Review of Joey Fatone’s Fat One’s at Universal CityWalk

From loaded hot dogs and bacon ranch fries to Italian ice, this was one of those rare tastings where everything we tried was good!

There are some tastings where I leave with one or two things I really liked. Fat One’s Hot Dogs & Italian Ice at Universal CityWalk Orlando was not one of those. This was one of those rare occasions where everything we tried was good.

My daughter Hayley came with me to preview the new restaurant, and we worked our way through several of the signature hot dogs, two kinds of loaded Pop Fries, and almost every Italian ice flavor. The menu is definitely creative, but what I loved the most was how approachable it still was. Even the hot dogs with the most unexpected toppings totally worked.

Fat One’s coming to Universal is a full-circle moment

Fat One’s was created by *NSYNC member Joey Fatone and his longtime friend and business partner Joe Mulvihill, but its arrival at Universal Orlando has a much deeper connection than simply putting a celebrity-owned restaurant in CityWalk.

Both Fatone and Mulvihill worked at Universal early in their careers. Fatone performed in the Beetlejuice Graveyard Revue before *NSYNC took off, and during the preview he talked about how much those years shaped what came later.

“We honestly feel like part of *NSYNC’s success, part of my own success, is because we worked at a theme park,” Mulvihill said. “There’s no better training ground.”

Fatone has remained in Orlando, and the two have talked for years about eventually bringing Fat One’s back to Universal. Seeing it actually happen felt a little surreal to both of them. Mulvihill described the business as something that started with “two guys that wrote something on a napkin” and eventually made its way back to the place where their careers began. The concept itself also pulls from Fatone’s childhood in Brooklyn. He remembers getting Italian ice in those little white paper cups and grabbing hot dogs from neighborhood spots. When he eventually decided to create his own version in Florida, he wanted those familiar foods, but “with a little bit more elevated” flavors.

As Fatone put it during the preview, “We didn’t reinvent the hot dog. We just elevated it.”

After trying the menu, that description is completely spot on.

The Fat One

We got to try a few of the hot dogs, and The Fat One was our top pick. It’s exactly the sort of thing I expected from a restaurant with this name. It is a footlong hot dog piled with roasted pork, pepperoni, chili beans, cheddar cheese sauce, red onion sauce, Pop Fries, and chives.

They were all excellent, but this was my top pick because it takes a classic loaded hot dog and gives it such a fun twist. I especially loved the fries right on top because you basically get your hot dog and fries in the same bite.

My daughter loved this one too. In fact, the menu overall was much more kid-friendly than you might assume from reading some of the topping combinations.

The Angelo

The Angelo was probably the hot dog that best showed me what Fat One’s is capable of. It is topped with tzatziki, tomatoes, red onions, olive tapenade, feta cheese, and fresh dill on a brioche bun. On paper, it sounds almost more like a Mediterranean salad than a hot dog, but that is exactly what makes it stand out. The toppings are cool, fresh, and flavorful, while the feta, dill, and tzatziki give it a completely different flavor than your usual chili cheese or mustard-covered dog.

Fatone’s business partner even joked during the preview that The Angelo is “refreshing,” which he admitted is a pretty strange word to use for a hot dog. It is also surprisingly accurate. Fatone named The Angelo as one of his own picks from the menu, while Mulvihill chose The Cubano.

For me, The Angelo was a 10/10. It was creative and totally unexpected.

Johnny’s Pizza

Johnny’s Pizza was another huge hit for us. This one takes the hot dog in a completely different direction with pizza-style toppings. The easiest way I can describe it is that it tasted like a really good pizza pocket crossed with a hot dog.

The tomato sauce, cheese, and pepperoni make the pizza flavor very recognizable, while the hot dog gives it that Fat One’s twist. My daughter and I liked this one just as much as The Angelo.

There is actually a story behind the name, too. Fatone explained that a friend named Johnny came up with the idea of pressing the hot dog and turning it into something closer to pizza, so it became Johnny’s Pizza. That makes the menu feel a lot more personal, which I loved.

The rest of the menu gets just as creative

We only made our way through three of the nine signature hot dogs, so there are quite a few I still want to go back and try.

The Brazilian swaps the traditional hot dog for grilled linguica sausage and tops it with onion sauce, jalapeño veganaise, cotija cheese, Calabrian honey, red peppers, cilantro, and crispy potato sticks.

The Dirty K-Pop Dog goes in a completely different direction with kimchi slaw, spicy gochujang mayo, scallions, crispy onions, and black sesame.

There is also the To-Ny with sauerkraut, red onion sauce, and signature mustard, while El Fonsi — named for Joey Fatone’s friend Luis Fonsi — comes topped with ham, turkey, Swiss cheese, sofrito, onion jam, mayo-ketchup, and potato sticks.

The Cubano combines ham, roasted pork, Swiss cheese, mustard, and dill pickles, and there is a vegan hot dog with red onion sauce, signature mustard, and relish. If all of those toppings sound like a little too much, Fat One’s also lets you keep things simple with a plain hot dog.

Hot dogs are definitely the focus, but they are not the entire menu. Fat One’s also serves the loaded Pop Fries we tried, six flavors of Italian ice, Italian ice that can be spiked for guests 21 and older, and specialty beers. We tried five of the six Italian ice flavors, so Tropical is still on my list for next time.

The Pop Fries

We tried two versions of the Pop Fries: cheese, chili, and chives, and cheese, bacon, ranch, and chives. Both were great, but we couldn’t get enough of the cheese, bacon, and ranch version. We could have eaten an entire plate of those.

The combination is familiar enough that there is really nothing risky about ordering them. If you are visiting with kids or someone who is not quite ready to jump into a kimchi-topped Dirty K-Pop Dog, these are an easy choice.

Do not leave without trying the Italian ice

I expected the hot dogs to be the main event here, but we loved the Italian ice just as much. Fat One’s serves Lemon, Mango, Tropical, Cherry, Cotton Candy, and Blue Raspberry, and we tried every flavor except Tropical.

I don’t even normally like mango, but I loved the Mango ice. It was fruity and refreshing without being overly sweet. Lemon was light and fresh, while Cherry tasted like the classic cherry Italian ice I remember having up north.

The flavor that really blew us away was Cotton Candy. It had so much flavor and was sweet without tasting like straight sugar. Blue Raspberry was excellent too, but the best thing we did was mix the Cotton Candy and Blue Raspberry together. I highly recommend getting an order of each and combining them.

That mix was so, so good and would absolutely be my order next time. I’d also love to try the spiked Italian ice. Fatone was especially excited to point out that option during the preview, and it feels like such a fun twist. I’ve never had spiked Italian ice before, so I’m very curious to see how it compares.

This feels like much more than a celebrity restaurant

What I liked most about Fat One’s is that it does not feel like a pop star decided to put his face on a hot dog restaurant.

Fatone actually addressed that during the preview. He talked about how easy it can be for a celebrity to simply put a name on something, but said food has been a real interest of his for years. Between cooking shows, competition shows, and building Fat One’s over the past decade, the menu has evolved along with him.

They also learned a lot along the way. Fat One’s has gone through a mall location and a food truck, and at one point they had more than 20 hot dogs they wanted to put on the menu. Eventually, they realized they needed to narrow the focus.

“We’ve learned that simple wins,” Mulvihill said. The combinations are big, but each hot dog still has a clear idea behind it.

Overall, Fat One’s was an easy win for us. The *NSYNC connection may get people curious enough to walk through the door, but the food gives them a reason to come back.