I remember that soon after our move to Seattle, we quickly became frustrated looking for good local restaurants. That's crazy when I think about it, because there are so many out there. In retrospect, the problem was likely that we started too close to home. After some time passed, we found some pretty great places, we just had to travel a bit. There was a great place in neighboring North Bend that we loved, and one off the beaten path in Bellevue. Then we got into Seattle proper and found some good places too.
Orlando's first industry is tourism, so naturally the demand for good food is high. There is no shortage of good food here. You can start with the obvious places, like Epcot, or maybe a few of the places in Downtown Disney or City Walk. There are places on I-Drive, too. But you can't spend like a tourist every time you go out... that's not sustainable. (Exception: Epcot Food & Wine Festival... that's worth it.)
We had a couple of early misses, the greatest of which was a dive Irish pub kind of restaurant. Ended up being a lot of crappy food service stuff that was overpriced. It was the kind of dive that your feet stick the floor just so. Sadly, the atmosphere was tight, and the food shitty.
In our Seattle search, the biggest failure was in the Italian area. One place after another had "wet" pasta and bland sauces. Seriously, how can you screw up alfredo sauce... it's butter and cheese! We never did find one that was awesome, though Boxley's in North Bend did have a few Italian dishes that were great.
So a few weeks ago, we tried an Italian place that's in the little strip mall with the closest Publix, called Bella Tuscany. And what did we find? Live music, and plates of awesomesauce and flavortexture. I don't even know what that means, but the food is the tits. The service is pretty solid, too. I'm also crazy about the light fixture over the host stand.
Yes, they have an alfredo sauce that's probably the best I've ever had, but everything they have is great. Even the grilled cheese for Simon is awesome. They put a piece of mozzarella between two pieces of American! The pasta is made fresh by someone else in town, but it's not from a box. The sauces are rich and delicious. Even their iced tea is fancy. And they have live music.
The timing isn't great, since I'm trying to eat sensibly, but I think I can fit it in every few weeks. It's delicious.
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