Mickey Filter

June 25, 2012 3:19 PM

Any recommendations for cheap, good food in Orlando? We're tourists, but would love a place with a 'local' feel. Bonus for live entertainment.
posted by richmondparker to Food & Drink (8 answers total)

Not cheap, necessarily, but when I was living there I enjoyed Taverna Opa - the food is good, and they have a bellydancer for entertainment. It does get very loud, but it is a ton of fun. It is a decent mix of locals and tourists.
posted by firei at 3:25 PM on June 25, 2012

Oh, and apparently the best smokehouse ever is Four Rivers in Winter Park (just north of Orlando). I've never been, because every time I drove by the line was out the door!
posted by firei at 3:26 PM on June 25, 2012

Orlando has a big Vietnamese community, and there are a bunch of great places dotted along Colonial Drive.
posted by saladin at 3:27 PM on June 25, 2012

We were just there. We liked the Waffle House, which is a chain but has a local vibe in each location. For anything other than breakfast, though, strongly suggest ethnic food choices. We had some outstanding Pakistani and Persian food, and decent sushi and Chinese food. Look for cheap places in strip malls with reasonably good Urban Spoon/Yelp! ratings.
posted by bearwife at 3:34 PM on June 25, 2012

Best answer: Four Rivers also has a location in Winter Garden, which may be more convenient if you are coming from Disney property - just follow the signs to Western Way over near Blizzard Beach and then take 429 north to Winter Garden.

Another excellent local place is Johnny's Fillin' Station, which not only has the best burgers in Orlando but also has the live entertainment you are looking for. The website has an address and map, basically take I-4 north to Michigan.
posted by Lokheed at 3:34 PM on June 25, 2012

(And when I say "north" I mean "east", because my Seattlelite brain is still wired to think of the freeway as being north/south)
posted by Lokheed at 3:36 PM on June 25, 2012

Seconding the Vietnamese. Pho 88 is particularly fantastic. The restaurant isn't much to look at, but the food is highly delicious and cheap. The surrounding neighborhood looked to be something if a hipster enclave. Caveat: I was only there about 2 hours and know nothing of Orlando otherwise.
posted by slogger at 5:39 AM on June 26, 2012

Response by poster: We decided to try Johnny's Fillin' Station and everyone LOVED it. It was crowded and not very user-friendly, but after standing for about 10 minutes, we finally went up to a big table full of locals and asked if we could sit with them. They were great and so was our evening. Live music, AMAZING food, and everything was half price since it was Tuesday. There were five of us; we drank a LOT, got appetizers, and our meals for a total of $62.00. The people at our table asked where in the hell we'd heard about the place. If you're a tourist, you'll hate it; if you're a traveller, you'll want to come back time and again. Thanks a million!
posted by richmondparker at 8:25 PM on June 26, 2012 [1 favorite]