Minion Cafe: Best and worst menu choices
Illumination’s Minion Cafe soft opened at Universal Studios Florida on June 17, 2023. As with all restaurants, some menu items taste better than others. Which Minion Cafe menu items should you order, and which ones should you skip? I tried them all and here are my recommendations.
The Illumination’s Minion Cafe utilizes a table delivery mobile ordering system. To order, you need an updated Universal Orlando Resort mobile app.First find a seat, then select the items you want in the app. After that, you need to indicate your table number and pay. The team members will bring the food and beverage to your table. Universal Orlando Resort uses this system at several of its quick-service dining locations.
With only a few glitches, this system worked adequately on the opening day at Minion Café. Team members tell us the plan involves continuing to use this ordering system at this location.
Minion Cafe Best Menu Choices
Before discussing the best menu choices at the Minion Cafe, remember one important detail. This was the opening day! Things change as quick service restaurants progress. Some items could improve. Also, items that performed well on opening day could lose quality and even leave the menu. This list consists of the best options based on opening day.
Chicken Stuart’s Szechuan Surprise – $16.99
The major strength of Chicken Stuart’s Szechuan Surprise revolves around portion size. Compared to other menu items at Minion Café, this one provides the largest amount of food. The chicken portion could be shared between two people if desired. If you want a cute dessert while at Minion Café, this chicken entrée makes a good sharing choice so you can enjoy dessert afterward.
The entree consists of Szechuan-glazed rotisserie chicken and stir-fried vegetable lo mein. The chicken avoids the classic theme park dry chicken issue. Also, the skin soaks up the Szechuan flavor. This does leave the chicken itself lacking flavor a bit, however.
Nonetheless, the lo mein stars with this dish. The noodles, in combination with the stir-fry vegetables, work very well.
Lucy’s Top Secret Salmon – $19.99
While we would usually not recommend ordering salmon at theme park quick service, we would make an exception with this entrée. Lucy’s Top Secret Salmon includes wood-grilled Atlantic salmon, coconut blue rice, Thai cucumbers, and edamame. In addition, a squeezable sauce container allows guests to use as little or as much sauce as they like with their salmon. Universal Orlando called this lipstick taser sauce. Fans of the “Despicable Me” movie and the Lucy character will appreciate that name.
We found the salmon tasted quite good the two times we tried it. The sweet and spicy chili sauce adds to the flavor of the salmon. The vegetables and rice help with presentation and flavor. Also, those add nutrition to a theme park meal. Considering how tough solid nutrition can be at theme parks, we applaud this salmon entrée.
Guests can also order Carl’s Crispy Cauliflower for $15.99, which features similar ingredients except for cauliflower instead of salmon. This vegan dish makes a solid choice at the Minion Café.
Uncle Dru’s Belly Fillin’ Pork Sandwich – $14.99
At least on opening day, Uncle Dru’s Belly Fillin’ Pork Sandwich seemed very popular. We experienced a positive encounter with this entrée. This sandwich consists of slow-roasted porchetta, chimichurri sauce, mustard aioli, apple butter, bacon jam, and arugula on a Hawaiian pretzel bun. Green banana chips come as a side with this. We recommend paying a dollar more for the Minion-shaped potato tots instead.
The porchetta, along with the seasoning and sauces, provides a sandwich that exceeds expectations. There is a lot of fat on the meat, but it’s not chewy fat. It adds to the flavor. If you are looking for robust flavors, you will find them here. Though the portion size disappointed us, the quality deserves consideration.
Minion Cafe: Not the Best Menu Choices
Even restaurants with stellar menus have items that must be declared the worst, or not the best. While Illumination’s Minion Café would not be considered fine dining, we would declare very few menu items as bad. Still, if this were a contest, a few menu items would not make the medal stand.
Minion Swiss Roll – $7.99
We found this dessert to be underwhelming. The Minion Swiss Roll consists of vanilla cake with pineapple cardamom whipped ganache. Alongside it, guests receive a passion fruit “banana” with a chocolate shell. We were confused that a Minion Café served a Swiss roll with nothing tasting like a “Ba-Na-Na,” Nevertheless, the cake portion lacked flavor. We, and other guests I spoke with, felt the roll lacks sufficient cream also.
The passion fruit-flavored banana-shaped treat tasted OK. Yet, that could not save this dessert. We love sweets, but we would not order this again.
Agnes’ Honeymoon Soup – $14.99
Though we found the kid’s meals at Minion Café a bit overpriced, even for theme park food, Agnes’ Honeymoon Soup fell to our “not the best” list instead of the kid’s meals. This soup and grilled cheese for adults builds off the idea of the soup from the movies that Agnes made for Gru and Lucy.
The green tomato soup tastes OK, but nothing fabulous. Also, if you know the ingredients for this soup in the movies, part of you will expect that flavor. The green tomato soup has a crispy pork belly, a tomato gummy bear, and basil oil. This comes with a small pimento cheddar grilled cheese sandwich. The pimento cheese enhances this entrée. However, unless you embrace the flavor of the soup and the grilled cheese, you will find yourself unimpressed by this menu item.
We have friends that liked the soup and sandwich. Still, they would not place it on their best list by any means.
Minion Cafe
Illumination’s Minion Café makes a great addition to Universal Studios Florida theme park. None of the food here would be classified as the best quick service dining choices at Universal Studios Florida. Nevertheless, we feel most guests will enjoy the theming and experience at Minion Café.
Here’s a look inside the new Minion Cafe:
