Spontaneously, Mike and I decided to try for a Fantasmic package at Hollywood and Vine one morning. Our server at the Rose and Crown had suggested it as one of his favorite buffets, and as I mentioned in the ABC Commissary review, I wanted to try some controversial restaurants. We also chose Hollywood and Vine as it was the cheapest of the Fantasmic packages, and we wanted to be able to choose what we wanted at Mama Melroses and the Brown Derby without worrying if we were going to get our moneys worth from the set price. We were easily able to get a priority seating for 6 PM, even calling that same morning (and this was a Saturday), and we set off for MGM. We discovered some new things to do that we hadnt previously, had a pretty bad lunch at ABC Commissary, but overall had a good day. We arrived at Hollywood and Vine a few minutes early, and waited for our name to be called.
As you first walk in, you are faced with a chocolate sculpture of Malificent in her dragon phase. Its beautiful but hard to take a picture of because of the case. Im noticing a chocolate sculpture trend at a lot of the restaurants. Behind the sculpture is the dessert area, front and center. We were seated at a table right across from the main buffet easy access to the food! The buffet is protected from the seating area by a small wall. All non-specialty, non-alcoholic drinks were included in the price, so I ordered a chocolate milk and iced tea, and Mike ordered a diet Coke. I love having chocolate milk at Disney, even though Im 22! A table was seated next to us at the same time, and a woman at their table ordered the same beverages that I did, surprisingly.
We got up to check out the food, at this point. Food choices are the same on each side, so choose whichever has the fewer number of people at it. On the far side are the breads and spreads. The breads can be slightly stale sometimes, but the small round rolls were consistently soft. In front of the breads were butter, maple and pecan spread, blue cheese and bacon spread, and black bean spread. I adored the blue cheese spread if you like blue cheese, youll love this one. It was smooth, had a great tangy blue cheese taste, and went well on the soft round rolls. The maple spread was good as well, but wasnt as strongly flavored. Neither of us tried the black bean spread.
Next were the salads, and there were plenty of them. This part included mixed greens with two different salad dressings, a southwest chicken Caesar, tortellini salad, cucumber salad, mushroom salad, beef and broccoli salad, cauliflower salad, a smoked salmon salad, fresh cut fruit, fresh chilled shrimp with cocktail sauce, and what I consider the star of the salad bar, a tomato and fresh mozzarella salad with balsamic vinaigrette. Now I dont eat tomatoes, but I love fresh mozzarella. This was great! One of my favorite parts of the dinner, even. The tomatoes included both red and yellow tomatoes, which was a nice touch. The chicken Caesar was very bland, but the tortellini salad was great. It included cheese tortellinis and some chopped vegetables and olives in a thin creamy sauce. The mushroom salad was also unremarkable, but the cauliflower salad was good, with a vinaigrette sauce just barely covering the florets.
After the salad bars came the main dishes and sides. First were baked chicken, rice, pasta with seafood, and green beans. I didnt have a chance to try any of those. Next were two different kinds of sausage with sauerkraut, creamed spoon corn bread, steamed Yukon gold potatoes with parmesan, turkey pot roast, and char-grilled salmon. I loved the sausage with sauerkraut, and the spoon corn bread was an interesting dish. It was a very moist corn bread with creamed corn on top that was actually made with cream. I dont like corn, but this spoon bread was excellent. After hearing about it online, this was one of the main reasons I had wanted to go to Hollywood and Vine!
On the next station, they had vegetable lo mein, blackened pork, sweet potato wheels with root beer glaze, roasted potatoes, and roasted vegetables. Their rendition of vegetable lo mein was odd it was stir fried vegetables with sauce, with crunchy noodles instead of soft. I thought the noodles were underdone before I went back and checked the label. The pork was a disappointment still hadnt had good pork yet at Disney. The sweet potatoes and roasted vegetables, however, were fantastic. The glaze on the sweet potatoes did not taste like root beer, just a thick, sweet glaze. The roasted vegetables included carrots, zucchini, yellow squash, onions, green peppers, red peppers, and whole garlic cloves. This was another one of my favorite dishes of the evening. The vegetables were done just perfectly to crisp-tender texture, and the garlic cloves cooked enough that they mellowed in flavor.
