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Showing posts with label Roundup Rodeo BBQ. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Roundup Rodeo BBQ. Show all posts
We are 2 for 4 in our family regarding the latest changes at Roundup Rodeo BBQat Hollywood Studios. Sadly, two of our favorite sides have been eliminated from the menu.
While it’s not unusual for new eateries to change up their menus during their first year after they see what is connecting with their diners and what’s not, Roundup Rodeo is, in essence, changing the way their dining experience is presented. Previously, diners could choose 4 of 8 available side dish selections, served family style, so you had to negotiate with your tablemates to decide which of the dishes looked the most enticing. Now, the cast members automatically bring you the new selections, no choices to be made.
We’ve dined at the restaurant, which opened in Toy Story Land in March 2023, three or four times this year in various combinations of family members. We even chose it for one of our meals for a family reunion earlier this fall because the theming (and food choices) would cover a pretty wide range of needs from a 2-year old all the way to a 76-year old. Plus, the immersive décor in the restaurant is so much fun, shrinking yourself down to toy size in the brightly colored room designed by Andy himself, and so very “Disney” for the out-of-town guests in our group. There are tons of Toy Story Easter eggs to find in the room.
You can catch our initial review of the restaurant from its opening here, with a more detailed look at the menu. While there were some hits and misses, we were generally pleased with most of the food, and the service was upbeat, the banter amusing, and the staff operated at warp-speed.
While Rex’s Romaine and Kale Salad has been taken off the “Get a Wiggle on your Greens!” selections, our favorite greens selection still remains. Wheezy’s Watermelon Salad was some of the best and sweetest watermelon we’ve had, and it holds its place along with the Rootin’ Tootin’ Tomato Salad. You’ll get both of those options brought to your table.
Removed from the sides menu, however, were:
The Married Spuds: Loaded potato barrels drizzled with green goddess dressing, cheese sauce, and seasoned BBQ spices
Force Field Fried Pickles: Jumbo pickle spears coated with a dill-flavored breading
Mean Old Potato Salad: Homestyle with red-skinned potatoes
Instead, the new menu options include plain Potato Barrels (replacing the more jazzed-up Married Spuds potato barrel option), along with the continuing selections of:
The Claw! Veggie Slaw (Plant-based)
Slinky Doooooooooog’s Mac & Cheese
Buckin’ Baked Beans (Plant-based)
Cowpoke Corn on the Cob (Grilled Street Corn)
You’ll get all five sides brought to your table, so you’ll be gaining an extra side in exchange for not having the choices to make.
For our family, The Married Spuds and the Force Field Fried Pickles were big favorites, and we’re sad to see them ride off into the sunset. On the new rotation, we have also been pretty happy with Slinky Doooooooooog’s Mac & Cheese, but as for the other sides, well, we could just as soon skip them.
So, with the new menu changes, will we be back to Roundup Rodeo? Maybe. The last time we dined there, our dining reservation was almost 45 minutes behind schedule, and the waiting area was jam packed. While our server was cheerful and welcoming, the meal also felt far more rushed than our initial visits. Entrées were being sent out to the table before most of our party had even shared the salads around the loop, and while we recognize the restaurant’s need to try and pick up the pace because the reservations were running so far behind schedule, there isn’t any extra real estate on the tables to have all those bowls present at the same time. At one point, we tried to balance one platter on top of the other to make space, and our own plates were hanging partially off the edge of the table to make enough room to set the serving bowls down. (If you’ve eaten at Roundup Rodeo, you’ll understand exactly what I mean!)
With a current price of $45 per adult and $25 per child (it’s a fixed price meal), you don’t want to race your way through the experience, especially with so much action happening around you with Partysaurus Rex hosting dance parties, freeze frames with Andy coming, and yard sales abounding. It’s a fun restaurant to take the family to, and while we are disappointed that we’ve lost some of our favorite dishes on the menu, hopefully the menu reductions will mean better attention to quality for the other foods on the menu. Reach for the sky, Roundup Rodeo! Make it happen.
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Beth Keating is a theme parks, restaurant and entertainment reporter for DisneyBizJournal.
