I returned Tuesday, the 26th after staying 7 nights at Universal Orlando. Although I tried to pay close attention to detail, I just can't remember what we did every single day. (I'm getting old) So, I am going to divide my report into three categories, 1) The resorts,
2) The food and 3) The parks. I hope I don't bore anyone too much, as I am not nearly as talented a writer as most people on the board.
The "players" consist of me, age 45
My 14 year old son, Doug
My 10 year old daughter, Rachel
Doug's 16 year old friend, Chris
Man, did we eat. It was like an eat your way through Universal fest. Believe me, we did our fair share! I will rate the restaurants where we ate from best to least favorite (I hate to say worst.), with a brief description of what we ate.
1) Emeril's - Wow! What can I say? I had not made ressies here, but while walking into the park one day around noon, I noticed they didn't look very full. Daughter and I walked in and they had a table for 2! I was so excited!! We were seated, and introduced to the 3, yes I said 3, servers that would be waiting on us. I have never experienced anything like this, we felt so pampered! One guy took our orders, a lady brought our food, and another lady kept our drinks full. These servers were professionals! I ordered a pasta with shrimp dish and dd had a pizza. We did not order an appetizer. My pasta with shrimp was amazing. The best shrimp I had ever tasted, and believe me I have had my fair share! Daughter loved her pizza too! I told her to save room, because we had to have desert there! I ordered Chef someone's? ice cream sandwich. It was yummy, Daughter had a fruit plate that was incredible! It was amazing the way they presented the food. They had lattice work made out of chocolate on my plate with the ice cream sandwich! It was so cool. I really feel like this restaurant is a cross between an art gallery and a restaurant. Cost for 2 with tip was about $60.00.
2) Gotta go with Mythos here. I had been hoping to eat here after all of the good things I had heard on the board. We had tried one night to get in, but they were closed. Went back on a Sunday around noon, and we were one of the first ones there for that day. This was one of the few times all 4 of us ate together. Son and his friend were ususally off on their own. This restaurant was just beautiful. We were seated at what had to be one of the best tables in the house, as we had such an excellent view of the hulk and Dr Doom's fearfall. It was so cool. I ordered the chili fried soft shell crab, daughter had a fajita wrap thing, both boys had sandwiches of some type. My crab was delicious! I very much enjoyed it. It was presented to me in a birds nest sort of thingy made out of some kind of potatoes? At least that is what I think it was. Kids really liked what they had too. I also ordered a Kahlua creme brulee for desert. It was very good too. We all enjoyed this restaurant! Cost for 4 with tip was right around $70.00. Not bad at all.
3) Latin Quarter - yum! I am hungry right now for some of their salsa and chips, I can just taste them! DD and I went in here early one evening. We were seated and waited on in no time! We were starving when we got here, as we hadn't had any lunch. The waitress brought out chips & salsa and we ordered some type of crab meat appetizer. Sorry, I don't remember what it was, but it was good! We had the beef and chicken kabobs which were delicious! Daughter and I both ordered this, but it was enough that we could have shared. About half way through the vacation, I learned that daughter and I could share an order and we would be perfectly satisfied. Too bad it took so long to figure this out. Everything was very good at this restaurant, and we really enjoyed the latin dancers. My only complaint was we really did feel rushed. They were bringing our next course when we weren't even close to being finished with our previous one. Cost for 2 with appetizer and tips was about $55.00.
4) Hard Rock Cafe, for the Pig Sandwich. Really enjoyed seeing this place and the pig sandwich was awesome! It was served with potato salad, baked beans and fries? Not sure about the three choices but I do know there were three. These sandwiches had just the right about of zip! A very tangy vinegar flavored sauce, that I loved! Cost for 2 with tip was around $35.00. No appetizers or deserts here.
5)Pastamore, two different meals, not because we liked it so much, but because it was the only place with less than an hour wait! Had some kind of linguine with shrimp the first time, daughter and I split this, had the Foccacia bread for an appetizer. It was okay, nothing special. The second time we had shrimp scampi, which was also just okay, nothing special. Both times, it ran about $40.00 including tip. Pretty steep considering dd and I shared a meal. Oh, well, live and learn. I also need to add that both times I ate here, I was up that night with an upset stomach. Yikes, not a good sign!!!
6)Hark Rock Cafe - alll 4 of us. Son had been dying to go here, so Saturday night, we went over there pretty late, about 9:00PM. We only had to wait about 10 minutes for our table. We were seated and left with our menus for about 15 minutes. We ordered an appetizer that took about 30 minutes to get. Then we got our food about 20 minutes later. It was nearly 10:30PM by the time we got our food. Service was unacceptably slow. Food wasn't very good this time. I had a BLT, that was cold when I got it. Kids didn't really like their food either. Cost for 4 with tip and appetizer was $80.00, we really should have complained, but I just wanted to get back to the room and get to bed!!
7) Sunset Grill at HRH. Yuck! The worst ribs I have had in a long time. Now, my family loves ribs, but we didn't like these. Almost burned, with very little meat. The sides that they offered were nothing special either. Again should have complained, but didn't. Cost with tip was about $80.00 for 4.
8) Mama Della's at PB. My stomach is turning just thinking of this place. I ordered linguine with clams, and white sauce, and they brought me red. I was going to send it back, but the lady at the table next to me started getting sick, bless her heart. So, I just got it packed to go. I am probably not being fair judging this place last, but nothing we had was very good, and after the poor lady next door got sick, I didn't have much of an appetite. Cost for 2 was about $40.00 with tip.
