Return to Giordano's

Not long after my initial experience with Giordano's Pizza, I ended up eating at one of their other touristy locations with some visiting relatives. This Giordano's is in a Chinese themed strip mall on 192 in Kissimmee. The mall is near the former site of Splendid China, and although the park has sat abandoned for years, the mall still looks very pagoda-like. From the outside, it felt like Giordano's should have been a Chinese restaurant.

The meal started out with everyone at the table sharing cheese covered garlic bread and a chopped salad.


On this visit, two pizzas were ordered. One was a small stuffed pizza filled with green peppers and pepperoni. The other was a thin crust pizza topped with half mushrooms and half ground beef. I focused mainly on the stuffed pizza since that's what Giordano's is famous for. I liked the topping combination and noticed that their sauce was really tasty while eating this pie. The pizza was still really cheesy, but wasn't overflowing like on my last visit to their other location. Perhaps the pizza had a bit more time to set, or maybe they used less cheese and more toppings.

As for the thin crust pizza, don't bother. I tried a slice of the pie and it reminded me of Donatos Pizza. Donatos was the (former) McDonald's owned pizza chain that was very short lived in the Orlando area, and for a good reason too. Donatos' pizza was horrible. Definitely go for what Giordano's specializes in and get the Chicago Style stuffed pizzas.

Habanero's Mexican Grill

I ate at Habanero's Mexican Grill in Casselberry, FL. The meal started with chips and salsa. I liked how they gave everyone their own individual bowl of salsa with a pitcher of salsa on the table for refills. This way, each person at the table could double dip to their hearts content.

For my dinner, I ordered the Enchiladas Supreme. This included four enchiladas, each with a different filling. One was filled with refried beans, another was cheese, the third was beef, and the final enchilada was filled with shredded chicken and peppers. The four enchiladas were topped with sauce, lettuce, tomato, and sour cream. I could have done without the beef enchilada, but I liked the other three.

My only complaint was that it would have been nice if they served the enchiladas with a side of rice or beans like other Mexican restaurants often do.

Lake Mary Chipotle

I brought home takeout from the Chipotle in Lake Mary, FL. I had a vegetarian burrito, stuffed with rice, black beans, roasted peppers & onions, hot salsa, corn, cheese, sour cream, guacamole, and lettuce, all wrapped in a tortilla. The burrito was huge, and I'm guessing there was probably a day's worth of calories in there, even though it's a healthy vegetarian burrito.


I really wouldn't mind getting meat in the burrito, but then it's a trade off with the guacamole. They charge over a dollar to put a little scoop of mashed avocado in a meat burrito, which really isn't worth it in my opinion. If given a choice between meat or guacamole, I would choose the guacamole over meat any day.

Pepper Market at the Coronado Springs Hotel

I went to eat dinner at the Coronado Springs Hotel in Walt Disney World. I walked through the hotel and reached a restaurant called The Pepper Market.


There were some animals baked out of bread outside of the restaurant. Here is a turtle and an alligator.

The restaurant is set up where a hostess brings you to a table, and a waiter gets your drinks. Everyone is then given a card which is taken to various food counters and is stamped with whatever is ordered. There are various counters in the restaurant, including Mexican, Italian, American, Asian, and dessert. On this visit to the restaurant, I decided to go with Curry Chicken with Pineapple from the Asian counter. The only problem was that nobody was working at this counter. I went over to the Italian counter and asked the employee working there to get someone to make me food. He acted surprised and asked me "You want that Oriental Food?" as if customers ordering from that particular counter was a rare occasion. When someone finally came over to cook my food, the worker seemed really annoyed that he actually had to do his job. As he begrudgingly cooked my food, he added pre-cooked fried chicken, pineapple, carrots, peppers, sauce, and other various ingredients into his wok, and then served all of this over steamed rice.

