The Prince (Los Angeles)

The Prince (https://www.instagram.com/theprincela) is a classy, old-school Los Angeles Korean restaurant and lounge that is most famous for appearing in multiple movies and TV shows over the decades, including Chinatown (one of the greatest L.A. movies, neo-noirs, and movies in general of all time), Mad Men (one of my favorite shows of all time), and New Girl (where it was the characters’ regular hangout).  I’ve never actually watched New Girl, but now I am imagining Zooey Deschanel with bangs and glasses, singing a silly old song (maybe “Dream a Little Dream of Me”?) and strumming a ukulele in this dusky, dark red hipster hangout.

Back in November, I was on a work trip to L.A. and had a chance to join some of my amazing co-workers for dinner.  I always stay in Koreatown, where my employer is located, and where there seem to be hundreds of Korean restaurants to choose from, at all different styles and price points.  I am still very new to Korean food, but the more things I try, the more I feel inspired to branch out and try more.  The Prince was walkable from our campus, so since I was already aware of its cinematic résumé and timeless cool décor, I convinced this small group to trust and follow me.

I must apologize in advance for the photos that follow in this review.  It’s a gorgeous room, dark and anachronistic, but as soon as I took my first photo to set the scene, a server yelled at me to not use flash photography inside.  So I did my best, such as it is, to share the red vinyl booths, the dark wood, the dim lighting, and even these hale and hearty knights standing guard.

Also, I swear I saw Spike Jonze, director of super-creative movies and iconic music videos, dining there, but I wasn’t 100% sure it was him.  As much as I wanted to thank him for “Sabotage,” Adaptation, and Jackass, I didn’t want to be That Guy who disturbed his dinner… especially if it wasn’t Spike.

Anyway, our group was a mix of adventurous and unadventurous eaters, so we picked five things that looked good to everyone, and we all shared them.   That is my favorite way to dine with friends.

These are the onion rings (RING THE ALARM!) and cheese balls, because you know if I go anywhere and see onion rings on the menu, I have to order them.  They were crowd-pleasers, and it was not the first time I had really good onion rings at a Korean restaurant.   The cheese balls were even better — perfect, golden-fried, golf ball-sized orbs with melty cheese in the middle, under the breading.  I should have tried to get a shot of a bisected cheese ball to show you their molten, sticky, creamy centers, but they went fast!

When you’re introducing Korean food to unfamiliar diners, beef bulgogi is one of those perfect gateway dishes.  Bulgogi is a dish of thin-sliced beef (often sirloin steak), marinated in a savory-sweet sauce, and then grilled or stir-fried with onions and green bell peppers.  The bulgogi marinade contains soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, garlic, ginger, and pear juice, which tenderizes the meat.  There is nothing spicy or “weird” to scare off the unadventurous diner, so it was another hit at our table. Just FYI: “bul” is Korean for fire, and “gogi” means meat.

We also ordered galbi (sometimes called kalbi), a very similar dish but with beef short ribs sliced cross-wise against the bones, rather than thin-sliced steak.  It has a similar flavor due to the marinade, but I already love short ribs in any form — not just the flavor, but the wonderful texture.  I especially like the chewy part of the meat right around the bones, which you can just pull off with your fingers if you don’t want to gnaw it off.  This was served over onions and scallions, and there wasn’t a morsel left.

I didn’t have any input in choosing this garlic shrimp dish, served with fresh, raw, shredded cabbage, but I was happy to try a couple of the shrimp, which came in their shells and had to be peeled.  It was delicious — different from scampi or any other garlic shrimp dish you might be envisioning, but still very satisfying.

I did choose this dish, though: thick, perfectly al dente udon noodles served with mixed seafood: shrimp, mussels, squid, and tiny crab legs (more trouble than they were worth to crack open).  The menu describes it as coming in a spicy broth, but it could be served mild upon request.  I honestly don’t remember what we decided as a group, but I think we went with spicy and almost everyone still loved it.

Real Korean food aficionados might be rolling their eyes, disappointed that we made relatively staid and familiar choices, but that’s often what happens in a “family-style” group dining situation.  I would have loved to try the soondae, since I always love blood sausage in all its other forms, from Argentinian morcilla to British black pudding, but nobody else was on board with this one.  It’s all good!

I have no regrets or complaints about The Prince, especially because it is such a part of Los Angeles and Hollywood history.  I would not be surprised if there are better Korean restaurants in L.A.’s Koreatown, but the vibes at The Prince are unmatched.  Every time I make it out there for work, I try to visit at least one historic, iconic L.A. landmark, whether it’s a tourist attraction, a restaurant, or both.  So far, I’m making quite a list.  I love my job, and I love L.A.!

Chain Reactions: Sixty Vines

Sixty Vines (https://www.sixtyvines.com/) is a nice chain restaurant with 13 locations around the country, including one in Winter Park and one in the Dr. Phillips area of Orlando.  It serves “wine country inspired-cuisine paired perfectly with 60 wines on our sustainable tap system.”  Unfortunately, my wife and I are non-drinkers, so we couldn’t take advantage of the vast assortment of wines from around the world.  But the food was all quite good on all three of my visits with my wife, who had discovered it earlier and dined there once before, with a friend.  I’ve never been to the Sonoma Valley in my California travels, but that’s what I believe Sixty Vines is going for.

For our first of three romantic meals there, my wife started us out with house-made ricotta cheese, which came with little bucket bouquets of flatbread, roasted marcona almonds, and honey with the chewy, waxy comb included.

Here’s a close-up of the cow milk ricotta, served with olive oil that contributed to the silky, whipped, lush richness and topped with fresh-cracked black pepper that did a spectacular job cutting the richness a bit.   We both agreed this was the nicest ricotta we’ve ever had, and it would have been too good to just use in baked ziti or lasagna, where stronger flavors would have overpowered it.

We got the ricotta again on our second visit, and it was just as good:

On our most recent visit, she switched it up and got the Cowgirl Creamery Mt Tam, which is a triple cream brie-style cheese with a “bloomy rind,” named after Mount Tamalpais in Marin County, California.  As much as I like cheese, I’ve never been into earthy, funky, sticky brie, so I didn’t even mess with this one.  Plus, the portion is very small, and I even joked “Brie?!  More like WEE, am I right?”  More for her, such as it is.

On our first visit, we decided to get the very bougie-sounding “shared plate” of buttermilk-brined fried chicken topped with dollops of lemon creme fraiche and even tinier dollops of caviar (a indulgence both of us love).  The boneless chicken pieces didn’t have much flavor at all, though.  That batter desperately needs some herbs and spices, and it doesn’t even have to be eleven!  Combining the decadence of fried chicken and caviar is a great idea, one that celebrity chef David Chang definitely approves of, but I’d skip the fried chicken on future visits to Sixty Vines and advise others to do the same.

