It’s finally happened! The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando Resort has added vegan options in several locations. One of the most exciting (to me!) is at the Leaky Cauldron in Diagon Alley at Universal Studios Florida.
I had never eaten in here until they added a vegan as is option on the menu, and boy did I feel like I had been transported into the film with this restaurant. They currently offer both mobile and in person ordering for this location. Once you order you will be led to a table then served your meal.
There are two vegan options available during the day here, the Shepherds Pasty Pie and the Irish Stew. Both are delicious, UK style, hearty meals. So let’s dive in!
Our favorite of the meal was the Shepherds Pasty Pie. This features a large pastry filled with vegan beef crumbles and a veggie stew including peas and carrots. It comes with a creamy stone ground mustard dipping sauce, wedge potatoes, and a beet and apple salad.
Literally everything on this plate was delicious. The pasty pie was fluffy and crispy in all the right places. The inside was full of the vegan crumbles and stew. It had a nice flavor and the texture worked well in it. When dipped into the creamy mustard sauce it was taken to a whole other level. The mustard was similar to dijon and offered a great tang to this.
The sides were also equally delicious. The wedge potatoes were well seasoned and cooked perfectly. You can also get these as just a side if you’re looking for a little potato snack. But dipping the wedges into the mustard was the move! The apple and beet salad was a nice addition as well. The apples helped with the strong earthiness of the beets. It was a nice refreshing veggie side.
This whole entree was absolutely delicious and I’ve already had it twice again since. But if you don’t want to do the whole sit down (technically a counter service) experience to try this, you can find just the hand pie in it’s mini form at the Kings Cross Station (not express pass queue!) or from the Magic Neep in Hogsmeade. It’s the same pie, but I’m telling you the mustard takes it to another level! Plus the little one is only $6 cheaper than the full meal.
The other vegan entree here is the Irish Stew. This dish features vegan beef tips in a potato based stew. It comes with a side salad and bread. While the stew appeared to be slimey, it wasn’t at all.
The flavors of the stew brought me back to Thanksgiving, which is a common style of food in the UK (so says my UK friends) to be enjoyed on Sundays. The flavors were heavy with rosemary and thyme. We only got 5 chunks of the beefless tips, so I would have preferred to have some more of those. The bites with the beefless tips and the stew were really great.
The bread was pretty dry. We tried to dunk it in the stew but it barely helped. It could have just been a bad day for that bread though. The side salad was nothing exciting, and in all honesty we barely touched it between the stew and the Pasty Pie dish. This dish was good, but I don’t think I would be able to enjoy it during the summer months.
Both dishes were unique and absolutely delicious. The Shepherds Pasty Pie is my current theme park obsession. I highly recommend trying it on your next visit to Universal Orlando Resort! Also be sure to check out the Universal Orlando Vegans page for a list of all the vegan options over there.
