updated 4/16/13
MEET ME AT THE DERBY [or not]??
DINNER @ HOLLYWOOD BROWN DERBY
we finally arrived at port orleans riverside. rachel beat us by 30 minutes. i could not believe she actually made it to disney & she was early!
we were staying in the royal guest room & the room was absolutely gorgeous! emme looooved the room. there were so many things to look at. i am currently doing a
TRIP REPORT of my three trips & will be starting this trip report tomorrow. rachel is also doing a trip report as well.
you can see rachel & i in the bathroom mirrors.
but now, onwards to our meal @ hollywood brown derby.
we took the resort bus to hollywood studios. the sky was overcast & it was a tad bit humid. my tummy was grumbling and i was pretty excited to eat & have a cold beer. HBD was never on my radar to try but we were going to see fantasmic (or at least planned too) & decided to try out HBD.
we arrived to HBD & checked in. we waited about 10 minutes before we were seated. emme had her first tiny meltdown as she wanted the minnie princess hat. she's been wanting this hat for the last 3 trips but i had a hard time giving up $29.95 for it. she was in her tinkerbell outfit so she decided to change her mind about the hat & wanted this really "not so pretty" tinkerbell doll. after i told her "no", the meltdown ensued.
luckily for emme, she had some pixie dust sprinkled her way as a CM at HBD gave her a light up tinkerbell toy that attaches to a straw. meltdown over & happy emme reappeared.
our server daniel arrived to our table about 10 minutes after we were sat. i don't know if it was just his personality but he was very uninviting, disinterested & very matter of fact. maybe the hospitality industry is not the right choice for him but we were going to make the most of our dinner.
my first impression of HBD is that it had a very cool but hip "old timey" vibe to it. it wasn't very busy this night & i was very hungry so we ordered fairly quickly.
SAM ADAMS SEASONAL BEER
it was a bit humid this night & i really wanted an ice cold beer. as you can see from the glass, the beer wasn't very cold. i was disappointed. the beer wasn't warm by any means but it definitely wasn't cold.
and then, bread service.
the bread is the same rolls they serve at BOG. the rolls were very warm. emme at the insides of at least 6 of these rolls.
i love soft butter like this. it's so easy to spread & you don't have to fight putting on cold butter on a warm roll. just spread & eat. i enjoyed the butter & bread very much.
rachel ordered the cobb salad as her appetizer. she was kind of enough to share it with me.
Our Famous Cobb Salad - with finely chopped greens, turkey breast, egg, bacon, tomatoes, crumbled bleu cheese, avocado, chives and Cobb dressing - appetizer $8.00
rachel asked for no bleu cheese in her cobb salad. i've read a multitude of reviews about this particular cobb salad. perhaps i had too many expectations for this salad but i thought it was just "ok". it definitely wasn't terrible but it was not life changing as i've read. maybe the bleu cheese would have brought another depth of flavor. who knows. also, the avocados tasted a bit off. maybe my mind was playing tricks on me but i thought it kind of tasted like taboulleh at times. i'm glad i decided against ordering this as an entree.
for emme's entree, she wanted a grill cheese sandwich & got this:
Grilled Cheese on Whole Wheat Bread - with sliced apples $6.00
see that face? that's the face of someone wasting $6.00 & not eating dinner. the sandwich was a triple decker and just very well toasted. it was too large & too hard for emme to eat. i took off the first layer of toasted bread but she lost all interest in the sandwich. lucky for her, there were thin slices of apples to eat.
for my entree, i ordered:
Sterling Silver Pork Chop - with smoked gouda and heirloom apple slaw served over potato hash with bacon, Napa cabbage, sweet peppers and a cider jus $33.00
the pork chop was ginormous especially compared to rachel's entree. the pork chop itself was beautiful but the hash underneath the pork chop was complete hot mess. it was pretty messy to look at. the plate needed another color but brown on.
the smoked gouda wasn't ooey or gooey but had melted hard on top of the pork chop. i'm not sure if that was intentional or if my entree was sitting in the window & the cheese cooled down.
the green apples were tart & it was a great combination with the pork chop. the pork chop was cooked "well done" & i wasn't given the option of it being cooked any other way. it wasn't as juicy or as tender as the pork chop i've had at california grill but it was tasty.
it was a bit difficult to cut through the hardened cheese to get to the pork. the pork chop slid all over the potato hash making the plate look super sloppy. what can i say? i like pretty food & this entree was definitely not pretty. however, my disney standards, i thought for $33.00, it was a pretty large portion.
emme & rachel playing with their dinglehoppers.
after our entrees, we decided to share a dessert and ordered this:
Grapefruit Cake - Light Layers of Yellow Cake with fresh Grapefruit-Cream Cheese Icing $8.00
suprisingly, the dessert was not as sweet as i had anticipated. it was very light & fluffy. i loved the grapefruit cream cheese icing. it was a very pretty dessert. i'm a huge proponent of all things being edible on my plate so even though i'm not quite sure the garnish was suppose to be eaten, i did take a bite. and yep, it tasted like candied grapefruit.
emme ordered:
Vanilla ice cream
emme loves her ice cream.
we used my TIW card for this meal:
i wasn't very excited about HBD after the meal. i don't think i want to return in the near or distant future. i wish our CM was slightly enthusiastic. he was very efficient & our drinks were never empty but he just was not personable. it's not how i wanted to start our trip but hey, we're at disney & life is good.
rachel called HBD a place to just knock off the list. it wasn't exceptional, the food was decent, the ambiance was calming but i think our server really did impact our overall experience.
after dinner, emme refused to watch fantasmic, even though we've seen it before. so we headed to TSM which had a 5 minute wait. SCORE!
and then we had a less than 5 minute to meet our friends:
up next,
RACHEL'S DINNER EXPERIENCE @ HBD!
So now I have to wait till tomorrow and see what happens. It is all up to God/Southwest! I jut want to get there in time to eat dinner. I don't care about Fantasmic anymore I just want Disney food!!!
close enough especially when english is her second language!
but it just might have to do cause some of the ingredients may be hard to come by.
i know how difficult it is! just keep your head up & be proud of raising your son!
