Casa L'Italien in Boca Raton, FL

Casa L'Italien is a little restaurant in the same shopping center as Doris' Italian Market in Boca Raton. Besides pizza (which I hear good things about), I thought the menu was somewhat limited and prices were unusually high for the food served.That being said, I ordered an Eggplant Banzini. This was basically your standard eggplant parmesan hero with the addition of ricotta cheese. It tasted good and was a good sized sub.

Next time I'm down in Boca, I'll have to try the pizza at Casa L'Italien...

Anthony's Pizzeria in Orlando, FL

I picked up some takeout from the Anthony's Pizzeria at the intersection of Mills and 50. I had heard good things about their pizza so I was looking forward to giving them a try. I ordered a 16" pizza topped with spinach. After ordering, I browsed the nearby Asian supermarkets, and soon enough the pizza was ready.

This was a pretty good pizza. The sauce had a nice flavor and the cheese was nice and salty, although the amount of cheese seemed out of proportion with the rest of the pie.

A few months later, I decided to give Anthony's another try. This time around, I had the pie topped with eggplant. The crust was thinner this time and there wasn't an overload of cheese like the spinach pie. While the spinach pie was good, this eggplant pie was definitely better of the two. Different cooks perhaps?


Would I get pizza from Anthony's again? Definitely. Even the lesser of these two pizzas were still good and well made. The people at Anthony's definitely know what they're doing with pizza...

Luna Pizza in Longwood, FL

Luna Pizza is a small Italian restaurant in the back corner of a shopping center in Longwood. It's actually pretty easy to miss due to it's location, but yet they always seem to have customers.

On one visit, I ordered an eggplant parmesan sub. It was good, although it was very oily. The sandwich was huge and was also a few dollars cheaper than what other nearby Italian restaurants charge for a similar sandwich.

On another visit to Luna Pizza, I took home a Bianca Spinach Pizza. This sauceless pizza was topped with mozzarella, riccota, fresh spinach, and lots of garlic. I was really pleased with the pizza. It had plenty of flavor, even without sauce. In spots, the crust seemed like it could have been cooked a few minutes longer, but other than that, I have no complaints. Good pizza, and adding garlic knots into the pizza box only makes it better!

Vito's Pizza & Pasta in Waterford Lakes

I ate at Vito's Pizza & Pasta in the Waterford Lakes shopping center in Orlando. This restaurant seemed to be a former Papa Joe's, and the food was very similar. The meal was started with an order of garlic knots.

I ordered an eggplant parmesan sub. As far as sandwiches in Italian restaurants go, this one was huge. Normally, I have no problem finishing my food, but here I had to leave almost half of the sandwich. It was really overstuffed with breaded eggplant, tomato sauce, and melted cheese. The bread was nice and crusty, covered with sesame seeds. Vito's left me with no complaints about their food!

Victorio's II in Winter Springs, FL

I ate at Victorio's II in Winter Springs, FL. I ate here a few times several years ago and decided to give them another try. I ordered an Eggplant Parmesan Sub and was really happy with it. The bread was nice and crunchy with sesame seeds on the outside. The eggplant didn't have any of that stringy skin on it and was breaded nicely. There was just the right amount of cheese and sauce on the sandwich, and I was happy!

My dining companions ordered a thick crust pizza, so I decided to try one of the slices that weren't finished. While I really liked my sandwich, the pizza was another story. The crust seemed to be too doughy in the middle. There was way too much sauce that all squirted off of the pizza when I took a bite, and the cheese was a bit heavy handed too. I definitely wouldn't get pizza at Victorio's after trying this slice, but the two other people that ate the pie both thought it was really good. I guess I was in the minority about this pizza...

Cafe Paisano in Longwood, FL

I ate at Cafe Paisano in Longwood, FL. I ate here a few times before when they first opened and always ordered pizza. I was never too impressed with the pizza, so after a few visits I found other Italian restaurants to get my pizza from. Recently, I decided to return to Cafe Paisano and ordered a dinner on this visit. After reading over the menu, I settled on the Eggplant Rollatini, and started the meal with a side salad and garlic rolls.

The main dish soon came out and consisted of breaded eggplant rolled around ricotta cheese and plenty of fresh spinach, then topped with melted cheese and tomato sauce. Also served with the meal (but not listed on the menu) was a side of spaghetti in tomato sauce. I don't like tomato sauce on pasta all that much, so I could have done without this part of the meal. When I initially ordered the eggplant, I didn't quite know what to expect, but I really liked it. I would gladly get the eggplant rollatini again!

The next table was eating a pizza which looked better than I remembered it being. I think I need to return here again to give Cafe Paisano's pizza another try.

Hospital Food at the Kuhl Cafe

I was visiting someone at ORMC and got hungry. I ventured down to the hospital cafeteria called the Kuhl Cafe. I had a wrap filled with fried eggplant, feta cheese, olives, spinach, and hummus, all inside of a spinach tortilla. Hospital food tends to have a bad reputation, but this wrap was really good!

Limoncellos Waterfront Ristorante

A $5 off coupon brought me into Limoncellos Waterfront Restorante in the Sanford Marina along Lake Monroe.

Garlic bread was ordered as a appetizer. Rather than the normal Italian restaurant garlic bread, Limoncellos gave slices of bread with a bowl of roasted garlic in oil. It was unexpected, but was a nice surprise. I really like roasted garlic.

I was debating about whether to get gnocchi or a calzone, and finally ended up ordering the Calzone Primavera. The calzone was filled with red peppers, onions, eggplant, broccoli, ricotta, and mozzarella. I enjoyed it.

If you eat outside on the restaurant's patio, you get this wonderful view of the St. Johns River.

I liked Limoncellos. The view was great, the food was better than many other local Italian restaurants, and the prices weren't bad either.


UPDATE: I did like Limoncellos a whole lot on my first visit, which I wrote about above. Second visit, not so much. Horrible service, bad food, and the bottle of vinegar for my salad was filled with flies...

Chicken & Eggplant from Imperial Dynasty

I ate at Imperial Dynasty in Longwood, FL for lunch. I ordered the Chicken & Eggplant with Garlic Sauce lunch special. It came with the chicken, rice, and a choice of a side.

Fried noodles were served first.

They were followed by the side. I went with some Wonton soup. In the past, I've always been happy with the soup from Imperial Dynasty, but on this visit I found it to be way too salty.

The soup was followed with the main dish. The Chicken & Eggplant was pretty much what the menu described it to be. There was lots of chicken and lots of Chinese eggplant, and not much else. There was a side of brown rice, but I felt the meal needed more variety. There was way too much of the same thing, and it would have been better if there was some other types of vegetables in with the chicken and eggplant. Just something to mix up the monotony of the meal a bit.

It did taste good though, so I guess that's all that matters for the most part.


Like Sanford's China Wok, Imperial Dynasty also had posters hanging up to be one of the Top 100 Chinese Restaurants. The 2008 contest is over, it looks like Imperial Dynasty made it into the top 100 on the winners list. I don't see China Wok...

Dalli's Eggplant Sub

I ate an Eggplant Parmigiana sub from Dalli's Pizza in Lake Mary, FL. I've eaten these before, and since I got it again, you know it must be good.