Amid the myriad chains and franchises that are populating the area around the Orlando Eye attraction, an independent restaurant is a welcome find. And that it offers very good food and a fun dining experience makes it all the better.

Tapa Toro comes to us from Vassilis and Katerina Coumbaros, who also own Taverna Opa at nearby Pointe Orlando, one of my favorite Tourist World recommendations. Opa, of course, is the Greek restaurant where every evening is a raucous party of napkins tossed in the air to buoyant balalaika music and belly dancing atop the tables.

At Tapa Toro the theme is Spanish and the music flamenco, and here the napkins stay in the lap and the clacking heels of the dancers punish only the floor.

Tartini, the “Pizza & Spaghetteria” in the unofficially designated SoSoDo district, near Belle Isle on South Orange Avenue, has gone through several changes in its nine years, including ownership and, at one point in 2016, a closing.

But today, Tartini is back and serving some of the best Italian food around, and not just in this culinarily starved part of town but in all of Orlando.

This is not a place for a nice, quiet, romantic dinner, unless you consider a sound level louder than Hard Rock Café and dancing on top of a table with a scantily clad belly dancer to be romantic.However, the noise level heightens only after 7 pm when the entertainment begins.

But it’s not all ambience here. The food is surprisingly good. There are the usual items: domades, moussaka, pastitsio and the like. But you’ll also find more unusual things, such as lamb ribs, Greek country sausages, taramosalata, and a house-made yogurt that is crazy good. Don’t come here if you’re in a bad mood. On second thought, do, it’ll cheer you up, and you’ll have good food besides.

The Maitland location is a new outpost for the popular MetroWest burgermonger. And make no mistake: burgers are the forte here.

Churrascaria means meat. Well, not literally. Churrascaria (tchoo-huh-scah-REE-uh) actually means house of barbecue, but to fans of this type of Brazilian steakhouse, it means meat, meat and more meat. Texas de Brazil is a small chain out of, no surprise here, Texas that is riding the wave of low-carb popularity with a new location on International Drive.
Here’s the way it works: you first visit the salad bar, which is more than just lettuce and condiments. You’ll find all manner of salad fixings plus such items as hearts of palm, tabbouleh, artichoke hearts, Brussels sprouts, roasted red peppers and, for some inexplicable reason, sushi.
When you’ve had enough of the salad bar — and my advice is to go easy there — the waiters, called gauchos and dressed accordingly — will start bringing large skewers of meats, sausages, chicken and seafood to your table. And they’ll keep bringing them until you tell them to stop. (You do that by turning a small disc on your table over so the red side is showing.)
The thing that keeps this from being just another glutfest is the quality of the meats, which is first-rate. Plus, the overall atmosphere is upscale and attractive.

Modest little restaurant with good food.

Charming cafe at Marketplace at Avalon Park serving authentic Mexican fare.

Like the original, the menu features authentic New Orleans fare. Also like the original, the food here is about as close as anyone in Central Florida has come to presenting a real taste of the Big Easy.

For my entree I chose the combo of jambalaya, crawfish pie and file gumbo. Both the gumbo and the jambalaya were excellent. The soup had a wonderfully dark rouxy base with good chunks of chicken and spicy andouille sausage, topped with a bit of fluffy white rice. The jambalaya had sausage and vegetables cooked into the rice.

I liked the crawfish in the etouffee, however. A more tomatoey roux served as the base with plump, chewy bits of crawfish and vegetables swimming around an island of rice.

For dessert, the bread pudding was crazy good. Big, buttery and gooey with sauce.

Disney’s newest top-tier restaurant on the top floor of the Gran Destino Tower at Coronado Springs. It’s a Spanish-inspired menu with a special emphasis on seafood.

Vinicius Turci and his wife, Nathalia Kalil, understand the importance of fresh pasta to a good dish. Fresh pastas are the centerpiece of their College Park restaurant, Turci Pasta.