Nine Spices Hotpot in Orlando, FL

I visited Nine Spices Hotpot on Kirkman Drive in Orlando. I've been to other hotpot places a few times before, but this one was even more fun because Nine Spices features conveyor belts! At dinner there were a few options including all you can eat from the conveyors for about $24. Other menu options included soups with pre-selected ingredients. I decided on the all you can eat. When you enter the restaurant, take note of the helpful sign telling you the cooking times.

There was a choice of several broths. I tried their Original broth. It was a bit bland on its own, but they had a sauce bar which flavored the broth nicely.

Once the broth quickly came to a boil on the induction stove built into the table, it was time to start cooking food. The conveyors were endlessly being refilled with various ingredients. I started with several items and started cooking!

A post shared by Watch Me Eat (@watchmeeat) on Jul 26, 2017 at 8:55am PDT

Dumplings, noodles, lamb, tofu, taro, and greens went into the pot first.

After a few minutes the contents of the pot were scooped out of the broth, eaten, and the whole process repeated!

I had fun eating at Nine Spices. Cooking soup with lots of ingredients chosen from conveyor belts makes for an interesting meal!

Dragon Court Super Buffet in Lake Buena Vista, FL

Dragon Court Super Buffet is a Chinese buffet located right off Disney property. I've assumed it catered towards tourists, meaning overpriced bad food. Dragon Court has been around for as long as I can remember, but I recently ended up eating there at lunch for the first time. I was pleasantly surprised.

They had some items not typically found on other Chinese buffets in the area and the majority of the food was pretty tasty. On my first trip to the buffet, I tried the curry chicken, fried rice, Chinese eggplant, beans, lo mein, tempura vegetables, pork dumplings, and a crab rangoon. The stand out dishes were the eggplant and curry chicken.

Second plate had a few more items. There was some baby bok choy, chow mei fun, boneless spareribs, chicken and broccoli, and some sort of spicy pork. 

I did enjoy the food that I ate on my first visit to Dragon Court Super Buffet. Hopefully their quality stays consistent.

NY China Buffet in Lake Buena Vista, FL

I ate lunch at NY China Buffet in Lake Buena Vista on 535. Buffets in this area could be scary tourist rip offs, so I was surprised to see lunch was just under $8.

Plate #1: Chicken with broccoli, mixed vegetables in a white sauce, egg roll, steamed dumplings, red bean filled sesame balls, and lo mein. The mixed vegetables were the tastiest food on this plate.

Plate #2: Stir fried bean curd, fried dumplings, fried rice, mei fun, and crab rangoon. The standout here was the bean curd. This stuff was delicious. 

Plate #3: Dessert. Pineapple, glazed fried wonton chip, cheesecake, and butterfly cookies. Apparently they like the cheesecake here. I saw an employee eating a plate of six slices of the cake. 

NY China Buffet had a good selection of food. Some of it was not the typical Chinese buffet foods, which was a good thing. There were enough people eating here for a decent turnover and everything was edible. Not bad for a buffet across from Disney...

Mei Asian Chinese Buffet in Orlando, FL

Mei Asian Chinese Buffet is located on International Drive in Orlando. It shares the shopping center with King's Bowl and is right next to the Orlando Eye. Going to a Chinese buffet in such a touristy area was a potentially dangerous choice (not to mention the restaurant has a horrible 34% Liked rating on Urbanspoon), but I ended up enjoying the restaurant more than I was expecting. I arrived at the restaurant during lunch time and they had a good selection of foods. To me, their buffet choices were better than other Chinese buffets in the area and most of the food was pretty tasty. There also seemed to be a good turnover with the buffet tables constantly being refilled. 

The first plate of food consisted of bean sprouts, green beans, dumplings, tofu, mei fun, and an egg roll.

Plate #2 had some salmon, lo mein, crawfish, shrimp with broccoli, and some sort of meat filled dumpling.

The third plate had a little more of some of my favorites that I tried earlier (dumplings, tofu, and veggies), along with a butterfly cookie for dessert.

I've had far worse buffets than Mei Asian, but yet those have had much higher ratings on online review sites such as Urbanspoon and Yelp. I'm sure the poor ratings for this restaurant are coming from somewhere though. I hope they either saw all the horrible scores and drastically improved their food, just in time for me to show up, or perhaps I just caught them on one of their better days.

