Foodfight: Disney vs. Universal?
Which theme park company has the better food?
My friends and I were on this topic yesterday while eating at Dino Digs Cafe at USH. I said, wow, this food is really high quality compared to Disneyland. Another friend said, Yeah, except for those 3 places in Disneyland (he didn't mention where) We come to the conclusion that USH was higher quality and that Disney was higher price. What do you think?
Yes, here comes the arguements! Clever idea though to have this arguement. Though Universal has gotten better with their food, Disney is still king when it comes to food. This is greatly helped with the generally excellent food of EPCOT. In regards to the price, I believe that quality is what counts. If you have to pay a little more for better food, I am not worried about shelling out the extra bucks. ALso, Disney has plenty of good places to eat for less like Columbia Harbor House. Disney also has more places to eat. However, my vote is DISNEY!!!
Are we going to include on-site hotels here? 'Cause if we are, then Disney brings some formidable competition here.
Limiting the discussion to in-park dining, and the debate becomes a bit more interesting. In California, I'd take a randomly-selected restaurant at Universal Studios Hollywood over a random restaurant at Disneyland and California Adventure, for example. But if I had to pick one in-park restaurant at one of the three parks to eat a meal, I'd go waterside at Disneyland's Blue Bayou without hesitation.
DIsney has the best food at any theme Park. HANDS DOWN. Plus there theming for restraunts are great. Especily Sci-Fi At MGM.
From Rob Chan
Posted December 6, 2004 at 3:03 PM
sci fi food sucks!
I have never been to DL, so I can not testify to the food there. I have heard that the Blue Bayou is very good. However, back to Disney World vs Universal, since I will take it in this direction. The good point was made if to add hotels. Some of those places are ranked as greatest in Flordia and in the South. Disney just has so many different places to eat. Also, there isn't anyplace that I can really think of that has really poor food/ Sci-Fi may not be your "Cup of Tea", but it is not that bad. Now I will say something that Disney should improve (oh my, what is wrong with me!!) is the places to eat at Animal Kingdom. I think there isn't too many places to eat there and some places are pretty good, but they would need to improve there!
I meant Sci-fi's themeing was great, not the food. Read carfully to what I say!!! Gezzz
I meant Sci-fi's themeing was great, not the food. Read carfully to what I say!!! Gezzz
During IAAPA, I had a Chicken Ceasre Salad at IOA that was far and away the best (Non-Equity) food I'd ever had at a park.
I don't like the idea of pitting the best vs. the best to determine if one company's fare beats another's. (Warning, sport analogy ahead!) That's like saying the Mountain West is a better college football conference than the Big Ten or ACC because of Utah. Maybe Utah's really good this year, but ya gotta look top to bottom.
So that's why I like this test: Imagine you are to eat dinner at a restaurant randomly picked from the options available at a park. Or you can eat at a restaurant randomly picked from another, second park. You don't know which restaurant it will be until after you pick the park. Which park do you pick?
Taking that criterion, I pick USH over Disneyland and DCA. In Florida, I pick Epcot over IoA or USF. But I pick IoA over anything else at WDW. And I pick any of the other three WDW over USF.
So, top-to-bottom, I rank 'em this way:
In California:
USH
Disneyland
DCA
In Florida:
Epcot
IoA
Disney-MGM
Animal Kingdom
Magic Kingdom
USF
So, in California, Universal's better, and in Florida, it's Disney.
QED
I have never gone over to Flordia, and yup, Im with Robert on this one; USH food rules.
Yeah but what about Mythos. Great food!
I was responding to another person (Chan?) who said that the food at Sci Fi was bad. But I like the list, if it has something to do with Disney World. Epcot is the best, so that is probably what puts WDW on top. I don't know anything about California, but I heard the Blue Bajou was great!
No, i really do not like the list, sorry to change my mind. I think Magic Kingdom has better food, but whatever. Also, I do not know if IOA has such great food as you ranked it, but they do have Mythos, hmmmmm..
Well, you really gotta give some points for the Green Eggs and Hamwich, don't you?
Ok, yes you are right. That also shows that Universal can do theming. Anyway, this is turning out to be very interesting. I am suprised that there is nobdody that has really said that Universal is better. However, I like Mr. Niles' idea of California going to Univeral and Flordia going to Disney.
For in-park dining, Disneyland wins hands-down over USH.
