The Mardi Gras season at Universal Orlando ended April 24th. This park offers less to do now with Mardi Gras over. One solution would be to add some special food items for the “summer” leading to Halloween Horror Nights. Last year, Universal Orlando experimented with this idea with mixed success. Based on recent signage added to Universal Studios Florida food trucks, a “Welcome Back Summer” theme could be used this year. The two commonly seen food trucks opened on Friday April 29th serving food after a break following Mardi Gras season.
Essentially, the menus look basically the same as at these locations during Mardi Gras. The key exception appears on menu at San Francisco located food truck. This food truck sells the very popular Nashville Chicken Mac and Cheese. During Mardi Gras, a chicken biscuit with red eye gravy also appeared on this menu.
For the “Summer” season, that chicken biscuit goes by a different name. In addition, the key ingredients look and taste different. The menu calls the new version a “Hot Honey Biscuit.” Though, I wonder why chicken fails to fit in this title, the chicken tastes like Mardi Gras version. The menu description tells us that it contains a crispy chicken thigh, hot honey, and garlic pickles. Those ingredients are surrounded with a buttermilk biscuit. Like the Mardi Gras version, the biscuit comes with a side of apple cider slaw. This costs $12.99 before any discounts. If you want to substitute the sauce, the options are Nashville hot or a golden BBQ sauce.
So how was this slightly upgraded chicken biscuit? Clearly, this chicken biscuit tastes better than the Mardi Gras version. At first, I found the chicken merely average. After a few more bites, I appreciated the chicken more. The pickles provide a solid dill flavor. For the record, I found that flavor combination unsatisfactory. Well, the hot honey sauce lacks being hot. The flavor ranks as nice but nothing like real hot honey. In this menu item, the sauce must carry a significant amount of flavor.
The clear weakness of this menu item involves the biscuit. The biscuit, like the Mardi Gras, version lacks flavor and ability to withstand the sauce or gravy. On this occasion, when I had this menu item, I had to use a fork and knife to eat the biscuit. The biscuit fell apart not being sturdy enough for this menu item.
Unfortunately, much of the sauce falls off the chicken. The potential messy factor demands plenty of napkins.
Overall, this food truck version of a chicken biscuit tastes better than the previous one. The $12.99 price point might seem high. The argument of getting a side also might rationalize the price point. For record the apple cider slaw tastes way better than Mardi Gras version. Still, I am not convinced that quality earns the price point. However, a biscuit sandwich with chicken thigh meat creates something besides standard boring theme park food. If visiting Universal Orlando this “summer”, you may want to enjoy this item.
As always, eat like you mean it!
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