Your "I can't miss" restaurants

[TeacherDL]

We are going to Universal for the first time the first week of April. "We" is my husband and two daughters ages 17 and 11. We are not a picky family (the youngest is a little picky but not bad). We are staying CL at Hard Rock and I assumed we should try "The Kitchen" one night. So, I was just curious what your favorite restaurants are, the ones you just can't miss when you go? Also, do you make reservations ahead of time?

 

[BeDisneyHappy]

Vivo at City Walk. Loved it!

 

[keishashadow]

Many like it, I am not a fan of the kitchen (likely hit it on off night but never bothered to give it a 2nd chance since we rarely stay there) or islands. The trattoria at PBH is decent, like their pasta buffet, but wouldn't make a special trip over to dine there, same for Sals. We've walked away from Mama Della's twice after waiting over an hour for a table (one for 2, another time for 5) despite having reservations.

Mythos is heads & shoulders above the rest, if you like risotto don't miss it.

Jakes @ RPH continues to surprise us, well-done steak and enjoy the pretzel appetizer. Emeril's location there is still struggling as to food quality IMO, a shame as it used to be so good.

Citiwalk - Margarittaville has good fried chicken & decent burgers along with aformentined pretzels. Will miss NBA, consistently good food & reasonably priced. Not big on Bubba Gump in general but Citiwalks' food & service seems better there than at other locations we've tried, due to it being dining companions selection.

 

[Kivara]

We like most everything we've tried at CityWalk, and we always go to Finnigan's in Studios.

I'm one of the few that won't go back to Mythos...had a bad meal there, slow service, and after waiting half an hour for someone to come back to take our payment (also to complain) we just handed our bill and enough cash to cover it to a passing staff member.
'But, like I said, most love Mythos, and it sounds like we had a rare bad experience.

 

[schumigirl]

We like most everything we've tried at CityWalk, and we always go to Finnigan's in Studios.

I'm one of the few that won't go back to Mythos...had a bad meal there, slow service, and after waiting half an hour for someone to come back to take our payment (also to complain) we just handed our bill and enough cash to cover it to a passing staff member.
'But, like I said, most love Mythos, and it sounds like we had a rare bad experience.

That's all it takes isn't it though......one bad meal or service will put you off going back to somewhere even though thousands have enjoyed it........

We will never go back to Finnegans or Bubba Gumps........tried both twice and that's me done with them....but, plenty love both places........different strokes I suppose........
Same with both sit down restaurants at PBH........didn't have good food or service at either so won't go back........expected so much better.

OP.........I assume you mean onsite at Universal...........

Margaritaville.......
Cowfish........
The Palm at HRH.........didn't like The Kitchen
Sal's at PBH.........best pizza ever!!!
Jake's at RPR
Bula Bar at RPR
Mythos
Lombards
Thunder Falls Terrace
Louie's
Confisco Grille

That's the places we usually hit at least once.....but we do like to eat outside the resort too, think most of our choices are around Orlando now.

 

[troydjames]

Hello fellow Kentuckian, we go down a couple times a year, will also be down when you are going, Spring Break for us, we tried NBC sports grill and enjoyed it, having a foosball table the kids could play was their highlight, we also tried Cowfish for the first time it is was a great burger and HOT fries, every review you read will talk about cold fries, not our experience, and the kids love's Jimmy Buffets, they have the balloon artist on stilts and they get to sing with the staff, in Hollywood studio's, Finnegians is good, have a good fried loaf that has onions and potatoes app. In Adventure Islands Mythos is good for price not as good as citywalk food in my opinion, and the restaurant where Jurrasic Park ride splashes down, I think Thunder falls terrace is what it is called, has rotisserie style chicken, ribs and corn on the cob also not bad, When we stay at hard rock for breakfast we go by the ice cream shop on the way to the boat, they have good bacon egg and cheese croissants, I like the Kitchen in the Hard Rock also, and if you like the taste of butterscotch, butter beer ice cream at diagon alley is one of my favorites.

 

[Raeven]

Ours are:
Mythos at Islands of Adventure the food was amazing even for those that were gluten free in our party.

Mama Dellas was also amazing. Very accomadating, great food. They even gave us a free dessert for our anniversary and they had a band that went from table to table playing songs. We also didn't have a wait with a reservation but it might've been the time of day or the time of year we went.

