What's Your Favorite Place to Eat Away from WDW?

The Universal parks have surprisingly good restaurants. We ate at Mythos in Islands of Adventure and (I forget the name) the San Franciso-style seafood restaurant on the water in Universal Studios. The food at both was very good and less expensive than comparable Disney table-service restaurants.

There is a Texas de Brazil at the far end of I Drive across the road from that very large almost empty mall whose name escapes me at the moment (senior moment) That is simply FANTASTIC. There are also a couple of Golden Corrals in the area that are also a good value for the money spent. Warning Texas de Brazil is not cheap just good. Of course there is always the BEST steahouse in Orlando and vicinity right in WDW and that is Shula's in the Dolphin Hotel, again good but not cheap. For great Pizza try Flippers in that mall directly across from Hotel Row at DTD.

Anything Asian...Japanese or Thai are my favorites

SPICE Steakhouse in Winter Park on Park Avenue has great food

and... I love the Ale House... All I have to say is Zingers...

Oh and if you're a Beer enthusiast there is a really good beer/wine/sake bar in Winter Park called Odin's Den... They have a lot of really great beer on tap... It's a total dive, but it's awesome.... If you're going out that way, check out stacked subs for a quick bite to eat.. They make yummy sandwiches... It's about a half hour from Disney but fun to see a different part of Florida ...

I'm sure downtown Orlando has great eats too... I've only ever been to the night clubs, which are great as well...

Lombards is the name of the restaurant. I was thinking of trying that restaurant while we are there in Dec. I remember the name because the street and area is so famous in San Francisco. Talking about SFO how are you settling in Jeff?

I absolutely love the Columbia Restaurant. I've only been to the location in Sarasota, but there is also one in Celebration, among a few others. It is Spanish cuisine and called the oldest restaurant in Florida.

Last time I ate outside of the Mouse was 2003.... cant remember that far back... lol

Three spring to mind...I agree with OregonMom about The Columbia. Even though we haven't been there in a while, we love it. I ADORE Giordano's, and we only have them over on the Disney side of town. I am a complete sucker for Chicago deepdish pizza and it's the closest thing to it here. We also really love Chevy's at Crossroads when we want Mexican. Other than that, my favorite places to eat here are pretty inconvenient to Disney visitors - Winter Park, Sanford, Daytona Beach area, etc.

This is my kind of topic also. We try not to hit "chain" restaurants even though there are some good ones out there.

A couple of our favorites in the area are 4 Rivers Smokehouse, a trip to their Sweet Shop is worth the trip alone. (Mt Dew and Doritos Cupcakes anyone???) https://4rsmokehouse.com/

White Wolf Cafe for breakfast neat little place with lots of antiques! https://www.facebook.com/pages/White-Wolf-Caf%C3%A9-and-Bar/62175056110

Also Giordano's Pizza The deliver to the resorts and the pizza is amazing. If going for the stuffed crust, go small, the two of us just get thru a small one! http://giordanos.com/

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Golden Corral
Nascar Cafe
and for the international traveller Outback Steakhouse after security on the way back is a nice meal to end the vacation

Wow..Like someone else said..Our last vacations in 2012...2010...2008... We have never left the bubble..But our 2006 trip was one week inside and one week outside..We had a great meal at an Italian restaurant on I- Drive, but it was that long ago, I can't remember it's name..And also a great steak from a Brazil steak house..Sorry also can't remember it's name..Old age and bad memory loss doesn't come easy..

Some good recommendations in there, has anyone been to Yellow Dog Eats or Teak Neighbourhood Grill?

I have also seen good reviews of Manny's Chophouse so going to try there.

I agree with Golden Corral and if you are looking for some great pizza just outside of the world, try Flippers Pizza in the Crossroads Mall just across the road from that boulevard that leads out of DTD,(they also deliver to the resorts) also in that same mall tucked away around the corner and out of sight is a great place called "Sweet Tomatoes". It is a small chain with other locations in the area and they have a club on their website and if you join it, they send you coupons with discount deals. Another GREAT but PRICEY! place is Texas de Brazil way up on the far end of I Drive.

I am SO not a fan of golden corral... but then I hate buffets at the best of times

We love;
Bob Evans for breakfast
Outback
Tony Roma's
Chili's
Fudruckers
Kobe
Steak and shake (hubby loves it there, i'm indifferent)
cafe D'Antonio in celebration

My boyfriend and I like going to Chili's, Red Robin, Five Guys and Fire House Subs. In Winter Garden, on CR 535 is the Winter Garden Village that has a ton of shops and restaurants. It's really not that far from Disney property.

5 Guys!!!!!!! OMG! best burgers in the UNIVERSE.
What's Firehouse subs like? they just opened one in the same strip mall as 5 Guys. just haven't tried them, not with a 5 guys right there.

We have just had the first UK five guys open in the last few months, now there's one in London, one in Reading (20 min drive from us) and soon one will be opening in Guildford. If only they did chicken............

Firehouse is really good. It's really worth the try. They have a good collection of subs and you can ask for them to leave stuff off of your sub. They also have a bunch of hot sauces you can put on your sub.

We just had a Firehouse Subs open in town here. Delish!

Hold the phone. Orlando has a RED ROBIN?!! I'm there. I love that I can get a bunless burger and instead of just slapping it on a plate, I get it wrapped in like an entire wedge of lettuce. It's awesome. Oh and salted caramel milkshake. Enough said.

We're Bahama Breeze fans and there's one really close to DTD. The food tastes fresher than a lot of other chains. The only drawback is that it can be really hard to navigate the intersection there...it's right off of I-4 on 535.

We haven't been to the one in Orlando, but we are also Melting Pot fans. It's a lengthy meal though and I haven't been willing to give up that much Disney time...especially with Benn insisting on napping in the middle of the day.

For pizza I agree with Vettelover on the Flippers pizza. It's our favorite in Orlando. We grab one after the parks for dinner a lot. But for a burger outside of Disney we like Fuddruckers. Sometimes we'll take a little break from the parks in the afternoon and have lunch at Fuddruckers. I love their burgers. But we have been known to go to Five guys too. Their burgers are great too and you can't beat their giant bag of fries~they're awesome!

5Guys is a must......... the burgers are awesome. Mmmmmm, just thinking of them makes me hungry. Got to have two of them, both with different toppings as I've perfected what my favs are. There's also one in New York, so I'll get to munch one in a few weeks. Other than that my wife loves The Cheesecake Factory.

Only had a Firehouse Sub in Boston, but it was really, really good. Blows Subway out of the water.(but still a big fan of Subway)

I've eaten at Bubba Gumps and Margaritaville over at City Walk, Five Guys at one of the outlets, The Smokehouse over at Westgate Resorts and all have been ok. Bubba's is obviously the more franchised and thus, the more mass produced food wise. Not eaten the food at The Cheesecake Factory but did take out a couple of slices of cheesecake...big mistake to take two slices for myself...! >_< I'm sure I've eaten at more places when in Florida...I just can't remember them!

Over on the West Coast (and I know it's not Central Florida), I've indulged in Pink's Hotdogs a couple of times, Hash House A-Go-Go for Adam's Sage Fried Chicken breakfast, La Cumbra in SF, The Burger Bar on Union Square and Yoshi's Jazz Restaurant...and a ton of other places I can't remember now either (and that was just 2 weeks back!)

Applebees on 192 heading towards Clermont. I don't like the one by my house, but we've found the food and service at that one to be much better. Just my luck I've always walked in there on a buy one get one free drink night.