The situation that Casey's Corner so far above or ABC Commissary rates anywhere close to Minion's Cafe, tells you all you need to know that this thing should not be trusted.
Data pool matters.
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Universal Epic Universe (South Expansion Complex) - Opens May 22 2025
- Thread starter Bob Harlem
- Start date
The situation that Casey's Corner so far above or ABC Commissary rates anywhere close to Minion's Cafe, tells you all you need to know that this thing should not be trusted.
Data pool matters.
SplashJacket
Well-Known Member
Also that Tortuga tavern is the lowest in MK.
Minion Cafe is actually very solid, but universal does need to up their food quality across the board, and with epic, I somewhat expect it to happen, at least with the new park.
Andrew25
Well-Known Member
Casey's is an outlier I agree, but ever since they updated the menu to ABC Commissary, it's gotten a lot better.
Either way, I'm not trying to point out a single restaurant... just the overall trend. It's obvious that Universal is way behind WDW.
I did not want to like Minion Cafe becuase I am bias to the theme that was there before and I am kind of done with Minions and rarely go to quick service because I enjoy free refills and sit down time of table service/not a fan of modern mobile ordering. And yet, it still won me over as everything I tried from the table party of ordering was good.
Good news for Circus Mcgurkus and some others is they are doing the same thing with revamping. Today Show and Minions are also not below The Lunching Pad. My point was you can't trust data like this in a linear way as the pool size changes things to skew.
It likely will. It starts out to impress. Things ebb and flow and decline by degrees until the wheel is reinvented again. Fire Eaters is a great example sadly of how something awesome can fall so far.
- Restaurant opens with unique offering.
- Exects notice that people really go there a lot. Someone has an idea to streamline menu to increase profits further since it is so popular.
- "Let's serve something more like a hot dog rather than a proper gyro"
- People stop raving about quality and volume drops...
- the wait is on for an Exec decision maker to say "Hey we should serve something of unique and quality to get the volume up here"
Andrew25
Well-Known Member
Yes, Universal has improved menu selections throughout the parks... but ultimate those improvements fall due to the horrendous service. Definitely not a TM issue, it's a management issue.
Funny you mention Fire Eater's, as that was my go-to at IOA. The quality has dropped severely in the past 2 years. Had a manager straight up tell me to avoid using the mobile order option after 5PM as Universal's systems get confused if the restaurant is even open since they love closing parks early lol
Yes, Fire Eaters went from fantastic from 1999 to 2017 to ok to downright awful since 2018(by comparison) This is specifically why I brought it up becuase it is kind of textbook industry example of that decline and ebb and flow of food unique and popular to be ruined.
Centauri Space Station
Well-Known Member
Commissary is fantastic since they changed the menu. The tacos, buffalo grilled cheese, salads, all fantastic.
Andrew25
Well-Known Member
That Buffalo sandwich and the carnitas tacos are one of the best options at WDW, and finally makes DHS a decent option to go eat at lol
UNCgolf
Well-Known Member
I don't think it's surprising that Casey's Corner has relatively good reviews.
It's hot dogs. It's hard to screw up hot dogs, and the ones at Casey's Corner are fine.
That said, it does show why it can be difficult to compare ratings for restaurants with very different kinds of food (and theming, when it comes to theme parks) -- I'm sure there are a lot of people who give Casey's Corner a good review but would give, e.g., Satu'li Canteen a bad one because it has a "bunch of weird stuff" or something like that. People are swayed by the type of food available.
It's hot dogs. It's hard to screw up hot dogs, and the ones at Casey's Corner are fine.
That said, it does show why it can be difficult to compare ratings for restaurants with very different kinds of food (and theming, when it comes to theme parks) -- I'm sure there are a lot of people who give Casey's Corner a good review but would give, e.g., Satu'li Canteen a bad one because it has a "bunch of weird stuff" or something like that. People are swayed by the type of food available.
Andrew25
Well-Known Member
But Satu'li is rated 2nd, so I don't think people are much inclined to make a review because their menu didn't align with what they wanted. I'm not a fan of hot dogs, but the service at Casey's can't be beat. I think it gets often overlooked how quickly and efficiently Disney can turn around food orders for thousands of people in a short period. It once took Universal 45 minutes to fulfill only 3 tables' worth of orders at Cafe 4...
If both resorts were mixed well, I wouldn't pay attention to the data... but it's pretty interesting to see UOR only has 3 restaurants over the average and WDW has 15ish
UNCgolf
Well-Known Member
Oh I think the average in-park Disney food is much, much better than the average in-park UOR food; I'm not discounting the results entirely. It's been a few years, but unless things have changed dramatically I would not eat inside a Universal park again because of how terrible the food was -- luckily Universal has CityWalk right outside, so there are significantly better options relatively close to wherever someone might be at IoA or Studios.
ToTBellHop
Well-Known Member
I understand the Official Sponsor of Universal Quick-Service Dining is Purina and this checks out.
Well, then, the sushi should be good!
ToTBellHop
Well-Known Member
BrianLo
Well-Known Member
Not to pile on to this debate, since it actually doesn't bother me a ton...
But I really think the inspiration was Bellagio + fountain show. The hotel even looks like Bellagio. I think what's bothering you the most, is that the park weenie is essentially "Las Vegas". And I agree, that's kind of weird for a park that is otherwise playing Space and Fantasy as its themes.
None of the Disney Parks have their hotels acting as icons and Fantasy Springs seems to be making effort to hide it. Though Universal doesn't really do central Weenies, so I assume its iconography are more the gate itself, which they are further leaning into with every Land portal.
sedati
Well-Known Member
I may have exaggerated when I called it a "Space Casino". Seeing it coming together on Bioreconstruct it looks like a pretty average Earth hotel. I know it's got some adornments and dome coming (maybe they'll paint some flowers on it) but it's pretty clear that they went with a less-themed look than in the concept art.
And while it doesn't bother me, it is also a non-symmetrical design which means every EPCOT purist will have their noses bleeding and brains-breaking the moment they enter the park.
To be clear, I am
lazyboy97o
Well-Known Member
Are you intentionally being disingenuous?
Structure isn’t ornament.
The symmetry of CommuniCore was part a specific spatial organization. Appreciation for it has nothing to do with some sort of religious devotion to symmetry.
TalkToEthan
Well-Known Member
No, it’s not clear at all(yet); you’re too early to make such a conclusion.