7/16 Bravo Peruvian

I went back to Bravo today for the ceviche. 2925 NE 6th AveFort Lauderdale, FL http://www.bravosandwich.com/ Bravo is a small Peruvian place that has about 5-7 sandwiches and a couple of entrees and ceviche. The ceviche is prepared in the traditional Peruvian style with sweet potato, giant white corn, and corn nuts. I order it spicy. It was excellent as usual and tasted extremely fresh. A great healthy yet flavorful lunch that won't leave you feeling hungry. 9.0/10.

7/14 Las Colina

I'd been to Las Colinas, 2724 N Andrews Ave, Wilton Manors, a number of times for breakfast on the weekends but never tried it for lunch. The breakfast is excellent and a terrific value, so I was sure the lunch would be equally as good. It was.

Las Colinas looks like any number of local Cuban joints, located in a nondescript strip mall in Wilton Manors, but the food and prices are excellent. They also have a number of daily specials. Next time I want to try the Ceviche, which looked excellent. Today I ordered the roast pork with yellow rice and black beans. $7.95. All orders come with Cuban bread. The roast pork was excellent and not mushy like in other places. Ask for their home-made hot sauce. It is not very spicy but extremely flavorful and goes great on the roast pork and on the rice and beans. I definitely will be going back here often. 9.0/10

7/12 The Global Grille

Thanks to the recommendation of a reader of this blog, I discovered the Global Grille Cafe. It is located in the huge Baptist Church on Broward Blvd and 3rd. Ave. They have free parking in the back and you enter the main church entrance and go to the 2nd floor.
It is a huge space with really cranking A/C and very comfortable booths and tables with big, cushy chairs. You order at the counter and they bring the food to your table. The menu has a about 7-8 different salads and about 10-12 hot and cold sandwiches. Everything is priced at $7.50, which is a great deal. I ordered the Chicken Teriyaki Hoagie, which was a freshly grilled teriyaki glazed chicken breast served with lettuce and tomato and excellent steak fries. My friend got the Grilled Chicken Pita. Both were quite good.

Overall, I highly recommend this place. Although the food is good, it's nothing spectacular, but it is a very comfortable place for lunch.

i

7/9 Pita Pit

Visited the recently opened Pita Plus in that new building across from the riverwalk. 200 SW First Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301
This is a chain that makes both cold and hot Pita's similar to Subway where you order the meat or main ingredient then they add the vegetables and sauces that you choose.
I ordered the falafel and topped it with a number of vegetable and taziki sauce since they did not offer the traditional tahini that usually goes on a falafel.
The sandwich was pretty awful. The falafel was dry and tasteless. the sauce was thick and tasted like paste. They had a pretty decent lunch crowd but I am not sure why as I did not find a single redeeming quality of the place other than that it is quick and convenient. Certainly will not be going back. No picture as I forgot my phone in the car. 4.0/10 (My lowest rating yet I think)

7/8/10 New Hong Kong Chinese Takeout

Stopped in to the New Hong Kong Chinese Takeout, 1303 SE 17th StFort Lauderdale, FL 33316, in the shopping center with the office depot and Ross off of 17th St. Causeway. I just got an order of steamed dumplings to go as I wasn't looking for something to heavy today.

The dumplings were quite good. I've had a number of other items here before and for take out it is very good quality. They do have 3 tables inside but it is very hot. I do wish this was more of a sit down place though as I would frequent it often if it was. 8.0/10

7/7 Lauderdale Grill

Visited the New Lauderdale Grill in the Harbour Shoppes off of 17th St. http://lauderdalegrill.com/ This location has already had 2 other restaurants fail and I'm not so sure this one will make it either. I don't think they can compete with the myriad of other dining options in the same shopping center, especially Duffy's.

The Lauderdale grill has a large menu but they offer a special lunch menu too with about 6-7 items to choose from for $6.99. I ordered the grilled vegetable sandwich, which was fair, but nothing I couldn't make on a panini maker at home in 10 minutes. My friend ordered the Mahi Fish tacos, which the server raved about, but they were just decent.

