Unveiling Illumination's Minion Café: A Delightful Dining Experience at Universal Studios Florida

Illumination’s Minion Café opened on June 17 at Universal Studios Florida. This quick service dining option provides the main food and beverage option for the newly created Minion Land at Universal Studios Florida.

Minion Café resides in the area formerly housing Universal Studios Classic Monsters Café. In contrast to the previous quick service option, Illumination’s Minion Café looks bright and open. ​

Basics of Illumination’s Minion Café
Minion Café opens each day at 10:30 a.m. If you visit during a busy time, you may find a queue to enter the quick service location. The queue will move rather quickly. A team member at the entrance will escort you to a table. 

This place was redesigned with mobile ordering in mind. Minion Café team members dressed in Minion colors will strongly encourage you to utilize mobile ordering. You will need the updated Universal Orlando Resort mobile app to do this. 

We have visited Illumination’s Minion Café nine times since it opened. Our experience with the mobile ordering system has been hit or miss. The mobile ordering system involves team members bringing your food and beverage to your table. In some cases, it may involve a bit of preparation of your food in front of you, like with Otto’s Noodle Bowl.

Inside Illumination’s Minion Café, directly to the right as you enter, guests will find a counter to order food and beverage if selecting not to mobile order. We found far more success with this method. On two occasions, we received our food faster than others at our table that used mobile ordering. Nevertheless, you will need a table number to have your food delivered before you can use this method.

Interior of Minion Café
Besides being bright inside, one cannot miss the cuteness factor of the interior of Illumination’s Minion Café. To create that effect, more windows and skylights were added to the dining location. The interior looks clean and modern, with many nods to the “Minion” and “Despicable Me” movies.

Minion Café offers something for everybody in this entertaining dining experience that features three themed areas designed after beloved Minions Kevin, Stuart, Bob, and Otto:
The Kitchen – where guests will glimpse the equipment and gear the Minions have used to whip up the cafe’s menu. When you enter Minion Café, this will be the first area you see.

The Breakroom – where guests can dine in the Minions’ break space, including everything from “Office Safety Tips” to a vending machine stocked with mischievous items. Even two foosball tables can be used for dining in this Minion break room.

The Dining Room – a vibrant space adorned with colorful artwork courtesy of the Minions and more. If you visit, check out the artwork of the pet rocks. 

Guests can also enjoy their meal on an outdoor patio that overlooks the fun of Minion Land.

Dining Suggestions
The menu at Illumination’s Minion Café features many adorable-looking items. In simple terms, very little of this menu reflects traditional theme park cuisine like burgers, fries, and chicken tenders. To read more about the overall menu, please click here.

Our Top Dining Suggestions at Illumination’s Minion Cafe

We have tried every menu item at Minion Café. In fact, we have tried many of these items more than once. A common criticism of Illumination’s Minion Café, so far, involves portion size. For the price point, the portion size looks smaller than expected for many entrees at Minion Café. Still, the creativity and theming here account for the price point, in any case.
For the following list, we based this on visiting on several different days, not just opening day. This aided in gaining a feel for what most guests will experience here. In most cases, we have tried many of these items more than once. Based on that, our top suggestions for ordering here are:

Chicken Stuart's Szechuan Surprise - $16.99
The best answer to the complaint about portion sizes at Minion Café would be Chicken Stuart’s Szechuan Chicken. The portion size of this entrée should not receive that criticism. For example, Xavier joked about receiving a full chicken when he ordered it. Compared to other menu items at Minion Café, this one provides the largest amount of food. The chicken portion could be shared if you do that sort of thing.
The entree consists of Szechuan glazed rotisserie chicken and stir-fried vegetable lo mein. This entrée displays the fact that the rotisserie chicken preparation method continues from the former Monsters Café.
Also, this chicken avoids the standard theme park dilemma of dry tasteless chicken. The chicken skin receives most of the Szechuan flavor with this dish.
However, the lo mein exceeded expectations when we ordered this. The noodles, in combination with the stir-fried vegetables, provide an above-average meal

