Tell me about dining options/reservations at UO

[kniquy]

We are planning a split trip of 7 days WDW and 3 days UO - There is so much going into the planning of WDW with FP and dining etc. We already have RPR booked for April of 2018.

As I am reading these UO boards I was wondering if there is a similar dining reservation site for the sit down restaurants at UO. We are planning one full day in each park and maybe an evening at one of them.

Are there any must do restaurants?
Are more of the food options in the parks quick service?
How or can you make reservations? I don't recall seeing anything on the UO website.

Please educate me on this!!

 

[macraven]

You can book some of the restaurants in the parks and city walk at open table or on the UO site in the restaurant section or at www.citywalk.com

 

[bchbetha]

Online reservations on the Universal page don't usually go up until 10-14 days ahead of time. Unlike Disney, you don't need to know where you want to eat 6 months out.

 

[twocat]

Here's my experience:

I was at IoA around the end of October, first of November. I wanted to eat lunch at Mythos, one of the most popular restaurants. I called the reservation line in the morning from the park and was able to get my first choice of times (just as they opened).

When I got to the restaurant it was pretty much deserted.

Unless you go during a very busy time, you should have no problem getting a walk-up at best and a same-day reservation at worst.

And the food at Mythos was good and reasonably priced. Made me realize how ridiculously overpriced Disney restaurants are.

 

[cleopenn]

We were at Universal over Thanksgiving and was very pleasantly surprised how easy it was to dine at the sit down restaurants. I think our longest wait was 20 minutes and that was only because I insisted on siting outside at Lombards. At Citywalk, we waited about 10 minutes at Emerils and not at all for Cowfish. Toothsome was insane, 90 minutes but we went up to the bar area and sat right down. (all we wanted was drinks and shakes)

 

[perditax]

We are planning a split trip of 7 days WDW and 3 days UO - There is so much going into the planning of WDW with FP and dining etc. We already have RPR booked for April of 2018.

As I am reading these UO boards I was wondering if there is a similar dining reservation site for the sit down restaurants at UO. We are planning one full day in each park and maybe an evening at one of them.

Are there any must do restaurants?
Are more of the food options in the parks quick service?
How or can you make reservations? I don't recall seeing anything on the UO website.

Please educate me on this!!

It seems some of the restaurants are available in OpenTable. I was able to make some reservations at more than 30 days out.

Others seem to use a system called Zomato, which you can access through the UO site. For example, click the green Reserve Now button at the bottom of this page:

https://www.universalorlando.com/Restaurants/CityWalk/Pat-OBriens.aspx

I was able to get Hard Rock Cafe (at over 30 days) and a restaurant at my on-site hotel (at the 30 day mark) through OpenTable, but it appears some of the CityWalk restaurants will only use the booking site above.

Unfortunately none of this has been integrated into the official UO app.

I have no personal experience but I've gotten good impressions of all the TS restaurants in the parks except maybe Confiscos. Mythos is frequently mentioned as a standout. The Harry Potter quick service places are supposed to be pretty good. Thunder Falls Terrace is supposed to be surprisingly good for the price for counter-service food. One of the podcasts I listen to was raving about the "Fast Food" area by The Simpsons.