Planet Hollywood Observatory in Disney Springs

This was my first visit to this restaurant since they renovated from regular Planet Hollywood to Planet Hollywood Observatory. When Downtown Disney rebranded themselves as Disney Springs, I guess a giant globe filled with movie props didn't fit into the story of a small town built around a spring water bottling plant that Disney came up with. Instead, the globe was painted grey and it is now an observatory to view stars. In doing so, they ripped out all of the movie props that made the old version of the restaurant interesting and replaced the majority of them with video screens projected on the walls. Guy Fieri was brought in to provide the restaurant's new menu, but celebrity chef fame doesn't do much when the menu ended up as boring as it was. Looking over the menu, very little spoke to me and everything was generic and overpriced.

I ended up ordering the Championship Pulled Pork Sandwich. This had pulled pork, barbecue sauce, coleslaw, pickles, and onion straws. I know I was sort of dissing Planet Hollywood's menu, but this sandwich was okay. The pork was tender, and they kept it interesting by adding more than just meat and sauce on the sandwich. Fries and a pickle were served on the side.

My pulled pork sandwich was good enough, but I don't think I'll be rushing back to the Planet Hollywood Observatory soon. I might as well go to an Applebee's for an equivalent generic chain restaurant menu for half the price...

Smokey Joe's BBQ in Sanford, FL

I had lunch at Smokey Joe's BBQ in Sanford (not to be confused with Smokey Bones right up the street). This restaurant took over the space formerly occupied by Boston's Fish House. I wasn't a big fan of Boston's when they first opened but their food did seem to improve over time. I guess everyone's bad experiences when they first opened stuck in people's minds because they eventually closed. Now it is Smokey Joe's turn to try their luck at running a restaurant in this location. Normally barbeque restaurants are have pretty standard fare, and Smokey Joe's was no exception. They had plates where a meat and sides were chosen. There were sandwiches. Pretty much what you would expect on the menu for a place serving barbecue in this area.

I had the Pulled Pork Plate. This came with meat, two sides, and Texas toast. I picked the mac & cheese and fried okra as my sides. Everything looked good, but I was less than pleased after tasting the food. With the exception of the okra, none of the items on the plate were hot. In fact, just about everything was about room temperature. This made me a bit wary, especially when it came to the pork. It tasted alright, but was nothing noteworthy. The mac & cheese was served at a similar temperature and lacked flavor. The cheese part of the mac & cheese was barely noticeable. The fried okra was the only thing which was hot, hopefully because it was freshly made. Unfortunately, the batter was far to salty (and I like salty foods). The Texas toast was also forgettable.

There was nothing about Smokey Joe's that gave me any reason to go back. There are far too many other good barbecue restaurants in the area to deal with forgettable and cold food. Hopefully this place will be like Boston's Fish House and will improve their food. If not, I see them being open for less time than Boston's was...

Kenny & Denny's BBQ at Orlando Farmers Market

I visited the Orlando Farmers Market in Lake Eola on a recent Sunday afternoon and bought lunch from Kenny & Denny's BBQ. Their menu consisted of turkey legs, sandwiches, quesadillas, and breakfast items. I ordered the BBQ Pulled Pork Quesadilla.

The quesadilla consisted of a tortilla filled with a generous portion of pulled pork, cheese, onions, and barbecue sauce. The whole thing was grilled until everything melted together, then was sliced and served. I did enjoy the combination of smoked meat, cheese, and barbeque sauce. The quesadilla was dripping grease while I was eating, probably a sign of how unhealthy it was. Still, the quesadilla was very tasty and I'd order this again at some point.

Rocco's Tacos in West Palm Beach, FL

I was in West Palm Beach and had dinner at a restaurant called Rocco's Tacos. I didn't realize this was a chain before eating there, but they have several locations throughout Florida with one opening soon on Sand Lake Road in Orlando. The inside of this Mexican restaurant looked pretty nifty with all sorts of cool metal lights and old brick walls. It was also very loud and very cramped, with hardly any room between tables.