In the center of the two sides was the kids portion of the buffet. This was lowered to a childs level, and included macaroni and cheese, corn, barbecue meat balls, and hot dogs with buns. The macaroni and cheese was the best Ive had so far at Disney, and I was very happy to find it. It was very cheesy and creamy, with soft-textured pasta. Mike tried the meatballs and said they had an odd flavor to them. The corn and hot dogs looked like standard corn and hot dogs, and there was a tiny toppings stand, with ketchup, mustard, relish, and barbecue sauce. Also on the right hand side of the kids buffet was a single carving station, serving grilled sirloin
As sort of the center piece of the buffet stood the dessert bar. It was large and round, and included three sides of cakes, pies, etc, and two ice cream stations with many different toppings. Starting on the left, there was zucchini cake, key lime tarts with raspberry sauce, rice krispie treats with fruit flavored cereal thrown in, and mini whoopee pies. Mike thought that both the zucchini cake and rice krispie treats tasted a little odd, the rice krispie treats because of the extra fruit flavored cereal. He adored the key lime tarts, though. They were a bit too sweet for my taste. I loved the whoopee pies, which had cakey-textured outsides with cream sandwiched in the middle. In the center of the dessert bar were two cobblers, an apple cobbler and a mixed berry cobbler. I never had a chance to take a picture of those because they were so popular; I never had a chance to taste them, either, though the berry cobbler looked good. On the far side of the desserts were pecan diamonds, mini carrot cakes, chocolate mousse tarts, and mascarpone snicker cheesecakes. The pecan diamonds were reminiscent of pecan pie with a crispy top, and both the chocolate mousse tarts and the cheesecakes were, in my opinion, the best desserts there. The chocolate mousse was a thick, very chocolate-y mousse with chocolate as the tart cup. The cheesecakes had a tangy flavor with a cookie crust that included nuts (watch out for those nut allergies). Mascarpone is a soft Italian cheese thats used in tiramisu. Finally, the ice cream sides included chocolate, vanilla, and swirl soft-serve, with chocolate or strawberry toppings, and sprinkles, chocolate candies, M&Ms, mint candies, red hots, nuts, and toffee bits. Mike and I both loved the mint candies, which are the standard soft pastel minty candies that are shaped like Hershey Kisses.
At one point while sitting down, I noticed that the table next to us ordered one of the alcoholic drinks with a blue lit ice cube in it. My attraction to bright shiny objects manifested, and I just had to order one. I tried the passion margarita, as its one of my favorite versions of a margarita. Unfortunately the margarita tasted mostly of the sweet and sour mix, and I couldnt tell if there was any alcohol at all in it.
Our server was excellent, always asking if we needed refills or anything else, and offered coffee near the end. We were there for over two hours, and not once did he forget us or stop offering help. He was friendly and even jokingly asked Mike if he was starting over when he took some savory food from the buffet after he had had some dessert. Much to our surprise, as well, we were allowed to use our Disney Dining Experience discount on the Fantasmic package!
There was also plenty of seating, and the restaurant never completely filled up, even though there were plenty of people there around the normal dinner time (6-7:30). There werent really better or worse seats unless you wanted to be seated at the window to people watch, because there wasnt much of a view.
This ended up being an excellent dinner, even though it was typical American style and nothing exotic or strange. The food was well prepared, flavorful for the most part, and thankfully not greasy. There were many healthy choices on the buffet line (not so on the dessert line, though!). We enjoyed it so much that we ended up persuading our friends to join us in a Fantasmic package here the following weekend!
Photo gallery
As you first walk in, you are faced with a chocolate sculpture of Malificent in her dragon phase. Its beautiful but hard to take a picture of because of the case. Im noticing a chocolate sculpture trend at a lot of the restaurants. Behind the sculpture is the dessert area, front and center. We were seated at a table right across from the main buffet easy access to the food! The buffet is protected from the seating area by a small wall. All non-specialty, non-alcoholic drinks were included in the price, so I ordered a chocolate milk and iced tea, and Mike ordered a diet Coke. I love having chocolate milk at Disney, even though Im 22! A table was seated next to us at the same time, and a woman at their table ordered the same beverages that I did, surprisingly.
We got up to check out the food, at this point. Food choices are the same on each side, so choose whichever has the fewer number of people at it. On the far side are the breads and spreads. The breads can be slightly stale sometimes, but the small round rolls were consistently soft. In front of the breads were butter, maple and pecan spread, blue cheese and bacon spread, and black bean spread. I adored the blue cheese spread if you like blue cheese, youll love this one. It was smooth, had a great tangy blue cheese taste, and went well on the soft round rolls. The maple spread was good as well, but wasnt as strongly flavored. Neither of us tried the black bean spread.
Next were the salads, and there were plenty of them. This part included mixed greens with two different salad dressings, a southwest chicken Caesar, tortellini salad, cucumber salad, mushroom salad, beef and broccoli salad, cauliflower salad, a smoked salmon salad, fresh cut fruit, fresh chilled shrimp with cocktail sauce, and what I consider the star of the salad bar, a tomato and fresh mozzarella salad with balsamic vinaigrette. Now I dont eat tomatoes, but I love fresh mozzarella. This was great! One of my favorite parts of the dinner, even. The tomatoes included both red and yellow tomatoes, which was a nice touch. The chicken Caesar was very bland, but the tortellini salad was great. It included cheese tortellinis and some chopped vegetables and olives in a thin creamy sauce. The mushroom salad was also unremarkable, but the cauliflower salad was good, with a vinaigrette sauce just barely covering the florets.
