Tag Archives: lunch

Nov28

The Burg Bar and Grill: 1752 Central Ave St Petersburg, FL

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Gabriel and I had to go up to St. Pete to meet with our wedding photographer (EEEeEEEEeee!!!) so we decided to make a day of it and head to the Dali museum afterwards. We’d been wanting to check it out for a while and were excited to spend the afternoon there. It was a very interesting way to spend some time, and we thoroughly enjoyed not just the art and the guided audio tour, but also the amazing architecture of the building itself as well as the beautifully manicured grounds and awesome views of boats on the water.

When we finished looking around, it was after 3:45pm and our stomachs were growling. Although the cafe in the museum looked great, I was craving iron and feeling deprived since we skipped our post-blood-donation burgers the week before. We decided to check Yelp for local burger joints and found 5 star reviews for the Burg Bar and Grill.

We arrived to find a tiny, dive-y bar with a few tables and a friendly bartender/waiter happy to seat us. Apparently, during ‘normal’ meal times, it’s nearly impossible to get a table so we were lucky that hunger stuck at an odd hour. We looked over the menu and quickly chose our burgers. I love that they have a small and large size so that I don’t eat an 8oz just because it’s on the plate in front of me when I’m perfectly satisfied with a 5oz. I ordered mine cooked medium and topped with american cheese, grilled mushroom and grilled onions and Gabriel got his with blue cheese and bacon. We both asked for our fries to be very well-done.

About 10 minutes later, our waiter arrived with our lunch/dinner much to our delight. The fries were super crispy and the burgers looked amazing. I was very happy to find that they had malt vinegar for my fries- a preference of mine over ketchup. One bite and I was sold. This absolutely deserves all of the stars it’s been given. The burger was cooked perfectly with just the right amount of gooey cheese and sauteed onions and mushrooms. The roll was fresh and doughy, not the typical out-of-a-package roll at all. I tried a bite of Gabriel’s burger and found that it too was perfection.

Overall, for less than $20 we left feeling thoroughly satisfied, pretty darn fat and totally happy. If we are ever in the area again, we might just have to go back. If you live nearby, definitely give it a shot- you’ll be glad you did.

Oct4

Captain Brian’s Seafood Market and Restaurant: 8441 N Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, FL

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My parents told me about Captain Brian’s a long time ago as the place to get the best (and most reasonably priced) lobster around. After picking up Gabriel’s brand new car at Honda nearby in Bradenton, and before going to spend a fun day at the Ringling Museum, we decided it was the perfect opportunity to try it out for lunch. We parked and went in to find a restaurant and fish market with very dated decor. There is a great, big, fish tank smack in the middle of the room, dark wood tables and chairs and light peach tablecloths and booths.  The rest of the patrons were mostly 70+ years old, and seemed to all be regulars. We were seated in a booth right away and the very warm and welcoming waitress brought us ice water and menus.

We looked over the menus which were filled with great sounding lunch options for around $8-$13 each. Most of them come with a side or two, and I was happy to find out that one of them could be the salad bar. I LOVE salad bars. I easily made my choice of a lobster roll which came with steak fries and cole slaw, and I went up to get my salad. The salad bar was small, but full of fresh lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, chick peas, potato salad, pasta salad, cole slaw, beets, olives, and more. I could probably have made a lunch of that pretty easily but saved room for my highly anticipated lobster roll. It came out soon after I finished my salad and was bursting at the seams with huge chunks of lobster. I’m used to paying far too much for a skimpy rolled filled with more mayo than seafood and this was a VERY pleasant surprise. The lobster itself was amazing. Sweet, perfectly cooked, and lightly dressed with mayo. The roll fell apart almost immediately, but ‘too much lobster’ is really not a reason to fault a falling-apart roll in my book. The thick cut steak fries were a great side, along with the fresh cole slaw.

