Universal's food is still pretty bad

Tom Morrow

Tom Morrow

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Universal has made a ton of improvements over the last nearly 15 years since Potter opened, but one thing still rings true: their food still mostly sucks.

In my entire life I don't think I have ever once received food from Universal that was actually hot*. It always comes out lukewarm no matter what restaurant. There is not a single restaurant that's better than "okay" even if the food was actually hot.

Yes, even Mythos. Even the HHN and Mardi Gras food. Even the Potter restaurants. All of it. Always mid and always served lukewarm.

Disney's quick service and full service ranges from "mid" to "excellent", but Universal's ranges from "terrible" to "okay". It's odd that they're still so far behind in this aspect.



*Okay I take that back - I had a hot fresh churro recently.
 
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Andrew25

Andrew25

Well-Known Member
Tom Morrow said:
Universal has made a ton of improvements over the last nearly 15 years since Potter opened, but one thing still rings true: their food still mostly sucks.

In my entire life I don't think I have ever once received food from Universal that was actually hot*. It always comes out lukewarm no matter what restaurant. There is not a single restaurant that's better than "okay" even if the food was actually hot.

Yes, even Mythos. Even the HHN and Mardi Gras food. Even the Potter restaurants. All of it. Always mid and always served lukewarm.

Disney's quick service and full service ranges from "mid" to "excellent", but Universal's ranges from "terrible" to "okay". It's odd that they're still so far behind in this aspect.



*Okay I take that back - I had a hot fresh churro recently.
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Universal has improved slightly, but lightyears beyond where they should be.

Minion Cafe/Circus McGurkus are an exception, it's high-quality and possibly top 5 QSR options in Orlando. However, there's not much else after that. When Mel's went down for refurb, they reopened Cafe La Bamba with an attempt at potentially keeping it open after, but the food quality went down significantly after the first few months.

Mel's after the refurb is better than what it was before. Nothing newsworthy however since it's just chicken tenders & burgers, but I find it's quality better than Cosmic Ray's.

I think Universal can make good food, but they're operations unfortunately hold them back.

For Universal, I always recommend eating at Circus McGurkus, Thunder Falls, Minions Cafe or Leaky Cauldron. Outside those, just pay a few extra dollars at a CityWalk restaurant.
 
avenger1138

avenger1138

New Member
Tom Morrow said:
Universal has made a ton of improvements over the last nearly 15 years since Potter opened, but one thing still rings true: their food still mostly sucks.

In my entire life I don't think I have ever once received food from Universal that was actually hot*. It always comes out lukewarm no matter what restaurant. There is not a single restaurant that's better than "okay" even if the food was actually hot.

Yes, even Mythos. Even the HHN and Mardi Gras food. Even the Potter restaurants. All of it. Always mid and always served lukewarm.

Disney's quick service and full service ranges from "mid" to "excellent", but Universal's ranges from "terrible" to "okay". It's odd that they're still so far behind in this aspect.



*Okay I take that back - I had a hot fresh churro recently.
Click to expand...
Not sure the last time I ate in the actual parks…I always go to City Walk. Toothsome used to be great pre-covid but the last few times they seemed to fall off as well. Hard Rock is decent for what it is.

I eat at Sal’s back at the hotel a lot too 🤷‍♂️.
 
D

drkarcher22

Member
Tom Morrow said:
Universal has made a ton of improvements over the last nearly 15 years since Potter opened, but one thing still rings true: their food still mostly sucks.

In my entire life I don't think I have ever once received food from Universal that was actually hot*. It always comes out lukewarm no matter what restaurant. There is not a single restaurant that's better than "okay" even if the food was actually hot.

Yes, even Mythos. Even the HHN and Mardi Gras food. Even the Potter restaurants. All of it. Always mid and always served lukewarm.

Disney's quick service and full service ranges from "mid" to "excellent", but Universal's ranges from "terrible" to "okay". It's odd that they're still so far behind in this aspect.



*Okay I take that back - I had a hot fresh churro recently.
Click to expand...
Mythos might be the most overrated restaurant in any theme park. You see the banners saying best theme park restaurant however many years running, then you go in and it’s okay at best. EPCOT alone has around a good half dozen places I would immediately go for over it and probably another 3 or 4 that I’d consider as well.

Gonna agree with others here, just head over to City Walk and grab something there
 
sonoma15

sonoma15

Well-Known Member
Tom Morrow said:
Universal has made a ton of improvements over the last nearly 15 years since Potter opened, but one thing still rings true: their food still mostly sucks.

