Is Hollywood & Vine dinner really THAT bad?

[Tink2312]

H&V was one of the best meals we had on property. There are lots of chioces and the food quality is excellent. The desserts are absolutely gorgeous as well.
We found the service to be good too - very friendly and efficient. Our waitress even gave us refills to go for the journey out of the park!
All-in-all a great meal!!

 

[MHSweb79]

Well, we had HORRIBLE food and poor service at Mama Melrose - I would rate Olive Garden 5 star dining compared to this place. I swear, the red sauce came out of a can. Plus the restaurant was freezing and our food took over 40 minutes to arrive and guess what -it was cold. Guess it sat for a while.
Our experience with H&V was better- the buffet food wasn't all that great, but we all found something that we liked enough to get seconds on. There are a lot of choices so you can try a variety of things. Our server kept our drinks restocked and while the place was hoppin', the tables were cleared promptly.

 

[bangzoom6877]

Thanks everyone for the opinions!

How would H & V compare to these other buffet/all you can eat restaurants?:

-1900 Park Fare dinner
-Crystal Palace dinner
-Liberty Tree Tavern dinner

We ate at all three of those dinners on our trip in July and loved them. DH thought 1900 Park Fare needed more of a selection but what he ate he enjoyed. I loved all of them, especially Crystal Palace. These are the places I have to compare H & V to. The other dinners were at Boma and Biergarten which are also buffets, but drastically different from your run of the mill buffet, IMO. If my expectations of H & V's dinner are to expect it to be on the same level as the three restaurants I mentioned, would I be disappointed? I can't see any of us enjoying Mama Melrose and we really want to do the Fantasmic package and not have to use 2 TS credits on Brown Derby.

 

[tandj]

Out of the blue, the lady next to me at the Fantasmic show raved about Hollywood and Vine. She said it was so good that they went a few times that week. She was surprised when I said that I had read some negative reviews. She said the chef even came out and told her what she could have because she had special dietary needs. I'll give it a try!

 

[bangzoom6877]

Out of the blue, the lady next to me at the Fantasmic show raved about Hollywood and Vine. She said it was so good that they went a few times that week. She was surprised when I said that I had read some negative reviews. She said the chef even came out and told her what she could have because she had special dietary needs. I'll give it a try!

I'm glad they are so good to people with special dietary needs. My dad is diabetic and if they come with us on our next trip it's nice to know he has options. What I will do is tell them to make a note in our reservation for each TS when I make our ADRs, if they end up going with us. It's great that they are so accommodating and so nice about it at the same time. We will probably give this place a try for the Fantasmic package. Knowing DH he would rather try this buffet than Mama Melrose because we would probably both be disappointed. We are not even willing to try Tutto Italia at Epcot and that is the most authentic Italian food you would find at Disney! Can't help it, we have very high standards for Italian food. Made the mistake of eating at an Italian restaurant on a cruise ship one time...boy did we regret that!

 

[jcemom]

My sister (a vegetarian) and her carnivorous BF ate there and really liked it. My sis and I ate at Mama M's and thought it was okay but service was really slow.

I have H&V booked for the Fantasmic package in January, just the kids and I. All the negative reviews worry me, but not having a dinner package worries me even more since F! was cut to only two nights per week in January. I figure if it's too bad we'll just grab a CS meal on our way into the show.

 

[perriwinkleblue]

We have always enjoyed the Playhouse lunch buffet here. IMHO, the selections are pretty good for a buffet. (after all, it's not gourmet food - it's a buffet.) We thought everything was fresh and tasty. (For a buffet, I like CP food best but I think H & V quality compares to Chef Mickey's). The dining room is a little loud and crowded and it is themed like an old-time cafeteria. The waitstaff does always seem busy but we've always has good service.

 

[Luv4Disney]

Yuck. We do not like H&V at all.

 

[GoHerbie]

We did the playhouse disney H&V lunch 2 weeks ago today and it was fine. I assume their dinner food would be similar to lunch. Any place is going to have an occasional bad day.

