Is the food really THAT BAD?

[nouvellefleur]

I have had everything at Jake's my favorites are the fish and chips. Last time we went my sister and I split a burger. They brought it to our table already sliced each had a small onion ring. Incredibly thoughtful. We went at lunch such a relaxing chill place

That's adorable

 

[GinnyBear's_mom]

Some of the food is awful, but I've also had awful food at Disney. We stood in line at Louie's the other night and were disappointed by the sight of the pizza (looked like pizza you microwaved and then forgot about for a few hours). We turned around and walked out without ordering.

We have enjoyed everything else so far. Highlights were the turkey sandwich and tomato mozzarella sandwich from Breadbox, any chicken/ribs/pernil from Thunder Falls, the Great Feast from Three Broomsticks (except the corn on the cob-not so great), the chicken pasty at The Hopping Pot, and my personal favorite- the shepherd's pie jacket potato from the kiosk next to the Knight Bus.

 

[drenalin'junkie]

I really do miss Emeril's and Tcoup Chop. Two the best anywhere.

 

[ofcabbagesandkings]

Favorites:
Mythos
Leaky Cauldron/Three Broomsticks
Florean Fortescue's Ice cream - we visit every single day of our trips
Finnegans
Minions Cafe has shockingly solid food. The salmon was perfectly cooked.
Lombards - decent food, tiny portions, but nice to sit outside on the water
Jake's and Orchid Lounge (Royal Pacific)
Bice (Portofino)

Meh:
Toothsome. The food is bland and the shakes and desserts are nothing special. I said what I said.
Strongwater Tavern (Sapphire Falls) - the drinks were good, the tapas were awful. The flavors were all wrong. Gross.
Antojitos was inedible on my last trip and an absolute ripoff for the price for 4 people. Taco Bell would have been better. Avoid.

 

[tony67]

Strongwater Tavern (Sapphire Falls) - the drinks were good, the tapas were awful. The flavors were all wrong. Gross.

I was a huge fan of this place, but the last time I was there not so much.
Octopus was not great. I forget what else I ordered but also just average.
Even the Mai Tia was average - they have different bartenders now as one of them went to work for Disney and is only there a few nights.
For the Mai Tai - they changed some of the ingredients to save money.

On my last trip for Mardi Gras I skipped Strong water completely - which used to be the main reason I stayed at Aventura.

As for Antojitos - I go for the margaritas and the free chips and salsa

 

[Owlpost23]

I really do miss Emeril's and Tcoup Chop. Two the best anywhere.

Tchop Tchop had a wonderful happy hour.

 

[tony67]

I really do miss Emeril's and Tcoup Chop. Two the best anywhere.

Me too. Once Emeril left food network that place died. Too bad as they were both excellent.

 

[weather_lady]

Objectively, I see little difference in food quality between Universal and Disney, so long as I'm doing apples-to-apples comparisons of CS to CS, Lounge to Lounge, TS to TS, and signature to upscale (a tier in which Universal admittedly has precious few entries). The one area in which I personally feel Universal has the edge is for "seasonal snacks" (e.g., in my opinion, Universal's Mardi Gras specialties are superior to Disney's EPCOT festival stuff, but of course that's subjective).

Overall, we've had good food and poor food both places, at about the same frequency, and around the same price point. I've learned that the best way to ensure good experiences is always to choose restaurants only after carefully scouting recent reviews, and not to pick anything blindly or based solely on a menu.

 

[raidermatt]

Negativity sells on social media. Where you are reading that the food is awful, stop reading there.

The food is fine. If you are comparing to Disney, it's equivalent. The one place Universal falls short compared to Disney is in-park sit-down restaurants. They have very few choices.

 

[nycdisneygal]

I like Leaky Cauldron a lot and three broomsticks is good. We liked Finnegans and the sushi place in Royal pacific. Bice was very good. At disney the best food is the signature dining- and sooo expensive!

 

[pearljammer]

We're regular Disney World goers doing our first trip to Universal Orlando this coming November (early-mid) for a week. We've booked the 2 bedroom Volcano Bay View suite and will have three days with park-park for all three parks. Our kids are huge Harry Potter fans, which is specifically why we're doing the trip. We will also likely do a day at Sea World. We'll be utilizing Uber and Lyft to get around.

