It’s big and splashy, but early indications are that more effort was put into the ambience than into the food, which is under the direction of James Beard Award-winning chef Guillermo Pernot. It would seem the vibrant flavors of Cuban cuisine have been dumbed down for the tourist trade. Even the drinks are disappointing. It’s bad enough that they can’t seem to make a decent mojito, but you’d think they could at least have a stellar Cuba Libre.We started with a salad of watercress with crumbles of Cabrales, the tangy blue cheese of Spain. Fresh, but indistinguished.
A fish course followed comprised of sea bass a la plancha a Chino-Cubano. Yes, a Chinese version of a Cuban dish, complete with fried rice and a sesame sauce. I found it rather strange, although the quality of the fish was good.
The meat course had grilled skirt steak on a sugar cane skewer paired with roast pork stuffed mofongo — not an ingredient in the bunch that I don’t love. Yet it was all almost flavorless, without any seasoning. It looks like this will be another Latin restaurant that’s afraid of offending the delicate palates of tourists. That’s a shame.

One of the area’s most under appreciated restaurants, Everglades continues to offer high-quality fare. The Alligator Bay chowder is a terrific starter soup, and the swordfish is a southern inspiration

An Irish-American pub, the kind you might find on the streets of New York, which is why you will find this restaurant on the Streets of New York set of Universal Studios theme park. The menu has the usual Irish fare (and some British items): potato and leek soup; bangers and mash; Irish stew; shepherd’s pie; corned beef and cabbage. Nothing is wonderful, but this is one of only two, with Lombard’s Seafood Grill, full-service restaurants, so it tends to get crowded with people who don’t feel like standing in another line just to get their food.

Hanamizuki’s menu features Kyoto style cooking, which tends to be more elegant and formal than many of the dishes served in most American Japanese restaurants. It also focuses more on fresh vegetables and seafood other than sushi, although that is also a part of it and is available at Hanamizuki.Don’t be suprised to find a predominantly Japanese clientele here. No small wonder when the restuarant’s Web site is written in Japanese (you can opt in to a translation).

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.

Chef Michael McMullen has reenergized this upscale dining room with a new menu. Favorites include spicy shrimp and grits, maple horseradish mustard crusted baby rack of lamb, and cedar plank roasted sea bass. Service is among the best in town. The highlight of the dining room is the array of celebrity caricatures that cover the walls. They were done by Jack Rosen, father of hotelier Harris Rosen (hence the name of the restaurant), when he was employed by the Waldorf Astoria in New York.

As you stand in line at Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville to get your beeper, which you’ll carry with you as you wait even longer for your table, you might be reminded of the lyrics “Wastin’ away again in Margaritaville .” No, you definitely will be reminded of those lyrics, because if you spend more than 20 minutes in the restaurant you’re sure to hear them. Heck, you could spend 20 minutes just trying to get a drink at the bar. The theme here is the music of Jimmy Buffett and his parrothead paradise. Sorry, I don’t know why his fans are called parrotheads. And I probably missed a lot of the insider jokes and other references to his songs that I’m unfamiliar with. The upstairs bar, for example, is probably called the 12-volt bar for some reason. I have only a Top-40 knowledge of his songs. I enjoy his music, though two straight hours of it can be a bit much. I do know that many of his songs are either themed on food and drink, or contain references to them. So that part lends itself well to a restaurant theme. And the Key Westiness and island atmosphere of his songs add to the decor. There’s nothing worth writing a new song over, but there are a few things worth sampling. The jerk chicken was one of my favorite entrees because it was much more substantial than I was expecting. It featured two small leg quarters rubbed with mild jerk seasoning and served atop a mound of yellow rice and accompanied by grilled vegetables. There was an indiscernable white sauce surrounding the rice, but other than that it was pretty good. Jimmy’s jammin’ jambalaya was OK too. The rice based dish had plenty of chicken, shrimp and andouille sausage. The seasonings were a little mild, probably tuned for the masses, but it was a nice version of the New Orleans favorite. Of course, it would be impossible to visit Jimmy Buffett’s and not have the Cheeseburger in Paradise, the trademarked dish from the song of the same name. Indeed, it comes with all the accouterment in the verse, lettuce, tomato, french fried potatoes, etc. Keep in mind it’s the location that is heavenly, not the cheeseburger itself. The patty was thick, though not particularly juicy. It was cooked to the requested medium rare.

I enjoyed everything else about my breakfast, from the sincerely pleasant staff and simple decor to the delicious food.  I ordered a sausage and cheese omelet with home fries. And because I knew that the first Keke’s started life as the Florida Wffle House, I wanted to see how this Keke’s flapjacks were, so I asked if I could order just one. I’m glad I got only one because it was huge. The buttermilk cake filled the plate (which was square, but that didn’t bother me) and was nearly three-quarters of an inch thick. (Yes, I measured it.) It had a fluffy texture and a golden hue, and while it might have been a bit hotter so as to melt the butter — they’re also called hotcakes, after all — it was delicious. So was the omelet, which was dotted with bits of sliced sausage and had gooey cheddar cheese folded inside. The home fries were good, too, and had the perfect bit of greasiness, but the wheat toast went uneaten — the pancake was bread enough.

I don’t expect to be back in Universal’s good graces with this review of the Leaky Cauldron, the dining venue in Diagon Alley, which I finally got around to visiting recently. Most of the food is embarrassingly inadequate, and what they charge for it borders on gouging.

Worst of the lot is the mini pies, which is a sampler of the cottage pie and fisherman’s pie, which are both available separately. As samplers, the pies are served in small aluminum plates with crusted liners and mashed potatoes on top. The fisherman’s pie had a bit of flavor if not much in the way of anything a fisherman might catch. The cottage pie was largely flavorless.

This restaurant was originally called Lombard’s Landing; not sure why that was changed to Lombard’s Seafood Grille — maybe people thought Landing had something to do with an airstrip. No, no – this Lombard’s is the street that runs into San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf. The food here has never been special but it’s usually palatable. And as one of only two full-service restaurants inside the theme park (Finnegan’s Bar & Grill is the other) it’s the choice for people who’d rather not do the self-service thing.