What's up with the Brown Derby?

[hedberg1661]

Has anyone recently been to the Brown Derby? We were there a few years ago and had one of the worst dining experiences. Are things better? Looking for selling points to give it another go but I am having a hard time convincing myself that the short boat ride to Flying Fish, Yachtsman, Shula's, Monsieur Paul, etc. isn't worth it.

 

[JZCubed]

Has anyone recently been to the Brown Derby? We were there a few years ago and had one of the worst dining experiences. Are things better? Looking for selling points to give it another go but I am having a hard time convincing myself that the short boat ride to Flying Fish, Yachtsman, Shula's, Monsieur Paul, etc. isn't worth it.

Unless you are purchasing the Fantasmic! Dining Package, the short boat ride to Flying Fish, Yachtsman, Shula's, Monsieur Paul, etc. is worth it.

FWIW, that boat ride all the way to Epcot is not so short...and we're partial to BlueZoo over Shula's (although, we will be having Christmas dinner at Shula's).

 

[loves to dive]

We love Brown Derby and have never had a bad meal there. It's actually the only place we have to eat at every trip and I go twice a year. For me, it's the Cobb Salad. Lately we have been eating at the lounge outside.

 

[L&Lfan]

We prefer the lounge but our meals inside have always been ok. Nothing spectacular. It's been 4 years, though, since we've eaten INSIDE the restaurant. The CMs all seem to be proud of the place and they've always been willing to point out particular stars' caricatures for us. We always try to sit near Lucy's drawing in honor of the I Love Lucy episode set there.

 

[kiford]

We've been many times and loved it but the last two times were meh (one lunch, one dinner - two different trips). Not bad, just not as stellar as I remember. I wasn't as happy about the menu as previous times (which isn't really their fault - it's my personal food preferences) and the service was so-so (although the one time we were pretty much the last seating before closing so you could tell that the serving staff was pretty tired and winding down. I hadn't really thought about how our dining time meshed with the park closing time so maybe that was poor planning on my part). So I ended up not putting them on our roster last trip. If we'd been staying longer, I might have still added them to the dining roster but there were so many other options I wanted that I didn't go out of my way to schedule it in. I still have very fond memories of a gazpacho soup and a pork tenderloin and spaetzle dish.

 

[wdwrich]

Our most recent meal there was just okay. The food is probably the least impressive of any of the WDW signature restaurants we've tried.

 

[gillep]

We prefer the lounge. For our last meal at the restaurant itself DH had good food, but my chicken was really bad, it was so rubbery that I could not eat it, so we stick to the lounge or leave DHS for food.

 

[jaiminee krikit]

I ate there a few years ago inside. It was okay, but I never needed to go back. This year, I wanted to try the lounge (cheaper and didn't need an ADR). I really liked it! They had a tasty No-jito that I found refreshing on a sweltering summer day. I tried the sliders and could not believe how good those were! And I loved the option of getting a trio of desserts. I've always wanted to try the infamous grapefruit cake and I will tell you, I'm glad I didn't get a regular sized slice - I did not like it at all. I loved the two chocolatey treats I did get, though.

 

[bcrook]

I'm with the two of the previous posters. I really like the lounge and its menu and outdoor seating. But, I don't like the restaurant. For the money, I agree with taking a boat to Flying Fish, BlueZoo or Yachtsman.

ETA: The duck confit sliders are really great at the lounge.

 

[SA mom]

We had an amazing lunch at Brown Derby as part of the Dine with an Imagineer program. I highly recommend that.

 

[erinch]

We always eat there since my DH loves the ambience. The last 3 times the food has been just okay and very expensive.

 

[alex9179]

I'm looking forward to trying the lounge in January!

 

[Megara5115]

Our most recent meal there was just okay. The food is probably the least impressive of any of the WDW signature restaurants we've tried.

I would agree that while the food is not bad, it doesn't stand up to the other signatures on property. We did it with the fantasmic package in 2015 and it was good but not particularly memorable.

 

[Meriweather]

We go almost every trip.....lunch, lunch with an Imagineer or Fantasmic package.
We enjoy it and have always had great servers and a good meal.
We have an ADR for January. That will be about our 12 th time

 

[chinarider]

trying it for the first time in Dec. Looking forward to it

 

[Ralph&Pam]

After being disappointed with both the service and the food on our first visit, we decided to give the BD a s cond try. Eating in the dining room, the service was improved but the food was still overpriced and not particularly memorable. It's likely there will not be a third attempt, since we can do better at one of the BW resorts at the same price point.

 

[rg35]

We ate there in late June (2 adults, 3 children) and had a good meal. I had the
Local Greens Salad with Champagne Vinaigrette and Roasted Cheshire Pork Chop and thought they were both very well prepared.

Price vs. value (for a-la-carte, not dining package) is a different discussion altogether - I do think part of it needs to include the experience and atmosphere, and I really love it at the HBD.

The one thing I dislike now though is that they switched to a dessert sampler, whereas the last time I dined there (in 2006 or 7) you could still order full size deserts. I really dislike samplers - I'd rather have one large serving of something I really want rather than three bites of things i'm not psyched about. I was really looking forward to a large slice of grapefruit cake.

As for doing the dining package (which we did with Mama Melrose for lunch because we weren't sure if we would eat dinner in the park), it is excellent being able to walk into the Hollywood Hills Amphitheater a few minutes before Fantasmic starts and be seated right in the middle section.

 

[amberpi]

The lounge has been my go-to, if I'm going to stay in DHS more than a couple of hours, since it opened.