Character Meal at The Kitchen at Hard Rock Hotel

[123SA]

We do a lot of character meals at Disney. Despite their ages, 17,14,11 , my kids still look forward to this. I booked the character meal at The Kitchen at the Hard Rock Hotel. This is our first Universal trip. Staying at the Hard Rock Hotel 8/20-8/25.


1) Would you recommend this restaurant?

2) The photo on line showed Scooby Doo -- does Scooby meet here or is it random characters? Do you know who the other characters are? How many?

3) On-line states character meal dining Sunday & Wed 6pm - 9pm. I booked the meal for 7;30pm The parks close that day at 9:00pm and 8:00pm Am I going to regret cutting the park day short?

4) There is nothing on my confirmation email that indicates that this is a character meal. Should I call the restaurant and confirm that?

THanks for your help

 

[buckeev]

We have done dozens of character meals all over Orlando, (and anyplace else my son can find somebody in a hot, sweaty costume willing to give hugs and high fives!!!)
He thoroughly enjoys The Kitchen's character experience, been about 8 or 9 times over the past few years. They sometimes have Scoobs and Shags, but we've also been visited by Shrek and Donkey several times and even Woody Woodpecker once, and Santa! There may have been others-can't remember-but your mileage may vary.
The characters

The Food. (Sorry-I know you didn't ask about the food)...but THE FOOD! It has always been very good. If you're a burger lover, The Kitchen has incredible burgers! My bride and my brats get pasta dishes and such and have always enjoyed it. They also have a really good breakfast buffet, and even my son-aka The World's Pickiest Eater-will eat his weight in scrambled eggs from them!

The Staff. VERY accomodating. Very friendly. 5 STARS!

Hope this helps!

Robert

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

On our most recent trip in early May, we had both dinner and breakfast at the Kitchen on the days they were featuring characters at the meal. At dinner, we saw Scooby and Woody Woodpecker. At breakfast, it was Gru and a minion.

Great atmosphere. Wonderful service. Excellent food.....especially at breakfast. Their buffet was superb.

 

[macraven]

Choose the restaurants by menu!

Character dining means characters will be present at specific hours on particular days of the week at one of the main hotel restaurants

I have done the Kitchen and the Islands restaurants over the years when characters of two are present

The two characters are always changeable
Switch of two different characters can be common

You order your meal and the characters will visit each table for pictures and a short chat with the lead with them

Then they move to another table

That is it for dining with a character

Rpr has the event on theee evenings while other two hotels (depending on season) have it twice a week

So recheck with the hotel to make sure character dining was not changed

Do that the morning of your evening reservation

In same writing, that disclaimer is listed that hotel switch can happen

And confirm the time characters will be present

One time at rpr on a Saturday evening, hours were changed that morning to 5-8 for characters to be present

So I suggest do character dining based on he menus
Presently the menu at rpr has a different flair of meals than the other two hotels offer

Have seen on different trips the team of scooby and shaggy

Fred flintsone, Homer Simpson, woody woodpecker, and other characters

Kitchen has a good general menu
And most rave about their park chops

You can't go wrong with that place
Restaurant should not be crowded at 7:30
Quite a few still be in the parks

Usually you won't have it listed as a character dinner as changes could be made and switched to one of the other 2 hotels
This is why you should check that day if any changes were made for location of character dining

 

[GoldmanTrust]

We have done dozens of character meals all over Orlando, (and anyplace else my son can find somebody in a hot, sweaty costume willing to give hugs and high fives!!!)
He thoroughly enjoys The Kitchen's character experience, been about 8 or 9 times over the past few years. They sometimes have Scoobs and Shags, but we've also been visited by Shrek and Donkey several times and even Woody Woodpecker once, and Santa! There may have been others-can't remember-but your mileage may vary.
The characters

The Food. (Sorry-I know you didn't ask about the food)...but THE FOOD! It has always been very good. If you're a burger lover, The Kitchen has incredible burgers! My bride and my brats get pasta dishes and such and have always enjoyed it. They also have a really good breakfast buffet, and even my son-aka The World's Pickiest Eater-will eat his weight in scrambled eggs from them!

The Staff. VERY accomodating. Very friendly. 5 STARS!

Hope this helps!

