SATURDAY SIX: Planet Hollywood Observatory – 6 Crazy Road Stops on the Highway to Flavortown
This week’s SATURDAY SIX takes a look at PLANET HOLLYWOOD OBSERVATORY! After every trip to Walt Disney World, TouringPlans sends its members a survey to see how satisfied they were with each part of their vacation. In 2016, we received more than 122,000 responses on WDW restaurants. To put that number in perspective, TouringPlans has more surveys on WDW restaurants than Yelp and TripAdvisor combined.
In total, there were 909 options that readers could give a “thumbs up” or a “thumbs down” to and these included everything from table service restaurants such as the Grand Floridian’s Victoria & Albert’s to the turkey leg cart in Magic Kingdom’s Frontierland and everything in between. In the list of over 900 WDW venues where a person could get food, Planet Hollywood in Disney Springs came in dead last.
But that was the old Planet Hollywood. In January of this year, the newly reimagined Planet Hollywood Observatory opened with a menu partly inspired by celebrity chef Guy Fieri. That’s right, Flavortown was coming to Disney.
With Downtown Disney’s recent transformation into Disney Springs, the area now boasts not just the greatest collection of restaurants at Walt Disney World, but possibly in all of Orlando. Restaurants such as Homecomin’, Morimoto Asia, and The BOATHOUSE have joined longtime favorites Raglan Road, the House of Blues, and Wolfgang Puck Express to deliver a murderer’s row of fantastic dining experiences.
Would the reimagined Planet Hollywood Observatory completely change the restaurant and put it up there with the best of the best?
In a word: no. But, in a lot more words the Planet Hollywood Observatory is completely next level bonkers in a way that you need to experience. At Disney we’ve eaten ice cream out of 10 gallon cowboy hats, seen poop snacks at Animal Kingdom, and have even order the infamous Pop Tart sandwich at Pop Century and we still weren’t prepared for what we saw at the Observatory. Today we’re going to take a look at the most unique options at the Observatory, and let’s kickoff the countdown with…
# 6 – High Roller Platter Served in a Ferris Wheel
Talk about a “wow factor” right away, the High Roller Platter appetizer comes out a giant ferris wheel that will draw attention from anyone sitting near you. It is visually spectacular and includes chicken crunch, Texas tostados, Buffalo wings, five cheese dip, and peri-peri shrimp. The ferris wheel itself does not move, but it is an incredible visual. ($34.99)
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# 5 – BBQ Ribs Served on a Miniature Picnic Table
One of our family’s favorite things to do at WDW is get the Kitchen Sink Sundae at Beaches and Cream. Having the dessert served in a “kitchen sink” is really fun and helps add to the overall experience. Over at the Observatory, they have an entree that is also served in a completely bananas way, on a miniature picnic table. The ribs, coleslaw, and french fries were actually tasty. I’m not sure if the food itself justifies the price, but the presentation is unforgettable. ($29.99)
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# 4 – World Famous Chicken Crunch
The signature item at Planet Hollywood is their World Famous Chicken Crunch. The menu says they are “hand breaded with a sweet coating,” which is a mixture of corn flakes and Captain Crunch cereal. Yes, that sounds insane, it is insane, but they are actually fantastic. One day we’re going to have to do a SATURDAY SIX just on chicken tenders at WDW because there are some seriously great ones on property, and The Observatory’s are up there with the best of them. While the chicken crunch does come with the High Roller we mentioned above, if you order them separately they come delivered in this cute retro-looking chicken basket that looks straight out of something from 50’s Prime Time Cafe. Love it. ($12.99)
# 3 – Planet Meltdown
Time for a dessert and the Planet Meltdown not only tasted great, but had a show element as well. The server brings out a chocolate sphere, and then begins to pour hot caramel sauce on top until the sphere starts to melt away and revel a double chocolate fudge cake underneath. Bonus points for having an edible Planet Hollywood Observatory piece of white chocolate. ($12.99)
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# 2 – The Burgers!
