Another year, another impossible mission: 12 best bites of the year.
It’s why the “of the” matters so much to me. Tomorrow I might scroll through my photo gallery and remember a buttery lobster roll or bowl of menudo and crack myself in the noggin like the guy in the V8 commercial.
“Stunad!” I say to myself. “You forgot the whatever-it-was!”
And so, modifiers.
In moderation, though. Just like everything on this 2025 round-up.
Here’s to a happy new year of stuffing our faces.
January: Hummus Fateh, Beirut Grill & Deli
I have eaten what might be my weight in hummus since January of last year and though I have found a multitude of Middle Eastern delights around the city (a couple of which you’ll find later on this list), none surpasses the hummus you’ll find at Riad Elkhatib’s Beirut Grill & Deli in Oviedo, and presumably at its older sister, the Beirut Bakery & Deli on South Orange Blossom Trail. In Oviedo alone, they make 20-30 pounds of it a day. The shocking part of that story is that I’m not eating a third of it. This hummus is equally incredible in the warm hummus with meat platter, but oh … that fateh. It is an edible miracle of fried house-made pita, chickpeas and hummus, layered with tahini-yogurt sauce and toasted nuts and a bath of scalding, jewel-toned ghee that goes right over the top. Its fat content makes it a terrible choice for New Year’s resolutions, but its love and comfort could heal 10,000 wounded hearts — even as the ghee clogs them. It is the bean dip of the gods. Get some.
Beirut Grill & Deli: 3100 Alafaya Trail in Oviedo, 321-765-4139; beirutgrilldeli.com
February: PBM Burger, Palm Beach Meats
Burger lovers, behold one of the best you’ll find in the City Beautiful, so good that to enjoy it without the cheddar slice it comes with might further submerge you into the rich, hot tub of umami offered in each perfect melt-away mouthful. Lettuce, tomato and onion — along with a nice, toasty bun — do a cool, crunchy job offsetting all that velvety texture which gives itself over to you, like a lover properly kissed. I’m rolling with romance here, so if you’re flying solo come Feb. 14, might I recommend Palm Beach Meats’ perfect handheld, shared with a pal, as a Valentine for you both? Follow it up with the fudgy-fantastic Wagyu tallow brownie, which could easily have posed as a two-fer with the burger this month.
Palm Beach Meats: 3241 S. Orange Ave. in Orlando, 407-233-4094; palmbeachmeats.com
March: Spicy Pepperoni (Detroit-style), Tratto Avalon Park
On a recent revisit to Tratto (you know, just to make sure everything was still good), it took a lot of willpower not to order the spicy pepperoni, which, quite honestly, would be just as good in Tratto’s thinner-crust style, which I always eat backwards. Crust, in Amy Drew’s World of Pizza (God, that has such a great ring to it) is king, and pizzaiola Mabel Munoz is the queen. It was her Instagram reel, full of explicitly wet and jiggly pan-pizza dough, that lured me to this Avalon Park restaurant, where there’s lots of other Italian food, but — and I say this with a small amount of sarcasm, but only very small — so what? The pizza here — this one with its pepperoni and goat cheese and hot honey, and the Tartufo and the Hall and the Mortadella and Pesto — is just that good. One day, I will try the cheese wheel spaghetti, I swear. One day.
Tratto Avalon Park: 425 Avalon Park S. Blvd. in Orlando, 407-440-2140; trattomodernitalian.com
April: The Meat X3, Nuri’s Tavern
I swear I ate some vegetables in 2025. In fact, some of them were on this pizza, which doesn’t actually come with mushrooms, but you can add them. And you should. Because Nuri’s Tavern, which did not call to me with nostalgia, as it might for midwesterners who grew up enjoying the signature crispiness of the tavern-style pie, but with what I knew would be the seriousness that chef Jason Campbell would bring to the task of creating it here in Orlando. Much like Munoz’s perfectly executed dough, Campbell’s is done by a four-hour ferment, followed by a three-day curing process, which allows the crust to support all that meat, plus what I will re-state are the best-done pizza mushrooms I have ever had in my life, like a steel girder.
