The first meal of my trip was at Mama Melrose's with the Fantasmic dinner package. I was a little worried about not making it, since you just never know about delays and stuff when you fly, but I had a very early morning flight, which actually landed early, and I was checked in at Pop, and at the Studios by noon. My ADR wasn't until 2:15, so I had plenty of time to spare. Crowds were low that day, and I actually managed to get quite a few attractions in before my meal, including Toy Story Midway Mania with only a half an hour wait.
When I arrived at Mama Melrose's, there were a few tables full, but it was by no means busy. This was actually a common occurence throught my trip, most restaurants were not busy at all, and this was in the middle of
free dining, so that suprised me. I was seated about two minutes after I checked in.
I had originally intended to try and eat entirely vegan this trip. Yeah, that didn't happen. The next two days I was pretty good about it, but that day, when I had been up since 3:00 AM, and had eaten nothing but a granola bar at the airport, I really just wanted to eat, and didn't want to spend time having to explain my dietary choices and figuring out what I could and couldn't have, so I just didn't mention it, nor was I asked, and I just ordered off the regular menu.
Service here was kind of scattered. They seemed to have many people working, and it looked like the servers only had one or two tables each, but it was still very off. My server inparticular just seemed to be very odd. It started off being a bit confusing when I mentioned something about being on the Fantasmic dinner package, and he had to go and ask someone about that, whether he was checking if I was actually on it, or what the package was, I'm not sure, but he did seem very confused. Between my appetizer and entree he was polite and effecient, but by the time I got to dessert, I felt rushed and felt like he was being kind of rude. When I ordered dessert, he walked up to take my order, and said "go ahead." Which I guess doesn't sound that rude typing it out like that, but the tone he used made me feel like he was doing me a favor by gracing me with his prescence and taking my order. He also had a bad habit of just dropping my food off without even stopping. He would literally continue walking by as he put the food down. And I don't think he ever asked how anything was, except he did manage to refill my drink at some point, and he was fine before dessert, but then I just seemed to be an annoyance to him.
Anyway, on to the food, which is what you're all really here to find out about. On the Fantasmic dinner package I was entitled to an appetizer, entree, and dessert. And a non-alcoholic non-speciality beverage, which was either diet Coke or iced tea, not sure what I had t each meal, but those were always my drinks of choice.
For my appetizer I had the mixed greens salad.
It was a nice plate full of spring mix, no iceburg lettuce here, with candied walnuts, pear slices, and blue cheese, with cherry vinaigrette. The lettuce was fresh, but I felt like it didn't have enough dressing. The pear was hard, and could've been more then a bit more ripe. The candied walnuts were tasty, but there wasn't enough of them, literally maybe four or five walnut pieces on the entire plate. The dressing was tasty, but like I said, it could've used more. The blue cheese, aside from the lettuce, was the only thing I liked that I thought there was enough of. Overall it's a decent salad, but I wouldn't make a point of having it again. Maybe if I were on a plan that included an appetizer anyway, but not something I'd pay for.
For my entree I had the wild mushroom and arugula flatbread, with balsamic onions, and goat cheese pesto.
Aside from the pile of arugula on top, which just kind of wilted as it sat in front of me, extremely unappetizing, lettuce just does not need to be on pizza, this was fantastic! It was so rich and decadant. Usually I'm not a huge fan of mushrooms, and maybe it was the pesto just completely overpowered them, in which case, more power to the pesto, but I really liked this. The onions were noticeable, but kind of tasteless, or like the mushrooms, maybe overpowered by the pesto. Really all I could taste was garlic and the cheese, but that's okay by me! The crust was good, a little burnt on one side inparticular, and had way too much flour on the bottom, as I was constantly brushing it off, but it was very tasty.
For dessert I had the tiramisu panna cotta.
It's described on the menu as coming with lady fingers and a coffee-flavored sauce. The sauce was the same consitency as water, and not at all pleasant, and the lady fingers, though it seemed to be just one slab of some kind of cake, was completely soaked through, and had no texture whatsoever. The panna cotta by itself was all right, but the rest of the dessert was so dissapointing.
Overall I like Mama Melrose's. For me it's worth going to just for the flatbreads, but I'd rather have a light lunch here of just a flatbread, and forgo the rest of the meal.
Loving the reviews though
