Review: Opening Night at Hurly-Burly

Disney’s BoardWalk officially has a new late-night destination! Hurly-Burly opened October 1st in the former Jellyrolls space, and I was lucky enough to spend some time there – from about 11:30 p.m. until the doors closed at 1 a.m.

If you want my quickest review without reading any further, Hurly-Burly is excellent. I wish Disney had more spaces like this, and you should absolutely visit – whether you’re a family or a party of adults.

And judging by the crowd that was still packed into the place at midnight on a Thursday, I’m not the only one who thinks this is a great new spot.

 

What Is Hurly-Burly?

Hurly-Burly is a new lounge with very substantial food and beverage menus, featuring incredible live entertainment. Disney has themed the space as a historic seaside theater, with a fictional history stretching back to the BoardWalk’s vaudeville days.

If you remember Jellyrolls, you’ll recognize the footprint. But the room itself has been completely transformed. Gold accents, jewels dripping from light fixtures, a starry ceiling, comfortable seating, and – most importantly – a real stage now make the entertainment the focal point of the room.

And Hurly-Burly has two distinct personalities that serve two different purposes! The lounge is currently open daily from 4 p.m. until 1 a.m. From 4 p.m. until 9 p.m., everyone is welcome, including kids, and the entertainment includes family-friendly games, trivia, bingo, and other activities hosted inside the theater. At 9 p.m., everyone under 21 has to clear out (valid photo ID is required after that point). Then the stage takes over, with live music running through the rest of the night.

Musical genres will change nightly, but based on the act featured on opening night (The American Sirens), these are some of the best performers that Disney has to offer! The American Sirens arrange and choreograph all of their own pieces, and they had an impressive array of songs throughout the evening, including early 20th century classics, to Disney standards, to millennial (Stacy’s Mom, Mr. Brightside) and modern (Call Me Maybe). The performers are front and center, with 45-minute sets happening with 30-minute breaks in between. The lighting, stage setup, and seating are all built around watching the show.

Opening Night Was PACKED

Thanks to a late flight from the Midwest, I didn’t arrive at Hurly-Burly until about 11:30 p.m., which I admittedly hoped might mean I’d miss the craziest part of opening night. Spoiler: I did not. There was still a massive line outside the door, and no available seats and the indoor or outdoor bar, or at tables inside. Thankfully, I had a group of friends who were saving a spot just for me.

Hurly-Burly was still wildly popular well after midnight. Tables were full, people were gathered around the bar, and the room felt genuinely alive right up until closing, with musical entertainment continuing until 12:30 am.

This is all worth pointing out because Walt Disney World can get pretty quiet pretty quickly once the parks close. Hurly-Burly gives adults staying around the EPCOT resort area somewhere to actually go late at night.

Hurly-Burly is walk-up only, so there’s no reservation to grab ahead of time. And if the indoor space is full, or if you just want a drink while wandering the BoardWalk, there’s also an exterior walk-up bar. Based on opening night, I would absolutely expect significant waits during popular evening hours for a while.

Let’s Talk About The Food

Hurly-Burly’s menu is designed around small plates rather than full entrées, with eight food options ranging from $11 to $21. I managed to try four of them on opening night: the Antipasto, Roast Beef Sliders, Mini Pretzels, and Mini Apple Cider Doughnuts.

And there were two very clear winners that I’m happy to recommend!

Roast Beef Sliders — $17

These are shaved roast beef with horseradish-mustard sour cream on slider rolls. I consider myself to be a pretty big fan of roast beef, but a pretty big hater of horseradish, so I didn’t know where I would land with these sliders. But they were excellent! There was plenty of beef, the rolls were soft without immediately falling apart, and the sauce gave them enough punch to keep the whole thing from just being meat-on-bread.

One “hack” that I would call out: there wasn’t that much horseradish on any of the sliders, which kept me happy, but meant that the whole dish was a little dry. You can order a small dish of the bacon-cheese dip that comes with another dish (more on that in a moment), and dipping these sliders into that sauce is culinary nirvana.

If I were stopping in for drinks and wanted a substantial dish with some protein to help fill me up, this would be very high on my list.

