Turkey Melt: The melt was good, but since we are cheese lovers, we think it could have had a bit more cheese in it. It came with hash browns on the side because the diner was out of fries. The hash browns were a bit too soft for our taste—almost like mashed potatoes in the middle—but they were buttery and tasted good.
Classic Benedict (with home fries) It was really good. The sauce tasted like it was made from scratch, and the eggs were poached perfectly. The home fries were also good. Pan-fried style.
Pancake: We also ordered a pancake, but our stomachs couldn’t wait for the picture. It was nice and fluffy.
Welcoming/cozy environment, very reasonably priced, and great service. 9/10
Recently, we went to Paris Banh Mi, so here’s another review for you guys!
The place was pretty and clean. We really liked that they had self-serve pastries. The only things we had to ask for were the drinks and the banh mi, for obvious reasons.
So, let’s get to it.
Pork and beef banh mi: It was good. The meat had a nice flavor, and the vegetables were fresh. It had less cilantro than we would’ve liked, though.
Butter leek: Pretty good, but it would have been even better with just a little more filling.
Bacon croissant: Very good, but there was a small surprise — it had a “quiche”-type filling. The eggs inside were unexpected, so there’s that. If you don’t like the eggy taste of quiche, skip this one.
Ham and cheese: Again, unexpected egg addition, but pretty good nonetheless — unless you don’t like the eggy taste.
Zeppole with Nutella: The donut was poorly filled, with all the filling on one side. We think we got a bad one, so we’re not going to judge them for this.
Ube mochi donut: This was the best mochi donut we’ve had so far, and the ube icing was really good.
Crème brûlée milk tea: Very bland and no brûlée found.
Vietnamese coffee: We don’t know what it’s supposed to taste like, but it was good, with a very strong coffee flavor.
Final thoughts:Overall, it was a very good experience. 8/10.
Address: 155 Cranes Roost Blvd STE 1210, Altamonte Springs, FL
Our quest for original diners took us this time to Mom’s Place, located in Tampa. A very highly rated, popular place on Google Reviews.
French toast: This was below average. There wasn’t anything unique about it, and it could have been made at home fairly easily. For the price, we would have expected at least two triangles.
Home fries: Kinda smashed and didn’t look like home fries at all. They tasted alright, but it wasn’t what we wanted.
Chopped sirloin: We were expecting something more in the line of tips or very small pieces, but not a hamburger steak. We might have been in the wrong for this one. It tasted okay, but again, it was not what we were expecting, especially for the price.
Hashbrown: It wasn’t terrible, but there was something off about it.
We would have told you guys about the pancakes that should have come with it… But they never came. And yes, we only realized that way too late.
The total was too much for what we got, the service was rushed, and on top of that, they didn’t give us enough napkins. That being said, all the hype about this place is nonsense.
Izakaya Tori is a Japanese restaurant located in Tampa. The first thing you notice, even before getting inside, is the decoration. At the entrance, it really doesn’t feel like you are in Tampa anymore, so you know from the get-go you’re in for a treat.
The decoration inside is even better—beautifully decorated, but in a casual way. It couldn’t be any different, since “izakaya” is the Japanese version of a pub. It’s an informal, relaxing place for you to sit down and grab a drink.
Now that we are all impressed with the decoration, let’s talk about the meals.
Takoyaki: The batter was just delicious. The bonito flakes were huge, and the octopus was perfectly cooked. 10/10
Scallops: They tasted pretty good, but for the price and quantity, they are not really worth it. 5/10
Gyuudon: It was really good, very well-seasoned, and the ingredients tasted fresh. The meat was very tender and juicy. The presentation was very nice. 10/10
Beef curry: It’s extremely difficult to find restaurants in Florida that serve Japanese beef curry. This one really hit the spot—it’s perfect. Also, it’s been the only place where we could find mild curry. It was delicious! 11/10
Overall: The restaurant is extremely well-decorated, the staff is really nice, and the price is very reasonable (with the exception of the scallops). They also have Japanese beer on draft, which is very rare in Florida, at least. 9.8/10
It seems like there are more and more Asian-French fusion bakeries popping up lately. This is definitely not a complaint—just an observation.
Since there’s not much to say about the bakery itself, other than that it’s clean and somewhat cute, let’s go straight to the pastries we bought, shall we?
