Two large sausages on mashed potato with onion gravy and peas, served hot on a proper plate at a counter-service price.
Our take: The best plate of food at Universal Orlando and it is not close. Properly made, properly hot, and cheaper than most of the burgers in this park. Order it and stop reading the rest of the board.
Do not leave without it
Savory
A sweet, lightly carbonated butterscotch and shortbread drink topped with a thick vanilla-cream foam, served cold in a plastic cup or a souvenir stein.
Our take: Try it once because you will be asked whether you did. It is very sweet and one between two people is plenty; the frozen version and the soft serve are both better uses of the same flavour.
Do not leave without it
Drink
Vegetarian
Walkable
Butterscotch-flavoured soft serve in a cup or cone, sometimes served with the same cream topping used on the drink.
Our take: The best thing carrying the Butterbeer name and cheaper than the drink. If you are only doing the flavour once on this trip, do it here rather than at a drinks window.
Do not leave without it
Sweet
Vegetarian
Walkable
The same butterscotch and shortbread flavour churned into a slush and topped with the vanilla-cream foam, served in a cup with a spoon-straw.
Our take: The best version of the drink and the right one in Florida heat. The ice cuts the sweetness that makes the cold version cloying, and it lasts long enough to walk the whole alley with it.
Do not leave without it
Drink
Vegetarian
Walkable
A cake doughnut roughly the diameter of a dinner plate, covered in pink frosting and sprinkles, sold under a two-storey statue of the Lard Lad mascot.
Our take: Buy one for the group, not one each. It is a decent cake doughnut carrying a great joke, and split four ways it is cheaper per head than a normal park snack.
Near the top of the list
Sweet
Vegetarian
Walkable
Fried chicken between two waffles with maple syrup, from the Cletus' Chicken Shack counter in the food hall.
Our take: The other thing worth ordering in Springfield and the better choice if you are not in a burger mood. Sweet and salty in the right proportions, and it travels badly, so eat it there.
Near the top of the list
Savory
Cinnamon Roll
San Francisco Pastry Company
$8.49
A large iced cinnamon roll from the bakery case on the San Francisco waterfront, sold whole and warm in the morning.
Our take: The best breakfast pastry in the park and easily split between two people. It sits on the walking route to Diagon Alley, which makes it the right stop on a rope drop morning.
Near the top of the list
Breakfast
Vegetarian
Walkable
A large burger loaded with bacon, cheese and a fried egg, ordered from the Krusty Burger counter inside the food hall.
Our take: The best burger in the park and the reason to eat in Springfield rather than at Richter's. Absurd, well made, and enough food that you will not want dinner.
Near the top of the list
Savory
White fish and shellfish in a cream sauce under a mashed potato crust, baked and served in its own dish.
Our take: The pick if somebody else in your party has already ordered the bangers and mash. Rich enough that you will not want a dessert afterwards, which at these prices is a saving.
Near the top of the list
Savory
A cold, non-alcoholic mint and cinnamon drink, bright green, with blueberry-flavoured boba spheres sitting at the bottom that burst when you bite them.
Our take: The most genuinely unusual thing sold at Universal Orlando and the drink to order if you already know what Butterbeer tastes like. The boba divides people completely, which is the point.
Near the top of the list
Drink
Vegetarian
Walkable
A non-alcoholic orange soda served in a branded glass over dry ice, so the drink smokes continuously for several minutes.
Our take: You are buying the fog, and the fog is worth it once. Drink it inside the bar; carry it out and you have paid fourteen dollars for a flat orange soda.
Near the top of the list
Drink
Vegetarian
A thick hand-spun milkshake in vanilla, chocolate or strawberry, served in the 1950s diner on the Hollywood boulevard.
Our take: The best thing at Mel's by a distance and one of the better desserts in the park. Thick enough that the straw is decorative, which is the correct standard for a milkshake.
Near the top of the list
Sweet
Vegetarian
Walkable
A board of British cheeses, cured meats, bread, pickles, chutney and a Scotch egg, built to be picked at by two people.
Our take: The best value on the menu for a couple, and it can be ordered without the meat. Two people eat properly for less than two separate mains and get the more interesting food.
Near the top of the list
Savory
Vegetarian
A small dark sponge cake soaked in toffee sauce, served cold in a cup rather than hot in a bowl.