We started with chips and salsa. It sort of rubs me the wrong way when Mexican restaurants charge extra for chips and salsa when so many other restaurants include them in the price. Rocco's had higher prices than most other Mexican restaurants and they still charged extra for the chips. That being said, the chips were pretty tasty. They were topped with some sort of seasoning that made them really flavorful, even without the salsa. Dipped in the salsa, they were only made better.

I had the Enchiladas Rojos for my dinner. This consisted of two corn tortillas filled with pulled pork and topped with cheese and a guajillo chile sauce. Refried beans and rice were served on the side. I found the enchiladas to be very average. The pork was a little dry and tasted very bland. The sauce seemed to provide all the flavor in the enchiladas. They tasted okay, but weren't anything worth going out of my way to return for. At $13, they were also kind of pricey for very typical enchiladas.

Rocco's Tacos seemed to be an upscale Mexican restaurant that served basically the same food that you could get at any other dumpy Mexican restaurant. The only big differences seemed to be higher prices and fancy lighting fixtures. Based on the amount of people in Rocco's though, it seems like people really like them. I hope it isn't just because of those lights...

Sonny's Real Pit Bar-B-Q in Gainesville, FL

Today's blog post is about a historic restaurant. Kind of. Today I'm writing about my visit to the original Sonny's Bar-B-Q in Gainesville. This was the Sonny's that began the whole restaurant chain of barbecue for the masses. Once there though, the restaurant was exactly like every other Sonny's and there was no recognition that this was the original chain starting location...

 

I had the pulled pork lunch special, served with garlic toast, cole slaw, and corn on the cob. The pork was good, but contained far too much fat mixed in with the meat. Cole slaw was tasty, and corn on the cob is never bad.

Now I can say I've eaten at the original Sonny's. Being a chain, there was no difference between this and the rest of the Sonny's. They served the same mediocre barbecue as all of the other restaurants which was expected.With barbecue places so abundant in Florida though, my suggestion would be to have some fun and try some of the unexpected barbecue places. Places that don't serve the same exact food as countless other locations...

Cowboys Bar B-Q & Steak Co. in Ft. Pierce, FL

I stopped for dinner at Cowboys Bar B-Q & Steak Co. in Ft. Pierce based on a recommendation while driving down south. I'm not all too familiar with the area, but I'm pretty sure I ate a meal at a R.J. Gators that used to be in this building a few years ago.

I ordered their pulled pork dinner. The menu claimed it was award winning. Sounds good to me. The pork was nice and tender with very little fat. It had a great smokey flavor and there were plenty of barbecue sauces on the table to sample with the pork. I had waffle fries and corn on the cob for my two sides. I liked the corn, although all of the salt and pepper on top was definitely a bit on the strong side. The waffle fries tasted like fries should. Garlic bread was the only part of the dinner I didn't like. It was boring white bread with very little garlic flavor. I suppose that's what the butter was for...

White Castle in West Hempstead, NY

White Castle is a fast food chain in the northeast United States seems to be really popular. Over and over, I have heard how great White Castle's food is. Apparently Krystal, the southern equivalent of White Castle, can't compare according to some of the White Castle aficionados that I know. I had never eaten at a White Castle, so I couldn't really comment on their food. That changed on my last visit to Long Island when I tried the White Castle in West Hempstead...

I had a coupon for some free burgers, so I gave them a try. Burgers are perhaps one of my least favorite types of sandwiches, so I may not be a good authority on if this was any good or not. Regardless, here's what I thought: I wasn't impressed. The thin meat patty had the consistency of cardboard with no flavor. The only thing that really had a distinct flavor on this burger was the ketchup and the pickle. I really don't get what the big deal is with White Castle burgers.


