Where to Eat in CityWalk Right Now
Wood-fired steaks, a steampunk chocolate factory, sushi-burger fusion and tableside guacamole — CityWalk's twenty-plus kitchens, sorted into the order we'd book them.
3 minute read
CityWalk packs more than twenty places to eat into a few hundred waterfront yards, and the quality gap between its best and its merely convenient is wide. Because the district sits on the walk between the parking decks and the park gates, the temptation is to take the first available table. Resist it. Here is how we would spend a finite number of dinners in Universal CityWalk — researched from the current lineup, and offered without a ranking: the magazine’s Top Businesses program has not scored CityWalk’s venues yet, so consider this a field guide, not a leaderboard.
The two reservations to make first
Bigfire is the district’s serious dinner. The kitchen cooks over live fire — cherry, pecan and oak, per the menu — and the room leans into a lakeside-lodge register: steaks and freshwater fish with a smoke edge, a bourbon cheese fondue to start, and s’mores assembled tableside for dessert. It is the CityWalk table we’d send a skeptic to. We profile it in Bigfire: Dinner, Cooked Over an Open Fire.
The Toothsome Chocolate Emporium & Savory Feast Kitchen is the spectacle that also feeds you. Beneath the steampunk smokestacks is a full savory menu — salads, sandwiches, pasta, steaks — plus the dessert program everyone photographs: Jacques’ specialty milkshakes and the warm chocolate almond bread. Book it, or use the walk-up counter out front for shakes without the wait. Our profile: Inside the Toothsome Chocolate Emporium.
The crowd-pleasers
The Cowfish Sushi Burger Bar exists for groups who cannot agree. Half the menu is sushi, half is half-pound burgers, and the Burgushi section fuses the two. The bento box — mini-burger, sushi, edamame, sweet potato fries — is the diplomat’s order. More in The Cowfish: Where Sushi Meets the Burger.
VIVO Italian Kitchen is the quiet achiever: an open kitchen pulling fresh pasta daily, wood-fired pizzas, and dishes like squid-ink seafood and short rib over saffron risotto. It serves dinner only and fills fast when the parks close — go early or book.
Antojitos Authentic Mexican Food, in the pastel building with the bicycle weathervane, does the cantina thing at full volume: tableside guacamole, white queso, street corn, tacos al pastor and beef birria, with live mariachi on select nights. It is loud in the way you want Mexican food to be loud.
The institutions
NBC Sports Grill & Brew is the game-day answer — more than 100 screens, a beer list running past 100 selections, foosball built into some tables, and a giant warm soft pretzel that functions as a table event. Hard Rock Cafe Orlando, billed as the world’s largest, is part restaurant, part memorabilia museum, turning out Legendary burgers under a Colosseum-style dome across the water. Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville runs its volcano bar and margarita flights beside the Lone Palm Airport seaplane on the waterfront, and Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. leans happily into its Forrest Gump theme with shrimp in seemingly every preparation. Bob Marley – A Tribute to Freedom and Pat O’Brien’s blur dinner and nightlife — jerk chicken and reggae in an open-air courtyard at one; Cajun plates, po’boys and dueling pianos at the other.
Fast, and sweet
On a schedule, aim for Red Oven Pizza Bakery’s stone-oven pies, Bend the Bao’s bao buns, Bread Box sandwiches, or Fat One’s hot dogs and Italian ice. For dessert, the district is stacked: Voodoo Doughnut’s pink boxes, Toothsome’s shake counter, Cold Stone, Menchie’s and Cinnabon — see Voodoo Doughnut and CityWalk’s Dessert Crawl. Plot the evening on the Top Spots Map, and remember the district pairs naturally with everything in our Universal Orlando hub.
Photo: Farragutful, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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