REVIEW: Why Everyone Wants To Eat HERE at Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Sometimes you’ve just got to grub when you find some downtime in between your busy park schedule, so where exactly should you aim to be during lunch and dinner?

If you’re visiting Disney’s Hollywood Studios you may be so busy scheduling your next Lightning Lane that food might be the last thing on your mind. You’ve got enough to worry about navigating the crowds around this park. Don’t worry, we’ve decided to try out a popular quick-service restaurant to see if you should work it into your next Disney park day.

On a recent trip out to Disney’s Hollywood Studios, we decided to check out Woody’s Lunch Box and stop for lunch. You can find this quick-service restaurant inside Toy Story Land of the park. It’s almost right smack dab in the center of the entire land. You can access Toy Story Land if you take a right at Pixar Place or from Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge at the opposite end of the land and come through the backside.

Woody’s Lunch Box is known for its American-style cuisine and is supposed to make you feel like you’ve really been shrunk down to toy size in Andy’s backyard. We’ve had several good eats here in the past, but we opted to try out a full meal here for this review.

Background

While you’re in Toy Story Land you’ll find that you’ve been made to feel like one of the toys strewn out after a play date in Andy’s backyard. You’ll be among the likes of tinker toys, larger-than-life boxes and building blocks used for buildings, and even a few household items thrown together to make tables and chairs.

Of course, since we’re toy-sized EVERYTHING is meant to be way larger than we’re used to including things like the BabyBel blocks of cheese to sit on and the tall foliage and shrubs chosen to represent blades of grass.

Atmosphere

We’ve already driven home that we’re in a backyard playtime setting so all of the current seating for Woody’s Lunch Box will be outdoors. There’s a small fencing that surrounds the seating area for the dining tables to help section it off away from the rest of the land. Large patio-style umbrellas are able to cover several of the tables you can be seated at, however, it will be self-seating.

We’ve seen this place get pretty busy at certain times of the day and holidays so you might find it best to coordinate your dining time during less popular times to eat. There are also a few tables that allow for standing dining if that’s what you prefer or all that’s left available.

It’s also worth mentioning we’ve found this is a great place to Mobile Order your food from in advance since it seems to be such a popular grub spot. This is actually what we did this time and it greatly decreased our wait time from having to stand in line to order.

They’re not going to leave you hanging here though. While it is outdoor seating that doesn’t mean you are totally out of luck when it comes to the bathrooms. They can be found just outside the seating area around the side of the quick service building. Just look for the multi-colored building blocks, they’re hard to miss!

Food & Drinks

There’s one building to this quick service restaurant and you have the option to either mobile order from the My Disney Experience app or order from the cash registers.

Here’s a quick look at what’s available on Woody’s Lunch Box lunch and dinner menu. Each mealtime shares the same offerings with the exception of breakfast. As you can see there are lots of creative spins on menu items that could be packed in a child’s lunch box, like themed pastry tarts, potato barrels, and hearty grilled cheese sandwiches.

Once you’ve ordered at the registers (or your mobile order is ready) you’ll make your way to the service counter where they’ll verify your meal and hand your order to you.

For this particular meal, we opted to order the Totchos, BBQ Brisket Melt, 4th of July Lunch Box Tart, and a Raspberry Lunch Box Tart because you know, we’re growing toys and need two desserts, right?

We started in on the Totchos first!

They’re made of potato barrels coated with beef and bean chili, topped with shredded cheese and signature queso with tomatoes, tossed with corn chips, and finished with sour cream and a sprinkle of green onions. We picked these up for $9.99.

This portion was a healthy size so it could double as either a main entree or appetizer. All of the flavors — and layers– in this went well together. The corn chips added a nice crunch, and the cheese and sour cream combo made it all melty but creamy and delicious.

Then it was time to move on to the BBQ Brisket Melt. This is made of shredded smoked brisket, pickles, and tangy barbecue sauce between melted cheddar and Monterey jack cheese on grilled sourdough bread. Essentially, it’s a grown-up grilled cheese sandwich. This entree cost us $13.29, and it comes with potato barrels, tomato-basil soup dipper, or a Cutie mandarin orange. We opted for the dipper soup this time.

The sandwich comes precut in half so you have a good sense of the layers between the sourdough bread. The inside is a melted multi-layer of cheese mixed with the shredded brisket and a sliced pickle in each half. The small side of tomato-basil soup is just enough to dip your sandwich into and is served warm and thick.

The smoked brisket was packed with flavor coated in the tangy barbeque sauce and it really gave it a great punch to a very well-cooked meat. The pickle added a nice splash of flavor but was so cooked it was more flexible than crunchy while the mixture of the shredded cheese against the Monterey jack gave it even more of a full flavor.

The tomato-basil soup was just what we needed to tie it all together but the sandwich melt easily held its own. Our only complaint was that the tomato-basil soup was a bit thick and chunky and is served in a small container so you truly only have enough for dipping and not as a filling stand-alone side.

Then it was time to move on to our desserts, and we started with the Raspberry Lunch Box Tart. 

This is a raspberry marmalade stuffed pastry coated in a strawberry fondant and crispy pearls and cost us $4.49.

The raspberry marmalade taste exactly as it sounds with a light raspberry flavoring as a gel in the center of the outside pastry crust. The addition of the fondant icing and crispy pearls on top added an element of fun but didn’t really add anything to the overall flavor. If you’re not a huge fan of treats that fit this form then it’s probably not going to taste any better than what you’re used to tasting of these, but if you’re a fan of these pastry tarts we think you’ll really enjoy this one.

Since we were so close in season, we also decided to pick up the limited-time treat — the 4th of July Lunch Box Tart.

This one also cost us $4.49 however, it is a cherry pie-filled pastry tart with blue vanilla fondant topped with star sprinkles.

Other than the cherry pie filling this one didn’t taste too different than the Raspberry Lunch Box Tart so if you’re a fan of the raspberry and you’re around to pick this treat up when it’s near the holiday we’d recommend it. The one we picked up was super soft in the pastry, almost like a cookie rather than a harder tart like the other treat. Overall it was just an “ok” snack but didn’t blow us away with anything super special.  We also had a hard time tasting the cherry in the filling so that was a bit disappointing.

Should You Go?

Overall we walked away from this meal satisfied and can see why so many folks have chosen to eat here and continue to come back visit after visit. What we ordered for this meal very easily could have fed two adults comfortably so it really feels like a great budget-friendly quick service if you’re looking to sit down just for the time that you’re eating and getting back to your day quickly without feeling weighed down by the food portions.

Although we felt like the dessert may have been a bit lacking for adults, we felt like kids would be the primary audience for these and could appreciate that. All in all, it was a good meal that we’re glad to have tried, and will certainly be back for more in the future.

If you’re looking for a filling meal that’s not going to leave you feeling super stuffed this is certainly an option we think you should consider. We enjoyed the hyper-themed location, the fun elements that drew inspiration from the land and translated to the menu, and the food quality was great.

Stay tuned to AllEars for the latest in Disney food news and reviews.

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What’s your favorite thing to order from Woody’s Lunch Box? Tell us in the comments!