And what I had at T-Rex was only a sampling: one soup and an entrée, but 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.

The real attraction here is the array of animatronics dinosaurs that “roam” the restaurant. These range from a gigantic version of the eatery’s namesake lizard to baby mastodons. An octopus of Jules Verne proportions looms over the bar. Most of the monsters move. I watched as a young girl stroked the trunk of one of the baby mastodons and it actually seemed to react to her touch.

There are four or five distinct rooms in the restaurant. The most dominant is the ice cave in the center, which glows a glacial blue except during the occasional meteor shower when, for some reason, it turns pink. (The meteor shower involves lights streaking across the ceiling. Given that many surmise the age of dinosaurs came to an end because of a meteor hitting the earth, it seems a strange thing to highlight. You’d think they’d save it for “last call” each night.)

I was seated in front of the kitchen area that houses the rotisserie ovens. In front of the kitchen area is a row of gas flames behind a glass panel, which is labeled to be hot. Wonder how long before some child gets burned before the fire is doused permanently.

There are many photo opportunities, but, oddly, guests are prohibited from taking video. That’s just silly.

Another minor complaint: the lighting designers need to go in and refocus the spotlights so they shine on the dinosaurs and not in the eyes of the guests. Also, it’s unfortunate that the entrance of the restaurant is so large and open. The light pouring in from outside prevents a total immersion experience.
This is not a place to come for a gourmet food experience. But for people with young children it offers palatable enough food and something in every corner to grab their attention.

Since it was a media dinner the menu, under the direction of executive chef Richard Mendoza, was set. The evening started with a reception in the rather unattractive portico outside the restaurant (think bright halogen lighting and a space with all the charm of a typical patio in a tract housing subdivision). While guests sipped wine -- all wines for the evening were supplied by Antinori Winery -- serves passed hors d'oeuvres. No, that's not quite right; servers passed through the area holding a plateful of crostini but never offered them to anyone. I guess if we wanted one we were meant to flag someone down and ask politely.
We moved inside into the smallish but pleasant dining area. There is a lot of warm wood tones and mottled walls a la Tuscan-style plaster. Keila's glassworks decorate the walls and offer splashes of color.
It would be nice if the restaurant used tablecloths to add a touch of classiness (and absorb some of the noise). Hotel restaurants have the advantage of having an onsite laundry facility, so linens shouldn't be that big a deal.
The antipasta course was a platter of fresh mozzarella, wonderful hunks of pecorino romano, little balls of ricotta, soppresata, bresaola and salami. The course was paired with Marchese Antinori Chianti Classico Riserva 2003, a blend of 90% sangiovese and 10% cabernet sauvignon. It had wonderful well-rounded tones.
The fish course featured two shrimp wrapped in prosciutto and intertwined in something of a shellfish death grip -- it took a little coaxing to separate them, but they were delicious. The prosciutto lent a decidedly salty note that was not unpleasant. What was unpleasant was the Chianti butter sauce that was spread on the plate. It was a most unattractive grayish brown. Another Chianti Classico Riserva, the 2003 Badia a Passignano, which is 100% sangiovese, was just right with the seasonings.
The roasted veal tenderloin was superb. It was a beautiful medium-rare and was as tender as you'd expect veal to be. It was accompanied by a glop of polenta and assorted roasted vegetables. A 2006 Bolgheri Tenuta Guado al Tasso was the course's selected wine.
The mascarpone-filled poached pear covered with chocolate made the chianti butter sauce look pretty. But even with my eyes closed, the taste and texture didn't save this one for me.
There were plenty of staff members moving about but few seemed to know the basics of good service. I don't think they've had the training because I saw management making some of the same errors, such as back-handed pouring, reaching across guests to pour wine, picking up glasses to fill them and other stuff that are usually dismissed as rookie mistakes. A company like Westin, part of Starwood Hotels, should know better. Indeed, some of the finest service I've had has been at other Starwood properties.
Dust off those training manuals and this could turn into a destination restaurant for locals.

La Abundancia is a little slip of a place on the far corner of a small strip mall. I had been to this very strip mall just before I left the Sentinel. I wrote about a charming little place called Golden Chicken. Ironically, I had stumbled upon Golden Chicken because the place I had intended to dine -- Sazon 436 on the other corner of this same strip mall -- treated me so shabbily that I up and left before I even made it into the dining room. Golden Chicken turned out to be delightful -- and a huge bargain.