On our second and third visits, we got the bacon-wrapped, oven-roasted dates, which was appropriate because we were on dates.  I love dates and balsamic glaze, and these were perfect little bites of food.  They only give you three in an order, but I could have eaten about 30 of these.  I have a problem.

Extreme close-up of the dates from a different visit.  Dates taste more like caramel than fruit to me, with a sticky, chewy texture to match.  These are just perfect in every way, with the crackly, crisp, rich smokiness of the bacon, the chewy, rich sweetness of the dates, and the sweet, sticky acidity of the balsamic glaze.  This is a decadent, sexy dish for sure.

The grilled golden beets are another good appetizer at Sixty Vines, and for some reason, The Golden Beets also sounds like a good name for a Japanese wrestling tag team.  I discovered I love beets just last year, and now I’m making up for lost time!  It just never occurred to me to try them before, but I love their earthy sweetness… or is it sweet earthiness?

These beets arrive sliced on a bed of whipped feta, cheese, topped with crushed, toasted pistachios, and are drizzled with an  apricot vinaigrette dressing that is divine.

My wife also loves Sixty Vines’ house salad, comprised of spring mix, candied walnuts, fresh strawberries, paper-thin shavings of peppered pecorino romano cheese, and citrus honey vinaigrette.  I make salads at home and eat them almost every day for lunch, but she has no interest in the salads I make.  But this house salad is a bit more decadent than my salads, with fewer odd pickled things but plenty of ingredients she loves.

On a recent weekend, I picked up a house salad for my wife to enjoy in the comfort of home.  I am pleased to say that they were happy to take my order and did not threaten to call the police, like other semi-upscale Winter Park restaurants (right across the street from Sixty Vines) have been known to do when people request salads to go.

Since that was going to be her lunch, I added on smoked salmon so it could be more of a full meal for her.  It’s a $15 upcharge(!), but at least they were generous with it.  Just so you know, it is hot-smoked salmon added in chunks and flakes, not the thin-sliced nova salmon you’d find at an appetizing store to put on bagels.

Between the citrus honey vinaigrette on the house salad and the apricot vinaigrette that came with the Golden Beets, they definitely do vinaigrette dressings right at Sixty Vines.  I wish they bottled the dressings for all the sad salads I make for myself, but I’d also put them on sandwiches, pasta salads, raw veggies… pretty much anything.  They are so fresh and tangy and sweet, and they really make vegetables sing.

For her entrée on our first visit together, my wife chose the fig and prosciutto pizza, which came topped with white sauce, mozzarella, honey, arugula, and sesame seeds (in addition to fresh figs and paper-thin sliced prosciutto).

After my wife’s first visit to Sixty Vines with a friend, she had told me about how much she loved the pan-seared rainbow trout.  She was torn between ordering the trout again and getting that pizza, so she chose the new thing.  She liked it (and I liked the slice she insisted I try), but she said she would go back to the trout when we returned.

And on our next visit together (the aforementioned date with the dates), she did!  The pan-seared rainbow trout comes with snap peas, pickled fennel, lemon-dill aioli, and marcona almond gremolata.

Trout!  Trout!  Let it all out!  This is a fish she can’t do without!

For our most recent visit, they actually changed the rainbow trout dish completely, to include green lentil ragout, coconut-vadouvan curry, orange, scallion, and cilantro!  They do change the menu every so often, but that didn’t sound as good of a combination to her, so she switched it up.

This was the filet mignon, cooked to a perfect rare and served with roasted winter squash, toasted walnuts, shallots, and fig-balsamic reduction.  She loved it, and I thought the couple of bites she shared with me were damn delicious.  Believe it or not, I don’t eat a lot of steak, and especially not filets, but this was magnificent. 
It should not have surprised me that a wine-centric restaurant is so good with vinegars, but the sweet fig-balsamic complemented the buttery soft, tender filet perfectly.

I am a simple man with simple pleasures, and for my first visit, I figured a nice, semi-upscale restaurant like Sixty Vines would hopefully serve a good, juicy burger, rather than the smashburgers that are so popular right now.  I love a good smashburger, but it feels like it’s getting harder to find a thick and juicy burger in Orlando, especially with The Whiskey so far away from us.

I chose the double cabernet burger, with cabernet smothered patties, white cheddar cheese, caramelized onions, worcestershire mayo, and tomato on a potato bun, served with crispy fingerling potatoes.  The potatoes were fine, especially with ketchup, but the burger was one of the best I’ve had anywhere in a long time (along with smashburgers from Cow & Cheese and Smokemade Meats + Eats and a thicker burger at a hipster place in L.A. I haven’t reviewed yet).

I thought about that burger for a long time afterwards, and I argue it is one of the better burgers in Orlando.  I liked it so much that I ordered it again on our second visit, even though I usually challenge myself to try different things.  But it’s so juicy, and they cooked it to a perfect medium rare both times, and all the toppings work together in perfect harmony.  I’m guessing the cabernet is a reduction of some kind, but between that, the caramelized onions, and the worcestershire mayo, there is a lot of umami richness and tangy-sweet acidity going on.

I finally moved away from the double cabernet burger on our third visit.  As much as I love raw, smoked, cured, and even tinned fish, I don’t eat a lot of regular cooked fish, and I want to eat more of it in 2025.  I chose the seared halibut, which came with roasted asparagus, crispy prosciutto, and bites of fingerling potatoes in a sea of smoked tomato butter.

It was another decadent dish and a big hit.  The halibut was seasoned and cooked beautifully, and it was tender enough to cut with just my fork.  It melted in my mouth.  I highly recommend this dish, and I would get it again, just for the halibut.

We were too full to get dessert after our first visit, but on our second visit, we shared this olive oil citrus cake with sweet whipped mascarpone cheese.  Olive oil cake might sound a little odd, but like everything else at Sixty Vines, it is top-notch.  (And if you ever have a chance to try it, olive oil gelato is delicious too!)  When it comes to desserts, my favorites involve citrus or tropical fruit, while my wife gravitates toward anything chocolatey, so she surprised me by requesting this.  I was more than happy to go along with it, and it was a great choice.  She got the same olive oil cake again on our third, most recent visit.  That’s how much she liked it!

When I brought home the to-go salad with smoked salmon, she had also mentioned wanting to try the orange morning bread from Sixty Vines’ weekend brunch menu, so I made sure to order it too.  The order included five brown butter cinnamon bites (larger than golf balls), and they included little ramekins of citrus icing and crushed candied walnuts with a “coffee crumble.”  We both thought these would have been better at the restaurant, where they are served warm in a basket, and your server pours the citrus icing and the crushed, crumbled stuff over them.  But the citrus icing was pretty great.

