Start the Day Here, You Won't End the Day Disappointed

Walt Disney World excels in terms of quick-service food and table-service food. That being said, finding decent breakfast in Disney World is a little tougher to come by. With no restaurants in the parks that excel solely in breakfast food, guests usually have to rely on bakeries or quick-service spots serving typical breakfast items to get by before lunch. I can promise you this is also why Disney serves lunch in the earlyish hours of 10:30 a.m. in some areas. Well, I’ve found a great exception to this rule, and it relies in a hidden corner in Hollywood Studios.


Starring Rolls Café is a very small bakery/eatery located right next to the higher-profile Hollywood Brown Derby on Sunset Boulevard. Located inside are some of the best bakery goods in all of Orlando, not just Disney. While the variety isn’t that heavy breakfast-wise, these wonderfully delicious treats are filling to the core, and more than make up for its lack of eggs, bacon, French toast, and other breakfast normalities (Not a word, stop looking it up). It doesn’t have the variety of Epcot’s infamous Boulangerie Patisserie in the French pavilion, but it’s open earlier, making it more reliable for breakfast. And it also has superior Napoleons and éclairs.




The décor of the Starring Rolls is simple but effective. With a few decoration items here and there, Starring Rolls has the 30s/40s look. Inside, you are hit with a variety of sugary smells as from the getgo in the queue you see baked goods to your left. You’ll see muffins, croissants, cinnamon rolls, bagels, and cookies before even reaching their specialty items. Drinks here include the essential milk, juice, and water. Once you get past the first round of temptation you will see a cooler with all their special items. This is when you are going to start drooling.







Éclairs, Napoleons, Butterfinger cupcakes, peanut butter cupcakes, tiramisus, banana split pudding, brownies, parfaits, fruit tarts, and more can be seen behind the glass as you make your way to the ordering stage. Here you can also order your coffee. To make things clear, all the food looks utterly delicious. It’s just a shame that the prices are a little in the upper rage, otherwise I would order half of the items to get a little of all the magic. Did I mention that there are also fruit, candy apples, rice crispy treats, and fudge? The most popular items I’ve been told are the cupcakes, but since it was breakfast time I went with the éclair and the Napoleon.


Pure. Heaven. Oh. My. Goodness. The éclair is the greatest on Disney property, and I can say this with confidence. I have never had an éclair with so much cream filling, and fantastic filling at that. The chocolate on top is just the icing on the cake. Unlike the éclairs of France, the ones here are also very soft with a very light exterior. Therefore making these the best on property, hands-down. The Napoleons here have the reverse effect, as they are a bit rougher than those of France. Nonetheless, they are just as rich, and have a much better top layer of cream. This is also pure heaven. However, you better walk around the park several laps after consuming some of these sugary items.



Bottom Line: Did I forget to mention the delicious sandwiches? Why this place has it all: good baked goods (See what I did there?), good fruit, and good lunch options (which isn’t as common in Hollywood Studios as with other parks) to give you reason to visit a second time throughout your day. While the menu isn’t as vast as other bakeries, the items here are among the best you’ll ever have. From the spectacular breakfast to the incredible dessert to the nice snacks present from opening until 4:00 (rather early closing, I know), Starring Rolls Café is one of the better Disney secrets you’ll find in the entire property. I strongly recommend this spot to the utmost degree, as it’s a nice hidden escape from the hustle and bustle of theme park traveling. The next time you visit Hollywood, do yourself a favor and do not skip this spot. And then you can thank me later.

Verdict: Strongly Recommend

Starring Rolls Cafe
@ Disney's Hollywood Studios

A Mixed Seafood Bag of Good, and Bad.

My love for West Coast Florida seafood has been well-known amongst the constant readers (the three of you) and the family (the three of you). But, some of you may notice that there is a total lack of visits to the east coast for seafood. With the exception of Miami (which barely qualifies as East Coast, its more like Gulf Keys), this blog has yet to garnish a visit to the Atlantic coast for seafood. This changes now. Rusty’s is on the edge of Port Canaveral with 60+ years of experience from the owners under its belt. With rave reviews and strong feedback from the locals in the Cocoa/Cape area, this is the select location for my maiden voyage for Atlantic seafood.

The location of this restaurant is right dab in the middle of a busy street full of locally run restaurants and shops. Plenty of potential visits in the near future can occur here. Unlike most of the others however, the business was booming inside Rusty’s. The activity however was a lot of old-schoolers, and folks of the older age range. So single men, this is not the prime location for picking up women. The waitresses and hostesses were very nice and friendly though; they made up for the lack of subtle energy coming from the customers.

