Traveling North while staying South

The state of Florida is what I like to call a “Second-Life State.” In other words, a vast populaton of people spend the latter part of their lives living in Florida, after living elsewhere during their childhood, school days, and early adult life. Now, there is no evidence I have to support this claim, so let’s just call it a theory. But, how else can you explain the influx of Northerners that seem to find their way down south? In sports matches all over Florida, the northern teams have the attendance edge for crying out loud---Celtics, Red Sox, Yankees, Patriots, Steelers, Eagles, etc.

And its not just the northerners—we also have a crazy variety of Hispanics and South Americans living in the Orlando, Tampa, and Miami-Dade area. Outside of perhaps California, it’s hard to find a state with a much deeper variety of people as Florida. Unlike your grumpy border states (Arizona, Texas, Arizona, Arizona), Florida is seemingly a lot more accepting of other cultures. Do you see northerners thriving in any other state? We are slightly off-topic, but let me get to the point. Restaurants like Boston’s Fish House exist and flourish because of Florida’s attractive “second-life” ways. Florida is a total escape from the craziness, packed, building-frenzied, tree-lacking northern areas. But, a part of you will always be from New York, or Boston, or Philly or Jersey.

And once again, enter Boston’s Fish House. For over 10 years, Boston’s Fish House has become a local hit and staple in the Orlando-Winter Park area. Why? Because their seafood comes directly (and they claim only) from the Northeast coast. You won’t find Florida seafood or Louisiana seafood; its legit Northern seafood. Now, this type of institution should have had more trouble, because Florida is a state known for its abundance of…um…seafood. Florida’s coastline is longer than the entire Atlantic coastline starting from Georgia up to Maine (Pointless trivia for the day)—which means finding places serving fish is easier than finding stupidity in Fox News.



Boston’s Fish House is also known for its unique way of ordering and serving food. You lineup, order your food, pay the bill and the tip, and then you are seated. Whatever reason this is, I don’t know, but it definitely contributes to the longer lines you’ll usually see in the place. The menu is chock full of seafood; fried, broiled, steamed, etc. While they do offer other things like chicken, why do that in a Fish House? The food items don’t come cheap either sometimes, so be a bit prepared to spend a long dollar. Their prices are indeed justifiable; after all, their seafood travels a lot.


Me, Kyle, and Michael were on this trip. All in all, we ordered: Fish and chips (sides of fries and onion rings), fried shrimp (sides of fries and mac and cheese), Chicken Philly (a massive sandwich…you’ll see later)(Sides of fries and mac and cheese), and a lobster bisque appetizer. Boston’s Fish House entertains you while you wait with loads of memorabilia of up north, from the old-school pictures to new-school photos of their popular sports teams. For some odd reason there was less Patriots stuff….





The lobster bisque was absolutely incredible. Most (good) bisque I’ve had was creamy, hot, and filling. This bisque has all that, except it’s much more flavorful (the lobster smell hits you before you even take your first sip) and there’s even pieces of lobster inside the broth. That was just the icing on the cake. Everyone else loved it too. This is hands-down the top lobster bisque I’ve ever had. The fish and chips were unique, because they are in bite-sized pieces. They do use your usual cod, but it’s not strips of fish, they were like nuggets. Despite the texture differential, these fish and chips were mighty good. It was more fish than batter (always a good sign), and tasted very fresh. They aren’t as filling as other fish and chips I’ve had before though.







The fried shrimp was also fresh, delicious, and tasted much different from the Florida norm. Now, this all goes down to preference, but I love Florida shrimp and its mild sweetness to it (See: This place). But I am sure we’ll have a vast popularity prefer the shrimp here. Not saying either is bad, but, Tampa Bay in my opinion is Good Shrimp Heaven. Kyle’s Chicken Philly I didn’t try, but it looked like an adventure in itself. Chunks of chicken, peppers, mushrooms, melted cheese can be seen overflowing on top and in between the bread. Kyle was in temporary heaven. The sides were all good, with the cheesy and delicious mac and cheese being the pick of the litter.

