Central Florida Restaurant Mom

Coupon - Free Medium Firehouse Sub on July 4, 2011, when you Buy a Sub, Chips & Drink

2011-06-30T20:40:00.000-04:00

How wonderful! PR companies are now sending me press releases. And not just any press releases, but ones with coupons! That I get to pass on to you - bonus! See below for the details and the coupon:

This Monday, Firehouse Subs presents a special patriotic offer at participating locations in the Orlando area. In celebration of Independence Day, this July 4, guests receive a free sub with the purchase of a sub, chips and drink. To redeem the offer, simply bring a copy of the coupon below, or have it available on a mobile phone at the time of purchase.

For more information on Firehouse Subs, please visit Firehousesubs.com, Facebook.com/firehousesubs or follow on Twitter at @firehousesubs.

*Offer valid July 4, 2011 at participating locations only. One free medium sub, with the purchase of a sub, chips & drink. One coupon per person, per visit.

Restaurant Review - AMC Downtown Disney 24 Dine-In Theatre/Fork & Screen, 1500 East Buena Vista Dr., LBV, FL

2011-05-14T21:12:00.002-04:00

(Updated - with photos!)
Last night, my kids and I watched The Karate Kid (the new one with Jaden Smith) as part of the soft opening for the new Dine-In Theatres at AMC Downtown Disney 24, formerly AMC Pleasure Island 24. AMC converted the 6 theatres on the east side of the complex to the new Fork & Screens, meaning you get table-service dining while you are watching your movie. They have renovated this entire side of the complex, adding a full bar, called MacGuffins, and new indoor and outdoor seating. Movie goers are encouraged to hang out in this area, where you can order food as well as drinks.

We had free passes to the movie, courtesy of The Disney Blog, so we went to check in at the Guest Services desk when we arrived. There is no longer a box office for these particular screens, you can either buy tickets online or you buy them at the Guest Services desk. First thing that is different? You are purchasing a reserved seat. Just like with an airline, you are presented with a seat chart showing which seats are available and which ones are taken. There are about 100 seats per theatre, all set in groups of two or four. We were a party of three so we had an open seat next to us, that ended up remaining empty. A group larger than four, however, will need to split up. Also, due to the reserved seating, if you want your group to sit together, you should plan on arriving early or buy your tickets (and seats) in advance. Oh, and there was no concession stand in this area. I assume if you just want popcorn, snacks, and drinks, you'll still need to order through your server and pay a tip.

We found our seats and starting reading the menus that were waiting for us on the tables. The seats themselves are very comfortable. Wide, and they rock a little, too. The table is actually farther in front of us than I thought it would be. You really have to be on the edge of your seat to eat your food. We were ready to order and I was looking around for our server when my son pointed out that the first page of the menu says to push the call button to call the server. There are two red call buttons on every table and someone came to help us within a few minutes of pushing it. The previews had already started so it was a little difficult to order. I didn't want to yell and disturb those around us but I wanted to make sure our waiter understood our order.

Crab Rangoon Dip - so yummy and creamy!

Our drinks arrived first, with LB's in a kid's take-out cup and mine and BB's in regular plastic cups, like at a restaurant. Nice touch, but then we couldn't put our drinks in our cup-holders. We ordered the Crab Rangoon Dip ($7.99) as our appetizer. This was delicious! A creamy, slightly crabby dip, served with big crispy wonton chips, and a sweet & sour sauce as well. All of us loved this dip and it was a large portion. It was just a little difficult to share though, as you are trying to watch the movie, and pass the dip. For our main meal, LB had the kids' Flatbread Pizzetta ($6.99, including drink, fries, and chewy fruit candies), which is a fancy name for a pizza. He thought it was only okay and was too small as it was only 3 pieces. BB and I each got the Classic Cheeseburger ($9.99, includes fries). While BB liked his, I thought it was just okay, and was a bit too greasy. The fries, though, were good. We were too full for dessert, though they all sounded good from the menu.

Full-size pizza shown here (not kids)

Our server brought our check about halfway through the movie. My kids didn't care but I had to check over the bill and find my credit card so it does take you out of the movie for a few minutes. I handed my card back to the server right away because I didn't want to be watching to see when he would come back to take it. Perhaps I messed up his timing, then, because he didn't come back with my card for 20 minutes which made me a bit uncomfortable as I don't like my credit card being away from me that long.
We never did need refills on our drinks but it was nice to know that if we did need it, we only needed to push the call button. Also, the lighting in the theatre never really got very dark, I suppose so you can read the menu, see your food, check over your bill, etc. It didn't affect us being able to see the movie though. The seating and layout did make it seem like you are sitting in your living room as you are relatively far away from the groups next to you due to the wide aisles and tables. All in all, it was a nice experience. Next time, I'd probably just get a couple of appetizers for us and then have a dessert or two. But it did make a night out at the movies, just a little more fun.

Are Make-Your-Own Frozen Yogurts shops a fad that is dying?

2010-03-20T18:16:00.000-04:00

After reading Fast Food Maven's blog regarding the closing of Red Mango fro-yo shops in California, I realized that the same thing is in danger of happening here in Central Florida. I was very excited when Menchie's opened up here a while ago and thought it was an unique concept - essentially a "make-your-own" dessert place where you can choose as many frozen yogurt flavors and toppings as you want to create your own tasty masterpiece. Well, apparently others thought so as well as I have now seen a proliferation of frozen yogurt shops opening. Menchie's is rapidly expanding, there is a Hi-5 in Clermont, an Orange Leaf coming to Ocoee and the Pinkberry website even says there is a location coming near SeaWorld. I predict that we will soon see an oversaturation in the market and one-by-one these locations will start shutting down -- first the smaller mom-and-pop locations and then the big chains.

I think this is similar to what has happened to the meal preparation market in Central Florida. Remember when we had Let's Eat, Dinner Afare, Supper Supers, and others in the area? Everyone wanted to go make a month's worth of dinners in one afternoon so they'd have healthy, easy-to-prepare meals for their family. I'm pretty sure all of the locations near us closed now. What exactly happened? Not really sure. I think Publix Aprons meals really stepped up and showed consumers how to make an easy meal tonight, just by coming into their local Publix store. Also, more frozen food and other manufacturers developed more products that helped shave time off meal preparation.

For the Fro-Yo shops, it may be just a matter of time before consumers become disenchanted with this latest fad. Too bad, because I like the idea, there are just getting to be too many cooks in the kitchen.

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

2009-12-08T23:37:00.000-05:00

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

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

2009-12-03T15:54:00.004-05:00

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/

Restaurant Review - The Cheesecake Factory, Mall of Millenia, 4200 Conroy Road, Orlando, FL

2009-11-26T16:39:00.001-05:00

For the first time in its history, The Cheesecake Factory has developed a kids menu. The new menu was released in September, and offers kid-friendly food, including a drink, for $4 - $7. There are a lot of offerings including pasta, mini-burgers, grilled cheese, quesadillas, mac-n-cheese, chicken strips, pizza, and others.

To match, the adult menu is huge, as well. It is almost like a catalog and even has advertisements (I kid you not). To break down your decision, you should first decide what kind of food you want: American, Italian, Mexican, Asian, etc. Then, you can decide whether you want an appetizer, a salad, a sandwich or a main meal. Yep, they have all of that and more.

While deciding, we munched on the sour dough and pumpernickel breads our server brought us. And truly, we had to send the server away twice until we finally decided what to get.

On our first visit, Grandpa ordered the Beef Ribs ($25.95), a very large plate of beef ribs served with fries and onion rings. While he agreed there was a lot of food and the taste was okay, he wasn't sure if it was worth the high price. Grandma, who clearly had her eye on the cheesecake display case, ordered a Margherita Pizzette ($4.95), basically a small, oval pizza, with large chunks of mozzerella and slivers of basil. She thought it was the perfect size for a pizza snack. I had the Fresh Fish Tacos ($14.95), an extremely large platter with three tacos, rice, black beans, and salsa and guacamole on the side. It was very messy to eat, with pieces of grilled fish and cabbage falling out constantly, but it was wonderful. There was a lot of fish per taco and the spicy avocado cream gradually increased in spiciness the more I ate. I was only able to finish two of the tacos and make only a small dent in the rice and beans.

BB ordered the kids pasta with alfredo sauce ($6.95), while LB and my two nieces ordered the kids mini-corn dogs with fries ($5.95). The pasta was a good size and my son was only able to eat a little over half of the serving. The corn dogs came as three skewers of the dogs, covered with corn meal, and a large serving of fries. I don't exactly know what made these dogs "mini" because, although they were shorter than normal, they were pretty thick. All three kids were only able to eat two of the skewers.

On another visit, all of us decided to try the Factory Appetizer Favorites ($28.95) as our shared meal, which is a very large version of an appetizer sampler. LB decided to get the kids mini-corn dogs again which was a good decision as I don't know how much of the appetizers he would have wanted to eat. That left four of us (Grandma, Grandpa, BB, and me), which worked out well as each appetizer came with four pieces. Four separate dishes arrived holding the Quesadillas, Pot Stickers, Summer Rolls, Calamari, Buffalo Blasts, Corn Cakes, Spinach & Artichoke dip, Avocado Eggrolls, and all of the associated sauces. The big winners were the Avocado Eggrolls (creamy/crunchy goodness), Pot Stickers (very flavorful), Corn Cakes (sweet and spicy all together), and Calamari (delicate, not chewy). No one really liked the Summer Rolls, cold rice wrappers filled with noodles. It was a good way to sample many of the appetizers, but it really wasn't enough food to be a meal for all four of us. The plus side is that left room for dessert!

Of course, you can't go to The Cheesecake Factory without getting cheesecake, right? They typically have between 20 and 30 cheesecakes available, with some seasonal selections as well. Slices are $6.75 to $7.95. The slices might look small, but they are very rich and I suggest sharing. We ordered a slice of the 30th Anniversary Chocolate Cake Cheesecake ($7.50) and a slice of Adam's Peanut Butter Cup Fudge Ripple Cheesecake ($6.95) on our first visit, and the seasonal Pumpkin Pecan Cheesecake on our second visit. The 30th Anniversary cake has a layer of cheesecake along with chocolate cake and a fudge layer. It ended up as the overall favorite. The peanut butter one was super rich and had cheesecake swirled with caramel, peanut butter, and peanut butter cups. I absolutely loved the Pumpkin Pecan Cheesecake - it was my personal favorite. I was expecting pumpkin cheesecake with pecans in it. Nope, it was even better. It was a pumpkin cheesecake ON TOP OF a pecan pie. A double decker pie - two pies in one! The creamy cheesecake went great with the ooey gooey pecan pie. We will definitely be back to tackle more of the menu and try more of the cheesecakes.

Website: http://www.cheesecakefactory.com/

Restaurant Review - Menchie's Frozen Yogurt, 7339 W. Sand Lake Road, #406, Orlando, FL

2009-11-17T20:16:00.011-05:00

Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt, located on Sand Lake Road’s “Restaurant Row”, is a fun, interactive dessert store. It is do-it-yourself with simple instructions: Fill your bowl with frozen yogurt. Top with snacks and candies and sauces. Weigh. Then pay. For 44 cents an ounce, you can get what you want, in the quantity you want. The concept is brilliant. The staff just makes sure the toppings are kept filled up and then monitor the scale as customers finish their creations and weigh and pay.

Don’t worry if there is a crowd milling about inside. Remember, this is do-it-yourself. So, step right up, grab a bowl, and start pouring your frozen yogurt. There are 12 flavors every time, with only chocolate and vanilla staying the same, as far as I could tell. With more than 40 different flavors, including seasonal offerings like pumpkin and eggnog, rotating constantly, you will find a different variety available almost every time you visit. At the “Snackage” bar, where the dry toppings reside, are about 30 different types of add-ins, including nuts (peanuts, almonds, walnuts, pecans), candies (Reese’s Pieces, chocolate chips, yogurt chips, Jelly Bellies, M&M, Snow Caps, Gummy Bears, Rainbow Nerds, etc), cereals (Cap’n Crunch, Lucky Charms, Fruity Pebbles, Cocoa Pebbles, etc.) and other toppings like coconut flakes, granola, and graham cracker crumbs. At the “Chill” bar, are freshly cut fruits such as strawberry slices, maraschino cherries, mango, kiwi, bananas, pineapple, as well as the decadent stuff such as mini-peanut butter cups, cookie dough balls, mini-cheesecake bits, and even mochi, a sticky Japanese confection. Finally, there is the “Hotties” sauce bar with caramel, chocolate, peanut butter sauce, and hot fudge, as well as marshmallow sauce and non-dairy whipped topping.

On our first visit, I tried both the Pralines ‘n’ Cream and Pistachio frozen yogurt flavors and thought they made a great combination. I added pecans, coconut flakes, mini-cheesecake bites, and then topped that off with caramel sauce. BB was happily moving along, getting his yogurt and toppings while I helped LB put the yogurt flavors he wanted into his cup. By the time we reached the scale to weigh our creations, I glanced over and noticed my older son’s cup was completely filled to the top with yogurt and toppings. Oh dear, I should have been watching more closely. I had the staff weigh his separately from ours and, as I suspected, he had passed the pound mark! Yep, at 44 cents an ounce, he was looking at a $7.80 cup of dessert. The real test was, did he finish it? Of course not! Luckily, Menchie’s has lids to place on your creation so you can take it home if you want.

Next time, I walked in and was shocked to find that most of the flavors had changed and my Pralines ‘n’ Cream AND Pistachio were gone. After a moment, I realized this was probably a good thing so I could try some of the other flavors and I would not be stuck in a rut getting the same flavors every single time. This time, I did a Cookies ‘n’ Cream and Cheesecake swirl (if two flavors are in the same machine, you can do a swirl), and then added some of the French Vanilla flavor. I also added some different toppings, trying peanuts this time, Snow Caps, and strawberry slices.

You can also try tastes of the different flavors first with the provided mini paper cups. This is actually a pretty good idea. I did not try the Cappucino flavor before I added it to my cup and when I was eating it later, it had a very strong coffee taste (it should have been called Espresso instead). So definitely taste-test if you are not sure what a flavor will taste like.

This visit, I watched BB like a hawk, and stopped him several times by the yogurt machines as I saw him place too much of each flavor in his cup. I also had to watch him at the toppings bar as I discovered he was putting scoop after scoop of chocolate chips into his bowl. “Hey, this is a yogurt shop, not a candy store!”

LB was more adventurous than I thought, trying more than just chocolate and vanilla and venturing to the Irish Mint and the Cheesecake flavors, though his favorite was Cookies ‘n’ Cream. This time, all of our creations came out to around $15 total , putting us closer to the 10-12 ounces per cup mark.

This is currently the only Menchie’s location in Florida, although another is planned for Fort Lauderdale. The shopping area it is in has several other restaurants so parking can be tight. However, there are “30 minutes or less” parking spots right in front. Menchie’s has already become a habit with us and I look forward to going every couple of weeks, especially to discover the new flavors in store for us.

Website: http://www.menchies.com/

Restaurant Musings - To Tip or Not to Tip for Take Out?

2009-11-11T22:42:00.000-05:00

We have several new upscale chain restaurants in our area and we have become dinner lazy lately and have been ordering take-out. My favorite of the lot is Chili's because they have really made a nice guest experience of their Take Out. There are parking spaces just for Chili's To Go and a separate entrance and cash register as well so I don't have to wait at the bar and try to attract the bartender's attention so I can get my take out order. My angst is always - should I tip for Take Out? If I was eating in, I would certainly tip, of course. But when the restaurant seems to do a really good job of putting all of my food so nicely together in special take out boxes, including all accompaniments such as rolls and butter and dressings, I feel guilty just paying what is on the check. Does any one out there tip for Take Out?

Quick Bites - New Menus at Quick Service Restaurants at Mexico Pavilion at Epcot Theme Park

2009-11-10T21:30:00.002-05:00

Today for lunch I went to Cantina de San Angel at the Mexico Pavilion at Epcot because I had heard from @AmandaTinney that this quick-serve restaurant now serves Chilaquiles. Chilaquiles are a chicken and corn dish that has been my favorite at past Epcot International Food & Wine Festivals and I was very excited that it is now a permanent item on the menu at Cantina de San Angel. Both my friend and I ordered the Chilaquiles ($9.59) which comes with refried black beans and Mexican rice. I also got a guacamole with chips ($5.50) to share between us and a Congo juice ($3.99) to drink. The Chilaquiles was a good portion and was the mushy corn and chicken combination I love. It was topped with a mild red sauce versus the spicy green tomatillo sauce that used to be served with it when it was a Food & Wine item. That makes sense considering most people in line with me would probably not expect a spicy item on the menu. The guacamole was okay but I guess I am getting spoiled with all the tableside guacamole that restaurants are serving these days; I missed the chunks of fresh avocado in this version. The Congo juice is a combination of pineapple, orange and lime juices and was very refreshing.

As we were finishing lunch, I looked over at the Mexico City booth that had been used at the Food & Wine Festival, that just ended two days ago. To my surprise, there were people at the booth, and they looked like they were getting food! What is this, I thought? Did Epcot leave the Mexico booth open for some reason? We investigated after lunch and I saw a sign outside the booth that declared this as the Taqueria Del Lago. The menu had Taquitos (I was wondering why they had taken those off the menu at the Cantina), Tostadas, adult-size Quesadillas (previously the only Quesadillas on the Cantina menu were the kids' version), Flan, and other items. I asked the Cast Member behind the counter if this was a permanent food location and she said it was (but it still could be a test seeing how well the location does). Of course, the issue is if half of your party wants Chilaquiles or Burritos or a kids meal, and the other half wants Taquitos or Quesadillas, then you will end up waiting in two different lines. Still, I think that will help with the crowd control as the Cantina was very packed and it took a while to get the food. I'll have to return and try some of the items at the Taqueria.

Restaurant Review - Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza, 8031 Turkey Lake Road, Orlando, FL

2009-09-20T18:00:00.005-04:00

Recently opened, in the Whole Foods shopping center at the intersection of Turkey Lake Road and Sand Lake Road, is Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza, a pizza chain started in South Florida. The inside of the restaurant is very open, with walls covered with black & white and color photographs of NY icons, and a few wide-screen TVs.

The menu is limited with just pizzas, a few side orders, grilled wings, and one dessert, NY-style cheesecake naturally, although there are some other sandwich and salad items available for lunch that are not on the main menu. There is no kids menu but you generally don't need one for a pizza place as everyone can dig into a pie. When the server came to get our drink order, we found out something interesting. Anthony's only serves bottled drinks (there is no soda fountain, although you can get wine by the glass). Since it was just me and my boys, we ordered two sweetened Gold Peak Tea bottles ($2.50), and one Minute Maid Lemonade ($2.50). There are also sodas available and unsweet tea. The Gold Peak teas were 16.9 oz bottles and the Lemonade was 20 oz which allowed for about a glass and a half each. The only problem was telling my kids to make it last as there are no free refills.

Pizza prices are pretty reasonable with a small 12" starting at $11.50 and a large 16" starting at $14.50. Toppings for the small start at $1.50 and for the large at $2.50, but there is a volume discount -- the more toppings, the less per each you pay. Toppings available are Italian sausage, fresh mushrooms, Calamata olives (yep, not just your regular black olives), prosciutto, Long Hot Finger Peppers (um, not exactly sure what these are), anchovies, onions, pepperoni, or sweet peppers. There are also Specialty pizzas for $15.95 for a small and $18.95 for a large. These looked very interesting such as the Meatball & Ricotta, the Frittata (Onion, pepper, and egg), Eggplant Marino, and more. For this visit, we ordered a large with 1/2 cheese and 1/2 mushrooms and olives ($17.00). We also order the Fresh Mozzarella and Tomato Salad to start ($6.25).

Our salad arrived, with four large slices of deep red tomato, topped with thick slices of fresh mozzarella, many strands of basil, olive oil and a bit of balsamic vinegar. In the center was piled a mound of sweet peppers. BB and I each had two of the tomato stacks. The tomatoes were cold and fresh and the mozzarella was creamy, plus there was plenty of basil for each piece. We left the sweet peppers alone as we both aren't fans. Another side dish is the grilled chicken wings. We didn't order it but saw a plate of them pass by. It looked like a huge portion of grilled wings, settled on slices of foccacia bread and them completely covered with grilled onions. That doesn't really appeal to me, but it might to you!

As soon as we were done with the tomatoes, the pizza came out. As their motto implies, the pizza at Anthony's was definitely "well-done" which also means that the edges and bottom of the pie can look a bit charred. That was not a good thing for LB who instantly balked at eating the pizza. I had to cajole him into eating it. Of course, he just wanted the cheese. Unfortunately, the cheese had large "holes" of just sauce that he didn't like either. Oh, the curse of a picky eater!

BB and I loved the pizza. It has a sweet sauce that was more pronounced with the plain cheese side. The crust is a bread-like consistency, not doughy at all. The mushrooms were piled on generously although we were a little disappointed with the amount of olives. I know that Kalamata (on the menu they were spelled "Calamata) olives are typically a lot stronger in taste and a bit salty; maybe that is why there was only a sprinkling of finely chopped olives on the pie? Just wish there was more.

Between the three of us, we ate all but slices, which we took home to Hubby. I'll definitely be back, and I'm sure BB will want to come as well. We'll probably have to leave LB at home with Hubby, though.

Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza website: http://www.anthonyscoalfiredpizza.com/index.html

Restaurant Review - Zen, Omni Orlando Resort, 1500 Masters Blvd, ChampionsGate, FL

2009-09-07T22:26:00.012-04:00

For a fun adult night out with friends, Hubby and I like to go to Zen, a Chinese restaurant located inside the Omni Resort at ChampionsGate. What makes this different than other Chinese restaurants, beside its upscale location and decor, is the "Zen Experience." The Zen Experience is an all-you-can-eat extravaganza served from a special menu at Zen. For $46 per person (another reason we don't go with the kids), you basically choose whatever and how much you want of the selected dishes on the menu and the kitchen keeps bringing them out to you. Kind of like tapas or dim sum, but one price for all. There are lots of selections on the menu including soups, appetizers, entrees, and side dishes (desserts are a separate price). For this visit, we dined with another couple.

To start, we ordered a bottle of sake ($27), cold, and three of our party ordered hot jasmine tea while Hubby ordered an iced tea.

I was used to cold sake being served in wine glasses so I was surprised when we were each given the tiny hot sake cups and the whole bottle in a cooler to the side of our table (like you would see done with a bottle of wine). It made it a little difficult to pour more sake into our cups since the bottle is similar in size to a wine bottle. Also, the jasmine tea was served individually as well with each of us getting our own small pot. Zen uses whole leaves for the tea and leaves them in a basket in the tea pots, so here's a tip: jasmine tea leaves have a tendency to turn bitter if left in the water too long. I took my filter of tea leaves out after a few minutes and that stopped my whole pot from turning bitter.

Our server told us that the soups on the menu were served in bowls individually but everything else was served in a platter for the table. Hubby and my friend ordered the corn chowder, her husband ordered the wonton soup (which, strangely, is not listed on the special menu but we were able to get it), and I had the hot & sour soup. All the soups were good but we were eager to more on to the rest of the menu. We then ordered five (of the eight available) appetizers for our table -- Sesame Shrimp Toast, Salt & Pepper Calamari with spicy mayo, Hunan Dumplings with peanut sauce, Crispy Scallops which were pounded flat into circle shapes and then deep fried, and Sweet Potato Tempura which turned out to be small rectangular pockets of the potatoes. The appetizers arrived with three sauces on the side -- a duck sauce, spicy mayo, and a plum sauce. Our favorite was the shrimp toast which was greasy, but good. It was pounded out shrimp, with a crispy wrapper, covered with sesame seeds, and cut into triangles.

From the 10 entrees listed, we ordered the Stir Fry Lobster with Ginger Sauce, with large chunks of lobster in a clear sauce, with lots of green onions; the Stir Fry Beef with onions, tasty and very tender; and Black Pepper Shrimp with fried spinach - the shrimp were too peppery for me but I loved the spinach. The leaves were crispy and almost translucent and the leaves just melted on your tongue. We also ordered the Sweet and Sour Pork with large chunks of pineapples and peppers. Then we ordered side dishes of Vegetable Fried Rice, Szechuan Green Beans which turned out to not be hot at all, and Singapore Noodles which were curry but not too much, with big shrimp mixed in.

After we had polished off all that, we went back and ordered another shrimp toast, the Zen beef -- exceptional, not spicy, full of flavor and tender as well, a side of Sauteed Asparagus which tasted a little smokey, and another Stir Fry Lobster (can you tell that was our favorite entree?).

For dessert (not included in the Zen Experience), we chose the Banana Zangoes ($8), two tubes of banana cheesecake wrapped in egg roll paper and deep fried, and sitting on chocolate mousse, whipped cream, and a honey-like sweet sauce. Even though we though we were full, we ordered another one so we each got a tube. It was delicious and not as heavy as I thought it would be, though definitely rich.

Our dinner ended up being a three-hour meal but we were also in no rush. All in all, a great evening out.

Zen website: click here

Like Meal Deals? Orlando Magical Dining Month is Back for September!

2009-08-27T20:52:00.000-04:00

The Orlando/Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau (OOCCVB) have brought back Orlando Magic Dining Month and, with this economy, diners and restaurants really need it. For those of you who have not participated before, restaurants in the area work with the OOCCVB to create three-course (appetizer, entree, and dessert) prix fixe dinners for $20 or $30 in the month of September. This year, there are over 40 restaurants on the $30 list and over 20 on the $20 list. And, these are not obscure restaurants. On the $30 list are Emeril's, Fulton's Crab House, Luma on Park, Morton's The Steakhouse, Norman's, Ocean Prime, The Oceanaire, The Palm, Roy's Hawaiian, and Seasons 52, just to name a few. When else can you get three courses at these restaurants for $30?? Now, these are special menus prepared just for this promotion so don't expect a 4-pound lobster to be part of the deal at The Palm, but you can usually find a good selection of items on the promotional menu. Plus, you can always check out the menu in advance and see if it is something you will be interested in. New this year is being able to make a reservation right on the website via Open Table. I'd recommend making a reservation in advance and when you arrive, let the host or hostess know that you want the special Orlando Magical Dining Month menu. Enjoy - the promotion runs from September 1 - 30, 2009!

