Food can be a polarizing subject for sure. Some want healthy, some want comfort but everyone wants variety! So what does the food scene look like here in Central Florida?
It’s pretty amazing!! So, some context for you, we are a mostly plant based family. We rarely eat gluten or dairy due to sensitivities and my oldest sons Crohn’s disease so eating out can be a struggle….or not! The biggest problem with the food scene in Florida is that you will never ever be able to try it all! There is so much to choose from and so many fantastic options. The drinks are amazing too!! So I am going to just break down a little of what we have gotten to enjoy since we moved and how nice it is to have so many options!
Local Spots
Besides Disney, there are TONS of wonderful restaurants, eateries and food trucks in this area. So I will circle back to Disney but figured I would start with the local spots we have tried. First off, there are quit a few “food halls” around here.
Food Halls
These are large buildings that house multiple food options and usually a bar or brewery as well. Some also have shops inside. Plant Street Market is our favorite!! It is right in downtown Winter Garden and has everything from fresh oysters and street tacos to pizza and donuts. Everything we have had here has been great and most, not all, have gluten free and plant based options that are super good. And of course we love that it is home to our favorite brewery, Crooked Can Brewing! Their Florida Sunshine beer is perfection!! Plant Street Market is on the most beautiful street with Spanish moss hanging from the trees and they have a gorgeous outdoor seating area and green space where everyone hangs out and has their kids and dogs running around, it’s great!
The other place like this I have visited is the East End Market in Orlando. They have an all vegan restaurant called the Winter Park Biscuit Company that is fantastic! I dare anyone to eat here and not like it! East End Market also has a meat company that has delicious sandwiches, juice bar, ice cream shop and more! This one also has shops that are all local artists selling their goods. One of our favorites is Free Hand Goods, they have awesome handmade leather goods that are quirky and funny Floridaisms! Haha! East End also has a place called The Neighbors that has a cocktail bar and shop with all locally made Florida goods!
Plant Street Restaurants
By far, our favorite place to randomly go eat is The Whole Enchilada in downtown Winter Garden. It is pretty inexpensive and all the food is made from fresh local ingredients. They also have an awesome roof top bar with great drinks! They have gluten free, dairy free and all plant based items as well as your typical Mexican restaurant menu.
Down the street from there is Mangoni Italian Wood Fired Pizza that has the prettiest drinks you’ve ever seen and the regular pizza doesn’t bother our stomachs! They use ingredients imported from Italy and make everything in house! Mangoni has really cool themed nights like the Harry Potter night we went to Halloween weekend where the kids got free wands and my “Unicorn Blood” cocktail bubbled smoke! We even got Golden Snitch canolli’s that were almost too cute to eat.
Right next to Mangoni is the Hangry Bison and it has the BEST happy hour! $6 old fashioned, $5 mimosas, cheap small bites and everything is delicious! They have an in house made portobello burger that is FABULOUS! There are also places on Plant Street we haven’t been able o try yet like Market to Table, Urban on Plant and Pammies Sammies, but we will!!
Disney Food
On top of all the fantastic places to eat in Winter Garden and the surrounding areas, there’s also DISNEY food!! Between the parks and resorts there will always be places we have never tried! The parks are always announcing new treats for the seasons and EPCOT always has a festival going on with food kitchens all over World Showcase, the options are endless!
The cool thing about Disney is that, no matter what your diet or allergies, they have something for everyone! Whether you are at a quick service counter or a table service restaurant, they will make sure you get what you want within your dietary needs. And every location now has plant based options, some better than others but still there none the less. We went over to Port Orleans Riverside a couple weeks ago to have breakfast and they had a new plant based frittata that was absolutely delicious! It was served with a really nice fruit cup and breakfast potatoes. I was super impressed with this. The EPCOT festivals now have plant based options at a lot of the kitchens too, but also have one kitchen at each festival that is completely plant based! I had the “meatballs” at Food and Wine that was served with polenta, roasted veggies and a vegan pesto sauce. AMAZING! The falafel at the Morocco kitchen was also top notch!
We love going to Disney Springs and hitting up The Boasthouse and Homecoming and are trying to make ourselves go different places too, but those are our favorites! Swirls on the Water over there is great too! They always have fun seasonal Dole Whips like the Orange Bird cone and the Hocus Pocus flight they had at Halloween. Best part of Dole Whip is that almost all of the fruit flavors are plant based so we can have it without stomach aches!
Speaking Of Ice Cream
The boys are really enjoying getting ice cream and milkshakes again! There is a place in downtown Orlando called the Greenery Creamery that has an entire case of in house made, dairy free ice cream that is sooooo good! They have vegan milkshakes as well! We also love going to a little place called Leguminati that has vegan crunch wraps that are really fun and tasty!
Pretty much every ice cream or milkshake joint here has dairy free options which is pretty spectacular!
Conclusion
Well, I guess that’s it! The hardest part is not being able to eat everything and everywhere we want to all the time! First word problems. We try to budget only eating out once or twice in a week tops even though we think about going out everyday. Hahaha! We still cook and make a lot of good stuff at home too, that’s made easier by the Winter Garden Farmers Market (#1 in the country!) that we go to every Saturday morning to get all our fresh produce. It’s a great atmosphere every weekend.
Next week I am going to talk about what the holidays have looked like so far here in Florida! As I write this, I am actually wearing jeans and a sweatshirt because it is “cold” and breezy today! Only a high of 66!! But it’s nice with the Christmas tree in the background and an acapella group singing Christmas Carrols here in Hollywood Studios! I can’t believe this is real life! Thank you for being here and reading my long winded rambling about food, obviously I really like food!! I hope you all have a Magical Day!