Universal Studios Hollywood
35 items, every one with a price we checked and a verdict we mean. Mark them want, tried, or skip — it saves on your device and prints as a checklist.
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Fried chicken between two waffles instead of a bun, fried to order at the window rather than held under a lamp.
Our take: The best savory thing inside this park after Toadstool Cafe, and almost everyone walks past it to queue at Krusty Burger next door. Order this instead.
A sweet orange-forward drink served in a tall souvenir glass over dry ice, so the whole thing smokes over the rim while you carry it. Available with or without alcohol.
Our take: You are buying an effect, not a cocktail, and it is worth it once. The non-alcoholic version is identical in every way that matters, which makes it the single most entertaining thing you can hand a child at this park.
Butterbeer Cart
A slushed version of the cream-soda-and-butterscotch drink, served with a thick foam head that sits on top rather than mixing in. Non-alcoholic, like every version of it.
Our take: The one to order. The cold version is sweet and thin by the third mouthful; the frozen version stays drinkable in Los Angeles heat, which is the whole argument.
A cube of tiramisu built and finished as a Mario question block, complete with the question mark on the face, served with a mushroom-shaped garnish.
Our take: The single best dessert inside this park and the rare themed item that people photograph and then finish. If you order one thing at Toadstool Cafe, order this.
A layered banana cream dessert in a themed vessel, part of the banana program that a Minion restaurant was never going to avoid.
Our take: The desserts are the part of this kitchen that clearly enjoys itself, and this is the best of them. Better than the savory food it follows.
A thick hand-spun milkshake served in a tall glass with the surplus in the metal cup alongside, the way a diner is supposed to do it.
Our take: The best thing on the Mel's menu by a distance and one of the better sweet items in the park. The burgers are ordinary; the shake is not.
Battered white fish with thick-cut chips, served on a metal tray in the timber dining hall. The most consistently well-executed plate on the Three Broomsticks menu.
Our take: The order at Three Broomsticks. The batter holds, the fish is not overcooked, and it is the one item here that would pass without the theming to carry it.
A bacon cheeseburger served under a bun shaped and colored as Mario's cap, plated with fries and presented on a themed tray.
Our take: The signature plate and, surprisingly, a properly cooked burger rather than a prop with meat in it. The kitchen here is doing real work behind the gimmick.
A cream of mushroom soup served inside a bread bowl baked and decorated to look like a Super Mushroom, red cap and white spots included.
Our take: The best-looking savory dish in the park and a genuinely decent soup underneath the presentation. The best vegetarian order inside these gates.
A plain cake donut roughly the size of a dinner plate, covered in pink frosting and sprinkles, sold under a statue of the mascot holding the same thing.
Our take: The most photographed food in the park and a mediocre donut. Buy one for the group, take the picture under the statue, and buy a standard glazed one if you actually want to eat a donut.
The original version: a chilled cream soda base with a butterscotch foam poured over the top, served in a cup or a souvenir tankard.
Our take: Fine, and sweeter than most people expect. Order it in cool weather and order the frozen one otherwise. Buy it at the Hog's Head, not the outdoor cart, and save fifteen minutes.
A real branded lager brewed for Universal rather than a prop, served at Moe's Tavern, the Duff Brewery bar outside and at Krusty Burger.
Our take: An ordinary lager with an extraordinary label. Drink it at Moe's, in the air conditioning, rather than standing in the sun at the outdoor bar paying the same money.
Spaghetti and meatballs in a spiced tomato sauce, plated with a fire-flower motif and served in a bowl rather than on a tray.
Our take: The least interesting plate on a strong menu, and still better than most of what this park serves. Order the burger or the soup ahead of it.
Bone-in fried chicken with sides, served in the large themed dining rooms next to Despicable Me Minion Mayhem.
Our take: Above the park average and generously portioned, which is the most you can reasonably ask of a Minion-branded restaurant. A sensible default lunch on the Upper Lot.
