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HHN 30: Food & Drink

Really love all the food options this year! Tried alot of them!

At Tribute store: tried....
1. pumpkin macaroon (decent but pretty dense for a macaroon)
2. Frankenstein Cake (super sweet and somewhat sugar gritty icing. Was surprised that the cake was much smaller inside of the chocolate shell. Once you crack inside there is alot of space between it and the cake)
3. Cookie Dough balls - cauldron (brownie batter) and hatchet (red velvet) - The brownie batter was super rich and delicious. Would gladly get again. The red velvet as kind of light pinkish red inside ours; not the rich red color we saw in online reviews. The taste was ok but not super red velvet to us
4. Bride of Frankenstein Cake was meh. The dark chocolate "hat" was more bitter than dark chocolate. Cake was decent. inside the "hat" is supposed to be a cherry syrup but there was barely a teaspoon inside ours, which was super dissapointing.
Both day we stopped by, they were running buy one get one free on the cupcakes and cake in jars and guy said they just were not selling as well as the other items

At front of park, Today restaurant has several of the same treats as the Tribute store AND a couple unique items. Had the Pumpkin Cream Cheese Creme Brûlée. It was really good!! Smooth, creamy texture and tasted like pumpkin pie. Would not really call it a creme brûlée cause it did not have a burnt/carmelized top, but the inside was similar, if a bit thicker/denser. Would love to see this treat again next year!

At the event food stops, tried...
1. Donut slider - one of our favorites. YUMM! Hope this comes back next year. Really nice mix of sweet and savory. The donut is very fluffy/light so easy to squish down and eat. Second time around, might take plastic knife and shave off a bit of the bourbon glaze off top to slightly reduce the sweetness a bit more. Would not remove it all as it adds a nice taste but could do with just a bit less of it.
2. Deep fried PB&J - this was another hit with us! YUMM! Was really hesitant to try this as we did not like idea of pepper flakes sprinkled on it and we do not like grape jelly in our PB&J sandwiches (prefer classic raspberry jam). Anyways, there is no pepper taste when you eat it. and you don't really taste the jelly either. Rather you just taste molten peanut butter, warm honey, and planty of hot oil. Had to go back for more it was so good
3. Deep fried Oreos - excellent. IF you've had these at state fair, they are very much the same
4. Monte Cristo Waffle Stick - this was a HUGE dud. Would skip. Basically, it's a slim waffle on a stick which is most of what you taste. The ham taste is really not present. More the "essence of ham" like if it was a waffle sitting on same plate as some ham. and the powdered sugar and raspberry syrup just did not punch through
5. Pizza fries - we stopped by here around 1am and were pleasantly surprised that there was zero people in line. Loved these from past and was good to close the night out on these.

Hope to see the donut sliders and fried PB&J again in future! And now we will check out the Today restaurant for unique treats as we had not seen anything posted on that location. Hoping they try some new things for next year's Tribute store; not alot of winners there unfortunately. They need more creamy rich desserts. Maybe try whipped icing or something. There icing is just horrible: dense, super sugary and with a bit of grit from all the sugar. And this comes from a SUPER sweet tooth guy! Would love to see them experiment with cheesecake and a few other approaches for halloween.
 
Oh and on drinks we thought Poison Tea Party was ok, if a bit bitter...something in the way the tea and booze notes come together. The Ghoul Juice was the surprise hit for our whole crew. Just really nicely blended and even less of an alcohol taste than Tea party.
 
Really love all the food options this year! Tried alot of them!