Restaurant Review - Redrock Canyon Grill, 9101 International Drive (Pointe Orlando), Orlando, FL

2009-08-22T15:29:00.012-04:00

Restaurants are popping up all over at Pointe Orlando, right in the middle of the International Drive tourist district. One of these is Redrock Canyon Grill, on the first level of the complex, where you can eat comfortably whether it is a date night or a day out with the family.

The interior of the restaurant is dark, very dark, even during daytime, which is probably due to the dark concrete floors, dark wood tables and deep brown booths. There are southwestern touches here and there such as cacti and exposed brickwork and a rotisserie spit rotates constantly with golden-hued chickens near the open kitchen.

The menu clearly features comfort food with cornbread, chicken, meatloaf, pot pie, and ribs offerings, and “skins left on” mashed potatoes, green beans, and sweet glazed carrots as side dishes. There are also salads, seafood selections, and combinations platters as well. The lunchtime menu also has a few more sandwiches available than the dinner menu.

Kids’ menu choices range from $5 - $6 and include standbys such as hot dogs and chicken tenders but also rotisserie chicken, ribs, and spicy meatloaf. Yep, it even says "spicy" on the menu. When we asked, the server said there are a few peppers in the meatloaf and sauce and they wanted to warn kids. That's pretty nice. There is also the Mac Daddy Mac & Cheese side dish on the menu for $4 that can serve as a kids’ meal as well.

I choose the house specialty, the Wood-Fired Rotisserie Chicken ($17.75) with mashed potatoes and glazed carrots on the side. I found out that portions at Redrock Canyon Grill are large when the server placed the plate of half chicken and mound of potatoes and carrots in front of me. The chicken was extremely tender and juicy. The carrots were not too sweet and still had some crispness, which is great because I don’t like mushy carrots.

Grandpa ordered the Meatloaf - the spicy one but it doesn't say so on the adult menu - ($14.00) which comes with two sides, typically red-skin mashed potatoes and green beans. Our server explained that we can substitute any regular side dish so Grandpa ordered the grilled zucchini and squash instead of the green beans. The meatloaf did turn out to be a little spicy. The meatloaf comes with a tomato-based sauce and was also large portion. The grilled veggies were quartered, brushed with olive oil, and lightly cooked, leaving the insides still crisp. They were so good I wished I had chosen that as one of my sides.

Grandma ordered the Grilled Chicken and Avocado Club Sandwich ($11.00) with sprouts, bacon, and swiss cheese. The sandwich was rather high which made it difficult to eat like a sandwich so she used a knife and fork instead. While delicious, she wished it had more honey mustard dressing as the flattened chicken breast was a little dry.

BB initially wanted the chicken tenders but I cajoled him into ordering something more of a specialty of the house so he ended up ordering the Kids Ribs ($6.00) with fries. They came with a BBQ sauce for dipping. He thought they were a little dry and only ended up eating half because he didn’t like the sauce, so I felt a bit bad about making him change his mind.

LB choose the Hot Dog ($5.00) and then contented himself with the coloring and mazes on the Kids' menu. He ate the whole thing, although asked me to cut the hot dog into pieces half way through so he could dunk the bites into catsup.

On another visit, I tried the Texas “Chop House” Rotisserie Chicken Salad ($14.00) with black beans, tomatoes, jicama, corn, and shredded cheese with chipotle-bleu dressing. The salad was filled with large, tender pieces of chicken, which were drizzled with a BBQ sauce, and was topped by a sliced half of an avocado. The different tastes and textures combined for a great-tasting salad that was also very filling. And as a bonus, it comes with a slice of cast-iron cooked corn bread!

For dessert, there are family-size temptations for $6.50 including a brownie sundae, bread pudding and pineapple upside-down cake. We tried the Apple Blossom Pastry which is a warm apple pie topped with vanilla ice cream. Everyone dug in and we still couldn’t finish it, although we did try!

Don't forget to your Pointe Orlando parking ticket validated as you pay your bill. Also, don’t miss the bowl of chocolate mint sticks on your way out the door. They look like wrapped toothpicks but they are really yummy candies and are a great finish to a great meal.

Phone: 407-363-3933
Website: http://www.rrcanyongrill.com/

Restaurant Review - Kafe Kalik, Prime Outlets Mall, 4969 International Drive, Orlando, FL

2009-06-07T19:00:00.000-04:00

Way, way, down at the north end of International Drive is the Prime Outlets Mall, with high end outlet stores galore. Joining this group of retail is now Kafe Kalik, an upscale Bahamian restaurant. The interior is beautiful with florals, bright colors, dark woods, and a sheet of "rain" at the entrance. There's also a Straw Market (gift shop), sushi bar, and gelato counter. I never knew Bahamian cuisine was known for gelato and sushi, but there you have it.

We visited during lunch which looks to be the best bargain as all the prices go up (way up) during dinner time. The menu is huge with a lot of very unique flavors, mostly concentrating on seafood. The "sushi" is actually Caribbean rice rolls and as I far as I could tell, all of the fish items were cooked, not raw. The Junior Junkanoo kids menu stays the same for lunch and dinner and offers a burger, chicken fingers, macaroni and cheese, chicken in the bag, pasta, ribs, cracked conch in the bag, or grouper fingers from $4.95 to $6.95. All kids meals come with a soft drink and most include fries.

On our first visit, we started with the West Indies Curry Crunch rice rolls ($8.00) which is honey coated mahi mahi with tempura flakes, wrapped in rice like a sushi roll. It is served with traditional pickled ginger, wasabi and soy sauce but also with a tamarind soy dipping sauce and julienned calabaza. The roll was very good as is but I did dip it in the tamarind soy sauce and it was even better.

The server also brought to the table a basket of goodies including johnny cakes (like small corn muffins), flatbread slices, plantain chips, and regular tortilla chips. Watch out -- we found out the hard way that some of the johnny cakes come with jalapenos as my 5-year old found out. Accompaniments were guava butter (and you could really taste the guava!), regular butter, and a "pigeon pea relish", a Caribbean-style salsa with tomatoes, beans, and onions. The relish was delicious with all of the items and it went quickly.

Grandpa had had the jerk chicken platter before (which he declared as excellent), so this time he and Grandma shared a Banana Boat combo ($27.00), a choice of three of the Caribbean Rice rolls. They chose the Bump and Grind, Fat Annies Refrigerator Lobster Maki, and Johnny Canoe Crabby Cali (I swear these are the names on the menu for these rolls). The best was the Lobster roll with a sweet sauce, which had lobster, shrimp, crab, avocado, cream cheese, and veggies rolled in rice. The Johnny Canoe was really like a California roll, with a slight Caribbean twist.

BB ordered the Kids Ribs ($6.95) but had helped out a little too much with all the rice rolls so was not really hungry when his large kids plate of ribs came. He got four big, meaty ribs in a guava barbecue sauce. It came with fries that were slightly sweet. Grandpa helped him finish the ribs and said that the sauce "grew on him". I got the Grouper fingers platter ($11.50) which was very lightly fried and also had a slight sweet taste to the batter. The fish was good and tender but I think I would have liked it to be a bit more crispy. I also got the peas and rice which was good but I was hoping for more taste, maybe more of a coconut flavor. I actually preferred the island cole slaw (the server snuck me a cup of it to try) which was very light and fresh tasting and a good companion to the grouper.

The next visit, it was just me and the kids for lunch. This time I got the soup and sandwich lunch combo ($9.50) with two Guava Hog BBQ sliders and a cup of the conch chowder. The chowder was a nice size and was slightly spicy with big chunks of veggies and conch and, well, some sticks and stuff. I know they were probably fresh herbs but I would have preferred to have those large pieces of herbs strained out or removed before serving. The sliders were small but after the soup, it was enough. The guava pulled pork was sweet but not overly so and was tender. LB got the kids cheeseburger ($4.95) and BB got the pasta, with Alfredo sauce ($4.95). Both boys ate pretty well, although we did have to ask for more sauce for the pasta as it was very skimpy. And I was glad that LB didn't want the pasta as it was fettuccine which he doesn't like.

I don't know if it is supposed to be the island way, but the service can be pretty slow at times. The kids ended up watching a video of parades in the Bahamas that kept them entertained so make sure you have something to keep your kids occupied.

Dessert time! We decided on the Mini Trifle Creme Shooter desserts ($2.50) which are a good deal for the price. Basically, it is cake, topped with your chosen flavor of gelato and then topped with whipped cream. Plus, we each got to choose our own flavor of gelato instead of having to choose one to share like with the bigger gelato dessert. There are eleven tropical flavors to choose from including mango, passion fruit, rum raisin, key lime, tangerine, etc. LB chose banana, I chose coconut, and BB ordered the chocolate gelato. I liked how they were all presented slightly differently with rainbow sprinkles or toasted coconut flakes. All were great, but we all decided that the chocolate was the best; it tasted like rich chocolate pudding.

There was still a lot on the menu that I have yet to try, and this time I'm going to order the chocolate gelato as well.

Kafe Kalik website: http://www.kafekalik.com/

Restaurant Musings - Another Orlando area restaurant bites the dust

2009-05-28T19:43:00.003-04:00

Well, another Orlando-area restaurant has closed - Amira's kosher deli in Altamonte Springs. We had just eaten there two weeks ago and the boys really liked it! It seems that on a daily basis we are learning about restaurants that are closing because of the economy. And most of these are the mom-and-pop restaurants because they don't have the deep pockets of the chain restaurants to be able to sustain themselves during economic downturns. I shudder to think we might end up with a chain-restaurant only dining landscape soon. That would be a very sad thing.

Here are a couple of restaurants in the area that have closed recently; you can add your own mournings in the comments section.

Amira's: Great place to get a totally stacked corned beef sandwich and potato pancakes. My kids also loved the pickles they serve as soon as you sit down at the table.

Jockamo's: My dad loved the crawfish boils. My kids and I liked the beignets. Where else in the area can you find New Orleans food?

Restaurant Review - Biergarten Restaurant, Germany Pavillon, Epcot at Walt Disney World Resort

2009-05-12T22:39:00.000-04:00

After shopping "around the world" at Epcot recently, we stopped in to have lunch at one of my favorite family-friendly eating places -- the Biergarten restaurant in the German pavillon. Part buffet, part dinner show, the Biergarten has many things to entertain and feed both kids and adults. For kids, and picky adults, there is macaroni and cheese and roasted chicken on the buffet. For adults, there are 12 ounce beers (yikes!) as well as beer and wine flights if you'd like to try out some new drinks. For everyone, there is the Oompah band that plays for about 20 minutes every hour and includes lots of interactive and fun instruments such as the accordian (a must for the polka dances), cow bells, a wooden xylophone-like instrument, and the huge Alpine horns (think the "Riccola" TV commercials).

The lunch buffet is served from noon to 3 PM at $10.99 for kids ages 3 - 9 and $19.99 for adults (yes, 10 year olds are considered adults at Disney).

The inside of the restaurant resembles an outside courtyard of a small Alpine village at night. And in here, it is always Oktoberfest! Tables are for eight people so if you have four or less in your group, you might be seated with others. Don't worry, after a few 12 ounce beers, you will be best friends! After being seated at one of the long wooden tables and having the server introduce us to the other family already seated there, our server took our drink orders. LB asked for water while BB asked for sweet tea. Whoops, he forgot that, at Disney, they only have unsweet tea so he asked for a Coke instead. Grandma ordered the unsweet iced tea and I perused the wine and beer menu (alcoholic drinks are not included in the buffet price). What's nice is that all of the servers actually are from Germany so you can ask them questions about their country, or how to pronounce some of the beers or wines. My server, jokingly, wouldn't take my pointing at the Riesling wine I wanted and instead worked with me until I was able to pronounce it myself. Then, we headed to the buffet!

On one side of the buffet are cold items such as salads, a huge variety of cold meats such as bologna and sausages, and cheeses. Next come the cute pretzel shaped rolls, which are super yummy, and other types of bread and rolls. The soup was Potato Leek and was hot, very creamy, with soft pieces of leeks mixed in -- it was great to dip the pretzel bread into it. There are several hot selections including meatballs, pork, salmon fillet with a light dill sauce, bratwurst, and an accompanying condiment bar with hot mustard, sweet mustard, relish, chutney, catsup, and what became my favorite -- a curry catsup. I also discovered a pork shank gratin that was bits of pork shank (which tasted like corned beef to me), mixed with a light sauerkraut, and topped with mashed potatoes and cheese -- I went back for seconds on that. At another hot station were glazed carrots, roasted potatoes, pork schnietzel with hunter sauce (like a dark beef mushroom sauce), and a carving station with sliced roast pork and meatloaf.

Of course, the challenge with every buffet is who goes up with which child and helps them choose what to eat. LB, my picky eater, just wanted a pretzel roll and mac-n-cheese but I snuck some meatballs on his plate as well and he ended up actually eating them. BB was great, trying a little bit of everything, including a few cold sausage and each of the veggies. Grandma also noshed on a little bit of everything.

The Oompah band came on and involved everyone with singing along and dancing. My boys were mesmerized and would quietly sit in their seats and eat. You can't beat that! Then, of course, came the Oktoberfest toast with the band leading everyone to raise their glasses and sing: "Zicke-Zacke-Zicke-Zacke Hoi, Hoi, Hoi! Prost!", which always makes me think of the German guy in the Man Show (remember the Man Show from Comedy Central?).

There are also desserts on the buffet such as Bavarian cheesecake, Apple Strudel with vanilla sauce, fruit salad, a Black Forest cake roll, vanilla pudding with chocolate sprinkles, and cookies. Grandma ended up making us a "dessert sampler" plate for us with one of each thing and we all shared dessert. It was all really good but my favorite was the strudel with the vanilla sauce.

As it is a buffet, items will periodically change. Again, non-alcoholic beverages are included, and you can even change your drink and get coffee or tea with dessert. Plus, the band will honor any birthdays or anniversaries in the audience, and will sing you traditional German songs to celebrate. At the dinner buffet ($13.99 kids/$28.99 adults), there are additional items such as sauerbraten and herring but based on the large increase in price for adults, we prefer to go for lunch.

It's a great way to relax and have fun and good food at the theme parks, and everyone will enjoy the show.

Quick Bites - Ostrich and Buffalo burgers at Fuddrucker's

2009-04-30T19:40:00.001-04:00

At the Fuddrucker's restaurant in Crossroads in Lake Buena Vista, I noticed that they have a "healthy choices" menu with different types of burgers such as turkey, veggie, and yes, buffalo and ostrich. I was very intrigued by these exotic offerings, so with the help of one of my co-workers, we split an ostrich burger and buffalo burger.

Cost: The exotic burgers are a bit more expensive than the regular burgers at Fuddrucker's and they only come in the one size - 1/2 pound. For comparison, a regular 1/2 pound beef burger is $5.69 while the Ostrich burger is $8.49 and the Buffalo burger is $7.99.

Looks: The buffalo burger looked more like a beef burger than the ostrich did, which makes sense. The ostrich burger was a very light brown, almost grey, with what looked like black pepper flecks scattered throughout the meat.

Taste: The ostrich burger was not greasy at all, though it wasn't dry either. To me, it tasted like veal. Unfortunately, I am not a big veal fan so I wasn't too keen on finishing the burger. My co-worker didn't fancy the taste either, so we ended up putting lots of condiments on it and finishing the burger. The buffalo burger, however, tasted just like a regular beef burger and we had no problem finishing that one.

Nutrition: Are these really healthier choices? I asked the question on the Fuddrucker's website and the nice people at Fuddrucker's sent me their nutritional information for all of their food products. Guess what? The ostrich burger really is better! Here's the breakdown: Ostrich burger, 1/2 pound prepared, 390 calories, 60 calories from fat, 6 grams of fat; Buffalo burger, 1/2 pound prepared, 520 calories, 330 calories from fat, 36 grams of fat; Beef burger, 1/2 pound prepared, 656 calories, 504 calories from fat, 56 grams of fat.

Taking all into consideration, I might be tempted to get another buffalo burger when I go to Fuddrucker's, but I'll probably pass on the ostrich. If you like veal, though, you might want to try it.

Restaurant Review - bd's Mongolian Grill, 300 S. State Road 434 , Altamonte Springs, FL

2009-04-20T13:15:00.020-04:00

South of 436 in Altamonte Springs is bd’s Mongolian Grill, a mid-West chain now in Central Florida. For those of you not familiar with the Mongolian barbecue concept, basically you choose the raw ingredients you want in your meal, present it to a cook, and he or she will grill it up for you.

We went to bd’s Mongolian Grill for lunch and perused the menu while deciding how much we wanted to eat. Pricing is by how much you want to eat rather than what ingredients you choose. There is a One Bowl option ($8.99), a One Bowl plus soup & salad ($10.99), Unlimited bowls plus soup & salad ($13.99), or, you can order a Mongo Rice Bowl ($6.99) if you don't want to bother with coming up with the ingredients yourself and want the cook to make it all for you. There is also a vegetarian option for all of these if you aren't going to add any meats. Pricing is more expensive at dinner (about $2 - $4 dollars more depending on your selection). The only difference at dinner is some of the more premium meat selections are offered such as NY Strip and scallops. Kids prices are by age and include the soup & salad bar, which is great for me since my older boy loves veggies and soups. Kids ages 7 – 11 are $5.99, ages 3 – 6 are $4.99 and 2 and unders are free. Kids prices stay the same at dinner.

Before deciding, I looked over the soup and salad bar. When we went, the soups were chowder and chili. I thought it would be wonton or egg drop or some sort of Asian soup so I was surprised. Also, the salad bar was pretty standard, nothing too different. Because of that, I decided to get the One Bowl option. Actually, I wish there was a Two Bowl option, or an Unlimited without the Soup & Salad but those don't exist.

Here’s what you have to do to make your stir-fry:

Step #1 - Put your raw meat into a bowl. There were pastas, sausage, beef (ribeye), Krab (the "fake" variety), shrimp, calamari, mahi-mahi, pork, chicken, tofu, and others. The selection changes periodically, for example, there was duck available for the holidays.

Step #2 - Add veggies to your bowl, such as mushrooms, bean sprouts, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, red skin potatoes, pea pods, pineapple, carrots, baby corn, and broccoli to name a few. There was even raw egg, jalapenos, and cilantro! The bins of food were kept continuously stocked. Both times I went up, a worker was refilling any bins that were low. They were all kept filled to the top, which is really nice.

Step #3 - Put the sauces you want in a different small black bowl. The goal, I believe, is to fill up the small bowl to get the most flavor. There were Asian sauces, both spicy and non-spicy, such as Garlic, Soy, Ginger, Szechuan, Kung Pao, Teriyaki, and Thai peanut. There were also other sauces like barbecue, marinara, spicy buffalo, and a lemon sauce.

Step #4 - Add spices and "mix-ins" to either bowl, things like chopped peanuts, coconut, curry powder, red pepper, garlic powder, sesame seeds, etc.

Then it’s time to bring your creation to the huge circular grill (or to the separate allergy station if you are allergic to any ingredients or want a truly vegetarian dish). The cooks will grill up your raw ingredients for you, cutting up the meat, and then add your sauce at last minute, and finish by sliding your creation onto a clean plate. If you wish, there are chopsticks available at the grill, and even kid's plastic chopsticks available from your server. BB got one of these and he liked it better than the wood-and-rubber-band ones you can get at some Asian restaurants. In fact, we took it home and just cleaned it in the dishwasher!

When we returned to our table, our server had already brought white rice (sticky), brown rice, and tortillas to eat with our meals. They also have lettuce wraps if you prefer.

On our first visit, I tried to make something similar to Mongolian Beef. I started with half a bowl of beef, added mushrooms, broccoli, and garlic, and then filled a sauce bowl with two ladles of Mongolian ginger and one of black bean sauce. It came out really good! Although, after having a big bowlful of raw ingredients, it surprised me how small the food looked on the final plate the cook handed to me. Hmm, maybe I need fill the raw ingredient bowl more next time I come. I added white rice when I came back to the table and ate. Yum!

For LB, I just listened to his instructions as he chose the different ingredients (editing a little when I didn’t think it would come out okay). He had a lot of fun choosing the ingredients he liked. He asked for raw beef in the bowl (I only filled the bowl about 1/4 way), then rotini noodles, baby corn (the only vegetable I was able to get him to add), and then I chose his sauces for the black bowl. He was a bit upset by this as he told me that he did not want ANY SAUCE. I convinced him though and chose a ladle of soy sauce and one of teriyaki. He got into it then and asked I add the sweet & sour sauce as well. Sure! He liked going up with his bowl and watching his food get made. He also really liked the tortillas and ended up eating two of those completely plain along with about half of his actual food.

BB started off with a bowl of clam chowder, then came back up for a full bowl of salad and veggies on the salad bar, and then decided he was ready for a stir-fry bowl. Grandpa ended up helping to choose everything so he told me he was not really sure what he got. But he liked it and said he would like to come back. Grandpa liked his as well but couldn't remember exactly what he put in his either. He was not too happy with the concept as a whole. His thinking was that if he came up with something that he really liked, he wouldn't be able to replicate it next time he came. Plus, he was having a hard time deciding what to put in his bowl. He probably would have preferred a few more recipe cards. Grandma made one of the "holiday special" duck dishes, Citrus Duck, that she found on a recipe card and really liked it, although it was a little sweet. Her only comment was that she would have never known it was duck as it tasted a lot like chicken.

My second time at the restaurant, I decided to try for a more Thai-like dish. I got chicken, noodles (I would have preferred more of a glass noodle as opposed to the pasta-like noodle available), and then added mushrooms, bean sprouts, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, cilantro, and brocolli. I loaded the black bowl with just the Thai peanut sauce and added shredded coconut and chopped peanuts. Again, it came out good! I could definitely taste the coconut, due to the coconut milk in the actual sauce and the coconut I added.

Due to the food items available, you definitely don't have to stick with Asian. There were barbecue, burgundy wine, and marinara sauces, plus the pastas, so you could probably come up with some Italian, American, or Mexican dishes as well.

For dessert, we tried the mud pie ($5.99), which was plenty big enough to share with the whole table. It was a huge slice of coffee ice cream pie topped with a thick chocolate fudge sauce and with oreo cookie pieces mixed in with the ice cream. Yummy! Also I got the chocolate mousse ($1.99), which the server said was "tiny" but was actually a nice size -- plenty enough for two. It was very light, not too rich at all.
They also have a nice website at http://www.gomongo.com/ where you can create your own recipes in advance and then print them out and take them with you. If you are watching calories, etc, the website will tell you the nutritional information of what you are choosing (I'm sure it's not exactly the same as what you are going to get, but it's probably close.)

Restaurant Review - BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse, 4151 Conroy Road, Orlando, FL

2009-04-11T23:03:00.001-04:00

Across from the Mall of Millenia is BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse, where the biggest problem you will have is figuring out what to choose from the extensive menu. Besides the microbrew choices, there are burgers, pastas, pizzas, and other specialty entrees.

The restaurant interior is spacious, with light and dark wood floors, large booths, and classic touches such as chandeliers and ornate picture frames. We were seated at one of the oversized booths for dinner with children’s menus for the kids and a book-like menu for the adults. The menu is so extensive that you really need to have an idea of what kind of food you want when you dine here. Do you want a burger or a Chicago-style pizza? A salad or a pasta dish? A sandwich, a stuffed potato, or maybe one of the other entrees? Oh, and don’t forget about the entire microbrew menu.

To buy us some time to peruse the menu, I ordered the Avocado Egg Rolls ($8.95) as an appetizer for the table. These were amazing. Besides being beautifully presented, the crispy egg rolls were filled with large chunks of avocado, cream cheese, sundried tomatoes and other spices, plus a tamarind dipping sauce. The avocado and cream cheese melt together and provide a great flavor combination while the various spices gave some kick. Grandma, Grandpa, BB and I dug in. LB wouldn't touch it because of the "green" stuff inside. It was so good, I might come back and make it my meal one day.

From the kids menu, both of my boys decided to get the two mini burgers ($4.95 including drink), BB choosing his with all the toppings and LB asking for nothing on the bun but the burger. Other choices on the children’s menu are spaghetti, deep dish pizza, grilled cheese, chicken tenders, and mac-n-cheese, all for $4.95. They both gobbled up their burgers. I loved the happy face potatoes that came with the kids’ meals which are like French fries but are round and indented with a smile and two eyes.

Grandpa ordered a sample of the Berry Burst Cider ($1.95 for a 5 oz. taster), and the Chili Cheese Angus Burger ($9.25), with a Wedge Salad ($2.75 with an entrée). The cider was light and very fruity and didn't taste like beer as I thought it would. If you are not sure if you will like some of the beers, BJ’s also offers microbrew taster sets where you can try several of the beers in 5 oz servings. The Wedge Salad was a hunk of lettuce as you would expect but with big crumbles of bleu cheese in the dressing as well as a sprinkling of chopped tomatoes and onions as well. The burger was served open-faced and was completely covered with chili, cheese, and thin-sliced onion rings. Grandpa, who is normally a healthy eater, could not finish the meal but declared it delicious.

I ordered the Parmesan Crusted Chicken ($10.95), a pair of flattened chicken breasts, coated with Panko breadcrumbs and fried, with sides of white cheddar mashed potatoes and broccoli. The chicken had a crispy parmesan cheese crust and was topped with a buttery white wine sauce. I couldn’t get enough of the sauce and dipped every piece of chicken in it and some of the broccoli as well.

Grandma had the BJ’s Favorite deep dish pizza, the mini-size ($9.50). This is a supreme pizza with meatballs, pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms, green peppers, black olives, onions and topped with chopped tomatoes. She was glad she asked for the mini as it was loaded with toppings and was a generous serving. The crust was surprising light and crispy and not too greasy.

For dessert, we tried the Pizookie, a cookie baked in a mini deep20dish and topped with ice cream. No one could agree on if we should get the chocolate chunk cookie with vanilla ice cream or the triple chocolate cookie with chocolate ice cream. Our server helped us out by offering to do a half and half Pizookie for us. When the dessert came, it was just as our server said it would be, chocolate chip cookie with one scoop of vanilla ice cream on one side of the dish and a triple chocolate cookie with chocolate ice cream and a piece of Ghirardelli chocolate on the other. The dessert was very rich with the soft cookie and the melting ice cream on top and we polished it off.

I would definitely return to BJ’s as there are certainly some more dishes I want to try on the menu, including some microbrews as well. If you go at lunchtime during the week, there are some nice lunch specials for $6-$8, most including a salad.

Website: http://www.bjsrestaurants.com/

Help! I need a Brunch place for Easter and Mother's Day!

