Gyros & More in West Melbourne, FL

Gyros & More is a Greek/Middle Eastern fast food restaurant that has a couple locations around Melbourne. While the other locations are stand alone, potentially the most well known Gyros & More is located in the food court of the Melbourne Square Mall. A few different people each told me to try the falafel at Gyros & More the next time I visited the mall.

That visit to the mall food court happened eventually. I followed everyone's recommendation and ordered a falafel sandwich combo, which came with a side and a drink. The sandwiches were made very quickly, and soon enough it was time to eat.

The falafel pita from Gyros & More was decent, but I've definitely found better elsewhere. The pita was filled with falafel, lettuce, onions, tomato, and tahini, but yet I found it to be on the dry side. The sandwich tasted good, but a little more moisture in the pita would have been better. Still good, but not the best. I had stuffed grape leaves as my side. No complaints about these.

Although the falafel was a little dry, it was still tasty. This was also way above most of the other choices in the mall food court. I'd get food here again, although next time I think I'll try a gyro.

Return to Giordano's

Not long after my initial experience with Giordano's Pizza, I ended up eating at one of their other touristy locations with some visiting relatives. This Giordano's is in a Chinese themed strip mall on 192 in Kissimmee. The mall is near the former site of Splendid China, and although the park has sat abandoned for years, the mall still looks very pagoda-like. From the outside, it felt like Giordano's should have been a Chinese restaurant.

The meal started out with everyone at the table sharing cheese covered garlic bread and a chopped salad.


On this visit, two pizzas were ordered. One was a small stuffed pizza filled with green peppers and pepperoni. The other was a thin crust pizza topped with half mushrooms and half ground beef. I focused mainly on the stuffed pizza since that's what Giordano's is famous for. I liked the topping combination and noticed that their sauce was really tasty while eating this pie. The pizza was still really cheesy, but wasn't overflowing like on my last visit to their other location. Perhaps the pizza had a bit more time to set, or maybe they used less cheese and more toppings.

As for the thin crust pizza, don't bother. I tried a slice of the pie and it reminded me of Donatos Pizza. Donatos was the (former) McDonald's owned pizza chain that was very short lived in the Orlando area, and for a good reason too. Donatos' pizza was horrible. Definitely go for what Giordano's specializes in and get the Chicago Style stuffed pizzas.

Giordano's Stuffed Pizza

I have heard good things about Giordano's Pizza. It is Chicago style stuffed pizza with multiple layers of crust with the sauce on top. I really have very little experience with Chicago style pizza, and I had never tried a pizza quite like what Giordano's sells. The restaurant was on my list to try for a while, an I finally made it to the location on Apopka Vineland Road near Disney.

The meal started out with some garlic bread. There was a decent amount of garlic on here, unlike some other Italian restaurants that just use garlic butter and no actual garlic.

Although I was planning to just have a cheese pizza, I realized that would defeat the purpose of the stuffed pizza if it had nothing but cheese. It was agreed that my half of the pizza would have ground beef, pepperoni, and black olives. The meat was baked into the pie in between the layers of crust along with cheese. On the top layer, Giordano's put more cheese, sauce, and the black olives. I came across this video of how Giordano's makes their pizzas:



The pizza was definitely unique, but I think I still prefer the more traditional New York Style pizza. This pizza had far too much cheese that all oozed out of the slices. Perhaps if it was given time to set, the oozing wouldn't be as big of a problem, but it was still too much. One slice on this pizza probably had just as much cheese as a few slices of a traditional pizza. The crust on this pizza was pretty good though. It was sort of flaky, sort of like a pie crust rather than the bread that normally makes up a pizza crust.

I didn't think Giordano's pizza was anything great compared to traditional pizza, but it's definitely a novelty. Because of the uniqueness, I would gladly return and give their pizza another try. This visit to Giordano's also introduced me to another Chicago specialty that I now need to try: The Italian Beef Sandwich...

Weekend Trip: King Umberto's Pizza

I returned to King Umberto's Pizza in Elmont, NY and had my first experience where their pizza was bad. The place was packed and I think that may have been part of the problem. It seemed like they were a little flustered by the amount of people all ordering pizza at once, plus the overflow of people from their sit-down dining room next door. They still had their amazing selection of pizza, so the experience started out well. I ordered a slice of vegetarian stuffed pizza and a slice with fresh mozzarella. When the slices came out of the oven, they were very burnt. So burnt that all you could really taste was charcoal. Some of the toppings/stuffing were completely black, and forget eating the crust. It was like a rock.


I've never seen King Umberto's serve pizza like this, but it seemed every slice coming out of the oven was blackened around the edges. I'm not exactly sure what the problem was, but I hope it was a one time fluke and their pizza will return to being amazing on my next visit.

Weekend Trip: Greek Salad from Stop 20 Diner

I ate at Stop 20 Diner in Elmont, NY. I was with a very large group of people so that resulted in the service being a bit sub-par, but regardless, this eating experience was better than my last visit here.

