Rise Pies in Sarasota, FL

I had things to do at The Mall at University Town Center in Sarasota and got lunch there. 

Besides having a horrible, overly complicated name, this mall doesn't have a food court, which was interesting. There were restaurants in storefronts, each with their own seating rather than one centralized location. I had food from one of these restaurants called Rise Pies.

Rise Pies was the same concept/setup as Blaze Pizza. It did seem like the topping selection here was a bit more limited than what Blaze offers. I had a pie with pesto for the sauce, topped with mozzarella, green peppers, kalamata olives, basil, sausage, and pepperoni. The pepperoni here curled while cooking into a cup shape which always makes pizza feel more gourmet. The crust was puffier than a lot of the fast food pizza competitors.

Not bad for a mall pizza!

Earls Kitchen + Bar in Orlando, FL

I had lunch at a newish restaurant called Earls Kitchen + Bar in the Mall at Millenia. They are one of the strange outer restaurants that are in the main mall building, but aren't accessible from inside the mall itself. I'm not sure what Earls replaced. I had never eaten at whatever it was.

I had the Chicken Pibil Tacos. The two tacos were served on corn tortillas with nicely marinated chicken, topped with cheese, radish slices, pickled onions, and cilantro. The tacos came with a side and I choose the caesar salad.

The tacos were pretty tasty, but a bit pricey at $14. I've been to plenty of other actual Mexican restaurants in town where I can equivalent, if not better tacos for under $3 each. The caesar salad didn't make up the value difference. I guess they have to make that money for expensive mall rent somehow...

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.

Charley's Grilled Subs in Sanford, FL

Charley's Grilled Subs is a chain in the Seminole Towne Center food court in Sanford. They serve mostly cheesesteaks which I find to be somewhat overpriced for the size but are also really tasty. Something about their Chicken Teriyaki sandwich topped with mayonnaise and lettuce is particularly pleasing to my taste buds...

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.

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...

Sesame Bagel from the Bagel Boss

Here is a sesame bagel from the Bagel Boss store in Garden City, NY across from the Roosevelt Fields mall. It has some smoked salmon cream cheese on it...