When guests walk right up to the darken ticket booth and brave the Infernal Carnival of Nightmares, a reprieve awaits to soothe their nerves, quench their thirsts, and satisfy their hunger. The Halloween Horror Nights 35 food mashups transform classic dishes into playful plates. Step up to the counter and place an order because the Universal Orlando Resort’s culinary team is not playing around.
Time and again, theme park food needs to be showstopping. While these dishes will never be the complicated tweezer food from Michelin-starred restaurants and James Beard Award winning chefs, the plates have other expectations. Familiar favorites need eye popping visuals coupled with smart storytelling. Additionally, they need to be easy to eat while standing in an active walkway. In some ways, this food might be more complicated than a top chef recipe.
This year, Halloween Horror Nights has food spread out across the park and tucked into some permanent restaurants. Several well-known properties, like Stranger Things, Hellraiser, and even Ozzy Osbourne have their special locations. To eat everything on the menu would talk multiple visits as well as deep pockets.
While many HHN guests will always prioritize pizza fries, gigantic mozzarella sticks, and even twisted taters, the reality is new, innovative dishes deserve their moment in the spotlight. The flavors, creativity, and thoughtfulness capture what makes the Universal Orlando Resort culinary team great. They find a way to balance approachable with culinary sophistication.
Three Food Mashup Highlights from the Halloween Horror Nights 35 Menu
People will swoon over the over the top milkshakes and sip on luscious libations, the specialty food mashups deserve to top food billing. By redefining familiar flavors into new dishes, each bite brings tasty with terrifying. It is the perfect concept for a Halloween event.
Carn”Evil” Smash Tacos
The most successful menu item is the Carn”Evil” Smash Tacos located at Jack’s Surplus Food. It is like a Big Mac served on a tostada. While it might have been better to have a soft taco versus a crispy tostada, this dish delivers great flavor.
From the special sauce to the pickle, it tastes just like that classic burger. Although it only has one “bread,” it captures that flavor people know and love. Even the toasted sesames add that hint of texture that makes it even more enjoyable.
It was smart for the Universal Orlando Resort culinary team to rethink the smashburger. The simple, single patty has been overserved. There are only so many “sauces” to make that first bite exciting. Putting the classic ingredients on a tortilla adds that spin, but it does not venture too far into the unusual.
Chow’s Southern BBQ Eggrolls
Just like the Sinners haunted house lovingly captures movie’s storytelling, Chow’s Southern BBQ Eggrolls is a superb version of two dishes that rarely combine together. Instead of traditional braised pork, the BBQ pulled pork has an underlying smokiness. It brings that Southern food vibe without being obvious.
Additionally, the eggroll is perfectly crisp. That added texture is needed to stand up to the pork. Even though there is cabbage inside of the eggroll, the crunch helps contrast the tender pork.
Lastly, the barbecue sauce is nice, but it is not necessarily needed. It adds to the overall vibe, but the nuanced flavors do not need to be hidden by a condiment. Like great barbecue, sauce is never necessary.
Lasagna Burn
Located in the Evil Dead Burn food booth, the Lasagna Burn brings the intense spice. First, this dish is not a lasagna, nor is it a deconstructed lasagna or even a pasta dish. Regardless of the name, it is a tasty plate.
The pork Szechuan potsticker “lasagna” benefits from a great chili crisp sauce. The heaping spoonful of chili crisp sets your palate on fire. It captures that “burn” but in an enjoyable way. Yes, the flavor lingers. No, there is no reprieve.
Could the culinary team have made this idea more of a layered dish to mimic a true lasagna? The simple answer is yes, but the dish works well as conceived. Forget the name, just order the dish.
These dishes are just a tiny sampling of the vast and diverse Halloween Horror Nights 35 food menu. A complete list of food and beverages can be found online. Check with the theme park during the event for availability and pricing.
Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Orlando Resort runs through November 1 on select nights.
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