This is a bowl assembly concept similar to Chipotle, but focused on healthy selections.
My choice was coconut rice and kale slaw topped with chickpeas and salmon. The ingredients worked well together. The sriracha-based sauce I selected was fairly bland, but my wife’s ginger sauce was excellent.
The counter setup at lunchtime is extremely efficient, so it took no time at all to order and pay.
There’s a nice outside seating area in addition to the indoor space.
***** (5 stars)
Always a required stop in London. There's a reason this restaurant has been in business more than thirty years.
Our favorite aspect is that they will give you a blind wine paring, so if you're into wine it is really fun to guess with no preconceived notions. Great service and hospitality.
Pied à Terre
34 Charlotte Street
London W1T 2NH
United Kingdom
***** (5 stars)
Wow! This is far and away the best use of this restaurant space ever. It retains its former upscale decor, but brings an all new menu and cuisine to the area.
Affiliated with the nearby Saffron Indian Restaurant, but this restaurant is Southern Indian, and entirely vegetarian, or even vegan if you wish.
The lunch "table side buffet" is actually a traditional Thali, a tray with an assortment of soups and stews, a bowl of rice, and a variety of breads for dipping. It is easily the best Indian lunch deal in town, and arguably one of the best lunches in town.
I'm a fan of lunch at Saffron, and I wasn't sure this would be that different, but it is quite distinct, and deserves its own separate recognition as a best Indian food winner.
The Madras Cafe
7730 W Sand Lake Rd
Orlando, FL 32819
**** (4 stars)
On my first visit to Southern Spice I was a bit disappointed to find it was a lunch buffet. Although that is fast and obviously popular, I’m just not a big buffet fan. The food was all good, and there were quite a few selections, but I wasn’t in a rush to go back.
Then I discovered you could also order off the regular menu at lunch. While not as good a deal, the food was much more interesting and fresh, and we really enjoyed our biryani and especially the Malai Kofta and the garlic naan.
Service was friendly and professional.
Southern Spice Indian Cuisine
7637 Turkey Lake Rd
Orlando, FL
32819
(321) 251-2244
https://www.yelp.com/biz/southern-spice-indian-cuisine-orlando
Coffee service
Veggie platter
***** (5 stars)
I love Ethiopian food, and Selam has some of the best I encountered anywhere. It’s great that Orlando now has an Ethiopian restaurant that is open at lunch time!
Our group of four shared two of the sampler platters, one vegetarian and one not. I was the only one in the group who was familiar with Ethiopian cuisine, so it was wonderful that both the server (owner?) and chef visited us with explanations of everything. Our group loved every bite!
We also finished with the coffee service. They roasted the beans to order, and brought them out in the hot pan so we could smell the wonderful aromas before they ground them.
Really a delightful experience, and we will be back soon!
Selam Ethiopian & Eritrean Cuisine
5494 Central Florida Pkwy
Orlando, FL
32821
(407) 778-3119
https://www.yelp.com/biz/selam-ethiopian-and-eritrean-cuisine-orlando
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
Falafel
Interior
***** (5 stars)
This is the answer to the question “What do I do when I want to eat healthy and all my friends want a burger, fries and pizza?”
How refreshing to find good, healthful food in a food court! And yes, your friends can find all those other options just a few steps away.
Maoz offers bowls or falafel sandwiches. The quality of the falafel is top notch, and you can select what other ingredients you like. I added hummus, chickpeas, chopped tomatoes and onions, and some banana peppers. Seriously, banana peppers in a falafel sandwich are really good. There’s also tahini, garlic sauce and other condiments you can add yourself.
The food court at the Millenia Mall is one of the nicest anywhere, so you and your unhealthy friends can eat together, in a nicely furnished and landscaped environment.
Maoz
4200 Conroy Rd
Orlando, FL 32839
(407) 363-3555
http://www.yelp.com/biz/maoz-orlando
Ice cream
Mango mousse
Butter chicken
Chick pea and walnut
Cauliflower
Interior
Sign
***** (5 stars)
It’s really nice to find a truly elegant Indian restaurant. Spice Affair backs up its stylish decor with excellent service and creative, flavorful cuisine.
The highlight of our meal was definitely the Butter Chicken, and it’s hard to imagine going here and not having this dish. Garlic Naan bread was great for dipping in the sauce, although it could have had more garlic.
We also really liked both appetizers we shared, a crispy cauliflower dish and patties made of chickpeas and walnuts. The accompanying raita was particularly good.
None of us cared for the salmon entree, which was fishy, and didn’t have a particularly appealing coating. When the server noticed this he offered to exchange it, but when we demurred he brought us several complimentary desserts. That and many other touches really impressed us with the professionalism of this restaurant, and I’m sure we’ll return.
Spice Affair Indian Restaurant
50 N La Cienega Blvd
Ste 120
Beverly Hills, CA 90211
(424) 286-1739
https://www.yelp.com/biz/spice-affair-indian-restaurant-beverly-hills
*** (3 stars)
This is a nicely decorated space with very friendly service. The food is serviceable Thai. We tried a couple of lunch dishes and an appetizer, and although there were no standouts, everything was fine.
My favorite items were actually the soup and salad that came with the lunch. It was a particularly flavorful version of chicken rice soup, and the salad dressing had a nice mix of peanut and a minty flavor that elevated it above the usual peanut sauce.
I wasn’t a fan of one herb used in the potstickers and spring rolls. It was a flavor not usually encountered in these.
I enjoyed the crispy duck and shrimp lunch special, although the duck was far from crispy. The cocoanut tinged curry was nice.
Fresh Hot Basil was inexplicably missing any basil flavor or leaves; in fact, there was more basil in the duck dish.
If you’re in the area and tired of Vietnamese food and tacos, this is a fine choice for a meal, even if it’s not the best Thai in town.
Pop Thai Restaurant
1227 N Mills Ave
Orlando, FL 32803
(407) 917-6139
http://www.yelp.com/biz/pop-thai-restaurant-orlando
***** (5 stars)
We had a great meal here, made all the more memorable because the night before we ate at Morimoto Asia. The food a Lac Viet was substantially better, and one third the price.
The interior of the restaurant–which I remember from decades ago, when it was Le Cordon Bleu–is bright and open, divided in to many intimate rooms.
We started with the Tom Yum, which had a thinner and less tomato-based broth than the Thai version I’m used to, but despite it’s clarity, it was the most flavorful Tom Yum I’ve ever tasted, with just the right spice level.
The seafood crepe was also good, although not quite what I was expecting. Fried to a crispy gold, it looked more like a giant taco, filled with bean sprouts, shrimp and other goodies. This is a giant appetizer, so plan ahead.
The Vermicelli bowl is always my favorite at Vietnamese restaurants, and this was no exception, the combination of charred pork, cucumber, sprouts, vermicelli, and greens was delicious, especially with some added fish sauce, hoisin and Sriracha.
The other entree we tried was a massive assortment of pork, beef and chicken. The pork and chicken had each been sautéed with different sauces and vegetables, and were absolutely delicious. This one dish is plenty for sharing, but we were happy to have lots of all three preparations to take home for later. This dish really emphasized the light touch of Lac Viet, because it was similar to Chinese stir fry, and yet there was none of the heavy oiliness that turns me off of Chinese food. Really great stuff.
There is a small but well thought out list of wines and beers. Service is attentive and helpful.
There are quite a few good Vietnamese restaurants in Orlando, particularly in the Mills 50 area, but Lac Viet is the best I’ve been to anywhere.
Lac Viet
2021 E Colonial Dr
Orlando, FL 32803
(407) 228-4000
http://www.yelp.com/biz/lac-viet-orlando