Foodie Friday: Mama Melroses' Ristorante Italiano

With only 5 table service dining options at Disney's Hollywood Studios and Italian being my favorite cuisine, of course I chose Mama Melroses' Ristorante Italiano for my dining option there! This restaurant is located near the Streets of America. We arrived at reservation time and had to sit on benches for 15 minutes before being seated. You can see the kitchen, which was very busy, as you are being seated. The wood fired brick ovens were really neat to see. The ambience is like that of many Walt Disney World restaurants. It is casual and somewhat loud with dim lighting. It is also very themed. The walls have photos of the many stars that have dined at Mama's. We were seated and give menus but it was quite a while before the waiter returned to get our drink orders. We were fine because we weren't in a hurry to get anywhere, but others may be perturbed. We were served hard bread with olive oil and herb dipping sauce to hold us over util we got our meal. It was pretty good. We were at Mama's for dinner. It appeared the lunch and dinner menu were the same. Erin ordered from the child's menu. The kids pick includes an appetizer, entree and dessert. She chose a garden salad, spaghetti and an ice cream sundae. She is a salad eater and said it was great. All the guys had the charred strip steak over Italian roasted potatoes with caramelized onions, aged Balsamic shallot butter and Chiato wine reduction. They each ordered their steaks medium well.

I would have called what they got more of a medium rare. There were portions of it that they couldn't even eat. I had the Carne d Italia flat bread. Basically, this is a flat bread pizza with pepperoni, Italian sausage, picatta and spicy marinara. This thing was delicious. Not your regular old pizza. I don't eat sausage, so I shared that with Zachary.

Now, on to dessert! Erin had her ice cream sundae with a birthday surprise candle. Paul had the Mama's Panna Cotta which is Tiramisu flavored custard with lady fingers in a cappuccino sauce.

Way too much coffee flavor for me but Paul loved it. Clay chose the chocolate Amarettini cheesecake. It is a chocolate cheese cake with cookie crust, almond cream and Italia Amarettini cookies- another one, not for me.

Zachary had the no sugar added Mascarpone pound cake with limoncello macerated berries and fresh whipped cream. This was my favorite of all the desserts we had here.

I chose the Chocolate Cannoli cake. It was basically a chocolate cake with cannoli filling and topped with a Nutella Ganache with red wine sauce. Now, I love chococlate and this dessert was ok, but I passed it around the table and ate Zachary's pound cake!

All in all we had a decent experience. Other than the slow waiter, delayed seating and under cooked steak, it was fine. It is not a restaurant I would add to my must do list. Mama's does accept the dining plan as a casual dining experience. They do, however, offer a Fantasmic! dining package. This gets you your meal and gives diners priority seating at the Fantasmic! show.