After we polished off our rolls, we decided to split the banana split pie, mostly because I’m a sucker for a dessert I’ve never had before- and especially when it includes fudge and ice cream in a chocolate cookie crust. It had very thin layers of sliced bananas on top of the crust, then 3 flavors of ice cream, then a thin layer of ooey, gooey, sticky, delicious fudge, and then whipped cream on top with chocolate shavings to complete the deliciousness. YUM. We cleaned our plate super fast with this one.

I must say again that our waitress was really friendly, sweet and warm. I felt like a regular even though this was our first visit. With service like that, it’s no wonder that people return over and over again. I’m sure we’ll be back soon, certainly not for the old-age home type decor, but absolutely for the great service, fair prices and wonderfully fresh seafood.

Sep19

Mythos Restaurant: 1000 Universal Studios Plaza, Orlando, FL

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I’m ENGAGED!

The love of my life proposed to me early on Saturday morning Sept 15th at Universal Studios Islands of Adventure. I couldn’t be happier…and I’m quickly finding out that being engaged means lots of great treatment and freebies at restaurants. SCORE. Not the main reason I’m so happy and excited, but definitely a very nice perk 🙂

After riding a bunch of roller coasters, we were starving for lunch. In my pre-park research, I’d read that Mythos was rated the top theme park restaurant in the country. I perused the menu online, saw that the prices were pretty reasonable, and we decided we’d head there for lunch. It happened to be about 30 seconds from the exact spot that Gabriel had proposed to me that morning.

We arrived to a very short waiting time, and were seated in about 10 minutes in an awesome spot. The atmosphere here is very cool. It’s like a mythical cavern with fountains, waterfalls, and a great view of the lake and the park. Our waiter was very attentive right from the start, and having been informed by Gabriel that we were newlygaged, offered us each a glass of wine on the house. Awesome! He also brought some warm bread and butter over to us and told us about some delicious sounding specials. Being that it was lunch time on a hot day, we both skipped the rich/heavy specials and ordered salads.

I had the baby Spinach Salad with blueberries, hard cooked egg, blue cheese crumbles and a warm bacon vinaigrette. The salad was excellent- the vinaigrette was especially tasty, both sweet and savory and the perfect complement to the green and cheese. Gabriel had the Ahi Tuna Carpaccio with nori rice rolls, spring field greens and soy vinaigrette and it was also fantastic. This did NOT seem like typical theme park food at ALL and we were really impressed with the quality of the ingredients, the lovely presentation and the incredibly attentive service. We both cleaned our plates when, as a lovely surprise, the waiter appeared with a special warm chocolate and banana dessert for us- decorated with an adorable, sprinkle-covered ‘congrats’ on the side. What a sweet treat! We felt incredibly well-taken care of and really appreciated the celebration.

Overall, this was a perfect engagement-day lunch and I would absolutely recommend a visit next time you are on vacation in the area! Thank you SO much Mythos, for making our day even more memorable!

Sep13

Mozzarella Fella: 1668 Main St Sarasota, FL

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As a recent NYC transplant, when I read excellent reviews about a new sub shop in Sarasota, I do not take it lightly. When I find out that the owner is from Brooklyn, I take it even more seriously. When I see mouth-watering pictures posted on their well-maintained Facebook page, I start making my plans to go. Everything I’ve been reading about Mozzarella Fella has been a rave, and I am very happy to report that I agree. It’s a fantastic new addition to Main Street.

My father (who is also a Brooklyn native) and I met up yesterday for lunch and arrived to find a packed house. Apparently it has not taken long for people to catch on to the new hot spot for lunch, but the line moved quickly and they were actually ready to take our order sooner than we’d made up our minds. Everything on the menu was appealing, and the case of lasagna, meatballs and various prepared salads was gorgeous, with each dish looking better and better. I was in the mood for eggplant and had (If I remember right) 3 different eggplant-based subs to choose from.  I settled on the eggplant parmigiana sub and a half iced tea/half lemonade. My father was quickly sold on the special sub-of-the-day: veal cutlet with fresh mozzarella and marsala sauce. We placed our orders and went to sit at a 2-top to wait for them to be brought out to us.

