Sci-Fi Drive in, Disney's Hollywood Studios, Orlando, Fl.

Disney's Sci-Fi dinner is an extremely unique dining experience.  The Restaurant is located inside Disney's Hollywood Studios theme park.  Like most places to eat at Disney it definitely helps to make reservations before going, if you don't you can expect to wait up to an hour and a half or longer.  Once you finally enter the restaurant your hostess will walk you to your table or "booth".  There are only a few table which are for folks who are mobility impaired or for people with kids who need high chairs.  The "booths" are actually made to look like 1950's era convertables which have a front and back seat that faces the movie screen.

Speaking of the movie screen, there is a constant loop, about 2 hours worth, of older sci-fi movie clips, commercials and cartoons from the past.  It's all very cool in a retro way.

It's become tradition with our family that we visit the Sci-Fi on our last day visiting the Disney theme parks, we've been several times and plan to continue to return.

The menu, though a bit small, does have a varied selection of items as you can see, and most people should find something they like.  I do have to say that I was disappointed they removed the steak wedge salad from the menu, it was quite good.  This time I ended up just getting the burger, it wasn't too bad, but I'll probably try something else next time.  The wifey ordered the grilled chicken sandwich, she wasn't too thrilled with the watercress as a topping.  I however thought the it had a really good flavor from the bite of hers that I had.

For desert we shared an order of the Red Velvet cheese cake and it was, no pun intended, out of this world.  This item is actually a red velvet cake with a cheese cake topping and covered with a rich raspberry sauce.  The cheese cake itself also has a "shell" style coating which is quite candy like really quite awesome.  This may very will be our new "go-to" desert for the Sci-fi.

Service was friendly, as expected with most Disney establishments, though a bit slower than we'd like.  Though that impression may have something to do with it being our last day in Orlando and still needing to see more of the park.  Also, the servers have no control over how fast the cooks put food out.

Overall, we well most assuredly return to the Sci-Fi diner, if you've never been this is a place you should check out.  The food is good, but you're really should check it out for the experience and atmosphere.

Scores:
Food: B
Service: A
Portion Size: B

Longhorn Steakhouse, West Palm Beach, Fl

Longhorn Steakhouse, located on Okeechobee Blvd West of the FL Turnpike.

The Wifey and I were lucky enough to have a date night and we wanted to treat ourselves to a nice night out,  we decided on trying Longhorn again.  We went out on a Tuesday night around 7:30pm, and this time they weren't too crowded but we still had to wait about 15 minutes before a table cleared up.  The last several times we tried to go, the wait had been an hour plus so we never stayed.

Once you walk inside they have very subdued lighting without being gloomy it actually has a very cozy feel to it. The decor is VERY western themed, as you might expect, with lots of red, brown and tan hues.  The effect was done quite well.

We were seated and the server gave us a few moments before she came by to look over the menu and start us out with our drinks.  The wifey ordered the new White Peach Margarita which, taking the description from the website, is 1800 100% Blue Agave tequila, white peach puree, Peach Schnapps and fresh lemon and lime juice and I just had a draft beer.  She said that her drink was really refreshing with all the fruit and citrus flavoring and had just the right amount of that tequila to not be overpowering but still strong enough to be worth the price.

The menu has an average number of choices, although this being a steakhouse, a large majority of them are red meat options.  We started the meal with a couple of the appetizers the Texas Tonion Crispy onion petals drizzled with sour cream and served with zesty dipping sauce and the LongHorn Shrimp & Lobster Dip Shrimp and lobster baked with creamy mozzarella, smoked Gouda and sun-dried tomatoes. Served with warm tortilla chips. The starters came out very quickly, the shrimp and lobster dip was outstanding with a deep and rich flavor that kept us trying more and more.  The Tonion was also good the dipping sauce was very flavorful.

All entrees come with bread, a side and salad.  For the main course I ordered the 12oz Renegade Top Sirloin medium rare and a splurged a bit and got the Steakhouse Mac & Cheese as a side. The wifey ordered the Parmesan Crusted Chicken with baked potato.  The steak was seasoned and cooked to perfection, I haven't had a steak that was this good while eating out in a long time,I was extremely pleased and impressed with the product.  the side dish of Mac & Cheese was good, but with all the other things we ordered was a little too rich and heavy, even for me.  I would have probably been better off ordering something a little bit lighter like rice or a vegetable.  The chicken was also cooked and seasoned very well, and had a really great flavor.  The mixture of Parmesan and garlic compliment each other nicely.

With everything we ordered there was absolutely no room for desert, and we ended up having to take two to-go boxes home.  Portion sizes were not an issue here.

As for the service, I couldn't ask for more.  Our server was friendly and attentive without being pushy or "overbearing".  She seemed to know when we needed her and when to not be around.  This was some of the best service we've had out in a while.  In addition to that, none of the orders were messed up in anyway. The combination of these qualities is, quite frankly, rare in our experience and we were very satisfied.

All in all we consider this dinner to be an outstanding success and we will definitely be going back again sometime.

Scores

Food: A+

Service: A+

Portion size: A+