Restaurant Review: Tijuana Flats, W. Colonial Drive, Winter Garden, FL (various other locations, too)

This past weekend, our family ate at one of our favorite local "Mexican" chains - Tijuana Flats - for lunch. The food is more American than Mexican, but it is good food and the kids can always find something to eat. This is one of those "fast casual" places where you order your food at the counter and then sit down and wait for a server to bring you your order. However, instead of the big sign with a number that other places use, Tijuana Flats just asks for your name and their servers will yell out your name as they wander through the restaurant trying to find you. If you want some fun, give the name "Marco" and then snicker as the rest of the customers yell out "Polo" as the server tries to find you to deliver your food. We ordered the Chips & Chili Con Queso as a starter for $2.79. All meals are served with chips, but if you want something to dip them into, you have to order a starter. The Chili Con Queso is addictive, a gooey, cheesy dip with chilis served hot with chips. All the starters are chips & dips, others being mild salsa or guacamole or the Tijuana Trio that comes with all three. From the Little Lizards menu, we ordered a Cheese Quesadilla for both boys - LB's plain with just cheese and BB's with lettuce and tomato. Other choices on the kids' menu are burritos, tacos, nachos, and chicken fingers -- all including chips, a drink, and a "surprise" (usually a Pez dispenser and candy) -- all for $3.69. For adults, the choices are the standard Mexican menu standards such as tacos, burritos, enchiladas, flautas, taco salads, nachos, etc. Prices range from $5-$8 depending on if you want ground beef, chicken or steak. Hubby and I both ordered the Dos Tacos, just the basic two tacos plus chips. There are some choices you need to make - crunchy or soft? what toppings (lettuce, tomatoes, onions, jalapenos, black olives, sour cream)? make it a meal for $1.99 (add rice, beans, and a soft drink)? make it wet for 99 cents (top it with queso, salsa or chipotle red sauce)? Since we didn't "make it a meal", we ordered drinks separately. I got a sweet tea and Hubby ordered a root beer. I love the drinks at Tijuana Flats because they are served with shaved ice, and somehow, it just tastes better that way. Beer and wine are also available. We took our drinks and went to find a table. The decor at Tijuana Flats is, how shall I describe it... psychedelic? Bright, day-glo paint with strange lizards and other creatures are painted on the walls. There is also a hot sauce bar in the center, a specialty of Tijuana Flats, with their own home-made sauce - "Smack My Ass and Call Me Sally" (yeah, try to explain that to your kids). There are also coloring sheets and crayons at the counter, just ask for them while you're ordering or ask one of the servers as they are passing by. Actually, that's what keeps us coming back again and again to Tijuana Flats - the service. The servers don't just yell your name and deliver your food, they also will take requests and will refill your drinks for you or get you another fork to replace the one that LB threw on the floor. I've had servers heat up our queso before (and top it off to boot!) as well as quickly replace an entire order of BB's quesadillas that LB pushed on the floor. We heard Hubby's name and waved over the server to get our main dishes. Hmm, what happened to our chips and queso? The server quickly rushed to the kitchen and brought us our starter - apparently, someone else with the same name had claimed our chips. That's happened before so try to come up with a unique name if the restaurant is crowded (like Marco - you won't miss your food then!) -- but like I said, the servers will quickly bring you any food that went missing. The boys did pretty good, with BB finishing 3 of his 4 quesadillas and LB only finishing one. Hubby and I polished off our two tacos and did a good job on the queso and chips too. Tijuana Flats is always a good place to eat with the kids at our house - check them out.

Restaurant Review: Ginza Japanese Steak & Sushi Bar, W. Colonial Drive, Ocoee, FL

