Hard Rock Cafe at Universal CityWalk: A History of Rock 'n' Roll Immersion

The Hard Rock Cafe Orlando at Universal CityWalk is more than just a restaurant; it's an immersive experience that blends classic American cuisine with a vibrant rock 'n' roll atmosphere. As the largest Hard Rock Cafe in the world, it boasts an unparalleled collection of music memorabilia, a live concert venue, and a history deeply intertwined with the evolution of Universal Orlando Resort.

A Rocking Location

Located at Universal CityWalk Orlando, the Hard Rock Cafe is easily accessible from both Universal Studios Florida and Islands of Adventure. Parking is available in the Universal Orlando parking garage, and covered moving walkways transport guests to CityWalk.

Hours of Operation:The Hard Rock Cafe Orlando is open seven days a week, from 11:00 AM to 12:00 AM.

Reservations are available.

Theming and Atmosphere

Prepare to be surrounded by legendary rockstar vibes. This energetic - and, at times, loud - venue delivers the full rock-‘n-roll dining experience, complete with reverberant tunes, stained glass windows, and multiple levels of music history. Decorated with an impressive amount of memorabilia and stylish artwork, Hard Rock Cafe Orlando presents a fun and casual atmosphere while simultaneously resonating with your inner VIP.

A History of Rock at Universal Orlando

Hard Rock Cafe has been a staple of Universal Orlando for over 30 years. The original Hard Rock Cafe Orlando actually predates the theme park it was attached to by some two months, opening in April 1990. This first restaurant in Orlando (and, indeed, in all of Florida) was already the biggest the company had yet devised, and it featured an audacious, eye-catching design.

The Original Hard Rock Cafe: Design and Location

When it first opened its doors in early 1990, the Hard Rock Café in Orlando was the 13th entry in the chain’s collection (there are today 185), but it was the first to be built from the ground up; all of its predecessors, starting with the very first one in London back in 1971, were retrofitted into existing buildings. This allowed the company a great deal of latitude for its design and aesthetics, and it was an opportunity that it certainly didn’t let go to waste. The first detail that one would notice when approaching the venue was its elevated nature - it was situated on a giant platform that stretched over two roads that ran alongside Universal Studios Florida. When seen from above, this platform resembled a giant guitar (a visual motif that Hard Rock has played with countless times since at a number of its other cafes, casinos, and hotels), with a 300-foot-long neck that doubled as an elongated entrance to the restaurant. This section was covered with a roof that was outfitted with neon and fiber-optic strands, to double as massive guitar strings, and it was topped off at the end with a guitar head that sprouted giant silver turning keys, just to complete the illusion.

The restaurant itself was contained in a Renaissance Revival-style building that some have compared to Graceland, Elvis Presley’s Memphis mansion, and which seated four times as many customers as the original Hard Rock did. It sprawled across three stories, with the ground floor housing the obligatory gift shop - which was outfitted with bricks that were taken from the Liverpool club where the Beatles first performed - and employee-only areas, such as the kitchen; the next two levels were where patrons dined.

It is here that many splendid flourishes were contained, and guests who have made their way to the current CityWalk digs will recognize their influence, if not their actual presence, at the new premises. The venue’s bar was constructed out of red cherry wood, as an homage to an iconic guitar once given to the chain by Charlie Daniels, and the space was dominated by three two-story stained-glass windows that were devoted to three different legends of rock ‘n’ roll: Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, and, of course, Elvis Presley. A private-function room brandished some serious historical firepower, including a mantelpiece carved in Scotland in 1820 and other woodwork that hailed from a New England mansion that was built in 1895. And running throughout it all, of course, was a plethora of music and movie memorabilia, highlighted by a KGB uniform from the Moscow Music Peace Festival, John Lennon’s handwritten lyrics to his legendary song “Imagine,” and the I Dream of Jeannie costume worn by Barbara Eden.

The finishing touch, however, was a large dome, themed to look like a globe, that was affixed on the roof and which stood some 65 feet above the ground. (At night, it was lit up so that it could be seen for miles around.) Its underside, seen back inside the café, brandished a giant rounded mural, containing such legendary figures as Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, positioned above all of the patrons as they ate and drank and rocked out. (Oh, we can’t forget the giant 1959 Cadillac positioned over the building’s doorway, which, yes, was already a Hard Rock trademark even back then.)

As impressive as all of that was, it was the original Hard Rock Café Orlando’s location that truly made it something special. When the partnership between Universal and Hard Rock first came about, the company’s president at the time, Robert Earl, was given a choice of locations for the café - inside of Universal Studios Florida, where park-goers could get the chance to chow down, or just outside of the theme park, where all the rest of the City Beautiful’s residents and tourists could get easy access. Earl opted for an unforeseen third option: he chose them both. The result was a building that would literally straddle Universal Studios’s boundary, featuring one entrance for park guests and another for everyone else, at a price tag of $5 million - a massive sum of money for just one building at the time.

