Fred’s Market Restaurant – Plant City, FL

 

Last week we spent the afternoon at Bok Tower Gardens in Lake Wales.  It’s a 250 acre historic garden with a tall “singing tower” with a concert twice a day on carillon bells.  The grounds are vast and surrounded by orange groves. 

 

 

On the way there we stopped for breakfast at Fred’s Market Restaurant in Plant City.  It’s a family-run business specializing in Southern comfort food – and over the last several years, they’ve expanded to open more locations in Lakeland, Bartow, Winter Haven, and Riverview. 

The atmosphere is laid back and inviting.  The patio is lined with rocking chairs, and the employees wore shirts that said “Manners and Mashed Potatoes” on the back. 

There is an option to order an a la carte menu, but their main focus is on the buffet.  There was a huge assortment – including various casserole dishes, fried green tomatoes, bacon, sausage, fried chicken, biscuits with gravy, and pretty much everything you could imagine in a Southern breakfast.  They do warn that they charge extra for excessive waste or over-consumption (3+ heaping plates). I had two plates and didn’t end up eating again until dinnertime.     

I’m not normally a fan of buffet restaurants, but you can tell they take pride in their food.  The fried chicken was the best part – it was super crispy outside, moist inside, and wasn’t greasy at all. 

 

Later in the day, they have lunch and dinner buffets with other traditional comfort foods like fried catfish, skillet cornbread, and smoked ribs.  Lance liked his breakfast so much he would have gone back for dinner that same night if I’d have let him. 

Fred’s Market Restaurant has several locations.  The one we visited was at 1401 West Dr. MLK Jr. Blvd, Plant City, FL 33563 and is open 6am – 9pm Monday – Saturday and 8am – 9pm on Sunday. 

Orlando Brewing, Yum-mi Sandwiches & Kilwins

 

Last week we took a day trip to Orlando on our day off.  We started off at Harry P. Leu Gardens – I had never been there before, but it’s a beautiful 50 acre botanical garden. 

 

 

 

Luckily we got lots of walking in at the gardens because we spent the rest of the day eating & drinking.  We stopped for a quick lunch at Yum-mi Sandwiches, which serves Vietnamese style banh-mi sandwiches. 

It was a super casual restaurant but the food was very good.  We split the Shrimp & Pork Yum-Yum Crunch Rolls, then each had our own sandwich.   

Lance ordered the V.P. – with Vietnamese-style Philly steak, cheese, and 2 eggs on top.  Mine was the Miss Piggy – with caramelized pork belly, lettuce, and tomatoes.  I added an egg to the top since the egg on Lance’s sounded so good.  It didn’t compete with Bamboozle, but I was happy with our food.  

 

Afterwards we headed to Orlando Brewing.  Surprisingly, there aren’t very many local breweries in the area – we’re spoiled with having several dozen in the Tampa Bay area.  I tried a flight with a variety of beers – the best by far was the Girl Stout – which tasted like liquid Thin Mint cookies. 

 

 

 

 

 

We picked up a copy of Southern Brew News which had a map of every brewery in the Southeast.  Lance has framed it and started marking all the ones we’ve been to (we’ve got a lot to go – Florida has 104…)

We finished the day in Celebration, FL where they have fake snow every evening at Christmas time.  It was really just bubbles (I don’t know why I was expecting shaved ice...guess it would melt instantly).   

Our “dinner” was ice cream from Kilwins (we couldn’t resist the waffle cone smell coming out the front door).   

Yum-mi Sandwiches is located at 1227 North Mills Avenue, Orlando, FL 32803 and is open 10 am – 8pm Monday – Tuesday, and Thursday - Saturday, and 10 am – 6pm on Sundays (they are closed Wednesdays).  

 

Orlando Brewing is located at 1301 Atlanta Avenue, Orlando, FL 32806 and is open 3pm – 10pm Monday through Thursday, 1pm – 12am Friday & Saturday, and 1pm – 9pm on Sunday. 

Kilwins has several locations – the one we visited was located at 671 Front Street, Kissimmee, FL 34747 and is open 11am – 10pm Sunday through Thursday and 11am – 11pm Friday & Saturday.