Hard Rock Cafe in Universal Studios City Walk

The Hard Rock Cafe in Universal Studios City Walk is a fantastic way to celebrate a special birthday. My 20-year-old son specifically requested to have his birthday dinner here and it was perfect!

My son first started off his birthday at Universa l Studios where he enjoyed the rides and all the fun attractions. For his birthday dinner, we all met at the Hard Rock Cafe to celebrate this special day. We started off with delicious hors d'oeuvres. And for the adults Hard Rock Cafe makes mouthwatering strawberry margaritas and Cadillac margaritas.

The entrées that we ordered were:

Wonderful appetizers: Santa Fe Spring Rolls, Hickory Smoke Chicken Wings, Onion Rings, Potato Skins, Tupelo Chicken Tenders. Served with four different sauces for mixing and matching

A delectable array of our most popular starters that’s big enough to share. Includes Santa Fe Spring Rolls, Hickory Smoke Chicken Wings, Onion Rings, Potato Skins, Tupelo Chicken Tenders. Served with four different sauces for mixing and matching. Comments: Great!

Wonderful Grilled Wild Alaskan Sockeye Salmon

Grilled Wild Alaskan Sockeye Salmon: An 8 oz. filet grilled and topped with a Merlot-garlic butter and served with White Cheddar smashed potatoes and fresh vegetables.
Comment: Delicious! The salmon was perfectly cooked—light and flaky and fresh.

Open Faced Sirloin Sandwich

Open Faced Sirloin Sandwich: Choice aged sirloin grilled to perfection, carved over toasted garlic bread, smothered with mushrooms and caramelized onions, topped with melted Swiss cheese and Hard Rock brown sauce. served with seasoned fries. Comment from the birthday boy: Great! Great! Great

Juicy New York Strip Steak

New York Strip Steak: A USDA choice 21 day aged center-cut, 12 oz. New York strip steak grilled to your liking and topped with Merlot-garlic butter. Served with White Cheddar smashed potatoes, gravy and fresh vegetables. Comments: Perfectly cooked—rare! The way I love it!

Fresh and crisp side house salad

We all a fantastic crisp Side House Salad with fresh mixed greens with shredded Jack and Cheddar cheeses, seasoned bacon bits, sweetened dried cranberries and in-house made garlic croutons. Served with your choice of dressing. Comments: Wonderful flavors all mixed with fresh and crisp greens!

Andrew in his Birthday accessories - I'll never forget this day!

Andrew was given birthday accessories and then the whole restaurant yelled out HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANDREW!!!!! This made Andrew blush like a red rose, but he enjoyed himself. This birthday was unforgettable and I will never forget it. After this embarrassing moment for my son, our waiter brought out a birthday dessert for him-- a Sinful Hot Fudge Sundae with three large scoops of Häagen-Dazs vanilla ice cream, topped with their famous hot fudge sauce, chopped walnuts, fresh whipped cream, chocolate sprinkles and a cherry. He loved it! The rest of us shared a Hot Fudge Brownie Sundae with Häagen-Dazs vanilla ice cream and hot fudge on a fresh brownie, topped with chopped walnuts, chocolate sprinkles, fresh whipped cream and a cherry. We wanted another, but our tummies just couldn’t handle anymore.

Hard Rock Cafe Memorabilia

The Hard Rock Café proudly smokes their ribs and chicken the Memphis, Tennessee way— slowly and lovingly. They have their own in-house smoker and wouldn’t trust anyone else to do this job. If you’re in the mood for BBQ can’t decide try their Hickory Smoked Bar-B-Que Combo. Your Choice of Bar-B-Que Ribs, Bar-B-Que Chicken or Smoked Pulled-Pork. Served with seasoned fries, ranch beans and fresh coleslaw. I saw this, on another table and it looked wonderful!

Other incredible side dishes are: Twisted Mac & Cheese, White Cheddar Smashed Potatoes Made fresh in-house daily, Garlic Toast topped with a Merlot-garlic butter Hand Breaded Onion Rings Hand-cut and breaded fresh daily in their kitchen and served with Hickory Bar-B-Que sauce on the side.

