Hollywood Brown Derby - any recent diners?

[obxshark]

My wife and I had dinner at HBD a couple of years ago, and frankly neither of us came away impressed. In the interest of fair play, we thought we'd give it another shot. Has anyone had any recent experience dining here, and if so, could you give us your opinion and maybe a mini-review? TIA!

 

[loves to dive]

They have changed their menu a little over the years (what restaurant doesn't) but we've had pretty good luck just about every time we've been there. We try to go every trip, even when I go solo I try to get an ADR. I love the Cobb Salad, my son loves just about every thing on the menu. It's hit or miss as far as service but I've found that true at just about every WDW table service restaurant. My go to just about every time I go is an appetizer, used to be the cheese plate but they don't offer that any more so last time it was crab cakes, Cobb Salad appetizer size for my entre, a wine flight and grapefruit cake for dessert. The menu just offers it as part of the dessert sampler but I've had pretty good luck asking if I can get a full sized slice instead of the trio.

 

[kastoney]

We ate there last year and it was awful. I'd like to chalk it up to one bad experience and try it again, but our dinner was so bad no chance my hubby would even set food there. Here is our review:

http://disboards.com/threads/a-sign...-updated-4-11-x2.3458016/page-6#post-54785872

 

[Westcoastwild]

I ate there last month and the Cobb was NOT good. I order Cobb salads fairly often and, if that was how they usually serve it, I have no idea how that's one of their well reviewed dishes. I ate it, it was edible, but can't say anything better than that.

The margarita sampler was ok- I'd say not worth the price they sell it for- and I'm comparing it to not your average Mexican restaurant but a restaurant similar to The Derby off property. I think my main problem is that they market it as finer dining, and the prices (and luckily the service) match that- but the food and drink, in my opinion, was more along the lines of a not-so-great chain.

So all in all, it was one of the meals I was most disappointed in and it wasn't cheap. And I just keep going back to the fact that it was a Cobb salad and a margarita. Sure, both can be screwed up, but on the other hand, very few places actually manage to do so. And both supposedly house specials. Just does not compute

 

[erinch]

We had lunch there yesterday. I got the chicken breast entree which was well done. My husband liked the Cobb salad as the entree--I don't care for it, as it is so finely chopped. My dd and friend both got the burgers available at lunchtime. They liked them .

Service was love,y, with a woman named Marta. My only complaint was that when the food runner came to deliver the food, he was in top speed to place the plates on the table. He was carrying all 4. The table is small, and there was no room with the bread plates and drink glasses. I told him to wait until I got the bread plates gathered and he was rather snarly and my plate was coming at me anyhow. I snatched up the bread plates and held them up until the entrees were placed and then he took them. It wasn't enough to affect the meal, but I might drop the manager a suggestion .

But we would go back.

 

[obxshark]

Funny thing about the Cobb salad, either you love it or you hate it, there doesn't seem to be any middle ground. My wife hated it, mostly because of how finely chopped the lettuce was, almost as if it had come from a blender. I've read many reviews that raved about how good the Cobb salad was. Go figure. I cannot even remember what I had as an entree that evening, but I do remember thinking it wasn't all that good. I also remember the tables being so close together you almost felt as if you were having dinner with the perfect stranger sitting right next to you. But, we want to go see the Star Wars Galactic Spectacular at DHS and thought we'd give the HBD another try.

 

[DrivenByDisney]

I see a lot of mixed reviews on this restaurant, more often recently than any other location on property. Personally, I never understood how a salad could be a signature item on a menu, and still don't. My opinion of course.

However, we frequent the lounge area here often (about three or four times a month) and have always had an enjoyable visit/meal. The service out there has always been great & the food is fine. Even though we really don't eat off the "main menu" too often.

We were just there on Tuesday (in the lounge area) and had the Derby Sliders, Andouille Shrimp and the Crispy Bites and all were very good.

I say give it another go and judge after that visit. It you still do not enjoy, then that's that. Never hurts too much to give a place another shot.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Personally, I never understood how a salad could be a signature item on a menu, and still don't. My opinion of course.

Signature dish because Cobb salad was created at the original Brown Derby http://www.kitchenproject.com/history/CobbSalad.htm

 

[ariane37]

Signature dish because Cobb salad was created at the original Brown Derby http://www.kitchenproject.com/history/CobbSalad.htm

Interesting! I did not know this

 

[wdwrich]

DW and I had lunch at HBD during our last visit. It was ok, but of all the signature places we've tried, I'd put it at the bottom of our list. It wasn't bad by any means, but it's not up to par with the other sigs on property.

 

[loves to dive]

It's funny that most complaints about the Cobb Salad is because it's chopped, which it's supposed to be since as it's been pointed out BD is where it was invented. The fact that it's chopped is the reason I like it, I hate eating a salad and either having to cut all the huge pieces of lettuce up or getting a huge bite that I have to stuff in my mouth or worse yet, having to chase the lettuce around on my plate because it's limp. I imagine the roguefort cheese might be a put off for some people since you rarely get it now days, most places tend to use bleu cheese and try to pass it off. Roguefort is a little stronger so it is acquired taste and as far as I'm concerned if you put avocado on anything it's good.

