Restaurant Review 11 - Thai Cafe

Thai Cafe Exterior



Thai Cafe Menu





Thai Cafe Menu





Thai Cafe Menu



Salad with Ginger Dressing





Spring Rolls





Included in Lunch Special




Pad Garlic with Chicken



Interior - Cash Register & Kitchen Entrance





Interior - Row Of Small Tables



 Sometimes I get tired of the normal everyday lunch choices like pizza, salads, sandwiches, etc.  Being a foodie and an adventurous eater, I don't like my lunches to boring or predictable.  So I'm constantly on the hunt for new lunch places of varying cuisine.  A couple of weeks ago I had a hankering for some type of Asian food and after doing a search of what was within walking distance of my office building I found a Thai restaurant in Downtown Orlando that sounded worth a shot.

Thai Cafe is located at 217 N Magnolia Ave in Orlando, FL 32801.  They have plenty of seating even though the restaurant looks small from the outside, and they offer daily lunch specials.

When I walked in there were quite a few people there (which I always take as a good sign).  And it smelled good, also a good sign.  I was given a small but comfortable table and took some time to peruse the menu.  The waitstaff was friendly when asked questions, and I believe this is a family-owned establishment. 

The daily special is $8.95 ($9.53 with tax) and includes your choice of a variety of entrees with a salad and 2 spring rolls.  The only caveat to this is if you want a dish with beef you have to pay extra because the $8.95 only includes chicken, veggies, or tofu.

There are a variety of rice and noodle dishes to choose from, but I wanted to try something new that I haven't had before.  I had read some reviews on Yelp and Urban Spoon and ultimately opted for the Pad Garlic (with chicken as my protein).  The Pad Garlic is served with Jasmine rice and a variety of fresh veggies in a sauce.  And because I got it as a special a salad and spring rolls were included.

My salad came first and I LOVED the dressing.  I have had ginger dressing at various other Asian establishments, but this was by far the best.  It had such a good flavor I even dipped a couple bites of one of my spring rolls in the dressing after I had finished all my lettuce.

Next came my two spring rolls and they were also delicious!  Crispy on the outside with a flavorful filling (that I believed included chicken and some veggies), they were great alone, in the dipping sauce that came with them, with soy sauce, and yes, even with the ginger dressing from my salad.  I probably could have eaten 6 of them, no problem.

My Pad Garlic with chicken was good.  Not quite as delicious as the rolls and salad dressing, but flavorful and quite an acceptable lunch.  The sauce wasn't as garlicky as I thought it might be given the name, but it had a nice rounded flavor, and a bit of pepper overtones.  There was plenty of it, which is more than good with me because I am a big sauce/condiment person.  The rice was adequately cooked, and the veggies that came with it (which included broccoli, zucchini, and carrots) were fresh and cooked to a crisp-tender.  The chicken itself appeared to be thinly sliced white meat, and was cooked to a nice tender doneness.

The service was quick and appropriate for the downtown lunch crowd.  The price seems slightly high at first, but considering the amount of food you get it's a very good deal.  I highly recommend giving Thai Cafe a visit.  I am excited to go back and try something else (as long as it comes with that salad and spring rolls!).  I want to try something on the spicy side my next visit, although I did read that if you're looking for extremely spicy you have to request it as their "spicy" items can be more on the mild side.

