Should you giddy on up to Roundup Rodeo BBQ in Toy Story Land?

All about the Roundup Rodeo BBQ restaurant in Toy Story Land:

When Toy Story Land opened in 2018, it was a little surprising that they didn’t have a table service restaurant. We did get Woody’s Lunchbox, which is a quick service location (with somewhat minimal outdoor seating). But with Toy Story being so popular, a sit-down restaurant seemed like a natural fit.

Well, it took a few years, but they finally opened Roundup Rodeo BBQ in 2023. It’s a fun, colorful, well-themed restaurant inspired by Woody and friends. Food is served all-you-can-eat family style. There’s plenty to enjoy!

Although the restaurant feels quite immersive and it seems like Woody should walk in at any moment, he will not – this is actually not a character meal. I wouldn’t be surprised if that changed at some point, since it seems like such an obvious choice, but as of right now this will not be your opportunity to meet any Toy Story characters.

So if you don’t get to meet Woody and friends, is it still worth it to eat at Roundup Rodeo BBQ? How is the food there? I’ve dined there twice, so read on for my thoughts!

Round up Rodeo BBQ: The Basics

First, I’ll provide a bit of background and info about the restaurant, and then get into my Roundup Rodeo BBQ review. Here are some of the basics:

Type of restaurant: table service
Meals: Lunch, Dinner
Dining plans accepted? Yes (one table service credit)
Location: Hollywood Studios – Toy Story Land
Price: $49 for adults, $27 per child
Discounts: DVC 10% discount, Annual Passholder 10%
Accepts reservations? Yes, and recommended

The atmosphere

This is a Toy Story themed restaurant, but let’s be honest – it’s really Woody’s, since it’s the Round-Up Rodeo BBQ! It’s really well themed from the moment you enter. Kids (and adults sometimes!) are invited to grab a hobby horse and “gallop” over to their table.

The “story” behind this restaurant is that Andy has built a restaurant for his toys out of old toy boxes and other items he has. Andy doesn’t get enough credit for all of his creativity, in my opinion. From Slinky Dog Dash to this, the kid probably became some sort of engineer or architect!

If you picture the queue of Toy Story Midway Mania, you’ll have a good idea of the sort of style and design choices used inside the restaurant.

One wall has the “Round Up Rodeo” box on it, which tells you what is included in the playset. You’ll also see the box for Rex (Buzz has been added in by Andy), some of Andy’s drawings, and lots of various toy and game pieces. Take a look around at all of the walls (and the ceiling) for fun details – you’ll notice one wall is actually a jigsaw puzzle. And I particularly like the Monopoly cards!

In addition to the walls, you also have some 3D friends prominently displayed. Bo Peep and her Sheep take up one large portion of of the room. Another section features Trixie and Jessie.

The whole place is very bright, colorful, and of course kid-friendly. I think adults can have a fun time with all of the details too (especially since Andy was a 90s kid like so many of us!). There’s really many things to see no matter where you are in the restaurant.

It’s also worth mentioning once again that this is not a character meal – but that doesn’t mean there aren’t some fun little touches which make it feel more interactive than your typical dining location. For instance, every once in a while there is an announcement and the cast members instruct everyone to freeze because Andy’s coming. It’s a fun little touch, and it happens maybe once or twice throughout your entire meal so it doesn’t get old or annoying, either.

Roundup Rodeo BBQ Menu

Since the food here is served family style, that means you get a little bit of everything! Be sure to check out the full menu here to stay up to date with any changes. Here’s a look at what you can expect during your meal at Roundup Rodeo BBQ:

• The Prospector’s Homemade Cheddar Biscuits with Sweet Pepper Jelly
• Rootin’ Tootin Tomato Salad
• Wheezy’s Watermelon Salad
• Platter House-Smoked Items (ribs, beef brisket, sausage, BBQ chicken) OR
• Trixie’s Plant-Based Trio (Cauliflower with harissa drizzle, plant-based ribs, and plant-based bratwurst)
• Cedar Plank Salmon
• Coleslaw
• Mac and cheese
• Corn on the cob
• Potato barrels
• Lemon & Blueberry cheesecake
• Chocolate Silk Pie
• Apple pie
• Peach Strawberry pie
• Forky cupcake

The first time I ate here (in November 2023), you had to choose 4 sides, but there were more choices (including a potato salad, fried pickles, and roasted vegetables). As of now (fall 2024), you get all of the sides listed with your meal. There was one additional salad originally, made with kale, apples, cranberries, and walnuts. That is no longer available.