Bottom Line: Boston’s Fish House is an escape from Florida, and an escape from Florida seafood. The restaurant even smells different from your average Floridian restaurant. So if you are a Northerner or a northeast food lover and live down south, you should make a trip to this place and transport yourself into another part of the country. The mildly high prices and long lines may scare you, but once you look past that, you are going to submerge yourself in a world of good spirits, good seafood, and good variety amongst the food. They feed you plenty, and go the distance in making sure the food is fresh. Every day they are open they actually close in the mid-afternoon to filter the cooking oils. Now, that my friends is impressive from a culinary perspective. So if you want a taste of Boston but don’t have the money to leave the state, take a trip to Winter Park, where a (nice) piece of Boston was shipped down there.

Final Verdict: Recommend...even for you Rays and Yankee fans..

Boston's Fish House
6860 Aloma Avenue
Winter Park, FL 32792-6802
(407) 678-2107

In The Middle of a Cloudy Street is a Cuisine Ray of Sunshine

Oak Ridge is not exactly the nicest area of Orlando, Florida. With a rough crime record, low poverty, struggling schools, low maintenance, and being close to the naughty ends of Orange Blossom Trail, Oak Ridge has not been my favorite place to be close to. In the midst of the street though is a building that has been around since the 60s, and a restaurant that has withstood years of Oak Ridge-ness. King Express has been around for over 10 years and has outlasted all the other businesses in the vicinity. Multiple thrift stores, multiple restaurants, and even multiple pizza places has come and gone, but King Express defeated them all.

After years of (quickly) driving down the street and always seeing it with several parked cars and more on the drive-thru, I finally caved in and decided to give the place a shot. The outside and the inside of the restaurant doesn’t really have much pizzazz or style. It was simplistic, but clean. The menu looked very outdated above the employees, but there were a couple smaller menus to look at. It has all the makings of the typical Chinese restaurant menu—except it has some emphasis on non-Chinese food like spare ribs and chicken wings. According to the employee taking our order, the most popular items are spare ribs and the bourbon chicken. I counted at least 30 different meals on the menu, with specials running back and forth.




I ordered the spare ribs as an appetizer and went with the general tzo’s chicken. Michael orders the krab Rangoon and the bourbon chicken. The krab Rangoon was pretty good, but is absolutely nothing compared to that of Green House; the top Chinese restaurant in Orlando (My opinion..which is usually right). Their krab Rangoon is crunchy on the outside, soft and filling on the inside. The spare rib was the top part of the meal, clearly leagues above everything else. The meat was great, the sauce was rich, and as an appetizer, it was quite filling. That was the hit of our meal.






The bourbon chicken is one of the more popular items---but I don’t see why. The meat was good, but the sauce was running and lacking flavor. Maybe I’m just not a bourbon chicken person—my brother enjoyed it. The general tzo chicken on the other hand was very good, among the best this side of Wal-Mart (Don’t laugh, the John Young Wal-Mart has some darn good chicken). The sauce worked much better than the bourbon chicken (Seriously, stop laughing). Funny thing though, the restaurant claimed it was spicy, when tzo was anything but (Why are you still laughing?).

My meal came with steamed white rice (you can have pork fried rice, but I like my rice simple and white) and an egg roll. All this food for a mere 6 bucks, and trust me, it’s a lot of food and you will not be able to finish (Unless you skipped breakfast and dinner the night before). To clarify: we got rice, egg rolls, Rangoon, spare rib, water, soda, bourbon chicken, fortune cookies, and general’s tzo chicken. Total: 20-something bucks. Chinese restaurants are notorious for delivering a lot of food for smaller prices, but even then King’s Express manages to outdo themselves in terms of price value.


