Epic Universe food pics

[tony67]

did’nt think I was being overly critical at all. Just honest about my experience with the food I purchased, some good some bad.

I said I thought I may have been overly critical - but sounds like we had very similar experiences.
I think may have even been at the BBQ the exact same day as me.

 

[tony67]

A theme park restaurant will get thousands of vacationers to visit and even if the food is subpar people will still come. The ones that have been there and had bad experiences will just not come back. The new ones will come and have bad experience and not come back and will be replaced by the next vacationer. Is that right no……but that is the way it is.

Just saying, that if folks do not give their honest opinion of their experience then nothing will be done to fix the issue.

The idea is when you spend your hard earned money on a nice vacation you expect to get good food. Not 50% not 75%, but 100% good quality.

I don't disagree - and they are charging a pretty penny at the end of the day - more or the same then many of my local restaurants - and they have no shame setting the prices - so yes they do need to provide something at a minimum that is warm.

I don't think any meal I had was better than lukewarm (other than the pizza) and that affected most of the experiences.

I do think the most frustrating part was the undercooked French fries as that was more than one location and multiple days. Cooking Frozen fries all the way through should not be hard.

 

[hertamaniac]

Atlantic - blackened grouper with fries, passion fruit caviar and, of course, Pellegrino.

 

[hertamaniac]

The Hunter's Garlic Stake from The Burning Blade Tavern. There is no shortage of garlic either wrapped into the pretzel or the dipping sauce. An excellent snack although the logistics of doing the pick-up outside was a little quirky.

 

[hertamaniac]

Das Stakehaus: Forager Salad

Crispy maitake mushrooms, acorn squash, red beets, blue cheese, arugula and bibb lettuce tossed in a blueberry pomegranate dressing with a grilled chicken stake.

This was excellent and exactly what I was looking for in a lighter meal. The ambience is fantastic once you pass through the unpretentious doors. The outside dining area is also stellar as some of the seats are next to the cemetery and are at "coffin level". Eerie!

 

[Minnie1222]

Is Das Stakehaus a Quick Service? How does it work? Do you find a table first then order?
Thanks.

 

[hertamaniac]

It's definitely aimed at mobile ordering, but you can do counter service and then find a table. Mobile order was easy...it knows where you at in terms of dining establishment. It then loads/provides a menu, and you pick what you want and quantity. You can either scan the table's QR code or enter it manually (it's just a table number). The food is then brought to you.

 

[Minnie1222]

It's definitely aimed at mobile ordering, but you can do counter service and then find a table. Mobile order was easy...it knows where you at in terms of dining establishment. It then loads/provides a menu, and you pick what you want and quantity. You can either scan the table's QR code or enter it manually (it's just a table number). The food is then brought to you.

Thank you! To confirm, we should find a table first then mobile order from the table?

 

[hertamaniac]

Thank you! To confirm, we should find a table first then mobile order from the table?

Yep.

 

[tony67]

I've seen a few comments on the Comet Dogs elsewhere and saw a stream where they tried them all of last night.

They seemed to really enjoy the Chili dog - so much so that at the end of the video one of them ate the rest of the Chili dog - no question she really enjoyed it - its was actually kind of surprising. For the most part they take a bite and throw the stuff away as they have so many things to try and videos to shoot. I know at some point they also tried everything at Blue Dragon as well so lots of eating and may have even been the same day.

They were not as thrilled with the sausages - most dogs were not hotdogs but sausages I guess - but all the ingredients and bread seemed to be really fresh and good.

The one that was even odder was the Carrot - yeah they have a grilled carrot of some sort - and the two people trying it were really impressed by so much so they had the camera person try it as well.
These are folks that don't like vegan stuff for the most part.

Anyway - its something that probably gets missed as its a very simple counter near the carousel and just has a tiny sign at the counter - for 12.99 I regret not trying it - I just had so many things on my todo list and even with 5 days at Epic I did not get to them all.

Anyway if anyone tried it how was it?

