2014 Dining Awards
Our annual readers’ survey names the top restaurants in 61 categories.
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| Best Restaurant: Raglan Road Irish Pub & Restaurant |
A Road Best Traveled
Charismatic chef Kevin Dundon, Ireland's answer to Emeril Lagasse, takes time from his TV and book tour schedule to visit Orlando several times a year for high-energy special event dinners, but his influence on the Raglan Road menu can be seen—and tasted—every day. The restaurant, a series of faithfully restored bars and furnishings from ancient Old Country pubs, has the feel of a genuine family-run restaurant (which it is). It gives Dundon a place to use traditional recipes and farm-fresh ingredients as a leaping point for new, satisfying and occasionally surprising ideas, such as a killer twist on smoked haddock & Dubliner cheese dip, or a wine-infused broth and seafood he calls “It's not bleedin' Chowder!’’ The combination of New Irish cuisine, a pint of ale and a wink from a high-stepping Irish lass is hard to beat.
BEST RESTAURANT1 Raglan Road Irish Pub & Restaurant 2 (3) Chef’s Table at the Edgewater 3 (2) deep blu seafood grille BEST NEW RESTAURANT1 Eddie V’s 2 Yuki Hana 3 Nona Blue Modern Tavern BEST SERVICE1 The Venetian Room 2 (1) deep blu seafood grille 3 Victoria & Albert’s BEST CHEF1 (1) Cory York 2 Kevin Tarter 3 Khalid Benghallem BEST OUTDOOR DINING1 (1) Hillstone 2 (3) FishBones 3 Bahama Breeze BEST HOTEL RESTAURANT1 (1) deep blu seafood grille 2 The Venetian Room 3 Victoria & Albert’s BEST BREAKFAST1 (1) First Watch 2 (2) Keke’s 3 Briarpatch BEST SUNDAY BRUNCH1 (1) Dexter’s 2 The Boheme 3 Maxine’s on Shine BEST POWER LUNCH1 (1) Citrus Restaurant 2 (2) Hillstone 3 The Capital Grille BEST FOR A BUSINESS DINNER1 (2) Christner’s Prime 2 (1) Seasons 52 3 (3) The Capital Grille BEST LATE-NIGHT DINING1 (2) Pom Pom’s Teahouse and Sandwicheria 2 (1) Bananas 3 (3) Gringos Locos BEST TAKE-OUT1 (1) That Deli 2 (2) 4Rivers Smokehouse 3 (3) Black Bean Deli BEST CARIBBEAN1 (1) Bahama Breeze 2 Golden Krust 3 (2) Mark’s Caribbean Cuisine BEST CHINESE1 (1) P.F. Chang’s China Bistro 2 (2) Hawkers Asian Street Fare 3 Imperial Dynasty BEST DELI1 (1) TooJay’s 2 (2) That Deli 3 Jason’s Deli BEST FRENCH1 (1) Le Coq au Vin 2 (2) Chez Vincent 3 (3) Café de France BEST MEXICAN/TEX MEX1 (1) Cocina 214 2 (2) Agave Azul 3 (3) Tijuana Flats BEST ITALIAN1 (1) Prato 2 Bucca di Beppo 3 (2) Antonio’s Ristorante BEST GREEK1 (1) Taverna Opa 2 Mykonos 3 (2) Mediterranean Blue BEST JAPANESE1 (1) Kobe Japanese Steakhouse 2 Dragonfly Robata Grill & Sushi 3 Yuki Hana BEST SOUTHERN1 (1) Cask & Larder 2 (3) Cracker Barrel 3 (2) 4Rivers Smokehouse |
BEST INDIAN1 (1) Memories of India 2 Saffron 3 Woodlands BEST LATIN1 (2) Black Bean Deli 2 Columbia Restaurant 3 (1) Cuba Libre BEST SPANISH1 (3) Columbia Restaurant 2 (2) Ceviche Tapas Bar & Restaurant 3 El Bodegón Tapas & Wine BEST THAI1 (2) Thai Blossom 2 (3) Thai Cuisine 3 (1) Sea Thai BEST VIETNAMESE1 (1) Pho 88 2 (2) Little Saigon 3 (3) Pho Vinh BEST MIDDLE EASTERN1 (1) Bosphorous 2 (2) Cedars Restaurant 3 Habibi BEST STEAK HOUSE1 (1) Christner’s Prime 2 (2) Ruth’s Chris Steak House 3 (3) Charley’s Steakhouse BEST BURGER1 Margaritaville 2 (1) Five Guys 3 (2) BurgerFi BEST BARBECUE1 (1) 4Rivers Smokehouse 2 (2) Bubbalou’s Bodacious BBQ 3 (3) Harry and Larry’s Bar-B-Que BEST RIBS1 (1) 4Rivers Smokehouse 2 Sonny’s BBQ 3 Cecil’s Texas Style Bar-B-Q BEST SANDWICHES1 (1) That Deli 2 (3) TooJay’s 3 Earl of Sandwich