The menu like most of the seafood joints I’ve visited in Florida is quite diverse in items and types of seafood. Special note though: they have an early bird special, but it runs in the latter hours of the afternoon—3:00 until 6:00. I was too early for the early bird special. Hmmm. Anyway, back to the review, the menu is diverse, and the price rage is extensive too. You can get a nice fish sandwich at less than 8 bucks, but their most popular item, the encrusted mahi-mahi, decks in at a highish $18. This honestly isn’t bad for seafood, as it comes with a salad and a side. I wanted to try their gator bits, but when I went they were out of them. So I went with the coconut shrimp and then went with the mahi-mahi.





The salad arrived first, which was a small plate with some fresh greens and good blend of cheese and dressing. The coconut shrimp was fantastic though, as it wasn’t stuffed with too much batter and provided plenty of shrimp. It ranks up there with Margaritaville in Orlando as among the better coconut shrimp I’ve ever had. After a little bit more of a wait the main course arrived. My brother ordered the same thing as me, but we got different sides. He got potatoes, and I got the pasta. I am pretty sure I was an Italian pirate in the past, since I am in love with pasta, so that was the obvious sides choice. Other choices include fries and rice.




The mahi-mahi was unbelievable, I was very impressed. The only mahi-mahi that defeats it is Crabby Bills in the Clearwater area, but it wasn’t off by far. This mahi-mahi was much bigger and much thicker than that of Crabby Bills, but the outer crust wasn’t as much of an enhancer as the honey mustard on the west coast. But don’t let that deter you, as the mahi here is impressive to the core. Thick, juicy, and very delicious indeed. This was the prime food of my visit. Michael loved his fish as well, and he’s not even much of a seafood guy.


Then came the sides. Oh no. Most unfortunately, the sides were not as good as they could have been. The potatoes were fresh and came out hot, but there was not much added to it. I work for Disney and I know how their fantastic mashed potatoes are made: with a secret mix of milk, butter, salt, and other ingredients. There was no evidence that they added any of this to out potatoes. My pasta was interesting, because the sauce was underneath the pasta. Now, it takes a lot of effort to make me hate pasta, but like the potatoes there was not much added to the side dish of pasta. A little extra sauce could have saved this. And this is all a shame because they had to compliment an amazing fish. Very seldom does a dish not fully deliver because of the sides rather than the main item.



Dessert mildly saved the experience. I ordered their popular orange cake, which tasted like a tasty and flavorful creamsickle. That being said, Crabby Bills is up to its old tricks by one-upping this dessert with their variation of an orange cake. Crabby’s was a bit bigger and richer. Michael’s white chocolate cake was good, but I didn’t get much white chocolate flavor, which has a very distinctive taste. Nonetheless, it was creamy and full of good sugary fun. Trish, our waitress, was more than helpful and caring during a busy afternoon, so none of the mild negativity I have placed in this review will be placed on her. She made my visit there a bit more enjoyable.


Bottom Line: The potential is definitely there, as evidenced with their appetizer, dessert, and wonderful fish. But the little things, from the awkward timing of their specials to the lack of certain foods to the disappointing sides prevent it from being a truly great restaurant that ranks up there with those from the West Coast. I’ve had some fantastic seafood in the past year, all in the Tampa Bay area, so its going to be hard for any seafood place to impress me from here on out (especially with wild items like the epic seafood pizza I've had before). But Rusty’s is no mild pushover—they have great service, decent prices, and a nice view. Their success I am sure can be justified; it was just hard to justify with my visit. Maybe next time, I’ll get luckier. In the meantime, I highly recommend you try their mahi-mahi, even if their sides needs some help.

Verdict: Mildly Recommend

Rusty's
628 Glen Cheek Drive
Cape Canaveral, FL 32920
(321) 783-2033

The Little Parlor That Could

One of the main reasons I started this blog was to give exposure to the unsung cuisine heroes of Florida. In other words, try to give fame and popularity to underground and under-the-radar eateries that deserve more recognition. In this tough economy, sometimes very good restaurants suffer the unfortunate fate of having to close. Orlando has had many examples of good food ceasing to exist because it just didn’t deliver enough customers. Ragetzu, a popular local Japanese restaurant on International Drive fell to the economy last year. But the saddest moment in recent times came when our only Whataburger in the lower Orlando side shut down all of a sudden. I still go to therapies on Fridays because of this.


