Bonefish is one of those restaurants that “gets it.” It offers a good product at a fair price in a pleasant atmosphere. Nothing fancy, nothing overblown but a consistently good dining experience. New location at 5463 Gateway Village Circle, Orlando,FL 32812 Phone: 407-816-6355.

Just a small mom-and-pop sushi place with good (if not traditionally authentic) sushi. Nigirizushi is expertly prepared. Be sure to try the Dr. Phillips roll (note: does not contain Dr. Phillips).
 

Originally called Anatolia, but now owned by the same folks who have the very good Bosphorous on Park Avenue. The menu combines Lebanese and Turkish traditions, the former for the wonderful array of appetizers and the latter for the meaty entrees. Hot appetizers included arnavut cigeri, which sounds so much better than fried calves liver. This featured little bite-sized chunks garnished with tomatoes and raw onions; and icli kofte, an egg-shaped patty fashioned out of cracked wheat and filled with ground lamb. All of it was delicious — even the liver.For my entree I had the mixed grill, an ample sampling of meats, each available also as a single entree, that could easily serve two people. It had adana kebab, seasoned ground lamb formed around a skewer; lamb shish kebab, cubes of tender meat; lamb chops, just in case you didn’t have enough lamb before; dana kebab, cubes of grilled beef; and tavuk kebab, which would be chicken. All were well seasoned and delicious, and were accompanied by rice, a medley of grilled vegetables and small, skinless baked potato. You could make a feast of vegetarian options here.

Forrest Gump, in the movie of the same name, quotes his mother as saying that life was like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get. The movie, you see, takes place in a time before candy companies started putting maps to their assortments on the inside lid.Still, Mother Gump was wise in her way. So I can’t help but think that if she were to visit Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., a chain restaurant new to Universal’s CityWalk, her reaction might be: “Sometimes life is like a carton of frozen shrimp, you know exactly what you’re gonna get.”There’s little to recommend here, and it shouldn’t surprise anyone to learn that the menu is dominated by what Bubba called “the fruit of the sea.” It isn’t quite as extensive as detailed in the movie when Bubba, in a memorable sequence, lists every possible way to cook and serve shrimp. “You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it. Dey’s uh, shrimp-kabobs, shrimp Creole, shrimp gumbo. Pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried. There’s pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich. That- that’s about it.”He didn’t mention Lt. Dan’s drunken shrimp, which had andouille sausage in what was supposed to be a spicy bourbon sauce. It was more sweet than spicy, and there was nary a hint of boozy flavor.One of my guests had the “dumb luck” coconut shrimp, which had a nice jacket of breading and was deep-fried just right and delightfully ungreasy. They were served with a dipping sauce that was supposed to be a marmalade but which was undistinguishable. There were also fries that tasted as though they had been made quite some time before they were served.

A smaller version of Greg Gentile’s flagship restaurant, Antonio’s La Fiamma, Café d’Antonio is the consistently good restaurant for residents and visitors in Celebration.
My dining guest and I started the evening with the antipasti assortito for two, which featured an array of delicacies including bruschetta alla Romana, smoked salmon, sliced prosciutto, salami and cheese, and insalata ai frutti di mare.
The bruschetta was also quite good, toasted bread rounds topped with bright red chopped tomatoes seasoned with olive oil, garlic and sweet basil. Its hard to say which of the entrees was my favorite; I enjoyed them all. But I especially liked the zuppa di pesce, a bountiful bowl of fish, squid, shrimp, scallops and lobster in a light broth served over linguine.

Cafe Margaux, a French restaurant in Cocoa, is an odd little place with delicious food. It wants to be an elegant restaurant, but it isn’t, at least not one along the lines of a Victoria & Albert’s or a Venetian Room. Let’s just say its chic on a shoestring. But if the decor is a bit florid, the food is decidedly upscale, not really classic French, but with French tones that enhance a creative style. The best of the entrees was the melange of fresh fish, offered each evening as a sampler of the three fish specials. When I visited, the chef had prepared poached salmon, snapper with a potato crust and blackened dolphin. My guest liked the dolphin best because the blackening seasonings were perfectly balanced with the mild taste of the fish, giving just a bit of cayenne spiciness. I liked the crispiness of the shredded potato crust on the snapper. This is the sister restaurant to Ulysses’ Steakhouse, also wonderful.

The food here is deliciously good, and the atmosphere is grandiloquent. But the prices are a bit steep, apparently geared toward the expense-accounted business traveler.
Seafood pescatore features a saffron seasoned fish stock tinged with tomato, with an abundance of seafood, including an Australian lobster tail, two impressively plump scallops, shrimp, clams and mussels. Under it all was a nest of fresh pappardelle pasta.
The al dente ribbons were part of my companion’s entrée of pappardelle ai bistecche, which was listed under the menu’s pasta heading, though in truth this was a steak dish. It featured 10 ounces of New York strip from Harris Ranch, cooked to a perfect medium-rare and sliced, the noodles piled on top with a sauce of mushrooms and tomato ragout. Quite nice.
We had started our meal with the mozzarella stuffed Bella meatballs, three bocce ball-sized orbs of moist ground meat braised in Barolo wine. The meatballs were more enjoyable than the calamari fritte, which was a little too damp.
Service was exceptional.

After more than a dozen years at the top, literally and figuratively, California Grill is still one the Central Florida’s best restaurants. Much of the concept of California Grill has not changed over the years, and the menu still features, as it has for much of the time, flatbreads and sushi as well as more traditional appetizers. The menu supposedly changes daily, though with three weeks separating my two most recent visits, I noticed most of the changes were in the wording and ranking of ingredients rather than completely different entries.

Service is impeccable and exemplary of the best that Disney can offer. The wine list focuses, as it should, on California and other American cuvees.

The pork tenderloin remains a favorite, but the filet mignon is a contender for best entrée. Sushi from master chef Yoshi is a treat.

Of course the best feature remains the view through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the Seven Seas Lagoon and the Magic Kingdom. And at the appropriate hour the lights dim slightly and the music that accompanies the Magic Kingdom’s fireworks display plays in the restaurant. It’s one of the best shows in town.

Lakeside dining from the Tavistock Restaurant Group. Most people head to the outdoor deck, but there’s a much better dining experience to be had at the food counter overlooking the cooks at the grill.