About 10 minutes later, our sandwiches arrived wrapped in deli paper. My drink was forgotten and I decided to just go grab a bottle of water from the fridge instead of re-ordering it. I came back to unwrap my sandwich, which turned out to be a mozzarella, arugula, tomato and basil oil sub instead of the one I’d chosen. It actually DID look pretty awesome, but it was not what I’d ordered so I brought it back to the counter and told the owner, who was very apologetic and said she’d correct it right away. A little while later, she brought my correct sub along with the mistaken one- and it definitely made up for the error that she let me keep it to bring home for my honey. (who, incidentally, was quite pleased) In the end, I decided to eat half of each which was a great consolation. More to try! Both subs were excellent. The mozzarella is definitely the standout ingredient- SO creamy and somehow light and rich at the same time. The eggplant was crisp and not overly breaded. The bread has the most perfect consistency- both chewy and soft with a toothsome crust.

All that said, one bite of my dad’s sub and it was quickly obvious that the special of the day is no joke. Seriously. Next time, I’ll let the chalkboard decide what my order will be. WOW. This was unbelievable. The veal (which I don’t normally order) tasted so incredible that any animal-cruelty-related guilt quickly subsided. Sorry vegetarian friends. Sorry cute little baby cows. I’m sorry that you are so delicious.

It was tender, but with the most delicious, crispy, crust. The melty mozzarella on top dribbled down the sides and mixed into the savory marsala sauce with juicy, plump, sliced mushrooms. The crusty bread sopped up all of the extra sauce and cheese and worked both as a catchall and as a compliment. This was seriously one of the best sandwiches I’ve ever had. It was, however, totally messy. My dad and I agreed that if you decide to eat there, it would be nice to have your lunch served on a plate instead of wrapped in paper. A paper plate would be fine, but the mess that eating on paper makes was kind of annoying.

Aside from the 2 little ordering errors with my overlooked beverage and my sub confusion, this place totally rocks. I am sure that they will get more and more efficient with the ordering and accuracy, but the food can’t possibly get any better. I will absolutely and positively be back, and hopefully by the time I return, reviews like mine and the soon-to-be-countless others won’t have made it completely impossible to get in.

Bravo Mozzarella Fellas! Welcome to Florida!

Aug20

Station 400: 8215 Main St. Lakewood Ranch, FL

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Apparently my friends are always slightly nervous when they are the ones picking the restaurant we are meeting at. It made me laugh to hear that, but I guess I can see why since you never really know what I’ll think of a place. Luckily for this particular couple that Gabriel and I were meeting up with for lunch, they pretty much always pick winners.

Station 400 is a couple of miles from where we live and we’d been meaning to try it. We met up for lunch and I was immediately impressed with the cute, train-themed atmosphere, complete with a model train periodically circling the ceiling in full view. The menu was full of great sounding choices and I knew it would be a tough decision being that brunch is my favorite meal of the day (unless you include dessert as a meal). It seems a shame when a restaurant only offers breakfast and brunch and overlooks the more lucrative meal of the day by closing before dinner time, but I suppose they know what works for them. Before I even ordered, I’d already assumed everything would be great and was thinking about what I’d pick the next time we came in. It was 1pm on a Sunday, and we’d woken up fairly early, had breakfast, and taken a yoga class, so by the time 1:00 rolled around, I was ready for lunch type foods. I was tempted by the truffle eggs benedict, the blueberry stuffed, almond crusted, croissant french toast (WOAH) and the salmon caesar salad, but wanting to stay on the healthy side, I ultimately ended up choosing the portobello sandwich (YUM) with a side of cucumber/tomato olive salad. Gabriel had the open faced roast beef sandwich with blue cheese, caramelized onions, horseradish and parmesan fries on the side and my mouth watered as I convinced him to share both meals. Both were excellent with fresh ingredients, perfectly paired ingredients and manageable portions. Our friend’s dishes also looked awesome, and I had to sample Rachel’s amazing sweet potato fries. Neil’s fried green tomato BLT also looked amazing and I made a note to myself to order that one on another occasion.