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We’ve waited a really long time for the official opening of Disney World’s newest restaurant, “Roundup Rodeo BBQ” in Hollywood Studio’s Toy Story Land. Was it worth the wait?
There’s an actual smoker behind the restaurant to prepare the BBQ meats in-house, so as you approach the Roundup Rodeo, you’ll smell the food cooking before you see it. Inside the immersive restaurant, you are one of Andy’s honorary toys, so everything, from the western towns to the train station playsets to the game board pieces, feels larger than life. A ruler along the back of a seating area will show you that you’re less than a miniaturized inch wide in this universe! There are two separate dining areas, one centered around Jessie, and the other to Bo Beep.
Video by Jonathan Keating
The décor is bright and even a bit overwhelming, not unlike the nearby Toy Story Mania attraction, but a little more child-styled, since, of course, Andy has designed this himself. Kid-created “drawings,” scenes engineered with Andy’s favorite toys and all the accoutrements you’d find in a kid’s room – pencils to hold up the boxes, wooden train tracks, game pieces, milk cartons, Christmas lights, puzzle pieces and cardboard cut-outs – make it feel a bit like Andy’s toy box exploded. It’s all of the toy sets from Andy’s room brought to life by his imagination. And while it is a continuation of the design theme of the entire Toy Story Land, Roundup Rodeo BBQ is just a touch more obvious in the child-artist territory.
If your family members are fans of Toy Story, there will be plenty to look at here while you wait for your meals – Easter eggs from the movies abound. Ask your cast member servers to point out their favorites!
This restaurant isn’t just visual. You also get to hear dialogue from the characters, ride a pogo pony to your table, and, along with the rest of the cast members, freeze in place when you hear the warning, “Andy’s coming!” While this isn’t a “character dining” restaurant, and there are no characters walking around, you’ll hear the actual voices of your favorites. Listen for the tinkling triangle dinner bell overhead, and you’ll be treated to three different audio clips, from a mistaken yardsale/lemonade stand; to a Partysaurus Rex dance party you and your servers can rock out to; to the “Andy’s coming!” warning that will have you laughing as your servers freeze in the oddest of poses until given the all-clear.
The meal is a fixed price $45 per adult and $25 per child (ages 3-9), and is the same for lunch or dinner. Your family-style menu begins with “The Prospector’s Homemade Cheddar Biscuits” with sweet pepper jelly, and a set of three salads to share for the table. “Rootin’ Tootin’ Tomato Salad” comes with cucumbers, pickled red onion, and a white balsamic vinaigrette; “Rex’s Romaine and Kale Salad” has apples, dried cranberries, pumpkin seeds, and Green Goddess dressing; and “Wheezy’s Watermelon Salad” has fresh-torn mint.
The cheddar biscuits were delightful - fluffy, buttery biscuits with a slightly salty top, served warm. We were expecting the pepper jelly to be spicy, but it wasn’t. Rather, it was distinctly vegetable-pepper flavored, as opposed to spicy-pepper flavored. The biscuits were wonderful on their own, but the jelly elevates it to another whole level. Just be careful not to fill up on additional servings of these lovely bread offerings. It will be tempting to do so, but there is so much more food to come. This is an all-you-care to enjoy meal, with lots of options.
The salads were just slightly better than average. The Romaine and Kale salad was a leafy green salad with a tasty green goddess dressing. The apple slices added sweetness and a bit of crunch, but while it was a nice flavor, it was nothing that required second servings. The cucumber tomato salad was a more typical backyard salad, with strong onion and vinegar undertones from the pickled red onions, something like what one of your aunties would have brought to a backyard potluck. The standout in this trio was the luscious watermelon salad. While it was advertised as having mint with the melon, there weren’t too many obvious mint leaves in our dish. The small snips that appeared added a tiny bit of herby-ness, but the melon itself was so fresh and sweet we could have eaten this all afternoon. It’ll be devoured by the kiddos in your group as well.
