November 21, 2025 • 16 mins
Faiyaz Kara, restaurant critic for the Orlando Weekly, shares his reviews of local eateries, including Moa Kai Hawaiian Diner on Colonial Drive; Corner Chophouse, which recently moved into the old Park Avenue Tavern/Dexter’s space in Hannibal Square; Cupid's Hot Dogs is planning to reopen in the nearby city of Casselberry, and more.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Joe, featuring our good friend mister paiez Kara, the food
critic restaurant critic for Thelan and The Weekly. We'll get
to Faias in just one second. First things first, if
you love cooking outside like I do, you gotta visit
one of our friends over a tools Ace Hardware. Fourteen
of these beautiful locations all throughout Central Florida, and they
have everything in the big Green egg Trigger, Napoleon, Weber,
(00:20):
Gosney Pizza Ovens, Oony Pizza ovens, and everything in between.
Your rubs, your marinage, your injectors, your cooking woods, smoking woods.
It's all right there. Live in it up outside with
a visit to our friends over a tools Ace Hardware.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
That's Toolsachyardware dot Com.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Good luck for guys for a man, mister piaz Kara.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Helloha, brother, how you doing pretty good? You not too bad?
How's your week been?
Speaker 3 (00:51):
It's been It's been busy.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Hasn't it has? And what's made it so busy? Food?
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Just eating, just eating? How do you?
Speaker 2 (00:59):
How do you stay?
Speaker 1 (01:00):
I mean, you're not a fat guy by any means.
I know that we only see your head and shoulders
while we're doing the segment. But I know you to
be a relatively fit cat. How do you eat so
much and then not gain weight?
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Yes? Thank you.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
How I know you've asked me this before, and I've
joked around by saying it's it's it's all the cocaine,
I snort. But that's not true. That's not true. I
am actually going to play tennis right after this. But
you know, someone asked me this a week ago, and
I swear to god, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
I really don't know. I feel like one day I'm going.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
To hit a wall and that'll be it, and they'll
find me in a ditch somewhere like outside a restaurant probably,
and that'll be that.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
I got that.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
You're not a dainty and you're not a dainty eater.
By the way.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Yeah, that wall, when your metabolism kicks down is going
to hit in your low thirties.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
So when you get there, Faiz, oh buddy, one day,
it's going.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Next year, yeah for sure?
Speaker 1 (01:50):
All right, Like we said, Faiez is the restaurant critic
for the Orlando Weekly Orlando Weekly dot com. You can
read his tip jar column there every single week. You
can follow him on social We'll tell you how to
do that in a little bits every single week to
tell us what's hot in Orlando when it comes to
eating the best food and drinking the best drinks.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Let's start with the review. Is it moa Kai Hawaiian diner?
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Moakai?
Speaker 4 (02:09):
Exactly Moakai, and that is it's a Hawaiian diner, as
who say. And it's where the Mangalorian used to be,
kind of like right there on the corner of Colonial
and Bumby. Yeah, so you remember that it was a
Star Wars theme kind of thing. And it's got like
the it's got total diner vibes there, you know, the
red leather stools.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
You know.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
But unlike the Mongalorian, this is now a full service restaurant,
and so they also have a cocktail program there. And
I just love how all the food I had there
was just so unfussy, so void of frills.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
You know.
Speaker 4 (02:43):
It's just so very diner to the core, you know
what I'm saying. But of course it's being a Hawaiian diner.
Things like, you know, spam are featured, and if you
guys are into spam, the fried spam Lisubi is is
something I would recommend. And there's a picture of it
right there people watching on Jim Culbert.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
That's great.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
Yeah, it's coated in in like panco. Then it's got
the spicy spicy sauce drizzled over it. Uh there's uh,
there's you know, there's a lot of obviously a lot
of like Asian influence in in Hawaiian cuisine, and some
of the things I really liked, I quite enjoyed was
was a dish called the manapua and manapooa is sort
(03:22):
of like a large soft adobe boo and it's stuffed
with charsu pork. The by the way, the name moa
Kai is in reference to those feral chickens done roam
the Hawaiian islands, and so chicken, of course, is also
very much prominently featured on the menu, in the garlic noodles,
for example, in the in the tariaki skewers, it's in uh,
(03:45):
it's a it's a it's in a bunch of things.