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On the Universal side of Hard Rock, a simple gated entranceway was erected to stamp the hands of everyone who wanted to leave the park and eat at the Kingdom of Rock. They would first enter a simple plaza that was designed to look like a record from the air, replete with a central torch that served as the record player’s central spindle; a flight of steps on either side of the area lead to Hard Rock Café’s elevated guitar-shaped platform, which would deposit guests at the “bottom” of the giant musical instrument so they could make their way to the restaurant. All the way on the other side was, of course, where the guitar’s neck came into play, doing double duty as the bridge that linked the restaurant to Universal Studios Florida’s mammoth original parking lot (a stair case here would have patrons entering just “below” the guitar’s head). It is actually this section of the structure that served as the inspiration for the overarching guitar shape - Hard Rock President Earl rejected the initial proposals of a normal, pedestrian (excuse the pun) bridge and asked his team to come up with something that was far more intriguing.

The presence of Hard Rock, generally, and its in-the-air location, specifically, added a desperately-needed flair to Universal’s fledgling theme park, helping it to stand out from Walt Disney World Resort and its at-the-time three theme parks (not to mention its Buena Vista Marketplace district). And not only that, it also started a blending-of-the-boundaries approach that Universal has continued to play with to this day: Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit was originally designed to have an entranceway unto CityWalk (thereby allowing those guests without a theme-park ticket to pay a small fee for just a quick ride); the now-famous Hogwarts Express links two different parks together into one seamless themed experience; and, perhaps ironically, when the new CityWalk location of the new Hard Rock Café first opened in December 1998, it also boasted a temporary entrance directly from Universal Studios Florida (which was possible because the section of the park that used to butt up against the restaurant has since itself been sliced off and rendered part of CityWalk, becoming home to the Blue Man Group).

The Rise of CityWalk and a New Hard Rock

Just as Universal Studios Florida kept becoming more successful as the 1990s wore on, so, too, did Hard Rock Café Orlando, bringing in more than $45 million a year by the time ’97 rolled around - making it literally one of the most successful restaurants in the entire world. As such, when Universal started planning its CityWalk expansion, it seems that it was a no-brainer for Hard Rock to sign on, brainstorming a brand-new venue that was even bigger and which included the attached Hard Rock Live, the company’s only live performance venue (which seats some 3,000 people).

The original, guitar-shaped location was closed for good in December 1998, exactly when its replacement was ready to welcome its first customers - the company, apparently, didn’t want to miss a beat. Universal didn’t, either, demolishing the hand-stamp gate and its record plaza almost right away; it was in the process of expanding its little kiddie corner of the park, officially christening it Woody Woodpecker’s KidZone the following year. Despite all this, however, the main building itself would continue to stand, even after it similarly lost its guitar-neck bridge (thanks to ongoing construction, this time for Hard Rock Hotel, which opened in 2000). It wouldn’t be until 13 long years after closing that the cafe would finally get torn down, with some believing that Universal used the structure for storage during the intervening time (and with it becoming something of an unofficial photo-op for those guests using Hard Rock Hotel’s parking lot, since the restaurant was essentially sitting right on top of it). To be more exact, the death knell for the original structure came in September 2011, when the floats for the soon-to-debut Superstar Parade needed to use the back-of-house road that it still squatted over - they wouldn’t have been able to clear the platform.

Those who wish to pay their respects to the first Hard Rock Café Orlando’s site can still do so - just a small, curved portion of the old record plaza remains, tucked away behind Woody Woodpecker’s Nuthouse Coaster (guests are regularly routed this way during Halloween Horror Nights, to access one of the more out-of-the-way haunted houses).

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The Current Hard Rock Cafe: A Rock 'n' Roll Museum

Located at Universal Studios Orlando in the CityWalk entertainment complex, Hard Rock Cafe Orlando is the largest HRC in the world. The iconic restaurant boasts more pieces of rock 'n' roll memorabilia than any other location. Non-stop music videos play throughout the restaurant whose walls are adorned with an amazing collection of rock memorabilia including rare artifacts from KISS, Elvis, The Beatles, Bob Dylan and more.

