📍 Address: 11 Bow St, Somerville

⭐ Stars:⭐⭐⭐⭐ (3.5)

I've always been a Sherman Cafe loyalist, going back to the days before Bloc 11 ever existed. Though I still visit Sherman more frequently, I've come to love Bloc 11 for a few things. For one, you can always find a seat here - this space is cavernous. Diesel in Davis Square is probably about the same size but it's rare to find an open seat there even in off-hours. I love the outdoor seating complete with a well-maintained patch of grass and ivy-covered wall. People watching in Union Square has never been better! The coffee and tea is high quality, or at least the iced varities are (I almost never drink hot beverages). The sandwiches are tasty but I feel like there's not a ton of variety in the selection - many feature similar combinations of ingredients. And they come only in one size - at Sherman you can order a half sized, and Oxford Spa offers a small for a few dollars less. The baked goods are decent - Sherman has them beat by a mile, but Bloc 11's selection is solid and aside from a rock-hard cookie, everything I've had is great. Other plusses - you can usually find a discarded newspaper to read, and there's a very good chance it will be today's paper. Grab yourself a few random sections of the Globe and the Times and kill an hour or two! They have occasional performances in the early evening hours, including an open mic night that seems to attract cute girls. The downside - no free wifi. While laptop campers annoy the hell out of me, it would be nice to check my email someplace besides my sunless apartment sometimes. Sherman seems to have the best solution - you can pay for it, or get an hour free with a purchase. Because after all, who's going to be so lame as to go into a cafe and set up a laptop without buying something? I think it's great that there are two very cool independent cafes in my neighborhood - it's kind of like how Davis Square was a few years ago when they had Diesel and the Someday. There's a lot of ways to make a coffee shop lame, but Bloc 11 avoids all the usual pitfalls. Small tweaks is all I'd ever suggest from them.

📍 Address: 565 W Fairbanks Ave, Winter Park

⭐ Stars:⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4)

The pork porterhouse was the best piece of pork I have ever eaten! It was the tastiest and juiciest, which is always a challenge with pork. We also had the charred octopus which was really tasty. A bit salty and a small portion for the price (4 pieces for $14) but very tasty none the less. And I must say the service was absolutely fabulous.

📍 Address: 1 E Campus View Blvd, Columbus

⭐ Stars:⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4)

J Gilbert's never disappoints. Met friends here for an early dinner. Although this is a frequent stop for us, friends hadn't been here in years. As we perused the menu, our friends asked for recommendations. It's impossible because EVERTHING is so good. Our group had scallops, steaks, shrimp, lobster risotto, Brussels sprouts, asparagus, siracaha carrots...is your mouth watering yet? Go here and eat! It's crazy good. And the service, from the hosts and hostesses to the wait staff, top notch all the way.

📍 Address: 5389 S Kirkman Rd, Ste 105, Orlando

⭐ Stars:⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4)

There's no nice way to say it. The food here looks like a horror show, but that's ok. If you're a foodie you're probably well aware that some of the best tasting food isn't exactly the prettiest. After a failed attempt to visit a Colombian hot dog stand near UCF I remembered that I had recently bookmarked Junior's. This worked out well because my Colombian girlfriend had her mind set on a hot dog, and trust me, you do not want to disappoint a Colombian. She's described them for me before, but both the hot dog and burger that we ordered were firsts for me. The burger was very good, although that was entirely because of all the shit on it. While eating the burger I kept thinking how amusing it was that the meat in the burger was almost a phantom. It was there, but I didn't taste it. It's hard to describe other than I felt it provided little more than a base for everything else to rest on. How their burger would be if you ordered it plain, I have no idea. While I'm sure it sounds like I'm on the fence, I did indeed like the burger. But. I LOVED the hot dog. Again, there were tons of toppings (I can't even remember everything. 'Tator chips, pineapple, garlic sauce, ketchup, mayo, a beached whale...) which were great, but this time the meat was very noticeable. A great quality hot dog loaded with flavor. Everything mixed so well together, including the pineapple which I thought sounded awful. Top notch! We'll for sure be visiting Junior's again soon.

📍 Address: 1996 SE Ladd Ave, Portland

⭐ Stars:⭐⭐⭐ (3)

This joint is the cat's meow. Sweets, food, cozy atmosphere. The owner is lovely. The folks complaining about the signs that suggest a body should, in a business, BUY SOMETHING, are bonkers. Of course people should buy something. The signs don't at all detract from the space or its atmosphere. Puhlease. Sometimes Portland folks are just too darned sensitive. I once saw a guy in Palio sitting for a bit over an hour and drinking from his own water bottle before anyone said something to him. I wanted to stomp on his foot. That's so unfair. I think the owner ought to take photos of freeloaders and frame them and call them art. Pft. I guess I should warn that because the place is popular, you will undoubtedly run into some strange behaviors. Once, early in the morning and in a fairly empty coffee shop, a young woman sat directly across from me at a big table in the back when there were six other tables open and without humans at them. And I mean directly across from me. And didn't look up. Didn't say, "Hello." Weird. I moved to the table right in front. In a huff. Yes, I did. This place is good for that. People watching. Weirdo watching. Getting in a huff if one of the two groups does something odd in front of or to you. But by and large, this place is heaven, though, honestly, I go early in the morning before the real throng arrives. Anyway, the front room tends to be a bit noisier than the back. The back room tends to fill up with industrious people. The soups tend to be delicious. The iced tea is average--but I sip it and work there anyway. There's also a frequent buyers card, which is super nice. I'm due for a free tea!

📍 Address: 120-8100 Ackroyd Road, Richmond

⭐ Stars:⭐⭐⭐⭐ (3.5)

I heard this place serves the best Shaghainese food in town, and I had my fingers crossed that would mean good xiao long bao (AKA as Shanghai soup dumplings). And as luck would have it, they did. The xiao long bao (called steamed Shanghai dumplings) here were delicately thin and filled with a hot, delicious broth and tender nugget of pork filling--as good as I have had. Compared to what I am used to in Seattle, the prices were also reasonable at less than a buck a piece (6 for 4.99). Also good were the fried Shanghai dumplings. These were basically a thicker, doughier version of the xiao long bao with the same hot broth and pork nugget in the center of a fried bun. The "Shanghai shu mai" was a little disappointing. It is unlike the the standard shu mai. It is basically a dumpling filled with fried brown rice (no shrimp or pork nugget). Other than that disappointment, this restaurant fulfilled my lofty expectations.