2009-03-24T14:09:00.006-04:00

I always have this dilemma this time of year. Where can my whole family go for brunch for Easter (coming up April 12) or Mother's Day (coming up May 10) that the kids will like, the adults will like, and it won't be outrageously expensive? A couple of years ago, we all went to the Gospel Brunch at House of Blues Orlando and loved it. However, I always like to try new things. So, I'm asking you, my readers, to recommend a place for a family-friendly Easter or Mother's Day brunch. Just click below on the comments link and tell me all about it! Thanks!

Restaurant Review - Outta Control Magic Comedy Dinner Show (inside WonderWorks), 9067 International Drive, Orlando, FL

2009-01-30T14:25:00.002-05:00

Inside the WonderWorks attraction on International Drive is the Outta Control Magic Comedy Dinner Show. Having tried most of the dinner shows in the area, I was intrigued by this offering because of the relatively low price ($24.95 per adult, and $16.95 per kids and seniors), and because it offered all-you-can-eat pizza, which is my kids’ favorite meal. Plus, my kids like magic shows so we decided to give it a try.

There are two shows each night at 6 pm and 8 pm. The woman on the phone suggested I arrive at WonderWorks by 5:30 pm at the latest for the 6 pm show, as there are no assigned seats and the first in line get the best seats at the front of the stage.

WonderWorks is located right next door to The Pointe shopping area on I-Drive so we parked in the parking garage there. I didn't find out until I got inside WonderWorks that they do not validate parking at The Pointe garage so factor in another $3 or so for parking. We arrived at the Will Call window at 5:15 pm, picked up our tickets, and found there were already several people in line in front of us. As Tom Petty says, "the waiting is the hardest part", especially with two active boys like mine. The doors to the show didn’t open until 6 pm sharp so we had 45 minutes to try and distract the boys while we were waiting. As the doors opened, hosts took each group separately to sit at long family-style tables set perpendicular to the stage, so you will be seated directly next to another group as each table holds about 18 people. We were lucky and were seated at the first table, in the middle. Already on the table was popcorn in upside down magician's hats so the boys dug in. A server came around asking for our drink orders. Choices are Pepsi soda products, along with fruit punch, or beer and wine, all unlimited. I ordered a white wine while BB had Sierra Mist and LB had just water (he doesn't like soda). As we received our drinks, servers began coming out with big bowls of salad, just a regular iceberg blend, with bottles of creamy Italian dressing. Again, this is family style, so we waited while the group in front of us scooped out some salad and then they passed it to us. By now, the show area was almost full and it was getting close to the 6:30 pm show time.

As the show was starting, servers came out with the pizzas and placed them down approximately one pie per every six people. The six-slice pizzas were half pepperoni and half cheese and were pretty decent with a crispy crust and melted cheese. The servers checked back periodically throughout the show to refill drinks and bring more pizzas. BB ate a couple of pepperoni slices and then started on a cheese slice. LB had one cheese slice and was done as I think he ate too much of the popcorn.

The show magician is Tony Brent and I have to say his entire act was just amazing. We didn't really know what to expect and I was even thinking it might be magic that the kids would enjoy but that I would think was a little cheesy. It was incredible all the way. The tricks were outstanding and something that everyone could enjoy. The whole hour-long show included a lot of audience interaction, as well as comedy, card tricks, optical illusions, and all set to an 80's soundtrack. Who wouldn't love that?

Right towards the end of the show, the servers came out with slices of chocolate cake, the kind like those square chocolate cakes you find in your grocer's freezer. You know the ones -- slightly cool cake interior with thick fudgy frosting. My kids and I thought it was great but several of the other folks around us passed on dessert. Oh well, more for us!

As the show ended, it was time to tip the servers so don't forget to bring cash with you to do so. All in all, this was a fantastic show, truly all ages family entertainment, and all-you-can-eat pizza and popcorn, too. What's not to like?

Find out more at: Outta Control Magic Comedy Show

Quick Bites - Grow an Avocado Plant, Courtesy of Chevy's Fresh Mex

2009-01-14T10:32:00.000-05:00

To prove that they use real avocados in the preparation of their guacamole, Chevy's Fresh Mex restaurants have started a promotion that offers the pit of the avocado to guests to "grow their own". The pit comes in a bag with instructions on how to start growing the avocado plant by placing toothpicks in it and suspending it in a water glass. My kids were very excited by this so we took home a bag and tried it. They watched as the roots and stem started to break out of the pit and we followed the instructions to prune the stem back when it was high enough. Once it was

big enough, we transferred it to a pot and it is now sitting outside our front door and growing very well. So next time you are at Chevy's, don't forget to stop by the entrance and grab a pit in a bag.

Restaurant Review - Hagan O'Reilly's Irish Pub, 16112 Marsh Rd, Winter Garden, FL

2009-01-02T08:49:00.002-05:00

I guess Winter Garden must be emerging as some sort of urban hotspot now. There is the new Winter Garden Village and now, Winter Garden's very own Irish Pub - Hagan O'Reilly's, at the intersection of 545 and Stoneybrook West Parkway/Hartwood Marsh Rd. The space is beautifully and fully decorated with an intricately carved indoor wood bar, a large outdoor patio with it's own bar, a main dining area with a large map of Ireland painted on the ceiling, small rooms with their own themes such as Cassidy's Cottage with stonework and a fireplace hearth, and then stained glass windows all along the front. We sat in the main dining room which is bright with small 4-person wood tables and an alcove for live Irish entertainment. Although it is a pub, kids are invited to come until 10 pm and they even have a kids menu.

There are lots of drink options on the menu (naturally since it is a pub) including many Irish and English draft beers and bottled beers, plus American beers as well as combinations such as Half & Half, Gold & Tan, plus wines and whiskeys, and full bar, too! I chose an Irish Harp on draft one time and then a glass of riesling the next time I went.

For an appetizer, we got the beef bits ($9.95) which was tender pieces of beef stewed in an ale gravy with carmelized onions and served with two pieces of bread to sop up the flavorful sauce. Not sure the portion was worth the $10 price but it was very tasty. Next time I tried the Boxty potato pancakes ($7.95)... yum! Three large potato pancakes mixed with bits of corned beef and topped with a savory, but not too spicy, horseradish cream sauce. It was definitely delicious and I've ordered it as my appetizer every time since then.

Speaking of bread, we received a bread basket with three types of bread - a pretzel bread, a sourdough dill, and a popover style that had a sweet outer crust. All were delish and were served with cold butter. When I just went again recently, though, they had changed to a brown bread loaf with honey butter instead of the rolls.

Kids menu was well done with picky eater options such as buttered pasta, chicken fingers, or grilled cheese (all $4.50), but also a Jr. Shephard's Pie ($5.95) and Jr. Fish & Chips ($4.95).

I got the Dingle Bay Salmon ($18.95) which was a wonderful dish with dill leaves and a light butter sauce on top of the perfectly cooked salmon and then Champ (mashed potatoes with green onions) and wilted spinach. Grandma got the Fish & Chips ($12.95), which was three large fish pieces and a generous portion of chips (fries). Grandpa got Hagan's Grilled Stuffed Pork Chop ($15.95) which was stuffed with a very strong bleu cheese filling and came with seasonal veggies and mashed potatoes. I thought it was too strong but he ate every bite - he loves bleu cheese. On another visit, I got Egan's Irish Stew ($11.95) consisting of a hearty beef stew with vegetables and topped with a bonus - a small lamb chop!

LB ordered the buttered pasta (his favorite) and we had to ask for shredded parmesan cheese on the side. He did pretty well but I don't think he was used to the thinner angel hair, preferring spaghetti or larger pastas. BB ordered the Junior Shepherd's Pie, which was served in a small ramekin and topped with an artful dollop of mashed potatoes. I tried some of his and it was good, lots of seasoned ground beef with carrots and peas. I might have to get the adult size on an upcoming visit.

For dessert, we had the Nutty Irishman coffee ($6) with Bailey's Irish Cream, Frangelica and chocolate sauce topped with freshly whipped cream. All of the Irish Coffees (and there are about 6 six of them) are $6 and come with various additives such as Irish Whiskey, or Bailey's Caramel, or Peppermint. On another visit, I got the Leprechaun's Coffee with Bushmill's whiskey and it was a little too much whiskey tasting for me. I'll stick with the Nutty Irishman. We got the Baily's Pot O'Cream dessert ($5.95)which said it was a custard with the "scent" of Bailey's Irish Cream. It must have been a very light scent because it just tasted like vanilla pudding and that's it. Kind of like a vanilla creme brulee but without the carmelized sugar on top. Better dessert choices, that I had on subsequent visits are Uncle Patrick's Bread Pudding ($5.95) with a whiskey caramel sauce -- can still taste the overall bread taste without the whole piece being a big mush, which I like. And Princess Ashleigh's chocolate cake ($5.95) is just incredible, especially if you are a chocoholic. In fact, the menu doesn't do it justice, calling it just a chocolate layer cake. It is not. It is more like a fudge-based hunk of pure rich chocolate served with fresh whipped cream. I'll definitely be getting that one again. I got the kids the scoop of ice cream ($1.95) which was a large scoop with, again, the fresh whipped cream. LB liked his vanilla but mostly ate the whipped cream while BB ate his chocolate ice cream.

There is live music every night except on Sundays and Mondays. There is a bar area inside and a separate bar outside that has live music on two nights of the week. The inside live music is Irish folk music, at least it was the four times I've been there. It was also a different musician each time -- I didn't know there were that many Irish singers in Central Florida!

When you finally step outside of Hagan O'Reilly's, you really don't feel like you are in Winter Garden anymore, but feel like you just travelled across an ocean and had a nice Irish meal and great entertainment.

Find out more here: Hagan O'Reilly's

Restaurant Review - T-Rex restaurant, Downtown Disney, 1676 East Buena Vista Drive, Lake Buena Vista, FL

2008-12-22T21:27:00.016-05:00

Rising up from what was once a parking lot at Downtown Disney is the new towering T-Rex restaurant, brought to you by Landry's, the same folks who brought you Rainforest Cafe. And, in a way, it is like a Rainforest Cafe, loud, colorful, and exciting, except with animatronic dinosaurs instead of rainforest pals. No need to worry if your kids are usually loud as no one will notice. But do take care with very young children as they might be frightened by the noise, large, moving dinosaurs, and the lights darkening for the meteor showers, which happen every 15 minutes.

If you go on an off time, like we did on our two visits (between 3 - 4:30 pm), you can generally walk right in with little wait. However, during the lunch or dinner hours, you will probably have to wait for your name to be called (the "Smith Expedition of four is now ready!") and then wait in line to be seated. This can take over an hour during very busy tourist times.

There are several different seating areas: The Ice Cave that is covered with "ice" and "snow" and changes colors during the meteor showers but mostly stays blue. The Kitchen of Fire area features woolly mammoths and pterodactyls, and the namesake rotisserie over fire. The Fern Forest, which is towards the back of the restaurant and is a little quieter (compared to the rest of the restaurant), has most of the herbivore dinosaurs and lots of greenery. And, the Coral Reef area is topped by a huge octopus flailing its tentacles over the bar with enormous “floating” prehistoric sea creatures, and a few real sea creatures in an aquarium.

I found that the only thing really unique about most of the food items on the menu was the name. So, you had Brachiosaurus Bruschetta which is really just bruschetta, and Asteroid French Onion Soup which is really just French onion soup. And frankly, I found the prices to be about twice what I would have normally paid for well, everything. For example, my pot of (Asteroid) French Onion Soup was very good but I would have preferred to pay $3.50 or so for it, not the $6.99 that I did pay. So, I have to conclude that it is like a dinner show... besides the food, you are also paying for the "entertainment" and atmosphere. If you go into it thinking that, you should be okay.

What with the roaring dinosaurs and meteor showers, it can be hard to hear your server depending on what area you are seated in. The menu is large with fun alcoholic (some with cotton candy no less) and non-alcoholic drinks in souvenir glasses, like the Discovery Blast slushie ($4.99), served in a large bone-shaped cup. The kid’s menu has a lot of activities, if they are bored by the multitude of things moving and roaring around them.

One of my friends got the Colosso Nachos for $13.99. It was a humongous heap of tri-color chips with beef, beans, pico de gallo, sour cream, and a velveeta-like cheese sauce. She liked it, but couldn't finish it and took the rest home. Her husband got the Fire-Roasted Rotisserie Chicken ($19.99), a half-chicken with two sides. He thought it was “fine” but was expecting more for the price. I got the Tribal Tacos ($16.99), fried fish tacos with black beans and wild rice. The taste of the fish was good, not too overly fishy, and the avocado cream sauce added a lot of flavor. I would have preferred the corn tortillas to be heated up a bit as they were a bit stiff. Plus, I could have done without so much red cabbage filler. My mother had the tacos on our second trip and she thought the pico de gallo was a bit too spicy for her tastes and agreed about the tortillas. My father ordered the Mega-Mes-O-Bones half-rack ribs ($21.99) with waffle fries and cinnamon apples. He really liked the ribs but wasn’t that impressed with the side dishes. On our second trip, I started with the Asteroid French Onion Soup ($6.99) which is served in a cute metal bucket with a very savory slice of garlic toast. The soup was served hot, and was very cheesy with lots of onions and I really enjoyed it. My entrée was the Triassic Tuna appetizer ($11.99) consisting of three crispy squares of fried wonton topped with small chunks of ahi tuna, mango, and avocado, and topped with a wasabi aioli. The tuna was nice and fresh and the wasabi sauce added a nice kick without being too spicy. It was very good, but very pricey for what I got.

The kid’s menu runs from $6.99 - $7.99 with drinks $1.99 extra. Pasta and pizza items come with a cheese toast slice while the mini-corn dogs, quarter chicken, mini-cheeseburger, popcorn shrimp, and dinosaur chicken nuggets come with a choice of side dish – either carrot sticks, chips, baked beans, cinnamon apples, Jell-o, mashed potatoes, or a whole, unpeeled banana. My older son ordered Cosmo’s Cheesy Macaroni and ate the whole thing, including the cheese toast. My younger son got Sly’s Slider – the mini-cheeseburger -- with a banana. He ate about half of both. Both boys loved the atmosphere and we had to walk around the entire restaurant with them while waiting for the food so they could see all of the dinosaurs and take pictures.

We didn't have room for dessert (plus my wallet was cringing) either time we went but they do have the signature Chocolate Extinction ($14.99) that looked huge and could probably feed a whole tableful of people. In the several that we saw carried past our table, it looked like four large pieces of chocolate cake, with vanilla ice cream, caramel sauce, and a sweeping fog covering the plate (courtesy of dry ice in a sealed container) to give it some prehistoric atmosphere.

Part of the experience of T-Rex is the gift shop, dino dig site (that's free!), and the Build-a-Dino store where kids can make dinosaur friends just like at their sister Build-a-Bear stores. I probably won't go back unless we have guests in town and they are big dinosaur fans.

Find out more here: T-Rex Cafe

Quick Bites - Lobsters meet The Claw

2008-12-11T14:12:00.006-05:00

If you thought the life of a captive lobster was bad before, check out this "game" at High Tide Harry's seafood restaurant. For just $2 per try, you can try to capture your own (captive) dinner! If you are good at those claw games, you could probably end up with a cheap lobster dinner. Kind of tricky though, because these "prizes" move.

Restaurant Review - Elephant Bar Restaurant, 4054 Conroy Road, Orlando, FL

2008-11-30T15:00:00.023-05:00

In the stores surrounding the Mall of Millenia is the Elephant Bar Restaurant. Yes, there is a large circular bar inside but the majority of the space is for the "Restaurant" part of the name. Upon walking through the front door, the first thing I noticed was the huge elephant relief sculpture staring at me along the left side of the waiting area. The kids immediately wanted to have their picture taken in front of it, so it was a big hit. The rest of the decor inside is like an elegant safari -- think subtle animal prints such as tiger stripe carpets, zebra mugs, and cheetah glass lights, as well as dark woods and bamboo.

The menu is large with appetizers, soups, salads, and chicken, fish, pork and beef dishes, most with a tropical or Asian influence. The kids menu also has a lot of choices including Chicken Crispers, Hamburger, Cheeseburger, Corn Dog, Tropical Citrus Salad with Chicken, Chicken and Vegetable Stir-Fry, Chicken Quesadilla, and Macaroni & Cheese. The kids prices run from $3.95 to $4.50 and includes a drink and a Jr. Explorer Hot Fudge Sundae.

For an appetizer we tried the Vietnamese Shrimp Spring rolls ($6.95). It was four small rolls served with an Asian slaw on the side. These were very fresh rolls, served in raw rice paper with mint leaves and noodles inside and accompanied with a spicy peanut Thai sauce and Tamarind Macadamia Nut sauce (with tamarind paste, macadamia nuts, cashews, parsley, and cilantro). The rolls themselves were rather bland but the sauces picked up the flavors and the slaw was excellent. However, very skimpy on the shrimp - each roll had a tiny half piece of shrimp so only two small shrimp for the whole dish.

Grandma started off with the Jungle Colada ($5.95), a frou-frou drink that looked good, tasted good, but was not very potent. But then, that's why we order drinks like these, right? For her meal, she chose the Crunchy chicken teriyaki, which was a very savory chicken dish similar to General Tso's chicken with a thick soy/ginger/garlic sauce coated on the chicken. It was served with plain white rice -- Grandma wished it was a Jasmine rice or fried rice or something more interesting.

Grandpa had the JamaicaMojo salad ($3.95) as an appetizer. The salad was served with a wonton crisp and was very unassuming-looking but with a nice sweet taste. You could definitely taste the nuts and dried berries and traces of cinnamon in the dressing on top of the field greens. We all tried it and finished it off very quickly. Grandpa's main dish was the ribs ($13.95), which was also served with the sticky sauce and plain white rice.

I ordered the Tempura Salmon Roll and Pan Asian Soup with Teriyaki Chicken Skewer ($9.75). Essentially, it was like a combination plate, which I liked so I could try several items on the menu. All items are available separately, the salmon roll as an appetizer and the others as main dishes. The skewer of chicken teriyaki is served sticking out of the soup, which made for a very attractive plate. The soup was absolutely loaded with noodles, bean sprouts and other Asian veggies and had a nice mild flavor - the menu said it was chicken and shrimp broth. I didn't even use the slice of lime that came with it. The chicken teriyaki was also very good and was fun to eat off of the skewer. The tempura salmon rolls were just outstanding. Six large slices of rolls are presented with soy sauce, wasabi and pickled gingered. The rolls already have a sweet sauce on top and I found I did not need anything else with them. The salmon was very tender and the seaweed of the roll was coated lightly with tempera breading. It was such an incredible taste that it actually made everything else on the dish seem bland. I might even get the rolls next time as my main dish.

LB ordered the cheeseburger ($4.30), although you couldn't see the burger underneath the large bun. I guess they don't have kid sized buns? It was served with seasoned fries that both kids polished off. BB ordered the Tropical citrus salad ($4.50) which was chunks of grilled chicken on lettuce with pieces of oranges, dried berries and other fruits. I was surprised that BB didn't like it. He said he found out he doesn't like fruits on his salad - only vegetables. Well, now we know for the future. We asked for another small bowl and I gave him some of my soup since my bowl was really a very large portion.

The kids meal dessert was an ice cream sundae consisting of a single scoop of vanilla ice cream topped with chocolate, strawberry, or caramel sauce, whipped cream, and a cherry. It was served in a wonton crisp bowl. The boys did a good job but I ended up polishing off LB's sundae, as the wonton crisp tasted great with the melting ice cream and caramel sauce. Hmm, I wonder if they would make an adult size one if I asked?

The rest of us were not in agreement on the dessert. I wanted to try the berry and apple cobbler ($4.95) served with a la mode but my parents decided on, and we ordered, the mud pie ($4.95). It was a huge slab of mocha ice cream on a cookie crust and topped with fudge and whipped cream. My parents said that it was really nothing special but I didn't think it would be since the photo in the menu showed exactly as it was - mostly just a slab of mocha ice cream. However, everyone dug in and it really was a reasonable dessert for the price. The Giant Cookie Ice Cream Sandwich ($7.75) looked humongous as the neighboring table got it. Seriously, I would think you need at least six people to finish it.

During our second visit, Grandma got the Macadamia Nut Crusted Fish & Chips ($8.95) which I thought was the winner. It was firm pieces of Mahi Mahi in a macadamia nut crust that gave it a sweet taste. It was accompanied by the Tamarind Macadamia Nut sauce and a hot tomato-based sauce for dipping the fish and the chips. Grandpa had the "small" Braised Lamb Shank ($7.95), which was one shank instead of two. It was lamby tasting but was very good and tender. BB ordered the Chicken stir fry ($4.50) this time which was a large bowl with chicken, stir fry veggies, and a teriyaki sauce all over a large mound of sticky rice. I got the Chicken Pad Thai ($10.75), which was also a large serving and came with noodles, peanuts, veggies, bamboo shoots, tofu, and leaves of cilantro.

Find out more at: http://www.elephantbar.com/

Central Florida Foodies Rejoice! It is Epcot Food & Wine Festival and Orlando Magical Dining Month time again!

2008-08-23T10:00:00.001-04:00

It's coming up on Foodie paradise time in Central Florida. First, the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival (paid) dining and tasting experiences go on sale at 7 am, Monday, August 25th. Get ready with your choices and call 407-WDW-FEST. It can take a while to get through so have some back-ups if you don't get your first choices. The best listing of available offerings that I usually find is at AllEarsNet here. The official Disney website is here. The theme is Foodie Cities of the World and they are offering a real premium experience in the Bocuse d'Or Grand Gala. It's also really pricey at $425 per person but it would probably be a once-in-your-lifetime experience. And, if you can't get the paid dining experiences of your choice, there are always the food and drink samples you can pick up at the many Festival marketplaces surrounding World Showcase during the event. This year, the Food & Wine Festival is Sept 26 - Nov 9, 2008.

Also, it is Orlando Magical Dining Month all through September. What is that, you may ask? It's a program that the Orlando Convention and Visitors Bureau puts together with various restaurants around town to offer $29 and $19 prix fixe 3-course meals from September 1 - 30, 2008. The official Orlando Magical Dining Month website is here. There are some good restaurants on there such as Fleming's and Roy's and Ran-Getsu. Most of the higher-end restaurants offer the $29 meal with the others at the $19 price point but some, like Emeril's restaurants, offer $29 for dinner and $19 for lunch. I tried some new restaurants last year and it was a good way to try a restaurant for not so much cash. A lot of the restaurants are in the tourist corridors such as I-Drive and Universal but there are a few in Winter Park and other places. Make sure to check out what is offered on the lower priced prix fixe menu before making a reservation and heading out, though. The special dining menus typically only offer 2-3 choices for appetizer, entree, and dessert, with no substitutions. Still, it's a great bargain and makes a fun night out.

Ice Cream Review - Bruster's Real Ice Cream, 971 North S.R. 434, Altamonte Springs, FL

2008-08-19T16:00:00.001-04:00

When you arrive at Bruster's Real Ice Cream parlor in Altamonte Springs, you get the feeling that the circus just came to town. Maybe it is the bright red and white building, or maybe it is the bright balloons placed around the building, or maybe it is the bubble machine spewing hundreds of bubbles from the roof. Yeah, maybe that's it.

The building was relatively big so I thought for sure there was an inside order counter and seating. But when we stepped up, I realized that the inside was just for the order takers and it was filled with row upon row upon row of waist-high ice cream freezers. So, we perused the outside menu board. It listed out all the flavors of ice cream they had for the day along with all the products such as cones, cups, sundaes, cakes, shakes, ices, etc. For those of you with really young kids, have them stand next to the height chart by the front order counter. If they are less than 40 inches tall (most likely for 3 and unders) then they get a free infant ice cream cone. Bonus!

There are two types of kids sundaes: the Dino Sundae which is vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce and sprinkles topped with a ginormous green, colored-sugar topped dinosaur cookie; and the Dirt Sundae which is vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce and topped with oreo cookie pieces and gummy worms (each $2.19). Both boys ordered the Dino Sundae. I was checking out the sundaes as well. They have quite the unusual assortment including a traditional banana split served with cut-up banana pieces and a pretzel rod (?). I decided to go with the Peanut Butter Cup sundae ($4.43). Our order taker got to work and I handed the sundaes to the boys as soon as they were done and told them to sit at one of the outdoor shaded tables. The boys dug in eagerly, taking bites of the giant cookie along the way. My sundae wasn't that big but made up for that in pure richness. It was vanilla ice cream loaded with huge pieces of peanut butter cups, chocolate sauce, a thick peanut butter sauce, and topped with whipped cream and a cherry. BB finished first and had eaten most of his ice cream and two-thirds of his cookie. He decided to go up and ask what happened to the bubbles as they had stopped coming off the roof by now. I saw him go up to the counter and then came back with a handful of something. He had been given about 20 temporary tattoos of "Scoops" the Bruster's mascot. BB was very happy about this as he loves temporary tattoos and promptly forgot about the bubbles (and maybe that was the point). I was also able to only finish about two-thirds of my sundae as I was afraid I would go into sugar shock -- it was delicious but super rich. LB only finished about one-third which is typical for him. I would love to try some of the other sundae variations next time we are in the area again. There is also some really fun looking ice cream cakes that would be great for a kid's birthday party.

Check out their website: http://www.brusters.com/

Restaurant Review - Azteca d'Oro, 12403 South Blossom Trail, Orlando, FL

2008-06-23T19:27:00.002-04:00

On Orange Blossom Trail, in Hunter's Creek, north of the 417, is Azteca d'Oro Mexican restaurant. Azteca is part of a Northwest chain in Oregon and Washington. This is the first location in Central Florida although they also have a location in South Florida as well. Azteca d'Oro is very bright and cheerful inside with red, green, and yellow painted walls, and festively painted wooden fan decorations above each booth. Large framed black & white photographs adorn the walls. We were seated by the half-moon bar midway through the restaurant, which has two flat-screen TVs playing sports television. As soon as we sat down, we were served fresh chips and salsa. The salsa was very tasty, mild with strong tomato and cilantro flavors. Grandpa asked for a hotter sauce and got a very hot sauce indeed. He ended up having to cool it down with the mild salsa mixed in. Grandma asked for a sample of the mole sauce and our server brought that, along with a generous sample of guacamole. The mole was thick with the characteristic chocolate and cinnamon flavor. The guacamole was outstanding with big chunks of avocado and lots of flavor. It was our server's first time being a server (he is normally a host) so I'm not sure if he was supposed to bring us a free sample of guacamole but we certainly benefited.

