but didnt seem to have any real flavouring to it. The tomato coulis didnt seem to complement the grouper, and was very thin.
For dessert DH chose the seasonal fruit cobbler, with creme fraiche and orange blosson honey. This was wonderful, stewed berries, topped with a crunchy scone type topping, coated in brown sugar, and served with creme fraiche. A perfect dessert.
I picked creme brulee which unfortunately wasnt great. This had simply been cooked a little too long, and the custard had lost its silky creamy texture, and had gone slightly grainy. It did have a good vanilla flavour, and the chocolate dipped biscotti was crunchy and very good, but the texture of the brulee put me off and I only ate a little bit.
Overall we both enjoyed 2 out of 3 courses here. Service was good, atmosphere is nice although busy due to it being peak fantasmic package time. The restaurant never seems as upscale as the non-park signatures, but I still think its worth the two credits to dine here.