Minion Cafe, bakery, store and more soft open at Universal Studios Florida

The Illumination’s Minion Cafe, Bake My Day Bakery, Freeze Ray Pops, Pop•A•Nana, and Illumination Theater all soft opened in Minion Land at Universal Studios Florida. This new assortment of shopping, dining, and entertainment offerings add a pop of color and options to the park.

While not officially open, these new locations are currently operating at what appears to be full speed. The entire indoor dining space of Illumination’s Minion Cafe was being used today, and the new shops were packed.

Illuminations Minion Cafe

The Illumination’s Minion Cafe is a mobile order table service restaurant. You will need to download the Universal Orlando App, then order your meal ahead of time. You will be assigned a table and everything will be brought to you. Staff are going from table to table, so you don’t have a specific waiter for you.

This means that anyone around can help, whether you have a question, need ketchup, a glass of water, or need to find the restroom. We were super impressed with two Team Members, Alexa and Molly, who were greeting at the Illumination’s Minion Cafe entrance. These two were talking in the minion language and helping teach kids how to speak it as well. They even referred to guests in yellow ponchos as family.

More than just those two were excited though, all of the Team Members were super energetic on this opening day. We had numerous Team Members come up and ask about the food, ask if we needed anything, or just said “bello” (Minion speak for “hello).

The Illumination’s Minion Cafe offers adult meals, kid options, desserts, specialty non-alcoholic beverages, beer, and wine. You can check out the full menu, with pricing.

We taste-tested three highlight items, the kid’s Mini Boss’ Mega Melt, $8.99, Steak and “Cheesy Ray” Sandwich, $15.99, and the Otto’s Noodle Bowl, $17.99.

The kid’s Mini Boss’ Mega Melt would be a good option for kids. It came with Minion tater tots, a mini banana, and grilled cheese with pimento cheddar that packed a surprising amount of flavor. The Steak and “Cheesy Ray” Sandwich was a bit underwhelming. It is exactly what you see, a heaping of meat with a mountain of cheese sauce. The included green banana chips needed a bit more salt, but tasted like basic plantain chips. Our favorite, Otto’s Noodle Bowl, began with a Team Member food assembly presentation. This meal’s highlight was the gracious amount of porchetta, which gave the majority of the flavor to the noodle bowl.

Bake My Day – Minion Bakery and Shop

Bake My Day is a bakery and merchandise location that is covered in vibrant colors, sweet smells, and plushies. If you are looking for adorable items to wear or eat, this is your one-stop-shop. The Universal Orlando Annual Passholder discount was accepted for all drinks and desserts at this location.

For desserts, you can purchase macaroons, cupcakes, Swiss rolls, s’mores, and cake pops. Alongside sweet treats there is also merchandise that will make you say, “it’s so fluffy I’m gonna die.”

The store is stocked with colorful (lots of pink and yellow) merchandise options, such as magnets, plushies, cotton candy, headbands, shirts, cups, and spoons. We also found these two Loungefly backpacks, $90 for the unicorn and $82 for the cupcake.

Pop•A•Nana – Popcorn Stand

Pop•A•Nana popcorn offers regular popcorn, banana popcorn, popcorn buckets, soft drinks, beer and wine. A cup of banana popcorn costs $6.69. You can also purchase it in a specialty themed popcorn bucket for $13.79. The banana popcorn has the consistency of kettle corn with a banana flavor that isn’t overbearing.

Freeze Ray Pops – Popsicle Stand

Freeze Ray Pops offers a grab-and-go location to get a frozen treat in the hot Florida sun. There are regular options for $5.99: mango, cotton candy, strawberry, cheesecake, coconut, lemon mint, blueberry lemonade, and cookies and cream. Or you can get the speciality Minion, blue banana, or Gru, nutella, popsicles for $8.99.

Illumination Theater – Character Meet & Greet

Illumination Theater is a continually revolving character meet and greet location. Characters from “Sing” and “Despicable Me” have been seen so far, but more could arrive in the future. An outdoor queue leads to this character space where family photos can be taken. Characters also do a small intro and outro when they stitch around with other sets of characters.

The Minion Land isn’t officially open yet, we are still waiting for an all-new ride, Villain-Con Minion Blast. For now, we have a look inside three new eateries, a new merchandise location, and character spot. Click the link below to read more about what is to come to this land.