Hollywood Brown Derby
We had a great evening in Hollywood Studios, ending with the incredible Osborne Lights - and then it was time for our dinner reservations at the Hollywood Brown Derby! I was very excited for this one since I'd heard such good things.
We waited for maybe ten or fifteen minutes before they seated us. The lobby was nice - it had a big Christmas tree set up for the holidays, and lots of caricatures on the walls that we spent some time looking at!
The meal started with your typical Disney rolls and butter. But this was some sort of flavored butter - I can't remember what, some sort of herbs and sea salt maybe? And it was really delicious!
I was the only one that got an appetizer, since I knew I wanted the salad for dinner and I was pretty hungry! And the entree size salad is so reasonably priced that I could afford to add on an appetizer as well. I went with the Blue Lump Crab Spring Rolls - (snow crab claw and a Asian slaw with spicy miso aioli):
These were very tasty. They were light and flaky, and had a decent amount of crab. The miso aioli was extremely good and added a lot of favor to the dish overall. I'd give it an
8 out of 10.
For his entree my PP ordered the Ashley Farms Free-range Breast of Chicken ( served over house-made spiced chorizo, yellown plantain hash, and an avocado and heirloom tomato puree):
As for what I could get out of him about it, I think it tasted good. However, he was really disappointed that the portion size was so small. I tried to explain that in fancier restaurants you pay higher prices for a smaller amount of food that is higher quality. I don't think that he felt it was worth the price tag. It was a pretty small portion.
DH went with the Duck Two Ways - (sauteed confit with swiss chard over an herb and goat cheese polenta cake finished with a pan-seared maple bourbon duck magret with a sun-dried cherry sauce):
He enjoyed it, though interestingly he also didn't think it was quite worth the price tag. We do treat ourselves to fancy dinners from time to time, so it's not like we weren't expecting the prices. I think ultimately he just felt that he had had better duck other places, and while it was very good it wasn't great. He'd just rather spend the money to go back to places where we've had incredible meals before, like Jiko, California Grill, and Narcoossee's. He gave the duck a
7 out of 10.
For my meal I went with the entree sized portion of the famous Cobb Salad (with finely chopped greens, turkey breast, egg, bacon, tomatoes, crumbled bleu cheese, avocado, chives and Cobb dressing):
Before:
After being mixed up:
Yum! I'm not a huge fan of some of these ingredients on their own or separately, but thrown all together and it just tasted great! There's a reason that it's famous. Plus, for a signature restaurant it's a steal. The entree size portion was only $16 and it's definitely a good size. Probably wouldn't fill me up on its own even if I wasn't starving, but with dessert you're good to go! I give it a
9 out of 10.
We all decided to do dessert as well. PP and DH both went with the double vanilla bean creme brulee (Served with a dark chocolate dipped biscotti.):
I think they both liked it a lot! DH is a huge creme brulee fan. He didn't care much for the biscotti but it didn't matter because he polished the creme brulee off. He still liked the one at Chefs de France better, but he was happy with this and gave it an
8 out of 10.
I, however, had to try another Brown Derby staple - the grapefruit cake (Light layers of yellow cake with fresh grapefruit cream cheese icing)!
I will start by saying that I love grapefruit, so it's not a surprise that I loved this dessert. I'm not huge on cream cheese but luckily the icing didn't really have a cream cheese flavor so that was a relief. It was sweet and tart and just really good! A
9 out of 10.
I don't usually mention service, but if it was really good or not so good I will. And in this case, unfortunately, we didn't have great service. It was extremely slow. I don't mind waiting between courses at a signature meal because you kind of expect that - even if it is in a theme park. But I shouldn't have to wait 10-15 minutes for him to come back with my drink refill. He also was not at all friendly - very curt and didn't seem to care much about our table.
Overall Brown Derby was a little hit or miss. I was very happy with my food - I went with two of their most well known and popular items, so that may be why. PP and DH were a little more disappointed in their food, though they still liked it. And the service was unfortunate. Because of that, I only give the Brown Derby a
7.5 out of 10. However, we had plans to go back for Dine with an Imagineer, so if you follow my next trip report you'll hear if it changed our minds!
Crab Spring Rolls - $13
Soda- $2.99
Soda- $2.99
Duck - $35
Chicken - $30
Cobb Salad - $16
Creme Brulee - $8
Creme Brulee - $8
Grapefruit cake - $8
Tables in Wonderland Savings: $24.80
Total including TiW discount, 18% gratuity and tax: $127.95
Total Tables in Wonderland Savings on this trip: $97.43
You've made Yak & Yeti my #1 want to try counter service - DF always insists on Pizzafari! Can't wait for more!
The Cobb Salad and Grapefruit cake were just amazing, there's a reason why they're so well known... and the best part is they are pretty inexpensive compared to everything else there!