Ham and cheese croissant: Even though it was tasty, there was not enough filling. There was a sweet glaze on top of it that was a bit strange.
Pizza pastry: Reminds us of a margherita pizza. It’s okay. It looks more substantial than it actually is.
French Egg Tart: This one is quite interesting. It’s almost like there’s an eggy flan inside a pie crust. It’s good, but definitely not suited for people who do not like the taste of eggs.
Basque cheesecake: Dense and delicious.
NutellaCanelé: Delicious, with a soft, custard-like inside, filled with Nutella.
Croissant roll: Pretty good, filled in the middle with a chocolate pastry cream.
Pistachio Cream Puff: The cream puff is huge, the filling is light, and there is a very mild, delicate taste of pistachio (not saying this in a bad way). However, it is not a cream puff—it’s made of puff pastry, not choux.
Strawberry cube: Delicious vol-au-vent type of pastry. It’s filled with some airy cream cheese filling and topped with strawberry syrup.
Custard Cream Donut: Very well filled with a delicious pastry cream.
Nutella Croissant: Not enough filling, and we highly suspect it was a (very faint) chocolate filling with hazelnuts instead of Nutella. They should not mess with Nutella fans—we take our spread seriously.
So, what we can say from an overall perspective is: The savory pastries—at least those made with puff pastry—can be a bit of a letdown. The sweet pastries, on the other hand, are pretty good on average. Some of their pastries are heavy on eggs (again, not a complaint), so be mindful of that.
Continuing our quest to find the few remaining American diners, we went to Starlite Diner in Daytona Beach.
The place looks exactly like those ‘lunch cars’ from the 50s. Well, at least we think it does — we were not born yet back then. The point is: it looks good from the inside and outside, and it does have the right vibe.
We ordered a Reuben, Nearly Famous O’Rings (their onion rings), and a Country Fried Steak.
Mr. Reuben: Pretty good. Not the best we’ve ever had, but good nonetheless. The sauerkraut was okay, and the corned beef was fresh. The fries that came with it were average.Nearly Famous O’Rings: Good, battered. (There’s only so much we can say about this one, right?)Country Fried Steak: Didn’t expect to receive a schnitzel instead of a steak. Considering that yours truly does not like pork, that was bad. We can’t judge the breakfast gravy on top of it because neither of us likes it, doesn’t matter where it’s from. Eggs and toast were fine, and the home fries were pretty decent.
We usually don’t bother to mention drinks (as in, just soda), but this one deserves to be mentioned. The Coke Zero had a terrible taste, so we asked for Diet Coke instead, and it was still bad. We don’t know what was going on there. Unfortunately, besides the decor, we wouldn’t say that it was an amazing experience.
Do you feel like American diners will eventually disappear altogether? Forget about the chain ones. We’re talking about the truly original diners – the ones with a “soul.”
They’re not that easy to find anymore, right? At least in Florida, they’re becoming rare.
As we were having this conversation in the car the other day, we decided to go on a hunt for real diners. We do love our breakfast food, after all.
With that in mind, we went to the Debary Diner. Let’s talk about it.
First of all, we love that they have a diner counter. We sat at a table, though.
We ordered the Turkey Melt, which was delicious. The only thing that we would change about it is the amount of cheese – we’ll definitely ask for some extra next time. However, keep in mind that we are cheese fiends here. 9/10
We also ordered the Diner Monster Burger, which was messy. The bun could have been a little thicker to hold together better. Fortunately, we ordered the eggs over hard, because if we had ordered them over-easy, it would have been even messier. There could have been a bit more of the house sauce in it, but on the other hand, they were very generous with the bacon, which was nice. The flavors were really good, and despite all these minor (and messy) details, it still deserves a 9.5/10.
We highly recommend this place, and we’ll definitely be back later for their breakfast food.
No, seriously. What is going on with all of these uninspired flavors that they call new? Can we just rewind and look at some of their latest “new” flavors?
First, there was the Black and White Oreos. They just used the standard Golden Oreo cookie with half chocolate filling and half creme filling. Neither of which are new, but at least it’s halfsies, so I’ll give them that… I guess.
Then, there was the Space Dunk Oreo. Which were nothing but Double Stuf Oreos with colored creme and popping candy. Let’s not forget that the popping candy is also not new. Anybody remember Firework Oreos? Yeah.
