Goodfella's Pizzeria in Orange City, FL

I had dinner one evening at Goodfella's Pizzeria in Orange City. I had heard good things for a very long time about their other location in Orlando, but never got a chance to give them a try. This newly opened location in Orange City seemed to be very popular. There was a half hour wait to eat when I arrived on a weeknight.

I split a pizza at Goodfella's. My half was topped with spinach and sausage while the other half was topped with meatball. Another pizza was ordered at the table that was half Hawaiian and half cheese. The overall consensus at the table was that the pizzas had potential, but were undercooked and were too heavy on the cheese. My toppings also made my half of the pie a bit soggy as well.

Being that I had heard good things about Goodfella's in the past, I'd consider giving their pizza another try. Perhaps after this location has been open a bit longer and on a day when they don't have a wait so pizzas aren't being rushed out of the oven. The pizza definitely did have potential, but the sogginess and overly doughy crust didn't quite meet that potential...

Keke's Breakfast Cafe in Altamonte Springs, FL

I ate brunch at Keke's Breakfast Cafe in Altamonte Springs. Keke's is a local chain with a few locations around Orlando. This my first time eating there, and the food wasn't bad.

I had the Greek Omelet, filled with spinach, tomato, and feta. The omelet had plenty of fillings, served with home fries, wheat toast, and an orange slice. I enjoyed it!

Next time I need to try lunch from Keke's!

Dominic's I in Boca Raton, FL

I've always liked Dominic's II in Boca Raton but I had never been to Dominic's I just off the Florida Turnpike. That all changed when I stopped for lunch at the restaurant during some of my travels. They had some good lunch specials going on and I ordered this Spinach Stromboli for $3.50. The stromboli was comparable in size to what other Italian restaurants serve for full price and was overflowing with spinach and cheese. This was definitely a really good deal for lunch...

Majestic Diner in Atlanta, GA

I had breakfast one morning at the Majestic Diner in Atlanta. The neon signs of this classic diner, open since 1929, caught my attention as I was driving by the night before and I decided it would be a good place to get breakfast. Apparently they serve Food that pleases and also Food to take home, so I figured it must be good...

Inside, the Majestic had the typical classic diner look. They had an open kitchen lined with a counter with stools. There was lots of chrome and nice fonts on their signs...

I had the Spinach Feta Omelet, served with grits and rye toast. At $8.25, this definitely wasn't the cheapest diner omelet I've had, but I've seen pricier omelets too...

I was very happy with my omelet. The eggs were cooked to perfection. There was lots of salty feta. The freshly cooked spinach was also plentiful, and it all had great flavor. The grits needed some salt, but that was easily remedied.

When in Atlanta on a more recent trip, I tried their Gyro Omelet with grits and toast. Served with a large bowl of tzatziki and filled with lamb, I didn't enjoy this omelet as much as my first spinach and feta omelet, but it was still alright.

I've been to the Majestic twice now on visits to Atlanta and have enjoyed both meals. I don't think some of my dining companions were as happy with their lunch sandwiches on these visits, so perhaps breakfast is the way to go at this diner. Really though, why can't a good 24-hour diner like this survive in Orlando? For the most part, all we have back home is IHOP and Dennys for food at 3am...

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...

Omega Diner in New Hyde Park, NY

I ate a late night dinner at Omega Diner in New Hyde Park, NY. As with many diners on Long Island, this was Greek style with a huge menu. The problem at Omega Diner was the prices. Sandwiches were pushing $10 without any sides. Dinners were pushing $20. Why eat at a diner when you can go to a nicer restaurant for equivalent prices?

Breakfast was the only section of the menu that was priced reasonably. Although I wasn't planning on getting breakfast, the prices directed me to order a Spinach & Feta Omelet served with homefries and toast. The omelet was good, filled with plenty of the wonderfully salty feta cheese. The homefries had plenty of flavor on their own without salt or ketchup, and the toast was average plain toast.

I had no complaints about my breakfast, but I wish the sandwiches here were on par with the prices of other restaurants!

Frozen Pizza Review #1

This is Frozen Pizza Review #1! Venturing away from restaurants for today, I'm going to talk about something else related to food. I like pizza, but when you venture into the world of supermarket frozen pizza, things could get scary. In this post, I'm going to discuss three frozen supermarket pizzas that I've tried.

Pizza #1: Winn Dixie Crispy Thin Crust White Pizza

My least favorite of the three pizzas I'm going to write about today. The pizza was extremely salty. The majority of the cheese was all on one side of the pizza, as was the chopped spinach. I wouldn't waste my time with this one again...


Pizza #2: Kashi Roasted Vegetable
This pizza didn't look too appetizing once out of the box and cooked, but it was actually pretty tasty. Has a nice spicy sauce and a crispy, cracker-like crust. The vegetables consisted of tiny pieces of broccoli, roasted peppers, and roasted onions. I've made a repeat purchase out of this one, although I've found the crust can either be nice and crispy or cardboard-like and soggy depending on how these pies are cooked.


Pizza #3: Archer Farms Vegetable Pizza

This self-rising crust pizza came from a Super Target. The vegetable pizza had broccoli, yellow & red peppers, red onion, and black olives. This pizza was pretty tasty. I liked the spicy sauce and the frozen vegetables resembled vegetables a bit more than what came on the Kashi pizza. The problem with this frozen pizza was the self-rising crust. Following the instructions on the box, this pie went directly onto the oven rack. Instead of only rising, the dough expanded in all directions and baked itself around the metal bars of the oven rack. I don't think I'd get this one again even though it was pretty tasty, just because it's not fun to cut off the bottom of a frozen pizza that's baked into part of my oven.


