In the Dr Phillips Marketplace area we have some new restaurant openings coming soon. Keke’s Breakfast Cafe  is coming soon! They will occupy the space formerly known as Five Guys. Next door to Keke’s is Stefano’s Grille which has been trying to open for a while now. Their actual sign is up, and that is a start! Press 101 closed awhile back. A restaurant owner in the Dr Phillips Marketplace told me someone was looking to open up a restaurant where Press 101 once was and negotiations are underway.  Alot of restaurant openings and closing going in 2013 and more to follow.

Best Regards,

The URR

Reminder!!!!  —–Please follow The  unofficialrestaurantreview.com on the Foodspotting app. I have tons of food  photos from many different restaurants.

Located a hop and skip away from Universal Studios Florida is Border Grill. This place is very hidden. It is off of Kirkman Rd and Vineland in a small strip plaza.  This place has some of the most amazing authentic “Street Tacos” I have found in all of Orlando. I really thought I was having lunch in Mexico.  It’s my type of place. Very small, very rustic, very much a hole in the wall, very inexpensive and it is family owned and operated. The main attraction is their Tacos. They also serve up Burritos and Sopes and other Mexican flavors as well.

I tried the Carnitas taco, the pollo asado grilled chicken, the steak tacos, and the marinated grilled pork taco which was a suggestion from one of the owner’s. Each taco I had was wonderful.  The tacos appear to be very basic but they are filled with flavor and spices. Street tacos are normally served with corn tortillas and with cilantro and diced onions. That’s it. Then you add your favorite sauce to it. Border Grill had a variety of sauces to choose from.  I enjoyed every taco I had. Every taco was seasoned properly and the cilantro and onions married into the meats was a match made in taco heaven. Oh, how about the price of each taco, each taco was a whooping $1.85 cents, that was the price listed on their chalkboard menu.

The place is very small. You order form the counter. They bring you the food to your table. They only have 5-6 tables, mainly high tops. You don’t come here for the atmosphere, you come to Border Grill for their amazing  Tacos. Plenty of parking is available.

As I write this review, I noticed Border Grill’s rating on Urban Spoon from a voter standpoint. It had 125 votes and 99% liked it! That is a very strong number. That is very meaningful. Rarely do you see stats like 99% “likes” on Urban Spoon.   I give their tacos and service 2 thumbs up! Don’t walk but run over to Border Grill.

Border Grill is located at 5695 Vineland Rd, Orlando, Fl ph # 407-352-0101.

Open Mon-Sat 11am-til late, closed Sunday

Let’s start with the BBQ community. Well 4 Rivers kept expanding and added locations around Central Florida.  Red Eye BBQ Grill (former food truck) opened up in Ocoee in the former location held by Matthews Steaks which closed. Speaking of closings, the landmark bbq joint O’ Boys closed, Blackwater Bar-b-q closed, Bubbaques at University/Dean also closed. Which good BBQ restaurant is coming to a theatre near us in 2013 that will compete with 4 Rivers and Bubbalou’s?

Did we have enough Burger Restaurants with BurgerFi, Burger 21, Boardwalk Fresh  Burgers & Fries, Five Guys, etc? I guess not. So we welcomed Red Robin in Winter Garden and the former original 4 Rivers became B&B Junction. Frankly speaking, I can’t keep up with the Burger Factories in our area.  I am going to weekly therapy for this and will improve here, I promise.

Restaurant Row said Hello to Rocco’s Tacos a very fun high energy taco joint.  Raga an Indian restaurant  just opened, Miller’s Field a new Sports bar has opened,  and Peperoncino a very authentic Italian restaurant opened up.  The Row also said Goodbye to City Fire and Five Guys in Dr Phillips. Speaking of Dr Phillips it is my understanding Stefano’s Grill will be opening soon in the Dr Phillips Market Place (same owners of Stefano’s in Windermere which closed).

Lots of Hellos on IDRIVE in 2012. The tourist district welcomed Big Italy, Marlows Tavern, Senor Frog’s, The Pub, Fogo de Chao just to name a few.

I also noticed in 2012 some nice expansions from current restaurant owners. The owners of the popular and well-known  Ravenous Pig opened up Cask & Larder in Winter Park. Teak Neighborhood Grill in Metro West known for their outstanding  burgers  opened up Rus Teak Restaurant & Wine Bar in Ocoee which seems to be a hit with the locals and it is much more upscale than its sister location in Metro West.

Some well known steak houses decided it was time for a new name. Del Frisco’s has or will become Christner’s Prime Steak & Lobster, and Houston’s has become Hillstone. Sounds like a plan to me.

In the Italian restaurant community Orlando lost a landmark Cafe Italiano one of Orlando’s oldest Italian restaurants on 436 near the airport closed in 2012. Maitland said hello to Francesco’s Ristorante Pizzeria, been there several times and have enjoyed everything I have ordered to date.

