Keke's Breakfast Cafe in Altamonte Springs, FL

I ate brunch at Keke's Breakfast Cafe in Altamonte Springs. Keke's is a local chain with a few locations around Orlando. This my first time eating there, and the food wasn't bad.

I had the Greek Omelet, filled with spinach, tomato, and feta. The omelet had plenty of fillings, served with home fries, wheat toast, and an orange slice. I enjoyed it!

Next time I need to try lunch from Keke's!

Up in Smoke Pit Bar-B-Q in Tallahassee, FL

While on a weekend trip to Tallahassee, I had barbecue for the third time in three days. Not sure how I ended up eating at Sonny's, Wiregrass Boys, and then Up in Smoke Pit Bar-B-Q in that short amount of time, but it happened.

 I had their two meat combo. I picked the pulled pork and smoked turkey, with collards, pretzel macaroni & cheese, and garlic toast. The pork was tasty with very little fat. The turkey was thickly sliced with a nice smokey flavor. The meats were especially good with their mustard barbecue sauce. If I remember correctly, mustard barbecue sauce is Georgia style. I was intrigued by the pretzel macaroni & cheese when I ordered it, but it was normal mac & cheese topped with crumbled pretzels.

Overall, I enjoyed my meal at Up in Smoke!

 

Sakura Sushi & Grill in Tallahassee, FL

 While in Tallahassee, I had Japanese food for dinner one night from Sakura Sushi & Grill. This restaurant was located relatively close to downtown and FSU. The outside was nicely decorated with wood panels and lit by paper lanterns.

 Once seated, we had an unobstructed view of the sushi bar.

 My meal started with a side salad. This was the typical Japanese restaurant salad, consisting of iceberg lettuce topped with carrots, cucumber, and ginger dressing.

I also had the Shrimp Udon Soup. This huge bowl of soup was filled with many large shrimp, sliced mushrooms and other various vegetables, and thick udon noodles in a very flavorful broth. Like most main course soups at Asian restaurants, this udon was really filling. It was a good deal for the price and tasted good too!

If I'm ever back in Tallahassee and make it back to Sakura, I'm going to have to try the Volcano Roll. I saw one of these get delivered to a table and this roll is literately erupting when served. The whole roll is wrapped in foil, with the excess foil being made into a basin that was filled with some sort of flammable liquid.While being served, the volcano roll was ignited resulting in huge flames. It is the dream sushi roll for any pyromaniac foodie!

 

Wiregrass Boys Southern Cuisine in Tallahassee, FL

I was up in Tallahassee for a conference at FSU and a catered lunch from Wiregrass Boys Southern Cuisine was involved. Turns out that the lunch was more barbecue (day after I ate lunch at the original Sonny's Bar-B-Q), specifically pulled pork and various sides. The meat was being smoked nearby on site.

The food was served cafeteria-style from foil trays. It was not the most effective system since my food was just slightly above room temperature when I ate. Nothing more appealing than lukewarm meat...

The plate of food involved pulled pork, baked beans, macaroni & cheese, a roll, and chocolate chip cookie. In terms of taste, the sides were all very average and the meat needed some sort of better sauce than the prepackaged Bulls-eye sauce that was supplied.

Overall, the food was pretty average but I honestly was expecting better. Homemade barbecue fresh from a smoker normally is way better than this...

Sonny's Real Pit Bar-B-Q in Gainesville, FL

Today's blog post is about a historic restaurant. Kind of. Today I'm writing about my visit to the original Sonny's Bar-B-Q in Gainesville. This was the Sonny's that began the whole restaurant chain of barbecue for the masses. Once there though, the restaurant was exactly like every other Sonny's and there was no recognition that this was the original chain starting location...

 

I had the pulled pork lunch special, served with garlic toast, cole slaw, and corn on the cob. The pork was good, but contained far too much fat mixed in with the meat. Cole slaw was tasty, and corn on the cob is never bad.

Now I can say I've eaten at the original Sonny's. Being a chain, there was no difference between this and the rest of the Sonny's. They served the same mediocre barbecue as all of the other restaurants which was expected.With barbecue places so abundant in Florida though, my suggestion would be to have some fun and try some of the unexpected barbecue places. Places that don't serve the same exact food as countless other locations...

Boca Skewers in Boca Raton, FL

While in search for dinner in Boca Raton, we made our way to the Mizner Park section of town. There, we found a middle eastern restaurant called Boca Skewers.

Following the instructions that were on the tables, we were able to get a free appetizer by signing up for their mailing list on our phones. Everyone agreed to share the hummus. This was soon followed by our main courses. I had a falafel & hummus pita. The sandwich was filled with lots of falafel, hummus, lettuce, and tomato. A salad was served on the side.

I had no complaints about Boca Skewers. I hope they do better business than the night we were there though. We were the only customers in the restaurant on a Saturday night for the majority of our meal. It seemed the Greek restaurant two stores down in the same strip mall, probably serving similar food, was doing much better business than this place. Too bad, because the food here was really tasty too!

Cerrato's Italian Market & Deli in Melbourne, FL

Cerrato's Italian Market & Deli is a small store on 192 in Melbourne. They may be small, but they have all sorts of delicious foods. They sell foods like homemade pastas, fresh mozzarella cheese, Italian desserts, olives, and all sorts of other Italian goodies. They also have a deli that makes some very tasty sandwiches, which is the main focus of this post.

I've stopped into Cerrato's for their sandwiches a few times now. On one of my visits to Cerrato's, I had a caprese sandwich. It was served on a bread with a really nice crust, filled with lots of their homemade mozzarella, tomatoes, onions, and basil. The caprese sandwich was one of their daily specials when I tried it, so this huge sandwich was only $5 and change.

On another visit to Cerrato's, I had a prosciutto and cheese sandwich. Served on the same wonderful bread, I had this sandwich with all the toppings, including lettuce, tomato, onions, mustard, salt & pepper, and oil & vinegar.

When there are places like Cerrato's serving these sandwiches, why would anyone go to the big chains like Subway?