Would you like to support that claim with some examples?
I can't speak for Disneyland (as I have never been there), but WDW definately wins over Universal Florida. Chef Mickeys, Les Chefs de France, and ABC Comissary are 3 examples of completely different types of restaurants that IMO should get 5 stars. Disney's food quality is supurb, show & themeing is great, and the CMs are the best.
-Michael
ABC Commisary? (Sorry for the spelling!) That is not a place to use as an example because it is one of the few places that has mediocre food. Don't get me wrong, Disney World has better food, but that is a bad example!
Universal characters can throw there food harder because they have stronger characters like Hulk, Prryock and Blizzrock. While the dinosaurs concentrate more on eating the food rather than throwing it, the dragons will chuck plenty of mince pies and christmas puddings.
As for Disney, Mickey and Minnie mouse have got a whole fridge of ammunation to throw at the universal characters. While Goofy is more likely to hit his own team, Donald will get into foul tempers and chuck cake and burgers like heck.
Universal have the upper hand so there more likely to win a foodfight and...
Wait, this has nothing to do with the subject does it?
Blue Bayou( or however you spell it) and Plaza inn at Disneyland have great food. Much better than Doc Brown's Chicken and all the other restruants in Universal Studios. Without counting citywalk restraunts.
It all really depends on the cook I say. Both have extremely pricey meals. But Universal, to me, had very greasey food compared to Disney's sugar-high items.
Robert's argument was a good one, he was just wrong in his rankings. You can't pick one or two restaurants and say that that park has better food because of it.
His California list is right, but who cares? Almost everything in the Florida parks is better than USH, which has the best overall food of the California parks. But to put IOA second and USF last is totally incorrect.
Both IOA and USF are overseen by the same chef, meaning this guy approves of not only the food at the frou-frou Mythos, but the little Alcatraz thing in USF's San Francisco section. I have eaten at about half of the eateries in USF and have NEVER had a bad meal. The worst thing I have had there were the burgers at Richter's, which were infinitely better than the ones offered in Epcot. In fact, I would put IOA and USF at 1 and 2 on my Orlando list. Epcot has some great restaurants, but they also have some really mediocre restaurants and more than a couple lackluster ones. If the criteria truly is which place has OVERALL better food, the Universal Orlando parks kick ass. Better than Epcot. Better than Disney/MGM. And WAAAAAY better than MK and AK.
That said, if I was going on restaurants alone, Epcot is unparalleled. Disney/MGM comes in second, even though the food at Sci Fi sucks, and there are plenty of other crappy bites throughout the park. Then IOA. And then probably USF by default. It has no major restaurant, but neither does AK (Rainforest Cafe is OUTSIDE the park) and MK's Tony's Town Square is the only restaurant I would bother with there, and it isn't that spectacular. So this list is much harder as Disney takes 1 and 2 as well as 5 and 6, with Universal right in between. But having McDonald's in the parks means Universal wins this category by default too.
From Ben Mills
Posted December 31, 2004 at 1:31 PM
Am I the only one who prefers Lombard's to Mythos? Oh, okay.
I've gotta agree with Kevin, tho: Universal is head and shoulders above Disney in terms of food. The twice we've been to Orlando, I've never had a bad meal in UO, but I can think of at least a few times when I was severly underwhelmed by Disney food.
To take this thing into Europe... Disneyland Paris food is a similarly hit-and-miss affair, but a whole lot more expensive. The same goes for Port Aventura. PA wins this round though, simply because Disneyland Paris is ludicrously expensive.
However, if money is no issue, make sure to check out Disney Village's Billy Bob's Country Western Saloon for the brilliant Tex-Mex buffet, or Walt's on Main Street for a classier meal. Both offer great food (which could stand up as great restaurants, even outside the parks), although the latter will set you back some!
When in Port Aventura, make sure not to miss the Mediterranean bar for some great olives, seafood, Cerveza, and one of the best theme park scenic locations in Europe.
You know what, I completely spaced Lombard's. For some reason I always forget about that place, and haven't eaten there for years.
From Ben Mills
Posted January 1, 2005 at 4:24 PM
Well, I'd not really heard much about Lombard's before, except a small paragraph about Lombard's Landing - which I presume is what it used to be called? - in my crappy "Brit's Guide" guidebook, which thinks that everything that has ever existed is super-wonderful. Yup, even El Rio Del Tiempo.