In my entire life I don't think I have ever once received food from Universal that was actually hot*. It always comes out lukewarm no matter what restaurant. There is not a single restaurant that's better than "okay" even if the food was actually hot.

Yes, even Mythos. Even the HHN and Mardi Gras food. Even the Potter restaurants. All of it. Always mid and always served lukewarm.

Disney's quick service and full service ranges from "mid" to "excellent", but Universal's ranges from "terrible" to "okay". It's odd that they're still so far behind in this aspect.



*Okay I take that back - I had a hot fresh churro recently.
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Disagree!
 
Tom Morrow

Tom Morrow

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
JT3000 said:
I question the judgment of anyone who voluntarily eats a theme park churro.
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It was free! And somehow very good or maybe I was just very hungry.
drkarcher22 said:
Mythos might be the most overrated restaurant in any theme park. You see the banners saying best theme park restaurant however many years running, then you go in and it’s okay at best. EPCOT alone has around a good half dozen places I would immediately go for over it and probably another 3 or 4 that I’d consider as well.

Gonna agree with others here, just head over to City Walk and grab something there
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Agreed. It won "best theme park restaurant" for a few years and they coasted on that reputation for way longer than they should have.

ToTBellHop said:
We just snack through the day in the parks and have dinner at City Walk. Better food there.
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Even at CityWalk I don't think I've ever gotten a meal that came out hot. Though I guess overall I did enjoy Vivo.
 
My95cobras

My95cobras

Well-Known Member
When eating in the universal area, we find the best places to go are bice, the palm and strongwater. Toothsome and cow fish are good too. But we don’t really do quick service anywhere.
 
Minnesota disney fan

Minnesota disney fan

Well-Known Member
I guess it depends when you go to these restaurants at Universal. We went to Minions cafe early November and we waited about an hour for our food, just sandwiches, and it was only barely warm. We would have left but we were tired and thought the food might show up sometime in the future. The tables around us were piled up with plates and left over food. There were a lot of them left that way. So, I guess it depends when you catch them whether the food or service is good. We know that we will never go back there again. I have never waited that long for mediocre food before. We were so hungry that we wolfed it down. Not good. It was also very cold in there. I know there is AC everywhere, but it was very cold and that didn't help the food temperature.

We had excellent food at The Hard Rock Cafe, both HP restaurants, and the resort restaurants. I forget the other places we ate, but we did not have a bad meal at all at Universal.
But for everyone who says what I say, there are others who have had the opposite experience. The food at our resort was excellent however. We mostly ate there after a long day in the parks.
 
EricsBiscuit

EricsBiscuit

Well-Known Member
There is good eating to be had, if you know where to look. To be clear, Uni’s food is not as good as WDW’s but here are some good options:

-Thunder Falls Terrace
-Bigfire grill
-Vivo Italian
-Moe’s is a great lunch option if you have time
-Minion Cafe

The hotels have some decent options, especially the Hard Rock.
 
Tom Morrow

Tom Morrow

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Out of those, I actually did enjoy Vivo. Felt it was comparable to Maggiano's (a chain that's a few steps above Olive Garden). Bigfire had me really disappointed - I assumed the steak would have lots of smokey flavor but it was pretty bland.

I've never actually tried Thunder Falls. Moe's (you mean The Simpsons one, right?) is actually pretty decent fast food, but it's way overpriced even for theme park food prices. I've never tried Minion Cafe because the interior decor and theme is very off-putting to me.
 
D

drkarcher22

Member
Tom Morrow said:
Out of those, I actually did enjoy Vivo. Felt it was comparable to Maggiano's (a chain that's a few steps above Olive Garden). Bigfire had me really disappointed - I assumed the steak would have lots of smokey flavor but it was pretty bland.

I've never actually tried Thunder Falls. Moe's (you mean The Simpsons one, right?) is actually pretty decent fast food, but it's way overpriced even for theme park food prices. I've never tried Minion Cafe because the interior decor and theme is very off-putting to me.
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Thunder Falls is usually pretty good and a nice option if you’re in the back of IoA and don’t want to walk back to City Walk
 
DonniePeverley

DonniePeverley

Well-Known Member
How hard would it be for these theme parks to get some professional michellin star chefs in, to create food. Even if they want it cheap and budget - surely they can do better?

The food is just beyond horrific.
 
JoeCamel

JoeCamel

Well-Known Member
DonniePeverley said:
How hard would it be for these theme parks to get some professional michellin star chefs in, to create food. Even if they want it cheap and budget - surely they can do better?

The food is just beyond horrific.
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And if you buy the park they can put some really decent food on the table. Ask anyone that has been to an OI meetup so they could but they choose to mass produce chicken and ribs and burgers
 

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