Top Tastes: Of all the things we ate in Orlando this year, these are our favorites

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photo by Rob Bartlett

One of our favorite things to eat in 2023: The veggie combination at Selam Ethiopian and Eritrean Cuisine

In an increasingly divided world, food can still bring people together. But it's been another rough year for local restaurants, so please support the places you love, old and new alike, to help keep them going. Here are 10 places to start.

Zeytin Turkish Cuisine: Moussaka
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This College Park Turkish restaurant (reservations only!) feels like dining at a friend's house, especially since the entire operation is just lovely married couple Chef Z in the kitchen and the super-friendly Michele greeting and serving. Their moussaka, a baked casserole of sliced eggplant, ground lamb, tomatoes, bell peppers, onions and garlic, is topped with a bechamel sauce and molten, melty mozzarella cheese and served with buttery rice pilaf. It has been a regular comfort food I've returned to throughout 2023.

SoDough Square Pizza: Detroit Rob City pizza
sodoughsquare.com

Named after owner-operator Rob Bair (and a song by a really terrible band), the Detroit Rob City is probably the standout pizza on SoDough Square's menu of rectangular Detroit-style pizzas, cooked in steel pans so the edges crisp up. While some pizzerias serve overpriced pies that are half plain crust, the toppings on SoDough Square's pizzas go all the way to the edge. And such toppings! The Detroit Rob City rocks red sauce, SoDough's brick cheese blend, dollops of whipped ricotta cheese, pinched sausage (I admit it, I laughed), Ezzo cup pepperoni, Mike's hot honey and fresh basil. These unique toppings harmonize together so well, with the creaminess of the ricotta and the sweetness of the honey balancing out the salt, fat and acid of the other ingredients. It's a perfect pie.

Briskets BBQ Shack & Grill: Beef rib
brisketsbbq.com

This literal shack in Oviedo is tucked away off main roads, but it is totally worth the adventure to find it. They are serving some of the best barbecue in Orlando from this unassuming location: excellent brisket, sausages with snappy natural casings, meat-stuffed hand pies with flaky crusts, and outstanding sides, including the best (and most beautiful) baked beans I've ever had. But the highlight is the beef rib — a huge slab of tender, marbled, smoky, richly seasoned meat barely clinging to a huge bone. It comes with smoked jalapeño peppers and pickle slices, and one rib is more than enough for a meal.

Christo's: Greek nachos
christossanford.com

This gets my vote for the best appetizer in the Orlando area, although one could easily make a hearty meal of it. This downtown Sanford diner serves a Herculean portion of crispy, fresh-fried pita wedges (definitely not those rock-hard, bone-dry, bagged pita chips), smothered and covered with a veritable Mount Olympus of sliced gyro meat, crumbled feta cheese, shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes, thin-sliced red onions, kalamata olives and chopped pepperoncini, topped with a layer of creamy, tangy tzatziki sauce. Folks, this app was legendary, or at least mythical. And if it makes you feel less guilty, you can think of it as a salad!

Selam Ethiopian & Eritrean Cuisine: Veggie combination
ethiopianrestaurantorlando.com

On an admittedly meat-centric list, I wanted to include some choices that vegetarians and vegans can enjoy, but they were all probably way ahead of me in discovering this one. Selam's veggie combination platter includes six vegan dishes: ye-miser wot (red lentils), ye-kik alitcha (split peas), atalkelt wot (cabbage, carrots and potato), gomen (collard greens), and ye timatim fitfit (pieces of soft, spongy, slightly sour injera bread sauteed with tomatoes, chilis, onions, garlic and herbs), all served on an edible injera platter. I've only ever had Ethiopian food once before, over a decade ago, and I don't know what took me so long to try it again, because it was so exciting trying those new spices and flavors. Everything was delicious, but the cabbage and collard greens were particularly tasty.

Pho Huong Lan: Phở with oxtail
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I haven't tried the phở at every Vietnamese restaurant in Orlando, but I've tried it at most of them, and I can say that Pho Huong Lan's version is streets ahead of the rest. The noodles are freshly made and thicker than the typical rice vermicelli. The broth is fragrant, and Pho Huong Lan is the only Vietnamese restaurant I've found that presents the rare flank steak almost like tender chopped steak, rather than paper-thin slices of beef. Best of all, you can add higher-quality meats like tender oxtails and short rib to your pho for an upcharge. I highly recommend both.

Sanaa: Bread service
Disney World, Animal Kingdom Lodge

I rarely dine at Disney, but at least you don't need to pay park admission to visit Sanaa, the Indian-influenced African restaurant at Animal Kingdom Lodge. For my first visit ever, I went with five friends, and we shared the Indian bread service, a dream for vegetarians and carb-lovers. It comes with five different pillowy-soft breads (traditional naan, garlic-ginger naan, spiced naan, onion kulcha and paneer paratha) and a whopping nine different accompaniments (cool and creamy cucumber raita, roasted red pepper hummus, chunky mango chutney, tomato-date jam, tamarind chutney, coriander chutney, garlic pickle, red chili sambal and spicy jalapeño-lime pickle). Each one was better than the next. As a big fan of dips, I can't wait to return and savor this smorgasbord solo, without having to share.

Zorba's Greek Restaurant: Braised lamb shank
zorbasgreekfood.com

There are two unrelated Zorba's in town now, but this is the long-standing eatery in quaint, picturesque downtown Sanford. The braised lamb shank in a rich, thick, savory tomato sauce is another one of my ultimate 2023 comfort foods. The meat falls off the bone and is tender enough to cut with a fork.

Cow & Cheese: Doc burger
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My new favorite burger in Orlando is probably from Chicken Fire maestro Kwame Boakye's brand-new burger joint in Maitland. The four burgers on the simple Cow & Cheese menu are all smash-style made with Angus beef, but the Doc has thinly sliced onions smashed into the meat on the flattop grill, Oklahoma-style. The patties get crispy, lacy edges and the onions caramelize as the Maillard reaction occurs, and it's topped with melty American cheese and creamy CC sauce, then served on a fresh-baked, lightly toasted brioche bun. It's a hot mess in the best possible way, one that every self-respecting burger lover needs to try as soon as possible.

Sister Honey's Bakery: Strawberry cheese pie
sisterhoneys.com

While award-winning baker Evette Rahman makes the best Key lime pie ever (I've never had its equal), I chose her strawberry cheese pie as one of my Top Tastes only because it is more unique. The thick graham-cracker crust, gooey cream-cheese base and fresh strawberries made it the Professional Best in Show winner at the 2014 National Pie Championships. It's a perfect summer treat to enjoy year-round, cool and creamy, tart and refreshing, and ideally eaten straight out of the fridge so it can be firmer.

Orlando food enthusiast Louis Rosen blogs about restaurants and cooking at saboscrivner.com. He's passionate about subs, noodles, oxtails, mustards, sardines and anything smoked, cured or pickled.