BEST SEAFOOD1 (1) deep blu seafood grille 2 Bonefish Grill 3 Boston’s Fish House BEST SUSHI1 (2) Amura 2 Dragonfly Robata Grill & Sushi 3 (1) Seito Sushi BEST HEALTHY SELECTIONS1 (1) Seasons 52 2 First Watch 3 (3) Dandelion BEST PIZZA1 (1) Mellow Mushroom 2 (3) Anthony’s Pizzeria & Italian Restaurant 3 Winter Garden Pizza BEST APPETIZERS1 (1) The Tasting Room 2 Bonefish Grill 3 (2) Café Tu Tu Tango BEST SALADS1 (2) Souplantation & Sweet Tomatoes 2 (1) Greens and Grille 3 Panera Bread BEST VEGETARIAN1 (2) Dandelion 2 (1) Ethos Vegan Kitchen 3 (3) Infusion Tea BEST BEER SELECTION1 (1) World of Beer 2 (2) Redlight Redlight Beer Parlour 3 Raglan Road Irish Pub & Restaurant BEST PLACE FOR COCKTAILS1 (2) Blue Martini 2 Pilars Martini Bar 3 The Woods BEST WINE BAR1 (1) The Wine Room 2 (2) Eola Wine Company 3 Attic Door |
BEST WINE LIST1 (1) Luma on Park 2 The Capital Grille 3 Jiko-The Cooking Place BEST HAPPY HOUR1 (2) FishBones 2 Dragonfly Robata Grill & Sushi 3 (3) Cocina 214 BEST FOOD TRUCK1 (2) Yum Yum Cupcake Truck 2 Monsta Lobsta 3 Treehouse Truck BEST DESSERTS1 (3) Cheesecake Factory 2 Chef Henry’s 3 (2) The Dessert Lady BEST PLACE TO CELEBRATE1 Chef’s Table at the Edgewater 2 (3) Taverna Opa 3 (2) Christner’s Prime BEST PLACE TO TAKE COMPANY1 Raglan Road Irish Pub & Restaurant 2 (1) Seasons 52 3 (2) Hillstone BEST BAKERY1 (1) Blue Bird Bake Shop 2 (3) Charlie’s Gourmet Pastries 3 (2) Yalaha Bakery BEST NEIGHBORHOOD RESTAURANT1 That Deli 2 (2) Maxine’s on Shine 3 Teak Neighborhood Grill RESTAURANT MOST WORTH THE WAIT1 California Grill 2 Victoria & Albert’s 3 (2) 4Rivers Smokehouse BEST VIEW1 (2) California Grill 2 (1) Hillstone 3 Citrus Club (members only) BEST KEPT SECRET1 Chef Henry’s 2 (3) Yellow Dog Eats 3 (2) Maxine’s on Shine BEST PLACE TO TAKE
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5 New Inductees into our Dining Hall of Fame.
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Fred Vlachos
The architect of Vine & Dine—and oh so fine cuisine.
It takes a chef with a large personality to have run the busy Everglades restaurant for the past 8 years, and to have done it successfully. Head Chef Fred Vlachos is a big man with a winning disposition, and when he walks through the dining room, shaking hands and laughing, everybody knows it.
"I enjoy what I do," the 52-year-old Vlachos says. "I like hustle and bustle, the on-the-spot thinking." Chef Fred crafts an eclectic nightly menu for the Rosen Centre Hotel restaurant, changing dishes seasonally to reflect what catches his fancy. He juggles flavors—smoking salmon with tea leaves, or serving filet of buffalo with a blueberry onion jam.
Vlachos, who hotelier Harris Rosen calls "an amazing culinary artist," is the impetus behind the popular Vine & Dine wine-pairing dinners that have been ongoing four evenings a year since 2006. Some of his five-course menus (the themes change every year) have centered around "Hollywood and Vine" (accompanied by Coppola wines), New Orleans, Robert Mondavi's 100th birthday and an "Homage to Fromage" featuring a blue cheese-encrusted filet. He creates items like roasted onion soup with smoked salmon sausage, or sweet potato risotto and fiddlehead ferns. "I like to play with a theme," he says, planning a "Southern Comfort" night that will include far more than a shot of alcohol. By bringing in new wines and fun, show-biz ideas, Vlachos attracts that rarest of breeds in hotel restaurants: a solid core of local diners who come to just about every event.