And now we bring you a tiny little ice cream joint known as Hurricanes. Located in a massive plaza with an empty Target, an excellent GameStop, a clustered TGI Fridays, and an ever-popular Cracker Barrel in the Hunter’s Creek area, Hurricanes has been around for a couple of months. Becoming the sole competition against the Steak n’ Shake not too far across the street, Hurricanes is in a prime location for some good ice cream vending. I wanted to visit to see just what this place can offer against the norm.

Inside, the place looks like there’s a lot of unmet potential. The place consists of a couple of tables, many board games, a water fountain, and that’s about it. There’s an extra empty room, no paint, not much pizazz or personality. The owners were more than friendly to us though. The menu is your typical ice cream parlor menu: cones, shakes, malts, slushies, sundaes, etc. Their specialty is their hurricanes: which is ice cream mixed in with one of several potential items. In other words, their version of McDonalds’ McFlurry treats (not the best ice cream in the world) or Dairy Queen’s enormously popular Blizzard treats (which is one of the greatest desserts in a quick service spot….ever).The only menu setback is the variety of ice cream; which is reduced to vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry.



Kyle orders his dessert: a strawberry milkshake. Kyle is very impressed, as he calls it the second best milkshake he has ever had (First place is a no-brainer for you frequent readers) in his life. Michael orders the peanut butter sundae; which consisted of vanilla ice cream, peanut butter sauce, whipped cream, and peanuts. Michael enjoyed his sundae, as it’s his second-favorite peanut butter sundae (First place…yep.) The ice cream is thick and creamy, and ranks up there as some of the best ice cream you can find in quick-service eateries around Orlando. It resembles the very thick ice cream of Steak n’ Shake, and lacks the watery texture of McDonalds and Burger King shakes. The peanut butter sauce was nice and warm, and complimented the vanilla quite well. There’s just something magical about good peanut butter.



I ordered one of their specialty sundaes, the brownie sundae. It consisted of brownie pieces topped with ice cream, and served with whipped cream, hot fudge, and peanuts. Like Michael’s sundae, the ice cream was nice and thick, the hot fudge was good, and the brownie pieces were an added plus. However, at nearly $4, the size leaves a little to be desired. If it was an entire brownie, fine, but they were a couple of small chunks. On the other hand, Kyle’s milkshake was well-priced ($2.49) and so was Mike’s sundae ($2.89). I also tried out the vanilla milkshake, which was quite filling. This dessert is the perfect compliment to the bar/grill food of the restaurant located next door.

The highlight of this place isn’t just the ice cream; it’s the presentation it’s trying to convey. This is very family-friendly location, as there are little games sprinkled everywhere to keep the tykes entertained for a little while the parents relax. There was a hopscotch area; some connect four, a chessboard, an air hockey table, and smaller games on some of the tables. I am sure with time if more families discover this; it will become a nice getaway from your normal ice cream joint. This is an ice cream place with a charming yet quietly subtle personality.


Bottom Line: The place is new, so it has a lot of potential to grow. With a little improvement in its presentation, Hurricanes can become a successful Hunter’s Creek staple amongst the several thousand citizens that live in the surrounding neighborhoods. They can paint the place a little, use that extra room for something, just make it stand out a bit more in the Target plaza.

It is in a prime location—next to pizza, video games, and wings. Similar to what Little Caesars and Tijuana Flats does to Rita’s Italian Ice on the other side of Hunter’s Creek, Hurricanes can benefit from the lunch/dinner places closeby like TGI, Marco’s and Cracker Barrel. All it needs is a way to entice customers, get their attention. They have the ice cream quality part pat down; all they need is a few more flavors. Other than that, their ice cream is delicious and not too expensive. I wish this business the best of luck in these tough times, because they have the potential and the ability of becoming a smash hit parlor.

Final Verdict: Recommend

Hurricane's Ice Cream
2061 Town Center Blvd.
Orlando, FL, 32837
407-888-0686

Stretchin' The Washingtons for Breakfast

The economy has seen better days. As a matter of fact it’s been a while since we’ve seen a decent economy that isn’t threatening to send the country on the brink of pure destruction. That last sentence may have been pure exaggeration to get your attention, but you get the point. So this is why our blog comes with a financial toll. We chug plenty of gas driving plenty of miles for food that might be valued plenty of $$$ (and not always justified….). Yet every so often we find a spot so unbelievably cheap, it winds up being cheaper than going to a restaurant a few blocks away.


