Ted's Montana Grill

Ted's Montana Grill
105 W Main St
Bozeman, MT 59715
(406) 587-6000



I had the pecan encrusted trout, with onion rings and cole slaw. The trout was a large portion but was very greasy I thought, while the onion rings were fried perfectly not a drop of greasy. The cole slaw was passable.

For our appetizer we had the tomato soup. It was excellent!


The setting was very nice it was in the tallest building in town. The old Baxter Hotel sign on the roof had been painted out. The restaurant was on the ground floor and very attractive. The lobby of the old hotel was grand indeed.



While I did not like my fish I enjoyed the service and the setting. Next time I'm in town I try the cedar plank cooked salmon

2009 Foodie Awards

2009 Foodie Awards

Il Paradiso Cafe - dj

520 West State Road 436
Suite 1112
Altamonte Springs, Fl 32714
Phone - 407.262.9000
Fax - 407.331.9001

“Where Naples Meets New York in Florida”

http://www.paradisocafe.com/index.html

I discovered Il Paradiso Café while driving east on 436 in Altamonte Springs one day last week. I was at the stop light at Montgomery and 436 and looked over in the Ashby Square Mall shopping area and noticed what seemed like a new Italian Restaurant in the location where an Italian deli use to be. I said to my self that I would have to stop in. The following week we made a visit.

When we arrived at the restaurant we looked over the menu posted at the door. It seemed like an inviting place. When we walked in we were warmly greeted by the hostess. She showed us to our seats. The waitress soon arrived. Then we were greeted by Sal the chief, he told us all about his special for the night. Sal was born Salvatore Cristiano in Naples, Italy. He seemed very proud of his restaurant as well he should we would soon find out.

I opted for the Manicotti which arrived with bread and a salad with the house dressing. My wife did not see exactly what she wanted on the menu so we called Sal over and he was glad to make any thing she wanted. She had vegetarian pasta that included sun dried tomatoes, mushrooms, broccoli in an olive oil sauce on penne pasta.

We heard singing in the kitchen as our dishes were being prepared. It reminded us of a trip to Venice where we also heard singing in the kitchen.

The salad arrived and the balsamic vinaigrette (Paradisco vinaigrette) dressing was to die for. As we were finishing up our salad I noticed Sal peering over at us from the kitchen to see if we were ready for our main course.



Our Pasta dishes arrive shortly. Mine was very good. I always have manicotti my first trip to a new Italian restaurant because I have found if they can make the cheese filling firm but moist they can make any other Italian dish. This was perfect. My wife’s pasta dish was also very good with just enough garlic and sweet sun dried tomatoes.




I have not yet decided what I’ll have on my next visit but I took the take out menu so I could study it in depth.

After our meal Sal came over to make sure everything was to our satisfaction. It was! This is definitely my new favorite Italian restaurant.

Rating ****
Service: ****
Value: ****

Paxia Alta Cocina Mexicana - dj

2611 Edgewater Drive
College Park, FL 32804
407.420.1155
http://paxiarestaurant.com/
“Modern world meets traditional Mexican cuisine”

Paxia is a new Mexican restaurant in College Park it opened around June 1, 2008. They took over the old Moe’s location on Edgewater drive. I read about it in the Orlando Weekly yesterday and stopped by for lunch today.

The restaurant looked very modern with vivid colors on the walls and cloth table cloths – covered with butcher paper. The menus were uncluttered with just a few items. Items that you would expect at a Mexican restaurant, there were 6 priced at $7.00 to $7.50.



Were greeted with a smile and chips and salsa were not far behind. The chips were nice and the salsa was also good.


From the menu I chose the Chicken Enchilada at $7. Others at the table chose Flautas $7.25, Soft Tacos $7.50, and Burritos $7.50. The wait was a little longer than I would have expected considering the number of people in the restaurant.

When our plates arrived they looked quite nice. All of the dishes we ordered came with bean and rice. The rice was rather unremarkable, nowhere near as good as say El Portros . The beans needed salt and there was none on the table. My enchiladas were good but again nothing special.


The tacos the one of our dining partners had were soggy he said he would not be returning. The flautas were not very filling was the comment I heard.

This a place that I wanted to be good. Maybe I'll stop back by in a few months to see if it has improved.

Rating: **
Service **

What others are saying:
Orlando Weekly
Chowhound.com

Taco Fresco

713 US Highway 41
Schererville, IN 46375
(219) 865-5300
http://www.tacofresco.com/


I was on my way to Chicago and came across Taco Fresco in Schererville. It is located in a strip mall along Highway 41. It looked the place had not been open long. It had a fresh clean look about the store. They advertise themselves as an authentic, healthy alternative to fast food.

I had the Chicken Taco $1.95 and the Grilled Yellow Fin Tuna Taco $2.75 both were good. The salsa bar had a very good selection of salsas both hot and mild.


I only found out later that this was a chain out of Chicago. This would be a place that I could eat at often if they had stores in Florida.

Free Wi-Fi is also available.
Rating: ***
Service: ****
Monday-Saturday:11am - 9pm
Sunday:11am - 7pm

India Garden - dj

247 E. Ontario Street
2nd Floor
Chicago, Il 60611
312.280.4910
“Culinary Nirvana”

To enter India Garden you go up some stairs that look like you are going to an insurance company not Culinary Nirvana, but when you arrive you find a very nicely decorated space over looking E. Ontario Street. There are floating rose pedals in brass bowls and Indian cloth hanging from the walls.

We visited on the weekend at lunch time the buffet was being served for $11.95. When we arrived at the table we were happily greeted with a sizzling dish of fried onions and tandoor chicken. The buffet line was filled with treats from mixed vegetables to daal to a mushroom and chicken dish. Everything was cooked to perfection.



If I lived in Chicago this would surely be a favorite place to visit.

Rating: ****
Service: impeccable

The Greek Corner Restaurant - dj

1600 N. Orange Ave
Orlando, FL 32804
407.228.0303
www.thegreekcorner.net
“_Authentic Greek Cuisine at it’s Best_”



The Greek Corner is tucked away on the corner of North Orange Ave ath the corner of Ivanhoe Blvd. It is right across Ivanhoe from Gargi’s Italian restaurant. As we walked up they had misters on the porch to keep the heat down on a warm summer day in Central Florida. We were seated immediately to a table for 6. The restaurant was nicely decorated with the expected Greek items, a map of Greece, a manikin dressed in a Greek Foustanella a skirt or kilt, and kitschy Greek sayings on the wall.

We had downloaded the menu from their web site yesterday so we knew what we wanted to order. I had the Chicken Souvlaki one of their Classic Greek Sandwiches. It was a boneless breast of chicken grilled over an open flame , served with onions, tomatoes, & tzaktziki sauce (Yogurt cucumber sauce). The classic sandwiches come with either a Greek salad or rice pilaf, I chose the salad.

Our food arrived surprisingly fast. The chicken was very good as well as the tzaktziki sauce. The salad was also very good it had a nice dressing and was topped with feta cheese.


This is a nice place for lunch.

Rating: ***
Price: ***
Hour Monday-Saturday 11:00 AM to 10:00 PM
Free WiFi avaliable