Restaurant Review 10 - Not So Successful

Occassionally I go to restaurants just because I'm hungry and need to eat.  I will often take pictures of my food, but then decide that the restaurant is not worth writing about.  In the last few months this has mostly happened to me at Mexican restaurants.  So in today's post I'm going to be talking about a few of local Mexican restaurants who weren't terrible, but are probably places I won't be dining at again.
The first place I visited was Paco's, in Winter Park, FL.  I had heard that some people loved it and I was in the mood for Mexican at lunch one weekday.  It was extremely close to where I was doing some contract work at the time, so I hopped on over.
The first problem is that there is very limited parking.  Luckily I was able to grab a space, but I would have been irritated if I hadn't been able to.  The second problem was that when you walk in the place is quite small, and they were PACKED at lunch.  I take it as a good sign when a restaurant is that busy, but in this case it didn't work out for me. 
I will say the person who greeted me at the door, and the waitstaff were very friendly and attentive.  That was a plus for Paco's.
My third problem was that the food was expensive.  I have a certain scale that I think Mexican dishes should hover at, and Paco's was above what I consider to be average priced.  This might have to do with the location, as Winter Park is considered one of the fancier parts of metro Orlando, but if you visited this particular neighborhood that doesn't apply.


Chips and Salsa at Paco's



Complimentary chips and homemade salsa were provided, but I did notice that on the menu it stated if you wanted refills of either there was a surcharge.  Again, I consider this disappointing as in 90% of Mexican restaurants chips and salsa are complimentary and this place was not special enough to exclude themselves (especially with higher than average menu prices!).



Enchiladas at Pacos (part of combo)



I placed my order for a combination plate that included two beef enchiladas and 1 beef hard taco.  The plate also came with rice and beans.  The beans were okay, just your typical refried beans topped with a Mexican cheese blend (cheddar and jack most likely).  The rice is not the normal rice I get at Mexican restaurants (that I really like and have managed to duplicate at home).  It was okay, but I would have preferred the kind I get elsewhere.



Pacos Taco with Combo Plate

The enchiladas were different.  They came with a green enchilada sauce instead of the normal red.  It was tasty but there was not enough of it.  The cheese topping the enchiladas was the same Mexican blend that was on the beans, and I would have preferred fresh cheese instead of the kind you can get from a bag at the supermarket.  The enchiladas were accompanied by lettuce, tomato, and sour cream.  I liked this touch because that's how my mom used to serve hers (with lettuce, tomato, and sour cream on the side).

The taco was a fairly standard hard taco with meat, cheese, lettuce, and tomato.  Not bad, but nothing special.

Like I said, Paco's was not bad, but to me it was overpriced, and in my opinion there are better local Mexican restaurants.

My next venture was to California Burrito Express.  I started working in downtown Orlando about a month ago and I am exploring new places to eat.  One day for lunch I wanted to go to Sweet Tomatoes but was afraid I wouldn't have enough time.  So I stopped at a place closer to the office that I thought would be faster.  It was Mexican and that sounded good to me so I thought I'd give it a try.

I guess the concept of the restaurant is real Mexican food, real fast.  You order fast food style from a menu they have on the wall (I believe they also had paper copies of the wall menu).  I perused the menu, looking for a combo plate that was on the cheap side.  I saw menu items stating they had rolled tacos, and as I had not had a rolled taco I thought that would be fun to try.  So I ordered the 5 rolled taco supreme plate. 

I only saw two men working, one was cooking and the other taking orders.  They have a drive thu, and I only saw 1 car pull through.  the counter guy was not exactly up to par on his customer service skills, but I don't generally expect a lot from "fast food" places.



Rolled Tacos at California Burrito Express



I waited between 5 and 10 minutes for my order to be ready.  I had ordered mine with beef, and when they said it was ready I noted it was chicken and informed them.  The next attempt was ready a short time later.  The plate came with the 5 rolled tacos, which seem to be nothing more than taquitos.  I wish they had called them that, I would have ordered regular tacos instead.  The plate came with guacamole, cheese, and sour cream spread on top of the rolled tacos.  On top of the sauces was grilled beef chunks.  There was lettuce and pico de gallo on the side.

The main problem was that there was not a lot of flavor!  The guacamole was bland, the beef could have been seasoned better, even the salsa verde I tried lacked any kind of flavor, it was just heat.


California Burrito Express

Paco's Menu



Plus, they over-fried the taquitos and they were tough to eat. 

