More Trouble at Pollo Tropical

I ate at the Pollo Tropical in Kissimmee, FL. As far as fast food goes, Pollo Tropical is one of my favorites. Every time I visit a Pollo Tropical though, it seems I have some sort of problem. The last time I tried going to the Pollo Tropical in Sanford, they were closed at 9:45 when they were supposed to be open to midnight. The last time I ate at the Altamonte Springs location, they forgot to give me chicken. And the latest visit to this location was no different.

I tried ordering their fajitas, but they told me they couldn't make them for some reason. I quickly read over the menu and ordered Chicken, White Rice, and Beans. After wondering why the bill came out to so much money, it turned out they charged for two $8 chicken dinners that were never ordered. It took about twenty minutes for the money to be refunded, and in the process the entire order was made three times.

My chicken, rice, and beans was good, but it could have used some vegetables. It was kind of boring...

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.

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.

Sea World's Manta...

I made a Twitter account for Watch Me Eat (@WatchMeEat) a few months ago. I didn't really understand what all of the buzz with Twitter was about. The whole Twitter thing seemed so pointless to me. I would post something about the blog, but I really don't think any of it was read. Today, that all changed and I found out the purpose of Twitter: To get on new roller coasters for free!

Somehow I found out about Sea World's Twitter account (@RealShamu) and through that, I wound up getting admission into a private after hours event at Sea World called Manta Madness to ride Manta a day before it opens to the public.

We got to Sea World at the instructed time and were lead into the park to the entrance of Manta.



Once at the ride, everyone was free to eat the food and drinks that were supplied. I thought I remembered hearing that when Anheuser Busch was sold, they removed all of the free alcohol from their parks. Apparently that doesn't apply to special events since they had this bar set up serving drinks. I went with an exotic Sierra Mist...



And then there was the table of food. It was filled with vegetable platters, assorted cheeses, tortilla and potato chips, crackers, and a really good artichoke cheese dip. The table of food was constantly getting refilled. It was really nice of Sea World to feed everyone...




While everyone was eating, the park president did a speech, and Manta was opened.


After I finished eating, I entered the line leading to Manta. It traveled under waterfalls:


And eventually the line led into an aquarium. I was kind of disappointed that Sea World didn't have any actual manta rays on display. I saw a few varieties of rays, but no mantas. I've only seen manta rays on display once before (at Atlantis in the Bahamas), and I was hoping for a ride named Manta, there would actually be manta rays on display. I hope this isn't a continuation of the dumbing down of the Orlando theme parks that I've been noticing over the past few years and hopefully Sea World will be getting some mantas to put on display once the ride officially opens. They had a connected aquarium that was closed, so maybe they have some manta rays in there.



And finally, for the ride itself. I've only been on one other flying coaster (Superman at Six Flags Great Adventure), and Manta is definitely a step above that. It starts out with it's unique loading where you get strapped into the very comfortable seats which then get pulled up backwards leaving you dangling. You proceed up the lift hill over a backstage area of the park. It would have been nice if this area was themed a little more, but what could you do. Soon, the train dropped down the first hill into a pretzel loop which started with some great airtime and then went directly into having everyone lying on their backs for a second or two of really intense g-forces. After leaving the pretzel, the ride got much more relaxing with the occasional twist as it zoomed around it's track. After the halfway block brakes, Manta got fun with lots of near misses. If you were on the the right side of the train, you got close enough to reach out and touch water in the ride's splash area. I actually liked the left side of the train as it seemed to come a bit too close to waterfalls, rockwork, and the ground in certain spots.











Manta is definitely a winner. I haven't decided where I would rank it yet in terms of Orlando's other roller coasters, but it does kind of have a monopoly now as the only flying coaster in the area.

I checked out some of the other Manta Madness postings that have popped up on the internet from this event, and I'm disappointed that I left before the T-Shirts were given out. I did get a Manta pin, but I would have loved a shirt.

Thank you Sea World for letting everyone in to ride Manta!

Weekend Trip: Ralph's Famous Italian Ices

Since I was up in the area, I had to stop by Ralph's Famous Italian Ices in Franklin Square, NY. Back in Florida, there are a few good Italian ice places, but none of them compare to Ralph's, just on the sheer number of flavors alone.

The weather was in the 40s when I went to Ralph's so I assumed there would be no other customers, but apparently cold weather doesn't stop people from buying Italian ices. I tried a scoop of orange, black cherry cheesecake, and lemon meringue pie.

My personal favorite of this cup of ices was the black cherry cheesecake.

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...

Weekend Trip: Greek Wrap at the Silver Star Diner

After having Greek food for lunch, we visited the Silver Star Diner in Franklin Square, NY at about 10:30 at night for dinner. I ate here on a previous trip to the area, so this was a return visit. To continue the Greek theme that was started with my lunch earlier in the day, I ordered a Greek Wrap with Homefries.

I wasn't expecting it, but a plate of cole slaw and half sour pickles was served as an appetizer. I love it when places give pickle appetizers.

The Greek Wrap was filled with lots of chicken, almost too much chicken actually, along with feta cheese, lettuce, tomato, and what I think was Italian dressing. I found the chicken to be somewhat dry, but the wrap was half decent. I was expecting better from a Greek diner though.

Weekend Trip: Mediterranean Sunrise Falafel

After disembarking from the plane and finishing up all of the airport stuff, it was soon time for lunch. We chose a Greek restaurant called Mediterranean Sunrise in Franklin Square, NY. I ordered a Falafel sandwich, and it then turned out everyone else I was with also ordered the same. Mediterranean Sunrise was basically a fast food restaurant, but they seemed to have issues getting the food out in a timely manner. It took about twenty minutes for the sandwiches to be served (which don't require all that much preparation), and in the meantime, some of the other customers in the restaurant were getting angry about the wait.

The amount of time that it took for the food to come out was bad, but the food itself was good. The sandwich consisted of two falafels, each crispy on the outside, but moist on the inside, along with lettuce, onions, and tzatziki in a pita. It was a tasty sandwich...

Weekend Trip: The Official Snack of Jetblue at 35000 Feet

After my early breakfast at Dunkin Donuts, I arrived at the Orlando International Airport, went through security, rode the people mover, and boarded my flight with no problems.

After about an hour of flying, somewhere over North Carolina or Virginia, snacks were served while at a height of 35,522 feet and a speed of 583 mph.

I asked for orange juice as my beverage. I received a can of Welch's Orange Fusion drink which was a mix of orange, apple, and pineapple juice. It wasn't the orange juice that I was expecting, but it's no big deal. For the food item, I decided to go with the Official Snack of JetBlue and got Terra Blues Potato Chips. The chips were actually made from blue potatoes and tasted halfway between a normal potato chip and a sweet potato chips.


I had my snack and I had my window seat, so I was happy.

Soon enough the plane landed in JFK, and after getting yelled at by another passenger sitting in the row who was accusing us of sticking gum on her seat while she used the restroom, I was ready for lunch.