The Saboscrivner

Digino’s

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?

Sofrito Latin Cafe

Sofrito Latin Cafe (https://www.sofritocafe.com/) features familiar dishes (and a few more esoteric ones) from eight countries: Cuba, Colombia, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Argentina, Peru, and Brazil. It is located at 8607 Palm Parkway, Orlando, FL 32836, in the Lake Buena Vista area near Disney Springs — way out of my usual radius.

Last weekend, however, I met two out-of-state friends there for lunch: a cat-loving badass with his own hardcore/punk/metal record label, Absolute Contempt Records, and his partner, an accomplished and brilliant art history professor. They were exhausted after a week at Disney World and getting ready for the long drive home, and they wanted some good Cuban food before leaving Orlando, since it isn’t available anywhere in their small college town. They actually discovered Sofrito, which was close and convenient, but I had never heard of it, since I’m never on that side of town. It ended up being the perfect place to meet and catch up before they hit the road.

Like many other fast casual establishments have started doing, you order and pay on touchscreens at the front of the restaurant, then your food is delivered to your table.

My one friend has a real sweet tooth, and I was living vicariously through his social media photos of the food they were eating at Disney all week. He ordered himself a virgin piña colada and a coconut flan, which they brought out before all the rest of our food. For most, flan is a dessert, but for this dude, flan was an appetizer!

His partner ordered this Cuban pernil sandwich, with roast pork marinated in cilantro-garlic mojo criollo on pressed Cuban bread. They shared the sandwich and fries, which cost extra.

He ordered himself this Venezuelan arepa de pabellon, a corn patty stuffed with shredded beef (similar to Cuban ropa vieja), black beans, crumbled white cheese, and a sweet plantain, which I write about often enough that my dozens of readers probably know them as maduros by now.

And speaking of sweet plantains, I ordered a unique Venezuelan sandwich for myself: this beautiful patacon de maduro. Instead of bread, this sandwich of the same shredded beef, white cheese, chopped lettuce, diced tomatoes, and cilantro-garlic sauce was (barely) held together between two flattened and fried sweet plantains! This was a “knife-and-forker” sandwich for sure; there was no picking it up.
That little ramekin in the photo above is Dijon mustard, which they serve their Cuban sandwiches with.

Here’s an inside view. I think it could have used far more tomatoes and cilantro-garlic sauce, and some onions would have been nice, but it was still good, and the Dijon helped add some necessary acidity and spice to this patacon de maduro. I am proud to report I got two meals out of this!

Sofrito Latin Cafe had a nice menu with plenty of choices to please anyone, and all the food we tried was solid. It would be a convenient place to stop into occasionally if it was anywhere near me, but because it is almost an hour away, I don’t know when or if I’ll ever return. But for anyone who lives on that side of town, or any tourists who dare to venture out of the parks and want an authentic sampling of all the diverse Latin culinary cultures in Orlando, it would be a fantastic destination — affordable, fast, welcoming, and plenty of variety.

Chima Steakhouse

“Who is the gaucho, amigo?
Why is he standing
In your spangled leather poncho
And your elevator shoes?
Bodacious cowboys
Such as your friend
Will never be welcome here
High in the Custerdome.”

–“Gaucho” (1980), written by Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, performed by Steely Dan.

If you’ve ever been to an all-you-can-eat Brazilian steakhouse (commonly called churrascarias), you are familiar with the servers (commonly called gauchos, named after Brazilian and Argentinian cowboys) showing up at your table with a never-ending parade of grilled meats on swords and serving whatever you request, as many times as you wish. While the titular gaucho in Steely Dan’s song was a garishly clad, unwelcome weirdo, the gauchos at these restaurants are a welcome sight, and they will seduce you with steak, beguile you with beef, and charm you with chicken.

Chima Steakhouse (https://chimasteakhouse.com/), located at 7830 West Sand Lake Road on Orlando’s “Restaurant Row,” is one of these Brazilian churrascarias, similar in concept to international chains Texas de Brazil and Fogo de Chao and Orlando’s locally owned and operated Adega Gaucha and Boi Brazil. They are all decadent experiences, where you can eat like a king until you get the meat sweats, but I can’t eat like I used to, back in my 20s. (Shame, because I have a much better budget now to treat myself to dining out.)

But my favorite part of all the all-you-can-eat Brazilian steakhouses, even moreso than the gauchos and their tireless meat delivery system, is the sumptuous salad bar all these restaurants have in common. As if nonstop meats weren’t enough of a draw, they also offer a variety of fresh salads and house-made dressings, fresh, roasted, grilled, marinated, and pickled vegetables, fresh fruit, hot rice and potato dishes, prepared salads (Chima has a mayo-based potato salad with chicken and a quinoa salad, among others), Brazil’s beloved national dish feijoada (a black bean stew full of beef and pork, which you top with toasted yuca flour called farofa), smoked salmon, fine imported cheeses, fancy cured meats, and more. And you know your friendly neighborhood Saboscrivner — some of my favorite foods in the whole world are smoked salmon, cheese, and cured meats!

Chima’s salad bar is top-tier. Here you see their gorgeous platter of folded slices of melt-in-your-mouth cold-smoked salmon, perfect and untouched since we got there right when the restaurant first opened for lunch. In the top left, you see their chilled kani and mango salad, kani being the sweet and tender surimi, or “krab” you may have enjoyed in California rolls. Below that is their seafood salad, which includes shrimp, scallops, tender squid rings, grape tomatoes, red onions, celery, and capers, tossed in a light and refreshing vinaigrette dressing. I loved all of this, especially on a hot September day.

And of course, I couldn’t leave these delectable cured meats behind! Not when there are thin slices of peppery Genoa salami, rich and salty prosciutto, and tender, fluffy mortadella with pistachios to choose from. I’m a shark when it comes to charcuterie.

And these were paper-thin slices of beef carpaccio, served chilled, topped with pesto sauce, grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, and capers. This was another hit, as far as I’m concerned.

By the way, during the week, if you just get the salad bar at lunch, it is only $20 per person, which I consider one of the best deals in town, with all of this bounty. I don’t get many weekdays off work, but you better believe I will return to take advantage of that deal. My wife and I went to Chima on a Saturday with the salad bar on our minds first and foremost, but we found out that on the weekends, the salad bar costs $36. However, for lunch, the complete churrascaria experience is $54 — much cheaper than it is at dinnertime — so for an additional $18, we decided to treat ourselves and go for the meat as well. We don’t go to these places often, but I was happy to try as many things as I did. And this way, I can offer my dozens of readers a more thorough and detailed review! Yes, I did this for YOU. You’re welcome!

This was my plate of salad bar goodness, with all of the above, plus fresh mozzarella and gouda cheeses, sun-dried tomatoes, roasted garlic, orzo pasta salad with pesto, and what they had labeled as “Brazilian vinaigrette,” that reminded me of a pico de gallo with all the finely chopped multicolored vegetables.

When we first sat down, our jocular server brought us this pao de queijo, Brazilian cheese bread that is always a little chewy and gummy. My wife absolutely loves these, but I gotta admit, for a fella who loves bread and cheese and especially cheese on or in bread, they don’t do much for me. It’s a texture thing, as well as having my buffet-loving dad’s voice in my head, sharing his wisdom, cautioning me “DON’T FILL UP ON BREAD!”

