We only ate out 15 times this month spending $448.  Guess we were making up for the excess of last month. 

Best Sub:  Cheesesteak at Delco’s

Best Pasta:  Fratelli’s

Best Dessert:  The Bomb at Greek City Cafe

Best Chicken Dish:  Fricase de Pollo at Cuban Breezes

Best Rolls:  Yeast Rolls at Cody’s

Worst Deals and Meals:  Dining at Disney

We ate dinner at Louis Pappas on McMullen Booth tonight.  We’d eaten at the one in Oldsmar before it closed, but had never been to this one before.

I went for the pastitsio and lemon Greek potatoes.

The pastitsio was ok.  It had a decent flavor, but the bottom of it was hard.  It was either overcooked or just left in the pan too long.  The lemon potatoes were a little too strong on the flavor spectrum and just didn’t complement the pasta.

Loren ordered the chicken platter with a salad.

I had to laugh at the huge chunk of cucumber in the salad.  You can see it on the lower left.  It was just half of a cucumber in one big piece.  I didn’t think there was enough dressing on the salad.  He said the chicken was ok.

Overall, it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary.  Greek food fast food style.   Total bill was $21. 

Louis Pappas Market Cafe
2560 McMullen Booth Rd
Clearwater, FL
727-797-3700

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We needed a break from turkey, so we headed out to Vetture’s in Palm Harbor for lunch before walking through John Chestnut Park.

Since we’ve been eating non-stop for the last two days, we decided to split a 12″ cheesesteak sub and an order of fries.

I like the cheesesteaks here.  The unique thing about them is that they put a little bit of  tomato sauce under the cheese.  It gives it a different flavor and makes the whole thing very moist and gooey.  The roll is lightly toasted so you get a little crunch as well.  The 12″ sub was more than enough for the two of us.  With the fries and a drink, the total bill was $15.

Vetture’s Restaurant and Pizzeria
36137 East Lake Road
Palm Harbor, FL
727-797-4858

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There are two rolls on the specials board at Kaiko that we order every time we eat here, the Super Crunchy Roll and the Scott Roll.  It’s the balance of textures in the Super Crunchy Roll that make it one of my favorites.  Tempura fried on the outside, a scallop salad and avacado on the inside.  It’s just yummy.  

The Mexican Roll was ok this time, but I thought the shrimp was a little overcooked.  We also got a California roll, an Arizona Roll and some salmon. 

The prices at Kaiko are very reasonable.  Total bill was $41 for 5 rolls, two pieces of salmon and a drink.

Kaiko Japanese Restaurant
2475 N McMullen Booth Rd
Clearwater, FL
(727) 791-6640

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We were going to have lunch at the Latin American Grill in Oldsmar only to find out it’s closed and an Indian restaurant will be moving into the space soon.  So, we headed over to the Oldsmar Cop Shop since it’s in the same plaza.

It wasn’t too busy for a Tuesday afternoon.  We both decided on burgers for lunch.

I got mine with sweet potato fries and they serve them with a little container of whipped cream.  Can’t say I’ve ever had whipped cream with my fries before, but it was actually pretty good.  The burgers were both juicy and flavorful.  The only issue I had was that they charge 79 cents each for every topping.  Total bill for the two burgers, fries, and a drink was $22.

And I wasn’t as enamored at the scantily-clad waitresses as Loren was. 

The Cop Shop
3780 Tampa Road
Oldsmar, FL
813-855-1052

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I’m sure it’s wrong to choose a restaurant for dinner based on dessert, but sometimes you just gotta follow your sweet tooth.  Tonight, I was craving chocolate cake and I remembered the cake at Cody’s is fantastic. 

But, first, there’s the yeast rolls and salad.

Cody’s has some of the most delicious yeast rolls around.  You know they’re good when Loren eats more than one.  Spread on some of the cinnamon butter and they just melt in your mouth.  Loren said he thought the salad dressing was a little weak this time, but I thought it was ok.  I ordered the salad without onions, so that may have been the flavor he was missing.

For our entrees, Loren ordered their NY select special with a baked potato.

He said he was cooked just right and tasty.  He ended up taking half of it home for lunch tomorrow.  I ordered the chicken fried chicken with mashed potatoes.

