Nassau Bahamas Food #1: Atlantis Restaurants (Marina Pizza, Murray's Delicatessen, Chopstix, Olives, Starbucks, and Platos)

My previous bit of traveling was to the UK. A couple weeks later I had the opportunity to head to Nassau in The Bahamas. That's two countries in a row which have Queen Elizabeth II on their money. Most of my time in Nassau was spent on Paradise Island in the vicinity of the Atlantis Resort. In fact, this particular blog post is all restaurants I ate at in Atlantis.

Marina Pizza: 

My first meal in Nassau consisted of some of the most authentic Bahamian-Italian pizza one could possibly find in a resort themed to a mythical lost continent.

We split an 18" Meat Delight pie. It was topped with smoked bacon, ham, pepperoni, sausage, and oregano. Since it was in Atlantis, this was a very expensive pizza. It ended up being almost $40 for the pie once tax and the automatically included gratuity was added. US dollars and Bahamian dollars have a one to one exchange rate too, so there wasn't some fancy money conversion that made the pizza less expensive than it seemed. Besides price, it was a pretty okay pizza coming out of a hotel. Not the best pizza ever, but perfectly adequate. It was cooked on a conveyor belt oven. There was good proportion of cheese/sauce/toppings. Everything held together nicely, even with the pie being topping heavy.

I later found out that restaurants on Paradise Island close early. For an island that is pretty much nothing but tourists, it was a bit surprising that most restaurants either closed at 9 or 10 during the week. Because of this, I returned to Marina Pizza a second time in their last ten minutes of being open because we couldn't find anything else open, on or off property without going downtown. This time I tried a slice of the Bahamian Spice and The Bianco. The Bahamian Spice was topped with sweet peppers, onions, hot banana peppers, and jerk chicken. It was much spicier than I was expecting, which was good! Unfortantely, it did feel like the slice was sitting out way too long with hard, slightly burnt crust. Turned out this slice of pizza was the closest I got to eating actual Bahamian food on my trip. The Bianco was topped with ricotta, mozzarella, and romano cheeses, spinach, and broccoli. This slice tasted fresher, but I preferred the flavors in the Bahamian Spice pizza better. Again, these were expensive at around $7/slice.

Murray's Delicatessen:

My second meal in the Bahamas was at one of the most authentic Bahamian-NY Style Kosher delis one could possibly find in a resort themed to a mythical lost continent.

I started out with a bowl of matzo ball soup. Mostly because I found the idea of a deli serving matzo balls in the Bahamas kind of funny. Definitely not the regional food you'd expect to eat in Nassau.

After the soup, I ordered a sandwich called The Daily Double. This consisted of corned beef, turkey, coleslaw, and Russian dressing on rye bread. Fries were served on the side. Very meaty, but at least the coleslaw added some sort of vegetable to mix it up a bit.

Murray's didn't quite get the NY style deli thing just right though. There were many sandwiches that mixed meat with dairy or had bacon on them. Just like the pizza, Murray's Delicatessen was pricey, but I think I've been to some actual delis in New York which were in the same price range, if not more expensive.

Chopstix:

My third meal in Nassau was some of the most authentic Bahamian-Chinese food one could possibly find in a resort themed to a mythical lost continent.

The meal started by splitting an order of Chicken Spring Rolls.

I ordered the Singapore Noodles, consisting of rice noodles, shrimp, and chicken in a curry spice mix. I've had similar dishes to this numerous times before, but I think this was the most I have ever paid for a  bowl of noodles like this. After the meals I had so far at Atlantis, this was no surprise. The portion size was plenty to eat. Several large shrimp were mixed into the noodles, as well as a generous serving of chicken. I liked the dish. Shrimp Fried Rice was also ordered at the table. The rice was in a similar price range, but the portion size was much smaller than the noodles. Shrimp were also much smaller as well. The person who ordered this ended up stopping at Marina Pizza afterwards since they were still hungry after their expensive fried rice.

Olives:

According to Atlantis' website, Olives is a restaurant developed by Celebrity Chef Todd English. If I didn't just read that there, I would have never known. There was no mention of Todd English on the restaurant's signage or menu which seemed odd. Todd English has a restaurant called Bluezoo in the Dolphin Hotel at Disney and his name seems to always be attached to that restaurant. To us, Olives was the restaurant inside the casino which we were warned about their $200 menu items. When we got in the predicament that Olives was the only thing still open when we wanted dinner, we decided to give it a try. We were given their late-night menu when we arrived, which was surprisingly reasonable. I ordered the fig and prosciutto flatbread for under $20.

This was my favorite thing I ate on Atlantis property. The flatbread was topped with lots of thinly sliced prosciutto, blue cheese, scallions, and a fig sauce drizzled over the top. Hurry for not costing $200 like we were warned and being my favorite food at Atlantis!


Starbucks:

Starbucks had the cheapest food that we were able to find in the Atlantis resort. Here's a Chicken Caesar Wrap. Exactly what you would expect from a pre-made wrap at Starbucks.