 

[ggdvc]

We have always enjoyed our meals at HBD - I usually split the appetizer size Cobb with my mom, and have the filet as my entree. Last year, there were 4 of us, so we got two dessert samplers - thinking we'd each get a little bit of each one. I guess my dad didn't get that message - he gobbled up the creme brulee before the rest of us knew what happened (yes, the portions are tiny, but he still could have shared ). This year we are taking a break from HBD - not because of any bad experiences, but because we downsized our ADRs and are skipping a lot of our regulars.

 

[Dean Marino]

Welllllllll - all personal opinion, I'm not right, no one else is wrong.....

We LOVE the BD. Well, we did. But BD is in HS.... which is currently sort of a non-park . NOT the fault of BD - but it's GOT to affect them .
In the past? This has been a STUNNING Restaurant. We stopped going when HS became a war zone . Really? I'm very SORRY for the position that the BD General Manager, and Head Chef, have been put into. They've been hit with a NIGHTMARE . I hate to see good people wacked by bad events .

Again, all personal opinion, I'm not right, no one else is wrong..... For the foreseeable future? Consider grabbing the boat, and heading to Shula's at the Dolphin, Il Mulino at the swan.....

Again, all personal opinion, I'm not right, no one else is wrong.....

 

[eastendlights]

I think their food is hit or miss. We eat there every year to get the Fantasmic package and while most have been enjoyable meals (considering the lack of a truly fantastic restaurant in HS) we have had a few that were substandard. I had a duck dish a few years ago that was almost inedible-just plain bad-and I love duck. This year, my daughter and I both had the crab cakes and the filet and they were very good. I will say we had lousy service this year though. The waiter was very attentive until a group came in with a VIP tour guide (one of the group was an actress-can't think of her name right now) and then we were pretty much abandoned.

 

[SwanVT2]

I see a lot of mixed reviews on this restaurant, more often recently than any other location on property. Personally, I never understood how a salad could be a signature item on a menu, and still don't. My opinion of course.

However, we frequent the lounge area here often (about three or four times a month) and have always had an enjoyable visit/meal. The service out there has always been great & the food is fine. Even though we really don't eat off the "main menu" too often.

We were just there on Tuesday (in the lounge area) and had the Derby Sliders, Andouille Shrimp and the Crispy Bites and all were very good.

I say give it another go and judge after that visit. It you still do not enjoy, then that's that. Never hurts too much to give a place another shot.

Are they kid friendly? We were thinking of doing a walk in to to the lounge with DD 4. Thanks.

 

[bumbershoot]

We haven't been there recently but have always enjoyed our time there. Being vegetarian we have the tofu noodle bowl. Ds so far has only had the grilled cheese on wheat which he likes.

We ate there last year and it was awful. I'd like to chalk it up to one bad experience and try it again, but our dinner was so bad no chance my hubby would even set food there. Here is our review:

http://disboards.com/threads/a-sign...-updated-4-11-x2.3458016/page-6#post-54785872

I know from experience that injuries will make any post-injury experience absolutely awful.

If you're ever having such poor service, find the manager! If the service doesn't get better, get the manager again and talk about the gratuity. Again from experience, even the TIW grat can be altered if the manager knows of your issues, especially early on.

Funny thing about the Cobb salad, either you love it or you hate it, there doesn't seem to be any middle ground. My wife hated it, mostly because of how finely chopped the lettuce was, almost as if it had come from a blender.

Agreed. And yes it's like it was blended. Worse, we had it without the meat, so it felt like a chunky soup.

It's funny that most complaints about the Cobb Salad is because it's chopped, which it's supposed to be since as it's been pointed out BD is where it was invented.

The expectation of chopped was NOT blended. Not sure if you just like what some don't, or if you got bigger bits of salad, but there's no need to think that we don't get it is chopped. We do. Just not chopped in cubic millimeters.

 

[JKMastalski]

So we ate there about 10 years ago and it was awful. Decided to try it again this past December. EVEN WORSE. Cobb salad was disgusting. Took waitress almost my entire meal to bring me my diet coke. This is after asking at least 3 times for it. Service and food was just terrible. We will now never go back.

 

[Westcoastwild]

We haven't been there recently but have always enjoyed our time there. Being vegetarian we have the tofu noodle bowl. Ds so far has only had the grilled cheese on wheat which he likes.



I know from experience that injuries will make any post-injury experience absolutely awful.

If you're ever having such poor service, find the manager! If the service doesn't get better, get the manager again and talk about the gratuity. Again from experience, even the TIW grat can be altered if the manager knows of your issues, especially early on.



Agreed. And yes it's like it was blended. Worse, we had it without the meat, so it felt like a chunky soup.



The expectation of chopped was NOT blended. Not sure if you just like what some don't, or if you got bigger bits of salad, but there's no need to think that we don't get it is chopped. We do. Just not chopped in cubic millimeters.

Ha! Yes, blended is the perfect description. I don't mind chopped, but it reminded me of baby food, and that's just not appetizing. There was a lot of dressing on it too, and that didn't help things. Like I said...I've had Cobb salad, this had all the components and they managed to make it revolting.

 

[schoen]

We have enjoyed each experience we have had here. We have been there three times and each time, quite randomly, our server has been Ti Ti. We love it, and this year we intend to request Ti Ti, since we don't want to leave it to chance.

 

[DrivenByDisney]

We're about to head to the Studios for the afternoon/evening and we are stopping in at the Brown Derby Lounge for some snacks & drinks. I'll snag some pics, etc. of what we get and post. Wife may be getting their Cobb Salad. If she does, will of course ics and reviews of her thoughts.

Off to the parks!