Our Epic Return to Jaxson's Ice Cream

Several years ago after another trip to South Florida, me and the crew decided to give Jaxson’s Ice Cream a shot due to its overwhelming recommendations from locals. We were all immediately transported into heaven, which I am sure serves those same peanut butter sundaes. This spot remains hands-down one of the best places we’ve ever visited, and that was just dessert. Fast-forward a couple years to this previous weekend with another trip to Miami. Of course, we couldn’t resist the opportunity to visit Jaxson.



However, me and my brother were going to attack lunch before tackling dessert again. The lunch menu is just as extensive and crazy as their infamous dessert menu. While it all sounded good, I went with one of their hot dogs with cheddar cheese and bacon. My brother orders their Santa Fe Burger---which was a burger with onion rings and bbq sauce. We also threw in an order of fries since most of the entrees don’t come with them.





In case you have not read the previous post, this place has history and a very rabid fanbase. Everything essentially is made from scratch and their portions are ginormous which explains its success since the 50s. The place sounds, smells, feels like it’s from the old-school days of Florida where things were slow, laid-back, and a long days away from Northern influence. The food arrives and the size is intimidating to the nth degree.




My hot dog isn’t just massive in length, but in thickness, as they throw in bacon that is just as long and several slices of cheese to counter it. It looked scary. Stop snickering you perverts. My brother’s burger looked just as intimidating (not like we’ll know visually, because he started attacking before I even took a picture) but it consisted of a soft bun containing thick onion rings, a thick patty, and plenty of sauce and cheese. To sum it up, my hot dog is quite possibly the best I’ve ever had, way up there with the Salty Dog over in Sarasota. The hot dog by itself with some ketchup would have been enough, but the juicy bacon and warm cheese just took this dish to new levels of awesomeness. Michael’s burger was also a fantastic work of art, as their homemade sauce and crazy big onion rings ran perfectly with the thick patty. The side order of fries was barely touched as our lunches were enough to fill the hungriest of men. But, we still needed to at least have some dessert.


After getting up and walking around a little, we order dessert. I went with the Chocolate Showers (Chocolate chip ice cream topped with marshmallow and chocolate sauces, sprinkled with bits of pure chocolate, finished with whipped cream and a cherry.) while my brother repeated his previous experience with a peanut butter sundae. Word to the wise the place can get pricy, but it’s all forgiven because of the quantity, the quality, and the freshness of it all.





The ice cream was just as good as last time. Anyplace that makes their own whipped cream is bound to be a hit, no matter what you tell me. The chocolate showers did not disappoint as it was layer after layer of awesome, layer after layer of sugar-infused epicness. Take your favorite ice cream experience and quantify it multiple times: you get Jaxson’s Ice Cream dessert. I have had a lot of excellent dessert back in the day and since I started this blog, but none have yet to hold a candle to Jaxsons.



Bottom Line: Round 2 of Jaxson’s Ice Cream was a smash hit with their amazing lunch and always-spectacular dessert. My only gripe is merely wondering how on earth could anyone come here for lunch AND dessert, since the portions are so crazy. And better yet, who orders appetizers? Who has that much room in their stomach? Nonetheless, this spot delivers in so many ways, I can’t find enough words to truly express my content towards this South Florida mastery. If you are ever within the vicinity of South Florida, coming here is a requirement.


Final Verdict (again): Strongly Recommend




Jaxson's Ice Cream
128 South Federal Highway 
Dania Beach, FL 33004

Grand Floridian Cafe: Light Version of Grand Floridian Dining

The Grand Floridian is Disney’s most prestigious hotel in the Florida side, and arguably the most prestigious in the entire world of Disney outside of the one in Tokyo DisneySea. And it will only get better once they get the Vacation Club section a couple years from now. But the price range of this place goes from ridiculous to are-you-kidding-me? Yes, the place is expensive, and it will drain your bank account. The restaurants fall under the same category. For example the legendary Victoria and Alberts is such a commodity that it’s the only dining spot in Disney World with its own website---as well as the ultimate dining rating of the Five Diamond Award.







Despite my poorness though, I really wanted to give at least one Grand Floridian restaurant a try. Enter Grand Floridian Café, arguably the cheapest of the uppity-scale half-dozen restaurants in the Grand borders. The place still has the look, feel, and scale of the Floridian, but the price range is a little more bearable. The place looks fantastic, even if they don’t go the whole nine yards like the other spots. The servers are all full of smiles and there isn’t a moment of discontent from the second I walked in to the second I sat down. The menu isn’t very big, but did have some nice variety. Their boast to fame though is their Grand Floridian Burger. This was actually my main draw, being a burger fanatic.







I went with their Caesar salad (shocker) and their burger, knowing there was some bread before the actual meal. The bread was sourdough (my eternal favorite) and multi-grain, and it came with butter seemingly peppered with salt. Odd, but quite a good combination I must say. The place was packed with many large parties so the wait time was longer than usual. I get the salad and being the tradition of your fancier joints, they offer very little dressing and very little topping. Like good samples, they are good but never enough. The croutons were amazing, as well as the cheese pieces and the dressing that was barely dabbed on the dish. The greens tasted fresh, crisp, and had a nice bite. But curses did I wish it had more dressing.