The pao de queijo were soon joined by cinnamon-dusted fried bananas (top right), creamy mashed potatoes (bottom left; neither of us messed with this), and fried polenta (bottom right). I had a piece of the fried polenta just to try it, since none of the other Brazilian steakhouses serve these; it was okay, but I won’t bother with them in the future. The bananas were my favorite, but I would have preferred them a little caramelized with sugar rather than cinnamon, like my beloved maduros.

These days, I mostly eat lean meats at home: chicken breasts (boring, but healthy), lean pork loin (a blank canvas for infinite variations), and ground turkey, which I usually make into meatloaf or chili. I hardly eat beef at all anymore, especially because it is so expensive these days, but I figured I would go hard on protein and take advantage of Chima’s offerings.

The very first meat that was delivered to our table was filet mignon. Our server asked us how we like our meat, and we both said rare, so all the gauchos were very conscious of only bringing us rare cuts of beef. (Luckily, they didn’t deliver us any rare chicken.) While I failed to photograph the filet, it was so incredibly tender. I almost never eat steak, and especially not filet, but I was impressed by the almost buttery texture.

Next up, I tried both cuts of chicken Chima offered: grilled chicken thigh marinated in their house-made aji sauce, and a beer-marinated chicken drumstick. Usually I skip the chicken at these Brazilian churrascarias, because it tends to be on the bland side (and it’s cheaper than beef, so they walk the chicken around more often, hoping you’ll fill up on it), but these were amazing. I could have happily made a meal of just these two kinds of chicken.That is rare flank steak on the right, which was delicious, but much tougher than the perfect filet.

I held off on eating the next few meat deliveries so I could take a pretty picture for y’all. That’s how much I care. On the left, carnivores will recognize the famous Brazilian picanha, or top sirloin, which is a standard at these sorts of places. On the top, you have a rich, fatty, tender cut of beef rib (costilla), cut right off the huge bone. This is my favorite cut of beef at churrascarias, and it is one of my wife’s favorites too. Next to it are two different Brazilian sausages. Most of these restaurants just offer the more pinkish-hued savory sausage on the bottom, but Chima also had a cheddar sausage (on the top), full of melty cheddar cheese that oozed out when I cut into it. I really enjoyed that one.On the right, you can see marinated and grilled shrimp, which I’ve never noticed at Texas de Brazil, Fogo de Chao, or Adega Gaucha. These were also terrific. And in the middle, those lovely things are grilled slices of Brazilian coalho cheese, topped with a little honey. These were so nice as palate-cleansers between the various rich and salty meats. Adega Gaucha and Boi Brazil serve this cheese with a thick and sticky guava sauce, which I honestly prefer, but they were great with the honey. When the honey hit that Brazilian sausage, it was also a flavor sensation, reminding me of how Special Agent Dale Cooper loved it when maple syrup collided with ham on his breakfast plate on Twin Peaks.

These were slices of pineapple, grilled and covered with cinnamon, which served as a nice, light dessert after all that heaviness. I love pineapple in any form, or pineapple-flavored anything, but this was another rare time when I preferred the more caramelized, less cinnamony grilled pineapple at Adega Gaucha.

Neither of us had expected to have such a huge and heavy lunch when we headed down to Chima, but faced with paying $36 for the salad bar versus $54 for the full experience, I think we made the right call. I’d do it again, but honestly, I am much more likely to return on one of my rare weekdays off from work, so I can take advantage of that gourmet salad bar for the low, low price of $20.

How would I rare Chima compared to the four other Brazilian churrascarias I’ve been to? Well, I’ve never gotten around to reviewing Fogo de Chao (after four visits) or Boi Brazil (after one visit that will probably be my only one). I think Adega Gaucha was my favorite of all of them, and I can’t say anything bad about it, but I honestly think Chima might be my new favorite, and my wife agrees, having been to all of them except Fogo. The atmosphere at Chima was incredibly nice, and the service was top-notch. I appreciated how they remembered our preference for rare steak and how they took requests, like when we asked about the beef rib. They were also forthcoming with the better cuts of meat, even though I actually loved the chicken here. A lot of the other restaurants walk around a lot with a parmesan-crusted pork loin that I always find to be very dry, but nobody even approached us with that one at Chima.

I think I liked all the meats here the best for one major reason: they were much less salty than all of their competitors, which is another reason I like doing the salad bars alone so much. I like meat, I like salt, but most of their rivals oversalt the meats like crazy. Not Chima. Everything was seasoned and cooked perfectly. That chicken! That shrimp! That filet! Those sausages! And yes, the salad bar was unparalleled. I give Chima my Saboscrivner Seal of Superiority, and I know I’ll be back at some point. (It’s across town from us, but maybe that’s a good thing, so I’m not tempted to try again tomorrow.)

Chain Reactions: Philly Pretzel Factory

Philly Pretzel Factory (https://phillypretzelfactory.com/) is a chain of soft pretzel bakeries that two Philadelphia guys started 25 years ago. The website doesn’t make it easy to see a complete list of locations, but as of this writing, there are two in Florida — one that opened recently right near me in Casselberry, and another further south in Palm Beach Gardens. However, more are coming to Orlando’s Kia Center, Winter Garden, Cocoa Beach, South Tampa, and Cape Coral, and their pretzels are also available at Big Dave’s Cheesesteaks in Oviedo and Orlando’s SoDo neighborhood. (I haven’t tried Big Dave’s yet because I already have my favorite place for cheesesteaks in all of Florida).

But just for the heck of it, I searched for locations within 200 miles of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and 150 showed up, so there may be a Philly Pretzel Factory near you, wherever you are — or one might be coming soon, in any case.

When I visited the Casselberry shop the week it opened, the lady working was kind enough to offer me a free pretzel right away! I don’t think I’m a special person or anything; she probably offers everyone one. But since I was coming in to purchase a pretzel, I happily accepted. This is what five of them look like, and they pull apart easily.
The pretzels are somewhat soft, but on the dense side. If you’ve been to a Wawa (another Philadelphia import; my favorite convenience stores in the Orlando area, which serve surprisingly solid hoagies and other fresh food), they sell really similar dense pretzels. As an aside, we used to buy frozen Deutsche Kuche pretzels at Aldi, imported from Germany. I must admit that after baking those in the toaster oven, they are a lot softer and fluffier than Philly Pretzel Factory or Wawa.

Thinking of my wife back home, as I always do, I thought she might like the cinnamon “rivets,” pretzel nuggets coated with cinnamon and sugar. Unfortunately, they only sell them in these large shaker cups. She didn’t really care for them, and I’m more of a savory pretzel person, so I literally rinsed the cinnamon and sugar off each one, dried them carefully, and used them for my own savory (never unsavory!) purposes.

I couldn’t resist the allure of these pretzel poppers, which are stuffed with Philly cheesesteak — sliced and chopped steak and Cooper Sharp white American cheese, which has become my favorite cheese for burgers, grilled cheese sandwiches, breakfast sandwiches, and of course cheesesteaks. American cheese is already great for any melting purposes, and I like the tanginess of Cooper Sharp more than any other brands I’ve tried. If you’re stuck in the mindset that American cheese is all gross plastic-wrapped, highly processed “cheese food,” think again!