It's such a bummer to be disappointed by a new place.  I feel like I've wasted my money and could have had something way more delicious.  The problem is, if you don't try new restaurants you might not discover a new favorite, so I guess it all comes down to taking the good with the bad.  

The third Mexican restaurant that I've gone to that was disappointing was Gringos Locos, located in the heart of downtown Orlando.  Now that I moved to a building downtown I am within in a ten to 15 minute walk of multiple restaurants.  This is GREAT because I can get between 20 and 30 minutes of excercise in at lunch, and I don't feel so guilty about eating things that I know aren't that great for me.  Plus there's a bigger variety of food and new restaurants awaiting me.
I was on my Foodspotting app (which you should get if you have an iPhone - but they also have a website you can check out if you don't) and saw that one of the people I follow kept posting pictures from Gringos Locos.  When I looked it up I saw that it was a ten minute walk from my building and figured I had nothing to lose.
Well, unfortunately I was disappointed.  When I got there it looked promising.  My first sign that things weren't going to go right was when the selection I had made while perusing their online menu was not on the menu at the actual location.  So I switched my order to be two Sloppy Tacos.  In theory, these sounded great, but in reality weren't any different than normal tacos.  They were ground beef in flour tortillas with lettuce, cheese, sour cream, and pico de gallo. 
Unfortunately I was not impressed.  Not by the price and not by the food.  My order came to $8 for two tacos and a drink.  I could have done better at Taco Bell (which is really sad to say).  The ground beef had some kind of sweet taste to it, and I am certainly not a fan of that.  It was almost like sloppy joe meat, just not as saucy.  When I order tacos I want fresh, slightly spicy, flavorful food.  This was just not that. 
If, and that's a big if, I return I will not be ordering their tacos again.  Hopefully in my journeys to other places downtown I will find another Mexican place that is priced right with delicious food.
I had perused the menu online and had made a selection

My advice is to try other restaurants in the downtown and Winter Park areas of metro Orlando.  PR's in Winter Park was better, and there are various other Mexican restaurants downtown that you could try.  I would recomend spending your lunch break avoiding the above mentioned places, and finding somewhere new.





Gringos Locos

Gringos Sloppy Tacos



Snickerdoodles - We Made Room For Dessert 5

 The last dessert recipe I posted was a cookie recipe as well.  The good thing about cookies is that they are generally fast to mix up, and they get done in 10 minutes or less.  So when I had the desire for a new sweet treat, I looked at what I had on hand and new could make snickerdoodles.  Now snickerdoodles don't actually have Snickers in them (much to my partners dismay), but they are tasty cinnamon sugar cookies.  After looking at a few recipes online, I found one that sounded easy, tweaked a couple of things to suit my tastes, and started baking some cookies.

Snickerdoodles

Ingredients:

1 cup of butter (or margarine)

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups sugar plus 3 tbs (for rolling dough in)

2 3/4 cups of flour

1/8 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp cream of tartar

1 tbs to 1 1/2 tbs of ground cinnamon

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350.

Cream together butter and sugar.  Add eggs, beat well.

Combine flour, salt, baking soda, and cream of tartar together. 

Slowly add dry ingredients into wet, making sure everything is well incorporated, but not over mixed.

Chill dough for 15 minutes in refrigerator.

Mix together 3 tbs sugar and 1 tbs cinnamon.  Remove dough from refrigerator, form into small balls, and roll in cinnamon mixture.  Place on cookie sheet.

Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.  Remove from cookie sheet onto cooling rack.

Enjoy!

