G&G Jamaican Delights in Ocoee, FL

I recently visited the West Oaks Mall in Ocoee. The slowly dying mall is mostly devoid of stores, including in the food court. That said, some of the occupied restaurants here were a bit more interesting than standard food court food. There was a place serving boba tea. There was another, which I had lunch from, called G&G Jamaican Delights.

I had the curry chicken. This came with several pieces of chicken, rice, plantains, and cabbage. The chicken was nice and tender. The curry flavoring was tasty and the leftover sauce added extra flavor to the rice. Like meats served from many Jamaican restaurants, careful of little pieces of bone. Much better than a standard food court chain!

iSpice in Altamonte Springs, FL

iSpice is a fast food Indian restaurant in the Altamonte Mall Food Court. I've considered eating there at dinner time in the past but I always worried about the turnover on the food. iSpice never seems to have the volume of customers that their neighbors have and I always wondered if the food had been sitting there since the morning. Not saying it works that way, but that thought always stopped me from eating there. I was recently at the mall at lunch time when the food would ideally be fresher and decided to finally give them a try.

I ordered the platter which came with a choice of one meat dish, one vegetable dish, rice, naan, and rice pudding. I had the chicken korma for my meat. The chicken was nice and tender and the sauce was very tasty. I had some of the sauce over the rice as well. For the vegetable, I chose the spinach dal, which consisted of lentil and spinach in a very soupy sauce. The naan worked well for soaking up all of the extra sauce. The portion of rice pudding was small but good.

Overall, I did enjoy my food at iSpice. It was cheaper than a sit-down Indian restaurant and the platter ended up being plenty of food. Everything tasted good, and iSpice was definitely a much better choice than some of the other more corporate options in the mall's food court. I'll try them again!

Ollo Fresh in Palm Beach Gardens, FL

On a drive home from south Florida, I stopped into the Palm Beach Gardens Mall located just off I-95 to stretch my legs for a few minutes. While there, I ventured into the food court and got lunch from a Middle Eastern restaurant called Ollo Fresh. I ordered a gyro sandwich. They offered a choice of lamb or chicken gyro inside the sandwich and I choose the lamb. The pita was topped with lettuce, tomato, onion, and lots of tzatziki. The lamb had nice flavor, as did the tzatziki. Overall, this was very typical of what mall food court Middle Eastern restaurants serve, but I was happy with my gyro regardless.

Ancho Burrito Company in Altamonte Springs, FL

I tried Ancho Burrito Company in the Altamonte Mall food court. This place followed the Chipotle's model where you tell the person behind the counter how you want your burrito filled. I went with a chicken burrito, filled with rice, black beans, lettuce, onions, jalapenos, sauce, and other fillings. The burrito was pretty tasty, although it was really moist. So much so that all the liquid in the burrito soaked through the tortilla and started to fall apart. I think they needed to drain their beans a bit more before putting them in the burrito. Chips and salsa were served on the side.

Asian Chao at UCF

I tried the Asian Chao in the UCF Student Union for lunch one afternoon. I ordered the two item combination and went with Kung Pao Shrimp and Beef with Broccoli. These were both served with a side of lo-mein. Although nothing great, it all tasted okay and was equivalent to the Chinese restaurants in the mall food courts. Being that the same franchise is in several of the local malls, I suppose that's how it should be.

The same dishes are so much better from many independent local Chinese restaurants though...

Pine Garden Chinese

I was doing some shopping for a birthday present in the Waterford Lakes Town Center outdoor mall and started getting hungry. After wandering from store to store in search of a giant Pez dispenser in the horribly designed mall, I stopped by the Pine Garden Chinese Restaurant. I ordered the Kung Pao Chicken lunch combo, which included wonton soup, rice, and the chicken. I wasn't too happy with the food. Everything was pretty much tasteless. The soup tasted like oily water with wontons floating in it. Kung Pao chicken is normally somewhat spicy, but Pine Garden's chicken was very bland. The price was good, but I don't think I would return to Pine Garden any time soon.

Free Orange Julius Smoothie

Friday, June 19 was free smoothie day at Orange Julius if you came in with the proper coupon printed from their website. Always on the lookout for free food, I of course utilized this offer. I went to the Orange Julius in Sanford's Seminole Towne Center Mall and was offered the choice of three light smoothies with 250 calories or less with the coupon. I chose the Berry-Pom Twilight smoothie.

Although it was free, I thought the smoothie was horrible. It tasted like a mix of apple and grape juice that was somehow thickened. Neither of these juices are my favorites so that didn't help the taste. Orange Julius also put all sorts of artificial sweeteners in the smoothie like Splenda. I am not afraid of sugar, so I try to avoid artificial sweeteners, and Splenda especially scares me. Google 'Splenda side effects' and look at all of the results that comes up. I couldn't find any scientific studies on the effects of Splenda, so I am a bit skeptical of all of the claims that come up, but it also seems like a whole lot of people are experiencing negative side effects that they are attributing to Splenda. When I make smoothies at home, I only put juice and fruit in them and the smoothies come out plenty sweet. I don't understand why restaurants always add extra sweetener to make their smoothies extra sweet. I drank about half of the smoothie and threw it away.

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!

Stuffed Vegetable Pizza from Sbarro...

I had a stuffed slice of pizza filled with spinach, broccoli, ricotta, and mozzarella cheese from the Sbarro in the UCF Student Union. While most pizzerias in the New York area seem to always have this type of pizza available, you have to be really lucky to find stuffed pizza in Florida. In fact, besides from Sbarro restaurants, I can't think of any restaurants in Florida that serve pizza like this, and even then it's not necessarily something Sbarro always has. The other Sbarro owned restaurants outside of food courts like Carmela's don't have this type of pizza on their menus. It's a shame too, because stuffed vegetable pizza is one of my favorites. This particular slice wasn't the best, but it tasted good enough for Florida's slim pickings for stuffed pizza. It could have used a little more stuffing and it felt like it was sitting out a little too long, although I shouldn't expect too much from a Sbarro in a college food court. The sesame seeds on top were a nice touch. Perhaps the worst thing about the slice was what they charged for it. With tax, a single slice of pizza came out to $4.88. That means they get almost $40 for a eight slice pie. I imagine that is quite a profit margin.

Next time I am craving pizza in the UCF area, I need to give Lazy Moon a try. I keep on hearing good things about them and their giant 30" pizzas.

Altamonte Mall Hovan Falafel

I ate a falafel pita from the Hovan in the Altamonte Mall Food Court. It was filled with falafel, hummus, lettuce, and tomato and was served with a side of stuffed grape leaves. The falafel pita tasted good enough, but I've had much better. For example, as far as fast food Middle Eastern food goes, I liked my falafel from Mrs. Fields Cookies at UCF a whole lot better than this one from Hovan. One of the major issues that I had with Hovan wasn't necessary about the taste, but rather how the pita was wrapped. The pita was wrapped in aluminum foil, and then was cut in half. This left little shards of aluminum in the sandwich that I had to constantly pick out.

The grape leaves left a lot to be desired though. They tasted very bland and the rice mixture inside was very mushy.

Altamonte Mall Cinnabon

I got the free end of a cinnamon roll with a buy one, get one free coupon from Cinnabon in the Altamonte Mall. Cinnabon cinnamon rolls always taste really doughy to me, almost as if they aren't cooked enough...