LB got chocolate milk to drink and the rest of us had either sweet tea or unsweet tea. Unfortunately, there were lots of mix-ups of whether the tea was sweet or not so we all ended up with sweet tea somehow.

The dinner menu is has lots of selections and I like how many of the dishes have full-color photos to accompany them. There are appetizers, soups, salads, sandwiches, vegetarian versions of Mexican foods (!), carne (meat) dishes, fajitas, pollo (chicken) dishes, burritos, mariscos (seafood) dishes, and then the combinations. Whew! Oh, and all of the "stuffed" menu items such as enchiladas had a choice of filling: cheese, ground beef, chicken, picadillo (shredded pork and beef), spinach or seafood. Burritos also have a choice of Chile Colorado or Chile Verde as a filling, and the enchiladas have a choice of sauce from original, ranchera, verde, crema, mole, or mazatlan. Needless to say, I sent the waiter away several times in order to read through the whole menu and make my choices.There are even dishes with lamb and some of the Grande Platos were very interesting combinations of items from all parts of the menu. Grandpa got one of the Grande Platos -- the Tres Amigos ($14.50) with Chile Colorado, a Chile Relleno, and Chile Verde. Grandma ordered a Grande Combo #1 ($9.95) with a tamale and an enchilada with mole sauce. I ordered a Grande Combo #2 ($10.95) with a picadillo tamale (the meat was shredded beef and pork) and a ground beef burrito. Almost all dinners come with rice and beans. I asked for the refried beans and the white rice but our server highly recommended the Mexican rice instead so I went with his suggestion. I also asked for it to be made "Deluxe" which, for $1.99, meant that I would get a scoop of guacamole and sour cream on the side.

The Little Amigo Menu offers Mexican kid's meals such as taco, mini-burrito, enchilada, cheese crispy (not really sure what that is!), mini-quesadilla or mini-Mexican pizza. But that's not all! There are also non-Mexican offerings for kids like the Mexi-Hot Doggie which is a hot dog in a flour tortilla topped with cheese, Cheesy Mex-andwich (Grilled Cheese), Chicken Tenders, Macaroni and Cheese, and Mexi-Bites. The Mexican meals come with rice and beans and the non-Mexican ones come with fries. All kids meals are $4.95 and come with a drink and dessert. LB ordered the grilled cheese and BB ordered the Mini Mexi-Bites which was like an appetizer combination. It came with two chicken tenders, one fried cheese stick, and one mini-quesadilla.

The kids had coloring menus to occupy them but it still took awhile for the food to come, maybe 20-25 minutes. During that time, we had to hit the potty. I was very surprised that there was only a single bathroom for the women's and a single bathroom for the men's room. I was expecting a full bathroom with several stalls in it. Especially for a restaurant that touts Happy Hour (2 for 1 margaritas and other drinks) all day long, I was shocked, actually, that there weren't more bathrooms. Geez, I'd hate to be here during a margarita party!

The food came and we were all pleasantly surprised with the sizes of the adult meals. They filled the large plates. My food was outstanding. The burrito was a long tube of ground beef stuffed into a baked tortilla and covered with cheese. The tamale was just how I like it with lots of the shredded meat and a thick layer of corn meal surrounding it. Grandpa's Chile Colorado was very tasty in a meaty and hearty red sauce. We all tried it and agreed it was excellent. Unfortunately, the Chile Verde just couldn't compare next to the red sauce of the Chile Colorado. His Chile Relleno was humongous -- I didn't know that a chili could get that big! He said the relleno was a bit spicy, which he liked. None of us could finish our meals and we all had to take half home.

The boys did pretty good, each finishing about half of their meals too. I asked about dessert for the kids' meals and was told the boys get a choice of ice cream for dessert. I asked about the chocolate mousse because it mentioned that as well and the server said he could get chocolate mousse if they wanted it. BB ordered the mousse and LB finally ordered vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce after being pretty undecided. As expected, as soon as the desserts arrived, LB insisted he wanted chocolate mousse as well. Sigh. Luckily, BB just wanted to eat the whipped cream and cherry off of his and then gave the rest of the chocolate mousse to LB. I ended up eating a bit of the vanilla ice cream and then "helped" LB finish the mousse. It was really good - I am a sucker for light chocolate mousse.

Azteca d'Oro also has Little Amigo Nights on Monday and Tuesday nights where kids eat for 95 cents a piece. You can find out more info and the menu at Azteca d'Oro's website.

Restaurant Review - Texas Roadhouse, 1150 Blackwood Ave, Ocoee, FL

2008-06-16T19:45:00.002-04:00

Well, pardner, there's a new steakhouse chain in town and it's called Texas Roadhouse. There are locations popping up all over Central Florida. And, of course, the home base for this here restaurant is in... Indiana. Yeah, not Texas. So don't get the chili on the menu expecting good ole' homemade Texas chili with all meat and no beans. Because there are plenty of beans here.

And plenty of peanuts as well. Just like the other "Roadhouse" restaurants in town, Texas Roadhouse has roasted peanuts in the shell everywhere -- barrels of them while you are waiting for your table and then bucketsful on each table while you are waiting for your food. LB was particularly pleased about this part of the restaurant and now refers to Texas Roadhouse as "the peanut place".

I did like the different way Texas Roadhouse sets up the waiting area, which is huge, by the way, all covered, with inside spaces and outside spaces, benches, and the barrels of roasted peanuts, shells on the floor please. There is also a box of toys for the kids to play with. The most unusual thing is that you are not handed a beeper like in other restaurants; you are handed a card with a number on it. Then, you wait for your number to be displayed on the electronic boards throughout the waiting area - kind of like waiting in line at the deli. You can also call ahead and be placed on the "virtual waiting list", which is nice. We usually call when we are leaving the house and only have a few more minutes waiting time when we arrive.

Inside, the decor is all light wood, cacti and armadillos. In one part of the restaurant is "Willie's Corner" with Willie Nelson memorabillia - turns out Willie Nelson is part owner of the chain. Didn't know he hung out in Indiana.

As soon as we sat down, our servers produced a baskets of rolls, and took our drink orders. The rolls were wonderful, hot and fresh and yeasty served with cinnamon butter. By the time she came back with our drinks, we had to ask for another basket of rolls.

The menu is much like you would expect with salads, steaks, ribs, chicken, some seafood, and Country Dinners such as Pulled Pork and Country Fried Sirloin. There is also a coloring children's menu. One thing I really liked about the children's menu was that there are two sizes of kid's meals - Andy the Armadillo size for younger kids and then Ranger size for heartier appetites. Andy kid entrees are $2.99 - $4.79 and offer a hot dog, mac-n-cheese, mini-cheeseburgers, chicken strips, or sirloin bites. Ranger kid entrees are $5.99 - $6.99 and offer a larger size chicken strips, a 6 oz sirloin steak, or ribs. All kids meals come with a drink and a choice of a side: apple sauce, green beans, veggies, fries, mashed potatoes or baked beans. LB got the mac-n-cheese off the Andy part of the menu ($3.29) with green beans on the side, and BB chose the Ranger Ribs ($6.99) with fries. Another nice thing about the kids' menu was that the offerings were also listed on the adult menu, with prices. I don't know how many times I've had to pry the kids' menu from my little one just so I can read the menu while he is trying to color something. This way was much easier. I ordered the 6 ounce Dallas Filet ($14.99) with a house salad and loaded baked potato on the side (extra 99 cents for the loaded -- comes with sour cream, cheese and bacon bits). Apparently, there is not much vegetarian on the menu, including the sides. The house salad comes with hard-boiled egg, the green beans have bacon pieces (as I found out later) and, get this, the sweet potato jackets are cooked in bacon fat. Really! I originally wanted the sweet potato loaded instead of the baked but I found out that a loaded sweet potato at Texas Roadhouse is not brown sugar and cinnamon butter. Here, a loaded sweet potato means marshmallows and caramel. Bleech - I hate marshmallows and I thought the caramel would totally drown out the sweet potato (of course this is my own opinion, you may hear marshmallows and caramel and think "Oh yeah, baby!"). Grandma got the Country Fried Sirloin with fries ($9.99) and Grandpa ordered the Sirloin Beef Tips on mashed potatoes ($9.99).

One strange (annoying?) thing is that every half hour or so, the whole staff will line dance to a country song in the aisles. I hate when Johnny Rockets does it, I hate when Joe's Crab Shack does it and now I hate when Texas Roadhouse does it. To me, it just clogs the restaurant and makes it hard to find a server if you need something.

When the food came out, EVERYTHING was huge. The plate of mac-n-cheese (Kraft) was large. LB tasted one bite of the green beans with bacon and declared that they tasted nothing like green beans and didn't eat anymore. I was worried about that. Grandma's sirloin was covered with a slightly spicy country gravy and the steak filled her whole plate. She also got another plate with the large order of fries. She said the steak was excellent and was just like chicken-fried steak. Grandpa liked the Sirloin Tips and that was a big serving as well. BB's ribs were fantastic. Lots of meat, smoky-tasting, and literally falling off the bone. BB exclaimed, "Mom, these are the best ribs I've ever tasted," and we had to agree. Grandpa decided he would get the ribs next time. My food was good as well. The house salad was so generous that I passed the rest onto BB as I didn't want to get too full. The loaded potato was cheesy and bacony and oh-so-good. The filet looked absolutely tiny especially sitting next to the baked potato but it was done perfectly and actually filled me up. It was pretty thick so that must have been why.

Texas Roadhouse is family-friendly and a good value for the money. We will definitely come back (ya'll).

Restaurant Review - American Pie Pizza Company, 336 Moore Road, Ocoee, FL

2008-05-31T21:57:00.001-04:00

Kid's Night Review: I like American Pie Pizza Company as they have lots on the menu that the whole family likes and it is not your typical pizzeria/Italian menu. Sure, you'll find the pizzas, wings, and calzones, but they come in unusual flavors such as the Ranchkin Calzone (one of my favorites) that comes with chicken, bacon, mozzarella, tomato and ricotta and is served with a side of ranch for $8.29. But, I'm here to talk about their Monday night Kids Night. Just by pure luck, Hubby had a work appointment on Monday night and the boys and I decided to go to American Pie (I had no idea it was Kids Night.) I found out that Kids get a free kids pizza for every adult entree ordered so I paid for one of the kids' pizzas ($4.25) -- still sounds good to me! For myself, I ordered the Greek Salad ($7.69), and ordered each boy the kid's pizza -- cheese for LB and black olive for BB. They actually have Cheese or Pepperoni as the kid options but BB asked for black olive instead and the counter order girl said sure. She handed me the large number to put at our table so the runners could find us with our order.

The boys had already run off to choose our booth based on the PS2 game that is featured. Each booth in the restaurant has an associated small flat-screen TV that plays a certain PS2 game. You can get the controllers just by giving your driver's license and then the kids can play while you are waiting. It can get pretty crowded on some nights and sometimes we don't get a booth, much to BB's chargrin, but since it was a Monday night (and, smartly, kid's night when a restaurant tries to get more people to come in) the boys had their pick. The boys started to play a PS2 wave runner game while I went up to get the drinks.

I wasn't interested in the PS2 game, so I watched the music videos that are featured on other large-screen TVs hung all around the restaurant. I watched a few songs by Daughtry and Matchbox 20 when one of the runners came by with a 3-cup holder for each of the boys. BB's had a cup with pizza sauce, another with cheese and the third with sliced black olives, while LB's had just the pizza sauce and cheese. He also brought a small round flat with raw flattened pizza dough on it. Huh? I asked what this was and he explained that on kid's night, kids get to make their own pizzas. Wow, cool! The boys were very excited and LB yelled out that he decided he wanted black olives, too. The runner said he would bring back another cup of olives. The boys had a lot of fun spreading the sauce carefully over the dough and then adding the olives and cheese. Well, BB was careful with it. LB was good with the sauce and then just dumped a pile of cheese and olives in the middle of his pie. Another runner came by and picked up the pies to take them to the oven. She offered to take away the cups as well but both boys decided they wanted to eat the rest of their toppings, including slurping up the sauce. Oh well, no harm in that. LB was very excited and claimed he couldn't wait for his pizza to come. In fact, they didn't even finish their PS2 game and just talked about their pizzas and what they thought they were going to look like and taste like. Hmm, I'll have to start having them help me in the kitchen with dinner!

A short while later, my Greek salad came. It was a generous portion with two garlic bread knots on the side topped with big pieces of garlic and Parmesan cheese. The salad itself had chopped tomatoes, chunks of feta cheese, a pile of pitted Kalamata olives, and the house dressing on the side (I asked for no onions). I had to share half of one of my garlic knots with the boys while they waited, impatiently, on their pizzas. Their pizzas arrived and the boys dug in. I really think making it themselves helped because they both polished off their entire pizzas. I guess pride of workmanship makes one hungry. My Greek salad was delicious as usual with the crisp veggies and the bitingly tangy dressing. I like to mix in the feta cheese with the dressing as it gives it more of a "Greek" taste that I like. It was too much for me (although I had no problem finishing the garlic knots) so BB offered to help me finish the last of the salad. It was a lot of fun, the kids were occupied and eager to eat, so I'll have to remember to come back the next time we are looking for a place to eat on a Monday night.

Restaurant Review - Mellow Mushroom, 2015 Aloma Avenue, Winter Park, FL

2008-05-18T17:16:00.002-04:00

No, it’s not an all-mushroom menu at Mellow Mushroom, as my oldest son envisioned as we headed to the restaurant on Aloma Avenue in Winter Park with Grandma and Grandpa. It’s actually a pizzeria although it’s hard to tell from the cute chalet-looking exterior with a large covered patio on the side. The patio had plenty of whirling fans above and looked like it might be okay, even in the summer. There are a few parking spaces around the actual restaurant itself with more parking available at the nearby shopping mall.

The interior of the space is bright yellow with reproductions of famous Masters paintings throughout featuring the two Mellow Mushroom mascots, who are mushrooms, of course. So think "Starry Night" with two mellow mushrooms hanging out viewing the stars. The rest of the décor is very subtly psychedelic including the motto of “Give Pizza Chance”. We were seated at a table by the small bar, near the booths that are on the raised level of the restaurant. While there is no children’s menu, our server brought the boys coloring pages and crayons to keep them busy.

After reaching the table, LB decided he needed to go potty so we followed the signs to the “Mellow Flushrooms” which had me chuckling. When we returned to the table, we perused the menu. Besides pizzas and calzones, there are also salads, hoagies, and appetizers, as well as mircobrew beers and wine. There is an emphasis on healthy and premium offerings such as pizza toppings like tofu, tempeh (another soy-based product like tofu), pesto, spinach, sun-dried tomatoes, and other fresh ingredients. There’s also a hummus appetizer and most of the hoagies are topped with sprouts.

We ordered drinks, including iced tea for BB and chocolate milk for LB. Grandpa tried one of the microbrew beers called Purple Haze - a wheat-based beer with raspberry tones. He liked it but wished it had more fruit flavor. I almost tried the “Monk in the Trunk” microbrew just because of the name, but decided I wasn't in the mood for a beer and ordered an iced tea.

We decided to try a small order of Parmesan Pretzels (3 for $4.25 or 6 for $7) and a small Greek salad ($4.75) to start. The pretzels are more like breadsticks in the shape of pretzels. They were thick and doughy, basted with butter and topped with Parmesan cheese, and served with a warm marinara sauce. They were very filling and had enough flavor even without the sauce on the side. The Greek salad came with the house Esperanza dressing which is like a light Caesar-type dressing. The dressing perfectly complemented the fresh crunchy vegetables, big chunks of feta cheese and Kalamata olives that topped the salad. BB helped me with the salad while everyone tried the pretzels.

Mellow Mushroom pizzas range from 10 inches to 16 inches and are $7.50 for a small cheese up to $22.50 for a large Specialty pizza. Hoagies are around $4.50 for a half and up to $7.75 for a whole. To try a little bit of everything, we ordered a small cheese pizza, a half ham and cheese hoagie, and a medium House Special pizza ($17.50) which is topped with pepperoni, sausage, ground beef, onions, green peppers, mushrooms, black olives, tomatoes, bacon, ham and extra cheese. Wow, when they brought the House Special pizza, it was completely loaded with meat and veggie toppings yet still had a generous Parmesan-topped crust border. Each slice was like a meal in itself and the dough is more bread-like than a NY-style crust. The cheese pizza was a perfect size for an adult or for two kids to share. Grandma, Grandpa and BB worked on the specialty pizza while LB and I shared the cheese pizza. The cheese was nice and stringy and the Parmesan coated crust really added to the flavor.

The ham and cheese sandwich, which was for me along with two slices of the cheese pizza, was on a toasted sub roll with thick slices of ham and cheese, generously topped with sprouts, and with mayo as the only dressing. I typically prefer thin-sliced ham so the thick-sliced was a little too "hammy" for me. Also, I would have liked more dressing, such as the Esperanza, so I probably wouldn't order a hoagie again. I did like how the sprouts added a nice crunchy texture, though.

Needless to say, we brought home leftovers, and will definitely be back for more.

Restaurant Review - Jockamo's New Orleans Kitchen, 3042 W.Sand Lake Rd, Orlando, FL

2008-03-31T21:52:00.004-04:00

This weekend we headed to Jockamo's New Orleans Kitchen, at the corner of Sand Lake Road and John Young Parkway, because Grandpa wanted to try their crawfish boil. Jockamo's holds a crawfish boil every other Saturday starting in January and running until the season ends. They start selling the crawfish in one or two pound servings starting at 11 am and then keep going until they are all gone. We went on Saturday around 12:30 pm and by 2 pm, they had completely sold through the 500 lbs. of crawfish they started with. The crawfish come in straight from Louisiana so one day they are swimming around the muddy waters and the next day they are sitting in a vat of boiling water and spices at Jockamo's. Not good for them but great for you if you like the spicy little (and some were not little) mud bugs.

Grandpa decided to get the one pound serving for $6.29. It was an extremely generous portion and he declared the crawfish sweet and spicy at the same time. There is also a two pound serving which comes with potatoes, corn, onions and garlic for $12.49. A couple near us got it and I can't imagine not sharing since it is such a huge portion. The crawfish boil happens outside the strip mall in the parking lot in front of the restaurant. The rest of us went inside to find other items on the menu for us to eat. Due to the crawfish boil, the restaurant was pretty crowded and there were a few empty tables that had not been cleaned up yet. We sat down at one and did our best to clean it until a table runner came and started to wipe it down for us. Then, with Grandpa picking through his crawfish, the rest of us got into line to order at the counter.

Jockamo's definitely has a N'awlins menu with Po' Boys, Muffulettas, gumbo, jambalaya, and fried everything else on the menu board (even gator). For dessert, there are beignets and bread pudding, with chickory coffee to drink. The Kid's "Little Jester" menu has fried Baskets (choice of fried chicken tenders, shrimp, catfish, grouper, or crawfish tails served with fries) or Po' Boys (choice of ham & cheese, fried shrimp, chicken, catfish, or crawfish plus one side), all for $4.49 which includes a drink and a beignet for dessert. BB choose the shrimp basket and said he was okay with the fries, which was strange because he usually doesn't like fries. LB was very undecided but finally went with the fried chicken tender Po' Boy, with nothing on it. His side dish choices were fries, rice & gravy, chips, beans & rice, or buttered rice. I knew he would go for buttered rice as soon as he heard it and he did - he loves anything with butter. I was stuck with not knowing what to get. I love muffulettas -- a special deli meat and olive salad sandwich -- and I also love Po' Boys sandwiches. Po' Boys won out this time and I ordered the original Hot Roast Beef & Gravy, fully dressed for $7.59. At Jockamo's fully dressed means with mayo, shredded cabbage and pickles on it. It also came with a side and I chose the red beans & rice. Grandma wasn't very hungry so she went for dessert getting an order of three beignets for $2.82 and a chickory coffee for $1.39.

Not long afterwards, the table runner called our name and placed our food on the table. The fried shrimp and fried chicken tenders had a light batter on them and were very good. BB ate all but one of his shrimp and then, as expected, decided he didn't want the fries after all. Grandpa obligingly finished them off for him by dipping them in the remoulade sauce available at the condiment counter. LB ended up eating half of his buttered rice and then plucked the chicken tenders off of the bun they were on and ate them plain. I have no idea why he decided he wanted the chicken sandwich instead of the chicken basket because he did not eat any of his bread. He did a good job though and was ready for dessert. LB then happily ate his beignet, a square, puffy, fried doughnut topped with a very generous amount of powdered sugar, and proceeded to cover everything in his immediate vicinity in the white sugar. BB claimed he was full and couldn't eat the beignet so he said I could have it. What a good boy!

My Roast Beef Po' Boy was a huge sandwich, loaded with slices of roast beef, ladles of beef gravy, and topped with the cabbage, pickles and mayo. Definitely messy to eat but very good. The taste really took me back to the time I visited New Orleans for Spring Break in college. We had just gone to the local market and asked for a roast beef po' boy, fully dressed, at a counter in the back. This sandwich had the same exact taste. The mayo and the gravy mix together and the cabbage and pickles add the tanginess and crunch. I couldn't even eat the whole thing and had to bring half the sandwich home. I tried the red beans & rice but the taste, after eating the roast beef gravy, just didn't go together well. I realized I should have gone with my gut and gotten the fried pickles. Next time, I certainly will.

Restaurant Review - Roy's Hawaiian Fusion Cuisine, 7760 W. Sand Lake Road, Orlando, FL

2008-02-22T21:39:00.003-05:00

I had eaten at Roy's for dinner before with one of my girlfriends for a night out and with my husband for our wedding anniversary, however, tonight I was on a date with someone else... my 8-year-old son. I decided we needed some talk time away from his little brother who has been monopolizing my time lately. I called ahead to make reservations and said that I was going to be on a "date night" with my child. We received an aloha greeting at the podium and then we were promptly escorted to our table. There was a sprinkle of curling ribbon at our table to signify the special occasion, which was a nice touch.

There are several seating areas at Roy's and each one has a different mood. When I dined at Roy's for our anniversary, my husband and I were seated in the much quieter front room. I would highly recommend requesting this room if you would like to have a romantic dinner. When I ate with my friend, we asked for the sushi bar area which is great for friends as you will be seated with other diners, either at the sushi bar itself, where you can watch the chefs at work in the open kitchen, or at a large family-style table in the bar area. Then there is the main room which, I think, is the place to sit with children. It has enough noise that your children will just blend in, yet you can still hear each other at the table.

As soon as we sat down, a server brought us Roy's seasoned edemame as a complementary appetizer. A little too spicy for my son, but he enjoyed the soy beans after he flicked off the spices.

My son ordered off of the Keiki's (children's) menu - a sort of prix fixe menu for kids. For $12, children receive an appetizer of cheese quesadillas and vegetable crudites (a fancy word for some carrot and celery sticks) with ranch dressing, a choice of entrees, as well as a sundae for dessert. Kid's entree choices range from buttered pasta or crispy chicken and fries, to short ribs, salmon, or even a children's sushi entree. My son decided on the short ribs, which is a smaller version of the adult entree.

I decided to order off the regular menu versus the relative bargain of the prix fixe adult menu. If you are eating at Roy's for the first time, or if you have a limited budget, I highly recommend the seasonal prix fixe dinner. For $35, you have a choice of one each of selected appetizers, entrees and desserts. Everything on the regular menu sounded good to me so I asked our server for her recommendations. She recommended the Island Style Ahi Poke appetizer ($13) and the Pesto Seared Opakapaka (Hawaiian Pink Snapper) for an entree ($34). I went with both suggestions and was glad I did. The poke tuna salad had sushi grade cubes of tuna surrounding a mound of sticky rice and covered with mixed greens topped with an Asian vinaigrette and slices of pickled ginger. As I dug down to the bottom, the sticky rice had a brown sauce on it that I could not place. I asked our server about it and she very knowledgeably told me it was made with kukui nuts, sometimes called a candlenut, which are also used in Hawaiian ceremonies to make bracelets and leis. In Hawaii they are roasted and made into the condiment called inamona, which I then remembered seeing on the menu as part of the appetizer. The whole dish was very complex with lots of flavor layers. I found my main dish to be the same way. I had originally wanted to try the butterfish as I had eyed it on my last trip to Roy's but the new Opakapaka entree looked very intriguing. Topped with a pesto sauce, it was served with a buttery burgundy cream sauce and accompanied by potato and chive "raviolis" and carrots and leeks. My son tried the raviolis and said they tasted like his grandmother's pierogies and I realized he was correct as it was the same concept. However, the pasta for these raviolis was very light, almost translucent so that all you tasted was the potatoes and chives. The fish had taste of Italy due to the pesto sauce and also came with slightly spicy finely diced tomatoes on top.

My son's short ribs were so extremely tender that the meat just pulled apart with a fork. It had a slightly mustard taste and was served with wonderfully flavorful mashed potatoes, asparagus (which he didn't touch - pretty much the only vegetable he doesn't eat) as well as squash and other vegetables (he ate all those).

Since I had requested a "date night with your child" dinner, our server told us we were going to receive the chocolate souffle for dessert, compliments of the restaurant. The chocolate souffle was served with a molten hot chocolate lava flow in the center that oozed out when the outer cake layer was cut open. It was served with a raspberry sauce swirl that ended with two actual raspberries hidden in the large scoop of vanilla bean ice cream. Most special was the chocolate writing that said "Aloha to mom and [my son's name]" -- awwww.

The service was absolutely impeccable. As soon as we were done with a dish, someone came to take it away. Plus, all of the servers and managers made it a point to come by our table and talk about our special dinner. They couldn't have treated us more nicely. From the Aloha's at the door to the Mahalos when we were leaving, we were treated as treasured guests through our meal experience. It was a very enjoyable evening that I'm sure my son and I will remember for a long time to come.

Restaurant Review - IKEA Orlando, 4092 Eastgate Drive, Mall of Millenia area, Orlando, FL

2008-02-09T11:00:00.000-05:00

As promised, I visited the recently opened IKEA store in Orlando to check out their restaurant and food. Oh, and their furniture and stuff, too. I had tried the IKEA restaurant in NJ so I was eager to see how the Orlando store compared.

