All about the Universal Mardi Gras food and drink offerings – including what’s available, where it’s located, how to save money, and some top choices:
If you’ve read this blog before, it’s no secret that I love the festivals at Epcot. Food and Wine Festival is a classic, but then I go back and forth on if my favorite one is Festival of the Arts or the Flower and Garden Festival! Not to mention Festival of the Holidays.
But did you know there’s another festival in town?
It’s not at Disney, but Universal’s Mardi Gras celebration is very similar to what you can expect at an Epcot festival, complete with food booths. It typically runs throughout February and March – you can read all about what to expect at Mardi Gras here!
For today’s post I wanted to take a closer look at all of the food and drink you can expect at Universal’s Mardi Gras celebration.
How it works
Just like the Epcot festivals, the general admission to Mardi Gras is included with your park ticket – but keep in mind that food and drink are an extra fee. There are food booths set up around the park. Many of these are themed after different countries, while there are several New Orleans specific booths.
Each booth typically has 2-3 food items, plus a drink or two. Food seemed to range in price from about $7-15 depending on the item, and drinks were in the $10-15 range.
Some items felt more like Epcot festivals where it was just a few bites, while others were almost full meals. You could typically tell by the price whether it would be a small or large portion. In 2025, it seems they have focused more on bigger “meal” type foods.
I tried quite a lot of the Universal Mardi Gras food options in 2024, and I returned recently to try this year’s items! If you’re going in 2025 or just curious, the menus are now available on Universal’s website.
There are a lot of changes to the menu from last year to this year. One thing I noticed was that there’s just… less. Last year had 18 booths, while this year only had 13.
That could be okay if they had beefed up some of the booths. But instead, the majority of them had fewer offerings. This is particularly true for the drinks. Many of the booths which offered interesting and themed craft beers or wines are now just selling standard Bud Light/Modelo/Miller Light.
That’s not to say that there still aren’t lots of great options! But it stood out to me since I had been looking at last year’s menus.
Based on what I saw, it also seems like they’ve opted more for full meals and entree style dishes than small bites. That may be why they have less food overall, though I love a small bite so I can try a whole bunch of them! At least I had two companions with me this year to share with.
And there are a number of things I loved last year which didn’t make the cut this year. But on the flip side, there are some new things which sound really great!
Top food items to try
I know I keep comparing this to Epcot’s festivals, but they are similar enough that it makes sense for a Disney blog. With something like Food and Wine Festival, there are a lot of dishes that come back each year. I was kind of expecting that to be the case here, and I had made my top 10 list of Universal Mardi Gras food to try based on 2024’s menus.
Well, Universal is keeping me on my toes because very few things are the same! So I had to re-evaluate based on the 2025 food and drink offerings.
Chilaquiles Verde
Tortillas topped with chile braised shredded chicken, salsa verde, cilantro onion mix with lime crema and Cotija cheese
Price: $7.99
Booth: Mexico
Location: Cafe La Bamba
The Mexico booth is the only one that has stayed completely the same since last year in terms of food – and that’s a good thing, because it ended up being my favorite booth! The cilaquiles are a great value for the price. They have excellent flavor, a little bit of spiciness, and work well for sharing.
Quesabirria
Birria beef in a corn tortilla with Monterey Jack and Oaxaca cheese served with a birria broth
Price: $10.99
Booth: Mexico
Location: Cafe La Bamba
Another winner from the Mexico booth! I may have liked the quesabirria even better than the chilaquiles this year. There was so much great flavor with the beer and the broth. Plus cheese, of course!
Baked Cajun Mac & Cheese
creamy spicy cavatappi pasta with andouille sausage, holy trinity and a cajun cream sauce, garnished with scallions
Price: $10.99
Booth: Bites of the Bayou
Location: Gramercy Park
This is new for 2025 and an enjoyable dish. I’m a huge mac and cheese lover, and I love any sort of twist or unique mac and cheese. It uses the best type of pasta for mac and cheese (in my opinion), and it has a cajun cream sauce which was tasty. For me, I think it could have used just a bit more kick!
Cajun Spiced Twisted Tater
Cajun seasoned potato, Creole remoulade sauce, herbs
Price: $9.99
Booth: Bites of the Bayou
Location: Gramercy Park
We had the twisted tater last year, but the flavor offerings were different (you could choose between regular salt, garlic parmesan, sour cream & chive, and ghost pepper). Just on its own with the regular salt tater, it’s really good as a nice crispy potato snack – as my friend Kristin said, it “lived up to the hype.” But get ready for a whole new level of hype, because I found it to be even better with remoulade and cajun seasoning!