I keep seeing people say how the food is awful - almost inedible. We aren't picky, but this really has me worried. Is it really that bad? Are there any specific restaurants we should be avoiding? It'll be us parents and our three kids, aged 13, 11, and 9.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

THANK YOU!

Personally we liked the food at Universal MUCH better than the quick service at Disney. We actually really liked the comics cafe in Isles of Adventure….great burgers! The worse food we ate anywhere at any of Universal park was the Dr. Seuss restaurant where the ride goes through it. It was just bad mmmmk?! We never left the parks just to go eat outside the parks. If you do get out and decide to eat at City Walk, there’s a huge selection. One of our fav’s is Toothsome as they have great food choices. The NBC Sports place was actually pretty dang good to be honest and not overly priced nor as busy as many of the others. We do love CowFish. We were not fans of the mexican restaurant there, overly priced and it was just bad. Inside the park though, just find what appeases everyone. The refillable drink is a great value to be honest to consider that in your planning! I will disagree with many that Margaritaville may have cool decor but it’s overpriced for what you’re getting. Have a great time! I really don’t think the food is going to be an issue to be honest. You guys will do just fine!!

 

[pinkxray]

We never really have an issue with the food at Universal.

The worst thing I’ve had was chicken tenders at Circus Mcgurcus or whatever it’s called in Suess Landing. I took a bite and there was a hard chunk so I had to spit it out. I was so grossed out I couldn’t eat anymore. I believe they have redone their menu since the last time I was there.

We find the food at Toothsome to be pretty meh. But the kids love the shakes and desserts so it was DS’s bday choice when he turned 8 last year. It was his first time having a shake of his own. I guess all the rides on mummy caught up to him along with the giant shake bc he ended up throwing up. I looked for our waitress to get some napkins to clean it up. No where to be found. So I went to the doorway of where they come out (our table was right there) and three guys were standing there. I said my son was just sick all over the table and floor. Can I have a ton of napkins or do you perhaps have a mop? They just stared at me. I ended up having to pretty much go around to empty tables and steal the napkins there. We had just paid. Never saw the waitress again. We waited around at least 20 minutes to tell her about the mess we cleaned up but she never returned. The guys in the doorway never came out or alerted anyone. We will never go back there again. DS still wasn’t feeling good so it sucked having to stick around waiting for anyone to come over. I believe we ended up leaving and explaining to the girl in the front since no one was around.


We enjoy the Harry Potter places for breakfast, the ice cream, Minions cafe was decent and different. We have stayed at the 3 premier hotels and eaten at the quick service places and pool bars. All were pretty good, but much more expensive than Disney. Hard Rock pool bar took forever to take our order and then forever to get our food. Probably over an hour to get a few chicken tenders and a salad.

We haven’t tried too many table service place but we did really enjoy the ones we have. Mythos and Nbc sports place were great. We tend not to plan much so have tried most of the quick service places and we have always found something we could eat that was decent.

We are headed to Universal for a night in Nov. after our Disney cruise. I can’t wait to have my favorite thing, a hot butterbeer surrounded by a lit up Wizarding World. I’ll probably pick up a slice of pizza at the place near the hulk coaster and then some tots in Suess Landing.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

I was planning on several of the above from my to try list last trip, but ended up with really bad nausea due to a medication. So, I can also testify that the Dockside cafe has good options of grapes, and cucumbers slices/grated carrots from the salad bar. That was about all I could eat most of the trip (but at least I saved a lot on food costs!) I was happy to be able to find very simplistic foods in the food court alongside the more typical/complex/greasy foods.

This is a great point! A few times we've gone to Orlando when someone ended up not feeling all that great. Finding simple/non-greasy foods is easier at Universal than Disney.

I feel like everything at WDW is covered in cheese, grease, or a sauce or something. Even when we all feel fine, sometimes it is nice just to be able to have some plain rice, but plain rice is oddly hard to find at WDW. Often the side starch is some style of greasy potato at WDW.

WDW also doesn't serve nearly enough fresh produce, IMO.

One of my favorites at Universal- not yet mentioned - is the Minions popsicles!