They come in an order of three, and here’s a cross-section:These were far superior to the plain pretzel, and so much more unhealthy!

Because I am also a mark for spicy sausages, I couldn’t turn down a spicy pretzel sausage on my first visit:

And here it is, cut in half. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it was essentially a hot dog inside, just a little thicker and slightly spicier than a normal hot dog. But it paired well with…

Mustard! Philly Pretzel Factory sells four kinds of mustard in squeeze bottles, and they have little dipping cups for those who aren’t obsessive-compulsive mustard collectors like your humble narrator. I skipped the original yellow and honey mustards, but I bought bottles of the spicy brown and super hot mustards. How were they? You’re going to have to wait for my next installment of Cutting the Mustard, my massive mustard mega-reviews, to find out!

So did I like Philly Pretzel Factory? Sure! They were so nice, and I rarely regret trying anything new and novel. I was a little disappointed that the regular pretzels are almost identical to the ones at Wawa, in all their denseness. But I was happy to try the Philly cheesesteak-stuffed pretzel poppers and even the spicy pretzel sausage, and I’m always thrilled to discover new mustards to sample and review. But at the end of the day, my greatest soft pretzel experience remains a different chain, one you probably recognize from malls and airports: Auntie Anne’s. I love their buttery goodness above all! Maybe one day I’ll review them.

Aurora

To my dozens of regular readers, I apologize for accidentally publishing this piece last week, while it was still an incomplete draft. I unpublished it immediately, but any subscribers would have automatically received an unfinished version, and I regret that. That’s a rookie mistake, and you really hate to see it!

***

Aurora (https://aurorarestaurantorlando.com/) is a beautiful restaurant located inside the Celeste Hotel, standing in front of the University of Central Florida in East Orlando, at the intersection of University Boulevard and Alafaya Trail. I recently took my wife to dinner at Aurora, the first time for both of us, and we had an incredible experience that left us yearning for more. Executive Chef Mike Trudnak is a CIA graduate (the good CIA, the Culinary Institute of America), and he has created one of the most exciting menus I’ve encountered in the Orlando area in a long time. We will definitely return and hopefully become regulars, especially since Chef Trudnak changes the menu seasonally.

I had bugged my wife to try Aurora for years, but the impetus for us to finally make it there back in July was Bite 30, the annual midsummer event in which some Orlando restaurants offer an optional prix fixe menu where you can get an appetizer, an entree, and a dessert for the reasonable fixed price of $38. (It started out years ago at $30, hence the name, but I get it, food costs more, and I don’t begrudge restaurants having to raise their prices to stay afloat.) It’s a fantastic way to try new restaurants and sample several different dishes that you might never otherwise order.

I absolutely love that younger generations are drinking less, encouraging more and more restaurants to offer mocktails on their drink menus. Neither my wife nor I drink alcohol, but she likes the experience of getting a nice mixed drink in mocktail form. This was the Asteroid, with muddled blueberries and blackberries, lemon lime soda, and simple syrup, and garnished with fresh mint leaves. She said it was delicious.

Even though it wasn’t part of the Bite 30 menu, I suggested we get the bread service, with fresh, fluffy, pillowy-soft yeast rolls. These were awe-inspiring. If you’ve ever bought frozen Sister Schubert’s yeast rolls or tried the versions at Texas Roadhouse, those are fine, but these are a million times better, and not just because I’ve been eating low-carb lately. I can’t rave about these yeast rolls enough.

The bread service came with honey butter and house herb butter, both whipped for smooth and easy spreading. They were great (show me some bad butter… I’m waiting!), but the rolls were so perfect, they didn’t even need butter.

The beet and goat cheese summer salad was on the appetizer list for Bite 30, but even though there were appetizers that appealed to each of us more, we were both very intrigued by this salad. Our lovely and patient server Alura told us that we could order a half-portion of the salad and the kitchen would even split it for us, so we could each try everything. That was the perfect solution to a first-world problem, and we were so grateful to her for letting us know.

So this beautiful plating is half of the half-portion! The salad contains local baby greens, paper-thin sliced cucumber, heirloom tomatoes, pickled fennel, watermelon radish, baby beets, sorrel, sunflower seeds, hibiscus, and goat cheese puffs, with a wee pitcher of honey thyme vinaigrette dressing. What a masterful salad, as beautiful as it was tasty. We both love beats and goat cheese, and I’m always intrigued by interesting dressings because I eat so many salads at home. This did not disappoint.

The baked puffs, airy and crispy at the same time, really did have goat cheese baked inside!

We both love raw tuna, and my wife chose these gorgeous tuna tostadas as her Bite 30 prix fixe appetizer. They contained ponzu-marinated Ahi tuna, smashed avocado, aioli cabbage slaw, wakame (an edible seaweed), and pickled red onion on the top of the crunchy fried tostada discs. They were a little messy to eat, but so worth it.

As for me, as a middle-aged man, I don’t get that many opportunities to eat an entirely new meat for the first time in my life, so I couldn’t resist the allure of camel empanadas! Yes indeed, these golden-brown empanadas, fried to perfection, contained ground camel meat, seasoned with vadouvan curry, onions, peppers, and garlic. What the heck is vadouvan curry, you ask? Well, I didn’t know either, but I’m a librarian, so I looked it up. As usual, Serious Eats had the answer — a sweet and smoky French-influenced blend of toasted spices, with shallots, onions, garlic (sometimes), fenugreek, chile, cumin, and curry leaves.
They were served with whipped feta cucumber tzatziki dipping sauce. Everything was so good. As Jim Gaffigan once said, there’s no such thing as a bad empanada, and he was right.

Here’s a rare look inside a camel empanada!

My wife ordered the grilled beef filet medallions as her entree, a dish that would have cost $58 just by itself on the regular menu! They were served on a bed of carrot puree with asparagus, fondant potatoes (the two brown puffs at 1:00 and 7:00), and the brown sauce is a peppercorn demi-glace. Her only complaint was that she asked for them rare and they were cooked well beyond rare, but she still liked them a lot.

And since I was having a hard time deciding, I asked her what her second choice would be, so I could order that one. She said she was curious about the tableside finished eggplant parmesan, so of course I ordered it so we could share. The Italian-breaded eggplant cutlet looked a little naked, despite being topped with balsamic spheres and micro basil. The description didn’t mention it came with any pasta, so I was pleasantly surprised to see a bed of thick sheets of (no doubt freshly made) pappardelle underneath it.

But hey, what’s this? A second server came to the table, carefully holding a sizzling skillet of San Marzano tomato vodka sauce topped with melty broiled burrata and parmesan cheeses, meant to pour over the eggplant at tableside!

I never record video on The Saboscrivner food blog, because nobody wants to watch me eat, plus I have a face for radio and a voice best suited for print media. So you’ll have to believe me that it was a nice little production of the sauce and cheese sliding out of that hot pan onto my eggplant, but you don’t get to see it in action. You can imagine, though. I NEVER order eggplant parm at restaurants (I have two talented friends who made the best versions I’ve ever had in their own kitchens), but this was a particularly nice one, especially with the whole “dinner and a show” aspect.

