Home of the Perfect 10, Blue Ribbon Grilled Cheese Sandwich
It's not very often that I give a perfect 10 in the food category, yet alone at a SeaWorld dining location — but, here we are... a perfect 10, blue ribbon, right up there with the very best I've ever had Grilled Cheese Sandwiches from the Yummy Yummy Nom Noms booth — a food truck themed area in Sesame Street Land at SeaWorld, Orlando.Perfect, evenly grilled bread that's crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside, oozy, creamy American cheese and some toppings like pulled pork, bacon bits, and bbq sauce. I know, Grilled Cheese purists are going to say "well that's not a Grilled Cheese sandwich". I'd have to agree with that — but there's not enough pork or bacon bits on the sandwich to call it a "pork sandwich with cheese"… so I think they got the name right.
The perfect blend of all grilled cheese toppings. It's not often I give a perfect 10 for a food item — but this is a Blue Ribbon, Perfect 10, Hybrid Grilled Cheese Sandwich. Well done SeaWorld!!!
Technically, it's called "The Hawaiian" on the menu board — I'm the one calling it a Grilled Cheese. So let's just call it a Hybrid Grilled Cheese Sandwich. No matter what it's called — if you really like Grilled Cheese and don't hate pork — you'll probably really like this sandwich
Just look at that bread! Perfectly crispy on the outside — soft and pillowy on the inside. It's the foundation of any great grilled cheese sandwich.
As I mentioned, there's texture contrast in the grilled white bread — the creamy, buttery smoothness from the melted Amercian cheese, a little umami savoriness and meaty juice from the smoked and pulled pork, a little salty crunch from the bacon bits, and the bbq sauce adds just the slightest vinegary kick and acidity to tie it all together. It really was, hands down, one of the top Grilled Cheese sandwiches I've ever had. The whole sandwich was sitting on what might be house-made potato chips. They are kettle-style chips to be sure — the perfect, rustic and slightly thicker than "normal" chips texture to compliment the sandwich.
There's also a Turkey Melt and some Chicken Tenders on the menu board — but in fear of being disappointed — I don't think I'm ever going to try those. This is — "the" Grilled Cheese Sandwich location.
The Hawaiian is what I would call a "hybrid" grilled cheese (i.e. a grilled cheese with a few extra toppings). It's a great mix of pulled pork with bacon bits, American cheese and BBQ sauce — all on perfectly grilled white bread.
Now, I don't know if this was just a one-off fluke or something they can do every day. I'll gladly go back and try again to see if the sandwich is just as good — but I'm optimistic. They don't serve too many things at this location, so my hope is that from a set-up and culinary training perspective — this Grilled Cheese sandwich is a repeatable thing.
Zooming out and taking a look at the bigger picture for a second — when we're talking about theme park food — this has the "I've got to go back and get another one" craveability that sadly, sooooo many other theme park food items are lacking these days. Oh, you can get a good chicken sandwich over at Seafire Grill or some decent BBQ at Voyager's Smokehouse — but it's nothing that's so special you're going to say to yourself "the next time I'm in Orlando, I'm going to go to SeaWorld and get one of those".
There are parks out there that still understand the importance of this (I'm looking at you Dollywood) — that not all food items are a profit center. You need those one or two things that become such a part of the visitor's memory that the food item is an attraction unto itself. If those one or two food items can be kept constantly great — decent price, great flavors, favorable location, etc. — they will become part of the reason people come back to the park. Just look at the Dole Whip over at the Magic Kingdom. Oh, they've mucked it up a bit over the last decade — but it's part of many, many guest's intrinsic food memory — and is a small part of an overall "feel good" nature of visitng the park.
Service and Location
So what about everything else? The people I interacted with here were okay… pretty great by SeaWorld standards though. I mean, it's a little hit and miss at SeaWorld. Sometimes you get cast members who really seem fresh and attentive and conversational — and sometimes you get folks who are so zombie-like they don't know where they're at, or just plain aggravated that someone was making them "go to work" that day.That was not the case here in Sesame Street Land. I was initially a little confused by where to order and how the whole food truck setup worked here — but the one cast member I found behind a register explained the whole thing to me and was very pleasant. To paraphrase — there's basically only one place to order from… that's the large, orange concrete building with the awning that reads "Sesame Sips".
