We tried the Beyond Burger that Aquatica Orlando serves at Waterstone Grill, with a patty swap and a mac and cheese substitution. Also, we compared it to the plant-based picks at Universal Orlando Resort and Walt Disney World.

Aquatica Orlando doesn’t get talked about nearly as much as its SeaWorld sibling down the road, but for a water park it punches well above its weight when it comes to food options. Recently, we reviewed the Crispy Fish Sandwich at Aquatica Orlando. We came back to try the plant-based burger option at Waterstone Grill. Between the lazy river, the wave pool, and the water slides, guests need calories, and Waterstone Grill is one of the park’s main answers.

Today we’re putting the Beyond Burger substitution through its paces. Technically, this isn’t a standalone menu item. It’s a cheeseburger with a plant based patty swapped in at no additional charge, which is a nice touch for a park that isn’t exactly known as a vegetarian destination. We wanted to see whether that swap actually holds up once you’re dripping wet and hungry in the Florida heat.

Waterstone Grill: The Basics

Waterstone Grill sits near the center of Aquatica Orlando and functions as one of the park’s primary quick-service stops. It’s a counter-service setup with the usual theme park cadence: get in line, tell them what you want, pay at the register, and find a table under an umbrella before the Florida sun claims your fries. The menu leans heavily on burgers, chicken sandwiches, and combo baskets, which makes it a reasonable comparison point against the burger counters at Universal Orlando and Walt Disney World.

The standard cheeseburger here rings in at $18.29 before any discounts that may knock a bit off the total depending on what you’re carrying. That price gets you a burger and a choice of side (fries by default). It’s steep, but it’s about in line with what you’ll pay at comparable counter service windows across United Parks & Resorts’ theme parks these days.

Ordering the Beyond Burger Aquatica Orlando Version

Here’s where things get interesting. Waterstone Grill doesn’t market a dedicated “Beyond Burger” on the menu board. Instead, when you order the standard cheeseburger, you will need to ask to substitute a Beyond Burger patty at no additional charge. That’s a genuinely nice bit of flexibility. However, the Beyond Burger Aquatica Orlando sells does not come with lettuce, tomatoes. or pickles. That is a sharp contrast to the Zagora Cafe’s double cheeseburger at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay.

That’s right, if you’re expecting a garden on your bun, Waterstone Grill isn’t the place. Unlike its Busch Gardens counterpart, the burger here arrives with no lettuce, tomato, or pickle. If you want vegetables anywhere near your veggie patty, you’ll need to ask, and even then, don’t get your hopes up.

You’ll also be asked whether you want cheese added. We said yes, and got the standard variety you’ll find across most United Parks & Resorts properties (Aquatica, Busch Gardens, SeaWorld): a thin, orange, faintly plastic slice that melts into a uniform sheet rather than doing anything interesting. It’s not bad exactly. It’s just profoundly unremarkable, the culinary equivalent of beige carpet.

Bacon on a Beyond Burger? Yes, You Can Do That!

One more note from the ordering process: guests can add bacon to the Beyond Burger for an extra charge. We appreciate the audacity of offering bacon on a plant-based burger, though we imagine most actual vegans and vegetarians will take one look at that option and quietly reconsider their faith in humanity. For everyone else, hey, more bacon is rarely the wrong call. We write that all in good fun. We salute the option to add bacon regardless of what it says about the sincerity of anyone’s plant-based intentions.

For our order, we skipped the standard fries and substituted mac and cheese, a swap Waterstone Grill also allows without issue. More on that below, because it deserves its own paragraph of gentle disappointment.

The Beyond Burger Aquatica Orlando Review

Okay, so what did it look and taste like? The Beyond Burger patty at Waterstone Grill lands somewhere below what we’d consider the current standard for theme park plant-based patties. Universal Orlando’s and Walt Disney World’s plant-based burgers offer more value and flavor. In our experience, those theme parks have done a better job of nailing texture and masking the telltale alt-meat aftertaste. This patty didn’t quite get there.

The bigger issue is a lingering “burnt” or scorched flavor note that crept in after a few bites, a complaint we’ve heard from non-vegan diners specifically about Beyond Meat products in other settings, and one that showed up here too. It’s not that the patty tasted spoiled or off. It’s more that there’s an acrid, slightly charred aftertaste that clings to the back of your palate well after you’ve swallowed, and it’s distinct from the char you’d want from an actual flame grilled burger.

This raises a real question worth asking: does the Beyond Burger brand not translate as well to theme park-scale food service as other brands? Those brands seem to have carved out a smoother, more crowd-friendly flavor profile at quick-service volume, while Beyond’s product, at least as served here, leans into a flavor that reads as more polarizing. It’s speculation on our part, but it lines up with what we tasted, and with chatter we’ve seen elsewhere about Beyond Meat’s aftertaste being more noticeable than competitors’ in fast casual settings.

Bun-wise, nothing to report, standard theme park bun, does its job, gets out of the way. The cheese, as mentioned, was fine but forgettable. Overall, if you’re choosing a plant based burger purely on taste and you have options elsewhere in Orlando, this isn’t the one we’d steer you toward first.

The Mac and Cheese Side

We subbed in mac and cheese instead of fries, hoping for a change of pace. Unfortunately, it didn’t deliver. The mac and cheese here comes across as noticeably dry, without much sauce clinging to the noodles, and the cheese flavor itself is thin and one note rather than rich or sharp. It reads more like a side that exists to check a box on the menu than one built to be a highlight.

If you’re debating fries versus mac and cheese at Waterstone Grill, we’d actually recommend sticking with the fries. They’re a known quantity and unlikely to disappoint the way this side did.

Should You Order the Beyond Burger Aquatica Orlando Sells at Waterstone Grill?

Waterstone Grill deserves credit for the flexibility it offers. A free patty swap, an easy no charge substitution to mac and cheese, and a bacon add on for those who want it are all guest friendly touches that plenty of quick service counters elsewhere in Orlando still don’t bother with. That’s worth acknowledging even when the food itself lands in the middle of the pack.

Still, the core eating experience here is a mixed bag. The Beyond Burger patty falls short of what we’ve had from Impossible and Gardein elsewhere in Orlando’s theme park scene, with that lingering burnt aftertaste doing it no favors. The mac and cheese side also falls short. At $18.29 before discounts, you’re paying premium quick-service pricing for a meal that, in execution, sits below what Universal and Disney are currently putting out in the plant-based space.

If you’re vegetarian or vegan and visiting Aquatica Orlando, this option will absolutely do the job of feeding you, and we don’t want to undersell the value of having a meatless option built right into the standard menu rather than tucked away as a special request. Just go in with tempered expectations on flavor, and maybe stick with the fries.

More Aquatica Orlando Dining Coverage

• Sunrise Sips and Scoops at Aquatica Orlando Review
• Doritos Nachos Supreme at Kiwi Market Review
• Buffalo Chicken Fries: A Saucy Snack Review
• Aquatica Orlando Chicken Wrap Review at Mango Market
• Aquatica Orlando Restaurant Change: Paninis Out, Papa’s Pizza In

For more theme park dining reviews, visit MSM News every weekday at noon Eastern Time. Additionally, we sometimes post bonus theme park dining reviews. As always, eat like you mean it!

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