Isla Nu-Bar
A blended rum-based tropical drink from the covered bar beside Jurassic World, served in a plastic cup or a souvenir vessel for considerably more.
Our take: Sweet, strong and correctly timed. Coming off Jurassic World soaked and sitting in the shade with one of these is among the better twenty minutes available here.
A draft beer brewed for Universal and sold only inside the Wizarding World, poured from the tap that sets off the animatronic hog's head above the bar.
Our take: A decent, unremarkable amber beer with a good trick attached. Worth ordering once for the tap gag, which most guests never see because they never come inside.
A baked macaroni cheese served in a themed dish, with a crumb topping and enough of it to work as a shared side.
Our take: The reliable order for a child who will not eat anything else, and a decent vegetarian option in a park short of them. Nothing to write home about, and nothing wrong with it.
A tomato and mozzarella salad arranged as a Piranha Plant emerging from a pipe, with basil and a green pesto base.
Our take: A properly conceived vegetarian dish rather than a substitution off a meat menu, which is rarer at this park than it should be. Light, which matters at lunchtime here.
Minced meat in gravy under a piped mashed potato crust, baked and served in its own dish with a side salad.
Our take: Solid, heavy and completely fine. It is the right order in January and a mistake in August, when you still have a hillside and four escalators ahead of you.
A half rack of smoked ribs with sides, served at the Lower Lot's only substantial restaurant next to Jurassic World.
Our take: Ordinary barbecue in the one place where that hardly matters, because the alternative is four escalators each way. Eat it and stay down here.
Turkey Leg Cart
An enormous cured and smoked turkey leg from a cart on the Upper Lot, eaten standing up with nothing that could reasonably be called a napkin.
Our take: It tastes like ham, because of the curing, and that surprises everyone. Share one across the group as a novelty rather than buying it as lunch.
A sparkling lemon drink served with a star-shaped garnish, non-alcoholic and the most refreshing thing on the Toadstool Cafe menu.
Our take: Ten dollars for lemonade is a Universal Studios Hollywood price. It is genuinely good lemonade, and the cheapest way to sit in the best air-conditioned room in the park.
Bumblebee Man's Taco Truck
A short order of tacos on corn tortillas from a themed truck parked on the Springfield street, with carne asada, chicken and a vegetarian option.
Our take: Unremarkable by any Los Angeles standard and a genuine relief by Springfield standards. The only thing in this area you can eat without needing a lie-down afterward.
A shared platter of rotisserie chicken, ribs, corn and potatoes intended for a family, sold as a single order rather than per person. Priced per platter and worth confirming at the counter.
Our take: Genuine value for four or more and a poor deal for two. Order it with a group and individual plates without one.
A straightforward diner burger with bacon and cheese, served with fries in a chrome-and-vinyl room near the park entrance.
Our take: Competent and unmemorable. You are really paying for an air-conditioned booth close to the gate, which at this park is a fair enough thing to pay for.
Starbucks (Upper Lot)
A standard warmed Starbucks breakfast sandwich, with egg and cheese versions available alongside the meat ones.
Our take: This park has almost no real breakfast offering inside the gate, and this is the practical answer. Not a recommendation so much as an admission.
Churro Carts
The standard fried dough stick rolled in cinnamon sugar, sold from carts at several points around the Upper Lot.
Our take: A fine churro at roughly fifty percent more than the same thing costs at Disneyland down the freeway. Buy one from a cart that is actively frying, or do not bother.
Starbucks (Upper Lot)
A standard Starbucks cold brew from the Upper Lot location, priced the same as it is anywhere else in Los Angeles.
Our take: The best value purchase inside this park, entirely because it is the only one not carrying a theme park markup. Unglamorous and genuinely useful.
Starbucks (Lower Lot)
The same standard Starbucks cold brew, from the Lower Lot location that most guests do not know exists.
Our take: Listed because knowing it is here is worth more than the drink is. It is the reason you never need to take the escalators up for a coffee.