So that’s Sixty Vines, which is probably my wife’s favorite restaurant in Winter Park, and possibly in the entire metro Orlando area.  I fully admit I would never have gone on my own because it seemed:
1.) Wine-centric, and neither of us drink,
2.) Semi-upscale, which is generally not my thing, and
3.) A “chick place” — a restaurant aimed more at female diners than male.

But whenever my wife wants to do something or go somewhere, I always try to oblige to make her happy, and I’m glad we went.  After three times dining in and one time bringing home takeout, all in the past two months, I give it the Saboscrivner Seal of Superiority.  The double cabernet burger, the house-made ricotta, the Golden Beets, those mouth-watering bacon-wrapped dates, the seared halibut, and the various vinaigrettes are all winners, and I know my wife really liked that pizza and loved the filet mignon and the previous version of the rainbow trout.  The only disappointment for both of us was that fried chicken, but luckily, this is Orlando, and there are plenty of places to get fried chicken, even if they aren’t topped with caviar.

Over the Border Taqueria

As a food blogger, nothing makes me feel more like a cool, in-the-know insider than discovering the latest pop-up restaurant, but you have to move fast to catch those before they either explode in popularity or disappear forever.  A few parking lot pop-ups I wrote about way back in the day turned into popular area restaurants in permanent locations, including Chicken Fire, Smokemade Meats + Eats, and QuesaLoco — now established local favorites that I count among my personal favorites as well.

I recently learned about the existence of Over the Border Taqueria (https://www.instagram.com/overthebordertaqueria/), Chef Samuel Aguilar’s Tijuana-style taco pop-up featuring authentic al pastor — marinated pork flavored with onions and pineapple and sliced off a trompo (a vertical spit, like the best gyro places do with their seasoned meat).  I have written before about my love of al pastor in tacos, burritos, and tortas.  It is something I’ll order anytime I see it on a Mexican restaurant menu, to the point where I judge Mexican restaurants that don’t serve al pastor.

This particular pop-up was from 6 to 10 PM on a Saturday at a small mechanic shop, Goodfelo’s, on East Colonial Drive and Dean Road, but Over the Border has even popped up at apartment complexes before.  Because I worry about parking and hate long lines, I showed up right at 5:30 and was the first person there.  There was a crew of about six people already set up, with a tent, staging tables, a simple charcoal grill with one guy grilling marinated, sliced carne asada, and of course the al pastor being licked with flames on the trompo:
Here are the menus.  Tacos come on a fresh corn tortilla (from Tortilleria El Progreso, the Mexican market and restaurant I reviewed in the first year of this blog), lightly crisped up on their flattop grill, and a mulita is like a sandwich of two tortillas with a little cheese melted in between, plus the meat of your choice and the same toppings as the tacos.  Tortas are the largest and most expensive menu items: huge and beautiful sandwiches on soft, fresh telera rolls, which are sliced in half and also lightly grilled on the flattop.  The al pastor and carne asada are finely chopped, and the orangey-red chorizo sausage is crumbled.

I brought home three tacos: an al pastor taco for myself with the works (diced onions and cilantro and their red salsa and slightly spicy guacamole) and two carne asada tacos for my wife, sin cebollas (hold the onions).  I typically don’t order carne asada for myself at taquerias because sometimes it is dry or flavorless or too chewy, or all of the above.  I just ate a few morsels that were left on her plate when she finished those two, and I don’t mind telling you, dear readers, that this was the most flavorful carne asada I’ve ever had in my life.  It had a complex and smoky flavor, and I’m sure it helped that the meat was all grilled up fresh on the type of grill everyone’s dads cursed over in their backyards.

This was my chorizo mulita, which was also terrific.  Chorizo is usually my second or third choice when it comes to meats in a taco, at places like Francisco’s Taco Madness (still my favorite spot for tacos and burritos in the entire Orlando area), Orange Blossom Trail landmark Tortas El Rey, and the aforementioned QuesaLoco, and this chorizo did not disappoint.  The shredded, melted white cheese (mozzarella?) gets a bit lost in the shuffle, and the mulita is actually messier to eat than the taco, but I have no regrets.

But this was the star of the show: the al pastor torta on that soft telera roll.  I think it was one of the most satisfying things I’ve eaten in a long time, and it’s HUGE.

Here’s an inside shot.  The torta contains the meat of your choice, the same diced onions and cilantro, red salsa, and guacamole, plus melted cheese and mayonnaise, which I think is important for flavor, holding the crumbly ingredients together, and as a “sandwich lubricant” to add some additional moisture.  And since I haven’t said much about the actual flavor of the al pastor yet… WOW.  You can definitely taste all the seasonings — garlic, vinegar, brown sugar, and especially the necessary onions and sweet, bright, tangy pineapple.  It has a nice orange color from the achiote paste (made from the spice annatto), which also adds some subtle but important earthy flavor.  If you’ve never tried al pastor before, I strongly recommend it whenever you see it on a Mexican menu, but to start with some of the best al pastor and set your expectations high from now on, get it from Over the Border Taqueria, next time they pop up anywhere.

They also had two huge, clear plastic barrels of aguas frescas: jamaica (reddish-purple sweet hibiscus drink) and horchata (creamy rice milk, flavored with cinnamon, sugar, and a bit of vanilla).  I brought home two horchatas for myself and my wife after texting her to see which one she wanted.  I always love aguas frescas at any Mexican restaurant, and even though fruity flavors are my favorites, horchata always hits the spot, especially for cutting the heat from spicy dishes. 

I will note that Over the Border Taqueria does NOT accept credit card payments — just cash, Venmo, and Zelle.  I was glad I had just enough cash on me to cover our order, since I don’t use Venmo or Zelle (just Paypal for my collectible wheeling and dealing).  But now you can plan accordingly when you go!

So where can you find these pop-ups?  Follow Over the Border’s Instagram (I included the link at the very top), and you’ll notice they announce their locations for every Friday and Saturday evening.  Right now, those seem to be the only nights Samuel Aguilar and his talented crew are popping up anywhere, so start planning ahead.  You won’t want to miss incredible food like this.  And trust me — get there early, because the legend is only going to continue to grow (and so will the lines) as more people discover Over the Border Taqueria for themselves.  Maybe one day they can figure out longer hours, more nights per week, a permanent location, or even a brick and mortar restaurant, but for now, Orlando is lucky to even experience these fleeting pop-ups.  You won’t be sorry, trust me.  I guarantee you’ll hear more about them in the weeks and months ahead.  This is one time to believe the hype, and if you don’t believe your friendly neighborhood Saboscrivner, my friend and role model, Amy Drew Thompson of the Orlando Sentinel, also wrote about Samuel Aguilar and Over the Border over a year ago!