You can get chicken a lot oh Korean fried chicken
for example. But but two of my favorite dishes there,
one called the local mocho, and it's sort of Hawaiian's answer,
Hawaii's answer to Salisbury steak. Okay, this patty beef. It's
got the brown gravy. It's got like, you know, the
the sautate onions and mushrooms and and it and it
(04:06):
comes with a fried egg. And I know you guys
were poo pooing, uh is poo poo Hawaiian We're you guys?
Are you guys were poo pooing the fried egg over
food last last week?
Speaker 3 (04:20):
But not me? It really it really works. Oh yeah,
I like it too. I did too.
Speaker 4 (04:25):
And the other dish I really liked was the the
Korean short ribs. They're there, it's marinated and show you
on pineapple, and it's served with it's served with like uh,
white rice with sesame flex on it and and mac
and cheese. It's sort of it's part of a plate lunch,
what they call the plate lunch in Hawaii. And it's
sort of again Hawaii's answer to like the meeting three
or in this case, the meat and two and then
(04:48):
and then finally there's also Portuguese influence in Hawaiian cuisine.
And and if you and if you end your meal
with the malisadas and these are these are deep fried
doughnuts filled with like your choice of like a coconut, custard,
passion fruit. Yeah, you will. You will not be disappointed.
And then again they have they have cocktails there as well,
(05:11):
so check them out. I really enjoyed the whole vibe there.
It's and if you're watching on Jim Colbert, if you
can see some photos of of of the place, it's
very good.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Fighting Now, I mean obviously being Hawaiian, they obviously have poke.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
They do have Pokey. So the owner, his name is
Hoying Win, he owns Poke Hunt. I just found ok,
yeah that's what I thought. It was the same spot. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
so they do have poke on the menu. But if
you want a more sort of like fleshed out poke program, yeah,
let's go to pokehont for sure. Yeah, for sure. Another
review went Dueling Reviews today deb Corner Chop House. We've
actually talked about this place a couple of times. This
(05:46):
is the new steak restaurant going into Wonder Park down
in the old Dexter's Am I right there?
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Or no?
Speaker 4 (05:51):
Correct? Correct, it's been there. It's been there now for
for a few months. And it's my Indigo Indigo Road
Hospitality Group out of Charleston, it's It's it up by
four times James Beard, a Ward nominee, Steve Palmer. And
you know, when when this place first opened, people slid
into my dms on Instagram at it's spayas Kara and
by the way, I will respond to all my dms,
(06:12):
and they were saying things like, oh, this was like
the status rib I've ever seen. Oh yeah, and the
and the stakes are overcooked and the sides are met
and the uh, you know, I miss dexters, things like that.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
And so when I.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
Went for the first time, and these are from people
who are sending me some of these messages or people's
whose opinions I really you know, I you know, I
take seriously. So when when when I went there for
the first time, I was truly expecting a you know,
a subpar, overpriced meal. But so but you know what
happened was that I, you know, I just I just
(06:45):
got the overpriced meal.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
Things weren't really subpar.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
I just got the overpriced part. Yeah, I'd rather maybe
the subpar part. You're thrown a little of that, So
I'm not paying all this money for that. And you
know the FI is when you have the balls to
open up a steakhouse and upper level steakhouse in central Florida,
and then you have the double balls to do that
in winter Park. When you know, when there's a Ruth Chris,
there's other you know name steak properties around you, I think,
(07:12):
you know, I don't know. I would think you'd have
to step up and do a pretty good job at
doing that. I mean, there's a Flemmings, there's a Ruth Chris,
there's Christeners, all within probably three or four miles of
each other.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (07:22):
Less than that, there's Bow fine, but you know, so
they have to be a differentiator, right, and so what
they've done here with the decor, it's this got this
whole prohibition style vibe to it, which is which is
all fine and well. Now I wanted to get the
bone in dry aged ribbi, but they were out of
three steaks. It was like, I don't know, seven thirty
and they're already out of three different steaks.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
How does that happen so at a steakhouse?
