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123. Best Food at Epic Universe · Mom Street USA

0:04
Welcome everybody to another episode of Mom St.
0:06
USAI Am Your host Jackie, and we are in it for a big treat.
0:10
Today we've got a hub episode with our good friends Duck and
0:13
Jess where we are going to be talking about Epic Universe.
0:17
So we are going back to the universal realm of things as we
0:23
venture to, I guess the Universal hub rather than the
0:26
Disney hub. So we're excited to bring you
0:28
some new information for today's episode.
0:31
But before we jump in, Duck and Jess, how are you doing today?
0:34
We're. Doing great, happy to be back.
0:37
Happy to be talking about Universal, our favorite topic,
0:40
or one of our favorite topics. Yes, absolutely.
0:43
And now I will say before we officially start the information
0:47
for today, we did obviously take a hiatus.
0:50
So thank you to those of you who have found us again for this
0:54
first episode back after hiatus. We needed a little mental health
0:58
break over here, specifically me.
1:00
I needed a little mental health break.
1:03
So I thank you guys for all of your support and all of your
1:06
messages that you sent during that time where we were, you
1:09
know, taking some time off after several years of podcasting
1:13
every week for a long time. So thank you guys for being
1:18
here. Thank you guys for joining us
1:20
again. We are back on track back to our
1:23
regularly scheduled programming here.
1:26
And I think it's super fun that we get to jump in with Epic
1:29
Universe. So let's talk about Epic
1:32
Universe and specifically food today.
1:35
So the goal is to give you kind of a overview of the foodie
1:40
options that you have. So I'm going to turn this over
1:43
to Duck and Jess because I eat like small child and I don't eat
1:47
a lot. So I'm going to let them tell us
1:50
more about what we have to offer at Epic Universe as far as food
1:54
goes. And famously, while we do also
1:59
eat like children in feed parks, I also just love to eat in
2:03
general. I'm a big food person, I love
2:05
cooking. So when we go to parks, not just
2:08
Epic Universe, but anywhere, we really do try to prioritize
2:12
trying some of the unique options that are available in
2:16
these different parks. So that is a lot of what we're
2:18
going to be focusing on today. So we'll kind of go through most
2:20
sections of the park and talk about some of the unique items
2:23
that either we have tried or have it on good authority or
2:26
good options. And there are so many unique
2:29
options at Epic Universe. So I think it's super fun that
2:31
we can take a moment to highlight them because it's,
2:35
it's a lot to kind of decide between because I feel like, and
2:39
you'll find out as we talk through every portal, every
2:41
portal has something that is unique to that portal.
2:44
So. Every portal has everything
2:47
that's unique to that portal. Overwhelming when it is 2:00 PM
2:53
and either you're hangry, your toddler's hangry, both of you
2:56
are hangry, right? Like, there's there's.
2:58
So hopefully what we can do here is help you make some decisions
3:01
ahead of time. So that way, you know, OK, in
3:03
each section of the park, no matter where I'm ending up, I
3:06
already have some things in my back back pocket.
3:08
Excuse me, that I know we're going to be, you know, good
3:11
options. Right, exactly.
3:13
Perfect. So let's jump into your
3:16
information. What do you got for us?
3:18
Yeah, so like we've been saying, Universe or Epic Universe has
3:22
tons of different food options across all the different
3:24
portals. So it can be kind of tough to
3:26
choose where to eat, especially if you have picky eaters or
3:29
small kids with you, you know. So we have assembled a list of
3:34
all the must hit places to eat in Epic Universe.
3:37
A lot of this is from our personal experience.
3:39
Like we said, some of it is just recommendations, but a
3:42
disclaimer before we start, we are not including anything in
3:46
the wizarding world in any of our recommendations since we do
3:49
not recommend spending your money in the wizarding world.
3:52
So instead you can just have like 1400 Mac and cheese cones
3:56
at Burke. Way better.
3:58
Yeah, Yeah. Absolutely, yeah.
4:01
Absolutely. All right, So what portal are we
4:03
gonna start with? We are gonna start with Super
4:06
Nintendo World as our first portal.
4:08
Let's. Go, let's go.
4:12
So we'll gotta start here and then we'll work our way around.
4:14
I kind of, we kind of did this in the order that like we hit
4:16
the portals when we were in Epic Universe.
4:20
So there are a couple of food locations and drink options in
4:24
Super Nintendo World. Most of them are serving Italian
4:27
inspired eats themed after Mario.
4:30
I'm shocked at this decision. So there is one quick service
4:34
option that has seating in this area and that's told Stool Cafe.
4:37
So that is what we will start off talking about.
4:40
So we ate like hungry toddlers in Toastal Cafe.
4:45
So we had the Toastal Cheesy garlic knots.
4:48
So they are a little mushroom shaped garlic knots like little,
4:52
you know, bread pieces with garlic butter, parmesan cheese
4:56
and parsley served with a marinara sauce.
4:59
And it was actually a pretty good marinara sauce.
5:01
So we were pretty pleasantly surprised.
5:04
I was very skeptical about the food in Superintendent world
5:07
because of like theme parked Italian food.
5:10
I don't, I don't know. A little questionable there,
5:13
yeah. It sounded questionable, but
5:15
these were delicious and like a solid option.
5:18
You know, for just like a quick bite.
5:20
Unless you don't like garlic, in which case avoid it.
5:23
But we love garlic so. I'll also say the food portions
5:27
for everything in here, we're pretty good for a sit down theme
5:31
park cafe, right? I mean, I think it's a growing
5:35
trend, not just in theme parks, but in everywhere, right?
5:38
Shrink, flation, whatever you want to call it, that you're
5:41
just getting less for your money.
5:43
I found Toadstool Cafe to be like a pretty good a pretty good
5:46
deal, all things considered. The portion sizes are pretty
5:48
healthy. Eyes were four like very like
5:52
Hardy like size garlic necks in one serving.
5:56
So yeah. Yeah.
5:58
And you're looking at you're looking at about 899 for those
6:02
for the garlic knots. So prices considered, I think
6:06
you're, you're again, it's theme park.
6:09
So you you have to expect the prices to be a little higher
6:12
than what you would find at your local, you know, locally owned
6:15
restaurant. But that's not terrible.
