The Elegant Ornament Today Cafe dessert at Universal Studios Florida is pure perfection on the outside. Still, is this chocolate crème brûlée with a peppermint center just a fancy flop? 

We visited the Holidays at Universal Orlando Resort on opening weekend. This event runs daily through January 4, 2026, featuring parades, light shows, and of course, food. During our visit, we made a whirlwind tour of the holiday food at Universal Orlando. At Today Cafe at Universal Studios Florida theme park, we encountered the Elegant Ornament sweet treat. This Universal Orlando holiday food option was promoted in advance of the event. Thus, we expected great things. How did it go?

The Elegant Ornament: A Case of Over-Dressing the Dessert – $7.49

Friends, we have found the dessert that believes it is better than the rest of us. It is the Elegant Ornament from Today Café at Universal Studios Florida theme park. It is here to remind all other holiday snacks that they are mere mortals.

This dessert is a masterpiece of confectionery architecture. It’s a flawless, glossy, deep-green sphere that genuinely looks like a luxury Christmas tree decoration that costs more than your park ticket. It is pure, unadulterated Instagram bait. You will buy it, you will pose with it, and your followers will gasp. It is aesthetically flawless.

Still, remember our theme park dining mantra: Beauty is often only glaze deep…

The Elegant Ornament Today Cafe: A Beauty Contestant with a Bad Interview

The Elegant Ornament Today Cafe is composed of chocolate crème brûlée wrapped around a mysterious core of white chocolate peppermint center. The entire creation is beautifully presented in a chocolate shell. Reading the ingredients is like reading a résumé: Impressive, qualified, highly desirable.

Eating it, however, is like the subsequent unproductive interview: Stiff, a little forgettable, and ultimately just okay. The biggest crime here is not that it’s bad—it’s that it’s simply average. This is the culinary equivalent of an incredibly attractive person with absolutely nothing to say.

The chocolate crème brûlée portion is rich, certainly, but lacks the necessary pop to justify its own elaborate existence. It’s just… chocolate. Dark, slightly bitter, chocolate doing the bare minimum. We were hoping for a flavor explosion; we got a quiet, polite golf clap. Additionally, one member of our group felt it tasted like burnt chocolate. In that case, the chocolate crème brulee was a bit overdone, as they say.

The Peppermint Plot Twist

Additionally, there’s the tiny white chocolate peppermint center, which should be the bold, minty twist that saves the day. Instead, it’s a faint, slightly chalky presence. It whispers “peppermint” when it should be screaming it from the top of the Christmas tree. Also, since the menu descriptions for Universal Orlando holiday food in the bakery cases are not listed, most guests will not expect the peppermint center. Whether expected or not, the peppermint center fails to elevate the Elegant Ornament.

The overall flavor experience is like listening to a holiday playlist where every song is played at 10% volume. You recognize the tunes, but you can’t quite feel the Christmas cheer. It settles at a comfortable, yet disappointing, “just above average”—like a B on a report card where you were definitely expecting an A.

We want theme park food to be loud, ridiculous, and gloriously over-the-top! This treat is far too reserved and sensible for a Universal Orlando holiday food option. It needs more oomph! More pep! More Universal-level, cartoonish intensity!

The Elegant Ornament Today Cafe: All Shine, No Substance

The Elegant Ornament Today Cafe is proof that you can’t make a basic flavor exciting just by molding it into a perfect sphere and charging a premium. A glittering disappointment. It’s a beautiful, expensive-looking paperweight that you have to eat.

Take your picture with it. Post it. Collect your likes. Then, hand it to the person in your group who claims they “don’t really have a sweet tooth anyway.”

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

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