Like I said, at this point Elise was all beered out and needed a little change of pace. It was gorgeous out so sitting outside was a must. After scouring the internet we settled on a a highly recommended restaurant that was known for their outdoor dinning…except they no longer had the outdoor space. God dammit.
Our second choice was Ceviche and it couldn’t have been a better find. Located on this strip in downtown Orlando, it that reminded me so much of Pearl St. Tons of workers sitting down for lunch, but a lot of bars and “ultra lounges” where douchebags would congregate closed until late night. It was in the low to mid 80s which meant we were the only ones brave enough to sit outside in the “cold”. (We’re talking about Floridians here.)
The waitress brought us out some seriously strong, but good, sangria. We sipped on that and enjoyed some bread and pesto while sitting in the sun waiting for our dishes to arrive. The lunchtime tapas menu was pretty reasonable so we each got two dishes.
The Chorizo Y Pimentos had five different types of sausage in a tomato sauce with roasted tomatoes, onions, and peppers. It was basically fancied up sausage and peppers but was still pretty delicious. The dish that really knocked it out of the park for me was Patatas Bravas. These were baked, then deep fried potatoes tossed in a spicy aioli. Holy crap this was good. The place is called Ceviche so it would have been foolish of us to not get fish tapas. Elise got the Tabla De Quesos (obviously) along with the Ceviche De Mero, which was grouper marinated with lemon and lime juice, cilantro, jalapeno, and sweet onions.
I can’t reiterate how good of an experience this was. I absolutely recommend it to anyone looking for a non-touristy meal while in Orlando and will definitely be back again.
matthew 'fuj' scher 