Hard Rock Cafe: Orlando
As you know if you read Sarah’s review of Hard Rock Cafe Reykjavík, Sarah and I love a trip to Hard Rock and if the place we're going has one, we will be eating there. We’ll be enjoying every minute of it too.
Luck would have it that my little sister loves HRC as much as we do.
But is Hard Rock Cafe Orlando worth the stop in a city brimming with over-the-top, accessible and incredible food?
My sister and I had just finished our first day at Universal Studios during our trip in April 2019 and had spent a long 10 hour day in the park - a big, messy burger (and a sit down) was all we wanted.
Though not as immediately cool-looking from the outside as the Hard Rock in NYC, it’s still pretty arresting and hard to miss, but the inside is truly a spectacle.
There is a spinning, pink Cadillac on top of the bar! It's ridiculously extra.
Situated in Universal’s CityWalk, halfway between Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure, Hard Rock Cafe Orlando is the perfect location for those staying on or near to Universal property or visiting the theme parks, but it is a little more challenging for those staying in Disney or a private villa. It costs between $15-30 (depending on time of day and demand) for an Uber or Lyft from a Disney hotel, and if you’re driving then parking is free after 6pm.
It’s worth the trip because I love Hard Rock, but I wouldn’t travel out from Disney primarily to go to HRC Orlando and I would instead combine it with a day in Universal.
Once we arrived and signed in, there was a brief 15 minute wait for a table, but that was perfect and gave us time to mooch around the Rock Shop and get ourselves a t-shirt and a pin. I get myself a pin for every new HRC I visit, and I often get suckered by their t-shirts too. The only thing I regret not doing when we visited Hard Rock in Reykjavík is not getting the t-shirt I fell in love with at HRC. It had a penguin on it! (Or was it a puffin?).
I have to confess that I have the same thing every time I go to Hard Rock: the Barbecue Bacon Cheeseburger. It was as good as ever, though they did actually forget to put the bacon in my burger... Though it turned out to be a blessing in disguise as I was given a side plate of bacon instead which was much more than I would have been given in the burger!
It took a little while for our food to arrive, but our server kept checking in with us. She reassured us that it was coming and made sure our Diet Cokes were always topped up, just how I like it. We also had plenty of time to get some good pictures and rest out poor aching feet.
Honestly, we were pretty tired by this point. We wanted to eat, grab a shake from the Toothsome Chocolate Emporium (looked amazing, tasted disappointing) and head back to Disney. The wait did become a little tiresome and we ended up not getting much of a look around at the rock memorabilia either as we were tired and the restaurant was so busy that we didn’t want to get in the way of the servers.
Including the 20% tip (pretty much mandatory in the US so always budget for that when planning where to eat), our meal of two burgers and two diet cokes came to around $60, around £45. Hard Rock prices are fairly standard and don't change much around the world, even when on theme park property.
Hard Rock isn't a cheap option, but it's not super expensive either. You know exactly what you're paying for and what you're going to get.
Overall: amazing atmosphere, attentive service (even if the food was slow to come out), huge shop and excellent location.
What’s your favourite Hard Rock Cafe location? Is there one that we absolutely have to visit?
Written by Sophie