6:18
No, all things considered, like you said.
6:21
The next thing that we got was the question block tiramisu.
6:26
So this is described as a tiramisu layered with coffee
6:29
soaked lady fingers topped with a chocolate power up the sides
6:32
of the block were basically like sugar cookies.
6:35
And then the tiramisu was inside.
6:37
It was pretty delicious for a theme park.
6:39
Terms like the inside was literally like a classic
6:41
tiramisu. Zach's laughing.
6:44
There's a funny story where we were told we were getting a
6:46
classic tiramisu and it was like a tiramisu soup.
6:49
Yeah, so one time we went to a restaurant and they gave us,
6:52
they let the waiter was like, oh, it's a classic tiramisu.
6:55
Everybody loves it. And then it was like tiramisu is
6:58
what I kept calling it. And at least I have like a lady,
7:01
a finger. Sticking out of it, it was a
7:02
nightmare. So anytime I hear the the phrase
7:04
classic tiramisu, I'm just like, it's tiramisu.
7:07
Yep, yeah. Anyway, this was not.
7:09
Like that was not an epic universe, so no worries there.
7:13
Like a normal. Chance of seeing it, it was
7:15
pretty good again, pleasantly surprised for theme park food.
7:19
We weren't expecting like too much from it, but I would
7:23
definitely like 10 out of 10 get it again.
7:26
And then for our drink here, we ordered the Superstar Lemon
7:29
squash is what it's called, right?
7:33
This was a honey linen soda with mango stars and assorted
7:37
tropical bobas. So this was pretty sweet, but it
7:40
was super refreshing after being out and around in the heat all
7:42
day. There are a lot of these like
7:44
super cute themed drinks all around so this is pretty good.
7:49
Yeah, I was skeptical about it. It was pretty good because I
7:52
don't tend to like super sweet drinks but there was just
7:55
something about it. Probably because I was
7:57
delusional from being on 105 degree heat all day in Florida.
8:01
But they highly was like it was. It was a pretty well balanced
8:04
refreshing drink. I would agree.
8:06
So for some options for those of you who want to eat something a
8:09
little bit more substantial, we have heard a lot of really great
8:13
things about the Mario Burger, which is a beef hamburger with
8:17
all the trimmings, the Luigi Burger, which is a grilled pesto
8:20
chicken sandwich. And for something that is super
8:22
heavily themed to Super Mario, there is the Fire Flour
8:26
Spaghetti and Meatballs, which is a spicy mushroom marinara and
8:31
meatballs. Which I have heard is pretty
8:34
spicy, which is for folks who are.
8:37
Surprising for theme parks. So I we ate at Toadstool when I
8:41
went to Epic and I did get the Luigi burger.
8:44
Very, very good. But I have to say something that
8:47
you guys didn't even mention are the truffle fries here.
8:52
We're so stinking good. I was obsessed with them.
8:56
Yeah, so we didn't, we didn't get them because I, with my very
9:00
suggestive issues, truffle fries can sometimes be a trigger.
9:04
So we had to skip them. I have heard good things and I'm
9:07
thrilled to hear that they are as good as I have heard.
9:11
Yes, I was like, because when when I went with good, our good
9:15
friend KDO, we just split the fries because we were like, we
9:18
don't need to eat a ton, right? Like we don't need to.
9:21
Incorrect. We don't want to hurt our
9:24
bellies. OK.
9:26
And the sandwich that I got was massive.
9:29
So we just split it and it was, they were so good.
9:32
And I was like, I really wish we had more of these.
9:36
Oh no, you'll have to go back and.
9:38
I know I'm not a French fry person either, so I did not
9:42
expect to like them I have that much.
9:45
Related to his bed and set used to blessed I am firmly a French
9:50
fry person. I get weird about the texture.
9:53
We've had this conversation when the texture gets too potato.
9:56
Yi can't do it. That's fair, I get it when an
9:59
when anything gets too much like that food I can't do it.
10:02
Yes I get it. Even eggs which are like my
10:04
favorite food. If it gets too eggy I'm out bro,
10:06
I can't do it. I get it.
10:08
Yes exactly. So yes, can confirm the Luigi
10:12
burger is very good and it's so cute because they have a little
10:14
like toothpick that they put through and it has a little
10:16
Luigi hat on it. I totally kept mine and brought
10:18
it home and my kids thought it was like the cutest thing ever.
10:21
They're like, that's so cool. Yeah.
10:24
The seeming there is really, really quite endearing.
10:27
Yeah. Yeah.
10:28
Well, Speaking of kids, what about the kids menu there?
10:30
I see you guys have notes on that.
10:33
Yep. So Toadstool does have a kids
10:34
menu that features mini versions of the Mario burger and a power
10:38
up spaghetti and marinara. So not like the spicy version.
10:42
It says that spicy, so if you have a child that is not a spice
10:46
fan, you don't have to worry. They're not going to burn your
10:49
child's mouth. Because this is good.
10:50
This is good. And then for a sweet treat in
10:53
Super Nintendo world, there is the Bubbly Barrel.
10:57
So this is a Donkey Kong themed sand that serves Universal's
11:01
version of a Dolep float basically.
11:03
So it is called the DK Crush Float.
11:04
Tropical Banana flavor. So this is a banana pineapple
11:08
soft serve float with pineapple soda, waffle bowl sprinkles,
11:11
toffee pieces, and caramel corn. We could not have this because
11:15
of duck's pineapple allergy, but we saw like tons of people
11:19
walking around with them. Like literally everybody was
11:21
trying it and people have raved about it.
11:24
So it's definitely something like it looks delicious.
11:26
So it's definitely something that I would recommend.
11:28
It's one of those things that like, from the description,
11:31
you're like, who put this together?
11:34
What unhinged college kid came home and threw a bunch of stuff
11:38
in in a cup and then ate this? Right?
11:41
It sounds like a bunch of stuff that shouldn't work together,
11:43
but I saw a ton of people walking around with it.
11:46
I've heard really great things. People rave about this.
11:48
So if you are so inclined to pineapple soft serve and you
11:54
know, pineapple soda type things, then I think you should
11:58
try it. I've heard really good things.
