CITYWALK BAR CRAWL
Well, there are a few places that we love in Citywalk for drinks and maybe a snack or two, but usually we hit Citywalk for one or the other and we are spoiled for choice really.
There are a couple of places there we won`t set foot in again, Bubba Gump is one as it was truly dreadful on the occasions we have gone there and it`s a never again for us, I do wish they would open up a real seafood restaurant in CW but doubt they ever will as it might be deemed as too expensive, but we`d love it. We also won`t go to Toothsome, again, for us it`s completely overrated and food was underwhelming when we went and thought the desserts were awful, they were just sweet, nothing else. HRC is somewhere Tom would go back to again so we might try that one day for a lunch or maybe sit at the bar, but again, I was underwhelmed.
It`s not everyone`s cup of tea, but we do enjoy Margaritaville again, a few years back it did drop in quality for us, not that it tries to be a high end place, it is what it advertises, good food with a fun atmosphere and it does deliver.
So this will be a favourite for a bar crawl for sure and I`m sure we`ll pop in a couple of times during the day too after the parks if we`re not going offsite later in the evening, if we have a drink at lunchtime neither if us will drive later.
Margaritaville if you`ve never been to Universal holds a prominent position in Citywalk, you can`t really miss it especially coming in and out of IOA or walking from the RP pathway as the security point is down the side of the building.
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They have a store which sells some fabulous merchandise and I am a fan of Jimmy Buffet, so we do have several of the items in our home, usually a sign telling you it`s ok to have a drink as it`s 5pm somewhere, yeah like I need permission!!! But as far as store merch goes, I will buy something here every visit. Fortunately all the glasses we have bought here have made it home safely!
There is also an area where you can get cocktails to go, which is very popular, especially as it does fill up very quickly in here. The bar itself is another of those popular ones that people are just drawn to and some of it is down to the bar staff, some of whom have been here for several years and they do remember you from previous visits which is always nice.
Everyone wants to see the volcano erupt in here, to be honest, if you`ve seen it once, you`ve seen it, but it is fun and kids and adults alike love it.
Lunch and for an early dinner you can usually just walk in for a table, and they do take reservations which we never bother with, we much prefer sitting at the bar, it is always fun and again, folks talk to you there, we`ve had some lovely conversations with strangers from all over at many bars and this one is no exception.
And we do enjoy some Jimmy Buffet music too!
While they don`t beat Strong Water for cocktails they do have some gorgeous ones and my "new" favourite is a Spicy Margarita, very spicy would my preference and some are better than others at adding spice for some reason. I have had a couple of barman tell me the drink they prepared will be too spicy for me due to the amount of jalapenos in it, that I asked for...
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They do make a decent cocktail here and the spicy margarita is darn good!!
Some of you (thinking of you Maria) will remember my old favourite cocktail from here was the Blackberry Margarita and it`s still a whopper of a drink, very fruity but packs a punch and would be my second choice of a drink here.
Tom is a fan of smoothy frozen style drinks and always gets a raspberry or mango based frozen drink and these are two drinks we enjoyed one lunchtime and planned to go back into the parks.....well as you can imagine, after two of them and a sample of another they wanted us to try out, we never made the park that afternoon 
But, it was so much fun!!
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One of Tom`s favourites, a mango concotion of some kind below.
The cocktail menu here is lovely and has allsorts of options to try for everyone, I have heard they do some good mocktails, but I have never once tried one of them.....no surprises there!
One option if you`re not sure about flavours is to try their rum flight, it is very nice and decent sized glasses too, we have enjoyed these a couple of times and surprisingly we enjoyed the watermelon one more than we thought we would.
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And of course who can ignore the old Landshark lager offered here, one of Tom`s choices when he`s not in the mood for a cocktail, haven`t experienced that feeling myself of course, but the lager is actually quite nice. I`m not really a beer/lager drinker but have been known to have one occasionally, but not on a bar crawl as you can feel so bagged up with it.
If we were to have a snack here, I think it would be the lava lava shrimp, it`s a decent sized dish and if you add some jalapeno`s on the side, it can be quite spicy!!!
It`ll never be as nice as the shrimp dish Nascar Cafe had when they were in Citywalk, it was called Boogity Boogity Boogity Shrimp and it was lovely, very spicy without asking for more spice. We liked Nascar, now NBC of course.
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Margaritaville is number 1 on our bar crawl options!!
Next up...
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This little gem has pride of place in Citywalk and it gets incredibly busy on an evening, especially weekends and more so during HHN as folks wander in and out.
They don`t have a huge selection of cocktails, all slushy style but very nice, and come with a tooter, just to add some extra pzazz to their drinks.
Usually I`m not a fan of mass produced drinks, but when it`s a slushy, it`s kind of forgiveable. Some of the options are Strawberry, Pina Colada, Margarita, 190 Octane and Cat 5 Hurricane and some of them are very nice with a mix of two flavours, they`ll mix any of them for you.
I don`t have any individual pictures of the drinks, but this was out last visit there in November last year, it was a very hot night and these went down rather well.
They do have some tables to sit around and you have a lovely view over Citywalk and everything going on there during the evenings. They do have singers and bands on some evenings and it is nice to sit and listen as they perform with a drink or two.
Cowfish is a place that we enjoy for cocktails, appetisers and a burger now and again, they do have very nice burgers but their sushi is among some of the worst we have ever tried. It looks nice, but any that we have tried has been disappointing and won`t have it again, if we want sushi we`ll go to Orchids or Nagoya Sushi.
But, cocktails here are very nice, only once did we get a poor pour but it was soon rectified when we mentioned it to one of the regular bar staff, the next one would have blown anyone`s socks off!!
This is another bar that get`s incredibly busy, Cowfish is a very noisy restaurant we have always found that and it does put us off ever eating at a table again, so the bar suits us.
The cocktail I`ll get here for sure is a mango ginger, usually served with tequila, I opt to have it with rum, it`s smoother and only once has a bartender questioned it, till she tried it of course.
It does have small pieces of fresh ginger in it, so if that`s not your thing avoid it, Tom won`t drink it because of the ginger, but it`s a lovely drink and not on the menu, but they will make it up if asked.
Tequila Sunrise was an odd one when it turned up, we usually know this as a taller drink and much more vibrant in colour, but Tom enjoyed this one albeit a very, very strong drink!!
Buffalo`s and Bacon is another odd one, but it is delicious!! It has bourbon, cherry liqueur, angostura and orange bitters, honey and a rather oddly placed piece of candied bacon, it is nice though.
If we do get a snack here, it will be the Crab Rangoon Dip and the Tuna & Avocado Tini which is one of my favourite dishes from anywhere that does it properly. It is full of flavour, and a little spicy but not too hot, most folks could eat it easily.
The dip is very nice too and comes with wontons and a sweet chilli sauce which go lovely together and very moreish!!!
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So, that`s our first few places we plan to enjoy, there are more of course so I`m going to have a think and see where else we really want to go to , there are a couple that spring to mind and I`m sure Tom will want to add HRC......hmmm!!!
More coming up 