Entrées also come out family-style, and you can dish your vittles out onto ceramic plates that look like the typical white paper plates that you’d use at a barbecue. Your cast members will bring out platters of “Evil Dr. Smoked Ribs,” “Buttercup’s Beef Brisket,” “There’s a Sausage in My Boots” fire-grilled pork sausage, and smoked “BBQ Chicken – With Style!” Plant-based diners get platters that include “Combat Carloflower” (smoked cauliflower) with harissa drizzle and walnut gremolata, a plant-based “Scrumptious Bratwurst,” and “Rip Roarin’ Rib Chop,” made from Impossible meat.
We chose the meat-based platter, with very unexpected results. The meats we were anticipating loving weren’t necessarily our favorites, and the ones that we hadn’t given a second thought to before the meal turned out to be stellar. Our ribs-loving family was not all that impressed by the Evil Dr. Smoked Ribs. While the BBQ-glazed ribs had a subtle sweetness, they weren’t fall-off-the-bone tender. There was a distinct smokiness to them, but there was just as much fat to the rib as there was meat.
We’d also been looking forward to Buttercup’s Beef Brisket, and the tastiness of the brisket didn’t disappoint. While the slices themselves were somewhat inconsistent, with most being moist and tender, but others overly greasy, you could cut the brisket with the side of your fork. There wasn’t a strong smokiness to these slices, just a gentle seasoning. There are three sauces on your table that you can choose to use with your brisket: a spicy, a sweet and a classic. We used the spicy, and while it had a little bit of heat, it was nothing that heat-adverse diners should shy away from.
The surprise for us was “There’s a Sausage in My Boots,” a rolled-up coil of sweet sausage grilled over an oak fire. It was a substantial amount of sausage, and it had a crisp snap to the outside, and a juicy, mildly seasoned inside. We’re not normally running to grab a plate of sausage, but this roll of links was so good we actually thought of asking for a second round, and it got our vote for the best of the platter.
BBQ Chicken – With Style! was also an appealing addition to the platter. The selection of chicken legs, wings and breasts is a 48-hour, brined smoked chicken with a house-made seasoning that gave a light flavor to the tender meat. There was a hint of smoke on the back end.
In addition to the entrée platters, families will also get to choose four sides from a list of eight. Choices include “Mean Old Potato Salad” with homestyle red-skinned potatoes; “The Married Spuds” loaded potato barrels; “Veggie Slaw”; “Force Field Fried Pickles”; “Campfire-roasted Vegetables”; the springy “Slinky Doooooooooog's Mac & Cheese”; “Buckin’ Baked Beans”; and “Cowpoke Corn on the Cob.”
Of the eight, we selected the potato barrels, corn on the cob, mac and cheese, and pickles, and were pleased with all of our selections. The Cowpoke Corn is an interesting take on grilled street corn, with a very sweet corn hidden beneath a coating of Queso and seasonings that offered an alternating combination of sweet and salty. There was a bit of a char to the cob, giving it a slight smokiness and the cheese (Queso? Parmesan?) was a pungent but not unwelcome flavor profile. The street corn is also prepared over the oak fire before adding the spices.
The Married Spuds (our server told us to “Congratulate them!”) were soft baked tater tots with two deliciously paired sauces, a Green Goddess and a cheese sauce. If we’d had room, we would have gotten another bowl of these, because they were a dish of cheesy goodness. But, with only so much space in our bellies, we were holding out for the Slinky Doooooooooog's Mac & Cheese. This mac and cheese was worth the price of admission! Our server told us that the pasta was specially ordered to be extra springy, like Slinky Dog himself, but we were just pleased those little coils held so much of the extra cheese! The sauce was very thick and creamy, and while we were a little hesitant about the smashed crackers (read: Goldfish crackers) on the top of the dish, it did not detract from the bowl in the slightest. This was some of the best mac and cheese in Disney World, and a great addition to a backyard barbecue.
Lastly, the fried pickles were a star. Rather than the typical round pickle chips you would see deep fried in your local pub, these were pickle spears. Not overly tart, but simply coated in a crispy shell and not greasy at all.
Of course, your meal wouldn’t be complete without dessert, and diners can choose from one chuckwagon dessert jar per guest, from among “Bo’s Lemon and Blueberry Cheesecake,” “Billy’s Chocolate Silk Pie,” “Goat’s Apple Pie,” or “Gruff’s Peach-Strawberry Pie.” (In case you didn’t catch that subtlety, it’s Bo Beep and her Billy Goats Gruff.) Adorable chocolate Forky cupcakes are available for the Lil’ Riders as well.
