Shake Shack in Winter Park, FL

I was invited to a Shake Shack Housewarming Party for the new restaurant in Winter Park. Shake Shack is a burger chain which originated out of New York and has quite the following. My only previous experience with Shake Shack was when I attempted to eat at their South Beach location. There was a line pouring out of the restaurant and half way up the block, all in pouring rain. I didn't feel like getting soaked for burgers, but it showed that Shake Shack has some loyal customers with that many people willing to wait in line in the rain. I finally had my chance to give Shake Shack a try with their first Orlando area location in Winter Park. Would it live up to the hype?

I sampled three of Shake Shack's burgers. The first was the ShackBurger. This was a cheeseburger topped with lettuce, tomato, and ShackSauce. Was it an amazing burger that lived up to Shake Shack's hype? It's hard to say. I'm honestly not much of a burger person so I'm not the best judge. This was my second favorite burger that I tried at Shake Shack.

Up next was the 'Shroom Burger. This was a vegetarian option which consisted of crisp-fried portobello mushroom filled with melted muenster and cheddar cheeses, topped with lettuce, tomato, and ShackSauce. This was my least favorite of the three burgers. I found the hot gooey cheese inside the mushrooms was a bit dangerous to eat as it exploded everywhere as I bit into the burger.

The third burger was the SmokeShack. This was a cheeseburger topped with all-natural applewood smoked bacon, chopped cherry pepper, and ShackSauce. Out of the three burgers, this was my favorite. The cherry pepper provided a nice, spicy kick.

The Cheese Fries were crinkle cut Yukon potatoes with a side of cheddar and American cheese sauce.

Hot Dog with fries. This was pretty standard as far as hot dogs go.

Since the restaurant was called Shake Shack, I couldn't leave without trying a shake. Here's the Vanilla Shake:

I enjoyed trying Shake Shack. Was it everything that I was told it would be? The food was good. I don't know if I would say these were the best burgers ever, but definitely better than some other fast food chains. Like I said, I'm a horrible judge of burgers. I've disliked enough burgers to mostly stop ordering them at restaurants. I suppose Shake Shack did indeed pass the burger test for me because I'd go back again. Now that they're officially open, I wonder if the Winter Park Shack Shack will get lines out of the restaurant like I encountered in Miami?

American Deli in McDonough, GA

On a return trip home from Atlanta, we stopped for dinner at a restaurant called American Deli off I-75 in the suburbs south of Atlanta. I went into American Deli expecting sandwiches, but sandwiches were only a small part of the menu. Being that the Superbowl was just about to start as we decided to eat, chicken wings were a very big seller here. They had countless takeout orders of people buying huge quantity of wings to bring home to their parties. This made our wait for food a bit longer than it would probably be otherwise (stupid football game), but it wasn't too bad.

I ordered something that I was definitely not expecting to see on American Deli's menu. I had the shrimp fried rice and chicken wing combo. This consisted of a huge mound of fried rice with shrimp, egg, carrots, peas, and onion. Several chicken wings were served alongside with a container of blue cheese for dipping. The rice was tasty, especially since it was from a restaurant that didn't specifically specialize in Chinese food. The shrimp were tiny, but there were enough of them to make up for the small size. I choose medium spiciness on the wings, and it was a good choice. They had a nice kick to them, but didn't leave me begging for water afterwards either.

Overall, I enjoyed my food at American Deli. It was completely different from what I was expecting, but still served tasty food...

5 & Diner in Orlando, FL

I ate at 5 & Diner in Orlando, FL late one evening. The restaurant was going for the classic diner look and was pretty successful at achieving it. It wasn't quite at the level of the Greek diners up North with the huge menus featuring somewhat ethnic food that never close, but was one of the better diners that I've seen in the Orlando area. Rather than being open 24 hours, 5 & Diner closed at ten PM and featured mostly pretty standard American food on the menu. At the time I didn't realize it, but apparently 5 & Diner is a franchise based on their website.

I ordered the California Chicken Sandwich. After a very long wait, the sandwich finally was served. It consisted of a chicken breast, swiss cheese, alfalfa sprouts, lettuce, tomato, onions, and guacamole on a sesame roll. Fries were served on the side. I had no complaints about the sandwich, it was really big and tasted good!

 A word of warning though about 5 & Diner. Check your ketchup before putting it on your food. At the next table, I overheard the restaurant customers complaining to the waitress that ants came out of the ketchup bottle onto the food. 5 & Diner then proceeded to replace their food and check all of the ketchup and mustard bottles on the tables. From what I could tell, the ants were isolated to the one bottle, but be careful...

Sizzling Chicken & Shrimp from TGI Fridays

I ate at the T.G.I. Friday's on 192 in Kissimmee, FL. I ordered something called Sizzling Chicken and Shrimp. It sounded something like the meat part of a fajita and involved chicken and shrimp served on a sizzling plate with peppers and onions, all topped with cheese and served with mashed potatoes. The food took a while, but when it eventually was served I was kind disappointed. Compared to the picture on the menu, the dish looked thrown together and skimpy looking. The main offense about the this meal was the lack of sizzling. With sizzling in the name of the dish, I was expecting the skillet that the meal was served in to at least be hot, but I could touch the plate with my hand without it being too hot. I'm guessing the food sat there a while before it was actually served. Besides from the look and the lack of sizzle, it did taste pretty good.