12:00
Yeah, the banana flavor just like has me worried.
12:03
And that's my biggest concern about those types of thing.
12:05
It's like, how is this banana flavor?
12:07
Is this like super artificial banana flavor or is this like
12:12
legit banana flavor so. Yeah, see, I'm not a banana fan
12:16
and duck is allergic to pineapple, so it was right stuff
12:19
mom. But like if you aren't into
12:21
banana and or pineapple, right? And they've got cute themed like
12:25
cups and all that kind of stuff over there.
12:27
It's very, very. Cute barrel that they serve it
12:29
in, yes, yeah. Yeah, so like totally, like it's
12:32
a, it's maybe a little stunt food.
12:34
Let's be real, it's maybe a little stunt food, but very,
12:38
very, very cute when it comes to the theming over there.
12:41
Yeah, they do a good job with the theming throughout Epic, but
12:44
I feel like Super Nintendo really takes advantage of it.
12:48
Yeah, Oh, for sure, for sure. All right, so now moving on from
12:52
cute. It's a creepy.
12:56
To a little spoopy duck. What do we need to know about
13:01
Dark Universe food? 3 spoopy 5 me so.
13:05
Darkmoor. Has three spots to eat.
13:08
It has Duck Steakhouse, it has Burning Blade Tavern, and it has
13:13
the Lacey's Cottage. So there are a lot of things in
13:19
here that I could not eat because of my personal dietary
13:23
restriction. So while Universal is normally
13:26
like pretty good, pretty safe for me, there was just a lot of
13:29
stuff in here that could cause me, you know, flare up, which is
13:32
not really what I want while I'm in the middle of my 47th time
13:35
riding Monsters Unchained. So sometimes you just got to
13:38
play it safe. Something had to be sacrificed
13:40
and unfortunately it was the food here, you know?
13:42
Yes, I do want to mention before we jump into this because you
13:45
were talking about like dietary stuff.
13:47
The way that Epic Universe does their dietary restrictions, even
13:51
at their quick service restaurants is you literally add
13:56
it as a line item to your cart. When you do your mobile
14:00
checkout, you go to your table, you scan the QR code or you just
14:04
pull up the universal app to order and there's it's just a
14:07
line item that you literally add to your cart.
14:10
And then you will get a chef that comes out to chat with you
14:14
before they like fully submit your order.
14:17
So super easy. You don't have to like the thing
14:19
that I love is like at Disney quick service.
14:21
Sometimes you're just like standing waiting at the counter
14:23
to talk to to the chef for a while, which is fine because the
14:26
chef is obviously very busy. However, I love that at
14:29
Universal, you can just like chill at your table and you
14:32
don't have to like stand awkwardly off to the side
14:34
waiting and like hoping that someone's going to exactly,
14:38
exactly. So I really love the way that
14:40
Universal does that, which I think is just worth mentioning.
14:44
So you'll see that on like the menus as it like a menu option.
14:49
So that's, that's what that is. And that's how they kind of
14:52
manipulate that. So it's it's a really, really
14:54
good system that they've got going on over there at Epic.
14:58
Yeah, agreed. It's very easy to deal with and
15:00
it is impressive and it is one of my favorite things about Epic
15:05
because it just feels like they continually looked at things
15:07
that other theme parks are doing, not just Disney, right?
15:09
Like I'm not here to be or anything, but they just looked
15:12
at generally what theme parks are doing, even what they're
15:14
doing within their own theme parks.
15:16
And how can we just improve this?
15:18
Like, how can we just make the experience that much smoother?
15:20
And I think this is a place where they really shine is like
15:23
their allergy, you know, notation in your orders.
15:27
Because it wasn't that way at the other Universal parks.
15:30
They're slowly now adopting it at the other Universal parks.
15:33
But it really started when Epic opened.
15:36
So I think Universal is making some really, really great
15:39
choices when it comes to that, that type of thing.
15:41
So OK, little allergy side note, done.
15:46
I will resume you now. Duck to your Dark Universe talk.
15:50
OK, thank you. It was a fair tangent.
15:52
I'm I'm appreciative of it, but all right, so let's start with
15:55
Dust steakhouse. So this is going to be the sit
15:58
down restaurant that is in Darkmoor.
16:01
And even if you don't eat here, we suggest that you go take a
16:04
quick walk through because the decor is killer.
16:09
But OK, please don't stake me through the heart.
16:13
It's, it's like, it's like seeing to be a vampire Hunter's
16:18
area, right? Like it's, it's like a vampire
16:20
crypt in there. And it's really cool.
16:23
But anyway, so there's quite a few options and all of them are
16:27
very exciting in here. So if you are a bland food
16:30
person on vacation, maybe, maybe you just take a quick walk
16:34
through. But if you're less picky or have
16:37
fewer restrictions, there is the Das Burger, which is a burger
16:41
with some heat on there. So there is hot cherry Peppers
16:45
and jalapeno bacon. There is the blood orange.
16:48
I just want to say everywhere that there's like blood or
16:51
anything, it's always in heavy quotations everywhere on the
16:54
website. And I'm like, thank you,
16:55
Universal, for making it clear that you did not actually blood
16:59
in my blood orange chicken sandwich.
17:01
Thank you. I appreciate that.
17:03
Disclaimer Hey, you know it's needed.
17:06
Let's be real. It is, yeah.
17:08
Listen and just take 5 minutes of people watching on in any
17:13
location anywhere and you will understand why blood is in
17:16
quotations everywhere. But yeah, so there is the quote
17:20
UN quote blood orange chicken sandwich, which is a fried
17:23
orange chicken that has a blood orange sauce.
17:26
There is our favorite vegan familiar stuffed cabbage, which
17:30
is Impossible Meat stuffed cabbage, which I do appreciate
17:32
that there is a vegetarian option here.
17:35
I feel like most of the restaurants have like some kind
17:39
of vegetarian option, which is really nice.
17:42
Yeah. And tragically unusual for a lot
17:44
of theme parks. And the other thing that they
17:48
have which is so steak is STAKE Steakhouse.
17:57
And so they their big menu item is the steaks.