One bite of the mashed potatoes and I asked our waiter if he could bring me a baked potato instead.  I just didn’t like them.  They were garlic mashed, but I wasn’t tasting garlic.  The white gravy on the chicken and potatoes was really peppery.  It overpowered everything.  The chicken needed to be a little more tender as well.

But, who are we kidding, we came here for the cake, which isn’t on the menu by the way.   I was about to be really sad when I didn’t see it on the menu, but Loren asked the waiter and he said they always have the chocolate cake and carrot cake, but for whatever reason, they’re not listed on the menu.  We got a slice to go.

Yeah, and when I say “slice”, I mean enough for 4 people to eat.  It’s huge, but incredibly moist and delicious.  Tasted wonderful sitting in front of the TV that night, plus there’s still some in the fridge.

Total bill was $38 and Loren had leftovers for lunch and I’ve got plenty of cake.

Cody’s Original Roadhouse
26210 US 19
Clearwater, FL
(727) 726-6800

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Heading out to Tampa tonight to see the musical “Dreamgirls” and stopped at Guadalajara Mexican restaurant for dinner. 

Loren likes their chips and salsa.

He got the chicken fajitas which came with rice and beans.

He said it was pretty good.  I ordered a chicken chimichanga.

It suffered the fate of so many chimichangas and wasn’t crispy at all.  Otherwise, though, the flavor was good.   The service was somewhat non-existent.  After our waitress brought our food, we didn’t see her again until we were finished.  Total bill was $28.

Guadalajara Mexican Restaurant
4502 W Hillsborough Ave
Tampa, FL
813-879-4096

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One thing I can say about Jimmy John’s is that they are quick at putting together a sub.  By the time we had paid and walked over to the soft drink fountain, both our subs were ready. 

We ordered a #8 Billy Club and a #7 Smoked Ham along with chips and drinks.  I thought the rolls were a little on the tough side today.  They were a bit chewy.  Total bill was almost $18, which seemed a little on the high side. 

Jimmy John’s
2519 McMullen Booth Road
Clearwater, FL
727-259-0000

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Went to Disney today with my sister.  Neither of us had been to the Magic Kingdom in years and we were quickly reminded as to why we haven’t been back in so long.  I think almost every ride we went on stopped at some point and the food wasn’t that great.

We ate lunch at the Columbia Harbour House.  I ordered the chicken nuggets with fries and my sister got a hummus sandwich.

Almost $8.50 for this small basket.  Good thing I didn’t order a drink or it would have been over $10.  The hummus sandwich had very little hummus on it.  It came with coleslaw, which my sister assumed would be on the side, but it was actually in the sandwich, so in essence, she had a coleslaw sandwich for lunch for $11 with a drink.

We spent another $12 at the Main Street Bakery on an apple turnover, chocolate cupcake and two drinks.  And then another $11 each for cheeseburgers at Pecos Bill’s.

I will say, though, that Pecos Bill’s does offer some yummy sauteed onions and mushrooms plus other toppings in a sidebar in the restaurant.

The best part of the day was when they lit up the castle.

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On our quest to try every Thai restaurant around, we ended up at Wung Thai for dinner tonight.  They weren’t very busy, yet the service was incredibly slow.  Our waitress was very nice, but just didn’t seem to prioritize very well.  She was clearing tables while we waited to place our order. 

We started out with some crab rangoons.

They were interesting.  I think a better name for them would be curry puffs though because there wasn’t any crab in them.  Granted, most crab rangoons have non-existent crab in them, but these were much more curry flavored than anything else.

Loren ordered a bowl of the chicken rice soup and the waitress brought one for me as well even though I hadn’t ordered it.  Guess she didn’t want me sitting there watching him eat soup.

I ordered sushi for dinner.  A rainbow roll, scallop roll, Mexican roll, and some salmon.

The scallop roll was spicy.  I hate it when the menu doesn’t indicate that a roll is going to be spicy.  The Mexican roll was covered in eel sauce I think.  It was sweet.  I didn’t mind it, but it did make the roll a little soggy.  My biggest issue with the Mexican roll though, was that two of the rolls had pieces of the tail in it.  Not sticking up out of the roll, there was also one of those, but actually within the roll, so I ended up biting into crunchy, inedible pieces of the tail.  Not good eats. 

Loren ordered the ginger pork.

He said it was ok, but that he’d had better elsewhere.  It came to the table without a serving spoon, so he ended up having to pour it on the plate with rice.  It’s just these little details that end up bugging you about a restaurant.  There wasn’t anything that stood out about this place that would make us want to go back.  Our total bill was $46.