Walt Disney World has a lot of burgers on property, but nothing quite like the “big bite burgers” you’ll find at the Observatory. WDW fans who love acronyms will enjoy that the burger menu includes a breakdown of what they call “Guy-isms.” These include: LTOP (lettuce, tomato, onion and pickle), Donkey Sauce (mayo, roasted garlic, mustard Worcestershire sauce, s&p), and SMC (super melty cheese). The burgers are all gigantic, and each include “triple fries” which are three separate types of seasoned french fries in one container (standard french fries, waffle fries, and potato wedges). The plates have a skull wearing a chef’s toque, and the burger buns – except the pretzel bun – have a skull imprinted onto the top of them. Why? Who knows, but that is the magic of Flavortown. (range from $15.99 to $19.99)
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# 1 – Super Nova Shakes
Readers of the SATURDAY SIX know how much we love the Toothsome Chocolate Emporium over at Universal, in part because of their completely outrageous milkshakes. Turns out, those shakes were just the beginning of a new shake revolution. Believe it or not, the new Paddlefish restaurant has crazy shakes, but the Observatory takes it up to an “11.”
There are three Super Nova Shakes and each one of them has the potential of putting you directly into a sugar coma, so of course we had to try all three. My personal favorite was the Chocolate Comet Shake, but I would probably like anything if you shoved Kit Kats into it. It has a chocolate based shake, has brownies stuffed into it, and includes a bunch of candy attached to it via chocolate. The Cosmic Cotton Candy Shake is going to a big hit with kids, as the large lollipop sticking out of it along with the even larger amount of cotton candy will draw them in like flies to a bug zapper. The Strawberry Big Bang Shake may actually be the most impressive of all with a full size slice of birthday cake on top. ($14.00)
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HONORABLE MENTION – The Salads
The way salads are served at the Observatory is really neat. The arrive in a large cylinder, so that you get to see the entire salad like a cross section of the Earth. Now, our server started to pull the cylinder away before we got a chance to take a picture of it, so unfortunately I had to stab him with one of the large knives that come with the burgers. Because of Florida’s Stand Your Ground law and the unwritten code of theme park blogging, I was able to get away with this with no repercussion but I do send thoughts and prayers to the server’s family. Anyway, here is what the salad looks like with a little bit shaken out of it.
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The server then slowly shakes off the tube and the salad comes together in the bowl. It was the most unique presentation for a salad I have ever seen, and possibly the only reason to ever order a salad in the first place.
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DOUBLE SECRET HONORABLE MENTION – DONKEY SAUCE
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We’ll be back in the near future with a Disney Dining article on the Observatory. This will show some of of the unique memorabilia in the restaurant (where else are you going to find stuff from Home Alone, Deadpool, Shawshank Redemption and Misery?!) and we will try to explain – to the best of our abilities – the overall atmosphere. Keep an eye out during the week on the TouringPlans Blog for that baby.
So there you have it: A SATURDAY SIX look at Planet Hollywood Observatory! See you next weekend for the latest installment of the SATURDAY SIX, where we’ll look at something fun from the world of Disney and Universal. If you enjoyed yourself, be sure to check out The Magic, The Memories, and Merch! articles, or, for your listening pleasure, check out the E-Ticket Report podcast. You can also follow Your Humble Author on Twitter (@derekburgan).
Wait, did we say adults? We meant bloggers.
If you enjoyed this article, you will surely like the following:
Top-Rated Magic Kingdom Restaurants
The SATURDAY SIX Father’s Day Special: Celebrating Dads at WDW and Universal
Six “Easter Eggs” in the Magic Kingdom
Six Things We STILL Can’t Believe Actually Happened at WDW
Ranking the New Restaurants at Disney Springs
Special Thanks to crack staff photographer Brandon Glover, theme park blogging’s rookie of the year award winner Kinny Brown, SATURDAY SIX pledge Kenny Laughters, the Sommelier of Tony’s Town Square Brian Carey, and blogger to the stars Megan Stump for their invaluable assistance with this article. Be sure to also check out Brandon on The Park Blogger podcast with goofballs co-hosts Aengus Mackenzie and LitemAndHyde , while fellow Potterheads may enjoy Meg’s work on the Central Florida Slug Club.