Bottom Line: The mystery behind the success of the "little restaurant that could" is revealed. King’s Express’ success stems from good food, a lot of good food, and small prices that holds it all together. While the location is less than stellar, King’s Express is among the better Chinese restaurants in Central Florida. A hidden gem in the midst of the Oak Ridge edginess, this nifty corner of cuisine goodness excels with Chinese and non-Chinese food. The meat was good and fresh, the meals were big, and our stomachs remained happy. If only the fortune cookie revealed the next lottery numbers……

Final Verdict: Recommend. Just be careful around there.

King's Express
2225 West Oak Ridge Road
Orlando, FL 32809-3884
(407) 854-7899

The Irish Side of Disney

Downtown Disney is a mere shadow of what it used to be. Pleasure Island is a mess, the entertainment within the downtown area is not that great, and CityWalk is continuously outperforming it. As a competitor, I would be quite ticked that Downtown still looks like a mess since they started its ugly downward spiral back in 2005 (When they eliminated the nightly “New Years” celebrations). That being said, there are still some nice little secrets in the area. These tiny little secrets keep the place afloat; whether it’s the underrated Art of Disney, the wonderful Team Disney, and the top under-the-radar restaurant in Downtown: Raglan Road. Raglan Road is an Irish restaurant full of life and vibrant energy---as well as good food.






Located right next to the massive steamboat/restaurant Fulton’s Crab House (Too expensive even for me) and the Italian restaurant (which seems to change names every month…I think), Raglan Road is part of the Irish restaurant corner alongside Cookes of Dublin. It has been around for over five years, yet remains one of the younger Downtown Disney restaurants. Every night they offer live entertainment, which includes Irish folk music and beautiful women dancing to it flawlessly. But of course, you will come here for the food (Unless you are aiming to find yerself’ a Irish dame—and you have to read this again with an Irish accent).




For the appetizer, I decided to try their Guinness wings, which consists of a sweet and sour glaze, beer, and comes with a side of herb butter. These wings attack your fingers better than your average wings, and by the end of it all your napkins will turn orange. That being said, the wings were fantastic, and mixed perfectly well with the ranch; it wasn’t too sweet or too spicy, it’s just right. However the outstanding part of the pre-meal is the bread/dip combination. The dip is actually made with a mix of olive oil, other ingredients, and beer (of course). I would never expect beer to be an essential ingredient to an awesome dip, but I was quite surprised.





Michael ordered the steak sanger, which is an open-faced sandwich served with a salad. The sandwich itself has basil grilled vegetables. The $15 steak sandwich was pretty good for its price, because of its inclusion of salad and the fact that you have a good-sized steak in an actual sandwich. I ordered the fish and chips, a classic European dish which has become a hit in both restaurants in the Irish corner (most popular item in Raglan Road, along with their Shepherd’s Pie). The $16 price tag is a bit heftier, since you get one massive cod instead of multiple pieces of fish along with Irish fries. The end result however was very good, as they are the best fish and chips not coming from Cookes of Dublin and Whiskey Joes. The fish was rich, and the fried part was not too overpowering in flavor (and calories). And then came dessert.


The bread and butter pudding is fantastic in every shape and form imaginable. It is easily, hands-down the greatest bread pudding I’ve ever had, and makes up for nearly all the potential shortcomings of the main course. It is something you must see to believe. This bread pudding is thick, very rich, and progressively gets better the deeper you dig into the dessert. Enhancing it more is the vanilla sauce and butterscotch sauce served in little cups that can be used to pour on the pudding. This is one of the better desserts I’ve had in a Florida restaurant, and is the top item of the entire restaurant. Seriously.

Bottom Line: Raglan Road is a delightful restaurant that has a vibrant nightlife with music, dancing, and a very happy-go-lucky bar scene. While the lunchtime lacks the entertainment, it still has the same quality food of the evening. Raglan Road is a great Irish restaurant, no matter what time it is. With most of the items drenched in good beer and good ingredients, you will not be receiving any knock-off Irish cuisine. This is the real stuff, and real good stuff at that.

Final Verdict: Recommend

Raglan Road
1640 East Buena Vista Drive
Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830