Review: Burgers and Cheese at Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater Restaurant

Pass under the theater marquee in Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and you can step into a scene from the past. You’ll dine under the starry sky in a nostalgic vision of America’s past at the drive-in, complete with burgers, shakes, and B-movie camp. Here’s what we found on a recent visit!

The interior of the restaurant is decorated as the movie set of a retro drive-in, complete with vintage cars and a big screen. You’re indoors, but the high ceilings and touches like trees peeking up beyond the fence do a good job of setting the mood. And this meal is a themed experience throughout; you’ll be served by “carhops” and ours did a great job playing the role.

Let’s talk seating. There are some small, round, picnic-style tables at the rear, and a few regular “face-to-face” tables for larger parties. But the vast majority of the seating is in the “cars”, two across in rows. This is definitely a barrier to conversation, and if you have multiple small children who need help with their food, it could be a challenge that would make the picnic tables a better option for you. Our party was two adults and two teens, and we were happy to relegate them to the backseat. 😉

Of course the main attraction is the movie clips, so let’s chat about that. The reel is about 45 minutes, plenty long enough to see it all during your meal. To zhuzzh up that movie-theater feel, the sci-fi clips are mixed in with trailer-time filler like exhortations to visit the snack stand and some “news of the future” bits. But the starring content is clips from campy sci-fi B-movies.

Some are cult classics that many will recognize, like Plan 9 from Outer Space or Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. Some are true deep cuts that may only be recognized by people coming from a nerd culture that venerates cheese like Cat Women of the Moon (not to be confused with Teenage Cat Girls in Heat, which I have also seen but which is not in the reel). Although some of the clips might be scary to small kids due to makeup effects, they’re science fiction, not horror.

Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater is open for lunch and dinner daily, and serves the same menu at each meal. (View the menu) Appetizers run $11-$16; entrees are $22-$31, and desserts $8-10. For a three-course meal at Sci-Fi Dine-In, expect to pay $45-55 before drinks and tip.  If you’re on the Disney Dining Plan, the meal is 1 Table Service credit. A Fantasmic Dining Package, which includes an entree, dessert, and drink along with guaranteed seating for Fantasmic, is $57.

Sci-Fi Dine-In reservations can be some of the hardest to come by at all of Disney World, and we advise booking when your 60-day window opens. Now let’s take a look at the food!

Appetizers

It turns out it’s hard to take pictures by the dashboard light! The entree pics are better, but apologies for the less-than-stellar appetizer photos. And we totally missed on the shakes; the picture below is from a different meal because none of ours from this visit were usable.

Milk Shakes – $7.75
Oreo Cookie, Chocolate, or Vanilla. Nondairy options available upon request.

We tried the Oreo Cookie and the Chocolate, and they were both great. Both were creamy, and the Oreo shake had cookie crumbles on top. The shake itself was smooth, but had a touch of Oreo flavor on top of the vanilla-based shake.

Good to know: if you don’t feel like taking on the heft of the shake, you can also get flavored fountain sodas, made with a shot of cherry or vanilla syrup. They’re not listed on the menu, but I had a cherry Sprite with my meal.

Crispy Onion Rings – $11.00
Served with Horseradish Dipping Sauce

Lightly battered and crunchy, with a tender, sweet ring of onion inside that was cooked all the way through. Top-quality onion rings that totally suit the drive-in scene. If you love the ones from the 50s Prime Time Cafe, we ate those two days beforehand and would swear these are the same rings.

Mini Corn Dogs – $13.00
Fried Mini Corn Dogs served with your choice of Dipping Sauces

In a word: mediocre. The mini-corn dog fanatic in our party insists they were still worth it, but he was the only one who thought so. Disney World’s mini corn dogs are usually excellent; these are not them – or if they are, then there was an accident in the kitchen. It’s hard to say what made them so lacking, but unless you truly must, we say don’t.

Entrees

There’s more than burgers on the menu. Those looking for lighter fare will find a salad, there are burger-sandwich options with Impossible and fried chicken, and if you really want to go all fancy, there’s Steak Frites. Still, burgers is all we ate this trip, so rather than make this comment again and again, I’m going to note that whatever is in Sci-Fi’s Signature Blend of Beef, it makes a top-shelf burger. All four that we tried were juicy and deliciously meaty, and none were overwhelmed by the toppings, even though some of those accoutrements had strong flavors of their own.

Drive-in BBQ Burger – $27.00
Our Signature Blend of Beef topped with Smoked Pulled Pork, Cheddar, Lettuce, and Barbecue Sauce served on a Brioche Bun

There’s plenty of extra moisture from the BBQ Sauce (tangy and sweet with little bite) and the cheddar, but neither the pork nor the burger needed it. Would order again.

The Feature Film Burger – $26.00
Please ask your car hop about our newest feature

Our Feature Film Burger was a Reuben burger, with thin-sliced corned beef, Swiss cheese, and sauerkraut, plus a thousand-island style sauce. Unlike the rest of our burgers, this was served on a pretzel bun, but like the rest of our burgers, we thought everything was pretty tasty. If you like Reubens, you will like this.

Beamed-up Burger – $24.00
Two Pressed Signature-blend Patties, American Cheese, Shredded Lettuce, Jalapeño-Bourbon-Bacon Jam, and House-made Burger Sauce served on a Brioche Bun

A good smashburger is great, with just a bit of extra crispy-crunch on the outside of a burger that’s still moist on the inside, and the patties on our burger were very nicely pressed. The bacon jam was sweet and salty with a bit of a bite, bringing some punch and “fancy” to this burger staple, and the mayo-based burger sauce (see below) balanced that bacon jam nicely to give the whole thing a really well-rounded flavor.

Classic American Burger – $25.00
Our Signature Blend of Beef with House-made Burger Sauce, Applewood-smoked Bacon, American Cheese, Shredded Lettuce, and Heirloom Tomato served on a Brioche Bun

This was my burger, and I ordered it bare of cheese and then ate the bacon, lettuce, and tomato separately. This is because I love to get that just-the-burger flavor. While this burger had a good amount of meaty flavor and still had a great texture, I thought it could have been a bit better seasoned. Now, if you feel that a burger is all about the toppings, you might think that I can’t complain because I purposely took all the “flavor” off the burger. We’ll have to disagree; I think a well-seasoned burger stands on its own and only enhances anything you put on top of it.

The good news here is that the house-made sauce was excellent, with a sriracha-chili-mayo flavor that was complex and not overly acidic or salty. If you’re looking for an old-fashioned burger without any new-fangled strange stuff on top and with a nice sauce, then this is your winner right here.

Wrapping Up

Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater is fun, the kind of themed experience that you go to Disney World to get. And that theming is top-notch, enough that it’d be worth going even if the food was only okay. But it isn’t! The food is good!

It won’t be winning any Michelin stars, but Sci-Fi Dine-In is easily good enough to go for the food even without the retro-cheesy sci-fi clips and the drive-in theater set decoration. Some will object to the darkened atmosphere, and it doesn’t support cross-table sharing – either conversation or food. But if you’re trying to decide whether to give it a try, it’s not your stomach that’s at risk. I think you’ll walk away satisfied with your food, whether or not you decide that the exceptionally excellent theming is your cup of tea.

Have you been to the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater? What’s your favorite burger? Let us know in the comments!