The standard-size donut sold alongside the enormous pink one, in glazed and a rotating set of other finishes.
Our take: Better than the Big Pink Donut and a third of the price, which is why almost nobody buys one. If you want a donut rather than a prop, this is the correct order.
Grilled chicken with rice and vegetables, the lightest main course available on the Lower Lot.
Our take: The sensible order if you are riding Jurassic World afterward, which you probably are. The ribs are better and considerably worse timed.
Butterbeer Cart
The same butterscotch and cream soda flavor served warm, closer in texture to a hot custard drink than to the cold version.
Our take: Genuinely the best of the three on a cold night, and completely wrong in July. Southern California gives you maybe twenty evenings a year when this is the right order.
The standard burger on the menu: a single patty with cheese, lettuce, tomato and sauce, served with fries in themed packaging.
Our take: An entirely ordinary theme park burger in an entirely extraordinary room. Sixteen dollars is a lot for it, and you are partly paying for the air conditioning and the Krusty head outside.
A baked macaroni cheese served as a main or a side, and effectively the only vegetarian main on the Lower Lot.
Our take: Adequate, and the only real vegetarian option on this level of the park. That is a criticism of the Lower Lot rather than of the dish.
A deliberately excessive stacked burger built as a visual joke about American fast food, sold in a restaurant that is itself a joke about American fast food.
Our take: Order it if the absurdity is the point of your visit. Order a normal burger if you want lunch. It is not good, and it is not trying to be, and that is a defensible position for a menu item to take.
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Prices verified July 2026
Ranked by how much we would rearrange a day to get one.
| Item | Where | Price | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chicken and Waffle Sandwich | Cletus' Chicken Shack | $17.99 | The best savory thing inside this park after Toadstool Cafe, and almost everyone walks past it to queue at Krusty Burger next door. Order this instead. |
| Flaming Moe | Moe's Tavern | $15.99 | You are buying an effect, not a cocktail, and it is worth it once. The non-alcoholic version is identical in every way that matters, which makes it the single most entertaining thing you can hand a child at this park. |
| Frozen Butterbeer | Butterbeer Cart | $9.49 | The one to order. The cold version is sweet and thin by the third mouthful; the frozen version stays drinkable in Los Angeles heat, which is the whole argument. |
| Question Block Tiramisu | Toadstool Cafe | $12.99 | The single best dessert inside this park and the rare themed item that people photograph and then finish. If you order one thing at Toadstool Cafe, order this. |
| Banana Cream Dessert | Illumination's Minion Cafe | $10.99 | The desserts are the part of this kitchen that clearly enjoys itself, and this is the best of them. Better than the savory food it follows. |
| Chocolate Milkshake | Mel's Diner | $8.99 | The best thing on the Mel's menu by a distance and one of the better sweet items in the park. The burgers are ordinary; the shake is not. |
| Fish and Chips | Three Broomsticks | $18.99 | The order at Three Broomsticks. The batter holds, the fish is not overcooked, and it is the one item here that would pass without the theming to carry it. |
| Mario Bacon Cheeseburger | Toadstool Cafe | $19.99 | The signature plate and, surprisingly, a properly cooked burger rather than a prop with meat in it. The kitchen here is doing real work behind the gimmick. |
| Super Mushroom Soup Bread Bowl | Toadstool Cafe | $16.99 | The best-looking savory dish in the park and a genuinely decent soup underneath the presentation. The best vegetarian order inside these gates. |
| The Big Pink Donut | Lard Lad Donuts | $12.99 | The most photographed food in the park and a mediocre donut. Buy one for the group, take the picture under the statue, and buy a standard glazed one if you actually want to eat a donut. |
Snack prices move once or twice a year, usually upward, and often without announcement. Every price here carries the month we last checked it. Where two sources disagreed we went with the one we could verify most recently, and we would rather show you a dated number than a confidently wrong one.
If you spot something that has changed, that is genuinely useful to us — corrections make this dataset better for everyone using it.