Universal Dining: Islands Dining Room BREAKFAST at Loews Royal Pacific Resort

For this edition of Universal Dining we are heading over to Loews Royal Pacific Resort. The Royal Pacific is one of Universal’s three Premier Hotels (along with Hard Rock Hotel and Loews Portofino Bay Hotel) and is located within walking distance to Universal CityWalk. The South Pacific theming starts when you first arrive onsite, with one of my favorite walks to the front door of any hotel.

The covered bridge leading to the entrance of Royal Pacific is lined with frogs, a recurring theme throughout the resort.

One thing to note, you don’t have to be staying at one of the Universal hotels to dine on property. All you have to do is park your vehicle in the self-parking lot and get your parking ticket validated after your meal. This was a stark contrast compared to an experience trying to dine at a Disney hotel just weeks earlier. There, I was essentially told to “get lost” by the security guard, despite hundreds of open parking spaces nearby.

The main lobby area at Royal Pacific is my favorite of any Universal hotel. I love stepping outside to the courtyard to check out the water feature.

Ok so once we go back inside the Royal Pacific lobby, you then head downstairs.

Here you will find a check-in desk situated between Islands Dining Room and Jake’s American Bar. To book reservations for Islands Dining Room, the Universal app will link directly you to the RESY site, or you can also use OpenTable as well.

Islands Dining Room menus are posted outside the restaurant. The venue is open for breakfast and dinner. For breakfast you can either order the buffet option, or off the à la carte menu. Hours are M-F 7AM – 11AM and weekends 7AM-Noon.

Let’s head on in!

The seating area inside Islands Dining Room is surprisingly large with multiple side rooms.

As you can see there is some more whimsical frog theming.

Islands Dining Room is the main table service restaurant for Royal Pacific. Despite being located directly next to the main pool area, inside you would have no idea as it is very quiet.

Off the à la carte menu we ordered the Tahitian French Toast L’Orange. This item is one of my favorite breakfast foods at any restaurant. It is amazing. The French toast is topped with caramelized bananas and cinnamon butter and it somehow tastes even better than that sounds.

We also got a Pacifica Fruit Platter.

Ok, let’s head into the buffet area. The buffet is $29 for adults and $16 for kids 3-9.

There are a lot of options here.

All the breakfast staples are represented, including pancakes, eggs, bacon, sausage.

There is an omelet station to make customized orders.

The biscuits are small, soft, and tasty, unlike many breakfast buffets that have biscuits that are hard as a rock.

I’m a “carb guy,” so you can imagine my thoughts when seeing a well appointed pastry area like this.

I don’t recall being at too many theme park hotel breakfast buffets that include a bagel slicer.

Across from the pastries you’ll find a collection of cold meats, cheeses, and various other items.

CINNAMON ROLLS! These were cooked perfectly, nice and moist with a crackle at the edges.

There’s plenty of options available for you weirdoes perfectly sane people who prefer to eat healthy on vacation too.

Coffee and juices are available, but don’t sleep on the bottomless Bloody Marys and Mimosas.

Overall Thoughts: Breakfast at Islands Dining Room is one of the best breakfast options in all of the Universal Orlando Resort. The buffet is loaded with great items, is reasonably priced (and will honor Universal Annual Pass discounts), and the setting itself is relaxing with the Royal Pacific islands background music playing as you eat. After the meal was over, we just went back to the check-in desk and the Team Member there validated our parking. Couldn’t have been easier.

 

Islands Dining Room is also open for dinner daily from 6PM-10PM. There is no dinner buffet, only made to order dishes sold à la carte. Here’s some items from that menu.

On Friday and Saturday evenings, Islands Dining Room offers The Wok Experience in addition to its regular à la carte dinner menu.

The Wok Experience is – in my opinion – one of the absolute overall meals at Universal. Seeing the menu on the outside wall of  the Islands Dining Room had me feeling like…