Two New Restaurants and a New Take on an Old One
Wauchula, FL - Events of Friday, May 31 to Wednesday, June 5, 2019
In addition to whatever else we're doing be it Co-op meetings and activities, Co-op projects, or our own projects, we inevitably have to run errands - doctor appointments, grocery shopping, clothes shopping, haircuts, buying materials for crafts and projects, etc. When we run errands, we frequently like to schedule them so we can stop at a restaurant while we're out. We normally go to one of our old favorites, but we recently tried two new restaurants.
The first new one was Cang Tong Asian Restaurant in Sebring. In addition to many traditional Chinese items on their menu, they also have things like sushi and other Japanese dishes. They also have four hibachi grills where they can put on a show preparing meals in front of their guests.
Dinners at Cang Tong range in price from about $9 to $20, and there are lunch combos served from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. for $7 to $8 that include an entree, fried rice, and your choice of an egg roll or soup. Since it was before 3, we both had lunch combos with our favorite - General Tso's chicken, fried rice, and egg rolls.
Margery with her General Tso's chicken
Ever since we first started spending winters in Florida in 2007, we have been looking for a decent Chinese restaurant without success - at least until now. The General Tso's chicken at Cang Tong was excellent. We will definitely be going back next time we're hungry for Chinese food.
The other new restaurant we tried was Hickory Hollow located in Ellenton right down the road from the Ellenton Premium Outlets. When we go to the outlet mall, we usually go to Anna Maria Oyster Bar, which is also right down the road. However, this time we decided to try Hickory Hollow because it gets 4.5 out of 5 stars on Trip Advisor and because it's been around for over 30 years. Not only that, but Hickory Hollow specializes in barbecue, and we were hungry for barbecue.
We both had small pulled pork platters with cole slaw and mac and cheese for our sides ($11). The platters also include two rather large corn fritters.
Paul with his pulled pork platter
The slaw, the mac and cheese, and the corn fritters were good, but the pulled pork was only so-so. It was moist, almost to the point of being soggy; and it had no smoke flavor and not much flavor of any kind without the barbecue sauce. It also wasn't very tender. The 4.5 rating on Trip Advisor must be for some of their other menu items because it sure wasn't for the pulled pork in our opinion. We scratched Hickory Hollow off our list.
We mentioned we usually go to old favorites when we're out running errands. One of our old restaurants that we really wouldn't call a favorite because we don't go there very often, is Dimitri's in Sebring. We decided to go there for change a week or two ago.
Dimitri's menu used to be 7 pages long. It had a very extensive selection of Greek and Italian specialties along with lots of other things like seafood, burgers, hot and cold sandwiches, etc. One reason we hadn't been to Dimitri's in a long time may be that the menu was almost overwhelming, and we always had trouble deciding what to order.
We were happy to see Dimitri's now has a new menu. Their selection is still big, but the menu has been reduced from 7 pages to 4. The look of the new menu is also less cluttered making it much easier to read.
Although we weren't familiar enough with the old menu to be able tell which items had been eliminated, it looks like the classic Greek and Italian dishes and the seafood are still there, and they still have at least some of the sandwiches and burgers. We did notice right away, however, they had actually added a several new items, namely 6 or 8 different flatbreads.
Dimitri's has a pizza shop right next to the entrance to the main restaurant, but you can't order pizza in the restaurant. They feel serving pizza in several different sizes with all the topping choices would cause too much confusion in the restaurant with its already extensive menu, so they have always kept the pizza shop separate. The only way to get pizza was to order it in the pizza shop and take it home or eat it at one of the tables out on their deck.
With the regular menu now reduced, Dimitri's has added flatbreads from the pizza shop to the restaurant menu. The flatbreads are a way to satisfy customers' desire for a pizza-like item without having to deal with all the different combinations of pizza sizes and toppings in the restaurant since the flatbreads only come in one size and the toppings are pre-determined.
Paul ordered a Tuscany flatbread ($10) with mild Italian sausage, mozzarella, spinach, and roasted red peppers. Margery was a little unsure of what to expect with the flatbread, so she ordered a grouper finger basket ($10), which we've had before, and which we knew would be excellent. The baskets come with slaw and fries. Paul agreed to share a couple of pieces of his flatbread with Margery in exchange for one of her grouper fingers and some of her fries.
Margery with her grouper fingers
The Tuscany flatbread looked so good Margery was already helping herself while Paul was still trying to take a picture.
The grouper fingers were as good as they always are. The fish is tender and flaky and the battered coating is nice and crisp.
The Tuscany flatbread is pretty to look at with the red peppers and the green spinach, but the flavor is even better! The crust isn't too thick, and it's a little crisp and a little chewy at the same time. The sweetness of the red peppers is a nice contrast to the saltiness of the sausage and mozarella. We may not have gone to Dimitri's too often in the past, but we are already looking for an excuse to go back and have more flatbread.