Food and drink from home and on the road: Las Vegas buffets, seafood, French Quarter classics, London pubs, tiki bars and plenty of everyday meals.
Dim sum at Harrods, the landmark department store in Knightsbridge, London. The spread pictured here includes soup dumplings and steamed buns served in bamboo steamers.
Harrods is famous for its food halls and in-store restaurants, and a dim sum lunch makes a good break from browsing the shop floors.
Harrods is right next to Knightsbridge tube station on the Piccadilly line, a short walk from Hyde Park and the museums of South Kensington.
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The second day of our July 2025 Southern California weekend was spent at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim – Disneyland Park by day, Disney California Adventure by night – after a day at Universal Studios Hollywood.
We started in Batuu with a Ronto Wrap for breakfast and a look at the Millennium Falcon, then stopped in at Oga’s Cantina for drinks.
The rest of the day was classic Disneyland: little details like the Davy Crockett Coonskin Cap Supply Co. window honouring Fess Parker, the jungle temple queue of the Indiana Jones Adventure, and a lunch of shrimp and grits with andouille sausage.
Before heading back into the parks for the evening we stopped at Trader Sam’s Enchanted Tiki Bar at the Disneyland Hotel.
After dark we crossed the esplanade to Disney California Adventure: Hollywood Land glowing at dusk, the Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT! tower, and Avengers Campus with WEB SLINGERS and plenty of Stark details. We finished on Pixar Pier, which is at its best lit up at night.
More Disney drinks: see my round-up of Disney bars and tiki lounges.
Tips if you go: a Park Hopper ticket makes this kind of split day easy. Galaxy’s Edge is quietest first thing in the morning, and Pixar Pier and Avengers Campus are worth saving for after sunset.
We kept our room at the Hilton Los Angeles/Universal City and drove down to Anaheim for the day. If you’d rather not make the drive, there are plenty of hotels within walking distance of the parks.
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Trader Sam’s Enchanted Tiki Bar at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim, California, is one of the best-known tiki bars in the Disney world, with themed cocktails, collectible tiki mugs and plenty of in-room effects that go off when certain drinks are ordered.
The photos show some of the drinks and mugs from this visit, along with the bar’s packed-in decor of masks, carvings and nautical props.
Trader Sam’s is small and popular, so expect a wait in the evenings; arriving when it opens or mid-afternoon is usually the easiest way to get a seat. It’s a short walk from Downtown Disney and the park entrances.
More from that day: a day at Disneyland and Disney California Adventure.
If a trip to a tiki bar gets you hooked, here’s what we’d start with for a home bar. The full list is on our Tiki Bar Gear page.
Oga’s Cantina is the bar in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland Park in Anaheim, California, set in the village of Black Spire Outpost on the planet Batuu.
The cantina serves Star Wars-themed cocktails and non-alcoholic drinks in a dimly lit space with DJ R-3X spinning tunes overhead. These photos show the drinks and the bar’s interior from this visit.
Reservations are strongly recommended and can be booked through the Disneyland app; walk-up availability is limited, especially on busy days.
More from that day: a day at Disneyland and Disney California Adventure.
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A stop at Kahuna Tiki in the Los Angeles area for tropical drinks. The red cocktail pictured here comes topped with fruit and a paper umbrella, very much in the classic tiki tradition.
Southern California has a long tiki history going back to the mid-century Polynesian craze, and it’s still a great region for tiki bars today.
This stop was part of a summer trip to LA that also included Disneyland and Universal Studios Hollywood.
Earlier that day: a day at Universal Studios Hollywood.
If a trip to a tiki bar gets you hooked, here’s what we’d start with for a home bar. The full list is on our Tiki Bar Gear page.
Cafe Sierra at the Hilton Los Angeles/Universal City, right next to Universal Studios Hollywood, is known for its all-you-can-eat seafood buffet featuring king crab legs and lobster.
The photos show plates piled high with shellfish, along with some of the other buffet stations. It’s a convenient dinner option if you’re spending the day at Universal Studios or CityWalk.
Pricing and the seafood nights vary, so check the restaurant’s website (cafesierrala.com) for current details and reservations before you go.
At the Universal Hilton next to Universal Studios LA
https://www.cafesierrala.com
Update: Café Sierra at the Hilton Los Angeles/Universal City has since been renamed MERiNE. The next day we spent a full day at Universal Studios Hollywood.
