In the KidZone area of Universal Studios Florida, I visited one of the food tents there again for Mardi Gras 2022. This SE Asian type themed food tent offered one of the more promoted menu items, the Shrimp Laksa. This Malaysian style noodle bowl dish featured prominently in Universal’s limited promotion of the food items for this year. Universal Orlando has offered more noodle style bowl dishes in recent months as seen by menu change at Comic Strip Café.

Based on menu description, this noodle bowl sounded fabulous. The menu description reads shrimp, tofu, chicken, hard-boiled eggs, (and) Asian noodles in a spicy coconut curry broth.

The menu board price showed cost being $9.99. Before moving on to food quality and value, I struggled with calling it Shrimp Laksa. My struggle revolved around the fact that this noodle bowl dish contained tofu and chicken. Perhaps that is common for a traditional shrimp laksa but sounded odd to me. I found the inclusion of three proteins odd only naming one. In addition, this recipe discourages vegetarian diners needlessly if you could make it with just tofu.

An interesting wrinkle when you order the laksa involves your utensil provided.  The name presented to me for this utensil was a “chork.” Thus, a combination of fork and chopsticks. Though a cute idea, you either use the fork side or the chopsticks side. If you started using the fork but changed your mind (or vice versa) —-you face a messy dilemma. The soup residue would get all over your hands. Choose wisely!

With the preliminaries out of the way, how did this taste?

Overall, this noodle bowl deserves a try. The combination of flavors maximized by the broth creates a solid flavor. As you might expect, I suggest mixing everything together first to combine the different parts of this dish. Individually the parts taste just okay. When mixed, especially within the broth, the intended flavor emerges.  Even the bean sprouts and green onions mixed within offer reasonable flavor. Fortunately, unlike other Mardi Gras dishes, this one omits the onion/tomato slaw.

For a traditional Malaysian dish, this lacks any real spice. As theme park food in Florida, guests might feel a bit of heat from the spice within this bowl. For a spicy coconut curry, this Mardi Gras version dilutes the wilder and spicier this time. Also, though this looks like a “ramen” style dish, expect a different texture and flavor.

Now, the individual parts let this noodle bowl down some. The fried tofu lacks seasoning. The cooked shrimp simply seems to have been added to this depending on broth to create a flavor adventure. Like I said, mix it all together first! Also, the chicken pieces lack enough seasoning on their own.

Now, what about the hard-boiled egg? Most guests found the egg out of place. The portion size of egg demands acknowledgment though. The key valid portion of egg complaint involves inconsistent preparation. As a result, the egg plays a very small part in this noodle bowl play.

Overall, the noodles here rank higher than ones at Comic Strip Café in Islands of Adventure.  Though, these noodle bowls tend to be messier than even a standard noodle bowl. Even though this bowl lacks true SE Asian spice, this bowl ranks as best of bowl style dishes this year at Mardi Gras. As you might imagine, this shrimp laksa would be ideal on a cooler Florida day or night.

This noodle bowl provides some of the better taste and value at Mardi Gras this year. As expected, this food item deserved to be listed in the first “Top 3” article of Mardi Gras season. When it comes to theme park food, choose wisely. As always, eat like you mean it.