Tailgaters Smokehouse at UCF

I ate at Tailgaters Smokehouse in the shopping area surrounding the UCF Arena in Orlando. Tailgators is a sports bar, and the as my meal progressed, the restaurant fit perfectly into the stereotype of sports bars having bad food. But it wasn't just the food, service was bad here too.

I ordered a Chicken Cheesesteak sandwich, served with tater tots. After a very long wait with a very inattentive waitress, our food was finally served. The sandwich was a bit smaller than I was expecting and was very bland. Couldn't taste any seasoning whatsoever on the chicken and the bread reminded me a bit too much of a hot dog roll than what cheesesteaks are normally served on. I did like the tater tots though.

While the sandwich wasn't all that, definitely not worth the $12 it cost me total for the meal, it was edible and I finished the food. I really shouldn't have finished though because the food left some sort of coating on the inside of my mouth that I could not get rid off. It was a slimy feeling and tasted sort of bitter. Drinking water would not remove it. Eating something else didn't get rid of the coating, and brushing my teeth (multiple times) didn't help either. Whatever this was, it was very unpleasant and I can't say I've experienced a bad taste in my mouth that was so persistent elsewhere. Interestingly enough, I kept this to myself until a few hours later when a friend brought up the bad taste in her mouth from her grilled chicken sandwich...

Moral of the story: Avoid the chicken from Tailgaters.

Piper's Downtown in Orlando, FL

I was in Downtown Orlando and tried a new restaurant called Piper's Downtown in The Plaza. Based on the coming soon sign in their window, I'm assuming they weren't officially open yet. I ate there anyway...

Piper's is a sports bar, and as much as I don't like the environment in these type restaurants, I was mostly pleased with the food. We ordered a pizza, and being that this was bar pizza rather than Italian restaurant pizza, I wasn't expecting much. Sometimes in a sports bar like this, a pizza will consist of something frozen that was microwaved just for you. When the pizza was served, I was actually really surprised that Piper's makes real pizza, and it was pretty good! The pizza had a nice thin crust with a perfect proportion of cheese to sauce. I found the sauce to be somewhat flavorless, but besides from that, I was happy with the pizza!

I found out from the Orlando Sentinel Last Call Blog that this location in The Plaza was originally a NYPD Pizza. That kind of explains why Piper's has a pizza oven.

Afterwards, we walked over and watched the Creedence Clearwater Revisited concert that was going on up the street in front of City Hall. It was somewhat sad to watch...

Beef O' Brady's Cuban Sandwich

My Cuban Sandwich from Beef O' Brady's in Deltona, Florida wasn't very authentic. Compared to other Cuban sandwiches that I've eaten, this was more along the lines of a ham sandwich with pickles. There was no roast pork here, but that's what you get when Cuban food is ordered at an Irish sports bar. Not that the restaurant was even very Irish. The only food on the menu that seemed remotely Irish was the fish and chips, but there were plenty of American hamburgers. For what it was, the sandwich was decent tasting, but was nothing that will have me rushing back to visit Beef O' Brady's again soon...

Kook Sports Bar

I was doing something at the Buena Vista Palace Hotel just outside of Downtown Disney. It was dinner time, so I ate food from Kook Sports Bar inside of the hotel. I really don't like sports bars all that much, with the TVs all over, and food that's generally not all that good. The only other option inside of the hotel was a restaurant called The Outback (not connected to the steakhouse chain) which charged far too much for what I saw on the menu. Kook Sports Bar also was really overpriced, but was far less than the Outback. Going by the location, the high price has to be somewhat expected.


I ordered the Blackened Grouper Sandwich. The waitress told me it was the best thing on the menu, but it tasted average to me. Nothing was wrong with the sandwich, but it was nothing special either, and definitely not worth the $14.95 price tag. It consisted of a piece of blackened grouper on a sesame bun with lettuce, onions, and tomatoes. Fries, ketchup, and tarter sauce came on the side.

Besides from the high prices, I had no major complaints about the food, but there was nothing special about the place that would get me to return to Kook Sports Bar any time soon. They will do fine without me with all of the Disney tourists...

Salsa2go at UCF

I was over at UCF and got hungry so I stopped by a relatively new restaurant that opened at the school called Salsa2go. It's an outdoor snack bar type restaurant that specializes in Mexican food. I ordered a chicken burrito on a chipotle flavored tortilla. The burrito was filled with chicken, lettuce, and jalapenos. I would have liked to try the homemade salsa that this place apparently makes but none was offered. Salsa2go should really have a list of the burrito toppings that are available on their menu.

The burrito itself was good but for some reason it reminded me of food served at sporting events. I couldn't quite place why this was, but the burrito had more of a high school concession stand feel than a Mexican restaurant feel. Not to say this was a bad thing though. Like I said, the burrito was tasty. The chicken had a nice flavor and the jalapenos added some spice. Besides from not trying the salsa, I had no complaints about this burrito.