ABC Commissary -- Dinner -- Quick Service -- Hollywood Studios

*This dining experience took place in August 2017.

Dinner at ABC Commissary

ABC Commissary, located at Disney's Hollywood Studios, is a quick service restaurant that offers sandwiches, burgers, and salads. We recently stopped by the restaurant for dinner, where the menu changes to offer a more fast-casual meal that includes steak with chimichurri sauce and salmon. It's been a while since we've dined at ABC Commissary, so it was a nice change of pace from the Backlot Express, which is our other default quick service option when we visit Hollywood Studios.

Atmosphere

ABC Commissary is set to resemble a working cafeteria to the stars. Basically, imagine if you were working on a TV show or movie, this is where you might go to grab a lunch or dinner. The interior is pretty basic with simple tables, chairs, and booths, with some TV memorabilia thrown in here and there. Overall, it is pretty sparse. However, one touch that is unique and quite charming is that there are real live trees in the restaurant.Even when you walk in, you'll find palm trees everyone. It's a bit quirky and something that makes ABC Commissary's theming stand out from the rest of its rather bland interior. But, then again, it's a cafeteria, so the theming is meant to be a bit...underwhelming.

The Food

We've eaten here many times for lunch and dinner prior to the dinner menu changes. But, this was our first visit to the "fancier" dinner. In looking at the allergy-friendly dinner menu, I noticed I could order the steak, salmon, and even BBQ chicken and ribs platters. But, what I was really craving were allergy-friendly chicken tenders.The chicken tenders are listed on the lunch menu but not on the dinner menu. So, I decided to ask for a manager to see if I could order them still. I was in luck. Even though allergy-friendly chicken tenders aren't on the dinner menu, you can still order them upon request.Brandon ordered the Chimichurri Sirloin Steak served with Fire-Roasted Corn Medley and Steak Fries which is listed as both gluten free and dairy free. He is not a big fan of corn, so he asked if he could order double steak fries, which they said was no problem at all. Overall, he said this was quite good. The steak wasn't fatty at all, was a fairly large portion, and paired well with the chimichurri sauce. Plus, he really liked the steak fries. We didn't order this gluten free, so I didn't get a chance to taste it, but it looked great.My plate of allergy-friendly chicken tenders was huge. I will say that I miss the old version of chicken tenders a lot. The current ones are made by Ian's, and while they are good, they aren't as tasty in my opinion as the other version. Unfortunately, it looks like the AllergyFreeFoods company that produced them are either no longer in business or just couldn't keep up with demand, which is a shame.My dish also came with steak fries, which were good, but not as crispy as I would have liked them to be.One note about sauces: ABC Commissary used to carry pre-packaged BBQ Sauce and Honey Mustard that were gluten free and dairy free and free from cross-contamination. But, now the restaurant only has sauces in the self-serve pumps that anyone can use. While this helps make things handy for most guests, it's a big concern for cross-contamination, as there's a chance someone could touch a bun or other gluten-filled item with the pumps.I did ask the manager if there were any packages of sauces available, but he told me they didn't have anything. He did offer to go next door to Sci-Fi Dine-In to see if they could assist. As luck would have it, the chefs there actually whipped me up some homemade honey mustard. How nice was that?! So, it's always worth asking if you're not comfortable consuming something that might have a cross-contamination risk.

Overall

We enjoyed our meal at ABC Commissary. It was a little pricier for dinner options, but it was a good middle of the road option for us. We both thought that if we had the choice, for the price, we'd probably just eat at Sci-Fi Dine-In which was comparable in sandwich prices or go to Backlot Express, which is cheaper for dinner and currently offers Disney Annual Passholders 20% off our meal. Still, it's a nice option in the park for quick service.Have you been to ABC Commissary for dinner? What did you think of the fast-casual options?