Lazy Moon Pizza in Orlando, FL (Mills-50)

Way back when this blog was pretty new, I wrote a post about Lazy Moon Pizza. This was at a location that no longer exists in a strip mall that was demolished for a newer development. Since then, Lazy Moon has expanded with a newer location nearby UCF (which I have not eaten at) and another location in Mills-50. The Mills-50 location is what this post is about.

The slices here are still huge, but the overload of half melted cheese that the UCF location was known for has seemed to improved. Lazy Moon seems like they have learned that too much cheese could be a bad thing and their slices are much more balanced in terms of cheese/sauce/toppings now.

Here's a slice with pesto as the sauce, topped with spinach and Italian sausage. They use slices of sausage rather than crumbles, which is always better in my book.

The Cuban Slice is a more unique pizza that I can't say I've had elsewhere. Its basically a Cuban sandwich in pizza form. It has mustard as a sauce, topped with pork, ham, pickles, and cheese. I was skeptical, but I ended up enjoying this.

I am glad Lazy Moon has improved since my first few experiences with the restaurant way back when!

Black Rooster Taqueria in Orlando, FL

I tried a new Mexican restaurant on Mills in Orlando called Black Rooster Taqueria. This was a quick service type place where you ordered at a counter, given a number, and had the food delivered to your table. I ordered two tacos: the Achiote Pork and the Chicken Tinga. The achiote pork taco consisted of a corn tortilla stuffed with slow roasted pork cooked in banana leaf, achiote, pickled onion, cilantro, and habanero salsa. The chicken tinga was also served on a corn tortilla filled with pulled roasted chicken, chipotle chile-tomato sauce, lettuce, and crema fresca.

Of the two tacos, I preferred the Achiote Pork. The meat was nice and tender and pickled onions were a nice touch. I wasn't a big fan of the chicken tinga. The chicken was a bit chewy and the lettuce and sour cream were spilling out of the tortilla before I even tried picking up the taco. The tacos also could have been improved if they used double layered tortillas. The single corn tortilla got soggy and was starting to rip as I was eating the tacos. A second tortilla would have helped. Another improvement for Black Rooster in general would have been to put orders on the correct plates. We had ordered multiple achiote pork tacos. They all were served together with other wrong taco combinations on other plates. Actually putting tacos together as they were ordered would have saved some messy rearranging.

Overall, Black Rooster Taqueria was okay. Not the best tacos I've had, but not the worst. I think I'd prefer a Mexican restaurant serving a little more authentic tacos for a lower price point over Back Rooster, but I still might return here eventually...


 

Bubbles and Ice in Orlando, FL

Bubbles & Ice is a restaurant specializing in desserts in the Mills-50 District of Orlando. They are connected with a hotpot restaurant called Noodles & Rice (which I've yet to try). The setup of Bubbles & Ice is a bit weird because they appear to be unconnected to Noodles & Rice from the outside. Bubbles & Ice keeps their front door locked and you need to enter Noodles & Rice, walk through the entire restaurant, and then enter Bubbles & Ice through a connecting door in the back of both. This makes getting dessert at Bubbles & Ice a little more complicated than it needs to be for somebody who's never been before.

Bubbles & Ice serves a type of shaved ice that they call snow, boba tea, and various other desserts. I have had snow on every visit. The Snow is a type of shaved ice that can be found in certain restaurants specializing in Asian foods. Rather than being ice and flavor like an American style snow cone, these shaved ices are topped with fruit, sweetened condensed milk, and other toppings. I've had these at a couple other places and Bubbles and Ice is different as in the ice is flavored before it is shaved. The big blocks of flavored ice make the dessert much more uniform as opposed to putting flavor over the ice. My favorite flavor combination which I've had so far has been ginger ice topped with kiwi, coconut, and sweetened condensed milk. The ginger ice had a very nice spicy kick to it which was nicely balanced with the sweetness of the other toppings.

Snow topped with strawberries, rainbow sprinkles, and sweetened condensed milk.

Another flavor combination that I enjoyed was mango snow topped with fresh mango, coconut, and sweetened condensed milk.

At some point I'm going to return and try some other desserts besides Bubbles and Ice's snow. I should really try the bubble part of the name to see how it compares to other boba tea in the area. Noodles & Rice is also on my list to try, yet every time I end up at Bubbles & Ice, I've already eaten dinner and am looking for dessert. I must adjust my food planning one evening to remedy this.

Firebirds Wood Fired Grill in Orlando, FL

I received an email offering a meal at a new restaurant in Orlando called Firebirds Wood Fired Grill while they trained their staff. The restaurant is located on Mills in the new Fresh Market shopping center. This appears to be a good sized chain from Firebird's website, but this is their only location in Florida. I decided to take Firebirds up on their offer and recently dined at the restaurant for lunch. The meal started out with bread:

We had an appetizer of Ranch Rings. These were onion rings breaded in panko served with a garlic ranch dressing. I liked the onion ring structure that was constructed on the plate.