First of all, I was pleased to see that the Smaland (kid's supervised play area) in Orlando was bigger and accepted children between 37" - 54" in height. This had been a problem at the NJ IKEA because my older son was too tall. Here, both boys were able to go inside. There is a comfy TV area where the kids watched Spongebob and then Meet the Robinsons, a rock climbing wall, a ball pit with fun activities like trying to get the balls into cuckcoo clocks, and an art area where kids can draw. You sign the kids in and you have a pager so the counselors can reach you. When I went, we could only leave the kids for 60 minutes (and since IKEA is so big that meant we only did one floor). I don't know if that is variable depending on the day you go.

Once we picked the kids up, we headed to the restaurant on the second floor. On weekends, there can be a pretty long line at the cafeteria but it tends to move quickly. I saw that the Orlando IKEA didn't have kid-sized trays like the NJ one did but we did pick up a fun "tray shopping cart" that LB was very excited to push through the line. It is a wheeled cart that holds three trays on it and it was very helpful so the kids didn't have to carry their trays themselves. The first thing you reach in the food line is the refrigerated cases with the desserts inside. Since both boys said they wanted the 99 cent Macaroni and Cheese for lunch, I figured I could splurge on dessert so said okay when they both asked for their own Daim cake ($1.79) which is like a toffee cake with a Swedish toffee candy included. Oh, and I got an Almond cake ($1.29) for myself. Grandma and Grandpa decided to split a Swedish Apple cake ($2.29).

Entrees range from $2 - $6 and include ham and cheese sandwich, chicken caesar salad, chicken marsala, Swedish meatballs, and salmon. The kids' menu consists of PB&J with a fruit cup and drink ($1.99), five Swedish meatballs with fries or potatoes and a drink ($1.99), or the 99 cent mac-n-cheese with a drink. Note that the PB&J kids meal is entirely pre-packaged - the sandwich is like an Uncrustable and the fruit cup is canned fruit. I grabbed the Gravad Lax (smoked salmon slices with a salad) for $4.99 and Grandma and Grandpa decided to share the 15 Swedish meatballs plate ($4.99). I grabbed glasses for the drinks for all of us -- turned out that I could have asked the cashier for plastic cups for the kids. I ended up going back after we sat down when I saw another table with the plastic cups. One strange thing, there are no straws available. My kids did okay with the plastic cups but you may want to bring your own straws if your kids are not ready for drinking from a cup yet.

I drank the lingonberry juice available at the fountain since they don't have iced tea while BB had Pepsi and LB had water. There is also milk and orange juice and even baby food for sale if you forgot to bring any. In the dining area, there is a kids' eating area with a TV playing videos, some toys and blocks, and small tables for them to eat at. There is also a "family convenience center" that has plastic utensils and bibs for the kids as well as a microwave in case you want to heat up the baby food.

My Gravad Lax ($4.99) had more pieces and was thicker than what I remembered at the NJ store, but I didn't like the sauce - seemed like just regular mustard with dill mixed in and wasn't light enough to accompany the fish well. Most pieces of the Gravad Lax were pink and tender and melted in your mouth. One piece was tough and seemed like it would be chewy so I passed. I picked up that piece and saw it was brown on the bottom - maybe the skin? Grandpa said last time he came, almost all of his pieces were like that so he was very disappointed with the quality of the salmon. I was full at this point so didn't mind - I didn't even eat the mixed greens salad that comes with the dish because I knew I still had to eat the Almond cake. Both boys' Mac-n-cheese was real macaroni not the slender noodles characteristic of the Kraft version. They ate almost all of their portions. Grandma and Grandpa were very happy with the meatballs.

Time for dessert! My almond cake was loaded with slivers of blanched almonds and was light, not too rich at all. Grandma really liked the apple cake with the fresh apple taste. It came with a vanilla sauce and is served cold. I wished it was served warm because I think that would complement the cinamon and spices better (but I am a sucker for apple pie a la mode with a warm pie). Both kids started in on their Daim cakes - BB ate most of his while LB just ate the candy that came with it because he said the cake was too "crunchy". Oh well, I'll know not to get the whole cake next time and just buy the candy in the Swedish food marketplace.

Of course, almost anything in the restaurant was available for sale in the store, from the utensils, to the tables and chairs, to the glasses and plates and even the food. The Swedish food marketplace is right past the check-out counters and I picked up a bag of the frozen Swedish meatballs to make for dinner later that week.

Breakfast at IKEA:
IKEA also offers breakfast in the mornings, starting a half hour before the store opens. I arrived right at 9:30 am, when just the restaurant was open, and found out that IKEA offers free coffee before 10 am everyday.

Breakfast items are limited, there is the regular breakfast for $1.99 which is scrambled eggs, potatoes, two slices of bacon, and three french toast sticks. The small breakfast for 99 cents is the same thing, minus the french toast sticks. This is still cafeteria style so all the food is made in advance -- no special orders that I could tell. Also on the menu is a cinnamon bun for $1 and Swedish Pancakes for $1.99. I also saw bagels but no price by them. I ordered the Swedish pancakes and the small breakfast and picked up a coffee for free (normally 50 cents, still a great bargain). So, all together, my breakfast came to $3.17, including tax. Take that Denny's!

Everything was a large portion and the scrambled eggs were nice and fluffy. My only complaint was the bacon - I prefer extra crispy and this was not. The Swedish pancakes are really three crepes, folded into fourths, and then accompanied by a large scoop of lingonberry sauce. Again, I could tell these were not freshly made to order and had been sitting for awhile. The crepes were a little thicker than I expected and had a slight eggy taste but were pretty good, especially with the lingonberry sauce. All in all, a great value for a good breakfast.

Review - The Dinner A'Fare, 2735 Old Winter Garden Rd, Ocoee, FL

2008-01-27T21:57:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since I have reviewed a meal preparation place so I thought I'd review the place I have been going lately - The Dinner A'Fare. There has been an explosion of meal preparation places in the area in the past couple of years - Let's Eat, Magical Mealtimes, Super Suppers, Dream Dinners, etc. I checked out all of the ones near me and have been going to The Dinner A'Fare based on pricing, portion sizes, ease of getting an appointment, ease of making the dishes, and, most important, how well my family likes the food. It's really a personal family decision for all of these aspects so a place that works well for someone else may not work well for you.

For those of you not familiar with the meal preparation process, you are basically going to prepare 6 - 12 meals for your family, freezer ready, so that you just need to thaw and cook the meals when you need them. We prefer to use the meals during the week when things are really hectic with work, school, and after-school activities. Plus, it eliminates the "what are we having for dinner" discussion between Hubby and me. I also like that you can leave out ingredients that your family doesn't like. We are not big onion fans so I don't put those in and I also leave out any ingredients that might be spicy such as chili sauce or red pepper flakes.

Step one for most places is to reserve a date and time slot on the kitchen's website. For The Dinner A'Fare you can click here. I always chose Package #2 which is 12 meals that feed 2-3 people for $150. BB and LB generally split a meal so with a side dish or two, we have enough food to feed everyone. You can also chose a "Stand-in Chef" for an extra fee - that means that they will make everything for you and you just show up and cart away your meals already bagged and ready to go in the freezer. If you are doing the meals yourself, The Dinner A'Fare has some great times for working moms like me - I typically pick one of the 7 pm weekday times or one of the Saturday times. Then, you chose the meals you would like to make. I always make sure to check the cooking times when I am choosing the meals as I don't want to come home on a weekday and then realize it is going to take 60 minutes to make dinner. So, I will generally pick only the meals that take 30 minutes or less to make. But again, that is personal preference. Also, the menus change every month so you always have a bunch of new selections to choose from.

Make sure to bring a laundry basket or cooler to your session so you have a way to transport home all of your meals. I have a rolling cooler that I use that I find very handy. You can also bring one helper with you, although if you want to bring your child, they have to be at least 12 years old for health and safety regulations.

As soon as you enter the store, you will be given an apron and hat to wear, and then will get a demonstration on how to put together the meals. You'll usually get offered a drink of soda, water, or wine, and sometimes they will have samples of some of their side dishes (that you can purchase and take home to go with your meals). The stainless steel stations all around are set up to facilitate 2 -3 different meals with recipes and dry ingredients at the top, cold items in the bins, and then usually the meats in the fridge underneath. You will get a list with the meals you chose so you can check off the meals as you go to each station. Most of the meals are pretty easy, generally you grab a ziploc bag with the meat from the fridge and then add ingredients as indicated on the recipe. Sometimes you'll make a couple of other bags full of ingredients as well. There's usually at least one meal at every session that is the "hard" one to do. For me, last time I went, it was the Italian Style Stuffed Turkey Burgers - I didn't do a very good job keeping the stuffing inside each burger. But, I'm sure it's still going to taste good.

A few tips that I've learned along the way: Make sure to really mix up the contents of the bags while you are making them while everything is still thawed. The instructions will just say add the list of ingredients to the ziploc bag but if you don't mix it up right there and then, you may have clumps of ingredients when you try to make it. This is especially true if you don't allow the meals enough time to defrost the night before (trust me, it happens).

In the end, we end up with meals that last about a month since we trade off Dinner A'Fare meals with pizza, pasta, or just eat out. And the best part is that my kids are trying new foods that are more creative than anything I can come up with, especially after working all day.

Restaurant Update - Dolly's Parton's Dixie Stampede Orlando has closed!

2008-01-08T20:21:00.000-05:00

Found out today that Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede Orlando location suddenly closed this weekend! And, I had just did a recent (very recent) review of the Christmas show here. So what was the cause of the sudden closure? Was the business doing badly? Was it for health inspection reasons? Nope, it was money. Apparently Dolly and her company were offered a boatload of money for the prime real estate that the Dixie Stampede sits on, with its prominent view of I-4. In fact, the company said they had their best Christmas season yet. Reports say that the Dixie Stampede will return to Orlando, they just have to find a new location. We'll see.

Restaurant Review - Infusion Tea, 1600 Edgewater Drive, Orlando, FL

2008-01-06T22:58:00.001-05:00

Located in College Park, south of Princeton Street on Edgewater Drive, is Infusion Tea. Infusion Tea is a modern teahouse as well as an organic/vegetarian cafe. I visited with my boys and one of my girlfriends. Yes, this was another attempt by me to take my kids to tea -- I can't help it that I had boys instead of girls!

Infusion Tea is part retail tea store, with all kinds of tea accouterments such as tea pots, stirrers, infusers, and cups, as well as modern cafe. The chairs and tables are interspersed throughout the room so you can look at the wares as well as wait for your food. There is also a comfy couch area towards the back.

If you love tea, there is a lot to enjoy at Infusion Tea. They have an extensive tea menu including black, oolong, green, white, flavored, herbal, and rooibos (African red bush) teas, most of them organic. All can be ordered in the cafe or can be purchased to be made at home. The cafe menu features soups, tea sandwiches, wraps, appetizers and dips, salads, as well as a kids' menu and seasonal specials. You order your teas and food at the counter and then your meal will be delivered to your table when it is done.

The kids' menu offers three meal items, an apple and cheese quesadilla in a light wheat tortilla ($4), organic fruit and cheese kabobs with yogurt dipping sauce ($3.50), and a half peanut butter and jelly sandwich with veggies chips ($3.50). My younger son asked for the PB&J while my older son ordered the fruit and cheese kabobs. I was stumped for what to get them to drink because my boys don't like hot drinks. My oldest wanted sweet iced tea and the server immediately said she could make that for him with a light green tea, sweetened with simple syrup over ice. She offered apple juice for LB but he decided he just wanted water.

Another mother with her young son walked in at this point and I asked her what her son usually drinks here. She said he likes the Izze brand sparkling juices that Infusion Tea carries (so it is kind of like a fruit soda). She also told me he is a picky eater and his favorite thing on the menu is the veggie burger wrap ($7.50). So that is another option for a child, although kind of pricey unless you know your child will eat the whole thing.

I ordered the lunch combo ($7.50), a choice of a half soup and half sandwich - you can also chose a half salad as well. I chose the gazpacho, a cold tomato-based soup, and the Sundried Special, a sandwich with sundried tomato spread, cream cheese, cucumbers, and organic spinach. My friend ordered the Concorde wrap ($7.50) which consisted of hummus, tabouleh (a parsley-based Middle Eastern salad), and field greens in a wheat wrap and a scone for dessert ($2). We ordered a pot ($6) of the Cape Town Rooibos tea to share.

The drinks came out right away. I was very pleased with the presentation of the tea. It was served in a clear glass pot and two huge glass tea cups. On the side were the sweeteners -- honey, raw sugar cubes, and sugar. After the timer went off, we took out the filter with the tea leaves and put it on the provided plate and then poured the tea. It was a wonderful rusty red color and had a deep, comforting, slightly sweet flavor.

Our food arrived and it all looked very appetizing. The half peanut butter and jelly sandwich was on lightly toasted white bread and came with vegetable chips that looked like real vegetables that had just been sliced, cooked and lightly salted. I was surprised that my four-year-old, who I can never get to eat his veggies, dug right into the chips and finished them all -- all except one green bean that looked a little too much like a green bean to him. The fruit and cheese kabobs were strawberries and red grapes alternated with large squares of cheddar cheese and came with a sweet honey yogurt sauce. My oldest ate all of the fruit, dipping them in the sauce and did a good job with the cheese but said there was just too much cheese to eat.

My gazpacho was unusually prepared. Gazpacho is typically a soup made with tomatoes, green peppers, cucumbers, and garlic and can be smooth, with the veggies all pureed, or "chunky" with diced vegetables in the soup. Infusion Tea's version is all chunky with no soup, just very finely chopped vegetables spooned into a large cup. It was very fresh and I appreciated the unique presentation. The sandwich was tangy and creamy at the same time and was very filling. My friend's wrap was a wonderful blend of Middle Eastern flavors. The warmed scone was served with strawberry jam and Devon cream and the scone itself was full of pieces of juicy dried fruits. It was so good that I ordered one as well. Wow, it was a very decadent pastry and extremely filling - I was not able to finish it. I will definitely return to Infusion Tea to try some of the other teas and sandwiches... and I'll attempt to save room for another scone.

Restaurant Review - Old Spanish Sugar Mill, DeLeon Springs State Park, 601 Ponce DeLeon Blvd, DeLeon Springs, FL

2007-12-30T10:57:00.000-05:00

For a fun, "worth a drive", breakfast place, you must try the Old Spanish Sugar Mill located inside DeLeon Springs State Park near Deland, FL. It is about an hour drive north of Orlando on 17-92, just north of Stetson University. Since it is located inside a State Park, you do have to pay a $5 fee per car to get into the park. This rustic grill and griddle house used to be a real mill and in fact the menu states that they still grind their own flour for the pancake batter.

The Old Sugar Mill serves family-style make-your-own breakfast every day except Thanksgiving and Christmas. And, winter is the perfect time of year to go because the Sugar Mill has NO air-conditioning. There are a few fans going, but in the summertime, they really just move the warm air around.

The Old Sugar Mill doesn't take reservations, so the earlier you go, the better, as that will reduce your wait time for this very popular, yet small, restaurant. While you are waiting for your name to be called on the loud-speaker, you and the kids can enjoy what else the park has to offer. There is swimming available in the "always 72 degrees" spring, as well as a museum on the history of the park, a small playground, and boat rides.

As soon as I detected a name that sounded like ours, with our correct party size, we headed back to the restaurant from the playground. Hooray, it was our name! We were seated on old wooden chairs and benches surrounding a table with a long, flat griddle built into it. There are other items on the menu such as salads and sandwiches but we were there for the pancakes. When our server arrived at the table, she immediately turned the griddle on, and warned the kids that it does get hot and they should stay away from the griddle. Of course, LB didn't believe her, but figured it out when he hovered his hand about an inch from the griddle - "that's hot, Mommy!" All-you-can-eat (and make) pancakes are only $4.50 per person and you can also order mix-ins for $1.50 each such as blueberries, bananas, peanut butter, pecans, chocolate chips, apples or apple sauce . We ordered a bowl of chocolate chips and one of blueberries. To drink, LB ordered chocolate milk ($1) while BB attempted to order sweet iced tea. Our server explained that the iced tea is unsweetened and doesn't sweeten very well with the sugar. She said she would bring some hot water to mix the sugar in so we could try to get the tea sweet. I ordered a hot tea so avoided the whole sweetening issue.

LB's chocolate milk was a small carton with a juice glass on the side. I had forgotten that the restaurant is in a State Park so they don't allow straws to be served. However, our server did tell me that they don't mind if you bring your own straws in (something to remember for next time). They do have sippy cups available for the little ones but that kind of grosses me out, using a "community" sippy cup. LB made do with the juice glass. We tried to make BB's iced tea sweet but the server was right.. this must be special sweet-resistant iced tea as the hot water mixed with lots of sugar didn't work very well. Even my hot tea didn't get very sweet - strange.

The server then dropped off our bowls of chips and berries with the batter and we were ready to go. You will get two stoneware pitchers full of batter, one with a stone ground mixture of five different flours and one with an unbleached white flour. Making the pancakes are pretty simple. Spray the griddle with the provided no-stick cooking spray, pour a nice size dollup of batter, and then add mix-ins. When the top of the pancake starts to bubble, flip it over for a little bit and then it is done. There are several syrups provided at the table including butter, maple syrup, molasses and honey. The boys stuck mostly with chocolate chip pancakes although they tried both batters. I tried plain, blueberry, and, my favorite, blueberry and chocolate chip. We all agreed that the white flour batter was the best but that may be because it is the taste we are most used to as we thought the brown batter was a little too "wheaty".

By the way, pretty much everything at the Sugar Mill is make-your-own except the meats (sausage and bacon) and lunch items. The couple next to us were surprised when they asked for toast and scrambled eggs with their pancakes and received a few slices of bread and whole eggs. I guess you get your eggs the way you want them that way! The restaurant is usually very crowded so service can be slow. That's fine if you already have your batter and are flipping away but it can take a long time to get your check so ask for it as soon as you are starting to get full. Also, a 15% gratuity is automatically added to your bill, probably so the servers don't get ripped off. I can see someone figuring, hey, I did all the work, why do I have to pay a tip? Also, you'll want to have at least two adults to make the pancakes. I took the kids by myself once and was pouring batter, flipping pancakes, or cutting food the whole time and didn't really have time to eat myself. The Old Spanish Sugar Mill is a fun place to go for down-home yummy pancakes for a very reasonable price. And, the more people that go with you, the more fun it is.

Restaurant Review - Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede, Christmas at Dixie, 8251 Vineland Avenue, Orlando, FL

2007-12-24T13:00:00.000-05:00

Update 1.8.08 - Dolly Parton's Orlando Dixie Stampede suddenly closed this weekend! Was the business doing badly? Was it for health inspection reasons? Nope, it was money. Apparently Dolly and her company were offered a boatload of money for the prime real estate that the Dixie Stampede sits on, with its prominent view of I-4. Reports say that the Dixie Stampede will return to Orlando, just in a new location. We'll see.

I have previously been to Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede "regular" dinner show in Orlando so I was curious to see what the Christmas show offered. The Dixie Stampede is located across the street from the Premium Outlet Mall (not to be confused with the new Prime Outlet Mall) in a very large Southern-style mansion and was definitely dressed for Christmas with wreaths and holly and Christmas trees everywhere. We went with my husband's family and luckily we had the first show of the day so we were able to park pretty close to the main building. Dixie Stampede times their shows so that you are getting out when the people from the other show are already waiting to get in, meaning that you have to park farther out in a later show because the first group of folks aren't even out of the building yet.

Dixie Stampede's pricing is pretty expensive which, sadly, is in line with the other dinner shows in the tourist corridor. Adult prices are around $50 and kids are $25, although you can usually find AAA or Florida Resident discounts for about half that price. The admission price includes a pre-show, and then a "four-course" dinner and main show. Pepsi products and other non-alcoholic beverages are all-you-can-drink and you are also entitled to two cups of beer or wine, but only during the main dinner. You must make reservations and/or pre-pay in advance and then you can either pay or pick up your tickets when you arrive.

Dixie Stampede recommends you arrive an hour and a half before your show to allow you to find parking, check-in, get your tickets, and find a seat for the pre-show, and it really does take that long. There is a line to get your tickets, a line to get in and take a picture, and then a line to get any drinks or snacks for the pre-show. There are large signs everywhere stating that cameras and video cameras are not allowed (shhh, don't them I snuck my camera in!) so Dixie Stampede is gracious enough to take your family's photo as you arrive... and then will sell it to you later for about $30 (yes, I bought it... I've bought it every time I've come - the kids look so cute on the little horses!). You are asked how large your party is and then you are corralled into the correct photo alcove depending on your group's size. We were a family of 10 so we were escorted into one of the larger rooms with a large Christmas tree, some rocking chairs and crates to sit on and the two cute rocking horses for the kids. The photographer arranged us, snapped our picture and then we were off to the pre-show... through a path along the gift shop where my kids pleaded with me for little stuffed buffaloes or horses. We made it to The Carriage Room without having to buy anything. The Carriage Room is where the pre-show takes place and it reminds of an Old West Saloon, with lots of long narrow tables on two floors leading up to a small main stage. The Grandmas stayed with the kids while the rest of us went to the bar to get drinks and snacks. All non-alcoholic drinks, including the slushies and mixed fruit drinks, are $4 at the bar and come in a souvenir boot mug. I got myself a Sierra Mist with grenadine and then we got everyone else the strawberry slushie or the orange dreamsicle-like slushie. I also got a bowl of roasted peanuts for $2 for the kids.

The pre-show came on a little late as the kids were all getting antsy. We saw Tuey Wilson, a comic juggler. His act was very unusual with spinning balls and juggling cups and other objects but the kids really enjoyed it and ended up saying his act was their overall favorite part of the whole experience.

As soon as his act ended, we were herded (pun intended) into the main show arena. Don't know why they only have one small doorway to squeeze everyone into. For the "regular" show, you are seated on the North side or the South side of the Civil War. That's always kind of bothered me so I've always asked for the North side. The Christmas at Dixie show has a nicer theme. The premise is that Santa's toy shop has grown so big that he has expanded his operations to the South pole. So you are either representing the North Pole elves or the South Pole elves depending on where you sit. As you are seated, on hard benches in front of long tables set in rows, you meet your "elf" who will be serving you. Our elf introduced herself and then briefed us on the menu and asked what we would like to drink. I ordered a sweet iced tea, which I knew would be out of the fountain but I'm not a big fan of Pepsi products anyways. The rest of us ordered Pepsi or coffee while LB ordered water (he doesn't like soda or tea). The only "straws" at the table were really coffee stirrers; luckily, we had saved our drinks from the pre-show and ended up using those straws.

Another tip, get everyone to go to the potty before the show starts because there is no break in the show - the performers are on the whole time during dinner. The bathrooms are all at the top of the stadium and also have an Old West motif with a big trough for the sink.

The show itself is set up the same way as the non-Christmas show. The first part is all about the performers and horses and the second half is a competition between the North and the South. There is an MC and a character called Skeeter for comic relief. For the Christmas show, there were some really amazing set pieces such as the ice skating and the live nativity scene. I was pretty skeptical about the Nativity scene and thought it might be cheesy but it was very well done. The three Wise Men ride in on live camels (which was exciting in itself), but the most breath-taking was went an angel floats down from the sky with full wings. Very nicely done.

During the first half of the show, our elf was very busy serving us our food. I don't know why Dixie Stampede doesn't serve a fully plated dish - instead our elf had to serve everyone in our row the first food item and then come down the row again for the next food item. And, I still can't figure out what the "four courses" were since each item was served individually. The meal consists of a warm buttery biscuit, a bowl of warm (not hot) creamy vegetable soup, a full (small) rotisserie chicken for the adults and chicken fingers for the kids, a slice of barbecue pork loin, a half herb-crusted baked potato, and a half corn-on-the-cob. The chicken is truly tender and juicy but it is just too big of a meal for me, and a bit messy when you are trying to watch a show at the same time. I wished I could have gotten the kids' meal since the chicken fingers were also tender and looked more manageable. The creamy vegetable soup is a favorite of mine although I don't know why it is always served lukewarm. There is no spoon provided so you need to sip the soup by picking up the bowl and "drinking" it - maybe that is why the temperature is more moderate? I ate everything else except the pork loin, which I just didn't care for - I think it was too smoked or barbecued for me. LB did really good eating most of his food except for his soup (I polished it off for him). BB didn't eat anything except for the corn on the cob, because he was enthralled with the show. This can be a problem with kids - you want them to enjoy themselves and the show but you don't want them to be so mesmerized that they don't eat anything. Grandma M. wisely asked for doggie bags and our elf brought each of us one as no one had finished the full chicken.

Next, it was time for the North Pole vs. South Pole competition and dessert - a hot apple turnover. It was a little goopy instead of flaky but tasted okay. The competition is fun to watch because there is a lot of audience participation and the performers are really talented. The kids also like to see the pig races and ostrich races. As the show is coming to an end, Dolly herself appears on the large TV screen and reminds the MC that he forgot the last person in the show... Santa Claus. Santa comes out in a sled pulled by two horses and waves to everyone.

Now comes the very awkward part of the whole experience that happens every time I have ever come to Dixie Stampede - the request for the tip. Several other dinner shows in the area, most notably at Disney, will include gratuity in your ticket price so you don't have to go through this. Our elf came around and left a card on every table saying that it was a pleasure serving us and that no gratuity has been added to our bill and that excellent service is typically rewarded with 15%. Here is why this is so bizarre. In most cases (as was with ours), our tickets were already paid for several weeks ago with a credit card. Clearly the servers are not coming around with credit card readers so any tips MUST be paid in cash. Then, exactly what 15% are we supposed to calculate? Sure, an adult ticket is $50 but that doesn't mean the meal was worth $50 - I'm sure most of the cost is for the show and we are not going to paid $8 per adult and $3 per child for the tip (plus, we don't have the cash for it). So we all scrambled our cash together and came up with $20 for the 10 of us. Then our elf came to shake all of our hands and we slipped her the $20 and then ran out of there before she noticed. I really wish they would come up with a better way to do that because I'm sure the servers get left with nothing sometimes because the group doesn't have any cash left on them.

Right now, I'd say the Dixie Stampede is one of the better dinner shows, both in terms of food and definitely entertainment, in Orlando, especially along the tourist corridors of I-Drive and US 192. I'd definitely still try and use a Florida Resident or AAA discount every time, though, as then it is a much better value.

Restaurant Review - Cheeburger Cheeburger, 504 N. Alafaya Trail, Orlando, FL

2007-11-24T11:07:00.000-05:00

Across from Waterford Lakes Town Center, is a new crop of stores and restaurants, including Cheeburger Cheeburger. Cheeburger Cheeburger is a chain restaurant starting to make its way across Central Florida and if you can't guess, their specialty is cheeseburgers, pretty much anyway you want them. The decor is all 1950's diner with chrome and neon everywhere, and a soundtrack to match.