My oldest son (BB) has been begging to go back to the restaurant "where they make the food in front of you" so this past weekend, we did a mother-son solo dinner at Ginza Japanese Steak & Sushi Bar restaurant in Ocoee, FL. This is one of those Japanese Hibachi steakhouses where the chefs become the show and chop and cook your stir-fry dinner right in front of you at a large steel cook surface surrounded by seating on one side. Ginza also has a sushi bar area at the front of the restaurant, which is where Hubby and I go for sushi occasionally when we don't have the kids, but with kids you can't beat the dinner show at the back of the restaurant. As a "party of two", I knew we would be seated with other diners as the hibachi tables hold eight people a piece. We were seated with a family of six that had just sat down, which was good so we all ordered together. On a previous occasion, our family of four had to wait a bit until they seated another couple with us before our chef came out to start our dinner. If you happen to have a party of eight, you've got a full table and are ready to go. The hibachi dinners range in price from $12.95 for chicken to over $30 for filet and seafood. However, these are FULL dinners. They come with an light onion broth soup, a salad with ginger dressing, a grilled shrimp appetizer (you get two shrimp - kid dinners get one), fried rice, noodles, stir-fried veggies, and your chosen meal. Kids' hibachi dinners start at $7.95 for chicken and then go up accordingly. From what I can tell, they only get slightly less food than adults so we usually split one dinner between the two boys when they both come. The family of six sitting with us did the same - each adult ordered one dinner and then two kids dinners to feed the four kids. One warning when you do this, make sure you divvy up who is getting the soup and who is getting salad first - to avoid a fight later. The family next to us must be old pros at this restaurant, they knew to ask to substitute two soups for the two salads ensuring all four kids got a soup. BB chose the Shrimp dinner ($9.95) and I chose the Chicken. I figured Hubby would eat BB's leftover shrimps so I wasn't concerned. After we received our drinks (kids get theirs in a styrofoam cup with lid and straw), the soups came. This is a very light onion broth with a few mushrooms, scallions, and fried onions thrown in. All the kids at the table ate it, including BB. LB loves it too so it is a real kid-pleaser. One thing, if your child still sits in a high chair, like the youngest of our neighbor family, just be careful with the soup - the high chairs are actually a little lower than the hibachi table so they may need some help reaching their food. Next came the salad with creamy ginger dressing. BB ate it up as he likes ginger but the other kids at our table didn't want to try it so it's not for everyone. I love the ginger dressing and even saved some of the leftover dressing for my meal. Then, the main event, our chef came out. He immediately interacted with the table and got the kids involved by asking questions and making (very) corny jokes. Even I had to chuckle at a few such as the "Japanese egg roll" where he rolled an egg along the cook surface and "hey, watch the butterfly" when he flipped a pat of butter into the middle of the table. All the kids just watched, fascinated, as he made our fried rice, noodles, and the rest of the meal, depositing big spatulas full of food onto everyone's plates when that particular food was complete. I've seen several of the different chefs here and they each have their own "schtick", all corny, but somewhat funny all the same. They even make it fun when they are cleaning up the workstation, getting huge billows of steam to rise up to the ceiling. So, be sure to remind your kids to eat, too, while they are watching the show. But the majority of the eating happens after your chef has left and you are staring at a veritable mountain of food on your plate. BB did pretty good, finishing about half of his meal. I did better, eating about three-quarters of my food. Ginza also provides two sauces to go with your meal - a broth-based ginger sauce and creamy sauce for the seafood. Most folks preferred the creamy sauce, as do I, pouring it over my rice and chicken. Yum! Service tends to get a little slow at the end of your meal and we had to wait for the check and to-go boxes. They also provide you with "dessert" -- which is really just three small pieces of canned pineapple -- although I don't know how you could be hungry after your huge meal. Ginza has good food for a reasonable price and a great show for kids. I highly recommend it.

Restaurant Review: Guacamole Mexican Cuisine, Winter Garden, FL

Recently, we tried the new Guacamole Mexican restaurant that is located on West Colonial Drive in Winter Garden in the Beall's/Appliance Direct shopping center. This had most recently been another Mexican restaurant - Chimi's - that I never got to try as it went out of business so quickly. Guacamole is located next to the empty building that used to be a Publix. I have to tell you that because there was no real signage outside of the restaurant so it is hard to spot. The boys and I were meeting Grandma and Grandpa there and luckily we were able to find it. When we walked in, Grandma and Grandpa were already at a table, eating chips and salsa and drinking margaritas. Guacamole offers a full-bar as well as margaritas and domestic/imported beers. Grandma declared the margarita really "weak" so probably going with a beer is a good idea. As we perused the menu and started eating the chips, Grandpa warned us that our first basket of chips and salsa is free but additional baskets are $1.50 according to the menu. Okay, that immediately put me in a not-so-favorable mood towards Guacamole which, unfortunately, did not improve throughout the meal. When the server came to take our drink orders, I ordered iced tea and asked for lemonade for the boys. It turns out that they only have sodas or iced tea for drinks, nothing else non-carbonated for the little ones. BB asked for a sweet iced tea but I was stuck for LB. He won't drink sodas and he doesn't like iced tea. Luckily, I noticed that Guacamole also offers agua de melon or "melon water" which I was sure LB would like. He's tried watermelon juice before and liked it and this turned out to be cantaloupe juice which he also liked. Whew, disaster averted... for now. I noticed that all of the kids' meals were $5 and included a side item (beans and rice for the Mexican offerings and fries for the rest) as well as a small drink. Since LB's drink wasn't going to be included anyways since it was a specialty drink, I just got side orders of quesadillas for each of the boys. That would only run me $2.75 a piece, much better than the $5 as they probably weren't going to eat the rice and beans anyways. Grandma ordered one of the combination platters with a cheese enchilada, a chicken tostada, and rice and beans for $5.25. Grandpa got adventurous and ordered the Nopales con Carnitas or cactus with pork. Apparently, he used to eat cactus occasionally when living in Texas. I had never tried cactus so I was eager to sample his dish. I ordered the 3 tamales plate for $7 which comes with rice and beans as well as sour cream, salsa, and guacamole. A short while later, the food arrived... but only the adults' food. The kids quesadillas were "coming" we were told. Not good - kids' meals should be served first if anything but never after the adults. Immediately, both kids starting whining and wondering where their food was. Secondly, my tamales were cold. Not slightly warm, but cold. Also, the condiments (sour cream, salsa, and guacamole) were served in tiny cups about the size of a shot glass. Five minutes later when the kids' food arrived, I asked the server to take back the tamales and have them heated up. Grandma's food was okay and Grandpa's cactus dish was as well. Cactus, it turns out, resembles green peppers when cooked and tastes a little bit the same as well, although maybe a bit blander. The pork was a bit spicy but was a good accompaniment to the cactus. Finally, my hot tamales arrived. We all agreed that the food was okay but not much better than that. As Grandpa said, there was nothing really spectacular about Guacamole that would make you want to return. So, we will probably not be back.