Mead Hall is a counter-service restaurant inside of Universal Orlando’s Epic Universe. Residing in the Isle of Berk, the park’s How to Train Your Dragon themed land, the restaurant serves a variety of food fit for a Viking feast. Premier and preferred annual passholders do receive a discount while dining here. In this post, we’ll review Mead Hall’s atmosphere, food and value.

The biggest surprise to come out of Epic Universe, a theme park we really enjoy, has been the food. Universal Orlando’s dining options prior to their newest park opening were lacking, and that’s putting it kindly. But everywhere we’ve been at the new theme park has been excellent, including the adored Pizza Moon and Café L’air De La Sirène. That’s before mentioning the fantastic mac n’ cheese bread cones in Isle of Berk.

With those meals in mind, our hopes were high while walking into Mead Hall. The restaurant’s entrance does nothing to dissuade those hopes, looking royal while sitting in the center of Isle of Berk. Guests enter through massive wooden, carved doors and under the impressive rockwork that towers over the land.

Once inside, the restaurant is trying to replicate that of a grand Viking hall. The interior is dimly lit, with very high ceilings, looking the part of a historic time. Rockwork throughout Isle of Berk is also seen on the inside of Mead Hall, lining the walls. The very large pillars throughout the restaurant are fitting of the setting.

The scale of the restaurant is the most impressive part, as walking into Mead Hall is a jaw dropping moment. I’ve never dreamed of being a Viking, much less a Viking who rides a dragon, but if they’re building stuff like this then I might need to rethink my dreams.

Mead Hall’s atmosphere does come with a few downsides. Despite the gigantic scale, I can’t say I’m a huge fan of the massive open hall idea when it comes to theme park restaurants. It works really well in theory because of that wow factor when you step inside but then once you’re sitting it turns into a large, loud cafeteria vibe. A cool looking cafeteria, but still. There’s very little texture and the whole place can be one note. This isn’t just a Mead Hall, or Universal, problem, many theme park restaurants go this route.

The other downside is that rockwork looks great but comes off cold. Mead Hall tries to offset that with colorful pillars and banners, as well as some wood carvings. It works to an extent but the whole thing rings a little hollow to me.

What you see is mostly what you get in the Mead Hall atmosphere. There is an ordering bay and drink bar in a nook as well as a little hallway, but the seating options are mainly in that massive room. Relative to most theme park restaurants, I still view the design and decor of this one favorably. It is a beautiful spot that you should at least poke your head into see. Once you’re actually sitting down to have a meal, I didn’t think the atmosphere could keep up with the likes of Das Stakehaus or Café L’air De La Sirène. Those are both exceptionally themed restaurants so this is less of a knock on Mead Hall and more of a compliment to Epic Universe’s dining options.

Moving to the food, this is a link restaurant’s menu. The offerings lean Scandinavian with a touch of theme park fare thrown in. My Viking knowledge might be limited but eating meatballs, salmon or sausages should have you feeling like Leif Erikson (or maybe just Hiccup) in no time. Surprisingly, there’s no dragon food on the menu although Melissa tells me that Toothless really likes fish so maybe he feels at home in Mead Hall.

This dish is Beserker’s Meatballs consisting of Swedish meatballs, onion gravy, lingonberry jam and smashed root vegetables. It comes in around $18 and had 10 meatballs on the plate. I love meatballs and would never disparage their name, even mediocre ones are pretty good, in my opinion. With that in mind, these were pretty good. The dish didn’t do anything to excite me and it ends up being a pretty bad value. I wish the lingonberry jam played a bigger role in the dish. The smashed root vegetables was a sweet potato mash that was, like everything else, just fine. This isn’t a bad dish but doesn’t measure up to other counter-service options in the park.

Likewise, Hooligan’s Sausage Links fell flat. The dish includes smoked sausage links, herb garlic potatoes, roasted carrots, Cipollini onions, and wild berry BBQ sauce. I’m not typically one to complain about portion sizes but this felt very minimal, both in presentation and measured against the $18 price tag. That seemed strange compared to everything else we’ve had at Epic Universe. This is supposed to feed Vikings? It needs to be at least… 3 times bigger than this!

As far as taste goes, the smoked sausage links were decent and the berry BBQ sauce brightened them up. I liked the roasted carrots and onions, even if there were only 3 of them combined. Maybe the Isle of Berk isn’t into growing vegetables. The garlic potatoes were served as mini baked potatoes and that was a fun idea that was executed well. All in all, this dish tasted pretty good but I wouldn’t get it again due to the poor value.

For dessert, we went with Gronckle’s Bread Pudding. This sweet treat consists of a malted cinnamon bread pudding with a Yaknog anglaise, chocolate pop rocks, and vanilla ice cream. This was the highlight of the meal, as the cinnamon bread pudding was delicious and the perfect amount of gooey. That paired with the vanilla ice cream was a winning combination. I’d recommend sharing this, as it got a little sweet for one person. Universal Orlando and Walt Disney World have no shortage of bread puddings, many of them being excellent. This is another one to add to the shortlist. At roughly $8, this felt more in line with the rest of the park’s portion size to value ratio.

We came away slightly disappointed in Mead Hall as a whole. The entrees were the worst we’ve had in Epic Universe (to be fair, everything else has been very good) and the atmosphere is well done but a little hollow compared to options elsewhere. It’s all relative though, if Mead Hall was placed in any of the other Universal Parks then it would be among the best restaurants there. But there are much better options in Epic Universe, including the bread cones filled with macaroni and cheese that are served just a few steps away from Mead Hall.

Overall Rating – 7/10

What do you think of Mead Hall? Let us know, along with any questions you might have, in the comments below. Looking for discounted tickets to Universal Orlando? Check out this site! Here are all of our travel guides to Disneyland, Walt Disney World and Tokyo Disney Resort. If you enjoy what you are reading here on Wandering in Disney please share this post with your friends, as well as like our social media pages. You can also subscribe to the blog via WordPress or email. All of those links are on the right side of this page. Thank you for reading, we really appreciate it!