Garden Buffet in Orlando, FL

I found myself eating dinner at Garden Buffet in Metrowest recently. This Chinese buffet is located in a Wal-Mart shopping center on Kirkman. Garden Buffet shares the shopping center with another Chinese restaurant which I've dined at in the past called China Lee.

Garden Buffet had several buffet tables. New food kept on being brought out, so it seemed like they had good turnover.

My first visit to the buffet tables resulted in dumplings, lo mein, chicken with broccoli, some sort of shrimp breaded in something, and a krab rangoon. Everything on this plate ranged from mediocre to disappointing.

I decided to try again and came back with a couple different types of sushi rolls, mixed vegetables, fried rice, spare rib, and a seaweed salad. Again, most of the food on this plate was also mediocre. The only standout was the seaweed salad. Maybe it was the novelty of not having seaweed salads all the time, but I really liked this stuff.

Since I wasn't too impressed with most of the food I tasted, I decided to give Garden Buffet's dessert table a try. I tried their egg custard, taro custard, cookies, orange slices, and some more seaweed salad. Again, the seaweed salad was the best food of the night.

Perhaps I'm holding my standards too high for a Chinese buffet next to a Wal-Mart, but I wasn't impressed with Garden Buffet. The food was mediocre and besides the seaweed salad that I liked, Garden Buffet didn't really give me a reason to return. Take out from China Lee across the parking lot would be a better choice.

Pie-Fection in Orlando, FL

I tried a restaurant serving pizza in MetroWest called Pie-Fection. This place is somewhat fast food where you order at a counter and wait for your food to be delivered. All the pizza toppings are located behind glass and apparently this place is supposed to work like a Subway where you tell your pizza maker exactly what you want on your pie as it's being made. When I walked in, I was handed a menu with lots of set topping combinations. Interestingly, there were lots of Brazilian inspired pizzas on the menu, but I went with what they called the Italian.

This pizza was topped with pesto-alfredo sauce, fresh mozzarella, prosciutto, spinach, and parmesan. Being a fast food pizza place, I really was not expecting much but it ended up being surprisingly tasty. The crust was nice and airy with a good crunch. The pesto had a nice garlicky flavor. The cheese and other toppings had a nice proportion to the rest of the pie. The pizza was a bit overpriced for the size of the pie, but I still enjoyed it. I would return to Pie-Fection again, and maybe order like I'm at a Subway next time...

China Lee in Orlando, FL

I ate lunch at China Lee in the MetroWest area of Orlando. This Chinese takeout restaurant is hidden away on the back side of a strip mall located in the parking lot of a Walmart. Typical of most restaurants like this, there were only a few tables for dining in with most of their business being to-go. My meal here consisted of the Szechuan shrimp combination.

While the price was a couple of dollars more than what I've seen at other similar restaurants, the reason was quickly apparent when my food was ready. The portion size was huge, probably double of what many other Chinese restaurants serve in these combinations. The Szechuan shrimp were large, served with lots and lots of vegetables, including peppers, broccoli, squash, onions, carrots, snow peas, corn, bamboo shoots, mushrooms, and water chestnuts. This Szechuan shrimp was also much spicier than what I've had elsewhere, which is always a good thing. That little pepper symbol on the menu actually meant something. A large serving of fried rice was also included alongside the shrimp as well as an egg roll. I'd return to China Lee again...