He is proud of his Greek roots. "Yes, my grandfather worked in diners," he laughs. Vlachos began his career as a short-order cook while attending C.W. Post College on New York's Long Island. His father was a high school math and Spanish teacher who made pastries in his spare time, his mother a nurse. After graduating from Johnson & Wales culinary school, Vlachos moved to Florida and worked the kitchen at the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress.
As many as 200 people benefit from Chef Fred's talents each night at Everglades; he also manages the à la carte kitchen next door at Café Gauguin, and room service in the 1334-room hotel. A busy man, and a happy one.
» Everglades, 9840 International Drive, Orlando. evergladesrestaurant.com
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Bún Thịt Nướng Chả Giò
The Usual, by the numbers.
At Pho 88, it is number 83 on the menu; 34 at Little Saigon; 54 at Ha Long Bistro; 47 at Viet Garden; and 76 at Anh Hong. It is the kind of dish that elicits fervor from locals and visitors alike, and has become one of those habitual standards. Diners glance at the menu, but after a couple of minutes, it’s typically, “Just give me the usual—#115." At Phớ Vinh, that’s the number that will get this star dish delivered to your table. “Very traditional,” owner Phan Truong calls it. “People order a lot of this dish.”
Menu items served by our European cousins can be perplexing. What exactly goes into a tapenade? Can the ingredients of bubble and squeak be found in the fridge or a cartoon? Vietnamese dishes lean toward the literally descriptive—if you know the translation. The parts of this outstanding bowl of bún thịt nướng chả giò, diacritical marks and all, make it as clear as the bowl of sauce beside it.
The word we think of for Vietnamese soup, phở (pronounced “fu”), actually means the rice noodles in the bowl; likewise, bún (or buun, said as “boon”) means thin rice vermicelli. Thịt nướng is barbecued or grilled pork. And while gỏi cuốn (“salad rolls”) means artful, transparent summer rolls, chả giò (“minced pork”) are luscious, ground sausage-filled fried spring rolls.
So… noodles, pork, sliced rolls. Seems simple enough. But the flavor combination of smoky marinated pork with its charred edges, crunchy sliced rolls and silky noodle, mixed with a salad bowl's worth of basil, fresh cucumber, tart pickled daikon radish, bean sprouts, shredded carrots and flat leaf parsley, splashed with a savory accompaniment of fish sauce, vinegar and red pepper flakes, make every bite a new experience.
Typically ordered with an eye-opening glass of condensed milk-laced iced cà phê, this one generous bún bowl provides several courses at once. In a word (or two), tho'm ngon: delicious!
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Joe Hardiman
Cheerfully crafting the building blocks of fine dining.
Wearing a lanyard full of culinary association and Disney pins, a bowtie and a smile, Joe Hardiman cuts a lively figure as president of one of the most prestigious hospitality schools in the country.
Halls and classrooms at Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts are a parade of white jackets and high pleated toques. Hardiman hails each person he passes in the halls with a hearty “Hey, how are you?” and knows the name of most of his 800 students. (“Joe Hardiman, I’m from upstate New York,” is his usual greeting to strangers.)
“There are some amazing similarities between culinary school and martial arts,” the one-time accountant, restaurant manager and Taekwondo instructor says. “Repetition, practice, increased complexity. Impeccable uniforms. Good behavior, students and teachers. Everyone has dignity and gets respect… and smiling, I insist on smiling. I don’t hire crabby people.”
Hardiman, president of Le Cordon Bleu for the past 10 years, is one of those non-crabby people. Celebrating the creativity in culinary, he arranges “funky chef pant Fridays” for students. His idea for a 1,599-pound crème brûlée won a Guinness World Record in February 2005. “And it was a well made one, too. Very delicious.”
Some have said the institution is more a technical school than a culinary academy, to which Hardiman says, “Guess what… we are a technical school. But very technical.” Successful faculty and alumni during his tenure have included Tyler Brassil and Loren Falsone (The Table and Pharmacy); multiple James Beard Award nominee Hari Pulapaka (Cress); food truck pioneer Tony Adams; and certified master chef and Orlando magazine Hall of Famer Klaus Friedenreich.
Hardiman enjoys pointing out plaques, coats signed by renowned chefs, and honors earned by the school. While walking down a hallway lined with kitchens, he sticks his head into a chocolate decoration class (“They’re all so serious!”), and reads aloud a David Mamet saying inscribed on the wall (“We must have pie. Stress cannot exist in the presence of a pie.”). “This should all be emotionally satisfying,” he says. “We’re teaching hospitality.”
» Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts. chefs.edu/Orlando
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Dandelion Communitea Café
Assembling an enduring circle of friends.
“There’s something really special about this intersection,” says Julie Norris. Co-founded by Norris and Chris Blanc, Dandelion Communitea Café, the mostly organic, gluten-free and vegan café perched near the corner of Thornton Avenue and East Colonial Drive, turned 8 years old in March. Offering food made from scratch in the tiny kitchen of a 1920s cheery green house, the goal at Dandelion is to “help create community in a transient town,” says Norris, and channel the cross-cultural, multi-generational atmosphere of the Mills 50 area.
Dandelion’s watchword is “flexitarian,” a semi-vegetarian lifestyle that includes the occasional meat course. People sit in one of several rooms or out in the garden, eating salad bowls or wraps like the popular “Giddyup,” a chili made with tempeh, blue corn chips, vegetables and non-dairy or organic cheddar cheese that accounts for 20 percent of Dandelion’s sales.
Norris handles the creative side of the café while Blanc, who was previously operations manager at the Enzian Theater, runs day-to-day operations. The energy generated by Dandelion has helped incubate several local businesses and ideas. OurLando, one of the earliest local business/community movements, began here, as did Emily Rankin’s Local Roots produce distribution company and Henry Melendy’s My Yard Farm edible landscapers (My Yard Farm supplies the vegan chili). John Rife, the force behind East End Market, could be found at Dandelion planning his food hub over tea.
If a really good song comes on the radio, sing-alongs and dance-offs have been known to break out. Daytime brings moms, bearded Web designers and men in suits for portobello mushroom sandwiches and a beer from Orlando Brewing. Expensive cars park next to the bike rack, lawyers and doctors sit next to modern-day hippies. At night, new talent is spotlighted during a monthly art show, while Di-verse Word presents spoken-word poetry every Tuesday.
“We’ve had two weddings, many engagements,” says Norris. “Every full and new moon there’s a Moon Circle, with drummers, dancers, vendors selling teas and crystals; the back room couches are usually full of people meeting new people, overhearing conversations, sharing seats, having meals together…” “We lure people into community with good food and healthy beverages,” Norris says. “It’s very sneaky.”
» 618 N. Thornton Ave., Orlando. dandelioncommunitea.com
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Sherry and Jack Cremin
At Victoria & Albert’s, one team of servers holds the crown.
An evening at Victoria & Albert's, the superb restaurant at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort, will seem remarkably familiar to fans of Downton Abbey: Live harp music, fine crystal and silverware, and candlelight. A pair of servers, dressed in Victorian garb, tend to your every need, eager and able to explain each of your seven (or more) courses and wines during the three-hour experience.
They can, like the staff at Downton, feel like members of your family. And if you’re a regular, your favorite relatives are probably Sherry and Jack Cremin, who, according to Maître d’Hôtel Israel Pérez, are the most requested servers at V&A.
Jack, 59, has been at the restaurant for 10 years; Sherry, 49, for eight. Both veterans of Disney for decades, they met in 1987 while working at Epcot's Coral Reef Restaurant. Jack trained as a chef at the prestigious Culinary Institute of America (Anthony Bourdain was a classmate).
The job has a positively Victorian attention to detail. Each afternoon (the day starts at 3:45 p.m.—promptly), the couple gather with the rest of the staff to review
that day's guest list. Birthdays are noted, and food allergies highlighted.
Up until 10 years ago, servers were called Victoria or Albert. They even had nametags as such (Jack still has his while Sherry came on board after the practice was discontinued); the servers still use those titles among themselves.
With two seatings per night, dinner is a long affair; Jack and Sherry usually have their own supper at home sometime after 1 a.m. Sherry, as a "Victoria," handles the presentation, from polishing silver and pouring wine to reviewing the menu with diners. "I'm the talker," Sherry says. "I tell the stories."
Jack, dressed in tails and waistcoat as befits an "Albert," performs every duty from footman to butler. "We stick very closely to British butlering techniques," Jack says, down to when to clear plates and the use for each piece of the remarkably extensive silverware. Both of them are certified sommeliers. "This is where we wanted to end up," Jack says proudly. "The expectation is perfection."
» 4401 Disney's Grand Floridian Resort, Lake Buena Vista. victoria-alberts.com
