Any Recommendations for a GREAT offsite restaurant

[brunette8706]

Hello All!

Any recommendations for a great offsite restaurant. Something that is WOW factor or really nice?

How bout Bull and Bear at the Waldorf Astoria?

Mortons Steakhouse?

Shula's?

Season's 52?

Any other recommendations? Has anyone tried the above restaurants? Love to get any thoughts and or input!

Thanks so much!
Brunette

 

[KodakFigment]

Hello All!

Any recommendations for a great offsite restaurant. Something that is WOW factor or really nice?

Love to get any thoughts and or input!

Thanks so much!
Brunette

From the restaurants you listed it looks like you are going to decide based on decor and ambience. There are a lot of places that fit that criteria up along Sand Lake Rd (google Restaurant row, Dr. Phillips) Most have pretty good food.

What we have found, though, is that great looking doesn't equal amazing food. The best food we have eaten in the area has been at smaller, not fancy places. Two that come to mind immediately are the Chef's Table in Winter Garden and Nagoya Sushi in Dr. Phillips.

What type of food do you favor?

 

[brunette8706]

From the restaurants you listed it looks like you are going to decide based on decor and ambience. There are a lot of places that fit that criteria up along Sand Lake Rd (google Restaurant row, Dr. Phillips) Most have pretty good food.

What we have found, though, is that great looking doesn't equal amazing food. The best food we have eaten in the area has been at smaller, not fancy places. Two that come to mind immediately are the Chef's Table in Winter Garden and Nagoya Sushi in Dr. Phillips.

What type of food do you favor?

*
Hey there Kokak!

Thanks so much for your response. It's my husband's birthday and I wanted to take him somewhere nice. But I am ALL FOR YOURs OR ANYONE's recommendation that has great food for future trips and even on this September trip.

We like chicken, seafood, Italian and Sushi, vegetarian, morrocan, basically anything, LOL! We love to hear what you and other's have to say. I never heard of the Chef's Table in Winter Garden and Nagoya Sushi in Dr. Phillips. I love sushi!

ThANK you in ADVancE!
Brunette

 

[KodakFigment]

Nagoya's is superb. Really fresh and they will custom make any combination you might want. It's a small place, maybe 12 tables tucked in a corner of Sand Lake and Dr. Phillips Dr. Family owned (no not mine ). When we have friends in town who really love sushi, this is where we take them. Lots of folks recommend the sushi place in Celebration and it is good, but higher priced and I think much more commercial.

I can't say enough about The Chef's Table. We discovered it when I read an article about the chef. He was a high ranking chef at Disney. Cooked at Cali Grill and V & A. Decided with his wife to strike out on their own. It's has an unique charm. It's located in an old hotel building in downtown Winter Garden. The full restaurant part is set up to be the chef's table tasting room - menus are flexible based on the daily market with some signature dishes always available. The tables (8-10 of them) are open to the kitchen. The chef talks to you about each course and can customize for preferences. It is a Price Fixe $55 for 3 courses. Absolutely incredible food in an intimate setting, but not a pretty place. Sort of industrial meets old world.

Because it was becoming such a special occasion place, they opened in the Tasting Room in another part of the hotel which is less expensive and more casual. Same chef and attention to detail, but smaller tapas style menu and portions.

This place is a foodie's delight!

Either place would take you between 20 -30 minutes from Disney. Winter Garden is an old orange farming village that has begun to reinvent itself. It has quaint shops and restaurants and always has live entertainment in the town center on Friday nights.

Good Italian is hard to find...the best was Stefano's in Windermere but it closed for a while and is supposed to reopen in the same area as Nagoya's sometime this fall. The chef/owner is from Pittsburgh and cooks real old school Italian food. Lots of newer, lighter things too but it's hard to find a great red sauce here in Orlando and his is really good.

Good luck and enjoy!

 

[lcasa]

We're going to meet with our East Coast family in December and the Disney prices were just too high - The Chef's Table looks perfect! Thanks for the tip.

 

[mrsklamc]

If your husband hasn't eaten at one already I promise this will knock his socks off. Fogo de Chao.

