Leave parks for lunch at Citywalk?

[Wdw1015]

Planning our first trip for June and I’m trying to wrap my head around the layout and how close things are. If we are in the parks, does it add a lot more walking to leave and have lunch at Citywalk? Is one park a closer walk then the other? Or is it more trouble than it’s worth? I’ve just started going through the restaurants to get an idea of where we might want to eat. Thanks!

 

[sherlockmiles]

Personally I think its way more trouble than its worth to go to city walk for lunch. IOA is closest. Lots of great in park places to eat.

 

[StrawberryChan]

i think if you want to hop over from one park to the other, then it might be a good idea to grab lunch in citywalk on your way out to relax for a bit, then head over to the other park. but i wouldn't go out of the way to eat there. as the above poster said there's a lot of places to eat in either park that are just as good

 

[davidfromtennessee]

I’d do that if I had a long trip and I had already eaten at the places I was interested in. If it’s just 2 or 3 days I’d stay in the park. The two Harry Potter restaurants and Simpsons and Mythos are all awesomely themed and add to the park experience without having to lose a lot of park time.

 

[CoachZ]

I’ll be at Universal in June too. We plan to eat lunch in City Walk on our way back to the hotel for our afternoon break.

 

[soniam]

We often eat lunch in Citywalk. The parks are very close together, so it's not difficult at all. The advantage of doing lunch in Citywalk is that most of the restaurants have little to no wait, especially earlier. Whereas, they tend to get busy and have longer waits for dinner. We always do a sit down meal in Citywalk. I don't think that most of the sit down restaurants inside the parks are that good. Both of the Wizarding World restaurants are good, but they are considered quick service technically. Fast Food Blvd in Springfield (Simpsons) is good too, but it's fast food.

 

[schumigirl]

It’s easy to walk to Citywalk for lunch when you’re in the parks.

The parks aren’t huge, so even if you’re near the rear of the parks it doesn’t take long if you did want to eat in one of the restaurants. You wouldn’t be taking too long out of your day as it is really close. It’s no trouble at all.

Yes, there are some nice places to eat in the parks.......Confisco Grill and Mythos are both excellent......better than most theme park places and have some nice options. We are not fans of the Potter restaurants, food doesn’t appeal to us generally, but we do go in for a drink. However many love them.

But don’t be put off by distance, it’s not far at all.

 

[Wdw1015]

This is why I love these boards, thank you so much for your help!!

 

[antmaril]

We were there over the weekend. We would start in the parks and then head to Citywalk for lunch. The first time, we had lunch at Toothsome Chocolate Emporium and the next day Cowfish. Both were fantastic. After lunch, we would head back to RPR for a break from the heat. We would go back to the parks in the evening. We also had dinner at Margaritaville and Vivo Italian. We enjoyed all of our meals on this trip.

 

[hhoope01]

As mentioned, given the walking distance between City Walk and the parks, if there is a City Walk restaurant you want to eat at, then you shouldn't have any issues heading there for lunch. But in US, Finnegans and Lombards are both nice sit down restaurants. IOA has Confisco Grill and Mythos. So there are decent sit-down options within each park.

We quite often will head over to City Walk for lunch and go back to the park afterward (or head back to the hotel to lounge around the pool area.) My daughter likes Toothsome and the NBC Grill the best. I actually like the Bread Box on the 2nd level of City Walk. We both like the Red Oven Pizza Bakery as well and will hit it at least once for lunch.

For the most part there isn't a bad choice though I was disappointed with Antojitos for dinner the last time we ate there.

One last point, if you are planning on heading back to your hotel for a relaxing afternoon, don't forget the restaurants there as well. Those tend to be very good as well and rarely seem to be very crowded at lunchtime.

 

[mjhtvchick]

As mentioned, given the walking distance between City Walk and the parks, if there is a City Walk restaurant you want to eat at, then you shouldn't have any issues heading there for lunch. But in US, Finnegans and Lombards are both nice sit down restaurants. IOA has Confisco Grill and Mythos. So there are decent sit-down options within each park.

We quite often will head over to City Walk for lunch and go back to the park afterward (or head back to the hotel to lounge around the pool area.) My daughter likes Toothsome and the NBC Grill the best. I actually like the Bread Box on the 2nd level of City Walk. We both like the Red Oven Pizza Bakery as well and will hit it at least once for lunch.

For the most part there isn't a bad choice though I was disappointed with Antojitos for dinner the last time we ate there.

One last point, if you are planning on heading back to your hotel for a relaxing afternoon, don't forget the restaurants there as well. Those tend to be very good as well and rarely seem to be very crowded at lunchtime.

I was just going to say that Breadbox is one of my favorite lunch spots - and I can't wait to try out Red Oven Pizza Bakery!