And these aren't "cant miss" but were good:
Margaritaville at Citywalk was very good too, and Breadbox on citywalk had good sandwiches for a quick meal. Our hotel CBBR also had a bowling alley called Galaxy Bowl and the nachos were pretty good.

We also went off property to Idrive 360 one night and Shake Shack was delicious.

 

[Clemson Bama Fan]

Cowfish(crab rangoon dip, burgers and spiked milkshakes), Antojito's (guacamole made table side), Margaritaville(lava lava shrimp, cheeseburger), Kitchen (breakfast buffet), Emeril's City Walk for lunch (crawfish and andouille pizza, shrimp and grits) to name a few of our "regulars".

 

[2Gma]

Mythos at IOA.
Did not make reservation. Walked into at lunch time during May trip.

 

[vatmark]

Our first trip we really enjoyed Finnegans and Margaritaville. 2nd trip we hated both. Bad food and bad service. Probably won't be back. We enjoyed Cowfish and loved the pizza at Sals over at PBH. We've been to Mythos twice and enjoyed it both times. Had a great meal at Vivo and would definitely return. The Kitchen over at HRH was just okay. Nothing special. Hot Dog Hall of Fame was good for what it was…hot dogs. Simpsons FF Blvd also ok for what it was-fried fast food. We made reservations for Mythos,Margeritaville,Finnegans and Cowfish 1 month out. Vivo we made a few hours before. We were there during the busy summer and just wanted to make sure we didn't have long waits for meals.

 

[mforce1]

Loved....Confisco Grille, Cowfish, Vivo and even Antojitos. The one place that surprised me was the bread box. I remembered I ordered the turkey club w/fries and the turkey was hand craved with nice piece of bacon w/hot fries. Didn't get a chance to try Red Oven though..next time!

 

[RMulieri]

Mythos
Mama Dellas
Cowfish

 

[Robo56]

Mythos
Lombards
Confisco Grill
Sal's pzza at PBH

 

[snoopboop]

Mythos is my must-do on EVERY trip.

We tried Cowfish last time and really enjoyed it... We'll definitely be back there as well!

 

[schumigirl]

Nice to see Cowfish get plenty of praise........

I never answered your other question OP.........

No, we never, ever make reservations. Never have and we always eat at peak times. Longest wait was around 10 minutes for Mythos one day. We are usually party of 3 or last year it was only the two of us.

For dinner you can use priority seating at most places, most of the time......we have taken advantage of that many times and it really knocks the wait down. From a 50 minute wait to around 10 at Margaritaville on a busy night.

It's usually not necessary at Universal to make reservations........exceptions are big holidays like Christmas of course.

 

[Kae]

Emeril's Tchoup Chop. We love it

 

[Kivara]

I missed the second question as well. On our trips, we've had 7 people. We've never done a reservation anywhere.
We always go late-May/early-June, not not incredibly busy. But we just go with the flow, we eat when we want, where we want. Only a couple times have the waits been long, then we just went elsewhere & did that place a different day.

 

[Seeker615]

We did Mythos at lunch and really enjoyed the food and atmosphere.
Personally I love Hard Rock Cafe. The place is huge and I always enjoy the food. One evening we sat outside and had some appetizers and wine and loved the atmosphere.
We also enjoy Finnegans and Pat O'Briens
We never made reservations for any of them.

 

[mrsabbott]

I am also a fellow Kentuckian (although not a UK fan though.. sorry! ) and I am also going to suggest Mythos! It was the best Pad Thai that I had ever had and our entire family of picky eaters all loved it! We didn't make a reservation either time we ate there and the atmosphere was lovely. Our service was good.

I've never eaten at the Hard Rock in Orlando, but we ate at the one in Louisville for our anniversary and were so disappointed! I had eaten at the one in Nashville a zillion years ago and seemed to remember it being decent, so we tried it and our food was bland and the asparagus on my veggie sandwich was so overcooked you couldn't even bite into it! It was like eating a twig! Potential there, I think.. just a bad chef. The atmosphere is awesome though!

 

[schumigirl]

I am also a fellow Kentuckian (although not a UK fan though.. sorry! )

What a strange thing to say in this thread about Universal restaurants

Sorry you obviously didn't have a good visit to the United Kingdom.........