Robert

What is the best character meal experience you guys have done?

 

[123SA]

What? Really? I can see that they do not guarantee a specific character, but it seems to me if I book a Character Meal at a specific restaurant, there will be characters there. Based on this, it makes no sense for me to book this meal at this time.

I think I'll just look for characters in the parks.
I'll plan meals based on where and when we want to eat.

 

[jagafen]

LOL. I may have inadvertently booked a ressie at The Kitchen during a character meal. 14 y/o DS will be absolutely mortified if it is! I swear, it was not done on purpose.

 

[macraven]

LOL. I may have inadvertently booked a ressie at The Kitchen during a character meal. 14 y/o DS will be absolutely mortified if it is! I swear, it was not done on purpose.

Don't forget the camera......

 

[Raeven]

We do a lot of character meals at Disney. Despite their ages, 17,14,11 , my kids still look forward to this. I booked the character meal at The Kitchen at the Hard Rock Hotel. This is our first Universal trip. Staying at the Hard Rock Hotel 8/20-8/25.


1) Would you recommend this restaurant?

2) The photo on line showed Scooby Doo -- does Scooby meet here or is it random characters? Do you know who the other characters are? How many?

3) On-line states character meal dining Sunday & Wed 6pm - 9pm. I booked the meal for 7;30pm The parks close that day at 9:00pm and 8:00pm Am I going to regret cutting the park day short?

4) There is nothing on my confirmation email that indicates that this is a character meal. Should I call the restaurant and confirm that?

THanks for your help

1. Yes the food was fantastic. I have a review of it in the current dining report in my signature. We loved everything we had!

2. We had Homer Simpson and Woody Woodpecker. I think they can be different characters each time.

3. Not sure what hours we went but we went on a Sat night and they were there so people saying the place/days aren't guranteed seem to be right. We had not looked ahead of time and had no idea it was a character meal that night.

4. There was nothing on ours either. I don't think they have "confirmed" character meals at the resorts in case something changes.

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

3) On-line states character meal dining Sunday & Wed 6pm - 9pm. I booked the meal for 7;30pm The parks close that day at 9:00pm and 8:00pm Am I going to regret cutting the park day short?

Hard Rock Hotel's website shows the character dinner as being on Wednesday and Saturday (not Sunday). It was a Saturday night that we dined there, and characters were present.

https://www.hardrockhotels.com/orlando/restaurants-and-lounges.htm

UNIVERSAL ORLANDO CHARACTER BREAKFAST & DINING
Don't miss out on dining with one of your favorite Universal Orlando Characters! Other children's entertainment includes Kids Can Cook To! Nights, Magic Men and more.

Character* Breakfast Hours
Tuesdays
8:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.


Character* Dining Hours
Wednesdays & Saturdays
6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.


For more information on dining at The Kitchen call (407) 503-2200 or (407) 503-2403

*characters appearances days and hours subject to change.

 

[schumigirl]

1. Yes the food was fantastic. I have a review of it in the current dining report in my signature. We loved everything we had!

2. We had Homer Simpson and Woody Woodpecker. I think they can be different characters each time.

3. Not sure what hours we went but we went on a Sat night and they were there so people saying the place/days aren't guranteed seem to be right. We had not looked ahead of time and had no idea it was a character meal that night.

4. There was nothing on ours either. I don't think they have "confirmed" character meals at the resorts in case something changes.

So true Raeven.........

Friends had booked at HRH and hotel informed them it was Scooby and Shaggy, but ended up being Simpsons......nothing is guaranteed.

They still had a great time as they love the restaurant there.

 

[123SA]

So, it sounds like I don't really need to book my meals in advance? I could just ask in the morning who is scheduled and take a chance that it doesn't change? Or I could make a reservation, ask in the morning for the schedule, and cancel if we don't like it? (or is the morning too late to cancel?)

 

[schumigirl]

So, it sounds like I don't really need to book my meals in advance? I could just ask in the morning who is scheduled and take a chance that it doesn't change? Or I could make a reservation, ask in the morning for the schedule, and cancel if we don't like it? (or is the morning too late to cancel?)

We've never booked meals in advance. Even the character meals at the hotels.

You can do exactly that, yep, you could cancel right up to last minute for these too........

Hope you get the characters you want to see.......