Walt Disney Imagineering designed the booths to resemble convertibles of the period, and some servers act as carhops while wearing roller skates.

By the following year, the Sci-Fi Dine-In was serving upwards of 2,200 people daily during peak periods, making it the park's most popular restaurant.

USA Today's list of the best restaurants in American amusement parks ranks the Sci-Fi Dine-In fifteenth, but many reviewers rate it more highly for its atmosphere than for its cuisine.

Ed Bumgardner of the Winston-Salem Journal wrote that the food is more expensive than it is worth, specifically calling the restaurant's roast beef sandwich both delicious and a ripoff.

[5] Disney hoped that the focus on theme would bring the Sci-Fi Dine-In the level of success that had been garnered by the 50's Prime Time Café.

[7] Starting from its earliest days, the restaurant equipped its servers with point of sale mobile devices that relayed orders to a printer in the kitchen, which was considered at the time to be in keeping with the science fiction theme because the technology had been developed shortly prior.

Nonetheless, Minnie Mouse character meals held at Hollywood & Vine were discontinued that year, and Robert Johnson of the Orlando Sentinel partially attributed this cancellation to competition from the Sci-Fi Dine-In, which he said "almost always has a line of customers waiting".

[7] Some of the servers at the Sci-Fi Dine-In wear roller skates, acting as carhops, while others improvise characters such as a police officer ostensibly in search of people who have sneaked into the theater without paying.

Jack Hayes of Nation's Restaurant News calls the Sci-Fi Dine-In "wacky" and "on the cutting edge of sheer dining fun".

[34] In the Evansville Courier & Press, Pete DiPrimio writes that the Sci-Fi Dine-In ranks among the most unusual of the restaurants at Disney's Hollywood Studios.

[38] The book DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: Walt Disney World Resort & Orlando also states that the food is more expensive than it is worth.

[39] Ed Bumgardner of the Winston-Salem Journal shared this opinion as well, specifically singling out the restaurant's roast beef sandwich as a ripoff, despite calling it delicious.

[41] In Frommer's Walt Disney World and Orlando 2012, Laura Lea Miller expresses disappointment that the menu no longer contains the playful item names it once did.

[16] In the book Walt Disney World Resort: Also Includes Seaworld and Central Florida, Corey Sandler writes that the Sci-Fi Dine-In is "a must-see eatery... for adults and adventurous kids" and that "the food is appropriate for a drive-in theater—very ordinary, but that's not really the reason you came".

Rona Gindin and Jennifer Greenhill-Taylor write highly of the restaurant's hot-fudge sundaes in Fodor's 2012 Walt Disney World.

[43] In Plan Your Walt Disney World Vacation in No Time, Douglas Ingersoll writes very positively of the milkshakes, and argues that the sandwiches and burgers are better than at the fast food restaurants in the park.

[44] A reviewer for the United Kingdom's The Sentinel also writes positively of the Sci-Fi Dine-In's milkshakes, and argues that, "if you chose to treat yourself to a good lunch in one of the Disney parks, then this is the one".

[3] Shumaker and Saffel contend that the Sci-Fi Dine-In provides a reasonable compromise when vegetarians and non-vegetarians are looking to eat together, and that it is also suitable for both large and small families with young children.