Travel Edition – Orlando
Day 6
Magical dining month (or for us, week) continues with a reservation at Café Tu Tu Tango. Olay’
If you are looking for a little escape from the quiet fine dining experiences, this unique restaurant should be on your list. Located in Orlando’s tourism corridor on International Drive there are plenty of fun things close by, like the mini golf next door, the giant swing ride, or the nearby Ferris wheel. This makes for a fun and casual total date night experience.
Themed as an artist’s loft from Barcelona Spain and known for three things, Tapas (Spanish appetizer or snack), Live entertainment like belly, salsa, merengue and flamenco dancers, Tarot card readers, and Local artists can be one or all of the things that you are likely to see here at random. Part of the magic of it is that even the staff doesn’t always know what will happen that night. As our waitress told us with a shrug “Well, they are artists, so we will see”.
Normally they have valet parking available (and still likely do on the weekends) and even though they did not this night the parking lot had plenty of room and it was easy to find a space. We walked under the neon sign at the entrance to a warm welcome. We told them we had a reservation (highly recommended) and they walked us to one of what appear to be four spaces, each with its own personality. They have an outdoor seating area, main or center area with a local artists creations, a right side with a little more action, and a left side with (on this night) a tarot card reader and a television with Bob Ross showing how to paint a landscape. We noticed there were paintings and art covering the walls and our waitress told us they were all created by local artists and available for purchase.
We took our seat and were given the dining options (Magical vs. normal) and recommendations by a very friendly waitress. We ordered drinks while we looked over the digital menu (like many restaurants during COVID they use a QR code you hover over in picture mode until the website pops up). We ordered sauvignon blanc (guess, who that was 😊) and I ordered “Angie’s Laugh” (prosecco with a strawberry jalapeño reduction) which was really good and very different. They also have craft beers, limited production wines, Mojito’s, and signature sangria.
The difference with this restaurant and others is the fact that you have 5 courses included in the Magical dining experience (10 with 2 people) so bear with me while I cover the incredible amount of distinct flavors and foods from around the world. To make it easier I will not go into details on exactly what is in each one and I will rate on a scale of 1-5 based on how much we both liked them with 5 being excellent. We started with the Cajun Chicken Eggrolls (4) and Jalapeno Mac & Cheese (5), then came the Cuban sliders (3) and fish tacos (2, very salty), then the Smoked Thai Spare Ribs (4.5, a tad too tangy for my wife but I really liked them) and Sesame Steak Skewers (5), then the Funghi Pizza (3, pretty earthy) and the Polpetta Pizza (4). They do not skimp (as you can see in the pictures) on the portions so pace yourselves if you plan to get to dessert.
The Waitress was excellent and checked on us often as we paused for breaks and made sure our drinks stayed full. Then she offered us boxes and we all joked about how much food it actually is. Our dessert arrived and looked beautiful. I ordered the Strawberry Margarita Shortcake (2, unfortunately the shortcake was slightly stale) and my wife ordered the chocolate dipped cheesecake lollipops (5) which were a very different and fun dessert.
Overall, we really enjoyed our experience and the food was good. You definitely get your money’s worth here and the incredible number of flavors adds to this unique experience. We did not see dancers on a Thursday evening which would have made it better but if you get the chance, we recommend a visit here but maybe on a Friday or Saturday night.
Date Nights Palm Beach 