Our first hotel was the Double Tree by Hilton at Universal– we chose this hotel because the OAX Original Comic Art Convention would be held here and we had some buyers to meet even though we weren’t setting up.
In fairness, it’s a decent hotel, but the 4.1 rating Google gives it seems a little generous to me. It’s a little run down, the restaurant at the bar is pretty good, but a bit on the pricey side for what you get and it only opens at 5pm– if you want something for breakfast there is a hidden Starbucks across the courtyard and a breakfast buffet that will run you $30 per plate. It is right across the street from Universal (where we were going– only we found out Epic Universe at Universal was much further away).
Our room was late to be ready, the bar wasn’t open yet, the only thing going was a one man pizza shop and we had dinner reservations at 8pm so I didn’t want to load up.
Eventually the room was ready about 530pm– an hour and half passed the promised time but it was a good enough room- actually pretty nice. We headed out to Tu Tu Tango Cafe on International Drive about 3-4 miles from our hotel. There was a diving tournament across the street we wanted to check out so we watched what we could of that and ended up arriving at the restaurant about 715pm, rather than just walk around we decided to grab a couple of cocktails at the bar– and since I was getting hungry I ordered some of their smoked Thai spare ribs and they were exceptional. Our cocktails were coconut and rum in Tiki glasses and they were equally good.
The rest of our party arrived and we were all seated about six feet from where we sat at the bar– we ordered quite a few different dishes including Alligator Bites, steak skewers, mahi mahi tacos and mushroom pizza. Everything was as good as the ribs from earlier– the Alligator bites were very gently fried and unlike the last time I tried gator these weren’t super chewy– so what does “good” alligator taste like? Imagine if you got some really good chicken bites from your favorite chicken joint– Popeyes, Chic Fil A, Raisin’ Cane, etc– you really liked them but you leave them out for a bit before you put them in the fridge and then you heat them up two to three days later– that’s good alligator.
I’ve had Shark and it tasted like Swordfish, Alligator tastes like really good but old leftover chicken.
From there we headed back up to our hotel area to Miller’s Grill to meet two friends who are truly like family and had a gin and tonic while admiring the look of the Bufallo Wings the guy next to us was having. I would have liked to order one just to taste it but that’s not a thing.
More next time.
It's Andy Fish! 
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