FULL LUNCH REVIEW: Flora Taverna at Helios Grand Hotel at Epic Universe

Epic Universe is the BRAND-NEW theme park coming to Universal Orlando Resort, and it officially opens on May 22nd, 2025!

There are five different lands at this new park: SUPER NINTENDO WORLD, Harry Potter — Ministry of Magic, How To Train Your Dragon — Isle of Berk, Dark Universe, and Celestial Park, along with an in-park hotel, the Helios Grand. And now, we’re bringing you along for our review of Flora Taverna at this new hotel!

Background

Flora Taverna at the Helios Grand Hotel offers breakfast, lunch, and dinner, including a mix of Mediterranean comfort foods. Featuring an open kitchen, live cooking, a pizza oven, open grills, and a gyro station, the light and airy atmosphere is the perfect complement to any meal. Whether dining indoors or al fresco, you’ll have amazing views of Universal Epic Universe.

We were lucky enough to check this restaurant out, and we’re bringing you our FULL review!

Atmosphere

It really feels like you’ve been transported to the Mediterranean when you’re here! It’s light and airy with blue accents and florals, making this place live up to its name. The restaurant is open daily for all three meals:

• BREAKFAST: 7 AM to 11 AM
• LUNCH: 11:30 AM to 2 PM
• DINNER: 5 PM to 10 PM

This restaurant is gorgeous. The vibe is laid back and relaxing. There’s even a patio that overlooks the park (and the view is AMAZING!).

There’s a dining room indoors, seating outside, as well as a bar area that serves lighter food and drinks.

The bar has some gorgeous blue tile that really makes a statement against the light, natural wood shelves.

Here’s a peek at the lunch menu! This restaurant serves classic hummus, margherita pizza, fried chicken sandwiches, and more.

And here’s the other side! We’ve got our eyes on a few of these new menu items — how about you?

And now, onto the main event!

Food & Drinks

We couldn’t WAIT to eat here once we saw the menu, so let’s get to it! We’ll start the meal with some drinks, because, DUH.

We ordered the Spicy Melone, made with Patron Reposado, cantaloupe, hot honey syrup, lemon juice, and Grand Marnier. It’s available for $19.

We’re starting with a WINNER! This was by far our favorite drink at the restaurant — in fact, it could be one of our favorite drinks ever. This drink is essentially a spicy cantaloupe margarita. If that sounds like a weird combination to you, trust us; this is well balanced with a little bit of spice and a little bit of sweetness from the cantaloupe.

But don’t worry — it is not super spicy. We’ve had plenty of spicier margaritas, but this one was designed for a broader audience. Overall, this is a lovely little drink to sit and sip outside, and the flavors are perfectly balanced.

Up next is the Flora Southside with Ketel One, Tanqueray, strawberries, mint, strawberry & rose syrup, and lemon juice for $16. This is one of the prettiest drinks on the menu! Just look at that miniature rose — how cute!

This one isn’t too sweet — the flavor is nice — and we didn’t find it too syrupy. The rose was the prominent flavor here, and we got a nice, light strawberry flavor as well.

Finally, we tried the Mykonos Spritz for $16. This one is made with Campari, The Botanist Gin, lemon juice, cane syrup, and Lunetta Prosecco. Now, this was nice, but we felt that the balance was a little off. It is made with Campari, which are bitters, but combined with the lemon juice, cane syrup, and Prosecco…things felt a little off-kilter in terms of the flavor.

The lemon flavor was pretty prominent, but combined with the bitters, it was just a little too much for us. That said, it’s a beautiful drink, and if you like very very tart drinks (the kind that make you pucker your lips), this was made for you.

Flora Taverna has some lovely appetizers on the menu, and you KNOW we had to try a few! We’ll start with the bread service, which is freshly baked focaccia with Greek olive oil, sabra warm pita Za’atar, and olive oil for $3 per person.

Now, if you cannot live without a little bread while you wait for your meal, then we say this is worth ordering. That said, we probably wouldn’t insist on ordering the bread when there are so many other great appetizers on the menu.

The focaccia has a lovely rosemary flavor, and the dip had a rich olive oil and balsamic flavor that complemented the bread quite nicely. You could tell the olive oil was the high-quality stuff, not your grocery store oil. We thought the ratio of bread to oil was perfect, too.

Now, some of these starter menu items will be a little pricey, like the Fritto Misto, so be prepared. This dish is calamari, local Florida shrimp, local water fish, lemon, Calabrian chili, and gremolata aioli, available for $23.

This was very very good. As in maaaaybe the best calamari we’ve ever had. It wasn’t the slightest bit chewy at all. The calamari melted in our mouths. The seafood was buttery and delicious, with big, generous chunks of fish.

Speaking of fish, they were well-cooked and not too meaty or chewy. The batter on the calamari had a good flavor as well. The sauce was a tangy tartar sauce-type concoction that we had to practically restrain ourselves from inhaling. We can’t stop thinking about this dish. ORDER IT!

