The Varsity in Atlanta, GA

I recently went on a weekend roadtrip up to Atlanta. When I put up a request on Twitter for restaurant recommendations in the city, the consensus seemed to be that I needed to try The Varsity.

The Varsity was opened in 1928 and is currently the world's largest drive-in restaurant. Instead of eating in our car, we went inside to get our Varsity food. Once inside of the huge restaurant, we made our way to the very long counter to place our orders. A constant chorus of "What'll ya have?" echoed over this part of the restaurant as the employees called for their next customer.

 

I saw posters advertising The Varsity's Orange Drink hanging on the wall as I entered the restaurant. I guess the posters worked since I ordered the orange drink. It tasted like orange soda without the carbonation.

I had one of the combos on the menu consisting of a grilled chicken sandwich and onion rings. The sandwich was actually a little surprising. It was pretty simple and tasted okay, with a piece of chicken with lettuce and tomato. What surprised me was the size. It was almost the size of a slider, similar in size to what White Castle or Krystal serves. For some reason I was expecting a larger sandwich.

The onion rings were definitely the star of the food I tried here. Each of the rings were huge with a really good batter around the onions. They were horribly greasy, but they also put the onion rings at most other restaurants to shame.

Now that I've been, I guess I can cross The Varsity off my list of the top places to eat in Atlanta. The food here was alright, but I think the retro atmosphere is the real reason to go to The Varsity. It is the world's largest drive-in after all. The view of downtown Atlanta is pretty nice too...

Yum Yum Cupcake Truck in Orlando, FL

Yum Yum Cupcake Truck was among one of the first gourmet food trucks to show up in Orlando. As their name implies, they specialize in cupcakes. Yum Yum can generally be found at the Food Truck Bazaars as well as other food truck events around town.

They always seem to have a large selection of cupcakes on hand:

I tried one of their peanut butter cupcakes at the Lake Lily Food Truck Pod. 

This salted caramel cupcake, topped with caramel popcorn, came from the very first Food Truck Bazaar in Casselberry.

Follow The Yum Yum Cupcake Truck on Twitter @YumYumTruck_FL to figure out where they are located.

Downtown Pizza/Off the Traxx in Melbourne, FL

Downtown Pizza is a restaurant in the historic section of Downtown Melbourne. This tiny shop doesn't exactly have an inside and pizza is ordered from a window on the street. The weird thing is, nobody knows what I'm talking about if I mention Downtown Pizza. Regardless of the signage outside and having their own storefront, people seem to refer to this place as Off the Traxx, which is the connected bar located next door. Perhaps if I went to Off the Traxx for drinks before pizza I'd be referring to this place this way too, but why do that when I'm coming for some really good pizza by the slice?

The slices from Downtown Pizza are good sized with a really thin, crispy crust. The sauce and cheese always seem to have a good ratio, and are overall cooked to perfection on my visits.

The white pizza is also really good, with no sauce and big pools of ricotta cheese.

This continues my trend of finding exceptional pizza in Melbourne. Still haven't figured out why this area of Florida seems to have a disproportionate amount of good, NY style pizzas as opposed to Orlando where pizza seems to be disappointing more often than not. Old Skool Pizza and now Downtown Pizza. I wonder what good pizza will be discussed on this blog next?

Aunt Catfish's On the River in Port Orange, FL

I have been to Aunt Catfish's On the River in Port Orange a few times. On each visit, the restaurant always seems like they have a wait and the food has been consistently good.

My latest visit to Aunt Catfish's happened on a cold night in January. The meal started with a trip to their Fixins Bar. Almost all meals at Aunt Catfish's include at least access to the food here, if not their salad bar as well.

The Fixin' Bar is a small buffet table that includes cheese grits, baked beans, two types of cole slaw, apples, and corn bread. Being able to stuff yourself on all-you-can-eat baked beans so you're full before the actual meal is served can be a bad thing, but is still enjoyable on occasion. The food here was all tasty, especially the cheese grits and the cole slaw.

I had the Cajun catfish for my meal. At a place called Aunt Catfish's, I figured I might as well eat the namesake. Two filets of fish were served with a lemon slice and cinnamon roll on a huge fish shaped plate.

Overall, the fish was tasty. The Cajun seasoning was good and the catfish was cooked properly. I wasn't too impressed with the cinnamon roll, but including dessert is always a nice touch regardless. This wasn't my first visit to Aunt Catfish's, nor will it be my last...

Dunkin Donuts in Longwood, FL

I think this heart-shaped, cream filled doughnut from Dunkin Donuts in Longwood is probably an appropriate food item to post for Valentines Day. Have fun facing the crowds as you try to eat out tonight!

Orange Leaf in Lake Mary, FL

A new self-serve frozen yogurt place opened in Lake Mary several weeks ago. For their grand opening, they mailed out flyers advertizing free frozen yogurt on a certain night. Events like this can result in crazy crowds, but I decided to check them out anyway. The line was out the door, and it ended up taking about a half hour to get my yogurt.

They had a large selection of flavors including lots of seasonal flavors like pumpkin pie and egg nog. I did find it interesting that with all of their flavors, Orange Leaf didn't have any of the plain tart frozen yogurt. I ended up trying a little of each flavor, topped with various items including fruit, cheesecake, sprinkles, etc.

I'd definitely return, especially after they offer an event like this and give free frozen yogurt to several hundred people.

Casa L'Italien in Boca Raton, FL

Casa L'Italien is a little restaurant in the same shopping center as Doris' Italian Market in Boca Raton. Besides pizza (which I hear good things about), I thought the menu was somewhat limited and prices were unusually high for the food served.That being said, I ordered an Eggplant Banzini. This was basically your standard eggplant parmesan hero with the addition of ricotta cheese. It tasted good and was a good sized sub.

