Mama Melrose's Ristorante Italiano at Disney's Hollywood Studios in Orlando, Florida: Restaurant Review

It is rare to find a restaurant at Walt Disney World that doesn't fully please, but there are some. And you can count Mama Melrose's Ristorante Italiano among them. Here is a restaurant review of Mama Melrose's Ristorante Italiano at Disney's Hollywood Studios in Orlando, Florida.

Mama Melrose's Ristorante Italiano is somewhat hidden in the Streets of America section of Disney's Hollywood Studios (formerly known as Disney's MGM Studios). Mama Melrose's serves brick oven flatbread pizza, pasta dishes, chicken, seafood and steak. The food at Mama Melrose's is rather mediocre. The pizza is bland, the pasta dishes not very good. The chicken, steak and seafood are nothing special. And the portions are rather small. The prices aren't bad (at least not for lunch), but your meal still won't be worth the final cost. Disney's Hollywood Studios offers several other decent restaurants, including the Hollywood Brown Derby, the 50s Prime Time Café, and Hollywood & Vine, so I suggest you forgo Mama Melrose's Ristorante Italiano in favor of one of those.

The atmosphere at Mama Melrose's Ristorante Italiano is rather dull and depressing. A lot of wood, clearly meant to feel homey, but it fails. The service isn't bad (it's hard to find bad service at Walt Disney World), but the staff certainly isn't as happy and enthusiastic as they are most of Disney's theme park restaurants.

If you do decide to dine at Mama Melrose's Ristorante Italiano, you should certainly try their Sangria, which is one of the few highlights of this low-key Italian restaurant. Their tiramasu is also a decent dessert choice. If you are a member of the Disney Dining Experience club, be sure to bring your card to save twenty percent on your entire bill (beverages included). Keep in mind that if you use the Disney Dining Experience card, an eighteen percent gratuity will now be automatically added to your final bill.

If you order the brick oven pizza, you may be in for a surprise. It is actually a small piece of flatbread topped with too little cheese and a bland tomato sauce. It may not fill you up (in fact, it probably won't). Their appetizers are nothing to write home about, but I do recommend their minestrone soup. Avoid Mama Melrose's Ristorante Italiano if you can, by making reservations at one of Disney's Hollywood Studios' better restaurants.