5 Best Restaurants in Universal Orlando, Florida

The premise here is that you're eating at a home-turned-restaurant—there's an actual "Mama Della," who appears nightly, and you'll be serenaded by a strolling accordionist, guitar player, and vocalist. The menu features Italian classics like homemade parsley gnocchi with pomodoro sauce, chicken parmigiana, and lasagna alongside more ambitious dishes like bistecca (steak) with truffle mashed potatoes, roasted wild mushrooms, broccolini, onions, and carrots. Patio seating provides a view of the hotel's nightly Musica Della Notte (Music of the Night) opera show.

At the corner of Hollywood and Vine is a flashy 1950s-style eatery with a retro spaceship design and several vintage cars parked out in front. Thanks to its location and look, this is one of the most popular choices in the park, so you might have to brave crowds for an extra-thick shake (recommended) or an order of the decadent chili-cheese fries. Basically, it's the burgers that draw crowds in. In case you and others in your group decide to go your separate ways, Mel's is also a great place to meet up.

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.

Rickety staircases and gaslit chandeliers set the tone for this counter-service restaurant, where you can feast on ample portions of shepherd's pie, fish-and-chips, turkey legs, and Cornish pasties. The Great Feast option includes salad, rotisserie smoked chicken, spareribs, corn on the cob, and roast potatoes for $69.99 for a party of four. The full English breakfast (from park opening until 10:30 am) features eggs, sausage links, black pudding, English bacon, baked beans, grilled tomatoes, sautéed mushrooms, and  potatoes. Look (and listen) for hidden Harry Potter Easter eggs, and ask your server for the facts.

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.