Matthew U.
Yelp
Not gonna lie, I was excited to be able to finally visit a Planet Hollywood. I know this isn't their heyday anymore, and there are only a few left, but I was excited nonetheless.
I happened to show up here at the perfect time. Well after the lunch rush and before the dinner influx. Dining by yourself is amazing, there's no timetable to complete your meal, there's no one to rush you, and most importantly, no wrong choices.
After being at the host stand I was told all I had to do was go up to the top of the steps, inform them there, and then head to the bar. Sitting at the bar was probably the best and fastest thing to do in here. You get to see a lot of the floor, you get to see a lot of the movie themed decorations and you get kind of a show with how fast the bartenders do their thing. You also get to see the employees interact with one another.
Once at the bar I was given a menu and left to look it over. I figured, since this was my first meal in the area I would get an appetizer and entree. For the appetizer I went with the Five Cheese Dip, entree, The Original Ringer. I have to note here, I wasn't expecting Guy Fieri burgers here, but that is what I got, more on that later.
The five cheese dip is a mix of Swiss, mozzarella, provolone, Parmesan, and Asiago cheeses. Include some spinach and artichoke hearts then top with roasted tomato, and you have yourself and appetizer that could be a meal on its own. This come with tortilla chips and flatbread for dipping. The flatbread is not as easy to dip and contain the cheese as the tortilla chips are. However, they are a welcomed addition to the plate.
As for the burger, I was a bit disappointed by it. Not because it was a Guy Fieri burger, but because of the way it was prepared. For those that have not had one of his burgers, it's a spectacle. The Original Ringer is a smash burger that is grilled to your liking and then topped with what they call a crispy rojo onion ring, Guy's signature barbecue sauce, SMC (super melty cheese), cheddar, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickle, and donkey sauce (garlic aioli). All on a brioche bun.
The burger to bun ratio is perfect. And if you know you know, you have to kind of hunch to eat it. But my first bite into the burger I was having trouble. See, they overfired the onion ring. To the point that I couldn't even bite through it. It was fried so hard that the onion inside the coating had nothing to it. Paper thin and almost like hide. You couldn't even chew it let alone bite into it. I had to take the onion ring completely off the burger. Then there were the pickles. Cut almost paper thin that you couldn't even tell they were there, also not able to bit through. In the end, I scraped off a lot of the toppings. If I didn't, it would have turned my stomach.
For the price that I had paid, I expected at least totally edible food. However, it was not the best meal. In the beginning, I did come here for the atmosphere, so that panned out.
Upon leaving, I had stopped at the store on my way out to purchase some items. I had intentions to only get a magnet, but since the guy working this night was so pleasant to deal with, he talked me into purchasing some shirts as well. It didn't hurt that they were having a sale on them either.
Walking out, I noticed that the line to get in here was enormous. The wait times must have been at least an hour at that point.