Digino’s (https://www.facebook.com/diginos/) used to be one of many nondescript pizzerias in Casselberry, hidden away near the Walmart Supercenter and behind the McDonald’s at 1271 State Road 436 (also known as Semoran Boulevard). However, earlier this year, new owner Dana Temirbayeva revamped the restaurant, changing the entire concept and menu to something fresh, healthy, and unique. She turned two lovely Ukrainian ladies loose in the kitchen, and they came up with an eclectic menu of breakfast and brunch dishes (including avocado toast and plenty of other toasts, plus brunch cocktails), healthy protein bowls, soups, salads, savory and sweet crepes, desserts, and best of all, a bunch of authentic Slavic and Ukranian dishes. My wife loves breakfast foods and healthy stuff, and I’m always excited to try any Eastern European cuisines, since there isn’t much to choose from here in Orlando.
Since Digino’s doesn’t have an operational website with their menu up yet, I took the liberty of photographing every page of the diverse menu. Yes, they’re using AI-generated pictures of their dishes throughout the menu, but their food comes out of the kitchen looking so beautiful, hopefully my review will give you more of an idea of what the dishes really look like. As always, you can right-click any of these menu photos and open them in new tabs, then click again to enlarge the images.
This is my wife’s cappuccino, which she enjoyed. Tatiana brought out Sugar in the Raw and Sweet and Low to go with it, and my wife told me she would have preferred regular white sugar, which melts better in hot beverages. But I was struck by the beautiful glass mug. The water glasses were from a matching set with the same intricate bubble-like pattern, and they were striking.
She is going through a chia pudding phase, so she tried Digino’s Greek yogurt chia pudding, served as a parfait between layers of fresh mango and mango puree, topped with granola. We both love mango, but I didn’t try any of this. The little round glass with a holder for a wooden spoon was a nice touch. 
She also got this shrimp protein bowl with garlic paprika shrimp and a salad with mixed field greens, cherry tomato, cucumber, and lots of fresh avocado. The menu mentioned a lime yogurt sauce, but this tasted more like a very light vinaigrette to both of us. On the menu, it is served over jasmine rice, but she asked if they could substitute quinoa, since another protein bowl came with quinoa instead of rice, and they were fine making the substitution.
These beauties are called pelmeni, handmade Ukrainian dumplings stuffed with seasoned beef. They were delightfully soft and chewy, a bit like Italian tortellini, Chinese wontons, or tiny versions of the manty we loved so much at the Uzbek restaurant Chayhana. I ordered pelmeni earlier this year at Wine 4 Oysters in East Orlando, but this was a much larger portion. Like Wine 4 Oysters, these pelmeni came with sour cream on the side, were garnished with parsley, and were also tossed in a little melted butter, which is always nice. 
The side salad, similar to what came in my wife’s shrimp protein bowl, was also a pleasant touch. The golden vinaigrette dressing was so good, I found myself wishing there was more of it.
This was the braised beef short rib shawarma wrap, which was like no shawarma I’ve had before. I’ve enjoyed beef shawarma at many SWANA (Southwest Asian and North African) restaurants like The Dough Show (Egyptian), The Cairo Express food truck (also Egyptian), and Rawsha (Iraqi), but this one had a completely different flavor profile, probably due to its Slavic pedigree. The main vegetables inside were lettuce and carrots, cut into crunchy matchsticks, and there was an oily sauce inside that I could not place. The outer surface of the wrap was grilled until crispy, which I love, but Tatiana served it with a pair of disposable black latex gloves, which was a first for me. It’s because the outside surface of the grilled shawarma wrap was completely brushed with butter, which was also a first for me! 
Check out that gorgeous green glass in the top right corner above!
These are cottage cheese pancakes called syrniki. They look small, but they are much thicker than standard American-style pancakes, and a lot denser. They are sweet, with a hint of vanilla, but even with that light dusting of powdered sugar on top, they weren’t cloyingly sweet like some pancakes that taste more like a dessert. That is sour cream in the ramekin in the top right and sweetened condensed milk in the bottom right.
Finally, Tatiana sent us home with a slice of Eastern European honey cake, with multiple thin, creamy layers. Folks, this was sooooo delicious. It was sweet, but not nearly as sweet as American cakes always are, and it was surprisingly light. Best of all, the consistency of the entire cake felt like when a graham cracker pie or cheesecake crust gets really moist. It practically melts in your mouth. 
Here’s a different angle so you can see all the luscious layers after we each got a few forkfuls. If you go to Digino’s (and you should), don’t sleep on the honey cake! 
In fact, don’t sleep on this place at all. It doesn’t help that Digino’s is just far enough off Semoran that you can’t see it when driving by, but it really is behind that McDonald’s, and there is ample parking. This is one of those unique treasures, where you can have a bougie, boozy brunch with your besties (I can’t believe I typed that), protein-maxx (I can’t believe I typed that either), or enjoy and explore old-world comfort foods from Eastern Europe, whether you or your people hail from that old world or not. I can’t wait to return when the weather gets a little cooler and order some borscht, since my wife and I both like beets now. I also look forward to trying kholodets, a beef and chicken garlic aspic that was once reserved for well-to-do nobles who could afford refrigeration, but I learned about it from one of the best food shows of all time, Hannibal.
Tatiana was so warm and welcoming, and the whole place is just nice, right down to their beautiful glassware. They could use your business, and you could use a little treat this morning, or this weekend. Why not seek it out at the all-new, all-different Digino’s?