Gabriel’s Subs

Gabriel’s Subs (https://sites.google.com/view/gabrielssubs/home) is a rarity in Orlando — a friendly neighborhood sub shop that has survived and thrived since 1958.  Not many restaurants have been around that long in our relatively young city, and especially not in College Park, an area where many trendier restaurants just don’t last for any number of reasons.  Through all the turnover, Gabriel’s remains a retro-yet-timeless destination where generations of families and hungry teenagers continue to dine.  My high school experience consisted of being a lonely, horny, increasingly bitter outsider, counting down the days to graduating and escaping to college (which I looked at like the witness relocation program), but I guarantee that if I had attended Edgewater High School in College Park, I would have at least looked back fondly on the proximity to Gabriel’s Subs.

I only recently made it to Gabriel’s for the first time, and it was so good that I fixated on it for almost two more weeks before I had a chance to return.  A friend with good taste had recommended the cheesesteak sub, with the caveat that it might not be as impressive as other cheesesteaks I’ve had, but it would be something singular and special.  Well, this dude called it.

The cheesesteak at Gabriel’s is a pretty simple thing: grilled ribeye steak, sliced so thin it is practically shaved, then sauteed with onions and served on a soft roll with American cheese, my preferred cheese for a burger, breakfast sandwich, or a cheesesteak, as it turns out.  Nothing melts quite as satisfyingly or pairs with hot, greasy meats quite as well as good ol’ American.  I added hot cherry peppers to mine, which I will always do when they are an option.  

It was boiling lava hot and pretty greasy, so the above photo was the only one I got, and it didn’t really show much.  I had to go back, to try that sandwich again to see if the first one was an anomaly, or if it would always be that good — and on my second visit, I snapped two slightly better photos.  Note the different colored basket for cheesesteak #2:

You see, stalwart Saboscrivnerinos, there are definitely more authentic cheesesteaks around that are more like the classic Philadelphia version.  My personal favorites in Orlando are identical sandwiches served at John and John’s – A Pizza Shop and Cavo’s Bar and Kitchen.  But what makes Gabriel’s cheesesteak special to me is that it tastes JUST LIKE a Krystal or White Castle slider burger, but in sub form.  It’s uncanny, especially after adding a squirt of yellow mustard to my second cheesesteak to match the Krystal flavor even closer.
I left off the pickles (honestly my least favorite part of the Krystal and White Castle flavor) and of course added the hot cherry peppers, which make almost everything better for me, but it was such a comforting, familiar savory flavor profile.  The meltiness of the cheese melded with the steak and onions on those soft rolls hit just right, and I can’t say enough nice things about it.  It is also reminiscent of that New York borough bodega classic sandwich, the chopped cheese, moreso than any other Philly cheesesteaks you’ve had.

RING THE ALARM, because Gabriel’s serves onion rings, and I had to try them!  I prefer battered onion rings to this breaded style, but I ate them with a mountain of ketchup, scalding my tongue the entire time because they were so hot out of the fryer.

While I was trying a historic sub shop for the first time, I couldn’t leave without ordering their version of an Italian sub.  Gabriel’s calls it the grinder, and it comes with hard salami, capicola, imported ham, prosciuttini (which I’ve only ever seen on Jersey Mike’s #13 Original Italian), provolone cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, Italian dressing, and I added on sweet peppers.  This is the grinder back at home, in front of my familiar microwave on my familiar green plates, after the flavors had a chance to meld together in the fridge for a few hours.

They really load up those soft sub rolls, so it’s a bit messy to eat, even by Italian sub standards.  But it was really tasty.  It’s hard for me to dethrone the namesake Stasio sub from Stasio’s Italian Deli and Market, but Gabriel’s grinder was really satsifying, and I’d happily order it on any return trips.

In fact, I got one on my very first return trip, to get a better photo (and also because I wanted another one, with hot cherry peppers this time)!

Is it overstuffed?  Yes.  Is it messy?  Indubitably.  Is it spicy?  Oh, indeed.  But so am I.

My friends and dozens of readers know that a sub — and especially an Italian sub — is probably my favorite meal.  I am always on a quest for good food, but I seek out sandwiches and subs wherever I go because they always sound good to me.  I am thrilled to have finally discovered Gabriel’s Subs after living in the Orlando area for 20 years, but better late than never.  And after trying it twice, I totally get it.  I’m on board.  Like Beefy King, a similar time capsule of a restaurant that has withstood changing tastes and trends by continuing to do what it does best, Gabriel’s is an iconic institution and a certified classic.  If you are a fellow fan, what is your usual order, and how long have you been ordering it?

An Vi

As all Orlando residents know, the vast majority of our Vietnamese restaurants are mostly located together in the Mills 50 district, centered around East Colonial Drive and Mills Avenue, east of downtown Orlando.  There are a few more in Orlando’s Chinatown, centered in Pine Hills on West Colonial Drive, west of downtown.  A few Vietnamese restaurants have come and gone in the Seminole County suburbs, closer to where The Saboscrivner lives, but they are never fantastic, and they rarely last.  So when An Vi (https://www.anvirestaurant.com/) opened relatively close to home in Casselberry (I think in 2023), we hoped for the best.  I am pleased to say it did not disappoint after two visits — one for takeout and the second for dining in.  Chef-owner Joseph Nguyen and his wife-partner Rose Nguyen opened An Vi after running two Vietnamese restaurants in Seattle, and my favorite city’s loss is our gain.

For our first takeout order, my wife requested lemongrass tofu with rice vermicelli noodles (bun).  I didn’t try any, but she loved it.

We ordered shrimp pad Thai noodles to share, since we hadn’t had pad Thai in a long time, and it always hits the spot, even from a Vietnamese restaurant.  Especially from this Vietnamese restaurant.  I love it when the pad Thai is a little bit tangy, even approaching sour, and An Vi nailed it.  Some places make it too sweet, without that acidic tang to balance it out.

We also shared an order of gumbo, that Cajun stew that usually contains shrimp, chicken, andouille sausage, and the “trinity” of onions, celery, and green bell peppers, served in a rich roux thickened with okra and ladled over white rice.  If getting gumbo at a Vietnamese restaurant sounds even weirder than getting pad Thai at a Vietnamese restaurant, consider that many Vietnamese immigrants settled along the Gulf Coast in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi, and there is a wonderful culinary fusion cuisine called Viet-Cajun.  (King Cajun Crawfish is one of several Viet-Cajun restaurants around Orlando that serves this style).
My wife and I both adore good gumbo (although I like mine much spicier than she does), and An Vi’s version did not disappoint either of us.