Wung Thai
5545 Roosevelt Blvd
Clearwater, FL
727-330-7788

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We went back to Corteo’s in Palm Harbor tonight, but I was determined to try something other than Grandma’s pizza.  It was very busy and loud in there tonight.

I ordered the chicken marsala which came with soup or salad and a side of pasta.

The  marsala sauce was very sweet, which I like, but the chicken was kind of tough.  I wasn’t too impressed with the tomato sauce on the pasta either.  The thing that makes their Grandma’s pizza so amazing is the fresh sauce that’s on it.  This sauce doesn’t stand up at all in comparison.

Loren and Alex ordered a Grandma’s pizza with sausage and mushrooms.  (I said I was going to try something different, they were set on pizza)

The other times we’ve ordered it, we got mushrooms and meatballs.  They both said they preferred the meatballs to the sausage that was on it this time.  The sauce is still the best thing about this pizza.  It’s so amazingly fresh and filled with basil and garlic flavors. 

Overall, this just wasn’t the best experience we’ve had here.  Service was really slow, especially when it was time to get the check.  Total bill ran us $38.  We’ve made a note to ourselves to avoid going here on Friday nights.

Corteo’s Pizza and Pasta
32922 US Hwy 19 N
Palm Harbor, FL
727-781-9114

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We decided to try the teppanyaki style dining at Yuki Japanese Steak House tonight.  We ate sushi there the last time and we probably should have done the same tonight.

They weren’t very busy, so we had the table to ourselves.   Usually I love the soup served at Japanese steakhouses, but this one had miso in it, so I didn’t care for it.

The ginger dressing on the salad was also kind of weak.

Our chef didn’t seem to have been on the job for very  long.  He went through the motions, but really didn’t have much in the way of skill or showmanship.  He also doused the food in way too much soy sauce.  The filet I had was horribly salty.  And then to top it off, the goody-goody sauce (the one that’s mayonnaise based), was more like ranch dressing than what I’ve had at other places.

Overall, it just wasn’t impressive.  Even with a $25 coupon, the bill ended up being $70 for the three of us.  I’d go back for the sushi, but definitely not for the teppanyaki.

Yuki Japanese Steakhouse
13505 Icot Blvd
Clearwater, FL
727-532-9559

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Let’s face it, we eat at Cuban Breezes a lot.  We just can’t help it.  The food is consistently good and the prices are great.  Especially when you have a Restaurant.com coupon to boot.  $10 off when you spend $20, you just can’t beat that for lunch.

We started off with the Pan con Queso y Tomate aka grilled cheese and tomato on Cuban bread.

I think I could have just eaten this for lunch and been happy.  Their Cuban bread is so light and fluffy, add some garlic spread, melted cheese, and tomatoes and you’ve got a little bit of heaven in your mouth. 

For my entree, I ordered the Fricase de Pollo,  shredded chicken and diced potatoes simmered in a tomato-based sauce over rice.

When it comes to the table, the aroma is amazing.  Everything is tender and flavorful.  Half of it came home with me for dinner.  It was so comforting and warm on a chilly Florida day.
Loren got the ultimate beans and rice with lechon, their marinated shredded pork.

Fresh and tasty as always.  After the coupon, the total bill was $13.  You just can’t beat the value for the wonderfully consistent fresh and tasty food.

Cuban Breezes
13980 W Hillsborough Ave
Tampa, FL
813-814-9939

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Greek City Cafe just opened up in Clearwater near Kohls and Countryside Mall so that was our destination for dinner.   It’s a very casual restaurant, you order at the counter and they bring the food out to you. 

Loren ordered a blackened grouper sandwich with fries and a Greek salad.

This was probably one of the smallest grouper sandwiches we’ve seen, but he said it was very good.  It came with a spicy spread, he thought it may have had some horseradish in it.

The fries were hot, fresh, and crisp.  They had some seasoning on them, maybe oregano, that made them very flavorful.  I got the potato salad with my meal.  It was different.  It had a little bit of something spicy in it that you didn’t really taste until the end of a bite. 

We both got Greek salads with our meals.  You name it, it was in this salad.  I had to deconstruct mine to take off the peppers, onions, and green peppers.  It also had cucumbers, tomatoes, potato salad, feta, an olive, and somewhere in there was a little bit of lettuce.  The dressing was tangy and tasty.

