Mama Melrose Redemption

My first experience at Mama Melrose was back in 1999. My recollection is vague but from what I remember, I wasn’t impressed. For this reason we never had any desire to return. Even reviews from fellow Disney forum members gave not so good reviews.

Normally we would go to WDW for 10 days but since last year was our honeymoon, we extended that to 14 days. We now needed to fill those extra days with dining options so we thought we would give Mama Melrose a second chance to avoid leaving the park to eat. I’m glad we did because the food was a complete 180 from our previous experience. With such a pleasant experience we gave it another shot this year. I was disappointed when I found that they removed the seafood fra diavolo from the menu so I opted for the wood grilled tuna with vegetable risotto.

The tuna was cooked to a perfect medium rare & was accompanied by a vegetable risotto, warm vine-ripened red & yellow tomatoes, & an olive-caper butter. I was disappointed no longer as this dish trumped the previous years. As I said, the tuna was perfectly cooked with just the right amount of spices to not overpower the fresh flavor of the tuna. The risotto was creamy & had just the right amount of “bite” to it while the tomatoes added a bit of acidity to balance the richness of of the dish.

I also had the mixed green salad with dried cherry vinaigrette, candied walnuts, fresh pear and gorgonzola cheese. The salad could have definitely used more dressing as I barely tasted it even though there were plenty of dried cherries. I usually don’t like any kind of nuts in my salads but the candied walnuts were a nice touch & worked for me (even though my wife stole most of them)

I was quite full from the meal so desert was nothing more than some vanilla Gelato. While nothing to brag about, I can’t say anything negative either. Simple, creamy, & refreshing.

Besides the food the service has been a plus.

So with a great experience two years in a row,  it’s safe to say that Mama Melrose will now be in our normal rotation each trip.

If you go during a busy time of year, it is a good idea to use the Fantasmic Dining package as it will alleviate the inconvenience of standing in that long line that starts to form well before the show & risk the chance of being turned away due to capacity.