Emeril's at Orlando, FL - City Walk at Universal Studios

Restaurant Info:
Emeril's at Orlando, FL

Siddharth and I are fans of Emeril and were quite excited to see his restaurant at Universal Studios. We had just finished walking half of Universal Studios and the 12pm sun was almost unbearable. Although Universal Studios had a few interesting themed eateries and fast food restaurants, we decided to splurge on a real gourmet meal at City Walk, another portion of the theme park that was free.



This place was great, it overlooked the lake of the park and with no wait. Compared to the 45 minute wait lines we did for the rides, this restaurant was a breath of fresh air with many white linen tables Italian landscape paintings, not to mention one large portrait of Mr. Lagasse himself. We sat in an area that was outside but was completely covered from the Floridian heat. Our waiters (two) were quite social with us and enjoyed entertaining us with some bad jokes and suggesting some of their favorites on the menu. They served us Emeril's famous sweet potato bread and simple white roll (below).

We started off with a fried green tomatoes topped with Creole poached shrimp. The best part was the tomato glaze and a pickled mirliton relish (almost like a cucumber but sweeter) because of its sweetness from the mirliton but the acidity from the pickle juice counterbalanced it. I loved the crunch that the relish added and the fried green tomatoes were perfectly fried with a Panko breading. And the shrimp? They were pretty big as well. The chef also added some chopped egg to add an additional protein flavor.

Choosing an entree was quite difficult as well. They had a prix fixe menu as well, but we both find that a bit restricting when there were so many choices on the a la carte menu that were worth a try. Siddharth loves muffaletta, an Italian sandwich that has tons of Italian meats, a mixture of olives and cheese. He ordered Emeril's muffaletta that had salami, sopresetta, provolone cheese, olive salad, red pepper aioli and New Orleans style creamy cabbage slaw. Very delicious, very salty (in a good way).

I, on the other hand, was craving for something savory and rich. I ordered a flatbread pizza with confit baby portobello mushrooms, chives, gruyere cheese with a white truffle cream sauce. This was absolutely delicious. First off, the flatbread pizza was rich with butter, thin and flaky. The portobello mushrooms were nicely cooked and sliced  so evenly that every single bite had a piece of mushroom and slices of gruyere cheese. The white truffle sauce made it ever more rich because it was an emulsion. Honestly, it was one of the best flat bread pizzas I've had ever.


Because of all the rich flavors, neither of us had an appetite left for dessert, but we were certain that his Southern-inspired cream pies, ice creams and bread pudding would be just as good as his entrees and appetizers.