La Abundancia is, too.

It's a Colombian restaurant owned by Milder Alzate and Eddy Gonzalez. The menu is on a board on the wall behind the counter, which holds various Latin American baked goods. I wasn't getting a lot of information from the Spanish language menu, so Milder approached and asked if she could offer some help. I asked her what the specialty of the house was, but she misunderstood and told me what the special of the day was -- a plantain soup and a serving of yellow rice and chicken for $7.

I was intrigued by the plantain soup, so I ordered the special.

I couldn't believe how much food I got for seven bucks. The soup was a full bowl, not just a measly cup, and it featured a hearty chicken broth with lots of vegetables and slices of green plantains. The soup could easily have been an entree.

The chicken and rice was also delicious. The yellow rice had lots of chicken meat and a few vegetables, including yummy peas, presented in a molded mound. It had just the right amount of greasiness to add flavor without being, well, greasy.

On the table was a small crock with a pepper sauce. Milder cautioned that it was hot, but the Hound is not afraid of hot.

This stuff was HOT!!! Somehow they found a way to turn fire into a liquid. Hot sauce lovers, you've got to try this one.

There are only a few tables in the place, but there are also a couple outside, though I wouldn't call it patio dining, more like some tables and chairs on the sidewalk. So you might have to be prepared to take the food home with you.

Actually, with the size of the portions, you should at least plan on taking home leftovers.

La Abundancia is at 1555 N. Semoran Boulveard, Winter Park. The phone number is 407-671-0511. Lunch and dinner are served daily. There is no Web site.

Oh, and apparently Chef Hans Cafe is still open. Call first.

Journey's anniversary dinner was a reservations-only closed event held Wednesday at the Longwood restaurant with guests paying $125 for the seven-course meal with wine pairings.

The evening started on the patio with smoked salmon and American caviar served on blinis, and fresh oysters on the half-shell, paired with L'Aubry Fils nonvintaged brut sparkling wine.

Guests were then invited into the dining room where tables had been assembled into four or five long tables for 8-10 diners each. Someone at my table commented that it was a little like dining on a cruise ship where you're seated with people you don't know.

The first seated course featured Boston bibb and arugula lettuce dressed in mandarin vinaigrette topped with half of a small Maine lobster. It was a little awkward coaxing the meat out of the shell, and a little messy, too, but it was a substantial salad. A Star Lane sauvignon blanc (2006) accompanied the salad.

The next course was supposed to have featured black grouper wrapped in cellophane. Instead, Fowler said he decided to just bake the fish sans cellophane because unwrapping the fish would have been too messy for the guests. Those of us who had struggled with the lobster were relieved by that. A 2005 Dierberg chardonnay that was too big and buttery on its own mellowed with the fish sauce of lemongrass and coconut milk.

The pulled duck confit in a cannelloni fashioned out of puffed pastry was my favorite. The meat was tender and juicy and the pastry had a nice crispiness. It was topped with a small lobe of seared Hudson Valley foie gras and graced with a sauce of pomegranate seeds and orange cauliflower. Dierberg's 2005 pinot noir, a chewy, fruit-forward wine, was the perfect match.

Medallions of buffalo tenderloin dotted with four peppercorns followed, matched by the Star Lane cabernet sauvignon (2005). I preferred to stick with the pinot, which also went well with the cognac cream sauce.

Pumpkin creme brulee, served in tiny, hollowed pumpkins, was a whimsical dessert. It ws followed by a cheese course, back on the patio, with Port and Madiera for those who wished to linger.

The sold-out dinner was populated mostly by regulars, which is the way it should be. Judging from the reaction of the guests, they will help see the Journeys through the second half of the decade.

A pleasant young man greeted us and then brought us the wrong beers. Turns out the door had opened just as we placed our orders and the waiter didn't hear us correctly.

But from that point on everything mostly went fine.
I started out with a cup of the potato & leek soup ($2.50), which startled my by its thickness: I was able to stand a spoon up in it. The taste was OK, but I think all the cornstarch or whatever thickener was used started to blossom in my stomach as I sipped my pint of Guinness.

