REVIEW: Come for the Meat, Stay for the Mango Bread at The Oak & Star Tavern in Epic Universe

The Oak & Star Tavern is located in Celestial Park, on the side closer to the Universal Helios Grand Hotel. The restaurant shares the same building as The Plastered Owl bar, which is across from Frosty Moon and near the portal for Dark Universe.

The Oak & Star Tavern is located inside a building with a brick exterior, which is paired with rich wood tones meant to evoke a modern take on a fantasy-style tavern. Read the restaurant’s description from Universal:

Follow the aromas of savory barbecue to The Oak & Star Tavern at Universal Epic Universe. Located in a cosmic garden in Celestial Park, you can gather with family or friends round the fiery hearth of an ancient, starlight-filled oak tree. The tavern is also home to The Plastered Owl bar, where you can enjoy a drink and lively conversation.

The interior has many wall-sized windows to let in natural light and a ceiling inspired by the branches of an oak tree. Nearby, The Plastered Owl is mostly indoors, but it has an outside ordering window for guests who would rather dine outside.

Stay tuned for our full restaurant tour of the Oak & Star Tavern.

The Oak & Star Tavern has quite an extensive menu that includes a morning selection for breakfast, several barbecue-inspired entrees, and an extended beverage list.

Read our full menu post for the Oak & Star Tavern.

Brulee Hawaiian Mango Bread – $11.99

Mango bread, pineapple, strawberry, whipped cream, toasted coconut, with scrambled eggs and bacon

This item should not be legal… straight to jail, whoever came up with this dish! In all seriousness, the Brulee Hawaiian Mango Bread is spectacular.

That being said, we’re glad that this isn’t just a dessert breakfast, and the full serving comes with real breakfast food. The scrambled eggs are solid. The bacon is not terribly crispy, but the sweetness of the barbecue flavor is unreal. It’s very smoky, salty, and the barbecue seasoning really comes through.

Rating out of 7: 7

Ancient Grain Tofu Scramble – $11.99

Ancient grain, tomato pepper stew, tofu, arugula

Our serving of the Ancient Grain Tofu Scramble also came with unadvertised vegan bacon! The scramble itself is so spicy, but phenomenal. The tofu is tender, and there’s the perfect amount of crunch and a nice spice to it. The portion is also hefty.

The “fake bacon” is a vegan approximation of ham. It tastes like ham, and it looks like a giant slice of uncooked bacon.

The side salad here is arugula topped with a sweet vinaigrette and strawberries. It’s a bit overdressed, but very good. Overall, this is the best vegan theme park breakfast we’ve ever tried.

Rating out of 7: 7

Smoked Master’s BBQ Feast – $74.99

Choice of four meats, four sides

For our meats, we chose the 14-Hour Smoked Brisket, the Spit Roasted Citrus Herb Chicken, Banana Leaf Smoked Pulled Pork, and Smoked St. Louis Ribs. For sides, we picked the BBQ Crinkle Fries, the Smoked Cheddar Biscuit, the Three Cheese Mac and Cheese, and the Burnt Ends Baked Beans. Read the sections below for our thoughts on each individual meat selection and side.

This dish also comes with the Mango Bread and pickles, which are super vinegary but good. Overall, we thought this was a solid value for the price and great for sharing between a group of people, especially if you want to try multiple items on the menu.

Rating out of 7: 6

One Meat, One Side – $21.99

Choice of one meat, one side

We chose the Four-Hour Smoked Jackfruit with Tropical Coleslaw as our side. Again, our full review of the meat itself can be found below.

We really like the coleslaw. It comes across less vinegar-y and more of a sweet, pineapple flavor. The jackfruit is much spicier than we expected, but it’s excellent. It looks like pulled pork but doesn’t emulate it in any other way; it has a great texture, too.

If you’re not in the mood for a sandwich, this is a great format. However, we have to note this price is a little on the expensive side for only one protein, especially when the two-meat option is only a few dollars higher.