 

[disneyseniors]

Chicken & waffles from Meteor Astropub. This was good! Fries hot, cooked nicely, & properly salty too.

"Crispy buttermilk chicken thigh, whiskey bacon jam, spiced maple syrup, liege waffle."

View attachment 965625

I wish we had a "Yum" button. That meal looks absolutely delicious

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Other than braised short rib I tend to stay away from bbq elsewhere than where I'm from. Even in my area there are places where I prefer the pulled pork there but not there or the burnt ends at this place but not that place so from the bbq talk I can say it's unlikely that I would gravitate towards those menu items, I'm the same at Disney too so I'd like Regal Eagle for the beer but probably not going to ever go for their bbq although perhaps the chicken as that's less controversial in the bbq world (that said a friend of ours has gone to Regal Eagle for the bbq and finds it okay but he didn't grow up where we are from to know the fierce bbq competition here lol).

But it's good to hear about the impressions people are having.

The Atlantic LOVE the theming but it's primarily a seafood restaurant and can tell there's only a couple of menu items we'd like (but not the price tag). We aren't seafood eaters.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Chicken & waffles from Meteor Astropub. This was good! Fries hot, cooked nicely, & properly salty too.

"Crispy buttermilk chicken thigh, whiskey bacon jam, spiced maple syrup, liege waffle."

View attachment 965625

How did you like the bacon jam? and the spiced maple syrup?

Sometimes I find jams or jellies and sometimes sauces are added because they sound intriguing but then don't deliver for the taste. Most recently I had a club sandwich at a place close enough to my house that was supposed to be a raspberry jalapeno jam and can say it had no hint of jalapeno to it lol.

 

[disneyseniors]

I don't disagree - and they are charging a pretty penny at the end of the day - more or the same then many of my local restaurants - and they have no shame setting the prices - so yes they do need to provide something at a minimum that is warm.

I don't think any meal I had was better than lukewarm (other than the pizza) and that affected most of the experiences.

I do think the most frustrating part was the undercooked French fries as that was more than one location and multiple days. Cooking Frozen fries all the way through should not be hard.

I guess I wouldn't give them a pass on warm food that's supposed to be hot. I hate when that happens. I want Hot food if that is what it's supposed to be, not luke-warm. That seems to be a common theme with Epic's food on reviews: food is cool or just warm. To me, that is not acceptable. Thanks for the great food reports Robo and tony67.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I guess I wouldn't give them a pass on warm food that's supposed to be hot. I hate when that happens. I want Hot food if that is what it's supposed to be, not luke-warm. That seems to be a common theme with Epic's food on reviews: food is cool or just warm. To me, that is not acceptable. Thanks for the great food reports Robo and tony67.

I look at it from "is this supposed to be piping hot or is it supposed to be served cold or is it something that has just cooled off" personally I hate super cold food (like sandwiches) much more than food that is lukewarm but I use my judgement on what the item is to know if it's supposed to be that way or not.

For example if the cheese isn't melted on a burger by the time it gets to me...

Fries I don't expect to be piping hot (it's rare to get that and ends up meaning I have to wait for a bit to eat that) but I don't want cold either. Undercooked well TBH can't say I've really run into that at places so I'd have to assume it was cooked but cooled off too much by the time it got to me.

Then there's heat lamps being used (which I assume is being used to some degree).

Food safety is normally my main concern with food on the temperature as is the level of doneness to something.

I wonder if some of this is newness for the cooks (and assuming they are adequately staffed in the restaurants). To Robo's point about how people frequent a place and then stop sometimes we've been to a place and then found out (usually when there's either a slowness or mistakes on the meal) that the cook and sometimes other kitchen staff are just really new, learning the equipment and if there are hot spots and how long to cook a certain menu item. On the other hand it does seem like Universal is on the surfact trying to be ambitious about the meal options but is also falling back on their norm of not focusing as much about the level of food quality.

 

[hertamaniac]

I've seen a few comments on the Comet Dogs elsewhere and saw a stream where they tried them all of last night.

