Best and worst new food at Universal Mardi Gras 2025
Universal Orlando Mardi Gras means parades, concerts, and food. We tried all the new food for 2025 to decide the best and worst options.
Universal Mardi Gras: International Flavors of Carnaval began on Saturday, Feb. 1, 2025 and runs daily through Sunday, March 30. (Mardi Gras Florida theme park season started at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay on Jan. 11.)
This year’s Mardi Gras commemorates 30 years of “beads, parades, music, and food,” according to Universal Orlando Resort. Experienced visitors to this event know that it involves international cuisine, a parade with several new floats each year, and concerts on select weekend evenings. All this festive fun comes with guests’ admission to the theme parks.
Concerts
The 2025 Mardi Gras concert lineup will draw crowds to watch musical artists perform at the Universal Music Plaza Stage at Universal Studios Florida theme park. The musical artist lineup looks like this:
- Feb. 1: T-Pain
- Feb. 8: Joe Jonas
- Feb. 15: Kool & The Gang
- Feb. 16: Juanes
- Feb. 22: Scotty McCreery
- March 1: Foster the People
- March 8: Illenium
- March 15: All Time Low
- March 16: Lawrence
- March 21: Coco Jones
- March 22: DJ Pauly D
- March 29: TLC
Photo courtesy of Universal
Universal Orlando Resort Food and Beverage Card
Guests looking to save money on food and beverages can purchase a Universal Orlando Resort Food and Beverage Card. This works as a gift card at the Mardi Gras festival booth and almost every food and beverage location inside Universal Studios Florida, Universal Islands of Adventure, and Universal CityWalk Orlando.
These cost $65 for a $75 card for all guests. Annual and seasonal passholders also receive special savings by purchasing an exclusive $150 card for only $120. These gift cards never expire. In fact, we used one that we purchased last year to buy Mardi Gras food this year.
Universal Mardi Gras 2025 menu selections
The Mardi Gras celebration at Universal Orlando Resort has grown into a full-fledged theme park food festival.
Universal CityWalk
At Universal CityWalk Orlando, a few Mardi Gras food items are available for guests to buy. For example, The Toothsome Chocolate Emporium & Savory Feast Kitchen designed a Bayou Pecan Shake for Mardi Gras.
The popular Voodoo Doughnut sells The King’s Crown Doughnut, which consists of a “yeast shell cut in the shape of a crown, filled with cinnamon praline velvet-top and dipped in a lemon-zest-flavored icing” and topped off with a Sour Patch Kid as the “baby” typically found in king cake.
Photo courtesy of Universal
Universal Studios Florida
All the “official” Mardi Gras food for 2025 can be found at the Universal Studios Florida theme park, with a few exceptions. Those food options include:
- Baked Cajun Mac & Cheese
- Chicken & Sausage Gumbo
- Cajun Spiced Twisted Tater
- Hot Maple Lacquered Salmon
- Margherita Poutine
- Spicy Szechuan Chicken Bites
- Duck Xian
- Colombian Burger
- Chicken Empanadas
- Pandebono (Warm Colombian cassava bread)
- Duck a l’orange Crepe
- Leberkäse (German-style meatloaf served on a pretzel bun with mustard and sauerkraut)
- Currywurst & Pommes
- Apple Strudel
- Potato Dosa (Griddled dosa filled with curried potatoes, onions, black mustard seeds, served with a coconut chutney)
- Butter Chicken
- Trapizzini (Warm ciabatta, meatball, marinara and spiced parmesan)
- Quesabirria (Birria beef in a corn tortilla with Monterey Jack and Oaxaca cheese served with a birria broth)
- Chilaquiles Verde (Tortillas topped with chile braised shredded chicken, salsa verde, cilantro onion mix with lime crema and Cotija cheese)
- Churro Loops
- Pinchos de Lechon ( Char-grilled pork shoulder skewer with guava bbq sauce and pan soba)
- Pastelon Fritters (Crispy sweet plantain and picadillo beef fritters served with mayo ketchup)
- Cheese Dog
- Limber (A Puerto Rican frozen iced treat with choice of coconut or guanabana)
- Red Beans & Rice
- Beignets
- King Cake
Best new Universal Mardi Gras food
Depending on your definition of “new,” Universal Mardi Gras: International Flavors of Carnaval presents guests with 17 new food options for 2025 to go along with Mardi Gras standards. During our food journey on the event’s Opening Day, Feb. 1, we ate all the new Mardi Gras food and more. After our previous evening at the Seven Seas Food Festival at SeaWorld Orlando, this task took fortitude. We ate some food with joy. Still, we ate some of the Mardi Gras food so you can make better decisions with your Universal Orlando Resort vacation food budget.
At this point, we would like to make the standard food reporter disclaimer. We are reporting from our assessment and the assessment of other trusted colleagues. However, due to the nature of theme park food festivals, your mileage may vary, as they say. The quality of preparation of the new Mardi Gras food items may vary based on when you order and visit. Our best new Mardi Gras food suggestions are based on Opening Day and our educated assessment of how easy it will be for the Universal Orlando team members to continue to prepare these items at a high level.