Well, there you have it! What a lot of food we consumed! No wonder I had trouble zipping my shorts this morning!!
Kim
2) The food and 3) The parks. I hope I don't bore anyone too much, as I am not nearly as talented a writer as most people on the board.
The "players" consist of me, age 45
My 14 year old son, Doug
My 10 year old daughter, Rachel
Doug's 16 year old friend, Chris
Man, did we eat. It was like an eat your way through Universal fest. Believe me, we did our fair share! I will rate the restaurants where we ate from best to least favorite (I hate to say worst.), with a brief description of what we ate.
1) Emeril's - Wow! What can I say? I had not made ressies here, but while walking into the park one day around noon, I noticed they didn't look very full. Daughter and I walked in and they had a table for 2! I was so excited!! We were seated, and introduced to the 3, yes I said 3, servers that would be waiting on us. I have never experienced anything like this, we felt so pampered! One guy took our orders, a lady brought our food, and another lady kept our drinks full. These servers were professionals! I ordered a pasta with shrimp dish and dd had a pizza. We did not order an appetizer. My pasta with shrimp was amazing. The best shrimp I had ever tasted, and believe me I have had my fair share! Daughter loved her pizza too! I told her to save room, because we had to have desert there! I ordered Chef someone's? ice cream sandwich. It was yummy, Daughter had a fruit plate that was incredible! It was amazing the way they presented the food. They had lattice work made out of chocolate on my plate with the ice cream sandwich! It was so cool. I really feel like this restaurant is a cross between an art gallery and a restaurant. Cost for 2 with tip was about $60.00.
2) Gotta go with Mythos here. I had been hoping to eat here after all of the good things I had heard on the board. We had tried one night to get in, but they were closed. Went back on a Sunday around noon, and we were one of the first ones there for that day. This was one of the few times all 4 of us ate together. Son and his friend were ususally off on their own. This restaurant was just beautiful. We were seated at what had to be one of the best tables in the house, as we had such an excellent view of the hulk and Dr Doom's fearfall. It was so cool. I ordered the chili fried soft shell crab, daughter had a fajita wrap thing, both boys had sandwiches of some type. My crab was delicious! I very much enjoyed it. It was presented to me in a birds nest sort of thingy made out of some kind of potatoes? At least that is what I think it was. Kids really liked what they had too. I also ordered a Kahlua creme brulee for desert. It was very good too. We all enjoyed this restaurant! Cost for 4 with tip was right around $70.00. Not bad at all.
3) Latin Quarter - yum! I am hungry right now for some of their salsa and chips, I can just taste them! DD and I went in here early one evening. We were seated and waited on in no time! We were starving when we got here, as we hadn't had any lunch. The waitress brought out chips & salsa and we ordered some type of crab meat appetizer. Sorry, I don't remember what it was, but it was good! We had the beef and chicken kabobs which were delicious! Daughter and I both ordered this, but it was enough that we could have shared. About half way through the vacation, I learned that daughter and I could share an order and we would be perfectly satisfied. Too bad it took so long to figure this out. Everything was very good at this restaurant, and we really enjoyed the latin dancers. My only complaint was we really did feel rushed. They were bringing our next course when we weren't even close to being finished with our previous one. Cost for 2 with appetizer and tips was about $55.00.
4) Hard Rock Cafe, for the Pig Sandwich. Really enjoyed seeing this place and the pig sandwich was awesome! It was served with potato salad, baked beans and fries? Not sure about the three choices but I do know there were three. These sandwiches had just the right about of zip! A very tangy vinegar flavored sauce, that I loved! Cost for 2 with tip was around $35.00. No appetizers or deserts here.
5)Pastamore, two different meals, not because we liked it so much, but because it was the only place with less than an hour wait! Had some kind of linguine with shrimp the first time, daughter and I split this, had the Foccacia bread for an appetizer. It was okay, nothing special. The second time we had shrimp scampi, which was also just okay, nothing special. Both times, it ran about $40.00 including tip. Pretty steep considering dd and I shared a meal. Oh, well, live and learn. I also need to add that both times I ate here, I was up that night with an upset stomach. Yikes, not a good sign!!!
6)Hark Rock Cafe - alll 4 of us. Son had been dying to go here, so Saturday night, we went over there pretty late, about 9:00PM. We only had to wait about 10 minutes for our table. We were seated and left with our menus for about 15 minutes. We ordered an appetizer that took about 30 minutes to get. Then we got our food about 20 minutes later. It was nearly 10:30PM by the time we got our food. Service was unacceptably slow. Food wasn't very good this time. I had a BLT, that was cold when I got it. Kids didn't really like their food either. Cost for 4 with tip and appetizer was $80.00, we really should have complained, but I just wanted to get back to the room and get to bed!!
7) Sunset Grill at HRH. Yuck! The worst ribs I have had in a long time. Now, my family loves ribs, but we didn't like these. Almost burned, with very little meat. The sides that they offered were nothing special either. Again should have complained, but didn't. Cost with tip was about $80.00 for 4.
8) Mama Della's at PB. My stomach is turning just thinking of this place. I ordered linguine with clams, and white sauce, and they brought me red. I was going to send it back, but the lady at the table next to me started getting sick, bless her heart. So, I just got it packed to go. I am probably not being fair judging this place last, but nothing we had was very good, and after the poor lady next door got sick, I didn't have much of an appetite. Cost for 2 was about $40.00 with tip.
Well, there you have it! What a lot of food we consumed! No wonder I had trouble zipping my shorts this morning!!
Kim
