Dining must dos

[starousse]

We're going to be spending two nights in December. We're a Disney family and I'm always so well prepared six months in advanced as far as where we're dining. Universal is new to us. Just wanted to get an idea of some of your favorites. So far, I'm thinking Cowfish and Mythos for lunch and Toothsome Chocolate Factory and Mama Dellas for dinners.

 

[tony67]

Cowfish, Mythos and Toothsome Chocolate Factory would be my three recommendations
If your a Harry Potter fan you probably want to check out breakfast in Leaky Cauldron or three broomsticks.

 

[2Gma]

Definitely Mythos. We've done this both trips. The themeing is amazing and food good.

 

[Brenda Kim]

The best thing about Universal is that you don't have to pre-plan all meals out. It is so nice to just tour the parks and when you are hungry then stop where it is close. You have made solid choices so if it all works out stick with those, however if you find that you are at the other side of the Universe from those places when your hungry here are some other options to consider.

LUNCH: IOA Three Broomsticks, we eat a late breakfast there, because the full English Breakfast fills me up until dinner. There lunch menu is pretty good as well, limited though. The last time I ate at Mythos for lunch, it was just meh, I think they may have backslide a bit, but they do have a good selection.

CITYWALK: While Cowfish is amazing, look at the menu before going, it is not for everyone. Very unique, however if you have a picky eater, this is not the place. If NBC is open for lunch, it is a solid choice, but I don't think it is always open for lunch.

US: I did not enjoy the Krusty Burger at the Food Court area in the Simpsons, however I did have the taco at Bumble Bee's and it was pretty good.

DINNER: for IOA nothing comes to mind, US, the only three places I eat for dinner are: Finnegans, Lombards and Leaky Cauldron. I have tried the quick service places all of them and was not impressed with any of them, just standard fast food and blah Italian food. CITYWALK: Dinner has so many great choices you really can't go wrong. Just stay away from Bubba Gump's, stay far away. They could not even tell me where they get there shrimp from, even after our server went to ask the cook. The response from the kitchen is, we get our shrimp from the USA and overseas, but I don't know which shrimp go into which dish.

 

[kbelle8995]

We always have good experience at Jake's over at RPR. Just really good food and excellent service.

My sister is going to Orlando on a business trip and my mother decided to go with her (it is allowed by the group she works for). There was whole conversation about her going or not. My mother asked "Are you going to Jake's." "yes." "Then I'm going."

We have had excellent experiences at Toothsome, NBC sports Grill and Cowfish. As far as Harry Potter is concerned we prefer the menu at the Leaky Cauldron over Three Broomsticks.

 

[J-Dog]

Just stay away from Bubba Gump's, stay far away. They could not even tell me where they get there shrimp from, even after our server went to ask the cook. The response from the kitchen is, we get our shrimp from the USA and overseas, but I don't know which shrimp go into which dish.

So, was that your only problem with them? Was the food/service/atmosphere poor? In other words, if I don't care about the source of the shrimp, will it be a decent place to eat?

 

[Brenda Kim]

So, was that your only problem with them? Was the food/service/atmosphere poor? In other words, if I don't care about the source of the shrimp, will it be a decent place to eat?

I have eaten at two Bubba Gump's (Santa Monica and Citywalk) with two different people, both who ate the shrimp and I had chicken, no one was impressed. With all of the other amazing choices to eat, I would pass on this one.

 

[schumigirl]

I have eaten at two Bubba Gump's (Santa Monica and Citywalk) with two different people, both who ate the shrimp and I had chicken, no one was impressed. With all of the other amazing choices to eat, I would pass on this one.

Me too. Tried it twice and will never go back.

That's not what I call a seafood restaurant........very poor quality food. I had to send mine back twice on both occasions.

Last year I ordered snow crab.........with no snow crab inside! Time before they didn't cook fish correctly and it was swimming in grease.

However my husband had ribs and apart from them being slightly cool temperature wise, he enjoyed them.

To be fair, cocktails were nice and service was ok. Although they weren't interested when I said we weren't happy with food.

Won't return.

 

[Lyricallie]

I have to say we weren't impressed with Cowfish, but I think it was because our waiter wasn't great and didn't explain the menu to us. Then we saw the sushi come out and felt disappointed we didn't get it haha.

Our favourite was NBC, we ended up going twice. Fantastic service, BF got a beer flight and loved it, I got plenty of food, huge portions and they were happy to change the cheese on my burger to goats cheese

 

[wookiebeck]

We did cowfish and felt kinda meh about it, too. We have a wonderful sushi place at home (inexpensive, too) and the cowfish sushi was on par with that, but nothing new or innovative enough for us to rave. The burgers were large, but after going to Teak Grille (off-site), those too could be described as good, not great.

We always do both Mythos and Confisco in IOA for lunches. I never gave the HP places any notice (too crowded, didn't care that it is labeled QS). But we did both this past trip and really, really liked the atmosphere and fresh food.

 

[tinydancer09]

I haven't read anything except original post...

But I would recommend checking out toothesome for lunch unless you're willing to wait for dinner or do an unusually early dinner. It was very good! However, when we arrived at 7pm there was a 2 hour wait. We did wait and wondered around city walk. But it's still very new and popular, so take that into consideration. They'll give you an estimate and will text you when your table is ready. They haven't seemed to be near as busy at lunch. Our waiter last night so kindly shared that it usually starts getting busy around 5PM and increasingly gets worse as the night goes. We got there somewhere before 8 and we left the place around 11:15.

