Terra Mia Pizza in Lake Mary, FL

I've been wanting to try the pizza from Terra Mia for a while now, but I had difficulties tasting their food for the longest time. I tried visiting the Terra Mia in Lake Mary on a few occasions and each time there was either a huge wait or the restaurant was closed for the day. On another attempt to try Terra Mia's pizza, I visited their Longwood location only to find out they don't serve pizza there. Finally, the Pizza Gods must have smiled on me. On a recent evening, I was in Lake Mary and Terra Mia was both open and without a wait, and top it off, their pizza was really good too!

My pizza was topped with anchovies and kalamata olives. The crust was some of the thinnest I've had in the area while still having a nice rise around the edges. Somebody did a very nice job with the dough here. The flavor of the anchovies and olives combined with the salty cheese was a little strong, but I liked it.

With the majority of the pizza in the area being mediocre, it's refreshing to find someplace like Terra Mia that has good pizza!

Athenian Garden in Lake Mary, FL

Athenian Garden is a new Greek restaurant in Heathrow. Positive things were being said about the restaurant on other food blogs, so I gave them a try.

The meal started with some rolls and an olive tapenade. Soon, our order was taken and I choose the Chicken Souvlaki Pita. The pita was filled with chicken, lettuce, tomato, onions, and tzatziki. The tzatziki was actually my favorite part of the sandwich. It had a great dill flavor that really stood out. Unfortunately, the chicken was kind of tough and also had a pretty strong charred taste, almost on the border of tasting burnt. Overall, it was an average sandwich, but really nothing worth rushing back to get again. For $8, the sandwich was also a bit expensive to not come with any sides. When ordering, I was asked if I wanted fries to go with the pita. I was informed that I could get a side if I upgrade to a dinner for $12. An extra $4 for some fries is a bit too much to be asking in my opinion...

While writing this, I found out Athenian Garden is connected to Cypriana in Casselberry. It's funny since I like Cypriana but really wasn't too impressed with Athenian Garden. The menu here seemed smaller with higher prices. I think next time I'm looking for Greek food in Lake Mary, I'll head to Greek Village instead...

Fresh on the Fly in Lake Mary, FL

I ate dinner at a new seafood restaurant in Lake Mary called Fresh on the Fly. Their menu was somewhat limited with almost only sandwiches and salads. There was nothing that could be considered a seafood dinner, but I personally had no problems with the menu. The menu also shared that Fresh on the Fly only uses sustainable wild-caught fish, grass fed beef, and hormone free chicken.

I had the On the Fly Fish Tacos. The two tacos were filled with blackened mahi mahi, lettuce, pineapple salsa, and mango sour cream. These were very tasty tacos and only cost $5. Not bad, considering I've had similar tacos that weren't nearly as good at nearby restaurants for double the price.

One final thought about Fresh on the Fly. Their sign is really hard to read from Lake Mary Blvd. I had no problem seeing Fresh, but the rest of the sign is too small and jumbled to decipher from a distance. I probably would have eaten here sooner if I would have been able figure out what this place was from their sign.

Vámonos in Lake Mary, FL

I picked up some takeout from Vámonos in the Colonial Town Center in Heathrow. Vámonos is a new fast food Mexican restaurant that is attempting to follow the Chipotle/Qdoba/Moe's restaurant model. The menu initially looked good with nice selection of meats to choose from, but it turned out Vámonos only had three of the eight meats available. I know nothing about running a restaurant, but I imagine it's probably not a good sign if you don't have the majority of the menu at dinnertime.
I brought home a vegetarian platter for someone else, consisting of rice, beans, pico de gallo, cheese, sour cream, guacamole, lettuce, and a side of corn tortillas. I didn't taste it, but I didn't hear any complaints about it either.

I got a chicken burrito for myself. The tortilla was filled with shredded chicken, black beans, rice, guacamole, cheese, sour cream, lettuce, and a spicy salsa.

I also wanted the grilled fajita style peppers and onions on my burrito as well. Turned out Vámonos was out of these too. There was no offer to heat up some fresh veggies...

Vámonos had a tasty burrito, but as a whole, the restaurant was out of way too much food. Because of this, I don't know if I'll rush back any time soon. I could go to Chipotle or Qdoba for an equally tasty burrito and also expect these restaurants to have the food offered on their menus...

Carlos 'n Charlie's in Lake Mary, FL

I tried the new Carlos 'n Charlie's in Lake Mary, FL. Carlos 'n Charlie's is a chain based out of Mexico that currently has two locations in the United States. Given the entire United States to pick from, how a chain in Mexico chooses to open a restaurant in Lake Mary's upscale Heathrow neighborhood is beyond me.

Tortilla chips in a paper bag and a bowl of salsa were served first. Pretty standard, although the salsa was a little too chunky for my liking. For the meal, I ordered Shrimp Baja Tacos. Or at least I thought I did. On the menu, it had a choice of fish OR shrimp tacos. The tacos I got had both fish AND shrimp. I didn't mind since I was having trouble deciding between the fish and shrimp when looking over the menu, but I could definitely see people having issues with getting both. Besides from the fried seafood, the tacos were filled with cabbage, onions, refried beans, and were served with a cup of really sweet sauce. The tacos did taste okay, but weren't worth the price in my opinion. At $13, I really would have expected some sort of side with the tacos, especially since you can get better seafood tacos elsewhere for more than half the price!

I also found it interesting that Carlos 'n Charlie's had a DJ playing music, but I couldn't hear what was being played. The noise level in the restaurant was so obsenely loud that I had trouble hearing the people sitting across the table from me. I couldn't tell what the DJ was playing, I just knew there was some sort of music adding to the ambient noise pollution. Perhaps the noise levels wouldn't have been an issue if I was drunk like many of the restaurant's other patrons at the surrounding tables...