20 Best Restaurants in Orlando, Florida

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.

Tabla's reputation for great Indian food has lasted since 2008. Start with a selection from the enormous range of house-made breads before choosing from the menu of biryanis, curries, tandoor-fired meats, or vegetarian dishes like bhindi masala and sautéed paneer.

A large and interesting selection of American dishes is served at breakfast and lunch, as well as, perhaps, an early dinner (as in before 6 pm). Offerings range from burgers and hand-tossed pizza to gator bites and frog legs.

This bright, modern restaurant serves fairly standard sushi rolls and an interesting range of hot dishes. Menu standouts include the bulgogi or shrimp bibimbap rice bowl.

Armando Martorelli has opened many local restaurants in his career since coming from Italy to Florida, but his namesake eatery is the epitome of his craft. It has a relaxed neighborhood vibe and serves what is perhaps the area's best Neapolitan-style pizza. Other menu highlights include daily fresh-seafood specials, veal saltimbocca, and a signature pollo di Tatiana with vodka cream sauce.

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.

Exceptional Turkish cuisine served in a relaxing, indoor-outdoor setting is a welcome surprise among the big-budget chains on Sand Lake Road. Servers at this independently owned neighborhood favorite bring to the table piping-hot, oversize lavas (hollow bread) to dip in appetizers such as a hummus, ezme (a zesty, garlicky, chilled chopped salad), and baba ghanoush. Many twosomes make a meal of the bountiful mixed-appetizer platter with a lavas or two. Following are oversize platters of char-grilled whole or filleted sea bass, kebabs, and lamb dishes, each prepared expertly. Light eaters enjoy the boat-shape spinach-and-cheese Turkish pastry. Other locations are in Winter Park, Lake Nona, and Winter Garden.

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.

This family-owned Lebanese eatery, set in a major upscale strip shopping center that's become part of Restaurant Row, serves Middle Eastern standards like shish kebab, baba ghanoush (an ultrasmoky variety that is the very best in town), and hummus as well as tasty daily specials. One of the most notable regular entrées is the samak harra (sautéed red snapper fillet topped with onions, tomatoes, and cilantro). More formal than the average Orlando-area Middle Eastern restaurant, and featuring a cocktail menu, Cedar's has tables with white-linen tablecloths and diners who tend to wear resort-casual attire. Musicians or belly dancers perform on some Friday and Saturday nights; hookah pipes are popular on the back patio.

Operated by a family with Boston roots, this New England–cuisine eatery has a double personality: the interior is a brass, glass, and dark-wood-paneling kind of place, while the outside patio has table seating plus the Paddy O' Bar. The food ranges from landlubber treats like baby back ribs, prime rib, and half-pound burgers (from $8) to exquisite seafood including Ipswich clams, lobster rolls, scrod, and 2-pound lobsters (all flown in from Boston), plus, on occasion, a salute to the Sunshine State with Florida stone crabs in season. Although the place has a polished demeanor, there are plenty of menu choices right out of a working-class Boston bar—meatball hoagies, Philly cheesesteak sandwiches, and Buffalo-style chicken wings. For dessert there's great—what else?—Boston cream pie.

You can enjoy outdoor patio dining at this popular seafood shack in Lake Wales, which was visited in 2016 by Emeril Lagasse for his show Emeril's Florida. Fresh shrimp, blue crab, and catfish sourced from Florida fishers are all on the menu in season.

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.

Noisy and visually loud (commissioned graffiti makes up the decor), casual and astoundingly popular Graffiti Junktion holds the burger/wrap/sandwich crowd in thrall. Burgers run large and juicy, with hand-formed patties bursting from the bun in varieties like the Iron City (Angus beef, Canadian bacon, cheese, and a fried egg), and all three of the Orlando locations are open until 2 am.

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.

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.

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.