Move over, Wine Bar George! A new competitor has entered the arena. We also ordered the Saganaki, a pan-seared Halloumi Cheese, with honey, lemon peel, and toasted sesame for $17.

Now, as you may know, Halloumi cheese has a soft, bready texture, and ours was served warm. This was served in a pan with honey, and we truly enjoyed this dish. The honey added a nice sweetness to a light, mild cheese.

The toasted sesame was a great addition as well — from the nutty flavor to the crunchy texture, we were appreciative of the sesame seeds with our slices of cheese.

On to the entrees! We went with the Colorado Lamb Burger, made with mint yogurt sauce, organic feta cheese, wilted spinach, and artisanal brioche. The burger is on the pricey side at $28, so be prepared to pay a little more than you might at a quick-service restaurant.

This was an okay burger. The wilted spinach was mild without much flavor, but if you’re not a fan of spinach, know it’s easy to pick off. The feta cheese was soft and creamy (just how we like it!), and the meat patty was crispy on the edges yet soft and juicy on the inside. Now, that’s about where the compliments end. Let’s talk about the mint yogurt sauce. While the mint flavor was nice and light (not too minty), the texture became an odd consistency when combined with the other toppings.

The brioche bun was pretty standard as well. Our burger was served with seasoned steak fries. Honestly, we probably wouldn’t order this again. It wasn’t terrible, but it didn’t knock our socks off compared to our appetizers.

Next up is the Chicken Gyro for $22. The gyro is made with fresh pita, cucumber, tomato, shaved red onion, and tzatziki. Whew! This was nice and fresh — it was like a warm pocket of comfort food.

There was lots of meat and filling, and a generous dollop of tzatziki. Interestingly, this was served as a wrap, not folded like a taco, which made it a lot easier to eat. This one is also served with seasoned steak fries, and the seasoning was nice and salty.

Time for a bowl! We opted for the Hummus Bowl, featuring fresh pita, charred cauliflower, onions, Jubilee tomato, Greek olives, Persian cucumber, and a lemon oregano vinaigrette. This one is $22.

First of all, this was a beautiful dish. And not only that, but it was so great, we would come back to this restaurant specifically for this entrée. You get a pretty large serving that could be shared between two people. This came with a plain hummus that smelled (and tasted) nice and fresh. It was well-puréed, too, not too chunky or thick, making it easy to scoop onto the pita.

There were plenty of vegetables, including bell pepper, red onion, and cucumbers. Each topping was well-seasoned, making this a really special dish. If you’re a hummus and veggie person, you’re gonna love this. It made for the perfect light lunch on a warm day!

Finally, we got the Margherita Woodstone Oven Pizza with Fior di Latte mozzarella, San Marzano tomato, and crushed basil. The pizza had six slices and was a personal-size pizza (that could be shared) for $20. 

This is a menu item for picky eaters. It’s a pretty standard pizza with a wood-fired crust that was nice and crispy on the edges. The tomato sauce was pretty plain — we didn’t taste a lot of seasoning in the sauce, and could have used a little more sauce to moisten up a somewhat dry pizza. The fresh mozzarella and basil, while lovely, were somewhat lacking for us.

Overall, we really just wanted a little more sauce and a little more toppings, but this was a fine pizza that will be great for little ones and picky eaters.

Magic or Tragic

Do we recommend this restaurant? It depends. This may be a great option if:

• You’re looking for a laid-back atmosphere out of the sun — This restaurant has a BEAUTIFUL dining room with so many cozy, inviting details. It’s relaxing, laid-back, and provides a nice escape from the theme parks.
• You love Mediterranean food — The menu here is primarily Mediterranean food, with a focus on light, fresh ingredients and filling meals.

You may want to skip Flora Taverna if…

• You’re on a budget — A lot of the food here is over $20, so be prepared to pay a little extra for this meal.
• You’re dining with several picky eaters — While the food here isn’t too adventurous, there are some spicy, vegetable-forward dishes that might not appeal to a family with little ones.

We had a great time dining at this restaurant, and we’ll definitely be back for more! From the stunning views to the fresh, savory eats, we had a lovely time at this brand-new restaurant.

If you’re looking for a travel agent to help with your vacation, we recommend our friends at Mouse Fan Travel. They’re experts in the field with over 20 years of vacation planning experience, and they can help take a bunch of the stress out of the entire booking process for you!

We want to hear YOUR thoughts! Leave a review right here on AllEars for the restaurants you’ve been to so you can help out fellow Disney lovers planning their next trip!

In the meantime, we’ll be on the lookout for even more updates from Epic Universe and Universal Orlando. Make sure you stay tuned to AllEars for the latest Epic Universe and more theme park news!

Check out everything we know about Epic Universe right here!

Are you excited about the opening of Epic Universe? Tell us in the comments. 

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