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Yeah, that's so crazy.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
Yeah, yeah, so out of the seven steaks that were
out of three, so I ended up settling for the
eighty four dollars sixteen ounce prime ribbi.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
What.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Yes, they mentioned me of a price part, right, I know, if.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
I gotta tell you, I've not seen dev recoil like
that before.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Damn her, I've.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
Not seen a visceral reaction like that before ever. I've
known her twenty years. Damn there, I've never seen a
reality what thanks for reminding me why I don't go
out to eat exactly.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Eighty four dollars were once so well.
Speaker 4 (08:19):
When I went back, I got the one hundred and
fifty dollars twenty ounce dry age bone and red bye.
They didn't have the first time I went. But you know,
all things considering all these steaks were done super great.
They were like perfectly done. There weren't the things that
you know, they didn't look anything like the photos people
were sending me. You know, the sides were awesome, the
(08:40):
asparagus which a picture of it there with this like
mustardy sauce, group beach, everything, everything was fantastic. That the
pork chop, which was forty six dollars, was massive. It
was absolutely massive. It was wonderfully marbled. However, when we
went to eat the leftovers the following day, when we
cut through it, we noticed it was a sizable section.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
Of it that was raw.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
Oh so, so that was really one of the only
other negative things.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Apart from them being out of steaks.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
The slightly raw port and it wasn't slightly it was
a chop of it that was luckily we ate the
cooked part.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Everything was.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Everything was good, except for the steaks being out of
the steak restaurant.
Speaker 4 (09:16):
And the forty six dollars pork chop that was raw
in the middle.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Hey look, man, if you get like you get those
chess sh is it chess re port, you get those
pork chops on like an inch and a half to
inches thick. There you go, and you get those things cook.
You're buying two meals. So you know, here's the thing
I don't know. You know, usually a couple you know,
one and a half two inches thick. They're gigantic. It
is a big old piece of meat. And uh they're
so good too, by the way.
Speaker 4 (09:39):
And it's a good value. So if you want to
share that forty six bucks, that's not bad. It's a
picture right now in Jim Corport Live of the smoke
steak tartar which with black garlic, which was also very good.
The desserts of chocolate cake, the brown butter spiced apple
cake fantastic. So, I mean, this is a place where
I think people will go first again a special occasion
if you don't want to drive down to the I know,
(10:00):
the tourist area for a steakhouse or something, or you've
had you want to try something different than Roots Chris
or Flemings or Bovine or Christener's. This, this, I think
is a good place. And like I said in my review,
I did say that, you know, they seem to have
got their act together, you know, in the last in
the last few months. But that said, the corner chop
House is still a bit rough around the edges.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Okay, I could do it. I could feel it. I
can feel it coming because he slows down. Yeah, yeah,
he slows it. He doesn't want them as his own
joke up, so he slows down, you can and he
leans in.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
A little bit. Ye, you can feel it coming. Wait
for it, all right, let's talk wait for it.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Let's talk about Cuban hot Dogs reopening.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
Uh reopening. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
So they were a popular southern California hot dog place
there on Lee Road, and they opened, I believe in
early twenty twenty two, and then they closed in late
twenty twenty four. But they're making a comeback and they're
coming back to Longwood, So they'll be kind of like
near the corner of four thirty four and Ronald Reagan.
It's in the I believe the restaurants restaurants thing was
called Parada Restaurant where they're going in and they're opening
(11:03):
on Monday.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
So they'll be opening Monday.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
Those hot dogs and know they'll be striking arrows of protein.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
Through parts of dog lovers everywhere.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
I mean, anything special over there, buddy, I mean, you know,
is it just a hot dog? And don't mean to,
I don't mean to, you know, belittle it, but is
there a special reason we should visit Cubids?
Speaker 3 (11:24):
You know I did.
Speaker 4 (11:24):
I did the review of Cupids a while ago, and
I you know, I seem to like they're they're all beef,
they're all beef hot dogs.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
They're you know, like sometimes you just want a hot dog, you.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Know, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
And this place satisfies it.
Speaker 4 (11:37):
I think they're actually better than like we've talked about
hot Dog Heaven.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
It's an institution all that.
Speaker 4 (11:41):
But when I went last time to hot Dog Heaven,
I thought the hot dogs were a bit small, really weren't. Yeah,
I wasn't that thrilled thrilled with them, But Cupids did
satisfy that hot dog craving edgy. You just want like
a simple like hot dog with the toppings, and they
do it.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
Now.