Next time I'm down in Boca, I'll have to try the pizza at Casa L'Italien...

BurgerFi in Delray Beach, FL

I recently ate dinner at BurgerFi in Downtown Delray Beach. This fast food burger chain reminded me of a modern version of Five Guys with a better menu.

I had a strawberry milkshake as my drink. It came topped with whipped cream and sprinkles. For almost $5, I thought it was somewhat expensive for the size cup the milkshake was served it. Tasted good though.

Fries and onion rings. The onion rings were good, but the fries were very average.

I had a Chicago Style Chicken Apple Sausage. The sausage was served on a poppy seed bun, topped with tomato, onions, relish, peppers, and a pickle slice. BurgerFi was generous with the toppings, but I was expecting something a little different with the sausage itself. I couldn't detect any sort of apple flavor and the sausage tasted like a normal hot dog to me.

Overall, the food was pretty average at BurgerFi. I wouldn't purposefully rush back any time soon, but it definitely was better than Five Guys (I don't get the appeal of that place) and other similar burger chains.

Anh Hong in Orlando, FL

Anh Hong is a Vietnamese restaurant on the corner of Mills and 50. They have apparently won various awards, plus I had heard people I know personally say good things about the place. Hearing all this, I figured it was about time to give Anh Hong a try...

I wasn't impressed the first time I was here. I ordered the Meatball Pho and the broth was very bland. The beef broth in pho is normally really flavorful, but in this case I had to add lots of condiments to give it some more taste. The meatballs weren't much better, tasting much better after being dipped in some hoisin or sriracha. For a restaurant that claimed to be award winning, I was disappointed.

A few months later, I decided to give Anh Hong another try. I forget the exact name of the dish that I ordered, but according to some of the online menus I found, I had the Cho Lon Combo. This was a big bowl of egg noodles, topped with shrimp, squid, crab meat, roast pork, assorted greens, jalapenos, and lime slices. A bowl of broth was served on the side. I'm not sure the proper eating technique of getting the broth on the side like this, but I ended up pouring it over everything in my larger bowl. Unlike my first soupy experience at Anh Hong, the food tasted much better this time around. The broth had lots of flavor, the meats were cooked to perfection, and was overall good.

My first meal at Anh Hong left room for improvement, but they redeemed themselves on my second visit. I'll go back...

Green Day Cafe in Orlando, FL

Green Day Cafe is a healthy, eco-friendly fast food restaurant on Lee Road in Orlando in an old Taco Bell building. I was intrigued by the concept when I first heard about the restaurant but really didn't think they would last. Green Day Cafe is still open after a few years since I first noticed them, so I decided it was about time to taste their eco-friendly food.

I had their 7-Layer Rice Bowl (Green Day Cafe is in a former Taco Bell building. My menu item of choice at Taco Bell is a 7-Layer Burrito, and I ordered a 7-Layer Rice Bowl here!). This large portion of brown rice was topped with black beans, colby jack cheese, guacamole, salsa, hummus, and buffalo sauce. While a couple of the ingredients didn't seem to go with the others (hummus), it still tasted good. The buffalo sauce/salsa gave the bowl a nice bit of spiciness and guacamole is good with everything. Who knows if this rice bowl was actually healthy by the time they put on all of the sauces, but I suppose it is definitely better for you than eating a burger.

I'd return to Green Day Cafe.

Kingfish Bistro in College Park, FL

I read about Kingfish Bistro in an Orlando Weekly article. According to the article, they are apparently a Vietnamese owned Italian restaurant, and that combination intrigued me. Because of this, Kingfish was dinner last time I was in College Park. There wasn't really too much Vietnamese-Italian fusion food going on here. The majority of the menu seemed strictly Italian, except for several out of place items, such as these egg rolls that we had for an appetizer.

 

We also decided to share a half meatball, half cheese pizza. The pizza was good, although not great. It was comparable to most of the other nearby pizzerias which are all pretty much middle of the road and average in this neighborhood. I'd have Kingfish's pizza again if I was eating there, but I wouldn't seek it out to fulfill any sort of pizza cravings.

Overall, the food at Kingfish Bistro was good, although not great. I liked the egg rolls as a prelude to pizza, but I really would have liked to see more culture-clashing fusion foods here. Asian vegetables on pizza? I could see it!

Green Owl Restaurant in Delray Beach, FL

I like to consider myself well traveled throughout the state of Florida, but one city that I had never been to was Delray Beach. For some reason I always went further north or south of Delray and never actually stopped to explore rather than driving through. On a recent morning, I decided to change that and was actually surprised by Delray. The city's downtown was much larger than I was expecting, filled with shops, historic hotels, and countless restaurants. The decision was made to have breakfast at one of these restaurants called the Green Owl.

The Green Owl had a sort of a retro diner look on the inside and outdoor seating on the sidewalk out front. We choose to eat outdoors. For food, I had the One Egg Special. This breakfast came with a scrambled egg, strip of bacon, and two pancakes. Everything on the plate was tasty, although I would have preferred actual butter for my pancakes rather than the margarine that was served. Real butter is always better!

Wall Street Cantina in Orlando, FL

Wall Street in Downtown Orlando: It is a short block of bars and restaurants, many with the same owner, and most not worth visiting for the food based on my experience. On a recent cold night, I had dinner at one of these bars/restaurants called the Wall Street Cantina.

I was here once a couple years ago and the food was forgettable. On this visit, I tried the Orange Ave Tostada and the food this time was much tastier than I remembered. Three crispy tortillas were layered with shredded chicken, refried beans, cheese, sauce, and topped with lettuce, onions, tomatoes, and sour cream. For a Mexican themed bar, this tostada was surprisingly tasty. Even though it looked very messy, I think I'd get this again on a future visit...