Rating out of 7: 7 for the jackfruit, 5 for the coleslaw

Smoked St. Louis Ribs

We’re not normally big fans of ribs. But, these are spicy with a very strong, smoky kick to them. The ribs are tender and fall off the bone. We tried these with the Sweet sauce, which is our new favorite. These ribs are a Theme Park 7; obviously if you go somewhere where ribs are a specialty, those will be better — but these are still great.

Rating out of 7: 7 (a Theme Park 7)

Spit Roasted Citrus Herb Chicken

This is a hefty portion! This chicken is tender and juicy, but isn’t as heavily seasoned as the other meats on the platter. We tried it with the Huli Huli sauce, which had a sweetness similar to teriyaki sauce. It’s good, but not our favorite.

Rating out of 7: 5

14-Hour Smoked Brisket

This menu item is smoked for a very distinct amount of time. The flavor is solid, with the texture being a little fatty. It’s nice and smoky, and is excellent for theme park brisket. We tried this with the Tropical Gold sauce, which was surprisingly spicy, with a hint of mustard combined with tropical flavors. Ultimately, we did not care for the sauce.

Rating out of 7: 6

Banana Leaf Smoked Pulled Pork

The pork is a little dry on its own. We understand that smoking meat is difficult, and the experience could vary day to day. We opted to try the Harissa sauce with this meat, which hit the spot! We imagined it would be spicier, but we think it’s got just enough heat that the average guest will not be turned off by it.

Rating out of 7: 4

BBQ Jackfruit Sandwich – $16.99

Four-hour smoked jackfruit, pickled red onions, and chimichurri on a toasted bun

This sandwich has got a little spicy kick to it, but the bread reminds us of Subway. It’s very soft, chewy, and feels like it will fall apart, but it’s still very good. Normally we don’t like jackfruit, but again, it’s solid here.

There are four bottles of sauce at your table that you can add to your sandwiches and other dishes if you’d like. That being said, we think this sandwich is good on its own.

Jackfruit can be difficult to get right, since it attempts to emulate pulled pork. In this case, it accomplishes that. It packs a lot of smoky and spicy flavor, plus it offers all the facets of pulled pork that you like. We love it.

We got the Smoked Harissa Cauliflower as our side for this dish. It’s a little wetter than we’d like it to be, but the flavor is still very good. It’s not overly spicy, but it does have a very light burn on the back end. The sandwich is definitely spicier.

Rating out of 7: 7

Slow Smoked Brisket – $18.99

14-hour smoked brisket, sweet BBQ sauce, and homemade pickles on a pan sobao bun

This is fine, but it doesn’t taste like a 14-hour smoked brisket to us. The bun is very sweet, but a little hard.

The brisket is not overly sauced, which we appreciate. It obviously won’t be as good as getting brisket from somewhere that specializes in that, but it’s better than most other theme park brisket we’ve tried.

Rating out of 7: 4

Huli Huli Pulled Pork – $17.99

Smoked kalua pulled pork, huli huli sauce, tropical coleslaw, on a pan sobao bun

Kalua pork, normally, is not smoked and cooked slowly over hot coals. As a pulled pork, this is pretty good. It’s tender, juicy, and comes with a light amount of the Huli Huli sauce. We would happily order this over the brisket.

Rating out of 7: 5

Chopped Salad with Pulled Citrus Herb Chicken – $16.99

Romaine, tomato, cucumber, BBQ bacon, feta, chipotle ranch with pulled citrus herb chicken

Both of the salads we tried can be ordered with or without the pulled citrus herb chicken.

This salad is very good. There is a ton of chipotle ranch on it. Between that and the bacon, this is not the healthiest salad in the world — but it’s still good. On a brutally hot day, this really hits the spot since it’s served ice cold. This has a ton of feta and a load of bacon, which are both absolutely delicious. The romaine is crunchy and fresh. Our serving didn’t have a ton of chicken, but where we did find it, it offered a light citrus taste that complemented everything in the dish.

Rating out of 7: 7

Grilled Peach Arugula Salad – $12.99

Grilled peaches, arugula, Boursin, candied pecans, white balsamic

This is a nice-looking salad, and tastes just as good. The grilled peaches are outrageous and offer the perfect level of sweetness when paired with the cinnamon-sugar of the candied pecans. We also detected a slight spice with the pecans. The salads here are two of the best theme park salads we’ve ever tried.