The menu is very overwhelming, mostly because of all the choices you can make. Pretty much anything on the menu is "invent your own" meaning you pick whatever toppings you want on your cheeseburger, you choose what flavored mix-ins you want in your drink, you choose which of over 75 flavors of ice cream you want in your shake.

Let's start with the kids' menu. For $4.99, kids get a choice of a Jr. Cheeseburger, the Cheeser Cheeser (grilled cheese), The Wedge (fried wedge of mac-n-cheese), chicken fingers, grilled chicken sandwich, or PB&J. The meals come with apple slices or french fries, and a choice of soft drink, apple juice or milk. For an extra $1.50, kids can get a half shake or a Shake-a-Soda. The boys both ordered the Jr. Classic Cheeseburger. LB (my picky eater) ordered it with just catsup and BB ordered it without cheese (he claims he doesn't like cheese anymore - don't know when that happened), and with tomato, onion, and pickles. I ordered fries for both of them and then a chocolate milk for LB and a Shake-a-Soda for BB. A Shake-a-Soda is soda water flavored with a choice of 14 fruity flavors such as watermelon, pineapple, mango, and lemon. The soda is shaken, not stirred, at your table and then poured into a glass. BB chose kiwi.

On the regular menu, you start with what size burger you want going from a 1/4 pounder ($4.99) up to a full pounder ($10.99). If you can finish your One Pounder by yourself, you get your picture placed on the Wall of Famers by the front door. Skipping that, I chose the Classic 1/4 pounder as did Grandma while Grandpa order the Semi-Serious 1/3 pounder ($5.99). Next was time to choose our cheese -- pepper jack for me, provolone for Grandma and bleu cheese for Grandpa. Then we chose from another 25+ toppings -- I went for lettuce, tomato, and guacamole to finish up my own version of a Southwest burger. Grandma chose tomato, guacamole, pickle and onion rings. Grandpa went totally over the top with lettuce, tomato, guacamole, onion, pickle, mayonnaise, and onion rings. Yeah, he really did order onion and onion rings.

Cheeburger Cheeburger also offers some classic drinks such as floats, ice cream sodas, and egg creams, as well as regular and flavored drinks. Grandma decided on a Chocolate Cola ($2.09) while Grandpa went with a flavored lemonade ($1.99). Following his over-the-top theme, he chose a blackberry-mango lemonade. I wanted a cherry Shake-a-Soda ($2.29) but the server recommended a Cherry Sprite instead. The Cherry Sprite would only be $2.09 and it comes with free refills while the Shake-a-Soda does not. I went with her suggestion.

The restaurant was pretty crowded for a late lunch on a Sunday so our food took a little longer than I would have liked. Our drinks came out quickly although there was a mix-up with Grandpa's flavored lemonade - he was served a blackberry-mango Shake-a-Soda instead. He thought it was okay, but really liked his lemonade when the server corrected the mistake. BB loved his green kiwi soda. The food finally arrived and the kids' meals were served in cardboard 3D versions of a '57 Chevy. The onion slices were very thick so I had to laugh at Grandpa's burger as he could barely pick it up without it falling apart. My meal tasted great with the burger cooked to medium like I asked and the guac and pepper jack imparting the tangy southwest flavor I was looking for. We were too full for a shake or ice cream for dessert but we will definitely return to Cheeburger Cheeburger.

Restaurant Review - Pei Wei Asian Diner, 3011 E. Colonial Drive, Orlando, FL

2007-10-18T21:01:00.000-04:00

Pei Wei (pronounced "Pay Way") is P.F. Chang's foray into the fast casual restaurant market. There is only one Pei Wei restaurant currently in the Orlando area but I heard from a server that more are coming soon. Also, if you are a fan of P.F. Chang's (see my review here), then you will recognize several of the same dishes on the menu at Pei Wei, such as Dan Dan Noodles and Ginger Broccoli.

The decor inside Pei Wei will also remind you of P.F. Chang's but is a bit more "casual". Menu boards are listed, sedately, on the left as soon as you walk in, and a sign directs you to please order at the counter to the left before proceeding to a table in the dining area ahead. Every time we visited Pei Wei, it was pretty crowded so that is probably to ensure that those who have already ordered have seating available to them. The menu is broken out into appetizers, entree salads, noodle and rice dishes, and signature dishes. Salads and noodle/rice dishes are from $6.50 to $7.50 and the signature dishes run from $7 to $9 depending on what kind of meat you choose. Kids meals are $3.95 with a drink ($3.45 without) and offer a choice of a chicken dish (teriyaki, honey seared or lo mein) and accompaniment (white rice, brown rice, or egg noodles).

On our first visit, I ordered an appetizer of crab wontons (4 for $3.95), chicken lo mein for my boys, and Mongolian chicken for me ($7.50). One interesting thing at Pei Wei is that almost half of the dishes are marked spicy... and apparently most cannot be changed to mild. [Strangely, the Pad Thai is marked as spicy too and cannot be changed. I've never heard of a spicy version of Pad Thai. I ordered it on a subsequent visit and it was more mild/medium than really spicy. My biggest complain with the Pad Thai was with the very large hunks of tofu in it, not the spiciness.] I guess that the sauces are prepared in advance and cannot be made more mild? Such is the sacrifice of eating in a fast casual restaurant rather than a full-service one.

After ordering, I was handed a round red disk with a number on it and was told to attach it to our table. I then went up to get our drinks at the self-serve fountain. LB asked for fruit punch while BB asked for sweet iced tea. Pei Wei offers up some unusual fresh-brewed iced tea flavors. One was Mandarin Orange Green Tea and the other was Vanilla Spice Chai Tea. I got myself and BB the Green Tea. There were even slices of orange to place in your tea which I thought was a nice touch. BB gave the tea a thumbs down so he ended up with fruit punch as well. I very much enjoyed the green tea - it was very light and almost floral tasting.

Pei Wei does a really nice job in the dining room area. Each table is prepped by a server as soon as the previous occupants leave. They completely clean the table and floor area and then restock the wooden chopsticks, appetizer plates, and napkins. It was nice to see so much commitment to cleanliness. Situated at the top of the chopstick holder is a clip for your numbered disk so the servers can find you and unite you with your food. Pretty much as soon as we sat down, a server came by with our crab wontons. These are really crab rangoons - crispy fried wonton wrappers filled with crab and cream cheese. The wontons were served on a sea of very spicy red sauce, again a surprise as I've usually had them with something similar to sweet & sour sauce. However, after I scraped the sauce off the bottom of the wontons, the boys ate them up, especially BB. In fact, both boys ate two each before I got to try any so I sent BB up to order some more. That order came quickly as well and I was able to try the crab wontons. Very creamy but with a definite crab presence as well and the wrapper was perfectly crisp.

Soon our meals were delivered to the table. The boys received a very nice size portion of grilled chicken with the lo mein noodles. They did very well and almost finished their meals. My Mongolian chicken was fantastic with a slightly sweet garlic sauce and large chunks of mushrooms with the white meat chicken. We've already been back to Pei Wei several times and each time our meals have been delicious. This is a great place for a quick, high quality Asian-style meal.

Restaurant Updates for Winter Garden Village at Fowler's Grove

2007-10-14T21:50:00.000-04:00

I've been spending a lot of time at the new mall in Winter Garden, now that Target and several other stores have opened already. As for restaurants, only McDonald's and Quizno's have opened so far. However, it looks like they are putting the finishing touches on the Chili's, Macaroni Grill, Longhorn, Mimi's Cafe, and First Watch (a breakfast/brunch restaurant). I also just discovered signs that say a Bonefish Grill will be opening here soon, next to where the Barnes & Noble is going to be. The directory also said an Urban Flats (a flatbread restaurant) will be coming.

My one concern is parking for the restaurants. While the larger stores like Target, Best Buy and Lowe's appear to have lots of parking, the restaurants look like they will have very few spots. In fact, the Bonefish Grill is located in the "historical walk" section of the outdoor mall with no dedicated parking - I foresee that will be a problem. One curious thing is the non-existent development of the Cracker Barrel restaurant. While the other restaurants have all been at least started, the space where the Cracker Barrel is supposed to go is still an empty field. It hasn't even been cleared. However, it is still listed on the mall directory so I don't know what the delay is.

In other Winter Garden new restaurant news, construction of a small retail center has started at the southwest corner of 545 and Hartwood Marsh (due west of the new mall). Signs indicate a Caribbean, Japanese, and NYPD Pizza restaurant are coming soon. The owners of the NYPD Pizza restaurant contacted me and said they hope to be open in December.

Restaurant Review - Chipotle, 10149 West Colonial Drive, Ocoee, FL

2007-09-30T17:08:00.000-04:00

I decided to try Chipotle again, despite having a bad experience about 2 years ago at the Florida Mall location. Why was it bad? I found that most of Chipotle's food was very spicy and that there was no children's menu even though Chipotle was started by McDonald's and was a fast-casual restaurant. However, a new Chipotle opened in Ocoee and, they sent me a free burrito coupon in the mail.

Unfortunately, nothing has changed at Chipotle since my previous experience. I knew I was in trouble when I looked up at the menu board upon entering and still saw no children's menu. As I waited in line to get to the counter, I quickly scanned the menu for something my kids could eat. BB announced that he wanted a beef taco while LB said he just wanted beef and cheese. The menu is very simple at Chipotle. All pricing is calculated by what kind of meat you want: chicken $5.70, steak $5.80, carnitas (pork) $5.85, barbacoa (shredded beef) $5.85, and vegetarian (guacamole and black beans) $5.25. Then, you choose how you want it: burrito with rice, beans, your chosen meat, salsa, cheese or sour cream; fajita burrito which is the same as the regular burrito except you substitute sauteed peppers and onions for the beans; burrito bol which is everything in a bowl instead of a tortilla; tacos - three soft or four crispy; or salad which is like the bol but on lettuce.

When I got to the front of the line, I asked if they had a children's menu. The server handed me a card that said "Parent's Menu" which was not a good sign. Here is what it said, "We don't really have a kids' menu, but we'll put together anything your child will eat. Just gaze down our serving line, look at the ideas below, and then get creative." Listed below were ideas such as quesadillas, single tacos, bols, and chips & guacamole. By the way, none of these items had prices by them and most of them are not on the menu. It also had a "heat index" that showed that the ONLY items on the menu that were not at all spicy were the pork, rice, beans, and chips. Wow, so most of the menu items are spicy. Next up on the heat scale was the chicken, shredded beef, and, get this, mild salsa (!). So I guess the mild salsa isn't that mild! I asked how much a single taco was and the cashier said they were $1.95. BB came over to me at this point and reminded me he wanted a beef taco. I told him he couldn't because the steak was one of the spiciest things on the menu. This started an argument between me and my 8-year-old and I finally told him we were getting this all to go and that he would be happy with a chicken taco (they had run out of the mild pork and were making more but it wasn't done yet). Next, I had to figure out what to get my youngest one. I decided to get him a children's bol as it had suggested on the "Parent's Menu". I asked the cashier how much those were. She replied that they didn't really have children's bols - she would just ring up everything I chose as a side dish. This was getting more and more complicated and I could tell the crowd behind me was giving me looks so I just said, "Fine, we'll just have a side order of rice and black beans." As the server opened up the rice cover, I knew I was in trouble. The rice is actually cilantro rice and has strips of shredded cilantro all throughout. I knew my picky eater would never eat that and asked if I could get plain rice without the cilantro. The server called over to the cook in the back to make the plain rice. I quickly decided on a chicken burrito for me with rice, black beans, cheese, mild salsa, and sour cream.

As the server was packaging up our order to go, I asked the cashier some other prices for all of you readers. A side order of rice or beans is 65 cents. A small cheese quesadilla is 85 cents (I assume on a taco tortilla) while a large quesadilla is $2.25. I also decided to get an order of guacamole and chips ($2.25) with our order. Heading out of the restaurant, I noticed that the decor looks the same as the Florida Mall location with corrugated steel and light woods everywhere. However, there were also quite a lot of the very high tables with high stools that had no foot rests - another thing that wasn't very kid-friendly, I thought.

When we got home and unpacked the food, I discovered that they had forgot to add the beans to the serving of plain white rice for LB. Luckily, he decided he wasn't that hungry when we got home so I just made him mac-n-cheese. BB attempted to eat his chicken taco and finally had to ask for milk to cool down his mouth. I tried my chicken burrito and I couldn't even finish it since it was so spicy hot. I can't imagine how hot the other meats are if the chicken was this hot and it was supposed to be one of the least spicy. Also, we found out that guacamole was very spicy as well and the chips were over-salted. I looked closely and saw that they had used sea salt flakes on the chips, that's probably why they tasted so salty.

All in all, I had a very bad family food experience at Chipotle. If you take your kids there on a regular basis, please let me know what you order for them because I can't figure out anything that my kids will like there. I'm probably not going back.

Restaurant Review - P.F. Chang's China Bistro, 4200 Conroy Road, Mall of Millenia, Orlando, FL

2007-09-16T09:14:00.000-04:00

P.F. Chang's China Bistro is a "nouveau" Chinese restaurant, typically located near malls. While they do have some traditional Chinese dishes on their menu, they usually put a unique twist on each one. The decor inside the Mall of Millenia location is dark with dark wood on floors and tables, burgundy and brown walls, large golden moon-like lights in the ceiling with a spot light on each table - the feeling is very muted and subdued. In fact, there is not much natural light in the Mall at Millenia location; if you visit the Winter Park Village location, it is much brighter inside due to the large windows.

There is also usually a wait for a table at P.F. Chang's although you can call ahead to be put on a virtual waiting list. So, if you are going during normal eating hours, be sure to have some games and toys for your kids to play with while you are waiting for a table.

There is no children's menu at P.F. Chang's but there is enough on the menu that you should be able to share with your kids or get them an appetizer. My kids have eaten just one of the appetizers as their meal before such as steamed dumplings or spring rolls or even just an order of fried rice. What is nice is that even though they don't have a children's menu, they do have children's cups with lids and straws with a "good luck waving cat" on it.

As soon as the server arrives, they will bring a condiment tray with soy sauce, hot mustard, chili sauce, vinegar, and chili oil. They will also prepare a special sauce for you using the condiments on a tray based on whether you request a mild, medium, or hot sauce. We usually request the medium sauce -- you can add heat with more chili sauce or chili oil, or take some away with the vinegar. This is great to use on your own food to make it a little hotter while still leaving the main dish mild for the kids.

I also like to order the hot teas at P.F. Chang's ($2.50). There are several to choose from including green teas, oolongs and flavored herbal teas. On my last trip, I tried the Tropical Green which comes out as a nice honey golden color and had some citrus and orange hints in the light green tea. My favorite part is how it is presented - in a cast iron tea pot on a circular pot holder.

We always order the wonton soup to start at P.F. Chang's because everyone in the family likes it and it feeds everyone in the family. For $6, you get a HUGE bowl of wonton soup that includes water chestnuts, spinach, big chunks of chicken, shrimp, green onions, mushrooms, and pork wontons. It can easily feed four people with almost two bowls of soup a piece. The broth is a very light chicken stock which is nice for the kids but I like to add the special soy sauce mixture prepared by our server to add some kick to it. I always know to make sure LB's bowl only contains the wontons and chicken because he doesn't like anything else - especially the green stuff.

Portions at P.F. Chang's are big enough that we usually order one less dish than the number of people. So, for a party of six, we'd order five dishes and share. We order the chicken or beef lo mein ($8 at lunch) for the boys to share. My favorite dish is the Ginger Chicken with Broccoli ($11.50). Big chunks of white meat chicken are covered in a delicious brown ginger sauce and are served with crisp, green broccoli stalks that taste very fresh and crunchy.

On our most recent trip, we tried dessert. Two of the desserts sounded very intriguing - the Banana Spring Rolls ($6) with pineapple-coconut ice cream and vanilla caramel sauce, and the Lucky Eight ($8) which is eight chocolate creme filled sticks with peanut butter caramel dipping sauce and toffee bits. The boys outvoted me and chose the Lucky Eight - I'll have to try the Banana Spring Rolls another time (I'm a sucker for anything with coconut in it). The Lucky Eight ended up being a lot bigger than I expected. It could easily be shared by four adults and because of the individual sticks is an easy dessert to share as well. Chocolate creme, which tasted like chocolate fondue (yeah, that rich), was rolled, stick-like, inside a long wonton wrapper and then fried. Those were scooped into a mug and were set next to a small bowl with the warm peanut butter caramel sauce. On the plate were the bits of toffee that we were supposed to roll the dipped sticks into. My only complaint - I wish the toffee pieces were much smaller. Some were pretty big and they didn't stick since they were so heavy. Man, this is a rich dessert... and very good! Both boys loved it although they got to the point where they were only eating the chocolate rolls and ignoring the sauce and toffee.

Since P.F. Chang's isn't a traditional Chinese restaurant, there are lots of options for those that don't like Chinese food and lots of options for kids as well.

My Other Blog - Musings from a Restaurant Maven

2007-09-08T23:08:00.000-04:00

I think I might be crazy. I started another blog. Not because I had extra time on my hands - far from it. I got the idea from Scott Hume, editor-in-chief for Restaurants & Institutions magazine, who wanted to know if I could do a restaurant blog that didn't have reviews but had thoughts and experiences about restaurants. So, I started Musings from a Restaurant Maven. I got the "maven" from the book The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell. Several people I knew read the book and then came to me and said I was a "maven". Apparently, according to Mr. Gladwell, a maven is a person who likes to learn and then is motivated to educate others. So, I can see that - I like to find new restaurants, try them out, and then tell others about them. Let me know what you think of my new site. Again, there are no reviews, it is just thoughts (and sometimes rants) of whatever pops into my head as I am eating out or thinking about restaurants. Enjoy!

Restaurant Review - Manny's Original Chophouse, 35496 Hwy 27, Haines City, FL

2007-08-28T22:52:00.000-04:00

On a recent Sunday, Grandpa called up to say he had heard about a really good steak restaurant way down south on US Hwy 27 in Haines City. He had heard it could get pretty crowded so we decided to head down around 4 pm figuring we would beat the crowd. Around 4:45 pm, we had arrived in Haines City and it wasn't too hard to find Manny's Original Chophouse on the west side of US 27 - just look for the big sign with a cleaver as the "p" in Chophouse. We were able to sit right down at one of the last open tables. For the rest of our dinner, there was a constant crowd of people waiting to be seated so I figured we had gotten really lucky with our table.

The decor at Manny's Original Chophouse is eclectic roadside steakhouse. There are license plates from around the country used as wall-hangings as well as road signs, hubcaps, and a lot of neon. It's also very loud. I had to shout a few times so that Grandma, sitting just across the round table from me, could hear me. The tables are covered with white butcher paper and there are crayons for the kids (and adults) to color with and decorate their space. The menu is surprisingly extensive with chicken, fish, ribs, and burgers, but we decided to stick with the house specialty and get steak.

I ordered the 12 oz Prime Rib for $14.79. All entrees come with the bottomless salad bowl, yeast rolls, and a choice of a potato, veggies, or black beans & rice. I chose the garlic mashed potatoes and was asked if I wanted gravy on them. I thought that would ruin the garlic flavor so I said no - that ended up being a mistake that I'll get into later. Grandpa ordered the 16 oz T-bone steak ($16.99) with sweet potato and Grandma asked for the bacon-wrapped filet ($14.98) with a baked potato. The kids' menu runs from $3-$4 and includes the standards like mac-n-cheese, cheeseburger, pepperoni pizza, chicken fingers, grilled cheese, corn dog, as well as "steak-on-a-stick". BB ordered the corn dog and LB, no surprise to me, ordered the mac-n-cheese. Kids' entrees come with just fries, not a drink, which ended up being another issue. Inexplicably, Manny's does not have child-sized drink cups so both of my kids got their drinks in the same very large plastic cups as the adults did. BB ordered a sweet iced tea like I did and LB ordered a chocolate milk. Our server had to go check on the chocolate milk when she brought the other drinks to our table because apparently the chocolate milk came from the bar (?).

Service was kind of slow but I suspected that would be the case in this crowded restaurant although the kids seemed happy making drawings on the table. A little while later, our bottomless salad bowl arrived along with yeast rolls with cinnamon butter. Our server tossed our salad in a large stainless steel bowl tableside and then provided plates for us to serve ourselves. Seriously, this was one of the best tossed salads I have ever tasted. It just had your standard salad ingredients in it - iceburg lettuce, thinly sliced carrots, radishes, shredded cheese - so it had to be the dressing that was so amazing. The menu listed it as a garlic ranch dressing but it was incredibly flavorful and was a great accompaniment to the crisp lettuce. The yeast rolls were soft and still hot from the oven which made it even better to put on the sweet cinnamon butter.

It was at this point that we had a "fly" issue. For some unknown reason, there were a few flies buzzing around Manny's that day and even the server commented that was unusual - she figured maybe someone had left a back door open or something. Unfortunately, one particular fly was apparently as big a fan of chocolate milk as LB is. Luckily, LB had been guarding his chocolate milk and notified me immediately when he discovered the intruder. When we caught our server again, she quickly replaced LB's chocolate milk and all was well after that.

When our food arrived, I was pleased to see that the mac-n-cheese came with garlic toast and that the corn dog was pretty big - a good value for the money. All of the adults' food looked fantastic. My prime rib was incredible - done perfectly to medium with dipping sauces of au jus and creamy horseradish on the side. It was so flavorful and tender... until I tried Grandpa's T-bone. Wow, the T-bone was well-seasoned and juicy with great meaty flavor. Grandma's filet was also very good so Manny's main dishes got the "thumb's up" all the way around. While Grandma and Grandpa had equally good side dishes, my garlic mashed potatoes were... dry. Darn, I should have listened to the server and gotten the gravy! At this point, though, I was getting pretty full and we couldn't find the server for a while so I was fine just leaving the side dish alone.

LB had picked at his mac-n-cheese and, of course, eaten all of his garlic toast. BB had done really well and finished his complete corn dog and then started helping Grandpa eat his T-bone steak. In all, it was a really great meal, except for one last surprise when we received the check. While all of the soft drinks and iced teas were $1.99 a piece, LB's one chocolate milk was $3.45! That actually turned out to be more than his entire meal. When I asked the server about this, she said she was sorry but that's because it came from the bar. So, LB will be getting lemonade next time we come to Manny's Original Chophouse.

Orlando's Magical Dining Month - September

2007-08-19T16:39:00.000-04:00

Is there a new, somewhat expensive, restaurant in town that you have been dying to try? Then try them this September! For the second year in a row, the OOCCVB (that's Orlando/Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau to those in the know) has established September as Orlando's Magical Dining Month. Selected restaurants throughout the area have agreed to provide a special 3-course prix fixe dinner menu for the month for only $29 per person ($19 per person for more casual restaurants). This does not include beverages, tax or tip, but still sounds like a great deal - especially if you've been hesitant to try a restaurant because of the cost. I did not participate last year but it looks like some good restaurants on the list this year. Find out more information at the Orlando's Magical Dining Month home page. Some of the restaurants for Upscale restaurants include Emeril's Tchoup Chop, The Oceanaire Seafood Room, House of Blues Orlando, Jeffrey's Restaurant & Piano Bar, and Tommy Bahama's Tropical Cafe. The Casual Dining list includes Rice Paper (a favorite Vietnamese restaurant of mine), Kahuna Grill, The Grape, Buca de Beppo at Florida Mall, and Punjab Indian Restaurant. Report back if you do try out some of these places!

Restaurant Review - Joe's Crab Shack, 10 Blake Blvd, Celebration, FL

2007-08-18T10:58:00.000-04:00

Since Joe's Crab Shack is right around the corner from where I work, I often go there for lunch during the week. About six months ago, I noticed that Joe's completely changed their menu - both in look and in food items. They went away from the very flashy "Eat at Joe's" designed menu with mostly fried foods to a beach-scene look with more "healthy" items. (Too bad their interior decor stayed the same - a junky garage sale mounted on the ceiling and walls of the place). Also, while perusing their children's menu, I saw they has some really fun new items. The boys and I have eaten there several times recently for dinner, with the boys inviting friends with them.

Joe's Crab Shack has a playground outside their dining patio which draws the kids in like a magnet. My boys are no exception and they typically run there first and I have to remind them that we need to get seated at a table first. On two recent occasions we were able to get a table on the patio right by the playground. However, Joe's does allow smoking on the patio so keep that in mind. The last time we went, it was about 100 degrees out so we opted for an inside table with the promise that the kids could go on the playground after dinner.

A note (warning?) about the playground. For some unknown reason, Joe's decided to use small pebbles on the ground around the play area. They post several signs that say "Don't throw the rocks" but EVERY SINGLE time I have been to the playground, kids are throwing the pebbles at each other. Also, there is one "swing-out" bar that the older kids like to fly out on. The last time we went, a friend's 2-year old got tackled as she walked by the area from an older kid swinging out on it. So, I definitely recommend watching your kids while they are playing here.

Joe's Crab Shack did a good job with their new kids' menu. I like that they have a little cartoony picture of each of the entrees so that even little kids can pick out what they want by pointing at it. For $4.99, kids get a choice of chicken fingers, mac-n-cheese, popcorn shrimp, grilled chicken, mini beach burgers, pizza, or cheese quesadilla. Each meal comes with a side item such as fries, mandarin oranges, corn-on-the-cob, or rice, as well as a drink - soda, lemonade, or milk/chocolate milk. On our latest trip, BB ordered the popcorn shrimp and LB ordered the mini burgers, with cheese.

The regular menu now has some nice salads - the Aruba salad comes with a choice of chicken or coconut shrimp mixed with field greens, bacon, tomatoes, candied nuts, and bleu cheese, topped with a strawberry vinaigrette ($10.49). The mix of flavors is really tasty, as well as the variety of textures. I ordered the chicken, trying to be healthy, and then wished I had gone for the fried coconut shrimp. The chicken cubes were very bland and even the tangy-sweet dressing couldn't help them. My new favorite item is the Pacific Coast Wrap - fried fish wrapped in a spinach tortilla with black bean & corn relish and a jalapeno ranch sauce ($7.99). The crispy fish is warm and crunchy and contrasts nicely with the cool relish. The jalapeno ranch sauce is not too spicy at all and just adds a very small bit of heat - nice! Plus, the spinach tortilla gives the illusion that you are actually eating something healthy when in reality you know you are eating a fried fish sandwich. And, my old favorite is still there - the lobster bisque soup - although you have to ask if it is the soup of the day. Seriously, this is the best lobster bisque soup I have ever tasted. I don't know how much real lobster is in it, or if it is just langostino, but all I know is it is good! The broth is very creamy, but not too thick, with a rich lobstery, buttery flavor. And it is loaded with meat so you get a taste in every bite.