Out of the three frozen pizzas, I pick the Kashi Roasted Vegetable as the winner. It tasted okay, and also cooks properly (most of the time). Still I tend to avoid supermarket frozen pizza since their is no comparison to a good, freshly made, NY style pie. If you're going down the frozen pizza route though, good luck making a good choice!

Papa Gio's Pizzeria in Avalon Park, FL

Avalon Park is one of the communities in Central Florida built following the new urbanism model. Much like Celebration or Baldwin Park, Avalon Park features a walkable downtown area, which was void of pedestrians when I visited. The feature that sets Avalon Park's downtown area apart from the other planned communities are the huge cooling towers from the Stanton Power Plant that tower over the treeline. To add to the wonderfulness, if the wind is blowing in the right direction, you can probably get a whiff of the Orange County Landfill that also neighbors the community. Avalon Park has a very Simpsons feel...

I had never been to Avalon Park, so I decided to check the place out and get dinner. I considered giving Brianto's Original Hoagies a try, which seems to be a favorite among some of the other local food blogs, but I wasn't in the mood for a meaty sandwich. Instead, we settled on a place called Papa Gio's to get pizza.

Inside, the dining room walls were painted with both scenes from New York's Little Italy neighborhood and scenes of Italian countrysides.

We started with some garlic knots. They were okay, but definitely not the best around. These knots actually had very little garlic on them, which kind of defeated the purpose.

The half spinach/half meatball pizza soon followed the garlic knots. As far as New York style pizza goes in Orlando, this was one of the best pies I've had in a while. The crust was nice and thin. They got the proportions of cheese and sauce perfect, and it all tasted really good.

I'm always reluctant to order spinach as a pizza topping because it's hard to know what you're going to get. The worst is when you get chopped frozen spinach on a pizza, which then combines with the cheese while cooking and ends up resembling creamed spinach. Other times, you will get fresh spinach leaves on a pizza, which I like. And yet other times, you get sauteed spinach which can be really good if done right. This is how Papa Gio's made their spinach pizza and they did a good job. It was nice and garlicy, but the only problem was the spinach didn't seem to be drained fully before being put on the pizza. While the meatball side of the pie was nice and crispy, the spinach side was way too soggy in spots where there was too much spinach juice. But really, it was a minor complaint to a really good pizza.

I'd gladly expose myself to the radioactive trace elements from the power plant to get more pizza from Papa Gio's!

Greek Village in Lake Mary, FL

I had dinner at the Greek Village Restaurant in Lake Mary and decided to go with the Spanakopita Dinner. The meal was started with a dinner sized Greek salad. Before I could finish the salad, the waitress came out with main course. This spanakopita was really tasty. The flaky filo dough was stuffed with spinach, onions, feta, and I'm sure some other ingredients that added to the taste. I'd get it again!

Anthony's Pizza in Casselberry, FL

The last time I ate at Anthony's Pizza was way back when smoking was still allowed in Florida restaurants. I don't remember much about the food, just that the smoking/non-smoking sections did nothing in the small restaurant. The place smelled horribly like an ashtray and left me with no desire to return any time soon.

Fast forward to 2009. After receiving several email recommendations that Anthony's has the best pizza around, I decided to go back and give them another try. Anthony's had a wait when I walked in, so that was a good sign about having good food. The servers initially seemed really flustered by the amount of people in the restaurant, but overall, the service was okay. The half spinach, half meatball pizza that we ordered came out pretty quick. It was a really good pizza with a nice thin crust, a good sauce/cheese ratio, and it was pretty tasty. The sauce had a bit of a strange flavor that I couldn't quite place, but it was otherwise pretty good. I'd gladly get another pizza from Anthony's!

Starbucks in Ashland, VA

On a long drive home from New York, my fellow travelers decided that they needed to stop at a Starbucks to refuel on caffeine. I instead opted to get actual food and tried their Spinach and Feta breakfast wrap. It consisted of egg whites, spinach, feta, and some sort of tomato based sauce. It was better than I was expecting, but I really would prefer if they used whole eggs rather than just the whites. Egg whites may be healthier, but without the yolks they are tasteless with a consistency that I really don't like. Otherwise it was a good wrap from a coffee chain that isn't known for their food.

Yesterday's Diner in New Hyde Park, NY

Yesterday's Diner isn't the best name for a restaurant in my opinion. It makes me imagine that all of the food is leftovers from the previous day. It doesn't help that the menu titles each section with yesterday, for example, you could order "Yesterday's Sandwiches." It just doesn't sound right to me, but I ended up eating a late breakfast at Yesterday's Diner regardless of the name.

I ordered a Spinach Florentine Omelet. I'm not normally an egg person, especially in restaurants, unless there's enough additional ingredients mixed in to add extra flavor. I was hesitant to get my omelet, but I decided to give it a try. Luckily for me, I enjoyed the Spinach Florentine. The omelet was filled with fresh spinach and plenty of feta cheese and didn't really taste egg-like at all. I liked it! The omelet was served with a side of homefries and two slices of whole wheat toast.

Weekend Trip: Mitchell's Restaurant

I ate at Mitchell's Restaurant in Oceanside, NY. It was another Greek diner, so I decided to go with some more Greek food and ordered the Spanakopita. The meal started with a side Greek Salad. No grape leaves or anchovies, but it was good. It had an interesting dressing, possibly tomato based.

The Spanakopita came out on a huge bed of rice. There was probably at least a pound of rice on the plate. I don't see how anyone could ever finish all of the rice. The spinach pie came in three sections and was pretty tasty. A little salty, but was good otherwise.

A word of warning about this diner learned the hard way by someone else dining with me. Don't get the traditional Greek salad. It's nothing like what most people would expect from a normal Greek salad, and is a big disappointment. It was basically iceberg lettuce smothered in dressing, with scallions on top.