Shaped like the Roman Coliseum, the two-story dining room is a massive museum of rock art memorabilia. If you are a fan of rock ’n’ roll records and memorabilia, it is here that you will find the biggest such collection on display anywhere in the Hard Rock chain. Ask at the check-in podium about free guided Vibe tours of the restaurant; if you’re lucky, you may get a glimpse of the VIP-only John Lennon Room upstairs. If you can do so, you won’t regret it. The John Lennon Room has items donated by Yoko Ono and furniture and memorabilia purchased by the Hard Rock. There is also plenty of Beatles memorabilia, including the signed airline menu from the flight The Beatles took from the United Kingdom to America, and the marriage certificate of John and Yoko. In the meantime you can see Jimi Hendrix’s Red Fender Mustang; clothes worn by legends such as James Brown, Elvis Presley, and Prince are all on display. There is even what is left of The Who’s Pete Townshend’s 1973 Gibson Les Paul custom guitar. The amazing CBGB room of the cafe pays tribute to the iconic New York City venue and features memorabilia of the Ramones, Pearl Jam, U2, and more. On the second floor discover memorabilia from Jimmy Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and many more, celebrating the Woodstock era. The King of Rock Elvis Presley also has a room on the second floor. The Florida room pays tribute to Florida’s famous bands and rock ’n’ roll artists such as Tom Petty, Jim Morrison, Casey and the Sunshine Band, Creed, and Jimmy Buffet.

Dining at the Hard Rock Cafe

The Hard Rock Cafe Orlando offers a diverse menu of classic American cuisine with a rock 'n' roll twist.

Starters & Shareables:* Margherita Flatbread

Pepperoni Flatbread
Wings (classic buffalo, sweet & spicy tangy, or house-made barbecue sauce)
Chicken Sliders
Jumbo Pretzel
Legendary Nachos
One Night in Bangkok Spicy Shrimp

Legendary Steak Burgers:*Original Legendary Burger

*BBQ Bacon Cheeseburger*The Vegendary Burger*Surf & Turf Burger

Smashed & Stacked:*The Classic Burger

*Swiss Mushroom Burger*Spicy Diablo Burger

Speciality Entrées:*Cowboy Ribeye

*Baby Back Ribs*New York Strip Steak*Famous Fajitas (Grilled Chicken, Grilled Steak, Duo Combo, or Veggie Fajitas)*Twisted Mac, Chicken, and Cheese*Smokehouse BBQ Combo*Grilled Salmon*Tupelo Chicken Platter

Salads & Bowls:*Grilled Caesar Salad

*Cobb Salad*Asian Noodle Bowl*Southwestern Bowl

Sandwiches:*Grilled Chicken Sandwich

*BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwich*Fried Chicken Sandwich*Buffalo Chicken Sandwich*Messi’s Golden Chicken Sandwich

Kids' Menu:*Cheese pizza

*Pepperoni pizza*Bacon Cheeseburger*Chicken Tenders*Mac & Cheese*Twisted ‘n Tasty Cavatappi Pasta*Hot Dog*Grilled Chicken Breast*Grilled Chicken House Salad

Kids’ Sides:*Fresh Fruit

*Fresh Vegetables*Seasoned Fries*Mashed Potatoes

Desserts:*New York Cheesecake

*Homemade Apple Cobbler*Ice Cream*Diner-Style Milkshakes*Hot Fudge Brownie

Signature Cocktails:*Hurricane

*Classic Caribbean Mojito*Passion Fruit Mai Tai*Rhythm & Rosé Mule*Bahama Mama*Southern Rock*Rockin’ Fresh Rita*Tropical Margarita*Electric Blues*Blackberry Sparkling Sangria*Purple Haze*Ultimate Long Island Iced Tea*Smoked Old Fashioned*Paloma*Dirty Martini*Cosmopolitan*Whiskey Sour*Gin & Tonic*Espresso Martini*Manhattan

Alternative Rock (alcohol-free):*Strawberry Basil Lemonade

*Mango Tango*Mango-Berry Cooler

Fountain Drinks:Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola Zero, Diet Coke, Sprite, Fanta Orange, Dr.

If you decide to dine, go for chicken and waffles and eggs Benedict at breakfast. Barbecue pork sandwiches, charbroiled burgers, barbecued ribs, grilled fajitas, New York strip steaks, hot fudge brownies, and milkshakes are the house specialities for lunch and dinner. Entrées range $10-$35. The best meals we’ve had here are when we order only appetizers or only desserts, and drinks. The entrées are average, and you’d be hard-pressed to differentiate them from anything you’d get at, say, Margaritaville.

Discounts

Hard Rock Cafe offers a 15% discount on food for Preferred and Premier Annual Pass holders and military personnel with ID; 10% AAA discounts also apply. You can sign up for a Hard Rock Rewards membership at members.hardrock.com to get additional offers and earn points on purchases (including alcohol).

Hard Rock Live

Attached to the Hard Rock Cafe is Hard Rock Live, a 3,000-person concert venue.

A Piece of History: The Berlin Wall

At Universal CityWalk Orlando, there’s a bit of history that’s not on any map: A segment of the Berlin Wall is hidden away behind the Hard Rock Cafe. Unlike most pieces of the Berlin Wall, this one has minimal graffiti art. And what’s there is almost gone, extremely faded. The music component to this piece is that Roger Waters of Pink Floyd, played directly in front of this piece of the wall.

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