Tailgaters Smokehouse at UCF

I ate at Tailgaters Smokehouse in the shopping area surrounding the UCF Arena in Orlando. Tailgators is a sports bar, and the as my meal progressed, the restaurant fit perfectly into the stereotype of sports bars having bad food. But it wasn't just the food, service was bad here too.

I ordered a Chicken Cheesesteak sandwich, served with tater tots. After a very long wait with a very inattentive waitress, our food was finally served. The sandwich was a bit smaller than I was expecting and was very bland. Couldn't taste any seasoning whatsoever on the chicken and the bread reminded me a bit too much of a hot dog roll than what cheesesteaks are normally served on. I did like the tater tots though.

While the sandwich wasn't all that, definitely not worth the $12 it cost me total for the meal, it was edible and I finished the food. I really shouldn't have finished though because the food left some sort of coating on the inside of my mouth that I could not get rid off. It was a slimy feeling and tasted sort of bitter. Drinking water would not remove it. Eating something else didn't get rid of the coating, and brushing my teeth (multiple times) didn't help either. Whatever this was, it was very unpleasant and I can't say I've experienced a bad taste in my mouth that was so persistent elsewhere. Interestingly enough, I kept this to myself until a few hours later when a friend brought up the bad taste in her mouth from her grilled chicken sandwich...

Moral of the story: Avoid the chicken from Tailgaters.

Pizza Hut in Deltona, FL

It's been a very long time since I've had a pizza from Pizza Hut. After my latest experience with the pizza chain's Deltona location, I was reminded why it's been so long!

When Pizza Hut delivers their overly greasy pizzas, shouldn't safe food handling practices be extended to the time when the pizza is in the delivery driver's car? I was outside when the pizza was delivered and watched the driver sit in the car with the pizza and finish smoking his cigarette before getting up and bringing the pizza to the door. Gross...

As for the pizza itself, there were large areas on the pie where there was no cheese and only crust. It had to be one of the greasiest pizzas I can remember eating. The huge amounts of grease on this pizza had the thick crust almost waterlogged. Needless to say, I won't be ordering from Pizza Hut again any time soon.

Tropical Smoothie Cafe in Lake Mary, FL

Someone had a coupon for buy one, get one free at Tropical Smoothie Cafe in Lake Mary, FL. If I want a smoothie, I will buy my own fruit and make it myself. Because of this, I don't frequent the various smoothie restaurants in the area often. When the free smoothie was offered to me, I gladly agreed to give Tropical Smoothie Cafe a try.

Upon walking into the store, the first thing I noticed was the horrible smell. Tropical Smoothie Cafe's odor was hard to describe, but reminded me of a combination of rotting meat and gas station bathrooms. If it was just me, I would have walked out right then, but the coupon holder was planning on buying a smoothie anyway. Apparently, I was told that Tropical Smoothie Cafe always smells like this. I was having serious doubts if I should be consuming any sort of food product from a store that had such a foul odor, but since I was investing no money in the smoothie, I figured I could order it and worry about drinking the smoothie later.

The first smoothie was ordered and the cashier took the coupon and money. She never asked what the second smoothie was. She just went on and proceeded to make two of the smoothies that the person I was with ordered. I had to go up and stop the smoothie maker as she started making the second smoothie of the same flavor. This seemed to upset the smoothie maker, but eventually she figured out how to make a second smoothie flavor.

And after all that, my Blimey Limey smoothie was made. It tasted like there was lots of added sweetener in the smoothie, where when I make my own, I only use fruit and juice. Other than that, the smoothie tasted okay. It still doesn't make up for the store's horrible smell and strange service.

Weekend Trip: King Umberto's Pizza

I returned to King Umberto's Pizza in Elmont, NY and had my first experience where their pizza was bad. The place was packed and I think that may have been part of the problem. It seemed like they were a little flustered by the amount of people all ordering pizza at once, plus the overflow of people from their sit-down dining room next door. They still had their amazing selection of pizza, so the experience started out well. I ordered a slice of vegetarian stuffed pizza and a slice with fresh mozzarella. When the slices came out of the oven, they were very burnt. So burnt that all you could really taste was charcoal. Some of the toppings/stuffing were completely black, and forget eating the crust. It was like a rock.


