What do you do after taking about 150 photos of the opening night of the Mardi Gras parade at Universal Orlando? Well, I selected to dine with a group of friends at Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville on that Saturday night. Full-service dining reservations at CityWalk locations increase in difficulty to acquire on weekends and high crowd level times of year. Yet, this place seated us as a group of 8 with our reservation.

As I joked with a vacationer recently, I lack things left to review at Margaritaville. I visit here often since it is great place to escape the parks for lunch on the patio. My most common order here, the Volcano Nachos, earns rope dropping approval.

However, on this night, I decided to order the “Fish Tacos.” The menu description indicates these tacos are crispy fried in LandShark® batter topped with avocado, cilantro lime coleslaw and key lime crema. The sides provided are black beans, rice and pico de gallo. The tacos cost $19.95 but more about that later.

On the night I ordered this, my food arrived noticeably later than the other 7 in my group. I mention that because possibly some of my negative criticisms relate to that fact. Also, I did have to take photos of everyone else’s food and then mine. That process might have led to some of the negatives.

Having said that, how were the fish tacos? On the positive side, the portion size provides solid amount for a full-service meal at a theme park resort. In addition, the portion size of the fish exceeded my expectations. The side combinations mixed tasted above average. In fairness, we are talking rice and beans so very few people come to full-service places for the rice and beans.

On the negative side, you get two tacos for basically $20. I appreciate that at Universal Orlando, I get a discount, but price point remains high. As my server suggested, you can get a third taco for an additional $5. The pico de gallo added little to the tacos, The pico de gallo also was too watery for a quality product. I would suggest combining the rice, beans, and pico together. The flavors worked better that way.

Now, the tacos depended far too much on the flavor of the batter. Overall, the flavors were inconsistent even with the batter. The tacos started falling apart almost as soon as I tried to eat one. The slaw within the tacos probably led to that. However, my slowness receiving my food and then eating it might have led to that issue. The slaw tasted okay but nothing measuring up to full-service tacos.

Finally, the portion size earns some merit. However, with Antojitos Authentic Mexican Food nearby, these would not be my first choice for tacos of any type in CityWalk.