Hollywood and Vine

[maznorm]

I have read that Hnady Manny is not going to be there till October now. Is this true? We have booked this because the kids love Little Einsteins, but Handy Manny would have been an added bonus.

 

[Shmily1]

Last year I thought about making reservations at H&V, but ya'll scared me off. If we go again this year, I've thought about it as my little guy loves Little Einsteins.

1. If you didn't like it, why? I can live with typical food, but I don't want nasty. LOL!

2. Is it tight? I loved how open it was at Chef Mickey's, but the Crystal Palace tables were packed tight and it was frustrating.

3. How is the character interaction?

4. Any suggestions as to the best meal of the day?

THANKS so much!

We ate breakfast there this past Tuesday morning before the park opened. It was awesome!!! It was me, DD19, DS20, DD's BFF, and DD's DS9months. He loved it!!

1. The food was good. No one at our table complained about anything except DS20 said the cantaloupe was not very tasty--he's the only one of us that eats that. Other than the cantaloupe, everything was awesome!

2. It was pretty open. There was a table behind us that a larger family couldn't fit into but most of the tables had pretty good walkways between them.

3. The characters were great! We saw JoJo, Leo, June, and Handy Manny. DGS wasn't familiar with JoJo, Leo, or June so he was a little scared of them, but he had a blast with Handy Manny! They all tried to play with him. There were some older children (probably 3 to 8 years old) across from us and the characters were so sweet to them too. It was great!! The singing and playing they do is also great! He loved hearing the MMC songs and kept looking around for Mickey.

4. I've only done breakfast, but I would definitely recommend it again!!

 

[3prettyprincesses]

Hold on, did you say Handy Manny was already there this past Tuesday? Oh, my DD will be thrilled!!!

 

[Shmily1]

Hold on, did you say Handy Manny was already there this past Tuesday? Oh, my DD will be thrilled!!!

Absolutely!! We had a blast with him!! DGS loved playing with him! If I get these pictures downloaded, I'll try to get some posted.

 

[Mom2Elliot]

Absolutely!! We had a blast with him!! DGS loved playing with him! If I get these pictures downloaded, I'll try to get some posted.

Wahoo! A Handy Manny sighting!!

 

[iteachlit]

We ate there for the first (and probably last) time this past November. It was the only place available for the Fantasmic! dining package.

The food was better than I expected, but the restaurant was very DIRTY.

We were seated at a window and there was "stuff" all over the silver mini blinds. I don't know if it was soda, gravy, juice... it was just plain yucky. Food was also smashed all over the floor surrounding our table.

The drink refills came pretty quickly, but our server was very slow to remove used plates. We were a party of five seated at a table for four, so space was at a premium.

The lines were fairly clean and often replenished. The dessert bar was not so great; it looked like it had not be wiped down in about two hours.

 

[Simba22]

We ate there for the first (and probably last) time this past November. It was the only place available for the Fantasmic! dining package.

The food was better than I expected, but the restaurant was very DIRTY.

We were seated at a window and there was "stuff" all over the silver mini blinds. I don't know if it was soda, gravy, juice... it was just plain yucky. Food was also smashed all over the floor surrounding our table.

The drink refills came pretty quickly, but our server was very slow to remove used plates. We were a party of five seated at a table for four, so space was at a premium.

The lines were fairly clean and often replenished. The dessert bar was not so great; it looked like it had not be wiped down in about two hours.

hmmm...this is not the only post I have read about the cleanliness of the restaurant. If it makes you feel any better, my BIL told me that the kitchen is kept immaculate (he participated in the CP there last winter)! He came home and got a job at the cafeteria in our local aquarium, and thought about quitting after the first week because the kitchen there is not up to the standards he found at the H & V kitchen!

 

[bradyloganmom]

We always eat dinner at H & V as part of the Fantasmic Package. We always like it. You'll find as many opinions on the disboards as there are subscribers!

Also remember that there are NO characters at H & V for DINNER! Characters are only there for breakfast and lunch.

We'll be at Disney OCt. 9-17.

 

[amberg@eastlink.ca]

we booked it for supper in october for the F! package. however we had to eat really early, like 330 early. it was very quiet and no not crammed at all. loved the food. we actually booked it again for the last trip april 15th to 30th. we didnt do the F! experience this time tho. when we were there it was the second week and the parks very quiet, so they only had one side of the buffet operational, same food, just not as much cooked over two sides. i found it to be quite clean and once again the food yummy. i dont get why it gets a bad rap. but we only started doing the dinings last october at disney. til then it was hungry? eat a thing of popcorn and go. lol now that we have kids we kinda gotta sit and eat.

