Victoria & Albert’s, Walt Disney World Resort’s culinary equivalent of the crown jewels, is the number one Best U.S. Award-Winner Restaurant according to Trips to Discover.
Trips to Who-now?
Trips to Discover is a Sarasota-based website published by Strive Media. Its founder and CEO, Dayne Ford, is a self-described digital wonk. Thus, the list at which V&A sits atop was compiled by analyzing various data, including rankings by Forbes, AAA and Michelin as well as customer review counts and ratings on sites like Google and TripAdvisor.
Vicky and Al got a score of 4.81 out of 5, besting Cindy Wolf’s Charleston of Baltimore with a score of 4.79 for second place. Others on the list include The Inn at Little Washington, Per Se, Le Bernadin and Daniel. You can see the full list here.
You may find it interesting that Victoria & Albert’s came in first given that Michelin ratings were part of the equation and it did not have any stars. In fact, according to Trips to Discover, only four of the top 10 have stars, though all, like V&A, are Michelin recommended.
Delaney Hospitality LLC, which operates the Delaney Hotel and Delaney’s Tavern in SoDo, has partnered with Rio Pinar, the east Orlando golf club, to redo its clubhouse. Delaney Hospitality’s Greg Allowe said that the clubhouse, “…a dynamic old building,” is 35,000 square feet and 30,000 of them will be dedicated to food and beverage operations, including a restaurant called Pine and Oak. Anthony Albino, the talented chef at Delaney’s Tavern, is developing the menu and will oversee both kitchens.
Speaking of old buildings at golf clubs, the Tap Room at Dubsdread is closed until Saturday so that the entire building can be tented and treated to keep termites from nibbling on the nearly 100-year-old structure.
There’s a major name change at deep blu Seafood Grille at the Wyndham Grand Orlando Resort Bonnet Creek. No, they’re still not capitalizing deep blu, but they’ve squeezed an ampersand between Seafood and Grille. Or I guess that would be Seafood & Grille. The addition of the conjunctive symbol demonstrates a menu refocus that gives more weight to nonseafood items.
Speaking of seafood, Mares Real Peruvian Cuisine, a restaurant in the Village at Hunters Creek, plans to open a location on the south end of Park Avenue in what was recently Grato. Mares means oceans in Spanish. It has nothing to do with horses.
If you’re someone who likes to plan ahead, pencil in Nov. 11 for this year’s Cows ’N Cabs. Tickets will go on sale Sept. 1.
