CitySurfing Orlando

We were so excited to see a new cajun restaurant opening in town. We have missed having a really good one here in Orlando. Others have tried, but haven’t succeded in filling the niche that Jockamos had when it closed. So we had high hopes for the newly opened Little New Orleans Kitchen & Oyster Bar on South O.B.T.

When we first arrived, our party of 5 were asked to sit at the counter. However, since we had two young children among us, we asked for a table instead. The larger tables are in the back of the restaurant, so that is where our group had to go.

It smelled so good when we opened the door, that we were excited. I had stopped by earlier in the week to inquire if they had LIVE crawfish as it is season right now. I was told they could order some for us. I asked to have 4 lbs for us when we came back on Saturday. I was told that would be fine, and they’d see us on Saturday.

When we arrived though, they did not have the LIVE crawfish that I ordered. They did have the frozen kind, however that is just not the same. But, they did give us a couple lbs of frozen on the house to make up for not having the live. We also ordered etouffee, boiled shrimp & crab, and beignets. The food was good, and it could be spicy or not, dependent on your taste.

The etouffee was good but spicy. Almost too hot for me, but I still ate it even though I don’t like things very spicy. The crab tasted fresh and was not overcooked. My husband, Kirk, said that the frozen crawfish were good. Not as good as fresh, but still good.

Our friend, Susan, who was with us, ordered boiled shrimp and she said, “Omg, this place is fantastic cajun. This restaurant had some of the best cajun boiled shrimp I’ve ever had. It’s definitely worth coming to!”

The service was okay, but it could have been better. The kitchen had no sense of timing. The boiled crawfish and shrimp came out first, then the etouffee, with the crab and shrimp coming last.

The menu does not list kids meals, but they did have chicken tenders. Our kids love seafood, however I wanted the tenders instead. They came out of the kitchen last and did not come with fries. Our server came to check on us only once and only asked to refill our drinks very near the end of our meal.

I should note that the restaurant has been open for less than 1 month, so I’m sure time will iron out some of the major issues. We will be back to give them another try, and I’ll try to order the live crawfish again. I’ll also have to try a Po-boy. The family next to us did and it looked really good.

Little New Orleans is located at 9741 S Orange Blossom Trail in Orlando. You can phone them at 407-438-6990. Hours are 11am to 9pm Monday through Thursday and 11am to 10pm on Friday and Saturday.

It was a nice late fall day out, so my family and I went to CoCo Key Water Resort today, to check out their water park.

A while back, we had spotted them on Groupon. The offer was for day passes to their outdoor water park, so I bought 2 for us at “buy 1 get 1 free” for a day pass. We have been driving by it every Sunday on our way to church since it opened and the kids have been dying to go.

It’s nice that a hotel has realized that locals can provide revenue, too. It’s a small park, but that is not necessarily a bad thing with small kids. They have a good variety of slides for all ages. Our 6 yr old could ride all but 2 slides, and our 40″ 3 yr old could ride all but 3 slides. There are lots of slides and play things for very small kids too. And at 85 degrees, the pools were nice to just be in.

The fall/winter single day ticket price is $14.95 per ticket which makes it more affordable than other water parks. Florida resident discounts bring that price down to $9.95 per pass. But with the winter hours, I would recommend getting there as it opens.

We will go back, there is no doubt about that. But I may wait for another Groupon or other special with the winter hours (Thurs-Sat 11am-7pm; Sun 11am-5pm; closed Mon-Wed). And I did not get any pictures as I was too busy playing, too.

Day passes to CoCo Key Water Resort are available based on water park capacity with certain restrictions and blackout dates. Admission to the water park is only guaranteed to guests of the resort.

[Image courtesy of CoCo Key Water Resort]

We have had a hard time finding decent Mexican food here in South Orlando, so we were pleased to see that Habaneros Mexican Grill had moved in where the old Village Inn used to be.

We ordered kids meals for my 3 and 6 year old, and they loved the chicken fingers and quesadilla. My daughter also got an enchilada, but it was not much more than ground beef wrapped in a tortilla, covered with chili sauce… needed some more flavoring and perhaps some sauce inside the meat mixture.

My husband, Kirk, got the chicken soup, which was VERY tasty and just what he had hoped it would be – in addition to a side tamale, which was good, but nothing extraordinary.

I got the fried chimichangas, one each beef and chicken, and they both were very flavorful. I especially liked the chicken seasoning.

I ordered a sangria, which was decent, and Kirk’s margarita was also acceptable, without being too fancy. The kids appreciated that they had horchata, one of their favorite drinks.

Overall, we were very pleased with the meal, and the service was good as well. We will be back! We would give it 4 out of 5 stars.

This review is for the Hunters Creek location. They have several other locations in Orlando, all listed on their website.

We were on the west side of Orlando when we decided to try out the Pho K5 Vietnamese Restaurant on West Colonial.

The four of us decided to start with the crispy egg rolls and they were great! We all loved them.

I had a large bowl of pho (#28, I think) and my husband had the same but an XL bowl. My daughter, Abby, ordered pho without the meat and ate about half of a small bowl, which is pretty good for her. We ordered a chicken and broccoli with steamed rice for our youngest, Matty. It was good! The portion size was big, even for an adult, but the 3 yr old ate all the chicken and a little bit of the veggies.

Service was fast and the food was quite good. The prices seemed reasonable, especially since we had leftovers to take home.

I do see us returning to this restaurant. We love finding small places as the food is seems to be better than the fancy big places.

Pho K5 is located at 5286 W Colonial Dr in Orlando. Phone is 407-532-7373. They don’t appear to have a website, but there is a Facebook business page.