Universal Studios Hollywood Food

 I visited Universal Studios Hollywood twice in the past year. The initial visit was to see the park for the first time (alongside Disneyland). A few months later, my schedule and budget allowed me to go a second time to see Hollywood's version of Halloween Horror Nights. 

First food in the park was from a hot dog cart in the upper lot. I ordered the Californian. This was a Nathan's hot dog topped with guacamole, diced tomatoes, cilantro, and Takis. Very topping heavy. They were really generous with the guacamole and cilantro, which I won't argue with. 

When I returned a few months later, I walked by this same hot dog stand. All of the interesting hot dog toppings were replaced with basically one option: A 22" Chili Cheese Dog. Nowhere as exciting...

French Street Bistro:

I tried a brownie from the French Street Bistro. 

City Snack Shop:

I had this during Halloween Horror Nights. I had a Strawberry Spiral Croissant. This round croissant was partially stuffed with whipped cream, with some strawberries topping the cream. Pretty tasty.

Disneyland Food (Rancho del Zocalo & Ronto Roasters)

I ate at Califonia Adventure the day before. Today was all about the food during my first visit to Disneyland:

Rancho del Zocalo Restaurante:

Had lunch at a restaurant called Rancho del Zocalo. This Mexican themed quick service was located next to Big Thunder Mountain and had an outdoor seating courtyard that overlooked the ride.

 
I had the Trio of Street Tacos. Each taco was filled with either beef, chicken, or cauliflower served in Corn Tortillas with Tomatillo Sauce, garnished with Onions and Cilantro served with Mexican Rice and Refried Beans. The cauliflower taco was the best. All of them were surprisingly good when thinking of the equivalent restaurants at Magic Kingdom which are notoriously bad (I said it. Disney adults, leave your angry comments).

Ronto Roasters:

This was my first experience in Galaxy's Edge. I guess I was eating simulated ronto meat, cooked by a droid by a repurposed pod racer engine. I had the Ronto Wrap, which was roasted pork, pork sausage, peppercorn sauce, and coleslaw wrapped in pita bread. Theming of this place was awesome, but I don't think I'd go out of my way again to get a hot dog wrapped in a slice of pork with some messy coleslaw dripping everywhere. It was food...

Blue Milk from the Milk Stand exceeded all expectations. This was delicious. 

Disney California Adventure Food (Pym Test Kitchen and Cozy Cone Motel)

I visited Disney California Adventure for the first time. This is what I ate:

Pym Test Kitchen:

Ate lunch at Pym Test Kitchen in the Avenger's Campus section of the park. The theme here was that foods were either shrunken or enlarged using Pym Particles seen in the Ant Man movies. Lots of fun sight gags around the restaurant, including growing pretzels, giant cans of soda, etc.

Had the Quantum Pretzel and the Pym-ini Sandwich. The pretzel seemed necessary since it was the centerpiece food seen being enlarged over the cash-registers. It was a good pretzel. The Pym-ini was salami, rosemary ham, provolone, and sun-dried tomato spread on focaccia. Served with marinara dipping sauce and arugula salad. The sandwich was tasty, but the gimmick of shrunken and enlarged food wasn't readily apparent on this one. Arugula was supposed to be larger lettuce leaves that were reduced in size?

Ordered the Proton Punch to drink. Because you have to get the specialty beverages at theme parks now. This was lemonade, berry purée, cherry boba and a grenadine-filled pipette. It was fine. Fancy pink lemonade.

 

Cozy Cone Motel:

Had dinner in Cars Land in the Cozy Cone Motel. This highly themed snack bar featured several giant traffic cones modeled after the real life Wigwam Motels.

I had the Chili Cone Queso. This was a bread cone filled with beef chili, cheddar cheese, and corn chips. I very much enjoyed this meal.

California Pizza Place in Anaheim, CA

Went on a trip to California. The first couple days of the trip was in Anaheim to see Disneyland. Disney was open late, yet the majority of the restaurants surrounding the property weren't open. California Pizza Place was one of the few places to get food after midnight within walking distance. Ended up here twice.

First night I had a slice of the House Special pizza topped with pepperoni, sausage, and mushrooms.

Had a slice of pepperoni on my second visit. 

Not the greatest, most gourmet pizza I've ever eaten, but it was definitely better than walking further to a Mcdonalds. After 30,000+ steps during a day at a theme park, the pizza was very satisfying. 

Sushiology in Orlando, FL

Sushiology is a fast food Japanese restaurant that was recommended by some readers. Hidden in the back of a lighthouse themed strip mall, sandwiched between a seafood buffet and a tattoo parlor, Sushiology is very easy to miss. Inside, the restaurant is tiny with just a few tables.

My meal started with a plate of gyoza. These deep fried pork dumplings were crispy on the outside, filled with a tasty pork and vegetable mixture. I was actually expecting the dumplings to be more pan-fried rather than deep-fried, so next time I'd get the gyoza steamed instead.

Next, I shared a Brown Rice California Roll and a Caterpillar roll. Both were filled with krab, cucumber,and avocado. The California was topped with masago, while the Caterpillar was topped with thinly sliced avocado.

I'm glad I got the recommendation to go try Sushiology. I probably would have never found the restaurant on my own, and I enjoyed the food. The prices were good and the rolls were tasty. It makes me wonder what else I'm missing hidden among the tourist traps along International Drive? I'm sure there are many more restaurants that I haven't tried or heard of yet...

5 & Diner in Orlando, FL

I ate at 5 & Diner in Orlando, FL late one evening. The restaurant was going for the classic diner look and was pretty successful at achieving it. It wasn't quite at the level of the Greek diners up North with the huge menus featuring somewhat ethnic food that never close, but was one of the better diners that I've seen in the Orlando area. Rather than being open 24 hours, 5 & Diner closed at ten PM and featured mostly pretty standard American food on the menu. At the time I didn't realize it, but apparently 5 & Diner is a franchise based on their website.

I ordered the California Chicken Sandwich. After a very long wait, the sandwich finally was served. It consisted of a chicken breast, swiss cheese, alfalfa sprouts, lettuce, tomato, onions, and guacamole on a sesame roll. Fries were served on the side. I had no complaints about the sandwich, it was really big and tasted good!

 A word of warning though about 5 & Diner. Check your ketchup before putting it on your food. At the next table, I overheard the restaurant customers complaining to the waitress that ants came out of the ketchup bottle onto the food. 5 & Diner then proceeded to replace their food and check all of the ketchup and mustard bottles on the tables. From what I could tell, the ants were isolated to the one bottle, but be careful...