If you’re in or around Orlando, Florida before or after your cruise, or you’re otherwise in
the area, there are seemingly an unlimited number of dining options available to enjoy!
In this video we’ll provide an overview of some of the restaurants -- and food
trucks! -- we enjoyed during our Summer 2021 visit to Orlando.
Before traveling to Orlando, our family watched videos,
read online reviews, and voted on which restaurants we wanted to try.
The criteria we used to select restaurants were: it was not located at a theme park,
it was not a national chain,
it was rated four stars or higher on Yelp and Google Reviews,
it was family-friendly,
and it was a new restaurant for us.
La Boucherie is a French steakhouse that is located roughly four miles south
of Universal Studios.
The restaurant is the first United States location of the steakhouse
that has about 150 locations in France.
We dined on the restaurant’s patio for dinner and we ordered the Steak Frites,
a Steak Salad,
and a Classic Boucherie Burger.
True to the reviews, La Boucherie did not disappoint!
The food was delicious, the service was stellar,
and it definitely reminded Daddybean and I of past meals we’ve had in France.
We’ve added this gem to our list of restaurants to revisit
when we’re back in Orlando and we look forward to trying more of their French dishes,
like Jellybean’s favorite cruise appetizer, escargot.
The cost of our meal before tip was $52.19.
Teak Neighborhood Grill is a gastropub that is literally
located in the Orlando neighborhood of MetroWest.
The restaurant is known for its handcrafted burgers that feature unusual toppings.
We visited for lunch and Daddybean ordered the Cronie Burger,
which was a beef burger topped with bacon, smoked gouda cheese, and an over-medium egg.
The burger was served on a large, sliced cinnamon sugar donut!
I ordered the Jack Knife burger, which was a beef burger
served on a brioche bun and topped with Jack Daniels Hollandaise sauce,
tomato, smoked bacon, scalloped potatoes, and white cheddar cheese.
Jellybean ordered the kids’ American Burger with cheese.
We all really enjoyed our meals and we’ll likely revisit Teak Neighborhood Grill
to try some of their other burger creations.
The cost of our meal before tip was $41.01.
World Food Trucks is a permanent food truck park
located about five miles from Disney World, in Kissimmee.
The park features more than 50 international food trucks and we visited for dinner.
We started with cachapas from Alan’s Burgers.
We loved the corn pancakes that were filled with cheese and meat and topped with even more cheese
The portion sizes were huge for the $8.99 price tag.
We also ordered a cheese empanada for Jellybean from Alan’s Burgers, which she enjoyed.
And we ordered a yaroa from the Dominican Chimi truck,
which consisted of French fries covered in meats, cheese, and condiments.
World Food Trucks is open daily from noon until midnight, but individual trucks’
hours vary and evenings tend to be the busiest.
During our visit, Google Translate helped us navigate the menus
and free parking, restrooms, and outdoor seating were available.
Junior Colombian Burger has four locations
in the Orlando area and we visited the South Kirkman road location for dinner.
The restaurant is known for its handmade Angus beef burgers that are topped with potato chips,
pink sauce, garlic sauce, pineapple sauce, and more.
The flavor combination was not something we had experienced before,
so we gave it a try and we’re glad we did! We all ordered burgers and fries
and we also got an order of churros that we enjoyed for dessert.
Take note that the location we visited
had extremely limited seating and most people we saw were ordering food for takeout.
The cost of our meal was $45.20.
4 Rivers Smokehouse has about a dozen locations
in Central Florida and we visited the Kissimmee location during our trip.
We’re big fans of barbeque,
so we visited for dinner and ordered two Smokehouse 2-by-2 platters with brisket,
burnt ends,
pulled pork,
and pulled chicken.
We also added a quarter rack of St. Louis ribs.
Our sides were mac and cheese,
sweet potato casserole,
corn,
and baked cheese grits.
Jellybean ordered chicken nuggets and fries from the Kids Menu.
It all ended up being way more food than we could ever eat in one sitting,
but we loved everything we tried.
The restaurant had three barbeque sauces available: Mustard, Signature, and Hot.
The cost of our meal before tip was $46.39.
Nick Filet is a fast-casual restaurant
that originated in Pennsylvania and opened an Orlando location in the Summer of 2021.
The restaurant is known for serving filet mignon
sandwiches with a variety of toppings and sauces and we visited for lunch.
We ordered two sandwiches: a ClassNick, which was topped with American cheese
and a Nickadelphia, which was topped with provolone cheese, onions, and horseradish sauce.
We also ordered an 8-piece regular Filet Bites
and Jellybean ordered a Grilled Cheese.
For sides, we had tater tots
and French fries.
The cost of our meal before tip was $58.22.
Our friends from Chicago have long told us about Portillo’s,
so when we found out a location had just opened in Orlando, we had to check it out.
The restaurant is known for its Chicago-style hot
dogs, Italian beef sandwiches, chocolate cake shake, and more.
I ordered an Italian beef sandwich and thought it was delicious! I also had a side of onion rings.
Jellybean ordered a bacon cheeseburger and Daddybean ordered a double bacon cheeseburger
and both had a side of French fries.
We all finished off our meals with shakes.
Jellybean had a vanilla shake,
Daddybean had a Lemon Cake shake,
and I had the signature Chocolate Cake shake.
Both cake shakes literally had slices of cake blended into the shake!
The cost of our meal was $49.21.
Speaking of desserts, we’ll end this video with our visit to Mr. Puffs, an eatery located at the
Florida Mall that specialized in traditional Greek donut holes -- or puffs -- called loukoumades.
Mr. Puffs is a Montreal-based company
and the Orlando location was the first in the United States.
The puffs were made fresh in relatively small batches and toppings were added when ordered.
For each order, you could choose from the recommended topping combinations
or you could create your own custom combination.
In addition to the variety of puffs, Mr. Puffs also served iced drinks,
ice cream -- which you could combine with an order of puffs -- milkshakes, and hot drinks.
The cost of our puffs, ice cream, iced mocha, and shake was $24.71.