Join Seth Kubersky, author of The Unofficial Guide to Universal Orlando, in a visit to the Leaky Cauldron at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter—Diagon Alley.
Nicely themed and modeled after the Leaky Cauldron in the Harry Potter books and films, this table-service restaurant is the flagship diner of Diagon Alley. A haunt of wizards, Leaky Cauldron was located outside The Wizarding World on Charing Cross Road in the novels and movies but is located inside Diagon Alley in the Universal Studios version. (You can find a nonopening replica of the pub door from the original film just outside Diagon Alley, tucked between the bookstore and record shop.) To get a sense of what the restaurant looks like, check out “Prisoner of Azkaban—The Leaky Cauldron” on youtube.com.
Meals are ordered and drinks received at a counter; then you are seated with a candlestick, which helps servers deliver food directly to your table.
The Leaky Cauldron serves hearty British pub fare similar to that of Three Broomsticks but with even more authentically Anglo favorites. You can reserve breakfast by booking through your travel agent or the Ticket Center at your Universal resort hotel; walk-ins for day guests are also usually available.
For breakfast, there is English bacon, black pudding, baked beans, and breakfast potatoes. The breakfast is fair at best; the blood sausage and beans aren’t bad if you have a taste for them, but the scrambled eggs are awful, and the oatmeal outrageously overpriced, making the quiche-like mushroom pasty your best bet. And yes, you can have hot or cold Butterbeer for breakfast.
If you want to eat breakfast here, buy it with the Quick Service Dining Plan for maximum value, and do it as late in the morning as possible; your early-entry time is better spent riding Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts.
Lunch and dinner selections feature bangers and mash, cottage pie, toad-in-the-hole, Guinness stew, fish-and-chips, shepherd’s pie, and a ploughman’s platter for two of Scotch eggs and imported cheeses.
The star of the lunch and dinner menu is the ploughman’s platter for two, with an array of gloriously stinky imported cheeses. The bangers are also bang on, whether ordered with mash, in a sandwich, or (best of all) baked into a toad-in-the-hole with Yorkshire pudding.
The fisherman’s pie we had was extremely salty, as was the Guinness stew, which comes served in a bread bowl. Top off your meal with chocolate or Butterbeer potted cream or sticky toffee pudding for dessert. Children’s menu items include macaroni and cheese, fish-and-chips, and mini meat pies (for your budding Sweeney Todd enthusiast).
The Leaky Cauldron serves two Harry Potter-themed specialty beers brewed by the Florida Beer Company. Try Wizard’s Brew, a heavy dark porter with chocolate notes, or Dragon Scale, a Vienna-style amber lager.
The Leaky Cauldron can be overwhelmed by Diagon Alley crowds. To avoid long waits, eat early or late.
If you enjoyed this post, sign up for our newsletter here. For more information on Universal Orlando and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, check out Seth Kubersky’s book The Unofficial Guide to Universal Orlando.
