When it’s on its game, Fleming’s can produce steaks as good as anyone’s. The atmosphere isn’t quite as posh as a Ruth’s Chris, and it isn’t as clubby as Del Frisco’s, but it’s quite pleasant and relaxing. A newer location recently opened on Restaurant Row Orlando, at 8030 Via Dellagio Way. Phone 407-352-5706. If you don’t want to commit to a full meal’s calories or price, consider a meal in the bar area, where a burger (not available in the dining room) is the thing to order.
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Orlando is the home of the corporate headquarters for HRC, so you’d expect the restaurant here to be superlative. And it is. It’s a massive structure, and I doubt the music plays any louder at another location. The food is basic, but more than passable.Texas chili was a good chili, but I would hate to be there when it was served to a real Texan and he or she discovers beans in it. You can find chili in Texas with beans in it, but you’ll probably also find the cook strung up out back. Then there is the Tuscan chicken salad, which could just as easily have been named Tallahassee chicken salad, or Berlin chicken salad, or even world-class chicken salad because there certainly wasn’t anything remotely Tuscan about it. OK, there were some slivers of salami and provolone cheese (which mostly comes from northern Italy, by the way) mixed in with mesclun greens, red peppers, mushrooms and asparagus. The greens were topped with cubes of grilled chicken and tossed with a red wine vinaigrette. Despite its geographical misplacement, it was a good salad.

Napa Valley chef Donna Scala oversees this Italian restaurant in the new Hilton next to the Waldorf Astoria. The decor is white with splashes of color in the art work (some of which is done in chalk and changes from time to time). The menu features pizzas from a brick oven, pastas and secondi — the lamb shank is a standout. Scala is often on hand to oversee her restaurant, and she proves to be a gracious host.

Maggiano’s Little Italy is the sort of place that makes restaurant critics cringe when they hear one is coming to town. One has come to Orlando. First, it’s immense. Then there’s the issue of it being Italian, which in itself is not a cringe producer. But when you’re talking about an Americanized version of Italian food, and then factor in the mass production of a large restaurant, you can just start to picture the plates of spaghetti with sauce from an institutional sized can with meatballs that bear more than a couple of similarities to an eight ball. And it’s loud. And it plays Frank Sinatra virtually nonstop.
But it’s actually a lot of fun, and the food is decent.
So don’t let a critic’s jaded bias keep you away. Go with a group and order from the family style menu. Choose the pot roast for one of your choices, and have the tiramisu for dessert.

For the uninitiated — or those who don’t follow challenge cooking shows — Masaharu Morimoto is a star of the programs Iron Chef in Japan and its spinoff Iron Chef America. He has several restaurants that bear his name around the world, including in Mumbai, New Delhi, Philadelphia, New York and Mexico City. Those restaurants are named simply Morimoto and feature the chef’s signature Japanese cuisine. (The nearest Morimoto is in Boca Raton.)

The Disney Springs restaurant is Morimoto Asia to distinguish it from the other restaurants. Technically, the restaurant is operated by the Patina Restaurant Group, which also has the two restaurants at Epcot’s Italy pavilion as well as others throughout the country, including Lincoln at New York’s Lincoln Center. My sources told me that the Disney restaurant started out to be a genuine Morimoto but that the chef became disenchanted with the bureaucracy and chose to continue under a licensing agreement.

Morton’s recently renovated its Restaurant Row Orlando location. The decor is imbued with a modern and tony flair, less the stodgy boardroom ambience at some of the other high-end steakhouses. Maybe that’s why women seem to feel so comfortable here.
Steaks are cooked under a super-hot broiler, and when the kitchen is on the mark, they’re among the best.

An upscale seafood (Ocean) and steak (Prime) supper club (live music) in the vein of The Oceanaire Seafood Room. The main dining room features warm wood walls with huge five-foot portholes that look through to the lounge area. (The dining room has its own bar for more intimate imbibing, a nice touch.) Touches of blue neon and a soft glow from drumlike light fixtures offer romantic notes, and white tablecloths and candles with frosted shades add a touch of elegance.
A “surf n turf” appetizer had lovely sea scallops and boneless short ribs plopped together in a smallish bowl with way too mashed potatoes. Good scallops, good ribs, bad presentation.
Onion soup was distinguished by a near lack of broth under heavy cheese; she-crab soup had a slight astringency and was not nearly as rich as it should have been.
Service was professional and thorough, and once the kitchen makes the right improvements, Ocean Prime will be a good choice.

The setting is a large shack, perhaps in the Everglades, but since you’re really inside the atrium of the Gaylord Palms you don’t have to worry about mosquitos. Although it is primarily a steakhouse (make that prime-arily) and prepares steaks with a beautiful charred crust, Old Hickory is positioning itself to be an all-around restaurant, with very good seafood selections as well. Be sure to experience the cheese cart at the end of the meal. Or at the beginning, because you may be too stuffed after.

Paddlefish is the reimagined Fulton’s Crab House (née Empress Lily), on the nonfloating structure made to resemble a vintage paddlewheel river boat.

It’s less vintage-y with the recent renovation, which gave it a modern look, both inside and out (though the frozen-in-place paddles remain).

This is a huge facility, but it features several smaller dining rooms that keep it from feeling like a large main feeding room on a cruise ship.

After a year-long renovation, Planet Hollywood has been refurbished to resemble a large observatory to better fit in with the Disney Springs backstory. (Never mind that it’s really a planetarium.) Inside, it’s a little like dining in an IMAX theater, with massive projections of music videos that stretch the three-story auditorium/dining room.

Food Network star Guy Fieri contributed to the new menu. Food is impressive mostly in the size of the portion.