Some of my favorite restaurants around the Orlando area

Ryan, what a great list! I will definitely be referring to it, when we want to try somewhere local

Jen as a local - what are some of your favorite off property spots?

So far, I can defintely recommend Palma in ChampionsGate for Italian, and they have a great happy hour. 4 Corners Tavern, also in ChampionsGate, is awesome for your local everyone knows your name kind of place:) really good food, indoor and outdoor seating, music on the weekends. they do trivia certain nights as well as Music Bingo. We have a lot of chains here and I am not a huge chain fan, I do like Ford's Garage,, we have one in ChampionsGate and weve tried ( not recently) the one in Promenade at Sunset Walk at Margaritaville. Speaking of which, I love the Wharf restaurant there, excellent food, including seafood, they always have sme kind of entertainment going on there, El Jefe's for Mexican. Rock & Brews ( its a chain owed by the band Kiss, fun atmosphere) . And Mikado for Japanese. in Davenport, we absolutely love it there. Those are what I can think of. off the top of my head:)

Oh Ford's garage is a good one, I forgot about them - I was a little turned off by one of their locations where they include a mandatory 20% service charge, but then say that its not a tip and they still ask you for an additional amount to tip. Seemed sort of like a way to confuse you into tipping twice.

But the food is good there and my son enjoyed all of the car theming :)

I really want to try 24 Pho Hour and now that the wait time isn't insane, we'll have to go.

We love Portillos and Hash House a Go go was fun.

My current favorite off property places are Crooked Spoon and Salt Shack in Clermont, Hangry Bison, Whole Enchilada, Aj's Pizza, and Servando's in Winter Garden, and Rocco's Tacos and Seasons 52 in Orlando. Oh and Grand Central Station Pizza in Ocoee. I'm sure there are more but that's all I can think of right now.

They don’t do that anymore! They got so many complaints they changed it

Bull & Bear at the Waldorf Astoria (in the Bonnet Creek resort area, between EPCOT resorts and Disney Springs) is my special occasion go-to. Food and cocktails are amazing and service is next level.

I always enjoy visiting Celebration and specifically like Celebration Town Tavern and Reggiano's.

Love Susuru as mentioned above but prepare yourself for a wait. It seems like it is always slammed (but very good).

Oh that is good to hear. I think it would have been fine if they tacked on a 20% service charge and then said no tipping required and didn't even ask for a tip on the credit card receipt.

I don’t know how I didn’t think to mention Celebration Town Tavern too! We like it, being from Boston:)

Agreed! It it’s definitely gone back to normal now luckily

I'm from Connecticut and yes, it's a nice dose of home. Great food and a fun vibe!

Does anyone have any brewery recommendations? I've been to some other breweries in St Augustine and over by the Kennedy Space Center, but never in Orlando.

There are so many great breweries in Orlando.

Paul's favorite is Toll House in Ocoee. I love Tactical Brewing in Baldwin Park, but it's more for people who like sours. Paul doesn't love it.

Home State in Winter Garden is a decent one too. Crooked Can is fun. There is one in Winter Garden and they are building a nice one by where we live in Minneola too. They have all sorts of places to eat at Crooked Can too. We've been to Windermere Brewery a few times which is in Derek's neck of the woods. It's okay. They have some cool events. Paul likes Ivanhoe as well. I think they have a few locations. Suncreek in Clermont has some nice citrusy beers.

I do! I agree with Amy , about Home State in Winter Garden. They are actually our favorite, we’ve become friends with some of the employees. We love Crooked Can, they have a food hall connected too it, you can make a whole afternoon there. We love Celebration Brewing ,, they are the closest to me in Davenport. We’ve also enjoyed Rockpit Brewing and Sideward Brewing , Ivanhoe Brewing in Orlando , Grove Roots in Winter Haven, Windermere Brewing in Windermere

Thanks y’all! I’ll have to try these. I’ve had Crooked Can’s Wasabi IPA at Epcot in February and I really enjoyed it. I’m a homebrewer and I want to take a stab at recreating that. I also want to come home with some Datil peppers one of these days and use those in a beer.

Very cool, I thought I was the only one that liked the Wasabi IPA. My family thought I was crazy 🤣

We just love Cracker Barrel 🥰. We have to go at least twice each trip - we have nothing like it in Northern Ireland so we run there! Also I’ve Formosa Winery and Tasting House. Such a lovely spot to have a drink (so many wine selections!) and a bit to eat

I've got anotnher one to add to the list- those of you that know me, know, I am VERY partiular when it comes to Italian food. I grew up 10 min North of Boston, and spent a considerable amount of time in the North End which is an Itaian neighborhood( dad was born there!) last night, I had the best Italian meal since leaving MA, its in Winter Garden so it was about a 30 min drive from us in Davenport. Its called Bella Italia and it was WONDERFUL! The food, the decor, the service all excellent. I cant recommend it enough

My wife grew up with Steak-N-Shake, but there are none where we live now. So every trip, it is off to a Steak-N-Shake at least a couple of times so she can get her fix.

I have another recommendation, well, I guess I have 2:) We love craft beers, and I love IPAs and Sours, etc so we have places we are still crossing off our list to try. Yesterday we went to Runabout Brewing, its in the SoDo ( South Downtown area) of Orlando ) to try their beers, which were very good , but their pizza ( and if you know me, you know I am a picky Boston Italian, I know pizza) it was awesome! Would gladly go again just for the pizza. Then we went to Tactical Brewing, in the Baldwin Park section of Orlando ( the high rent district, lol , Celebration vibes and some of the biggest mansions I've ever seen, not that I've seen a ton. lol but Boston has some big houses) have friends that have highly recommended it ( I know some friends here from DVC Fan love it too) the beers were great, they even have a Butterbeer flavored one, this Hufflepuff greatly enjoyed it:) Will go back. but alas its an hours drive so not often.