Platos:

Platos was a fast food restaurant in the hotel serving coffee and sandwiches.

Here's a Ruben Sandwich. Unfortunately, the corned beef was super fatty with big streaks of unchewable fat. The bread was good though.

I also got a strawberry cheesecake here. Much better than the Ruben. For a fast food sandwich, dessert, and a drink, Platos ended up costing about $30/person.

NY Jewish Food (Regal Kosher Deli in Plainview and Russ & Daughters in NYC)

In my travels around the New York area, I ended up eating at two restaurants serving Jewish/Kosher style foods. One was Regal Kosher Deli on Long Island and the other was Russ & Daughters in Manhattan.

Regal Kosher Deli in Plainview, NY:

Regal Kosher Deli is located in Plainview, NY on Long Island. They are a kosher deli serving pretty standard jewish foods. I ended up eating here on two occasions.

Pickles are delivered to every table upon being seated. They serve half sour and full sour pickles. Being that the half sour pickles were devoured before I could take a picture, it's obvious what everyone's favorite type of pickle is.

Bowls of coleslaw were also served with the pickles.

I tried two different types of knish on my visits here. My first knish was a plain potato filled knish. This one was square with mashed potatoes filling the flaky crust. Pretty tasty.

The spinach knish was my favorite of the two. It was round (I'm assuming the different shapes are so they can tell different fillings apart easier?), filled with a potato/spinach mix. It had more going on in terms of flavor compared to the plain knish.

On one visit I tried a corned beef sandwich. This consisted of a whole lot of sliced meat between sliced rye bread. I have to admit that these jewish deli style sandwiches are a little boring for my liking. I know cheese can't be added because of the whole kosher thing, but they are too much of the same thing.

On another visit I tried what they called a stuffed sandwich. I ordered the Corned Beef, Tongue, and Hard Boiled Egg. When the sandwich was delivered, the waiter informed me that they were out of hard boiled egg. I'm also pretty sure the menu said there should have been coleslaw on here as well, but that was missing too. Without those components, this was basically a corned beef sandwich stacked on top of a tongue sandwich. I did enjoy the novelty of eating sliced tongue. That is not a cut of meat that I eat very often.

Regal Kosher Deli was enjoyable. They may have boring sandwiches, but that's expected in a jewish deli. That aside, I did like the rest of the dining experience in here...





Russ & Daughters in NYC:

I first heard about Russ & Daughters several years ago and they have been on my list of New York foods to try ever since. It took me several more visits to the city before I finally made it to Russ & Daughters. They've been around for 101 years, so the amount of time it took me to try the restaurant was probably nothing for them.

They specialize in smoked and cured fish. Their cases are filled with all sorts of lox, smoked salmon, mackerel, sable, and other seafoods. There's also a large selection of cream cheeses, bagels, desserts, and other jewish foods for sale. Russ & Daughters was a very busy place. I waited over a half hour to put in my order. People were buying quite a bit in here as well. Almost every order placed that I heard was at least $100. Russ & Daughters is a little gold mine...

I had an everything bagel with pastrami salmon with goat cream cheese. The salmon was thinly sliced with a peppery coating on the outside. The goat cream cheese was new to me. It still had the consistency of normal cream cheese, but with the distinctive earthy flavor that seems to be in all goat cheeses. The combination of it all was delicious...

I also tried a pickle. A customer in front of me was ordering gallons of these pickles, announcing that she takes the train from Vermont to replenish her pickles every time her supply gets low. With an endorsement like that, I decided I must try one. It was a very tasty pickle, although I don't know if I'd travel from out of state for a pickle. 

Brown's New York Deli in Maitland, FL

I had lunch at Brown's New York Deli in Maitland. Apparently this restaurant has been here for over a year, but somehow I never noticed them during my countless drives past.

As soon as we were seated, a plate of pickles and coleslaw were brought to the table.

I had the Turkey Ruben for my meal. It consisted of sliced turkey, cheese, sauerkraut, and thousand island dressing on toasted rye bread. Fries were served on the side. The sandwich was good, although it didn't contain the sickening stack of meat that I've seen at some of the more famous delis actually in New York. The amount of sandwich fillings here was much more biteable and more appropriate for one person to eat in a single serving.

After the sandwich, meringue cookies were served alongside the check. Meringues seem like they are either good or bad whenever I try them. There's never a meringue cookie that is just okay. These meringues fell in the good category. They were light and airy with just the right amount of crunch.

I enjoyed my meal at Brown's. I'd return here again!

903 Mills Market in Orlando, FL

I bought myself lunch from a restaurant called 903 Mills Market. They are located in a residential area on Mills Avenue, not too far south of Downtown Orlando. I remember hearing good things about this restaurant in the past. I don't remember exactly who first told me about 903 Mills Market or what exactly they said about it besides a recommendation that I should try the restaurant. 