For dessert, my wife got the flourless chocolate torte, with dark chocolate ganache, strawberry sorbet, and fresh strawberries. Me not being a big chocolate eater, it would never have occurred to me to order this, but I tried a small morsel, and I loved not only the rich, intense, chocolatey flavor, but also the smooth texture. It’s gluten-free, too!

I chose the lemon and wild berry cake because I always love any citrusy desserts. The small cake was about the size of a hockey puck, rather than a slice from a larger cake. It was topped with blueberry compote, a mountainous dollop of fresh whipped cream, and a beautiful hibiscus flower.

Here’s a better angle so you can see more of the blueberry compote on top and all the berries baked inside.

We went back to Aurora this past weekend for Magical Dining, when Orlando-area restaurants offer a similar fixed-price menu for either $40 or $60, and part of each bill goes to worthy charities like OCA (Opportunity, Community, Ability), which empowers individuals with autism and other developmental differences. (Aurora’s menu was $40.) This event is always scheduled for mid-August through September, historically one of the slower times of the year for restaurants, since kids are back in school and tourism decreases. Just like Bite 30, it’s a great opportunity to try new dishes at new restaurants, or to go back to old favorites, and my wife was excited to return to Aurora. Hopefully after reading this review, you might be excited to go there too, with several weeks left to go during Magical Dining.

The Magical Dining menu was very similar to the Bite 30 menu, but I tried my best to try different things this time. My wife got the beet and goat cheese summer salad for her appetizer again, because she loved it that much, but I got something I hoped she would enjoy as well: the jackfruit “tostachos.” This was a platter of crispy tostones (fried green plantains, not sweet or soft like maduros, which are ripe plantains), topped with shredded, roasted, and barbecue-seasoned jackfruit, pickled red onion, heirloom tomato salad, and adobo mayo ketchup. I wasn’t sure what it was going to be like, but it was delicious, and it was a much larger portion than the other appetizer I was considering, the Mexican arancini. There were actually five separate topped “tostachos” (like tostone-nachos, get it?), but I gave my wife one before snapping this photo.
The mayo-ketchup was a nice touch, since that’s a common dipping sauce for tostones at Puerto Rican restaurants. And the jackfruit had a similar consistency to shredded barbecue chicken, even though most people wouldn’t mistake it for chicken. I can see it being a godsend for any vegetarians and vegans who used to eat chicken and miss the whole experience.

My wife was drawn to the same grilled beef filet medallions, but this time, they were cooked perfectly rare, as she requested, and I thought this photo came out better.

But I switched it up and ordered a real Florida Man fusion dish: alligator fried rice, with marinated and cornstarch-fried Louisiana gator, tamari orange sauce, stir-fried vegetables (lots of snow peas in there), and sesame seeds. Alligator sure seems like a novelty food — something tourists have to try when they visit Florida or Louisiana — but I can’t help but be drawn to it every few years, just because I crave novelty just like anyone else. If I didn’t know it was alligator, I’d probably think it was fried chicken, but it is not as tender as chicken. Other than the fried gator nuggets and the sweet orange sauce, this reminded me of the fried rice I make at home, which was somehow a confidence-booster. I’m extra-glad I didn’t get the Mexican arancini appetizer, because that would have been two rice dishes in one meal, and that would be unhinged!

Creatures of habit that we are, we defaulted to the same desserts as last time, because they were so damn good. She got the flourless chocolate tarte with dark chocolate ganache and strawberry sorbet again, and it was just as good this time:

And I got the lemon and wild berry cake again, because it is probably in the Top Five restaurant desserts I’ve ever had. But this time, I was so full, I asked for it to go, and they were kind enough to pack up the fresh whipped cream and blueberry compote in separate little plastic ramekins.

Well, we have every intention of returning to Aurora in the future, even when they aren’t doing special fixed-price menus. I think of it as a “special occasion” restaurant, even though they have perfectly normal menus and even serve breakfast every weekday until 11 AM, plus brunch on the weekends. There aren’t a lot of “nicer” restaurants in East Orlando — just the Cooper’s Hawk chain in Waterford Lakes, the casual Wine 4 Oysters, and Aurora, and this is definitely our favorite. It’s so nice, but not a stuffy or intimidating sort of nice. Bring a date, bring your parents, bring out-of-town guests, and you’ll have a grand time. Just show up for breakfast or lunch on a regular, normal day, and you’ll really enjoy it, but don’t miss that Magical Dining menu. You have a few more weeks to catch the prix-fixe options, and I promise you won’t regret it.

Mae Tao and Son’s Kitchen

Orlando’s newest, hottest restaurant is Mae Tao and Son’s Kitchen (https://www.mtskitchen.com/). Located in the food court of Lotte Plaza Market, the sprawling Asian supermarket at 3191 West Colonial Drive, Orlando, FL 32808 (on the corner of John Young Parkway), this venture from married couple Brittney Keophoxay-Lam and Dan Lam serves Laotian and Cambodian (Khmer) cuisines. Orlando has had one Laotian restaurant for many years (Sticky Rice, which I haven’t been back to in far too long, come to think of it), but this is the first-ever Cambodian restaurant to open here, and it started out as a food truck before moving into its permanent location in the Lotte food court. They were in a soft opening phase for the past week, and they had their grand opening yesterday. Now that Mae Tao and Son’s Kitchen is officially open, the hours are Tuesday through Sunday, 11 AM to 8 PM.

The menu is on the website, as well as on the illuminated big screens above the booth, and believe me, my wife and I studied it in advance. I got there shortly after it opened today, and I ordered a bunch of food to bring home to share with her. I always keep a big “heat bag” in my car for bringing takeout food home, and everything was still hot when I got back home.

We started out with an order of roti, those crispy, flaky fried flatbreads that came with pickled cabbage (more about this later) and a creamy, mildly spicy house-made curry dipping sauce. If you’ve ever been to Hawkers, you probably know and love roti, and I’ve even bought very similar frozen ones, but these tasted freshly made.

We were both intrigued by this cured salmon laap salad. I am never a fan of cooked salmon, but I love raw salmon (one more reason I may be a bear, besides looking like one), and one of my favorite foods is cold-smoked, thin-sliced nova salmon, so I was curious about this version of cured salmon. The website says the slices of cured salmon are tossed with herbs (there was a lot of fresh mint, in addition to crunchy red and green onions), toasted rice powder, lime, and traditional Lao seasonings. It was served with some sliced cucumbers and a nice-sized portion of sticky rice, which I thought my wife would love, even if she wasn’t into the salmon. Well, she loved the sticky rice (she had only ever had sweet sticky rice before, in Thai desserts), and she surprised me by not only liking the cured salmon, but liking it more than I did. I generally love tangy, sour, acidic flavors, and I fell in love with the Thai “meat salad” larb when I first discovered it last year (at Isan Zaap Thai Cafe). I wondered if this “laap” salad would be similar to larb, especially with the toasted rice powder and lime juice, but this particular recipe had a fermented funkiness I wasn’t expecting, which made me wonder if fish sauce was one of those traditional Lao seasonings. I did appreciate that the salmon still had that nice raw texture and wasn’t “cooked” by the lime juice, the way salmon comes in ceviche. That said, I don’t regret ordering or trying it!