We selected the Billy’s Chocolate Silk Pie, and Bo’s Lemon and Blueberry Cheesecake. Of the two, we preferred Billy’s Pie, a smooth chocolate that was a darker chocolate, somewhat thicker than a pudding, but not quite a mousse. Bo’s cheesecake was a stronger flavor. If you like lemon, this is your dessert. Interestingly, it initially had three distinct flavors, owing to the various layers. The blueberry layer had a few plump blueberries incorporated in the filling, and the cheesecake layer wasn’t a typical “cheesecake,” but a softer, more whipped consistency. After a few spoonfuls, the layers began to blend, giving it a different taste altogether. It was a solid dessert, but a sharply flavored one.
While milk, soda and iced teas are included with your BBQ, there are also a variety of beers, wines and other entertaining drinks available for additional costs. Molly’s Frozen Iced Tea ($6.50); Partysaurus Tex strawberry lemonade – and gummy worms! ($6.50); and Frozen Cowpoke Cocoa, a cocoa and vanilla smoothie ($6.50) are the non-alcoholic offerings.
The alcoholic versions are fun, too, with such libations as the “Grown-up’s Peanut Butter & Jelly” ($16.50), from frozen Skrewball Peanut Butter Whiskey, Minute Maid® vanilla smoothie mix… and grape jelly; the “Snake Eye Margarita” ($14.50); “The Rodeo Mule” ($15.50); “Rum on the Range” ($15.50), made from SelvaRey Chocolate Rum, RumChata Liqueur, Chocolate, with toasted marshmallow; or the “Rattler Rum Punch” ($14.50).
The atmosphere at Roundup Rodeo is high-energy and the theming is fun, enough to keep your kids occupied throughout the meal. With so many Partysaurus Rex dance parties and freeze frames going on throughout the meal, this restaurant is enormously entertaining, as well as a decent food choice. We visited during the first week of operation, and there were still a few glitches (our meat platter and sides came out just as we were dishing the salads onto our plates, so timing is still a bit wonky…) and the tables are nowhere near wide enough for the number of bowls, platters and plates that land on your space. However, these cast members worked their cowboy boots off, hustling refills of dishes, dancing to Rex’s tunes, and keeping a charming banter going during the meal. This restaurant works, in part, because the cast members are very much into their roles here.
There isn’t a separate kid’s menu; they’ll be sharing the same family-style meal as the rest of the crew, but there will be plenty to fill them up on the menu. While Roundup Rodeo isn’t a restaurant you’ll visit all the time, its upbeat and engaging atmosphere will create a fun vacation memory for the Toy Story-loving fans in your home.
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Beth Keating is a theme parks, restaurant and entertainment reporter for DisneyBizJournal.
The long-awaited Roundup Rodeo BBQ at Disney World’s Hollywood Studios will be opening March 23, 2023, but don’t wait until then to book your advanced dining reservations. The reservation booking process begins February 21, 2023! You can begin making reservations up to 60 days in advance of your visit.
Roundup Rodeo BBQ will be a sit-down venue, with family-style barbecue offerings, served surrounded by Andy’s vision of a rodeo arena for his toys. Andy has created western towns and train station playsets where your favorite Toy Story characters are getting ready to perform in Andy’s rodeo. Guests are invited to be honorary toys for the day, so you will feel shrunk down to the size of a toy, surrounded by oversized versions of your Toy Story favorites.
The restaurant is located in Toy Story Land at Hollywood Studios, so you’ll need both a park admission and park reservation to dine here.
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Beth Keating is a theme parks, restaurant and entertainment reporter for DisneyBizJournal.
Yeehaw, cowboys! We got some very exciting news from Disney today…. We now have an opening date for the long-awaited RoundupRodeo BBQ at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Though you can’t make advanced dining reservations quite yet, Woody and Andy’s new restaurant in Toy Story Land will be opening March 23, 2023.
