Mangia in the backlot of Disney’s Hollywood Studios at this casual but colorful Italian eatery with a California twist.
Location: Disney’s Hollywood Studios
Type: American, Italian Cuisine
Price: $$ ($15 to $34.99 per adult)
Reservations: Yes
Benvenuti a Mama’s
The vivacious Mama Melrose serves up home-style Italian fare with flavors as bold as she is.
Checked curtains, overhead string lights, hanging foodstuffs, and walls crowded with Mama’s eclectic mementos transform this former backlot warehouse into a cozy and inviting dining space. The same scrumptious menu is served for lunch and dinner.
Buon Appetito!
Start with one of Mama’s appealing appetizers, like crispy calamari or a zesty caprese salad. Continue with crowd-pleasing flatbread pizzas, a host of authentic pastas, charred strip steak with Italian roasted potatoes or pork osso bucco with polenta.
And for dessert, enjoy a taste of la dolce vita with Mama’s tiramisu panna cotta or the chocolate amarettini cheesecake.
Naturally, there’s an abundance of Italian and Californian wines for Guests 21 years of age and up as well as Italian-American-inspired cocktails like the Bellini and the Italian surfer. And, of course, cappuccino, espresso, lattes and café mochas.
Reservations are recommended and can be made up to 180 days prior to your visit.
The Fantasmic! Dining Package
Enjoy dinner plus reserved seating at Fantasmic! when you book the Fantasmic! Dining Package.
The Mama Melrose Story
Once upon a time, a young girl from a small Sicilian village moved to Hollywood to become a star. However, she soon found that cooking was her true calling as she re-created her papa’s secret recipes for her starving actor friends.
At their urging, she opened a restaurant in a vacant backlot warehouse once used to store film equipment. Mama’s culinary talents soon attracted the patronage of film industry insiders, who dubbed her Mama Melrose, after the lively Los Angeles thoroughfare. Her establishment became known as the place “where Italy meets California in the heart of the Backlot,” and the rest, as they say, is history.