This was kuy teav, a Cambodian noodle soup made with a Wagyu beef broth, tender (and chewy!) beef meatballs, and flat rice noodles, topped with fresh herbs, shallots, and crispy fried garlic. I also paid small upcharges to have quail eggs, beef tripe, and a braised boneless beef rib added to the soup. My wife and I both love Vietnamese pho, that ubiquitous beef noodle soup that maybe should become the official dish of Orlando (hey, it makes more sense than honey nougat glacé!), and I really wanted to compare and contrast this new soup to pho, since they sounded similar at the most surface level. Like all the best pho spots, Mae Tao and Son’s packaged the broth on the side, so it wouldn’t turn the tender noodles to mush on my drive home.
I liked all the ingredients in this kuy teav soup, even the addition of beef tripe, despite not always enjoying the texture of it in pho. I thought the broth was more delicately flavored than the stronger flavor of pho broth, but maybe it’s because I’ve only tried it this one time, and it didn’t come with any additional condiments or seasonings that way every Vietnamese restaurant allows diners to customize their pho. I loved the meatballs and quail eggs, though. (I keep a few cans of quail eggs in the pantry at home because I like to pickle them in the fridge for quick protein snacks. Yes, you can buy peeled, hard-boiled quail eggs in cans at Asian markets!)

Mae Tao and Son’s Kitchen is definitely a fusion restaurant, devoted to winning over new fans who are unfamiliar with Laotian and Cambodian flavors. In addition to everything else we tried, we got two of their sandwiches, which are huge and beautiful and served on toasted brioche buns, served with the cut side up because they are so photogenic. Longtime readers and anyone who knows me in real life know how much I love a good sandwich, and these sandwiches are designed to be perfect gateways to introduce those unfamiliar eaters to these two new cuisines. (I still have fond memories of my first introduction to Filipino cuisine, which I now love, from the fusion dishes at the long-gone Taglish, a former tenant of the Lotte Plaza Market food court.)

This was the BBQ tiger beef “sando,” smoked beef in a crying tiger Lao-style barbecue glaze, layered with delicious black garlic aioli, jeow som cabbage, and fresh greens. I was completely unfamiliar with jeow som, but I did a bit of research, and it is a Lao dipping sauce made with fish sauce (A-HA!), herbs, fresh lime juice, garlic, sugar, chopped cilantro, and peppers. So the finely shredded red cabbage was tossed in this dipping sauce, making it like a sweet, sour, funky, crunchy slaw.

One thing my wife and I were surprised to discover on this sandwich that wasn’t listed in the ingredients was a large hash brown potato patty, which was a really nice touch. I don’t know why more places don’t put those into sandwiches! Anyway, this was a huge hit with both of us.

And this was maybe my favorite thing of all, the sweet and sour tamarind “sando,” with crispy panko-breaded and fried chicken thigh cutlets tossed in a sweet and sour tamarind glaze, topped with more of that black garlic aioli, jeow som cabbage, and fresh greens. There is A LOT going on in both of these sandwiches, but in a good way. Over the past three months, my wife has suddenly become a far more adventurous eater. I’ve always loved trying new things, but she has started sharing my enthusiasm for food, even as I’ve been slowly eating less, eating healthier, and losing weight since the start of this year. (Today was a bit of an exception, obviously.) She never even cared for sandwiches before, mostly because she doesn’t like different food touching and usually tries to avoid bread, but she gave both of these sandwiches a fair chance and ended up liking the BBQ tiger beef more. I was happy that she was all in on this new alimentary adventure with me.

So even though you’re probably going to be seeing these stunning sandwich cross-sections in your socials a lot over the next few weeks, I wanted to publish this review ASAP, while the details were still fresh in my head and the flavors were still dancing on my tongue and in my memory. You should make your way to Lotte Plaza Market ASAP, because it’s still a super-nice Asian supermarket with something for everyone, and it’s still a lot less crowded and chaotic than H-Mart, a year after the latter opened. And while you’re picking up your staples, sauces, seafood, and snacks, stop by the food court and give Mae Tao and Son’s Kitchen a try. If you’re still on the fence, you would probably love Laotian and Cambodian food if you like Thai flavors. It’s not a fully accurate comparison, but it might be the most familiar to the uninitiated. The sandwiches were my favorite by far, but you really can’t go wrong. I didn’t get to meet Brittany or Dan (and they would have no idea who I am anyway), but they’re off to an amazing start with Orlando’s hottest restaurant. And as you can tell, this place has everything.

The Corner Pizza Bar

The Corner Pizza Bar (https://thecornerpizzabar.com/) is a super-casual pizzeria and bar in downtown Orlando, located at 150 S Magnolia Ave, Orlando, FL 32801. It is one of the closest restaurants within walking distance to the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, and I was on my way to a show when I met a friend, his girlfriend, and another friend of his there for dinner. They were kind enough to invite me to join them, or otherwise, I would have gone straight from work to the concert, skipping dinner and some really pleasant human contact with really pleasant humans. I wasn’t expecting the pizza would be so good, either!

First of all, I liked that The Corner Pizza Bar was kind of dark and somewhat cavernous inside. I love restaurants like this, where you aren’t being blinded by bright light and don’t feel like other diners are right on top of you. This was late June, when the World Cup was happening, so most people in there were watching socc… um, footba… nah, whatever, soccer on the large-screen TVs. We were just there to eat and chat before seeing the brilliant British singer-songwriter-piano player Joe Jackson, an underrated musical legend who has been reinventing himself since the late ’70s. Yes, he’s still around, and he’s still got it.

Since this has been my year of cutting carbs and losing weight, I figured I was at a new pizzeria, so I might as well treat myself and try their pizza. I appreciate any pizzeria that sells slices, so I went with a plain cheese slice. Toppings are fine, but you can really size up a pizzeria and evaluate their strengths and weaknesses by ordering a plain slice and enjoying it on the premises. Well, for one thing, this slice was HUGE. At a glance, it reminded me of Lazy Moon Pizza, that Orlando institution with three locations that I have a lot of nostalgic love for. But I thought The Corner’s slice was much better than Lazy Moon — more like a traditional thin and crispy New York slice.
I appreciated that the crust wasn’t burnt to a crisp, the cheese was melty, and the robust sauce didn’t feel like an afterthought. Of course I fold my slices, and this one flopped a little due to sheer size, but it did not affect my enjoyment at all. It was a lot better than some of the better-known and highly vaunted local pizzerias, I can tell you that.

The other thing I ordered was my other go-to at any pizzeria: a Sicilian slice. I love Sicilian pizza more than anyone else I know, again due to nostalgia. I would always get one of these thick, rectangular slices at Cozzoli’s Pizza at the Dadeland Mall food court as a kid in the ’80s, and I’ve been chasing that high ever since. It is nothing like Chicago-style deep dish pizza, and it is less greasy than the rectangular slices of a Detroit-style pan pizza with its caramelized cheese “frico” edges. I love that the Sicilian crust is crispy on the bottom, but underneath the mozzarella cheese and thick tomato sauce, it is pillowy soft. This was a fantastic Sicilian slice, especially in a city where not enough pizzerias offer this option. I have no complaints, no nitpicks.

