In this post we review Roundup Rodeo BBQ, a Toy Story-themed table service restaurant at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. We’ll start with the basics before talking about making your reservation, our experience, and whether or not we think this is a good option for dining at Hollywood Studios. Read on to see if we had a rootin’ tootin’ good time at Roundup Rodeo BBQ!
Roundup Rodeo BBQ Basics
Roundup Rodeo BBQ is located in Toy Story Land at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Walt Disney World. Entering the land from its main entrance (from the hub of the park), you’ll pass the restaurant on your right, after the Woody statue and before Slinky Dog Dash. If you’re entering the land from Galaxy’s Edge you’ll have to walk through the land to get there.
As of this update, the lunch and dinner menus are the same and are priced the same. This is a family style meal that costs $49 per adult and $27 per child (Ages 3-9), plus tax and gratuity. If you’re using a Disney Dining Plan, Roundup Rodeo BBQ requires one table service credit.
Altogether, given the quality and portions of the food, we found the price to be pretty good—and that’s as vegetarians. I imagine meat eaters would generally be even more okay with the price. Hollywood Studios has good quick service options, too, but you won’t miss out if you set aside one meal for table service.
Roundup Rodeo BBQ is not a character meal. If you’re looking for a character meal at Hollywood Studios, you’ll want to look into Hollywood & Vine, which offers both Disney Junior and Minnie & Friends meals.
Reserving Roundup Rodeo BBQ
Roundup Rodeo BBQ is one of the more popular table service restaurants at Walt Disney World, so you’re going to want to book an advance dining reservation if at all possible (and as soon as possible). We were booking on relatively short notice and there was decent availability, but I also used MouseDining to track times that worked well with our schedule.
If you don’t have a reservation and you want to dine at Roundup Rodeo BBQ, I recommend checking the Disney World app for both same-day reservation availability and walkup availability. If the app shows nothing, you can always stop by the restaurant and check (but don’t expect positive results if the app doesn’t show any availability).
Our Roundup Rodeo BBQ Experience
We checked in (via the app) for our 11AM reservation at around 10:50AM. We were called to the host stand at about 11AM but then still had to wait a few minutes for someone to come out and call our name around 11:04AM.
Lunch started at 10:45AM, which meant the restaurant was not yet filled by the time we got in there. I like an 11AM lunch for a few reasons.
First, it’s early enough to allow us a light breakfast that keeps us moving quickly in the morning. Second, it’s late enough that there won’t be many short waits left in the park that we’re missing out on. Hollywood Studios rope drop usually only allows you a few short waits, at best.
Third, the restaurant is less crowded which usually means a faster meal (our food arrived at 11:15AM). Finally, with an early start and a fast meal, we’re left with a big afternoon block to work with when it comes to booking our Hollywood Studios Lightning Lanes. This is not an easy park to plan, so having a big chunk of time to be flexible with is key.
Roundup Rodeo BBQ Design
The design of Roundup Rodeo BBQ is—like the rest of the land—colorful, kitschy, and fun. I do find it a bit darker and more cramped than I’d like. To put it thematically, I just assumed we were under Andy’s bed based on how the space felt.
The aesthetic reminds me a bit more of Toy Story Mania than the rest of Toy Story Land, but this is probably just owing to those being indoor spaces that necessitate more 2D and less 3D design.
Roundup Rodeo BBQ Food
Shortly after we were seated, a Cast Member came over to take our order. Fountain beverages and teas are included (kids can choose milk or bottled water). There are a variety of additional-cost beverage items, including alcohol. Zoe got a “Frozen Cowpoke Cocoa” (non-alcoholic).
As for food, the only choice to make is whether you want the real meat or plant based options. You can see the menu here. I’d note that most of the accompaniments are plant-based, and all are vegetarian.
The cheddar biscuits and jelly were tasty. It’s a good thing everything came out pretty quickly or I’d worry about filling up on these.
The salads were simple and light. It was particularly nice to have some fruit to give Zoe.
It’s worth mentioning the plant based trio is one fewer item than the meat option. The cauliflower was good, and—along with the bratwurst—a plant-based staple these days. But the “rib” chop was a fantastic treat.
DID I MENTION WE REALLY LIKED THE “RIB” CHOP?
And of course, there are five sides—corn, veggie slaw, beans, potato barrels, and mac & cheese.
Nothing about the sides really wowed me, but I didn’t have any complaints.
Dessert was the only aspect of the food I was disappointed in. They come as these tiny, factory-food lookin’ jarred things:
Of course, we were already nearly full. But if you’re a “save some room for dessert” type of person, you might not want to save too much room. The desserts are still “as much as you care to enjoy,” but their simplicity doesn’t quite hit.
We were really happy with the food overall. We found the portions to be a bit much. We’re not big eaters, so we might have been better off requesting smaller portions. But when it comes to price for food quality, this was a significantly better deal than our recent meal at Epcot’s Space 220.
Roundup Rodeo BBQ Gimmicks
I mention Space 220 because it’s also relatively new, and it’s a restaurant very much known for its…atmosphere (get it?). While we found that Space 220 did a good job at not trying too hard, we basically felt the opposite about Roundup Rodeo BBQ. It seemed to be trying hard in the wrong ways.
For whatever reason, Disney opted to not make this a character meal, even though since it’s still “Andy’s Room” themed, the characters would fit in perfectly. Instead, there are a few gags throughout the meal.
The most popular is, of course, the “Andy’s coming!” gag. The Green Army Men will come on the speakers and say Andy’s coming, and everyone in the restaurant has to freeze for a few seconds. It’s fun enough, and a callback to the early days of Toy Story Land when the characters would occasionally do something similar.
Besides that, there would be several jokes and such from Toy Story characters that would play over the speakers. These weren’t always easy to hear, and they didn’t really add much to the experience. Then there was one instance where Duke Caboom did a ‘trick’, riding around the restaurant.
Well, it was actually a Cast Member holding a small Duke Caboom toy. I get it, it’s a fun way to bring the gag to life. But the restaurant has gone out of its way (particularly with “Andy’s coming!”) to emphasize that we’re the size of toys.
I’m less inclined to nitpick things like this than I was 7 years ago in general, but it’s the dissonance of having the Cast Member repeatedly remind you you’re toy-sized when you’re being seated, and then having a tiny Duke Caboom toy racing around that gets me.
Even Emily—who is usually this girl when I talk about theming issues:
—was a bit confused.
None of this takes away from the meal. The overall design of the restaurant is fun. At worst, you’ll sit through one of these gags and think “hm, that was odd,” and then get back to whatever detail you were looking at on the wall or whatever tasty piece of food you were munching on.
Conclusions
We’re excited to eat at Roundup Rodeo BBQ again sometime. It was a fun atmosphere and delicious food at a reasonable price. As vegetarians with limited good options in the parks, it’s nice to see a big pile of tasty fake meats available.
Based on our experience—which, again, was early enough that the restaurant wasn’t full—I’d say Roundup Rodeo BBQ can fit well into a full day at Hollywood Studios. You don’t want to waste too much time in that park on a table service meal, but with family-style food and a limited menu (i.e. the kitchen doesn’t have to be specially preparing your item), this meal was notably efficient.
I think the atmosphere and design are short of perfect, but that’s okay because I don’t think you’re coming just or even mostly for those things. I think kids will be entertained enough (ours was) and I think adults will be happy enough with the food. Overall, Roundup Rodeo BBQ was a great spot for a table service lunch at Hollywood Studios.
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