Braccia is small but has a certain charm in its glassed in wine cabinet, floor to ceiling blackboards and distressed wood tabletops. The charm does not extend to the Astroturflike greenery that has been applied in freeform to one of the brick walls; that’s just odd. Pizza, thin-crusted and well-topped, is good, but so are the pasta dishes.

I must say I like the look and feel of Bulla Gastrobar very much. The restaurant, in the newly opened but curiously named Lakeside Crossing development, can be at once bustlingly busy and intimately comfortable.
I wish I could also say that the kitchen was turning out food to match the decor. Unfortunately it’s not, at least not with the consistency that should be in place after nearly two months open, and not for what is the third location for an established South Florida restaurant company.

A pleasant place to dine, even without piano music.

If this had been the Cask & Larder that opened originally in Winter Park, it would still be there. (Sister restaurant Ravenous Pig moved into the Cask’s old home.)

This is a “Southern-inspired public house,” which means it features stylistic takes on Southern fare. The Larder in the name is a reference to a pantry.

The Cask refers to a beer barrel and is an indication that C&L brews its own beers. (All involved would prefer that you not call it a brewpub.) Good beer, too, plus a fully stocked liquor bar (with some fun cocktails, it should be mentioned).

Cask & Larder is in Terminal 2 of Orlando International Airport, so you can visit only if you’re flying out of that terminal.

Chez Vincent continues to serve classic French dishes in pleasant, if slightly worn, surroundings. Chef/owner Vincent Gagliano is a master with soup, and the coquille St. Jacques is one of the better seafood entrees. Steak au poivre is a good choice for a meat dish.
Chez Vincent’s waiters are mature and professional. I mention the maturity because it’s a welcome change from the working-my-way-through-college servers who seem to dominate the Winter Park restaurant scene. The waiters here allow the guests to dictate the pace of the meal.
If Chez Vincent has survived over the years it’s because there is an appreciation among Central Florida diners for a quiet place to enjoy a good, classically prepared meal.
If that’s true, there’s hope for aspiring restaurateurs out there, and, not incidentally, for all of us who will support them.

It’s easy to overorder at Chuan Fu, the new restaurant from the owners of Chuan Lu Garden. The menu – which is maddeningly unstructured – is a many-paged picturebook of enticing items. But the photos can’t really indicate just how delicious the food is, nor do they show proper scale – the portions are more than generous.

Inside the Meat House (which may or may not now be The Local), Da Kine is a mostly takeout purveyor of the Hawaiian poke, basically fresh raw fish in a bowl with other ingredients.

Doshi’s Michelin recognition is deserved. The restaurant, from brothers Jimmy Tung and Johnny Tung of the Bento Group, grew from of a ghost-kitchen operation called Doshibox that worked out of the Collab Kitchen on Curry Ford Road. Doshi occupies a small space in an outparcel in front of Nordstrom Rack at the intersection of Lee Road and Orlando Avenue in Winter Park.

If you overlook the inclusion of fajitas on the menu, this little hole in the wall (not that wall) serves authentic Mexican food.

It is unique among the downtown businesses – it’s a quiet place with a classy feel that puts the emphasis on good wine. It’s a terrific meeting space or neighborhood hangout without the manic music or big crowds you might find in some the neighboring restaurants and bars. It’s just what downtown needed.