After the salad bars came the main dishes and sides. First were baked chicken, rice, pasta with seafood, and green beans. I didnt have a chance to try any of those. Next were two different kinds of sausage with sauerkraut, creamed spoon corn bread, steamed Yukon gold potatoes with parmesan, turkey pot roast, and char-grilled salmon. I loved the sausage with sauerkraut, and the spoon corn bread was an interesting dish. It was a very moist corn bread with creamed corn on top that was actually made with cream. I dont like corn, but this spoon bread was excellent. After hearing about it online, this was one of the main reasons I had wanted to go to Hollywood and Vine!
On the next station, they had vegetable lo mein, blackened pork, sweet potato wheels with root beer glaze, roasted potatoes, and roasted vegetables. Their rendition of vegetable lo mein was odd it was stir fried vegetables with sauce, with crunchy noodles instead of soft. I thought the noodles were underdone before I went back and checked the label. The pork was a disappointment still hadnt had good pork yet at Disney. The sweet potatoes and roasted vegetables, however, were fantastic. The glaze on the sweet potatoes did not taste like root beer, just a thick, sweet glaze. The roasted vegetables included carrots, zucchini, yellow squash, onions, green peppers, red peppers, and whole garlic cloves. This was another one of my favorite dishes of the evening. The vegetables were done just perfectly to crisp-tender texture, and the garlic cloves cooked enough that they mellowed in flavor.
In the center of the two sides was the kids portion of the buffet. This was lowered to a childs level, and included macaroni and cheese, corn, barbecue meat balls, and hot dogs with buns. The macaroni and cheese was the best Ive had so far at Disney, and I was very happy to find it. It was very cheesy and creamy, with soft-textured pasta. Mike tried the meatballs and said they had an odd flavor to them. The corn and hot dogs looked like standard corn and hot dogs, and there was a tiny toppings stand, with ketchup, mustard, relish, and barbecue sauce. Also on the right hand side of the kids buffet was a single carving station, serving grilled sirloin
As sort of the center piece of the buffet stood the dessert bar. It was large and round, and included three sides of cakes, pies, etc, and two ice cream stations with many different toppings. Starting on the left, there was zucchini cake, key lime tarts with raspberry sauce, rice krispie treats with fruit flavored cereal thrown in, and mini whoopee pies. Mike thought that both the zucchini cake and rice krispie treats tasted a little odd, the rice krispie treats because of the extra fruit flavored cereal. He adored the key lime tarts, though. They were a bit too sweet for my taste. I loved the whoopee pies, which had cakey-textured outsides with cream sandwiched in the middle. In the center of the dessert bar were two cobblers, an apple cobbler and a mixed berry cobbler. I never had a chance to take a picture of those because they were so popular; I never had a chance to taste them, either, though the berry cobbler looked good. On the far side of the desserts were pecan diamonds, mini carrot cakes, chocolate mousse tarts, and mascarpone snicker cheesecakes. The pecan diamonds were reminiscent of pecan pie with a crispy top, and both the chocolate mousse tarts and the cheesecakes were, in my opinion, the best desserts there. The chocolate mousse was a thick, very chocolate-y mousse with chocolate as the tart cup. The cheesecakes had a tangy flavor with a cookie crust that included nuts (watch out for those nut allergies). Mascarpone is a soft Italian cheese thats used in tiramisu. Finally, the ice cream sides included chocolate, vanilla, and swirl soft-serve, with chocolate or strawberry toppings, and sprinkles, chocolate candies, M&Ms, mint candies, red hots, nuts, and toffee bits. Mike and I both loved the mint candies, which are the standard soft pastel minty candies that are shaped like Hershey Kisses.
At one point while sitting down, I noticed that the table next to us ordered one of the alcoholic drinks with a blue lit ice cube in it. My attraction to bright shiny objects manifested, and I just had to order one. I tried the passion margarita, as its one of my favorite versions of a margarita. Unfortunately the margarita tasted mostly of the sweet and sour mix, and I couldnt tell if there was any alcohol at all in it.
Our server was excellent, always asking if we needed refills or anything else, and offered coffee near the end. We were there for over two hours, and not once did he forget us or stop offering help. He was friendly and even jokingly asked Mike if he was starting over when he took some savory food from the buffet after he had had some dessert. Much to our surprise, as well, we were allowed to use our Disney Dining Experience discount on the Fantasmic package!
There was also plenty of seating, and the restaurant never completely filled up, even though there were plenty of people there around the normal dinner time (6-7:30). There werent really better or worse seats unless you wanted to be seated at the window to people watch, because there wasnt much of a view.
This ended up being an excellent dinner, even though it was typical American style and nothing exotic or strange. The food was well prepared, flavorful for the most part, and thankfully not greasy. There were many healthy choices on the buffet line (not so on the dessert line, though!). We enjoyed it so much that we ended up persuading our friends to join us in a Fantasmic package here the following weekend!
Photo gallery
) we've never had dinner there. Your review was very helpful. Thanks!
I'm going to read the rest of them now!
