Taking a two-day, two park trip in January with two kids. (girls, ages 11 and 7)
What are the opinions on these two restaurants for lunch/ dinner? Our kids would always rather actively tour than sit down to eat, but my eldest will really want to eat somewhere HP themed.*
I’ve read and compared and IMHO either looks fun, so if you’ve been to one or the other, I’d love to hear about it.
Thanks.
*Disney 2015 - spent days making character ADRs. Canceled almost every single one once we got to the Parks. Had a phenomenal trip, and the moral of the story was no one wants to “waste time eating when we could be riding BTMR!!”
Both are fine - my family didn’t care for the food so we ate elsewhere. So just check the menu at both to ensure that they will enjoy the offerings. I also recommend MYTHOS as well. Obviously not HP - but a good solid restaurant with decent food and a nice break from the parks.
We ate at both last January with our 7-year old twins (both big Potter fans). We had lunch at the Leaky Cauldron, then we had a late afternoon snack (and a beer for me) at Three Broomsticks. We liked them both.
I personally liked the atmosphere of 3 Broomsticks/ Hog’s Head better. Bar on one side, food service on the other with all the seating in between intermingled. The hog’s head above the bar moves and snorts every so often (it snorts right?). But my DW preferred the atmosphere at the Leaky Cauldron. High ceiling. Moving wanted signs. And maybe seemed a bit more upscale (neither is upscale) with them bringing your food to your table. Thus, also maybe a touch slower, but really both were pretty quick. Kids liked them both equally. Food at both is English themed (see Tigger613’s warning), but honestly I don’t remember much beyond that we all ate. And of course the delicious butter beer… and draft beer for that matter.
I don’t think you can go wrong either way. And you will very likely want to peak in at both at the very least.
The food at the Leaky Cauldron is supposed to be traditional British — I thought it was very poor quality, to be honest. It’s like British school food: dry, tasteless pies cooked and served in thin aluminium tins. The food at the Three Broomsticks is American — ribs, chicken, corn on the cob. Three Broomsticks wins on food, but neither’s great.
Atmosphere-wise, I preferred the Leaky Cauldron — I’m not sure I could articulate why.
You can buy bottles of Gillywater for the hilarious price of $4.50 — it’s literally just water.
Anything with Butterbeer in the name is worth trying, however. I enjoyed all the various forms of it very much.
We did breakfast at the Leaky Cauldron and it was great. The lunch/dinner menus don’t appeal, and I’m English! Love nipping into the Hogs Head for a butterbeer though, and the line is always pretty short, unlike the carts outside.
I agree with what others have said but want to second @Tigger613 and highly recommend Mythos! The food is really good and the price is fairly reasonable for theme park fare. Mythos is not open for dinner, so you could have a lunch at Mythos and then sit down for dinner at 3 Broomsticks or Leaky Cauldron. I understand the desire to keep touring, but we had a lunch there during our last visit and my teenage boys loved it enough that they demanded we go back on our upcoming trip.
On the outside it claims to have been voted the best theme park restaurant in Orlando several years in a row (something like that)
It is good but I wouldn’t go that far
Very tasty food and nice setting. Good, calm place to refuel and re-energise etc IMO. I remember it had great air conditioning. If anything was slightly too cold.
I think there aren’t many great places to eat inside the Universal Parks. The Harry Potter restaurants are definitely more for the theming than the food - however I do agree with the poster above that breakfast might be the best option in one of them so you can say you’ve dined there and experienced the theming. In City walk dinner at Bob Marleys was also very tasty and if you dine after 8pm ish they have a live band