Mini Pretzels — $12

Okay. The pretzels with bacon-cheese fondue were to die for. The pretzels themselves are soft, salty (very salty), and exactly the kind of snack I want while sitting in a lounge listening to live music. But the bacon-cheese fondue is what takes them over the top.

There is absolutely nothing subtle happening here. It is warm cheese. There is bacon involved. No notes.

I heartily recommend dipping whatever’s on your table into it. It probably improves everything, right?

Antipasto — $21

This one was a bit of a letdown for me. Walt Disney World has plenty of antipasto and charcuterie platters on menus across property, and I’ve come to have some pretty high expectations for them.

This version comes with sliced meats (mortadella and prosciutto on opening night), burrata, Pecorino Romano, and marinated vegetables, along with crisp breadsticks and toasted bread slices for eating everything together.

The meats were good. The rest never quite came together. The toast wasn’t crispy, and the burrata didn’t have that gloriously runny center that makes burrata worth ordering in the first place. And the marinated vegetables looked like they had a few ingredients, but everything just tasted like peppers. Nothing on the plate was bad, but at $21, this is the most expensive food item on the menu, and there are much more exciting things to order for less money.

Especially those pretzels. Have I mentioned the pretzels?

Mini Apple Cider Doughnuts — $11

These are served with a miso-caramel sauce, and I was very excited about them. Unfortunately, they were probably my least favorite thing I tried.

I went in expecting something more like a hot, fried apple cider doughnut. Instead, these had a fairly dry, baked texture. The miso-caramel sauce was interesting, but it also had an aftertaste that I couldn’t quite get on board with.

I’m a dessert girlie, but after eating half of one bite-sized doughnut, I went back to the other food to finish up my meal. Mostly the pretzels.

I love the idea of this dessert considerably more than I loved the execution.

And Then There Are The Drinks

This is a much more serious bar than I was expecting.

The specialty cocktail menu includes tequila, vodka, rum, gin, amaretto, rye, bourbon, sparkling wine, and more. And behind the menu itself is an impressively well-stocked bar, so this isn’t a Disney lounge where your options begin and end with whatever small number of  drinks somebody designed for the menu.

The drinks have fun theater-inspired names like Quality EntertainMint, The Atlantic Review, Road to Fame, Bubble Brava!, and the Mertini. Prices range from $17 to $21. Almost everything on the list leans pretty sweet.

It was late and at the end of a long day, so I stuck to just one drink with all of my food. Naturally, I ordered the one with bourbon.

Caramel Corn Old Fashioned — $21

The Caramel Corn Old Fashioned combines Woodford Reserve Kentucky Straight Bourbon, caramel corn, and The Bitter Truth Decanter Bitters, and comes with a little side of caramel corn.

If you’ve followed my ongoing quest to drink Old Fashioneds all over Walt Disney World, I’m not kicking anything out of my current top eight to make room for it. But this is a genuinely fun version of an Old Fashioned that fits the venue perfectly.

Yes, it’s sweet. The caramel corn influence is definitely there. But it still drinks like an Old Fashioned rather than turning into bourbon-flavored dessert. And serving caramel corn alongside it is a great, slightly ridiculous touch that I appreciate.

So, Is Hurly-Burly Worth A Visit?

Absolutely! There were a few misses among the dishes I tried, but it was opening night, and none of those changed my opinion of Hurly-Burly as a whole. Because the best thing about this place isn’t really any individual slider or cocktail. It’s what Hurly-Burly adds to the BoardWalk.

You can bring your kids in during the afternoon for trivia and games. You can stop by the walk-up bar without committing to an evening inside. Or you can show up after 9 p.m., order a drink and a plate of dangerously good pretzels, and spend the rest of the night listening to live music from the most talented humans in Orlando.

Hurly-Burly feels like Disney finally understood that people don’t necessarily want their Walt Disney World day to end when EPCOT closes. Sometimes you want to hang out with friends, order an Old Fashioned, and listen to live music until after midnight.

Based on the crowd I saw on October 1st, plenty of other people have been waiting for exactly that.

My opening-night verdict: Hurly-Burly is an excellent addition to Disney’s BoardWalk, and I expect it to stay very, very popular.