Speaker 4 (11:58):
The southern California spot had the roller skating. Yeah, this
this place, this place doesn't all right.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Well, I know that we learned earlier that Tactical Brewing
was making some moves.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
This was actually new to me.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
I just heard it earlier this week because buddy of
mine lives down there and he said that they were
just staying in that area but moving to a larger space.
Speaker 4 (12:17):
Yeah, so if your people are familiar with Baldwin Park,
so they're moving right across the street from Ausprey in
that Orlando metro Gymnastics space, which is pretty massive. It's
a pretty capacious space. And the difference is that beyond
just having you know, brewing operations, they're going to have
a food hall in there. They'll have five food vendors,
(12:38):
and they're also going to provide a space for live music.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
It'll be sort of like a concert venue as well.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
So and I think they're targeting Spring twenty twenty six
for that, I mean, metro Gymnastics are still in there,
so they have to move out first, and you know,
then the work will need to start. But I think
that's kind of ambitious. I think it's going to be
later in twenty twenty six on that open yeah, because
I mean it took him forever to open the and
they're in now, which is also also pretty darn big.
(13:03):
I mean, it's kind of wild that they've outgrown that spot,
that is. I mean, I thought it was pretty spacious
for a brewery, but that one does get a lot
of action when they set up and they started kind
of getting when we live down there, you can walk
down on a Tuesday and there would be it would
be a hard hard time to find a seat there
on a Tuesday night.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Yeah, so it would be nothing to it.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
And then listen like how they experiment with their beers.
Yeah yeah, and they man, they had a white stout
there for years. It was one of the best things
I ever consumed in my life. But I haven't been
down there now. It was I'm telling you, it was
so good. My wife and I would walk down there
just to get this beer. It was that good. But
I haven't had it in years though.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
But let's move on to Minnesota Row.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
I don't even know what.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
You're talking about.
Speaker 4 (13:42):
Okay, So this, you know, like kind of behind the
Krispy Kreman Winter Park on Minnesota Minnesota Avenue. So they're
gonna be there. There's an office park back there. I
believe it's the Winter Park Business Center or something like that,
and it's going to be transformed into a mixed use
kind of development with retail and restaurants, and the subject
of this week's review, Corner Chop House, the same restaurant
(14:04):
group will be opening up their sushi concept there.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
Called Oh Coup or it's Oh dash Ku.
Speaker 4 (14:10):
I'm not sure if that's O coop or not, but
they're and they're going to be opening up in spring
twenty twenty six. It's it's I think one hundred and
twenty thousand square feet. That's the first restaurant that's really
been announced. But that'll be like an interesting space. It'll
that's kind of part of Winter Park.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
That's kind of wild Man because I mean that's kind
of off the beaten path. You have to take a
rite off of seventeen ninety two and drive like maybe
two or three blocks back there before you get there,
and there's a lot of auto shops.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
And stuff like back in that area.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
Yes, and this is like a pretty sizable office park.
It's it's it's.
Speaker 4 (14:42):
Got a white facade, Yeah exactly. I mean it's not
that far back in. I would say, like I don't know,
maybe half a mile in behind the Krispy Kream.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (14:50):
So yeah, definitely a different side of Winter Park than
people are used to. But but yeah, that'll be interesting
to see. I think there's gonna have some park spaces
where they're going to try to bring some foot traffic.
So you know, there's neighborhoods back there as well.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
So yeah, for sure. Yeah, because that's the borderline of
College in the Winter Park. I mean that's like exactly
where that line.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Is is right there.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
Well, good job, buddy, that's awesome information. Again, if you
want to hear any of this again, you can go
to the podcast from cover live dot com, or you
can log onto Orlando Weekly dot com and read the
tip jar, which is this information plus so much more
other information as well.
Speaker 4 (15:22):
And where can they find you on social You find
me on Instagram at It's spays Kara. I T s
f A I y A z K A r A
send me a d M if you have any questions.