FINAL PLUG! Did you know The 2017 Unofficial Guide to Universal Orlando has a special edition of the SATURDAY SIX in it? Finally, someone came up with an actual reason to read a book. ORDER this baby now and support SIX NATION (boy do we need a better name than that.)
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Cool salad presentation. My wife makes salad in a jar. Puts the ingredients inside a Mason jar with the lettuce on top. The lid has a small hole with a piece of electrical tape on top. She puts a handheld vacuum sealer over the tape, sucks the air out, the tape keeps it sealed. Stays fresh in the fridge over a week, great for work/school/Disney lunches. Amazon has the sealer https://www.amazon.com/Handheld-Adapter-Household-Appliance-Preservation/dp/B01HHNN5JU
Those shakes look perfect. From other reviews people have mentioned that the shakes are often thrown together, and with incorrect ingredients.
Do you think that sometimes these places realise you are bloggers and as such you get the A*** service?
Over at Toothsome there is an open kitchen where you can watch basically a team put together the various shakes. Because the shakes are so labor intensive they basically keep making them over and over again. While you can’t see into the Planet Hollywood kitchen, judging by Tessa Kotten’s review of the restaurant (which is linked to in the article during the introduction) she mentioned any changes to the burgers would be seen as “special orders” and require extra time. That leads me to believe they have a process in place for many of the food items to (hopefully) ensure consistency.
All that said, as a Florida resident my particular experience is that service in restaurants across the board – Disney, Universal, I-Drive, and even in my hometown – is hit and miss to a degree I never saw when I lived in the the North East. There is a strange work ethic down here in Florida in that many people just don’t have one. I went to Pointe Orlando this past weekend to Beauty and the Beast in 4DX and stopped by a place right next to the movie theater for lunch. The place is called Lafayette’s. It was pretty cold (in Orlando standards) and the place is a largely outdoor restaurant with indoor seating that has a lot of open air. So we were seated inside a completely empty restaurant. There were two servers probably less than 10 feet away from us who just talked together for at least 5-10 minutes before I asked one of them “is there a server for this station?” One came over and said, “sure, what do you want?”
The food was actually pretty incredible, but that service experience was not atypical. It’s crazy down here.
I agree on the work ethic. Was at Paradiso 37 for lunch in December. We got in just before it rained hard, and the staff were all just watching the rain rather than serving the handful of guests!
Believe or not, that very same day we were at Disney Springs to see Logan at Fork and Screen and stopped by Paradiso 37 for a drink beforehand. Again after seated for 10 minutes we had to go ask for a server. Then, after we were served and had people waiting for reills/more chips, we were informed by another server that our original server LEFT and asked us what we had ordered ao they could take up the table. It’s like an alternate universe.
Also,
“A Bud Light with Jim Carrey’s Riddler costume from Batman Forever in the background. That, my friends, is the Planet Hollywood Observatory.”
I see what you did there.
Am I the only one who finds the menu totally random?
In a place that makes a big deal about themed dining, I don’t understand the “Observatory” selling a pile of appetizers served in a ferris wheel, a half a pig’s worth of ribs served on a picnic table, or a 50’s kitch basket of chicken, along with midway treats piled on top of milkshakes. If the restaurant were based on a state fair theme, these would make sense, but it seems oddly out of place here.
I will get into this more in the overall review of the atmosphere, but you are completely correct, there are like five different themes all going on at once in Planet Hollywood and it detracts from the overall enjoyment. Outside of maybe a two minute projection inside, there is absolutely nothing to do with an “observatory.” The giant inside screens rotate between current music videos, and fun stuff like even using the inside as a giant aquarium. There also seemed to be a last minute addition of “steampunk” as there is a segment on the video wall that is steampunk and in the last few weeks before the restaurant opened they added a Toothsome Chocolate Emporim-like steampunk character to the outside advertising. All that PLUS the carnival type menu you mentioned. It’s absolutely bonkers and this is after almost a year of reimagining. In almost the same amount of the time NBA City was changed into the much more cohesive Toothsome.
My mommy LOLed so loud about the *stand your ground law*! She said she’ll never look at a salad again without laughing.