By: Merritt Grusecki, a Marvelous Mouse Travels agent
There are so many great places to eat in Orlando—did you know that it was just named as the Best Foodie City in America by People magazine? Unique places to eat are everywhere, including in the local theme parks! With so many choices to choose from, you’ll need to ask your travel advisor for some of their favorite recommendations. One of my favorites that I revisited this week is Cowfish, a restaurant at Citywalk in Universal Orlando Resort.
Cowfish is a table service restaurant that specializes in two things: burgers and sushi. They call themselves a “Sushi Burger Bar,” a unique concept that will appeal to both beef and seafood lovers. Cowfish’s owners opened two successful restaurant locations in North Carolina, in Charlotte and Raleigh, before opening a Universal Orlando Citywalk location in late 2014.
The restaurant is very easy to find in Universal Orlando’s Citywalk. When entering from the moving walkways into Citywalk, keep walking straight under the “Welcome to Universal Orlando Resort” sign, until the buildings on the left begin to curve away from you. There, on the corner between Red Oven Pizza Bakery and Vivo Italian Kitchen, you’ll see the sign and host stand for Cowfish! Check in at the host stand, and when your table is ready, you will take the stairs or elevator to the 2nd floor that holds the main dining room.
The atmosphere in the restaurant is casual; you won’t have to worry about feeling out of place in your theme park attire! Decor is brightly colored and eclectic—neon murals of fish wearing saddles and cows wearing shark fins adorn the walls, while a fish bowl filled with a sushi burger perches behind the host stand. Inside, there’s bar seating with an attached sushi bar, booths, banquette, and table seating. There’s a covered outdoor patio overlooking Citywalk, the perfect place to sit and watch the crowds below if the weather is nice. There is also a second bar and more seating available on the third level, accessible by stairs or an elevator.
When I visited the restaurant for lunch on a weekday, we were seated quickly after giving our reservation information to the host stand. Service was quick and attentive, and the restaurant was not overly busy, though everyone was inside enjoying the air conditioning on the hot day and avoiding the patio! The menu is extensive, offering unique appetizers such as crab rangoon dip and tuna nachos, Asian flavored entree salads, classic sushi rolls, loaded specialty sushi rolls, over a dozen different burger offerings, bento boxes, and the unique “burgushi” rolls. They also offer a full bar of specialty cocktails and a dessert menu featuring hand-dipped milkshakes that adults can order spiked. We ordered two of their specialties—the Fusion Specialty Bento Box, a combo featuring a burger slider and 4 pieces of sushi, and the Taste Explosion “burgushi” roll, a literal fusion of burger and sushi roll.
The Fusion Specialty Bento Box comes with a mini cheeseburger topped with onions and pickles, sweet potato fries, a cucumber salad, edamame, and 4 pieces of your choice of specialty sushi roll. I chose the Mark’s roll as my sushi roll, which contains raw tuna, imitation crab, cream cheese, jalapeños, and scallions, and is coated in panko breadcrumbs and fried, then topped with a spicy sriracha mayo. This was a LOT of food for one person to eat, but everything in the bento box was delicious! The fries were crisp and hot, the cucumbers cold and refreshing, the sushi spicy and crunchy, and the burger juicy and savory. It was surprising how flavorful and juicy the small burger patty on the slider was, and it was a much thicker patty than you usually see on a slider. The edamame was the only thing that I didn’t quite manage to finish—while salty and tasty, it was less unique than some of the other items in the bento box!
The Taste Explosion “burgushi” roll, on the other hand, was one of the most unique things that I have ever tasted—and also very delicious! This “sushi” roll contains a mix of cooked hamburger meat and bacon, rolled in rice and nori, then coated in panko and fried. The roll is then sliced and topped with Roma tomatoes, jalapeños, and melted pepper jack cheese before being drizzled with spicy mayo. If you like spicy food, you will love this dish! My dining companion, who is decidedly not a sushi lover, loved this dish as well—it tastes just like a spicy bacon cheeseburger. The large pieces are a bit unwieldy to eat though; make sure that you ask for a lot of napkins!
If you’re concerned that this restaurant might not be kid friendly, don’t worry—there are several special menu options to appeal to kids. The kids menu includes classics like macaroni and cheese, chicken nuggets and cheeseburgers, but also has a super fun PB&J sandwich on white bread rolled up to look like a sushi roll! All kid’s meals also come with a special piece of dessert “sushi”—a rice krispie treat with a gummy fish candy arranged on top. As an adult I was wishing that I could order off of the kid’s menu for that adorable dessert alone!
You should make reservations to eat at Cowfish when visiting Universal Orlando if you are looking for a family-friendly table service meal in Citywalk before or after visiting the parks. This restaurant will appeal to both adventurous and picky eaters thanks to their menu encompassing both regular burgers, regular sushi rolls, and everything in between! Their hours are currently listed as 11am to 11pm Monday-Wednesday, and 11am to 12am Thursday through Sunday.
If you are planning a trip to Universal Orlando Resort and want to visit Cowfish, make sure to reach out to your travel advisor at Marvelous Mouse Travels. They can help you to make dining reservations ahead of time and recommend the perfect dishes to try for your family!
