Food at Universal

[rutgers1]

Hello...We are staying at the Hard Rock for three nights in late August. The trip is coming at the tail end of a Disney trip. Although I have spent hours obsessing over where to eat at Disney, I haven't given dining an ounce of thought for Universal. I guess that I just assumed that I could walk into the restaurants. Is that the case, or do I need to make advance reservations?

Aside from knowing if I should make reservations, I was wondering if there are a few "must visit" restaurants at Universal. We are a family of four, with two sons, ages 9 and 8.

Thank you!

 

[Metro West]

Hello...We are staying at the Hard Rock for three nights in late August. The trip is coming at the tail end of a Disney trip. Although I have spent hours obsessing over where to eat at Disney, I haven't given dining an ounce of thought for Universal. I guess that I just assumed that I could walk into the restaurants. Is that the case, or do I need to make advance reservations?

Aside from knowing if I should make reservations, I was wondering if there are a few "must visit" restaurants at Universal. We are a family of four, with two sons, ages 9 and 8.

Thank you!

You will not need to stress over ADR's like at Disney. You could probably walk into any restaurant w/o making reservations but you could make some that morning. My recommendations for park dining are:

IOA:
Mythos
Thunder Falls Terrace
Comic Strip Cafe

Studios:
Louie's
Finnegan's
Lombard's

At CityWalk...I would recommend HRC, Margaritaville and NASCAR.

 

[donaldduck352]

Thats the great part of the DARKSIDE-Universal,no planning needed!!

I do recommend Mytho's at IOA tho.At the resorts all are pretty much walk in and get seated.There is so many restruants with dif taste and atmosher it would take one full page to cover it.So let me hook you too a link,that way you can see what the food looks like!!

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1031541

 

[donaldduck352]

You will not need to stress over ADR's like at Disney. You could probably walk into any restaurant w/o making reservations but you could make some that morning. My recommendations for park dining are:

IOA:
Mythos
Thunder Falls Terrace
Comic Strip Cafe

Studios:
Louie's
Finnegan's
Lombard's

At CityWalk...I would recommend HRC, Margaritaville and NASCAR.

Alot of my favs on that list also!!

 

[rutgers1]

Thanks folks! The countdown is on! We are excited for our first Universal experience!

I think we are going to go into most of it a bit blind. I think I will walk around and hit up whatever strikes me. For our next trip, we'll do some more planning.

 

[troobabiee7]

The sit-down restaurants at Universal are really good! We especially love Mythos at Islands of Adventure, Finnegans at Universal and Margaritaville at CityWalk. All of them have really fun atmospheres, good service and great food. We haven't tried many of the others since we keep going back to those!

Just beware most of the counter service... it's the complete opposite of the sit-downs. We've found almost every counter service restaurant we tried (especially Mel's and the Classic Monster Cafe) to be hot, cramped and smelly with GROSS food. Really bad. Stick with the sit-downs!

 

[patster734]

You will not need to stress over ADR's like at Disney. You could probably walk into any restaurant w/o making reservations but you could make some that morning. My recommendations for park dining are:

IOA:
Mythos
Thunder Falls Terrace
Comic Strip Cafe

Studios:
Louie's
Finnegan's
Lombard's

At CityWalk...I would recommend HRC, Margaritaville and NASCAR.

Alot of my favs on that list also!!

Many of them are on my list too!

To the OP: For restaurants at Citywalk, be sure to show your HRH room key to the restaurant host for priority seating! The only restaurants at Citywalk not participating in the priority seating are Emeril's and Bubba Gumps. I've also heard that Mythos at IOA will sometimes allow priority seating when showing your room key.

 

[nerdboyrockstar]

One of my favorite on-site restaurants, The Kitchen, is at your hotel so check that out. You can always explore the eats in the other resorts too. Royal Pacific has great sushi and an amazing asian-fused Emeril's and Portofino has an awesome Italian restaurant in Mama Della's.

 

[erinch]

When we were at IOA two years ago, you could call Mythos from your room and arrange an ADR, or do it at a cart when you walk into a park.

for us, Mythos on the IOA day and Finnegans at US for lunch are must-dos as is Margaritaville (not for the food, although it is perfectly adequate, but for the atmosphere.)

 

[patster734]

When we were at IOA two years ago, you could call Mythos from your room and arrange an ADR, or do it at a cart when you walk into a park.

for us, Mythos on the IOA day and Finnegans at US for lunch are must-dos as is Margaritaville (not for the food, although it is perfectly adequate, but for the atmosphere.)

I totally agree!

 

[macraven]

i always eat at mythos, finnegans, louie's, ifff, beverly hills boulangerie (the best for me) and blondie in the parks.

for city walk, i go to hrc.
the hotels onsite have great dining also.

the main menu for the parks.
click on studios and ioa to get info on the locations of food places in the park.

http://www.universalorlando.com/theme-parks/universal-studios-orlando/hours.html


for the studios:
http://www.universalorlando.com/theme-parks/universal-studios-orlando/restaurants.html

for ioa:
http://www.universalorlando.com/amusement-parks/islands-of-adventure/restaurants.html