At Tribute store: tried....
1. pumpkin macaroon (decent but pretty dense for a macaroon)
2. Frankenstein Cake (super sweet and somewhat sugar gritty icing. Was surprised that the cake was much smaller inside of the chocolate shell. Once you crack inside there is alot of space between it and the cake)
3. Cookie Dough balls - cauldron (brownie batter) and hatchet (red velvet) - The brownie batter was super rich and delicious. Would gladly get again. The red velvet as kind of light pinkish red inside ours; not the rich red color we saw in online reviews. The taste was ok but not super red velvet to us
4. Bride of Frankenstein Cake was meh. The dark chocolate "hat" was more bitter than dark chocolate. Cake was decent. inside the "hat" is supposed to be a cherry syrup but there was barely a teaspoon inside ours, which was super dissapointing.
Both day we stopped by, they were running buy one get one free on the cupcakes and cake in jars and guy said they just were not selling as well as the other items

At front of park, Today restaurant has several of the same treats as the Tribute store AND a couple unique items. Had the Pumpkin Cream Cheese Creme Brûlée. It was really good!! Smooth, creamy texture and tasted like pumpkin pie. Would not really call it a creme brûlée cause it did not have a burnt/carmelized top, but the inside was similar, if a bit thicker/denser. Would love to see this treat again next year!

At the event food stops, tried...
1. Donut slider - one of our favorites. YUMM! Hope this comes back next year. Really nice mix of sweet and savory. The donut is very fluffy/light so easy to squish down and eat. Second time around, might take plastic knife and shave off a bit of the bourbon glaze off top to slightly reduce the sweetness a bit more. Would not remove it all as it adds a nice taste but could do with just a bit less of it.
2. Deep fried PB&J - this was another hit with us! YUMM! Was really hesitant to try this as we did not like idea of pepper flakes sprinkled on it and we do not like grape jelly in our PB&J sandwiches (prefer classic raspberry jam). Anyways, there is no pepper taste when you eat it. and you don't really taste the jelly either. Rather you just taste molten peanut butter, warm honey, and planty of hot oil. Had to go back for more it was so good
3. Deep fried Oreos - excellent. IF you've had these at state fair, they are very much the same
4. Monte Cristo Waffle Stick - this was a HUGE dud. Would skip. Basically, it's a slim waffle on a stick which is most of what you taste. The ham taste is really not present. More the "essence of ham" like if it was a waffle sitting on same plate as some ham. and the powdered sugar and raspberry syrup just did not punch through
5. Pizza fries - we stopped by here around 1am and were pleasantly surprised that there was zero people in line. Loved these from past and was good to close the night out on these.

Hope to see the donut sliders and fried PB&J again in future! And now we will check out the Today restaurant for unique treats as we had not seen anything posted on that location. Hoping they try some new things for next year's Tribute store; not alot of winners there unfortunately. They need more creamy rich desserts. Maybe try whipped icing or something. There icing is just horrible: dense, super sugary and with a bit of grit from all the sugar. And this comes from a SUPER sweet tooth guy! Would love to see them experiment with cheesecake and a few other approaches for halloween.
I agree the monte Cristo stick was a dud, but for me it was the exaggerated amount of raspberry syrup they poured over it
 
Has anyone confirmed what canned beer they have in the mobile carts? I know they had some decent craft beers in the past.
 
I just did out my food map for the nights I am there; 5 nights, 10 items, 4 drinks. Doable I think, I'll report back, but on the list is:
Twisted Franken Coil (a staple made better), the Squash Gyoza, Roasted Lamb Spit, S'mores Fries (I liked them better than pizza fries, wash me with your judgement), Donut Slider, Fried PB & J, Jalapeño and Brisket Grilled Cheeses, Flammkuchen, and Bride Ice Cream (I'm a sucker for the Instaworthiness of it).

Drinks: Jack Old Fashioned, Poison Tea Party, Ghoul Juice, Beer Float. If it feels right I might do the pumpkin cocoa bomb too.

My spirit is ready, but my wallet and stomach weep.
 
I went opening night after unexpectedly getting stuck from my Ida evacuation.

Liked the gyoza and the poison tea party. Not a fan of the ghoul juice. The bride ice cream was good. The potato pancake was dried out and crunchy. I also felt that oreos weren't anything special. I'm looking forward to getting back for my regularly scheduled trip to try some other stuff out.
 
Side note: Are fried oreos not a thing everywhere? Here in PA you can't go to a fair/carnival/special event without seeing them.
 
Honestly so much of the hhn food is just a terrible value. I tend to just spend a few dollars more for a meal at one of the quick service.