I am famous for my love of sandwiches, especially banh mi, the Vietnamese sub sandwich that is a product of French colonialism.  While the menu teased a ribeye French dip banh mi that sounded amazing, I was told it is no longer available.  I chose my standard, a house special pork banh mi, with a few different pork-based cold cuts, pickled carrot and daikon radish, and fresh cilantro and jalapeno peppers served cold on fresh, crusty French bread.  It is a surprisingly light and refreshing sandwich, compared to the heavy gut-bomb Italian hoagies and Jewish deli monoliths-on-rye I love so much.  I usually like a lot of mayonnaise (usually Kewpie brand) and pork liver pate on my banh mi, but I didn’t notice any on this particular sandwich.

Despite being a bit dry as a result, it was generously stuffed with the various meats and vegetables. 

About a month later, we were both hungry on a Friday night and climbing the walls after working from home (and eating at home) all week.  I took my wife to dinner at An Vi, since it is so close, and we knew we would get seated and served quickly.  My wife always loves summer rolls with peanut sauce at any Vietnamese restaurant, but we almost didn’t order these, since they were called “fresh rolls” (also known as goi cuon) on An Vi’s menu.  But when we saw them being walked out to another table, we asked, and she was glad we did.

She ordered a house special vermicelli platter that came with a lot of neat meats in addition to the rice vermicelli, but she didn’t love all of them.  Luckily, I did.

It included grilled beef, chicken, and pork sausage skewers, all with a slightly sweet, tangy, and funky flavor from being brushed with fish sauce.  There was also sugarcane shrimp, with ground shrimp brushed with fish sauce and reformed around a length of sugarcane before being grilled, and a fried spring roll stuffed with pork.  While she liked the vermicelli and all the crushed peanuts, I think the funky fish sauce flavor turned her off these grilled meats, so I happily devoured them.  I think I’ll order this exact dish for myself on our next visit to An Vi.

I had a feeling she might not love all those unique meats, so I ordered a fried catfish banh mi sandwich because I wanted to try it, but also because I know my wife always loves fried catfish and might end up preferring it.  I was right — it was good, and she loved it.  This banh mi almost reminded me more of a New Orleans-style po’ boy sandwich, the way it was dressed without the traditional butter, pate, or pickled vegetables.  The side of Cajun fries really hit the spot too.

Since Pho Huong Lan is my absolute, accept-no-substitutes favorite restaurant for pho, I tried the bun bo hue at An Vi instead of pho.  Labeled as Hue’s spicy beef soup on the menu, it was warm and refreshing, spicy without being overwhelmingly so.  I was so glad I had the foresight to wear an expendable shirt for all the inevitable splashing of the oily orange broth.It was good, but the bun bo hue at Pho Huong Lan still wins.

I ordered a side of French bread (the same bread they use for the banh mi) for dipping in the rich, spicy broth and for eating plain to cut the heat.

I hope An Vi makes it in Casselberry, where too many good restaurants that are considered “exotic” don’t last.  While our first impulse when we crave Vietnamese food is still to schlep down to Mills 50, I am glad An Vi is so close to us, and I’m sure we will be ordering plenty of takeout over the cooler months ahead.

M’ama Napoli Italian Bakery & Deli

M’ama Napoli Italian Bakery & Deli (https://www.instagram.com/mamanapoliwinterpark/) is a new business that opened this past summer in Winter Park, just south of Fairbanks Avenue on State Road 17-92.  It is a cute café with delicious coffee, pastries, snacks, sandwiches, rustic-looking pizzas, and shelves laden with Italian groceries.  There are a few booths inside for lingering over a cappuccino and any number of Italian delicacies.

You can see some of their premade panini sandwiches above the deli meats: the Vesuvio, Procida, Ischia, and Capri.  If you right-click on the photo below and open it in a new tab, you can probably even make out the ingredients listed for each.

This glass case includes fresh cannoli, tarts, macarons, and cake slices.

Here are gorgeous pistachio, Nutella, apricot, and almond croissants.

Bombolone are like Italian doughnuts, and these all had different fillings: Bavarian cream, apricot, Nutella, and pistachio cream (which seems to be becoming a trendy dessert ingredient).

And here are flaky, shell-shaped sfogliatella pastries, with a light, crispy texture and a smooth cream filling with the slightest hint of lemon.

M’ama Napoli has several shelves of imported Italian groceries, including some nice-looking fruit preserves, pickled peppers, and tomato sauces.

For the first order I ever brought home, I selected some cream-filled conchiglia puff pastries and a croissant filled with almond paste (marzipan) for my wife who loves almond-flavored anything.  While I still give the edge to Benjamin French Bakery in Thornton Park for the best croissants in Orlando, my wife and I enjoyed all these pastries.   

I also got an incredible sandwich on freshly baked, fluffy focaccia bread, the Toto.  I’m sure it wasn’t named for the yacht rock-adjacent band that featured David Paich, Steve Lukather, and the Porcaro brothers,  but it was full of paper-thin slices of prosciutto, fresh mozzarella, arugula, tomatoes, and shaved parmigiano cheese.  I loved it.  It was huge, too!

Here is a better photo of the Toto sandwich from our second visit.  My wife doesn’t share my obsession with sandwiches, but she likes good bread, prosciutto, fresh mozz, and arugula — pretty much everything but the tomatoes — so she had most of this one.

That time, I tried the Maradona sandwich, with salami, fresh mozzarella, and arugula.  The salami was really high-quality, but since I ate this sandwich at home, I plussed it up with the tomatoes from my wife’s Toto sandwich, some hot cherry peppers, and balsamic glaze.

And this was a special sandwich that was only available that day, with prosciutto, fresh mozzarella, shaved parmesan cheese, and some kind of creamy sauce that gave it a bit of a funky flavor, but not unpleasant.  It was an umami bomb, though! 
I would probably skip this one in the future, just because the Toto is so great, and there are lots of other sandwich options too — not just on focaccia, but pressed paninis as well.  Maybe I’ll try a focaccia sandwich with mortadella next time, which is like very posh bologna that sometimes contains pistachios.

There are only a few parking spaces behind the building, off busy State Road 17-92, but I’ve had decent parking karma on my two visits to M’ama Napoli so far (which is more than I can say for many of Orlando’s most popular dining districts).  Check it out, and I’m sure you won’t be disappointed, especially if you get the Toto or one of the other focaccia sandwiches!

