7 Best Restaurants in Universal CityWalk, Universal Orlando

The massive and very noisy Antojitos brings the specialties of Mexican cantinas and food carts to CityWalk. The outside looks like it's been spray-painted with shocking pastels; inside, the grand two-story space is chic yet rustic, sparse but dotted with Mexican folk art. Neon sculptures on the ceiling depict hip versions of Day of the Dead figures. Start with guacamole, made table-side, and follow up with beer-and-chile-braised pork tacos topped with pineapple and guajillo salsa or the Mixiote stew made with beer-braised goat. End with a coffee crème brûlée with churros or the molten dulce cake. The restaurant stocks 200 tequilas and a range of handcrafted tequilas.

A flashback inspired by camping trips and cooking over an open flame, this restaurant features a menu that brings back memories. Among the entrées are fire-grilled steaks, Colorado lamb shanks, beer-glazed scallops, barbecue shrimp, skillet-roasted half-chicken, and the Heathstone Seafood Bake, which includes wood oven-baked northern whitefish, shrimp, cold water mussels, andouille sausage, fresh corn, red potatoes, and lemon butter. Specialty salads and hamburgers are also featured, along with side dishes that include Southern-style potato salad, coleslaw, cornbread, fire-grilled vegetables, and smashed potatoes. Still hungry? Sample the s'mores. It's like dining in a lakeside summer house.

Although this restaurant is built to resemble Rome's Colosseum and contains 1,000 seats, there's often a wait at lunch or dinner. The music is always loud, the walls are covered with rock memorabilia, and the menu still features the burger that started it all: the steakburger with applewood bacon, cheddar cheese, a crispy onion ring, leaf lettuce, and vine-ripened tomato. Barbecued meats, from baby-back ribs to hand-pulled pork, are smoked on-site. Other entrées include New York strip steak, grilled Norwegian salmon, and Tupelo chicken tenders.

Though the giant beer tanks are just for show, this bar has plenty of brews to accompany everything from loaded nachos, fish tacos, giant pretzels, and sturdy sandwiches to ½-pound premium Black Angus beef burgers (the Grand Slam features a pound of beef), sirloin and strip steaks, cedar-plank salmon, and ribs. If you're looking to watch a game, this is the spot: it has more than 100 giant TV screens.

Burgers, sushi, bento boxes, and a combo the founders call "burgushi" bring Universal goers to this contemporary second-story restaurant. The setting is flashy, with colorful booths and playful decor complementing video screens showing schools of fish swimming by, aquarium-style. Unwind with a cocktail like Buffalos and Bacon, a bourbon-cherry liqueur combo garnished with candied bacon. The rolls and burgers defy traditional rules, with bento boxes combining the two and other mixes and matches such as a sushi "fusion" roll that might be a sushi roll—or it might have filet mignon layered in. And a burger might be a hunk of ground beef, or it could have peanut butter, banana, and bacon.

A steampunk decor of gizmos, gears, pulleys, belts, and smokestacks is the backdrop for this very popular restaurant, where chocolate and sweets rule. Desserts—ranging from artisanal milk shakes and sumptuous sundaes to chocolate brownie bark, bacon brittle, and salted caramel flan—are naturally big draws. But one cannot live on sweets alone, which explains the salads, soups, flatbreads, sandwiches, hamburgers, and pastas, as well as more extravagant entrées such as grilled teriyaki salmon, braised short ribs, filet mignon, and cocoa pork tenderloin.

House-made pasta and inventive cocktails are highlights at the ultrahip Vivo, which is styled after a trendy Roman nightclub. The waiters are attentive, the food—mussels marinara, lamb ragu, squid-ink seafood—is quietly impressive, and the blazing wood-fired oven makes almost instantaneous pizzas.