One strange (annoying) thing about dining at Joe's Crab Shack at night is that the servers have to stop periodically to dance. Yes, it's true. The disco ball in the ceiling will start to spin, and a song will come on such as the Macarena, and all of the servers stop what they are doing and go to the edges of the restaurant and start doing a choreographed dance. This can be fun if you already have your food but it is very frustrating when your server is about to bring you drink refills and then tells you that she has to go dance and will bring them after. Luckily, this does not happen during lunch hours.

The kids did very well finishing their meals so we decided to get them dessert. We ordered each of them the new Paint-a-Crab. For a very reasonable kids' dessert price ($1.79), each kid gets a Rice Krispies Treat in the shape of a crab along with a paint brush and three "paints". The paints are strawberry sauce, chocolate sauce, and wildberry sauce. The kids had a blast with this and got very serious about their artwork. Then they had a good time eating the crabs afterwards.

Now, Joe's Crab Shack is certainly not a relaxing dinner out with the kids. But for a fun, slightly hectic, and loud night out, it does fit the bill.

Restaurant Review - Black Bean Deli (a Cuban cafe), 325 S. Orlando Ave, Winter Park, FL

2007-08-15T22:54:00.000-04:00

In search of a good Cuban sandwich in Orlando, I heard about the Black Bean Deli in Winter Park. I wanted to try their food but there was a problem. I don't live nor work near Winter Park. Ordinarily, this would not be a problem, however Black Bean Deli has unusual hours for a restaurant - they are only open Monday through Friday from 11 am - 8 pm. No weekends. So, when I took vacation days during the week of July 4th, I paid Black Bean Deli a visit. Uh oh. Turns out the Black Bean Deli folks decided to take off as well - they were closed for the week. As I waited in the parking lot with my two boys trying to decide where to go instead, a virtual stream of hungry patrons attempted to enter the Black Bean Deli only to find a locked door and a "we are on vacation" sign. Wow, I thought, if this many people are coming by, this place must have good food. I peeked in the window to see that, really, Black Bean Deli is more like a tiny, but nice, takeout place rather than a restaurant, with only seating for about five people on stools around the counter. I decided that we would return again, next time I was on vacation.

This month, I was finally able to return to Black Bean Deli and try their food. The boys and I arrived on a Monday, around 11:30 am and there were already a few people in the small place waiting for their orders. Seeing that the small inside space was about to get crowded, I made a decision to get our food to go. The menu is pretty simple at Black Bean Deli - sandwiches are about $5; platters that come with rice, beans, plantains and salad run from $5.50 - $7.50; and then there are sides, desserts and drinks. Drinks all come in cans or bottles and are mostly domestic sodas as well as imported sodas such as Ironbeer, Materva, Jupina, Malta, and tropical juices. I considered the platters that included offerings such as picadillo, papas rellenas, and baked chicken, but ultimately chose the lunch special for all three of us. The lunch special (served daily until 3 pm) consists of a 4-inch Cuban sandwich with a cup of black beans and rice for$5. That was exactly what I wanted and I thought it would be a good size for the boys. After I ordered, I backed away from the counter to wait while the boys played on the stools. The folks running the counter are very efficient and quick - they must be used to lots of orders at one time. In about five minutes our order was ready so we hopped back in the car to take it home.

As soon as I unwrapped the meals on our kitchen table at home, I knew I should have just let the boys share one lunch special. The sandwich was a lot bigger than I expected and so was the black beans and rice. The sandwiches were done to a nice buttery crispness with a few burn marks here and there. The black beans and rice... well... looked a little too watery to me. That's when I checked the takeout menu I had grabbed and re-read the lunch special - 4" Cuban sandwich w/cup of black beans & rice. Hmmm. Oh, there you go - under "Soups" it says black bean & rice or soup of the day available in cup, pint, or quart. So, maybe, it is a cup of black beans and rice soup that comes with the sandwich? Either way, I strained off some of the liquid from all of our containers. The sandwich itself was still warm and the bread had a nice crunchiness to it. The first taste was of sweetness from the ham then the roast pork and swiss cheese flavors kick in. Overall, it was a pretty good sandwich, although just a little dry. Definitely tasted like the ones in Miami, though. The black beans and rice were a bit salty but once I started digging in, it didn't bother me anymore. They were very flavorful but I did wish there was a little more rice - I like a nice balance between the two. BB ate about half of his sandwich and just pecked at his beans and rice since he was full. LB didn't touch the sandwich at all and ate almost all of his beans and rice. Again a reminder that next time I need to order one special for the both of them.

I'd really like to go back and try Black Bean Deli's platters - the picadillo is one of my favorite dishes. If anyone lives in the Winter Park area, can you just pick one up and deliver to us? Thanks in advance.

Restaurant Review - Roy's Hawaiian Fusion Cuisine, 7760 W. Sand Lake Rd, Orlando, FL

2007-07-28T09:52:00.000-04:00

Roy's Hawaiian Fusion Cuisine is on Sand Lake Road's "restaurant row", near Seasons 52 and Roy's sister restaurant Bonefish Grill. Roy's, Bonefish Grill, and Carrabba's are all owned by the Outback Steakhouse group. From the exterior with tiki torches lighting your way to the interior with beautiful wood touches, you can tell that Roy's is a first-class restaurant. I visited Roy's twice, once as a "date night" with Hubby, and once as a girl's night out. While I did see parents with their kids at Roy's, I don't think my kids are mature enough to eat there yet. See the end of this review for kids' options at Roy's (I picked up a kids menu on my last visit just to see what they offered).

I highly recommend making reservations to Roy's to ensure you have a minimal wait and get the dining time you want. There are three eating areas at Roy's - the main dining area, the front room and the bar/sushi area. The main room is darker and rather loud. The front room is a bit brighter and a lot more quiet - I'd ask to sit here if you want a romantic dinner or just want to be able to talk. Finally, there is the bar/sushi bar area which is where my friend and I sat during our girls night out.

What is really fun about sitting at the sushi bar is that you get to see everything going on in the open kitchen. Also, we got slid several different appetizers to try, just because we were there, including spicy edamame (big green soybeans served in their pods) and seafood potstickers. Both were really good and were served to us as soon as we sat down. Roy's menu, being based on Hawaiian cuisine, is mostly seafood (although I had the short ribs when I ate with Hubby and they were outstanding - tender and tasty). It is also pretty pricey with entrees in the $20-$30 range. So I highly recommend, for those of you on a budget like me, the prix fixe menu. For $35 per person, you get an appetizer sampler, a choice of selected entree (both seafood and meat dishes are offered), and a choice of macadamia nut almond tart or hot chocolate souffle for dessert. Not a bad deal at all.

My friend and I both chose the prix fixe - I picked the Macadamia Nut Crusted Mahi Mahi for my entree and the Macadamia Nut Tart for dessert (what can I say - I like macadamia nuts!). My friend Stacey could not decide between the mahi mahi or the Grilled Salmon Filet so our wonderful server Jackie (ask to sit in her area if she is working) said she would check with the kitchen on a way to help my friend decide. When she came back, she said she had gotten approval to serve a half portion of both items to Stacey. We couldn't believe it - that is true customer service. We also decided to get the signature Roy's Hawaiian martini ($10). Let me tell you, it was a strong (true?) martini - not like those chocolatinis and other-tinis that have become so popular. In fact, one of the managers saw us drinking them and came over to warn us not to eat the pineapple that was at the bottom of the martini glass - apparently they have been soaking in vodka for 5 days (I guess he could tell that we were lightweights).

The appetizer sampler was a shrimp stick, BBQ rib, and a crispy seafood ravioli (which looked like a fried potsticker to me). All were excellent and made a good combination of tastes. Our dishes were quickly whisked away and soon our entrees arrived. Wow, the mahi mahi was cooked to perfection - flaking away easily but still very moist. The lobster butter sauce served with it was to die for - I almost felt like licking my plate. Stacey liked her "entree sampler" very much as well - the salmon was also very good. Next came our desserts. Stacey's Hot Chocolate Souffle is like those chocolate lava cakes where you cut into the cake and the hot fudgy chocolate sauce comes flowing out. She let me try some and it tasted just like chocolate fondue. My macadamia nut almond tart was great as well, although less rich than the chocolate dessert. The almond flavor really comes out under the nut crust and actually I avoided the mango and raspberry purees dotting the edge of the plate - they kind of took away from the nutty flavor that was my favorite part.

Kid's Offerings at Roy's: Roy's apparently does encourage you to bring your kids with you when you dine there. There is a kids' menu which is kind of it's own prix fixe dinner. For $10, your child will get an appetizer (sliced raw veggies and a cheese quesadilla), a choice of entrees (short ribs, salmon, chicken fingers, or pasta with butter sauce), and dessert (vanilla ice cream sundae). Now, I don't think I'll be bringing my 3-year-old because I don't think he will eat $10 worth of food. But, I might take my 8-year-old. Roy's also has Parent-Child "Date Night" which just means any time you bring your son or daughter with you for some one-on-one time at Roy's. They will apparently do a custom menu for you and your child with your names, a photo and a personalized message. If I ever do this with BB, I post an update to let you all know how it went!

Restaurant Review - IKEA Restaurant, 1000 IKEA Drive, Elizabeth, NJ

2007-07-07T19:09:00.000-04:00

To finish up my reviews from my recent New Jersey trip, I decided to get a sneak peek at an internationally known restaurant that is coming here to Orlando this Fall. Yes, of course I'm talking about IKEA. Okay, I know IKEA is known the world over as a furniture store, but I was eager to try their Swedish food (I am Restaurant Mom after all).

Every IKEA has the same basic floor plan with a "restaurant" (really a cafeteria) and Swedish Food Market so you can bring your favorite goodies home (oh yeah, and they have furniture and stuff, too). I don't know if the restaurant prices at the Orlando store will be the same as the NJ store, but I can't imagine they will be that different. And I have to tell you that the IKEA cafeteria has the best kids' meal deal I have ever seen - Mac-n-Cheese and a drink for 99 cents. The kid's drink alone is 79 cents so this is a huge bargain. I figure it is a loss leader to lure folks in, just like their 99 cent breakfast special (I'll have to wait until the Orlando IKEA opens to try that). There other items on the kids menu are the Kid's Meatball Plate with five Swedish meatballs, potatoes, and lingonberries; and a PB&J that comes with a small fruit cup and a drink - both of these go for $1.99 - still a huge bargain. Oh, and milk and chocolate milk can be chosen as the kids' drink. What is also very cute are kid-sized trays so kids can carry their own food through the line.

The adult meals are just as reasonable. IKEA's specialty, of course, are the Swedish meatballs. These are offered in 10, 15, or 20 meatball portions, ranging from $4.29 to $5.99. Grandpa decided to get the 20 Meatball Plate so that he, Grandma, and my brother could share. The Plate also comes with potatoes and lingonberries. BB decided to get the PB&J which actually turned out to be a package of Uncrustables - I guess it is quick for IKEA but it would have been nice to have a freshly made sandwich. It came with a very small fruit cup that looked like canned fruit cocktail. Oh well, what do you want for $1.99? I got the Gravad Lox Plate ($4.99) which is similar to the lox you'll find at a bagel place, only a bit milder and smoother in flavor and texture. I also picked up a Daim cake which is an almond cake with what appears to be a coating of chocolate, almonds and toffee bits. It came with a Daim candy on the side, which is a Swedish version of a chocolate toffee candy (think Heath or Skor bar). Heading to the check-out lane, Grandpa grabbed a Lingonberry bottled soda. Everyone else went with a fountain beverage ($1.25) and we picked up our glasses and placed them on our trays. One un-kid-friendly thing is that they don't have kids' cups, plastic or otherwise (at least the NJ store didn't when we were there). So the kids have to drink out of small glasses. Also, I couldn't find a straw anywhere in the restaurant - even for the adults! They did sell straws inside the store on the first floor so maybe they were trying to increase sales (lol)?

After placing our trays down at the table, I went up to get drinks. I found lingonberry juice available at the fountain and decided to try it. I'm usually not a big fruit juice drinker but this was a really light juice, somewhere between a berry and grape taste. I got a regular cola for BB. Grandpa was a little peeved that he had bought the Lingonberry soda in a bottle because he didn't realize the juice was available at the soda fountain. BB blissfully ate his Uncrustable and fruit cup so I guess the pre-packaged food didn't bother him. My Gravad Lox was great - it was melt-in-your-mouth slightly salty flavor with a hint of fish taste - and the dill mustard that went with it was wonderful as well. I also stole one meatball from the Meatball Plate. By itself, it was very good - tender and tasty. Adding the cream sauce made it even better and then adding the lingonberry sauce to that was great - the tangy fruit really complementing the meat and cream sauce. Our one gripe was the temperature of everything on the meatball plate - it was all lukewarm - it would have been better hotter. My Daim cake for dessert was extremely sweet and rich. The cake itself was in very thin layers and was very light but the chocolate candy topping really put it over the top. At one point I picked off the topping and ate the rest of the cake underneath. Of course, that didn't stop me from eating the Daim candy that came with it - yummy chocolate toffee goodness, but in a small, palatable size.

Once you are done at the IKEA restaurant, you bus your own tables, bringing the trays up to a cart with your dirty plates on it. Signs all around say it is to keep the prices down - and really, it is nothing more than you would do at a fast food restaurant but now you are putting away real plates and utensils. I look forward to checking out the Orlando IKEA store when it rolls into town and trying some of the other menu items - and getting some more Gravad Lox!

Rita's Water Ice Coming Soon to Hunter's Creek!

2007-07-02T23:19:00.000-04:00

I am so excited! I just found out from a friend that a Rita's Water Ice location is coming to Orlando in the Hunter's Creek area (according to the Rita's website: 13651 Hunter's Oak Drive). For those of you who have never heard of Rita's - or water ice for that matter - they are a franchise in the Northeast that sells a product similar to Italian ices, and frozen custards. I first discovered Rita's on our bi-annual family summer trip to Ocean City, NJ. Ocean City has a very fun, very family-friendly boardwalk that runs for several miles along the Atlantic Ocean. The boardwalk is lined with tons of beachwear shops, arcades, old-fashioned amusement parks, miniature golf courses, as well as summer eateries serving all manner of shore-like foods such as salt water taffy, NY-style pizza, hot dogs... and water ice. After trying a few ices myself, I determined my favorite to be Rita's, especially the cherry flavor. On a hot summer day, nothing beats a cool cherry water ice with its smooth sweetness and little bits of maraschino cherry mixed in - yummy! I can't wait for them to open -- see you there!

Restaurant Review - Famous Dave's Bar-B-Que, 1443 Route 22, Mountainside, NJ

2007-06-28T19:23:00.001-04:00

Grandpa, Grandma, BB and I went up to New Jersey a couple of weeks ago to visit my sister and bring my nieces back down to Florida to visit Mickey Mouse. While we were there, we ate at Famous Dave's Bar-B-Que, which just happened to be close to our hotel. Famous Dave's is a BBQ chain that has not made it's way to Central Florida yet. However, with the way chain restaurants are flying in here lately, I'm sure it's just a matter of time before one sets up residence here. Famous Dave's has a really fun, kitchy decor with several highly themed rooms. Each is decorated slightly differently but all give off the impression that you are at a hunting/camping lodge. Our room was wood panelled with lots of pictures of American Indians canoeing and duck decoys. Think lots of wood and lots of lumberjack plaid.

Famous Dave's menu is nicely laid out with fun graphics and ways that you can basically mix and match everything on the menu to make your own combo. There's even an All-American BBQ Feast for five or more hungry folks that is essentially a sampling of many of the menu items. Grandpa wanted to order that but then everyone wanted different sides than were offered on the Feast so we all decided to order our own individual meals. The kids menu, complete with crayons and drawing activities, featured "Lil Wilbur Meals" (Lil Wilbur isn't so little - he's a pig that looks like a "hefty" Porky Pig). BB wanted to get the kids rib dinner ($4.99), but he didn't want any bones. I thought maybe the Rib Tips appetizer on the adult menu would be what he was looking for but the server told us that those did indeed include bones and she warned us that they were tough and were not one of her favorites. BB and I reviewed the kids menu again and I realized he could get the kids pulled pork sandwich ($3.99) sans bread which would give him the BBQ meat he wanted without bones. I chose the Two-Meat Combo ($13.99) and chose the lemon pepper chicken and beef brisket. Grandpa ordered the Texas Beef Brisket ($12.99), Grandma ordered the Georgia Chopped Pork ($10.99) and my brother ordered a half slab of the Baby Back Ribs ($15.99).

We all ended up trying a little bit of everything. The pulled pork was the winner of the night - extremely tender, light smokey flavor, very tasty and savory. The beef brisket, while also very good, was a bit too smokey for me and was not quite as tender as the pulled pork. I wished I had ordered the pork instead. My lemon pepper chicken was fantastic - perfectly done, moist, with full lemon flavor and just the slightest hint of pepper seasoning. And the lemon flavor was in every bite, not just in the skin. All combo meals come with a cornbread muffin and a small corn-on-the-cob, as well as two other sides. My Sweet Potato Smash was an ice-cream scoop shaped portion of mashed sweet potatoes topped with melted butter and cinnamon sugar (oh yeah!). Again, very nicely done, not overly seasoned, just the natural potato finely smashed and the sweetness of the topping. The cole slaw was another story. To me, it was too vinegary, and not creamy enough, however, that is probably an individual taste preference. I had a few bites and left the rest. BB loved his pulled pork and was happy with his potato salad as well. All kids meals also come with a small package of Oreo cookies. My brother was very disappointed with his baby back ribs. He said they were very tough and had obviously been cooked too long. Since this would be our only visit to Famous Dave's I don't know if that is how they normally are or if this order was an anomaly. Also, no one ordered the St. Louis-style spare ribs so we couldn't compare the two types.

I had to try dessert because the photo of the bread pudding just looked amazing on the menu. Up until a few months ago, I didn't think I liked bread pudding, but after trying it at the House of Blues Gospel Brunch, I realized it wasn't too bad! As I ordered the bread pudding, our server warned us that it has golden raisins instead of regular ones. I didn't even know it had raisins so I told her that was actually a good thing because I don't like regular raisins but I do like golden raisins. That started a discussion between us on the attributes of each type of raisin (the black ones remain chewy - which she liked; the golden ones soak up the sauce and get very soft - which I like). When the bread pudding arrived, it was enormous. It was easily enough for four people. I begged everyone at the table to please help me eat it because there was no way I was going to finish it. I scooped up a spoonful of the warm creamy bread, scraped up a bit of the vanilla ice cream served on the side and then dipped a bit into the praline sauce pooling around the bottom of the pudding. OMG! It was great! The texture was perfect - slightly firm but giving like a stiff flan. And the sauce was just incredible - caramel and cinnamon with bits of pecans - a perfect accompaniment to the pudding and ice cream. I forced myself to eat as much as I could - just because it was so darn good - but then had to leave more than half of it over. Famous Dave's is a fun family-friendly place and I'd welcome a location or two here in Central Florida.

Restaurant Review - Hurricane Grill and Wings, 1700 W. Sand Lake Road (near Florida Mall), and 3120 South Kirkman Road (Metrowest), Orlando, FL

2007-06-10T22:32:00.000-04:00

Hurricane Grill and Wings, a new wings chain to arrive in Orlando, touts themselves as a "getaway for the whole family." This is a home-grown chain, originating in Ft. Pierce, FL, in 1995. Two locations recently opened in the Orlando area - one in Metrowest and one by the Florida Mall - and I tried them both (separate days of course), with the boys, and Grandma and Grandpa in tow.

The decor is very bright and beach-y inside. You get the feeling that you are on a bamboo-walled dock, on a pier somewhere, by the ocean. And the music adds to the atmosphere with 50's and 60's beach tunes like (natch) the Beach Boys. There are also large flat-screen TVs on every wall, which helps to keep the kids (and the dads) entertained. It's also a full-service restaurant (yay!) which is a welcome change to all the fast casual chains that have been opening up lately.

There is a kids' menu, complete with coloring and puzzles, which the boys were very happy about. The kids' offerings are pretty simple and mostly chicken. For $4.95, kids get a choice of wings, chicken bites, chicken strips, grouper fingers, Mac-n-Cheese, or a grilled cheese sandwich. The chicken and grouper items come with a choice of sauce. All the kids' meals come with two sides: either fries, applesauce, cole slaw, salad, or celery; and a drink: milk, juice, or soda. I like how milk is one of the choices, that's actually pretty rare to see nowadays. The regular menu is a lot more extensive, and frankly, a little overwhelming. There are appetizers, platters, sides, wings (both with and without bones), 33 sauces to choose from (yes, that's right... 33!), sandwiches, Philly sandwiches, entree salads, side salads, desserts, beers, and wine. Whew. We decided to take the easy way out and order wings. With 33 sauces, we figured we would have enough to decide on.

The sauces (FlowingWithFlavor Sauces & Rubs as Hurricane Grill and Wings calls them) are broken out into five categories, with Category 1 the weakest and Category 5 the strongest (get it - just like a hurricane is categorized?) Pretty much anything you can imagine is a sauce on this menu. For Category 1 there is a mild Hurricane sauce (basically a mild buffalo-style sauce), BBQ, teriyaki, Tuscan Herb Toss, etc. In Category 2 there is Mango BBQ, Honey Garlic, Maple Pepper Glaze, and more. Category 3 has Chile & Lime, Cajun, Spicy Pina Colada and others. Category 4 features Jamaican Jerk, a Citrus Chipotle and two others, and Category 5 has two offerings - Ridiculously Hot Hurricane Sauce, and Habanero Lime Toss.

On our first visit to the Florida Mall area location, I ordered the Garlic & Parmesan Fries ($3.75) as an appetizer and the 6-piece Boneless TenderWings with Mild Hurricane Sauce ($4.75). BB ordered the Kids Chicken Bites with Barbecue Sauce and fries and applesauce and LB ordered the Chicken Bites plain with fries and applesauce. Grandma ordered the 6-piece boneless wings with the Raspberry Ice sauce (a Category 2) which combines raspberry and horseradish. Grandpa order the regular wings with Mango Barbecue sauce (also a Cat. 2). We also ordered drinks ($2.25), with the boys getting lemonade (included in their kids' meal price). After the drinks arrived, in very normal looking plastic cups and lids, I read in the menu that Hurricane Grill prides itself on its beverage cups that are made from 100% corn which is 100% compostable. That led to ten minutes of us all marvelling at the cups and trying to figure out how in the world they were made out of corn! Our Garlic & Parm fries arrived and boy, were they good! They were definitely lick-your-fingers good. About 15 minutes later, our food finally arrived (both locations were slow in the service department - don't know if that is because they are new or if that is standard). My Mild boneless wings were fantastic - all buttery and vinegar-y, and actually a touch of hotness - not so completely mild. Grandpa though his Mango BBQ wings were "okay". Grandma thought her Raspberry Ice bites were too mild - just tasted like raspberry jam and were too sweet... until she reached the sauce on the bottom that really had a kick to it. So, make sure to toss your sauce when you get it! LB barely ate because he had loaded up on the garlic fries. BB decided he didn't like the chicken bites already tossed in the BBQ sauce and wished he had ordered the sauce on the side.

For our second attempt at the Metrowest location, we all strived to do better in our ordering. This time, I ordered the Shrimp Tenders as an appetizer ($7.50), again with the Garlic and Parmesan sauce. LB decided to get the Mac-N-Cheese this time and BB went with the Chicken Bites again but with the sauce on the side and with cole slaw and celery this time. Grandma, Grandpa, and I decided to go for the 24-piece Flavor Sampler ($16.95) which comes with chicken tossed in four different sauces. We went with the boneless wings and choose Mild Hurricane Sauce again (really a winner), Chipotle Raspberry (Cat 3), Chile & Lime (Cat 3), and Mojo Glaze (Cat 2). I also ordered a side of celery and bleu cheese dressing for 99 cents because I was worried some of the sauces would be too hot for me. The Shrimp Tenders came out and they were delicious. I pretty much think they could serve napkins drenched in the Garlic & Parm sauce and everybody would eat them. Grandpa thought the shrimp were a bit too pink and mushy for him but I was happy with the little shrimp and so were the boys. Our main courses came out a bit later and we did a lot better in choosing this time. The boys ate their food - BB was happy dipping his chicken in the sauce - LB liked the Mac-n-Cheese. All of our sauce choices were great. We couldn't decide which one was best - the mild was still very good, the Raspberry was sweet and smoky at the same time, Chile & Lime had a strong citrus/orange flavor and then a kick at the end, and the Mojo Glaze was citrus and garlic. Actually, we felt all of them were about the same in heat level - even the Cat. 3 sauces didn't get too hot. We cleaned the plate, with Grandpa swiping fries from LB's plate to sop up the leftover sauce. I'll definitely be back - there are still more sauces to try!

Restaurant Review - Five Guys Famous Burgers and Fries, 7512 Dr. Phillips Blvd, Orlando, FL

2007-05-30T21:44:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago, Hubby, the boys, and I were at the Dr. Phillips Marketplace and started to get hungry for lunch. Hubby suggested Five Guys Famous Burgers and Fries so we went inside to check it out. Due to the accolades posted all over the wall and on the menu, including "Willy Wonkas of Burgercraft" (Washington Magazine), and "Voted Best Burger in Charlotte" (Readers Pick), we figured we couldn't go wrong.

