We’re heading to Disney’s Hollywood Studios to eat at a SERIOUSLY underrated restaurant.

Granted, this spot hasn’t been a top priority for us in the past. With some really fun restaurants in the park — like 50’s Prime Time Café or Woody’s Lunch Box — we used to write off this spot as not worth the money or stomach space. But recent updates have pulled the eatery back into the game, so let’s head in to check out the grub!

ABC Commissary is a quick service restaurant that you might not even have SEEN in Hollywood Studios. It’s located behind the Frozen Singalong building, to the left of Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway if you’re facing the attraction.

This restaurant is themed to look like a movie studio cafeteria. So the idea is that you’re on the production team of a movie and you’re taking a break from the show biz to grab lunch with your fellow workers.

In the past, we’ve been pretty underwhelmed by the atmosphere and eats at this spot. But when the restaurant reopened in October 2020, the updated menu had us re-thinking everything! The new food items were super tasty, and there was plenty of seating and fairly low prices.

We definitely think this spot wins “most improved” over the last couple of years, but is it really worth a visit if you’d have to skip the Totchos or Ronto Wrap? We’ve got all the details to help you make a decision.

Atmosphere

One great thing about this restaurant is that it’s located in a pretty central area. It’s just at the end of Hollywood Boulevard (next to the Chinese Theater), so you won’t have to go clear across the park if you’re in any of the other lands. You’ve just got to make your way back to the middle.

Heading inside, you’ll first walk through the entrance, which is flanked by palm trees. You are in Hollywood, after all!

There are glass barriers with the ABC logo on them, and you can also take a look at some displays of props and pictures from shows produced by ABC.

The ordering stations are located right past that hallway, but note that this restaurant is ONLY using Mobile Order right now. You cannot order from a Cast Member at the stations. So you’ll need to order from the My Disney Experience app on your phone and then head inside once your order is ready.

Click here to learn how to use Mobile Order in Disney World.

When we were here recently, that entrance hallway was actually crowded with guests who didn’t realize that Mobile Order was required. Everyone was standing around and ordering from their phones and then waiting for their pick-up time to arrive. Instead, you should order your food before you even arrive at the restaurant and ideally just after you get into the park. Then you can choose a later pick-up time and everything will be all set for your meal. Ordering early ensures you’ll get the pick-up time you want!

Once you’ve got your food, you can head into the dining room. The dining room is pretty basic, which makes sense because it’s themed after an employee cafeteria. There are two large dining rooms, each with booths as well as standard tables and chairs.

There are some TVs playing ABC shows, and there are more props and photos to check out here!

Some of the tables are shared, meaning that multiple parties will eat at the same table. And note that there is also plenty of seating outside, and some of the tables there are covered with umbrellas! These are located on the right-hand side of the restaurant (if you’re facing the entrance).

All of the available seating is a big bonus at this restaurant. Seating at other quick service spots like Woody’s Lunch Box can fill up fast, and it might be difficult to find a table there. But there is a LOT of room here to sit down, cool off, and enjoy your meal.

There are some trash cans and tray disposal spots around the dining rooms, but a Cast Member told us that they actually prefer guests to leave their trash at the tables. Still, anything you can do to help clean up and make it easier on the Cast Members is great! The utensils, drinks, and condiments are all self-serve at this location.

Now that you’ve got the lay of the land, let’s eat!

Eats

Menu

There’s a pretty good variety of options on the menu here. For the entrées, you can choose from choices like tacos, a Mediterranean salad, and sandwiches.

There’s also a plant-based burger and several side options.

Kids can choose between a turkey sandwich, a taco, or a grilled ham and cheese sandwich.

And don’t forget about dessert!

For drinks, there are a couple of souvenir options, including a BB-8 or Darth Vader cup.

And the drink choices include sodas, a souvenir slushy, juice, water, coffee, hot chocolate, tea, and some alcoholic options.

There are a couple of cocktails as well as some beer and lager choices.

Drinks

For our drink, we tried out the Strawberry Lemonade Slushy for $5.99. It’s made with Minute Maid Lemonade.

We thought this drink was very sweet and flavorful! The strawberry flavor is especially prominent. Like most slushies, this drink might melt FAST if you’re sipping it outside in the sun.

If you don’t like sweet drinks or strong strawberry flavors, this might not be for you. But we think that kids will really love this because of the simple flavors and very sweet taste.

Food

We tried out the Mediterranean Salad with Chicken for $11.99 as our first entrée. This is marinated chicken served over mixed greens with tomatoes, cucumber, pepperoncini, Kalamata olives, and feta cheese tossed in a Mediterranean vinaigrette. It’s served with hummus and a grilled flatbread.

That vinaigrette was VERY flavorful, and the grilled chicken was well seasoned and not dry at all. We really enjoyed the flavors together with the veggies as well.

