La Fogata, Spanish for the wood fire, features a pan Latin American menu, though there are a couple of outlier entrees from Italy. Puerto Rico and Colombia dominate the menu and all of the food is well executed and served in ample portions.

Good, authentic Mexican food, clean bright dining area, friendly people. What else do you need?

The menu features a tidy number of sandwiches, salads and entrees. You’ve got your Cuban, your ropa viejo, your chicken with chimichurri sauce. When it came my turn to select, I went with the shredded pork with two sides, those being a moro rice (a mix of black beans and rice) and roasted potatoes.

The pleasant young woman who took my order first piled on the moro, then the roasted potatoes, and I thought maybe she had misunderstood me or that I had ordered incorrectly because I didn’t think there would be room for the pork.

But then she plopped on a massive amount of the pork and somehow managed to get the clamshell container closed.

I also ordered a cup of the Baja chicken enchilada soup to go. Actually, it isn’t necessary to order anything to go — if you get something, you must go and make way for another person to enter the cramped space. If you wish, you may eat your food at one of the tables in the gravel area next to the lawn, which isn’t as unpleasant as it sounds.

I carried my lunch home and opened it up and dove right in. Every bit of it was wonderful. The rice blended with the beans had a substantial mouthfeel, the thinly sliced potatoes still had crunch and a buttery flavor. And the pork was juicy and tender and just right when sprinkled with a bit of the mojo sauce that was offered on the side. There was more than one person should eat at one meal, so I enjoyed everything a second time.

The soup was good, too, though I didn’t quite get the enchilada reference. It had a tomatoey sort of broth with an unapologetically spicy bite, with bits of corn, black beans and potatoes in the mix.

By the way, all this food, which lasted two meals, came to $10.10, including tax. What a bargain.

When I visited the original location, a couple of years ago, I was fairly underwhelmed. No, that’s not quite accurate. I had to list the pizza I ordered as one of the worst I had ever had. How bad was it? I threw most of it away. Even lousy pizza usually gets saved for a late night leftover.

The new Moon is a bit farther down University Boulevard. The space is larger, maybe three times the size of the old place. And it’s prettier, too, with less of that student milieu funk. But it hasn’t gotten too fancy. The place still operates in the same way, which, at least in one instance, is a bit of a problem. But more on that in a moment.

The best thing I can say about the new Lazy Moon is that the pizza is much improved over the one I tossed. In fact, I liked the slice I had on my recent visit rather well. I was told by LM fans after my visit to the old place that my mistake had been in ordering a whole pie and not just a slice. And, it should be noted that the whole pies are really big. No, I mean enormous. I had difficulty getting the box into my car.

So I didn’t want to make that mistake this time — or discard all that pie if it was the same.

But the slice I had, with sausage and mushroom, had a nice thin crust, just the right amount of tomato sauce and plenty of the ordered toppings. One complaint: the slices are, as mentioned previously, so large that it is nearly impossible to lift one and eat it with one’s hands the way God intended for pizza to be consumed. It’s just too unwieldy. And I feel like an idiot eating pizza with a knife and fork. It’s just so wrong.

The dining area of Lazy Moon is spacious and has a good hum about it when full, which it was when I visited. Tables are wood with a stainless steel topper, which gives it an industrial look. But then there’s a plant wall with greenery tucked into pouches, sort of like the vegetation wall at Winter Park’s Prato, but bigger. That softens the look a bit.

LL is a sort of buffet type of operation, but not exactly. All the food is in front of you in steam trays when you approach the counter, but you’re separated from it by a wall of glass. A staff member does the dishing. You choose the type of rice you’d like (plain white, yellow, congris, etc.) and the meat you want to go with it, and a side dish. The staff member then scoops your choices in startlingly large amounts onto a plate or into a takeout container. Then you pay at the end of the counter and either take a seat at one of the tables in the large and unadorned dining room or take your food to a secluded spot where you can pig out in private.

Here’s the best part. The huge platter of food came to a grand total of $6.39. And there was enough to enjoy over two mealtimes. That makes this a real bargain. Who cares if the place has no atmosphere?

See the website for two other locations.

Ask any longtime Central Floridian to name a favorite dive restaurant and Lee & Rick’s is likely to be the reply. There are no pretenses, no airs. You come here for oysters and beer, ample amounts of both. Order anything else and you’re on your own.

Just a little hole in the wall place, like so many eateries you’ll find in New Orleans. Not everything is authentic. The jambalaya, for instance, bears no semblance to any you’d find in the Crescent City. But whatever it was was delicious. Wonderful oyster po’boy, too.

Oviedo is famously known for its feral chickens roaming about. So a new concept restaurant chose to pay homage to the free-range chickens with its name, The Local Hen.

Actually, it’s known as a micro restaurant and is part of the Food Factory Foodie Collective in the Oviedo on the Park district, where, ironically, there don’t seem to be any chickens wandering about. But maybe that’s just because they’ve met up with the folks at The Local Hen.

I thought I had made a discovery of a new and wonderful Cuban cafe. Turns out that Los Autenticos has been around for a long time – it’s just new to me. But still wonderful nonetheless. Very small place with big-flavored food. Be sure to have a cup of the chicken soup, and then move on to the roast pork or maybe a Cuban sandwich.

Places like Maracaibo Mia, a Venezuelan restaurant in the Gateway District, offer a good value – a box full of food, more than enough to fill you up, maybe enough for two meals, for about half what a kebab would cost.