They seemed to really enjoy the Chili dog - so much so that at the end of the video one of them ate the rest of the Chili dog - no question she really enjoyed it - its was actually kind of surprising. For the most part they take a bite and throw the stuff away as they have so many things to try and videos to shoot. I know at some point they also tried everything at Blue Dragon as well so lots of eating and may have even been the same day.

They were not as thrilled with the sausages - most dogs were not hotdogs but sausages I guess - but all the ingredients and bread seemed to be really fresh and good.

The one that was even odder was the Carrot - yeah they have a grilled carrot of some sort - and the two people trying it were really impressed by so much so they had the camera person try it as well.
These are folks that don't like vegan stuff for the most part.

Anyway - its something that probably gets missed as its a very simple counter near the carousel and just has a tiny sign at the counter - for 12.99 I regret not trying it - I just had so many things on my todo list and even with 5 days at Epic I did not get to them all.

Anyway if anyone tried it how was it?

I saw a YT review last night as well (probably the same as the flies seemed to be an issue). I thought the one pairing with pineapple was odd, but if it was a beef hot dog, that probably could work.

I am interested in the carrot "dog" as that seemed to go over well. Although it did sound like the roll was a little doughy.

It was easy to miss these smaller kiosk places (i.e. Star Sui Bao, Comet Dogs) as the signage wasn't prominent or I just had my mind made up for Das Stakehaus, The Burning Blade and Atlantic. I did do a last hour shift of my reservation I had at Blue Dragon to Atlantic and don't regret it one bit.

 

[disneyseniors]

I wonder if some of this is newness for the cooks (and assuming they are adequately staffed in the restaurants).

That could be some of it. I guess it's a pet peeve of mine which I have had happen so many times. I know that the staff is new and learning, so hopefully this was just a glitch.

 

[CAPSLOCK]

How did you like the bacon jam? and the spiced maple syrup?

The bacon "jam" was like tender bacon chunks in a kind of syrup that wasn't discernible as "whiskey" to me - I'm not a whiskey fan so probably not the best judge though. It didn't scream "jam" to me - more "bacon chunk sauce." Distinctly bacony and plentiful, it's under the chicken too.

The spiced syrup was lovely! It had a good level of heat, (you know when you're eating and kinda thinking "I wonder where this little kick of heat is coming from?" - noticeable but not overpowering) and was otherwise definitely maple flavored.

The waffle even had that nice little sugar crunch that liege waffles should have.

Leagues above the Krusty chicken & waffle sandwich.


My friend got the Meteor Chopped Chicken Salad (Spicy char-grilled chicken, baby gem lettuce, tomatoes, eggs, bacon, avocado, cheese puffs, house vinaigrette) and said the chicken was spicier than expected although she is a spice wimp. There was a whole lot of chicken and very little avocado.

 

[hertamaniac]

I rarely post pics of in-situ eating, but the dessert caviar at Atlantic warrants it. The layering is spectacular. The composer of this dish made a masterpiece.

I had dinner there this past Tuesday. I got a nice cold bottle of Pellegrino (a must have during the heat), blackened grouper sandwich with fries and the passion fruit caviar for dessert.

Best theme park meal I've had. I got seated at the window overlooking the fountains.

The grouper was perfectly charred the way I like it while the inside was flaky and not at all dry. The roll was toasted on a grill and the tartar sauce was outstanding. The fries came in a metal container to retain the heat and were also excellent. I don't eat fries, but I finished these as the crispiness and size were just perfect.

The passion fruit caviar was so unique. It's served in a labeled tin to elevate the experience. The tiny passion fruit spheres paired so well with the layers below of chocolate and almond(?). The portion size was just right as it didn't leave me feeling overstuffed, yet I got my fill of something sweet at the end of the meal.

Service was just incredible. My server, I forget her name, was such a pleasure to speak with. We shared stories of cruising and ports and I can honestly say she made me smile almost the entire meal.

A+ on all accounts for Atlantic.

 

[hertamaniac]