Orlando What to Eat
Orlando's restaurants reflect the diverse cultural make-up of the city, and include everything from Afro-American and Caribbean spice to Italian spaghetti houses, dinner show spectacles and corner coffee stands. Upscale restaurants traditionally serve European food but, with the vogue for regional cuisine, more and more are offering dishes or even menus inspired by young, innovative chefs.
Theme parks are full of colourful restaurants of every variety, from fast-food to subtle, sit-down French cuisine. Theme park food has improved a lot over the years and finding a good meal isn't as hard as it used to be. For Disney's Priority Seating, tel: (407) 939 3463.
Here's a small hand-picked selection from our own Insight City Guide to Walt Disney World & Orlando:
Cinderella's Castle. The Once Upon A Time character serves a celebrity breakfast, featuring Disney's female stars (no sexual stereotyping here, of course), including Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and Belle. Lunch and dinner is also served here, in Cinderella's Royal Table, decked out like a medieval banquet hall, with stone walls, banners and suits of armour. Quite pricey, with considerable grousing about the quality of the food.
Magic Kingdom: Medieval Times Dinner Tournament. Set in the 11th century, it features a well-executed jousting tournament, rowdy atmosphere and roast chicken. Six knights on horseback cross lances whilst diners cheer on their favourites. Avoid purchasing upgraded seats: there are only five rows in the arena and all offer good viewing. Medieval Times, Kissimmee.
Bergamo's Italian Restaurant. Not only does Bergamo's have some of the friendliest waiters around, but if you arrive at the right time the servers will assemble in the centre of the room and perform glorious renditions of operatic classics, Neapolitan folk songs and show tunes. The quality of the food, the attentive service and the superb singing make this one dinner show you shouldn't miss. Bergamo's, Kissimmee.
Pirates' Dinner Adventure. One of the most impressive sets in Orlando's dinner theatre - a life-size pirate ship - and a humorous cast that bumbles around trying to save the Princess Anita. The ship serves as the centrepiece for an action-packed evening of pillaging, fighting on deck, and attempts to save the damsel-in-distress.
Expect to join in lots of ooh-ing and aah-ing, cheering and singing of pirate shanties. Pre-show attractions include gypsy fortune-tellers and face-painting. A post-show Buccaneer Bash continues the nonsense. Pirates Dinner Adventure, off International Drive.
Sleuths' Mystery Show and Dinner. After a humorously-executed murder, the audience deduce the culprit while scoffing their Cornish hen or prime rib. Undoubtedly the best entertainment on the dinner theatre circuit.
Guests seated at round tables watch the first act of the whodunit, which gets the murder out of the way, with much ad-libbing at the audience's expense. Each table then chooses a spokesperson who questions the actors as you try to solve the murder. Sleuths' Mystery Show and Dinner, S of Orlando, off International Drive.