So, my husband and I went to universal for 1 day 6 years ago (decidedly not experts) and now we’re bringing our two kids ages 3 and 8. I was told by my travel agent that i didn’t need any ADRs and the restaurants aren’t like at WDW. That’s fine, but i literally have no idea where is good to eat and im especially concerned about my 2 picky eater kids.
Our main purpose of the trip is harry potter so we will be visiting those quick service restaurants but they look like authentic British food and im not sure how that will play with my kids.
Suggestions for best dining locations (quick or table service) for my family?
Most of the time when we go to the parks, we normally get quick service food because we’re there to do other things. We normally go to sit down restaurants when we leave the parks. Personally, we didn’t like the food in HP areas, but we loved the sweets there, so we get desserts there. However, for food we’ve liked Ritcher’s in the San Francisco area they had good burgers, fries, and shakes. We had good tacos and nachos from the Bumblebee Man taco truck in the Simpsons area. If you like Italian, we liked the pasta in Louie’s Restaurant. Mel’s Diner was also good for burgers, chicken, etc. In IOA, we liked the chicken sandwiches and chicken tenders in the Captain America diner, the burgers in the Visitor’s Center of JP, and we’ve eaten at Mythos as well.
Not a lot of places have “good food” at Universal.
But here is what we do:
Captain America Diner (at IOA): Not because it is good. It isn’t. But it is cheaper, especially if you just order the kids burgers for everyone. Same burger, half the price. (Well, you don’t get the tomato and lettuce.) We did that a few times. The burgers taste, well, like cheap frozen burgers.
Louie’s Italian Restaurant (UOR): We went there for the pizza. It was okay pizza, but we could order a whole pizza for the family to share and it was cheaper than trying to buy individual meals for everyone.
We did eat at The Three Broomsticks and was terribly unimpressed.
Ultimately we found that eating at Universal is not about having good food, but getting energy to move on with more attractions.
Thanks, everyone! So, with these underwhelming reviews, should i do a grocery order and try to bring in our own food for lunches? We mostly just do snack stuff when we are at Disney but i could try to order some more lunch foods so that we aren’t over paying for bad food.
Since you have a 3-year-old, I ASSUME you are using a stroller. If so, then I can see bringing in some food and saving the money. But if you weren’t planning to use a stroller, I’d just pick the cheapest options rather than have to lug around a bag with food.
But if you bring in your food for meals, then you can focus the money saved on the things that ARE good, like hitting any of the ice cream places, or getting a butterbeer, or other sweets/snacks. (Tip: Don’t bother trying the butterbeer-flavored fudge. Sounded delicious, so I tried it. It was bland. I’d get something else!)
Good tip on the fudge! Yes, we will have a stroller for her so would be able to put the food in the basket. I think I’ll do this, because you’re right, I would rather spend on delicious treats!
We didn’t think the food was bad. Coming from a big city where we could get pretty much any type of food, we didn’t focus on having the best meals. We went there for the rides. That being said, we liked the places we ate at.
I didn’t already see it mentioned, but Three Broomsticks & Leaky Cauldron have kids menus. You can get the typical chicken fingers or mac and cheese. The fish & chips is really good, especially if they are used to fast food fish like Long John Silver’s / Captain D’s
I haven’t seen many people talk about CityWalk here, which I believe is a better option for lunch and dinner than inside the parks.
Check out Margaritaville, Cowfish, and NBC Grill Brew for lunch as they offer standard kids menus. You said they enjoy mexican food so check out Antojito’s (opens at 4pm) for dinner.
The OP was concerned with in park options, especially for kids. I totally agree that there is way better food at CityWalk than anywhere in the parks. Heck, for families you can’t bet Toothsome’s!
I whole-heartedly DISAGREE with some of the commenters saying Universal has bad food. Everything I ate, from Mythos to Antojitos to the crappy Simpsons food court, was significantly better than similar quality food at Disney, and I was happy with the food.
Mythos is great and has an excellent kids’ pizza. The Simpsons food court has kids food - I had a hot dog and it was fine. I mean, it was a hot dog, so, however good those ever are.
Antojitos, which is in CityWalk, was excellent, and well-priced. Lots of options for everyone.
