Marlow's Tavern in Orlando, FL

Marlow's Tavern is a new restaurant that has recently opened in Pointe Orlando on International Drive. I was invited to their media preview to sample some of the food. Be prepared for a mass of food pictures from this new restaurant!

Various appetizers that Marlow's Tavern offers were sampled first. First up was J.T.'s Kettle Chips, consisting of potato chips with Gorgonzola cheese, bacon, roma tomato, and scallions. This was served alongside the Shrimp & Crab "Nacho" Plate, topped with rock shrimp, crab, pepper jack cheese, and jalapeno. 

Ahi Tuni Poke: Ahi tuna, Hawaiian style sauce, avocado, teriyaki sauce, scallion, and crispy wontons. This one had a very nifty presentation.

Asparagus Fries were served with a tasty citrus aioli sauce.

Marlow's Famous Hummus was topped with feta and served with toasted pita points, carrots, and celery.

Next up were a couple of burgers. The first was the Everything and the "Kitchen Sink" Burger. It was topped with apple-wood smoked bacon, caramelized onion, wild mushroom, chipotle BBQ sauce, cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato, and crispy onions. Entire pieces of fried okra were served on the side.

The Black and Blue Burger was next, topped with Gorgonzola and applewood smoked bacon. Fries and a pickle came with this one.

The "Infamous" Fish Tacos were filled with blackened tilapia, shredded romaine, black bean corn salsa, smoked chili cream, and served with a side of grits.

 

The Open Faced Tenderloin Steak consisted of a marinated bistro filet, garlic kale pesto, gorgonzola, caramelized onion confit, roma tomato, and a balsamic glaze on grilled ciabatta. Asparagus and a pickle were served on the side.

We also sampled the Seared Ahi Tuna Salad. The tuna was seared with a teriyaki glaze and served over field greens, Napa cabbage, avocado, cucumber, tomato, crispy wonton, carrots, scallion, and a soy ginger dressing.

Shrimp & Grits consisted of white cheddar grit cakes topped with shrimp, spinach, roma tomato, shallot and roast tomato Beurre Blanc.

After all that food, three desserts were served, including the Classic Creme Brulee, Warm Chocolate Tollhouse Pie, and my personal favorite, the Fried Apple Pie.

I enjoyed the food at Marlow's Tavern and it's definitely a nice addition to Pointe Orlando. I'd return...

Kobe in Longwood, FL

I ate at the Kobe Japanese Steakhouse in Longwood, FL. They offered a deal where two people eat for for $25.00 after 9:00 pm, and that was my reason for visiting the restaurant. For this price of $12.50 each, each of the two people had to agree to order the same menu item. We ordered the chicken and shrimp. While waiting for the meal to be cooked on the hibachi grill, soup and salad was served.


The chef finally came out and started cooking. There weren't very many customers at 9:30 on a Thursday night, so we had the table to ourselves.

The food was plated as it was cooked, and included stir fried vegetables, noodles, shrimp, rice, and chicken. In the end, the dinner for two deal was kind of disappointing. It seemed Kobe just took one portion of food and split it up into two half portions. There was still lots of food, but there was definitely a quantity difference between this meal and a single meal. In a shrimp and chicken dinner, they served me only two shrimp. And while all of the other food tasted good, I do have issues with these shrimp. The shrimp that Kobe serves aren't deveined. I personally don't enjoy eating shrimp guts, and for the price Kobe charges, they should definitely serve cleaned shrimp. So in the end, this dinner for two thing really wasn't much of a special. Two people going to Kobe for their early birds seems like it would provide a whole lot more food for only a few dollars more.

Chicken Pot Pie From Toojay's

I ate at the Toojay's in Altamonte Springs, FL. Whenever I eat at a Toojay's, it seems I normally get some sort of sandwich. I had a coupon during this particular visit for half off a dinner, so I passed on a sandwich or a wrap. I ordered the chicken pot pie. It came with a choice of a house salad or a soup, and I choose the salad.

The chicken pot pie followed. It wasn't an actual pie, and instead was a bowl with some pie crust on the bottom, pie filling poured over the crust, and then had a second piece of pie crust on top. The pie tasted good enough, although I would have liked more vegetables in the filling. There were some carrots and potatoes, but that was about it for the veggies.

Chicken Florentine Crepes from Ihop

I ate Chicken Florentine Crepes for dinner. I got them from the Ihop in Sanford, FL and they were surprisingly quite good. They were filled with chicken, spinach, onions, and cheese, topped with hollandaise sauce.