 

[nkereina]

We prefer the City Walk restaurants over the in-park restaurants. As mentioned, its an easy walk to City Walk but if you're pressed for time or still have a long afternoon ahead of you, its just easier to find a good place to eat in the park. We usually do a QS lunch in the parks, but last trip we ate table service at Mythos (IOA) and Finnegans (US) and they were both very good. Would eat at both again.

If you do venture out to City Walk, I would say each park is equal distance away from it. Depends where you want to eat. IMO, the Universal side has more quick options like Red Oven and the fast food restaurants on the second level.

 

[shanew21]

Pretty easy to go to Citywalk, although it's pretty far from the HP lands to Citywalk as they're in the very back of the parks.

 

[soniam]

We are not fans of the Potter restaurants, food doesn’t appeal to us generally, but we do go in for a drink. However many love them.

Being from Britain, you probably find that it's not authentic. I heard one Brit describe it as cafeteria food. Either you guys get really good cafeteria food in the UK, or American cafeteria is the worst in the world, which it is

 

[schumigirl]

Being from Britain, you probably find that it's not authentic. I heard one Brit describe it as cafeteria food. Either you guys get really good cafeteria food in the UK, or American cafeteria is the worst in the world, which it is

It’s not what I recognise as British food. Some of it like fish and ships, bangers and mash and cottage pie are just regular winter dishes, nothing special.

But, would never have beef and lamb in the same dish. I make a mean beef in Guinness pie despite hating Guinness.......but add lamb is a no no. And would never generally have dishes like a pasty or shepherds pie with salad.

Turkey legs and ribs are not generally thought to be British either.......don't even mention the dreadful British breakfast! I love American bacon, but for us UK bacon is more meaty and very breakfasty.......lol.....

So, no it’s not authentic to me. But, not to say some don’t enjoy it. The feast is a fabulous dish.

And when we used to travel to anywhere in Europe like France, Italy or Switzerland we prefer to eat their dishes and not their version of British food.

Sorry that became an essay......I do like going in to both places though especially for a drink in The Hogshead.

 

[cschaaf]

We do a bit of both - eat lunch in the parks or at City Walk.

I’ll be at Universal in June too. We plan to eat lunch in City Walk on our way back to the hotel for our afternoon break.

That's usually what we do if we want to eat in City Walk. Either that, or plan lunch around when we will park hop.

In park, Simpsons or Mythos are the places we go most often for lunch - usually hit those once a trip. In City Walk, it's Cow Fish or Red Oven. In our opinion, Red Oven is the best food deal in the parks. Good pizza and you can feed a group for a low price.

 

[houseofthrees]

We also find it no trouble at all to pop into City Walk for lunch and then head back to the parks. We have some favorite places that are must dos in City Walk and lunch is the perfect time to get them in for us.

 

[CPanther95]

If it's your first trip to Universal, but you are familiar with Disney - you have to keep the "convenient/inconvenient" comments in perspective. What might be inconvenient to those of us that are Universal vets, would be considered extremely convenient by Disney standards. It is certainly more convenient to eat at one of the many great restaurant options inside the parks. Having said that, it's not exactly inconvenient to eat lunch at City Walk.

You can head to the park in the morning, get a full (by Disney standards) day's worth of rides in before lunch, eat at City Walk for lunch, go to the hotel to swim then head back to the park for almost another "day's worth" of rides before closing time.

It might be a 20 min (???) walk from Men In Black or Diagon Alley to City Walk - and 10 minutes to get from City Walk back to a park entrance after lunch. It is only because at Universal that 30 minutes translates to 2 or 3 rides that anyone would consider it "inconvenient" or a significant delay. For a Disney vet, it would be considered extremely convenient.

 

[Wdw1015]

If it's your first trip to Universal, but you are familiar with Disney - you have to keep the "convenient/inconvenient" comments in perspective. What might be inconvenient to those of us that are Universal vets, would be considered extremely convenient by Disney standards. It is certainly more convenient to eat at one of the many great restaurant options inside the parks. Having said that, it's not exactly inconvenient to eat lunch at City Walk.

You can head to the park in the morning, get a full (by Disney standards) day's worth of rides in before lunch, eat at City Walk for lunch, go to the hotel to swim then head back to the park for almost another "day's worth" of rides before closing time.

It might be a 20 min (???) walk from Men In Black or Diagon Alley to City Walk - and 10 minutes to get from City Walk back to a park entrance after lunch. It is only because at Universal that 30 minutes translates to 2 or 3 rides that anyone would consider it "inconvenient" or a significant delay. For a Disney vet, it would be considered extremely convenient.

This is extremely helpful! We are familiar with Disney so this helps put things into perspective, time wise. It’s nice to know that if we take an afternoon break, we will still be “successful” in the parks. I appreciate your help!!

 

[Skippyboo]

City Walk is much closer to the parks than anything at Disney. The parking decks and hotels/boats are going to drop off at City Walk. To go from one park to the other you have to go outside and walk to the other park or take the Hogwarts Express. The parks aren’t super huge so it’s not like going from one side of Disney Springs to the other