I like I said, I respond to everything and all
my tip jar, all the reviews, all my photos.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
Are up there, so check it out.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Thanks, but I always go seeing you. Good love for
fias guys. Yay, Happy Thanksgiving all right for.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
Us Thanksgiving Thanksgiving with you for A seven nine six
four one text us seven seven zero three one back
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Joe, featuring our good friend mister paiez Kara, the food
critic restaurant critic for Thelan and The Weekly. We'll get
to Faias in just one second. First things first, if
you love cooking outside like I do, you gotta visit
one of our friends over a tools Ace Hardware. Fourteen
of these beautiful locations all throughout Central Florida, and they
have everything in the big Green egg Trigger, Napoleon, Weber,
(00:20):
Gosney Pizza Ovens, Oony Pizza ovens, and everything in between.
Your rubs, your marinage, your injectors, your cooking woods, smoking woods.
It's all right there. Live in it up outside with
a visit to our friends over a tools Ace Hardware.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
That's Toolsachyardware dot Com.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Good luck for guys for a man, mister piaz Kara.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Helloha, brother, how you doing pretty good? You not too bad?
How's your week been?
Speaker 3 (00:51):
It's been It's been busy.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Hasn't it has? And what's made it so busy? Food?
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Just eating, just eating? How do you?
Speaker 2 (00:59):
How do you stay?
Speaker 1 (01:00):
I mean, you're not a fat guy by any means.
I know that we only see your head and shoulders
while we're doing the segment. But I know you to
be a relatively fit cat. How do you eat so
much and then not gain weight?
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Yes? Thank you.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
How I know you've asked me this before, and I've
joked around by saying it's it's it's all the cocaine,
I snort. But that's not true. That's not true. I
am actually going to play tennis right after this. But
you know, someone asked me this a week ago, and
I swear to god, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
I really don't know. I feel like one day I'm going.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
To hit a wall and that'll be it, and they'll
find me in a ditch somewhere like outside a restaurant probably,
and that'll be that.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
I got that.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
You're not a dainty and you're not a dainty eater.
By the way.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Yeah, that wall, when your metabolism kicks down is going
to hit in your low thirties.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
So when you get there, Faiz, oh buddy, one day,
it's going.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Next year, yeah for sure?
Speaker 1 (01:50):
All right, Like we said, Faiez is the restaurant critic
for the Orlando Weekly Orlando Weekly dot com. You can
read his tip jar column there every single week. You
can follow him on social We'll tell you how to
do that in a little bits every single week to
tell us what's hot in Orlando when it comes to
eating the best food and drinking the best drinks.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Let's start with the review. Is it moa Kai Hawaiian diner?
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Moakai?
Speaker 4 (02:09):
Exactly Moakai, and that is it's a Hawaiian diner, as
who say. And it's where the Mangalorian used to be,
kind of like right there on the corner of Colonial
and Bumby. Yeah, so you remember that it was a
Star Wars theme kind of thing. And it's got like
the it's got total diner vibes there, you know, the
red leather stools.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
You know.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
But unlike the Mongalorian, this is now a full service restaurant,
and so they also have a cocktail program there. And
I just love how all the food I had there
was just so unfussy, so void of frills.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
You know.
Speaker 4 (02:43):
It's just so very diner to the core, you know
what I'm saying. But of course it's being a Hawaiian diner.
Things like, you know, spam are featured, and if you
guys are into spam, the fried spam Lisubi is is
something I would recommend. And there's a picture of it
right there people watching on Jim Culbert.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
That's great.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
Yeah, it's coated in in like panco. Then it's got
the spicy spicy sauce drizzled over it. Uh there's uh,
there's you know, there's a lot of obviously a lot
of like Asian influence in in Hawaiian cuisine, and some
of the things I really liked, I quite enjoyed was
was a dish called the manapua and manapooa is sort
(03:22):
of like a large soft adobe boo and it's stuffed
with charsu pork. The by the way, the name moa
Kai is in reference to those feral chickens done roam
the Hawaiian islands, and so chicken, of course, is also
very much prominently featured on the menu, in the garlic noodles,
for example, in the in the tariaki skewers, it's in uh,
(03:45):
it's a it's a it's in a bunch of things.