The meal started out with a basket of really good challah and assorted crackers.

The plates of coleslaw and half sour pickles came out next.

For the main course, I ordered a Greek Salad. This was a good example of what I want in a Greek Salad, complete with stuffed grape leaves and anchovies. The only thing that was missing was kalamata olives. Besides from the olives, I had no complaints.

Stop 20 got it's name from the days when trolleys/streetcars ran along Hempstead Turnpike. The trains were eventually replaced by buses, but throughout the changes in transportation, stop 20 along these routes has been on the corner in front of the diner, hence the name...

Stuffed Vegetable Pizza from Sbarro...

I had a stuffed slice of pizza filled with spinach, broccoli, ricotta, and mozzarella cheese from the Sbarro in the UCF Student Union. While most pizzerias in the New York area seem to always have this type of pizza available, you have to be really lucky to find stuffed pizza in Florida. In fact, besides from Sbarro restaurants, I can't think of any restaurants in Florida that serve pizza like this, and even then it's not necessarily something Sbarro always has. The other Sbarro owned restaurants outside of food courts like Carmela's don't have this type of pizza on their menus. It's a shame too, because stuffed vegetable pizza is one of my favorites. This particular slice wasn't the best, but it tasted good enough for Florida's slim pickings for stuffed pizza. It could have used a little more stuffing and it felt like it was sitting out a little too long, although I shouldn't expect too much from a Sbarro in a college food court. The sesame seeds on top were a nice touch. Perhaps the worst thing about the slice was what they charged for it. With tax, a single slice of pizza came out to $4.88. That means they get almost $40 for a eight slice pie. I imagine that is quite a profit margin.

Next time I am craving pizza in the UCF area, I need to give Lazy Moon a try. I keep on hearing good things about them and their giant 30" pizzas.

Polonia in Longwood, FL

I ate at Polonia in Longwood, FL. Polonia is a Polish restaurant located on 17-92 in a former fast food restaurant building that has housed many different restaurants. The building started out as a Captain D's, and then became several different restaurants serving various types of Asian food. I would say my most interesting experience eating in one of these incarnations was when the building housed a fast food Chinese restaurant. As I was eating my meal, two Red-Eared Sliders walked out of the kitchen and across the dining room. I've seen some interesting animals in restaurants (rats!), but this was the only time I've ever seen turtles wandering around a restaurant. Knowing that turtles and salmonella go together, I never returned to the restaurant, or the future restaurants in the building.

That is, until Polonia opened. When they opened in this location, the local Orlando newspapers all started to write good reviews of the place, so I gave it a try. Polonia broke the chain of fast food Asian restaurants by setting up a sit-down Polish restaurant, and there were no reptiles, amphibians, or rodents in sight. I've since returned to Polonia a few times, and it's generally pretty good. This visit started out with a basket of some good rye bread.

For the main course, I ordered the Big Polish Platter, which came with stuffed cabbage (in tomato sauce), three pierogies, a fresh kielbasa, and sauerkraut. The stuffed cabbage was okay, but I found it to taste a bit too much like plain meatloaf. There was some rice mixed in with the ground beef, but not enough. The sauce was good though. For the pierogies, I had the choice of meat, sauerkraut and cheese, or potato & cheese. I went with the potato & cheese, and I have no complaints about them. It's amazing how much better fresh pierogies are compared to those frozen pierogies from the supermarket. The kielbasa was good and tasted like a Polish sausage should. The sauerkraut was interesting. It wasn't as tart and was very finely chopped when compared to most sauerkraut that I've eaten, but it was still good.

Overall, the food was pretty good for the most part. All that meat and the lack of vegetables was a little more than I'm used to eating in one sitting, but I guess that's the way they eat in Poland.

I wanted to get some poppy seed cake for dessert, but they didn't have any on the day I ate at the restaurant. They had apple strudel instead, but I'm not a big fan of cooked apples. Poppy cake or rolls are much better...

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.

Mrs. Field's Falafel

There is a Mrs. Fields & Pretzel Time store connected to one another in the UCF Student Union. I was going to get some sushi, but then noticed that along with the cookies and pretzels, this store also sold Middle Eastern food. It was a very strange combination, and I doubt it's approved by corporate, but it was definitely a combination that I liked. Not too many places in the Orlando area have a good falafel sandwich, and this one was pretty good. I had the falafel pita with a side Greek Salad and stuffed Grape Leaves.

King Umbertos Pizza

King Umbertos in Elmont, New York has the best pizza I have ever eaten. All other pizzas have to be compared to the pizza from King Umbertos.

When I ate here for dinner, I had a slice of stuffed vegetable pizza and a slice of plain cheese. Although the pizza selection was a bit thin when I ordered and the ovens needed cleaning (which happened as I was eating), King Umbertos still holds the #1 Pizza spot in my book. I will be back...