Our take: Better than a seven-dollar theme park dessert has any obligation to be, and easily shared. Order it with the bangers and mash and split it two ways.
Near the top of the list
Sweet
Vegetarian
Taco Trio
Bumblebee Man's Taco Truck
$12.99
Three tacos from a rotating line-up, typically a Korean beef, a slow-cooked pork and a chipotle chicken, served from a parked truck in the Springfield plaza.
Our take: The best value savoury food in the park and almost nobody eats here. Three properly seasoned tacos for less than a mediocre burger, from a window with no queue.
Near the top of the list
Savory
Walkable
A small pot of set butterscotch custard with a cream layer on top, eaten cold with a spoon.
Our take: The most intense version of the Butterbeer flavour and the one most likely to defeat you. Good, and one pot between two people is the right amount.
Sweet
Vegetarian
A thick New England-style chowder served hot as a starter or a light meal in the lagoon-side dining room.
Our take: The best thing on the Lombard's menu and a legitimate light lunch on its own with bread. Order it as a starter and share a main if you are not especially hungry.
Savory
Cold Brew Coffee
TODAY Cafe
$6.49
Cold brew coffee served over ice from the cafe near the park entrance, with dairy and non-dairy milk available.
Our take: The only coffee inside the gates worth drinking, and the reason to mobile order before you walk through the turnstiles. The morning queue here is otherwise one of the worst in the park.
Drink
VeganGluten-friendly
Walkable
Minced beef in gravy under a mashed potato crust, baked and served hot in a dish with a side salad.
Our take: The safe order and the least interesting of the three pies. Fine, filling and the right choice for a child who will not eat fish or sausage.
Savory
Dragon Scale
The Fountain of Fair Fortune
$12.49
The lighter of the two Wizarding World exclusive beers, an amber lager with a dry finish, poured on draft alongside Wizard's Brew.
Our take: The easier drinking of the pair and the better choice in the heat. Neither beer is sold anywhere else on earth, which is a better reason to try one than the theming is.
Drink
A light American lager brewed for Universal in three varieties — regular, Lite and Dry — poured on draft at the outdoor brewery and inside Moe's Tavern.
Our take: Perfectly decent lager rather than a novelty, and the flight of all three is the correct order. Drink it at the outdoor brewery, which has shade, seating and almost nobody in it.
Drink
Walkable
A scoop of tea-and-floral ice cream from the rotating flavour board, noticeably less sweet than anything else in the shop.
Our take: The find in this shop for anyone over about fifteen, and the only dessert in Diagon Alley that is not built on butterscotch. Genuinely well made rather than a novelty flavour.
Sweet
VegetarianGluten-friendly
Walkable
Battered white fish with thick-cut chips and tartare sauce, served in a dark pub dining room with a pint if you want one.
Our take: Solid pub cooking and the right order at Finnegan's. You are paying for an hour in a proper room with a proper pint, and on that basis it is fair value.
Savory
A frozen rum or tequila cocktail served at the covered waterside bar in San Francisco, with a non-alcoholic version available.
Our take: Expensive and worth it, because what you are buying is a covered seat on the water in the best rest spot in the park. The drink itself is competent rather than clever.
Drink
Vegetarian
Hot Fudge Sundae
Schwab's Pharmacy
$9.99
Vanilla ice cream with hot fudge, whipped cream and a cherry, built at the counter of a recreated 1940s Hollywood soda fountain.
Our take: Cheaper than the themed desserts elsewhere and made in front of you at a counter almost nobody sits at. Eat it on a stool rather than taking it away; that is the whole experience.
Sweet
Vegetarian
Louie's Pizza Slice
Louie's Italian Restaurant
$11.99
An oversized New York-style cheese or pepperoni slice, sold at the counter and eaten in a large indoor dining room.
Our take: One of the few genuinely cheap full meals in the park, and the slice is large enough to be one. Skip the pasta plates at the same counter; the pizza is the whole reason to be here.
Savory
Vegetarian
Walkable
Richter's Cheeseburger
Richter's Burger Co.
$17.99
A plain cheeseburger ordered at the counter and finished at a free toppings bar with lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles and sauces.
Our take: Ordinary burger, excellent room, free toppings bar. Order the plain one and build it yourself rather than paying more for a specialty version at the same counter.