The Saboscrivner’s Top Ten TV Shows of 2024

Did anyone else feel like this was a relatively slow year for television and an even slower year for movies?  I watched several new shows and got into some old ones, but I wanted to boost the signal on my ten favorite TV shows that rose above the rest in 2024.  What were your favorite TV shows this year?  Take a look at my list first, but then let me know yours!

Two brief notes, before we begin:

  • Normally Fargo, season 5 would have made the list, but it mostly aired in late 2023, and only the final three episodes aired in 2024.  As a result, I did not rank it this year, but it did make my Top Ten TV Shows of 2023.
  • English Teacher, season 1 would have made the list, until I read this Vulture article from December 17, 2024, about the behavior of the show’s creator and star.  I can no longer recommend or even watch the show in good conscience.

Finally, here we go!

10. Interior Chinatown, season 1 (Hulu) – This was such a pleasant surprise!  It’s a twisty crime show, a parody of Law and Order, and a deconstruction of Asian-American identity, especially in terms of assimilation and representation.  But it was also something more — something far weirder and harder to explain.  I always appreciate metafiction, breaking of the fourth wall, and stories that confound your expectations, ending in complete different genres than they began.  If you are patient and willing to suspend your disbelief, this might be a show for you.  Also, it was nice to see Chloe Bennett from Agents of SHIELD again, even if I kept thinking she looks like Aubrey Plaza in every shot.

9. Curb Your Enthusiasm, season 12 (HBO) – It helps that my brother, my wife, and I started binge-watching this show for the first time in late 2023, catching up just in time to watch the series finale when it aired in April 2024.  The cantankerous curmudgeon Larry David is a comedy genius who elevated two sitcoms to legendary status: Seinfeld and Curb.  After finally getting around to watching Curb, it was clear Larry was the brains of the operation and the creative force behind Seinfeld back in the ’90s, with how hacky Jerry Seinfeld’s stand-up has always been, and how bitter and humorless he seems these days.  Larry (on TV and in real life) might be an anhedonic altacocker, but he can spin laughs from the most awkward, unpleasant situations and create lasting catch-phrases and hilarious situations like nobody’s business.  Even though I still have all 12 seasons and 24 years of Curb fresh in my head, the final season that aired in 2024 did not disappoint or drop the ball.

8. Mr. & Mrs. Smith, season 1 (Amazon Prime Video) – I am a giant Donald Glover fanboy.  I’ve seen him live twice — performing stand-up comedy in Miami Beach in 2012, and holding a sold-out arena in the palm of his hand as Childish Gambino earlier this year in Tampa.  He is The Man, so I was going to watch and enjoy this show no matter what.  It will be interesting to see if it continues, and if so, if he’ll be back.  I was more intrigued by the larger world that was hinted at than most of the “missions of the week,” but I don’t want to say too much to spoil anything.  Like Glover’s previous show Atlanta (which I absolutely loved), it was often strange, but understated at the same time, creating a very unreal-feeling reality.

7. Hey! (EW) (YouTube) – The most obscure thing on this list, Hey! (EW) is a free, short, weekly Internet show where comedian/raconteur/former professional wrestler R.J. City interviews different AEW wrestlers, sometimes for just ten minutes at a time, but usually (hopefully) longer.  Sometimes they stay completely in character, sometimes they “break kayfabe” and reveal a bit of their everyday personalities, and sometimes they threaten him.  R.J. is one of the funniest people out there — quick and sarcastic with a razor-sharp wit, and excellent at improv — and he is constantly needling these wrestlers, forcing them to break character, cracking them up, challenging them, or pulling them along in weird and inspired conversational directions.  He is also a writer and producer behind the scenes at AEW, using his encyclopedic knowledge of classic cinema to shape and mold some of my favorite storylines (including a feud between female wrestlers Toni Storm and her protégé/betrayer Mariah May, inspired by Sunset Boulevard and All About Eve).  I love how Hey! (EW) pulls back the curtain on the wrestling business and sets some of that seriousness aside, but it wouldn’t work without R.J. City.  He is better at his job than any of the big name talk show hosts and funnier than the vast majority of professional comics.  Plus, he also trash-talked the tired, washed-up, MAGA-supporting Undertaker, so he gets even more cool points from me.

6. X-Men ’97, season 1 (Disney+) – A nice introduction to radical politics disguised as superhero action and melodrama, with plenty of rousing moments for all your favorite characters.  As a teenager, I gave up on the original ’90s animated series after the first season, but I appreciated how modern, relevant, and allegorical these new stories were (as X-Men stories should always be), while still fitting perfectly into the original continuity.  Even if you’ve never seen a previous X-Men cartoon or any of the movies or read any of the comics, you could probably watch this first season of X-Men ’97 and get everything.  If you did grow up with the original animated series (which was responsible for shaping and forming the sexuality of a bunch of people I know, and probably people you know too), rest assured that X-Men ’97 is definitely written for that same audience, only paying respect to the fact that we are adults now.  It went hard at various points — harder than it had to, and props to the creative team for that — but I appreciated them writing with grownups in mind and remembering that the X-Men don’t uphold the status quo like other superheroes, but fight the good fight against it.  “The name is Gambit, mon ami.  Remember it.”

5. Fallout, season 1 (Amazon Prime Video) – Usually post-apocalyptic shows are so dour and dire, but Fallout was ridiculously fun by blending much-needed, tension-breaking humor with all the action and horror.  I’ve never played the video games, but I have a feeling I would like them, since I loved the first season of the show so much.  The retro-futuristic aesthetic and 1950s soundtrack differentiated Fallout from so many similar stories, and the actors brought their A-game.  Kyle McLachlan already played one of my favorite TV characters of all time (Special Agent Dale Cooper on Twin Peaks), and Walton Goggins has played at least a couple of them (Boyd Crowder on Justified and Uncle Baby Billy on The Righteous Gemstones).  They were great here too, but Ella Purnell knocked it out of the park as the lead — sweet, innocent, wide-eyed, and naïve, but able to fend for herself and kick ass as needed.  Okey-dokey.

4. The Girls on the Bus, season 1 (Max) – This light, refreshing dramedy about four female reporters covering a presidential campaign was so much fun in an ugly, exhausting election year.  I am a sucker for stories about crusading journalists solving mysteries and uncovering corruption, and while The Girls on the Bus served up plenty of that, it also focused heavily on the female friendships.  Melissa Benoist (best known as Supergirl) was delightful as always, and my favorite actress of all time (and celebrity crush), Carla Gugino, brought the gravitas as the most experienced and successful political journalist.  By the way, I met her this year and told her my wife and I loved this show.  It’s a damn shame it was already canceled, ending with at least one major unresolved plotline, but don’t let that stop you from giving this show the chance it deserves.

