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When you love the Harry Potter books and movies (and who doesn’t?) then visiting the Universal Orlando Resort is a real treat. That is because the Universal Orlando Resort is home to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter!
Both of their theme parks (Islands of Adventures and Universal Studios) have dedicated sections to the Harry Potter verse. At Islands of Adventure, you get to step into a wonderfully recreated Hogsmeade area.
This section is where you’ll find the famous castle that is home to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Universal Studios, on the other hand, is where you’ll find Diagon Alley.
Both Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios have a restaurant in their Harry Potter section. Islands of Adventure has Three Broomsticks and Universal Studios has the Leaky Cauldron. You may recognize both of these from the books and movies.
If you are visiting the Universal Orlando Resort, I recommend trying both restaurants. I have loved every experience I’ve ever had at both. We reviewed breakfast at Three Broomsticks here and reviewed breakfast at Leaky Cauldron here.
It is a really neat experience to visit both. They’ve done a great job recreating both restaurants/pubs so that you get to feel like you’ve walked into Harry Potter universe.
But let’s say you only have time to visit one restaurant. Which one should you choose? Well, let me compare each side by side and see which one is the best for you!
Park
Now, since each restaurant is in a different park, this may go into your decision on which restaurant to go to. If you are say only going to Universal Orlando for a day you may decide to go to only one park. That does save you money on Universal tickets.
But which park you want to visit very much depends on your personal tastes and preferences. For example, Islands of Adventure has a Jurassic Park section and a Marvel superhero section. If you are a big fan of either franchise (or both), then that may make you want to visit Islands of Adventures. Islands of Adventures also is home to two newer roller coasters that are quite popular in the Jurassic World VelociCoaster and Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure. If all of this is appealing to you, you’ll want to go to Islands of Adventures and in this case, you can eat at Three Broomsticks.
For me personally, I’ve always liked Universal Studios better. But this may be in part sentimental for me. This is the only park they had when I was a kid and I visited so I like it for the nostalgic reason. But there are a lot of other reasons to love this park too, like if say you love the Mummy ride. I also like it for the shows, like the Bourne Spectacular stunt show, the Blues Brothers show, and Horror Make-Up Show.
And depending on when you visit the park you might want to visit Universal Studios over Islands of Adventure because Universal Studios is where they have the Mardi Gras parade in the spring and the Christmas parade during the winter. If all of this is more your wheelhouse, you’ll want to go to Universal Studios and therefore eat at Leaky Cauldron.
Oh, and one other thing. If you’ve always wanted to experience what it was like to see Hogwarts up close, then you should pick Islands of Adventure.
But at any rate, again, these are all preferences. So I think of this as a tie.
Winner: Draw
Atmosphere & Views
Both restaurants do an outstanding job of creating the right atmosphere for the restaurant. It really does have the look and feel of what you would expect from reading the books and watching the movies.
The servers get in the act too and make the experience even better by staying in character. There are all kinds of small details scattered throughout the restaurant. There’s even a Sirius Black “Have You Seen This Wizard?” picture up at Leaky Cauldron.
And Three Broomsticks is set up to look like it is an inn, too.
But Three Broomsticks has one advantage over Leaky Cauldron. An advantage, that is, if you like eating outside. Because if you do, you get some incredible views! Depending on where you sit, you can actually see Hogwarts from your seat!
There are also seats where you can see (and hear) the Velocicoaster go by.
Now, this does admittedly take you a bit out of feeling like you are actually in Hogsmeade. So this may be a disadvantage for you (in this case, you could stay inside). But it is neat to see and hear and exciting.
At any rate, you definitely have more options at Three Broomsticks.
Winner: Three Broomsticks
Menu Variety
As you might expect if you are familiar with Harry Potter, both menus are very influenced by traditional English cuisine. For example, for lunch and dinner, both offer fish and chips.
I’ve had fish and chips at both and they are basically the same. Very good, but the same.
Both have Butterbeer, which as a Harry Potter fan you have to try.
You also have to try if you’re not a Harry Potter. It’s really good and non-alcoholic so your whole family can try it.
The menus have some differences but again are still heavily British. For example, the Leaky Cauldron has a Fisherman’s Pie and Cottage Pie. Three Broomsticks has Shepherd’s Pie and Mushroom Pie.
By the way, we really like the Fisherman’s Pie with the salad at Leaky Cauldron.
We also like the Beef Pasties with a salad at Three Broomsticks.
But I think the Leaky Cauldron has the best menu. It has more options (as in twelve entrees versus eight entrees). Leaky Cauldron has more options too if you have anyone in your group who is an American that is not adventurous enough to try a British dish they are not familiar with. We have someone like that in our family who tends to only like food he’s familiar with and he was able to order a chicken sandwich because they have a few sandwich options available at Leaky Cauldron. They don’t have any sandwich options at Three Broomsticks.
So if you want to make sure you go to a restaurant with a menu large enough to accommodate your whole family or party, then Leaky Cauldron is a better choice.
Winner: Leaky Cauldron
Food Quality
Now, let me start by saying that obviously, I cannot guarantee food quality. What I mean by that is that even the best restaurants can have a bad day. So you could have a different experience than my family.
But I’ve eaten at both restaurants multiple times. And I can confidently say that the food quality at Leaky Cauldron was definitely overall better. More than once at Three Broomsticks, multiple family members would order the same exact item. And one person would get a worse version of the menu item, whether it was pancakes at breakfast or the fish and chips at dinner.
Speaking of the fish and chips, last time I went, one of our orders was really good and tender fish. The other was really hard to eat, burnt, and was not nearly as good (I ended up splitting my order with my other family member so we could at least both get the good fish). Since this has happened with our food at Three Broomsticks happened multiple times, it seems like more than a coincidence. Now, again, this could end up happening at the Leaky Cauldron and may have before. But I can definitely say it has happened at Three Broomsticks and for that reason, I give the nod to Leaky Cauldron.
Winner: Leaky Cauldron
Conclusion
There is truthfully not a lot of difference between Three Broomsticks and The Leaky Cauldron. They are both wonderful adaptations of the restaurants from the Harry Potter books and movies. The main advantage of Three Broomsticks is the great views of Hogwarts if you eat outside. The main advantage of The Leaky Cauldron is a more extensive menu and more consistent food quality. But a lot of your decision may come down to which park you want to visit more: Islands of Adventure or Universal Studios.
No matter what you choose, though, you will need tickets for Universal Studios. And you can get discounted Universal Orlando tickets here.