My friend and his girlfriend ordered this calzone to share with each other, but when they started getting full, they asked if I wanted any. Since we were all heading to the concert, I took it upon myself to finish it, and I have no regrets for stepping up. I don’t always go crazy for calzones, but this one had a nice, light crust brushed with garlic butter. Some places overbake them so the crust becomes a bland, dry impediment, rather than an enjoyable component of the finished product. They chose meatballs to go inside, along with the mozzarella and ricotta cheeses, and I forget what else, but you can’t ever go wrong with meatballs at an Italian restaurant. I honestly prefer them to pepperoni or sausage as a pizza topping — either sliced or crumbled. And if you don’t know, now you know!

I have to admit, I avoid going to downtown Orlando whenever possible, after two hectic years of working down there, twenty years ago. The parking can be a nightmare, although I paid extra for guaranteed parking in a garage for the Joe Jackson concert, and that put me mere steps away from The Corner Pizza Bar. The nighttime crowds can be intense and intimidating, but this was a quiet Monday night. It’s just a schlep in general, or else I would consider returning to The Corner Pizza Bar somewhat regularly. But next time I attend a concert downtown, I will absolutely go back for a pre-show dinner. The pizza and calzone were better than they had any right to be, the good conversation with friends old and new elevated the entire meal even higher, and then I got to see a musical legend perform for the first time. The Corner Pizza Bar helped make that a memorable, magical Monday.

Guelaguetza (Los Angeles)

Guelaguetza (https://www.ilovemole.com/) is an Oaxacan Mexican restaurant in L.A.’s Koreatown, founded by chef-owner Bricia Lopez. I first became aware of her as one of the guests on celebrity chef David Chang’s Netflix series Dinner Time Live, where he cooks for famous friends on an actual live (recorded) show from a set somewhere in L.A. She was vivacious and telegenic, with a big, fun personality. It almost seemed like she was auditioning for a cooking show of her own without even trying, and she really should get one. I had never heard of her before, but I thought she had everything it takes to become a household name. I looked Bricia Lopez up online, found out her parents founded Guelaguetza in 1994, they serve ancient family recipes, and she has even authored two Oaxacan cookbooks. After reading the menu, I had been wanting to go there ever since.

I actually work and stay in Koreatown on my occasional work trips to L.A., but I mapped out the route, and it was too far to walk from either my work site or my hotel, and public transportation wouldn’t take me there easily. Plus, I knew if I went there solo, there were so many things I would want to try, and the main thing I wanted would just be too much for a single diner. I honestly don’t eat as much as I used to, I swear! But I’m writing this review the day I had lunch at Guelaguetza with two of my wonderful local work colleagues. I had been bugging them to go out to lunch with me, of course I had a list of suggestions, and this place was the most appealing to everyone. It was the first time for all of us, and needless to say, everyone was thrilled.

We all ordered sparkling aguas frescas: lemon (left) and passion fruit (right). I am deeply skeptical of any Mexican restaurants that don’t offer aguas frescas in at least a couple of different flavors. I admit I like them better when they aren’t sparkling, but they were still nice and refreshing. No free refills, though.

Freshly fried tortilla chips weren’t salted, but they were nice and crunchy and not too greasy. They were topped with crumbled queso fresco and a thick, rich dark red sauce I figured was a type of mole. It wasn’t spicy, but it was very savory and had a hint of chocolate. More on that later, I swear!

My colleague suggested we order the molcajete de guacamole Oaxaqueño. It wasn’t made tableside, but that’s really not necessary for me. It was thinner guacamole than I’m used to, but it was so fresh and bright-tasting, with fresh lime, topped with cilantro, serrano peppers, diced tomatoes, and crumbled queso fresco, and it came with another order of (plain) chips.My well-traveled colleague said an authentic molcajete (the mortar bowl that guacamole and salsa are often mixed and served in, usually made of volcanic basalt rock) would have been in the shape of a pig, but that was news to me. As a Florida Man, I’ve eaten plenty of Mexican food, but I’ve never seen a pig-shaped molcajete at any of our Mexican restaurants. Of course, I’ve never found a Oaxacan restaurant anywhere in Florida!

This massive platter was the tlayuda Guelaguetza. A tlayuda is a 15” crispy corn tortilla, handmade in Oaxaca from heirloom corn and grilled over fire. It was layered with bean and chicharrón spread (mmmm, pork rinds), shredded cabbage, quesillo (salty shredded Oaxacan cheese), queso fresco (crumbled fresh cheese), pork cecina, pork chorizo, and beef tasajo. The tlayuda itself was cut into slices like a pizza to make it easier to eat, and we just shared the meats.

This is the pork cecina, pork loin that is rubbed or marinated in chile paste, pounded very thin, and air-dried before being grilled. It was a bit dry, but it had so much flavor.

The chorizo sausage on the left may not be the most appetizing-looking, but it was one of my favorite things we tried at this sumptuous lunch. Each round link was dark red on the inside, firm and slightly crumbly, and they could be easily cut or pulled apart. It was much less greasy than any other Mexican chorizo I’ve ever had (I love chorizo, but it always drenches everything in orange grease, except this one), and the outer casing had a nice snappiness. The beef tasajo on the right was salt-cured, pounded thin, air-dried, and grilled. It tasted like really good carne asada, but was closer in consistency to high-quality beef jerky (just not as dry).

The thing I had been dying to try ever since discovering Chef Lopez and Guelaguetza was the Festival de Moles, a sampler of four different moles, the specialty of the house. But that would be way too much food for one man, especially staying in a hotel room. I was thrilled that my colleagues decided to join me, so we could share all this deliciousness. The moles came on a long wooden serving board in four separate bowls that were all a lot deeper than they first appeared to be. These first two were laden with pieces of boneless pork spare ribs. On the left you see mole rojo, a “rich, spiced red mole featuring chilhuacle rojo and ancho chiles, heirloom tomatoes, toasted almonds, peanuts, sesame seeds, and aromatic spices.” Despite the chiles, it was more savory than spicy.On the right you see mole estofado, a “mild almond-based mole balanced with raisins, olives, and pickled jalapeños, creating a uniquely sweet and savory profile.” I didn’t fully read these descriptions until after we ate, so I never would have guessed it was almond-based, but I can tell you I’ve never had anything quite like it. I thought the raisins and olives were interesting additions, especially because both of them end up in Cuban picadillo, a seasoned ground beef dish that otherwise has nothing in common with mole estofado, or any mole.

These other two moles came stuffed with shredded chicken breast. On the left, you see mole negro, Guelaguetza’s “signature smoky black mole crafted from chilhuacle negro, ancho chiles, toasted almonds, peanuts, sesame seeds, and traditional spices.” This was another banger. On the right, you see mole coloradito, the same mole served on our complimentary chips at the beginning of the meal. It is a “sweet and mildly spicy mole with guajillo chiles, toasted almonds, peanuts, sesame seeds, spices, and a subtle hint of chocolate.”

