Husband and I went to Universal for our anniversary and wanted a celebratory dinner out. Decided to dine here after reading positive reviews. We tried to get reservations our first night in town but they were booked solid so we reserved a dinner via their...online reservation system for the following night. During the reservation process, a box pops up asking if you are dining here to celebrate anything... birthday or anniversary? I clicked "anniversry." We must have received at least 4 text and email reminders in regards to our reservations, each includes mention of the "Special Occasion: Anniversary." After a full day at the parks, we returned to our hotel to get ready, arrived back at CityWalk and strolled to the hostess. Unlike the first night when there was a line out the door, this night, despite being a Saturday, there was no one. Hostess barely acknowledged us before sending us upstairs where we found a second hostess stand who confirmed our reservation, passed us on to a third host who walked us to an 8-top table in the corner by the wait station, plunked down a basket with rolled silverware* and walked away. Nothing quite says "romance" like the rustle of styrofoam containers and an additional 6 seats at the table. So, seating was not quite as envisioned. The inside (2nd story) did seem quite busy but began to clear soon after we were seated. We were definitely in the "overdressed" category. Personally I did not mind this as I'd rather be over, rather than under and correctly assumed, as this is a vacation spot, a lot of diners seemed to have arrived straight from the parks, Crocs and all. You do not need to dress up. This is a very casual atmosphere. Our waitress was lovely and it certainly wasn't her fault that our dinner started as it did. We began with a novelty fishbowl drink which was fun and about as good as anything with Swedish Fish in it as you'd expect it to be. We switched to sake for our meal. The bottle which we had chosen and pointed out to the waitress was not what she brought us (Zipane) which had c. 5% alcohol content and was sparkling. We didnt want to make a fuss and she had already opened it so we ended up ordering another bottle (of the original Ozeki Nigeri) we wanted). In the end spending $22 for something we hadn't ordered and was the equivalent of drinking shot glasses of beer. The food was.... interesting... hit and miss. Our brussel sprout appetizer was great. The sushi (Dion's OMG, Jen's Fresh, Marks) was good but nothing to rave about the "burgushi" (cheeseburooshi) was a bit gluttonous and heavy. I don't consider Orlando to be a highlight in the culinary world so I didnt expect an epic meal. Overall I would say it was a bit like the fishbowl drink.... it might sound like a fun but you know it's just an overpriced novelty. Despite the anniversary mentioned on the numerous written communications, not one single person we encountered had acknowledged this. If there is such a gap in communication it may as well not even be a part of their reservation process. *The silverware basket which had been tossed on the table, besides containing our two rolls of silverware, also had in it an empty Universal gift bag. I wasn't sure if this was meant to be a "doggy bag" or a left behind remnant from a previous user, I'm assuming it was the latter, not the type of thing you want to see with all the Covid stuff. More
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