I ordered the Salmon Encrusted Salmon as my main course. The fish was topped with mustard aioli, served with Parmesan mashed potatoes and fried spinach. I liked the salmon. The mustard aioli was spicy which was a bit unexpected. Chains seem like they tend to avoid this level of spice, especially when unmarked on the menu. I could see others objecting to the heat, but I liked the spiciness. The fried spinach was also interesting. It was my first time trying crunchy, oil-drenched spinach. It wasn't bad, but I don't think I'd go out of my way to have fried spinach again.

My dining companion tried the Filet Mignon. It came wrapped in bacon and was served with steak fries.

For dessert, we tried the Big Daddy Chocolate Cake. It came with a bowl of vanilla ice cream.

We also tried the Creme Brulée Cheesecake. I preferred this out of the two cakes that were sampled.

I enjoyed my meal at Firebirds Wood Fired Grill. I can't really give too much of an opinion since everyone working in the restaurant was being trained, but I didn't have any complaints!

LA Boiling Crab in Orlando, FL

I had lunch at LA Boiling Crab in the Mills-50 District of Orlando. Surrounded by Vietnamese and Chinese restaurants, this place specialized in New Orleans style po boy sandwiches, crawfish, crabs, and other types of seafood. 

I ordered the soft shell crab po boy. This sandwich was filled with fried soft shell crab, lettuce, tomato, onion, and mayonnaise. It was served on a French baguette with a nice, crispy crust. The crab was very tender and the batter that it was fried in had plenty of flavor.

I shared an order of beignets for dessert. These four fried fritters were topped with plenty of powdered sugar. They were light and airy on the inside. They may be a type of doughnut, but beignets aren't just any doughnut. Beignets are the official state doughnut of Louisiana! An appropriate end to a meal at a restaurant with LA in the name.

I had fun at LA Boiling Crab. It had been a while since I've eaten Cajun food, so having a po boy and beignets was enjoyable. At some point I want to return here and try some of their crawfish and crabs which smelled delicious as I was eating.

Viet Garden in Orlando, FL

Viet Garden was my gateway restaurant into Vietnamese food. Years ago, when I was unacquainted with this type of food, I remember trying Viet Garden for the first time and thoroughly enjoying it. I knew nothing about Vietnamese food at the time, but I knew I liked the sounds of all the noodles and soups that I found on the menu. I soon found myself trying more and more of the surrounding Vietnamese restaurants in the Orlando area. It had been a while since I'd had Vietnamese food, so I decided to return to Viet Garden for another visit.

On this particular visit to Viet Garden, I had the Cho Lon Combo Egg Noodle Soup. This consisted of shrimp, crab claws, roast pork, wontons, egg noodles, and some greens in a broth. The standard side dish of of bean sprouts, basil, jalapeno, and lime accompanied the huge bowl of soup. I did enjoy my soup, although the shrimp and crab claws were a bit elusive. I think I found two of each in the entire bowl. The broth had nice flavor with just the right amount of saltiness. Overall, this was a pretty tasty soup.

This wasn't my first visit to Viet Garden, and it most likely wasn't my last. I'm sure I'll be visiting again one day when I'm craving some Vietnamese food...

Anh Hong in Orlando, FL

Anh Hong is a Vietnamese restaurant on the corner of Mills and 50. They have apparently won various awards, plus I had heard people I know personally say good things about the place. Hearing all this, I figured it was about time to give Anh Hong a try...

I wasn't impressed the first time I was here. I ordered the Meatball Pho and the broth was very bland. The beef broth in pho is normally really flavorful, but in this case I had to add lots of condiments to give it some more taste. The meatballs weren't much better, tasting much better after being dipped in some hoisin or sriracha. For a restaurant that claimed to be award winning, I was disappointed.

A few months later, I decided to give Anh Hong another try. I forget the exact name of the dish that I ordered, but according to some of the online menus I found, I had the Cho Lon Combo. This was a big bowl of egg noodles, topped with shrimp, squid, crab meat, roast pork, assorted greens, jalapenos, and lime slices. A bowl of broth was served on the side. I'm not sure the proper eating technique of getting the broth on the side like this, but I ended up pouring it over everything in my larger bowl. Unlike my first soupy experience at Anh Hong, the food tasted much better this time around. The broth had lots of flavor, the meats were cooked to perfection, and was overall good.

My first meal at Anh Hong left room for improvement, but they redeemed themselves on my second visit. I'll go back...

