This second location of Maine restaurateur Melissa Kelly recently underwent a remodel. The decor is brighter and more modern, but the food remains focused on traditional Italian fare with local ingredients, some sourced from the garden next to the kitchen.

The first thing you’re likely to notice about Saigon Flavors is that it isn’t in downtown Orlando or anywhere near the intersection of Mills Avenue and Colonial Drive. That neighborhood, which locals have unofficially called Little Saigon for years, has the city’s greatest concentration of Vietnamese restaurants. Saigon Flavors is also more modernistic in style and decor. But the food is firmly set in tradition. Pho, the beef noodle soup with a variety of ingredients, is quite good. For an unusual appetizer, have the “golden pancake,” which is more like an omelet with bean sprouts.

The Sea in the name is an acronym for Southeast Asia, but there are also some good seafood selections among the traditional Thai dishes. Try one of the curry dishes or ask if the whole snapper is available. If not, the tilapia fillets are a good substitute.
I sampled two of the curry dishes: yellow with chicken; and a massaman with beef. I enjoyed the subtle spiciness of the yellow curry, the heat of the spices tempered by the creaminess of coconut milk. Besides the pieces of chicken, the sauce had peas, carrots, onions and big chunks of well-cooked potatoes to spoon over rice. I am in starch heaven when I can enjoy rice and potatoes in one dish.
Both were included in the massaman curry, too. And it also had a base of coconut milk, but in this one had a slight gravylike texture that coated the mouth with each bite. The pieces of beef were rather negligible but the dish was otherwise enjoyable.
Spicy basil duck was something of a floorshow in its presentation.

Seemingly out of nowhere, a big new JW Marriott has appeared and along with it a pretty darned good restaurant, Sear + Sea Woodfire Grill.

The hotel is a new neighbor of other large hotels like the Waldorf Astoria, Hilton and Wyndham in the area known as Bonnet Creek. In fact, if you sit on the restaurant’s comfortably spacious veranda, as I did on my recent visit, you’ll have a view of the actual creek and its woody banks just below.

As you might deduce from the clever name, Sear + Sea is a steak and seafood restaurant, which might sound a bit ho-hum at first. But the menu, under the direction of chef de cuisine Alex Pyser, is creative and appealing.

There’s no denying that the setting for the dining room here, with expansive windows into the titanic aquarium filled with exotic sea life, is impressive. It would be a terrific place to have dinner if it wasn’t for the lousy food. There isn’t anything wrong with the menu, it’s fairly straightforward with a little of something for any taste. But the execution and quality are sub par. And I don’t know why that should be. All it would take, it seems to me, is a desire to do better food. But apparently management believes the crowds will come for the view alone, food be damned. Pity.

Shula’s is consistently one of the best steakhouses in Central Florida. The decor is high-toned and classy, with a wood-trimmed corporate boardroom mien. Large black and white photos of football action that adorn the walls are tasteful and appropriate. The only real bit of kitsch is the menu, which is printed on the side of an official NFL football (don’t even think of trying to walk out with it — you’ll be tackled so fast you won’t even see the hostess coming up behind you.)
The steaks here are first-rate and expertly cooked. It ain’t cheap, but quality this good is worth the price.

Sodo has a new sushi bar and grill. It’s called Sodo Sushi Bar and Grill. It took over the space of the oft troubled Olv, whose name had no hidden meaning or acronymic message. Sodo, or SoDo, is shorthand for south of downtown, which is where it is.

And that’s a good place for this new restaurant, too, because there aren’t any other sushi joints anywhere nearby. Bars and grills, yes, but not sushi bars and grills.

All that seems to have been required to transform the Olv space into a sushi restaurant was to plop a refrigerated case on top of the bar. Voila — or dekiagari, as they say in Japan — sushi bar.

The full name is Spencer’s for Steaks & Chops, but that’s a bit limiting. Spencer’s is a terrific all-around restaurant. Be sure to try the crab cakes and fried poached egg appetizers. Steaks are first rate, but so is the double-cut lamb chop and king salmon (served under a glass dome filled with smoke). Although Spencer’s is located inside a hotel next to the Convention Center, this is a restaurant worthy of local attention. The decor is upscale casual, and a meal here is a relaxing evening.

The menu is simple and straightforward but hits several appropriate notes. Steak frites, grilled chicken and crab cakes for more substantial entrees and burgers and sandwiches for something snackier.

Fish and chips are worth having.

A third location for the popular independently-owned Indian restaurant.