You can get chicken a lot oh Korean fried chicken
for example. But but two of my favorite dishes there,
one called the local mocho, and it's sort of Hawaiian's answer,
Hawaii's answer to Salisbury steak. Okay, this patty beef. It's
got the brown gravy. It's got like, you know, the
the sautate onions and mushrooms and and it and it
(04:06):
comes with a fried egg. And I know you guys
were poo pooing, uh is poo poo Hawaiian We're you guys?
Are you guys were poo pooing the fried egg over
food last last week?
Speaker 3 (04:20):
But not me? It really it really works. Oh yeah,
I like it too. I did too.
Speaker 4 (04:25):
And the other dish I really liked was the the
Korean short ribs. They're there, it's marinated and show you
on pineapple, and it's served with it's served with like uh,
white rice with sesame flex on it and and mac
and cheese. It's sort of it's part of a plate lunch,
what they call the plate lunch in Hawaii. And it's
sort of again Hawaii's answer to like the meeting three
or in this case, the meat and two and then
(04:48):
and then finally there's also Portuguese influence in Hawaiian cuisine.
And and if you and if you end your meal
with the malisadas and these are these are deep fried
doughnuts filled with like your choice of like a coconut, custard,
passion fruit. Yeah, you will. You will not be disappointed.
And then again they have they have cocktails there as well,
(05:11):
so check them out. I really enjoyed the whole vibe there.
It's and if you're watching on Jim Colbert, if you
can see some photos of of of the place, it's
very good.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Fighting Now, I mean obviously being Hawaiian, they obviously have poke.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
They do have Pokey. So the owner, his name is
Hoying Win, he owns Poke Hunt. I just found ok,
yeah that's what I thought. It was the same spot. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
so they do have poke on the menu. But if
you want a more sort of like fleshed out poke program, yeah,
let's go to pokehont for sure. Yeah, for sure. Another
review went Dueling Reviews today deb Corner Chop House. We've
actually talked about this place a couple of times. This
(05:46):
is the new steak restaurant going into Wonder Park down
in the old Dexter's Am I right there?
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Or no?
Speaker 4 (05:51):
Correct? Correct, it's been there. It's been there now for
for a few months. And it's my Indigo Indigo Road
Hospitality Group out of Charleston, it's It's it up by
four times James Beard, a Ward nominee, Steve Palmer. And
you know, when when this place first opened, people slid
into my dms on Instagram at it's spayas Kara and
by the way, I will respond to all my dms,
(06:12):
and they were saying things like, oh, this was like
the status rib I've ever seen. Oh yeah, and the
and the stakes are overcooked and the sides are met
and the uh, you know, I miss dexters, things like that.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
And so when I.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
Went for the first time, and these are from people
who are sending me some of these messages or people's
whose opinions I really you know, I you know, I
take seriously. So when when when I went there for
the first time, I was truly expecting a you know,
a subpar, overpriced meal. But so but you know what
happened was that I, you know, I just I just
(06:45):
got the overpriced meal.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
Things weren't really subpar.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
I just got the overpriced part. Yeah, I'd rather maybe
the subpar part. You're thrown a little of that, So
I'm not paying all this money for that. And you
know the FI is when you have the balls to
open up a steakhouse and upper level steakhouse in central Florida,
and then you have the double balls to do that
in winter Park. When you know, when there's a Ruth Chris,
there's other you know name steak properties around you, I think,
(07:12):
you know, I don't know. I would think you'd have
to step up and do a pretty good job at
doing that. I mean, there's a Flemmings, there's a Ruth Chris,
there's Christeners, all within probably three or four miles of
each other.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (07:22):
Less than that, there's Bow fine, but you know, so
they have to be a differentiator, right, and so what
they've done here with the decor, it's this got this
whole prohibition style vibe to it, which is which is
all fine and well. Now I wanted to get the
bone in dry aged ribbi, but they were out of
three steaks. It was like, I don't know, seven thirty
and they're already out of three different steaks.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
How does that happen so at a steakhouse?
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Yeah, that's so crazy.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
Yeah, yeah, so out of the seven steaks that were
out of three, so I ended up settling for the
eighty four dollars sixteen ounce prime ribbi.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
What.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Yes, they mentioned me of a price part, right, I know, if.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
I gotta tell you, I've not seen dev recoil like
that before.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Damn her, I've.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
Not seen a visceral reaction like that before ever. I've
known her twenty years. Damn there, I've never seen a
reality what thanks for reminding me why I don't go
out to eat exactly.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Eighty four dollars were once so well.