Service was fairly slow given that the place was not crowded at all. Overall, not a place that I would rush back to. 6.5/10

7/1 Slice Pizzeria

I gave Slice pizzeria another try today. It is located in that area of luncheonettes near the library in downtown Fort Lauderdale. http://www.slicefortlauderdale.com/

They offer a special of 2 slices of pizza and a medium fountain drink for $4.95. Although the taste of the Pizza was very good, I did find them to be a little small, especially compared to the 2 slice special at New River Pizza. Slice's Pizza was definitely better then New River's, but I would say you get about 50% more food with the new river deal. Overall i give them a 7.0/10. Would have been an 8.0 or higher if the slices were bigger.

6/30 Kelly's Landing

Back to Kelly's landing today. 1305 SE 17th St, Fort Lauderdale, FL. Although I was tempted to get the special "Bucket" of Ipswich Steamers for $15, I instead decided on the blackened Mahi Sandwich, with beans and cole slaw $9. The mahi was nicely cooked, appeared to be fresh, and was fairly flavorful. I like to put the cole slaw directly on the sandwich instead of an tartar sauce.

The beans were also quite good.

My friend got the meatloaf slider special $6 (not pictured), which she did not particularly enjoy.

Although much of the good stuff at Kelly's is fried, they do have some broiled or grilled options for lunch which are fairly good. 7.5/10

6/29 Subway for breakfast

Although I'm not usually much of a fan of Subway, after hearing their radio advertisements for their new breakfast items, I decided to stop by and try one out. I ordered the egg white breakfast sandwich. It came with a drink for $2.50. The sandwich came with a pre-prepared egg white, ham, cheese, green pepper and any other vegetable of your choice on a whole grain English muffin. I added spinach, which worked out well. Was it the best breakfast sandwich I've had, far from it, but for $2.50 with a drink, it was a very good deal for a small, quick breakfast on the run. And without the cheese, it would have been fairly healthy too. 6.5/10

6/28 Don Arturo's

So much for eating healthy. On Saturday night we went to the Capital Grille (I'll write a review later this week) and I followed up that very healthy meal with a trip to Don Arturo's today and ordered the Breaded Steak.
As pictured below, it comes with sweet plantains and beans and rice. $8.95 Ask for a side of Chimichuri and Jalapeno sauce to put on the steak and mix in with the rice and beans.
It was fantastic as usual but since returning to the office, I haven't been able to move out of my chair and I really haven't done anything productive. Still, when really hungry, Don Arturo's is a reliable spot with excellent and speedy service at a good value. 9.0/10

6/24 Ernie's BBQ

Today I visited Ernie's BBQ, at 1843 S Federal Hwy. Fort Lauderdale. Although I find there BBQ to be just average at best, I do enjoy their conch salad and conch chowder. Today I ordered a large conch salad, $9.99. It comes with 2 slices of homemade Bimini bread which is excellent. It has a sweet/sugary or honey covered crust on the bottom.

The conch salad was excellent as always, though I do wish they wouldn't cut up the conch so fine. I'd love bigger chunks of conch instead of the very small diced pieces. But, despite this the seasoning is spot on, spicy but not overwhelming. I tried to not eat both pieces of bread but I couldn't resist. As you can see from the photo, I almost forgot to take a photo and only remembered after I had eaten half of it. 8.0/10

6/23 Duffy's

I went to Duffy's Sports Bar in the Harbour Shoppes of off 17th St. Causeway this morning at 10am to watch the world cup game. I'm not really much of a soccer fan but I do enjoy the world cup for some reason. Anyway, after the game we stayed for lunch. After having a few drinks during the game, I forgot to take pictures of the food.
I ordered the Ahi Tuna Burger :$8.95. It was chopped up pieces of Ahi Tuna formed into a hamburger patty and grilled, served rare, with lettuce tomato and wasabi mayo. Although I would have preferred an actual tuna filet, the chopped up version actually worked fairly well. The offer a choice of sides and sticking with the healthy eating kick, I got the grilled zucchini, which was quite good. For a sports bar they actually have pretty good food. A number of other sports bars have tried and failed in this exact location, but Duffy's, with over 20 other outposts, mostly in palm beach county, has the formula for a sports bar/restaurant down pat. 8.0/10 for the food. 9.5/10 for a place to watch sporting events (Especially in the front/bar area, with 20+ projection size televisions)

6/22 Cafe Vico

Although I had been here for dinner many years ago, I was unaware that Cafe Vico, 1125 N. Federal Hwy, Ftl, was even open for lunch until a friend recommended it today. It is a little bit more money then I normally spend for lunch, but the food was quite good.