And then came the burger.


This elegant behemoth boasts a large patty, caramelized onions, arugula, crispy prosciutto, red onion marmalade and lastly---butter lobster. This is practically a big dinner wrapped up in a burger. The burger was fantastic to say the least, well worth the $19. Think about it, you get lobster, a thick burger, and more at less than twenty dollars—it’s actually quite a deal. Back to the burger. This burger was legit, and although the caramelized onions may have been plentiful in quantity, everything else fell perfectly in terms of flavor. The lobster worked with the arugula, the thin ham worked with the burger, and the marmalade was very unique but complimented the chips quite well. Hands-down one of the most unique burgers I’ve ever had, but it made me forget that it was missing cheese; my usual partner to the patty.



Dessert was interesting because they were all such small portions. Are you cutting costs? In an area notorious for large desserts, I was shocked Disney didn’t offer anything huge for the final course in this place. Perhaps all this disappointment stems from the fact that the ridiculously small boston crème pie that they serve is out of this universe. The biggest issue with the pie is size, but everything else worked from the chocolate to the cream to the crust. At least the price tag was small ($3.29).





Bottom Line: If you want to dine like a Grand Floridian guest, then have no fear because there is a spot that won’t assassinate your bank account. The Grand Floridian Café is by no means cheap, but it offers great service, superb food at (slightly) reasonable prices. While the appetizer menu doesn’t draw attention, their burger (and their pasta) will. It is one of the best burgers in Disney World, and with the lobster inclusion it just brings the experience of consuming a burger to a unique level. It is worthy of at least one visit and who knows? Like a slew of the guests in the area, you might be a regular.


Final Verdict: Recommend




Grand Floridian Café
Disney World
Lake Buena Vista, Fl

Sloppy Taco Palace: Hidden Messy Fun

With the mammoth numbers of Ale Houses that sprinkle Central Florida, it can get pretty tough to find a local bar/hangout spot that can compete with the multitude of other drinking/eating options. With the chains increasing their repertoire on food and alcohol, many of the smaller bars and pubs die out. We even had an extremely popular billiards location in the South Orange Blossom Trail area die out because of the zillions of options elsewhere.



One spot that has survived all this though is Sloppy Taco Palace, a uniquely named bar that is known for serving up great food as well as offers a nice local young-at-heart atmosphere. A guest at Disney World actually recommended this place to me years ago. I finally gave it a shot. The outside fascinates me because the sign is so gosh-darn small. This place comes off as almost like an exclusive club that relies thoroughly on word-of-mouth.

Sloppy Taco Palace is located in the smack middle of a big plaza that is hidden behind restaurants in the front, a busy intersection, and a tall bridge that rises right next to it. Indiana Jones would have trouble finding this spot. The inside is decked out through vintage license plates, pictures everywhere, a small bar, a few tables, and of course a stage for live music. Despite the name, there is much less Mexican and much more Bar going on around here.


The menu is small on the food side, while very creative and expansive for the alcohol end—over 30 types of beers are mentioned on the menu, and that doesn’t include all the extra alcohol they most likely possess at the bar itself. I went with their sloppy taco basket, and got it with chips and queso dip. Nothing major. What makes their tacos different is that besides making everything fresh and to order, they lightly fry their tortilla shells before decking it with the toppings and fixings.

Sloppy’s tacos are legit, even if they are outside of the usual taco box. Your usual tacos come with the meat, lettuce, tomato, guacamole, etc. These bad boys come with the meat, some of the queso sauce, and a heavy dosage of pico de gallo. I am not a fan of pico de gallo in the least bit, but “when in Rome,” might as well try it anyway. The quality of the meat in the tacos was astounding, as I ordered one with chicken and the other with ground beef. The meat was plentiful, and was filling to say the least, with the ground beef being far superior. The pico didn’t distract but it didn’t enhance either—I wished there wasn’t so much. The shell itself was good, the chicken was good, and the consuming itself is quite an adventure as the food isn’t afraid of getting all over you.

The tacos weren’t the hit of the meal though; it was those decent chips combined with the spectacular queso dip. The queso dip felt, smelled, and tasted straight out of Mexican food heaven, as it was extremely thick, very creamy, and rich enough to flush away any negative thoughts. I avoided the salsa altogether because my heart was set on queso and was not going to let go. All this happened at less than $10. The prices inside this eatery are phenomenal with plenty of specials flying around. In here, you can definitely get your money’s worth.



Bottom Line: Not many bars can double as a good place to find good food. Sloppy Taco Palace defies the norm and defies the competition by becoming a low-key staple in the Universal area with good prices, good food, and good times. While I am not a drinker by any means (Despite being a Dolphins fan) I still recommend this place because you can still get a kick out of this joint without the help of an ounce of alcohol. Here’s to more years of continued success in the Sloppy Palace.

*holds up messy taco*

Final Verdict: Recommend

Sloppy Taco Palace
4892 South Kirkman Road
Orlando, FL 32811
(407) 574-6474