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Back at The Golden Tiki in Las Vegas in December 2024, this time for the holiday season. The tiki bar sits on Spring Mountain Road in Chinatown, a short ride off the Strip, and is known for its over-the-top decor, strong tropical cocktails and late hours.
At Christmas the whole place gets a festive makeover: Santa hats on the shrunken heads, lights everywhere, and a dedicated holiday cocktail menu alongside the regular tiki list. (I also wrote up an earlier visit in November 2023.)
The bar is packed with skulls, carvings, pufferfish lamps and themed nooks – the photos and video below give a sense of the atmosphere, along with a few of the drinks.
The December 2024 holiday menu ran alongside the usual tiki classics. A few highlights:
Tips if you go: it gets busy on weekend nights, so reservations are worth making through the bar’s website, and the shareable Kuuipo pineapple and fishbowl drinks are built for groups. Prices and menus change, so check what’s on before you go.
More tiki: Kahuna Tiki in LA and my round-up of Disney bars and tiki lounges.
Planning a Vegas food trip? See Three Days of Eating in Las Vegas from our November 2023 visit.
If a trip to a tiki bar gets you hooked, here’s what we’d start with for a home bar. The full list is on our Tiki Bar Gear page.
This post has affiliate links. If you book through them, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Learn more.
Five days in Orlando in September 2024, split between Universal and Disney: shrimp at CityWalk, an all-you-can-eat lobster dinner, tiki drinks at Trader Sam’s, Iron Chef Morimoto’s Disney Springs restaurant, the Hogwarts Express and a Portillo’s stop on the way out.
We started at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. at Universal CityWalk with a cold beer, a bucket of peel-and-eat shrimp and a shrimp plate with rice. Afterwards we found a huge scale model of a theme park on display at CityWalk.
Dinner was the all-you-can-eat Boston Lobster Feast on the Kissimmee side of town, with whole Maine lobster and snow crab legs.
A lighter day: flatbread pizza and wings at CityWalk.
In the afternoon we went to Trader Sam’s Grog Grotto at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort. It’s a tiny, packed tiki bar with carved figures everywhere and a porthole window effect, and the drinks come in collectible mugs and a glowing nautilus.
Dinner was Morimoto Asia at Disney Springs, Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto’s pan-Asian restaurant. We had shumai, sushi rolls with tempura shrimp, lettuce cups, crispy glazed wings and a bowl of ramen.
Our last morning was at Universal Studios Florida, starting on the London street with its red phone box and then riding the Hogwarts Express to Hogsmeade. Lunch in the park was a burger with curly fries.
On the way out we stopped at Portillo’s for an Italian beef and a Chicago-style hot dog.
We stayed at Loews Royal Pacific Resort at Universal Orlando. It’s a short walk or water taxi ride to CityWalk and the parks, and hotel guests get Universal Express Unlimited, which saves a lot of time in line.
See more tiki bars in our guide to Disney’s tiki bars.
Planning a visit? See our Trader Sam’s Grog Grotto guide for the walk-up list, hours and which drinks set off the effects.
A stop at Portillo’s during a September 2024 trip to Orlando.
Portillo’s started as a hot dog stand in the Chicago area in 1963 and is famous for Chicago-style hot dogs, Italian beef sandwiches and its chocolate cake. The chain has since expanded beyond Illinois, including several locations in Florida.
The photos show the meal, including the classic Portillo’s cup.
Portillo’s was our last stop of a September 2024 Orlando trip. See the whole trip in Five Days in Orlando.
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Trader Sam’s Grog Grotto at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort is Walt Disney World’s version of the famous Trader Sam’s tiki bar from the Disneyland Hotel.
Like the original, it serves themed cocktails in collectible tiki mugs, and ordering certain drinks sets off effects around the room. The photos show the bar’s sign along with drinks from this visit.
The Grog Grotto is small and fills up fast, especially in the evening. There’s also an outdoor area, Tiki Terrace, if you can’t get a seat inside.
More from inside the Grotto on the same visit. See the whole trip in Five Days in Orlando.
If a trip to a tiki bar gets you hooked, here’s what we’d start with for a home bar. The full list is on our Tiki Bar Gear page.
Planning a visit? See our Trader Sam’s Grog Grotto guide for the walk-up list, hours and which drinks set off the effects.