Roundup Rodeo BBQ drinks

Basic soft drinks are included with your meal, which means you can opt to get Coca-Cola beverages, iced tea, or water.

There are some specialty drinks available for an additional fee (both alcoholic and non-alcoholic).

They have a variety of wines, beers, and hard ciders for purchase, in addition to a cocktail menu. The restaurant definitely sticks to the theme here as well, with a number of the mixed drinks looking to be on the sweeter side (think peanut butter whiskey and grape jelly, chocolate rum and rumchata, etc).

I ended up ordering the same drink both times I dined here, as it clearly appealed to me the most! This was the Whinnyin’ Whiskey Lemonade (Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey, Aperol Liqueur, Strawberry Puree, Lemonade, Basil):

It’s nice, if nothing all that special. It does strike a good balance of sweetness without being sickly sweet. You get the sweetness from the strawberry, but it’s tempered by the whiskey and some tartness from the lemonade. It was a good drink to go with this meal!

Food at Roundup Rodeo BBQ

Now let’s take a look at everything we ate, and my general impressions of it all!

Starters

The beginning of the meal includes two salads and biscuits. This is all served family-style, so they’ll bring out bigger bowls of everything and you can help yourself to as much as you’d like. They will also bring more of anything that you want!

The biscuits are definitely the highlight here. You get The Prospector’s Homemade Cheddar Biscuits with Sweet Pepper Jelly:

Cheddar Biscuits are sure to be a hit, but the sweet pepper jelly really took it to another level! It was just a little bit spicy but had that sweetness thrown in. Add in the savory from the cheddar biscuits and it’s a pretty great bite all together.

Despite the mountains of food that I knew were coming, we still asked for more biscuits. They were just that good!

The two salads we got to start were the Rootin’ Tootin Tomato Salad (Cucumbers, Pickled Red Onion, White Balsamic Vinaigrette) and Wheezy’s Watermelon Salad (with fresh torn mint):

Both of these salads are pretty basic. I enjoy watermelon, and it was good quality (though not much of that promised fresh mint). I really don’t like pickled onions so I didn’t have much of the tomato salad. So even though the salads might be a bit disappointing, that’s okay – because I needed to save stomach space for the stars of the show, anyway! (Or just more cheddar biscuits).

Main course

Both times we dined here, we went with the meat platter. The plant-based option sounds pretty good, but as I do eat meat this felt like the right option at a “BBQ” place. I would love to try that cauliflower, though!

Now that being said, I’m not a huge meat lover by any means, and not particularly a fan of pork or beef (I do like chicken a lot). So I’ll start by saying that I preferred the optional salmon and the sides over most of this platter.

I would say my favorite meat item was the fire-grilled pork sausage. I really liked the smoky flavor to it. The chicken was also really good – but moreso the second time I ate here. More recently the chicken was much more juicy than when I had it last year. Though my experiences dining here were a year apart, the meats included were the same for both… and the quality was not necessarily consistent.

I am not a ribs person, so I took one bite in order to be able to say “that was pretty good, but I’ll save stomach space for other stuff.” Same goes for the brisket, honestly. We did have fun trying the different sauces, and

The menu also listed a Cedar Plank Salmon available upon request.

I don’t remember this being offered the first time we dined, so I only tried it more recently. Our server highly recommended getting it, and as I love seafood I said sure. My companion I was dining with on this trip is not a seafood lover, so I figured I’d have most of it to myself.

Apologies for the poor quality of this photo. Just trust me when I say this salmon was excellent! It had some sort of sweeter BBQ glaze on it and a subtle smoky taste. This was absolutely my favorite “main,” and I’m so glad my server mentioned it!

My friend, who doesn’t eat seafood, tried a bite of the salmon. He ended up liking it so much he actually asked for more! I didn’t expect Roundup Rodeo BBQ to be the place for tasty salmon, and I never expected my fish-hating friend to actually ask for additional salmon!

Sides

My favorite of the sides had to be the Slinky Doooooooooog’s Mac & Cheese.

