Where to Eat in Altamonte Springs Right Now
Altamonte Springs packs three ranked Italian restaurants, a top-three pizzeria, oak-smoked barbecue and a teppanyaki show into two corridors. Our current map of where to eat, from Terramia to Keller's.
3 minute read
Altamonte Springs does not have a Park Avenue, and it does not pretend to. What it has is something arguably more useful: a dense, driveable, park-once-in-places dining scene stretched along State Road 436 and State Road 434, anchored at one end by a lakefront park people actually use every night and at the other by family restaurants that have outlasted several cycles of chains. This is our current map of where to eat in Altamonte Springs — the ranked heavyweights first, then the locals’ bench.
The ranked core
Start with Italian, because Altamonte is quietly one of the strongest Italian suburbs in greater Orlando. Terramia Ristorante, at 1150 Douglas Ave, ranks No. 3 for Italian in our Best Italian Restaurants in Orlando rankings with a Net Score of 93.0 — contemporary Italian cooking, a wine bar at its center, and a dining room regulars book ahead for. A few minutes away on SR-436, Antica Pizzeria & Market, at 249 FL-436, pulls a rare double: No. 3 for pizza (Net Score 93.2) in our Best Pizza in Orlando list and No. 4 for Italian (92.4). Its wood-fired oven runs at 900 degrees for proper Neapolitan pies, and the attached market sells imported cheeses and prepared foods to take home. Papa Joe’s Pizza & Pasta Pub, at 1090 Montgomery Rd, completes the triangle at No. 9 for Italian (89.9) — the family-run, New York-style counterpoint, all hand-tossed dough made fresh daily, hot subs and baked pastas.
Steak, smoke and the teppanyaki show
For a steakhouse dinner without driving downtown, Omaha Steakhouse, inside the Embassy Suites at 225 Shorecrest Dr on Cranes Roost Lake, ranks No. 8 for steakhouses (Net Score 92.6) in our Best Steakhouses in Orlando rankings — Midwest corn-fed beef from Omaha Steaks, served dinner-only in Uptown Altamonte. Smoke runs the other direction: Keller’s Bar-B-Q, at 280 S State Road 434, ranks No. 7 for barbecue (85.1) in our Best BBQ in Orlando list, smoking beef, pork, chicken and ribs in-house over black jack oak and finishing them with a Florida-style sauce the kitchen makes daily. And for dinner as entertainment, Kobe Japanese Steakhouse — Kobé Ichiban — at 468 SR-436 ranks No. 8 for sushi and Japanese (90.4) in our Best Sushi in Orlando rankings; the real draw is teppanyaki, chefs cooking at your table with the onion volcano and egg-roll routines the house has built its name on, plus sushi and Wagyu for anyone skipping the show.
The margarita and the bench
Vida Cocina & Tequila, at 275 W State Road 436, ranks No. 6 for Mexican (Net Score 85.0) in our Best Mexican Restaurants in Orlando rankings — modern Mexican cooking, birria tacos and a Santo Trio of dips, backed by a serious tequila and mezcal bar. Beyond the ranked list, two SR-436 neighbors earn their place in any honest guide: Tibby’s New Orleans Kitchen, at 494 W State Road 436, a family-owned Cajun and Creole room run by New Orleans natives, known for gumbo, jambalaya, shrimp and grits and beignets, with a Sunday brunch built around live music; and Kohinoor Indian Restaurant, at 249 W State Road 436, an authentic Indian kitchen whose lunch buffet and tandoori specialties have made it a weekday ritual for the office parks nearby. Neither carries a ranking from us, and neither needs one to be worth your lunch hour.
How to choose
Book Terramia when the night matters. Go to Antica when pizza is the point and take something from the market home. Take the whole family to Papa Joe’s or Kobe, take the out-of-towners who think suburbs cannot cook to Keller’s, and end a lake walk at Omaha or Vida depending on whether the evening calls for a ribeye or a margarita. Plot the whole run on our Orlando Top Spots Map, and if you are building a full day around the lake, pair this guide with our Uptown Altamonte guide and the Cranes Roost Park guide — dinner here is better with a mile-long walk attached.
Best for: anyone north of downtown who is tired of being told the good restaurants are all somewhere else. In Altamonte Springs, a surprising number of them are on the same two roads.
Photo: Xavier6984, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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