Chicken & Sausage Gumbo
Stew of trinity, chicken, andouille, bacon over white rice
Price: $8.99
Booth: Bites of the Bayou
Location: Gramercy Park
The Bites of the Bayou booth this year had some of the best options – all 3 of its food items made my list. In 2024 they offered a shrimp gumbo and a chicken & sausage jambalaya – the latter being a highlight. This year we’ve only got gumbo, with chicken and sausage. And it was really good. I might have actually liked it better than the mac and cheese! And after all, it’s Mardi Gras, so grab some gumbo!
Pastelon Fritters
Crispy sweet plantain and picadillo beef fritters served with mayo ketchup
Price: $8.99
Booth: Puerto Rico
Location: Gramercy Park
Last year they had a different version of Pastelon, served more like a casserole. That was good, but the fritters were better! And more share-able. The combination of the sweet plantain and the beef is really tasty. Maybe a bit more beef and less plantain would be good, but I still loved it.
Margherita Poutine
Fresh mozzarella, roasted tomatoes, basil cream and pub fries
Price: $10.49
Booth: Canada
Location: Gramercy Park
I like poutine pretty well, but I particularly like trying different twists on it – some of my favorites have been Le Cellier’s signature poutine with a red wine sauce, and the Latin Poutine that used to be at The Daily Poutine and used yucca fries. So I’m excited for another poutine option! Plus, I’m a big caprese lover. Turns out it goes really well with french fries! Plus, look at all of that fresh basil. (Also – they should really do some sort of cajun poutine next year!).
Spicy Szechuan Chicken Bites
crispy pieces of chicken with white rice, sesame seeds, Szechuan chili crunch
Price: $11.99
Booth: China
Location: San Francisco
This was new for 2025, and one thing you should know – when they say spicy, they mean spicy! Certain bites were definitely more intense than others, and poor Jenn got a super hot one that hit hard. I enjoy spicy and I’m not a complete wimp, but they were definitely pushing it for me. I really appreciated that they were super crispy pieces of chicken, not soggy or anything. Plus they had good flavor in addition to the heat.
Beignets
Sweet fried pastry with powdered sugar
Price: $7.49
Booth: Taste of the Quarter
Location: Battery Park
It’s Mardi Gras, so you gotta have some beignets! Both last year and this year they were nice and hot, sugary, and basically everything you’d want out of a beignet.
Top drinks to try
Bananas Foster Fizz
Dark rum, Planteray O.F.T.D rum, creme be banana and Barq’s Cream Soda
Price: $13.50 (12 oz single serve or 20 oz souvenir cup refill)
Booth: Coca-Cola Market Square
Location: Battery Park
Two of my favorite drinks last year were at the Coca-Cola Market, though sadly none of them returned this year (the Carnival Paloma and the Blackberry Krewe). But there are some exciting new options this year! The Bananas Foster Fizz was a winner for me, but it won’t be for everyone. I love banana flavor, and while I’m not normally a sweet drink person, soda is an exception. I love soda and have mostly kicked the habit at home, so it’s more of a treat now. This was definitely very sweet!
Pimm’s Cup
Pimm’s No 1, ginger ale, garnished with fresh cut orange, strawberry, lemon, and cucumbers
Price: $13.50 (12 oz single serve or 20 oz souvenir cup refill)
Booth: French Quarter Sips
Location: Gramercy Park
I was first introduced to Pimm’s when I was in college and studied abroad in England. I wasn’t big on alcohol, but took a liking to ordering a “Pimm’s and Lemonade” when we went out. This isn’t quite the same, but it’s still very tasty. It’s very refreshing. My one complaint is that this drink in particular went super heavy on the ice, so it felt like you didn’t get that much.
Category 5 Punch
Cruzan® Aged Dark Rum, Myers’s® dark rum, lime juice, orange juice, simple syrup, passion fruit puree and grenadine
Price: $13.50 (12 oz single serve or 20 oz souvenir cup refill)
Booth: French Quarter Sips
Location: Gramercy Park
There’s nothing unique about this drink, as it’s your typical hurricane. But since that’s one of the most popular Mardi Gras drinks, it makes sense to have it here! It was good and the perfect choice to enjoy as we waited for the parade to start.
La Tormenta
Tequila, lime juice, orange juice, dragon fruit puree, passion fruit puree, and smoked sea salt
Price: $13.50 (12 oz single serve or 20 oz souvenir cup refill)
Booth: Mexico
Location: Cafe la Bamba
A tequila drink! It sounded like it might be overly fruity, but I didn’t find that to be the case. The predominant flavor is the orange juice, though the others are there (just subtle). I would have liked a bit more of the dragon fruit and passion fruit to come through. Also, I don’t believe we got the smoked sea salt on ours.