Mccormick & Schmick’s said bye bye at Millenia Mall and now ready to erect in the same location is Capital Grille.  This means we will now have 2 Capital Grille locations.

Again this is just a high level look at 2012 restaurant news in Central Florida. I look forward to what 2013 brings us in our restaurant community.  Happy New Year! See you in 2013 Central Florida Diners!

I have been out on the search for the best Buffalo wings in town for quite sometime. I tried the wings from all the usual suspects or most of the usual suspects in town. I went to Hooters, Wing House, Buffalo Wild Wings, Ale House, Millers Field, tried the smoked wings at 4 Rivers,  Flyers, Bloodhound Brew and just too many other bars and restaurants to list. Why? Simply because I wanted to find the best Wings in town.

After trying place after place sports bar after sports bar dives diners and drives after dives diners and drives I kept coming back to one place for the Wings. I am talking about Josie’s Pizza and Wings.  Josie’s Pizza & Wings is located on South Hiawassee Rd in the Metro West area.

These wings $8.99 (10) was succulent, crispy and are fried to perfection and are made to order every time.  Just like the 1964 buffalo style recipe Josie’s Wings are not breaded. Their rich buffalo sauce is made fresh on the premises daily. This recipe and their wings at Josie’s are the closest thing to the actual Anchor Bar in Buffalo, NY. These wings are that good in my humble opinion.  I also equally loved their Butter Garlic wings. They were fried to the requested well done, extra crispy. You could taste the butter and garlic flavors with every bite. The wings are simply very good!   The service was attentive and friendly on all visits, the staff members seemed genuinely happy to be there.  All the HDTVs are centrally located, great viewing in all areas of the restaurant. Great place to watch your favorite game.  They have a regular bar area when you first walk in on the left. They have plenty of high tops and regular table seating. They only serve beer and wine only.  Parking was fine no issues.  Priced right always a plus.

This sports bar is not your average sports bar located in Metro West. Josie’s Pizza & Wings has been around for 20 yrs.  There are reasons for this. They make a good quality pizza pie and they make the “Best” wings in town.  Forget about it!! Why go to the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, NY when we have Josie’s!

Josie’s is located at 1225 South Hiawassee Rd, Orlando, Fl 32835.

Ph# – 407-296-4009

They are open Mon-Thur 11am-11pm. Friday 11am-12am. Sunday 11am-11pm.

Website= www.josiespizza.com

My runner up for Best Wings in town was from Bloodhound Brew.  Bloodhound Brew is located at the corner of Kirkman Rd and Conroy Rd. I really like their Grilled Wings. I had mine made with their  Bloodhound style sauce

www.bloodhoundbrew.com

Coca-Cola Freestyle is a touch screen soda fountain introduced by The Coca-Cola Company in 2009. The machine features over 125 different Coca-Cola drink products, and custom flavors. The machine allows users to select from mixtures of flavors of Coca-Cola branded products which are then individually dispensed. The machines are currently located in major Coca-Cola partners and retail locations as a part of a gradual and ongoing deployment. I have seen them in Burger Kings, Fire House Subs, Five Guys, Subway, Wendy’s and Pei Wei just to name some.

How does it work? You start off my getting ice. Then you go to the main menu. Then you go to the sub menu for all the different choices to pick thru. All the traditional Coke flavors are represented but a lot of the flavors you will not find in the grocery store, which makes this Freestyle machine so unique.

Where can you find a vending machine that serves Orange Coke? How about Raspberry Coke or diet orange coke or raspberry diet coke.  I also tried the Sprite Grape and liked it.” Fanta strawberry sounds interesting” as a customer in line next to me quoted. In the mood for water how about Dansani? How about Dasani lime or lemon? They even have 8 flavors of Powerade. I also noticed 8 combinations of Hi-C. They even have 5 different blends of Mello Yello. Even 3 different choices of Mr. Pibb. Wow!  There is too many flavors to list.

This machine is very smart! It’s quite amazing. It’s definitely not your typical Coke vending machine. Go to their website for more exact details and flavors at http://www.coca-colafreestyle.com/

Go check it out!

On my first visit I started with a Hot Pastrami sandwich $9. The hot pastrami is hand carved daily by the chef. The meat was very tender and juicy. This sandwich is naturally served with rye bread, don’t use any other bread or it takes away the flavor of the pastrami.  I added Swiss cheese  to mine as well. And the only other dressing I added was their house spicy mustard. This was one great sandwich.  I also enjoyed the fresh tasting pickle on the side.

On another visit I tried the French Dip $9.The roast beef is cooked homemade every day. The quality of the beef was very good but it could of been  more tender. It was served with Caramelized onions and cheese and of course the Au Jus. I opted for the fries as my side. It was a good French Dip.