I noticed if you got the regular cups they tended to be more consistently filled. It's prob due to widtch of the cup making it easier to get a good angle. I would avoid the souvenir cups.
 
Side note: Are fried oreos not a thing everywhere? Here in PA you can't go to a fair/carnival/special event without seeing them.

They used to have a cart a few years back across from Twister before it closed that had funnel cakes, Oreos, etc. and then it closed. For awhile you could only get funnel cakes in the park and then even that went away. I think really the only time I’ve had fried Oreos since that time in the parks was when I went to a ren faire in another city in state.

I tried the potato pancake last night at monsters and it was just ok. I bring a reusable spork with me and without a knife it wasn’t easy to break apart due to being cooked a little too long. The flavor was fine though, just kind of a small portion.

So far I’ve enjoyed the pumpkin guts the most, but I like vegetables a lot and don’t particularly like spice.
 
This year we did a vegetarian tour of the event and found that Horror Nights has the best plant-based items in Universal, period. The fact that they went the extra mile with the theming rather than slapping a beyond petty onto the dish shone through.

We did Pumpkin Guts, the Churro, the skeleton tray, and the cherry pie. We missed the tea sandwich and the bride’s German dumplings.

The guts were overpriced but EASILY the best thing we ate all day at horror nights. Great presentation and wonderful fall flavors. Loved the Pepita crunch. The churro was nice, but could have used more pumpkin spice. The middle felt like unseasoned pumpkin pie filling, which was fine, but didn’t deliver on the caramel flavor.

The TCM booth was very cool, and the flavors were on-point. We both decided that grandmaw needed some more cola slathered on her. Yes, she’s a skeleton, but that doesn’t mean she couldn’t have used a little bit of flavor. The master stroke of this entire event is the leather face pie. It is truly revolting, piping hot, and exactly what you want from this dish. Classic flavors, perfect crust, and very hard to look at. My boyfriend had gone through the wringer and we decided to leave early, but not before seeing the lagoon show and having the pie. That pie sat half-eaten throughout the show because of how truly visceral it is to pierce the face and eat out the bloody pus-filled viscera of the pie interior. A huge win for the test kitchens at Universal, as well as the people running the food stalls for their efforts in playing the food even late in the night.

This year’s food designers really need a raise and need to begin designing new regular menu items for vegetarians and non-vegetarians throughout the resort. I’d love for my boyfriend to experience a no-ham green eggs, or something that isn’t an uninspired beyond burger in Jurassic Park.


We also did Bog Slime, the Heat Wave, Beetle Juice (l’m calling a spade a spade) and Poison Tea. The slime and Heat Wave, to me, had very mild/forgettable flavors, but we really enjoyed both beetle and poison tea. Boyfriend observed that the allspice flavor is reminiscent of the flavor of most poisons, which I think is a stroke of incredible theming and taste. Didn’t ask him how he knew what real poison tasted like, but. I figured out that Ghoul Juice was meant to resemble tiki drinks in the style of the Harry Belafonte songs featured in the film… which was less observant of an observation, but the drink really delivers on that hyper-sweet vacation drink promise.

Overall, a fantastic year for food at Horror Nights, but two notes need to be addressed:

They need more prep staff. They need it badly. The lines are worse than food and wine and they really need to figure out how to make it go faster. Hiring more staff would be the most ethical and smart way to do this.

Earlier I made a post about the souvenir cups, and how refills would be aggressively COVID-unfriendly, and several users said that the refills would be given in a paper cup to avoid saliva from the cup spraying back onto the food handlers. This is incorrect. Each of our refills was placed inside of our plastic blinks cup as expected. While I myself am not surprised or angry about this, it just underlined the security theatre of the entire operation. Efforts to keep team members safe are clearly not worth it in terms of efficiency. If they are going to do refills in this way, there is ZERO excuse for the plexiglass. If there is not going to be real safety measures taken, such as this refillable cup issue, social distancing, etc, then the problematic plexiglass really should be struck. It’s wildly frustrating
 
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