Pioneers Western Kitchen - Restaurant Review 9

Recently I got a promotion in my email for a new restaurant that is part of the Pita Pit family.  The promotion was for $5 any meal, no strings attached, at Pioneers Western Kitchen. Apparently the restaurant had recently opened up and they were trying to attract business.
Now I have to say, I am a big fan of restaurant coupons.  I am in the e-clubs for several places including Sweet Tomatoes (where you don't even have to print the coupon, you can just show them the email on your phone - talk about convenient and being green!), Pita Pit, Tijuana Flats, Popeyes, Long John Silvers, and more.  I figure, why pay full price for a meal, especially if I was going there to eat anyway. I don't consider it being cheap or frugal, I consider it a way to save so I can try the next great restaurant.
From what I gather, there is only 1 location of Pioneers in Orlando at the moment.  In fact from looking at their website, this may be the only location so far.  I love being one of the first people to at a new place, while they generally still have kinks in their systems to work out, the food is usually fresh and the staff generally tries really hard to make a good impression.  Who doesn't love well-made food and good customer service?
But back to the Kitchen.

It was a little hard to find when I arrived (it's in the Publix shopping plaza on the corner of Colonial & Alafaya - it's more on the Alafaya side, if anyone remembers where the old Blockbuster was, it's on that strip), but that's ok.  When I pulled up I saw a very nice outside seating area and beer signs in the window.  Turns out they have craft beers on site, which I know some beer enthusiasts will enjoy.

I walked in and was immediately greeted by someone (who I'm assuming was a manager).  He was very nice and explained their concept, how everything is made from scratch, the hamburger patties are hand done, and they are famous for their Prickly Pear BBQ sauce.  He told me the girl at the register would help me with my order and assist me with any questions I had. 

I perused the menu, which are situated between the door and the register (laminated, one sheet, breakfast on one side, lunch/dinner on the other).

Breakfast is only served on Saturday's and Sunday's from 7:30am to 12pm, but I think it's nice that they serve breakfast.  They have sandwich, omelette, pancake, and french toast options.

As far as lunch/dinner, they serve it Monday-Friday from 11am-12pm, Saturday & Sunday from 12pm-12am.  So they are open pretty late at night, which is also nice, especially since they are in a college area.

The restaurant itself was clean and smelled new. The decor was purple and browns and some metals, with wooden tables that included booths, regular tables, and high tops.

You decided what you want to order and then order at the register.  When I went (on a Wed around 6, 6:30pm) there was only one other table seated there.  After I ordered, the girl told me to have a seat wherever I liked (I chose a booth, I usually do when given the option).  They brought the food out to me, but I noticed that there are numbers on the tables so I'm not sure if when business picks up they'll seat you or if you pick your number and tell them or if they'll give you a number for you to put on your table.

The lunch/dinner menu has soups, sandwiches, salads, burgers, and vegetarian options.  They also have some fun sides.  You can add soup to an entree for only .99, which is something I might do on my next visit.  Sandwiches and burgers are served with what they call "country fries", and those are basically regular french fries. All the options were 8.99 and under, and if you get soup (or chili) those are only 3.49.

I chose to order the Globetrotter Sandwich, a "grilled chipotle marinated skirt steak, sauteed peppers and onions, goat cheese, and topped with Prickly Pear vinaigrette drizzle" for 8.99.  I adore goat cheese, and thought it would be nice to see how their steak is.  Plus the manager had talked about their prickly pear specialty, and although I did not get the actually BBQ sauce, I thought this would give me a taste.

It did not take very long for me to get my order.  The food was served on a metal plate, which the server informed me was hot.  I'm not sure metal plates are the best choice, especially if they're going to be hot, but I guess it's keeping with the western theme.  My silverware was wrapped up in brown, made from recycled paper, napkins, with a piece of yarn tied around it.  I can't decide if this is a cute detail keeping in with the theme, or a bit of a waste of time and money (to tie all those silverware rolls and then dispose of the yarn).

My sandwich was delicious.  The bun was toasted, but still soft (like I like it!).  The steak was flavorful and tender, and had a bit of a kick from the chipotle, but was not overwhelmingly spicy.  The peppers and onions were sauteed nicely.  The goat cheese was fresh, creamy, and tart, and the vinaigrette had good flavor.  All in all it was a good sandwich, one that I would not go out of my way for, but would order again if I was there.  There could have been a tad more meat, especially in ratio to the amount of peppers.

