Plaza Cinema Cafe
UPDATE: 12/26, 1:25pm EST: (via Twitter) The Plaza Cinema Café is OPEN and UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT!
** Update: The Plaza Cinema Cafe has Closed. According to the Sentinel’s story, they hope to have new management in place and re-open by Christmas Day … here’s hoping!**
Orlando Steps Into the Realm of a Major City…Kinda.
Last week I finally go the chance to visit downtown Orlando’s newest attraction, the Plaza Cinema Cafe. I’d heard many things about the theaters–both good and bad–so of course I brought my camera along to document the experience. Here’s what I found:
Yes, that’s a full bar! There are two, and as far as I know no children are allowed. Plush leather seats and gathering areas throughout the entire venue, the Plaza Cinema Cafe is definitely catering to a specific audience.
The Good
- It’s downtown
- It’s sheik
- It’s new
- It’s hip
- It’s affordable
- There’s food
- There’s beer
- The seats are amazing (wide, reclining, leather seats)
The Not-So-Good
- Food still needs some work (my friend wasn’t really that pleased with her pizza)
- You have to park in a garage (unless you live or work downtown)
- They’re not showing all the most current movies (an insider tells me this has to do with licensing)
- It’s a bit small; doesn’t seem like it’d accommodate large crowds
All-in-all I’m really stoked about this downtown Orlando movie theater, and am looking forward to seeing more movies there.
I saw Pelham 123 on it’s opening day, so they do get at least some new movies. I kind of like the fact that they play a few old movies though. Also, what’s wrong with parking in the garage if they validate the parking tickets?
You can’t beat their $4.50 ticket price though with the Buy Local Orlando card…
@Watch Me Eat I didn’t realize they validate parking. Cool! (I work downtown so I just stayed parked at work.)
Isn’t $4.50 the matinee ticket all the time?
Interesting, Ashley. I attended the FPRA lunch the other day which featured the PR team and Realty company behind the theater … I am skeptical, but I look forward to checking it out.
@Kim Skeptical? Por que?
there was an article about the plaza cinema cafe today in the sentinal
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orl-asecplaza-cinema-cafe-problems-0062909jun29,0,2714605.story
not too good
i still want to check it out tho lol! thanks for the review
@Tasty Chomps You definitely should…and form your own opinion.
I really want to go to this. My life is decidedly lacking in hip.
i think i will go get something to eat and then see a movie there maybe bento cafe haha … they need a better ad campaign for the movie theatre tho…
@Miss Britt Oh, you’re plenty hip! LOL!
@Tasty Chomps Yeah, I think they’ll get “there” eventually – just takes time.
I did a post on Bento a while back. Not my favorite Japanese place but it’d decent.
Ooooh beer, recliners, and movies. Sounds awesome and cheap with the buy local card. I am going to have to check it out.
@Anne How can you go wrong with beer & recliners?! You’ll have to let us know what you think when you check-it-out!
I thought of going there on Friday night, but yahoo didn’t list the movie times for this theater. I didn’t want to waste time trying to find out where they had listings so I chose one of my regular theaters. Sounds like they still have some work to do before it will become a “must” theater.
@Alicia Yup…totally agreed! If I didn’t both live and work downtown, I’m sure it would be more of an effort for me.
I still have not made it to the theater just yet. I am a huge advocate for anything new and cool Downtown – but that parking garage is soooo expensive! Saw a movie last weekend but opted for Winter Park Regal because isn’t $10 for a movie enough? Any word about parking validation?
@Kathyrn According to Watch Me Eat (the first commenter on this post) the theater does validate parking.
@Kathyrn If I remember correctly, they validate the ticket for up to 3 hours. I know some of the restaurants in the Plaza (at least Bento Cafe) also validate parking if you eat there.
@Watch Me Eat Is that three hours after the ticket purchase time? Or three hours after the movie ends?
Do you just show your ticket when you’re leaving the garage?
I’m not exactly positive. It was either 3 hours from when you got the ticket pulling into the garage or 3 hours from when the movie theater scanned your ticket. The garage had an automatic pay system so when leaving you just stuck the ticket into the scanner.