We could have used a little more cheese (are you surprised?), and the hummus wasn’t really anything special. It had a strong chickpea flavor, but it was mostly just your average hummus. And that flatbread was really dense, even though it wasn’t super thick. The edges were fairly hard.

Anyone who enjoys Greek salads would love this dish. You may be a little disappointed in the hummus and pita, but the dressing, chicken, and veggies all were delicious.

Our next entrée was the Pork Carnitas Tacos for $11.49. This is pork carnitas on flour tortillas, topped with avocado salsa verde and pickled onions. They’re served with Mexican rice and black beans on the side, which are topped with queso fresco.

We thought these were really good! The pork carnitas especially was very delicious, with tender meat and a strong flavor. You can taste the vinegar from the pickled onions as well, but it’s not overpowering. And the avocado salsa verde brings a little bit of a kick! It’s not too spicy, though, so we think people who don’t love spice will still enjoy this dish.

We could definitely taste the cilantro in this dish, so if you’re not a cilantro fan, be sure to ask for that to be removed. The black beans were pretty standard, but the rice was surprisingly flavorful. There are peas mixed in with the rice, which added an interesting texture and sweet flavor when you get one in your bite.

If you enjoy Mexican cuisine or slow-cooked pork, we think you’ll love these tacos. But if you’re very averse to spice or don’t like any fatty pieces of meat in your protein, you may want to look elsewhere on the menu.

We also tried out the Steak Fries, which are a side item for $4.49. These were really good as well!

They were nicely salted and very fluffy. Some were unevenly cooked, with ends that were almost chewy.

We honestly think that price was a little too high for basic fries, but they were very filling even on their own. There wasn’t anything unexpected about these fries, so kids or picky eaters would probably enjoy them!

We finished off our meal with dessert! We got the Chocolate Mousse for $5.79. This is raspberry and dark chocolate mousse on top of a chocolate-almond cake. There’s a layer of hazelnut crunch on the bottom with a whipped chocolate-hazelnut cheesecake bite.

This treat is VERY chocolatey and rich! If you’re a big fan of chocolate, you can’t miss this dessert. We couldn’t taste the raspberry in the mousse at all, because the chocolate flavor overpowered it so much. The cake was pretty dense, and we couldn’t get much almond flavor for it. Again, chocolate took over!

The hazelnut crunch was good, and it brought a much-needed bit of texture to an otherwise soft treat. And the whipped hazelnut cheesecake had a strong hazelnut flavor and tasted amazing! Very rich and creamy with lots of sweetness.

There were a couple of decorations made out of chocolate on this dessert, and they tasted like normal milk chocolate. One of our only complaints about the mousse was that it was covered in a layer of black food dye. We know it makes the dessert look really cool, but we had to constantly wipe our fingers to prevent it from getting EVERYWHERE.

If you don’t love chocolate, you will probably think this treat is too rich. But we think chocolate lovers will really enjoy everything about it!

Nosh or Not

Head into the cafeteria for the stars if:

• You are traveling with a large group and want to all sit down together for a meal. There’s plenty of seating in this spot, and you probably won’t have an easy time finding a table at other quick service restaurants in Hollywood Studios.
• People in your group have a lot of different food preferences. Unlike some other restaurants here, this spot has a pretty wide variety of options, so there’s going to be something for almost everyone.
• You’re looking for a central spot for lunch and don’t want to go too far across the park. The central location makes it easy to get to this restaurant.

Visit a different spot for lunch if:

• You want to experience more immersive and fun theming. Docking Bay 7 and Woody’s Lunch Box both have super fun theming, both for the atmosphere and food.
• You’re looking for a relaxing table service experience. There are some cool sit-down restaurants in this park, including 50’s Prime Time Café and Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater.
• You want more interesting cuisine. The food here is different from the pizza, burgers, and fries that you’ll find at many theme park restaurants, but there are more interesting places to eat. Check out the Hollywood Brown Derby for a fancy table service experience, or visit Ronto Roasters for quick service food with a Star Wars twist.

Overall

In general, we really enjoyed our experience at the ABC Commissary. The food was all really tasty, and the Cast Members were kind and helpful. We’re still impressed with the menu updates, and we think this spot is not a bad choice for a quick lunch that offers plenty of indoor seating.

The theming is not very exciting, so that might be a deal-breaker for people who want to be more immersed in a story during their visit. But the food really is delicious, and the prices are very fair for the most part. The menu isn’t enormous, but it does have a good variety of choices for all kinds of eaters.

Keep following DFB for more reviews from all the restaurants in Disney World!

Click here to check out 8 NEW treats in Hollywood Studios.

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Have you eaten at the ABC Commissary? Tell us what you thought in the comments!

The post REVIEW: You’re Not Expecting This Disney World Restaurant to Deliver…But It DOES first appeared on the disney food blog.