Ask your waiter when you sit if the dessert kitchen is backed up. If so go ahead and order your desserts when you get drinks or food. That's what we did and it came perfect timing. He recommended we do that.

So far that has been my favorite meal this trip though! I don't do well with "out" good due to GI problems, but I feel amazing after that meal which means it's all fresh made! My friend got the salmon and I got the Alfredo. Both were very! Good. Deserts she got the flourless cake and I got the creme brûlée. Both were amazing as well! The almond chocolate bread was very chocolatey to me, but good and cheap.

Oh! And we also ate mythos this trip. Very cold in there be prepared. It was slow, but good. My recommendation is stop by in the morning and make a reservation for what time you want to eat. Or you can make it ahead of time. Only open for lunch I believe. I had the burger and parm fries. Both were delicious.

 

[tinydancer09]

We did cowfish and felt kinda meh about it, too. We have a wonderful sushi place at home (inexpensive, too) and the cowfish sushi was on par with that, but nothing new or innovative enough for us to rave. The burgers were large, but after going to Teak Grille (off-site), those too could be described as good, not great.

We always do both Mythos and Confisco in IOA for lunches. I never gave the HP places any notice (too crowded, didn't care that it is labeled QS). But we did both this past trip and really, really liked the atmosphere and fresh food.

They are very crowded, but I've always found they move through quickly and they help you find a table which I like. I usually eat between 1 and 2 so maybe it's because I eat late though.

 

[tinydancer09]

Me too. Tried it twice and will never go back.

That's not what I call a seafood restaurant........very poor quality food. I had to send mine back twice on both occasions.

Last year I ordered snow crab.........with no snow crab inside! Time before they didn't cook fish correctly and it was swimming in grease.

However my husband had ribs and apart from them being slightly cool temperature wise, he enjoyed them.

To be fair, cocktails were nice and service was ok. Although they weren't interested when I said we weren't happy with food.

Won't return.

Yes I find its best not to order seafood there! I only eat there when I have Landry rewards I need to use. Their alcoholic lemonades are good, but not for the price and lack of alcohol.
One of those one and done for me. I always feel terrible after I eat there. Not because the food is bad, just so heavy and not as fresh as other choices. Probably won't return.

 

[Seeker615]

I had a good experience at Mythos and would go back.

We liked the Hard Rock Cafe as well. I love the atmosphere and there is so much to see in the place. It's huge! If you go when it is slower I recommend sitting outside and getting a few drinks and appetizers. It's a great place to people watch and enjoy the evening.

At Universal studios we really enjoyed Finnegans. Such a cute pub feel to it and the food was delicious!

At IOA besides Mythos we really didn't like anything else. We did eat lunch at a burger place near Jurassic Park area and it was acceptable but nothing great. Oh - Breakfast at Three Broomsticks was delicious though!

 

[tinydancer09]

Just met the sharkies swimming along! It's been so much fun meeting all you guys!

 

[flortlebap]

I really like Bubba Gumps. Always had great food and service!

Hard Rock was dreadful but management took care of it for us.

Myth is really nice but busy.

Margaritaville is a favourite for us. Food can be hit and miss but the wings and cocktails are consistently awesome.

 

[Minnesota!]

So, was that your only problem with them? Was the food/service/atmosphere poor? In other words, if I don't care about the source of the shrimp, will it be a decent place to eat?

I can't speak to the US one, but there is one at Mall of America that is solid.

 

[schumigirl]

Yes I find its best not to order seafood there! I only eat there when I have Landry rewards I need to use. Their alcoholic lemonades are good, but not for the price and lack of alcohol.
One of those one and done for me. I always feel terrible after I eat there. Not because the food is bad, just so heavy and not as fresh as other choices. Probably won't return.

I didn't find them expensive at all, and did think mine was very strong. Dh said the same, strong taste of alcohol.

 

[schumigirl]

I really like Bubba Gumps. Always had great food and service!

Hard Rock was dreadful but management took care of it for us.

Myth is really nice but busy.

Margaritaville is a favourite for us. Food can be hit and miss but the wings and cocktails are consistently awesome.

Glad to hear you enjoyed BG.........I never tell anyone not to go to a restaurant as we all have different experiences. Margaritaville food was a let down for us this year strangely. May give that a miss next year.


Slightly off topic.........and offsite ........Funnily enough everyone raves about Texas de Brazil........we walked out when we saw the quality of the meat they used. Looks the part, and there's a huge amount of food there, but it was so loud and it seeemd to be quantity over quality. Again, just our opinion.

 

[Lisa0620]

We had two great visits to Bubba Gumps followed by a terrible one last August (food arrived cold after waiting an hour.) Because I'm part of Landry's club they sent me a follow up survey which I filled out honestly saying I wasn't sure whether we'd be back. After we got home I got a weird phone call from one of the mgrs there asking about our experience. He grilled me about did I talk to a mgr while we were there, did we send the food back, etc. kind of insinuating that we should have handled their terrible service differently. It was funny because at the time I had just chalked it up to having a lousy server which can happen anywhere, but his phone call made me pretty certain I don't care to go back! We went to Toothsome twice and had fantastic food and service both times. We enjoyed both food and atmosphere at Vivo. We liked (not loved) the food at Cowfish, but didn't like how closely we were seated to the people next to us, would ask for patio seating next time which looked better. We had slow service but good food at Margaritaville, good food and service at Confisco's, good food but slow service at Mythos. For counter service I thought the chicken dinner at Simpson's was okay, but DH declared the burger there the worst theme park burger he'd ever had, which is saying something! Looking forward to trying the NBC grill place next time from reviews here!