Dandelion Communitea Café

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**** (4 stars)

This cute little restaurant is in a cute little house. You order at a cute little counter in the front room, and then they bring your food to you in one of the cute little inside rooms or on the not-so-cute front patio.

The majority of what they serve consists of quinoa and mixed greens with various vegetable toppings. This means that if you don’t like what you get it’s pretty much your own fault, since you picked it.

I particularly liked the ginger cilantro dressing that came with my friend’s lunch. Prices are very reasonable. Service is not really restaurant style, but more at an operational level.

Probably the best choice in town for a vegetarian meal.

Dandelion Communitea Café
618 N Thornton Ave
Orlando, FL 32803
(407) 362-1864
http://www.yelp.com/biz/dandelion-communitea-café-orlando-2

Elephant Bar Restaurant

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**** (4 stars)

The elephant bar was a pleasant surprise. I was expecting just another middle of the road homogenous American food chain ala TGI Fridays, but it’s far better. For starters, the interior design is beautiful, filled with curved spaces, attractive wood and bamboo surfaces, lots of booths that help with the ambient noise level, and an intimate circular bar near the door.

The menu would be great in a foreign country, because each item is pictured, and the food that shows up actually looks like the picture.

I had the Thai BBQ Salmon Salad, and I have to say it was one of the best salads I’ve ever had. The wood-fired salmon was charred around the edges and glazed with a sweet yet tangy Thai BBQ sauce. The mixed greens were lightly tossed with a citrusy vinaigrette. And the plate was surrounded by little piles of mango, marinated cucumbers, green beans, cherry tomatoes, orange slices, and grilled bell peppers. Each had a unique flavor that complemented the salad. Really a delicious offering.

Service was friendly and efficient, from the greeter at the front door to the desk, to our server. Prices might be a dollar or two higher than the norm, but I felt it was worth it. Aside from a dirty fork, the entire experience was a great one, and I’ll be lobbying the lunch group to return here soon.

Elephant Bar Restaurant
4054 Conroy Road
Orlando, FL 32839
(407) 370-6412
http://www.yelp.com/biz/elephant-bar-restaurant-orlando

The Capital Grille

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SyndicateSept2014

***** (5 stars)

This is my favorite of all the Capital Grilles I have been to. Our wine group meets here in the back room, and the service is consistently superb, the venue perfect, and the glassware plentiful.

My favorite menu items are the crab cakes, lobster mac and cheese, wedge salad, and the kona crusted steak. Ask for the bone-in filet, which they sometimes have. My favorite side vegetable is the truffle fries. Creamed spinach and asparagus are also good.

Free valet parking is very convenient.

The Capital Grille
9101 International Dr
Orlando, FL 32819
(407) 370-4392
http://www.yelp.com/biz/the-capital-grille-orlando

Crafted Block & Brew

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**** (4 stars)

This craft beer pub is a great addition to Metrowest. Taking over a long empty restaurant space, the total remodel has created a light, airy and open environment with a large bar in the center. The new outside dining area is extensive, and is rain free, even during a thunderstorm (as we tested!)

The menu offers a nice assortment of salads, sandwiches and burgers. I had the roasted vegetable salad, which had an interesting assortment of root vegetables and was tossed with a deliciously herbal dressing.

We also sampled the cheese appetizer, which was a tasty dish combining several flavors for spooning onto wontons.

Service was extremely attentive and friendly. A great new neighborhood hang out.

Crafted Block & Brew
2417 S. Hiawassee Rd
Orlando, FL 32835
(407) 601-6887
http://www.yelp.com/biz/crafted-block-and-brew-orlando-3

Sapporo Ramen

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*** (3 stars)

This small place in the Asian plaza on Colonial offers a nice variety of Ramen dishes, plus an assortment of more elaborate items. You order at a counter in the back, and then your food is brought to your table.

We tried the Shoyu Ramen, which is served with thin sliced pork. The broth was flavorful (and fairly salty) and the noodles had a good consistency.

The takoyaki would be an acquired taste. The deep fried balls had a nice outer consistency, but the gooey inside took some getting used to.

I also saw some tempura delivered to a nearby table, and it looked quite good.

There is an excellent bakery next door to satisfy your sweet tooth.

