Restaurant Listings
T-Rex Cafe
Address1676 Buena Vista Drive
Walt Disney World
CityLake Buena Vista
Phone407-828-8739
Price$$$
Scott's Review

It's big, it's loud, it's splashy, and it's more than a little cheesy, but T-Rex can be a lot of fun, especially for kids old enough not to be frightened out of the bejeebers by life-sized animatronic prehistoric lizards. The food is basic, nothing fancy, nothing stellar. But all in all it does a better job than its sister restaurant Rainforest Cafe.

I sampled a soup and entree. The entrée had two items that are offered separately on the menu, barbecued ribs and rotisserie chicken. The soup was a tomato basil, listed on the menu as lava tomato basil. Turns out lava is fairly sweet; who knew?

The ribs, a generous half slab, were tender and the bones easily relinquished the meat, but there wasn’t a lot of distinctive flavoring. The same was true of the chicken, an even more generous half bird. It was nicely cooked and had juicy flesh. But there were no seasonings, no flavor. It’s a common problem with restaurants in tourist areas to dumb down the seasonings so as not to offend the common palate. Pity. The platter also included a healthy portion of waffle-cut fries. Maybe healthy isn’t the right word, but you know what I mean.

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Tabla Lake Nona
Address9971 Tagore Place
CityOrlando
Phone407-743-2846
Price$$
Scott's Review
A third location for the popular independently-owned Indian restaurant.... Read more
Tabla Winter Park
Address216 N. Park Ave.
CityWinter Park
Phone321-422-0321
Price$$
Scott's Review
Though smaller than the Orlando location, the Winter Park restaurant offers a dining experience that is simultaneously intimate and distanced, using the interior dining room with its full-wall window looking out to an atrium with covered dining under a never deciduous tree. And if that isn’t enough, there are also tables on the sidewalk fronting Park Avenue.... Read more
Taco Rio
Address822 Formosa Ave
CityOrlando
Phone321-682-9226
Price$
Scott's Review
Taco Rio occupies one side of a small, neighborhood market in Winter Park’s Olympia Heights. Despite first, and, OK, second impressions, it is kempt, and the people operating the counter-service eatery are friendly and welcoming.... Read more
Taglish
Address3191 W. Colonial Drive
CityOrlando
Phone407-930-1076
Price$
Scott's Review
Taglish is part of a food court inside the Lotte Asian Market. Friendly service and very good food.... Read more
Tak-Ke Sushi Bar
Address1421 N. Orange Ave.
CityOrlando
Phone407-826-1964
Price$$
Scott's Review
Ta-Ke is certainly a change from Wazzabi, the owner's previous restaurant. Ta-Ke couldn’t be more different, experientially. It is tiny, occupying the space previously held by Wilfredo’s, and the original location of Gargi’s. But its cozy dining room and small sushi bar, all tastefully decorated, are quite pleasant. So was the sushi chef. I sat at the bar and when the chef noticed that the one server was busy he offered to take my order if sushi was what I had in mind. (In sushi bar etiquette one never gives the order to the chef directly, unless he or she asks, of course.) I did have sushi in mind, and I ordered the Ta-Ke Combo #1, which includes seven pieces of nigirizushi and a spicy tuna roll. And it was lovely. A beautifully presented array of fish -- tuna, white tuna, salmon, shrimp -- atop pads of rice; and perfect-sized coins of the tuna roll with pads of pickled ginger and wasabi. But it was all rather bland and unexciting. The nigirizushi all fell off the pad or rice when flipped for dipping into the soy, all with the exception of the surimi, which was lashed onto the rice pad with a strip of nori. The fish was also a bit too cold. The tempura was a comp... Read more
Taka-Taka's Cafe
Address9318 E. Colonial Drive
CityOrlando
Phone407-601-5957
Price$
Scott's Review
Taka-Taka’s Cafe is actually half Venezuelan and half Cuban, but the Venezuelan part of the menu was what my friends and I were focused on (and they both know the cuisine and speak fluent Spanish, so it was terrific to have them as guides). We started with a sampling of empanadas. The Venezuelan version of empanadas is made with a corn flour and deep fried. We tried the shredded beef and chicken varieties, but I think I preferred the white cheese and potato one the best, especially with the creamy garlic sauce. I loved the cachapas con queso, a pancake-like corn cake with corn kernels and goozing cheese. We also had a couple of arepas, including the reina pepiada, or chicken salad with avocados. The flavors of the shredded chicken and mild avocado inside the tasty corn cake, which looked sort of like a fat pita pocket, were wonderful. The arepa asado negro featured roasted round steak in a black sauce that had a prominent clove note. The two couldn’t have been more different, but both were delicious. Even better was the patacon, which one of my friends aptly described as a banana sandwich. Well, sort of. The “bread” for the sandwich was fashioned out of plantains, mashe... Read more
Tako Cheena
Address932 N. Mills Ave.
CityOrlando
Phone
Price$
Scott's Review

Tako Cheena is the new concept from Pom Moongauklang, owner of of the popular Pom Pom’s sandwicherie. The name is a tongue-in-cheek reference to the type of food featured, tacos, and Moongauklang’s Asian heritage (she was born in Thailand). She combines Latin and Asian into true fusion cuisine.

It’s also pretty darned tasty. Moongauklang has a talent for making complex foods look simple, and for taking simple flavor combinations and giving them layers and textures that make them seem complex. It isn’t surprising that she worked at New York’s famed Nobu restaurant.

The menu is short. It offers a featured empanada and a roster of takos. I sampled an array of takos, and I liked every one of them. My favorite was the panko crusted cod, which had bite-sized nuggets of fish in the soft flour tortilla garnished with scallions and mixed cabbage. What really brought out the flavors, though, was the lusciously thick sweet and sour sauce that not only gave it a great taste but also made it look so pretty.

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