When you are here for breakfast, you'll always start the day right

Breakfast they say is the most important meal of the day. This meal also happens to be the pickiest. There are a variety of items that just don’t match with breakfast, which includes meatier, heavier foods, pasta, bbq, burgers, and more. On the other hand, food that is strongly associated with breakfast can be eaten at any part of the day without you feeling strange. Your IHOPs, Dennys and Waffle Houses of the world strive and thrive off of this realization. So with breakfast food being offered 24 hours by all these chains, you rarely will find an eatery that specializes and makes its good success off of the wee-early morning. The Townhouse Restaurant is an exception.

The Townhouse Restaurant has been a Central Florida smash hit since the 1940s, a popular icon in the Oviedo area. When I visited there, I actually heard a waitress say “So, will you need the menu this time?” to a customer. This means the amount of repeat visitors is quite heavy. Also helping the restaurant are the slew of large churches close by; what better way to continue a day after mass than visit an acclaimed restaurant a few feet away?



Locals recommended me this place, and so there I went. Arriving there, the small parking lot was full and all the surrounding space not belonging to the Townhouse building was occupied. Inside, the place was jumping, as there were locals, young and old occupying every single table except for one---the one I was seated at. My main goal was to try their country fried steak, which the place said was the most popular item in their menu. I ordered the double, just in case the size of the steak wasn’t phenomenal. I ordered the orange juice, which was surprisingly rich and delicious. Not sure if it was fresh or if its from a brand, but it was darn good. My brother ordered the apple juice and seemed to take a liking to it.



My brother orders the fried bacon and egg sandwich, which sounded amazing. However, his sandwich wasn’t what it seemed. It may have been my fault, but it sounded like the bread was involved in the frying process. For example, I use skillets for my grilled cheese sandwich, and I usually douse the bread in vegetable or olive oil to enhance the flavor of the whole thing. With the sandwich here, the egg and bacon was fried, but the bread was toasted. It was not bad, but I expected something utterly different. Michael enjoyed it as well, but was staring at my dish the entire time.





This is because the country fried steak was fantastic. While it is merely half the size of the country fried steak that you can find in IHOPs everywhere, it was thicker, juicier, and much softer than the IHOP counterpart. The “Double Your Pleasure” dish comes with two eggs, homefries (or grits), and bread. At 9 bucks, it’s a decent dish size-wise. My regret was sharing with my brother some of the steak, because like I said before, it was good stuff. The eggs were decent but nothing outstanding; but then again very few places out there have fantastic eggs (535 IHOP being the lone exception).


Our breakfast was definitely filling, and the price wasn’t ridiculous either. The old-school flavor was very present at this place, whether it was the friendly staff, the friendly customers, or the all-around homey feeling that you receive the instant you step inside. Be warned though, this spot is very popular and does not support the demand. By the time I walked out of the place, there was a line of people waiting at the door for a seat. It is a classic example of a restaurant becoming bigger than it could have anticipated. A lot of history and tradition surrounds this place, and the great breakfast was icing on the old-school cake.



Bottom Line: One of the best breakfasts I’ve ever had outside my home, The Townhouse Restaurant is a superb location for breakfast-dining, as it rises above the norm with great food, great service, and a delightful atmosphere. The only breakfast place I can truly say is superior is the 535 IHOP, which has produced the best midnight food I’ve ever had—as their breakfast is just as good at midnight as during the early morning. But, this is about Townhouse, and I strongly recommend if you are searching for the best country fried steak in the state. While it is hard to justify getting up early to go out to eat, luckily this place offers breakfast all the time, developing the successful Waffle House Syndrome. When even the juice is good, you know you have something special here.




The Townhouse Restaurant
9 E. Broadway Street
Oviedo, Fl
407-365-5151

"Ohana" doesn't mean family, it means excellent food

(Originally Published on August 2010, but is being re-published in honor of its 17th birthday. It remains one of the best restaurants in all of Florida)

No cuisine adventure in the state of Florida will ever be complete without a couple of trips to Walt Disney World. Disney has a slew of popular and award-winning restaurants that’s full of flavor, diversity, and uniqueness. The point of this blog is to visit places that are beyond the norm. One of the more exceptional and extremely popular restaurants is the free-for-all Ohanas at the Polynesian Resort. For starters, the resort it is located inside is easily one of the better ones. The Polynesian Resort, open since the 70s, is a very relaxing resort with a perfect view of Cinderella’s castle. Containing a luau, a large beach-like area, multiple pools, three restaurants, a sushi bar, and a gorgeous art gallery, the Polynesian is a must-visit. But, the food is their specialty, and Ohanas is their tour-de-force.