Speaker 4 (08:19):
When I went back, I got the one hundred and
fifty dollars twenty ounce dry age bone and red bye.
They didn't have the first time I went. But you know,
all things considering all these steaks were done super great.
They were like perfectly done. There weren't the things that
you know, they didn't look anything like the photos people
were sending me. You know, the sides were awesome, the
(08:40):
asparagus which a picture of it there with this like
mustardy sauce, group beach, everything, everything was fantastic. That the
pork chop, which was forty six dollars, was massive. It
was absolutely massive. It was wonderfully marbled. However, when we
went to eat the leftovers the following day, when we
cut through it, we noticed it was a sizable section.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
Of it that was raw.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
Oh so, so that was really one of the only
other negative things.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Apart from them being out of steaks.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
The slightly raw port and it wasn't slightly it was
a chop of it that was luckily we ate the
cooked part.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Everything was.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Everything was good, except for the steaks being out of
the steak restaurant.
Speaker 4 (09:16):
And the forty six dollars pork chop that was raw
in the middle.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Hey look, man, if you get like you get those
chess sh is it chess re port, you get those
pork chops on like an inch and a half to
inches thick. There you go, and you get those things cook.
You're buying two meals. So you know, here's the thing
I don't know. You know, usually a couple you know,
one and a half two inches thick. They're gigantic. It
is a big old piece of meat. And uh they're
so good too, by the way.
Speaker 4 (09:39):
And it's a good value. So if you want to
share that forty six bucks, that's not bad. It's a
picture right now in Jim Corport Live of the smoke
steak tartar which with black garlic, which was also very good.
The desserts of chocolate cake, the brown butter spiced apple
cake fantastic. So, I mean, this is a place where
I think people will go first again a special occasion
if you don't want to drive down to the I know,
(10:00):
the tourist area for a steakhouse or something, or you've
had you want to try something different than Roots Chris
or Flemings or Bovine or Christener's. This, this, I think
is a good place. And like I said in my review,
I did say that, you know, they seem to have
got their act together, you know, in the last in
the last few months. But that said, the corner chop
House is still a bit rough around the edges.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Okay, I could do it. I could feel it. I
can feel it coming because he slows down. Yeah, yeah,
he slows it. He doesn't want them as his own
joke up, so he slows down, you can and he
leans in.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
A little bit. Ye, you can feel it coming. Wait
for it, all right, let's talk wait for it.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Let's talk about Cuban hot Dogs reopening.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
Uh reopening. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
So they were a popular southern California hot dog place
there on Lee Road, and they opened, I believe in
early twenty twenty two, and then they closed in late
twenty twenty four. But they're making a comeback and they're
coming back to Longwood, So they'll be kind of like
near the corner of four thirty four and Ronald Reagan.
It's in the I believe the restaurants restaurants thing was
called Parada Restaurant where they're going in and they're opening
(11:03):
on Monday.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
So they'll be opening Monday.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
Those hot dogs and know they'll be striking arrows of protein.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
Through parts of dog lovers everywhere.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
I mean, anything special over there, buddy, I mean, you know,
is it just a hot dog? And don't mean to,
I don't mean to, you know, belittle it, but is
there a special reason we should visit Cubids?
Speaker 3 (11:24):
You know I did.
Speaker 4 (11:24):
I did the review of Cupids a while ago, and
I you know, I seem to like they're they're all beef,
they're all beef hot dogs.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
They're you know, like sometimes you just want a hot dog, you.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Know, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
And this place satisfies it.
Speaker 4 (11:37):
I think they're actually better than like we've talked about
hot Dog Heaven.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
It's an institution all that.
Speaker 4 (11:41):
But when I went last time to hot Dog Heaven,
I thought the hot dogs were a bit small, really weren't. Yeah,
I wasn't that thrilled thrilled with them, But Cupids did
satisfy that hot dog craving edgy. You just want like
a simple like hot dog with the toppings, and they
do it.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
Now.