 

[Jessfrogger88]

Hmmm We went there as a walk up and they said we would be seated in 30 minutes we waited for over 45 minutes. The restaraunt was crowded and seemed kinda dirty. The place seemed to be very understaffed. Our waiter was busy the whole time. I wouldn't say he was rude, but he was in no way welcoming or helpful he took a long time to clear our plates/ refil drinks but in his defense he was busy. The buffet selection seemed kinda limited and some of the food was good and some of it bad. There was enough good stuff to fill me up. Honestly I would say it's a step or two below Golden Corral... and like 3x the price... I wouldn't say it was awful or a terrible experience, but I wouldn't be in a hurry to go back again...

4/10

 

[hdmichael]

We've eaten at H&V a few times for the Fantasmic package. The service was good when we were there, and the food was good for buffet food. Each of us found stuff we liked, and I even think my son went back for seconds a few times. I definitely think CP has a better selection and more "interesting" flavor combinations. I tend to think CM has a more limited menu than most buffets on property, so for variety, I think H&V probably has a wider variety. I think the food quality is probably on par with LTT's character meal selections.

 

[NHTikiBeckie]

We really liked the food there, I don't know why people don't like it

 

[renae3]

I have to say I thought the food was just okay, and the service wasn't the greatest. But.....my 2 year old loved it! He enjoyed the little einstein characters and dancing with them on the dance floor! We have a wonderful video of him dancing and having so much fun. I think it was definitely a top 5 of our trip!

 

[bangzoom6877]

I have to say I thought the food was just okay, and the service wasn't the greatest. But.....my 2 year old loved it! He enjoyed the little einstein characters and dancing with them on the dance floor! We have a wonderful video of him dancing and having so much fun. I think it was definitely a top 5 of our trip!

My kids also enjoyed the characters but we had the breakfast there. I always assume it is much harder to mess up breakfast food than dinner food which is why I was concerned about the dinner. DH and I thought the food was excellent at the breakfast buffet.

So, here's a question...is the food drastically different in quality at dinner than at breakfast? Because we loved the breakfast food there. If we loved the breakfast would we like the dinner? Or, am I comparing apples to oranges?

 

[gregrmike1]

Our family has experienced h & v, mama melrose and hollywood brown derby for the fantasmic package. Our family has decided we will eat at mama melrose on our next trip for the fantasmic package. We did not like the food or service at h & v and the hollywood brown derby had did not have many options that sounded good. The my daughter is a picky eater and did not like any of the options. Enjoy regardless of what place you select to eat at.

 

[minuet]

I found the staff very accomodating to special needs. Our waiter checked with us several times during our meal and kept our drinks filled and the manager even came over to check on us and make sure I was ok. I enjoyed the food as I am not an adventurous eater. It was my mom's favourite meal of the trip.

 

[danny25]

we have tried almost every restarurants in DW and I can give a 8/10 about the quality of the food, I don´t know why many people don´t like it, I preffer the food at dinner in HW over the food at dinner in Cheff Mickey. Try it you will like it, like our family

 

[littlewitch34]

We enjoyed H&V. We like buffets; we like Disney buffets. I ate about two plate-fuls of the tomato and mozzarella salad, and ate off the kids selections as well as the adult ones. The desserts were Disney buffet standard, but good, and they had a soft serve machine like at CP, another buffet we enjoy.

Overall, food is good. Dessert table was mobbed the whole time I was there, so it took a while to get to my dessert, but other than than, I enjoyed H&V.

 

[bangzoom6877]

Thanks again everyone!

Is the food similar to food you would get at Old County Buffet? That is basically what I would expect at a buffet dinner at WDW, although we found Crystal Palace to be much better than that. If it is like an Old Country Buffet we will have no problem eating there and I am sure the kids will like it.

 

[Treacle44]

Being from the Uk I don't know what an Old County Buffet is but the food is okay, no where near the quality and choice of Crystal Palace though. Normal foods you see everywhere in WDW, Prime Rib, pasta, fries, salad, meatballs I think etc then the usual dessrt station.

We just found it to be rushed as the servers were so busy.

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