Then the latest one, Dirt Cake Oreos. Come on. They are just Blackout Oreos but with some colored sugar sprinkles in the cookie. By the way, the “gummy worm inspired sprinkles” written on the box is a bit misleading. You might think you are actually getting some gummy worms in it. Nope.
The point is, Oreo has been recycling flavors like crazy lately. I don’t know about you guys, but I think all of this is very deceptive. I can see their marketing team in a meeting saying “they won’t notice it’s the same cookie”.
Anyways, us agents really hope that Oreo gets their act together and releases something decent soon.
We went on a little trip this week. On our way to St. Augustine we stopped at a store called Delícias de Portugal, located in Palm Coast. Actually, it’s two stores, and they are like a block away from each other. The second one has the exact same name, but followed by a “II”, so we assume it’s from the same owners. On the first one we got the Portuguese rice cake, an almond tart, and “pata de veado” – a dessert that is basically a roll cake with bavarian cream. Oh, we also got some coffee, which was really good.
Here’s proof of our visit:
And our thoughts:
Rice cake:
Blondie: I’ve never had a rice cake before and I’m happy that I’ve had it. It’s simpler and closer to home than what I expected. To me, it tasted kinda like a plain muffin. 7/10
Danish: I found this pleasant as well. Not too sweet, not too bland. 7/10
Almond tart:
Blondie: Tiny tart with almond filling. Yummy. 8/10
Danish: I have a special place for almond pastries, in my mouth. 9/10
Pata de veado:
Blondie: I’ve had one before at a grocery store, but boy, this one is a lot better. It’s super moist, and the filling is delicious. 9/10
Danish: This one was my favorite of the day, the texture and flavor was great. 10/10
Then, we went to the second store, which had some different snacks available. From this one, we picked the orange tart, custard tart, and the milk tart.
Orange tart:
Blondie: Okay, I did not like this one. Honestly, it tasted like there was something wrong with it. 2/10
Danish: I seem to be overly sensitive to things that have a sulphury eggy taste, which is all I could taste in this. 0/10
Custard tart:
Blondie: It was a good tart, but not the best one I’ve ever had. 7/10
Danish: The flavor of the custard was not eggy like the orange one (hooray!). It was good, but as Blondie said not as good as ones we’ve had elsewhere. 7/10
Milk tart:
Blondie: This dessert is new to me, but I really like it. It’s like a little muffin, but only made of baked cream. 9/10
Danish: This one was enjoyable as well, though texture was a bit odd to me. 8/10
Overall, the stores are nice, the service is nice, and most of the desserts are good (with the exception of the orange tart). We haven’t had any savory treats this time, but we definitely will in the future.
Hey guys!
Agent Blondie here. We went to Crumbl yesterday, and we’d like to share our thoughts about the cookies we got this week.
Cinnamon Frybread:
Blondie: Okay, this one is just amazing. It’s soft on the inside, and if there was a cookie that tasted like comfort, this would be it. 10/10
Danish: This is my favorite cookie from Crumbl so far. Soft buttery cinnamon goodness. 10/10
Molten Lava:
Blondie: It’s a good chocolate cookie, and it is indeed very gooey on the inside. If you like very dark chocolate, go for it. 8/10
Danish: I like this cookie the most of any of the chocolate cookies we’ve had from Crumbl. It’s best when it’s warm and fresh. 9/10
Lemonade:
Bondie: So, I really like the frosting, but the cookie is just okay. I’m always disappointed when the supposed flavor only comes in the frosting with a ‘basic’ vanilla cookie. By the way, this cookie is served cold, but I’d tell you to wait until it reaches room temperature. 5/10
Danish: All the flavor is in they frosting, I’m left wishing there was more flavor to the cookie as well. 5/10
Classic Pink Sugar:
Blondie: Even though this one is always on the menu, this was the first time we ordered it. I’m not a huge fan of sugar cookies, but this one is as good as it can get, I guess? Also, wait until it gets to room temperature. 5/10
Danish: The description of this cookie says that it uses real almond flavor in the frosting, which peaked my interest. Unfortunately the almond flavor is very very subtle, making it a very plain tasting cookie. 4/10
thecookiefiles.com 