However, it looked really nice, and we were looking for somewhere to spend our last couple of hours before heading back to the airport, so we thought we'd give it a try. We were pleasantly surprised! It's mostly fish, although they had the best chicken wings I've tasted in a long time. The view of the park was pretty cool, too, and it was surprisingly inexpensive.
Living 90 minutes away from the REAL San Francisco, I always shied away from Lombard's. Not that it is so SF-ish, but I'm not much of a seafood a-fish-ionado (boo), so I tend to save it for when I go to the City. Anyhow, it certainly qualifies as a major theme park restaurant, which definitely boots it higher than AK and MK.
Has anyone been to the Classic Monsters Cafe? It's always closed when I am there. Is it sit-down too, or cafeteria?
Are you all kidding me? Universal has got good food, but Disney is better in all ways! (As you can see I like Disney better!) I see that Disney World (not land, that could go to USH for all I care) having generally better food for the exception of AK, though it has some good food. However, the problem we are getting in this discussion is to talk about the generality of food without speaking of paticular places. Still, I think EPCOT takes the cake for it has many more good places to eat than any other park! Universal is good, but Disney is Better! Also, great discussion! I would have never even thought of doing it. Also, how does the scores of the places to eat compare between the two companies? Thats getting more people's opinions in here!
Here ya go:
Readers' top restaurantsI've set the minimum votes kinda low, so some unworthy restaurants that are high up due to a low number of votes can be beaten down....
Thank you Robert! This will tell us what others think. Like the opinions on here this discussion! Good stuff even if I don't agree! Also, it looks like the list is about right! All Disney and Universal which makes it good for this discussion!!
1.EPCOT- Simply because of the Biergarten and the variety available, although most don't take advantage and end up eating burgers at the Electric Umbrella.
2. Islands Of Adventure- Mythos would be considered great outside a theme park, but the fact that it is makes it that much more impressive.
3. Disney/MGM Studios- For some reason the Pizza at Pizza Planet is the best of any theme park I've been to.
4. Universal Studios Florida- Cafe La Bamba is very good for what it is. Seen the Blues Brothers just hanging and eating there.
5. Animal Kingdom- Um, decent Macaroni and Cheese. (This is where things become sub-par)
6. The Magic Kingdom- Is it just me, or is it next to impossible to eat something here other than a hamburger? Not much variety at all.
Well it seems Disney wins because as you can see only 6 Universal restranuts(spelling) made it in while 14 of Disney's made it in including #1 coming from Disneyland.
But whats bad is Doc Browns Chicken got number 10. I guess the reader's opinion aren't enough.
I don't like Pizza Planet and it's even worse in California. Doc Brown does have good chicken though. The best theme park food in the world is Mythos so I think Universal should win just for this.
Okay, once again, let's actually bother to learn what this topic is about.... Which has the best food, not which has the best restaurants. You can find lots of bad food at Disney without trying very hard. You would have to try really REALLY hard to find bad food at UO.
And do we really need like 3, 4, 5 messages in a row from the same person?????? These topics are filling up way too fast because some people can't tie three thoughts into one reply.
Sorry for so many messages if you are talking about me! Yes, I think there is an issue with what we are exactly talking about here. I'm guessing we are talking about food, but I and maybe other people are trying to see the difference. I'm not seeing the difference between resterants (spelling!) and food since I believe that the food is making most of the places good. Also, it appears that this discussion is surrounding the California parks of Disney and Univeral. Not that Universal and IOA in Flordia are good, but this seems to be about California Parks. I still stick with Disney (in Flordia) having better food (many of you disagree, but thats fine) but I think there are more food at Disney World than Universal. But, I could be wrong!
It wasn't you.
But quantity doesn't make something great. OF COURSE Disney has more. DUH. They have twice as many parks in Florida. But that means nothing. By that logic, DLR should have better food than USH since there are twice as many parks there. Take this logic a step further and you have to come to the conclusion that McDonald's has better food than both park chains, since there are so many more of them.
And this wasn't about which has the best restaurants. It specifically said which has better food. If McDonald's served Duck a l'Orange, would it suddenly mean it had the best food because it has ONE good food item?
OVERALL FOOD.
