13 Best Restaurants in Universal Orlando, Florida

This enchanting table-service restaurant's eclectic menu includes dishes such as pad Thai, pan-seared salmon with lemon-basil butter, souvlaki couscous bowl, and brick oven–roasted chicken. The building itself—which looks like a giant rock formation from the outside and a huge cave (albeit one with plush upholstered seating) from within—will grab your attention, as will the view of the big lagoon in the center of the theme park. Reserve online or with the Universal app for lunch or an early dinner.

Inspired by camping trips and cooking over an open flame, this restaurant features a menu that brings back memories. Among the entrées are fire-grilled steaks, Colorado lamb shanks, beer-glazed scallops, barbecue shrimp, skillet-roasted half chicken, and the Heathstone Seafood Bake, which includes wood oven–baked northern whitefish, shrimp, cold-water mussels, andouille sausage, fresh corn, red potatoes, and lemon butter. Specialty salads and hamburgers are also featured, along with side dishes that include Southern-style potato salad, coleslaw, cornbread, fire-grilled vegetables, and smashed potatoes. Still hungry? Sample the s'mores. It's like dining in a lakeside summer house.

In your hurry to reach the attractions upon entering the park, you could (like many people) walk right past this full-service restaurant without noticing it, but it's a good place to enjoy a sit-down meal. The menu is American with international influences, and offerings include exotic wraps and sandwiches as well as entrées ranging from chilled tuna noodle bowls and pad Thai to sweet-and-sour ribs.

This Irish pub would look just right in lower Manhattan during the Ellis Island era. The menu offers classic Irish comfort food like shepherd's pie, corned beef and cabbage, bangers and mash, and fish-and-chips, plus a healthy assortment of wines, cocktails, and beers, including Guinness on tap and a five-beer sampler. If shepherd's pie isn't your thing, opt instead for a steak, burger, entrée salad, or sandwich. Irish folk music, sometimes live, completes the theme in this beautiful, atmospheric place.

Although this restaurant is built to resemble Rome's Colosseum and contains 1,000 seats, there's often a wait at lunch or dinner. The music is always loud, the walls are covered with rock memorabilia, and the menu still features the burger that started it all—the steakburger with applewood bacon, cheddar cheese, a crispy onion ring, leaf lettuce, and vine-ripened tomato. Barbecued meats, from baby-back ribs to hand-pulled pork, are smoked on-site. Other entrées include New York strip steak, grilled Norwegian salmon, and Tupelo chicken tenders.

With an adventurer's theme honoring its namesake aviator (Captain Jake McNally), this gastropub is a great place to grab a cold one as well as anything from a Caesar salad or flatbread sandwich to shrimp mac 'n' cheese or roasted chicken. Jake's also hosts seasonal beer dinners that feature regional and specialty brews.

This casual restaurant has omelet stations at breakfast; flatbreads, sandwiches, and salads at lunch; and grilled salmon, filet mignon, and roast chicken at dinner. The kids' menu is entertaining, with plates such as I Don't Want That (grilled cheese) or I'm Not Hungry (chicken tenders) that are served with a choice of fries, a salad, or fresh fruit.

British pub staples are fitting fare for Diagon Alley's signature restaurant. The drinks menu complements hearty meals like stews and cottage pies with kooky-sounding beverages from the Harry Potter books like Tongue-Tying Lemon Squash, Otter's Fizzy Orange Juice, and Fishy Green Ale. Order at the counter, then be seated; a microchip in your "candlestick" will tell servers where to bring the grub. The Ploughman's Platter, with its cheeses, Scotch eggs, and apple-beet salad is food enough for two average eaters. English sausages can be had in toad-in-the-hole, bangers and mash, or a sandwich with three-mustard mayo. The fish-and-chips has an excellent flaky crust; the cod is flown in daily. End with the indulgent sticky toffee pudding. There are iconic treasures throughout the Cauldron, from the replica movie art on the walls to the actual leaking sign.

Designed to resemble a Fisherman's Wharf warehouse from 19th-century San Francisco, Universal Studios' flagship full-service restaurant serves fresh fried fish, fried shrimp, and assorted other takes on seafood. You can also get a Boursin steak sandwich with fried onion strips, hamburgers, chicken sandwiches, and big salads. The New England clam chowder is a standout, especially for the price.

At the corner of Hollywood and Vine is a flashy 1950s-style eatery with a retro spaceship design and several vintage cars parked out in front. Thanks to its location and look, this is one of the most popular choices in the park, so you might have to brave crowds for an extra-thick shake (recommended) or an order of the decadent chili-cheese fries. Basically, it's the burgers that draw crowds in. In case you and others in your group decide to go your separate ways, Mel's is also a great place to meet up.

Rickety staircases and gaslit chandeliers set the tone for this counter-service restaurant, where you can feast on ample portions of shepherd's pie, fish-and-chips, turkey legs, and Cornish pasties. The Great Feast option includes salad, rotisserie smoked chicken, spareribs, corn on the cob, and roast potatoes for $72.99 for a party of four. The full English breakfast (from park opening until 10:30 am) features eggs, sausage links, black pudding, English bacon, baked beans, grilled tomatoes, sautéed mushrooms, and potatoes. Look (and listen) for hidden Harry Potter Easter eggs, and ask your server for the facts.

A steampunk decor of gizmos, gears, pulleys, belts, and smokestacks is the backdrop for this very popular restaurant, where chocolate and sweets rule. Desserts—ranging from artisanal milk shakes and sumptuous sundaes to chocolate brownie bark, bacon brittle, and salted caramel flan—are naturally big draws. But one cannot live on sweets alone, which explains the salads, soups, flatbreads, sandwiches, hamburgers, and pastas, as well as more extravagant entrées such as grilled teriyaki salmon, braised short ribs, filet mignon, and cocoa pork tenderloin.

House-made pasta and inventive cocktails are highlights at the ultrahip Vivo, which is styled after a trendy Roman nightclub. The waiters are attentive, the food—mussels marinara, lamb ragù, squid-ink seafood—is quietly impressive, and the blazing wood-fired oven makes almost instantaneous pizzas.