Confisco Grille & Backwater Bar

Best Bloody Mary’s around. Been twice so far and James the bartender does not disappoint!

This place was not good at all. I was excited by the menu… but…food was awful.
I ordered the Tex Mex wrap… Chicken with corn, lettuce, tomato, a few other things on a chipotle wrap… I was anticipating a nice and spicy wrap. It had almost no flavor at all! And that was not even the biggest issue! It came out refrigerator cold! I think they pre made it and then just put it on the plate!
Shame on you! That was UNPROFESSIONAL!
The fries… equally flavorless…
Wifey’s pizza… edible…but not good…
Service? Slow… but they did remove wrap from our bill.
Never, ever go here…

Not sure about the food, but we stopped by the Backwater Bar to grab a drink. BIG MISTAKE!!! This place was WAY overpriced! I got a drink that has more than one kind of alcohol in it. They charge you full price PER ALCOHOL! For a drink with two different liquids, it was $ 15! I would hate to see what a Long Island would cost! NEVER AGAIN! At least you know how much alcohol goes in, since they measure it (sarcasm)!

It was fair at best. Overpriced. But what would you expect from a theme park? In all honesty the fajitas were so-​so

First the service was wonderful ! The food fantastic and the prices very reasonable. I would highly recommend eating here if your at Universal Studios.

This place was pretty cool. Stopped in on a whim when we were visiting universal. We had made reservations at Finnegans bar and grill but there was only a 10 minute wait at confisco so we tried that instead.
Spinach dip appetizer was really good! It comes with garlic bread as the dipping bread. I would recommend that as well as the nachos. The nachos come with standard beef on top, but we ordered chicken and steak on top also– (be sure to ask how much the extra meat is because I don’t remember exactly, but I remember saying it wasn’t really worth it and we could have done without). Service was pretty slow. Our drinks came out when the food came out (10 – 15 min later). It also took our waitress a while to bring back our check and to-​go cups.
If it wasn’t for the slow service, I would have given this place 5 stars. The waitress blamed the slow service on it having been so packed. She said the past couple of days were slow so they sent most of the waiters home, and they weren’t expecting such heavy volume that day– (this was definitely a lie because the place wasn’t THAT packed).
Nonetheless, food and drinks were very good. I would visit again!

Really fresh ingredients we ordered the spinach artichoke dip for an appetizer it was amazing. Bloody Mary was spicy and good! The oven baked margarita pizza was five star perfect! The French dip sandwich really good but I would prefer a harder crusty roll they used a softer bread. The pasta was really good the sauce on the pasta was amazing! And our waitress Joy was so friendly and happy the service was amazing. It wasn’t a very crowded day so it it was really nice.

Gross! Three of us ordered the pizza and they tasted like cheap freezer section brand. The food came out cold and was very bland. Won’t be coming back to this place again.
The only thing going for this place is that it’s not as expensive as other places in the surrounding area. If you are trying to find a place to eat for adults then don’t stop here.

Slooooooow service. Staff is friendly but seems that universal forgot to staff for the season. Food was good.

On my most recent visit to Universal I stopped by the Backwater Bar for a beer with my husband. This is one of the locations inside Universal that has more bottled beers than all of the other locations. Service was a little slow at 4pm on a Sunday, an hour before the park closed due to Halloween Horror Nights, so that might have been why they were so busy.
Our server, Regina I think, was polite and quick with our beers once it was our turn for an order. The bar area is small, but there were table seats in this area as well (though no table service). It was hard for those not sitting at the bar to get served since there was no open area, they were over our shoulders ordering.

Service was wonderful! From the moment I walked through the doors I was greeted by big smiles and «yes» to every thing I asked. I knew I was going to like this restaurant.
The waiter suggested a drink for me (rum runner) and it did not disappoint me. Husbands Bloody Mary was equally good.
The hummus presentation was impressive. It tasted so good.
The pulled pork sandwich with peach bbq sauce was yummy. (corn looked a little overdone and challah roll did not resemble any challah I have ever had.)
*Thank you to our waiter for suggesting our son first try sauce before ordering. Great idea!
Our Greek salads were good (needs a few more fresh tomatoes and cucumbers). But still tasted good.
Service really made this a good experience.
Burger was big and hit the spot.
Next time, I might just order drinks and hummus and eat tapas style.

