Last Updated on November 7, 2022 by Suzy McCullough
I’m not entirely sure why but I was really starting to lack chocolate during our holiday to Florida. I am a self confessed chocoholic and I had been nagging my husband to take me to the Toothsome Chocolate Emporium & Savory feast kitchen at Universal’s City Walk since the very first time I spotted it across the water.
It is in a lovely looking building and reminds me of something out of Charlie and the chocolate factory, which is what I think they are aiming for. It looks truly magical and my son and myself just knew we had to visit. My husband wasn’t quite convinced and remains that way now. I made a massive mistake of being over whelmed by the menu and not actually choosing chocolate….read on for my review to find out more.
The Toothsome Chocolate Emporium & Savory Feast Kitchen Inside (and outside)
How amazing does this place look?
It’s located right next door to the Hard Rock Cafe and you can’t miss it stood across the water at Universal’s City Walk. It looks just as good at night as it does during the day.
It’s not just about the desserts though they do also serve savoury food. The portions, however, are enormous so if I were you I’d only go there for a dessert or a main course as I’m not sure you’d manage either.
When you walk in you arrive at the emporium’s shop. This is full of chocolate delights. Oh my goodness it was chocolate heaven. Some of the sweet delights on offer looked absolutely stunning, almost too good to eat. This made me ever hopeful of what was to come but sadly none of these products were on the menu inside the restaurant.
We hadn’t reserved a table in advance as there is no facility to do this online. I do believe you can reserve a table earlier during the day when you want to visit. We were lucky to get a table even by arriving early at 5:30 pm.
This meant that we had a very long wait and we had to wait in the busy reception area for at least 15 minutes. We were getting rather fed up however it was great fun watching all the dessert chefs at work (pictured below). Between them and the counters full of chocolates, we were soon salivating.
We also fell in love with their amazing milkshakes while we waited and vowed to have one once we were seated.
We were eventually greeted by a member of staff and taken upstairs to our table. It’s quite dark and atmospheric inside. There are some very large TV screens which are showing the ‘working mechanics’ of a chocolate factory. There is also a balcony which we sat next to and from here we could look down to the tables below.
They have ‘live entertainment’ coming around to all the tables. First, we had a lady dressed almost Victorian-like who came to talk to us. Later a man dressed up as a ‘Steampunk’ came to talk to us. He had the poshest English accent ever and it was quite funny talking to him in America. He talked to us for a long time and our son loved talking to him. My husband was in charge of taking a photo of him so apologies as it’s a little rubbish haha!.
We felt like it took an absolute age for our waiter to come to take our order. We were starting to get a little impatient. In fact, I’d go as so far to say that we had the worst service here of all of our holiday. The waiter was always slow to come to us, our food took forever and when it did come it didn’t come all at once.
My husband had almost finished eating his food before ours came. My son also had his milkshake a long time before I had mine. We actually didn’t tip which again wasn’t like us on our Florida holiday.
We had to wait so long for service and our food that we were actually brought a complimentary chocolate loaf. It was quite nice but a little strange. I noticed that there were a few other tables who were given one of these loaves.
The Menu – Savory Feast Kitchen
I will start with a quick look at the savory menu at the Toothsome chocolate emporium and Savory Feast Kitchen. They have a long list of appetizers/starters such as truffle fries, Philly cheesesteak rolls, kettle chip nachos and much more.
Then there was a choice of salads. Plus soups, flatbreads, burgers, sandwiches, pasta, entrees (main meals) and more. The choice was massive and there was plenty of choice for even the fussiest of eaters. My husband wasn’t in the mood for something sweet.
He chose to have the Brisket and Wild Mushroom Meatloaf. This came with roasted corn, crispy fried onions, Yukon Gold mashed potatoes and bordelaise sauce. He loved it and I’m sure if we had returned he would have had it again.
They also have a separate kid’s menu. Our son didn’t have anything from this though as he chose to have a milkshake with cake instead. He also shared some of my dessert although like me he wasn’t a massive fan of it.
The Milkshakes at the Toothsome Chocolate Emporium
After drooling at the milkshakes while waiting downstairs myself and my son had pretty much decided that we were having one no matter what. But oh my goodness were they expensive. You can see what they have on offer in their milkshake and dessert menu. They are huge and yes most come with a cake however I’m not sure they are worth this much money.
As I had come for a dessert yet I still wanted a milkshake I chose the Heavenly hazelnut milkshake as it didn’t include a cake. It was made with Nutella ice cream, hazelnuts, Nutella, cocoa powder and fresh whipped cream.
Oh, my goodness was it sickly. I really struggled to drink it. I just didn’t like the flavour at all. My husband, however, loved it and just about polished it off for me. I was feeling quite disappointed by now and there was still no sign of my dessert.
Our 4-year-old chose the sprinkles milkshake. It was a whole meal in itself. There was a slice of cake on top, cream covered in sprinkles and a strawberry milkshake that was packed with ice cream. He was very insistent that this was what he was having after seeing it displayed downstairs.
He loved it and perhaps managed about half of it before giving up. The milkshake was more for eating with a spoon than sucking up through a straw.
The Desserts at the Toothsome Chocolate Emporium
I was actually quite surprised by the lack of chocolate on the sundae menu. After all isn’t it called the Toothsome chocolate emporium? They had around 8 sundaes to choose from and only around 4 of them had a bit of chocolate in them.
So after going to this restaurant to eat some chocolate, I ended up choosing a dessert without chocolate in it. My second love is peanuts so I chose the May contain nuts sundae. This contained Peanut butter ice cream, peanut brittle, Reese’s peanut butter cups, chocolate peanut butter pie, fresh whipped cream and peanut butter sauce, topped with Reese’s Pieces.
You know what it was just too peanuty! The dish just had one overwhelming flavour which of course is peanuts. It was actually a bit too much and could have done with some other flavours included.
So overall I was a little disappointed with our experience of the Toothsome Chocolate Emporium. The service could have been a lot better and I was disappointed with what I chose. There was nothing wrong with the quality of the food and my son and husband left happier than myself.
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For other restaurants we reviewed at Universal and Universal City Walk please see –
Cowfish Sushi Burger Bar at Universal’s City Walk Florida | A Review
Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. Universal Florida Review
Lombard’s Seafood Grille Universal Florida | A Review
Mythos at Islands of Adventure | Universal Florida | A Review
