I stopped by these two places on 434 near Lake Brantley HS during the day on Monday. They say this is Altamonte. I say Longwood.
Venus Pizzeria - They have eluded my gaze for what seems to be two years. They are behind a 7-11 on the road to the high school. Another pizzeria used to be across the street. Now that building is under construction. Nor sure if there is a correlation. This place serves pizza, wings, heros, salads, calzones, stromboli, and eight pasta dishes. It is decorated in Lake Brantley HS sports gear. They have lots of specials (ie $1 slices on Wed). I had their $5 pizza special (2 and a soda and 2 knots) because this was just a service call. As such, I didn't really investigate how they do pizza. The crust was weird. I'm not sure if this is an Easy Bake Oven (conveyor belts) kind of place or they don't produce/proof the dough correctly, but, it didn't taste as good as it looked. And they speed in which it (a new pie) was delivered made my wonder in retrospect. Nothing terrible. It was very thin and the cheese/sauce was good. Just nothing compelling. So - good value and acceptable pizza. They have seating. Parking is very limited. They seemed nice.
Metro Diner - I came down here for this new tenant in the old Friendly's/Carmel's spot. I saw a big line here last week. The staff was commenting on the lunch rush when I pulled in. It seems I just escaped it. The place was still quite full. It's a branch of a mini dynasty that started in Jacksonville. It's a soul food type southern diner. I tried to be as experimental and extensive as possible with my order. If it wasn't for you people then I probably would have just had a burger. I tried the eggs benedict Surf and Turf and grabbed a fried chicken biscuit to go. The eggs cost $14 and came with a huge pile (half a long plate) of slightly undercooked hash browns. The eggs were also slightly underdone. I figure that because of these lunch rushes that the staff is either exhausted by the time they can concentrate on the dishes or too out of practice by then. The hollandaise wasn't bad. I can't really say what it was because it was overwhelmed by the crab/steak. The crab cake was ok. I've never really had a good one and I wasn't expecting that drought to end here. It was better than I expected and not a bad combo with the eggs. The steak was the same deal. I wasn't really expecting a quality cut. As it was, it had the ring of fat you see in a rib eye. I would be surprised if it was though. The biscuit ( I tried it because they crow about their chicken) cost $3.59. That is a really good price. The chicken was way more than the finger they describe it as. It was a nice piece of shoulder or thigh (probably shoulder since it was all white meat and no bone). It was fried right. They don't adulterate the taste with any spices. The biscuit was also good (and big). The rest of the menu is familiar. Waffles, pancakes, omelets, meatloaf, etc. If I hadn't had a Stouffer's Chicken Pot Pie the night before, I would have ordered that. It was a steal at around $8 and the one I saw coming out of the kitchen looked good. Most things are under $10. I think they top out at $15. A soda was just over $2. The pricing is all over the place though. Some things are cheaper than you'd expect and vica-verca (ie breakfast sandwich was also only $3.59). The place looks ok. I would hide the soda/coffee/prep area that is visible from almost every seat in the house and an eyesore. They have a quasi-separate room. It seats around sixty. They have a counter. They have alot of staff. Mine was conscientious if a little obsequious. I guess it's a good sign when they appear desperate to have your approval/business. They have been open for a month. I suspect they will be clogging arteries around here for a while. Just what the public wants but doesn't need.
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