I also tried White Castle's Pulled Pork Sandwich. The sandwich had pork drenched in barbeque sauce on a hamburger bun. While not the best pulled pork sandwich out there, it was actually pretty tasty being that it is from a fast food chain. I thought it was way better than the White Castle burger...


White Castle Fries...

My overall opinion of White Castle was that it didn't live up to the hype. Taking it for what it was, White Castle was pretty cheap and I would be willing to get another pulled pork sandwich. With the abundance of nearby restaurants though, I wouldn't be any huge rush to return. I find very few fast food chains are worth rushing back to...

Keller's Real Smoked Bar-B-Q in Altamonte Springs, FL

I visited the Keller's Bar-B-Q in Altamonte Springs recently and ordered the Sloppy Pig sandwich. This was a pulled pork sandwich on garlic bread. The pork was saturated with barbecue sauce, hence the sloppy part of the name. Mashed potatoes came as a side. Although the service seems to be consistently bad on my visits to this particular location, I never have any complaints about the food. I would definitely rank Keller's as one of the best barbecue places in Central Florida!

Qdoba at UCF

I had a pulled pork burrito from Qdoba in the UCF Student Union. I've had pork tacos before, but never a pork burrito, and never from a big chain. The burrito was stuffed with pulled pork, peppers, onions, black beans, rice, salsa, sour cream, and cheese. The pork did taste okay, but I don't think I would order it again. Too much meat in a restaurant where my favorite menu item is the vegetarian burrito. The lack of guacamole is what really killed the burrito for me, but it wasn't worth $1.50 in my opinion to have a little scoop of mashed avocado added.

Bubbalou's Bodacious Bar-B-Que in Apopka, FL

I've been to the Bubbalou's Bodacious BBQ in Altamonte Springs several times. It's generally pretty good, and has always been semi-fast food where you order at the counter and then have the food brought to your table with no other interactions with the employees.

When I decided to get some barbeque from Bubbalou's Apopka location, I was surprised to see that this restaurant is a full service. You are told which table to sit at. You have a waitress that gets everything for you. It's just like any other sit down restaurant. Bubbalou's is a chain, so I would have thought that all of their restaurants had to work the same way, but apparently this is not the case. Being served is better anyway. It takes away some of the tipping confusion that sometimes happens in places like the Altamonte store that are semi-fast food.

I ordered the Pulled Pork Dinner. Whenever I've tried Bubbalou's pork, I've always been happy, but today it was really fatty. There were a few good pieces of meat on top, but underneath was mostly gelatinous, chewy pork fat. A little bit would have been okay, but there was far too much and it seemed like they were trying to hide the fact that they were giving the inferior pig parts by placing all the good meat over the fat. For the sides, I choose mashed potatoes, black eyed peas, and collard greens. All three were good, although the collards were a little too salty. All this came with two pieces of garlic bread. The dinner was a whole lot to eat and I ended up leaving a lot of the pork over due both the fatty pork and a full stomach.

Taste of UCF

I like food tasting events. My personal favorite that I've been to is Taste of Altamonte. You get more food than you can ever possibly eat at these events from restaurants all over the area. The only downside is that many of these food events can get somewhat pricey. New events seem to be starting this year as well, such as Taste of Sanford. Another new one is the Taste of UCF, and the best part was that it was all free!

I started with a Mango Smoothie filled with tapioca balls and jellied coconut from Boba Tease. It was good, especially in the heat!

Peppino's was giving out three different food items. By the time I got to them, all they had left was this baked ziti. I was one of the last one to be served before they ran out of this too. They were all out probably twenty minutes after the event started. The people at this booth wouldn't make me want to eat at their restaurant either. The person serving the food was chain smoking cigarette after cigarette. I'm sure some of those ashes got onto the food.

A barbeque caterer somehow connected to Wackadoo's was giving out these pulled pork sandwiches:

Random cotton candy from an unknown source. This is all I got before the machine broke.