Garden Buffet in Orlando, FL

I found myself eating dinner at Garden Buffet in Metrowest recently. This Chinese buffet is located in a Wal-Mart shopping center on Kirkman. Garden Buffet shares the shopping center with another Chinese restaurant which I've dined at in the past called China Lee.

Garden Buffet had several buffet tables. New food kept on being brought out, so it seemed like they had good turnover.

My first visit to the buffet tables resulted in dumplings, lo mein, chicken with broccoli, some sort of shrimp breaded in something, and a krab rangoon. Everything on this plate ranged from mediocre to disappointing.

I decided to try again and came back with a couple different types of sushi rolls, mixed vegetables, fried rice, spare rib, and a seaweed salad. Again, most of the food on this plate was also mediocre. The only standout was the seaweed salad. Maybe it was the novelty of not having seaweed salads all the time, but I really liked this stuff.

Since I wasn't too impressed with most of the food I tasted, I decided to give Garden Buffet's dessert table a try. I tried their egg custard, taro custard, cookies, orange slices, and some more seaweed salad. Again, the seaweed salad was the best food of the night.

Perhaps I'm holding my standards too high for a Chinese buffet next to a Wal-Mart, but I wasn't impressed with Garden Buffet. The food was mediocre and besides the seaweed salad that I liked, Garden Buffet didn't really give me a reason to return. Take out from China Lee across the parking lot would be a better choice.

Pearl's Chinese Restaurant in Orlando, FL

I had lunch at Pearl's Chinese Restaurant in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Orlando. They are in a strip mall, located a few doors down from a Publix. I ordered their Curry Chicken lunch combo. The combo started with a bowl of wonton soup. It was pretty standard as far as wonton soup goes. It consisted of broth, dumplings, and scallions. Strips of pork which is sometimes found in wonton soup was absent.

The soup was followed by a plate of the curry chicken and a bowl of steamed rice. The curry sauce on the chicken was tasty with a little bit of heat. Bell peppers, onions, and carrots accompanied the chicken.

I enjoyed my meal at Pearl's. The food was tasty enough and I'd return!

World Gourmet in Altamonte Springs, FL

It was suggested that we try a relatively new Chinese buffet in Altamonte Springs called World Gourmet. It was dinner time and the parking lot didn't seem to have enough cars. That isn't a good try for a buffet, but we went in anyway. It looked like World Gourmet put lots of work converting the restaurant from its former occupant to a buffet. There were big wooden boats that doubled as buffet tables. There were nice fish tanks filled with fancy gold fish. All that work, but I got the feeling that most of the diners in here were friends/family of the owners.

On my first trip to the buffet, I tried some California rolls, beef with broccoli, fried rice, krab rangoon, spare rib, and a sesame ball. Not the best food, nor the worst. It was pretty standard Chinese buffet fare.

Plate #2 had a very monochromatic color scheme. There was an egg roll, some sort of custard, another sesame ball filled with red bean paste, then some orange slices and cookies for dessert.

Overall, this was a very middle of the road Chinese buffet. Not the best and not the worst I've visited (and I've seen a couple very scary Chinese buffets). I felt kind of bad for the owners of the restaurant because they seemed to be trying and yet the customers weren't there. I doubt they were making money on the evening I visited...

3 Chefs Chinese Restaurant in Miami, FL

On a visit to South Florida, I had dinner at 3 Chefs Chinese Restaurant in Miami. It was a nice night, so we decided to dine outside at the tables 3 Chefs had out front.

I ordered the Szechuan Shrimp dinner combination. This meal started with a bowl of wonton soup.

An egg roll was served next:

Which was then followed by the main course. This came with several large shrimp mixed with various vegetables. The sauce used on the Szechuan shrimp had a nice kick, which is a good thing. The little pepper icon on the menu denoting a spicy dish actually meant something here. Fried rice was served on the side.

3 Chefs Chinese Restaurant served pretty standard American style Chinese food. Everything was fairly similar to what countless other Chinese restaurants serve. Regardless, the food was tasty. I enjoyed the sauce on the shrimp and it came with a nice variety of vegetables.

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...

Run & Run Chinese Restaurant in Lake Buena Vista, FL

I had lunch at a Chinese take out restaurant called Run & Run in a shopping center off Palm Parkway in Lake Buena Vista. Run & Run was located in a strip mall that definitely catered to tourists filled with gift shops and overpriced restaurants. Because of this, I was a little apprehensive to see the prices here, but the really weren't bad. Run & Run was equivalent to most other Chinese take outs not located on the edge of Walt Disney World.

