Dining at Universal Orlando

Here are my thoughts on some of the dining options I tried at Universal Orlando.

Universal Studios Florida

San Francisco

Graveyard Snacks - This is a cart just outside the Beetlejuice show. I grabbed a churro here - nothing special but it was a decent snack mid-afternoon.

Harry Potter - Diagon Alley

Leaky Cauldron - This restaurant is taken straight out of the Harry Potter movies and even contains the eponymous cauldron. There was a queue to order which went outside the restaurant but moved quite quickly. Along the queue there were food models to look at. The menu generally seemed to be more authentically British pub food than the Three Broomsticks, although based on the food models the fish & chips came with potato wedges rather than regular hot chips. I had the Toad in the Hole. The yorkshire pudding was a little average but I really appreciated that it came with 6 different vegetables - onions (which I didn't eat), peas with fresh mint, tomato, parsnip, carrot and broccoli. They offer all three varieties of butter beer here as well as other speciality drinks. I had the regular butter beer - it was yummy as always.

Florean Fortescue's Ice-Cream Parlour - This small shop primarily sells ice-cream. I had to try the butterbeer ice-cream, but I was a little disappointed. It was a soft-serve ice-cream, but the actual ice-cream was just vanilla flavoured and the butterbeer flavouring was in a syrup that was swirled through the ice-cream. The syrup didn't have a very strong taste so overall it was fairly indistinguishable from regular vanilla soft serve. Next time I would try one of the hard packed flavours instead.

World Expo

Fast Food Boulevard - This is a foodcourt with a range of different options. I had a little bit of trouble finding it because it's marked on the map as "Fast Food Boulevard" but the only signs on the outside of the building were for the individual food stations. What caused me more trouble is that it closed at 7pm when the park was open until 8:30, so I wasn't able to have dinner here - I had lunch the next day instead. I had a Basket O' Bait from the Frying Dutchman. It was a big serving and the coconut prawns were really nice. I also had a Flaming Moe which was nothing special as a drink but had a cool dry ice effect and came in a souvenir cup. This is a good place if you are looking for a variety of food options and some of the food names are good for a laugh. There was a bit of a queue to get in to the restaurant.

Lard Lad Donuts - I'm not a huge fan of The Simpsons, but I've seen enough to know that the pink doughnut is iconic (plus I like doughnuts) so I had decided in advance that I had to try the Big Pink from here. When I got to the stand and saw how big it was I panicked a little but ended up going ahead. It seemed even bigger once it was actually in my hands. I ended up cutting it into slices like a pizza and took most of it back to the hotel for later. It easily could have fed four.

Hollywood

Beverly Hills Boulangerie - This is about the only place in Universal Studios Florida for a quick breakfast. But even when the park opened at 8am with Early Entry at 7, the boulangerie didn't open until 9. I had a ham, egg and cheese croissant which came with some fruit. I also had a cappuccino, which only came in one size - huge. At first I thought I was going to have to throw most of it out, but I realised that one advantage of having to put everything in lockers to go on rides is that I could also put my coffee in and sip on it between rides.

Islands of Adventure

Harry Potter - Hogsmeade

Three Broomsticks - Although there are some British elements to the menu here, the main offerings seem to be the ever-present theme park offerings of barbecued chicken and ribs. I was still wet and cold from riding the Bilge-Rat Barges two hours earlier so I went for the shepherd's pie (on a side note, I assume this is exactly the same dish as the one called cottage pie in the Leaky Cauldron). It did a good job of warming me up and came with a nice salad. I also had my first hot butterbeer here - it tasted a lot like a caramel latte with the coffee. I think the original butterbeer is still the most unique of the offerings.

Hog's Head - This is the bar attached to the Three Broomsticks. The highlight inside is the animatronic hog's head on the wall. I had a pumpkin juice here - for some reason it was cheaper here than in the restaurant. Because this is a bar, you're supposed to tip, which seemed a little weird when there wasn't any more service than in a quick service restaurant. But the line was a lot shorter than at the Three Broomsticks or even at the carts outside (which only sold pumpkin juice in bottles anyway). I enjoyed the pumpkin juice but it's not as good as a butterbeer.

Butterbeer Cart - There are several carts that sell butterbeer in both Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley. They vary in what other items they sell but they all seem to sell both regular and frozen butterbeer (hot butterbeer is only available in the Three Broomsticks and the Leaky Cauldron). I tried a frozen butterbeer from one of the carts in Hogsmeade. It was nice to cool down on a hot day but I didn't think the taste was as special as a regular butterbeer.

CityWalk

BK Whopper Bar - We ate here one night because most of the quick service restaurants in the parks seemed to close before dinner time and we wanted an easy meal. We weren't sure before we entered what the "bar" part of the name referred to, and I'm still not really sure after having eaten there. Basically it offers build-your-own whoppers. I found the ordering process a little bit confusing (I ended up having to go back up and ask for tomato and lettuce) and they were out of guacamole which was the only fancy topping that interested me, but at least it was a place to get a basic burger.

Cowfish - This is a fusion restaurant which focuses on burgers and sushi. They don't take reservations, but when you check in they take your mobile number and text you when the table is ready, which means you can explore CityWalk in the mean time. I had a Cowfish bento box which included a slider, sushi (I had California Roll), sweet potato chips, pickled cucumbers and edamame. It was an interesting mix of flavours and the servings of the sides were huge. I also had a marshmallow crisp shake - the marshmallow flavour was really nice but the bits of rice krispies in it were a bit odd.

Cabana Bay Beach Resort

Bayliner Diner

This is the main option for food at Cabana Bay and the only one we tried. They offered room charge as an option but I had to give them my room key and also fill out a form with my room number, name and signature so after the first time I just paid by credit card.

I only had one breakfast here. I had a yoghurt parfait (they offered a create-your-own version but I just grabbed one from the fridge) and a doughnut. I thought the prices were quite reasonable. If you dine in they have real plates and cutlery.

For dinner on our first night I wasn't very hungry so I had a snack size empanadas and corn on the cob. I guess the cashier wasn't very familiar with what was supposed to be included in each menu item because she didn't charge me for the corn (I didn't notice until later). It was a nice smaller meal (and especially good value when I wasn't charged for the corn...)

Cabana Bay offers a refillable mug program but I decided I wouldn't get enough use out of it to make it worth while, especially since there was a coffee machine in the room. Bottled drinks were a little cheaper out of the vending machines than buying them here. Milk was $3 for a single serve bottle or $3.50 for half a gallon so I bought the half gallon to keep in my room for coffees - I only used half of it but I would have needed two of the smaller bottles.