Universal Studio – Vegan Tour

This is part of my A to Z challenge for April

Since we talked about how to eat while traveling yesterday, (and because it fit nicely for U) I figured I’d talk about how to eat at Universal Studios Florida as a vegan.

Whenever I went previously when I was just eating vegetarian, I’d always have pasta at a sit down seafood restaurant around lunch time. All of the menus in the park must have changed post-COVID though, because there is no vegetarian pasta on that menu anymore.

I was able to check that ahead of time on the Universal Orlando website. It has all the restaurants listed with their menus. I was surprised at the number of places where there were vegan options available.

To get more insight into what is good there are a lot of online guides. Universal Orlando Vegans has the scoop on everything you can order. They even have suggestions for what modifications to ask for.

We had lunch at Finnegan’s Bar and Grill. We each had the Vegan Shepard’s Pie, described as “seasoned Beyond^® meat, mushrooms, peas and carrots, topped with vegan mashed red bliss potatoes”. It was quite tasty.

One place I’ve always liked to eat before was Toothsome Chocolate Emporium. We’d head there on our way out of the park for a huge calorie-ridden dessert. I was sad that I’d probably have to skip it. They do have one vegan milkshake though. This is the Vegan Right Side Up Shake – “Vegan pineapple upside down cake, brown sugar, caramel, pineapples, oatmilk whipped topping”. Was it the best thing I’ve ever had? No, but it was nice to have the option. Hopefully they will get more options before my next trip.

We stopped to get a shirt for my father-in-law on the way out and saw a lady carrying a magical box. I started obsessing about Voodoo Doughnuts when we went to Austin. I didn’t know there was one at Universal. There was a huge line but I waited in it. If I had known ahead of time I could have placed an order to pick up. They have a whole section of decadent vegan donuts. We grabbed enough to eat for breakfast for several days.

I appreciate the fact that even places like theme parks are making it easier to eat with dietary restrictions.