3. Everybody’s in L.A., season 1 (Netflix) – The late-night talk show is such a tired, outdated format, but this show proved it could be fun, hilarious, and even exciting by shaking up the ancient formula.  Find a great host (John Mulaney, one of my favorite stand-up comics ever), surround him with celebrities who are either funny or have good stories (not just there to hype their latest projects), also interview regular people who have interesting jobs or are experts in unique fields, bring on cool bands playing their beloved hits, show off a truly singular American city in remote, pre-taped segments, and film the whole thing live.  I’ve been lucky enough to travel to L.A. for work a few times now, and I marked out for some of the hyper-specific local references that I actually GOT.  It made me feel like an honorary Angeleno!  I believe Mulaney will be hosting more talk shows for Netflix in the year to come, so I’m glad this wild experiment was so successful.

2. Sugar, season 1 (Apple TV+) – This was 100% my shit: a stylish neo-noir set in gorgeous Los Angeles, starring a protagonist who is a morally upstanding, noble, empathetic hero — the kind of character who does good because he is good.  Private detective John Sugar transcends the pantheon of two-fisted, hard-boiled film noir gumshoes, many of whom are morally ambiguous antiheroes.  Instead, I’d rank him alongside the aforementioned Dale Cooper, Superman, Captain America, Captain Christopher Pike, and even Ted Lasso, all uncomplicated good dudes.  I could watch mensches like this all day — protecting the innocent, standing up to bullies, and throwing down when someone pushes them too far.  Just be forewarned: Sugar has a pretty major twist that may have been spoiled for you already, but if you don’t know what I’m talking about, I implore you to watch the show without researching anything about it beforehand.  I’m begging you to take my word for it, and you’ll have a much richer experience.

1. Bad Monkey, season 1 (Apple TV+) – This was also 100% my shit: a fun, sunny crime comedy set in Key West, Miami, and the Bahamas, based on a novel by one of my lifelong favorite writers, the legendary Miami Herald columnist and crime fiction author Carl Hiaasen.  Like his contemporary, the late, great Elmore Leonard, Hiaasen excels in writing likable, down-on-their-luck protagonists and hilariously stupid, occasionally vicious criminals.  Bad Monkey was a blast — a great mystery that kept us guessing and laughing, thanks to showrunner Bill Lawrence (of Scrubs and Ted Lasso fame).  The entire cast was on point, but Vince Vaughn as the loquacious lead has never been better, and the otherworldly Jodie Turner-Smith needs to be cast as Storm in a GOOD X-Men movie right away.

For anyone who made it this far, here are my lists from previous years:

Top Thirteen TV Shows of 2023
Top Fifteen TV Shows of 2022
Top Twenty TV Shows of the Decade (2011-2021)
Top Ten TV Shows of 2021
Top Twenty TV Shows of 2020
Top Twenty TV Shows of 2019
Top Ten Movies of 2019
Top Ten TV Shows of 2018
Top Ten Movies of 2018

Genghis Cohen (Los Angeles)

When I visited Los Angeles for work earlier this year, my supervisor and I went to the “New York-style” Chinese restaurant Genghis Cohen (https://www.genghiscohen.com/), which first opened in 1983.  In addition to the truly great name, I chose the restaurant because it has special significance to me as a comedy nerd.  There was an entire episode of Seinfeld where the characters were stuck at a Chinese restaurant, waiting for a table that never became available.  That episode was instrumental in forming that sitcom’s (somewhat overused) description of “a show about nothing.”  Co-creator, genius comedy writer, and awe-inspiring altacocker Larry David, the brains of the operation and the main reason anyone still fondly remembers Seinfeld today, was inspired by a similar experience at Genghis Cohen in L.A., so there you go.

We started out by sharing these excellent pan-fried pork pot stickers.  There was nothing unique about them, but fried pot stickers are always a delicious appetizer, and you can never go wrong with them.

My supervisor chose the happy family, a dish I never would have considered ordering myself, although it really looked and smelled great.  It included chicken, shrimp, barbecue pork, carrots, cabbage, onions, bean sprouts, and crunchy fried noodles, all stir-fried together.  He really liked it.

And while I had other dishes in mind, I absolutely had to order the shalom pork, with sliced barbecue pork (think char siu), onions, cabbage, and green bell peppers, all stir-fried together with barbecue sauce (not the sweet and smoky American style barbecue sauce, of course).  Not only was the Genghis Cohen name hilarious to me, but so was the shalom pork, so I couldn’t resist. 

Since I am lucky enough to take work trips to L.A. twice a year, I plan my restaurant excursions as far in advance as possible, considering I never rent a car out there and usually don’t have much down time to play tourist.  I don’t know if I’ll ever make it back to Genghis Cohen, but I’m really glad I went, and that my supervisor was willing to join me.  There’s a helpful hint for aspiring restauranteurs: if you open a place with a funny, punny name, you will probably get at least one customer.

Prato

The upscale Italian restaurant Prato (https://www.prato-wp.com/) is a mainstay of Winter Park’s tony Park Avenue for good reason.  Chef and co-owner Brandon McGlamery (also of the excellent Luke’s Kitchen and Bar in Maitland) has always served top-notch food in gorgeous surroundings.  This is not a typical “red sauce” Italian-American restaurant, so don’t expect spaghetti and meatballs or red and white checkered tablecloths.  But even though Prato is a cut above, it isn’t snooty or snobby, and the comfort food truly comforts.

I had not been back to Prato in years, due in part to the difficulty of parking on Park Avenue (ironic, eh?) and a lot of bad timing.  Sometimes I’d find myself there in the off time between lunch and dinner service, where Prato only offered a limited menu, and one of the most famous pasta dishes in Orlando was unavailable.  This review was from a recent visit with my wife for lunch, which I timed just so I could try the legendary pasta for the first time, after years of reading hype about it online.

We started out with pretzel-crusted calamari, fried to golden-brown perfection.  I always note that too many restaurants overcook their squid tubes and tentacles until they are chewy and rubbery, but these were really tender, as they should be.  We had tried these before, too many years ago, and these were just as good as they had always been.  I always appreciate dipping sauces (salsa rosa and grain mustard aioli), but this calamari didn’t even need them.  That didn’t stop me from dipping, though!

After how much we enjoyed the beef tartare on a recent trip to Luke’s, we decided to trust Chef McGlamery and ordered the carne cruda at Prato as well, to compare and contrast them.  It is raw beef (which tastes great and must be the highest quality to avoid safety concerns), topped with a farm-fresh egg, grated horseradish, and romanesco conserva.  I realize romanesco is a relative of the cauliflower that grows in stunning fractal patterns, but I didn’t see any of that vegetable, so I wondered if the menu might have meant romesco, which is a sauce made from cooking down tomatoes, roasted red peppers, garlic, and almonds.  It was also served with crunchy toasted focaccia bread slices for scooping up the meat or spreading it onto the toast.  We loved it, just as we loved the beef tartare at Luke’s.

