Sleuth's Mystery Dinner Show - Review

Just a few days ago, we had the pleasure of checking out one of Central Florida's dinner attractions, called "Sleuth's Mystery Dinner Show." It is located just outside International Drive, behind the "Ripley's - Believe it or Not" museum. The first impression you get when you enter the lobby is particular. It looks like a family-owned-and-operated business, seeing all these out-of-place shopping items and the very unappealing layout of the "official store" of the attraction.

Let's take a look around before continuing our review:

The exterior of the building looks very nice, nonethless:

This is the firts person that greets you upon entering the building:

A full bar also greets you... and everything here has to be payed. It is not included in the price of admission:

Luckily, they offer free, unlimited popcorn:

As we said before, the layout of the place is very confusing. The check-in area is hidden behind a mountain of merchandise, which makes it difficult for guests, who have to line up in the shop's aisles just to check in...

There is the check-in area. It's at the end of this busy aisle:

THE CHECK-IN AREA IS RIGHT THERE. YES, BEHIND ALL THAT STUFF.

The amount of merchandise is very impressing. Unfortunately, most of the items sold look a lot like things you could easily find in your neighbor's garage sale:

Seriously, there's merchandise even on the walls that lead to the restrooms!:

The waiting area is very quiet, though. Unfortunately, you have to survive "Merchandise Valley" to get there:

You can even relax in their outside patio (which is mostly used during the fall and winter months):

Anyway, to recap, while you wait for the show, you can check out the store, drink something (not for free), eat a snack (popcorn, fresh fruit, and more), and enjoy the stories of a mischievous character (a policeman with a very strong English accent). After all this, you are accompanied by the same (fake) policeman outside the main building (that's very unusual), and you then enter in a completely different room, where the show takes place:

We were pleased to see that all the tables had a tablecloth, something unusual here in the United States:

Here's a look at the quite elaborate stage:

There are several different show (14 in total). The one we saw was "Celestial Manor." We are not going to tell you what the show is about, and, of course, we will not reveal "who did it," as you will have to check out the show yourself. What we can tell you is that the show is quite amusing, and everything revolves around the ability of the characters to entertain the public.

IT IS UP TO THE CHARACTERS TO MAKE THE STORY INTERESTING.

There's a lot of audience participation, but the great thing is that in some circumstances you are told before that you'll be called to speak, and in most other circumstances, volunteers will be called to speak to interrogate the suspects. I found this very clever, especially for those like me who are not very happy to speak in public...

But, what about the food? It was very good, to tell the truth. We chose the Honey Glazed Cornish hen, and it was indeed a generous piece of chicken. The "mystery desserts" were great too, but we can't give out their specifications... they're a mystery, that's why! Drinks were unlimited, and they included soda, beer and wine.

At the end of the show, the people that guessed right about the person (or people) that got involved with the crime receive some small prizes, like magnifying glasses or small detective badges. Also, you can get some pictures with the actors before leaving the dining room.

To conclude, if you want to experience a more intimate dinner-show with good food and a lot of audience participation, we recommend you visit the "Sleuth's Mystery Dinner Show." You'll have fun, that's no mystery. Of course, you have to understand English very well, and speak it enough for other people to understand you, so if you are a foreigner and don't understand English at all, you may want to choose another dinner-show that is less focused on words (like Medieval Times or Arabian Nights).