Beer Flight from Germany
Bitburger Premium Pils, Franziskaner Hefe Weissbier, ERDINGER Weißbier Dunkel
Price: $13.00
Booth: Germany
Location: San Francisco
I’m a sucker for a flight, as it’s a great way to try several different beers. I can’t really give this one a “full” review because I never got the Dunkel. We were waiting for quite awhile while they changed the keg and kept telling us that it would just be a minute, but there was clearly some sort of issue going on. After about 10 minutes I finally just asked for a second of the Hefe and we went onward to the Hogwarts Express. The Pils was just meh, but the hefe was good. I wouldn’t need to get this again, though.
Luck and Prosperity
Hokkaido® Milk Tea powder, ginger puree, blood orange syrup, vanilla cream syrup and mango popping boba
Price: $9.00
Booth: China
Location: San Francisco
I like bubble tea, and this was pretty good, though the price tag is rather high. I’m not sure I tasted all of the flavors mentioned in there, but that may have been because we had the spicy chicken at the same time, and I had a lot of heat going on!
Ways to save money
One great thing about the food booths at Universal’s Mardi Gras festival is that there are a few ways to save money! And these are actually legitimate discounts and savings, not just tips or hacks. (Though we have definitely found the portions here to be big, so sharing is a great tip for saving some money!).
Food & Beverage card
You can purchase a $75 Food & Beverage card during Mardi Gras for $65, saving you $10. Here are a few things to know about this Food & Beverage card:
- Only for sale from February 1-March 30, 2025
- Can be used at any food and beverage locations at Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure, Volcano Bay, and CityWalk (not just Mardi Gras booths)
- It doesn’t expire, so if you don’t use all of the funds during Mardi Gras you can use them during any future visit, even after March 30th
Souvenir cup
Another great option that Universal has is the souvenir drink cup. You buy the souvenir cup once, and then you can bring it to other booths for a discounted refill. Not every Mardi Gras drink is available for this, but a majority of the cocktails and many of the beers are.
The souvenir cup is 20 oz, and when you initially purchase it, you get the cup and 20 oz of that drink for a certain price (usually around $16.50). Then each time you refill it, the cost is less (typically around $13.50). You are basically getting an extra 8 oz free, as the regular sized drinks are 12 oz and the same cost.
The drinks that you can get with the souvenir cup include:
- Ginger Snap (Canada)
- Collective Arts Life in the Clouds IPA (Canada)
- Bananas Foster Fizz (Coca-Cola Marketplace)
- Doberge Cake Cocktail (Coca-Cola Marketplace)
- Peach Cobbler Smash (Coca-Cola Marketplace)
- BLTC Bloody Mary (Coca-Cola Marketplace)
- Premium Mixed Cocktail (Coca-Cola Marketplace)
- Bitburger Premium Pils (Germany)
- Franziskaner Hefe Weissbier (Germany)
- ERDINGER Weißbier Dunkel (Germany)
- Category 5 Punch (French Quarter Sips)
- Pimm’s Cup (French Quarter Sips)
- Bud Light (French Quarter Sips)
- La Tormenta (Mexico)
- Pina Colada (Puerto Rico)
Universal Mardi Gras Food and Drink graveyard
Although this post is updated for 2025, I wanted to take some space to share some of my favorite items from last year that did not make the cut this year. Here were my top choices from 2024 – and here’s to hoping they may return someday!
Carnaval Paloma (el Jimador tequila, grapefruit juice, lime juice, agave, pinch of salt topped with Fresca)
Booth: Coca-Cola Market Square
Blackberry Krewe (New Amsterdam gin, blackberry syrup topped with Sprite)
Booth: Coca-Cola Market Square
Papitas Bravas (seasoned crispy potatoes, paprika aioli)
Booth: Spain
Sangria flight (Flight of Sangria Tinto, Sangria Blanco, Sangria Rosado)
Booth: Spain
Chicken & Andouille Jambalaya (Mixed rice with andouille, blackened chicken, peppers and tomatoes)
Booth: New Orleans
Butterfly Pea Blossom Tea (New Amsterdam gin, butterfly tea matcha, passion fruit syrup, mint syrup, simple syrup, lime juice in pipette)
Booth: Thailand
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Which of the Universal Mardi Gras food and drink would you most want to try this year?
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