Category Archives: Florida

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

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

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

Dewey’s Indoor Golf & Sports Grill

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*** (3 stars)

Dewey’s is an interesting combination of golf practice center and restaurant/bar. I’m not really much of a golfer, but I did accept their free swing for a chance to win $1000. I landed in the water.

But I was there for the food, and it was pretty good. They offer the usual sports bar combination of burgers, hot dogs, sandwiches, pizza and a few pasta dishes and salads. We tried the Lime shrimp, which has a nice lime flavor, and the veggie burger, an excellent, crusty black bean burger that came with some nicely crisped battered fries.

Other guests has the beer brat (a hot dog served with sautéed peppers) and the turkey club, which was huge. The all enjoyed their choices.

The atmosphere is pretty neat, a fairly dark space with strategic spotlights, surrounded by computer-generated golf course images from the golf games. The price for the golf games ranges up to $72 per hour, which seems absurdly high to me, but the food prices are reasonable.

Dewey’s Indoor Golf & Sports Grill
7720 Turkey Lake Rd
Orlando, FL 32819
(407) 279-3311
http://www.yelp.com/biz/deweys-indoor-golf-and-sports-grill-orlando

The Rusty Spoon

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**** (4 stars)

This gastropub on Church street offers some great food at impressively affordable prices. A well thought out menu lets you graze on starters or assemble a conventional dinner.

We tried the grilled squid and octopus and the haystack fries as starters. The seafood was tender and succulent with just the right amount of char, and served over nicely dressed arugula with tasty pickled rinds. The fries were hay thick and tossed with herbs and cheese. Nicely crispy but not particularly hot (probably because they were too thin to stay warm), they were accompanied by house made ketchup, barbecue sauce and aioli.

To finish up our light meal we shared the “55” burger, a generous serving of meat, charred on the outside and grilled to a perfectly requested medium rare. caramelized onions and melted gouda gave it plenty of flavor, and the bun was crusty enough to hold it together, even when split.

Half the menu is wine and beer selections. Our 2005 Guigal Chateauneuf du Pape lived up to the stellar reputation of the vintage.

The Rusty Spoon
55 W Church St
Ste 101
Orlando, FL 32801
(407) 401-8811
http://www.yelp.com/biz/the-rusty-spoon-orlando

Miller’s Ale House Restaurants

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**** (4 stars)

I’m not completely in tune with the whole sports bar thing, probably because I’m not a sport fan. But Miller’s Ale House is certainly the most successful chain of them in Orlando. This location, on Kirkman, is packed every day, and the food is good (just don’t check the calorie counts on their website).

Burgers and salads are good bets here, and I also like the chicken fajitas, one of the healthier choices (they are lower in calories than many of the salads).

Service is decent, but it’s pretty much impossible to have lunch here in less than an hour, so don’t go if you’re tight on time.

Miller’s Ale House Restaurants
5573 S Kirkman Rd
Orlando, FL 32819
(407) 248-0000
http://www.yelp.com/biz/millers-ale-house-restaurants-orlando-6

The Big Easy

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**** (4 stars)

The Big Easy offers fairly authentic New Orleans style food in a convivial, neighborhood sports bar-like atmosphere. The emphasis is on fried food, including shrimp, crawfish and oysters, which can be ordered as an appetizer or in a po’boy sandwich.

We enjoyed the mixed seafood appetizer and the fried pickles, but my favorite was the Mufaletta sandwich, as good as any I’ve had in New Orleans. The ham was tender and generous, the olive spread appropriately tangy, and the bread had the perfect crusty consistency. The sandwich was accompanied by some great battered fries, served piping hot.

There are also entrees such as Étouffée and Jambalaya and blackened redfish. I found the flavors of the Étouffée and Jambalaya a bit too similar.

Service was a real standout. A single waitress handled the whole room, and was more efficient than three people might have been. She kept our drinks refilled, checked back often, and made the whole experience a very pleasant one.

The Big Easy
15502 Stoneybrook W Pkwy
Ste 120
Winter Garden, FL 34787
(407) 654-3279
http://www.yelp.com/biz/the-big-easy-winter-garden