We were at Universal Orlando today, and we made a reservation via OpenTable super late for Todd English’s Bluezoo in the Disney World Dolphin hotel. We learned that we could valet our car and get it validated for free with the restaurant. If you opted to park yourself, you not only have to drive away from the restaurant and park at another lot, but you would have to pay (I vaguely remember) $15. It’s much better to just valet your car. My cousin selected this restaurant because they enjoyed Todd English restaurants generally, whereas I have never been to one.

Ambiance

The decor and lighting of this reminds me a lot of the Miami nightclub scene with booths, bright orange chairs, lots of chandeliers, and a dark ambiance with blue lights everywhere. It was quite noisy inside as well. The table we sat at had 2 chairs that protruded out into the paths of the servers, so it was a little uncomfortable that the servers had to snake their way behind these chairs to get by. In addition, there were a lot of large parties dining as well. By no means did it feel claustrophobic, but it was quite a different experience than other Disney World resort restaurants where tables were more spread out.

The service was quite attentive and fast, and the dishes came out pretty quickly.

Food

The serenity cocktail came with a combination of cucumber vodka, st. germain elderflower liqueur, muddled strawberries, basil, rosemary, lime, and pineapple juice. My partner enjoyed this one as it was a very refreshing drink with lots of herbal and flowery essences.

The bread was decent. It had caramelized onions on top of it. The butter had some herb in it, which I forgot. The waiter mentioned that a lot of patrons really enjoyed it, so that’s why they continued to serve it. For me, it was just decent.

The shrimp cocktail ($19) came with 4 poached jumbo shrimp, avocado purée, and cocktail sauce. There were 2 additional sauces that were more sweet. I still went for the cocktail sauce. The shrimp itself was no frills, and weren’t as large as I thought they would be.

The crab nachos ($25) came with crab, black beans, pico de gallo, cherry peppers, and white cheddar. The portion size of this was surprisingly large, and it was delicious. There were pretty generous crab portions. Despite the condiments sitting on top of the chips, none of the chips ever became soggy and were crispy for the duration of its life. Arguably, this could be ordered as an entree. It was also our favorite appetizer of the four that we got.

The BBQ pork pot stickers ($18) came with smoked pork shoulder dumplings and mustard BBQ sauce. The pork shoulder was already very seasoned already, so the sauce was not necessary. Even when you did use the sauce, the mustard BBQ sauce was rather tame and overshadowed by the flavors of the smoked pork shoulder.

The Peking duck birria tacos ($23) came with slow cooked Chinese duck, white corn tortillas, queso fresco, chili oil, and hoisin dippin jus. These are probably similar to the typical fried birria style tacos. The duck meat was good though I thought it was just basically normal roast duck. I was expecting some stronger Peking duck flavors to come out. The overall concept of this was a little disappointing because it was like a more refined version of Jack in the Box tacos. The fried shell gave it the crispy texture, but the duck was completely drenched and overpowered by the queso fresco. The hoisin dippin jus basically overpowered everything. I think there were too many strong components to this, such that you could have substituted the duck with any meat, and it would’ve tasted the same.

The Bluezoo Simply Fish ($37) entree was ordered with mahi mahi, white wine sauce, creamy risotto, seasonal vegetables, and 2 scallops (+$18). This was cooked and seasoned nicely. The mahi mahi was meaty and fresh. The white wine sauce was actually very light, and it could have used more thickening to bring out the wine flavors. The scallops were good but very disappointing for their sizes. My partner added one scallop, and the size of that one was nearly equal to the two of mine. All in all for the price, I thought it was pretty good compared to other places we’ve been at.

Final Verdict

Bluezoo is a surprisingly above average dinner restaurant in the Walt Disney World suite of eateries. Because it’s a little more difficult to get to and not Disney themed as much, it makes it easier to nab a reservation. The food itself was pretty good, and arguably, better than a lot of other Disney World restaurants we’ve been to on this trip so far. The prices are pretty decent depending what you get.

Yelp Jabs

Their “special” was a surf and turf - a 9 oz filet and 7 oz lobster tail … Our server never once mentioned the price of the special and I will never again assume the markup would be somewhat reasonable. Moral of the story …

Moral of the story is that if you play with fire, you will get burned. Unless you truly don’t care, always ask for the price if you don’t know what you’re getting into. Generally, it’s more courteous for the waiter to mention the prices, although I understand it’s a shady tactic to get folks to commit without knowing.

Self-parking is a inconvenient and valet is $40. So you’re stuck… Ordered the “Butcher Steak.” Now I know why they call it that. It is what is leftover after all the guests eat they flip the old steaks to the butcher.

This Yelper didn’t bother to ask. No, you don’t need to pay $40 valet if you validate in the restaurant. The butcher steak is considered the scrap meat for the butchers to take home because the diners assumed the underbelly would not taste good. But as modern times have told us, it’s simply hanger steak, which is one of the most tender and flavorful cuts of the cow. Many prefer thick cut steaks, but you won’t normally find that with hanger steaks.