Roundup Rodeo BBQ Review

John Chapman

Howdy Partner!

Eating at the Roundup Rodeo BBQ will teleport you to Andy’s backyard where you become an honorary toy. Immersed in the theming of Toy Story you will see some of your favorite characters, toys, and pieces of nostalgia for any kid from the 90’s.

A family style BBQ offers a main course selection of ribs, brisket, pork sausage, and BBQ chicken. These meats are paired with tater tots, mac & cheese, corn on the cob, baked beans, and slaw. To finish the meal, you can have your choice of Lemon and Blueberry cheesecake, chocolate pie, apple pie, peach-strawberry pie, or a cupcake a la Forky.

The Good

As someone who grew up on Toy Story and still finds it to be one of, if not, my favorite animated film it is easy to find a lot of good in this restaurant so I narrowed it down to two unique things:

The Immersive Theming: The theming is an incredibly immersive experience where you can’t help but feel like you’re one of Andy’s toys brought to life. If you were a child during the 90’s you cannot help but feel at home amongst all of the oversized decorations that were once a piece of your childhood.

The Cast Members: Beyond the physical theming of the decorations both servers and guest alike are intended to be toys brought to life. In true Toy Story fashion, whenever Andy is known to be coming (there is a loud speaker announcement) all the toys freeze wherever they are. This was such an incredible experience as a restaurant full of people have all bought into the act and it goes from a bustling noisy environment to a place quiet enough to hear a pin drop.

The Not So Good

As you can likely tell from the section above, I loved almost all aspects of the experience of eating at Roundup Rodeo so rather than having “The Bad” I’ve chosen two items to call “Not So Good”.

  1. The Price: The price is on the higher end of the Disney dining spectrum for non-character dining. As a family style meal, all members of the party are charged the same price for the meal regardless of what they’d like to eat so for the light eaters in the group, this might feel like you’re not quite getting the bang for your buck.
  2. The Food: While the food is good, it is not the best food at Walt Disney World or even the best BBQ on property. There are a few different options for quick service and table service that offer better BBQ such as Flame tree Barbecue in Animal Kingdom.

I would absolutely recommend this restaurant for anyone who has an affinity for the Toy Story movies. If you take frequent trips to Walt Disney World, this might not be a restaurant that you would want to visit every trip to Hollywood Studios but it’s certainly one that is worth putting into your rotation.