I actually really like this place. Located in Island of Adventures we were looking for a location we could cool off and get a good lunch that wasn’t heavy with fried food. I really liked our fajitas and our shrimp appetizer was great. It was also a sit down service, which most places here are fast food serve and go or order pick up lunch tray style. This place is good to have service, but the service was slow, so it took a longer portion out of our time since we had to wait so long for everything. I did like that the food was light and it didn’t cause me to feel yucky.

Had the black and bleu burger which was amazing! The fire roasted tomato that was on the burger was a nice addition vs the old regular tomato slice.
My husband had the Confisco burger which was huge! He also loved it. Service was fast and friendly. Price wasn’t bad at all for a sit down, air conditioned place to eat at the entrance going into Universal.
We will definitely come back here again.

We were starving and in need of a break from the rain and the heat. We settled on this place after perusing the menu. We had the sweetest waitress who made this a great dining experience. The food was priced fair, but it just didn’t taste good. I ordered a Caesar salad that came with wilted lettuce and watery dressing. My s.o. had a burger. He said it was ok, but noting special. The pita bread with the sun dried tomato butter was alright. It wasn’t the best food, but again the service made up for it. She was helpful, kind, and quite humorous. I would stop in for drinks only just to chat with her!

This is my second time eating here, but it’s been a while since my first time. Still solid food and a decent value, especially for s theme park.
We ordered an appetizer of «shrimp-​scargot» which is shrimp in a butter sauce with melted Italian cheese and bread for dipping. The food was good, the funny if somewhat disappointing part is that the dish it’s served in is for deviled eggs, with the little bowls. Of course you can’t see that when the dish is covered in cheese. Plus it’s served with two tiny pieces of bread that you need to tear into smaller pieces to avoid running out. It was tasty though so that was nice.
The pepperoni pizza here is a step above theme park pizza in that the dough has actual flavor and chew and the sauce is seasoned pretty well too. Is it going to win awards? No. But it’s not bad, and that’s just fine.
Special shout out to Robb our waiter, who was just so pleasant to work with.

Had a great time in Universal Orlando, FL. The Confisco Grille was ok, nothing that set me over the top and no «wow» factor. Just can’t beat the fajitas in Texas, so the level was already set pretty high for them. Our server was amazing! she was super nice and very attentive. The place was busy for lunch. In spite of having a reservation, that I set months in advance, and arriving 15 min early… I still had to wait half an hour to be sat. They give a 10% discount when using an Amex, (this is also confirmed in other review here) however I did not receive mine. All and all, my experience was just A-​OK.

Shot of Fireball.
Generous pour.
Super friendly and sweet bartender.
Enough said!

They were completely unequipped to accommodate the Christmastime + weekend rush. There were tables empty but no servers to handle them so we had to wait 40 minutes to sit down.
Once seated, it took over 40 minutes for our entire order to arrive. Everything was bland and some of it was cold — literally the worst meals we had at Universal. We didn’t bother to complain because we were worried they would make us wait another hour to replace the orders.

Wishing I had read the reviews on Unilocal before coming here. We came in waited 10 minutes for a table and that’s no big deal. We have been sitting here 10 minutes for the waitress to show up. Make a quick order and my beer glass is filthy. Waited 5 minutes for the waitress to come back and get me another one.
There are a lot of empty tables and it’s 2 PM so it’s not really busy.

3.5 stars overall. Right between Marvel and Dr. Seuss land, near the entrance of the park. Not many choices for restaurants in Universal IOA but I’d recommend this as an option. Especially if you’re sick of the fast food options at parks that have limited menus and want something that tastes a little more fresh (=
FOOD:
Complimentary Chips and Salsa: Standard, but nice to munch on while you wait!
Fajitas (3.5 stars): The chicken was white meat and juicy. Not authentic Mexican but a good option. Better then all the junk food in the park.
We had vegetarians in our group and they didn’t have trouble finding food options here. They are open to customizing dishes for you.
They also have a bar!
SERVICE:
Great service (5 stars). Nice place to sit and rest and get away from the crowd. Petty big restaurant and they have a patio too. We had a big group of 10 and they got all our orders and special requests right.
I’d call Universal dining to make a reservation. We had a big group so I couldn’t find a reservation online but when I called they were able to make it happen! The other restaurant in this park is Mythos, didn’t get to try it but you’ll definitely need reservations for that as well. It’s located more inside the park (half way to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter) so it could be a better option if you don’t plan on being near the beginning of the park when it’s time to eat.