The Complete Universal CityWalk Orlando Guide: Where to Eat, Drink and Spend Your Time
Universal CityWalk is very different from Disney Springs.
Disney Springs feels more like a destination built around shopping, restaurants and entertainment. CityWalk feels much more like an extension of Universal Orlando itself. You walk through it on the way to Universal Studios Florida and Islands of Adventure, the music is louder, the atmosphere is livelier and there is a definite theme-park energy even when you are not actually inside one.
We have used CityWalk a number of times across different trips, usually in the evening after the parks. More recently, while staying away from Universal, we actually drove back specifically for dinner because we were missing that Universal atmosphere. That probably says quite a lot about how we feel about it.
We would not put CityWalk ahead of Disney Springs as a dedicated shopping destination, and there is less reason to spend hours browsing shops. But for dinner, drinks, Universal merchandise and a lively evening without needing to be inside one of the parks, we think it works really well.
Team Five enjoying City Walk
How We Would Use CityWalk
For most people visiting Universal Orlando, you are going to pass through CityWalk anyway. Both Universal Studios Florida and Islands of Adventure are reached through it, so there is no need to carve out a huge separate block of your holiday simply to say you have “done CityWalk”. Our advice would be to use it naturally around your Universal plans.
If you have two or three hours, we would browse the Universal shops that interest you, stop for a drink and grab something to eat. If you have a full evening, slow things down, book a proper meal and enjoy the atmosphere rather than treating it as somewhere you need to rush through on the way back to the hotel.
We prefer CityWalk in the evening. It gets livelier as the day goes on, and that suits the whole area better. We have stayed until around 10 or 10.30pm and found it busy and energetic without feeling unsuitable for a family. There is nightlife beyond that point, but by then we have normally done enough walking for one day anyway.
For us, that evening atmosphere is one of CityWalk’s biggest strengths. You can finish a park day, sit down for dinner, have a drink and still feel as though the Universal day is continuing.
Where We Actually Like to Eat
We have eaten at a number of CityWalk restaurants over the years, and there are two we would put ahead of the others we have tried.
Antojitos Authentic Mexican Food is one of them. We returned there on our latest trip and had another very good meal. It has plenty of atmosphere without feeling as though the theme is doing all the work, and the food has been strong enough for us to choose it again rather than simply trying somewhere new for the sake of it.
Bigfire is another restaurant we would happily return to. It feels a little more polished than some of the louder CityWalk options and works well when you want a proper dinner rather than something quick between other plans.
Those are the two places we would personally start with if somebody asked us where we had actually enjoyed eating at CityWalk.
We have also eaten at Hard Rock Cafe. The building and rock memorabilia make it an obvious CityWalk landmark, and there is plenty to look at, but our experiences with the food have been much more mixed. We found it expensive for what was ultimately fairly average food. It is somewhere we would choose for the Hard Rock atmosphere rather than because we thought it was one of CityWalk’s strongest meals.
One of our visits there also became memorable for reasons that had absolutely nothing to do with the restaurant, when the evening eventually ended with an unexpected trip to an Orlando emergency room.
Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. was another mixed experience for us. It was not terrible, but neither the food nor the service gave us much reason to rush back. The whole experience felt slightly flat, particularly when compared with the energy elsewhere around CityWalk.
For something quick, we have also used Panda Express. That is obviously more about convenience than choosing a destination restaurant, but sometimes that is exactly what you need after a long park day.
There are plenty of CityWalk restaurants we have not tried yet, including Toothsome Chocolate Emporium, Cowfish, NBC Sports Grill & Brew and several others. They remain options for future trips, but we would rather recommend the places we actually know than turn this into a list of restaurants we have only read about.
Voodoo Doughnut, Cold Stone and the Sweet Stuff
Voodoo Doughnut is probably CityWalk’s equivalent of one of those places everybody tells you that you have to try. The concept is brilliant. The display looks fantastic, there are loads of different doughnuts and it is a fun shop to walk into. The actual doughnuts were okay. We enjoyed trying them, but we would put Voodoo firmly in the slightly overrated category. If there is a short queue and you fancy a doughnut, absolutely go in. We would not spend a huge amount of our evening waiting because we thought the doughnuts themselves justified it.
Florida Orange
Cold Stone Creamery is a much stronger dessert option for us. You can choose one of the set combinations or build your own with different toppings, sauces and mix-ins, and the toppings are properly worked through the ice cream rather than simply sprinkled on top. That makes it feel much more like a complete dessert rather than just a scoop in a cup.
The portions are generous too. On our latest visit, even the smaller size was more than I really needed. For most people, a small is probably plenty unless you have a particularly serious appetite for ice cream.
