Category Archives: Seafood

Firebirds Wood Fired Grill

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Exterior
Interior
Interior
Interior

*** (3 stars)

The highlight here is the gorgeous decor. From the large bar with its high top table to the comfortable dining room with large booths and an open kitchen, every surface is elegant stone and wood. Even the outside covered dining area is beautifully designed.

Unfortunately the food experience is rather uneven. Both the Ceasar salad and Mixed Green salad were wonderful. My prime rib was perfectly cooked, although there was a tremendous amount of fat, about a third of the serving. Still, it was plenty. But my wife’s “New York strip” looked like a flank steak, but was tough even for that cut. It was perhaps the toughest steak she’s ever been served. Sure, she could have sent it back, but it was obvious on inspection that it wasn’t a good steak, so I think that’s some measure of performance.

Tater tots were an excellent side.

Wine prices are reasonable by the bottle, only a bit more than double retail.

Service was very good. Note that if you’re not in a hurry you should tell them, though, as it tends to be very speedy.

Firebirds Wood Fired Grill
1562 N Mills Ave
Orlando, FL
32803
(407) 581-9861
https://www.yelp.com/biz/firebirds-wood-fired-grill-orlando

The Gathering Table

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Fondue
Hamachi
Octopus
Exterior
Interior

***** (5 stars)

This terrific restaurant in The Ballard Inn is very popular, so be sure to make reservations. The atmosphere is a cross between modern and colonial, and the food is 100% creative.

We loved every course. The standouts were the best tomato soup I’ve ever tasted, and some incredibly tender octopus. The hamachi was also melt in your mouth tender. Service was an efficient team effort.

The wine list offers a nice selection of local bottles and some French wines, but very little variety by the glass.

Highly recommended.

The Gathering Table
2436 Baseline AveThe Ballard Inn
Solvang (Ballard), CA
93463
(805) 688-7770
https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-gathering-table-solvang-ballard

The Grill on the Alley

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Exterior
Interior

**** (4 stars)

This location is far from an alley, like the original in Beverly Hills! The building and it’s interior design is exceptional.

The menu is very similar to the original, although the preparations are slightly different.

My favorite item is actually the creamed spinach that comes with the steaks. It has the perfect balance.

Service is friendly and professional.

The Grill on the Alley
120 Promenade Way
Thousand Oaks, CA
91362
(805) 418-1760
https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-grill-on-the-alley-thousand-oaks-5

Bahama Breeze

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Goat curry bowl (small)
Rum Raid
Rum Raid
Island hopper combo
Interior
Exterior

**** (4 stars)

For a chain restaurant, there are some surprisingly authentic Carribean dishes in the Bahama Breeze menu. I visited the original location when they first opened and thought it was just okay, but a recent visit to this larger venue was more impressive.

There are standard sports bar-like items, of course, including an appetizer sampler that had some nicely fried coconut shrimp and onion rings. But there are also authentically seasoned items such as the goat curry bowl, which I thought was excellent. Best of all, unlike traditional goat curry, there were no bones!

My favorite item was a drink sampler that included 8 different tropical and tiki-style drinks. They were large enough that the assortment is intended for more than one person. Since I’ve recently been researching tiki drinks at some of the country’s top tiki bars, I wasn’t expecting them to be as good as they were. There were excellent examples of a Zombie, Painkiller, and Dark and Stormy, among others. At about $26 it was a good deal.

Service late at night seemed a bit harried, but was friendly. The restaurant is very large, nicely decorated, and there is a large outside dining area with live music.

Bahama Breeze
8735 Vineland Ave
Orlando, FL
32821
+1-407-938-9010
https://www.yelp.co.uk/biz/bahama-breeze-orlando-3

Barley & Hops

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Beef brat

Flatbread

Exterior

Fried mushrooms

Potstickers

**** (4 stars)

By my count this is the fifth incarnation of this place, and definitely the best. The previous version, The Big Easy, was also good, but didn’t last long because of the narrow focus on Cajun food, I guess. This new sports bar menu should have broader appeal.

We tried the fried mushrooms and pan sauteed pork potstickers as appetizers, and both were very good. I particularly liked the cole slaw that came with the pot stickers.

For my main course I had the beef brat, which was nicely seared and served with sauteed peppers, onions, and sauerkraut.

My companion has a pepperoni flatbread. It wasn’t really a flatbread, it was a large rectangular pizza. And boy was it good! Lots of pepperoni, and most importantly lots of delicious pizza sauce, what I regard as west coast style. Ironically, this is the best pizza ever served in this building, a place that was three different Italian restaurants in the past!

Our server, Ashley, was terrific.

The space is mostly unchanged since the previous use, but this is the first time when the concept has truly matched the layout. It works as a sports bar, and I wish them much success.

Barley & Hops
7782 Winter Garden Vineland RdSte 140
Windermere, FL
34786
(407) 347-3688
https://www.yelp.com/biz/barley-and-hops-windermere-3

Lotus of Siam

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Dining room

Bar

**** (4.5 stars)

As the awards attest, Lotus of Siam serves some of the best Thai food in the country. This new location is a gorgeous building, and allows them to serve many more people.

As is often the case, with the growth come issues. We’ve always had amazing service at the old location. To describe the service at this new location as disjointed would be giving it too much credit. The fundamental problem is that you don’t have a server. Instead, a whole team of people randomly drops by; two people took our orders, two others took orders for wine, the food was delivered by runners, water refilled by others, and wine… well, the wine was another matter all together.

