Bigfire, Universal Studios, Orlando, Florida

Universal Studios’ CityWalk in Orlando, has lots of good stuff. There’s shops, bars, live entertainment, and of course, great restaurants. Recently in Orlando, the family and I decided to stop in at CityWalk’s Bigfire, to try their “American fare” like steaks, chops, and “freshwater cuisine.” 

Bigfire, Universal Studios CityWalk, Orlando

Bigfire is modern, classy, and chic, with earth tones, plaids, and plenty of wide-open spaces. We sat in a booth by the window and it gave us a view of the entire restaurant—the kitchen, the main dining room, and the wide staircase that led to the second floor where diners were watching us from up above. Servers used an elevator to carry trays of food to patrons upstairs. It’s a really nice place. The theme is open-fire cooking, and that’s what you get, in atmosphere and food. 

The grill the cooks are using in the kitchen is reminiscent of the “gaucho” style grill—a stainless pit for logs and an adjustable rack that floats above the fire. The rack can be moved up and down with a large wheel to control the level of heat. 

Hearth Oven Baked Bread at Bigfire

We ordered an appetizer: bread and butter. The “hearth oven baked bread” was great. The rustic loaf had the tough, crusty exterior I love and the light, airy interior I need for an optimal bread experience. A sweet, but tasty little marmalade was served with the loaf as well as a mildly seasoned herb butter. 

We got a bottle of wine. Bigfire’s wine list isn’t too extensive, but there are at least a couple dozen to choose from, differing in variety and price. We got the Juggernaut Cabernet. It was a good wine, balanced, but heavy on the oak. 

I noticed the Creekstone Cowboy Ribeye on the menu. When I see the word “cowboy” in conjunction with steak, I am always inundated with images of a gargantuan piece of meat that I don’t have the stamina to finish, so naturally, I had to order it. Also, it was the only ribeye on the menu. 

The Cowboy ribeye at Bigfire

When the steak arrived, it seemed smaller than I’d hoped, but it still had all the visual characteristics of a damn-good piece of meat—nice char, nice sheen, crispy ends. The meat was juicy enough, tender, and full of smoke. In fact, I hope you like smoke, because the meat at Bigfire, I found, was almost too smoky. Almost too fire. The Bigfire homepage likens eating their cuisine to “making you feel as though you’ve entered a lakeside summer house,” but I would liken it to eating food cooked over a summer house that caught fire and burnt-down. Not so much fire-kissed, as fire-killed. You don’t get much savoriness from the steak, nor richness. The fire is the dominant flavor. 

I also ordered mushrooms to go with my steak. The shrooms were a nice mix with shiitake, cremini, and portobello. But they were also too smoky, firm and chewy, dry, with no liquid. I was hoping for a savory-saucy side to my meat, but though the mushrooms were texturally interesting and worth a try, they didn’t compliment the steak the way I had hoped. Good, but not preferred. 

The lamb chops at Bigfire 

We tried the lamb chops which were three nice-sized chops—charred, tasty, smoky—with a side of the same root veggies and potatoes that accompany the other entrees. Btw, these are billed as “fire-grilled heirloom carrots and crispy smashed potatoes,” which all sounds good, but I couldn’t help but find them a little bland and boring. 

Service was excellent from start to finish. No complaints there. 

I would love to come back and try the seafood bake, the Dutch oven burgundy, and the bison burger. 

But enough about Bigfire’s grilled meats. There’s one thing, for me, that sets this place apart, and this alone is worth a stop. Bigfire has an excellent list of bourbons and whiskeys. There are some familiar brands like Bulleit and Knob Creek. They’re good. But there’s also harder to find goodies like Blanton’s, Jefferson’s, and—one of my fav’s—Elmer T. Lee. However, if you’re a true bourbon connoisseur, there is no doubt you will find the presence of Pappy Van Winkle Bourbons and Ryes an irresistible draw. But, be warned: Bigfire lists the rate of their 2-ounce servings as “market price,” and, as you may already know, that can be in excess of $100 per pour. Cheers!