18:01
So it is a steak of fish, chicken or mushroom with mashed
18:07
potatoes. So that is like it's like
18:09
skewers, right? It's it's miscellaneous meats
18:12
and or mushrooms on skewers. There are also some sweet treats
18:17
and drinks to grab while you're in here.
18:18
So there is the red velvet death, which is a red velvet
18:22
heart. I don't know why they put beat
18:25
in quotations and I'm like because it's like a heartbeat
18:28
like I don't know I'm like but it there is, but there is actual
18:31
beats. I'm like, I'm like blood with a
18:34
must knowledge back. Not fake blood either.
18:37
I don't know. Hold on, this actually re
18:39
contextualizes my his brains. There's a lot of questions.
18:42
This actually recontextualizes our conversation from three
18:45
minutes ago because it's. Beat B EE.
18:48
T that they are putting in the quotes on the menu, yeah.
18:52
But there's like, right, yes, All right.
18:54
Anyway, anyway, with that, what in this food is none of my bear?
19:02
There's red velvet, the bone when we get it together.
19:06
So there's Red Velvet Death, which is a red velvet coffin
19:09
cake with chocolate crumbs and puffed rice.
19:12
Maggots. The Moon Cane mocktail.
19:16
I was not ready for you to say maggots.
19:18
I'm so sorry. I had a visceral facial reaction
19:22
when he said that, even though it's in our notes.
19:26
I was like. What you just your brain just
19:31
deleted the idea of maggots, which is so valid Puff rice
19:35
delicious maggots upsetting. That's so true.
19:40
Anyway, continue there is the oh, sorry, it's called a moon
19:45
cane. I think it's mono cane mocktail,
19:47
which is pineapple syrup, blue Raspberry syrup, passion fruit
19:50
syrup, emerald prism powder and Sprite.
19:53
So this is just like a ton of syrups and very fun food
19:56
glitter. There is also a dark more merry
20:00
cocktail which I've heard pretty good things about.
20:03
So this is honey pepper vodka. Chili liqueur, Szechuan chili
20:09
oil, Chipotle and barrel essences with a house made
20:12
bloody mix. Lemon bitters.
20:14
This is like literally if you have stomach acid issues, please
20:17
don't drink this. If you have a functional
20:19
digestive system, you're going to have a great time.
20:23
It's a pan of liquor and a lot of really spicy things.
20:26
It's the moral of the story here.
20:27
Yep, yeah, 'cause it's got like jalapenos in it too, right?
20:32
Yeah, yeah. It's like it's a Bloody Mary.
20:34
Spicy Bloody Mary. Yeah, that's exactly right.
20:36
And so it's also got the tomato juice and like again, I just,
20:39
I'm so old now that like the I can feel the acid reflux from a
20:43
drink I'm just reading about. And that's what happens when
20:47
you're over 30 folks. So if you were interested in
20:52
adult beverages, but you do not want to burn a hole in your
20:56
esophagus, there are other options.
20:58
And you can find most of those options at the Burning Blade.
21:01
So it is the Burning Blade Tavern.
21:03
Obviously it's a Tavern style setup.
21:05
So there is the main bar room, which is what you walk into when
21:09
you walk through those main doors and then hidden kind of to
21:13
the side. It like took us a couple of
21:15
minutes to figure out where it is because it's not super clear.
21:18
But if instead of going through the main doors, you take the
21:21
path to the right and you kind of go around the side slash
21:24
back, you're going to end up at their quick service window.
21:28
And the quick service window is very like bar food, right?
21:32
They have the Hunter's garlic Steak again STAKE, which is
21:36
crispy garlic butter pretzel bites with a garlic dipping
21:39
sauce. It's like super garlicky.
21:41
It's like very, very obvious play on the vampire situation.
21:46
And there's also the Burning Cheddar Bites, which are again,
21:49
crispy fried jalapenos with pimento cheddar bites and
21:52
Sriracha ranch. But the big deal here, of
21:56
course, is the different themes, cocktails and mocktails.
21:59
Since it is the burning Blade, they also do have standard soft
22:03
drinks. So if you are either not of age
22:06
or you are just not somebody who partakes in drinking liquor for
22:09
whatever reason, you can, you can totally just have a regular
22:12
soft drink and then just enjoy the vibe.
22:15
I totally recommend hanging out in there for a couple minutes.
22:17
It's a small space, but it's really cool because it's set up
22:21
to be as if it's like the monster hunters bar that they
22:24
drink at. So there's like cool trophies on
22:27
the wall. And this is like a lot of really
22:30
cool lore that's involves in it. And if you are somebody who
22:33
likes Universal monsters and that's sort of your vibe, this
22:36
is going to be one of your favorite places.
22:37
It's just a very cool, well themed place to hang out for a
22:41
couple of minutes. So they the monster hunters do
22:43
come in. I don't know if they do it as
22:46
often as they did when Epic first opened.
22:49
It still seems to be a fairly consistent thing, but it was
22:52
running like really frequently when it first opened.
22:57
As far as I know. They still do it every half ish
23:00
hour or so where they'll just be like a basically like a pack of
23:03
the monster hunters or the vampire hunters coming in and
23:06
they put on like a fun little show.
23:09
I will say one of my favorite things about Dark more
23:12
specifically is the street Miss Fear characters, for lack of a
23:16
better term, that they borrow the Disney term, but they do
23:18
have a lot of people just walking around.
23:20
They have that Lady playing violin that just tells you the.
23:23
Story of Everything have several.
23:25
They have several storytellers which I love Visual.
23:28
Man who I love the invisible man's my favorite.
23:32
He's so cool, he's so fun. He just yells at people.
23:35
It's awesome. Yes, there is just people who
23:38
are walking around telling you that their life story and dark
23:40
more and whatnot and it's just really well done.
23:43
And so the vampire hunters are an extension of that.
23:45
So naturally they're going to come into their like, you know,
23:49
regrouping area, their watering hole, and just tell you the
23:52
story of their miscellaneous monster exploit.
23:55
So it's really cool if you can catch it.
23:57
But even without that, it's a very cool spot to just hang out
24:00
for a couple of minutes. Yeah, it feels very similar.