Savory
Salted caramel ice cream with pieces of blondie folded through it, from the rotating scoop board.
Our take: The crowd-pleaser on the scoop board and the safe order for anyone who finds the Earl Grey too adult. Very sweet, which in this land is not a surprise.
Sweet
Vegetarian
Walkable
Minced meat in gravy under a mashed potato crust, baked and served hot with vegetables in a pub dining room.
Our take: Good, and four dollars more than the same idea done better at the Leaky Cauldron. Order it here for the table service and the pint rather than because it beats the counter version.
Savory
A thick square slice from the Luigi's counter inside the food hall, sold by the slice rather than the pie.
Our take: The cheapest way to feed a child in Springfield and better pizza than it looks. Order this rather than a full plate if you are eating twice today.
Savory
Vegetarian
Walkable
Eggs, sausage, black pudding, baked beans, grilled tomato, sauteed mushrooms and toast on one plate, served in the morning only.
Our take: The best sit-down breakfast inside the gates and the correct thing to do with the second half of an Early Park Admission hour. Ride Gringotts first, then eat this while the park fills up outside.
Breakfast
Wizard's Brew
The Fountain of Fair Fortune
$12.49
A dark ale brewed exclusively for the Wizarding World, with chocolate and roasted malt character, poured on draft in a tiny pub in the alley.
Our take: Genuinely good beer that happens to be a park exclusive rather than a novelty with a label on it. Order a taster of this alongside Dragon Scale rather than committing to a full pint of either.
Drink
A branded cola sold across Springfield in a can and on draft, and one of the cheapest named items in the park.
Our take: It is cola in a good can. Buy it for a child who wants something from Springfield that is not fourteen dollars, and keep the can.
Drink
VeganGluten-friendly
Walkable
Eternelle's Elixir with Gillywater
Eternelle's Elixir of Refreshment
$12.49
A small vial of flavoured concentrate poured into a bottle of Gillywater, which changes colour dramatically as it mixes. Several flavours are sold, each with a different colour.
Our take: Twelve dollars for flavoured water with a two-second trick attached. Buy it once for a child who will love the colour change, and understand exactly what you are paying for.
Drink
VeganGluten-friendly
Walkable
Freeze Ray Pop
Freeze Ray Pops
$7.49
A frozen fruit pop sold from a walk-up window in Minion Land, in rotating flavours and colours.
Our take: The cheapest cold thing at the front of the park and a reliable way to buy ten minutes of cooperation from a small child. Nothing more than that, and nothing less.
Treat cart
VeganGluten-friendly
Walkable
Battered fried shrimp with fries and slaw from The Frying Dutchman counter in the food hall.
Our take: Fine, and the weakest of the food hall counters. Order it only if the burger and the chicken sandwich are both wrong for you.
Savory
The plain house cheeseburger from the Krusty Burger counter, served with fries in a branded box.
Our take: Overrated, and people order it because of the name. It is an ordinary theme park cheeseburger; the Clogger Burger from the same window is three dollars more and enormously better.
Savory
A standard diner cheeseburger with fries, ordered at the counter and eaten in a red vinyl booth.
Our take: Unremarkable, and the room is doing all of the work. Come here for the booths, the jukebox and the late opening, and order the milkshake rather than the burger.
Savory
Non-Dairy Scoop
Ben & Jerry's
$8.49
A scoop from the brand's non-dairy range, in a cup or cone, from the counter on the New York street.
Our take: Listed here because it solves a real problem: this is the most reliable vegan dessert in the park outside the Wizarding World. Ordinary in every other respect.
Sweet
VeganDairy-free
Walkable
A carbonated orange drink with a marshmallow-flavoured foam on top, sold from the same window as Butterbeer.
Our take: Pleasant and unremarkable, and it exists mainly to give a child who does not like Butterbeer something with foam on it. Order it for that reason and not because it is interesting.
Drink
VeganGluten-friendly
Walkable
A sharp, cloudy lemon soft drink served cold, closer to a proper British lemon squash than to lemonade.
Our take: The most refreshing thing on the Wizarding World drinks list and the one to order when you cannot face another sweet one. Actually useful in August, which Butterbeer is not.
Drink
VeganGluten-friendly
Walkable