There's one "building" between the two main food trucks in the Sesame Street Food Trucks area. It's the Sesame Sips booth, that offers smoothies and slushy drinks.
No matter what food or beverage items you want to order from the "food truck area" — you place the order here. It appears to me, that only one of the food trucks actually makes food (the blue and purple one) — and I've seen the menu change a bit from since they've opened as well. There was initially an "ABC Eats" menu and the "Yummy Yummy Nom Noms" menu — but they're both pretty much the same now. I'm not sure if the green food truck ever actually served anything, or is just a prop truck.
The ABC Eats food truck may have been open at one time, with it's own unique menu... but now, the menu is the same as the nearby "Yummy Yummy Nom Noms" truck. Perhaps, this truck could be opened if crowds got large enough. My guess is though, it's probably being used for storage.
The smaller orange truck — seems to be some kind of interactive, food learning type of activity.
This mini orange truck is not a food ordering station, but a food-related game/activity, with a large computer screen and buttons.
Once you place your order at the Sesame Sips building — you might be handed your drink(s) — there's a couple of Icee machines back there, along with a couple of Smoothie flavors and what might be a coffee and/or tea dispenser. There might also be a couple of grab-and-go type items here, a fruit cup or a garden salad — those too might just be handed out at this location.
The hot food seems to all be prepared, made-to-order style, over at the blue and purple truck. You can't really see anything other than a cast member who will take your receipt number — and call the number out when you're order is ready.
There is a little stand with napkins and utensils and such in front of the truck, so you can collect those while you wait for your order number to be called.
The blue, purple and pink truck is the main food truck in the area that is open. The "Yummy Yummy Nom Noms" truck offers a couple different grill cheese and chicken tender meals.
I can't really say much about order speed here. On the day I visited, there were only two order in front of ours — and it did take some time. I suspect there's not much space in that truck for food prep. The chicken fingers are probably the easiest things on order — both of the sandwiches on the menu may take more prep time though. On a busy day — I could see things getting backed up here — but that's no different than any other SeaWorld location.
Once the order is ready, they'll call your receipt number and hand you the order from the truck's very tall window. I'm 5' 11" and I was raising my hands up over my head to grab the tray — which takes a little coordination. I'm glad I only had one grilled cheese sandwich on that tray… I can't imagine the weight and balance of having four or five food items on there.
Environment
I think — quite a few guests will just sit in the food truck area — there's a good number of umbrella covered tables and chairs in the "food truck courtyard".
There are seven or eight umbrella covered tables located in the middle of the semi-circle that the food trucks form.
I however — find the constant, frenetic motion that's part of any good pre-school theme land to be a little distracting. So we took our blue ribbon grilled cheese sandwich on a little trip — a few steps due north (technically, outside of Sesame Street Land) — to a location that I like to call "The Beer Garden Canopy".
Whenever there's a food-based festival going on, there's a large canopy covered seating area around 240 feet north of Sesame Street Land that has some form of "beer kiosk" set up. This seating area is open to anyone — no beer purchase is required. When there's no festival going on — the seating area is still there and available to anyone (there's just no beer kiosk... so sad).
It's a large area, there's usually a good breeze running through the canopy, it seems to be kept pretty clean, not a lot of people know about it — and if you're lucky — you might even be able to buy a craft beer if there's a festival going on.
Cost and Conclusion
I don't know if our most recent menu board photo is accurate, I'll have to go over and re-shoot that. Way back in 2021 they had "The Hawaiian" Grilled Cheese with chips priced at $12 — it seems to me that this time, with a Coke, the bill came to around $20. I suspect the sandwich alone is closer to $15.99 if not a little more. I can't really tell from SeaWorld's website or app… those are all a little wonky.SeaWorld food tends to be a little pricier than, for example, Disney's food when trying to compare apples-to-apples. Since I feel this particular Grilled Cheese Sandwich is the very best thing to eat at SeaWorld — the $16 price point seems to be in line with everything else.
If it just so happens that there's a festival going on, and there's a beer nearby in the Beer Garden area — I would, hands-down, rather have one of these "Hawaiian" Grilled Cheese Sandwiches from the Yummy Yummy Nom Noms booth (and a festival beer) — than go to Sharks Underwater Grill — or any other location at SeaWorld. I do still have to go back a couple times, just to make sure they're making these consistently good, but if they are — it's hands-down, one of the best hybrid grilled cheese sandwiches I've ever encountered.