I've never seen King Umberto's serve pizza like this, but it seemed every slice coming out of the oven was blackened around the edges. I'm not exactly sure what the problem was, but I hope it was a one time fluke and their pizza will return to being amazing on my next visit.

Pizza @ Gio's Cafe I

I ate at Gio's Cafe I in Sanford, FL for dinner after someone had read about it in an Orlando Sentinel review. It was a Greek/Italian restaurant which sounded interesting, and it got a positive review.

I was actually expecting more Greek food and less Italian. The Greek food probably took up a quarter of the menu, while Italian took up the remaining three-quarters. Nothing Greek sounded too impressive to me either, and it seemed kind of overpriced. Everyone ended up getting garlic knots and pizza, both of which were recommended in the newspaper. The garlic knots were okay, but they could have definitely used triple the amount of garlic that was given on the rolls.

The pizza was served, and I definitely disagreed with the Orlando Sentinel review. I thought it was a pretty bad pizza. The crust was a little thick for my liking, but that's just based on my personal preference. My real issue was with the cheese. The layer of cheese that was put on top of the pizza was very thick and dense. While the pizza was hot, all of the molten cheese poured off of the crust onto the plate. As it cooled, the cheese's chemical bonds solidified, but they didn't stick to the pizza. As I would take a bite, all of the cheese would pull right off of the slice. It was very chewy, and a lump of this chewy cheese is still stuck in my throat hours later as I am writing this.


Another issue that I had was that the restaurant wouldn't sell me a side salad with the pizza. According to the waiter, side salads were only available if I was eating an entree. Otherwise I would have to buy a much more expensive meal-sized salad. Perhaps I should have ordered an entree though. It seems you can't go wrong with spanakopita, and I'm sure it would have been better than the pizza (that I'm still working on freeing from the back of my throat)...

Return to the Chop Shop

I had eaten at the Chop Shop Restaurant in Deltona, FL once before just after they opened. The restaurant was up to par last time with decent service and good food. Tonight I returned to the Chop Shop to eat dinner for a second time and it seems the restaurant has developed some problems.

It initially took a while for the drinks to be brought to the table, and then took an even longer time for the waitress to come back to take our food order. I ordered their Jambalaya. Another person dining with me ordered something called the Seafood Trio, which included shrimp, scallops, and mahi-mahi. Someone else at the table ordered a mahi-mahi dinner. The waitress was asked if some substitutions could be made in the meal involving the side dishes. These involved replacing a baked potato for French fries and changing the vegetable side from zucchini to broccoli, both of which were on the menu as sides. The answer was a firm no. According to the waitress, the owners made it very clear that there are absolutely no substitutions on their new menu.

After an insane amount of time, the food finally came. Someone at the table noted the time after we had already waited a while. It took our food an hour to come from that point.

I had no complaints with my Jambalaya. It was actually really good coming from a restaurant that didn't specialize in Cajun food. There were nice big shrimp and a generous amount of sliced andouille sausage. It wasn't so spicy where it would leave you wanting a drink, but it wasn't bland either. There was a nice heaping portion on the plate, almost too much to eat.


My Jambalaya may have been good, but there was another issue at the table. Remember the Seafood Trio that was ordered and the whole no substitutions thing? It turned out that the Chop Shop was all out of scallops, so they substituted the scallops with a few extra shrimp. Instead of doing the right thing by telling the customer that the restaurant was out of a major component of the meal, they made this substitution without asking. It seems a bit hypocritical to me that customers don't have the right to ask for a substitution on a side item, but the restaurant can substitute a major component of the main dish without asking first. The person that ordered this Seafood Trio, which was actually an unannounced Seafood Duo for the night complained about this stating that scallops were the highlight of the meal, and the waitress was vaguely apologetic. She agreed that what happened was wrong, but she passed the blame on to the kitchen and said something should have been done about the situation. The manager/owner of the restaurant was requested, and the waitress announced that she was the manager. She did not offer to do anything about the situation...

I don't think I'll return to the Chop Shop anytime soon. My food may have been good, but the service was pretty bad...