Qdoba Chicken Burrito Bowl:

Domino's served Buffalo Chicken Pizza. I would never think of getting pizza with these toppings, but it was better than I expected. I liked it better than Domino's plain cheese pizzas.

There were a few other food vendors as well, but they all seemed to run out of food before I got to them. Silver Mine Subs is one of these restaurants that comes to mind.

Taste of UCF was good for a free lunch, but it can't compete with Taste of Altamonte!

Dixie Bones BBQ in Woodbridge, VA

Midway through another day of driving on I-95 with far too much traffic, it was time for lunch. Dixie Bones Barbecue is located in Woodbridge, VA about a mile or so off of I-95. I ate here once several years ago and decided to give them another try. While walking into the restaurant, truckloads of ribs were being packed for the huge catering business that it looks like Dixie Bones does. Once seated, I looked over the menu and choose a pulled pork sandwich. While waiting for the food, I observed the antiques and paper mache animals all over the restaurant.

Soon enough, my sandwich was served. It came with coleslaw, and was really tasty. The pork was a little dry, but that was solved by sampling the various sauces on the table. I liked the vinegar based sauce the best, but this was also the first time I tried the white Alabama style barbecue sauce! It tasted a lot like ranch dressing and didn't seem to go with meat, but I guess some people like it.

The Smokehouse

I ate at the relatively new Smokehouse Restaurant at the Route 46 Exchange in Sanford, FL. I had a coupon for a free appetizer or dessert for any of the restaurants in the complex, so I decided to check out my options besides deciding exactly where to eat. I looked at their other restaurants like Monroe's and The Saloon, but they were expensive and completely empty at dinner time. That left the Smokehouse. Everyone that I know that had eaten there didn't like it, but I decided to give them a try anyway.

The Smokehouse follows the same semi-fast food format as Bubbalou's Bodacious Barbecue where you order your food at a counter and it is brought out to you. For the free appetizer, I had a pulled pork quesadilla. It had way too much really dry meat in the tortilla. Barbecue sauce was definitely required to help swallow all of the dry pork.

I also had a Smoked Salmon wrap with sweet potato fries. The wrap had the same smokey flavor as the pork in the quesadilla. I might as well have been eating all of the same menu item because it all tasted the same to me. This leads me to believe that they use artificial smoked flavoring rather than actually smoking the meat. I could be wrong, but that's what I'm assuming based on how the flavor was so overpowering and was in all of the food.

The sweet potato fries were really good though!

The employees here were also kind of strange. There were far too many workers in the dining room and none of them seemed to be assigned to any specific section. This caused them to constantly come over and repeatedly ask the same question that someone else asked only minutes before. You know they need to come up with some sort of system when someone comes and asks if you need to-go boxes about thirty seconds after the food is brought to the table by another employee.

On a side note, what's the proper way to tip in a situation like this? It's basically a fast food restaurant, but then employees bring out the food and constantly offer to do stuff for you?

Sonny's Bar-B-Q in Sanford

I ate at the Sonny's Bar-B-Q in Sanford, FL. I had a pulled pork sandwich on garlic bread with a side of beans. It was on par with other pulled pork sandwiches that I've eaten in the past leaving me with no complaints about the food.

Although the food was good, I can't say the same for the service. When we entered the restaurant, we stood there for several minutes while we were passed from employee to employee, each saying "Someone will be right with you." Eventually we were seated and our waitress acted like we were bothering her by eating at the restaurant. Our food came long after tables with other servers that ordered after us. The service at Sonny's was equivalent to the service that you generally get at a place like Denny's.

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.

Bubbalou's Bodacious Barbecue

I ate lunch at Bubbalou's Bodacious Barbecue in Altamonte Springs, FL. I had a pulled pork basked, which consisted of a pulled pork sandwich and two sides. For the sides, I picked collard greens and baked beans. Everything was tasty, although the collard greens were really bitter. The sandwich had enough flavor that barbecue sauce wasn't necessary, which isn't always the case for pulled pork.