 

[boogienights]

I'll start by saying that all theme park food is way overpriced and not worth that overinflated price. This applies to WDW and USO. Whenever someone says the food at (insert restaurant here) is great or good, I wonder if we ate at the same place because my experience proved otherwise. Maybe they grade theme park food on a curve? Having said that, most of it was edible. Just not great or worth the money. The inedible (based on my own experience):
1. Harry Potter restaurants. I tried both for the theming, of course. Take my advice and enjoy the theming outside with a butterbeer or icecream. Don't spend $80.00 on a terrible meal for four. Just don't. May as well have lit that money on fire. None of us finished our food. Most of it went in the bin.
2. Antojitos ceasar salad. Pitiful.
3. Chicken waffle sandwich at MK. Soggy, soggy, soggy. Yuck. Threw it out after one bite.
4. Mythos...none of us had an edible meal. So dissapointing.

I haven't eaten at every restaurant (far from it). Those just stand out as the worst of the worst of those I have tried. Everything else was edible and, occasionally, quite good. The quite goods were Boma, Cowfish and ABC Commissary. That's it. Everything else was meh.

Don't expect too much. Don't go for the food. You'll have a great time.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

1. Harry Potter restaurants. I tried both for the theming, of course. Take my advice and enjoy the theming outside with a butterbeer or icecream. Don't spend $80.00 on a terrible meal for four.

I'd note that if anyone is a beer drinker Hog's Head which is connected to Three Broomsticks is good for some beer. You could enjoy that inside or outside. That also has butterbeer and a few other things aside from alcoholic drinks.

 

[NVDISFamily]

Just got back from a 14 night trip to Orlando. Most of it at WDW but we did our first trip to any Universal park and overall I'd say food was good. A few misses, but a few hits.

Great -
Minions Cafe - if you don't mind the creative angle on the food options it was a winner. The pizza/calzone was on spot. Noodles were good too. Everyone liked the food. The purple/fun drink was okay (the only thing that didn't wow us).
Both of the HP land spots were good. We did one for breakfast and one for dinner another night. The beef shepherds pie was solid at the cauldron but the English breakfast and other options were also good at broomsticks.

Good -
Lard Lad Donuts - more like a donut shaped cake for us to share we liked the big one and also the sundae option to share as a family. A fun treat we'll likely return to again.
Blondie's - I'm guessing this wasn't anyone's to go spot for food but we got stuck in toon lagoon during a storm and my wife was hungry so I ran over here for some food for her and her sandwich and sides were good. Not great, but it was a solid portion for the money and it hit the spot.

Bad -
Not sure the name of it but the stand near Skull Island that sells the pizza skull and the jumbo dog. Rather would have lit my money on fire....

TLDR - I'd put some of the better Universal options head to head to anything at WDW. They have some good stuff. Now Disneyland... that's another story (they do quick service and stacks way better at the OG mouse house).

 

[gharter]

I think it all depends on where you eat. We have not had a bad meal at Universal/I OA/City Walk, but we are very selective on where we dine. I have no doubt that you can find really bad food at many of the QS locations.

 

[Duckbug.Ducktales]

Another vote for Mythos. Avoid Comicstrip Cafe for sure. There aren't as many options but it's also a much smaller resort so that makes sense.

I think you'll be fine, the internet just doesn't have a middle ground. Something is either terrible or amazing to internet reviewers.

 

[Monykalyn]

I haven’t done Big Fire in a couple of years, and was thinking of eating there during my September trip. Antojitos and Cowfish are “must do” on every trip.

Definitely try Big Fire-we sat at bar for a couple drinks and apps and was sooo good.
Cowfish and Toothsome off our list for bad food and service-gave them a couple tries
Hard Rock cafe (the one in city walk) was surprisingly really good last time! The server said the entire menu had been revamped and it showed. GREAT burgers. And NOT stratosphere expensive. This may go on list to revisit over NBC grill (which we hit every single time cuz one kid loves the pretzel and the other the Lamb burger)

 

[Planogirl]

We like Thunder Falls Terrace and Confisco Grille in IOA. We usually go to Margaritaville for lunch if we’re in the Universal park.

For snacks we love any form of Butter Beer including the ice cream and the big pink donut from the Simpsons stand.

There’s other good food places but these are favorites. The food at Universal is not awful but you have to know where to go just like at that other place.