 

The incredible looking homemade muffins (with flavors like maple/bacon, strawberry/lavender and peach/ginger), cake and pastries looked too lovely to ignore and we decided to share a cinnamon roll to finish off the meal with something sweet and special. The icing on top was a rich, cream cheese based gooey treat, and the bun itself was crisp, cinnamony and clearly fresh-baked. Just like the entrees, this was wonderful and left us wanting more- even though we were totally full.

Clearly, we’d have to return frequently to try all of the tempting plates they offered. Good thing they are close and super reasonably priced with almost everything under $10. We will absolutely and positively be back soon.

 

Jul25

G’s Pizzaria: 7119 S. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, FL

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This is another one of those “I am a NY pizza snob” type posts where I go to a restaurant to try a slice from a place that claims to be owned by a NYer. I’m always pretty skeptical when I go on these little adventures but am willing to give it a fair shot. When I first walked in and found out the the owner is actually from WAY upstate NY and not the city, I got pretty worried.

I sat down and ordered a plain slice and a side salad with blue cheese dressing on the side. The salad came out and (good first impression) was NOT iceberg lettuce! It was a mesclun mix with beautiful, thick, red tomato slices, black olives, onions and fresh mushrooms on top. The dressing was pretty darn good too. So far, so good.

A few minutes later, the owner brought my slice over, piping hot from the oven and looking an awful lot like a NY slice. BIG, flat, bubbly top, and the right ratio of cheese to sauce to crust. Hmmmm. Could it be? I took a bite. WOW. Ok. I am impressed. This IS a NY slice after all. Is it the best slice ever? Well, no, but let’s be realistic. The truth is that the classic NY slice has a lot to do with the water there, and no one outside of NYC will really ever be able to duplicate that. But this was definitely the closest to NY I’ve had since I moved here a few months ago. Ah. Good enough to evoke nostalgia. The crust was the right mix of crunchy and chewy, the flavor of the sauce was spot-on; not too sweet, the right amount, and the cheese was exactly right. I added my sprinkling of oregano and parmesan- which was on the table like it should be, and it made for a VERY satisfying lunch. BRAVO to you G’s! Bonus that it’s about 1/4 mile from where I work. I will absolutely be back. YAY!

 

Jul12

Gyros & Seafood Express: 918 N. Washington Blvd, Sarasota, FL

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Yes, it’s true. I am writing a review for a fast food place. Is that totally ridiculous? No! Not when it’s fast food that’s actually real food! Not when it’s fast food that doesn’t mean greasy burgers and soggy fries!

I met my dad here for a quick lunch after he had told me what a great option it was and I’m very glad I did. For $6, you can have a grilled fish sandwich (I had basa, which I’d never heard of but liked), a drink (which, in my case was a 1/2 iced tea, 1/2 lemonade- one of my favs) and a side salad (just iceberg, tomatoes, cucumbers, and onions- nothing special, but not bad). You get your fish on a fresh roll (and a pretty good sized piece of fish at that), and 10 minutes later, you have finished your relatively healthy meal, and are satisfied without feeling that typical post-fast-food feeling.

If you’re in a rush and starving, this is a great choice at a great price. I’m sure I’ll be back and will probably try the tilapia, the grouper, or the shrimp next time.  I also found out they are planning to open a branch in Bradenton which will definitely come in handy for me since I live near there. Thanks G & S!

Jul8

The Ranch Grill: 14475 State Rd 70, Bradenton, FL

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Gabriel and I were house hunting today and found ourselves starving for lunch and in an area that didn’t have many restaurants around. We turned the corner and found The Ranch Grill and figured we’d just go there and hope for the best. We were seated right away in the mostly empty restaurant (it was a pretty odd time for a meal) and before we opened our menus, I decided to check out Yelp.com for reviews. Uh oh. 1.5 stars. Not good. We were too hungry to care and decided to disregard the poor ratings since only 3 reviews had written entries. Generally speaking, unless there are 20 of more, I don’t really take the ratings to heart. I figured I would just have to see for myself.

