[texasfal]

Just a few suggestions - Pizza - Goodfellows in Belleview (NOT Bellview Pizza); Mexican - El Rodeo in Belleview (in the shopping center w/ Pasta Faire) and Steak - Marks US Prime in Ocala - pricey butworth it.

[Sherman931]

Amelia"s in Gainsville...italian food and well worth the drive

[missyomama]

You must add Billys Cafe for breakfast it is the best. It is located on 441 just north of the Villages.

[zcaveman]

Didn't we just do this kind of post?

Let me try:

Villages:

Too Jays (SS)
Margarita Republic (SS)
Gator's Dockside (SS)
Lighthouse
Ruby Tuesdays (SS)
Cattle Barons (SS)
Golden Corral
Glenview
Nancy Lopez
Hacienda Grill
Sonny's



Outside:
Longhorn
Oakwood
Plaza Diner (Breakfast/Belleview)
Sam St Johns
McDonald's

There are others but these come to mind.

[Niels]

Whatever I supposedly said, I hope it was good .....

[Larryandlinda]

Originally Posted by jaspal

Gracie,

I am with you. I prefer to cook at home. I am into healthy eating. This is difficult to do when you eat out. Occasionally I eat out for social reasons but prefer what I cook at home.

Healthy eating is a virtue and we have found it can be done on the cheap right here in TV.
For under 8 bucks can anyone tell us how to beat Golden Corral?

As long as they are telling the truth and not using lard where they say they aren't, and not sulfiting the salads, and truly steaming what they say they are steaming, this pair of health conscious eaters and the two with whom we eat there almost daily are able to stick to a most healthy diet.

Those two friends are a retired sports medicine physician and author and a nutritionist wife that taught healthy cooking classes and help co-author many of their best-selling books on diet and health.

His mom has been taking his advice for years and even ate there with us on her 103d birthday a couple years ago!! ("That's my son, the doctor!")

A vegetarian, vegan, and even a raw food diet can be satisfied there.

There's no way we can cook at home for anywhere close to the cost, and that's not taking into consideration the waste, prep time, and clean up (we are both still working, so time has a huge value)

For added health, we and the good doc and wife show up between 2 and 3 for the lunchtime pricing, low crowd, and the health benefit of not eating too late - one of his articles that worked for us says eating too late in the day helps avoid staying fit.

For an added bonus, when we ride the bikes there, we indulge a little heavier and have been known to join the good doc in a bowl of his 'tough-to-pass-up' volcano cake, made fresh from scratch daily on premises.

We read such good things about the Speckled Butterbean and took the bikes down there last Sunday, being salad bar devotees.
With all due respect, we hope it was just a day. Salad bar items few and far between. Most bins were empty or near empty. Tomatoes were yellow/green, lettuce looked bagged and light green, and many items never showed up.

There were no hot items without meat or cooked without meat except for the potatoes.

Bon appetite



L and L

[Russ_Boston]

I would never even had thought of Golden as a possible healthy alternative. We'll give it a try.

[getdul981]

My wife has a problem with buffet style dining, so I do too. Everyone serves their ownself using the same utensils. Who knows where their hands have been and whether or not they have washed them this week or not. It may not be quite as bad in TV, but we'll just have to see. We are not germaphobes, but we don't really like to take chances either.

[Russ_Boston]

I see your point but go read Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential. You may not eat in any restaurant! But it won't stop me.

[carm310]

Originally Posted by graciegirl

No. Niels didn't say anything about the restaurants. I looked at a bunch of his recent posts.

I am so embarassed.

That's OK graciegirl! I am sure I would enjoy your cooking over any restaurant in or around TV! : D

[getdul981]

Originally Posted by Russ_Boston

I see your point but go read Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential. You may not eat in any restaurant! But it won't stop me.

No thanks! Ignorance is bliss. Sometimes you just gotta trust what goes on behind the scenes. It's the folks out front that wipe their noses and put the dirty handkerchief or tissue in their pocket or purse and then go handle all the utensils. You KNOW they aren't wearing gloves like the people in back are "supposed" to do. Whenever we do go to a buffet we always go wash our hands after filling our plates. Probably too little too late, but it makes us feel better.

I have seen kids reaching into the bread containers with their bare hands and take out some and then not like what they had, so they put it back. Hopefully, that would not be much of a problem in TV.

[Larryandlinda]

Originally Posted by Russ_Boston

I would never even had thought of Golden as a possible healthy alternative. We'll give it a try.

We've been going to them since the days we were into our younger omnivorious 'See-Food' years(if we see it we eat it) and when we started to pay a bit more attention to what went down the hatches, we gave up.
Many were just sinking below standard for cleanliness, and the food seemed to go toward the greasy, mess-hall style.

We stayed away til the doc introduced us to the Villages, so we're back.
It is a model location compared to the ones here in the Mid Atlantic, though we have not been to a local one in awhile.

The one on the way from Orlando on 27 is a close second if we can't hold off til we get to the compound.

As a medicine man, you have probably seen the symptoms and effects of an over indulgence of artery-clogging fat and other substances.

If you want to eat like a cow or horse (plant based) or weigh as much as one (fried, fat, sugar) the Corral has it all.

Here's one of many, many guides on line:
http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/...tery.asp?id=48

Even though it's 'all you care to eat', the value depends on profit and minimal waste.
What we and the more considerate Buffet-goers do is to take a little of each of any unknowns, and get more of the winners.

What worked for us was to experiment and find out what was 'good' for us and try to balance it what 'we liked'
After awhile we found that we could wean ourselves more away from some of the 'bad stuff' or at least consider some of it 'feast food' for special occassions.

One of the things many places do is to lace ordinary foods with taste triggers
like sugar and fat. Our local restaurant used to make their own italian bread and people consumed it it mass quantities -
To the body, most bread is like white sugar anyway, white bread even worse,
and the baker added insult to injury by pouring leftover cooking lard into the dough.

Here's a nifty clip of how to make cheap food good.
(NOTE: Some may need to swallow your food and drink before watching)

Edit:
WHUPS- we did not realize that the eight letter word would be in sight
Glad we are adults
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9J1b3MqiX8"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9J1b3MqiX8[/ame]

We'd not be surprised to find some of these 'mm-mm-good' places people frequent performing some of the shenanigans in some way at least.

No , we don't have any connection other than being regulars, and the GC is one of the top reasons we like TV. Eating there saves time, we get to chat with our friends, get things done, and not have to prep or clean up.

Saves a lot of valuable time

The question after the morning ride is often not where we'll meet for lunch, but when

One or two of the cooks knows one of us well enough that when we walk up to an item, and hold the ladle, they tell us how it was cooked and with what!

Yes, the poster with the concern for germs... hmmm... sure, maybe, but as a responder said, our TV location has few kids, and during the mid afternoon it's less crowded.

Besides, at a non-buffet, there are many ways to contamination behind the kitchen wall. Taking a deep breath in some places can hit you with as much or more poison and other airborne gremlins as a shared pair of tongs.

We all survived buffets over half century ago long before sneeze guards, didn't we?

Your bod, your choice.

Buon appetito

L and L

[ijusluvit]

good restaurants, lotsa laughs

what more could you want!!!!!!!