 

[BGK]

I can't say enough about The Chef's Table. We discovered it when I read an article about the chef. He was a high ranking chef at Disney. Cooked at Cali Grill and V & A. Decided with his wife to strike out on their own. It's has an unique charm. It's located in an old hotel building in downtown Winter Garden. The full restaurant part is set up to be the chef's table tasting room - menus are flexible based on the daily market with some signature dishes always available. The tables (8-10 of them) are open to the kitchen. The chef talks to you about each course and can customize for preferences. It is a Price Fixe $55 for 3 courses. Absolutely incredible food in an intimate setting, but not a pretty place. Sort of industrial meets old world.

I second this in a big, big way. I was fortunate to be treated as a friend of the house when I went there for a dinner for twelve put together by a friend of Chef Kevin's. The food was singularly good and a steal at $55. The wine list wasn't the same old-same old and very well priced. The only reason I don't make it there every trip is that it's closed Sunday and Monday and it's sometimes hard to work into my schedule.

I'll add two more:

Cedars on Restaurant Row for Lebanese. I go through about two baskets of their house-baked pita mopping up a dish of hummus and/or baba ganoush. They usually have a lamb stew with tomato and okra that has me licking the plate.

For sushi, I'm big on Sushi Tomi, in the Staples/Wal-Mart shopping center on the east side of John Young Pkwy. just about halfway between Sand Lake and the Beeline. It's a total hole in the wall, though always neat and clean. It's always full of Japanese expatriates from Mitsubishi. The menu is relatively sparse, and not given to showy rolls; it's what many Japanese consider authentic sushi. The sushi chef is a total grump and usually hung over, but it's like watching an artist at work. That is cheap is a plus. I've stopped going to local places since I discovered Sushi Tomi.

I do like Seasons 52 as well. If you're not familiar with their concept, every item on the menu is 450 calories or less. I don't know how they do it, but I'm amazed that I can eat as well as I do there and still be "good." It's a good light option, also open at lunch, which makes it a good last-day choice when I'm heading into a three-hour drive home. (Now that we have one nearby in Naples, though, I usually pass on the Sand Lake one for something I can't get at home)

If you're in the mood for oysters and beer, and are willing to drive a ways and go really down-market, I can recommend another place...

 

[brunette8706]

Nagoya's is superb. Really fresh and they will custom make any combination you might want. It's a small place, maybe 12 tables tucked in a corner of Sand Lake and Dr. Phillips Dr. Family owned (no not mine ). When we have friends in town who really love sushi, this is where we take them. Lots of folks recommend the sushi place in Celebration and it is good, but higher priced and I think much more commercial.

I can't say enough about The Chef's Table. We discovered it when I read an article about the chef. He was a high ranking chef at Disney. Cooked at Cali Grill and V & A. Decided with his wife to strike out on their own. It's has an unique charm. It's located in an old hotel building in downtown Winter Garden. The full restaurant part is set up to be the chef's table tasting room - menus are flexible based on the daily market with some signature dishes always available. The tables (8-10 of them) are open to the kitchen. The chef talks to you about each course and can customize for preferences. It is a Price Fixe $55 for 3 courses. Absolutely incredible food in an intimate setting, but not a pretty place. Sort of industrial meets old world.

Because it was becoming such a special occasion place, they opened in the Tasting Room in another part of the hotel which is less expensive and more casual. Same chef and attention to detail, but smaller tapas style menu and portions.

This place is a foodie's delight!

Either place would take you between 20 -30 minutes from Disney. Winter Garden is an old orange farming village that has begun to reinvent itself. It has quaint shops and restaurants and always has live entertainment in the town center on Friday nights.

Good Italian is hard to find...the best was Stefano's in Windermere but it closed for a while and is supposed to reopen in the same area as Nagoya's sometime this fall. The chef/owner is from Pittsburgh and cooks real old school Italian food. Lots of newer, lighter things too but it's hard to find a great red sauce here in Orlando and his is really good.

Good luck and enjoy!

*
Hi there! thanks so much for the detailed information. This place sounds really nice. Thanks for your input! Brunette

 

[brunette8706]

If your husband hasn't eaten at one already I promise this will knock his socks off. Fogo de Chao.

*
Hi! Was there for my birthday last year, in Baltimore! LOVED IT!

thanks!
brunette