The Brown Derby is a signature dining restaurant at Disney's Hollywood Studios in Orlando. It’s located right off of Hollywood Blvd. (actually to the right when you’re walking from the park entrance). It’s modeled after the original Brown Derby, located in where else, Hollywood, California! For those of you unfamiliar with what the Brown Derby is, it’s an old restaurant that catered to movie stars and celebrities of yesteryear. Framed photos of famous stars fill the walls, literally, almost every inch is covered. Upon stepping foot through the entrance at Disney’s interpretation of the restaurant, you feel as though you are transported back in time, to a simpler era.
Before I get into the food, and all of that that entails, I should preface by stating a few things. Eric and I had dined at the Brown Derby before. We celebrated our 1 year wedding anniversary at Disney World and ate at there. Truth be told, that was not the first place I wanted to eat at for our actual anniversary, but due to ADRs and our first choices being booked, we settled on the Brown Derby and actually really enjoyed our meal. However, we did find the atmosphere not the most intimate (it was evening and prime dinner time, so it was a little loud).
Another thing I should point out, I tend to crave things.. and when I do, it's all I can think about. We were planning to go to Hollywood Studios for a couple of fast passes (that's it), but then I started thinking about the Brown Derby and their famous Cobb salad. Did I forget to mention that? Yeah, they have a famous salad. As legend goes, the real Cobb salad was invented back in Hollywood at the original restaurant many years ago. Disney makes a version of the Cobb that has somewhat of a strong following. I’m a huge salad lover and my go-to salad is actually a Cobb. So I began to crave a Cobb salad, real bad! Eric indulged my craving and we made lunch reservations for 12:30!
Now we can move on to the good stuff... the food (and drinks)! I got the Hollywood as my beverage. It contained Vodka, pineapple juice and some other liquors that I don’t remember. It was fruity and good and the perfect drink on a warm spring day.
For lunch I got the Cobb, obviously, and Eric got the waygu burger with fries. As we waited for lunch, we were brought out some rolls and butter. A short while later a man dressed in 1920’s garments and in complete character, came to our table to chat and perform some magic tricks. It was the coolest thing because the card tricks he did were insanely good and completely made us believe that he was pure magic, which he was!
Lunch came and I looked at my chopped salad and that at Eric’s juicy burger and I secretly wished I had ordered his dish! My salad was good, but honestly it wasn’t the most amazing thing I’d ever eaten. The salad was filled with avocado, tomatoes, bacon, turkey and blue cheese. The lettuce was finely chopped, which I’m not a fan of when it comes to my salads. It tasted okay, but lacked any real flavor. To be honest, with the whole salad, I was a bit let down. I eat Cobb salads so often that I’ve become accustomed to eating them a certain way (my way haha). And I understand, my way of preparing a Cobb might not be the original way the salad was envisioned to be, but it’s the way I’ve gotten used to eating them. So, yes, I came to this meal a bit biased and with high hopes. Years prior on that first visit, I got the Cobb as well and loved it, but at the time I wasn’t a huge salad coniseeur and definitely was not eating that particular salad almost every week, so I didn’t have anything to base my opinion off of.
Eric, on the other hand LOVED his meal! He let me try some of his burge and it was just as amazing as it looked! It came served with a fried egg and pastrami... the combination was just perfection! Being a HUGE fan of all types of burgers, I should have ordered that!
Besides my pickiness to salad, I would say we had a great time at the Brown Derby and definitely will visit again (I just won’t get the Cobb)!
