Buffet
Exterior
Interior
**** (4 stars)
Tamarind puts on a good lunch buffet, with four meat and four vegetarian entrees. Lunch includes a basket of naan bread, but papadums are only available at dinner time.
The place is neat and clean, and the servers are friendly.
Tamarind Indian Cuisine
12309 E Colonial Dr
Orlando, FL 32826
(407) 237-0920
http://www.yelp.com/biz/tamarind-indian-cuisine-orlando
Crawfish
Crawfish sandwich
1lb crawfish
Menu
Exterior
Interior
*** (3 stars)
This place is well-named, as the food was certainly hot and juicy. Not surprisingly, it’s also a mess. You know you’re in for a participatory meal when your table is equipped with bibs, gloves and a bucket!
We shared a pound of crawfish for $14. It comes in a tied plastic bag, swimming in sauce. That’s a reasonable price, but you need to realize that equates to only a few tablespoons of actual crawfish meat. We had the hot n juicy sauce, which was pretty good, but be cautious of the spiciness level. We ordered medium, and it equated to HOT most places.
We also had the cajun fries, which were crisp, hot and well-seasoned.
Our companions had the crawfish po boy sandwiches, which were a lot easier and neater, as the crawfish meat was deep fried.
Service was friendly and helpful.
Hot N Juicy Crawfish
7572 W Sand Lake Rd
Orlando, FL 32819
(407) 370-4655
http://www.yelp.com/biz/hot-n-juicy-crawfish-orlando
Wet jerk pork ribeye
Mahimahi special
Blue crab
Seafood charcuterie
Amuse bouche
Menu
Exterior
Bar
Interior
***** (5 stars)
This restaurant is certainly the gem of the space coast. It’s a truly fine dining restaurant in what is a bit of a wasteland.
We started with the seafood charcuterie, which turned out to be our favorite item of the night. While the octopus terrine wasn’t particularly flavorful, all the other items–salmon rillette, smoked fish pate–and the accompanying salads and relishes were wonderful.
The blue crab was also excellent. The single soft shell crab topped an amazing piece of cornbread.
My wife’s wet jerk pork ribeye was very good, better than the mahi mahi fish special I had.
The space is relatively small, which keeps noise levels reasonable, and it is nicely decorated.
Service was amazing, We were impressed by all the servers’ interactions with their guests; our server, Michelle, was particularly excellent.
The wine list is a bit limited, but there are many excellent choices, and the value is good, particularly for the top end bottles.
The Fat Snook
2464 S Atlantic Ave
Cocoa Beach, FL 32931
(321) 784-1190
http://www.yelp.com/biz/the-fat-snook-cocoa-beach
Sign
Bacon cheeseburger
Fries
Interior
***** (5 stars)
For at least 20 years Johnny’s has been acclaimed for having the best burger in Orlando (they even have the 1998 plaque on the wall to prove it), and it still is. The secret is a thick, meaty patty perfectly cooked to order served on a bun with some substance. And the bun is grilled on the insides to make sure it doesn’t get soggy as you make your way through the burger. The bacon cheeseburger is the way to go. And it comes with all the fixin’s you’d expect of a fillin’ station.
The fries that come with the burger could be better, as they are steak fries rather than something skinnier, but if you order them crispy they will do.
The atmosphere is also unchanged in at least twenty years: quintessential dive bar. It’s a real dive bar that has earned its designation, not some artificially decorated pretender. The junk on the walls is all there for historical reasons.
Service is not what you’d call attentive, but it is pleasant.
Johnny’s Fillin’ Station
2631 S Fern Creek Ave
Orlando, FL 32806
(407) 894-6900
http://www.yelp.com/biz/johnnys-fillin-station-orlando-2
Sashimi Bento
Alakan Roll, Poki Roll, Ikura
Roti with red curry
Exterior
Interior
**** (4 stars)
This is a very upscale restaurant for a strip mall type location. Great decor, and an extensive pan-Asian menu including Sushi, Japanese, Chinese, Korean and even Indian cuisines.
We started with an order of Roti with curry sauce, because what other sushi restaurant has that?! It was excellent, with perfectly fresh roti. The sauce was so good I saved it to put on my rice.
I had the lunch sashimi bento box, which included seven nice pieces of fish, seaweed salad and lettuce salad, rice, and a very large bowl of miso soup. The miso was a bit sweeter than normal, but everything else was great.
We also had two rolls and some ikura sashimi. All were good.
Pricing might be a bit high for the area, but I thought it was worth it. Service was exceptional. I’ve never had a soft drink refilled so many times!
Akina
4300 S Hwy 27
Clermont, FL 34711
(352) 243-8988
http://www.yelp.com/biz/akina-clermont
Exterior
Interior
Counter and menu
Magoo’s favorite salad
Buffalo chicken salad
**** (4 stars)
When I read about a new chicken tenders place I imagined something like Chick fil a, which I despise, but Huey Magoo’s is much, much better. For one thing, if you get the chicken grilled rather than battered, it’s actually healthful.