I ordered the pastitsio.

It was pretty good.  It had a brown sauce on it which was different.  I’m used to it having some sort of marinara red sauce. It had a good overall flavor and texture. 

The dessert counter is always my downfall.  We got a piece of chocolate cake and something called a Bomb to take home.

The cake, pictured on the right was good.  It had chocolate cake with chocolate mousse layers inside, covered with a chocolate shell.  The Bomb, however, was awesome.  Wow!  It had a white creamy filling with a fudgey cake bottom and the same dark chocolate shell.  I could have eaten a few of these and still wanted more.  It’s a dessert to go back for.

Total bill ran us $30.  Loren thought it would have been better if they just made it into an actual order at your table and bring out the food in phases kind of restaurant instead of everything coming out at once.  Overall though, the food was very fresh and flavorful.  This is certainly a place we’d go back to for some quick Greek food.

Greek City Cafe
2518 SR 580, Ste C
Clearwater, FL
727-726-9600

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We’ve eaten at Fratelli’s in Oldsmar a few times for lunch, but hadn’t been over there for dinner yet.  They had a coupon out on Restaurant.com, so it seemed like a perfect excuse to head out there for dinner.

We started off with some calamari.

It had a wonderful, light batter on it and the calamari was cooked perfectly.  I really enjoyed the tomato sauce they served with it.  It has some really nice, cooked all day flavors in it. 

Soup or salad came with our meals, so we got one of each.

The pasta fagioli had a wonderful aroma and tomato flavor, but unfortunately the homemade pasta in it had practically dissolved.  You put it in your mouth and it turned to mush. 

Loren ordered the meat ravioli. 

These were really good.  Excellent sauce, the pasta shells were fresh, and the meat filling was unique.  It was a very soft filling, but had an interesting meaty flavor to it.  I normally don’t like meat ravioli, I go for the cheese, but I’d actually order these for myself.

I went for the chicken marsala with rigatoni pasta.

The marsala sauce was very good with a hint of sweet, which I like.  The pasta was excellent.  Homemade pasta is just so different from store bought.  The texture and consistency is so much better.  Two big pieces of lightly battered chicken and there was definitely more food there than I could eat in one sitting. 

And yet, I still ordered cheesecake for dessert.

The actual cheesecake filling was creamy and yummy.  I didn’t like the crust though.  There was too much cinnamon in it and that’s all I could taste.  It was overwhelming the delicateness of the cheesecake.

Total bill after the coupon was $22 which is an amazing deal for the quality and quantity of food we ate.  Service was good, though I thought the pacing of the food was a little fast.  I don’t want a lot of time between courses, but I would prefer to be completely finished with the appetizer before salads and soups came out, and completely finished with those before the entree arrived. 

One thing I noticed tonight was the lighting in the restaurant.  It was very well lit and the lights didn’t blind you.  So many restaurants dim the lights a little too much.  It was nice to be able to actually see each other and our food. 

The quality of the food here is really amazing.  I just hope their location doesn’t hurt them.  They don’t have a very big parking lot and are located off the beaten path, but hopefully people will find them and have as great as a meal as we did.

Fratelli Italian Restaurant and Bar
120 Commerce Blvd, Ste 1
Oldsmar, FL
813-854-1717

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I used to work in Dunedin and when we were all craving cheesesteaks, we’d head over to LaSpada’s.  They’ve since changed their name to Delco’s, but everything else is still the same.  From the tiny dining area where you’re lucky to find a table to paying on your way out and cheesesteaks with ooey gooey goodness.

I get my cheesesteak with mayo, onions and mushrooms.  It comes to the table lava hot and it’s difficult to wait long enough so you don’t burn the roof of your mouth.  But, it’s definitely worth the wait.  The rolls are soft and yummy and the whole thing just brings a smile to my face.

Loren went for a roast beef sub which was piled high.

There’s roast beef on the bottom, then all the fixin’s and then more roast beef on top.  Good stuff.  With two drinks, the total was $16.

Looks like they’re expanding as well.  There used to be a Quiznos in the same shopping center, but I heard someone say they moved out recently and the signage out front is Delco’s now. 

Delco’s Original Steaks and Hoagies
1737 Main St
Dunedin, FL
(727) 738-4700

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