24:04
If you're familiar with, excuse me, if you're familiar with Ogas
24:08
at Hollywood Studios, when the Stormtroopers come in, it's very
24:10
similar to that. They just kind of walk through
24:12
and like interact with people as they like, make a loop through
24:15
and then they go on their way and go back out kind of deal.
24:18
So. Yeah, that's an excellent
24:20
comparison, Yes. Very cool, and I think we've got
24:24
one more place. We do.
24:27
So it's the Lacy's kind of gets forgotten about.
24:32
It's a really limited, quick service type of menu.
24:35
It's basically a Frankenstein shaped pretzel and cinnamon
24:39
doughnut bites. The biggest thing that's over at
24:41
Delicious is the Coke Freestyle machine where you can get the
24:44
special flavor. There it is.
24:47
And it's right next to Burning Blade, so everyone kind of just
24:52
doesn't pay attention to it, you know what I mean?
24:56
So the Frankenstein shaped pretzel is pretty cool.
24:59
But most importantly, what's over there is the Coke Freestyle
25:01
Machine for your special fun soda flavor.
25:05
Before we hop over to our next portal, which is going to be the
25:08
Isle of Burke, which I feel like is a super fun one to talk
25:11
about. I do just want to remind our
25:13
lovely listening audience here. That last episode that we
25:17
recorded, we had our good friend Kirk at Walrus Carp on and he
25:20
was talking about his new theme park app called Mode.
25:24
That is MOWD. And a lot of the food that we've
25:28
been talking about is completely searchable on that app.
25:31
So if you're someone that like wants to peruse menus and wants
25:33
to check out what's going on, you do need the premium option
25:36
to do that. So maybe wait till you're a
25:38
little closer to your trip so you're not spending money, you
25:41
know, super far in advance to have that premium option.
25:44
But it's really great because you do have the ability to
25:48
search, you know, so I can put in the Lacey's, it'll pull up
25:52
exactly what they've got going on, pull up your tax, it'll pull
25:56
up my notifications, but it'll pull all that up.
25:58
So just a quick plug for our good friend Kirk at Walrus Karp.
26:02
His app is really great for dining searches if you want to
26:05
be take a look at menus. And his app includes prices,
26:08
which the Universal and Disney apps don't always do that, So
26:12
that's a super helpful option to have.
26:14
I've been having a great time planning fake trips and I'm not
26:17
going on all the time. Yep, I'm being so honest.
26:20
Yep, it's so great. It's replaced the time that like
26:25
once a week I would actually just be searching through Zillow
26:28
for houses that I could never afford and instead I'm planning
26:31
Disney vacations. I can never.
26:34
You know, I see no problem with that.
26:36
Hey, you have a trip not too long in the future.
26:39
It's never too early to plan. Let's let's stick to Dragons now
26:43
instead of monsters, yeah? So to cut this off at the past,
26:48
the last of our proper portals that we're going to talk about
26:51
is Isle of Burke. So the food options here are not
26:55
traditional theme park food, but they were some of our favorites
26:59
that we had the whole time that we were in Epic.
27:03
So the in the center ish of Burke, basically like when you
27:07
walk in and you look straight back, you see a giant building.
27:10
So that is the main quick service dining option with
27:14
seating available. So the food here is very Nordic
27:18
themed because it's Viking themed, right?
27:21
Truly shocking. I can't believe that they would
27:23
have Nordic themed food in their in their Viking village themed
27:27
land. I'm shoved, I'm shook it.
27:31
But there's there's totally stuff that if you are not, if
27:34
that's not your vibe, if that's not what you're feeling for
27:36
theme park food, there's totally many an option here.
27:40
And if all else fails, you can do what we did, which is order a
27:44
kids plate. So the kids plate is Mac and
27:47
cheese bites, grilled sausage, carrots, fries and grapes, which
27:50
is again like a pretty good size.
27:53
With a hefty portion for like a kids meal.
27:56
Yeah, nice. And we were pleasantly
27:58
surprised. So you know, if you are feeling
28:02
the Nordic vibe, couple of the popular options that we saw
28:05
ordered a lot were the Gobber the Belch's Turkey Wings, which
28:10
is roasted Turkey wings, garlic herb potatoes, roasted carrots,
28:14
onions and a wild Berry BBQ sauce and Hooligan Sausage
28:18
Links, which were the smoked sausage links, garlic or
28:21
potatoes, rusted carrots, onions and a wild BBQ, wild Berry BBQ
28:24
sauce. So you can see a lot of like the
28:27
Nordic vibe in the BBQ sauce theming.
28:30
There is also I think there was a salmon plate there too.
28:34
So a lot of seafood options, a lot of seafood options.
28:38
There was also they call it the wild Berry BBQ sauce.
28:41
I actually think it's lingonberry BBQ sauce is really
28:44
what it is. So if you are familiar with
28:46
IKEA, the concept of IKEA, if you have eaten IKEA, it is
28:53
there. It's like the there cranberry
28:56
sauce. Basically, it's a Lincoln Berry
28:58
is really what it is, which is like a distant cousin from
29:01
Cranberry is how I explain it. I love the IKEA reference.
29:08
Now I'm never going to think about Isle of Berk without
29:11
thinking about IKEA Swedish. Tables came from IKEA.
29:17
All right, so I just all right, can we get it together cuz I'm
29:23
laughing too hard at my own joke now with the concept of IKEA.
29:26
And now I want to go to IKEA tomorrow just to eat, right?
29:30
Yeah. Dude, IKEA food rocks.
29:33
I love IKEA specifically for the meatballs anyway, so the other
29:37
big option there it's actually across the bridge from the meat
29:40
hall is or if you're walking in a Nile of Burke, it's you follow
29:45
the path to your right. It's called Spitfire grill.
29:48
Nope, I said right, it is still. Is it to the?
29:50
Left yeah, it's so you go in to the left because to the right is
29:54
the freestyle machines yeah her any tooth listen oh that's.
29:58
Why I keep thinking about it's got the freestyle machines
30:00
anyway, good, good correction. So it's either across the bridge
30:04
from the meat hall or when you walk in and go to your left,
30:07
it's called the Spitfire Grill. And that is the stand where you
30:11
were getting the iconic, I dare call them iconic now, Mac and
30:16
cheese. They are iconic, yes.
