Great news! Loved your recent report and thanks for reading mine!

Nah you still need to complete the Orange Chicken rite of passage, we ordered some iffy items that's all the place itself was great. DW was having a bit of a grump about me making us drive 15 minutes for what was a fairly generic Chinese La Luce


With you on La Luce, really thought it would be a crazy expensive meal when we started on a (silly) wine flight but the food was reasonable and they were great in there. We're not pretty enough to carry off the instagram thing unfortunately but blagging is always allowed Dollar tree I don't think stands up to Poundland, they don't sell fake toblerones for a start

It's hilarious watching DW talk to an 'Italian' waiter who's actually from Eastern Europe (UK) or South America (US). There's that moment of panic across their face when they realise she's asking them questions that aren't included in the pre-learnt spiel. Enjoying this probably makes me a bad person

First of many I hope Although I haven't had a beer yet this holiday which is disgraceful and about to be fixed The dessert was tasty though as you say we were not in the right state to enjoy it fully - DD or DF would have gone through it in seconds I know that much.

Thanks all for reading and commenting. More to come

Breakfasts - Panera Bread & Chick Fil-A

This morning was supposed to be rain and thunder all day, it hasn’t really materialised as I write at about 5pm but still time...Based on the forecast this was mainly a shopping day for DW and relaxing (mainly chauffeuring) for me. Breakfast was on the way over to Mall at Millenia, we were heading for an IHOP but never made it and in the end we dropped into Panera Bread.

This is a smartly done out bakery chain, a bit like what Gregg’s must see when it looks in the mirror. They have these super-cute little booths for two as well.


We were both pretty hungry at this stage. I tried to order something substantial so went with a sausage egg and cheese sandwich on farmhouse bread. This sounded bulky so when it appeared on the pass I was a little disappointed.

That said it was nice. Could have used some brown sauce but never mind, what it lacked in size it made up for by not being greasy. My coffee was really good chose the light roast and it was a great cup of coffee. DW had tea, here's the various offerings:


The DW choice was on odd one, they had these flat yellow disks describes as souffles. ‘Will it rise?’ she asked the server. ‘Yes it will she answered.’ So she ordered a ham and swiss cheese one and the server handed a hockey puck over.

Optimists Souffle

I don’t know why she ordered this it looked horrible and there was no way the thing was going to suddenly inflate into a freshly baked souffle. It was edible anyway, in the way that the middle of a quiche that’s been microwaved for a while and dropped into a cake tray is probably edible.

Bill came to $16, come for the coffee, stay for the booths, don't expect a souffle to rise from the dead.


We headed over to the Mall for some shopping scouting. I wandered off almost immediately and decided on more coffee. This quickly turned into hobbit-like thoughts of a second breakfast. Hmm I’ve always wanted to try the Chick Fil-A chicken in a biscuit breakfast item.


And here you go. This was nice, I almost got put off the (let’s face it fantastic) concept of the biscuit sandwich by trying as Burger King sausage, egg and cheese version that was so rich it went past enjoyable. This however was much better, just a small fried chicken breast and the biscuit - simple, effective and incredibly bad for you. Like all the best Orlando food.

I also had another coffee which was drinkable but nowhere near as nice as the Panera Bread one. Bill for second breakfast came to just under $5.



That's it for now, if the weather holds we're off to the SeaWorld food festival in a moment so I won't be updating until tomorrow. There's some Cheesecake Factory and Publix stuff to add then whatever happens tonight. Back to the festival, rumour has it that Tenth Avenue North will play all their big hits tonight we don't have tickets but maybe we can blag it

Enjoy SW food festival, I’m looking forward to your thoughts on it.