Nuri’s Tavern: 63 E. Pine St. in Orlando, 321-206-0800; nuristavern.com
May: Mushroom Temaki, Mosonori
It’s not a menu mainstay, but this gorgeous hand roll, featuring an exotic selection of locally grown mushrooms from Fungi Jon, is a very regular special at both locations of James Beard finalist Henry Moso’s terrific temaki spot. Just about any hand roll here is tops. The toro tartare could easily have made this list, but for the absence of crisp, roasty, Ariake Sea nori, which Moso sources from a small producer in the southwest of Japan. Wrapped around crab or uni or toro, it is simply superb. In fact, if one were to highbrow-lowbrow the stuff, it’d make the best musubi this side of Oahu. But paired with butter-, garlic- and soy-sautéed mushrooms, it becomes a dish to satisfy the vegetarian guest beyond any level of satisfaction they could reasonably expect at a seafood-centric venue. And even if you’re there for the fish, you’re missing out if you don’t tick the box on this one.
Mosonori: 1100 Orlando Ave. in Winter Park, 321-972-2925 or 7541 Sand Lake Road in Orlando; mosonori.com
June: Paella, Spanish River Grill
Looking for an excuse to drive to the beach? Chef Henry Salgado’s paella is a damn good one. It’s $60 and will feed the entire table, but it doesn’t matter if you went out there on a solo motorcycle ride. Get it. Sit at the bar and watch the lookie-loos ooh and ahh as the sizzling pan is set before you, an invisible trail of seafood umami incense conjuring FOMO in its wake. There is shrimp and chicken, chorizo and mussels and calamari, steeped in alternating bites of sofrito-laden Calasparra rice, both tender and pan-seared crisp. It’s marvelous and unequaled, and you will eat more of it than you want to. And then you can strap the leftovers to the back of your bike and relive it, multiple times, with a fried egg on top, in your own comfortable kitchen.
Spanish River Grill: 1518 S. Dixie Freeway in New Smyrna Beach, 386-957-4788; spanishrivergrill.com
July: Sweetie Pie, Pudding Queen
“You write with an inseparable inspiration and joy. Life is better when you write. Thank you for sharing your gift, Ms. Thompson.”
It’s a little cut-and-paste edited for ease of getting the point across, but this bit of lovely came from a reader following my write-up of Fatima Peat’s Pudding Queen, in which I described her Sweetie Pie pudding thusly: “It is like a cloud and some strange and wonderful edible part of heaven had a baby in a 6-ounce compostable cup.” There were other words about this cheesecake-based mousse, Peat’s take on sweet potato pie — candied pecans and gingersnap crumble and yadayadayada — but that really does nail it. I ate half of it while standing up in a crowded, asphalt parking lot trying to avoid random bursts of generator exhaust, and it was still one of the best desserts I had all year.
Pudding Queen: iampuddingqueen.com; instagram.com/iampuddingqueen; facebook.com/iampuddingqueen718)
August: Chinese Eggplant Clay Pot, Yao’s
I have to be honest, this was a tough one. In fact, the mushroom delight and fire-roasted market fish at this Oviedo restaurant were solid contenders. But A. I love eggplant. Like, a lot. And B. The Chinese eggplant clay pot, the folks at Yao’s told me, is the menu’s most slept-on dish. And that, my friends, is a crying shame. I know Yao’s ribs are a universal crowdpleaser, but the crispy, jewel-toned logs of tender eggplant awash in flavors of soy and ginger, garlic and Fresno chilies, are so incredibly delightful in this dish, it will be my forever go-to. And if you’re anything like me and forever foiled by the “Closed Monday” curse on the Mondays you’d rather not cook, please note: Yao’s is open. Great excuse to try ’em if you haven’t.