Paul’s Kitchen is a very tiny restaurant in the middle of a very tiny town with a strong following. Three years in the business, it’s actually the only restaurant in the area to accumulate strong reviews online in the world of Google. It has a very popular breakfast and a popular lunch. I decided to make the drive there to figure out why. Wauchula is a small town with a population tweaking past 4,000 and lacking any tall buildings whatsoever. Finding the place took a while, but was quite easy to find. From the outside it looks like a nice cozy house.


Inside, elderly citizens and obvious frequent visitors scattered the place. The menu is what made us realize we were in for a treat. There were some breakfast items that were just $2-$4 and none of the portions in the restaurant looked small. Upon further reading, we noticed that nearly every single item, from sandwiches to steaks, was priced at underneath the $10 bar. The breakfast was also far cheaper than the lunch. Paul’s Kitchen opens from 6:00 in the morning and runs all the way to 9:00 P.M. So to start things off, the hours and the prices were very convenient.


Michael orders the country fried steak and eggs. All our dishes came with a biscuit and home fries. Kyle orders the meat lover’s omelet: which was eggs mixed with bacon, sausage, and ham. I originally was going to get the country fried steak and eggs, but since my brother ordered it, I decided to go with the sirloin steak and eggs. Believe it or not, the juice almost cost more than some of the breakfast meals. After a little bit of waiting, all our food arrived; served to us by a very happy waitress.


The winner of this breakfast was Kyle’s meat lover’s omelet; which looked phenomenal. Kyle actually mildly complained over the abundance of egg in his omelet, he got that much food. It looked very scrumptious. He definitely got his money’s worth ($5.50). Michael’s country fried steak was spectacular, juicy and full of flavor. The meat was totally engulfed by the gravy, which is like a burger drowned in good ketchup and veggies---good, but the condiments/additions being a bit much. A little less gravy would have definitely helped. Mike’s country fried steak: $6.50. The home fries and biscuits were also good and plentiful. My sirloin steak was good, but unfortunately the weakest of the three main plates.




Perhaps it’s the fact that I am eating a huge hunk of steak for breakfast—something I am not used to. Perhaps it’s the fact that Le Tub’s burger was sirloin, therefore making all other sirloin look bad. Perhaps it’s my immediate regretting of not ordering country fried. Nonetheless, the steak was good, but ultimately unsatisfying when compared to the delicious delicious country fried steak that belonged to Michael. Not to mention it was also quite a battle to get through, as it was a tough steak to cut. But, it was quality meat, and quite juicy, as I wound up making a puddle of steak juice underneath the chunk of protein.



Bottom Line: Three huge plates, and when you add it up, totaled less than $20 before tips. This is the consensus of the breakfast in Paul’s Kitchen: cheap, good, plentiful. Some of the best value we’ve experienced since beginning this blog, Paul’s Kitchen has a superb breakfast menu full of items that will fill you up without holding your wallet hostage. While I got the weakest of the three plates, I knew I was still getting my money’s worth, and I know that this restaurant is no pushover. While we didn’t have anything for lunch, I give this place high marks in terms of the breakfast that serves until the 11:00 hour. As for afterwards, enter at your own risk.



Totally kidding. They have a Country Fried Club Sandwich. That just sounds awesome.

Verdict: Recommend

Paul's Kitchen
116 N 4th Ave.
Wauchula, Fl 33873
(863) 773-0292

Mizu: Culinary Sushi--Multiple Japanese restaurants wrapped into one

The Loop is a forever-expanding area in the edges of Orlando (technically, Kissimmee) that has skyrocketed in success, popularity, and size since its beginning stages early last decade. Even with the area running out of room to expand, there are still new stores, restaurants, and businesses springing up like daisies in the Hunter’s Creek zone. One of the newest places to open is Mizu, an independently-owned Japanese restaurant next to the Best Buy. Occupying one of the corners of the plaza, Mizu has been quietly serving customers since last year. Craving good Japanese food every so often, I decided to give this place a shot. Little did I know the world of craziness that was about to follow.