Sapporo Ramen
5080 W Colonial Dr
Orlando, FL 32808
(407) 203-6777
http://www.yelp.com/biz/sapporo-ramen-orlando

Dexter’s

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IMG_4886

Voted Orlando’s Best Bloody Mary

**** (4 stars)

This is the nicest interior of any Dexter’s location, bright and cheery. The dining room and bar are one area, which works well for the dining room, but makes the bar someplace that isn’t very cozy to hang out in.

Dexter’s menu has a great assortment of salads, sandwiches, and small plates. I’m particularly fond of the Rustic Cast Iron Skillet Salad, a delicious blend of oven dried tomatoes, grilled asparagus, artichoke hearts, rosemary roasted potatoes, feta cheese chunks and mixed greens. Ask for the lemon dill dijon dressing on the side, as it doesn’t take much. The rosemary potatoes on this dish are particularly delicious.

Service is friendly and quick; it’s easy to get in and out for lunch in under an hour.

Dexter’s
4757 The Grove Dr
Windermere, FL 34786
(407) 258-7028
http://www.yelp.com/biz/dexters-windermere-2

Blue’s Egg

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***** (5 stars)

If anyone had told me I would wait an hour in line to get breakfast I would have called them crazy, but boy was it worth it. This isn’t a tiny restaurant by any means, but it could be several times as large and would still be packed.

There are three dining areas: the front patio could be a bit hot in the sun; the front room which includes a counter, but is quite noisy; and the back room, which is quieter and more nicely decorated. We were pleased when we were seated in the back room.

Three items stood out:

The monkey bread is crusty on the outside, soft on the inside, and has a wonderfully complex cinnamon flavor. It didn’t need the whiskey dipping sauce.

The hashbrowns were wonderfully buttery and bursting with potato flavor, and crisp on top.

The Hoppel Poppel was an amazing mix of scrambled eggs, sausage, cherry-wood bacon, caramelized onions, shredded potatoes, spinach, all topped with hollandaise sauce. I had to stop myself from eating the whole thing, which was really enough for about four people!

Service was friendly and helpful.

I’m so glad I live far, far away from this place, or I’d be there every day!

Blue’s Egg
317 N 76th
Milwaukee, WI 53213
(414) 299-3180
http://www.yelp.com/biz/blues-egg-milwaukee

Bacchus

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***** (5 stars)

Beautiful room, great food, fantastic wine list; what more could you want?

As you might expect from the name, the highlight here is wine. There are hundreds of offerings, and most of the markups are below typical restaurant pricing. We had a wonderful bottle of 2007 Nicholas Potel Chambolle-Musigny that was exactly the kind of earthy, complex Burgundy we were looking for.

The ratatouille appetizer (which I apparently had during its last day on the summer menu) was perfectly cooked and flavorful, and the tuna tartare was refreshing, although I thought it could have been a bit more flavorful. Crispy shrimp was indeed very crispy, and was served with a tasty blend of sauces that combined sweet with a bit of spice.

The halibut entree was perfectly cooked, and served atop deliciously rich fennel.

We finished with a 5-cheese assortment, and found several artisan cheeses that we loved.

Service was friendly and helpful, and our meal was relaxing and fun.

Bacchus
925 E. Wells St.
Milwaukee, WI 53202
(414) 765-1166
http://www.yelp.com/biz/bacchus-a-bartolotta-restaurant-milwaukee-2

Sprecher Brewing Co

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***** (5 stars)

I didn’t know what to expect from a microbrewery tour, but Sprecher certainly exceeded my expectations on all counts.. It’s a lovely facility, with a staff that is obviously in love with what they do.

Entry and exit is through a fair-sized shop that sells beers, sodas and gift items. For the bargain sum of $5 you receive a tour of the productions facility, from mashing to bottling. Then, in the indoor beer garden, you are invited to taste as many of their sodas as you like, and four beers. There are about ten choices of each. The pours are generous, and you even get to keep the glass.

The company was started in 1984 with two beers, but the introduction of root beer a decade later hit big. We learned that their soda assortment actually outsells their beer, and that their root beer outsells all their other products combined.

Our favorite soda was the orange dream, and out favorite beer was one of their originals, the Black Bavarian. We bought some of each to take home.

This was a great way to spend a couple of hours, and I’m looking forward to returning.

Sprecher Brewing Co
701 W Glendale Ave
Milwaukee, WI 53209
(414) 964-7837
http://www.yelp.com/biz/sprecher-brewing-company-milwaukee