And you have to include selection in this. Non-Epcot Disney parks have rarely offered much beyond staples like hot dogs, hamburgers, pizza in their non-sitdown eateries. One tiny stand in USH offers chili and chowder served in bread bowls, a turkey wrap, nachos, shrimp and California rolls. That's their entire menu. While I found chili, chowder, wraps and nachos on different Disney menus, I didn't find shrimp or California rolls at any walkup. And that was one. Alongside hot dogs and hamburgers you can often find things like Szechuan orange chicken, shrimp lo mein, fried scallops, lobster bisque, gyros, I even found something called a Cajun Popcorn Shrimp Hoagie! You cannot find this kind of variety in any American Disney park unless you want a real restaurant. Hey, I like corn dogs, but I can do nuke corn dogs at home. I can't do a Cajun Popcorn Shrimp Hoagie. Well, I WON'T.
Thank you, that clears up alot of things in my mind. Putting EPCOT aside, the other parks do sell most of the Staple food, though you can get chowder in a bread bowl at the Magic Kingdom (Columbia Harbor House) and a sit down "Thanksgiving" dinner at the Liberty Tree Tavern. Besides MK and EPCOT, the others, especially AK, do have a bit of a problem. I have to say that I have not gone to Universal enough to know about the different foods that they offer. The last time I went to IOA, I hated the food, but that wasn't Mythos (It was the Comic Book Cafe. they had terrible food, but so does the ABC Commisary at MGM. Also, Thanks for giving a solid example of the quality of food being better at Universal vs Disney. I believe that gets us somewhere in this discussion!
Just because Disney has a chowder bowl doesn't mean they have better food!
WDW has the best restaurants in Florida:
Victoria & Alberts (lets see USF come up with this kind of restaurant)
Chef Mickeys
Crystal Palace
Every World Showcase Restaurant
Garden Grill
Prime Time Cafe
Brown Derby
ABC Commisary (it may not be a fan favorite, but it is mine, I love that Brazillian plate)
Boma
Spoodles
Ohana's
In addition, Disney themes all there food places, even fast food places.
-Michael
Wow! Thanks for completely ignoring what the whole topic was about! Great job!
Kevin I think your missing the point. If Disney has better restraunts then they have better food. Because come on since when is a restraunt great when the food isn't. The only one I can think of is SCI FI so we'll won't talk about that . Though I can't speak for UO I can speak for USH. The only restraunts there I can think of is Doc Brown's Chicken And the Jurrasic Park one. The Jurassic PArk one is averge while Doc Brown's Chicken sucks. While I can think of three restranuts at Disneyland that totally rock. As for me posting too many post don't worry since it bothers you so much I won't be doing it again.
Thats what my question was, I don't want to change the subject and talk about the food, but how do we talk about it without talking about the places you get them. Good discussion though!
Justin, your reasoning is dumb. Using that EXACT logic, then WDW also has the absolute worst food since they also have the worst restaurants (not sure if McDonald's is their worst restaurant, but it is certainly worse than anything you will find in the Universal parks). Arguments don't work if the opposing argument is also true.
Since this discussion seems to be between the three of us, lets call it a tie between WDW and Universal! And if we are going to talk about bad places to eat, Universal has a bad place to eat (in my opinion, worse than Mc Donalds!) in IOA Comic Strip Cafe. However, the rationale and reasoning still doesn't work, so Kevin, you are right!
Disney has number one food because most restraunts in the top 25 belonged to DIsney. Disney had 7 restraunts in the top 10 while Universal only had 2. Plus Blue Bayou was the number one theme park restraunt. So their, people think Disney has the best food. Just because you perfer Universal better than Disney Kevin, dosn't , mean they have better food by the rest of the world.
I ate at Blue Bayou in Disneyland and thought it was extremly overated and the food was terrible. Not worth the 30 minute wait and expensive price.
I agree. While I love the Bayou's atmosphere, the food has slipped over the past three years. I'm hoping that with the general turnaround at the Disneyland Resort, that positive changes will be happening in foods as well. But after my last few experiences at the Bayou, I'll wait for someone else to report a change to the better before committing the cash.
But remember Robert and Jason It's not your favorite restraunt but Reader's favorite restrant. You may think it's overrated but everyone's else opinion says they have the best theme park food. That's why Disney is number one.
Actually, BB's lead is razor-thin. A few more votes could swing several restaurants into the lead.
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