The fries were thin like McDonald's, but had peels on (which I like).  They were crispy and hot, cooked properly.  They were seasoned nicely with salt and pepper, and I enjoyed them quite a bit.

After adding a drink to my meal, and having the the $5 voucher taken off I paid about $6 and some change for dinner.  Not bad, about what you would pay in a normal fast food place.  But if I didn't have that $5 voucher I would have paid over $11, so keep that in mind.

It's a nice alternative to some of the places out there.  The staff was friendly (the server checked on me 3 times, plus the helpful manager).  The restaurant is clean and well-decorated.  The food that I ordered was cooked correctly, and certainly better than what you would get from a drive thru.  I like the concept that they make things from scratch, and that ingredients are locally sourced. 

We'll see in a few months how they're coming along.  It will be interesting to see how service and the food is when (hopefully) they're a little bit busier and not so new.  I say, if you're in the area and want a new kind of sandwich check them out. 

You can find more information about them at Pioneers Western Kitchen.  They have a Facebook and a Twitter as well.  I saw 3 reviews for them on Yelp (all within the last 2 weeks), and 1 review on UrbanSpoon.

Goat Cheese & Red Pepper Fettucine - Home Cooked Recipe 34

Often I am inspired by other food bloggers.  I like home cooks such as myself who are as passionate about food as I am.  I love to look at their pictures, see what kind of foods they're making, and read their stories and recipes.

I've followed a handful of food blogs for a couple of years now, and they are listed here on my own food blog.  One of the sites I visit frequently is Closet Cooking.  A man in Canada writes weekly (sometimes more) about his recipes.  His name is Kevin, and he takes great pictures that make me crave some of the delicious food he's making.  Check out the link for Closet Cooking under my heading "Links To Great Food Blogs" on the right side of the page (if you are viewing the mobile version of this site you'll have to click the button that takes you to the full site first).
Anyway, Kevin had a great recipe posted last week that I had to make.  It looked delicious and easy, and spole to my craving for creamy pasta.  The recipe is for Roasted Red Pepper and Goat Cheese Alfredo Pasta and you can find the original recipe Here.
As I usually do with new recipes, I tweak them to suit my own tastes.  In this case I left out the basil but added a dash of cayenne (my favorite spice!) and a dash of granulated garlic (in addition to the fresh).  Also, instead of pureeing the sauce like the original recipe calls for I left the sauce as is and mixed it with the pasta (although next time I will puree it, I just made the recipe later at night and didn't want to pull out the food processor and wake anyone up).  The other thing I did differently was reserve about 1/2 an ounce of the goat cheese to sprinkle on top when serving (and I liked this step so I think I'll stick with it).
Here is my version of Kevin's recipe, it's sweet, tangy, creamy, spicy, and just delightful as a pasta dish in general.

Goat Cheese & Red Pepper Fettucine
Ingredients:

• 1/2 pound pasta
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 clove garlic, grated
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 4 ounces goat cheese
• 1/4 cup parmigiano reggiano (parmesan), grated
• 2 roasted red peppers, small dice
• sea salt and coarse black pepper (freshly ground) to taste
• dash of cayenne
• dash of granulated garlic

Directions:

Begin by boiling your fettucine according to package directions.

While the pasta is cooking, make the sauce.  Start by melting the butter.  Then add fresh garlic, and sautee for a few minutes until garlic is fragrant (be careful your pan is not too hot, you don't want the garlic to brown or burn - it will get bitter).  Then add cream, goat cheese, parmesan, and red peppers. Stir well and cook until cheese melts into sauce.

Drain pasta and add to pan with sauce.  Toss well.

To serve, plate pasta and then sprinkle with parmesan and top with a few goat cheese crumbles.

Enjoy!