8 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.

Locals like this legendary, uncomplicated, very large, family-run steak house, which delivers carefully prepared food and attentive service in a traditional setting of red leather and dark wood. When your steak arrives—still sizzling on a hot plate—the waiter asks you to cut into it and check that it was cooked as you ordered. Don't let the location in an industrial part of town keep you away. The menu is simple: rib eye, porterhouse, filet mignon. Seafood such as lobster, shrimp, and salmon fill out the surf side of the menu. End your meal with a big slice of the award-winning mandarin orange cake.

A hip space nestled in a former private house off Colonial Drive, Kaya gives traditional dishes from throughout the 7,000 islands of the Philippines inventive new angles. Though pricey, the "five-wave Sama Sama Tasting Menu" is truly memorable—what should be a standard dish, the yam noodle pancit, becomes extraordinary, and California long-grain sushi rice is transformed into a revelatory fried-garlic-infused plate with locally grown squash, eggplant, and lion’s mane and oyster mushrooms. Indeed, chef Lordfer Lalicon, who honed his craft at the famed Blue Hill at Stone Farms, takes local sourcing very seriously. 

Business travelers love to spend money at Christini's, one of the city's fanciest places for northern Italian cuisine. A throwback to elegant dining in the 1950s, the menu is filled with high-end versions of familiar dishes like chicken marsala and veal with lemon-wine sauce. You may be so enchanted by the rose each lady receives and the serenade by a roving accordion player that you forget to check the price of the recommended wine, which will cost you.

This fine choice among Orlando's many steak houses looks like a sophisticated private club, and youngsters with mouse caps are not common at the nationwide chain's local outpost. Center stage in the kitchen is a huge broiler, kept at 900°F to sear in the flavor of the porterhouses, sirloins, rib eyes, and other cuts of aged beef. For true value, nibble on "bar bites" in the lounge area during happy hour, when they're half price, and you'll enjoy top-quality sliders and such for $6 to $7 a plate. The wine list has about 350 vintages from around the world.

From the Berries & Bubbles martinis that start off the meal to the chocolate peanut butter dessert draped in bittersweet chocolate ganache, Ocean Prime wows. This local outpost of an upscale chain holds its own with consistently good food, if uneven service. The jumbo-lump crab cake with pickled fennel is a good way to begin, as are the white truffle caviar deviled eggs, ahi tuna tartare, and goat cheese ravioli. Follow with a simple grilled steak, sea scallops with Parmesan risotto and citrus vinaigrette, or the teriyaki salmon. Locals find the daily happy hour to be a bargain.

Don't let the 1930s-era ocean-liner interior fool you: as theme restaurants go, this place is a good one. The straightforward preparation—grilled or broiled, brushed with lemon butter—is welcome. The chefs change the menu every day based on what's fresh. Lobster bisque is a standout, as is the chilled shellfish platter and the day's fish specialties. Save room for the baked Alaska, which is flamed at the table.

The bright, shiny, and oh-so-hip ette hotel is home to this eatery, created by celebrated chef Akira Back, who has 22 restaurants worldwide and a Michelin star to his credit. The menu delights with Mediterranean-Asian (emphasis on Asian) dishes that might include miso black cod with pickled cauliflower or garlic maple soy chicken. The hotel and restaurant are strictly nonalcoholic, so drinks from the creative mixology menu won't trigger any breathalyzers.