Whenever we go to Universal, we exclusively eat at restaurants at City Walk. Even when we are not going to Universal but are in Florida, we head to City Walk for at least one meal. My only issue with the restaurants at City Walk….deciding which one to eat at first! We find the prices really good, keep in mind you have to add the exchange if you’re Canadian but it’s still quite reasonable, especially compared to most theme park food.
We often end up splitting meals for a few reasons…
- With all the rides, I never want to feel over full,
- Being from Canada, I find the portions to be quite large and I hate the waste of throwing food away, and
- I LOVE dessert, when we share meals we have room to enjoy the fantastic desserts that City Walk has to offer!
Bonus…it saves a bunch of money!
As discussed briefly in my “10 Tips that will Make your Day a Universal a Million times better!” post, we eat at certain times when we’re at Universal for very good reason. We generally take some snacks with us, including some quick grab-and-go breakfast options (granola bars, muffins, etc) to take with us first thing to the parks. This gets us ready and into the parks quicker in the morning. It also makes it so we’re ready for lunch by 11:00-11:30 which is perfect! By this time, the parks are getting busy and it’s getting pretty hot. We’ve been in the park for a few hours and been on a bunch of rides by this point and we’re ready to head to an air conditioned restaurant for a break and some food. The restaurants are still empty at this time so we can get a table immediately and are leaving the restaurants when they are starting to fill up.
We generally head back to the hotel to enjoy some pool time for a while in the afternoon but you could also head back into the parks while everyone is heading out for lunch (and will end up waiting an hour or more for a table!). Because we’ve had an early lunch, we’re ready to eat an early dinner. We generally go for dinner around 4:30pm. Again, everyone is still in the parks so it’s a quick wait for a table and the meal is quicker because the restaurant isn’t packed yet. Then, when everyone is heading out of the parks for dinner, you’re heading back in to enjoy more rides with smaller lines, win-win!
Here are our go to dining options at City Walk. Click on each one to read more and see pictures of the food!
Open: Monday–Thursday 4pm–11pm & Friday/Saturday 3pm–midnight.
Open: Sunday-Thursday 10:30am-Midnight & Friday/Saturday 10:30am-1am.
Open: Sunday-Thursday 4pm-11pm & Saturday/Sunday 4pm-midnight.
Open: Sunday-Thursday 10:30am-midnight & Friday/Saturday 10:30am-1am (all day brunch menu 7 days a week!)
Red Oven Pizza Bakery
Open: Sunday-Thursday 10:30am-midnight & Friday/Saturday 10:30am-1:30pm.
All hours are subject to change so check here for up to date hours and offerings.
Click on each restaurant to read more about it and see pictures of the delicious food. More about the Red Oven Pizza Bakery will be coming soon!
