Next up, we had lunch at Mama Melrose. This definitely seems to be one of those restaurants that people either love or hate, with very few in the middle. I've always landed in the middle. Its certainly not my favorite restaurant on property, but I enjoy it enough to keep coming back. We had booked the Fantasmic! package here.
Our server was Joann, and unfortunately she lacked any sense of warmth and was very cold and icy. While it is a relatively small gripe, when she came to take our order, she set another table's dirty plates down on our table.
Thankfully, our food here was wonderful and the ambiance does make me feel like I'm sitting in a restaurant on Mulberry Street in New York.
We started our meal off with rolls with a choice of butter or olive oil and spices.
I wish they would start serving slices of Italian bread instead of these rolls. The outsides are crusty and the insides light and fluffy. For me the outsides are just too crusty, and I end up just pulling out the center of the roll.
We also both ordered the Bellini
These are always the perfect mix of the sweet peach with the dry Prosecco and on this particular day, it was really refreshing.
For appetizers, Megan started with this...
Vegetarian Minestrone - with ditalini pasta $ 5.99
This was delicious and LOADED with different varieties of beans, so it is a great source of protein.
I went with...
Crispy Calamari - topped with grilled peppers and onions, served with dipping sauces $10.99
The calamari was thinly sliced and very tender. The batter was crispy, not greasy. I really enjoyed the dipping sauces. One was a basil pesto-y type sauce and the other was a citrus butter. Both paired nicely with the calamari. I didn't care for the spicy marinara.
For entrees, Megan had wanted a simple Alfredo, which they didn't have on the menu. But they did have the option for Penne pasta with a four cheese sauce. On the menu it came with a choice of meatballs or chicken. Megan asked if there was any way she could substitute in shrimp in place of the meat options, since she didn't eat land animals. Joann snapped back a "no." pretty harshly. Given that at the time there were several other dishes on the menu that had shrimp in them, including a flatbread, I didn't think her question was unreasonable. She decided to just go with the noodles and sauce. But then...out came this.
It must have been good, because she ate the whole darn thing!
I ordered my tried and true favorite,
Wild Mushroom Flatbread - roasted cremini and button mushrooms with a garlic-shallot spread and finished with balsamic reduction $12.99
This was so wonderful! It was any mushroom lovers dream! The mushrooms were perfectly brown and tender, but not mushy. The garlic spread was mild, and not overwhelming. I do wish there was a bit more of the balsamic though.
I too polished my plate.
Then out came dessert. I was quite perplexed as we did not order our dessert yet. Joann told us that if you had the Fantasmic! package, you just got a pre-plated dessert and that was it. I explained that while that was true for the standard dining plan, it wasn't for the Deluxe plan (at least not in the several times I have been there, all with the deluxe plan.)
I was incredibly disappointed because I had my heart set on the pistachio gelato. She gave us the "take it or leave it" approach. So we decided to leave it, which was a shame. Unfortunately we didn't care for any of these desserts and if she had explained that to us earlier we just would have gone without dessert altogether. I hate wasting food, so this was quite disappointing. The presentation was beautiful though...
On our way out, the whole dessert thing was really nagging me. I decided to stop at the podium and asked if they had changed the policy with desserts on the Deluxe Dining Plan and the Fantasmic package. The gentleman there, who just happened to be the manager on duty filling in, explained that they had not.
He offered to comp our entire meal, which I felt was a bit of overkill. I didn't even get into the bad attitude and dirty plates incident with him. I simply explained that we had already compensated for our experience in the tip we left for her and I just wanted to know the process for future reservations. Since we wouldn't have been able to use the extra dining credit I told him it was fine, really. In the end we compromised and he comp'd our drinks, which I felt was still overly generous, but we were very appreciative of the service he provided us.
In the end, Fantasmic was rained out that evening, so the whole thing was all for nothing.
Looking forward to reading about your adventures at the world 
