11 Best Restaurants in Orlando, Florida

The gift shop of the Modernism Museum across the street is attached to this tearoom-turned-restaurant, which helps to explain its striking and sublime decor. The menu features dishes from Florida and elsewhere in the South that are made using local ingredients whenever possible; wood oven–fired oysters, slow-cooked octopus with Japanese eggplant, or barbecue lamb shank are just some of the possibilities.

Celebration's branch of this high-end, family-owned chain might be better than the original in Tampa, which has been operating for more than a century. For your main course, zero in on the paella—either à la Valenciana (with meat and seafood) or campesina ("farmer's" paella with beef, pork, chorizo, and chicken). The best dessert, brazo gitano cien anos (sponge cake with strawberries that is soaked in syrup and Spanish sherry and flambéed table-side), was created for the restaurant chain's 100th anniversary in 2005, and is well worth its price just for the show. Friday and Saturday nights feature a tapas bar and entertainment.

Ethos has been vegan for so long (it opened in 2007) that if feels as if the rest of the culinary world has simply caught up with it. “Chickun” of the plant-based variety substitutes for meat, along with tofu, tempeh, and seitan. The black bean Samson Burger is one of the best veggie burgers in town.

The menus at Kessler restaurants are always special. From waffles served with Grand Marnier syrup for breakfast to extravagant Saturday and Sunday brunch to tenderloin au poivre for dinner, the fare is sophisticated. Craft cocktails and sinful desserts round out the experience.

At this restaurant, award-winning, James Beard–nominated chef Braden McGlamery emphasizes innovative American dishes. Sophisticated barbecue might find a place on the menu next to Florida redfish as well as some of the best burgers in the area. The bar serves creative cocktails crafted with house-made tinctures, and the Sunday brunch is a must.

Trina Gregory-Propst and her team of bakers and cooks make the biggest and most satisfying breakfasts, lunches, and sweet treats in town. Try a from-scratch chicken pot pie, which has the most glorious crust; the mile-high meat loaf sandwich; or the "7th Trimester" of buttermilk garlic biscuit, over-medium egg, and smoked bacon, smothered in five-cheese mac-and-cheese. Look for the "Let us fill your pie hole" mural.

Open from early breakfast to late dinner in the Hyatt Regency, this slick modern diner is not exactly cheap, but the salads, sandwiches, and griddle foods are tops. The classic B Line Burger is done beautifully. And there are lots of selections you'd never expect to find here, like an appetizer of stuffed avocado and a portobello quesadilla entrée.

With nine permanent food and drink vendors, all housed in colorful repurposed shipping containers, Boxi Park is like a big, stationary, food-truck park, just with more alcohol. Three of the venues serve microbrew beers and margaritas or other mixed cocktails to go with the hand-rolled sushi, burgers, chicken sandwiches, tacos, lobster rolls, and more.

Talented chefs bring big city sophistication to Downtown Orlando at this casual eatery with a French-American fusion menu and craft cocktails. Everything that can be made in-house—pickles, condiments, bread—is, and although the chicken, steak, and seafood entrées are fantastic, the frites (fries) alone are worth the trip. Coffee and pastries are available in the morning, and a very prolonged happy hour fills afternoons.  There's complimentary valet parking in the evening.

Part tavern, part bistro, and part sports bar, Nona Blue has a little something for everyone. Kettle chips smothered in blue cheese or Buffalo chicken wings, check; burgers and salads, check; filet mignon or a 16-ounce, $44 Delmonico rib eye, also (very much) check.

At this authentic Spanish restaurant, Iron Chef celeb Roberto Treviño uses unique grills to prepare inventive dishes, including seafood, chicken, lamb, or vegetarian paella. The tapas menu features a great gazpacho soup and fiery patatas bravas (home fries with a spicy tomato sauce). Flamenco dancers visit the dining room hourly at night.