For my third visit I went back to a more traditional style deli sandwich and went with the Hot Corned Beef $9. It also comes with a side of your choice and of course “pickles”. The Hot Corned Beef is cooked in house homemade every day. It was very tender and juicy and seasoned well.  This NY style deli sandwich did not disappoint.

Pickles also serves up NY style subs, Hot open faced sandwiches, burgers, and specialty sandwiches. Pickles is not new. They  have been around for years They are very good of what they do. They also are very well known when it comes to catering. They also serve breakfast, which I have not tried yet.  I also like the service. I could tell they were very trained and experienced.  So when you are in the Longwood area and you are hungry for a great deli sandwich head on over to Pickles, and for a moment you might think you are ‘the city” having lunch. Pickles is located at 1891 West State Road 434 Longwood, Fl 32750 web address = http://www.picklescatering.com  

Recently I was invited to attend the pre grand opening of Red Eye Bar & Grill. It’s a brand new restaurant that just opened up in Ocoee, FL. You may recall the “Red Eye” name.  The owners of Red Eye Bar & Grill used to own the Red Eye BBQ truck, it was pretty well known in the food truck community. They actually sold the truck and the owner Rob Nelson moved away to Hawaii for a year to work in a corporate setting. Well after his stint in Hawaii they moved back to Central Florida and Rob bought the location that was previously Matthew’s Steak House, it was a German Steak House. The Red Eye Grill just does not serve up BBQ they also offer steaks and seafood. They have really expanded their menu from their food truck days. They also offer craft beers and have a nice wine menu. Red Eye also has nice new HD TVs around the restaurant so you won’t miss your favorite game!

I started off with the Red Eye Sliders. This family secret recipe starts with base scratch homemade corn muffins stuffed with slow roasted pulled pork and topped with the house BBQ sauce. Wow! These were really good!

Next, I had the Jim Beam Brisket Chili. Another home run! The meat in the chili which was the brisket which was extraordinary flavorful.  The flavor of the kidney beans, meat, tomato sauce, with fresh grated American cheese on top was probably the best chili I have tried in this town.

I also tried the half rack of the St Louis Style ribs with a side of Mac n Cheese. The ribs were very tender as expected. I really liked the fact that you can use a knife to cut the ribs. Most folks refer to great ribs for the need of the ribs to be falling off the bone.   However,  master award winning bbq pit masters some how  make their ribs like Red Eye, where the meat or the rib is sturdy, but when you bite into the rib or the meat itself it is so tender it still falls off the bone at that point.  Long story short, I can tell Red Eye did their home work when it comes to making BBQ St Louis Ribs. I also tried the Mac n Cheese. The mac n cheese was flavored by 5 sets of cheeses. Sometimes this can cause saltiness but not this mac n cheese.  Very good mac n cheese!

Who said you can’t eat half way healthy at a BBQ restaurant? So we tried the Grilled Skewer Shrimp entree. The grilled shrimp were grilled perfectly and were not over cooked, which is easy to do on a grill. The shrimp had a nice smoky seasoned flavor to it. I dipped the shrimp into some of the different bbq sauces and was in heaven. The shrimp were served with a nice sized baked potato with butter and sour creme on the side and if that was not enough it also came with a sweet corn muffin.

I don’t have a picture of this but I also tried the steak burger. The steak burger had 3 different types of meats blended together. The burger was seasoned perfectly with a special seasoned spice. The owner Rob Nelson said he could not give me his special spice mixture (never hurts to ask). The burger was so good you could just eat it plain, and I did.

For desert, I went over to some of the other food bloggers table and tried the Bananas Foster. I would like to offer a special Shout Out  to Droolius from www.droolius.com and Katie from www.katiecucina.com for allowing me to try their Bananas Foster.  The menu says it serves 2 but it I believe it would feed 3-4 just fine.  This desert was served with fresh bananas, cinnamon, powder sugar, hint of dark rum, with vanilla ice cream and the puff pastry. All 3 of us food bloggers really enjoyed this satisfying desert. It was a great way to end our dining experience.

A Big Thank You to Red Eye for having us out!

Red Eye Bar & Grill is located at

2594 Maguire Rd

Ocoee, Fl 34761

www.redeyebarandgrill.com

407-877-000

Great news! It is almost September. And you know what that means? Yes, of course it is Orlando Magical Dining Month. This is where you can try 3 course meals at some of the area’s best dining establishment. During the month of September you can go to Morton’s Steak house for example,  and start with a Caesar Salad, Filet Mignon or Double Cut Prime Pork Chop,  plus one side to choose from, and desert, wow all for $30. When can you eat at Luma or Emeril’s  for $30? Make sure you check out the Orlando Magical Dining Month website for all the details and fine print http://www.visitorlando.com/magicaldining/

regards,

URR