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A Look Back at 2018

Written By Scott Joseph On January 2, 2019

 Wine Bar George Ext

It’s been a busy year for Central Florida restaurants, with dozens of openings, not as many closings and all sorts of newsy tids and bits. The flog published 425 articles this year, more than 100 of them restaurant reviews. Here are some highlights:

Notable Openings
Maria & Enzo’s, Enzo’s Hideaway, The Edison, Terralina Crafted Italian, Chicken Guy and Wine Bar George all helped to keep Disney Springs the center of high-profile restaurant openings.
The Hangry Bison — New Winter Park Villager with killer burgers and cocktails.

Grills Lakeside Seafood Deck & Tiki Bar — The coastal restaurant moved inland to take over the former Shooter’s space.
Mykonos — Forced to move to a different location, the popular Greek restaurant finally opa-ned.
The Glass Knife — upscale cakery.
Sticky Rice — Another Asian street fare restaurant but this one featuring Laotian cuisine.
Claddagh Cottage Irish Pub — Long awaited rebirth of the popular pub in the unofficially designated Hourglass District.
Taste of Chengdu — Hot, hot, hot, and I don’t mean just in popularity.
Garp & Fuss — An odd name for an odd restaurant; it took over the Bistro on Park Avenue space in the Hidden Gardens.
Cafe Linger — A coffeehouse concept with non-coffeehouse food.
Inay’s Kitchen — Filipino food served by nice people.
Agave Azul Winter Park — Second location for this Texish Mexican restaurant, this one better than the original.
Kai Asian Street Fare — It seems all you have to do these days to open a restaurant is to add Asian Street Fare to your name.
Tin & Taco Sodo — Or put your food in a taco.
Viet-Nomz — The Vietnamese quick-serve opened a second location on the East side of Orlando.
Meza — Cafe Annie fans rejoiced when the owner of the shuttered downtown restaurant reopened this Mediterranean in Baldwin Park.
Selam Ethiopian & Eritrean Cuisine — Wash your hands and try out this latest African restaurant.
Bem Bom — Popular Portuguese food truck opened a brick and mortar location in Audubon Park.
Muzzarella Pizza and Italian Kitchen — All locals pizzerias should be on notice: the pizza game is on.
F&D Woodfired Italian Kitchen — This Hourglass District newcomer has taken up the pizza challenge, and is also serving some good Italian dishes.
Stasio’s Italian Deli & Market — Not a full deli; not a complete market, but what it’s doing is good.
Ford’s Garage — Florida-born chain brings its considerably good burgers to Orlando.
Cafe Madrid Deli & Bakery — Rebirth, at least in name, of a longtime Cuban/Spanish restaurant (see Notable Closings below).

We hope you find our reviews and news articles useful and entertaining. It has always been our goal to assist you in making informed decisions when spending your dining dollars. If we’ve helped you in any way, please consider making a contribution to help us continue our journalism. Thank you.

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