**** (4 stars)
Dumpy old furniture, cave-like ambiance, everything you expect in a college-oriented coffee house. I love it. The food, whcih takes awhile since there’s often not much staff, is surprisingly good, the coffee drinks are Starbucks-killers, and the wifi is free. My favorite coffee house in Evanston.
Kafein
1621 Chicago Ave
Evanston, IL 60201
(847) 491-1621
http://www.yelp.com/biz/kafein-evanston
***** (5 stars)
I go here almost every weekend for lunch, and have never had anything but excellent sushi. Their Heaven Roll is perhaps my favorite sushi item anywhere, it’s sort of a California roll with salmon and a thin slice of lemon on top. Somehow the ingredients come together to create much more than you’d expect, as the tart lemon and bitter peel mesh with the richness of the mayo in the krab salad. The other great thing about Aji is that it’s open for lunch on Sunday.
Aji Sushi Teppan
3251 Daniels Rd
Winter Garden, FL 34787
(407) 877-9888
http://www.yelp.com/biz/aji-sushi-teppan-winter-garden
***** (5 stars)
This is a charming little sushi place with very friendly service. I go often for lunch during the week, and the yellowtail sashimi is always excellent. The Chirashi Bowl is a favorite, with its generous assortment of two pieces each of 9 types of fish and shellfish.
The floor plan is traditional sushi restaurant, with a good size sushi bar dominating a small dining room. I like the sunny ambiance and super cheerful table service.
Bonsai Sushi
5174 Dr. Phillips Blvd
Orlando, FL 32819
(407) 292-0333
http://www.yelp.com/biz/bonsai-sushi-orlando
**** (4 stars)
This place has been around for ages under one name or another, and it must be pretty good, because it’s almost impossible to find! It’s way at the back of the corridor of shops (and closed storefronts) that separates two section of the Dr. Phillips Marketplace. The lunch combos are a great deal here.
Nagoya Sushi
7600 Dr Phillips Blvd
Orlando, FL 32819
(407) 248-8558
http://www.yelp.com/biz/nagoya-sushi-orlando
**** (4 stars)
We used to go to Rangetsu on International Drive every week, and were sad when it closed. Now, years later, this loosely affiliated version has opened in Maitland. It’s much trendier than the old one, but sadly the food isn’t quite as good. If you like sitting at a sushi bar, this isn’t the place to go, because the sushi bar is small and a wall of plywood blocks your view of the chefs’ work. But if you want sushi at your table, or like the idea that the place turns into a dance club late at night, then it’s a good bet. One of my favorite sushi rolls was the old Rangetsu’s mayo and wasabi laced dynamite roll, and happily they have that at this new location. Note that parking is mostly by valet, even at off hours.
RanGetsu
901 S Orlando Ave
Maitland, FL 32751
(407) 345-0044
http://www.yelp.com/biz/rangetsu-maitland
***** (5 stars)
Okay, I admit it. I’m now addicted to the cauliflower pizza, and had to upgrade my star rating to five. “That’s not pizza!” says my cauliflower-hating wife, but whatever it is, it’s scrumptious. Charred crust, and perfectly rich garlicky olive-oil roasted cauliflower. Yum.
Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza
8031 Turkey Lake Rd
Orlando, FL 32819
(407) 363-9466
http://www.yelp.com/biz/anthonys-coal-fired-pizza-orlando
***** (5 stars)
I’ve traveled the world and have yet to find better middle eastern food than at Cedar’s. Service is friendly, and the hummus and tabbouleh can’t be beat. The felafel is never greasy, and the pitas are baked fresh and replenished multiple times during your meal. Perfection.
Cedar’s Restaurant
7732 W Sand Lake Rd
Orlando, FL 32819
(407) 351-6000
http://www.yelp.com/biz/cedars-restaurant-orlando
* (1 stars)
We’ve been having a little contest at work to find the best hamburger in town. I’d previously had a pretty good burger at the Thornton Park Graffiti Junktion, so I suggested trying this one.
When we ordered the hamburgers, all of us ordered them medium except one person who asked for medium well, a reasonable request given the dangers of eating undercooked raw ground meat in some places. He was informed that they only prepare them rare, medium rare or medium. This is very odd, as most places in town won’t even cook hamburgers less than medium.
Our meal showed up after a fairly long wait, and looked good. The fries certainly won’t win any awards, as they’re rather limp and flavorless, but the burgers looked good. Then we bit into them. Even around the edges they were essentially raw inside. Given the strange cooking policies, we didn’t even try to send them back, just nibbled the edible parts and left.
Steak is fine to eat rare or raw. I have steak tartare often. According to a 2010 report by the US Department of Agriculture’s Inspector General, ground beef in the US is routinely contaminated with biological pathogens such as e coli and salmonella. Cooking can destroy these pathogens if meat is cooked to a sufficient internal temperature. Given the lack of management evident in nearly every aspect of our visit to Graffiti Junktion College Park, there is no way I would assume they have even stored the meat properly or cleanly, so I will be trying other places.
This place is off the list.
Graffiti Junktion
2401 Edgewater Dr
Orlando, FL 32804
(407) 377-1961
http://www.yelp.com/biz/graffiti-junktion-orlando-2
***** (5 stars)
This is the Churrascaria concept, where roving servers with skewers of meats come by your table delivering 16 different kinds of meat until you beg them to stop (well, actually until you turn over the little red and green piece of cardboard by your plate).
The meats are terrific (especially the house specialty caipirinha seasoned beef, and the baby lamb chops) but I was even more impressed by the delicious offerings at the included salad bar. Each ingredient was incredibly fresh and succulent, and there was a terrific variety, from Ceasar salad to curried cucumber to giant stalks of perfectly cooked asparagus.
Service was hyper attentive. The room is decorated in very appealing woods, a much better ambiance, I thought, than the competing Texas de Brazil Churrascaria up the street, and the food was certainly better.
These places are fairly expensive, with lunch about $26 and dinner topping out at $42. On the other hand, the salad bar only option seems like a pretty good deal at dinner, since it’s always $19.
Fogo de Chão Brazilian Steakhouse
8282 International Dr
Orlando, FL 32819
(407) 370-0711
http://www.yelp.com/biz/fogo-de-ch%C3%A3o-brazilian-steakhouse-orlando-3
***** (5 stars)
This is about as close as you can get to authentic Italian food in Orlando. The ingredients are fresh, and many of them are imported. In fact, you know you’re in for a treat from the moment they put down the fresh bread, because the olive oil it’s drizzled with is sublime, and the dusting of grated cheese packs a ton of flavor into each bite.
We tried the antipasto plate, which had a wonderful pecorino cheese studded with black pepper–probably the best pecorino I’ve had. I’m not much of a meat person, but my wife liked all of the meats on the plate.
We also had the mussels, which were served in a tomato sauce that had very fresh tomato pieces. I’m betting these came from Italy, as they weren’t the American kind that you can bounce into a semi truck.
The pictures on the website show lots of fish and shellfish dishes, but the only fish dish I could find was the special, a snapper cooked in parchment, served with shellfish. The snapper was (mostly) de-boned at tableside. It was moist, but a bit of a pain to eat, and the shellfish wasn’t as good as the mussel appetizer.
Perperoncino is tiny, bright and noisy, not my first choice of ambiance, but on nice evenings the restaurant doubles its size by expanding onto the plaza it fronts. That’s the ticket for a truly authentic Italian meal.
Peperoncino
7988 Via Dellagio Way
Orlando, FL 32819
(407) 440-2856
http://www.yelp.com/biz/peperoncino-orlando