Lazy Moon Pizza in Orlando, FL (Mills-50)

Way back when this blog was pretty new, I wrote a post about Lazy Moon Pizza. This was at a location that no longer exists in a strip mall that was demolished for a newer development. Since then, Lazy Moon has expanded with a newer location nearby UCF (which I have not eaten at) and another location in Mills-50. The Mills-50 location is what this post is about.

The slices here are still huge, but the overload of half melted cheese that the UCF location was known for has seemed to improved. Lazy Moon seems like they have learned that too much cheese could be a bad thing and their slices are much more balanced in terms of cheese/sauce/toppings now.

Here's a slice with pesto as the sauce, topped with spinach and Italian sausage. They use slices of sausage rather than crumbles, which is always better in my book.

The Cuban Slice is a more unique pizza that I can't say I've had elsewhere. Its basically a Cuban sandwich in pizza form. It has mustard as a sauce, topped with pork, ham, pickles, and cheese. I was skeptical, but I ended up enjoying this.

I am glad Lazy Moon has improved since my first few experiences with the restaurant way back when!

Baja Burrito Kitchen in Orlando, FL

Baja Burrito Kitchen was once a local chain of fast food Mexican restaurants with several locations around Central Florida. I always enjoyed the food at the various Baja Kitchens, but for whatever reasons, all but one of the restaurants closed. The only remaining Baja Kitchen is in a shopping center on Colonial Drive in Orlando. It had been years since I had last dined at a Baja Kitchen, but I recently stopped in for dinner. The meal started with some tortilla chips and various salsas. Their salsa bar was always a highlight of a visit to Baja Kitchen. Their fire roasted chipotle, salsa verde, and habanero salsa were my favorites.

I had the Baja Enchiladas for my main course. This came with three cheese filled tortillas, topped with a red enchilada sauce, cheese, and chicken. Black beans, rice, and sour cream were served on the side. There was probably far too much cheese on my plate than I should have eaten in once sitting, but the meal did give me a warm, fuzzy feeling from food memories associated with this dish. This plate of Baja Enchiladas brought back memories attached to when I used to frequent the Baja Kitchens that were once located closer to where I live. It was definitely strange having many memories of various meals with various people from years ago come rushing back, just because I had a particular version of a particular food.

The enchiladas were good, but the rice and beans could have used some improvement. Both were relatively cold and seemed like they were the bottom of the barrel as far as sides go. It was pretty close to Baja Kitchen's closing time when I ate there, but that's no excuse for crunchy rice. Putting aside the mediocre rice and beans, I did enjoy my meal at Baja Kitchen. The meal was somewhat of an unexpected and unscientific exploration into the power of food memories and the result was me being glad that there is still one last Baja Kitchen left in Orlando...

Chick-fil-A in Orlando, FL

I had a coupon for a free Spicy Chicken Sandwich from Chick-fil-A and used it at the store on Colonial Drive in Orlando.

I ordered the Spicy Chicken Sandwich and a small order of waffle fries. I liked the sandwich better than the normal Chick-fil-A fried chicken sandwich. This had much more flavor, but the sandwich was not as spicy as I would have expected. They charged me $0.15 for lettuce on the sandwich though. Other fast food restaurants put lettuce & tomato on their sandwiches for free, so I found this a bit surprising.

Chick-fil-A also threw in a box of Hot Tamales to go with the spicy chicken!

This was one of the better sandwiches I've had from Chick-fil-a. Just don't charge for toppings when everyone else gives them for free. And don't go suing local produce markets for using the words "eat more" in their name either...

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...