We tried two different salads. Magoo’s Favorite, mixed greens with grilled chicken, cranberries, walnuts, grape tomatoes, & raspberry walnut vinaigrette dressing. The chicken was a bit bland, but the dressing was excellent.
Even better was the Buffalo Chicken Salad ordered with grilled chicken. It included bleu cheese crumbles, and grape tomatoes. Unlike the menu description it was made with mixed greens, not romaine. And rather then jalapeño ranch & spicy Magoo’s dressing it came with a wonderful blue cheese dressing. Thanks to the Buffalo sauces, this chicken really had a lot of flavor. This was really a top-notch salad, far beyond expectations for a quick serve restaurant.
They have a Coke freestyle machine.
While there isn’t table service, the staff was attentive.
Huey Magoo’s Chicken Tenders
7538 W Sand Lake Rd
Orlando, FL 32819
(407) 203-2051
http://www.yelp.com/biz/huey-magoos-chicken-tenders-orlando
Exterior
Bar
Interior
Clams Casino
Fettuccine Alfredo
Eggplant Rollatini
***** (5 stars)
Bella Italia is definitely a level above what you’d expect in a strip mall location. The decor, food and service are all top notch.
We started with the Clams Casino, a generous portion with a delicious lemon and garlic broth.
Fettucine Alfredo was equally generous, nigh on to huge. It needed a bit of salt to bring out the flavor, but had plenty of butter, cream and cheese.
Eggplant Rollatini was a nice improvement on Eggplant Parmigiana, with grilled rather than breaded eggplant, stuffed with four kinds of cheese, baked in marinara sauce, and topped with melted mozzarella. It was delicious. The accompanying spaghetti was fine, but not needed.
All of these dishes were less than $9 at lunch, a great deal. Lunch also came with a basket of fresh bread and an excellent pesto/olive oil mixture for dipping.
Service was friendly and attentive.
Bella Italia Ristorante
13848 Tilden Rd
Ste 192
Winter Garden, FL 34787
(407) 347-3277
http://www.yelp.com/biz/bella-italia-ristorante-winter-garden
Pescado a la Chorrillana
Ceviche Mixto
Causa de Camarones
Exterior
Interior
***** (5 stars)
This is the best Peruvian restaurant I’ve found in Orlando. In fact, the quality of the ceviche approached our benchmark, which we had in Lima Peru.
The place is small and decorated in dark woods and black fake alligator table tops, but it’s not at all grungy as one review seemed to imply. In fact, it’s quite clean, and even a bit edgy looking. I would vote to lose the really annoying Peruvian travel videos, though, which inexplicably have a soundtrack that sounds like Russian marching band dirges.
We started with the Causa de Camarones, which was a good as any causa I’ve had. It was missing a couple of layers that are usually present, but had a delightfully piquant quality and excellent sauce accompaniment.
Ceviche Mixto was a huge mound of mixed seafood in a mildly spicy creamy lime sauce. The shrimp and fish were good, and the calamari was excellent.
Pescado a la Chorrillana is a large serving of nicely battered and fried fish topped with onions, tomatoes and cilantro, and served with a mild sauce. The flavor of the cilantro came through nicely.
Service was very friendly, and the kitchen is extremely quick, obviously preparing everything from scratch, but at lightning speed. Pricing is reasonable, especially considering the generous portions.
Taste of Peru
9521 S Orange Blossom Trl
Ste 114A
Orlando, FL 32837
(407) 857-2734
http://www.yelp.com/biz/taste-of-peru-orlando-6
Dragon Roll
Flamingo Roll
Reptile roll
Salmon
Conveyor
Interior
**** (4 stars)
Although this place is literally out in the center of the mall I walked past it twice looking for an overhead sign on a storefront! The signage is quite small, in contrast to the sprawling conveyor belt system that transports the sushi.
Like all “revolving” sushi places, the offerings are on plates color-coded for price, from $3-6. When you’re finished eating they simply tally up the plates to calculate your check.
I liked the sushi here much more than I was expecting. The ingredients were fresh and the offerings were quite varied. My favorite item was the flamingo roll.
Each serving is essentially half a roll, so the pricing is typical to slightly high. On the other hand, because it is half a roll you can try twice and many things, which is great, especially if you and your companion disagree on ingredients.
sushigami
8001 S Orange Blossom Trl
Orlando, FL 32809
(407) 850-9091
https://www.yelp.com/biz/sushigami-orlando
Sign
*** (3 stars)
This is a fairly typical serve yourself frozen yogurt place, a bit smaller and darker than most, and with a somewhat limited selection. The add-ins are nicely tended, though, and the service was friendly.
Mochi Frozen Yogurt
8001 S Orange Blossom Trl
Ste 836
Orlando, FL 32809
(407) 888-1020
https://www.yelp.com/biz/mochi-frozen-yogurt-orlando-2