I had a mixed green salad topped with grilled shrimp and char-grilled calamari. $14.95 Although it could have been a little bigger, overall it was an excellent salad and the shrimp and calamari were very fresh and cooked nicely. My friend was a little adventurous today and ordered the beef carpaccio (raw thin sliced filet) served over arugula. $13.95 It was excellent though was more of an appetizer to be shared rather then an entree.

Although I normally don't have the time to spend nor the money on a lunch like this, it's an excellent choice for a nice, long lunch once in a while. 8.5/10

6/18 Giorgio's

I went back to the always solid and reliable Giorgio's on 17th St. Causeway, 1499 SE 17th St, Fort Lauderdale. I just started doing the P90X exercise program so I am trying to eat a little healthier, at least for the time being. We'll see how long that lasts. Anyway, I got the Oak Grilled Chicken Salad today. It comes with a plentiful amount of grilled chicken, fresh tomatoes, olives, and Gorgonzola cheese over mixed greens. They have an excellent thick balsamic vinaigrette dressing. Also, the rolls and hummus dip are great. They have a full lunch menu featuring many different sandwiches, salads, pizzas and pasta dishes and almost everything I've ever ordered here has been solid. 8.5/10

6/19 IKEA Cafeteria

I made a very rare trip out west to the Sunrise/Weston area on Saturday and stopped by the mammoth Ikea store to do some shopping. They have a cafeteria inside and I've heard about their famous Swedish meatballs, so I decided to give them a try. Although the plate was a great value at $4.99 for 15 mini meatballs, mashed potato, and ligonberry jelly, the meatballs where nothing special. They weren't bad by any means, but nothing to go out of the way for. I'm happy I tried them though. 6.0/10

6/21 Whale's Rib, Deerfield Beach

I'm back after a long time off and I'll try to have daily updates going forward (albeit short and brief ones sometimes)

I was up in the Deerfield area so I decided to make a trip out to the beach and try the famous Key West Dolphin Sandwich at the Whales Rib, 2031 NE Second St., Deerfield Beach.

I had heard a lot about this place and the sandwich as it was featured on Diners, Drive-ins, & Dives. It did not disappoint.

One note, the parking situation is fairly tough, which is understandable due to the beach location, but I drove around the block a few times and eventually found a spot.

The Key West Dolphin Sandwich features a fresh grilled piece of Mahi topped with cole slaw, Swiss cheese and thousand island. Certainly not the healthiest fish sandwich, but it does taste great. The Whales rib also features in house cooked potato chips called whale fries that are served with a mayo based honey mustardy sauce called whale juice that is outstanding.

This is a really good sandwich and the place is definately worth checking out when in the area. 8.5/10

COMING BACK SOON

I kind of lost interest in this blog for about 3 months, but I am planning a comeback.
Email any Fort Lauderdale area restaurant suggestions to danbermanlaw@gmail.com
I should have some new posts up in the coming days.

Coming soon

Coming in the next few days, new trips to Anthony's Runway 84, Trulucks, Ferdo's Grill, Gilberts 17th St. Grill, My Market. Since I've run out of new lunches places for the time being, I'll be doing some dinner places as well.

2/17 update

I've been pretty busy at work since returning from Denver and haven't really been to any new lunch places over the past week, but I hope to have some new posts up in the coming days. Thanks to everyone who reads this blog and please continue to post any comments or suggestions.

Tarpon Bend

I'm back from a short trip to Denver. BTW, if ever in Denver, be sure to try the hamburger at the Cherry Cricket. It was fantastic. www.cherrycricket.com

Today, we went to the Tarpon Bend, http://www.tarponbend.com/ Although people think of this place mainly as a bar, they do serve very good food and have at least 3 fresh fish selections daily. Today I got the Cobia sandwich with Tabbouleh Salad as a side $11.95. The Cobia was very fresh, cut nicely and cooked just right. The sandwich came with Tarpon Bends Key lime mayo, which is a great topping on the fish. Overall an excellent fish sandwich and the tabbouleh salad was a nice change. It is amazing how few places there are in the area where you can get a fresh piece of fish for lunch and not spend a fortune. Tarpon Bend is definately one of those places. Another person in my party got the crab cake sandwich, which he said was excellent. 8.5/10.