Orlando’s first Yard House opened last week, and their grand opening was a spectacular affair. This is like no other restaurant in Central Florida, and I can tell you one thing, I’ve found my new go-to Happy Hour location for sure! Steele Platt, the founder of Yard House hand selects the music, and makes sure that each location has an incredible sound system. Classic rock music (we loved EVERY song!) sets an upbeat tone, and the open, industrial dining area is full of energy.
The Orlando Yard House is most famous for its huge number of different beers on tap. Orlando has one of the largest selections, with 140 taps encircling the center bar. The keg room is a second story square that frames the island bar, with frosted blue glass windows allowing diners to glimpse the wonders within. Yard House founder Steele Platt took a select group of food bloggers into the icy-cold Orlando keg room. We all marveled at the stainless steel system and hundreds of pipes that carry the beer directly from kegs to taps. I love how the entire restaurant décor is built around the kegs and pipes, it makes this place really something special.Having been to several bars and happy hour venues that treated food as an afterthought, I was wondering how Yard House would perform in the kitchen. And they delivered, on every level. We tasted dozens of dishes from their appetizer, snack, and entrée menus, and each dish was creatively done, with interesting flavor blends and exciting sauces. Yard House’s large menu of Street Tacos includes my favorite, the blackened swordfish with cilantro, cumin crema, pico de gallo, guacamole and mango papaya chutney. We sampled several pizzas, and I was very impressed by the tender and flavorful crusts. I especially liked the one with smoked ham and grilled pineapple. The Southern fried chicken breast was delicious, served boneless and skinless over spinach-corn-mashed potatoes and bourbon gravy.
The drink selection at Orlando Yard House goes WAY beyond beer. We were astounded at the range of creative cocktails they offered, and enjoyed several of the house specialties, each accented with Yard House’s very cool signature large square ice cubes. I started the evening with one of their beer cocktails, the SUNBURN, which is crafted of St. Germain, Malibu pineapple rum, orange bitters, cranberry juice, and pear cider, garnished with fresh thyme and orange peel. The flavor combination was just perfect, and I’ll definitely order this one again. Yard House’s FRESH & SKINNY™ cocktail collection features drinks that are all only 140 – 200 calories and are made with their own house citrus agave blend.
My favorite drink of the night was from this collection, the JUNIPER FUSION. It was so light and flavorful, with fresh cucumber slices, muddled strawberries, Hendrick’s gin, and orange bitters. Everyone in our party raved about the collection of mules, all served in iced copper mugs. Each mule has a strong, spicy ginger flavor from Yard House’s house made ginger beer. In addition to the standard Moscow mule, they have one made with Jameson Irish whiskey, and a to-die-for HAWAIIAN mule with Skyy infusions pineapple vodka.
Having been to several bars and happy hour venues that treated food as an afterthought, I was wondering how Yard House would perform in the kitchen. And they delivered, on every level. We tasted dozens of dishes from their appetizer, snack, and entrée menus, and each dish was creatively done, with interesting flavor blends and exciting sauces. Yard House’s large menu of Street Tacos includes my favorite, the blackened swordfish with cilantro, cumin crema, pico de gallo, guacamole and mango papaya chutney. We sampled several pizzas, and I was very impressed by the tender and flavorful crusts. I especially liked the one with smoked ham and grilled pineapple. The Southern fried chicken breast was delicious, served boneless and skinless over spinach-corn-mashed potatoes and bourbon gravy.
Yardhouse is located in the new Orlando Eye dining district, which will be centered around a huge 45 story ferris wheel. This video shows a little more about the area and the construction process. I’m so excited to visit Yard House again, it’s a perfect addition to Orlando’s dining scene.
Yard House Orlando 8367 International Drive | Orlando, FL 32819 407.351.8220 Happy Hour & Late Night Discount pricing with Select Half-Priced Appetizers & Pizzas Monday – Friday 3pm – 6pm Sunday – Wednesday 10pm – Close