My biggest complaint with the meal was the actual chicken. I wasn't expecting fried chicken, but I can't complain if that's the way they do it. The problem was rather than using white meat chicken, they seemed to use cheap chicken parts. I saw some dark meat. I saw some black areas. As I was eating, there was occasionally an unedible hard piece in the chicken. I really didn't want to know what parts of the chicken were served, and just swallowed it down. For the $15 that the Pepper Market charged for this rather small portion, I want white meat. A chicken breast would be nice, not the leftovers. Maybe they figured that since the chicken is fried, nobody would notice what the meat looked like under the batter.

I also noticed that overall, the menu of this restaurant changed very much since my past visit. Prices went way up, while the menu size and portions went way down. The Mexican counter seemed to be their showcase in the past (makes sense in a Mexican themed hotel), with lots of options, huge portions, and it all tasted good. On this visit, the Mexican menu was down to only two items. I saw someone ordering the fajitas, which cost a few dollars more than my chicken, and it included one tortilla filled with meat and peppers. The quesadilla wasn't much better.

The Pepper Market made some changes for the worst, and I don't think I'll be returning anytime soon.

After eating, I took a walk around the hotel and saw the duck topiarys and the swimming pool surrounding a Mayan pyramid.

Olive Garden's Grilled Garlic Shrimp...

I returned to the Olive Garden in Altamonte Springs, FL thanks to a $10 gift card that had to be spent. In the past, I'm not normally too impressed with what Olive Garden serves, but today was slightly better. I had the featured item, the Grilled Garlic Shrimp. There were several nice sized shrimp over angel hair pasta with peppers & onions all in a garlic sauce. It was good, but the dish was so simple, I don't think it was worth the $15 for something I could have easily cooked at home...

Chinese Food at Princeton Junction's First Wok

I ate at the First Wok Chinese Restaurant in Princeton Junction, NJ. I started off with an order of Scallion Pancakes, mostly because Chinese Restaurants in Florida do not serve them for some reason. They tasted fine, but were a bit too flaky and didn't hold together as well as other scallion pancakes that I have eaten in the past.

I ordered Chicken with Black Bean Sauce as the main dish. It was very good, with the tender chicken mixed with peppers and onions, all topped with black bean sauce. I ate the dish with brown rice. I had no complaints about the chicken...

I also liked how they automatically give everyone a tea cup and leave the tea pot on the table. This seems to be a northern thing because I can't think of any Chinese restaurants in Florida that do this. In Florida, if you want tea, you have to ask and get charged extra for it...

Olive Garden Gnocchi

I ate dinner at the Olive Garden restaurant in Altamonte Springs, FL. I ordered a chicken and gnocchi dish. A chicken breast was served on top of a pile of the gnocchis, red peppers, zucchini, and onions. It was all served in an alfredo sauce.

Compared to other gnocchi that I've eaten, this wasn't all that good. The pasta was sort of starchy and didn't have the smooth creamy consistency that gnocchi should have. I didn't like the chicken either. It was way too chewy and should have been sliced rather than serving the whole breast.

Hungry Howie's Green Pepper Pizza

I ate a pizza from the Hungry Howie's in Lake Mary, FL. It was topped with green bell peppers with a sesame seed crust. It was okay, but how can you even come close to comparing Hungry Howie's to this...

Chicken Pesto Sandwich from Valley Caterers

I ate a sandwich from Valley Caterers in Valley Stream, New York. Apparently they won some sort of Best of Long Island award in 2007 that they are very proud of. They had all sorts of food in their deli...

And I ended up eating a Chicken Pesto Sandwich on a sesame egg roll. The sandwich consisted of chicken, roasted red peppers, fresh mozzarella, and pesto. It was tasty, although I would have preferred more mozzarella and less chicken. The sandwich was good, but I don't know if I would go as far to say it was the best of Long Island...

Chipolte Chicken Burrito

I ate at the Chipolte in Lake Mary, Florida. I had a coupon for a free burrito, so I decided I better utilize it. I had a chicken burrito with black beans, rice, grilled peppers & onions, corn, salsa, sour cream, and cheese. It was good for a fast food restaurant formerly owned by Mcdonalds...