Here’s a close-up of that amazing carne cruda.  The meat was so tender and flavorful in a way we rarely get to experience, since everyone cooks their meat (and should continue to do so, don’t get me wrong).

I forgot to mention that we came to Prato during weekend brunch hours, being sure to be there as it opened to avoid a long wait.  After the savory appetizers, my wife went with a sweet dish: perfect little pancakes topped with freshly made ricotta cheese and blueberry compote (which strikes me as more of a dessert than a breakfast dish, but millions of brunchers will disagree).  She adored it.

And I finally got to try the legendary pasta dish, mustard spaghettini “cacio e pepe.”  I fully admit to being a red sauce guy, since that’s the Italian food  I was raised eating.  I am always drawn to rich bolognese and spicy arrabbiata sauces, so I rarely order cacio e pepe on menus, even though it can be so luxurious and decadent despite its relative simplicity (just Pecorino Romano cheese — the cacio — and black pepper — the pepe).  This version was anything but simple, though.  It included mustard in there somewhere, but it’s subtle, and you definitely won’t detect the brightness of yellow mustard or anything horseradishy, so don’t worry about that.  I love mustard (and even review mustards on this blog), so that was the main thing that had me intrigued for so many years.   
This house-made pasta also includes balsamic vinegar (another favorite ingredient of mine), radicchio, a spicy and bitter vegetable that looks like red and white cabbage and is sometimes called Italian chicory, and speck, a cured and lightly smoked pork leg (think of ham or bacon) from the cold and mountainous South Tyrol province in northeastern Italy.  If you are familiar with geography, you might guess that there is some German or Austrian influence to this particular cured meat, and you’d be right.  Also, the mountains are called the Dolomites, but Rudy Ray Moore had nothing to do with it.

This was a gorgeous and delicious pasta dish that surpassed all the hype.  I make pretty great pasta dishes at home, but I had never had anything quite like this, and I was so happy to finally try it, after all these years.  It was one of my favorite things I ate in 2024, that’s for sure.

I don’t know when we will return to Prato, but as tempting as it always is to try new things on every visit, I am obsessed enough with the mustard spaghettini “cacio e pepe” that I will probably order it again and again in the future.  It’s like nothing I’ve ever tried before.  Leave it to me to be late to the party and then never want to leave!  But I’m sure Prato being great is no big surprise or secret to anyone else in Winter Park or Orlando.  It has a swanky vibe that would be perfect for a date night or just a nice dinner out.  The hardest parts will be parking nearby and figuring out what to order, but hopefully I have already helped you with the second challenge.

Sushi Yama

Sushi Yama (https://www.facebook.com/p/sushiyamaOrlando-61554754973187/) is one of a handful of all-you-can-eat sushi restaurants in Orlando.  I used to love Mikado Japanese Sushi Buffet in Altamonte Springs, but nobody else ever wants to go there with me, and I fully admit it isn’t as good as it once was.

More recently, I took my wife to another all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant, but one where you order off a menu and everything is brought fresh to your table, rather than grabbing premade sushi rolls and nigiri off a buffet.  That was a truly horrendous experience, to the point where it almost seemed like a prank or a comedy sketch — terrible food and cartoonishly inept service.  I love sushi, but that was the first time I ever “hate-ate” anything (similar to hate-watching a movie or TV show out of bewildered fascination or the hope that it might improve).  I never reviewed that place because I had nothing nice to say about it, but to nobody’s surprise, it did not last.

As a result of that execrable experience at a completely different restaurant, when I discovered Sushi Yama and wanted to try it, my wife wanted nothing to do with it.  I ended up going by myself for lunch, after checking in at the wonderful Gods & Monsters comic book and collectible store on International Drive.  Well, I had a grand time, and I will be happy to go back anytime, for any of my friends and acquaintances who also like sushi and good deals.

I had a good feeling when I was greeted by a human-sized maneki neko (lucky cat) at the entrance.

Here are photos of the menu.  At the time I visited, the all-you-can-eat lunch was $20.95 (the price of two to three rolls at most regular Japanese restaurants), and you can choose from so many great options.

In addition to the sushi on the previous page, lunch also includes hot, fresh appetizers, soups, fried tempura dishes, fried rice and noodles, and even teriyaki, all prepared fresh in the kitchen.  If you’re the least bit curious about going but don’t actually like sushi or have friends or family who don’t, there is plenty for you folks to choose from as well.

I was told that the kitchen would be faster than the sushi chefs, so I might want to order something from the kitchen to tide myself over.  Instead of ordering the vegetable tempura (with broccoli, zucchini, sweet potato, and an onion ring), since it was all one price for the lunch, I asked if I could just get onion rings, and that was totally cool.  Ring the Alarm!  Leave it to me to go out for all-you-can-eat sushi and still end up with onion rings.  But they were terrific, and the tempura batter was a perfect consistency and stayed in place.

I love ornate rolls with multiple contrasting ingredients (sorry, sushi purists!), so I ordered several Chef’s Special rolls, and they all came on this gorgeous platter, arranged beautifully.

This assortment included:

    • Rainbow roll – a California roll topped with tuna, salmon, whitefish, and avocado
    • Salmon run roll -a roll containing eel and spicy krab, topped with salmon, masago fish eggs, and eel sauce
    • Baby tiger roll – a roll containing spicy tuna and cucumber, topped with salmon, avocado, masago fish eggs, and tempura crunch
    • SnowMan roll – a roll containing spicy tuna, shrimp tempura, and avocado, topped with snow krab, masago fish eggs, tempura crunch, and and eel sauce
    • Spicy tuna roll (done as a hand roll, in the bottom left corner above)

Here they are again from a different angle.  Beautiful!

I also got three pieces of nigiri: smoked salmon, red snapper (tai), and eel unago), which were all fresh and tasty. 

I should note that you get a penalty for ordering a bunch of food and not finishing it (including the rice that is part of nigiri sushi), as you should, because I consider wasting food a shanda.  For the carb-conscious among us, Sushi Yama charges more at dinnertime, but you can also get sashimi — just the slices of fresh, raw fish without the rice underneath.

It’s too bad Sushi Yama is across town on the north end of International Drive, or I would go there quite often.  As it is, I will return whenever I can, which won’t be often enough.  But whenever I have a chance to stop by Gods & Monsters, I will make it a point to arrive hungry and head straight there afterwards.  I’ll try to go for dinner in the future to take advantage of that sashimi, too!