Because fast food can be good food too.
Empire Szechuan is a nice quiet little Chinese restaurant just north of the heart of downtown Orlando. It is not very busy so the service is good and the food is made fresh. The prices are reasonable. The only thing I didn’t really like about the place was the fact that they don’t have fountain sodas.
At night, Ember is a full scale bar/night club. But, during the day, Ember is an excellent casual dining restaurant. It has a very large indoor and outdoor dining area. Most of the restaurant opens up, so this is the perfect place for a fall or spring Florida day. The food is good, with generous portions, but the atmosphere is what did it for me. I definitely recommend this place for a refreshing, relaxing meal.
Michael Riley, part of the family down at Tropical Smoothie Cafe in Downtown Orlando, invited me down to review this establishment. It is a family run franchise, opened a little over a year ago. There are currently 3 generations of this family working various positions at this eatery.
They are located a little of the beaten path of downtown Orlando, just west of Orange Ave. on Washington St., so you might not have visited them yet, but it is worth the extra few minutes of walking. They have a wide selection of smoothies, wraps, sandwiches, salads, and flat breads. The food keeps with the tropical motif, and is very refreshing and perfect for the Florida heat. The smoothies are made with mostly fresh fruit, while some of the more exotic fruits are frozen or from concentrate. They also have excellent breakfast options that taste much better than fast food alternatives, and are competitively priced.
One of the things that Michael and his family do to differentiate from other Tropical Smoothie Cafe, is customer appreciation day. Generally, about once a month, they have a day for a particular business downtown (Regions Bank, Channel 13 News, etc.) where employees can get $1 low fat smoothies. You may say, “eww low fat”, but they are naturally low fat because of their fruit base, not because they are modified versions of regular smoothies. They also offer 50% off their low fat smoothies on Monday through Thursday from 4pm to 6pm. Lastly, they have a breakfast club, which entitles the bearer of one of those key chain tags to 20% off their breakfast order before 10am, Monday through Friday.
One of the great things served to me during my visit was the Royale cookie, colloquially known as “Fat Kid’s Heaven”. It is an amazing mix of oatmeal, chocolate chips, macadamia nuts, and cocoa nut. This definitely isn’t the healthiest item on the menu, but it is one of the most delicious.
Connect with Tropical Smoothie Cafe Downtown Orlando on Facebook.
Gino’s Pizza has 3 locations in downtown Orlando. The main location downtown is open 24 hours. This gives them some automatic bonus points because there are few places to eat late at night in Orlando, and even fewer where you would actually want to eat. At first glance, Gino’s might seem expensive, with a single slice of pizza ranging from $3-$4, but the slices are huge. For lunch, one slice will probably be enough for you. Each slice also comes with a free garlic knot. A slice of cheese pizza will cost $3, and a one topping slice is $3.50, while all other slices are $4. I had a slice of bacon and cheddar, and one with spinach, tomato slices, and ricotta cheese. Both tasted great, but I prefer the ladder because it has a wider spectrum of flavors.
Gino’s offers lunch specials Monday through Friday, from 9am to 4pm. These specials offer a ton of food, at a low price. You could easily split one of these lunch specials with someone else, there’s that much food. The service is fast and pleasant. If you are downtown, I would definitely recommend you give them a try. Even if you aren’t downtown, the food is worth the trip.
Gino’s menu is available on their website.
Ichiban, a Japanese and Sushi restaurant in downtown Orlando, has a great variety of food, and reasonable prices for the quality and quantity. I had their chicken Teriyaki lunch platter, which comes with soup, vegetables, and rice. The chicken is a mix of white and dark meat unless you want to pay $1 extra for all white meat. The Miso soup is delicious. The chicken has plenty of sauce which makes it taste great, and the vegetables are a perfect complement. The rice is rather bland, as it is in most places, but the rest of the food makes up for it. I recommend you try them, but it is probably not an everyday location due the the slightly high price, but like I said before the quantity and quality of the food warrants the price.
Orlando Fast Food Critic is Stephen Fry proof thanks to caching by WP Super Cache