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

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 - The Florida Waffle Shop, 4192 Conroy Road, Mall of Millenia area, Orlando, FL

A couple of weeks ago, Grandma, Grandpa, the boys, and I decided to try a new breakfast/lunch place that opened up right outside the Mall of Millenia (in the former Mama Fu's location). The Florida Waffle Shop is only open from 7 am - 3 pm each day, with breakfast available all the time and lunch from 10:30 am to closing. We arrived right around 10:30 am so were free to choose what we wanted from the menu. We were shown to a table at the back of the restaurant which, ironically, was where we were seated the last time we came to Mama Fu's. In fact, I think it actually was the same exact table as the decor doesn't look much different from when it was Mama Fu's. As a nice touch, the server brought us balloons for the boys as well as kids' menus and Wikki Stix instead of crayons. For those of you unfamiliar with Wikki Stix, they are colored string-like pieces that are coated with wax and can be used to make a picture by pressing them onto paper or can be twisted together to make 3-D creations. I like them, and so do the boys, so they were pretty happy.

The kids' menu is pretty simple - breakfast offerings are $2.95 and are French Toast, Scrambled Eggs & Toast, or Silver Dollar Pancakes; lunch is $3.95 and you can choose Chicken Fingers & Fries, Mac & Cheese, or Grilled Cheese & Chips. Drinks are additional and are a bit pricey - $1.50 for soda or milk and $2.25 for orange or apple juice. I was also surprised that there wasn't a kid's waffle offering. That's a pity because LB LOVES waffles. For adults, the breakfast offerings are waffles (natch) with a variety of toppings for around $6.69, pancakes with toppings for $5.99, French Toast for $5.79, and then Omelets that ranged from $5.99 to $7.79. Beverages, again, were expensive! All beverages are $2.25, including coffee and tea! Come on - how much does a tea bag cost nowadays? For lunch, you can choose from salads, sandwiches, paninis, and burgers, all around the same price ranges as the breakfast foods. Grandma chose the Chocolate Chip Waffles and a coffee, Grandpa went for lunch and ordered the BLT for $6.29, and both boys ordered the Silver Dollar Pancakes and chocolate milk. I ordered the Bacon, Tomato, and Cheddar Omelet and a decaf coffee. Do you want to know why I decided to go with an omelet? Because it comes with side dishes. All omelets come with Home Fries and an English muffin or toast. What do the waffles, pancakes and French toast come with? Nada, nothing, zilch. And Grandpa's BLT just comes with chips - fries are $1.49 EXTRA if you want to substitute.

Our server was very friendly and very nice to the boys... but was a little slow in the service area. We got our first cups of coffee okay but it was a while before we saw her again to get a refill. Luckily, the Wikki Stix were really keeping the boys busy and they didn't notice that it had been a while since we ordered and we still didn't have food yet. The food was finally delivered and mine looked really good. Also, the boys' Silver Dollar pancakes were pretty big, much larger than I was thinking they would be. Of course, once they saw Grandma had chocolate chips on her waffle, they wanted chocolate chips on their pancakes. Luckily, our server was there at the time and she quickly left and came back with a small cup of chocolate chips - no charge - for the boys. That was really nice. Grandma said her waffle was okay but she would have liked it to be a little warmer. Grandpa said the same about his BLT and that the "B" was a little skimpy with only 3 slices of bacon. Mine was actually VERY good. The omelet was nice and warm and filled with cheese, tomatoes, and bacon pieces. The English muffin was warm and buttered all the way, and the home fries were hot and fantastic! I don't know how they season their home fries but they just tasted great! Grandpa tried them as well and agreed they were very good (he then asked if he could have some more). So, if you are going to try The Florida Waffle Shop, I suggest you skip the waffles and get one of the omelet dishes.

Restaurant Review: Shamu & Crew Character Breakfast, Seafire Inn, SeaWorld Orlando, FL

When Grandpa called and said he had free tickets to SeaWorld (woohoo), we quickly planned to go the weekend before Memorial Day. LB had never been before and there were several new attractions that have opened in the past two years. I put Believe, Blue Horizons, and the new kids' area with the Shamu Express roller coaster on our list and Grandpa and I started planning out the day (it's what we do -- Grandma calls us "camp counselors"). We both decided we needed to get there early, preferably right at park open at 9 am. I'm not really a morning person -- I need to have an incentive to wake up early and get out the door. So, when I checked out the SeaWorld website, I found out they have a Shamu character breakfast that starts at 8:45 am every morning (see for yourself http://4adventure.com/seaworld/fla/res_shamuandcrew.aspx). The prices were really reasonable for a character breakfast -- $14.95 for adults, $9.95 for kids 3-9 and free for kids under 3. Of course, that just made me worry that the food wouldn't be very good. However, they promised Shamu and his furry friends would visit the tables and there would be a 35-minute show featuring the characters -- that alone would be worth the price so I booked (and pre-paid) online. The day came and we had all intentions of getting to the restaurant by 8:45 am. We weren't too far off, after entering the SeaWorld main entrance and heading to the Waterfront area of the park, it was only 9:05 am. We were seated quickly, towards the back of the theater/dining room, at the back end of a table where another family was already seated and enjoying breakfast. However, the kids were able to see the stage just fine. With only 5 minutes left before showtime, Grandma stayed with the kids while Grandpa and I staked out the buffet line. The buffet line moved slowly, mostly because the servers had to plate all the hot food for each guest versus it being serve-yourself. I'm sure they have a reason for doing it that way, but I think the line would move faster if everyone got their own food. They had a nice spread, though, with self-serve danishes, yogurts, and cereals, at the front. The fruit was really nice -- they had big bowls of cut up cantaloupe, honeydew and red seedless grapes. The hot foods offered were biscuits and gravy, sausages, bacon, scrambled eggs, potatoes, french toast, pancakes and corned beef hash. I was excited to see the corned beef hash - it's one of my favorites and not many places have it. I asked for a plate of french toast and bacon for BB, an empty plate for LB (I figured he would just eat off of everyone), and another plate of french toast, eggs, and corned beef hash. All in all, it took 15 minutes waiting in line. When we got back to the table, the show was already in full swing and Grandma had ordered chocolate milk for the boys and coffee for us. The kids' drinks were served in the plastic souvenir cups with lids and straws -- very handy to have as SeaWorld does not serve regular drinks with lids or straws because it harms the animals. I was happy to see those as we could use them throughout the day. The show was kind of silly -- an underwater sea explorer is afraid of the water and needs help from his friends to help him get over his fear -- but it had a good message, plus a few Beatles tunes thrown in (Yellow Submarine, Octopus' Garden), and the kids really liked it. The food was actually good! Okay, the french toast was a little cold but not too bad, and there was plenty of food for all. We also lucked out being at the back end of the table as the characters came there first and found it hard to manuveur toward the front of each of the long tables. So the family that was sitting in front of us had to get up and move if they wanted pictures with the characters. We just had to smile and say "Cheese". All of the characters came by and the kids really liked meeting them and getting kisses from them. The characters can't really move that much because of their size (hey, we are talking Shamu here) and some interacted better than others (the manatee character had some fun with BB) but a good experience overall. The only confusing part came at the end as we were leaving and Grandpa asked if we needed to leave a tip. The website where I had booked online had said nothing about gratuity and we really had only seen our server when she got our drinks. Grandpa put several bucks on the table and we hoped we were covered. SeaWorld would do better to make that more clear. All in all, a fun breakfast experience if you happen to be visiting SeaWorld Orlando.