Fantasising about food... from 2016! A very belated food report

[orlandoamber]

Originally Posted by Dr.JumbaJookiba

I'm defo going back to Red Lobster next trip, not sure why it dropped of our list on the last few trips. Just signed up for offers

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It is really good. One trip I’m sure we went twice because I kept craving walt’s shrimp

[orlandoamber]

Universal Studios

On this day we had a full day between Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure, stopping at Mel’s Drive In for lunch. We’d also picked up a refillable mug which was such great value - love the freestyle machines dotted around the Universal parks!

At Mel’s we ordered two bacon cheese burgers which came with fries (11.29 + tax at time of purchase). W upgraded his fries to chilli cheese fries ($3.69 + tax at time of purchase) which he thought were good.

I did like this burger, there was nothing wrong with it at all, but we haven’t been back since despite spending lots of days in universal in 2018 and 2019. I’m not really sure why we haven’t been back other than although the food was nice it was nothing special. I guess there’s just a lot more options to try! I’m sure we will be back one day.

I also partook in some further dippin dots flavour tasting with a cookie dough:

I loved these! A new dippin dots flavour front runner for sure.

Now other than this photo proving that we spent our evening in city walk...

...I can’t find any food photos for this evening so I can only imagine W devoured this whole plate of burgers in Islands of Adventure before passing out at the hotel.

Bonus points for anyone who knows where this is in the park!

[keith1973]

Thanks got to be a crusty burger

[orlandoamber]

Originally Posted by keith1973

Thanks got to be a crusty burger

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That would’ve been my guess too if I didn’t know!

It’s actually in Toon Lagoon in Islands of Adventure by Wimpy’s Restaurant (near the Popeye attractions).

[sophiepop]

I love food reports

[orlandoamber]

Seaworld and TGIs

Next up, we had a full day at Seaworld. As we were staying at the Doubletree at Seaworld, we got a number of benefits (not sure if they’re still available as it’s been a few years), including free one time quick queue tickets (express/fast passes) once per day and a free rescue tour. The rescue tour was essentially a behind the scenes tour where you learnt about animals that they were rehabilitating. This was really cool and quite eye opening - Seaworld get a lot of bad press but this showed some of the great work they do. On the tour we got really close to a flamboyance of flamingos... beautiful!

For lunch, we decided to get a table at the Shark’s Underwater Grill. This is somewhere that W had eaten in the past and he wanted to show me the huge shark tank inside!

I had the tempura shrimp - this is jumbo shrimp (they really are huge) with Japanese sticky rice, vegetables and a sesame glaze.

This is so good. I’ve been back for it since because it is so nice - the prawns and the tempura batter they’re coated in is really good and the rice, veg and sauce all compliment it perfectly. I’d definitely recommend this if you’re a seafood/prawn fan.

W had the filet mignon which comes with mash potato and a Cabernet sauce.

He really enjoyed this meal too, the steak was cooked really well (medium rare). I also tried some of the mash and remember it being nice - I think there was cheese and bacon in it!

The meals here are usually around $30-35 per person so plus drinks and tip it’s not cheap but it’s somewhere we now like to go every trip as we like the setting and other than this, we aren’t too keen on the food in Seaworld. Thumbs up from us

After a short walk back to the hotel on the evening (there’s a back gate by the Doubletree pool that leads straight to Seaworld) we headed back out to idrive and to TGI Fridays. A repeat of pre-travel day but the Floridian version this time.

I ordered a frozen strawberry daiquiri which was great (and huge!):

We then shared loaded bacon and cheese potato skins with sour cream to start, which were really nice and similar to the ones you’d get in the UK:

I then had a filet steak (medium rare) with broccoli and sweet potato fries whilst W had a bacon cheese burger with fries. Both of these were really good and typical of TGIs.

Whilst we enjoyed this, I’m not sure we will go back to TGIs in the USA again. It was too similar to the ones in the UK to spend time there when in Florida!

[disneypars]

Enjoyed reading along. Can't wait to get back.

[Life is a beach]

This is just what I needed, I’ve not been on the dibb in weeks and thought I’d just pop and see if there were any reports to look at, I’ll be catching up with your other ones as well. Thank you for writing them up
We have so many of those Mickey straws in the cupboard lol, I never get rid of a single one!
I’ve never tried the grand slamwich at Denny’s so I will put that on my list for when we make it back, my daughter is really craving Denny’s hash browns, think we’ll be eating there quite a few times.
The lizard story is hilarious and something to remember lol.
Roa’s rapids is my favourite, I spend quite a bit of time in there on my own while my husband takes my daughter on the slides, give me those rapids any day x

[orlandoamber]

Originally Posted by Life is a beach

This is just what I needed, I’ve not been on the dibb in weeks and thought I’d just pop and see if there were any reports to look at, I’ll be catching up with your other ones as well. Thank you for writing them up
We have so many of those Mickey straws in the cupboard lol, I never get rid of a single one!
I’ve never tried the grand slamwich at Denny’s so I will put that on my list for when we make it back, my daughter is really craving Denny’s hash browns, think we’ll be eating there quite a few times.
The lizard story is hilarious and something to remember lol.
Roma’s rapids is my favourite, I spend quite a bit of time in there on my own while my husband takes my daughter on the slides, give me those rapids any day x

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Thank you for reading!

I always find the Mickey straws look great but frozen drinks tend to get stuck in them! So I end up switching to another straw and just keeping the Mickey ones in the drink for decoration 😂

Whenever someone mentions an American diner I feel an uncontrollable need to tell them about the grand slamwich! Definitely something to try and if you read my later reports I’m sure you’ll see it make a few more appearances

[orlandoamber]

Aquatica and Red Lobster (again!)

On this day we were back at Aquatica. It was so convenient having a water park close to our hotel (we clearly like this set up as we’ve stayed at Cabana Bay twice since so we can be close to Volcano Bay!).

We decided to have lunch there, although we weren’t overly impressed by the options. We went to the quick serve place near the entrance which I believe is called Waterstone Grill.

I ordered chicken tenders and fries, W had a burger and fries and we got some watermelon slices to share. For a drink we refilled our Busch Gardens mug making this good value again.

This was all fine but rather uninspiring... we haven’t eaten at Aquatica since and don’t plan to again. I believe each meal was around $12 and the watermelon another $4 approximately. So the whole thing came to around $30 after tax and when you consider the price of some of the other meals we’ve had for this price (e.g Denny’s), it’s definitely not worth it. We always make sure to eat before/after Aquatica nowadays!

Dr JJ, you know I said we’ve been known to go to Red Lobster twice on trips...? Well, here we go!

Back to Red Lobster this evening and a couple of caesar salads to start and a frozen strawberry daiquiri for me:

We then couldn’t resist having the Ultimate Feast again, and we fancied all of the seafood so much that for a second platter we got all of the prawns again plus a baked potato with sour cream:

This was sooo good. My mouth is watering remembering those Walt’s favourite shrimp again. We will be reunited soon!

Again, this was a reasonably priced meal, plus a cocktail this time - but if you really want to see the best Red Lobster cocktail, visit one of my later reports for the emergence of the Strawberry Lobsterita