The Honeybaked Ham Co. in Orlando, FL

I ate lunch at the Honeybaked Ham on Colonial Drive in Orlando. These stores must survive most of the year on the money earned at Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Almost every single time I've visited their stores for a sandwich, I'm the only customer. Normally, I wouldn't think this would be a good sign for a restaurant, but after visiting a Honeybaked Ham a while ago before one of the mentioned holidays and saw the craziness of huge lines of people all with huge orders, I can see how they may be able to survive most of the year without too many customers.

I ordered the Ham & Turkey Bella sandwich for my lunch.

The sandwich consisted of ham, turkey, cheese, lettuce, tomato, onions, spicy banana peppers, and mayonnaise. While the sandwich was tasty, it wasn't anything amazing either. I personally found the meat to be sliced too thick and it would have been nice if the sandwich was toasted. Otherwise, it was a good sandwich. Definitely better than a few other sandwich chains out there.

Peppino's Ristorante Italiano

I ate at Peppino's Ristorante Italiano in Oviedo, FL. One of the first things I noticed upon entering the restaurant was that I seemed to be the youngest one eating by forty years. That didn't last long when about 100 people entered the restaurant for an Oviedo High School Basketball team banquet. From that point on, the restaurant got very loud. Luckily, our order was in before the banquet, so the food didn't take too long.

Salad came first.

For the main course, I ordered a tortellini dish served in a pink sauce with ham and mushrooms. I asked for no mushrooms, but I really didn't see any ham on the plate either. Besides from that, it was pretty good. The sauce was definitely homemade and although it wasn't as creamy as most other pink sauces I've come across, it was still very tasty. The sauce was definitely much more interesting that what I've had at other local Italian restaurants.

The other person I was eating with did complain that their portion was tiny for what Peppino's charged, but my tortellini was enough.

Toojay's Greek Wrap

I had a Greek Wrap from Toojay's in Altamonte Springs, FL. The wrap consisted of turkey, ham, feta, lettuce, olives, peppercinis, and Italian dressing, all wrapped in a tortilla. Fruit salad was served on the side. I enjoyed it.

Also on this visit, someone that I was eating with ordered a potato knish. This reminded me of something that I've noticed in my previous visits to several Toojay's locations. If someone at the table orders a knish, it seems that about 90% of the time it will not be served and the waiter will have to be reminded about it after the rest of the food is delivered. It's very strange that over multiple visits to multiple Toojay's, they almost consistently forget to bring out a knish when everything else about the order was correct.

Cuban Sandwich from Adita's Cuban Bakery

I ate a Cuban sandwich from Adita's Cuban Bakery in UCF. This particular location seemed to be connected with a Chick-Fil-A, but I think there may be another Adita's Cuban Bakery just outside of the college on University Blvd. My first and only time eating a Cuban sandwich down in Key Biscayne wasn't a good experience, so I was hesitant to try another Cuban Sandwich.

I'm glad I did though, because this sandwich was really tasty. They used really tender pulled pork, ham, pickles, mustard, and cheese, all on a roll. The whole thing was grilled on a press, and was really good. I think I'll need to go find their other location and see if their sandwiches are just as good there.

RedBrick Pizza

I ate a pizza at RedBrick Pizza in Altamonte Springs, FL. RedBrick Pizza seems to be a relatively new chain that has been popping up in the Central Florida area. This was the first one to open in Uptown Altamonte, and others have since opened in Sanford and in UCF. I ate here when the restaurant first opened, but the pizza wasn't worth returning for. Someone I was with wanted to eat here though, so I agreed to give RedBrick Pizza another try.

I noticed something kind of ironic about the name. It's called RedBrick Pizza, but there are no bricks of any color in the restaurant. There are some red tiles on the wall, but no bricks.

The last time I ate here, I had a cheese pizza which was pretty bad. This time, I figured I'd try a pizza with plenty of toppings to see if they improved the pie. I ordered their Greek Pizza, which was topped with ham, peppers, onions, kalamata olives, and feta cheese. I'm not the biggest fan of ham, and I completely missed that part when reading the menu, but it really didn't taste too bad on pizza. The toppings really did improve the pizza, and without them, the pizza would have been pretty bad. The crust was nice and crispy on the outer edges of the pizza, but was soggy in the center of the pie. It didn't seem undercooked, it just seemed very damp. This wet spot caused some difficulties when pulling the slices apart. The pizza here was really overpriced too. They started at $13 for a 14 inch pizza (the largest size offered), and went up from there.

One thing I really didn't like in here was the TVs. There was a TV and remote at just about every table. I really didn't want to watch TV while I ate, so I choose one of the few TV-free tables. It may not have been a good choice though, because I got a clear view of the large, slow-moving, sloth-like people dining here as they slowly lifted (and dropped) slice after slice into their mouths with one hand, while controlling the TV remote with the other hand. It was kind of sad.

The building that RedBrick pizza occupies wasn't always here. It was once a normal strip mall before Altamonte Springs rebuilt the area into Uptown Altamonte. Before the new construction, almost exactly where RedBrick Pizza now sits, was a restaurant called Presto Pizza. Presto had the best pizza I've tasted in Florida. It was the whole New York pizza deal, with really thin large slices. Besides normal pizza, they had the more exotic varieties like stuffed pizza that you normally don't see in Florida. I haven't found another restaurant in Florida that has as good pizza as Presto had, but RedBrick Pizza definitely doesn't cut it...

Toojay's Greek Wrap

I ate a Greek Wrap from the Toojays in Lake Mary, Florida today. It had turkey, ham, feta cheese, pepperoncinis, and kalamata olives in it. I would have prefered it without the ham, but it was good anyway...