My friend had the Irish stew ($8.99), a big serving of beef with carrots, onions and potatoes in a nice gravylike broth tinged with Irish whiskey.
I had the shepherd's pie ($8.99), which was mostly mashed potatoes (but real mashed potatoes) piped over a brown gravy with ground beef and vegetables. On another visit I had the corned beef with colcannon. The corned beef was sufficiently chewy, as most corned beef is destined to be, but the flavor was good. So, too, the colcannon, a traditional dish of mashed potatoes blended with cabbage.

Paddy Murphy's is in a newly constructed building overlooking the lake. It's been designed to look like a tradtional Irish pub, but only as far as the walls. The high ceilings have the exposed ducts and beams of the structure, with some Tiffanylike chandeliers hanging down. So the effect is like being on a movie set for a film about an Irish pub.

I might watch the movie again, but I am definitely not buying the soundtrack.

Paddy Murphy's is at 4982 New Broad St. in Orlando's Baldwin Park. The phone number is 407-622-4700. For other information, visit the Web site.

It turns out, according to a note on the menu, that "Enzian Theater was conceived by Tina Tiedtke in the spirit of Friedstein Castle, home to her grandmother, Princess Felicitas Hohenlohe." The menu note continues: "The Eden Bar is offering a few selections from the kitchen, including recipes from the houses of Hapsburg and Rothschild."

Those offering include a salad, and cheese spread, one soup, a main course of brook trout smoked with pine needles, and an almond and hazelnut torte. Turn the page and you have a vast variety of other options, including other salads, sandwiches, steak tacos, bento box nachos, flatbread pizzas and other uncomplicated fare that won't overstretch the limitations of Enzian's small kitchens.

Old-timers will remember that the Enzian grounds used to have a separate building, an old house, that was converted into a restaurant. For many years it was the well-received Jordan's Grove, but when that business closed, as steady parade of other eateries took up residence with varying rates of success. The house was razed several years ago.

The Hound sampled the libtauer cheese spread, described on the menu as delightfully tart and smoky, served with pita bread. But instead of pita, the spread was served with dark bread from Yalaha Bakery. I didn't get tart or smoky from the taste, but I did get caraway. I couldn't tell, however, if the seeds were in the spread or in the bread.

My friend and I also sampled one of the pizzas, the Yukon Gold potato ($14), which had roasted garlic, house-cured bacon, parmigiano-reggiano  and mozzarella cheeses, and slices of potatoes. It was a pretty good pie, but I question the cost of $14 for such a small serving.

True to its name, Eden Bar features a full line of liquor and some nice wines. As I said in yesterday's post, one of the gimmicks of the bar is the offering of very old liquor, including pre-Prohibition bourbon and pre-Castro rum, at prices ranging from $75-$250 a shot.

Take that gimmick, the Floridian Garden of Eden theme and throw in an Austrian castle and you have a bit too much going on at once.

But I like the bar, it's a comfortable place to sit and chat, especially this time of year when outside is the place to be. I can see people coming to Eden Bar even if they don't have plans to see a movie.

Most of the tables in the patio area are bar height, so I just chose to sit at the bar. One of the two unoccupied barkeeps took my drink order while I looked the menu over. It's mostly noshables, and there isn't anything over $13 -- in fact, most items are under $10. The menu, which was developed by the chef at Kres, although the two restaurants are owned by different entities, features soups and salads; flatbreads (to compete with Urban Flats, I suppose); pastas for the people who must have their carbs; and sliders and folds, the former being tiny burgers and the latter being wrap sandwiches.

I chose the choice burger ($9), which got me three of the little gut bombs, as we used to call the White Castle sliders. They were dense patties on Lilliputian sized buns, served with shredded lettuce, tomatoes and a small sweet pickle. The burgers were topped with cheese and they were pretty good.
They came with a handful of thick-cut fries, a more than ample amount. I'm torn whether to say they were worth nine bucks -- remember when we used to rail that the burgers and fries at Hard Rock Cafe were $7.50? I suppose for bar food they were priced accordingly, and one order should fill up the average person. Share? No, I don't think so.

Ember was quiet on the weeknight I visited, but I can imagine the place getting packed on the weekends, especially as we head into the best time of year for outdoor dining -- or outdoor drinking at a bar that also serves food.