Yao’s: 15 Alafaya Woods Blvd. in Oviedo, 321-765-4801; yaosorl.com
September: Duck, June
If you’ve been to June, you are not surprised to find it mentioned here. You also won’t be surprised that when it came time to choose a venue for a quick dinner with Netflix star Phil Rosenthal, who returned to Orlando in November for a one-night gig at the Dr. Phillips Center, June won the day. Chef Jason Campbell flooded the table, of course, with items including the duck-fat corn bread (Phil’s tour manager, from Nashville, said it might be the best he’s had in his life), my favorite chayote salad and the incredible avocado app and its beautiful circle of accouterments. But when that duck hit the table — they billed it “for 2,” but that’s only if it’s all you eat — the talking stopped, if briefly, as everyone stuffed their handmade tortillas full of fall-apart tender, confited thighs and drums, pan-crisped, along with radish and cilantro and a gorgeous hoisin-inspired sauce.
Eventually, Phil broke the silence.
“It’s like a Peking duck taco!” he exclaimed with trademark exuberance.
My mouth was full, so I just smiled and pointed at my nose, the universal sign for “Heck yeah, it is!”
And we all kept eating.
June: 700 E. Washington St. in Orlando, 321-206-1243; juneorlando.com
October: Iraqi Kebab, Rawsha Mediterranean Cuisine
I love kebabs. They’re a delicious, high-protein delight. And though there are a lot of good ones in this town, the Iraqi kebab I had this year at Rawsha was a revelation on a stick. Eighty percent lamb and all its wondrously flavorful fat is the counter to 20 percent high-quality beef, and the impossibly juicy, carefully turned, fire-kissed results make it hard to argue against owner Abdullah Rabeeah’s claim that while Syria reigns when it comes to shawarma, his native Iraq is where you’ll find the best grilled meats in the Middle East.
Rawsha Mediterranean Cuisine: 8956 Turkey Lake Road in Orlando, 407-725-0062; rawshamediterraneancuisine.com
November: Snow Onion Wings, 92 Chicken
There are no mandatories on the Delicious Dozen, but 2025’s got something for the wing aficionados, too. And it comes smothered in cool, creamy, crisp onions. Your base wing flavor can be one of many, but I highly recommend the red hot pepper, which is not as incendiary as it sounds, but does have a nice lil’ kick that’s deliciously offset by the topping. Crunchy-fried goodness meets hot/sweet sauce, meets crisp, cool, onion with hot, tender, juicy chicken at its core. It’s the ultimate in stoner-centric dining. A revelation, especially eaten in-house, at peak freshness. And that topping? They sell it by the container. Take it home and see what else you can put it on.
92 Chicken: 5510 W. Colonial Drive in Orlando, 407-440-2733; 92chickenfl.com
Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel
Chef Kevin Fonzo prepares linguine and clams as part of the tradition of the Feast of the Seven Fishes at the Kitchen House. He does it year-round, as well, as it’s among his most-requested dishes. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/ Orlando Sentinel)
December: Linguine Alla Vongole, La Tavola
Chef Kevin Fonzo’s Feast of the Seven Fishes is one of the few fancy feasts I pony up my own dough for every year. The small affair, held over two large tables at The Kitchen House in Orlando’s College Park neighborhood, is a staple of his La Tavola pop-up‘s on-again, off-again schedule, which Fonzo’s Facebook followers are privy to. Translation: Follow him. Like the feasts of cozy Christmas Eves past, it is a highlight of my holiday season, a New York-Italian extravaganza that’s usually more like nine or 10 fishes. There is always linguine alla vongole, coated in the crispiest, most flavorful bread crumbs, swimming in the loveliest briny broth. It’s a week out, and I’m still almost sorry I saved room for dessert. Good news: this dish is one of his most-requested and as such, it shows up often in pop-ups throughout the year. But even if you miss it, I’d virtually guarantee something on the menu will be one of your Delicious Dozen picks in 2026.
La Tavola: facebook.com/cheffonzo
Find me on Facebook, TikTok, Twitter or Instagram @amydroo or on the OSFoodie Instagram account @orlando.foodie. Email: amthompson@orlandosentinel.com, For more foodie fun, join the Let’s Eat, Orlando Facebook group.