30:19
Yeah, I mean, this is for. Me.
30:20
Yeah, they're awesome. They are quite, quite literally,
30:23
I think my favorite thing that we ate here.
30:25
I've been like, thinking about trying to recreate one at home.
30:28
I'm being so serious right now. I love this idea.
30:32
I'm here for this idea. So the one that that we got was
30:36
the Dragon fire chicken Spire, which was the Mac and cheese
30:41
topped with natural style pulled chicken, hot honey, Calabrian
30:46
Peppers and a chimichurri sauce that was served in the garlic
30:49
bread cone. That garlic bread cone, dude, so
30:52
good. Genuinely some of the best
30:53
garlic bread I think I've had in my life.
30:55
I am just, we establish up top. I'm a big food person, right?
30:59
Like, I love food, I love eating, I love cooking, I love
31:03
everything to do in that realm. And this is, without any sense
31:08
of irony or being sarcastic, one of the best bites of garlic
31:11
bread I think I've ever had. It crashed.
31:14
It cleared almost every other garlic bread ever had.
31:18
But, and, and for folks who are a little concerned, if you are
31:21
sensitive to heat, maybe skip this one.
31:24
But I actually found that this was not for what it seemed like
31:28
it might be. It was not super spicy.
31:32
It was not all that. It was more flavorful than it
31:35
was hot, if that makes sense. Yeah, nice.
31:38
That, that is good to know. Because like, I am not a spicy
31:40
person, but like if it's more flavorful I'm willing to take a
31:43
bite. Yeah, I'm going to do a good job
31:45
balancing. Like I was like the Mac and
31:47
cheese kind of cuts it a little bit, and then the tummy cherry,
31:50
I think cut the spice a little bit, right?
31:51
Like it sounds like there's a lot of very spicy things on it,
31:54
but it's balanced well with everything else.
31:56
So you don't really get like the overall in heat.
31:58
Yeah, if you're generally OK with like a Buffalo wing level,
32:03
you'll be OK with yes, that was that's my general sense of
32:06
things. Perfect.
32:07
All right, as much as I want to talk forever about Mac and J
32:10
Scones, they're the best food ever.
32:12
And I'm I'm fully now I'm like genuinely committed to the bit
32:16
of trying to recreate this. I'm going to pass it back to you
32:19
for you to talk about Celestial Park.
32:21
So Celestial Park, being the hub, has probably the biggest
32:24
variety of food options. Our top recommendations are
32:28
definitely the Blue Dragon and Pizza Moon, with Blue Dragon
32:31
being a true table service restaurant and Pizza Moon is a
32:34
quick service option. So Blue Dragon, this is a Pan
32:38
Asian fusion restaurant and it's a table service restaurant that
32:41
is attached to the Helios Hotel. So we recommend making
32:45
reservations if it's during peak season.
32:47
But while we went, we were able to walk up with a party of four
32:50
and we waited maybe like 1/2 hour for a table.
32:53
So it definitely depends time of day and time of the season, you
32:56
know, but right, they do make reservations, as do most table
32:59
service restaurants. So that's a good way to
33:01
guarantee your spot. So the think of a tiny, the tiny
33:04
restaurant in town, lots of dim, dim sum shareables and noodle
33:07
dishes. So what we ate were the double
33:10
fried Korean wings. So these were Korean style gochu
33:12
Jiang flavored, ultra crunchy wings.
33:16
Those were absolutely delicious. The sauce was super good.
33:19
The they were super crunchy because of the double fried
33:23
aspect, but they were absolutely delicious.
33:25
We had the pork soup dumplings. So this is seasoned ground pork
33:29
and a dragon sauce to go on top the Kywings mapu tofu.
33:35
So this was Szechuan chili crisp with a Szechuan chili crisp
33:38
sauce, vegan ground pork and. White rice and all of that was
33:44
delicious and all of our delights.
33:45
Yeah. I'm so glad you're pronouncing
33:49
all of these words this episode because normally I get stuck
33:52
with like the really hard food pronunciations and I just fail
33:56
my way through it. I'm so glad it's you this time.
33:59
Thank you, I also feel like I'm if I like butcher the
34:01
pronunciation. You're doing great.
34:03
You're doing great. But yeah, everything was
34:06
delicious and everything was like very like again, big
34:09
portions for, I mean, it's this table service restaurant, but we
34:14
were like sharing most of the dishes and it was enough food to
34:17
feed like all four of. Us and sometimes when you see
34:20
shareables in like a theme park setting or you know what I mean?
34:24
Like it's not really shareable, right?
34:26
Like it's like slightly above appetizer style portions, right?
34:30
These were, I felt like true shareables, like it was they
34:34
were decent sized portions for like comparable prices for like
34:39
a like I was like just described it before.
34:41
It was like the trendy restaurant.
34:43
So I was pleasantly surprised again by the portion sizes that
34:47
were available here for, you know, the the shareable, this
34:51
shareable asset advertised as maybe how to put it.
34:54
Yeah. So what we drank when we were at
34:58
the Blue Dragon, I believe I had the yuzu draw right?
35:01
So this was soju, yuzu juice and dragon fruit.
35:05
And then duck had the Tamlin fizz which was gin, pear juice
35:09
and a lemongrass syrup. Both drinks were delicious.
35:12
I did have a sip of ducks and it was real.
35:15
You got Cher. Yeah, exactly.
35:18
Again, the whole thing is shareable.
35:19
I don't know what this is today. And then another thing to note
35:23
is that they do serve hot teas here, so you can order them by
35:27
the pot and like kind of share them like as like a family style
35:30
kind of thing. So I thought it was like pretty
35:32
unique and pretty cool. Maybe not the thing to do in
35:34
like the 900° Florida heat, depending on who you are.
35:37
I know there are definitely some people that will like walk
35:39
around with a hot beverage regardless.
35:41
So but it's definitely, I think a unique and cool option for a
35:46
theme park restaurant. And there was like a lot of good
35:48
tea options on the list, too. That sounds lovely for like a
35:51
rainy afternoon at Epic Universe.