According to the Hard Rock Café website:

“The Hard Rock Café started with an Eric Clapton guitar (a Fender Lead II, for the gearheads in the audience). The beginning of something that nobody even knew was beginning. It was just a goof. A laugh. A joke among friends.

Back in the seventies, Clapton - the original guitar God, founder of Cream and Derek & the Dominoes, creator of the immortal " Layla" - liked to eat at this quirky American diner in London called the Hard Rock Cafe. The place was this funky old building that used to be a Rolls Royce dealership, and it was run by a couple of young Americans who liked to keep it loose. Founded by Isaac Tigrett and Peter Morton, two enterprising and music-loving Americans, Hard Rock Cafe was an instant classic. You could be yourself at the Hard Rock. It was good food and a good time.

So Clapton got to be friends with the proprietors and asked them to save him a regular table, put up a brass plaque or something. And the young proprietors said, “Why don't we put up your guitar?” They all had a chuckle, and he handed over a guitar, and they slapped it on the wall.

No one thought much more about it. Until a week later, when another guitar arrived (a Gibson Les Paul, by the way). With it was a note from Pete Townshend of The Who which read: "Mine's as good as his. Love, Pete."

The young proprietors put it on the wall. After that, the guitars never stopped coming. Today there are more than 70,000 guitars, drums, pianos, harmonicas, microphones, shirts, pants, scarves, shoes, handwritten lyrics, cars, bikes, a bus and assorted rock memorabilia - by far, the largest, most valuable such collection in the world - on the walls of over 138 Hard Rock Cafes, Hotels and Casinos in 42 countries around the world.”

The top 10 Memorabilia items at the Hard Rock Cafe:

Janis Joplin’s Purple suede pants owned and worn by Janis Joplin during the 1960's.

Jimi  Hendrix’s Bellbottoms worn at the famous " Hollywood Bowl" concert on September 14, 1968.

Mike Einziger – Incubus A Fender Jaguar used by Einziger to record the song "Nowhere Fast" from the 1999 album Make Yourself.

Elvis Presley’s jumpsuit worn on stage in 1970 by Elvis. It was his first in a series of many elaborate jumpsuits he would come to wear for performances.

Madonna’s wedding dress worn on the cover of her 1984 album " Like A Virgin."
 
Bob Weir - Grateful Dead - The second instrument the Alembic Company ever made. It was built for, owned and played by Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir in the early 70's.

Mick Jagger - The Rolling Stones - Jagger wore this two-piece black and white suit on the Rolling Stones first world tour.

Bo Diddley's first instrument, a violin circa 1940. He studied classical violin before learning to play guitar on his famous square model guitar.

Jimmy Page - Led Zeppelin - A Gibson double-neck electric guitar used by  Page during a ferocious jam session at Les Paul's 72nd birthday. This model Gibson became one of his trademarks.

Mick Mars - Motley Crue - Motley Crue dominated the 1980’s with their wild stage antics, rebellious attitude and bad boy reputation. This Scott guitar was custom made for Mick.

The Hard Rock Cafe is full interesting history of rock n roll memorabilia, great rock n roll music and flat screen TVs all around the restaurant. Although this sounds like it may be too busy, we all had an unforgettable time. My son said he couldn’t have asked for a better birthday party.

Making our decision on what to eat was difficult because they have so much more to offer on their menu. The Hard Rock Café has everything that anyone can want for their tummy. If you’re in the mood for chicken, steak, seafood, 10 oz. hamburgers, veggie burger, pork, sandwiches, salad, milk-shakes and more.... they have it on their menu.

After dinner we walked around City Walk and then back to Universal Studios to enjoy the rest of the evening. I couldn't have asked for a better place to celebrate God’s gift to me—my son Andrew. Thank you Hard Rock Café for this wonderful and memorable dinner!!

Hard Rock Cafe Hollywood
1000 Universal Studios Blvd. #99
Universal City, CA 91608

Hard Rock Café

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