Gatorville Pool Bar & Restaurant at Wyndham Orlando Resort

I was invited to try the new Gatorville Pool Bar & Restaurant at Wyndham Orlando Resort. The Wyndham Orlando is a sprawling hotel at the intersection of International Drive and Sand Lake Road. They are currently under renovations and will eventually be connected to the new I-Drive Live complex that is being built on the site once occupied by the Mercado mall. I was quickly escorted to the pool when I arrived at the Wyndham. The Gatorville Pool Bar overlooks two of the swimming pools at the hotel and I was greeted with appetizers.These included shrimp and veggie spring rolls as well as skewers of beef and chicken satay. The appetizers were good, but much better food was on the way.

A tray of sushi and summer rolls were soon served to the table. The dinner was described as having Floribbean style foods, but so far everything had an Asian theme. I was good with that and always enjoy some sushi. I tried the summer rolls, California rolls, spicy tuna rolls, and soft-shell crab (spider rolls?).

Salads followed the sushi. First up was a spinach and goat cheese salad with rye bread croutons.

Next was a pasta salad topped with salmon. It seemed the food was fitting more and more into that Floribbean description.

Once the appetizers and salads were finished, the main courses were served. There were these Lollipop Lamb Chops cooked in garlic, rosemary, sugar and vinegar. The meat was nice and tender!

Then there was this plate of Crispy Fried Snapper and Prawns. The snapper was one of my favorite foods of the night and the size of the prawns was amazing! I would have mistaken them for spiny lobster if the menu didn't say otherwise!

Various sides were served as well. The jalapeno cornbread was very moist and tasty.  

 

I enjoyed the pot stickers. But then again, it's rare that I find a dumpling that I don't like.

Tostones were also served. I honestly can't say I've had enough of these mashed and fried plantains to be a good judge of them, but I liked these.

Bananas Foster was served for dessert. It was cooked at this station where the chef flambeed the bananas.

The bananas were then served over crepes filled with vanilla ice cream. Ice cream crepes are awesome...

And with that, my meal at the Gatorville Pool Bar was complete. I enjoyed both the food and the dining experience in general. I've gone to other local hotels in the past for dinner, but the Wyndham was completely off my radar for some reason. Now that I know about it, I just might have to stop in again for another meal some day!

Casa de Chef Food Truck in Orlando, FL

We're in the middle of somewhat of a street food renaissance in Orlando. New food trucks are popping up all the time. We are quickly getting a vast array of food type offerings, and there are now food truck events almost every week. One of the newest food trucks in Orlando is called Casa De Chef on Colonial Drive.

They were parked in the Chevron Gas Station parking lot at the intersection of Colonial and Fern Creek. It was apparently their second day open when I visited. Casa de Chef served sandwiches, rice bowls, and kabobs called pinchos. I decided to try the very first item listed on their menu and ordered the Cuban Sandwich.

The huge sandwich had lots of shredded pork, peppers, pickles, lettuce, potatoes strips, mayonnaise, mustard, and perhaps some more fillings I'm forgetting. Casa de Chef definitely makes a very good sandwich, and the prices are good too at $4.50 for this large sandwich. I would gladly get food from Casa de Chef again...

Pollo Campero in Downtown Disney

Pollo Campero is a new fast food restaurant that opened in Downtown Disney, replacing McDonald's. Anything is better than a McDonald's in my opinion, even if it's another fast food restaurant (which is very similar to Pollo Tropical). A few weeks after they opened, I found myself in Downtown Disney to try Pollo Campero's Latin-American style chicken...

On my visit, we ordered the Citrus Grilled Chicken family meal. This came with four 1/4 pieces of chicken (basically a whole chicken) and a large side of black beans & rice. Also included were several corn tortillas.


I liked the food here. The chicken had plenty of flavor, as did everything else I tasted. Pretty good for fast food!

More Trouble at Pollo Tropical

I ate at the Pollo Tropical in Kissimmee, FL. As far as fast food goes, Pollo Tropical is one of my favorites. Every time I visit a Pollo Tropical though, it seems I have some sort of problem. The last time I tried going to the Pollo Tropical in Sanford, they were closed at 9:45 when they were supposed to be open to midnight. The last time I ate at the Altamonte Springs location, they forgot to give me chicken. And the latest visit to this location was no different.

I tried ordering their fajitas, but they told me they couldn't make them for some reason. I quickly read over the menu and ordered Chicken, White Rice, and Beans. After wondering why the bill came out to so much money, it turned out they charged for two $8 chicken dinners that were never ordered. It took about twenty minutes for the money to be refunded, and in the process the entire order was made three times.

My chicken, rice, and beans was good, but it could have used some vegetables. It was kind of boring...

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.