Courtesy of the Disney Parks Blog
Over the past few weeks, the anticipation has been growing as we’ve watched Imagineers and construction crews add the finishing touches to the outside of the new eatery. This western-themed, family-style restaurant will be serving up platters of barbecue, with house-smoked meats, lots of unique side dishes, and a selection of sweet desserts. Disney does barbecue pretty well (Hello, Flame Tree in Animal Kingdom and Regal Eagle in EPCOT!), and we’re hoping this new locale lives up to the hype.
The ambiance promises to be a lot of fun for your little cowboys and cowgirls, too. Andy has used his toys to create a rodeo arena where his own toys can play. (And you will be the “honorary toys” coming for a visit in Andy’s backyard!)
Tomato Salad:Tomatoes, cucumbers, and pickled red onions tossed in a white balsamic vinaigrette and garnished with fresh dill (plant-based)
Rex’s Romaine and Kale Salad:Romaine and kale mixed with green apples, pumpkin seeds, and dried cranberries tossed with green goddess dressing
Watermelon Salad:Cubed watermelon garnished with freshly torn mint leaves (plant-based)
House-smoked meats, including:
Evil Dr. Smoked Ribs: Fall-off-the-bone pork ribs, slow-cooked for hours in the onsite smokehouse
Buttercup’s Beef Brisket: Hand-sliced beef brisket, smoked then slow-cooked to juicy perfection
There’s a Sausage in My Boot:Spiced pork sausage fire-grilled over live oak to give it an added kick
BBQ Chicken – with Style! Chicken brined for 48 hours, rubbed with secret backyard BBQ spice and smoked to tender juiciness
Plant-based offerings (available upon request):
Slow-smoked Cauliflower topped with sweet harissa drizzle and crunchy walnut gremolata
Oven-roasted “Bratwurst” that is tender and juicy, sliced to perfection
Impossible “Rib Chop” seasoned with spices, then roasted and glazed with sweet BBQ sauce and skewered on a sugar cane “bone”
All entreés are served with an assortment of sweet, traditional, and spicy BBQ sauces.
Choose four of the following sides for the table:
The Married Spuds:Loaded potato barrels drizzled with green goddess dressing, cheese sauce, and seasoned BBQ spices
Force Field Fried Pickles: Jumbo pickle spears coated with a dill-flavored breading and fried to perfection
Slinky Doooooooooog Mac & Cheese: Spiral pasta in a creamy house-made cheese sauce topped with crumbled cheddar crackers
Buckin’ Baked Beans:A traditional BBQ picnic favorite (plant-based)
Cowpoke Corn on the Cob:Grilled and seasoned with a chili-lime spice blend, cilantro, cotija cheese, and lime juice
Mean Old Potato Salad:Homestyle with red-skinned potatoes
Veggie Slaw:Crunchy shredded veggie slaw that is a summertime favorite! (plant-based)
Campfire-roasted Vegetables:A variety of roasted seasonal vegetables (plant-based)
Chuckwagon desserts (Choose from a selection for the table):
Cupcake à la Forky: Forky is up to something sweet! A classic chocolate cake with a gooey chocolate ganache center topped with velvety graham cracker buttercream and a sugar cookie
Lemon and Blueberry Cheesecake: An iconic creamy dessert that balances the tanginess of the cheesecake with the natural sweetness of blueberries and lemon
Billy’s Chocolate Silk Pie: Layers of graham cracker crust and silky chocolate mousse topped with chantilly cream
Goat’s Apple Pie: A picnic classic! Tart apples and warm pie spices balance perfectly with the creamy sweet filling under a crumble crust
Gruff’s Peach-Strawberry Pie:With its silky sweet peaches and tartness of strawberries, this dessert is a fruit-centric delight! (plant-based)
Grown-up Craft Cocktails:
(A selection of beer, hard cider, and wines by the glass are also available):
Snake Eye Margarita:Inspired by a summertime BBQ featuring watermelon, smoke, and a bit of spice!