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Uncle Dru's Belly Fillin' Pork Sandwich - $14.99
On opening day, Uncle Dru’s Belly Fillin’ Pork Sandwich sold very well, Based on our experience with this sandwich, we understand why. This sandwich consists of slow-roasted porchetta, chimichurri sauce, mustard aioli, apple butter, and bacon jam, arugula, on a Hawaiian pretzel bun. Green banana chips come as a side with this. However, we recommend paying a dollar more for the Minion-shaped tater tots instead. We think those would be worth it compared to the green banana chips.
The porchetta, along with the seasoning and sauces, makes this sandwich work. Some guests have said that they tasted too much apple butter. However, we did not have that experience the two times tried this sandwich. Many different flavors come with this sandwich. We felt the portion size of the sandwich failed to match the price point. Still, the overall flavor was good, especially for theme park quick service

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Lucy's Top Secret Salmon - $19.99 (Carl's Crispy Cauliflower - $15.99)
Speaking of good flavor, Lucy’s Top Secret Salmon presents guests with well above-average theme park salmon. Lucy’s Top Secret Salmon includes wood-grilled Atlantic salmon, coconut blue rice, Thai cucumbers, and edamame. In addition, a squeezable sauce container (the Lipstick Taser) allows guests to use as little or as much sauce as they like with their salmon. Universal Orlando called this lipstick taser sauce. Fans of the “Despicable Me” movie and the character Lucy should appreciate that name.
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We found the salmon tasted quite good the two times we tried it. The sweet and spicy chili sauce enhances the salmon. The vegetables and rice help with presentation and flavor. Considering how tough solid nutrition can be at theme parks, we appreciate this salmon entrée.

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For even more nutrition, the vegan offering at Minion Café provides guests with similar ingredients except for cauliflower instead of salmon. Carl's Crispy Cauliflower for $15.99 brings surprisingly good flavor also. The coconut blue rice and Thai cucumbers might pair with cauliflower better than it does with the salmon. Both options make a solid choice at the Minion Café

Honorable Mention From Main Entrees at Minion Cafe
Two other strong dining choices at Illumination’s Minion Café would be El Macho’s Salsa y Salsa Ropa Vieja ($17.99) and Mel’s Meatball Mountain ($14.99). El Macho’s Salsa y Salsa Roa Vieja consists of braised beef with tomato cucumber salad, cilantro rice, salsa roja, and El Macho tostones. We found the food quality of this entrée to be good. As you might expect, we thought the portion size was a bit small. In fairness, we tried the Ropa Vieja at the Cilantro Urban Eatery recently for comparison. The flavors of the Minion Café version come together nicely. However, the menu items depend on the salsa roja a bit too much.

If looking for a safer quick service option with a good portion size, guests should consider Mel’s Mountain Melt. Though this half pizza and half calzone creation will not overly impress in terms of flavor. The portion size ranks high. This will need to be eaten as soon as possible after it arrives at your table. On opening day, we let this cool too much. As a result, the food quality dropped significantly.
This wood oven baked stuffed pizza contains meatballs, basil, fresh mozzarella, and marinara. We have one last word of warning about this entrée from the Minion Café. Ask the team members for extra napkins. You will need them!

Best Dessert at Minion Cafe
We felt that Otto's Pet Rock ($8.99) makes the best suggestion for a dessert here. This adorable creation includes peanut butter mousse, strawberry jelly, crushed peanuts, and banana cake dipped in a chocolate shell. On opening day, we received one with less jelly than we would have preferred. However, on a second trip, we enjoyed this far more. Universal Orlando Resort creates some excellent theme park-style mousse treats. This one should be considered another good option.

Best Mini Minion Meal
If we had to choose a mini meal, we would go with Mr. Gru's PB & Jelly ($8.99). This consists of a pressed peanut butter & Gru's jelly sandwich (“uncrustable”) with Minion tots and a mini banana. Though this does not look like much, the sandwich and tots make a nice combination. In case you wondered, guests of any size may order a Mini Minion meal

Overall, the theming and creativity of the menu at Illumination’s Minion Café should cause guests to enjoy their experience there. When you visit, take a walk around the entire Minion Café to soak up all the work that Universal Orlando Resort did in creating this new, redesigned quick service location. As always, eat like you mean it.

Jon Self

​​Jon Self is an avid theme park and Marvel fan. You can follow him at @pastorjonself on Twitter. Jon writes for various theme park sources such as piratesandprincesses.net and universalfamilyvacations.com. He also writes for faithelement.net.