Spicy Szechuan Chicken Bites ($11.99)
We are starting with a controversial choice for our best new Mardi Gras food list. The Spicy Szechuan Chicken (found at the China booth in the San Francisco area of Universal Studios Florida) provides some excellent flavors. This Mardi Gras food item legitimately offers guests a spicy kick. This chicken does not give “theme park spice,” but real spice for a Szechuan dish. When we spoke with Chef Jens Dahlmann, vice president, executive chef of operations, he sounded proud that his staff created a more authentic version of this dish for guests. He even told us that he had to step in since the demand for this dish exceeded the original Opening Day expectations.
The menu description reads, “Crispy pieces of chicken with white rice, sesame seeds, Szechuan chili crunch.” We enjoyed the chicken and chili flavor once we understood this would be a spicy dish. Fans of Asian dishes with a spicy kick will love this new Mardi Gras food option.
Duck Xian Bing ($10.99)
Our group enjoyed the Duck Xian Bing at the China booth. This shredded duck dumpling comes with Hoisin scallion ginger butter. Admittedly, guests will need to appreciate the taste of duck. However, if they do, this Mardi Gras dish deserves a try. The dumpling provides a type of pastry shell for the duck inside. The savory duck balances nicely with the dumpling exterior. Since this is unlikely to be a food item most Universal Orlando guests make at home regularly, we suggest trying this as a sample before ordering something similar at an Asian table-service restaurant.
Hot Maple Lacquered Salmon ($14.99)
A highly promoted new Mardi Gras food item can be found at the Canada food and beverage location. The Hot Maple Lacquered Salmon costs more than most of the Mardi Gras food at Universal Orlando. Still, we found it to be a good option. For example, it costs less than the quick-service salmon at Minion Café.
This dish includes a griddled salmon fillet with a maple lacquer and an ancient grain mixed salad. The salmon comes well-prepared, and the light maple coating enhances its flavor. Our first bite was just average in terms of flavor. However, the more we ate this, the more we enjoyed it. The ancient grain salad serves a good balance to the salmon. While we have concerns about the price point, the overall flavor will probably cause us to repurchase this.
Butter Chicken ($10.99)
Since we included the spicy chicken dish, we must include a less spicy festival food item. At the India food and beverage location, guests can order Butter Chicken. This dish contains chicken, as you would expect. The chicken is covered in a spiced (but not spicy) tomato butter sauce. Guests receive some Naan bread with cilantro to round out the festival food item. For diners looking for a “safe” but flavorful Mardi Gras food item, this meets that desire.
Worst new Universal Mardi Gras food
Some of the event’s food might not best use your Mardi Gras budget. In fairness, none of the returning or new Universal Orlando Mardi Gras food offerings were terrible. Still, we expect good festival items to be something we cannot make at home easily or offer a new twist on a festival favorite. Our “worst” items fell into this category based on simplicity, portion size, and price point.
Chicken Empanadas ($8.99)
We love chicken empanadas. In fact, we enjoy almost every empanada Universal Orlando has sold.
At the Mardi Gras Colombia food and beverage location, guests can order Chicken Empanadas. They receive two small empanadas with aji picante. These are smaller than the ones we enjoyed at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay for the TOMA event. The flavor of the Mardi Gras empanadas works fine. However, the portion size of two small empanadas does not measure up to the $8.99 price tag.
Trapizzini ($10.99)
Over at Louie’s Italian Restaurant, guests can order a Trapizzini. This Italian dish consists of “warm ciabatta, meatball, marinara, and spiced parmesan.” We have to give this dish credit for being served warm.
Our negatives with this festival item involve its simplicity, lack of robust flavor, and presentation. Guests receive some meatballs on ciabatta bread. Those components are adequate, but nothing more than average. Many guests could prepare this at home for way less money.
Also, unlike the food and beverage booths, guests must wait in the main queue inside Louie’s Italian Restaurant, behind the guests who want other pizza and pasta dishes. When guests receive their trapizzini, it comes within paper, not a plate, making it a challenge to transport to a table somewhere to eat it. Unless guests want the comfort food feeling of bread, meat, and sauce, better dining options exist at Universal Mardi Gras: International Flavors of Carnaval.
Bayou Pecan Shake ($18.00)
While we tend to enjoy the shakes at The Toothsome Chocolate Emporium & Savory Feast Kitchen, this year’s Mardi Gras shake failed to impress our group. The chocolate gator on top is a nice touch. Still, the ice cream tastes like standard vanilla with maybe a touch of pecan. The whipped cream and sprinkles on top are also standard. This shake tastes fine. However, it fails to be worth guests paying $18 for a milkshake.
Universal Mardi Gras serves as one of our favorite Orlando-area theme park events each year. For more information about concerts and the Mardi Gras event, visit the Universal Orlando Resort website.
More Attractions Magazine stories:
Follow us:
Ready for adventure? Our trusted partner Universal Fan Travel will handle the planning so you can focus on the fun. They offer free vacation-planning services and have nearly 20 years of experience creating epic vacations. Visit Universal Fan Travel for a fee-free, no-obligation quote today.
