Date Night at Roy’s Orlando Restaurant

After a long day of work around the house, and a long week in general, Emily and I were excited about our date night at Roy’s Restaurant.  We don’t take many date nights so when we do we always want to make sure we pick a restaurant that we know we’re going to be able to relax and enjoy, and Roy’s has always been that restaurant for us. Not only does Roy’s deliver on great food, they also have exceptional service which is almost as important as the food to us sometimes. We greeted the babysitter, ordered some pizza for the boys, grabbed a quick photo on the porch, and headed out. For those of you keeping track of daylight savings time yes it is light out which meant that our reservation was on the early side but sometimes you have to take what you can get (we are just warming up for retirement)!  We, of course, had to grab one more selfie in front of Roy’s before we headed into the restaurant.

As expected we arrived to a relatively empty restaurant, but we didn’t care because we were hungry and eager for some quiet time without the sounds of screaming dinosaurs in the background.  We started off with a couple drinks, as Emily’s mouth had been watering for a jalapeño margarita since breakfast.

You can see the relaxed bliss on Emily’s face below.

We also picked a delicious appetizer from the starters menu, the braised pork ribs, which were absolutely delicious.  We had these on our first visit to Roy’s years ago, and they were as delicious this time as they were back then.

When it came to ordering the entrées Emily typically does not like to get the same entrée that I order; however, if you have ever had the Andouille Crusted Red Snapper unique to Roy’s in Orlando, you know that it is not a meal that you are eager to share. Emily decided to go against her typical dining decision-making and ordered the snapper as well. I’m not a huge fan of okra, but I have to say that the dish comes with a side of fried okra that will convert almost anyone into a believer.  Below is a photo of the delicious goodness.  The Crystal hot sauce beurre blanc (butter sauce??) is the real star here!

It wouldn’t be date night without a delicious dessert and, as we couldn’t decide between the two, we ended up sharing the pineapple upside down cake and the chocolate soufflé, which came out on a single shareable plate of perfection. We each got our own side of vanilla ice cream and absolutely demolished the plate!

As we wrapped up our early bird special reservation time, we checked our watches to find that the boys had not yet gone to bed, which meant we were not going home yet.  We grabbed a night pic of the restaurant as we debated who had the better shot (Emily won below), and headed on to our next venture.

One of our favorite things to do when we are in the Dr. Phillips restaurant area is to stop at the Barnes & Noble, which happens to be right next to the restaurant. We did some browsing and people watching, picked up a few books, and then decided to take the scenic drive down International Drive to check out some of the neat new spots that have recently been built. We enjoyed the drive home and the relaxing night.  Ah… ’til next time.