Tuesday, December 08, 2009

Quick Bites - Crazy Good Swedish food deals at IKEA, 4092 Eastgate Drive, Orlando, FL

I guess I haven't been paying attention to the restaurant at IKEA lately, but they have some great deals going on!

Swedish Christmas Julbord
First of all, this Friday, December 11th at 6 pm is IKEA of Orlando's first All You Can Eat Swedish Christmas Julbord. According to IKEA's website, a Swedish Julbord is the traditional smorgasbord served during the holidays. Prices are $15.99 for adults and $2.49 for kids 12 and under (wow, great kids price!). IKEA also mentions that tickets are for sale at their restaurant and seating is limited.

Wednesday Night Specials
Next, every Wednesday night you can get a baby back ribs platter for $7.99, from 4 pm to 7:30 pm (the restaurant's closing time). No, I don't think baby back ribs are Swedish, but there you go! The plate has a 1/2 rack of baby back ribs, french fries and corn bread. Also, Wednesday is Kids Night with kids 12 and younger eating free from 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm (the store stays open until 8:00 pm).

FREE Breakfast During Weekdays
From 9:30 am - 10 am Monday through Friday, you can get a breakfast platter at IKEA for FREE! The breakfast platter includes scrambled eggs, bacon and potatoes. Oh, and the same deal is on the weekends, just for 99¢ (but 10:30 am - 11 am on Sundays). You can add three Swedish pancakes (my favorites) for $1.99. The restaurant opens a half hour before the store so you'll have to wait until 10 am (11 am on Sunday) to do any shopping.

Check out all these deals on their website: IKEA of Orlando Restaurant

Thursday, December 03, 2009

Restaurant Review - TooJay's Original Gourmet Deli, 10185 West Colonial Drive, Ocoee, FL


If you are looking for enormous corned beef sandwiches on thick-cut rye bread with hot deli mustard, then TooJay’s Original Gourmet Deli is for you. But TooJay’s has a lot more than just deli food, although that is their specialty.

In fact, when we recently dined at the Ocoee location for dinner, it took me a while to read through the regular menu and special dinner menu. There are soups, salads, and sandwiches, plus dinner entrees such as meatloaf, lasagna, pot roast, and also baked salmon with dill sauce, peppercorn crusted steak, and even vegetarian options. All of the dinner entrees come with slices of rye bread on the side and a choice of soup or salad. There are also specialty drinks such as old-fashioned egg creams and Dr. Brown sodas.


The kid’s menu also offers a lot of choices as well with grilled cheese, hot dog, peanut butter and jelly, French bread pizza, or mac-n-cheese (available for $3.75), and hamburger, cheeseburger, chicken tenders salad, chicken tenders, or a Jr. tuna melt (available for $4.75). While the kids’ entrees don’t include a drink, they do include a choice of two of the following: applesauce, French fries, Mandarin oranges, red grapes, chocolate pudding, mini Black and White cookie, or carrot sticks with Ranch dressing. The hard part is trying to convince your kids that they cannot choose both the chocolate pudding and Black and White cookie as their sides.


Grandpa decided on a hot Pastrami sandwich on rye bread ($7.95) which comes with cole slaw and a pickle. He also elected to get an extra side of fries ($1.75). The sandwich had the meat rolled on the bread and was a huge amount. However, for those with an even bigger appetite, TooJay’s offers the Jaynormous sandwich ($14.95) that has a pound and a half of your favorite deli meat. I can’t even imagine eating that! Grandpa loved the Pastrami and said it was very lean and delicious.


Grandma, went for sweet and ordered the Cheese Blintzes dinner ($10.75). This is three crepes filled with a sweetened cottage cheese, fried, and served with fruit topping and sour cream. Since it was a dinner, it also came with the rye bread and Grandma ordered the cup of matzo ball soup as her appetizer. The soup was very flavorful with chunks of carrots and celery and a large, but light, matzo ball that fills the whole cup. She polished off all of the blintzes, smearing each with the blueberry fruit topping and sour cream first.

Knowing how large the portions of food at TooJay’s are, I decided on the Half Sandwich and Soup or Salad ($7.95), ordering a Corned Beef on rye and a cup of the matzo ball soup as well. I put a bit of the hot mustard on the sandwich and yum! The corned beef was very lean and the matzo ball soup was comfort food at its best.

LB ordered the peanut butter and jelly sandwich with applesauce and chocolate pudding on the side ($3.75). The sandwich was cut into quarters, which was nice, although my son thought there was too much jelly (I’ll have to order “light jelly” next time). He, of course, wanted to dig into the chocolate pudding as soon as they set down his plate, but I pulled it off his plate until he finished his dinner.


BB ordered the French Bread Pizza, with French fries and the Black and White mini-cookie ($3.75). The pizza was a small baguette sliced diagonally with sauce and cheese and was pretty good. He actually got full on the pizza and fries and had to take the cookie home.


All of the adults were also full so we didn’t order any desserts although they are very tempting. Besides large slices of chocolate cake, TooJay’s also has smaller desserts such as the mini-cookies and mini-Napoleans and mini-Eclairs. In fact, you have to pass the deli and dessert counter on the way out and we ended up getting a little dessert “to go” to eat at home later.

Website: http://www.toojays.com/

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