 

[moose.]

i can understand why everyone is saying the place is a little dirty. when we first got our table my mom and i smelled a foul odor coming from what we assumed to be a dirty rag that had been used to clean the table. it was disgusting! so we asked to be moved and they were quick to apologize and moved us to a clean table. however gross the first table was, the food was really good! the salmon i ate there was amazing! it was some kind of mustard seasoned salmon and it was the best i had throughout our stay during which i had four or five different salmon dishes. we had eaten at crystal palace the night before and my dad said that the meat at hollywood & vine was much better than the one at crystal palace. everything i tried was delicious, better than crystal palace. the desserts, however, were a little lacking. until you go you wont find out if you like it or not, but i say, try it once! if you dont like it you dont have to go back but at least you can say youve tried it.

 

[Shmily1]

Hopefully, this is a picture of Handy Manny.

Well, it doesn't look like that worked... I'll keep at it.

 

[Tiger926]

It sounds like Handy Manny has been added to the line-up. I guess someone thought it was supposed to be in the fall, but that doesn't look to be the case.

I had made a ressie 2 weeks ago for Handy Manny, and then cancelled it as we find this restaurant yucky - dirty, noisy, subpar food, slow service, cramped in many places and it takes forever to check in. We've been several times, and the last time was outrageous! We had to wait 1 hour even with ADRs just to get seated. We have always experienced disorganization galore at this restaurant...

Since we go in July, we are subject to peak season upcharges/surcharges, so I cancelled the meal as we didn't feel it was worth $80.00 to see Handy Manny for us to eat lunch (2 adults, 1 child and 1 toddler).

This would be cool if Handy Manny is at the restaurant, as the character line-up sorely needed updating.

It would be cool to see a photo, so hopefully OP can figure that out soon. Thanks, Tiger

 

[Mamu]

I think it's been a good 8 years since I've been here. I wasn't crazy about the buffet, so crossed it off my list of restaurants to return to.

It's you typical 1930's Art Deco Cafeteria style restaurant. All chrome and very open.

 

[Shmily1]

I finally got it!!

 

[EastonCat]

We went for a late lunch soon after the Little Einsteins experience started. We had the last seating for lunch.

I found the buffet diverse and the food freshly prepared. It is buffet food which I considered to be generally "good". There were lots of good fruit and vegetables, which I try to focus on in the heat. Because we had the last seating, they were changing the buffet for dinner, and encouraged us not to worry about that and to enjoy our meal as if we'd come for the first seating. I don't know if these meals still run in to each other, so that may not happen any more.

The character interaction was attentive and personal. We've got great pictures of Leo and June right at our table interacting with our children. We were invited to go to a little area and take more standup pictures as well. By this time we'd run past the official seating time for the meal and they in no way made us feel rushed. I made a point of quietly telling a cast member that we appreciated their visit, but that Leo and June might want to go play - which no doubt was welcome to the two of them.

We had a table across from the hostess station behind a half wall. Because of the location we had our own little space, so it's difficult for me to judge how tight it was. I do recall remarking to my wife that I was unsure how easy it was for the characters to negotiate the larger area in the dining room based on the layout.

Would I seek this out just for the food? No, because The Brown Derby is right nearby. The Brown Derby is also more expensive. As buffets go, I thought the food was well thought out to survive steam tables and heating lamps and I found tasty selections.

 

[DeniseinNS]

H&V was our least favorite buffett, we didn't think the food was great. We had booked the fantasmic package and missed the show because it was raining so we went back another night and the seating we got just wating in line was much better then the reserved dinner seating.

 

[Mom2Elliot]

Awesome! Thanks for posting the picture - my DS is going to be SO excited!

 

[Minnie*bell]

We did the H & V our last trip with the Fantasmic package. It was the only ADR I could get to get into Fantasmic. I kept reading on the boards of all the negative reviews. I had seven people in my group and not one complained about the food. That was my one reservation that I was worried about. It is funny... I always hear how people love Crystal Palace and that was the one meal that they all didn't care for. And the people on the boards always seem to love that one.

My family loves CP but I'm not a fan either, 2 crowed, food ok. I like every other type of food @ MK so I'd rather go to Pecos Bills & have a pickle in Liberty SQ & pretty much eat junk food through out the day. LOL! = ) Oh but Liberty Tree Tavern IS awesome. It's like Thanksgiving, I love every item on that menu.

 

[Tiger926]

Cool photo - it's neat to see him actually in attendance. Are the Little Einstein's still there though?

Tiger

 

[Shmily1]

The characters that were there were JoJo(atleast that's who they said it was--the clown in the picture), June and Leo from Little Einsteins, and Handy Manny. The singing part was too fun! That's what they were doing in the picture.