Sloan's Ice Cream in West Palm Beach, FL

I was in West Palm Beach and had some dessert at a place called Sloan's Ice Cream.

Sloan's was a very colorful place inside. There were intricate ceiling murals. There was a model trolley moving back and forth under the ice cream counter. I apparently missed the main attraction here. Sloan's has one of the top ten bathrooms in the world according to Travel Channel. According to what I read after the fact, the bathroom has glass windows that allow everyone to see in, that is until you lock the door and the windows become opaque. Worth returning for?

I had strawberry cheesecake ice cream in a waffle cone. The large serving of ice cream had big chunks of actual cheesecake mixed in, always improving any ice cream that calls itself cheesecake flavored.

Sloan's had good ice cream. I'd return and will hopefully have to use the facilities next time...

Grease in West Palm Beach, FL

I was in West Palm Beach and had dinner at a restaurant called Grease. They had a sports bar vibe in the restaurant, only much more upscale than the typical sports bars that I've visited. I didn't know this before visiting the restaurant, but Grease has the same owners as Rocco's Tacos across the street.

I ordered the Seared Rare Tuna Sliders, topped with wasabi-mayo, pickled ginger, and cilantro. These three sandwiches were very tasty, except they weren't served rare as advertized on the menu. I was actually debating whether I should trust seafood that isn't fully cooked from a burger place before ordering, so I was perfectly fine with tuna burgers that were served well-done. If you're going to call something a seared rare tuna slider though, I would expect the tuna burger to still be pink on the inside. Regardless, these sliders were still really good and I did enjoy them.

I did enjoy the sliders, but just like Rocco's across the street, everything here was a bit pricy. For the prices they charged, including fries with their sandwiches would have been nice. Overall, Grease was alright, but nothing worth going out of my way to visit again.

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...