PR's Taco Palace in College Park, FL

I visited PR's Taco Palace in College Park for lunch recently. This restaurant used to have a few locations, including one in Winter Park which was around forever and another in Longwood which was much shorter lived. As far as I know, their College Park location is the only PR's remaining.

I had the Lunch Combination, where you got to pick three items off the menu. I picked a tamale, something called a Truck Stop, and rice & beans. The Truck Stop was almost similar to a quesadilla, filled with cheese and beef pressed (and possibly fried) in a tortilla. The Tamale was smothered in cheese. Rice and beans were pretty standard. It was interesting that the normal sides counted as an item for the combination. I had the option of picking something which would be considered more of an entree in place of the rice and beans.

Pretty standard of what I'd expect from a Tex-Mex lunch special. Everything was good, but nothing ground breaking. It's good to know that there is still a PR's Taco Palace still around in Orlando...

Bagel Place in College Park, MD

While I was visiting Washington DC for a few days, I stayed in College Park, Maryland. I had just over a mile walk to the nearest metro station to take the train into DC for some sightseeing. During this walk, I stopped for breakfast at a restaurant called the Bagel Place in Downtown College Park.

I had a toasted everything bagel with bacon scallion cream cheese. I've never tried that combination in a cream cheese before. It was salty but good. The bagel was big with plenty of seeds. The Bagel Place has good bagels...

Pizza Autentica in College Park, MD

I had pizza right outside the University of Maryland in the town of College Park at a restaurant called Pizza Autentica. This is apparently a local chain in the Washington DC area that seems to specialize in pizza and gelato.

We ordered a pepperoni pizza. While the pie wasn't bad, I did find it to be undercooked. The crust was still very doughy and really didn't have any crunch. We were at the restaurant about an hour before they closed. I wonder if this had anything to do with the rushed cooking of our pie with the employees wanting to get the cooking over with and the restaurant cleaned up sooner? The cheese & sauce were tasty and they were generous with the amount of pepperoni on the pie. This would have been a pretty good pizza if only they cooked it longer!

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!

Christo's Cafe in College Park, FL

Christo's Cafe is a tiny restaurant in College Park. This diner has been around a long time and always wins awards in the local papers, but until recently, I had never visited.

Christo's menu had somewhat of a Greek diner vibe.  Several things on the menu did have a definite Greek influence, and I ended up ordering one of these items.  I had a gyro with a side of mashed potatoes. This pita was filled with lamb, lettuce, tomato, onion, and tzatziki. The sandwich was really flavorful and really didn't need any of the extra tzatziki served on the side (although that didn't stop me from finding a place to use it).

Orlando needs more little diners like Christo's that actually serve good food. We really need some diners open 24 hours as well. You can always find a diner open at 3 am up north, but it seems here in Orlando all we have are Denny's, IHOPs, and a few fast food places.

I'll be back, and next time I think I'll try some breakfast from Christo's Cafe...

Harmoni Market in College Park, FL

I ate lunch at Harmoni Market in Orlando's College Park neighborhood during an unexpected detour caused from an I-4 closure. The service was a bit weird when we entered, the group of employees standing at the bar ignored us for a few minutes until someone finally told us to sit anywhere. This awkwardness was followed by a drink being served in a cup covered in lipstick stains, but after the initial weirdness, the food and service were good.

I ordered the Rockin Goat Flatbread. It consisted of rock shrimp, arugula, goat cheese, homemade mozzarella, and tomato sauce all on a whole wheat flatbread (baked by the Olde Hearth Bread Company). Although they called it a flatbread, it was technically a variation of a pizza. Seafood and pizza combinations always seem strange to me, but I liked this a lot. I'd gladly get it again! My only real complaint was that Harmoni was really stingy with the goat cheese. For a flatbread with goat in the name, I was expecting less mozzarella and more goat cheese crumbles.

When looking over Harmoni Market's menu, it seemed to be somewhat overpriced (especially on the sandwiches). Since I shared the flatbread and there were plenty of rock shrimp on it, what I ordered wasn't too bad. It came out to about $5 a person and filled me up.