Rating out of 7: 7

Mango Bread – $4.99

It should also be illegal to call this bread; this is cake! It has a consistency identical to cake. The texture is moist and delicate. It is unbelievable, and we’d go so far as to call it dessert. If you’re not a fan of mango, it’s kind of like an icing. Its flavor is not overly strong, and comes across more like a fruity honey butter.

Rating out of 7: 7

BBQ Crinkle Fries – $3.99

We would call these basic, but we really enjoy the seasoning. They’re classic barbecue crinkle fries and are very good.

Rating out of 7: 5

Three Cheese Mac and Cheese – $4.99

The mac and cheese is just okay. The cheese is a little granular, with a chalky consistency. The pasta is cooked correctly. This isn’t offensive and is perfectly fine to eat, but we can’t recommend it with a high score when the rest of the menu is so good.

Rating out of 7: 3

Burnt Ends Baked Beans – $4.9

Normally we don’t like beans, but we would happily eat these. The barbecue sauce here is particularly good, with a sweet and tangy flavor. The beans are cooked just right and are very soft. These are spectacular beans.

Rating out of 7: 6

Smoked Cheddar Biscuits – $4.99

It’s worth noting that we only got one of these biscuits as our side order. It’s very dense, and whatever cheddar is used in baking this is almost too much. We don’t really care for the flavor profile here. The consistency of the biscuit is good, but the flavor on the back end of this is not good. We’d suggest you pick a different side.

Rating out of 7: 3

Braised Greens

We assume these are Collard Greens or something similar. We really like these greens and find them to be quite good. They are quite salty and oily, but the flavor is good when paired with the rest of your meal.

Rating out of 7: 6

Banana Pudding – $7.99

Vanilla pudding with banana and whipped topping

The theme parks in Orlando have been nailing banana pudding lately, and this is no exception. The pudding is so creamy, and the breading underneath is unreal. It might be a little overly sweet, but it is super shareable.

Rating out of 7: 6

Warm Sticky Cake – $7.99

With pecan ice cream

Our serving of this was a little difficult to break through, and it didn’t taste great. There was so little of the pecan ice cream that it looked more like a topping than a full scoop. The cake is not very flavorful, and the exterior is chewy. We’re not sure if ours was fresh. If it was, then it was cooked incorrectly. There’s not a whole lot going on here, and we can’t detect any distinct flavors besides the ice cream.

Rating out of 7: 2

The Speechless Astronomer – $13

Grapefruit wheat ale, crisp, smooth character with a bright citrusy punch of grapefruit. Slight hints of mixed citrus, fragrant hops, and mild bitterness

This is a wheat ale. It tastes like a Blue Moon, but more bitter thanks to the grapefruit. It’s pretty solid, and certainly refreshing on a hot day.

Rating out of 7: 5

Rambling Raccoon’s Margarita – $16.25

Cuervo Tradicional Reposado tequila, lime juice, pomegranate syrup, agave syrup, and lime wheel

The Plastered Owl, which is located at the Oak and Star Tavern (just off to the side), is home to several animals represented in murals on the walls. One such animal is Rambling Raccoon, for whom this drink is named.

This isn’t our favorite tequila, as the drink is syrupy and sticky. We’re not crazy about this at all. There’s not enough lime juice in here to call this a margarita, and it tastes like they straight-up poured POM juice in the mix and called it a day.

Rating out of 7: 3

Hoo! Hoo! Highball – $18 / $22 with Souvenir Cup

Jameson Orange, lemon juice, simple syrup, club soda, with a lemon wheel

You can get the Hoo! Hoo! Highball with or without the souvenir cup, which is Universal-branded.

The drink itself is very refreshing. The lemon juice is not overpowering, and the orange flavor (but not the sweetness) from the Jameson comes through the most. This is well-mixed, easy to drink, and you get to take home a plastic owl at the end.

Rating out of 7: 6

Watch our full video review below: