The Garden Grill, Epcot, Orlando Florida.

The Garden Grill

Located in the Land Pavilion at the Epcot theme park is with out a doubt one of our favorite restaurants to visit when we "Do Disney".  The first thing you'll notice about the restaurant is that it spins, not fast enough to make anyone sick, but it rotates through the different landscapes of the "Living with the Land" ride. You'll see the American Plains, Jungles and more.  The restaurant is also a Character Dining location, and you will get visits from Chip, Dale, Mickey and Pluto so you will definitely want to bring your camera, especially if you have little ones.

There are no traditional menus at the Garden Grill, meals are served all you can eat"Family style" where the staff brings out platter of food which include steak, fish, turkey and lots of sides.  If you want more of anything, you just ask your server and they will bring it out to you.  Much of the food is actually produced in the sustainable eco-friendly farms at Epcot.  You can finish off your meal with one of the seasonal deserts.

Overall, this is one of our "must visit" places whenever we go.  We have always gotten excellent service and very good food.  We highly recommend you get reservations in advance and after checking the Disney website it appears the grill is no longer open for lunch, hours are 4 pm-8 pm.  You'll want to plan to spend at least an hour or more here, so if you get a fast pass or have an itinerary for other shows or attractions you'll need to take that into consideration.

Also, due to the style of the restaurant (and because it's Disney), they are a little more expensive than some of the other options available in the parks.

For more reviews you can go here to see what other people are saying about The Garden Grill

John G's Manalapan, FL

On Saturday, I had the opportunity to visit John G's new location.  The restaurant is now located in the shopping center on the Southwest corner of Ocean Ave and A1A.  It's right across the street from the Ritz-Carlton hotel and the Lantana Beach .  One thing you'll note right away though, is that John G's no longer has that signature view over the ocean, it's now surrounded on all sides by Trees and other buildings.

We arrived around 9am and the "traditional" line had already started forming.  I should add that for this trip, we had a fairly large party, 5 adults and our 2 little ones.  Due to this, we had to wait till one of the larger tables was available and we didn't get seated till around 10am.inside of the restaurant.  The new facility is very nice, it's a lot more open than the old restaurant, and significantly brighter too.  They must have moved some of the old furnishings and wall decor because they still had the wood paneling along the kitchen, The prep area also was still decorated with those old fashion "flip chart style" menu's that announced the specials of the day, which I don't believe had been changed in 30 years.

Although they were extremely busy, the server came back after a few minutes and with our drinks and took our food orders.

The menu though not too large, does still have a good selection of items. 

The food overall was good, and we enjoyed our meal.  I'm not going to go into what everybody ordered because, quite frankly I don't remember :).  However I ordered the # 5 which is 2 Eggs to order(scrambled), Hash browns or Grits (Grits), toast and fruit cup or juice. I also chose the side of ham at additional cost.

Despite how good everything was, this outing was missing something.  I don't know exactly what it is, the food was like it always has been, and the restaurant was clean and the staff friendly.  I don't know if it is the change of location that was throwing me off, but not being able to look out on the water might have had something to do with it.  Hopefully I'll be able to get used to the change.  That being said, one of the good things about the new location is free parking.  So not having to worry about getting a parking ticket while waiting in line is definitely a plus.
Also for those who don't know John G's is only open from 7:00am to 3:00pm and they still do not accept credit cards.  Though they do have an ATM on site.

Scores:
Food:  B+
Portion Size: A
Service: A

Duffy's, West Palm Beach, Fl

Wow, it sure has been a while since we've done a review.  Seems like it might be time for another.

Tonight the wife and I went out on a very much needed date night.  We thought we might hit up Longhorn, as we didn't think it would be that busy at 6:30 (ish) on a Thursday night.  This turned out to not to be the case.  The wait for 2 was 35-45 minutes and unfortunately we just didn't want to wait that long.  Luckily though there was a Duffy's right across the parking lot, so we figured we might as well check and see what the wait time would be.  Lo and behold, no wait, sounds like we had a winner!

The first thing we noticed as we walked in was a little "DJ" style booth with a lady sitting in it.  As we were walking by, she announced to the crowd "Welcome to Thursday night Trivia"!  We got to our seats and the hostess reminded us that it was 2-4-1 drinks till closing.  So far, Duffy's was on the right track with us. :)

The menu, though not very large size-wise, has a pretty good selection of items.  You've got some pretty standard appetizers, along with your normal Burgers & wings type of offerings.  We started with the appetizer sampler, which comes with Boneless (or bone-in) wings and your choice of sauce, Tex-Mex egg rolls and Friend mozzarella.  The sampler had fairly small portions of each item (to be expected though) but everything was very flavorful.  The fried cheese had what tasted like a homemade batter, the wings were very meaty and about half a size bigger than "bite size", and the surprise for me were the egg rolls.  These had a really good flavor with little bits of chicken, cheese and corn all mixed in.  Next time we might just get an order of these by themselves.

For the main course, the wifey ordered the Rodeo Burger which comes with cheese, BBQ sauce and a literal tower of onion rings.  She said the flavor was ok, and it was a big burger, but it's not something she would order again.  I had the Churrasco Steak, which is an 8oz skirt steak w/ Chimichurri and comes with Black beans, rice and plantains.  Portion size was great, they gave a whole mess of the beans and rice, and the steak was a pretty good size also.  As for the flavor, all I can say is.... WOW!  This is probably one of the most flavor meals I've had in a very long time.  The steak was cooked to perfection and the rice and bean combo was outstanding.  I was tempted to order another one, just so I could take it with me and have it for lunch at work.  I really can't say enough about it, if you like the Latin style of steak, then you'll probably love this.

The service was pretty average, not really outstanding, but nothing to complain about either.  One thing to note though, is that it was most definitely NOT a quiet place, what with the TVs playing and the Trivia game going on, along with the regular restaurant & Bar crowd, the sound level was pretty loud. 

All-in-all, this was a good night out and surprisingly pleasant.  We would definitely go back, and next time we might even bring some friends.  Here is a link to the Menu.  They also have a gluten free selection for those that may need it.

Service: C
Food: A
Portion Size: A

Overall: A-

Cici's Pizza Greenacres, FL

The best way to describe this establishment is also exactly what it is... "Cheap pizza Buffet". If you're looking for a gourmet culinary experience you might want to just pass on by as this is not the place for you. On the other hand, if you want to consume large amounts of cheap, but filling pizza. While getting the opportunity to play some arcade games and watch TV for a ridiculously low price, then you might want to stop on by.

You'll be able to get a dine-in meal with drink for less than $8.00. Also at this location, they have several arcade machines and a big screen TV that they use to show cartoons.

The pizza choices are pretty good, and they continually put out new options.

If you've got kids who are around ages 4-14 (ish) then this is decent place to go out for a night. Also, teenagers tend to head here on the afternoons of Half-days at school.

Food quality wise, they won't win any awards, but it's still pretty passable and the garlic bread sticks were very good.

We would definitely go back again, even if price was the only consideration.

Tokyo Peking II, Lake Worth, Fl (re-visited)

Since we had such a good experience last time we were here, we decided to try this restaurant again.

We arrived around 11:30 (ish), the restaurant wasn't crowded and we were sat right away. The serving staff was very friendly and attentive. We never had to get someones attention if we wanted any refills on our drinks or take away the empty plates. Which, at a buffet is all you can really ask for.

The food was good and tasted very fresh, but the selection seemed a bit more limited than last time. However the Hibachi grill was excellent. I believe that the primary draw for this restaurant is both the hibachi grill and the sushi bar. I think that the regular buffet aren't bad, but not as good as the grill and the bar.

All in all, we really like this restaurant. It's clean, the staff is friendly and the food is good. What more can you ask for?