Mama Melrose
Disney-MGM Studios
Lunch
Date of Visit: 9/2/2007
Time of Visit: 12:45
Adults in Party: 2
Children in Party: 1
Total Cost: $45.04
Average Price Per Adult: $19.02
Ten Point Scale
Food: 8.7
Value: 8.0
Service: 8.3
Environment: 8.5
Overall Rating: 8.4
It's hard to compete with the Brown Derby for food, Hollywood and Vine for food volume, or the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater… basically, it's hard to be a restaurant at this park and still look good compared to the competition. So it's little surprise that Mama Melrose comes off as solidly average on most categories. Despite its location in a corner of the park, it's often busy and reservations may be necessary.

The tuna steak ($16) was a solid piece of meat, and fairly thick. It came with a minimalist presentation, as if it belonged to a more upscale restaurant than this one. However, its flavors weren't as exquisite. To be sure, it was well-complimented by the crunchy asperagus and yellow squash, and the sun-dried tomato paste, but there was no excitement to the dish. The same charge could reasonably be leveled at the pesto chicken prosciutto flatbread ($13), which seemed to lack any pesto flavor and instead opted for more sun-dried tomato. That said, it was still dry. The flavors mixed decently, though the predominant taste was simply flour, and yet the entire affair was oily.

Oddly, we had better luck with the child's meal ($7), which included minestrone soup that was not half bad, a pepperoni pizza that was your average cafeteria food (and yet with a homemade sauce that was as much spaghetti sauce as pizza sauce - trust me, it worked somehow), and an ice cream sundae. Well, vanilla ice cream with candy sprinkles and some chocolate syrup that they called a sundae. If you want to splurge, the best thing on the menu appears to be the lemon creme dessert ($7), which was well-rounded, with full-bodied flavors such as raspberry, lemon, and cream that mixed well.

The kitchen was slow on this visit, and our server was a touch late with refills. Presumably as a cost-cutting measure, this restaurant doesn't include bread on the tables - they want you to purchase the $6 appetizer of bread and dipping sauces.

The theming is meant to imply a restaurant in Hollywood - hence the movie posters and kitsch on the walls, as well as the name (Melrose is a famous street) - but also with a twinge of transplanted Italian culture, as if the proprietor was himself Italian. They played some Italian music as a result. If so, where's the Italian cuisine? The Italian wedding soup? But then again, most of the soundtrack in here is identical to Disney's California Adventure - upbeat surfer music that celebrates California - so it's a real mishmash.