Buster’s Bistro is a bar. A Belgian bar, to be precise. But BB’s menu is more ambitious than most bars, with such selections as Short Rib Carbonnade, Vol-au-Vent, and Tikka Masala Curry. The results are as varied as the selections.

There’s nothing special about the atmosphere, but the food is very good, and the service is sincere. I liked my lobster ravioli, and the “Big Meat” pizza was good, too, although it could have used a bit more of the big meats. There is a second location in Longwood.

The District, a restaurant in Sanford, is small, has a limited and fairly mundane menu, and is enjoying the kind of popularity that apparently allows the staff to be slightly arrogant with newcomers.

There is a small dining room and a bar area next to it. If the dining room is booked, as it was when I visited recently, the hostess may wave toward the bar and tell you it’s open seating “in there.” I selected a seat at the end of a bar-height communal table “in there” and a bartender came around to hand me a menu.

Oddly named Indian restaurant with good food in a boring strip mall locale.

Voted the second best German restaurant in the U.S. but readers of GermanDeli.com for 2009. (Bavarian Grill of Plano, Texas, was number one; go figure.) I don’t know if I’d go that far, but I’m prepared to call it the best German restaurant in Central Florida.Although the surroundings leave something to be desired, there’s good German food to be had here. Have a schnitzel, or the sausage platter, but beware: it’s a lot of food.The place is especially festive Thursdays through Sundays when there is entertainment. Oom-pah-pah!

Jimotti’s is a bit of an odd place. Odd name, too, at least to my ears, which want to hear something Italian.

But Jimotti’s is Japanese and has a surprisingly substantial menu of kitchen foods and a more compact roster of sushi, sashimi and specialty rolls.

The Old Jailhouse is legitimately housed in a small building that was the Seminole County Jail from 1914 until 1959. Before that, it was a blacksmith and wagon shop from 1890, the year it was constructed, until 1895, and it was the E.E. Brady Livery Feed and Sales Stables from 1910 until it became the jail.

More recently it was home to Sanford Dry Cleaners and, here’s irony for you, the Seminole County Health Department.

Old Jailhouse’s opening represents the return of Bram Fowler to the local restaurant scene. Fowler made his mark at Journeys in the Longwood Village Shopping Center. Here, Fowler serves as the director of operations and executive chef.

Despite the impermanence of its name, Shantell’s Just Until feels like an anchor of the neighborhood. At least it did when I visited on a balmy evening recently when when the owner, Shantell Williams, herself was seated at a table outside. My dining companion, dog and I took a table next to a large brick planter filled with colorful flowers. Nearby in a tall tree, an osprey stood watching over the restaurant. The menu is a bit more Caribbean than it is Southern soul.

Charming spot in the burgeoning Sanford downtown district. Chef Nat Russell puts a creative twist on well-known dishes, such as adding a sous-vide egg to Shrimp & Grits.