Is there decent dining in USF?

[cleo]

I know, I know... you've been asked a million times. But since I haven't heard, I'm asking agiain.

Where can we find a decent meal in USF? Or should we just pop out and do a City Walk restaurant? We'll have our 9 year old son with us.

TIA!

 

[WebmasterBarry]

The Monster Cafe has some decent food. I ate at Richter's once and it was OK. The Italian restaurant by Beetlejuice is good. Overall, though, I'd get my hand stamped and eat at Citywalk or go to Mythos.

 

[gschmerl]

We had a good meal at Lombard's Landing in US.

 

[nhrenee]

We had decent reg and veggie burgers at Richter's. They had great fruit cups.
You can also access the Hard RockCafe by going through the Nickleoden part of Universal. Go before noon or after the lunch crowd.

 

[KFISCHER]

Leave Univ. Studios.
Walk over to IOA.
Eat at Mythos.
It's the best !!

Or do Citywalk or Hard Rock Cafe.

But #1 option should be MYTHOS

 

[Robinrs]

Hi,cleo! There is NOTHING like MYTHOS!! Best restaurant in the area!

When will you be in town?

 

[suzysezso]

Okay, I have to word this carefully or I will get whipped with a Mythos Pad-Thai noodle by my fellow MG-Conners....
I do heartily agree that Mythos is the best dining experience in all of Universal and IOA. It is a world class gourmet restaurant, but not everyone going to a theme park wants to spend the time or the money for that kind of dining experience. To tell the truth it probably will not be the favorite of many families with younger kids and others that would prefer a fun theme and faster meal time to a sophisticated menu and white glove service.
So now that brings us to Cleo's orginal request of a "decent" place to eat. Depending on your definition of decent of course, if you are after burgers, fries, and shakes you can't beat Mel's Diner. I love seafood, and even though I usually do not eat fried foods I very much enjoyed the shrimp and scallop basket at one of the stands near Jaws.
There is another place I have been to in Universal but I do not recall the name, maybe our other experts can help- I believe it was near Back To The Future. It was a cafeteria style place that offered Chinese, Italian, and one or 2 other cuisines. I was hesitant to try it because I once got sick on the cafeteria fare in IOA's Marvel area, and was VERY dissapointed in the multi-cultural cafeteria style place in the Cartoon Island area.
I did end up trying it because they offered hot-sour soup (one of my favorites) and other specialties, not just the generic (and nasty) "chow mein" offered at IOA. I was happily surprised (even the egg roll was good) and we all enjoyed a very decent meal (we also tried some of the Italian things and also some all American fries) the while watching old movie clips on the dozens of TV monitors throughout the restaurant.
I think another person also mentioned the Italian place in the New York area. We have eaten pizza, meatball subs, and salads there that were very good.
Don't forget to buy refillable drink cups if you plan to have several meals throughout the day. Saves big$$

 

[h20jag]

I gotta agree with Suzy on the Mythos thing.
If you're "done" for the day, reward yourself at Mythos!
If your son is a sports buff, he might like checking out Finnegans'. Lots of memorabilia on the walls, and couple TV's usually on ESPN / games.
Good table service restaurant / bar (right across from Kong). Had one of my all-time best burgers here. We sat too close to the accordian player tho (he's good, but a little loud!).
Jim

 

[nhrenee]

Originally posted by h20jag
We sat too close to the accordian player tho (he's good, but a little loud!).

That's like getting a double beating

 

[sha_lyn]

On our last trip, we had a great meal at Finnegans. Monster Cafe was terrible. This trip we just walked over the Mythos (also had luch there the day before too). Mythos is by far my favoirte but if you want to stay in US Finnegan's is the place to go.

 

[cleo]

Thanks for all the GREAT replies!

We ate at Mythos last year and it was by far one of the most memorable meals we've ever had in Florida. Really outstanding. We have a day planned in IOA so we might hit Mythos again.

We have a second day in USF so we wanted to try something either there or in City Walk. I'm going to browse your suggestions and choose from one of them. Thank you so much!