Chances are when you’re considering where you’ll stop to eat in Disney’s Hollywood Studios, you think you already know where your favorites can be found. We’re here to tell you that a popular Disney World restaurant JUST had a menu change, and we think you’re gonna love it!

We knew Mama Melrose’s was gaining a few new additions to their menu, so we wanted to be some of the first to try them out and tell you all about it!

If you’ve ever browsed the dining options in Disney’s Hollywood Studios, you’ve probably scrolled right past Mama Melrose’s Ristorante Italiano (unless you saw a reservation for it with the Fantasmic! Dining Package). It’s not a restaurant you’ll easily spot as you’re strolling the park, but you’ll find if you’re willing to wander towards the back side of Grand Avenue, you might just be pleasantly surprised!

Mama Melrose’s Ristorante Italiano serves an Italian-inspired menu that’s built to include selections for the whole family. Here, you’ll find the portions are large and the pasta is a plenty.

Atmosphere

The atmosphere here is like walking into an Italian family gathering from the moment you step inside. Once you pass through the front door you’re invited into a waiting area decorated with framed portraits…

… and beautiful white and black tile flooring.

Once your table is ready, you’re invited back into the dining room of the restaurant where you’ll pass by the bar seating and be led back through the dimly lit, wooden detailed tables, chairs, and booth-style seats.

Our favorite part of this dining room was marveling at the murals that lined the walls by the booth seats!

If you’re not into a booth style of seating, there are plenty of tables and chairs available to request, as well.

Once we were led to our table, we were presented with our silverware and offered to start off with a beverage while we perused the menu.

Menu

This restaurant has recently changed its menu and added several new items, which was our main purpose for choosing to dine here for this review. Our server did inform us that since the menus had changed overnight there were a few errors on the printed menus (which they anticipated to be remedied with a new order of menus to come soon). Here’s a look at the menu we were presented with when we dined here…

… and the back of it…

… but, we’ll also give you the menu listed on the Disney World website. As always, should you have any questions or notice any potential discrepancies between what you thought you were ordering and what’s listed in the menu, make sure you’ve taken some time to talk through those questions with your server. Mama Melrose’s Ristorante Italiano serves a variety of appetizers…

… entrées…

… desserts…

… Kid’s appetizers …

… create-your-own-entrée Kid’s meals and a specialty drink…

… mocktails, and non-alcoholic beverages …

… as well as specialty and dessert beverages…

… featured beers on draft, beers, hard ciders, and seltzers …

… wines…

… liquors and wine flights.

As you can see, they have an extensive drink menu to pair with their entrees. If you’re curious about what works best, finding yourself deciding between menu choices for food, or just want to get your server’s opinion on a few of the entrées, this is a great opportunity to start those conversations as you’re considering what to order. Luckily enough for us, though, we had a one-track mind this time and we were ready to try all of the new things!

Eats

Ok, stay with us because there is going to be A LOT of food to talk about here! We opted to order the Fried Mozzarella Sticks, Mushroom, Artichoke, and Cheese Dip, Rigatoni Bolognese, Braised Pork Osso Buco, Fettucine Alfredo with Shrimp, and the Goat Cheese Mousse Tart. We tried to tell you that it was going to be a lot… just look at all that food!

Since there’s going to be so much, let’s start this whole review off with the appetizer we ordered — the Fried Mozzarella Sticks which cost us $15.

These crispy bites of cheesy goodness are served with marinara sauce and lemon aïoli. We were served 5 in our serving and they were served warm and crisp to the touch. As we pulled them apart we were greeted by the smell of the mozzarella cheese and herbs that were mixed into the coating of the sticks.

Admittedly, ours sat for a while during our time taking a few pictures and videos to show what they look like, but even after accounting for them cooling a bit, we still felt like they could have been melted a tad more. However, they’re very thick sticks and super cheesy with a distinct mozzarella taste.

The outside breading is greasy though, so be ready to wipe your fingers clean before you start in on your entree. The lemon aïoli had a nice zesty, yet creamy taste and was a different take to pair with the sticks aside from a standard marinara sauce offering (which also came with these). With as large as our order came out we could easily see this as a sharable appetizer between two people or even a smaller family.

We also ordered the new Mushroom, Artichoke, and Cheese Dip for $14. This appetizer was served with goat cheese, tomatoes, and toasted Crostini.

Our reporter who went to review this meal isn’t a fan of mushrooms at all and said they would TOTALLY order this again! The crostini are thin and buttery, but super crisp with a nice audible crunch when you bite into them. The dip itself is a bit salty, almost savory, and you can really taste the artichoke and the tomato in it.

This entire cast of flavors works exceedingly well together for this dish and every once in a while, you’d get a bit of spicy heat to the dip, which we thought gave it some personality and left a lasting impression on us.

Then it was time to start putting a dent in our entreé selections! We started with the Rigatoni Bolognese. It’s made of ground beef, Italian Sausage, and Parmesan cheese, and it cost $26.

The sauce, combination of meats, and thin slices of parmesan cheese work in harmony to bring this dish to life. It created quite a flavorful bolognese. For $26, it’s a rather large portion (we almost couldn’t believe our eyes when we saw it), and the pasta was cooked to perfection.

It’s very tomato-y with a bit of low spice to it when you get bites with the Italian sausage. This definitely set the bar for what was to come with the other entreés and very easily stole the whole show of the entire meal.