35:55
And then the next place that we recommend in Celestial Park is
35:59
Pizza Moon. I'm sorry, Pizza Moon is on
36:03
Hinge. It is really the feeling in
36:05
there is absolutely insane. It's amazing.
36:08
It's absolutely amazing. It's a Victorian fever dream and
36:11
I I loved every moment of it. I think the way that I have
36:15
described it previously, and forgive me if I'm repeating
36:18
myself, is it's like Monty Python meets your childhood pop
36:24
up book and it's all moving. That's aggressively accurate.
36:28
Very accurate, yeah. That's like the best way that I
36:31
can like, describe what it is. Yep.
36:33
You have to experience it to understand.
36:35
It's just surely an experience that's.
36:38
A theme park ride in and of itself.
36:40
It's like, yeah, that could just be a separate attraction in Epic
36:43
Universe is pizza that's. That's their version of Oh my
36:48
God Carousel. Progress.
36:51
I don't I OK, I need everybody to know that I also, I forgot
36:56
the name of Carousel Progress once, so I called it the Hamster
36:58
Wheel Development and that is now what my brain wants to call
37:02
it all the time. I didn't forget Carousel of
37:04
Progress, I forgot that it shouldn't be called the Hamster
37:07
World Development. OK.
37:10
But that's what I don't know. Anyway.
37:18
That's not that's not the weirdest thing.
37:20
No, no, that's so true. That's so true, that's so true.
37:25
Although I will say I do agree back to Pizza Moon.
37:27
Anna in our chat said it's a Moulin Rouge fever dream.
37:30
And that is also a really accurate description of what
37:35
Pizza Moon is like. And on top of all that, they
37:38
have very good pizza. And this is coming from two
37:41
people from New Jersey, so we know good pizza who does.
37:44
Who would have thought that? Like pretty good pizza kid from
37:47
the same park I know. Actually talks about the pizza
37:49
at Pizza Moon and Park. It's the outrageous stick bar
37:54
that we're all very obsessive, obviously.
37:57
So our favorite pie was the classic, then Ana Rosa.
38:00
It was just tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, heirloom tomatoes,
38:06
fresh basil. Sorry I lost my place reading
38:08
off the ingredients. But they do have a variety of
38:11
options from like super plain pies to like super exciting
38:14
interesting flavors. And then they also offer baked
38:17
pasta dishes if you needed some carbs at the end of your day or
38:22
in the middle of your day. Or in the morning there's now
38:24
constantly. It has carbs or pasta.
38:26
Carbs are appropriate. Yeah.
38:28
And then they also do have dessert options.
38:30
So we recommend the Brownie Eclipse.
38:32
That's kind of like your classic brownie sundae option.
38:34
OK. What else can you tell us about
38:36
the other options in Celestial because I know there are a
38:38
couple more. Yes, so there are, like you were
38:43
saying, a couple more options. I mean, it feels like in
38:45
Celestial Park you can't throw a rock without getting another
38:48
food option, right? So we've heard good things.
38:50
If you're looking for something quick, Comic Dogs I've heard
38:53
really good things about and Star Shoe Bow I've heard good
38:57
things about. That's like the quick service
38:58
option that's attached to Blue Dragon if you need ice cream
39:02
because it's 112° in Florida. At any given moment there is
39:08
Frosty Moon, which our buddy Lem just actually did a review on so
39:15
you know, go check it out. Nope.
39:16
No tea, no shade, no pressure. He is at Live Laugh Lem.
39:21
Yes. Go find him.
39:25
You'll find him, find him everywhere.
39:27
Yes, Frosty moon. Frosty Moon is the best ice
39:30
cream option for sure. Yeah.
39:32
Absolutely. It also has vegan options, which
39:34
again, like really pleasantly surprised at how aware of the
39:38
variety of you know, food needs that universal was while
39:43
constructing and planning this whole park.
39:46
So if you are child free at Epic at that moment, or if you were
39:50
maybe having a parents day out, we do recommend grabbing drinks
39:54
at the Plastered Owl. It is fully a bar, so this is
39:58
definitely an adult's only establishment.
40:01
But I had what was called the Hoo Hoo Highball, which not only
40:06
is it a fun name, it comes with a souvenir cup.
40:08
And you know, if I'm getting a little treat, I'm getting that
40:10
drink. Heck yeah.
40:12
So was Jameson orange, lemon juice, simple syrup, club soda
40:16
and a lemon wheel. And it was, it was such a good
40:20
drink. It was so good.
40:22
I mean, really, like I've had not just not to be that person.
40:26
I'm not allowed to drinks in my life, right?
40:27
Like I've had a, I've had a variety.
40:29
I work in an industry in which socializing over drinks is
40:32
required. Got it.
40:34
Sure, sure. Yep, that's my defense.
40:38
But no, I mean, seriously, you know, I we've been to various
40:42
theme park bars and restaurants and whatnot and you know, we'll
40:45
usually indulge in the cocktail and this is one of the better
40:48
ones that I've had. We had it on recommendation from
40:52
our friends, from Ashley, from one's wife Ash.
40:56
So hi Ashley, if you're in the chat or if you're listening to
40:59
this later. So we had it on her
41:01
recommendation and it was it's truly was a fantastic cocktail
41:04
and everything there is good. You really can't go wrong.
41:07
The bartenders in there are really fantastic.
41:10
Really, it's just a very cool spot to go hang out for a little
41:13
bit. But again, it is an adults only
41:15
establishment. Now the last thing that we I
41:18
sort of alluded to earlier, I think Jess mentioned a little
41:21
earlier to the thing to know as we're wrapping up our discussion
41:25
of food and drink throughout all of Epic is that there are the
41:29
Coke freestyle machines. So of course you can just get
41:33
normal soda pretty much everywhere in the park through
41:36
these Coke freestyle machines. But in Celestial Park, in Dark
41:40
Moor and an Isle of Burke, they all have exclusive soda flavors
41:44
that were specifically made for each of those lands, so they're
41:48
not available anywhere else. And this is a thing that
41:52
Universal does like they also do this in their other parks, like
41:55
it's a, a, a well, somewhat well known thing that Universal just
41:59
does these kind of specialty mixes for their different areas
42:04
of their theme parks. Yes, yes, absolutely.