Rum Punch: Rum punch with vibrant flavors of passion fruit and pineapple finished with a smoky spiced garnish
Chocolate with a Grown-up Twist: A blend of chocolate rum, horchata liqueur, cocoa, and flavors of toasted marshmallow
Frozen Peanut Butter & Jelly: A fun frozen twist on the classic peanut butter & jelly featuring peanut butter whiskey
Whiskey Lemonade: A fresh take on a strawberry lemonade made with Tennessee whiskey and Italian bitter aperitif
The Rodeo Mule: A classic “patio sipper,” this mule mixes vodka with fresh juices and ginger beer
Nonalcoholic offerings:
Molly’s Frozen Iced Tea:A frosty concoction with iced tea and citrus flavors
Frozen Cocoa:A frozen blend of cocoa and vanilla topped with miniature marshmallows
Partysaurus Tex:Strawberry lemonade is even more fun when you garnish it with gummy worms!
Advance Dining Reservations should be available soon. Keep checking Disney Parks Blog to find out when you can start booking your family’s Roundup reservations.
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Beth Keating is a theme parks, restaurant and entertainment reporter for DisneyBizJournal.
Today, the biggest fans seem to be the harshest critics – which is kind of weird, if you think about it. Anyway, that strange phenomenon seems to be most glaringly on display when it comes to Star Wars. Indeed, there seem to be no harsher critics of various aspects of the Star Wars universe than Star Wars fans.
But for The Walt Disney Company, this fan-as-biggest-critic happening is not limited to its Star Wars properties, but occurs with the Disney theme parks as well. Lots of people love the Disney theme parks, but that leads to these same folks being hyper-critical of the parks as well.
A regular complaint among Disney parks aficionados is the cost of attending Disney parks. Naturally, no one likes to see the price increase of something that they love to experience. And any company has to perform a balancing act when trying to find the price that strikes the right mix of revenue and market size when trying to maximize profits. After all, if you aggravate consumers to the point that revenue and profits decline, that’s a recipe for decline.
At the same time, though, one of the big issues that complainers tend to either ignore or only mention in passing is that the quality of the guest experience at the Disney parks has increased by multiple times over the decades thanks to investments made in those parks.
And those investments continue to be made – indeed, perhaps at the most rapid pace in recent decades – as made clear by Disney’s new announcement regarding opening dates for an assortment of attractions and experiences. Consider the following:
• The Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser – a hotel/space cruise experience - will open in 2021.
Source: DisneyParksBlog.com
• It was announced that Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway in Disney’s Hollywood Studios will open onMarch 4, 2020.
Source: DisneyParksBlog.com
• In the summer 2020, guests will be able to enjoy Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure in the France pavilion at Epcot.
Source: DisneyParksBlog.com
• Disney announced: “Mickey Shorts Theater in Disney’s Hollywood Studios will show an original short film in the style of the popular Disney Channel animated series ‘Mickey Mouse,’ and will feature photo-opportunity locations for guests. Today’s new rendering shows the interior of the theater, including fun Mickey Mouse-themed seats.”
• Three new films will debut in Epcot on January 17, 2020: “Awesome Planet” in The Land pavilion; “Beauty and the Beast Sing-Along” in the France pavilion; and “Canada Far and Wide in Circle-Vision 360” in the Canada pavilion.
• Coming this winter is the Space 220 Restaurant, which will be an Epcot table-service restaurant positioned 220 miles above the Earth’s surface, offering impressive views.
• Also opening this winter will be the Regal Eagle Smokehouse: Craft Drafts & Barbecue, which will be a fast-casual restaurant located at The American Adventure in Epcot. The menu will feature regional barbecue and craft brews.
• For those who cannot get enough barbecue – like me – the immersive, family-friendly Roundup Rodeo BBQ Restaurant will open in 2020 in Toy Story Land at Hollywood Studios.
Source: DisneyParksBlog.com
• Oh yeah, and don’t forget that the Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance attraction opens in Galaxy’s Edge in Walt Disney World tomorrow (Dec. 5). And yes, Disney is ready with an array of related merchandise.
Of course, investments in new attractions and experiences are not cheap, and are meant to enhance the guest experience. That’s just worth keeping in mind the next time you hear knee-jerk complaints about the cost of going to a Disney theme park – yes, from the same people who expect ever-improving park experiences.
Ray Keating is the editor, publisher and economist for DisneyBizJournal.com, and author of the Pastor Stephen Grant novels. He can be contacted at raykeating@keatingreports.com.
