Fantasmic Dinner restaurants - which is the best?

[Melissa07090]

I am looking to book the Fantasmic dinner package in September. I was thinking of either Brown Derby or Mamma Melrose's because they are a la carte menus instead of Hollywood and Vine which is a all you can eat. I was wondering if anyone who has been those three restaurants could maybe give some review of them, pro's or cons, so I know which one is best for dinner. I was leaning more towards Mamma Melrose's only because we didn't really have an italian dinner booked yet. Thanks

 

[ROEDISNEY]

MM is 1 Tb service & BD is a 2 tb service.
I don't think BD is worth a 2 tb in my opinion.
I go with MM its good food here.

 

[BigMama]

Mama melrose

 

[MHSweb79]

We've been to H&V and also Mama Melrose and frankly, both were pretty bad. To add insult to injury, we ate bad food at Mama Melrose for the Fantasmic dinner package and then the show ended up getting cancelled.

 

[jhryb]

I say go with Mamma Melroses. My family loves this restaurant.

 

[DAZY3BYZ]

Don't mean to hijack this thread but...wondering what you order here that you enjoy? We have an ADR for our August trip with the Fantasmic package and I'm a little concerned about my kids. Is their "pizza" something kids will enjoy or is it too "different" for kids who are use to regular old pizza?
Thanks in advance!

 

[Melissa07090]

Thanks for all the recommendations so far and yes I would also like to know what people have ordered.

 

[Goseethemouse]

We went in 2007 and I have to say my son (then 5) wouldn't touch the pizza. I seem to recall that the pizza had a different kind of cheese on it and smelled somewhat cheesy. I have to admit though that the kids were tired/in a bad mood and very picky that night so I wouldn't necessarily say that others will feel the same. However, if your kids are very picky, it might be a problem.

 

[JMD]

I would eat at the Brown Derby. But if your concerned about dining credits, I would pick Mama Melrose next.

 

[Melissa07090]

We won't be on the dining plan so I am not too concerned about credits. I am looking for something that is a decent restaurant and even better, one that might do a little something extra since we will be on our honeymoon.

 

[jhryb]

Don't mean to hijack this thread but...wondering what you order here that you enjoy? We have an ADR for our August trip with the Fantasmic package and I'm a little concerned about my kids. Is their "pizza" something kids will enjoy or is it too "different" for kids who are use to regular old pizza?
Thanks in advance!

I don't recall what the rest of my family ordered here but I love the chicken parmesan over speghetti. We have been to MM a couple of times and this is one of the restaurants that we voted to go back to this August. We tried the flat bread pizza back when it was included in the fantasmic package as an appetizer (I'm not sure if it still is??) It was good but I don't think I would order this as an entree.

 

[KatMark]

We weren't impressed with Brown Derby (bad service, mediocre food), H&V is one of two Disney restaurants that we will never step foot in again. We've done Mama Melrose the last three years and we've always had good food and very good service. So we say Mama Melrose.

 

[disneyjanet]

We won't be on the dining plan so I am not too concerned about credits. I am looking for something that is a decent restaurant and even better, one that might do a little something extra since we will be on our honeymoon.

If that is the case I'd definately do Brown Derby. I've eaten there twice and really enjoyed it and it is a more upscale experience which would be really nice for a honeymoon. I've personally ordered the tuna and the fillet (appears no longer offered) and both were excellent. My vegetarian friend ordered the coconut tofu and I tried a bit it was extremely good and I'm usually only so so on tofu. We also enjoyed the cobb salad and crab cakes as appetizers. I wasn't super impressed with the grapefruit cake that people seem to rave about here on the dis it was ok but the next time I went back I had something different that I no longer remember that was better. For my 2006 trip my party rated Brown Derby as our best meal for food out of Le Cellier, Coral Reef, Chef Mickey's, Crystal Palace,and Biergarten. We we went back in 2007 we felt it was 2nd best with Artist's Point taking first place.

For your info and to help decide if my food tastes are relevent to you I am early 30's adventurous eater from Seattle which has exellent dining in general. I like my tuna rare, "weird spices", and many different types of cuisine. That said I grew up on chain restaurants, like a good steak too, and enjoyed the food at Chef Mickey's. Overall Brown Derby was a nice upscale, relatively quiet experience in a theme park setting. I think people would like more if it wasn't 2 credits on the dining plan which won't matter for you. In fact before the current dining plan came about I seem to remember people here on the disboards reccomending it first for the Fantasmic Plan a lot.

Janet