Mizu’s menu is one of the more varied and extensive ones I’ve ever seen from a place. There’s an entire menu for lunch and an entirely different menu for dinner. Add 6 types of soup, over 30 appetizers, 9 salads, over 60 main courses, and dozens of types of sushi (and its relatives), and we have ourselves a ballgame. I didn’t even know where to begin. Literally, over 100 items within the multiple pages of the menu. I did notice that this place has rock shrimp though: a type of shrimp not usually sold in restaurants or stores. Rock shrimp has an extremely tough outer shell, giving it a shorter history of seafood consumption because there was no way to eat them until the technology found a way to split the exoskeleton. Back on the subject, there was a rock shrimp tempura as an appetizer.


The shrimp was fantastic, as it has a much sweeter taste than your average shrimp. The tempura actually tasted and reminded me more of lobster rather than a variation of shrimp. The sweet taste and the soft texture contributed to its delightful flavor. The spicy mayo on the side, thick and with a kick, was a nice added touch. Now I was ready for the main course, and I decided to go the whole nine yards. They have a $29 seafood platter spectacular that included salmon, tuna steak, and shrimp altogether. King of the Sea is its name. Comes with rice, noodles, salad, and soup. Bring it on.



First I got a Japanese soda, orange flavor. The bottle was quite interesting, as it comes with multiple cautions and even comes with a set of directions to open the darn thing. It was quite a hassle, as you have to remove a piece, and then place the piece on top of the bottle, then with a lot of pressure press on the bottle until it opens. Whatever happened to the classic “twist-open” routine? The soda wasn’t a big deal either, if I am going to fight for my drink, at least make it darn good.





The soup and salad arrived first. The salad was small, but decent. Nothing special. The soup came with mushrooms, which I avoid on a daily basis. Therefore, I couldn’t tell you if the soup was any good. After a little bit of waiting, my plate arrives. The plate is huge, nearly overwhelming. Like I said before, three types of seafood followed by heaps of rice and noodles. Then they have two extra plates with different sauces for the meat. The shrimp was fantastic but was the smallest ration of the plate. You know me; I am a shrimp maniac, so I would have definitely preferred more shrimp over the huge portion that was the tuna steak. To be honest I expected an entire whole tuna. Instead I got tuna chopped up into multiple pieces mixed in with the garlic shrimp and a sweet sauce. Was the tuna steak bad? Not at all, but definitely not what I expected.




The real winners in the meal are the noodles and the salmon. The noodles are pan-fried to perfection, and enhanced the meal in multiple ways. It worked well with the white rice and complimented the shrimp perfectly. As for the salmon, yikes. It was a whole salmon cooked perfectly and seasoned with a nice teriyaki glaze that hovered over the fish like a nice tasty blanket. I was satisfied with the meal, even with the heavy price tag. I think the only way you could justify a nearly $30 plate is with a little more shrimp. Otherwise, because of sheer value of the seafood, it’s worth its pricing. Salmon and tuna (whole) are more expensive than your average seafood so it made sense why it was so expensive. But don't let this review convince you that the place is pricy, because that most certainly isn't the case--but there are indeed a couple plates that are high in price. So now that I am going the whole nine yards, might as well shoot for dessert right?



Fried cheesecake. That’s right folks, fried cheesecake. I had to try it. I like fried, and I love cheesecake (I am sure on the seventh day God invented the Cheesecake Factory). Sounded like the perfect combination. The result, just like the tuna steak, was not what I expected. The fried batter was very light, and the cheesecake inside was nearly frozen. That being said, it was still good, just an awfully different texture for when I imagined it. The whipped cream and little pocky sticks on top was a nice touch.


Bottom Line: I came in because of curiosity and I left happy because it was a fulfilling and delightful meal. Clearly this Japanese restaurant knows how to do seafood right, and if I muster the courage, perhaps I’ll go back and even tackle the sushi (This is a longshot, I prefer my seafood cooked). In the meantime, this place has some of the best salmon around, and the variety and creativity of Mizu is no joke. Anyplace with over 100 items on their menu deserves some praise and recognition, especially when the food is quite good. To add some more fuel to the fire: the lunch menu is very cheap, and unlike other eateries that save their best work for dinner, I had all this good food during the quiet and not-so-busy lunch hour. While I am not the biggest fan of the Loop and its insane traffic, Mizu gives me at least one reason to return back there on a consistent basis.

Final Verdict: Recommend

Mizu
1632 West Osceola Parkway
Kissimmee, FL 34741-0729
(407) 846-8828


P.S. They do need to work on their presentation though. When you have rap music full of profanity playing through the speakers of a Japanese restaurant, its a minor inconvenience.