Damn, son. I’ve tried a few mole dishes in my lifetime, but only ever thought they were okay. I’ve even bought a jarred, pre-made version that was terrible. I don’t think I could even finish the jar, which hurts, because I hate wasting food, but I couldn’t do it. But these four moles were not just streets ahead, but worlds apart. They were so rich and complex, I have never tasted anything like them, and I doubt I ever will again. If you go to Guelaguetza, I strongly recommend ordering one of these moles, or ideally, drag friends and share this Festival de Moles.

Even the veggie rice that came with our Festival of Moles was delicious, although we couldn’t finish it.

My other colleague ordered something else I had my eye on: the memelita sampler with five memelitas, small corn tortillas each topped individually with chicharrón spread and queso fresco, with additional different toppings on each one. From left to right, they were topped with pork cecina, nopal (cactus) salad, beef tasajo, quesillo (fresh, shredded, salty Oaxacan cheese, with the consistency of mozzarella string cheese), and papa con chorizo (diced potatoes with crumbled sausage), kind of like corned beef hash, but so much more flavorful.
I ended up eating most of the nopal salad memelita, and it was wonderful. Again, I’ve had pickled nopal cactus from Florida taqueria salsa bars and even out of a can, but these were fresh, and there is nothing quite like them, especially combined with the flavor of fresh diced tomatoes on top. They reminded me a bit of fiddlehead ferns, but maybe just texture-wise.

My female colleague’s birthday was the next day, so of course I had to mention it to our server. He brought her a complimentary piece of flan with a candle and three spoons, and we serenaded her with “Feliz cumpleaños a ti” (or “Happy birthday to you” in Spanish). I’m not a flan guy — never have been, even after growing up in Miami — but even I could appreciate this rich, decadent flan.

So anyway, that’s how you should do Guelaguetza. The three of us ordered a lot of food and still ended up with a bunch of leftovers, most of which I schlepped back to my hotel room, since at least I have a fridge and a microwave here. It wouldn’t have been the same going alone, especially because I would not have been able to try so many of Chef Bricia Lopez’s mind-blowing Oaxacan dishes. And the way the three of us ordered, I think we really maximized being able to taste as many different things on the menu as possible. Props to them for having such good taste and being willing to share. Plus, these two are always great company, and I’m grateful to be able to work with them and see them two or three times a year.

Several publications have named Guelaguetza one of the best restaurants in Koreatown, one of the best Mexican restaurants in all of L.A., and one of the best Oaxacan restaurants in the world, if not the best. It deserves all of those fabulous superlatives and more, and it’s a huge, festive, fun place — perfect for a celebratory dinner or just a weekday lunch with co-workers you actually like. Angelenos have no shortage of Mexican restaurants to choose from, but in my three years of traveling out to L.A., I am sure I’ve tried two of the best in the city: Holbox and now Guelaguetza.

Sushi Rock and Grill

Last time I donated blood in Altamonte Springs, I was feeling quite empty, so I decided to drive across the street and treat myself to an all-you-can-eat sushi lunch at Sushi Rock and Grill (https://www.sushirockorlando.com/), one of the many recently opened all-you-can-eat sushi spots in and around Orlando. On the weekends, lunch is the same price as dinner: $35, but I feel like I got my money’s worth. Plus, there are more options on the dinner menu than the weekday lunch menu, which normally costs $22. There is also an a la carte option for people who don’t want to eat all they can eat.

I started out with two of my all-you-can-eat sushi standards: some smoked salmon and mackerel sashimi, my tribute to Ashkenazi Jewish appetizing stores that specialize in cold-smoked nova salmon and pickled herring. I love mackerel sashimi, because it is usually lightly vinegary and slightly sweet, just liked pickled herring in wine sauce. You get two pieces per order of each, so I got two orders here.On the a la carte menu, an order of smoked salmon is $7 and an order of mackerel sashimi is $5, so this along would cost $24 ($7 + $7 + $5 + $5). I’m going to keep a running tally so you can see what a great deal this is.

I followed that with some small plates from the Sushi Bar Appetizers menu. This is another dish I love at any Japanese restaurant, even though it was created in Los Angeles in the 1980s: spicy tuna crispy rice. These deep-fried mounds of rice are topped with spicy tuna, masago (the bright orange, salty fish eggs), scallions, and a sweet chili cream sauce. These are always perfect bites of food with so many great textures as well as flavors.
On the a la carte menu, this would be $10, so everything I ordered so far would be a total of $34.

This was salmon passion, thinly sliced salmon in a mango-passion fruit sauce.
This isn’t listed on the a la carte menu on the website, but very similar appetizers like the salmon tango are $12, so I’ll use that as a guideline. Now everything I ordered so far would be a total of $46.

This is the spicy tostada: an order of three crispy wonton skins topped with spicy tuna or salmon (I think I asked if I could get a little of each), guacamole, fresh jalapeño curls, masago, sweet chili cream sauce, and eel sauce. These were more perfect bites of food.
On the a la carte menu, this would be $11, so everything I ordered so far would be a total of $57.

Then all four of my rolls came out at the same time. Hopefully I can remember them all!

This was the Captain America roll, which was labeled “BEST” on the menu. I’m not sure of the connection, but I couldn’t resist a roll named after my second-favorite Marvel superhero. This roll contains tuna, salmon, yellowtail, and avocado and was topped with “white fish” (probably escolar) and miso sauce. To paraphrase Steve Rogers, I could eat this all day. There is also a Spider-Man roll, so you could always have a sushi superhero crossover.
On the a la carte menu, this would be $14, so everything I ordered so far would be a total of $71.

This was the tropical salmon roll (also labeled “BEST”), with salmon, cream cheese, and mango inside the roll and topped with more salmon, sweet and tangy mango sauce, and “rice crackers” (those tiny round spheres, which added a really pleasant crispy crunch).On the a la carte menu, this would be $14, so everything I ordered so far would be a total of $85.

This was the summer crunch roll, with spicy tuna inside the roll, topped with spicy salmon, jalapeño, eel sauce, and “crunch” — referring to the crispy tempura flakes. I loved everything about this roll.
On the a la carte menu, this would be $13, so everything I ordered so far would be a total of $98.

This was my last choice, the crazy combination they call the Buffalo jalapeño roll. It contains a deep-fried stuffed jalapeño with spicy tuna, escolar, and cream cheese inside the roll, and it is topped with eel sauce, chili sauce, spicy mayo, and more crunch tempura flakes. I love spicy food, but for me, this was delicious rather than challenging, uncomfortable levels of heat.
On the a la carte menu, this would be $13, so everything I ordered so far would be a total of $111.

Since I didn’t get a good angle earlier, here’s a close-up of the cross-section so you can see all the good stuff inside.

So I paid $35 (plus tip, of course, always!) for what would be $111 worth of food, had I ordered everything separately. I was starving and regaining my strength after donating blood, so I came to play and played to win. But you can see what a bargain Sushi Rock and Grill and similar all-you-can-eat sushi establishments like Sushi Yama and Sushi Island are. How would I compare them? Even though everything was good here, I don’t think I enjoyed the experience as much because the restaurant was almost empty, and I still got seated right next to a really loud, obnoxious table, so that affected my enjoyment of the meal itself. But the sushi was super-solid, so I have no doubt I will return.

