White Castle in Orlando, FL

The wait is finally over! On May 3, 2021, the first White Castle ever in Orlando is having its grand opening. I was invited to try White Castle a few days before they open their doors to the masses.

It appears White Castle is expecting quite the crowd when they open on May 3. They had a few large tents set up in the parking lot to accommodate a large queue line. 

White Castle's lobby:

It has been a very long time since I've been to a White Castle. So long that I asked the employee taking my order to recommend the quintessential White Castle food. He told me to have the Cheese Slider Combo. The menu describes these sliders as "made with 100% beef, steam grilled on a bed of onions topped with a slice of American cheese."

The combo came with a side of crispy, crinkle cut fries.

The cashier also recommended that I try the 1921 Slider. This sandwich was topped with lettuce, tomato, pickles, and cheddar. 

After sampling some of what White Castle had to offer inside the restaurant, I was asked if I would like to experience the drive-thru. Of course I would!

I tried the Chicken & Waffles Slider. Fried chicken, bacon, and cheese between two waffles. This was my favorite of all the sliders I sampled at White Castle.

I also had a side of Onion Chips. Crispy, breaded, deep fried onions.

Vanilla shake for dessert. 

Here's a video from White Castle. This is one of the few times on this blog where you can actually watch me eat...


White Castle is located at 11595 Daryl Carter Parkway. That's between all the theme parks near the intersection of Palm Parkway and Daryl Carter Parkway. Go tomorrow and see what White Castle is all about!

Las Vegas Food #2: In-N-Out Burger

This post is going to be controversial. I'm going to talk about my first visit to an In-N-Out Hamburgers. I'm going to say I wasn't impressed with everyone's much hyped burger chain...

I decided I had to try the In-N-Out Burger I spotted along the Las Vegas Strip. I've been hearing about the wondrous food miracles that In-N-Out does with their burgers for years. With all that hype, I'm sure I was setting myself up for disappointment. I know In-N-Out is known for their secret menu, but I figured I'd order some of their published menu standards since it was my first visit.

I ordered the Double-Double (left). The person I ate there with had a Cheeseburger (right) with only meat and cheese (super picky eater). Fries came as a side for both. My Double-Double had two beef patties, cheese, onions, lettuce, tomato, and sauce. It was adequate. It tasted like a mediocre fast food burger to me, above the monstrosity level of Burger King, but about even with a McDonald's burger. The Double-Double wasn't the worst thing I've had, but not something I'll be craving from Florida for years to come. Don't get me started on the fries though. They were bad. They were soggy, had no character of their own and desperately demanded to be drenched in condiments to make them somewhat okay.

Since my visit to In-N-Out, I've discussed my thoughts with fans of the restaurant. I've been told I would have enjoyed it so much more if I had ordered off the secret menu. In my mindset though, my first experience with the restaurant should be with the regular menu. If I was that impressed, I'd go rushing back to try the secret menu items. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. In-N-Out, you did not live up to your legendary hype...

Shake Shack (International Drive) in Orlando, FL - New Summer Menu

Shake Shack recently launched several new summer menu items. This blog was invited to attend a Blogger Meet-Up at Shake Shack's International Drive location to sample the new foods. The following is some of the food highlights from their new summer menu:

Bacon CheddarShack Burger & Fries:

Chick'n Stack: Crispy chicken breast with lettuce, pickles, and buttermilk herb mayo.

Raspberry Lemonade:

Shack Sandy: A blend of Shake Shack's ShackMeister Ale and Shack-made Lemonade.

Chocolate Cookies & Cream Shake: Chocolate frozen custard blended with chocolate cookie Crumbles and topped with whipped cream.

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?

Junior Colombian Burgers in Orlando, FL

I've heard people rave about how good the food is at Junior Colombian Burgers on Kirkman Road for a long time. Being that I'm not a huge fan of hamburgers, I was always a little hesitant to try this place. Finally, I decided that it was about time. Would I find their burgers be dry, boring tasting pieces of beef like so many other places that supposedly have good burgers, or would a Colombian burger dress up the beef into something much better?

I've visited the Kirkman location of Junior twice now. My first visit was late at night and I didn't actually try one of their burgers. I had a Hawaiian Empanada. I like empanadas. Dumplings of any sort are normally good, and I think empanadas fall into the dumpling category. In this particular case though, I did not enjoy the empanada. It was filled with cheese, pineapple, and ham. The cheese and the ham worked fine together, but the moisture from the pineapple made the empanada very soggy. I've had Hawaiian pizzas with the same problem. Tasted okay, but soggy empanadas are no fun...

I also tried something called Salchipapa. This was completely new to me, and consisted of fried potato balls with pieces of hot dog cut into fancy shapes. The potato balls were very moist and tasty. Dipping them in the garlic sauce that Junior had made them better...

On my second visit to the restaurant, I decided to actually try one of their burgers. I ordered their Combo #2 which came with the cheeseburger, fries, and a drink.

The burger consisted of a hamburger patty, cheese, lettuce, tomato, onions, potato chips, garlic sauce, mayonnaise, ketchup, pink sauce, and pineapple sauce. Did this burger pass the test of not being boring? Yes it did. The beef was very moist and had flavor. All the sauces were very tasty and blended together well, without one overpowering the others. The potato chips were interesting. They started out crunchy, but as they sat on the burger they started forming a mush that sort of reminded me of mashed potatoes.

I liked my first experience eating a Colombian burger. The sandwich was nowhere as boring as most American style hamburgers that tend to leave me with a bad taste towards burgers. I'd return to Junior Colombian Burger!

Grease in West Palm Beach, FL

I was in West Palm Beach and had dinner at a restaurant called Grease. They had a sports bar vibe in the restaurant, only much more upscale than the typical sports bars that I've visited. I didn't know this before visiting the restaurant, but Grease has the same owners as Rocco's Tacos across the street.

I ordered the Seared Rare Tuna Sliders, topped with wasabi-mayo, pickled ginger, and cilantro. These three sandwiches were very tasty, except they weren't served rare as advertized on the menu. I was actually debating whether I should trust seafood that isn't fully cooked from a burger place before ordering, so I was perfectly fine with tuna burgers that were served well-done. If you're going to call something a seared rare tuna slider though, I would expect the tuna burger to still be pink on the inside. Regardless, these sliders were still really good and I did enjoy them.

I did enjoy the sliders, but just like Rocco's across the street, everything here was a bit pricy. For the prices they charged, including fries with their sandwiches would have been nice. Overall, Grease was alright, but nothing worth going out of my way to visit again.