Pho Vinh in Orlando, FL

Pho Vinh is a Vietnamese restaurant in Orlando. Chinese food was served in this building the last time I was here, and although I was aware it became a Vietnamese restaurant somewhere along the line, I never thought of eating here. That is, until the December Foodspotting Eatup happened at Pho Vinh. Figured this was as good of a reason as any to try a new Vietnamese restaurant.

Food bloggers were well represented during the meal with Droolius, Tasty Chomps, Eat Local Orlando, and The Daily City all there, along with other foodies that came to eat. As everyone started to order, it seemed like one of the favorites at the table was the Thap Cam (#100). This soup had a combination of shrimp, pork, krab, fried wontons, egg noodles, and assorted vegetables floating in a big bowl of broth. Unlike a couple of other nearby Vietnamese restaurants that have really bland tasting soups in my opinion, Pho Vinh's soup had a delicious broth.

 

I of course added all of the garnishes served along with the soup to my bowl. Thai basil, cilantro, bean sprouts, jalapenos, and lime juice only made it better!

It was my first time at Pho Vinh, but I think I'll definitely be returning. The food was good, prices were affordable and they are friendly to food photography!

Boston Bakery in Orlando, FL

It took me a while to figure out Boston Bakery served Vietnamese banh mi sandwiches rather than New England style baked goods. I had driven past countless times with minimal interest in stopping, but that changed when I realized Boston Bakery was something totally different than expected. My curiosity about trying Boston Bakery was further peaked when they scored the highest in the Orlando Weekly's rundown of the city's best banh mi.

I finally stopped into Boston Bakery at the start of a recent road trip. I've found that banh mi are very conducive to eating on the go, so it seemed as good of a time as any to try Boston Bakery. Inside, Boston Bakery was very toasty with no apparent working air conditioning, but I wasn't there for the atmosphere. I was there for the #1 Combination.

The sandwich was filled with steamed pork, head cheese, liver pate, carrots, daikon, jalapeno, and cilantro, all on a French baguette. While the sandwich was good, I also found it to be very dry. The banh mi could have definitely used some sauce to moisten everything up. This was my first experience with head cheese and although it's not the nicest looking sandwich meat, it actually wasn't bad. Just don't make the mistake of reading the Wikipedia page of potential head cheese ingredients as you eat the sandwich. As for the liver, I'll take it or leave it...

Overall, Boston Bakery's #1 Combination was good. The banh mi was nicely stuffed with a whole lot of meat and vegetables. It was a nice introduction to a new mystery meat and although the sandwich was very dry, it was still great deal for $3.

Anthony's Pizzeria in Orlando, FL

I picked up some takeout from the Anthony's Pizzeria at the intersection of Mills and 50. I had heard good things about their pizza so I was looking forward to giving them a try. I ordered a 16" pizza topped with spinach. After ordering, I browsed the nearby Asian supermarkets, and soon enough the pizza was ready.

This was a pretty good pizza. The sauce had a nice flavor and the cheese was nice and salty, although the amount of cheese seemed out of proportion with the rest of the pie.

A few months later, I decided to give Anthony's another try. This time around, I had the pie topped with eggplant. The crust was thinner this time and there wasn't an overload of cheese like the spinach pie. While the spinach pie was good, this eggplant pie was definitely better of the two. Different cooks perhaps?


Would I get pizza from Anthony's again? Definitely. Even the lesser of these two pizzas were still good and well made. The people at Anthony's definitely know what they're doing with pizza...

Nha Trang in Orlando, FL

When the recent Orlando Weekly article on the Vietnamese sandwiches called banh mi was published, I decided it had been far too long since I had eaten any sort of Vietnamese food. The next thing I knew, I found myself at Banh Mi Nha Trang in Orlando's Mills-50 District.

The banh mi is this restaurant's specialty. For $2.50, you get a large sandwich that's ingeniously packaged. With it's paper and plastic bag secured with a rubber band (and pepper), it keeps the banh mi held together while collecting any juices that might drip out. All sandwiches should be packed like this.

The banh mi came on a toasted baguette with a very nice crust. Roast pork, cucumber, cilantro, onions, various pickled vegetables, mayonnaise, and fish sauce filled the sandwich. There was potentially a few more banh mi fillings that I couldn't quite identify, and I'm not going to try. All I know is that this was a delicious sandwich!

I'm going to make a point to try some more of Orlando's banh mi. These sandwiches are really good, and are perhaps some of the best food values in town...

Raphsodic Cooperative Company in Orlando, FL

I visited a vegan bakery in Orlando on 17-92 called Raphsodic Cooperative Company. I had a Wasabi Almond Brownie. It tasted a lot like a normal brownie with the wasabi flavor kicking in as an aftertaste. It wasn't noticeable that this was dairy free. Pretty good...