Open since 1995, Ohanas is a restaurant located on the second floor of the Polynesian, right next to Kona Café. Ohanas is a family-style buffet, one of the few in Walt Disney World. In other words, it is indeed all-you-can-eat, but you never have to get up from your seat. The servers bring all the food and drinks to you, and as many times as you want them to. It is a multiple-course meal continuously being served to you until you surrender the white flag. This concept isn’t new or unique, but considering that this restaurant contains one of the largest open fire pits for cooking meats in the planet, Ohanas rises above your typical buffet. What also separates Ohanas from the typical all-you-can-eat joint is the sheer quality and freshness of the food. The cooks are at the pit continuously from 6:00 all the way up to past 10:00 without hesitation. Even on slower nights, the food will arrive at your table fresh, steaming, and prepared to be eaten.


The meal (as of now) is as follows: bread, fresh salad, chicken wings, pork dumplings, Hawaiian noodles, broccoli, big juicy pieces of pork, shrimp, chicken, and steak. Ohanas is also known for its multitude of changes, as they used to have different dipping sauces, as well as different appetizers (their Polynesian chips are some of the best snacks I’ve ever had—you can now order them in their quick-service restaurant downstairs). So, picture getting to eat all that food, as much of it as you want….and there’s still dessert at the very end.



We start with the bread, which is very sweet and very soft. Not much more to say there, except its great bread that doesn’t need any butter on side or anything like that. Then comes the salad, which remains the best salad I’ve ever had. Their salad is your usual greens, very fresh, with a few hints of carrot pieces, but this is all covered by an amazing honey-lime dressing. The dressing makes the salad, no question about it. I actually have the recipe on how to make it, and there are a lot of items and ingredients involved in making the dressing alone. I am better off letting the pros make it. I’d love for this dressing to be sold in Disney stores, because I can think of a dozen great uses for it.



My favorite item in Ohanas is the pork dumplings, which I always call pot stickers for some odd reason. These things are glazed with a sweet sauce on the outside, which consists of a flavorfully crispy shell. The inside is a mix of sweetness, richness, and your typical pork dumpling on endless steroids. These things are not filling, so you can chow down dozens of these with no problem. While everything on the menu is very good, it’s all about the dumplings here. I am addicted to these darn things.



The chicken wings are doused in bbq sauce and sesame seeds, and they are pretty good, although I am not a wings type of person. The Hawaiian noodles are the only sweet noodles I’ve ever had, but they are also fantastic. They are noodles doused in a light sweet soy sauce of some sort, with a hintage of butter. It’s like sweet light spaghetti, minus the accompanying sauce that usually follows the pasta. I am not a broccoli person, so I didn’t try it. All the meat coming up is served with three dipping sauces handed to you in the very beginning: peanut (don’t knock it until you try it), spicy mustard, and sweet and sour. While I really, really ,really miss the chimichurri sauce of the past (so, so good), three dips are very flavorful and rich.




In this dinner specifically, the shrimp was the outstanding part of the “skewer meats.” They cook the shrimp while it’s still on its shell, preserving more flavor. Once you finish the messy peeling process, you have a juicy, tasty, and soft shrimp that satisfies the soul immediately. The other skewer meats, the chicken, pork, and steak, were soft, meaty, juicy, and all-around spectacular. But once again, the standouts were the shrimp, and the pork dumplings.



But oh wait, there’s still dessert. After some extra portions of steak, the dessert arrives. Just picture a massive plate of bread pudding with ice cream on top, and banana cream on the side. The cream is just waiting to be thrown on top of the ice cream for good measure. The dessert has traces of banana and coconut, so if you are allergic to either, they give you whether ice cream of a cupcake as a replacement. I hope you aren’t allergic though, because the bread pudding is to die for. Anyplace with all-you-can-eat dessert can’t possibly fail, and Ohanas is no exception by treating you to some of the best dessert in all of Central Florida. The vanilla ice cream has small traces of vanilla bean sprinkled all over the rich and thick cream that supports the pudding like peanut butter supports jelly.

Your only gripe in all this (I have not even mentioned the entertainment and good view of the fireworks) is the pricing. The place is high up there, with 35 bucks an adult. But, save up well, and make reservations ahead of time, because this is an incredible experience that showcases the diversity of Florida/Disney World cuisine. The atmosphere, food, service makes up for the price tag, but it is a hefty price tag—you’ve been warned.


Bottom Line: Ohanas is one of the best restaurants I’ve ever been to. Ever since my first visit multiple years ago, I’ve become an addict, visiting around two times a year. While it is all-you-can-eat, the food itself isn’t the low quality of a Golden Corral or a Ponderosa, its 4-star food being served at you continuously. It’s a very family-friendly (or romantic-friendly restaurant, tee-hee) with spectacular food, great shows, quality atmosphere, and an overall aura of jolly-good happiness that you can rarely find outside of Walt Disney World. I recommend this place to the maximum for a great dining experience.





Ohana's
1600 Seven Seas Dr.
Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830
(407) 824-2000