42:09
We actually really enjoyed all of the flavors, but my personal
42:13
favorite was the one that was an Isle of Berk, that was the
42:16
Dragon Splash. So it's like a like a lime,
42:19
lemon lime type of soda. It's like it's like more Limey
42:23
than Sprite, if that makes sense.
42:26
And then and your favorite, I think was the celestial Spritz
42:29
in Celestial Park. So that was like an orange
42:32
lemonade. That was really good.
42:34
And then Dark Moors was. I forgot the.
42:37
Berry something or other? Yeah, it was like a Berry fruit
42:40
punch is basically what it was. It was like it was good, but it
42:43
was extremely sweet. And interestingly enough, I
42:47
actually there's also 0 sugar options for all of these.
42:51
The dark more 0 sugar option was way better than the standard 1.
42:55
I actually took a sip of the standard 1, did not like it at
42:58
all. And again on Ashley's
42:59
recommendation went back and tried the 0 sugar and it was
43:02
actually pretty good. It changed my opinion on it so.
43:06
Little extra little extra sweetness on that one.
43:10
Yep, Yep, Yep. Yep.
43:12
Yeah. Very cool.
43:13
Well, I think that is kind of the Fast and Furious short and
43:18
somewhat short and sweet food overview for Epic Universe.
43:24
If you guys have like foods that you loved, we would love to hear
43:29
about it and put it in our comments, send us a message,
43:32
find us on Discord or Patreon. We would love to hear not only
43:36
about that from you all, but also any other things that you
43:40
want to share with us about your upcoming trip to Epic or a trip
43:44
you took to Epic or plans that you have to go.
43:47
Epic Universe is truly a one-of-a-kind experience and
43:51
it's so much fun to, I feel like to be able to talk about this.
43:54
I don't know how many podcasts are truly covering Epic Universe
43:57
at this point. So I feel like we we're a little
44:00
niche in that, which I I like that we have some experience
44:04
being able to cover some of that for you guys, especially when it
44:07
comes to taking kids, because you get a lot of universal
44:11
perspectives from adults that don't go to theme parks with
44:15
kids. Because that's just, again,
44:16
we've talked about this universal skews older, but when
44:20
we can talk about kids menus on things, that's not something
44:25
that is being covered that often.
44:26
So thank you, Duck and Jess for putting that information
44:29
together for us. So that way we could share it
44:32
out with the masses that listen to our lovely little tiny
44:35
podcast over here on Mom St. USA.
44:38
But before we kind of hop off for the day, Duck and Jess, you
44:41
have any last minute Epic Universe food thoughts to share
44:45
with us? I don't think so.
44:47
I think we covered it pretty well.
44:49
I think we give the same advice anytime we talk about planning
44:53
meals at theme parks. Try to plan your off times.
44:56
But I think that what makes Epic Universe unique is how many food
45:02
offerings it has. It can tend to help a little bit
45:06
with some of that prime time congestion.
45:10
The Meat Hall and Isle of Burke especially is huge.
45:14
You know, we went on a pretty busy holiday weekend and there
45:18
was, we had no problem getting C down.
45:20
So I think that they've done a good job planning for the worst
45:25
case scenario crowds and offer lots of options.
45:29
No, you may not get your first option.
45:31
It may be a bit of a wait for, you know, Toadstool Cafe or
45:34
something, but you are never going to have no food options
45:38
and wait 300 hours trying to get something to eat.
45:43
Like that has been the case in other parks, even over other
45:46
universal parks, you know, so, and they really did a good job
45:49
with taking lessons learned for the ordering process, for how
45:53
they set up their foods, even just like the efficiency of
45:58
their workers and how easy they've made things.
46:01
You'll see there's a lot of shared ingredients between
46:03
things like Isla Park again is a really good example where like
46:07
the sides and the BBQ sauce and most everything is going to be
46:10
the same and the meat is what gets swapped out, right?
46:13
So a lot of efficiencies and that's what makes things really
46:16
easy for you to get your food quickly.
46:18
So when you're struggling, when your kiddos are struggling, you
46:21
are not really at the mercy of a 45 minute wait to get a plate of
46:27
like fried Mac and cheese, you know what I mean?
46:28
So I, I have to give universal props in that department.
46:34
I hope this episode was helpful. If anybody has comments,
46:37
questions, concerns, wants to know more about Epic, wants to
46:41
know more about food, you know, especially at Epic, more
46:44
recommendations, you know, we're more than happy to help anybody
46:48
put together a game plan or, you know, answer any questions.
46:52
So we love talking about Epic. I, we love universal so very
46:56
much. And I think they did a great job
46:58
with Epic and I, I love hearing about people who get to
47:01
experience Epic and are, you know, getting excited for their
47:04
trip and are looking for some guidance.
47:06
So, you know, I'm more than happy to answer anything that
47:08
comes up for everybody in there. That being said, let's chat
47:11
briefly about what is coming up. So next week we're going to kind
47:16
of circle back to we started a like perfect day little series
47:21
that I was doing and we covered a perfect Star Wars day already.
47:26
So if you are a Star Wars fan, jump back a couple episodes to
47:30
find that. But the next topic in our
47:33
perfect Day series and I'm going to cover is the perfect Princess
47:36
Day. So I'm going to talk about the
47:38
Disney parks and where you can find princesses and what your
47:41
best options are and all of those types of things for meet
47:44
and greets and shows and attractions that are all themed
47:47
around our beloved Disney princesses.
47:50
So that is what is coming up next.
47:53
And you can find us at Mom St. USA on all the social media
47:57
platforms. You can always reach out Mom St.
47:59
usa@gmail.com. We are a part of our good friend
48:03
Kirk at Walrus Karp, his Discord, which the link to that
48:06
is in all of our social media BIOS.
48:08
And you can also find us on Patreon.
48:10
Mom St. USA.
48:11
We do post over there and that's a great place to have a
48:13
conversation regarding Epic Universe or any of the other
48:16
topics or things that we've talked about.
48:19
But all of that being said, that is going to wrap up our time at
48:23
Epic Universe for today. So thank you all so much for
48:26
being here for this episode of Mom St.
48:28
USA and we will see you on the next one.
48:30
Bye everyone, bye.