Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue at Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort - Restaurant Review

There are certain restaurant that are on most Disney food fans' bucket lists, whether it be for the character experience, like Chef Mickey's, or for the excellent dining, like Victoria and Albert's.  One of these restaurants that I finally recently crossed off my list was the oft-hyped Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue (If you don't say that in an enthusiastic country-western accent, you're doing it wrong, for the record.)  For my mother's birthday, we decided to spend an evening at the cabins at Fort Wilderness, including a trip to the famous Hoop-Dee-Doo.  Admittedly, my photographs of this particular meal are not necessarily the best (I really need to get a better camera - if there are any donors out there, I wouldn't complain [I kid, I kid...]), but I'll definitely fill in the photo-lack with as many details as I can.

Upon arrival at the Hoop-Dee-Doo, you are taken to your table, either on the main floor or in the gallery above.  From what I could tell, there really wasn't a bad seat in the house, though the gallery and the middle tables likely get the best view.  Much of the performance is done in the center of the hall, so no one feels left out of the show, especially when audience participation comes around.

On your table are plates full of cornbread and a bucket of salad.  If you polish off these items, feel free to ask for more.  The cornbread was absolutely delicious, though I do feel that the butter was a tad too sweet for the already sweet cornbread.  We finished ours off pretty quickly, and Tabby asked our server for seconds.  When the server brought out the next round of cornbread, she also brought out a print out of the recipe, which I have featured in a post on the blog!

Next was the salad - which we were instructed to toss, but not too far (*rimshot*).  I honestly don't have too much to say here.  The dressing didn't leave much of an impression on me one way or the other, just your pretty standard vinaigrette.  The vegetables were nice, cool, and crisp, so they did brighten up what would be a fairly heavy dinner.

By the way, did I mention that the dinner also features all you care the enjoy beer and sangria?  I wouldn't recommend drinking too much, of course - you're at Disney, you should probably try to keep it to "pleasantly buzzed," but I did partake a bit.  Between my father and I, we only managed to polish off about half of a pitcher of Yuengling, but it was still a nice addition to the meal, and added a lot to the value.

Let the show begin!

As we ate our salad and cornbread, the show finally began - featuring a comedic troupe of folks who claimed to travel from fort to fort out in the west to entertain all of the pioneers on their way to new lives and adventure.  The entertainment was loud, raucous, and fun.  This is definitely not the kind of dinner you want to go to if you want to have anything resembling polite conversation, but if you are in the mood for a lot of clapping, hooting, and hollering, this is certainly the place to be.

Of course, there was plenty of audience participation, including a song where they called out certain tables and tried to make up a rhyme about their place of origin on the spot; an old fashioned who-can-make-more-noise competition between the left and right sides of the room; and a volunteer assisted re-enactment of the Ballad of Davy Crockett.

On stage antics

During a particularly rowdy song, the dinner came out in buckets, slammed onto the metal plates in rhythm to the music (I said this was a particularly loud experience, didn't I?)

Did you think I meant Col. Sanders style buckets? (Featuring my dad)

I, unfortunately, did not get a good picture of the ribs, as there was a lot of hustle and bustle and, to be honest, we were hungry.  I will choose not to put in the incredibly blurry shot of the ribs I got before we all started making pigs out of ourselves.  The fried chicken was good, not quite 50's Prime Time Cafe good, but good - the white meat was a little on the dry side, but the dark meat was beautifully juicy and tender.  The fall-off-the-bone pork ribs were covered in a sauce that was the perfect balance between sweet and savory (which I think there could have been a bit more of, but to each there own).  Not being a fan of beans, I can only say that it was reported to me that they were good, and that the corn and mashed potatoes were pretty much what they said on the tin - good, but nothing to write home about.

The food was most definitely of the stick-to-your-ribs, and since it was all you care to enjoy, you could definitely walk out feeling quite overfull, but I knew that there was another item coming up that I wanted to dig into...

That's right - strawberry shortcake.  As usual, dessert took a place of honor with me.  The shortbread was nice and dense, with a dusting of sugar crystals that added just enough crunch to make the texture more interesting.  The strawberries themselves were of the macerated variety, tender and sweet, but not quite to the point where they were super-syrupy or mushy.  I also procured the recipe for this item, and am very much looking forward to making it at home.

In the end, I'll definitely say that the Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue is an extremely fun time with quite good food (and plenty of it).  If you're traveling with kids, or really want to get a loud, fun experience during your trip to Walt Disney World, this is definitely something you'll want to check out, but be sure to book early, as this is an extremely popular show that sells out fairly quickly.

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