How important are reservations at restaurants?

[Brian Noble]

We just arrived yesterday. Went to Jake's last night which was okay. Did the Hard Rock brunch today--pretty good. Cowfish for lunch tomorrow.

We did not have a reservation at Jakes, and the wait was long enough we decided to just eat the bar. Same day reservations at brunch were possible, but maybe not at your preferred time.

 

[hhoope01]

Are those at City Walk?

Both restaurants (Finnegan's and Lombards) are inside the Universal Studios park.

 

[cschaaf]

There really isn’t any restaurant we have to or want to eat at. I was just thinking it would be nice to try one of them since it’s our first time at Universal.

Is Red Oven a pizza place? I looked at a pizza place at City Walk that I thought we’d like but I can’t remember the name of it.

We dislike having to make reservations and would rather go eat when we are ready - if that means we have to try 3 or 4 places before we find a place, that's okay with us. I hate having to stop what we are doing to head to a reservation.

But the only thing worse than that would be all of the places you wanted to eat having long waits or no tables.

Red Oven is, in our opinion, one of the best deals in the parks. We can get one pizza and split it between the two of us. We use our Freestyle cups and a meal for two is less than $20.

I think my advice would be - make the reservations for the places that you think your family will like. They are risk-free reservations. If you decide later that you don't want the reservation, just call and cancel. If you are running a bit late, call and see if they can adjust.

That way, you'll know you have some kind of plan to avoid long waits or get stuck with a menu that doesn't really interest you and your family.

 

[disny_luvr]

We dislike having to make reservations and would rather go eat when we are ready - if that means we have to try 3 or 4 places before we find a place, that's okay with us. I hate having to stop what we are doing to head to a reservation.

But the only thing worse than that would be all of the places you wanted to eat having long waits or no tables.

Red Oven is, in our opinion, one of the best deals in the parks. We can get one pizza and split it between the two of us. We use our Freestyle cups and a meal for two is less than $20.

I think my advice would be - make the reservations for the places that you think your family will like. They are risk-free reservations. If you decide later that you don't want the reservation, just call and cancel. If you are running a bit late, call and see if they can adjust.

That way, you'll know you have some kind of plan to avoid long waits or get stuck with a menu that doesn't really interest you and your family.

This is great advice! Thank you!

 

[lisam70]

Do you remember what food your party enjoyed? We are going to Universal for 10 days in August and might try it..
Brenda

Not the original poster but we also really like Finnegans -haven’t really had anything we didn’t like. Potato and onion Webb is yummy, as are the wings, salads, grilled salmon, fish and chips, bangers and mash. The burgers are decent but Cowfish has better burgers and fries.

 

[jump00]

Not the original poster but we also really like Finnegans -haven’t really had anything we didn’t like. Potato and onion Webb is yummy, as are the wings, salads, grilled salmon, fish and chips, bangers and mash. The burgers are decent but Cowfish has better burgers and fries.

Thanks! We will give it a try!
Brenda

 

[gharter]

We usually have planned reservations at noon, if we want a TS restaurant and always have reservations for dinner. Many of the CW restaurants are booked solid for dinner until about 9. Our last trip, we saw many turned away from several different restaurants as they were not taking walk ups.