It’s been quite some time since we’ve made our way to the 50s Prime Time Cafe, but it really doesn’t matter because it’s timeless. No matter how long you’ve been away you will always return to a time when the kitchen looked like it popped right out of the 50’s, a time when your server will make sure to share the rules of eating here and a place where you can watch all of those old black and white tv shows on a television that did not have a remote control or an extended warrantee. If your children ever wondered what it’s like to watch a show in “black & white” well now’s the chance to check it out;-)
The only thing that has changed since our last visit was the menu. This past year many restaurants in WDW have incorporated an “all day” menu as opposed to a lunch/dinner menu. The downfall, the choices are more limited and the prices at lunch is the same as dinner. Now in “most” cases if you are on the dining plan price is not an issue. For us (out of pocket) guests, we miss the lunch prices:( …but that’s a part of the glory of being at Disney.
As most of you may know, 50s Prime Time Cafe is located in the Hollywood Studios park right next the Hollywood & Vine.
There is a lounge connected to it called Tune In Lounge which seats about 12 people and even on this day when there was no one waiting inside when we walked in just before our Advanced Reservation time of 2:00 every seat at the Tune In Lounge was occupied.
I was looking forward to sitting in one of the appropriately themed waiting areas…however, as soon as we checked in we snapped some photos and before we knew it we were already being shown to our table. Since we were just a party of 2 we were seated at a small table between to larger parties. Felt a little crammed at first, but not as bad as some other places. In the past we had gotten lucky and were seated in one of the “kitchen tables” which is my favorite place to sit. However I had clear view of the tv (in a kitchen area) across the way.
This was the “kitchen table” across from us. There was a party seated there most of the time we were there, otherwise I would have asked to sit there. But we had fun and friendly parties seated on both sides of us so it was just fine.
Cousin Jason greeted us right after we sat and went over the main rules:
-No tattle-tailing
-No whining or complaining
-No elbows on the table
-Eat ALL your veggies
-Have good manners…and most importantly…enjoy your meal and HAVE A GOOD TIME:-D
That was all fine with me, I generally like veggies so as long as they were good I’d eat them all. You will notice as you read on though that my daughter didn’t order any;-) Cousin Jason proved himself worthy of his rules as he did have a member of the party next to us fork feed a young lady there who didn’t finish her veggies, I don’t think she was expecting that LOL! But Jason wasn’t too obnoxious about it, they seemed to rather enjoy the fun.
There are a variety of drinks that you can order from the Tune-In Lounge so I decided to try the Silver Patron Margarita. Many of the specialty drinks are listed on the menu.
They are also known for their milkshakes especially their most popular, the Peanut Butter and Jelly milkshake which I’m sorry to say, I didn’t have, the margarita won out on this day;-)
The Patron Platinum Margarita-which was made with Patron Silver Tequilla, Cointreau, lime juice and sweet and sour was somewhat strong but so easy to drink, got to love those (silver tequilla) margaritas 😉
We were pretty hungry so we knew we wanted an appetizer. I’ve been hearing all of these wonderful things about the Beer Battered Onion Rings so we had to have them:-)
These definitely lived up to their reputation. They looked perfect especially with this really cute presentation where they are served with the little fryer basket. But they tasted as good as they look and they were not greasy at all. They had the perfect amount of crunch and seasoning. The horseradish sauce had a little kick to it, but it was really good. I highly recommend them.
Now a side note…friends of ours were here just a few weeks before us so I am going to post a few extra photos so you can see what some of the other food items look like. I can’t really say how they tasted as I didn’t taste them but next time I may try this…Grandpa’s Crab Cake which is a lump crab cake served over edamame and corn succotash with bacon, chili sauce and crispy onions. (I also believe that these were the onion strings once served in place of those delicious onion rings we had).
Another appetizer our friends ordered was Cousin Amy’s Iceberg Lettuce Wedge served with blue cheese dressing, bacon and chives. Don’t think you can go wrong here…
Now for the main part of our meal I always hear that the “50s Prime Time Blue Plate Special” is usually pretty good (which is usually a “healthy” seasonal alternative with all the fixings).
On this particular day Cousin Jason said the Blue Plate Special was Fresh Grilled Mahi Mahi with Mango Salsa served with asparagus and potatoes. Since I already ordered a sweet alcoholic beverage and those big onion rings I wanted to behave a bit when it came to my main entree so I went with that.
Well, Jason was a little “off” when it came to the sides/veggies;-) The server behind us mentioned that these veggies are new and something they’re trying out. Apparently the veggie he thought was asparagus was in fact broccolini and the potatoes were in the potato family but were mashed sweet potatoes with coconut infused milk.
Now I am not a coconut fan and if he would have told me this I would have asked for something else HOWEVER the potatoes were rather good I have to admit. The broccolini was ok, I would have rather had the asparagus but it worked. The mahi was delicious. It was tender and juicy and had great flavor. The mango salsa just complimented that and you can tell that everything was fresh.
My daughter didn’t see anything on the regular menu that appealed to her. That’s nothing new as she still likes a lot of the kid’s menu items even though she’s been out of that age group for several years now.
Side Note: This has never been a problem. She orders from the kid’s menus at many of the restaurants in Disney including the signatures and it has never been an issue. For those of you who are concerned if your kids/tweens or even teens or even if YOU don’t want something from the main menu and want to order from the kid’s menu it’s not a problem (at least at all of the restaurants we’ve been to and we’ve been to many;-). (keep in mind though, if you are on the Dining Plan this can be a different situation).
However all that being said…she wanted chicken nuggets…but the kid’s portion had only 5 nuggets which she knew wouldn’t fulfill her appetite that day but Cousin Jason said there is also an “adult” portion of 10 and that was the winner.
As you can see here it was definitely a generous portion. The fries were served in one of those “fry” baskets (appropriate) and they were plenitful as well. She did enjoy this.
Had to give Dad’s Sundae a try this trip and wow have I been missing out. Talk about a chocoholic’s dream…the chocolate in this thing is like butter but tastes like chocolate…it was heavenly and rich. A definite “must” next time as well and now one of my favorite sundae in the “world”!
We enjoyed our lunch here. It was a fun time and the “antics” were fun but not obnoxious.