I ordered their Italian sandwich to go. As I was waiting for my order, it became apparent that 903 Mills Market had a very large beer selection. This may have held my interest a bit longer if I was a beer connoisseur, but alas, I am not. My sandwich was ready soon enough. Being that it was a nice day out, it was eaten in a nearby park.

The Italian consisted of ham, salami, provolone cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, mayonnaise, and an olive tapenade. The contents of the of the sandwich were good. They were generous with all of the fillings. The vegetables were nice and fresh. The slightly spicy olive tapenade added an extra burst of flavor. That being said, the bread ruined the sandwich for me. The Italian was served on a very mushy white bread roll. Bread is a big component in a sandwich. It should add to the overall sandwich experience, where this bread did not. They might as well have use a supermarket hamburger bun because this bread was very similar.

I had ordered the sandwich as a combo. This meant that I also received a side and a drink with my sandwich. I picked their potato salad as my side. The potato salad was okay, but really didn't have any standout flavor.

While 903 Mills Market did have some other sandwiches that sounded interesting to me, I don't know if I'm in a rush to return soon. The sandwich contents were good, all to be brought down with a poor bread choice. They were also a bit pricy with a sandwich, drink, and a tiny cup of potato salad costing over $11. Perhaps I'll return to 903 Mills Market in the future or perhaps not. They didn't get placed on my list of restaurants that I want to return to ASAP.

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...

Wawa in Orlando, FL (Sea World)

Everyone seems to love Wawa. This gas station/convenience store chain recently expanded from the Northeastern United States to the Central Florida area. I've heard coffee drinkers rave about their coffee. People love their milkshakes. Above all else, I've heard people explain how wonderful their sandwiches are. I recently stopped into the Wawa across the street from Sea World to finally give one of these amazing sandwiches a try.

This Wawa had a large deli area. Orders are placed at several touch-screen computers set up throughout the area. While I do see the usefulness of this computerized ordering system, I just found it to prolong the ordering process and make it more confusing. Several orders could be placed at once using the computers and I'm sure they can keep track of inventory better, but it would have been much easier to directly order with the sandwich maker since the Wawa was empty at the time. Another thing that bothered me was the upcharge for wheat bread. Most other places don't charge extra for a sightlier healthier choice. I ordered a turkey sandwich topped with spinach, tomato, cucumbers, onions, pickles, jalapenos, mayonnaise, and mustard on my first visit to Wawa. 

I actually returned to this same Wawa for a second time to try another sandwich. On this visit, I had a buffalo chicken sandwich. This consisted of fried chicken, topped with cheese, spinach, tomato, onions, pickles, and jalapenos. Whoever made this sandwich definitely went way overboard on the buffalo sauce. There was a large pool of sauce that dripped out of the sandwich by the time I finished. Otherwise, it was tasty enough.

The sandwiches from Wawa were tasty enough and way beyond sandwiches I've seen at other gas stations. Wawa's sandwiches were pretty equivalent to a Subway in my opinion. Alright for what they are when you want to get a sandwich quickly and you're already getting gas, but there's far better sandwiches out there elsewhere...

Lucky Dill in St. Petersburg, FL

I was in St. Pete a few weeks ago and was looking to find breakfast somewhere downtown. We were told by a police officer that the only place in the area that would be open on a Sunday morning serving some sort of breakfast was a Starbucks. That was a disappointing answer, but food is food, so we started walking in the direction of the Starbucks. On the very next block, we came across a restaurant that was very much open for breakfast called the Lucky Dill. Most likely a much better choice than Starbucks...

Lucky Dill was a NY Style deli during the day, serving typical deli-type foods like huge pastrami sandwiches. The breakfast menu included several different breakfast meals as well as omelets and sandwiches. I had a meal called the Manhattan Morning. This included two scrambled eggs, whole wheat toast, grits, and bacon for just under $5. The breakfast was simple yet good, and definitely much better than one of those pre-packaged breakfast wraps that are served at Starbucks!

 

Oliviero Café in New York, NY

I was wandering around Manhattan near Times Square late one evening when it was decided that everyone was hungry and food was required. Without venturing too close to the overpriced chains that dwell in Times Square, we decided to try a deli/supermarket/convenience store that was open called Oliviero Cafe.

 

They had a much bigger selection of foods than I was expecting. There was a salad bar. There was a sandwich counter. They had sushi and a pasta bar. It seemed like they were in over their heads in trying to do everything, but it seemed to be working.

 

I ordered from the Korean section of the menu and had the vegetarian bibimbop. Not being well rounded in my Korean foods, I wasn't exactly sure what I was getting but it was described as a rice bowl. The bibimbop turned out to be a large bowl of steamed rice topped with a fried egg, mushrooms, onions, squash, carrots, and broccoli in what tasted like a teriyaki-like sauce.

Korean food was the last thing I was expecting when I walked into Oliviero Cafe, but I enjoyed my meal. It is hard to go wrong with a bowl of rice, vegetables, and an egg...