Next up for us was the Braised Pork Osso Buco. This dish is made of creamy Polenta, roasted Cipollini Onions, sweet peppers, and lemon gremolata and cost us $30.

The braised pork was cooked so well and was tender enough to peel off of the bone with one swipe of your fork. We wouldn’t have minded a few more spices added to the pork to give it more flavor, though. The sauce was thick and savory, but we found that most of the main flavor of the dish came from the sauce and the polenta.

We found the polenta to be thick and creamy but again, struggled a bit with flavor on its own until it was mixed with the sauce. We didn’t taste much of the peppers (unless they were blended into the sauces to help give it more girth to the savory taste) and that was a bit disappointing. However, if you’re on the fence about whether this pricier dish would be enough to fill you up we’ve gotta tell you — this dish is HUGE with minimal fat in the meat so we would recommend you plan to share this one with someone or order it with the expectation you’ll probably be taking some of it to go with you!

If we weren’t already stuffed enough, we still had one more entreé to make it through. We also ordered the new Fettuccine Alfredo with Shrimp for $32. This dish is made of pasta, cheese sauce, and fresh Basil. While the printed menu listed “fresh parsley” we did confirm with our server that it is in fact created with fresh basil instead (and was just a typo on the menu that they hope to have remedied soon).

We were most excited to try this one for the fettuccine alfredo alone and it didn’t disappoint! The sauce was very Parmesan forward, and we would have loved to have had a bit more of it on the pasta, but there was plenty of shrimp (to our pleasant surprise) to go around here. The fresh basil was a nice touch, but we could only taste it when we really searched for it in our bites of food.

We were impressed with the size, amount, and plumpness of the shrimp which had a buttery and briney taste to them and we would estimate that we had about a dozen on top of and mixed into our bowl.

We hope you saved room for dessert, because we sure did (or at least valiantly attempted to). We wrapped up our meal with the latest dessert selection to hit the menu here — the Goat Cheese Mousse Tart. This tart comes topped with honeycomb and an edible flower served with blackberries and a cassis compote for $10.

This tart dessert was so creamy, and we’re still dreaming about it! However, to fully appreciate the flavor of this one, you’ll have to like the taste of goat cheese. If you’ve never had it before we would liken it to a sharp cheese flavor, kind of like in a New York-style cheesecake. Our tart wasn’t served with the honeycomb because the restaurant didn’t have them in just yet, but instead, they drizzled honey over the top of it in its place.

The honey served well enough to add to the rich, sweet flavor, and the fresh blackberries were just the right fruit to complement this treat.

The crust was soft and easy to cut into and didn’t leave a dry taste in your mouth when you took a bite. It left us scraping the plate for the last bite!

Overall

At the end of our multi-course meal, we were stuffed to say the very least! We really enjoyed how fresh several of the new options were, and we were able to speak to our server in depth about the new items and ask them their opinions on them.

We also had very attentive service from the moment we stepped up to the restaurant to check in for our reservation, and it was apparent to us that the Cast Members working here were trying to be as swift and efficient as possible — even though we arrived during the lunch rush.

Nosh or Not?

Stop by for a delicious meal at Mama’s if…

• You’re looking for a solid heavy meal that’s going to leave you feeling satisfied. Honestly, the friendly Cast Members here almost had to roll us out of the restaurant becuase we were so full (along with our 5 to-go boxes that went home with us). The menu here is not one to be slept on, but a full belly should help you feel satisfied when leaving here.
• You could totally use a glass of wine or a beer with your drink. It’s an Italian meal here, right? Of course, they’re going to have a full selection of alcoholic beverages that are built to pair with their menu items. Ask your server about what they suggest to go along with your meal when you’re talking over menu options!
• You’re down to try some of the latest eats in Disney World! Debuting several new menu items at once is no easy task for a restaurant so if you’re looking for a fresh take on an established restaurant, we’d highly recommend you check this place out next.

This might not be your next dinner table if…

• You’re just not that into Italian food. The menu here is unavoidably Italian, as are the new selections we tried today. If that’s totally not what you’re craving, then we’d suggest stopping by another restaurant.
• You’re looking to dine somewhere with tons of natural light. It’s true, this restaurant will make you feel like you’re in a quaint Italian home but with that comes a dimly lit dining room. If you’re someone who likes a lot of natural light from surrounding windows or you just like to people-watch, there’s just not going to be a ton of options here for you. You can always request a window seat when you arrive to check in for your reservation, but Disney doesn’t guarantee you’ll ultimately be seated here. We will say that on sunny Florida days, it can be nice to get a break in a darker spot for awhile.
• The thought of having to schedule a meal isn’t ideal for your plans. This table service restaurant prefers to seat their dining room according to reservations. While you can totally walk up and take your chances, you may want to choose somewhere else to dine if you are pressed for time.

We’ve eaten everywhere you can think of at Disney World and then some! We’re constantly reviewing new menu items, trying out old favorites, and telling you about the best bangs for your bucks, so be sure to stay tuned with us at Disney Food Blog for all the latest reviews!

REVIEW: Is This Classic Disney Restaurant Still ELITE?

Will you be sticking to your tried and true menu selections on your next visit to Mama Melrose’s Ristorante Italiano or are you willing to try a few of the new menu items? Leave us your thoughts on them in the comments below!