Tuun (at Sea Thai)

Tuun (https://www.instagram.com/tuunorlando/) is essentially a restaurant operating within a restaurant, at Sea Thai (https://seathaiorlando.com/), located at 3812 East Colonial Drive, Orlando, FL 32803. Sea Thai has been in that location near the Fashion Square Mall and Orlando’s Milk District neighborhood since 2007), so it was still new in the early days of my old job, when I had lunch there a few times. I don’t know why I never worked it into my regular rotation, because it was always solid.

But I had been dying to get back over there to try the special menu offered at Tuun, coming out of the same kitchen as all of Sea Thai’s regular dishes. It’s the brainchild of Chef Jack Jone Tawa Chavitranurak, the brother of the owner of Sea Thai. He started Tuun in 2020, so it took far too many years to finally try it, but better later than never.

We got together with a super-cool couple for dinner (literally the coolest people we know), and it was the first time we’ve ever had a chance to sit and eat and chat, all four of us. You see, I would run into them on the rare times I go anywhere cool or do anything fun in Orlando, first meeting them at a Kyle Kinane show at The Abbey in Thornton Park, then at Neko Case at the Beacham in downtown Orlando, then at J.G. Thirlwell at the Timucua White House, and I saw him flying solo at a Surfragettes show at Will’s Pub and a couple of comic conventions. We’ve also had lunch at Black Bean Deli and Isan Zaap Thai Cafe before. I’d always come home raving about how cool they are, and my wife finally met this mythical couple when we all saw Fred Armisen perform at The Abbey last year. We’ve been wanting to hang out with them in a place we could talk and hear each other ever since, and we finally made it happen at Sea Thai!

Our friends ordered these spring rolls off the regular Sea Thai menu to start with. They are filled with glass noodles and mixed vegetables, fried in their tightly rolled wrappers until crispy, and served with plum sauce for dipping.

And here is a shot of the Tuun menu, since it isn’t on the Sea Thai website, and there isn’t a Tuun website:

This is the watermelon salad, two round watermelon slices topped with lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, fried shallots, and chili watermelon dressing. Both couples ordered a watermelon salad to share, and I think everyone liked it a lot. My wife enjoyed it even more than I.

This was the roti, a crispy, crackly fried savory pastry topped with boneless beef short rib curry, chili oil, kaffir lime, and fried shallots. It felt so much more delicate than the flaky, buttery roti canai that everyone always orders at Hawkers Asian Street Fare. I’m not convinced the roti at Hawkers isn’t a frozen version, since I’ve bought very similar ones at Asian and Indian markets around Orlando. But there is nothing like this roti anywhere, I promise you that!My wife has really been expanding her palate since some surviving some medical issues earlier this summer, and she loves trying new foods more than ever before, which is a joy to watch. She was undaunted by the short rib curry, something she never would have messed with before, but it wasn’t spicy, just flavorful.

The roti was served with cool, crisp cucumbers and some thin-sliced red onions pickled in sweet vinegar. As a fan of so many things pickled and vinegary, I just loved this. It worked well for cutting the salty, fatty, spicy qualities of the other dishes.

My wife is always an octopus lover, and she chose this beautiful, lightly grilled octopus tentacle, served with mango salad, fried shallots, cashews, and garlic lime dressing.

I ordered the Tuun noodles, assuming we would split them, but she didn’t really want any. They were very similar to drunken noodles, also known as pad kee mao or pad kee mow, one of my all-time favorite Thai dishes, and these were served with spicy braised beef, bell pepper, basil, and a big fried egg in the middle. They come with mushrooms too, but I asked our server to hold the mushrooms. I’m sorry I didn’t take another photo to include a view of the flat, wide noodles, but you can kinda-sorta make them out around 6:00. Funny thing, my wife and our friends thought I ordered “tuna noodles” and were surprised when I mentioned beef. I remember eating tuna noodle casserole as a kid, but these Tuun noodles are a world apart from that. Drunken noodle lovers (by which I mean lovers of drunken noodles), don’t sleep on these.

And now, seared duck confit, a dish my wife and I both loved. She’s a superfan of it now, served with more of those fried shallots and tangy-sweet tamarind sauce. I now realize it was supposed to come with fried eggs, but they left them out. We didn’t even notice at the time, but the duck legs were so rich and decadent, cooked to perfection, that we were distracted.

A few weeks later, we had to return to Sea Thai ourselves to go through that Tuun menu again and revisit some of those killer dishes. My wife started with a creamy, smoky Thai iced tea, and this time I remembered to get a picture of it.

This was very much a “greatest hits” meal, because we couldn’t stop thinking about it. I think my photo of the watermelon salad came out better this time. But she loved it so much, I let her have it all.

I think my roti photi (sorry, photo) came out better this time as well.

And the sweet, pickled cucumbers were even more delicious and refreshing this time.

She got the duck confit again, and this time they included the egg, which were jammy in the center and lightly fried.

Me being me, I had to switch it up this time, so I tried Tuun’s stir-fried soft shell crab, with tom yum powder, kaffir lime, fried garlic, and fried shallots. I always like crispy soft shell crab, especially at Thai restaurants, and I was not disappointed. The sauce had a bit of tangy sweetness, maybe also from tamarind (I think the menu was the same on this second visit, but it didn’t mention it), and I swear I tasted ginger as well.

Here’s another angle on the soft shell crab dish:

We will definitely keep returning to Sea Thai for those Tuun specialties, and next time, I might actually order some things off the regular menu. I noticed they have khao soi noodles, which I fell in love with at Thailicious in Longwood last year. But I tell ya, if you go to Sea Thai on a Friday, Saturday, Sunday, or Monday evening, you are doing yourself a disservice if you don’t sample some of the dishes off the special Tuun menu. We are huge fans now, and I can’t imagine anyone could sample these gorgeous plates and not be blown away by their presentation and perfection.

EDIT: We returned to Tuun for a third visit in late September! This time I ordered the cucumber salad off Sea Thai’s regular menu. It was cheap, and it was a much larger portion than the tiny tastes we would get with the Tuun roti. The sweet flavor was the same, but this version had grape tomatoes, scallions, and shredded carrots in addition to the marinated cucumbers and red onion.

I also tried the larb stuffed wings from the Tuun menu, which were delicious. Fried to crispy perfection, sticky, sweet, tangy, and funky with caramelized fish sauce and lime powder, plus they were stuffed with larb (seasoned ground chicken). I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect, but these were more or less what I imagined, and we both liked them.

My wife returned to her favorite Tuun dishes, the watermelon salad and duck confit, but this time I tried the khao soi off the regular Sea Thai menu, with pork as the protein. It was different from the version I know at Thailicious, with a darker broth and crispy fried noodles on top, in addition to the soft egg noodles in the broth.

I got this one spicy hot, but I missed the tiny red peppers in the khao soi at Thailicious. Don’t worry, I got a noodle pull photo for you:

Anyway, there’s a rare addendum to a completed review, but I’m sure we will return again and again!