Five Guys is a chain from the DC area and now has locations all over the East Coast including (now) Central Florida. The decor is very basic - red and white tile and, strangely enough, huge sacks of potatoes as a decorating element. Turns out the menu is very basic as well. It's just burgers and fries (with just a couple of other choices of a hot dog or grilled cheese sandwich). Everything on the menu touts how fresh it is - Fresh Ground Beef, Never Frozen - and so I guess the potato sacks all over show that the fries are fresh as well. And, actually, a sign by the order counter stated that "Today's Potatoes" (for the fries I assume) "are from Rigby, Idaho." There's also a sign that states all burgers are prepared well done - so no "moo-ing" burgers for you. With a limited menu, it was pretty easy to choose - we all picked burgers. LB decided he wasn't hungry (I couldn't even get him to agree to a hot dog - $2.59, or grilled cheese - $1.99) so I figured he would just eat off of us. Burger choices are pretty simple - "regular" or "little" (I'll get to that in a minute), add bacon or cheese. All other toppings are free including condiments, standard toppings like onions, tomatoes, lettuce, pickles, and then some non-standard ones like sauteed mushrooms, jalapenos, and green peppers. There is no kids menu that I could see so I figured (it turns out I was wrong) that the "Little" burgers mentioned on the menu were for kids. BB ordered the Little Hamburger ($2.79) with onion, lettuce, tomato, pickles, ketchup and mustard. Hubby ordered the Bacon Cheeseburger ($4.99) with just mustard, lettuce, and pickle; and I ordered the Cheeseburger ($4.49) with mayo, ketchup, mustard, lettuce, tomato, and pickles. We decided to also get a side of the large fries ($3.79) "Five Guys Style" cooked in peanut oil - there are also Cajun Style fries. We also ordered drinks ($1.79 each) - all 24 oz - the only size they have. When I asked if they had smaller cups for the kids, the server handed me 12 oz Styrofoam cups - much better as the other cups were too big. We then sat down to wait for our order number to be called. We decided to pass on the bucket of shelled peanuts available to munch on while you wait for your food because I figured then the boys wouldn't eat lunch.

After our number was called, Hubby came back with our grease-speckled plain brown paper bag containing our food. Sorry for those greasy spoon lovers out there - to me, it's not that attractive. Inside was a very large cup with our fries, and then three aluminum foil wrapped burgers. What was really nice is that each packet had a numbered sticker on it that corresponded to a number on the order ticket stapled to the bag so we had no trouble figuring out who's burgers was whose. Then came the surprise. When BB opened his foil up, I thought, wow, that's really big for a kid's burger. Then Hubby and I unwrapped ours - and found out that "Cheeseburger" and "Bacon Cheeseburger" really mean DOUBLE Cheeseburger and DOUBLE Bacon Cheeseburger. Yep, the "regular" burgers have two patties and the "little" ones have a hefty single patty. So, there really is no kid-sized food at Five Guys - frankly, a big disappointment. Luckily, by now, LB decided he was hungry so we were able to (in a very messy fashion) split the "little" burger between the two boys. In fact, all of the burgers were very messy and would literally fall out of the bun at any given time. However, I have to admit, they tasted really good. Messy, but yummy. Unfortunately, none of us thought the same of the fries. I thought they were very greasy and, really, did not have a good taste. In fact, they tasted like I had chopped up a bunch of potatoes myself and then dumped them into a vat of oil. So, those of you who love "homemade" fries will probably love these - I guess I'm really used to the commercial-made McDonald's fries. By the way, the large order of fries was HUGE. The regular order probably would have been fine (if we had liked the fries). Maybe the Cajun Style fries are better. In all, I did not find the menu at Five Guys very family-friendly. If I was in the area, without the kids, I'd probably pop in and grab a burger, but I'd pass on the fries.

Restaurant Review - Bread'n'Buns, 1200 Oakley Seaver Drive, Clermont, FL

2007-05-27T10:31:00.000-04:00

On a recent week night, Grandma, Grandpa, LB and I decided to try out the new Bread'n'Buns Scandinavian Bakery and Cafe that recently opened in Clermont, behind the Sonny's BBQ on S.R. 50. The decor is very simple with laminate wood floors and the same look for the tables, with lots of space. The chairs are black or orange with one small "living-room type" couch area. There is also outside seating in the courtyard by Gator's dockside. Clermonters have apparently already discovered Bread'n'Buns as other patrons clearly were there for a return visit and commented on which danishes were their favorites and how great the coffee is. Must be a great place for breakfast (they are open 6 am to 8 pm M - F; and open at 8 am on weekends - still too early for me). There is also a small bin of puzzles and toys for kids to borrow that I ended up using on one earlier visit for LB because he was getting a little wild crawling and jumping around the couch area.

You step up to the counter to order, which has a display case of all of the bakery goodies such as cakes, pastries, breads and rolls. They all look very yummy. I'm guessing the "Scandinavian" part of the tagline is actually Iceland as a few items reference that. The menu features sandwiches (with unique combinations for $6.99 - $8.49 for wholes and $3.99 - $5.49 for halves), salads (again interesting combinations for about the same prices as the sandwiches), and soups. Soups are $3.49 ($2 extra in a bread bowl) with Onion Soup available everyday and then a different soup featured each day. There is no written kids' menu, which is strange, but if you ask they have a plain ham and cheese or turkey and cheese sandwich on a bun for $1.79. However, they also offer half versions of their sandwiches and BB was happy with that on our previous visit (he got the half Proscuitto Mozzarella with proscuitto, arugula, mozzarella, basil, onions, tomatoes, olive oil, and sour cream - he liked it but thought the proscuitto was a little strong - we'll probably order the same sandwich but with regular ham next time for him). The one kid-unfriendly thing is the drinks. They do offer fruit punch and lemonade for fountain drinks but they only have one size - and it is pretty large. One other strange thing - the price for the drink is listed as $1.79 on the menu yet I was charged $1.99 every time - I guess they need to reprint their menus. They also have coffee drinks, bottled drinks and iced teas, and fruit smoothies. The smoothies are made with frozen fruit and the Icelandic milk product Skyr. Skyr is similar to yogurt in taste and texture. We tried a banana and strawberry Skyr smoothie last time (we asked for the 12 oz $3.99 and somehow got the 16 oz $4.99). None of us could taste the fruit at all - it just tasted like a plain yogurt shake. So either the Skyr is a lot stronger tasting than yogurt or there was not enough fruit mixed in.

Grandma, Grandpa and I all decided to get the "Triple of the Day" which is two of the following: half sandwich, half salad, or soup; plus the pastry of the day for $7.79. It is a great way to try the whole menu including the pastries. I ordered the ham and cheese kids sandwich for LB.

My choices were the half Bacon & Brie sandwich and the soup of the day (Curry Coconut Creamed Vegetable Soup for Wednesday). My sandwich was on thick (about 1 1/2 inches) and hearty dark bread with crisp bacon, arugula, brie, sun dried tomato paste, and green bell peppers. The tanginess of the sun dried tomatoes paired well with the creaminess of the brie and the slight bitter aftertaste of the arugula. The only thing that didn't really fit well, tastewise, was the bell peppers. I think I'll ask for the sandwich without it next time. The soup was fantastic - very creamy with a strong coconut taste (I love coconut). On my previous visit (on a Saturday) I had the Tomato Basil soup and it was terrific as well - I have a feeling all the soups are great - I'll have to come back every day to try them all! (Here they are in case you are interested: Monday - Cream of Forest Mushroom; Tuesday - Creamy Carrot; Wednesday - Curry Coconut; Thursday - Creamy Soup of Sweet Potatoes and Pancetta; Friday - Lobster Bisque; Saturday - Tomato Basil; Sunday - Creamy Soup of Leek and Tomatoes).

Grandpa chose the Onion Soup (delicious) and the half Crab Meat Burger. I have no idea why they call it the Crab Meat Burger because it is actually a crab salad sandwich with lettuce, tomatoes, bell peppers, avocado, fresh coriander, sour cream, and "spicy" tomato dressing. He said at first it tasted strange but then he got used to it. It just wasn't what he expected of a crab salad sandwich but he said he might order it again. Grandma got the half Pears & Gorgonzola salad with lettuce, pears, gorgonzola, walnuts, dried cherries, grapes, croutons in a lemon vinaigrette and the half Provencal Chicken sandwich - sliced chicken breast with lettuce, kalamata olives, roasted tomato, avocado, parmesan cheese and pesto sauce on a foccacia bread. She loved the salad but didn't really like the sandwich because it was hard to eat and kept falling apart. LB like his sandwich although he picked it apart and ate the cheese, ham, and bread separately.

The last part of our meal was our Pastry of the Day. I found out it was a cinnamon roll today and, not that there is anything wrong with the cinnmon roll, asked if I could have the danish instead and was told "sure!". I had gotten it last time and it was really delicious. Yes, it is just called a "danish" (I asked). No special name like Crown Danish that they also have - it is simply known as a danish and it has this wonderfully sweet almond paste inside. Grandpa really liked his cinnamon roll, I was happy with the danish that I shared with LB. Grandma tried my danish but thought it was a little too sweet for her. I really like the offerings at Bread'n'Buns, especially the half sandwich, soup, pastry combo. I'm definitely coming back to try the other soups!

Restaurant Review - Gospel Brunch, House of Blues Orlando, Downtown Disney, Lake Buena Vista, FL

2007-05-17T19:42:00.000-04:00

For Mother's Day this year, I wanted to do something a little different. I did want to do brunch, but with a twist. I also didn't want to spend a ton of money, especially on the kids since I knew they wouldn't eat a lot. The brunch prices I checked around town were outrageous and most raised their regular Sunday brunch prices for Mother's Day. Then I remembered the Gospel Brunch at House of Blues at Downtown Disney. I had been wanting to try it for a while so I called to find out the deal for Mother's Day. Happily, the Gospel Brunch is the same price no matter what Sunday you go - $35.48 for adults, $18.24 for kids (3-9), 2 and under free, including tax and gratuity. What is strange is that you are actually buying tickets to the Gospel Brunch, just like you would buy tickets to a concert. So, once you decide you want to go, you buy the tickets through the box office and the tickets are yours, no refunds. I ordered over the phone with my credit card and then went by when I was in the area to pick up the tickets. You can also pick up the tickets when you arrive for brunch.

I chose the 10:30 am show because I thought the 1:00 pm show might be a little late for the boys to eat. We arrived at House of Blues a little after 10:00 am, going directly to wait in the line that was already forming in front of the concert hall (the brunch takes place in the concert hall, to the right of the restaurant entrance). The woman at the box office had suggested getting there early because you have to wait to be seated but the buffet is ready as soon as you get in... and the doors open promptly at 10:30 am, not before. The wait wasn't too bad, I struck up a conversation with a family of tourists from Pittsburgh in front of us which helped pass the time. Also, about 15 minutes before the doors opened, servers came around with trays of Mimosas and Bloody Mary's for $3 a piece. Hubby bought me a Mimosa and the mom from Pittsburgh got a Bloody Mary. It was the strangest Bloody Mary I had ever seen - it had what looked like pizza seasoning around the rim of the cup and then had a celery stalk, slice of cucumber, pepperoni (!), and a cube of cheese (!) floating in it. The Pittsburgh mom said it was really spicy too. The doors finally opened and each group was taken, one by one, to their table.

I had called to get tickets about a month in advance so I was very pleased to find that we had a GREAT table. We were at Table 21 which was right in the middle of the main floor, the second row of tables in front of the stage. Tables appeared to be for either eight or two - our family of four was seated with another party of four - they ended up being two couples from Indiana and were very nice as well. The chairs were a bit uncomfortable, they were wooden folding chairs, and they also made it difficult to move around to get to the buffet. I assume that they have high chairs available as well although I didn't see any at the tables around us. The buffet was divided into cold items such as salads, fruit, and peel-n-eat prawns; hot breakfast foods like eggs, bacon, sausage, biscuits, danishes, and waffles; lunch items such as chicken and rice, fried fish, bowtie pasta alfredo, red beans and rice, and jalapeno corn muffins; a carving station with ham and roast beef; an omelet station; a drink station with ready-made cups of sodas and orange juice and serve-yourself iced tea, coffee, and hot tea; and finally desserts with bread pudding, key lime pie, cheesecake, apple cobbler, and pecan pie. I first took up LB to get his food while Hubby stayed at the table with BB. LB chose eggs, bacon, potatoes, a biscuit and two waffles with syrup. I dropped him back off at the table and got BB - he chose almost the same things except he got sausage as well (the sausage ended up being super spicy - even Hubby couldn't eat it). I asked both boys what they wanted to drink and was surprised when they said they wanted orange juice - they don't normally drink that at home. I picked up two orange juices at the drink station but didn't see any straws so I asked one of the servers for some for the kids. When she heard the juices were for kids, she put plastic lids on them as well which was really nice. Now it was my turn at the buffet. I got some of the bowtie pasta (very good - the sauce was creamy, not too thick), some jalapeno corn muffins (good but a little too mushy), and waited to have an omelet made. There were two chefs making custom omelets and it took about 10 minutes waiting to get my mushroom, bacon, tomato, and cheese omelet (it was great, though). When I got back to the table, Hubby gave me the "what took you so long" look and headed up to get his food. By now it was 11:00 am and a server coming by to collect used plates said the show was scheduled to start at 11:15 am. Hubby returned with prawns (he didn't like the "veins" still in them), roast beef (too dry), and Caesar salad (a winner). I went up to get an iced tea before the show started - I was really surprised they didn't have sweet tea - and to get a sampling of desserts - bread pudding with vanilla sauce (very good), key lime pie (very tart), and pecan pie (yummy and sweet - my favorite of all three).

The show started with a loud roll of the drums that terrified LB so much that he jumped and ran onto my lap. The host of the show asked us all if we were ready "to go to church" and then they started right into "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me". There was a choir of four lead and three back-up singers (all female), a drummer, two keyboardists (one was also a singer), and one interpretive dancer. It was very interactive with the singers asking everyone to stand up and clap or sing along and some audience members really got into it - dancing around the room and singing. It was like an old-fashioned revival and I found it to be very entertaining and enjoyable (even though I am not that religious). The boys were clapping along and were dancing in place to the music. The group played for 45 minutes, so the experience as a whole was an hour and a half. On the way out, I asked BB what he thought about the show and he said he thought it was "cool". LB said, "Yeah, I liked it." It was a very nice way to start out my mother's day.

Restaurant Mom is on the (Internet) Radio!

2007-05-10T22:56:00.000-04:00

I am so excited about this! There are two moms - Michelle and Suzette - here in Central Florida that have started a website and internet radio show/podcast all about being a mom in Central Florida. It is called Central Florida Moms and the radio show is called Madness of Motherhood. The shows are weekly and run about an hour but are chockful of neat ideas, fun things to do, and interviews with real moms including... yours truly! Yes, I will be on the Madness of Motherhood radio show regularly giving my latest restaurant reviews. What's great about the podcast is that it is available whenever you are - you just hit the play button and you can listen when you have time (I usually listen while I am surfing the net after the kids have gone to bed). Let me know what you think!

Restaurant Review - Nine Dragons, Epcot (in China in World Showcase), Walt Disney World, Orlando, FL

2007-05-09T22:37:00.000-04:00

My favorite Disney theme park is Epcot and one of the main reasons is the food especially all the different cuisines available in the World Showcase section of the park. And, as a Disney Cast member, I can pop in to Epcot just to eat lunch if I want. On a recent weekend, however, the occasion was the Epcot Flower & Garden Festival. Grandma M wanted to check out the foliage and the boys and I wanted to accompany her.

As soon as we got there, my thoughts already turned to where we could eat lunch. Since we didn't have a dining reservation, I thought the best bet would be a counter service eatery. I had heard that the Lotus Blossom Cafe in China had just updated their menu and I wanted to check it out. So, after looking at topiaries and riding on the newly updated Mexico boat ride with the Three Caballeros (see how I cleverly turn this into an ad for Disney - my company would be so proud!), we headed to China. The Lotus Blossom Cafe has some snazzy new digital menu boards so we stopped to review the new offerings. I was a little surprised that there was only one kids' meal offering - Beijing Barbeque Drumstick served with white rice and applesauce. Gee, just a drumstick? Not exactly what I was looking for in Chinese food. Also, Grandma M admitted that nothing really looked good to her either on the menu. Okay, change of plans! Grandma M asked about the full-service Nine Dragons restaurant next door. I checked my watch - it had just turned noon and they were just opening - we should be able to get a table. We went inside and we seated right away (yeah!).

Now, I have a confession. I have eaten at Nine Dragons once before - about 10 years ago. I was not impressed at the time as I thought it was overpriced food that tasted like the take-out Chinese restaurant in any neighborhood. But I was willing to give it another try.

The boys busied themselves with coloring on the kids menus while Grandma M and I reviewed the main menu. Our server came by to take our drink orders - I ordered a lemonade for BB and a chocolate milk for LB, and I decided to go for the Jasmine Green Iced Tea (it was very good - very floral tasting). The kids menu really had two options - Fried Rice and Spring Roll for $4.75 and Sweet and Sour Chicken for $5.75 (both included drinks and ice cream for dessert). I asked LB what he wanted and he said he wasn't hungry. Okay, I guess he'll be eating off of my meal. BB said he wanted the Kid's Delight which is the Sweet and Sour Chicken plus pork Potstickers for $8.50. I wasn't sure he would be able to finish all that but he insisted so I agreed he could order that. Most of the adult lunch entrees were in the $15 range, with beef, chicken, seafood, and pork offerings. However, I noticed there was also a Nine Dragons Lunch Sampler for Two which came with a choice of Hot-and-Sour or Wonton soup, and then Canton Pepper Beef, Honey Sesame Chicken, and Stir-Fry Seasonal Vegetables, all for $29.99. Both Grandma M and I agreed it was the best deal plus it gave us a sampling of a beef and chicken dish. When our server returned with our drinks, we placed our order.

We had ended up with a great table at the front of the restaurant so the boys were able to watch the tourists walk by and that seemed to occupy them pretty well. Shortly afterwards, our soups arrived. I have to say, this was one of the best wonton soups I have ever tasted. It had two big wontons stuffed with pork and the broth was very tasty flavored with sprigs of cilantro. When our food arrived, LB immediately spoke up and announced he wanted everything (I guess he was hungry after all). We got an extra plate for him and I cut up some chicken and beef for him and gave him a big scoop of steamed rice. BB also declared he wanted to try everything as well so we ended up sharing the whole meal, including his Sweet and Sour Chicken. Everything was really delicious, nothing spicy at all which is typical of the mostly Cantonese food on the menu. The Sesame Chicken was crispy and sweet, the beef in the Canton Pepper Beef was very tender in a flavorful brown sauce, and the Stir-Fry Vegetables tasted very fresh. BB's Sweet and Sour Chicken was served with the sauce on the side which allowed to boys to dip the chicken pieces and eat them like chicken nuggets. The server then came by to ask BB what kind of ice cream he wanted... chocolate? vanilla? Red Bean? Caramel Ginger? When he choose chocolate, I challenged him to try something new like the Red Bean or the Caramel Ginger - he can get chocolate ice cream anywhere! He changed it to Caramel Ginger (good boy!). It was delicious as well. The caramel smoothed out the flavor of the ginger so that everyone liked it. However, I ended up eating all the big chewy pieces of caramelized ginger in the ice cream because the boys and Grandma M thought they were "yucky". That's okay, more for me! I have definitely changed my mind about Nine Dragons and it will be added back in to my possible restaurant selections when we return to Epcot.

Top Ten Things a Kid-Friendly Restaurant Should Have

2007-04-28T16:23:00.000-04:00

When I am doing my reviews, and when I recommend a restaurant to a fellow family, I usually keep in mind several attributes that a restaurant should have to be considered kid-friendly. You know, besides good food, which is a given. So, in no particular order, here is my Top Ten List of Things a Kid-Friendly Restaurant Should Have:

Other families eat there
They must know something, right? Plus, their kids may drown out my kids.
There's a place to run around or take a little one who's having a meltdown
Places with playgrounds are great as are big waiting areas or even just a little (safe) space outside the restaurant to just have the kids run off some steam.
Entertainment/activities to distract the kids
Crayons and coloring menus are probably the best. Also good are TVs (but only if they can be tuned to cartoons), open kitchens, aquariums, and even watching video games in demo mode (yeah, my kids like to do that). We'll let our 7-year-old bring his Nintendo DS but the problem is getting him to turn it off when the food arrives.
Kid-friendly food and drink menu items, with smaller quantities and prices
Kids love pizza, chicken fingers/nuggets, Mac-n-cheese, grilled cheese and hamburgers/cheeseburgers. If a restaurant has a few of these items, most kids can find something to eat. I also look for an item or two from that restaurant's cuisine so my kids can branch out a little bit, for example, in a Mexican restaurant offering a kid-sized burrito, taco, or quesadilla. Oh, and don't forget about the drinks! Soda alone doesn't cut it. I want a place to offer at least juice (not just orange) and milk. However, my little one prefers lemonade and chocolate milk so I'm very glad when those are on the menu.
Appropriate cup/utensil options for kids
Speaking of the food and drink, they should be served properly to the kids as well. Plastic cups with lids and straws are a must (especially the straw!) as well as not serving the big honking steak knives to the kids.
Stable and clean high chairs and booster seats are available
Luckily, I don't have to worry about this anymore, but I know a lot of parents do. I remember pulling over high chairs and they wobbled so much I was sure it would fall to pieces as soon as I put my baby in it. It's also important to have a place to put the high chair - some of these places with the high bar-like tables can't accommodate a high chair as well.
Clean floors
'Cause I know my 3-year-old is going to end up down there anyways. 'Nuff said.
Servers/hosts that cater to my children
Really important to have friendly servers that act like they truly want to serve my kids. I also like when they ask if we want the kids' meals delivered first or with the adult meals, when they come by with extra napkins, when they bring small munchies such as crackers before the food is served, etc.
The right loudness...
So that other patrons won't notice my kids being loud, but not so loud that we all have to shout to hear each other. There's nothing worse than when your kid yells and every head in the restaurant turns to look - yikes!
Short wait times
On getting a seat, on giving our order, on getting our food, on getting our check - kids' patience levels are pretty short. My Hubby's is as well so it is a bonus all-around if we don't have to wait long for anything.

There you go, my personal Top Ten. Do you all have any others to add?

Restaurant Review - Fuddruckers, Festival Bay Mall, end of International Drive, Orlando, FL

2007-04-22T16:48:00.000-04:00

A couple of weekends ago, Hubby, the boys, and I were at Putting Edge glow-in-the-dark indoor mini-golf at Festival Bay Mall, when we started to get hungry for lunch. We decided to eat at Fuddruckers in the mall since the boys were hungry for cheeseburgers and we were not in the mood for McDonald's. Fuddruckers is located at the main entrance of the Festival Bay Mall in what is becoming the mall's "restaurant row." There is also a Dixie Crossroads there (see my review here http://restaurantmom.blogspot.com/2006/04/restaurant-review-dixie-crossroads.html) and they are finishing up a Cricketer Arms English Pub and a Bergamo's Italian Restaurant (both relocating from the Mercado Center, also on I-Drive). Fuddruckers is the only one of the four to also have an entrance inside the mall besides an outside one.

When you first walk into Fuddruckers, you are "funneled" along a narrow pathway that leads to the ordering counter. Along the way, you pass several menu boards, along with a display of raw hamburger patties - I guess so you can gauge how big of a burger you would like to have? At Fuddruckers, you can have a 1/3 lb, 1/2 lb, 2/3 lb, or even a full 1 lb burger, with all sorts of toppings. There's also salads, and grilled and crispy chicken sandwiches, sides (all burgers are a la carte - if you want fries, you'll have to order them separate) plus a whole dessert counter. The kid's menu offers cheeseburgers, hot dogs, grilled cheese, chicken fingers, all with fries on the side (lucky kids) or mac-n-cheese. For $3.99, the kid's meals come with a drink and a cookie as well. Hubby wasn't feeling "burger-y" so he ordered the All-American Grilled Chicken Sandwich ($6.69) that comes with smokehouse bacon, mushrooms, and American cheese on a bakery fresh Fuddruckers bun. He then took the boys to find a table while I finished the order. I chose one of the Specialty Burgers (meaning some premium toppings are already included), the Southwest Burger in 2/3 lb size ($6.89), which comes with guacamole, pepper jack cheese and smokehouse bacon. Both boys wanted cheeseburgers and I upgraded their drinks to chocolate milkshakes for an extra $1.49. I was then handed a milkshake-shaped sign with a number to put on our table and was asked for a name for the order. The order taker said our milkshakes would be delivered to us but to come back to the counter when our name was called to get the food.

I arrived at the table with the sign and drinks for Hubby and me. The seating area is large, but feels very crowded. There are square booths and circle booths, and regular tables and high tables. There is pretty much no place to put a stroller and if you have a high-chair child, you'd better hope one of the regular tables is empty because that's the only kind that can accommodate a high-chair. About 5 minutes later, the kids' milkshakes arrived, which was good because it was something to keep their attention. Hubby wondered why they took the sign with the number on it when the shakes were delivered - how were they going to deliver our food now? I explained that, no, we had to listen for our name and then go back up and get the food. He thought that was very inconvenient for parents, especially if there is only one adult and a bunch of children - how would you keep track of your kids when you are going up to get the food? With so many other "fast-casual" restaurants today delivering food right to your table, I wonder why Fuddruckers hasn't adopted this as well. About 15 minutes later, our food was ready and I went up to the counter to get it. There are no trays for you to get your food with so I had to juggle the three burger baskets and one chicken basket on my way back to our table. The boys both wanted ketchup and mustard and BB wanted tomatoes, pickles and lettuce, too, on their burgers so I had to go back to the toppings and sauces bar to fix up their burgers. It's actually a pretty nice spread with fresh veggies and other toppings including onions, salsa, jalapenos, relish, BBQ sauce, ranch dressing, mayo, and about 4 different kinds of mustard. Back to the table again and now Hubby got up to fix up his chicken sandwich how he wanted it. My Southwest burger looked really good as is so I didn't feel like I needed any additional toppings. After cutting up LB's burger into quarters and BB's burger in half, it was now time for me to eat! Yum! The mix of guac, pepper jack cheese and bacon really gave the burger a great taste. Plus, I just love Fuddruckers' bakery buns. They slather them in butter and then toast them and they just taste perfect with the burgers. Hubby thought his chicken sandwich was okay - the chicken was a little dry but otherwise pretty good. Both boys did pretty good with their burgers and fries (homestyle cut and seasoned) but only got halfway through with their shakes. It's not clear when you are leaving whether you need to bus your own table or not but we didn't see any garbage cans so we left everything on the table. As we were leaving the table, though, a server did come by and start clearing our table. She also reminded us to get our kid's meal cookies at the bakery counter and that we just needed to show our receipt. That's right - the cookies! We had totally forgotten about those. I went by the counter and got two kid's chocolate chip cookies on our way out. I really like the food at Fuddruckers and the boys enjoy it too but Hubby doesn't like how it is so "self-serve" focused. I tend to agree and I'll have to make sure I have another adult with me when I bring the kids back.