REVIEW

Krusty Burger & its neighbouring Springfield landmark restaurants at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida are the perfect mix of great fast food, bad service that gives that authentic Springfield feeling, and fair pricing for a theme park.

The outside restaurant’s boast store fronts for Krusty Burger, Cletus’ Chicken Shack, and Moe’s, but once you walk inside a large, shared seating area is available in addition to a more segregated room for Krusty Burger and Moe’s. You’ll also find some additional Springfield eats like Luigi’s Pizza and Lisa’s Teahouse of Horror.

DECIDING WHAT TO EAT

It can be overwhelming to figure out which of the food options to pick from, especially when you have iconic items like the Krusty Burger or the Ribwich. The good news is that you can’t go wrong in terms of the food selection, especially based on our experience.

Our order included a Krusty Burger (Krusty Curly Fries and Buzz Cola), a Ribwhich (Krusty Curly Fries and a Vanilla Milk Shake), Chicken Thumbs (Fried chicken tenders, corn on the cob, fries, and choice of BBQ sauce or honey mustard, and a drink), and Cletus' Peep-Fried Chicken Platter (Three pieces of fried chicken, corn on the cob, biscuit, mashed potatoes, gravy, and a drink). We also had a choice of Buzz Cola (Cherry Coke) or Milk Shakes (chocolate or vanilla).

The food was served fresh and fast, and delicious. The milk shakes were served thick and to the cup rim. There meals were plentiful, the drinks cold, and no one left hungry or thirsty.

SERVICE SO BAD, IT WORKS

Unfortunately, the service sucked, but maybe it needed to get the full Springfield experience. In fact, the more I thought about it afterwards, I wondered if they intentionally tried to make the service less spectacular, just to give it that Doh! feeling.

The servers taking the orders and making the food struggled to process the orders. They also struggled to explain the next step in the ordering process that involved going to another area for your drinks. No one told us where to find napkins or condiments either.

After ordering your food at each of the different food options you had to go to Flaming Moe’s (right next to the Krusty Burger) to get your milkshakes, sodas, and alcohol. If you wanted water, you had to go to Lisa’s Teahouse of Horror. At Flaming Moe’s, there was one server, and she couldn’t keep up with customers coming with their food trays. The customer in front of me had 2-foot-high stacked tray of Krusty Burgers that needed drinks, plus he added a few more drinks to his order, so as the line-up piled up behind me, I was worried our food would get cold.

Honorary Member of Springfield

Once I made to the counter, another couple tried to jump the queue, and that delayed our drink order a few minutes longer. In the moment I was a bit annoyed, but at the same time in awe of the Springfield replicas, so maybe I was a bit more tolerant of the bad service. Maybe, it made me feel like I was just part of Springfield.

A FUN PLACE TO EAT

The seating area reeked positively of Springfield colors. There were several TVs that ran clips from shows highlighting the different food menu items. The clips were fun to watch, but after a while they became repetitive. It would have been nice to run some Simpson episodes in between.

Still, the tables were clean, seating was comfortable with lots of space, the condiment shelves were full, there were a lot of napkins, and cleaning staff were available if needed. For a fast-food place, this place surpassed the NBC Brew & Grill for cleanliness by miles!

ONE OF THE BEST VALUES AT UNIVERSAL

It might be hard to believe, but Krusty Burger and its suite of Springfield restaurants provided one of the best all-around fast-food experiences across all Universal Studio theme parks. There was plenty of food in each meal and it was one of the few places where drinks were part of the combo. Plus, the milk-shake option was a bonus. The food was cooked well and even with the extra wait for the drinks, it stayed warm. The eating areas were clean, and the Springfield replica environment made it fun.

At $61.00 for the four meals and drinks, this was one of the best value for money experiences, especially if you roll the bad service into something you’d expect if you were in Springfield with the Simpsons!

COST