Looks amazing so far. I love the variety of food as well. I don't eat steak but that looked amazing and great value. Hope you are enjoying your trip

Sorry that's a typo habit

Must admit I thought the same about the sandwich, it's only half a sandwich! Seems like breakfast was a bit of a miss, although the Chick-Fil-A made up for it. Looking forward to seeing how SW went and the Cheescake Factory as Mr Grump is very excited about that! Xx

It was an experience for sure to follow later

Variety is definitely our thing, having a great time - as you know I loved your report thanks for reading

I reckon someone in the kitchen scoffed the other half Cheesecake factory coming now along with other lunch stuff and then the big SeaWorld reveal later on

On the way out of Mall at Millenia we stopped to pick up a couple of pieces of cheesecake to take-away. DW went for a fairly plain strawberry number and I chose the Red Velvet ahead of several peanut butter options that I couldn’t decide between



These melted a little during their time in the car but were still in pretty good nick when we ate them later. Both of us ended up preferring the Red Velvet. This was well balanced with the cream cheese frosting although it was more like a cream cheese heavy red velvet cake (not having a cheesecake base at all). The strawberry was okay, DW detected cinnamon in the base which isn’t her thing, we still have some of this one in the fridge. Cost was $17 and you really can't knock such a fabulous selection



At one point we'd considered a full lunch at the Cheesecake Factory but I’ve read so many reports of people filling up on the mains and not enjoying the dessert that I thought we’d just go the take-out route.

After leaving Millenia I dropped DW off at Vineland Mall and headed to Publix to pick up some food for the room. Had a nice time wandering around the store and picking up some bits and pieces. Random shots of stuff that took my eye:

Calm down Harry

How much for English teabags!

So America has invented flavoured water with alcohol...What’s wrong with putting vodka in stuff!

Here’s a picture of the haul I ended up with. Very restrained on the sweet stuff I felt, it helped that I'd had the 2 breakfasts and there was a 1700 calorie slice of cheesecake waiting in the car! Got some Kombucha to top up the superpowers (a Scream! reference), things for DW to eat in the night and I couldn’t resist the Slap ya Mama cajun spices and a 2 for 1 on the Red Lobster biscuit mix.


The other thing I wanted to do was a taste test on the fried chicken from the Publix deli counter. I’d long heard that this stuff was awesome so I picked up a selection (the boxes in the shot above). Got a small cup of popcorn chicken and one each of a chicken tender (lol), a fried chicken leg and a piece of catfish. The lady in the story was very patient packing these for me, in a lesser store this order might have come with some attitude.

DW was to eat the chicken leg later, cold out of the fridge and pronounced it okay (she also finished the popcorn chicken). The catfish (battered) is still in knocking around and she may take it out in a late night slider. At lunchtime I microwaved and sampled the following:


So the popcorn chicken is decent I’m not a fan of this in general but this was definitely better than the batter nuggets you get at KFC. Dipped in a little Frank’s red hot sauce (the classic buffalo wing base) these became a decent snack. Now the tender, the tender was amazing I love a good chicken tender and even taken home and microwaved there were way better than McDonald’s selects, I’d even say that it was slightly better than the KFC version, coating similar but better chicken. Honestly the tenders and potentially the fried chicken in general from Publix really is great, super tasty, reheatable and every bit as good as a fast food chicken joint IMO

Buy!

After this I picked DW up (I say picked her up, actually I got lost and she took a taxi) and we chilled out ahead of the Frozen Food and Wine Festival.

I read that receipt as $15 for the soufflé at first lol. God I’d have been starving after that and I don’t do big breakfasts . Won’t be adding that one to the ever growing list . enjoy seaworld

No you know the rules of the dibb,you go to bu food you show the receipt , publix is no exception Go steady on the 5 a day 2 bananas , how much were they ?

Loving this report! Great array of food to suit all budgets! Very helpful and informative when trying to plan thank you for taking the time

SeaWorld almost written up but off to Aquatica so the posting will be later on. Good point on Publix the food was $45 the receipt was compromised when the cling film thickness shopping bags disintegrated on the way back to the car. Note the strawberries too so far the fruit is all still there but the fried chicken and the cheesecake has gone

Thank you for reading, we like to try a wide range of stuff, looking forward to a posh dinner tonight though