Speaker 4 (11:58):
The southern California spot had the roller skating. Yeah, this
this place, this place doesn't all right.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Well, I know that we learned earlier that Tactical Brewing
was making some moves.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
This was actually new to me.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
I just heard it earlier this week because buddy of
mine lives down there and he said that they were
just staying in that area but moving to a larger space.
Speaker 4 (12:17):
Yeah, so if your people are familiar with Baldwin Park,
so they're moving right across the street from Ausprey in
that Orlando metro Gymnastics space, which is pretty massive. It's
a pretty capacious space. And the difference is that beyond
just having you know, brewing operations, they're going to have
a food hall in there. They'll have five food vendors,
(12:38):
and they're also going to provide a space for live music.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
It'll be sort of like a concert venue as well.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
So and I think they're targeting Spring twenty twenty six
for that, I mean, metro Gymnastics are still in there,
so they have to move out first, and you know,
then the work will need to start. But I think
that's kind of ambitious. I think it's going to be
later in twenty twenty six on that open yeah, because
I mean it took him forever to open the and
they're in now, which is also also pretty darn big.
(13:03):
I mean, it's kind of wild that they've outgrown that spot,
that is. I mean, I thought it was pretty spacious
for a brewery, but that one does get a lot
of action when they set up and they started kind
of getting when we live down there, you can walk
down on a Tuesday and there would be it would
be a hard hard time to find a seat there
on a Tuesday night.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Yeah, so it would be nothing to it.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
And then listen like how they experiment with their beers.
Yeah yeah, and they man, they had a white stout
there for years. It was one of the best things
I ever consumed in my life. But I haven't been
down there now. It was I'm telling you, it was
so good. My wife and I would walk down there
just to get this beer. It was that good. But
I haven't had it in years though.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
But let's move on to Minnesota Row.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
I don't even know what.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
You're talking about.
Speaker 4 (13:42):
Okay, So this, you know, like kind of behind the
Krispy Kreman Winter Park on Minnesota Minnesota Avenue. So they're
gonna be there. There's an office park back there. I
believe it's the Winter Park Business Center or something like that,
and it's going to be transformed into a mixed use
kind of development with retail and restaurants, and the subject
of this week's review, Corner Chop House, the same restaurant
(14:04):
group will be opening up their sushi concept there.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
Called Oh Coup or it's Oh dash Ku.
Speaker 4 (14:10):
I'm not sure if that's O coop or not, but
they're and they're going to be opening up in spring
twenty twenty six. It's it's I think one hundred and
twenty thousand square feet. That's the first restaurant that's really
been announced. But that'll be like an interesting space. It'll
that's kind of part of Winter Park.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
That's kind of wild Man because I mean that's kind
of off the beaten path. You have to take a
rite off of seventeen ninety two and drive like maybe
two or three blocks back there before you get there,
and there's a lot of auto shops.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
And stuff like back in that area.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
Yes, and this is like a pretty sizable office park.
It's it's it's.
Speaker 4 (14:42):
Got a white facade, Yeah exactly. I mean it's not
that far back in. I would say, like I don't know,
maybe half a mile in behind the Krispy Kream.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (14:50):
So yeah, definitely a different side of Winter Park than
people are used to. But but yeah, that'll be interesting
to see. I think there's gonna have some park spaces
where they're going to try to bring some foot traffic.
So you know, there's neighborhoods back there as well.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
So yeah, for sure. Yeah, because that's the borderline of
College in the Winter Park. I mean that's like exactly
where that line.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Is is right there.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
Well, good job, buddy, that's awesome information. Again, if you
want to hear any of this again, you can go
to the podcast from cover live dot com, or you
can log onto Orlando Weekly dot com and read the
tip jar, which is this information plus so much more
other information as well.
Speaker 4 (15:22):
And where can they find you on social You find
me on Instagram at It's spays Kara. I T s
f A I y A z K A r A
send me a d M if you have any questions.
I like I said, I respond to everything and all
my tip jar, all the reviews, all my photos.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
Are up there, so check it out.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Thanks, but I always go seeing you. Good love for
fias guys. Yay, Happy Thanksgiving all right for.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
Us Thanksgiving Thanksgiving with you for A seven nine six
four one text us seven seven zero three one back
in the sec with more than Jim Globerg Joe, thanks
for joining us for primetime Kitchen brought to you by
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