If you like ice cream and want dessert at CityWalk, this is somewhere we would happily recommend. The ability to customise it, the amount of topping you get and the way everything is mixed together makes it a really satisfying stop at the end of the evening.
Is CityWalk Good for Shopping?
Shopping is probably the biggest difference between CityWalk and Disney Springs for us. We do not go to CityWalk because we want an extended shopping trip. There are shops, and Universal fans will absolutely find things they want to buy, but there simply is not the same breadth of retail that Disney Springs offers.
The Universal Studios Store is the obvious exception. It has a much stronger range of Universal-focused merchandise, including Nintendo and Harry Potter items, and it is worth a proper browse if you want park-related merchandise without shopping inside the parks themselves. That is the sort of shopping we think CityWalk does best: Universal-focused merchandise that keeps the theme-park feeling going.
If you are after a wider shopping afternoon with fashion, lifestyle stores and a much bigger variety of brands, we would choose Disney Springs. If you want Nintendo, Harry Potter or other Universal merchandise while having dinner and a drink, CityWalk makes much more sense.
Our children enjoy that side of it too, and as they have got older we think the wider evening entertainment will become increasingly relevant to them.
What Else Can You Do at CityWalk?
There is more to CityWalk than restaurants and shops, although we have not personally tried most of the dedicated entertainment venues yet.
There is Hollywood Drive-In Golf, Universal Cinemark, Hard Rock Live, CityWalk’s Rising Star and other bars and entertainment venues around the complex. We have not done the mini golf or karaoke venues, so we would not pretend to tell you whether they are worth your money.
The same applies to the cinema. If there is a film you genuinely want to see while you are away, there is no reason not to use it. We would not automatically put watching a film above everything else Orlando offers, but it is still a perfectly valid option if it fits the evening you want.
The broader point is that CityWalk can be more than somewhere you grab dinner after leaving the parks. If you want a longer evening, there are enough things around to stretch it beyond the meal itself.
We just would not arrive with the expectation that you need to experience everything.
Getting to CityWalk
If you are staying at one of Universal’s on-site hotels, getting to CityWalk can be part of the appeal.
When we stayed at Loews Royal Pacific Resort, using the water taxi was a great way to travel. It is easy, relaxed and makes CityWalk feel like an extension of the resort rather than somewhere you need to organise a separate journey to reach.
On previous trips we had generally used Universal transport and barely thought about the drive or parking because the bus simply delivered us where we needed to be.
This time was different because we drove from our villa. Once we reached the parking garage everything was straightforward enough, but it was the first time we had really paid attention to that side of the visit.
That matters if you are considering CityWalk purely for dinner. Unlike Disney Springs, CityWalk is tied into Universal’s main parking setup, so a dedicated off-site evening can feel like more of a decision if you are not combining it with a park visit. We would always check the current parking arrangements before setting off rather than assuming it will work like Disney Springs.
Explore our guide to Florida using a hire car, Uber & Lyft.
The interesting thing for us was that we still chose to drive back while staying at the villa. We were not going to Universal Studios or Islands of Adventure that night. We just wanted some of the Universal atmosphere again, and CityWalk gave us that without needing another park day.
Is Universal CityWalk Worth Visiting?
Yes, although we would use it differently from Disney Springs. If you are already visiting Universal Studios Florida or Islands of Adventure, then absolutely make the most of it. You are going to walk through CityWalk anyway, so there is no reason to treat it purely as the corridor between the car park and the parks. Stop for dinner. Have a drink. Look around the Universal Studios Store. If something else catches your attention, stay a little longer.
If you are staying off-site and wondering whether CityWalk is worth a dedicated evening, we would still say yes. It might not always be our first choice if Disney Springs was also available, because Disney Springs offers more shopping and works more naturally as a standalone destination, but CityWalk would absolutely be on our list.
The difference is the vibe. Disney Springs is somewhere we go for shopping, food and a relaxed afternoon or evening. CityWalk gives us more of that Universal theme-park energy. Sometimes that is exactly what we want.
On our latest trip, driving back there for Antojitos reminded us how much we had missed the Universal atmosphere, even though we were not actually going into a park. That is probably the best way we can describe CityWalk. You do not need to build an entire day around it, and you certainly do not need to work your way through every restaurant and entertainment venue.
Use it as part of your Universal day, or head there for a relaxed evening when you want a little bit of the Universal feeling without buying another park ticket. Take your time, have a good meal, browse the merchandise that interests you and enjoy being there.
For more Florida, Disney & Universal planning tips, head to our Florida Planning Hub. Or compare City Walk with Disney Springs in our helpful guide.