It’s not a gourmet mac and cheese, but it’s cheesy pasta. It was also topped with a crumble that was good and strangely familiar, but I couldn’t quite place it. We asked our server – turns out it’s topped with crushed up goldfish crackers!

The Cowpoke Corn on the Cob (grilled street corn) was a bit of a disappointment. I love the flavors of street corn, but the actual corn on the cob was just not great quality here. The whole thing was a bit soggy and soft, and the corn itself underneath the toppings was rather tasteless. It was slightly better the first time I had it.

The potato barrels were a nice side. The first time I ate here they were “loaded” potato barrels and had a cheese (and something else?) sauce on top. More recently they were just plain. It was much better with the sauce, in my opinion:

I don’t eat baked beans or coleslaw, but my friend really liked these baked beans. Enough that he made me take a bite. (The result of this was “they taste like baked beans, no thank you.”) So I hear they’re quite good if you like baked beans!

Desserts

The menu instructs you to pick 1 dessert per person, but both times I dined here the server was more than happy to bring multiples. In fact, the first time I ate here they insisted of bringing one of each dessert!

To be honest, I wasn’t particularly blown away by any of the desserts. I think this is one area where they could step it up, although I was so full by then it didn’t matter all that much!

The Cupcake à la Forky (Gooey Chocolate Cake, Graham Cracker, Buttercream, Sugar Cookie) is obviously the cutest. It says “for Lil Riders” on the menu, but they’ll gladly bring it to adults. It was actually a pretty moist cupcake, and I liked the graham cracker crumbs for texture.

I think I recall Bo’s Lemon and Blueberry Cheesecake being a stand-out amongst my friends. Sadly, I don’t really like cheesecake. I do love lemon and blueberry though, so I have a feeling that one is good.

Billy’s Chocolate Silk Pie is the one chocolate item on the menu (aside from the cupcake). And for the most part, that’s basically all it is – a very rich chocolatey dessert, similar to a chocolate mousse. It’s a little one-note for me but it was nice to have a taste.

Goat’s Apple Pie was a bit too sweet for me, although others liked it. My “main” dessert was Gruff’s Peach-Strawberry Pie. This was probably my favorite out of all of them. The peach and strawberry was a nice balance of sweetness together. But after all of that food, I really couldn’t eat very much!

Is Roundup Rodeo worth it?

I’ll give my usual caveat – everyone’s tastes are different, and everyone is looking for something a little bit different when they consider value. But given my own experiences, I would definitely say it was worth it to eat here.

You get a lot of food, so if you come with a big appetite (or have big eaters) that will help make it worth it. Not all of the food was outstanding, but there were some really tasty highlights. And when you can get more of anything, it doesn’t all need to blow you away. I could easily make a meal just out of the biscuits, watermelon salad, salmon, pork sausage, and mac and cheese and be a happy camper.

But there are definitely some areas they could improve when it comes to the food. I wouldn’t mind seeing higher quality on a few things, but at least there are a lot of options.

The atmosphere is fun and the themeing is very good. You’re not getting character meet and greets here, but if they did add characters the price would be a lot higher. So I’m okay with that.

Roundup Rodeo BBQ FAQs

Do you need reservations to eat here?

Yes, it is highly recommended to make a reservation in advance if you wish to dine here. Same-day walkups may be available but are not guaranteed.

If someone in my party doesn’t want to eat the food here, can they still join us without paying?

No, every person present at the table will be charged (except children under 3, who are always free). Since the food is served family style, you are charged per person and not per dish/meal. If you have a picky eater you are concerned about, there are lots of items on the menu so take a look over everything to see what they might like.

Are there Toy Story characters at Roundup Rodeo?

No, there are no characters available for meet and greets at the restaurant. Woody, Jessie, and Buzz have meet and greets outside in Toy Story Land that anyone can do.

Can you order both the meat and the vegetarian options?

If one person in your party is vegetarian and the others are meat eaters, you can get both. They will most likely bring a smaller sized portion of the platter that fewer people have asked for, but keep in mind you can always ask for more of anything!

Can you eat here as a solo diner?

Absolutely! Disney is great if you’re traveling solo. Even though it’s “family style,” you can still eat here as a party of 1. They will bring out all of the same food items, just smaller portioned sized for an individual. And you can still ask for more of anything, as well!

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Have you eaten at Roundup Rodeo BBQ? Which dishes sound the best to you?