I ordered the Kung Pao Shrimp lunch special. This consisted of the main dish, fried rice, and a canned soda. The shrimp were good sized in a sauce that was spicier than what many other Chinese restaurants serve in an equivalent dish. This was mixed with mushrooms, green peppers, carrots, baby corn, and peanuts. The shrimp was a little mushroom heavy for my liking, but was otherwise tasty. The fried rice was a bit plain, being basically rice mixed with scrambled egg. Not much else was going on in there. Overall, Run & Run was a pretty standard Chinese take out. Not the best I've had, but not the worst either. I might stop back here at some point if I'm looking for Chinese food near Disney in the future...

Uncle Lee's Szechuan China Room in Baltimore, MD

I did some visiting in the Baltimore area. While there, I parked in Little Italy and walked towards the Inner Harbor. I didn't want to actually eat in the Inner Harbor, so I headed a few blocks away and came across a Chinese restaurant located inside a large building that was formerly a bank. It seemed like the restaurant had a bit of an identity crisis since there were three different names outside the restaurant. The China Room was located on the side of the building. Uncle Lee's Szechuan Restaurant was on the awning out front. Finally, Uncle Lee's Harbor Restaurant was on the window above the door.

The inside of the restaurant was very impressive. I don't know if this building was something else between a bank and Chinese restaurant, but modern banks definitely aren't built this way. The interior was decorated with all sorts of ornate features. It didn't look very Chinese (except for the lantern globe lights that were added), but it was a very unique building to be eating lunch in.

I started with an appetizer of scallion pancakes. These are hard to find in Florida, so I decided to get these fried pancakes when I saw them on the menu.

A cup of wonton soup was served next. The dumplings were good although the broth could have used improvement. It was completely clear and basically tasted like warm water.

For my meal, I had one of the lunch specials called Baby Shrimp with Szechuan Rice Wine Sauce. A big plate of shrimp was served swimming in sauce. There were hardly any vegetables in here and was a bit boring. Although the menu noted that this was spicy, it hardly had any kick. Rice was served on the side which was very useful in soaking up the pool of sauce.

I found the food here to be a bit mediocre. The prices were also very affordable and the building was way cool. Can't win with everything...

China Lee in Orlando, FL

I ate lunch at China Lee in the MetroWest area of Orlando. This Chinese takeout restaurant is hidden away on the back side of a strip mall located in the parking lot of a Walmart. Typical of most restaurants like this, there were only a few tables for dining in with most of their business being to-go. My meal here consisted of the Szechuan shrimp combination.

While the price was a couple of dollars more than what I've seen at other similar restaurants, the reason was quickly apparent when my food was ready. The portion size was huge, probably double of what many other Chinese restaurants serve in these combinations. The Szechuan shrimp were large, served with lots and lots of vegetables, including peppers, broccoli, squash, onions, carrots, snow peas, corn, bamboo shoots, mushrooms, and water chestnuts. This Szechuan shrimp was also much spicier than what I've had elsewhere, which is always a good thing. That little pepper symbol on the menu actually meant something. A large serving of fried rice was also included alongside the shrimp as well as an egg roll. I'd return to China Lee again...

Expedition Cafe in Sea World Orlando

I ventured over to Sea World to see the recently opened Antarctica: Empire of the Penguin section of the park. While there, I had lunch at the new restaurant called Expedition Cafe. The restaurant is very nicely themed as an Antarctic base built into ice. There were three different counters to order from inside. One served Italian food, another served American food, and the counter that we ordered from served Chinese food.

I had the Shrimp Lo Mein. This was basically a large plate of lo mein noodles with the very occasional vegetable mixed in. Shrimp were served alongside the noodles and the meal was completed with a fortune cookie. Serving the shrimp separate from the lo mein was a bit different. I do understand the reasoning behind this to accommodate vegetarians. This definitely wasn't worth $13, but in terms of theme park foods, it was acceptable. The person visiting the park with me also ordered the Pepper Steak and fried rice. The normal bell peppers were absent from the pepper steak which was a bit unusual. Let's be nice and assume the lack of vegetables in both the lo mein and pepper steak was because of authentic Antarctic base themeing where I imagine fresh vegetables in food wouldn't be readily available... 

After eating, it was time to stand in line for 75 minutes to ride the new penguin ride. Big improvement of the the old penguin exhibit. The ride was way too short, but you get way closer to the penguins now. Overall, Antarctica was pretty cool (figuratively and literally)...