9 Best Restaurants in Universal Orlando, Florida

This enchanting table-service restaurant's eclectic menu includes dishes such as pad Thai, pan-seared salmon with lemon-basil butter, souvlaki couscous bowl, and brick oven–roasted chicken. The building itself—which looks like a giant rock formation from the outside and a huge cave (albeit one with plush upholstered seating) from within—will grab your attention, as will the view of the big lagoon in the center of the theme park. Reserve online or with the Universal phone app for lunch or an early dinner.

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.

An airy room and tropical decor complement the menu's curries, pad Thai, coconut soup, and other Asian-inspired dishes. Islands, which serves breakfast and dinner, also has a play area to keeps tots entertained, and you can create your own stir-fry combos during the Wok Experience on Friday and Saturday evenings. On Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights, you might be treated to visits from assorted characters such as Scooby Doo and Shaggy—at no extra cost.

With an adventurer's theme honoring its namesake aviator (Captain Jake McNally), this gastropub is a great place to grab a cold one as well as anything from a Caesar salad or flatbread sandwich to shrimp mac 'n' cheese or roasted chicken. Jake's also hosts seasonal beer dinners that feature regional and specialty brews.

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.

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.

Overlooking a tranquil harbor, this is a family-friendly option with a dash of Italiano. The breakfast buffet features both omelets and other hot dishes as well as baked goods and fruit; dinner starters like shrimp polenta and Caprese flatbread segue to entrées such as chicken marsala, grilled beef tenderloin, and shrimp Alfredo.

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.