Most of our trips to Orlando are 24-48 hours at the most, so we made sure that we took advantage of being “locals” on our 12 day trip over the holidays. For us, that meant eating at all of the non Disney places that we been insta-stalking for months: BarTaco, King Bao, Shake Shack, and Yard House.
Guys. I can’t believe that we didn’t go to these places sooner! We have been missing out on some INCREDIBLE food, so I’m telling you about it now so you don’t miss out too.
First up is BarTaco on Dr Phillips Blvd. We probably love tacos more than the average human, but these are some of the best that we’ve found.
We ordered chips and salsa, grilled corn, a few tacos, and, of course, we had to get the churros. We loved all of the tacos, but our big winners were the tuna tatako, crispy rock shrimp, and pork belly.
Next up is King Bao. Bao is our new food obsession, but we can’t get it at home so we jumped at the chance to visit King Bao. And holy moly, it’s the best bao ever! There are so many savory AND sweet options, and we may have ordered most of them {we totally did} because we couldn’t decide.
I don’t think there was a single one that we didn’t like, but the biggest surprise to us was probably how much we loved the crab cake bao! Not that we don’t really like crab cake, but it was outside of the usual Korean BBQ, shrimp, or pork belly options that are usually available at restaurants. The flavor was incredible, and we will order at least one crab cake bao every single time we’re there. Guaranteed.
Our next stop was Shake Shack. Yes, I know that it is a chain and that there are a million locations, but none of them are remotely near where we live and we have been dying to try it!
Jordan went with the classic ShackBuger, but John ordered the Shack Stack which is a combination of the ShackBuger and the Shroom Buger. Yes, that is a massive, fried portobello mushroom on his burger. Yes, it was amazing. 
We also split an order of cheese fries because you’re living your life wrong if cheese fries are available and you don’t get them. They were crispy and cheese and everything that we wanted them to be. 10/10 would recommend.
Our last stop on the tour de food was YardHouse on International Drive. It was really late, I was starving, and YardHouse just happened to be right across from our hotel for the night, so we decided to try it. Considering how touristy other places around it are, I wasn’t 100% sure that it would be great, but man, I was wrong to doubt them. Since it was so late, we didn’t want to order a ton, so we settled on the Ahi Tuna Nachos. I don’t want to sound dramatic and say that they changed my life, but it was really stinking close to it.
Look at all of this fresh tuna over WONTON CHIPS with spicy mayo and a ton of other happiness. The wonton chips are a game changer, and they really brought this app up a notch. We’ll be back to YardHouse just to get these nacho again, and hopefully to try a few other things on the menu.
Overall, these restaurants are on our list because their prices are great, the food is all amazing, and it’s definitely worth venturing off property to check these places out!