The menus had a lot to offer, and after asking our friendly waiter about side salads, we were informed that we could add a side garden or caesar salad for $2 to the $8 appetizers we planned to order. Perfect. We chose the chicken quesadillas and the chicken cordon bleu bites to share and each ordered a garden salad.

Everything came out quickly, and I especially liked the slope-y, lopsided bowls that the salads came in. The apps were presented in a colorful and appealing way, looking and smelling delicious. My bleu cheese dressing was noteworthy with it’s large chunks of cheese, and the salad ingredients were very fresh and crisp. The chicken bites were hot and melty and although there wasn’t a ton of chicken in them, the honey mustard dipping sauce added a nice flavor and coolness to the cheesy snack. The quesadillas had great texture  contrasted by the creamy, cool guacamole and sour cream and we gobbled every bit up, including the diced peppers that adorned the plate.

Overall, for $20 we had a great lunch and had already planned to return…This plan was reenforced when later on in the day, when I looked at their Facebook page, I just so happened to find a dealsaver.com deal for $10 for $20. What a weird coincidence…Well, better late than never. I immediately purchased the coupon so that we could return for a repeat lunch someday soon. Very satisfying indeed- and even more so for half the price!

 

 

 

Jul1

Peperonata Empanadas: Sarasota Farmer’s Market, Sarasota, Florida

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After realizing that there really wasn’t much seafood at the shrimp  and lobster festival at the Sarasota Farmer’s Market yesterday, Gabriel and I decided to get a couple of snacks instead. When I saw that there was an empanada vendor, I went to ask about the beef empanadas. Many years ago, my Argentinian friend made a batch of the most incredible empanadas ever and I’ve never found anything that came close. One of the big differences between the ones he made and the ones I usually see were the raisins. I LOVED the sweetness that they added to the savory beef. Well, you can guess how psyched I was when I asked if these had raisins and was told that indeed they did. YAY!

At $5 for 2, I ordered a beef empanada and Gabriel got the spicy shrimp. They were both excellent- but I was ESPECIALLY excited with mine with included beef, raisins, green olives and hard boiled eggs. Now, I realize that these ingredients don’t sound like they’d be delicious together but PLEASE trust me when I tell you that ohhhhh yes they are.

What an odd coincidence to realize that the empanada vendor was related to the pasta vendor from which a friend picked up some homemade pastas for me that I am picking up later today. If the pasta is even nearly as awesome as the empanadas, I will be a very happy foodie tonight! YUM. Thank you.

Jun24

First Watch: 8306 Market St Bradenton, FL

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Gabriel and I had breakfast here yesterday. It couldn’t possibly be more convenient as it’s less than a mile from where we live. We were seated in a comfortable booth right away and a VERY smiley and friendly waitress came to bring us menus and a delicious pot of hot coffee. We were a little surprised that the coffee, though it’s served in an unlimited-refills pot, is charged per person, not per pot. Next time we might opt to share one mug 🙂

I ordered the ‘Caps Etc’ for my breakfast and asked for the english muffin to be served dry, and the roasted crimini mushrooms (HOLY YUM!) to be prepared with half the amount of cheese they’d normally use. I ordered my 2 eggs poached and a small fruit salad on the side to share with my honey bunny.

The food came out super fast and looking delicious. It was all exactly as I’d specified and everything tasted great. I even liked the little homefries which aren’t usually my favorite.

The prices were pretty reasonable- except for the per-person coffee price of around $2.50 each. My one cup didn’t really justify that…but Gabriel did end up getting a cup to go which I guess made up for it. My entree was around $8 and the little fruit salad an extra $3.50.

We’ll be back for sure!