I’m reporting today on the Hollywood Brown Derby. This full service restaurant is located within the Disney Hollywood Studio theme park. As Disney restaurants go, it is definitely upper scale, but when all the diners are wearing shorts, tee shirts and baseball caps, it loses some of its ambiance. There are sketches on the wall of famous celebs in the golden age of Hollywood just like the original Brown Derby in Los Angeles.
As far as atmosphere and overall fun, you are probably better off going with the Sci-Fi Drive Inn or the 50’s Prime Time Café. I really should post on these restaurants and I’m sure I will in due time. I just happen to have had lunch at the Brown Derby yesterday so I’ll post on this one first. I took the family for the Star Wars Weekend and the re-opening of the newly imagined Star Tours ride- incredibly awesome experience by the way.
Okay, so on to the challenge of finding low calorie food.
You can access the full menu here: http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/media/wdw_nextgen/CoreCatalog/WaltDisneyWorld/en_us/Media/InternetMediaType/Dining/HollywoodBrownDerby/hollywood-brown-derby-menu-allday.pdf
I ended up ordering for appetizers: Spicy Sashimi-grade Tuna Tartare - with Cucumber, Daikon and Pepper Salad, Avocado Wasabi Sauce, and crisp Lotus Root Chips $14.00
Wow this was great and obviously very low calorie and practically fat free I’m sure. The only problem was that there just wasn’t that much there! Probably 4-5 bites of tuna with cucumbers and spices. It was presented just beautifully though in a bowl over blue ice. It was a real treat.
For my main course I had: Noodle Bowl - with Wok-fried Coconut Tofu, Soy Beans, Sugar Snap Peas, Bok Choy, and Shiitake Mushrooms in a Red Curry Broth $23.00
Okay, yes the tofu is fried. Probably a hundred extra calories there but nothing that walking across the park on a 95 degree Florida day can’t fix, right? Otherwise it was great- sort of a noodle soup kind of dish. Well maybe I should back up here. My dish came out HOT and I was starving. So I put some ice, not the blue ice from my appetizer, but from my Diet Coke (what else, right?) in the noodles. So I’m not really sure how much of a soup dish this was but when I was done with it, it was absolutely soup. But, it was really good and very filling.
They do bring you all you can eat bread at this restaurant. Much better than the all you can eat chips of the La Hacienda de San Angel I last reviewed! My wife had: Duck Two Ways - Poached Duck Magret wrapped in Swiss Chard, Mushroom Vegetable Couscous, and a crispy Leg Confit Spring Roll with spicy Onion Jam $30.00. This dish looked loaded in calories with ½ of the main portion being fried spring rolls.
I think I could have made what I ordered much better by just setting the fried tofu aside, or just asking for it not to be fried. I don’t know if they would do that, but I’ll ask the next time I am there. I felt so bad about eating the tofu I made this my lunch and dinner combined, although I probably ate at least 5 small apples during the course of the day.
A side note on this restaurant. Usually the service I have received at Disney has been top notch. My waiter, which I am sure is just luck of the draw, left a bit to be desired. We had to ask repeatedly for things such as silverware, refills, etc and the restaurant was only ½ full at the time. At one point I asked for something and the waiter proceeded to set a table right in front of me before fulfilling my request. This is highly unusual for Disney staff.
All in all I’ll say that this experience left a little to be desired, but was still worth it. We probably won’t repeat for a year but I’m glad I did it all the same. All in all I give this restaurant an 8 for taste, a 6 for ambiance, a 2 for service, and a 4 for ease of keeping to a diet. To wrap up on a positive note, I did notice that Hollywood Scoops on Sunset Blvd now has both fat free ice cream and sorbet!
Summer is here folks and it’s time to get serious about your diet. Little things, like a small bit of fried tofu all adds up.
Oh, I'm excited to report that the Wellspring Florida summer camp will be going to Disney World this summer. If you've seen the Too Fat for 15 series this is the summer camp version of the academy on TV. I'll be passing my Disney tips on to the camp director shortly, and maybe I'll even get a chance to post how the group fared. If you would like to enroll your child on this incredible, once in a lifetime opportunnity to learn how to negotiate the hazards of high calorie foods at Disney from the real pros, give me a call at 828-450-4367.
P.S. Sorry for the bad photos- I forgot my camera battery and took this with my Blackberry.