Lotus of Siam has a great wine list. I didn’t see anyone else in the vast space having a bottle, so it may simply be they’ve forgotten how to serve it. We ordered two bottles and forty minutes later(!) finally were advised they were out of both. We ordered an alternate for one of them, and accepted a recommendation for the other. fifteen minutes later the recommendation finally showed up. The other bottle? Missing in action. We finally gave up and cancelled it after all the food had been served.

And the one bottle we did get ended up being self-serve. We had to get up and get it from the ice bucket every time we needed a refill.

I guess next time we’ll order cocktails.

Lotus of Siam
620 E Flamingo Rd
Las Vegas, NV
89119
(702) 538-6135
https://www.yelp.com/biz/lotus-of-siam-las-vegas-13

Estiatorio Milos

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Chicken

Sea breem

Octopus

Greek spreads

Exterior

Kitchen

Patio

**** (4 stars)

This place offer classic and authentic Greek cuisine in a gorgeous room. The space is divided into several smaller areas, and we really liked our table on the patio. Lunch is a good deal for Vegas, since it is essentially a reduced price version of the dinner menu, with three courses for $29.

Charred octopus was the most tender I’ve encountered, and a delightful presentation. The Greek spreads appetizer is also a great way to explore different flavors.

I also enjoyed the bright light flavors of my main course, the whole sea breem.

Desserts are in the Greek style, which is to say very, very sweet.

A comprehensive wine list offers many hard to find Greek selections, but hundreds of other lovely choices from around the world.

Estiatorio Milos
3708 Las Vegas Blvd SLevel 3
Las Vegas, NV
89109
(702) 698-7930
https://www.yelp.com/biz/estiatorio-milos-las-vegas

Michael’s Gourmet Room

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Exterior

Interior

Scampi fra Diavolo

Mixed green salad

Petite filet mignon

Bone in filet mignon

Bananas Foster for one

Fruit and chocolates parting gifts

**** (4.5 stars)

If you are over a certain age, you will remember what fine dining restaurants used to be like, before they were, bright, loud and trendy. Visiting Michael’s is like stepping back into that era. The decor and the menu are exactly what we would have encountered in the 60s or 70s at the finest places in town. Well, except for the prices, anyway.

That said, while the menu prices might seem high, it’s important to note that there is a LOT included that isn’t on the menu. You start a basket of parmesan toast, a basket of lavash, and a generous relish tray with everything from pickled vegetables to quail eggs. And the meal ends with an enormous fruit bowl and an array of hand-dipped chocolate fruit slices. Of course, no one can eat all that, so you end up with a five pound to-go bag–snacks for a week.

In between all that free stuff are some great starters and steaks. Mixed green salad was simple, fresh, and enough for two. Scampi fra Diavolo had perhaps the best marinara sauce I’ve tasted (although it wasn’t spicy at all).

My bone-in filet was a superb piece of meat, and came with a lovely mushroom and red wine reduction. My companion’s petit filet seemed a bit mealy and flavorless in comparison, but the accompanying Bernaise sauces was wonderful.

For dessert we shared Bananas Foster for one (not on the menu, but nice of them to suggest the smaller serving). There was also a very tempting array of pastries on the cart.

I would have finished with an espresso, but at $16 that just seemed over the top, price wise.

The wines list focuses on many well-chosen California selections at reasonable prices.

Service was friendly, but also offered with the high degree of professionalism one would expect in a restaurant that so perfectly recreates the golden age of fine dining.

Michael’s Gourmet Room
9777 S Las Vegas Blvd
Las Vegas, NV
89183
(702) 796-7111
https://www.yelp.com/biz/michaels-gourmet-room-las-vegas

Urban Tide

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*** (3.5 stars)

This is the third iteration of this space I’ve dined in, and is easily the least inspired. Considering it is in a Grand Hyatt, it’s shockingly mediocre.

Perhaps our experience was colored by our server, who was absent during most of a two-hour lunch, even after the restaurant cleared out. Ordering was problematical, refills were non-existent, and it tool 15 minutes just to order espressos at the end of the meal, then another 15 minutes to ask for a check.

As we were leaving, an entire duplicate set of entrees for our table arrived from the kitchen, so some inexperience was clearly evident here.

The food was only mediocre, too. The Asian salad was good, but the optional seared tuna had been coated in an overpowering seasoning that rendered the tuna completely flavorless.

This place fills up with business people during conventions at lunchtime, but you’d be far better off to walk up the street to Capital Grille.

Urban Tide
9801 International Dr
Orlando, FL
32819
(407) 345-4570
https://www.yelp.com/biz/urban-tide-orlando

Blue Fin

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Interior

Salmon Burger

Chef Boo’s Chirashi Bowl

**** (4 stars)

Restaurants near Times Square don’t need to be particularly good to have a steady stream of customers, so I was pleasantly surprised by Blue Fin.

The narrow first floor space is pleasant and airy, and a broad staircase leads up almost two floors to an expansive and lovely upstairs dining room.

The restaurant offers a combination of cooked food and sushi, and we liked everything we tried. The standout was actually the Bang Bang Edamame, which had been tossed in a wonderful kung pao sauce. Chiriashi was also good, with a nice assortment of fish, although definitely Times Square priced at $33.

Service was friendly and profewssional.

Blue Fin
1567 Broadway
New York, NY 10036
(212) 918-1400
https://www.yelp.com/biz/blue-fin-new-york